Himanvi Panidepu (Courtesy: Miss Virginia Teen USA)
An Indian American was crowned Miss Virginia Teen USA, for the first time in the state’s history.
According to WAVY.com, Himanvi Panidepu is a Centreville High School student who is on the school’s Track team and will serve as an advocate for children and adults with special needs and disabilities through the pageant’s involvement with Best Buddies International.
She will also serve the Commonwealth and other various causes.
Panidepu is also the winner of Miss Central Virginia USA and beat out thirty-nine other contestants in the pageant, which was held at Tidewater Community Colleges Roper Theater in Downtown Norfolk, Virginia.
NEW YORK – Ritu Raman, a postdoc in the Langer Lab at MIT, has been honored as one of five recipients of the 2017 L’Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellowship.
The L’Oréal USA For Women in Science Fellowship recognizes female scientists at a critical stage in their careers and supports them with $60,000 grants to advance their postdoctoral research. The announcement was made on Oct.10 in conjunction with Ada Lovelace Day — an annual event aimed at raising the profile of women in STEM. The fellows were chosen based on their intellectual merit, research potential, scientific excellence, and their commitment to supporting women and girls in science, according to a report in MIT.
As part of the honor, the recently-selected fellows have the freedom to apply their grants to enhance their postdoctoral research in any way they see fit. Raman plans to use the award to conduct pioneering research and collaborate with other scientists, engineers, and clinicians across the country. Other fellows will use their fellowship to hire female mentees, build coding programs, fund educational campaigns, and more.
In November, the fellows will travel to Washington to join the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Science and Technology Policy fellows on Capitol Hill for an informal gathering on science policy and careers. They will also visit the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for a roundtable discussion on the barriers and opportunities for women in science with the NAS Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine.
While growing up in different places across the globe — including India, Kenya, and the U.S. — Raman witnessed firsthand the disadvantages her talented colleagues in each of these regions faced when it came to gaining adequate opportunities and resources to pursue careers in STEM fields.
“I went to school with classmates who were excelling beyond everyone else in STEM subjects, yet didn’t have the resources or the opportunities to pursue a career in these fields,” Raman recalls. “It’s frustrating; we have so many problems [in science and engineering] to solve and we can’t miss out on anyone who can offer their talents.”
Raman says that these early life experiences inspired her to become a staunch advocate for STEM education and outreach, and to focus on empowering women and underrepresented minorities to pursue degrees in STEM fields.
She has been actively involved with various outreach endeavors, including the University of Illinois chapter of the Graduate Society of Women Engineers, which she helped found and grow during her time as a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Raman currently serves on the Women in Academia Committee for the national chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, and confers with other postdocs, young faculty members, and others across the country about the advancement of women in engineering and technology.
She is also a volunteer for the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research’s Public Outreach Program, through which she speaks with middle and high school students about life in the lab. This spring, Raman worked with fellow Koch Institute researchers to design and build a cancer research-themed mini-golf course for the Cambridge Science Festival — which aims to engage people of all ages in STEM learning through multifaceted, multicultural events.
But Raman’s interest in making science and technology accessible to diverse audiences is not just extracurricular. During her time at the University of Illinois, she helped to design and lead a course that focused on teaching students the process of ethically designing, building, evaluating, and optimizing bio-hybrid robots targeted at a variety of applications, and she has carried this experience with her to MIT as well.
In the lab of Institute Professor Robert Langer at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Raman focuses on developing adaptive materials for long-term sensing and drug delivery in some of the most challenging environments in the body. She is currently working with fellow Langer Lab researchers to create a long-lasting capsule that can safely and effectively deliver drugs to the stomach. She also collaborates with researchers in the Cima and Graybiel labs to build implantable devices for drug delivery to the brain.
Raman says her decision to join the Langer Lab, the largest biomedical engineering lab in the world, was based largely on her passion for bio-hybrid design, which involves developing systems that are half biological and half synthetic.
“A lot of labs today do not have the experience to build both biological and synthetic materials,” she says. “That’s why I came to the Langer Lab and MIT — to learn how to design and build new synthetic materials so I can one day start a bio-hybrid design-based lab.”
