"Sherri Papini Released Early: A Look at Recent Developments and California's Ongoing Challenges"

Introduction: 

Night onto the point. Fentanyl is the reason my daughter is not here. A teen's life is cut short. A mom is arrested as district attorneys go after fentanyl which leads to a death. More Californians are presented with limited insurance options. What state Republicans say needs to be fixed. This affects all ratepayers in California.

It affects all Californians and cleaning Lake Tahoe with robots. Tonight, a father is grieving. He lost his teen daughter to fentanyl after he says a friend's mom gave her a pain pill with a deadly dose of the drug. And now that mom is in jail and more and more we're seeing district attorneys go after people suspected of supplying the fentanyl that leads to a death.

Becca Ha Beggar has this dad's message for all of us. I got a pedicure down with the girls cuz I got to do those things Heff Dawkins says The girl he considered a daughter, 15-year-old Kamaria Evans, will always be in his heart. She's not my biological child. I just raised her from her first steps and he wears his heart on his sleeve.

This is my tattoo of me and my girls and on his shirt and his wrist. These are actually her ashes in there. In July of 2020, Kamaria went to her girlfriend's house and experienced menstrual cramps. So Dawkins says the girlfriend's mom offered Kamaria half a pain pill that turned out to contain fentanyl, enough to end Kamaria's life.

And as far as what I was told, she laid down. I never woke up. Dawkins received a middle-of-the-night phone call from the woman. Her words were I don't know what happened. Kamaria is not breathing. She's already on her way to the hospital. Dawkins rushed to his daughter's side in time to see The medical staff tried to revive her, but she was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival.

 I would never wish this type of pain on anyone because it's not something that you can get over at any point in time. You have to live with that, he says. The autopsy shows Kamaria died of fentanyl poisoning. The Sacramento Police Department tells ABC10 that the county coroner's office alerted them that Kamaria's death was suspicious. Now the woman accused of giving Kamaria that half a pill, Stephanie Bugs, is facing a felony charge of child endangerment. Bugs was arrested back in February. Keep in mind, that Kamaria died just over three years ago. So why did it take so long to make the arrest? A Sacramento County District Attorney, TN Ho, explains.

Building a case involving fentanyl is not simple. Sometimes we're working the investigation on the front side of it in terms of before the individual is arrested. We're building that case. We're going through the phones, we're going through search warrants, We're talking to witnesses. Stephanie Bugs is in jail pending the outcome of her case and is next to in court on September 28th, though Dawkins says there's nothing the criminal justice system can do to satisfy him.

What I would want is for no more parents to have to go through what I'm going through. That's the only victory for me. I think a lot of parents would agree with that, right? Becca? Becca Hobegger joins us now. Becca, what else is being done about this crisis? You know, Alex, for one more Das are cracking down on fentanyl dealers and providers.

You know, just last month a Plaster County man was the first person in the state to be convicted of murder and a fentanyl death. That's from a 2022 case that killed another 15 year old girl. Also thanks to settlement money from opioid manufacturers, more than $7,000,000 are coming to Sacramento County. That's according to county health officials who tell me it will be spent on things like outreach, education and prevention.

And Narcan is really another important tool to help fight this as well right called the miracle drug. Yes, we cannot say this enough. Narcan or the generic naloxone is an opioid overdose reversal drug. It's administered and easy to use, no spray. And it's now available over the counter at pharmacies. A medical professionals you've interviewed tell us they want everyone to add this to their first aid kit now. Yeah.

And if people do use this, you still need to call 911. So very important tip there. Becca. Thank you so much. All right. Sherry Papini is now out of federal prison several months early. The Northern California mother was convicted last year for faking her own kidnapping. Search teams looked for her for weeks. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Papini is either now under house arrest or in a halfway house, and a decommissioned fire truck is being driven around Sacramento and spraying water Tonight. Sacramento police say that they found the people responsible and let them know the rules of owning one of these trucks. They are not illegal to own, but there are rules that must be followed.

An Independence Day celebration for Ukraine is happening at the Capitol tonight. Our region is home to one of the largest populations of Ukrainian refugees in the United States. The event includes performances, war, photographs, and artifacts. And there is an insurance crisis in California. Companies are changing the way they do business because of wildfires, storms, and the rising cost of repairs.

And now Senate Republicans are calling on California's Insurance commissioner to do more to help people. They say that the insurance industry is broken and only Ricardo Lara has the power and responsibility to fix it. Look, let's face it. This is not a Democrat versus Republican issue in California. This affects all ratepayers in California.

It affects all Californians. Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones is one of seven Republican state senators calling on California Commissioner Ricardo Lara to fix the home insurance crisis. One of the things that you know we could do right away is begin new developments. Areas that are developed and no longer fire danger get them removed.

We need to do a better job of getting their rates adjusted appropriately, Senator Jones says. Just today three people called him saying they're running out of options, a business owner, that their business, property, and home are being impacted by these rates from a constituent that lives out in the east county that their entire neighborhood had been dropped by each of their different homeowners insurances and have had to go on the fair plan.

State Republicans say the legislature has failed to act for years. There have been conversations about forest thinning and rate adjustments but were ultimately shot down either by the governor or the Democratic leadership in the legislature. We reached out to Commissioner Lara's office to get a response to the letter, The office responded with the statement saying in part, Commissioner Lara's top priority is making insurance available across California within a competitive and stable marketplace.

He is already taking action to modernize our market with the nation's first insurance discounts for wildfire safety and other long-term fixes. The California Senate Republicans Caucus invited Commissioner Laura to speak with them in the next couple of weeks before the winter recess. No word yet on if Laura has accepted the invitation and new developments.

