During a beleaguered year for ticket sales, Garth Brooks’ Blame it All On My Roots Tour is booming. Can other country artists replicate his strategy? Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
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During a beleaguered year for ticket sales, Garth Brooks’ Blame it All On My Roots Tour is booming. Can other country artists replicate his strategy? Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
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After fleeing to another state with another set of legal considerations, surrogate McKenna West has given birth.
Hers is an odd story that seems pretty miserable for everyone involved.
Flouting her contract and fleeing to another state, West hoped that she’d be recognized as the birth mother.
The parents are suing her as they prepare to give their newborn son a series of major surgeries. And yes, they’re facing off in court in a fairly unique clash of inter-state law.
What is McKenna West’s story?
West was a surrogate — specifically, a gestational carrier — from Alaska.
(Gestational carriers are implanted with an embryo from another couple, but are colloquially referred to as “surrogates” by most folks.)
She had agreed to go through a pregnancy for a couple who live in California.
Part of the surrogacy agreement contained a clause allowing the couple — the parents-to-be — to terminate the pregnancy if prenatal testing uncovered any anomalies, just as they would have had one of them been pregnant.
This is all pretty standard fare for a surrogacy arrangement and contract. But, as you can imagine, this is where it all went awry.
At the 20 week scan, doctors discovered that the fetus had hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
HLHS is a rare birth defect. The left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped and incapable of aiding in a healthy circulatory system.
Treatments are drastic and involve three major heart surgeries.
The Norwood procedure takes place within days of birth. The Glenn procedure is performed upon the infant several months later. At around preschool age, patients must undergo the Fontan procedure.
Heart surgeries upon a baby or small child are traumatic and carry major risks. Even those who undergo all three treatments face major risks, with 30% not even surviving childhood to become adults.
What will the courts decide? This case involves three states, two parents, and a surrogate (and some political theater for Ken Paxton)
When the parents-to-be learned of this diagnosis, they made the difficult decision to trigger the clause and terminate the pregnancy.
But that is not what happened.
Instead, West refused. She also fled to Texas, where she hopes that local laws would consider her to be the “birth mother” even though the child is not hers genetically.
Her due date was on September 2, but she gave birth on Wednesday, August 12, in the Dallas area.
West also took the audacious step of naming the child, selecting “Gabriel” for a child who is in a legal gray area.
As you can imagine, the baby’s parents are feeling several emotions after this roller coaster.
“Our clients’ only focus at this time is ensuring that their baby receives the medical care that he vitally needs and that they, as his parents, are able to spend every precious moment they can with him,” their attorney told The Dallas Morning News.
The parents are (obviously) suing West. They are due in court later this month. In the meantime, West is at least not allowed to see or care for their child.
Her attorney has expressed that she has considered taking the child if the court finds that she is allowed to.
It sounds like this is a classic case of breach of contract, but with a lot of personal pain and a very real chance that the parents will end up losing their child — whatever they may name him — in the coming decade or so.
We will hope for the best for a family that has already been through so much as they face both the medical and legal hurdles to come.
McKenna West Gives Birth in Texas; Rogue Surrogate Sued by The Parents was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.
The Hollywood Gossip
The official WordPress Browser Extension is now available for Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers in the Chrome Web Store and for Safari on macOS in the Mac App Store. This new open source extension lets logged-in site users easily hide the admin bar while keeping its most helpful shortcuts in the browser toolbar, provides quick access to all of your WordPress sites, and adds helpful tools for developers and content creators.
By default, the admin bar sits at the top of every page you view while signed in to WordPress, keeping the dashboard, the editor, and your profile within reach. That convenience carries a cost: the bar occupies the viewport, so the page on screen is never quite the page a visitor sees. On sites doing more interesting things with the viewport, such as sticky headers or scroll-driven effects, it can introduce artifacts that send you hunting for a bug that is not there. Further, the admin bar can sometimes grow unwieldy as plugins add their own features and shortcuts to it. Switching it off in your profile settings trades one problem for another, because the shortcuts leave with it.
That problem was the spark for the creation of the WordPress Browser Extension. The extension hides the admin bar on the sites you choose, or everywhere by default, and keeps the most commonly used shortcuts one click away. Bringing the full bar back takes two clicks and no trip to the dashboard. What began as a fix for that one tradeoff grew into something broader: a way to recognize WordPress wherever you find it on the web, to jump into your own sites from anywhere, and to carry a small set of tools for testing and review.
As you browse, the toolbar icon shows whether the current site runs WordPress and whether you are signed in, without being obtrusive. On a site you manage, opening the extension reveals shortcuts to the dashboard or to the editor for the exact post, page, taxonomy, or template in view, including template-backed pages that open in the Site Editor on block themes. A locally stored launcher remembers the sites you sign in to, so they stay available even when you are somewhere else entirely.