Sharing her knowledge with others remains a central tenet of Raman’s endeavors, however. Recently, she guided students through designing an implantable pump that can deliver drugs to the brain, helping to diagnose and treat brain disorders, specifically anxiety and depression.
With bio-hybrid design still a relatively new approach, Raman plans to one day apply her experience in STEM education to develop curriculum in this area, including teaching others how to build with adaptive materials and guiding students to explore the ethics of building with biology. She also hopes to empower future scientists and engineers to effectively write about science policy to advocate for more government support.
“My goal is to teach the next generation of inventors to build with biological and synthetic materials in synchrony,” Raman says. “I appreciate that L’Oréal recognized not only women who are pursuing research in science and engineering, but those who have dedicated a lot of time to STEM outreach and education.”
Chirayu P. wins $1.4 from NJ Lottery (Courtesy: New Jersey Lottery)
NEW YORK – A student from India has collected his $1,436,641 Jersey Cash 5 jackpot from the NJ Lottery after he won the lottery back in April.
According to a news release, Chirayu P., who lives with his aunt and uncle in Parlin, New Jersey, and is currently studying engineering at a school in Connecticut, had gone into the Paradise Deli on Stephenville Parkway in Edison to buy a drink and a snack on April 29.
Upon noticing that the Cash 5 jackpot was worth more than $1 million, he decided to buy a couple of tickets, according to lottery officials.
According to NJ.com, the winning numbers were 6, 10, 26, 33 and 38 and Chirayu found out he had won the day after the drawing.
His mother traveled to New Jersey from India to watch him claim the prize.
NJ.com reported that Chirayu told lottery officials that he plans to use a portion of his winnings to pay for college and buy a new car as well as gifts for his parents and other family members.
Chileno Bay Resort & Residences, an Auberge Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, is offering about $1,200 in savings, including a free night and a resort credit. The Readers’ Choice Package costs $1,998 and includes four nights’ accommodations, including the free fourth night valued at $663; daily breakfast (worth $300); private airport transfers ($300); a $100 resort credit; and taxes. Book through Dec. 31; travel through May 31. Blackout dates apply. Conde Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards selected the resort as its favorite place in Los Cabos. Info: 844-207-9354, chilenobay.aubergeresorts.com
Hilton Hotels has a 25 percent sale at its three properties in Brazil. The deal applies to the Hilton Barra Rio de Janeiro, Hilton Rio de Janeiro Copacabana and Hilton Sao Paulo Morumbi. For example, at the Hilton Barra Rio de Janeiro, a weekend in January starts at $108 a night, with taxes, down from $145. Book by Oct. 31; stay Dec. 15-Feb. 28. Info: 800-HILTONS, www.hilton.com
Warwick Paradise Island-Bahamas, an adults-only, all-inclusive resort, is offering 20 percent savings to seniors 65 and older, as well as all active and retired military personnel. A mid-January stay, for example, starts at $253 per night per couple, a savings of $63. Price includes all meals, snacks and beverages; WiFi; daily activities, including a picnic excursion to Cabbage Beach; gratuities; and taxes. The promo also includes a 10 percent savings at the resort’s Amber Spa. Valid ID required at check-in. Info: 888-645-5550, www.warwickhotels.com/paradise-island-bahamas
Sea
Oceania Cruises is offering a free pre- or post-cruise land tour on 10 sailings, departing December through April. Prices vary. For example, an oceanview cabin on the 18-night Vibrant Culture cruise, which sails from Bangkok to Mumbai on April 11, starts at $6,299 per person double. For land tours, choose between Essence of Bangkok (valued at $999) or Taj Mahal: the Eternal Masterpiece (worth $1,499). Passengers can also swap the land tour for a $700 shipboard credit or reduced pricing on a deluxe shore-excursion package. Cruisers can combine the promo with the OLife Choice deal, which, on the Vibrant Culture cruise, includes free WiFi (value of $504) and a choice of eight select shore excursions ($930), a beverage package ($720) or an $800 shipboard credit. Cabinmates must choose the same promos. Airfare from Washington Dulles to Bangkok, with return from Mumbai, is also included. Priced separately, airfare costs about $907. Info: 855-623-2642, www.oceaniacruises.com