A company that mysteriously bought land for years and now owns these 52,000 acres surrounding Travis Air Force Base has apparently been identified. A Flannery Associates consultant tells us investors are a group of who's who in Silicon Valley and their intentions are to create a new city. Congressman John Garamendi has taken issues with these land purchases.

As a member of the Armed Services Committee, he's called on the military to investigate these purchases. So we caught up with the Congressman this afternoon. This story is not over. We also know that this organization has left a very, very bad reputation in Solano County. Five years of secrecy, refusing to reveal what was going on, and frankly very strong-armed mobster-type tactics to force landowners to sell their land. The company bought these parcels of land from farmers paying much more than the market price. Flannery Associates also tells us quote we care deeply about the future of Solano County and California and believe their best days are ahead. We are proud to partner on a project that aims to deliver access to good-paying jobs, affordable housing, clean energy, sustainable infrastructure, open space, and a healthy environment to residents of Solano County.

We are excited to start working with residents and elected officials as well as with Travis Air Force Base on making that happen. Next on to The Point homeowners reporting thefts at their nearby target. The issue Costing all of us a much cooler day today with temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s, but it has been a roller coaster of a month.

But temperatures ranging from 82 to 105, what you can expect this weekend and how hot it may get. And using technology to make sure what happened at Lake Tahoe over the 4th of July weekend holiday does not happen again. All right, It was a beautiful day outside. How's the weekend looking? Hopefully just as good. Yeah, we had tolerable temperatures today, upper 80s, low 90s, just kind of nice to be outside, not too hot, but things are going to gradually change for the weekend with temperatures increasing into the mid to upper 90s but right

now in the big mountain backyard. Take advantage of the temperatures in the mid-80s this evening as you're heading out maybe to a Friday Night Football game or to dinner in Marysville at 90 degrees, 72 right now in Tahoe with some cloud coverage. Now the 24-hour temperature change ranges anywhere from 2 to 8 degrees cooler than it was yesterday at this time from the foothills through the valley.

So definitely feeling that cool down warm and dry through next week. But we're seeing temperatures ranging from 90 to 100 degrees, a light delta breeze moving in with that low-pressure system just offshore, fires burning in northern portions of California and Southern Oregon that's rotating some of that smoke over that low and funneling it into Northern California, Sacramento Bay Area and even into Tahoe.

As you can see here with our smoke moving into our evening hours, you just see it just off the coastline there and then into Saturday starting to make its way in as we see mostly for the Tahoe area here, but into Sunday starting to push this way from the Bay towards Sacramento just a bit. So maybe a few people who are just sensitive to smoke in general may find this a little unhealthy.

Otherwise moderate. So not too bad out there as we see some of the winds 10 to 15 mph in the valley again on Saturday as well and then on Sunday we start to see things slowing down. Sunday into Monday as temperatures start to heat up. You see this big Dome of high pressure here over areas of the central US from Texas over toward the desert southwest that will start moving its way toward us.

That low pressure that's currently bringing as cool air will move over us and in place, we'll see some upper 90s triple digits. But by Labor Day weekend things could be changing as we start to see a bit of a cool down headed our way. Upper 90s as we start off the work week with maybe that triple-digit temperature there for your Wednesday and upper 90s Thursday.

Then we drop off into the following weekend Labor Day weekend in the 80s to low 90s with partly sunny skies. It looks like it's going to be a nice time to be outside. Next to the Point, retail theft is costing us all what's being done about it. Retail theft in California and across the country is costing us.

Retailers say this type of crime is reaching unprecedented levels, forcing the average family to pay an estimated $500 more each year on purchases. And this has been a growing problem since the pandemic. And thieves are getting bold. Our Devon Truby shows us how homeowners are taking matters into their own hands.

Brazen, blatant buyers beware. This is what recently happened at the Target store off-Broadway in the Land Park neighborhood of Sacramento. A man walks out the side door with a card full of stolen items. You can hear the siren triggered by the man using the side door going off. You know it's brazen. Land Park residents are taking it upon themselves to record these steps.

The Sacramento Police Department says they received a call about the theft but did not send an officer to investigate this week. Target has a hands-off policy so they don't stop people from exiting with stolen items. They don't. When I've reported issues that I've seen in the past, they have no desire to report it to the police, Target said in a statement to ABC10.

We are actively working with city officials, law enforcement, and retail industry partners to advocate for public policy solutions to combat theft and organized retail crime. But as Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Association, tells us, those policy solutions failed. This year no amendments were made to Prop 47.

People will come into stores, they steal under that $950 threshold, and there's zero consequence for the behavior, Michelin says. There are also no consequences for repeat offenders. We now we're working on a grant program for local law enforcement to give them some more resources to deal with retail theft.

But fundamentally we need changes to the law. Exporting Goods just blamed an increasingly serious theft problem at its stores for a 23 drop, 23% drop in its profits overall. The California Retailers Association says they are open to pursuing other outlets, like diversion programs for those committing crimes.

It's not just all about jail time. And if you have an issue surrounding retail theft that you want us to know about, text me and the team. You can text me at 916-321-3310. Again, that's 916-321-3310, increasing the amount of affordable housing. Mayor Steinberg is now proposing a half-cent sales tax on the 2024 ballot that would raise about $9 billion over the next 40 years.

He says it would be invested directly into a countywide Housing Trust fund, public transportation, and safer streets. About 1/3 of it would be going to affordable housing, and it's up to Sacramento voters to decide whether or not they're on board. Mortgage rates are now at an A2 decade high. The average 30-year fixed mortgage now comes with an interest rate of about 7.23%.