A few tools also turn out to be a better fit for the browser than for a WordPress plugin. The extension can draw block boundaries over the rendered page, open a phone-sized preview window, reload with cache busting, or clear cookies and local storage for the site you are on. Some of that is hard to do from inside a site, and none of it requires a plugin or any other software installation, so the same tools are available on every WordPress site you visit.
All of this happens on your device. The extension reads the page in front of it to work out what it is looking at, and when it needs more than the page can tell it, it asks the site. Your preferences, and the list of sites you sign in to, stay in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere else, and there is no tracking or analytics of any kind.
The extension began as an independent project and became an official project with active support from Matt Mullenweg. Notable contributors include Fabian Kägy, a core contributor and colleague at Fueled (formerly 10up), who helped shape much of its early design and architecture, and Khokan Sardar who contributed multiple patches. Several other Fueled colleagues provided comprehensive testing and influenced its final shape.
You can follow along with its development on its GitHub repository, where bug reports and pull requests are welcome.
WordPress Planet
Carly Pearce says her heart condition is finally stable, and she’s back to running paces she hasn’t hit since her 2023 diagnosis. Continue reading…The Boot – Country Music News, Music Videos and Songs
Carly Pearce says her heart condition is finally stable, and she’s back to running paces she hasn’t hit since her 2023 diagnosis. Continue reading…Country Music News – Taste of Country
By: Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon
Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday introduced a new natural gas pipeline bill that he characterized as a compromise between conflicting philosophies on oil and gas taxes that he wants lawmakers to pass during the ongoing special session.
The new bill would nearly eliminate property taxes that would be charged on the operator of a yet-to-be-built gas pipeline. Dunleavy and Glenfarne, the Texas-based investment company that is now the main sponsor of the gas pipeline project, have argued in recent months that such concessions are a major requirement for the project to be built.
The special session is due to end in less than two weeks. Lawmakers are still evaluating the proposal, but on Monday members of the Senate’s bipartisan majority expressed reticence to make quick decisions on a gasline bill.
Dunleavy’s new bill contains a concession to a tax previously sought by the Senate majority. It would also impose a small corporate income tax on certain private oil- and gas-producing corporations. Those companies, also known as S corporations or pass-through corporations, are currently exempted from such taxes in Alaska law. For now, the main corporation that would be affected is Hilcorp, a privately held Texas-based company that operated the Prudhoe Bay field and other North Slope assets that used to be owned by BP. Several legislators view Hilcorp’s exemption from corporate income taxes as a loophole that should be closed.
The governor said legislators should pass his bill in what is now the third special session he has called on the subject.
“I have never been in favor of new taxes on Alaska’s producers, and I still am not,” Dunleavy said in a statement. “This bill is a compromise that removes a significant barrier to moving the gas line forward. Given the robust discussion and work that has already gone into this bill, I am hopeful the legislature can swiftly pass a bill that will help the AK LNG project get the financing it needs to start construction as soon as possible.”
The 2% tax rate Dunleavy proposed on petroleum-producing S corporations is significantly lower than the lower than tax rates legislative leaders have previously proposed, which went up as high as 9.4%.
Officials and energy companies in Alaska and elsewhere have been pushing since the 1970s — even before oil began flowing through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System — for a second pipeline to deliver the North Slope’s vast but stranded natural gas resources to markets. None of the plans has been economically feasible, even though politicians at various points over the past decades declared that construction was imminent.
The current iteration of the gas commercialization plan calls for a pipeline to run about 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to tidewater at Cook Inlet, where the product would be liquefied for shipment by tanker to markets. The estimated price tag is $65 billion to $70 billion, according to legislators.
A bill considered during an earlier special session, House Bill 381, proposed to grant the property tax concession, but it also included several conditions for any LNG sponsor to meet, such as timeline assurances, labor protections, alternative sources of state revenue and required financial support of local school districts.
The bill also included a bracketed income tax with rates up to 9.4% on petroleum-producing S corporations such as Hilcorp — significantly higher than the 2% that Dunleavy is now proposing.
That bill passed the state Senate narrowly last month but was rejected by the House.
One lawmaker on Wednesday said Dunleavy’s new bill, just like any oil tax legislation, should not be rushed.
“It would be wildly irresponsible to pass complex oil and gas legislation without due diligence to understand the consequences,” said Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage.
Leaders of the state Senate majority caucus, in a statement on Monday, expressed skepticism about the need for any further concessions to help Glenfarne’s plan.
“For more than fifty years, Alaskans have worked to bring our gas to market, and every member who has served in this building shares that goal. The Senate has done its part in good faith, passing two bills that would let this project move forward while protecting the people we answer to,” Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said in the statement. “A decision of this scale will outlast all of us, and it deserves to be made with care rather than in haste. We are ready to evaluate the project further once the producer, Glenfarne, and the Administration bring us the numbers this year. These are Alaska’s resources, and they must work first and foremost for Alaskans.”
The special session is scheduled to end on Aug. 25.