Hurtigruten is offering a free makeup Norway cruise for passengers who don’t witness the Northern Lights during their voyage in the 2017/18 season. The Northern Lights Promise applies to 12-day cruises completed by March 31. If you do not see the light show, you will receive a free six- or seven-day cruise between Oct. 1, 2018, and March 31, 2019. The round-trip cruise departing from Bergen, Norway, starts at $1,089 per person double and includes all meals, tea and coffee; WiFi; and taxes. The redemption cruises are worth $746 and $1,114, respectively. Info: 866-552-0371, www.hurtigruten.us
Air
Sun Country Airlines has sale on nonstop fares from Reagan National to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Round-trip air costs $236, including taxes, through Dec. 19. Holiday blackout dates apply. Ten-day advance purchase required. Other airlines are matching on connecting flights. Book by Oct. 26 at www.suncountry.com
Package
Keytours Vacations is offering couples a $500 discount on several trips, including the London and Paris Escapade tour. The six-night vacation starts at $2,149 per person double in January and February. Price includes round-trip air from New York to London, with return from Paris; three nights each at the Best Phoenix hotel in London and the Best Western Ronceray Opera in Paris; daily breakfasts; 24-hour hop-on, hop-off bus ticket in each city; Seine River cruise in Paris; first-class rail ticket from London to Paris; airport transfer in London; and taxes. Book by Oct. 31. Info: 800-576-1784, www.keytours.com
An Indian-American resident of Queens, New York, pleaded guilty Oct. 24 for his role in a stolen identity refund fraud scheme, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.
Kishore Jattan, 44, pleaded guilty to identity theft. According to the plea agreement and documents filed with the court, from April 2012 through June 2012, Jattan stole student IDs from packages he delivered for a university located in New York, which the Justice Department did not identify in its press release.
Jattan then sold the stolen IDs to other individuals who used the IDs to file fraudulent tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. Jattan admitted that he caused a tax loss of between $250,000 and $550,000.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 21, next year before U.S. District Court Judge Edward R. Korman. Jattan faces a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution, and monetary penalties.
NEW YORK – The hum of our lives is sated in magic. And its color is orange.
Orange of the lanterns, shining in the night, lighting the pathway for the fading cluster of summer’s fireflies. Or the little goblins and fairies that line up on the doorstep for a trick or treat.
There is nothing muted about the departure of a sunset-cloaked October.
Red damasks and topaz flow in drifts of drowsy leaves as the aging willow, the omniscient poplar and the towering maple turn from deep auburn to mustard yellow in bronzed sunlight.
As heavy curtains of gale swoop through the ancient swamps of forests, the owls hoot in a chilling serenade. Tu-whit, tu-hoo.
Far in the distance, the chapel bells call out as night descends on the city’s fading murmur. The moon waxes between a silver thread and a buoyant gold in a jocular pageant.
As the earth swiftly spins towards the close of the year, the seasons mark the crossing of autumn to winter.
And bewitched, we humans cry!
“All things green are suddenly bright, at sunset, mists are here, then there,” sings an antique Chinese poem, “Magnolia Enclosure.”
Since the dawn of civilization, the changing of seasons has held the potency of divine enchantment in its ephemeral threshold.
On November’s eve, it is believed that the thin veils that hide the hidden whorls from the visible are shred as shadows lengthen and nights loom longer and thicker in the Northern Hemisphere.
“And it is possible a great presence is moving near me / I have faith in nights,” reaffirms the great Austrian poet, Rainer Maria Rilke.
The long drawn-out nights portend the eventual end of long days of labor in the fields. And who but John Milton could capture its languid music in the pastoral poem “ L’Allegero”:
while the ploughman near at hand,
whistles o’er the furrowed land,
and the milkmaid singeth blithe,
and the mower whets his scythe,
and every shepherd tells his tale
under the hawthorn in the dale.
October lends itself to nature-inspired celebrations of the abundant harvest, the borderline between dark and light, the remembrance of the dead and the start of a new cycle.
Halloween is not simply the invention of American folklore and superstition but its origins are stated to have their echo in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween) which marked the celebration of a successful harvest.
In agricultural repertoire, it was a time when the cattle were led back from summer pastures into the barns for a safe and secure winter.