Higher rates are making it harder for the housing market to pull out of its current slowdown. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, applications for mortgages are at their lowest since 1995. Many Northern Californian families are finding themselves working full-time but still struggling to make ends meet.

So next week on To the Point. Reporter Becca Ha Becker sits down with people in Solano County who make too much money to qualify for low-income assistance programs, but not enough money to pay the bills. And they're not alone. the United Way of California says that about a third of all households in California do not earn enough income to meet basic needs.

It's just virtually impossible for a single income to make it anywhere here. I have a good job. I make a decent wage. It doesn't keep up with the rise in inflation. What am I going to do? See what one lawmaker is doing to try to correct this problem and why. He says California's minimum wage has a flaw stretching back to its creation more than a century ago.

(15:19) That's next Thursday onto the point. It's 22 miles long and 12 miles wide. Lake Tahoe has more than 40 beaches along its shoreline. Chief Meteorologist Monica Wood shows us how new technology is helping keep Tahoe blue. For some, it's a bucket list destination Lake Tahoe. As the number of visitors grows, so do the harmful impacts.

More and more organizations are turning to robots to help keep the beaches and water clean. Lake Tahoe is a world-renowned vacation destination, from skiing and snowboarding in the winter to summer recreation in the crystal clear blue water. Extra people, though, can mean extra trash. Posing a threat to Tahoe's fragile ecology, Tahoe is more in demand than ever.

The more people who enjoy the lake, the more the impacts we're seeing. The status quo for protecting the lake is no longer enough. Working alongside Eco Clean Solutions, they're bringing in robots like the B Bot to clean beaches and now the Pixie Drone to clean the lake. The Pixie Drone picks up both aquatic invasive weeds, and it also picks up small pieces of litter or small pieces of plastic, Laura says It's kind of like a Roomba for Lake Tahoe collecting trash and also recording data to help find ways to keep Tahoe blue We're working on different solutions to really make sure that what happened on the 5th of July never happens again in terms of the impacts from litter. If you're looking for a way to get involved, they'll have a clean-up at Kings Beach Recreation Area on Labor Day. Next on to the point riding the so-called Smoky Beast in the Yosemite Mountain.

Every Friday John Bartel takes us on the back roads. Tonight John goes to the edge of Yosemite for a ride through a sugar pine forest on a historic lodging train. Take a look just outside the gates of Yosemite National Park. A smoke-billowing beast makes daily trips through the Sugar Pine Forest in the town of Fish Camping.

The beast is known as Engine #10A Steam powered Shea Locomotive All aboard and for the price of a ticket you can ride the smoky beast that Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad. This engine specifically was built in 1928. She is 95 years old. Conductor Karen Bradshaw doesn't like to brag, but she's one of the few people in the world still conducting the very rare Shay locomotive.

I know that there are only about 20 to 30 Shea locomotives left in the world. What sets the Shay apart from other locomotives are the vertical Pistons and the very noticeable gears connecting to the wheels. Shays are virtually 12-wheel drive. That extra traction allows the shade to climb steep hills and weave through turns.

Unfortunately, though, it also made the locomotive slow, so they were in the lumber bits inside the railroad business, so they weren't made to go fast, about 15 miles an hour. Ed me is the engineer, he says. On top of the shade being slow, it's also hot. Today the steam engine is fueled by motor oil but originally ran off wood, which inadvertently put out a lot more heat in this small engine room and on summer day you get to 135 in here if you're here in the engine room.

Yet you probably needed a lot of deodorant that you were sweating a lot. Probably the powerful and hot shades were necessary for the logging operations in this area. Much like the mighty Redwood or the girthy Sequoia, the old-growth sugar Pines in this area were massive. From 1899 to 1931, the Madera Sugar Pine Company used the Shea engines to transport trees to the mill, about 1.5 billion board feet worth.

If we had it stacked up next to us, that rough-cut lumber, we would be able to lay it around the Earth's equator and go around the world 11 times during the Great Depression. Then diminishing glumber supplies ultimately put an end to logging in this area. Today tourists can enjoy the regrowth of the once clear-cut forest and they're welcome to bring along their furry friends.

We are pet-friendly dogs. Ride for free and after your excursion, be sure and stop at the logging museum. You can learn what a steam donkey is and you can look at a section of the 54-mile-long flume that also transported lumber to the mill from the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad. I'm John Bartel.

[Askable Review – Can You Really Earn Up to $100 Per Hour with Market Research?]

 

Introduction:

Do you want to know if Askable really is  a way to earn up to a hundred dollars per   hour by participating in market research?  Or if it's a waste of time? Then this video   is for you. My name is Mikael and I  love testing different ways to make   money online. So I got curious when I saw  these claim so I decided to look closer.  

And in this Askable review, I'll give you  all the details so you know exactly what   to expect and can find out if this is  the right opportunity for you or not. So let's start by going over who can join because  this can be a little bit confusing. When you come   to Askable you can sign up and you can sign  up for many different countries.

I cannot find   an exact list of the countries but I could see  through the sign up process that it is possible   to join from a lot of different countries. However,  there are some limitations in some countries. There   will just be more opportunities than in other And from what I've been able to find out it's   especially in like New Zealand, Australia, and  UK that they have. But they also do sometimes   on occasions it seems to have options in other  countries. Just be aware that when you sign up,   you need to confirm your phone number. So if  you're not comfortable about that, then this   is not the right platform for you.

But let's then  talk a little bit more about how it actually works,   how you can earn, and can you really earn up to  these $100 per hour as it claims on its website.   So you can see on the website that you can  actually earn all over the world. So they also   do say that as mentioned what task available will  vary from country to country. But the exact task   you will participate in in will depend and vary  from time to time. It is overall market research.  