In our quest to find the most delicious french fries in the fast food game, here’s the well-loved burger chain that we awarded the top spot.
Food Republic – Restaurants, Reviews, Recipes, Cooking Tips
By: Alix Soliman, KTOO, Clarise Larson, KTOO and Corinne Smith Alaska Beacon
As the Mendenhall River swells with glacial outburst floodwater, hundreds of people living in the suburban valley below spent Tuesday night and Wednesday preparing to evacuate or hunker down. The National Weather Service predicts the flood will crest Thursday.
Officials managing the flood response recommended residents evacuate by 3 p.m.
On Marion Drive, Ann Lind plans to watch the flood from her second-story balcony overlooking the Mendenhall River.
“I got lawn chairs up there, and we’ll just be sitting there, and that’s where I’ve been every year,” she said.
Lind said her crawl space flooded last year when water leaked through the HESCO barriers and a drainage pipe failed. She said she’s staying again this year to protect the property.
“Because if I wouldn’t have stayed last year, I never would have known that I was flooding back there, and the flooding would have been way worse,” she said. “Within 30 minutes of me calling for help, I had nine guys and five pumps back there.”
She said she’s more confident her home won’t flood this time after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers placed an industrial-sized pump just beyond her lawn to send water that leaks through the flood wall back into the river.
Although she plans to stay behind with her 17-year-old daughter, she said her other kids and pets will evacuate – heeding official advice.
Downstream from Lind’s place, on Meander Way, Locke Brown said he and his wife are optimistic about flood protection this year. Last year, the pair’s crawl space and garage flooded.
“If we had these pumps on the roads sitting here last year, I think we probably wouldn’t have had any water in the house,” he said.
They said they’re grateful for the pumps and bolstered flood wall provided by the Army Corps this year — but they’re not taking any chances. They said that once the water rises high up on the barriers, they plan to evacuate to a camper they have set up outside of the flood zone.
Locke is retired from the U.S. Coast Guard and his wife still works for the Coast Guard.
“We’ve made our living saving people when they know they should have left,” he said.
Locke said the prudent thing is to leave since there’s a possibility the barriers could fail.
“It’s one of those unknowns. You just — what do they say? — Prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” he said. “We just feel like, at this point, we’re just driftwood. Whatever happens is gonna happen, and we’re just gonna have to deal with it when it’s over.”
Just a few blocks over, on Gee Street, Benson Bullock said he’s not too worried. He’s patching a pair of waders in his garage, but not for walking through floodwaters.
“Hopefully, if it’s not too crazy, I’ll be going fishing,” he said.
Bullock had a few inches of water in his garage during the catastrophic flood in 2024, but his house has never flooded. Bullock says he plans to put sandbags in front of the garage before the flood crests.
“We have stuff moved and cleaned up,” he said. “We moved my boat, we’ll move my wife’s truck, and we’ll just have my truck here in case we decide to leave.”
On View Drive, many residents say they’re planning to stay to try to protect their property and look out for their neighbors.
View Drive is a forested cul-de-sac that forms a peninsula jutting into the Mendenhall River. It’s been hit the hardest by past floods. For a second year in a row, the street has been left without the protection of the flood wall constructed by the City and Borough of Juneau and the Army Corps. Officials have said in the past that the street has porous soil and have doubts that the homes could be protected.
Mandy Mallott lives at the end of the cul-de-sac. She bought the house from a family she babysat for when she was growing up in Juneau. It looks out over Stroller White Mountain, where her father died in 2005.
“It’s a very spiritual place to us,” she said. “It’s a private place, and we’ll do what we can to protect it.”
She and her family spent Tuesday evening moving their belongings up onto shelves in their garage. Last year, she worked with her neighbors to have contractors put up their own HESCO barriers around a few properties, and she said her home didn’t flood.
Although a federally sponsored buyout for her home and others on View Drive might be on the table — Mallott said she’s emotionally tied to the place, and sees a long-term solution designed by the Army Corps as her best option.
“That emergency tunnel fix gives us all a lot of hope,” she said.
Mallott and her family are tribal citizens, and she said she’s grateful for the dozens of sandbags that the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska dropped off on Tuesday.
Residents of the Riverview Senior Living facility were about 50-50 split on whether to evacuate on Wednesday afternoon, said its Executive Director René Bryant. This year, new HESCO barriers are now standing between the Mendenhall River and the two-story assisted living and memory care facility.
She said the roughly 70 residents have a choice whether to stay or evacuate, and they are providing transportation to a nearby emergency shelter at St. Paul’s Catholic Church after an early dinner on Wednesday evening. Bryant said additional transportation to evacuate will be provided Thursday if needed.
“We are respecting everybody’s rights, while contacting family members to make these decisions as well,” Bryant said.
The U.S. is notorious for its lackluster hospital food, but what does it look like in other countries? Here are some plates, from South Korea to New Zealand.
Mashed – Fast Food, Celebrity Chefs, Grocery, Reviews