The word Samhain is but a Gaelic word for “summer’s end” – the sunset of the last day of October was the beginning of a merriment that would last till sunset the next day.
A man dressed as Samhain participates in the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in Manhattan, New York. Photo: Reuters.
It was the long awaited day of magic when the strife of this world would finally bear its fruition.
“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country,” writes the American essayist Anais Nin.
But no, not such poetry for the early Celts, however.
They practiced divination through bobbing of apples and disguised themselves with costumes to avoid harm from wandering spirits. To ward off the cold of the looming night, they lit bonfires and jumped over them for good luck. Yes, not unlike the famed leprechaun.
The Samhain festival gradually transited to a more secular festival of Halloween when Christian missionaries transformed the religious rituals of the Celts and subdued their elves, fairies and gnomes
But the ancient rituals of leaving sweets on doorsteps to appease mischievous spirits were still carried over into modern customs.
Many of the rituals also incorporated taking the last leaves and blossoms of the natural world and placing them in a sacred circle or an olden grove to invoke the way into a new beginning.
Through music, prayers for the ancestors and storytelling, the feast of harvest was opened and closed with spoken blessings.
It was also an acknowledgement of darkness that dwells along with the light, of the unknown with the known, the invisible with the visible.
It was simply a matter of faith.
Meanwhile, in my tiny world even as the shadows loom over the earthen fields and then spin out, I keep my eyesight steadfast onto the light.
Slivers of light hitting the crest of waves on the beach or pools of gold warming the corn thistles in the corner of the field.
And in the early morning light, if I wake up to the early crooning of the birds, I see iridescent wands slithering across the floor, illuminating a slight bend of the living room. And I know it is nothing less than magic.
For nothing can stop the light from breaking in.
“The darkness is no darkness with you, O Lord, ..the darkness and light to you are both alike,” reads Psalm 139:12.
And the autumn winds, too, carry the words of the song in its flight, for it bears the face of light.
Nights when the moon is soft and large on the horizon, an anonymous Chinese poem comes alive every time a sequestered fog droops low over tree-tops,
“This morning our boat left the orchid bank and went out through the tall reeds. Tonight we will anchor under mulberries and elms. You and me, all day together, gathering rushes. Now it is evening, and see, we have gathered just one stalk.”
Till next spring, through the snow and cold winds, I shall keep the little boats of light, burning on the threshold. And wait for the cherry blossoms to fasten onto their dreams.
(Poppy Mookerjee is a journalist and a writer for more than a decade with American and Indian publications)
From Left to Right: Governor Roy Cooper, North Carolina State Senator Jay Chaudhuri, First Lady Kristin Cooper and Sejal Mehta Chaudhuri
As many around the country and the world celebrated Diwali last week, North Carolina had its own celebrations; one at the governor’s mansion and another at Duke University.
The governor’s mansion was decorated with rangoli at the entrance and guests were greeted by Governor Roy Cooper, the First Lady Kristin Cooper, North Carolina State Senator Jay Chaudhuri and Sejal Mehta Chaudhuri, on Thursday, Oct. 19.
This was the first ever Diwali celebration at the Executive Mansion which was hosted by Hindi Vikas Mandal a non-profit, volunteering organization that is situated in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina that encourages the study and the appreciation of Hindi and promotes cultural activities.
“It was a joy and an honor to host the Indian American community at the mansion and to recognize the contributions they have made to the state,” said Kristin Cooper.
The Chief of Staff for Kristin Cooper, Ilina Ewen, who is from Kolkata, was the Master of Ceremony for the event and it was a proud moment for the Indian Americans of North Carolina to see an Indian American holding such a high position in the Cooper Administration.
Mrs. Rama Garimella holds the Proclamation as Governor Cooper and Mrs. Cooper look on.
The night started out with a warm welcome by Sushma Maheshwari, the Treasurer for the Hindi Vikas Mandal followed by Senator Chaudhuri and Governor Cooper who emphasized the rich contributions to the culture of North Carolina that were made by Indian Americans, recognized several Indian Americans appointed to state positions in his administration and then invited. Ganga Dhar Sharma, a senior religious leader in the State to offer prayers after which many religious leaders were invited to light ceremonial Diyas, ending the night with the SV Temple priest, Chakrapani Kumara offering prayers.