So it can for example be to test website, it can  be give feedback, it can be to test a product, it   can be all kinds of different things. They can  also be like kind of focus groups. So you can   participate in and this can be online or also  sometimes in person. Just be aware that when it   comes to the in-person opportunities they have  office, as you can see, in Australia and in the UK.  

So the in person in in my experience in general  for market research pays quite a bit higher. So   that's the ones that you can potentially earn  the most. But it also requires you to go to a   certain place. So this is of course only relevant  if you live close to one of the offices. Usually   sometimes they might also have in person at  the client's place and things like that.

 But   you should expect most of those in the conscious  where they have offices. But you can find these   online opportunities also from many different  places. And if you want to see examples without   actually logging in and without sharing your phone  number, first you can go to the Facebook page. You   can see, for example, this one here they gave  30 dollars for General Practitioners.

So that's   one thing you also need to be aware of that not  all tasks will be available for all. Usually the   higher paying tasks they are more specific they  have very certain requirements you need to live   up to. You can see it on the website the app or  you can also get some examples on the social media   channels.

You see most of what they have on the  social media channels all kind of other things   but they are examples that do make people aware of  these new types of tasks. They have for example   you also see one here this is where you need to  actually go in person. So you can see that's a   hundred dollars. And as mentioned earlier usually  the in-person one pays quite a bit higher.

So even   though you may be can earn a hundred dollars per  hour for certain tasks like that, you need to be   aware and then of course it also requires some  time to go to and from the locations. But overall   the task can be quite interesting and fun at times.

 And you can always say no and yes depending on the   exact task. You don't have to accept all the  tasks that are available. So that's definitely   the freedom that platforms like this in general  have. So let's talk about whether you will actually   get paid because that's of course a big question  always Is it legit? And I can tell you that Askable is actually legit. It has all the signs of legit  company and I've tested hundreds of different ways   you can expect to get paid. You can see they have  transparent information about real people behind   it. The co-founders, who they are, all the staff  members.

And you can also actually verify it on   LinkedIn. So this is actually real people. It is a  real company and this is definitely always a good   sign always something to look for. Of course there  are big sites that just steal photos and things   like that but you can actually see they have the  LinkedIn profiles. They have a real story.

They have   a real company. They show the company addresses  here, all these different things. So if you end up   participating, you can also expect to actually  get paid if you fulfill all the requirements   of course. But let's also talk about how you can  then get paid and the overall earning potential.   So when you do tasks for Askable, you can see you  have the option to get paid via PayPal or receive   a gift card of your choice.

And this can also  vary from task to task exactly what the reward   is. But you can always see that before you start  a task and then decide if you want to accept it   or not. When we are talking about the full earning  potential, you can see that the typical job ranges   from 30 to 50 dollars for online sessions.

That's  also what we saw on the examples on the Facebook page   there. And then $60 to $120 for in person. So you can  find some tasks that pay $100 per hour or sometimes   you can even get more than a hundred dollars for  a session. But then, you also need to spend time   to actually go there. And that can be fun. It can  maybe be worth it. That's up to you to decide.

I   have done that for for some companies in the past  also. And it actually can be quite interesting to   participate in. And as you can see also it can pay  quite decent for that. But as any platform like   this, you need to be aware that it's not something  you can do for a full-time job or anything like   that. Even though some of the jobs pay well, you  cannot expect to be able to get any every day.

You know   sometimes not even every week depending on where  you live, maybe not even every month. So it's just   a bit of extra money on this side once in a while  when you have extra time that can definitely be   nice. But you should not expect more from it than  that.

And that is also why if you think something   like this is interesting, you should make sure to  join several platforms. I do, for example, have a   list of the best online focus groups on my website.  I'll leave a link to that below. Then you can go   and join some of those. I also have a list of the  best user testing platforms where you can get paid   to test websites and software and things like that.  I'll also leave a link to that below so then you   can find more platforms and join more because then  you get more opportunities. All of them only have   occasional jobs. But if you join more, then you will  regularly find tasks you can do.

So make sure to   check that out below. And also if this video helped  you, make sure to hit the like button, and also   don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel,  and hit the notification bell, so you won't miss   out next time I release a video with tips and tricks  about different ways to make money online.

"Inside Ashley Benson’s Playful Los Angeles Home: A Peek into Luxury and Quirkiness | Open Door"

Introduction: 

Hi, ED, I'm Ashley Benson, and welcome to my home. Come on in. So this is the casual living room, but it's really my dog's main bedroom, house, and kitchen. I've always wanted to live in a house that felt like I was on permanent vacation. When I'm outside I just feel like I'm like in Italy, in Barcelona, like anywhere that kind of like puts me away from being, you know, in LA.

And this house really did that for me. I just had such a vision. I love interior design. But working with Nicole Gordon, who's also one of my best friends, it was very easy. And John [indistinct] was amazing. So one fun fact that I loved right when I saw the house originally, Arthur Kelly who did the Playboy Mansion also built this house in 1930.

And I thought that was just a very cool piece of history. And I think I was the third owner of this house, which is very rare. It just felt very special and timeless. [upbeat music] A kitchen is everything to me. Nancy Meyers is one of my favorite directors ever. If you know her movies, which I'm sure you do, she has the best kitchens, and her interiors are amazing. I wanted my house to feel very Nancy Meyers-esque. And so here we are. I wanted a very big island. I love to entertain. A lot of my free time that I have on the weekends, I have all of my friends come over. They'll come over with "what dish they're gonna make" and we just spend a lot of time in here.

This is probably the most used room in my house. The one thing I wanted, I was like, I need to somehow figure out how I can make this stove in my kitchen and also one of these 'cause it looks like I know how to cook and I'm a professional chef. I have a bunch of these pans, and no, I've never used them and I never will.

I've collected a bunch of pots and pans and kettles and stuff from Paris, London, Geneva, Canada, kind of all over. I was gonna put an ample light above the island, but this is far more interesting. I just think it looks very pretty. I make all of my friends coffee every morning if they're over. If not, I'll make myself coffee.

Believe it or not, I actually do keep pastries in here all the time just because I feel like they look pretty and it just puts me in a really great mood. This is not just for show. This is for the show, but I really always do have like, little donuts or, you know, bread, croissants, all the things just because I wanna look like I know what I'm doing in here.

This is my dining room. Before it was all white and I just had a piano in here. I kind of like the idea of having a dining room away from my kitchen. And I made these doors be able to open to the backyard and the grass so my dogs can go out, we can get fresh air. I have a fireplace here, which I redid it into gold, a gold fireplace, which I loved.

And having a black dining room I thought was very cool. It felt very Parisian to me, in a sense. But, yeah. In the winter I literally have this fire going at all times. My friends come over, we play games, and we just eat and sit in here for hours. I have music put on in here and it's just a really nice room to kind of relax in.

So this is my formal living room. I wanted to have a space that felt very "adult" and just classy, elegant and somewhere for people to just be able to sit down, talk, for me to like read a book, enjoy the fire, have coffee, tea, a glass of wine, whatever that may be. Every time I went into people's houses I was like, "You don't have a TV? Like, that's so crazy. " But it just feels so much more mature. I just liked a grand room without anything like that. But I also wanted to have kind of a home theater room. Being able to watch films and then having this fire is just amazing. [mellow music] So right now we're in my backyard, which I actually use as my front yard, my front entrance.

We have my pool here. We have these beautiful blue tiles. The elevated hot tub was really important for me and the water flows down when you're in it. And yeah, it's just very cozy, and every time I'm out here I just feel like I'm on vacation. I feel like I'm in Cabo, and then also Italy with all the flowers and stuff.

But yeah, it's very relaxing out here. This is Mason. Mason is Nicole Gordon's dog, who also did my house. Love you, Nicole. But Mason comes over all the time. He's the one creature that goes in my pool more than I do or my friends. If he comes into my house, he goes right through the gate, jumps in the pool and he is there for hours.

Hey, this is what we do on the weekends. Ready? Yeah, go. He also uses steps too. Good boy, Macy! Good boy, Macy! I feel like because I travel so much and I'm constantly living in hotels, I wanted my bedroom to feel like that. I love small spaces and to feel very cozy. And I got inspired by one hotel in Amsterdam that had weird cages for the bathrooms.

And so I thought of the idea of, why not make my bathrooms in weird caged rooms? So here we are. This copper tub was very important to me. I wanted something that was different, hence this. I'm a very big bath person. The first thing I do when I wake up is take a bath regardless of, you know, if I have time or not. I go in here, I put a little TV in here. This was an amazing piece. It's also a steam room, which I really wanted. If I'm ever feeling sick or worn down or just tired, I'll sit in here for another hour or two. And then if you go over this side. This just feels very open, very girly. These sconces actually are original to the house, and I think a lot of the sconces in my bedroom are, as well.

But to kind of tie that in with my bathroom, I picked this mirror that's kind of covering up a little window there. This is where I sleep. I was obsessed with blush and like a mustardy yellow and a navy situation. I didn't know how we would make it work, but we did. These floating little nightstands are unique and so handy and it just looks cleaner.

 I love having a clean kind of aesthetic. I don't like anything busy, so it just worked very well. Having these sconces right here, these little lamps, I think it's such a nice touch. But yeah, just very feminine and tidy and nothing too crazy busy. And it just, again, feels like a really nice hotel room.

I also have an original fireplace, which I love putting on the fire at night, and I still do, even in the summer I'll have it blasting. When I go to bed, it makes you just fall asleep very quickly. And then why not have a bar in your bedroom? So again, it just felt like I was away somewhere in a hotel. And I know that sounds kind of crazy, but you know, why not? Also, it's mainly just for my candy.

I wanted my closet to kind of flow with my bathroom. So originally, all of this was a guest room, and there wasn't a lot of closet space in the house so I got to kind of build my dream closet and I felt like I was in a department store, but still my house. This is one of my favorite things ever.

I always dreamed of having a closet with little lights in it and kind of being able to see everything. This is actually a photo of Keegan Allen who played Toby on "Pretty Little Liars." He framed this for me. That's in Mulholland. I think I was like 24, and I was very into photography at the time, and I just thought it looked very cute in this closet.

So, thanks, Keegan. I had the laundry room built in this little secret door. This laundry room is so much fun. First of all, this wallpaper, I wanted to do the laundry room in a very weird print, and for some reason, I was really into aliens at the time and space, so I was like, what can I find that has that sort of element and why not put it in the laundry room? My friend Christina is an amazing organizer and she did my laundry room for me.

So it just also looks like a store. It's just a very fun room for me to be in and a lot of space to do my laundry, steam clothes, fold the clothes, all the things. And I love doing laundry, so I just wanted to make this space kind of a fun room for me to be in. This is going into one of my guest bedrooms, and this entire room is all right kind of reminded me of Chateau Marmont which I did spend a lot of time in in my early twenties, I lived there for a bit. So this was kind of paying homage to that and I just thought it was so beautiful and I was happy to not have to redo another room and to be able to leave some of the original pieces here.

This is one of my favorite guest rooms. It feels like "Beauty and the Beast" to me. I love libraries and we stained all this wood to be a bit darker and I just wanted to fill it with different memories. A lot of my family pictures are here, different projects I've worked on, a lot of them, mobilia.