“As someone who has been passionate about the Indian culture and has celebrated the festivals for years, meeting Governor Roy Cooper and the First Lady Kristin Cooper on such a special day was a memorable event,” said Richa Kapoor, a Board Member of Hindi Vikas Mandal
Governor Cooper and Kristin Cooper also visited the Sri Venkateswara Temple of North Carolina in Cary, North Carolina, the day before, where they signed a Diwali proclamation for the first time in the history of the State of North Carolina.
Dean Ravi Bellamkonda lighting the ceremonial Diya as Madhu Sharma looks on.
Diwali was also celebrated at the Duke Chapel at Duke University on Saturday, Oct. 21, for the first time ever and was well-attended by students, parents and community members.
The Duke Hindu Chaplain Madhu Sharma was the Master of Ceremony for the event, which was started by a performance by Duke Sangeet, a student organization.
“It was a spiritual and a devotional experience to conduct the Diwali service at the magnificent Duke Chapel,” said Sharma.
The Associate Dean of Religious Life at Duke University, Christy Lohr Sapp welcomed the group, emphasizing how Duke values religious flourishing amongst academic studies and Ganga Dhar Sharma conducted a short prayer service.
Professor Ravi Bellamkonda, the Vinik Dean of Pratt School of Engineering reflected on his meaning of Diwali, the night ended with contemporary devotional Hindu music played by Cosmic Horizons, a local band.
A man from Bartonsville, Pennsylvania, as well as Indian-American hotel, were indicted Oct. 24, by a federal grand jury, on sex and drug trafficking changes.
The case against Faizal Bhimani, 41, of Bartonsville, Pennsylvania, and Om Sri Sai, Inc., doing business as a hotel operator in Bartonsville, Pennsylvania, was unsealed Oct. 25, following the arrest of Bhimani, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
According to U.S. Attorney Bruce D. Brandler, the indictment alleges that from June 2014 to the present, Bhimani, the manager of a hotel in Bartonsville, along with Om Sri Sai, Inc., facilitated and profited from drug trafficking and commercial sex induced by force, fraud, and coercion.
The maximum penalty under federal law for this offense is life imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine.
The government is also seeking forfeiture of all assets including real property, and the liquor license of the hotel, the press release said.
However, indictments and Criminal Informations are only allegations. All persons charged are presumed to be innocent unless and until found guilty in court.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Pennsylvania State Police, the Stroud Regional Police Department, and the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office Criminal Investigations Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean A. Camoni is prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of a district wide initiative to combat what law enforcement considers a nationwide epidemic regarding the use and distribution of heroin.
Led by the United States Attorney’s Office, the Heroin Initiative targets heroin traffickers operating in the Middle District of Pennsylvania and is part of a coordinated effort among federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who commit heroin related offenses.
NEW YORK – Indian-American radio host and comedian Sunil Thakker, 51, of Masala Radio station, IN Sugar Land, Texas, has pleaded guilty to the charge of sexually assaulting a teenager in February 2014 and will be placed on probation for five years.
According to a PTI report, Thakker is prohibited from coming into contact with teenage girls under the age of 17.
He will have to spend 10 days in Harris County jail beginning Nov. 5, pay a fine of $1,500, register as a sex offender for lifetime and do community service for 120 hours.
Thakkar will have to register himself as a sex offender with the local law enforcement authorities within seven days and keep them informed of his movements.
PTI reported that Judge Ramona Franklin of the 338th District Court in Harris County sentenced Thakkar and deferred adjudication of guilt until October 24, 2022.
Consul General Sandeep Chakravorty with Padma Shri Dr. Sudhir Parikh, Padma Shri H.R. Shah, Ramesh Patel and others
The Federation of Indian Associations (FIA) of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, welcomed the new Consul General, Sandeep Chakravorty, on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at Royal Albert’s Palace in Edison, NJ.
The evening was graced by many dignitaries of the Consulate in New York as well as the FIA Board and Committee members including the President, Ramesh Patel, who said he is hopeful that the ambassador will work with the FIA to solve the various ongoing problems regarding visa statuses, as well as Padma Shri Dr. Sudhir Parikh of Parikh Worldwide Media, who welcomed the Consul General to New Jersey and Padma Shri H.R. Shah of TV Asia.