I love collecting records, so I have a lot of my records here on these shelves. And I think it's just so peaceful, the sunset from this room is incredible. [upbeat music] We are on our way to the speakeasy, but before that, this was actually the original furnace in the house. We sealed it shut, and painted it gold.

I thought it was a really cool piece to leave here. And if you walk this way, you'll just see a much younger me right there for "Spring Breakers." This is my speakeasy. I'll take you up this way to the bar.I spend a lot of time in here. Believe it or not, I do a lot of self-tapes for auditions in this room.

So it's not only a bar but also a workspace. I got inspired by Hôtel Costes, it's one of my favorite hotels in Paris. They have a lot of black marble, black walls, deep red accent walls, and all of their rooms in the hotel are red velvet. And I'm just obsessed with that hotel. The wallpaper on the ceiling looks like flowers, but if you look closely enough you might see something a little different.

We don't have to go into details, but, you know. And then also, this mirrored ceiling I thought was very fun. Just to kind of play off of the mirrored background of the bar. It's usually all red lights. I change all these sconces to red light, I put music on and I'll be down here for hours with my friends, or just alone.

And I find it actually a very creative space for me. During COVID I mastered an espresso martini. So that's one of my faves. I was trying to do better at making good cocktails. I just pour things in and hopefully, it tastes good. [upbeat music] Thanks for coming over and hanging out with me. I hope you enjoyed the house, but now I want some alone time, so get out.

Bye.

Floor Plan Design TUTORIAL

 

Hey, Eric here with 30 by 40 Design Workshop, working on a few quick plans sketches for an upcoming client meeting and I thought I'd walk you through my sketch design process as I work up an idea into a floor plan. For context, this project is an addition to an existing residence, the existing living quarters will be all replaced as the foundation is in really poor shape. We'll be keeping a two-story portion over here, to the north on the site, and giving it a bit of an exterior facelift. Now, that building contains the garage on the lower level and a rather large master suite above and, importantly, it has a stair which we have to maintain access to with our new addition.

Now, before we can begin sketching the floor plan we need to know a few things: we need to understand the local code and zoning restrictions, the ones that govern our design, things like setbacks, the maximum building height, deed restrictions, things like that. With the code checklist complete, we need to understand the physical characteristics of the site: the Sun, the prevailing wind direction, views, topography, adjacent buildings, access, utilities, vegetation all the existing site conditions.

And lastly, we have to work with our client to determine the actual spaces, their rough sizes and we have to make sure that their budget corresponds with what they're actually hoping to accomplish. Now, I always make sure the budget is aligned with the program before I start sketching. There's no sense in designing something your client can't afford, right? Now, if you'd like to learn more about how I do this, check the video in the cards above With all this information in hand I start by printing out the existing site plan and I do this so I can sketch over it. Now, this is just my process, there's many ways to do this, so don't take this as being prescriptive at all. My favorite implements to have on hand when I'm doing this are a sign pen, an ultra-fine point Sharpie, a red and black Pilot Precise pen and I like the v7 version of that, my Muji sketchbook, and a roll of tracing paper.

You can check the cards for all the links to that stuff. Now, I also drag out some of my favorite monographs and this technique comes from one of my all-time favorite film directors Werner Hertzog. Before he begins writing a script, he reads poetry - like ancient poetry - things like: the Icelandic Edda, 9th-century Chinese poems, and really heavy stuff.

 And he does this to fill his mind with the highest caliber language possible. Then as he's writing he plays Beethoven and Wagner at an ear-piercing volume. So as he's writing, he's mindful to always maintain that high quality; he's conscious to never let his writing slip below the highest of standards.

And, so too, you can immerse yourself with the work of other masters: Kahn, Corbusier, Ando, Zumthor; fill your head with these visuals before you begin sketching. And then, for me, just add metal. Now, we'll start with a diagram. The diagram is a simple representation of what you're trying to achieve and how your architecture is ordered.

The most basic diagram you can draw, if you're short on ideas, is one that divides public and private. More complex diagrams might talk about light, movement, material, another ordering principle like a courtyard, or an idea about massing. I usually start diagramming in my sketchbook and not using any particular scale.

 I'll also grab a few physical materials to have on hand to kind of set the building in real terms and start thinking about how it will actually feel to live there. Here our diagram has to address how we're going to connect the two structures, how we’ll locate the entry, and where the living spaces will orient.

Diagrams are quick and they're inaccurate, and I use them to describe general organization principles. Although there's an infinite number of diagrams that might work here let's keep it simple, we'll use a bar diagram, and then another might be an L-shaped diagram, this will get us started.

Now, I want to be clear about the process here, it's not important to locate doors and windows at this stage. We're not after precision yet, we're gonna start with rough shapes only. We’ll allocate our public and private spaces according to our diagram, we want to locate the entry and understand the basic circulation patterns, how we're gonna get from here to there and that means hallways and stairs. Sketching over the site plan is a good reminder about the important site features that you need to consider: the Sun, views, adjacent buildings, the approach, and whatever you flagged as important on your site analysis. In our program sheet you'll see I list pretty exact sizes of spaces, but at this stage I sort of set this aside, I don't take this literally at all it's more important that the design flow together rather than meet these room sizes precisely.

If you scale these out as exact sizes and collage them together you'll end up with a mess. This stage is searching for the larger guiding principles of the design: think about light, think about how spaces relate to each other, how one moves through space, what does it feel like to be in the place; to arrive to it? What are the emotional aspects of the place that you want to invoke in your client? Designing a floor plan is to establish order from nothing.

A grid is one of the most basic forms of order and I typically employ one in the beginning, this keeps things sensible and it's just a hack that I use it may not work for you. Later I'll choose where and how I want to break from it as I develop the plans further

My write-up on the sinister business of online loan sharking apps appeared in The News.

Introduction: 

The tragic suicide of Muhammad Masood, a victim of predatory online lending, has sparked outrage across Pakistan, shedding light on the exploitative practices of online loan-sharking apps. These platforms offer instant cash and easy access to loans but trap vulnerable borrowers in a cycle of debt with exorbitant interest rates and aggressive loan recovery tactics. The situation has brought to the forefront the urgent need for increased consumer awareness and stricter regulatory oversight. However, the appeal of these apps is merely a symptom of deeper issues plaguing Pakistan - a fragile economy, political instability, and a lack of vision. This article delves into the sinister business of online loan-sharking apps and the urgent need for comprehensive solutions to address the country's broader challenges.
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Muhammad Masood, a 42-year-old father of two from Rawalpindi, tragically ended his own life due to the relentless harassment and threats by digital lending apps. After he lost his employment, Masood turned to 'Easy Loan' and borrowed Rs13,000 to cover essential expenses. However, due to exploitative interest rates, the loan swiftly grew to a staggering Rs700,000. Already burdened by debt, Masood was coerced into taking another loan from the Bharosa application, further worsening his financial distress. The apps persistently increased the interest rates, putting immense pressure on Masood and his family. Daily calls from application officials threatening legal action only added to their anguish. Masood's despair reached a tipping point, leading him to end his life.
Following the tragic suicide of Muhammad Masood, a victim of predatory online lending, a wave of outrage swept across Pakistan, initiating significant changes in the country's financial landscape. Loud calls for an immediate ban on all online loan apps emerged, citing their exploitative practices and lack of regulatory oversight. Responding to this outcry, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan has started amending the rules for online loan apps to protect borrowers. These amendments include prohibiting the deduction of processing fees from loan installments, banning the creation of multiple apps by digital companies, and requiring IT security audits.
The federal government has also initiated a crackdown on illegal loan providers, which resulted in over 43 loan apps being blocked. IT and Telecommunication Minister highlighted the severity of the issue, pointing to the involvement of mafia groups operating through social media platforms. In addition, a comprehensive public awareness campaign was launched to educate the public about the risks associated with these loan apps and to encourage reporting of suspicious activities.
The convenience of instant cash and easy access to loans has led to the rise of online lending platforms, often referred to as loan sharking apps. However, these platforms are fraught with exploitative repayment terms and data privacy risks. They enforce strict repayment schedules, often within 7-30 days, and charge exorbitant late fees, trapping vulnerable borrowers in a cycle of debt. Borrowers are often encouraged to take out new loans immediately after repaying their previous ones, pushing them further into a cycle of borrowing.
These apps also pose significant data privacy and security risks. They require extensive personal information, including ID card details, phone contacts, and even access to users' social media profiles. While they claim to use this information to assess creditworthiness, they also use it for more nefarious purposes, such as harassing and blackmailing users by threatening to expose their debts to their contacts.
Despite the well-known issues with loan sharking apps, they remain some of the most downloaded apps in Pakistan. The appeal of these apps penetrates the core of Pakistan, a nation marked by years of incompetence and instability. Recent political turbulence has further eroded the already fragile foundation, leading to a sharp increase in poverty, unemployment, hyperinflation, and a steep rise in the cost of basic necessities.
The devastation of rural poverty has intensified urbanization, breaking down family bonds. This leaves individuals isolated in urban underbellies, captive to a crumbling economy. These people, now alienated and considered "unbankable," have no access to the sanctuary of conventional banking credit. The appeal of loan sharking apps to such individuals is almost irresistible, offering a false promise of an escape from their financial woes.
Imagine a young man barely out of his teens, his life a blank canvas, lacking the colors of formal education and skills. He is unemployed, bearing the brunt of mockery from his own family on a daily basis. This young man is probably urged by an equally ill-informed friend from the same neighborhood, that an instant cash of a few thousand rupees is a route to prosperity. Loan sharks present a beacon of false hope to him. The mirage of quick funds to kick-start a business holds the promise of elusive prosperity.
There is also significant social pressure, particularly when it comes to ceremonial obligations. The societal need to spend conspicuously at a family member's wedding, viewed as a symbol of one's status and respect, is a burden that economic caution cannot outweigh. It is a struggle between personal pride and survival, where often the former wins, deepening the descent into the clutches of loan sharks.
In light of these issues, there is a pressing need for increased consumer awareness and stricter regulatory oversight. The public needs to be informed about the exploitative interest rates, hidden fees, and potential data privacy risks associated with these loan apps. Regulators must enforce licensing requirements, implement stricter oversight of lending practices, and act against platforms that violate consumer protection and data privacy laws. The exploitative practices of these platforms, including high-interest rates, aggressive loan recovery tactics, lack of transparency, and predatory lending practices, underscore the need for stronger regulation and oversight in this industry.

While increased consumer awareness and stricter regulatory oversight are necessary steps in addressing the predatory practices of loan-sharking apps, they are only temporary solutions to a deeper issue. The appeal of these apps is a symptom of a more significant disease that has plagued Pakistan for the past 77 years - a debilitating institutional structure, a state of perpetual conflict, and a political elite that lacks vision and a moral compass. The country's continuous state of war, both with its neighbors and within itself, is fueled by borrowed money, reflecting the desperate cycle of debt faced by its citizens. Therefore, the solution must go beyond simply regulating exploitative apps. It requires a fundamental shift in national priorities - from jettisoning security state mindset to investing in human capital, from perpetuating inequality to ensuring equity and equality. It demands strengthening family ties at a local level and a complete renunciation of anachronistic national priorities. Only then can the cycle of desperation and debt be genuinely broken.

"Effective Strategies for Reducing Paper Clutter Streamlining Your Life"

Introduction:

Hey friends! It's Abbie from Chic Peach, and today we're going to be talking about decluttering paper from your household. This has actually been a highly requested topic and I finally had some time to go over it with you guys. In some of my videos, I do actually show you how I declutter some things, but because a lot of paper in a household can contain private information,   I am not going to show you guys exactly how I declutter this.

Instead, we will talk about reducing the amount of paper traffic that comes into your home. To me, that is the first step. If it never enters your house, then you never have to deal with it. How do we do that? I'm glad you asked. Go paperless! e-Statements! The world is going electronic.

Here we are on YouTube,   watching a video that is electronic. Nine times out of ten, if not more, you can choose a paperless option. All of my bills, every single one of them is paperless. So I try not to have any paper bills come into my home. If they are, I pay them right away and shred them. First I want to talk about the paperless option.

I'm not gonna lie to you, we do have a junk drawer, and yes, sometimes if I don't know what to do with something it will end up in the junk drawer. But that's a topic for another day. So now that we have reduced the amount of paper coming into our house, what can we do with the form that's already here? Let's go through it! Now I   can relate to a lot of you who really like to hold on to things, afraid to get rid of them because   "what if I need it in the future", or "As soon as I get rid of it, I'm gonna need it!" Not always true.

Trust me. Nine times out of ten, if you file something away you're probably not going to get it out, ever. But on the off chance that you do need it, it's great to have it. So there are certain things that we really want to keep, and other things that are entirely unnecessary, that can be discarded.

As for those things that you might need one day, we have this awesome thing called technology. You can scan it in, you can take a picture of it with your cell phone, log it on your computer, and then you can shred the physical copies. I'm not talking about sentimental things like pictures, or greeting cards from people who wrote you really nice messages. Those are completely separate. I'm talking about things like bank statements or payoff statements.

There are these little pictures that they painted his foot and made a little watermelon out of it.   I have that and I have a picture of it on my phone. So if something ever happens to that physical copy that I like having because it brings me joy, then if something happens to that,   I will always have a digital picture of it to remember. Things don't last forever.  

They just don't. I'm just trying to go digital with everything, because then maybe it can last a little bit longer. My main three points for you today, just to summarize what I've talked to you about, reducing the amount of paper coming into your home by opting out of the things you don't need, going paperless, and digitizing the things that are already in your house so you don't need physical copies of. Once you can get rid of all of that, it makes it so much easier to see what's  

left, and then organize from there. As always, please let me know what kinds of questions you guys have. I'm here to help! Make sure to give this a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel, if you have not already. Until next time, see you guys!

How to Sit in Women's Mind Games

Introduction:

Well, you know, you're pretty much in this kind of updating space, aren't you? 2006 Your old school is like an OG, and you only work with men, is that right? That's right, I think if helping women, the blind lead the blind. Why do you say that? You know? I've said in many ways that this has been my catchphrase, but I've actually gotten a lot better with guys and I think that's a lot of getting older. Not relying so much on looks, charming and attacking their part of your mind games, which sometimes shows up, is what you see and it also shows up to a lot of people in their prime. By helping in this way, without realizing that the kind of education that sports people use can be applied to women's sports in some areas, I think fighting, personally. , I understand, especially today and where we like that we need to play this backward game. To some extent, like a mind game, I think that because of the attention the average woman has through social media, I actually think they fight what's really true, which you can understand. Yes, they have a gift. gab that's incredibly attractive, some girls are fuckboys muslim party, right? The kind of men you are who are better at women's games than women, I think women don't have a game anymore, but they play with what they want. Yes, it is, they look so authentic and so much that they look their best online, with a certain guys as it may be, but women, they just give so much on the type. In terms of attention, this artificial attention I call it, inform you, going on updating apps, Instagram so when they meet a guy, they think, you know. I look absolutely gorgeous, but I mean, looks are a huge factor men are very, very obviously influenced by what a woman looks like, but there are many looks. Feminine women too

There are a lot of well-opinionated women out there, so if someone walks into a Laka bar and there are 10 exceptionally beautiful women, they get right, they're going for the one who has game. Basically but from what I can see, I think women, I see more game going on there, I think older women are women that they can't trust their looks anymore. I think, for example, I get very young boys. Now I say why do you like older women?

You look like shit and that's what you are, but it's a different thing for you to have a female figure that young women have sex with older women and imagine for that. Is there a sexual age with a woman? I mean, I don't see it. You know what that sex appeal is? And I agree with what the guy said to you and that older women can be a lot sexier than their younger counterparts and it's like arousal and passion, that's it. This is a type of sexual desire. The cougar, the milf, you know, because of her attractiveness, especially the younger guy likes him because he's just excited while a girl his age gets attention. I don't understand that much and that kind of, and that it kind of creates rudeness, funny thing, I tell you that attitude is made and people act on it and it's sexy. No, it creates, I guess you could call it an arrogant heiress cougar, like a milf type lady, she's happy to come and she's about the limit. In arousal and therefore naturally sex, sexual attraction arises, I find it very interesting to hear from him. I look at the perspective of how it feels as a woman, you know, compared to how it was as an older woman now. That I think younger women are also very influenced by the influences around their friends. What is their current? What is acceptable? And when you get to my age you don't care, it seems you've become too sexually curious you're not ruling, you're not at mercy who's my friend? What will society think? You've reached the point, I don't care if your kids understand now, well, have some fun while young women I always fight, if you want to date younger women. So you're going to be dating. All of his friends are going to update all of your stupid social information.