“I have had an opportunity to interact with Ambassador Chakravorty several times since his arrival, of course we all know that he is a remarkable and brilliant young man. He has achieved high office early in his travel career. He has been a deputy high commissioner in Dhaka and before coming to New York, he was the ambassador in Peru and Bolivia. I’m sure the day is not too far that we will have to go to Washington D.C. to meet him as he will be the U.S. Ambassador of India,” he said.
Padma Shri Dr. Sudhir Parikh
Dr. Parikh also mentioned that Chakravorty has a “very down to earth person personality, humility, sense of humor and a welcoming nature which has made a great impact on me. He is very approachable and personable and at a time when the bilateral, U.S.-India relations and business is on path of steady growth it is important to have a dynamic Consul General like him to help.”
Shah told the audience that Chakravorty’s “job is a big job and he has so many difficulties” as Consul General of India in New York because he has to cover 11 states containing of 1.7 million people, which is not easy at all, “he has to work, we have to salute his work and keep high hopes that he will do a great job. Don’t ask him what you are going to do for us, ask him what we can do for you.”
FIA President Ramesh Patel
Others who spoke on the occasion include Albert Jhasani, owner of Royal Albert’s Palace; Shobna Patel, former president of FIA; the Deputy Consul General of Israel Amir Sagie; Kenny Desai, chairman of tax group; Dhiren Amin, President of the Indian Business Association and Deepak Patel from Dunkin Donuts.
Andy Bhatia
In his thank you speech, Chakravorty said that this is the best time for the U.S.-India bilateral relationship, “on October 18th, Secretary Tillerson gave a speech in Delhi, which plays out the roll path for the next 100 years in U.S.-India relations.”
“There are 4.2 million Indians here; I think that number will grow because Indians are very welcome in this country. Indians are contributing enormously to the development of this country and I think the responsibility of the consulate will increase in time. The consulate is here to service the U.S.-India relationship and to service the Indian Diaspora here and if we are not able to do that successfully then I think there is a problem with us,” he said.
Consul General Sandeep Chakravorty
Chakravorty also addressed the many issues that the Indian American diaspora face including the OCI problem of having to go back and forth with FedEx, “the consulate is working on the matter and we are thinking of sending text messages now instead of emails to notify that the service has been delivered” because sometimes those messages tend to go into the spam folder of one’s email account.
He stated that today, we don’t have the luxury of having one-on-one meetings anymore like back in the day, since the population of Indians in America have increased, but that should not stop us from finding a solution to the problems that already exist and said that in order to tackle these problems; the consulate has been and will be holding an open house every other Wednesday each month along with the consulate coming to you wherever you are.
“I’m here to serve you, I’m here to help you in your activities in your presence in the United States and through you I want to leverage you and your presence for the betterment on the U.S.-India relationship and the betterment of my country.”
A box of the Fentanyl-based drug Subsys, made by Insys Therapeutics Inc, is seen in an undated photograph. (Photo: U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama/Handout via REUTERS)
As President Trump announced strong measures to fight the opioid epidemic, an Indian-American billionaire made the national news Oct. 26, when he was arrested and charged with racketeering, based on allegations that he and other executives in his company bribed doctors and pharmacists to prescribe the cancer pain drug fentanyl spray.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, announced the arrest of John Kapoor, 74, the founder and majority owner of Insys Therapeutics Inc. Kapoor was charged with allegedly leading a nationwide conspiracy to profit by using bribes and fraud to cause the illegal distribution of a Fentanyl spray intended for cancer patients experiencing breakthrough pain. The medication, called “Subsys,” is a powerful narcotic intended to treat cancer patients suffering intense pain.
Kapoor’s lawyer said his client was innocent and intended to fight the accusations “vigorously” CBSNews reported.
Kapoor, of Phoenix, Ariz., a current member of the Board of Directors of Insys, was arrested this morning in Arizona and charged with RICO conspiracy, as well as other felonies, including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Law. The former Executive Chairman of the Board and CEO of Insys, appeared in federal court in Phoenix the same day. He will appear in U.S. District Court in Boston at a later date.
The superseding indictment, unsealed today in Boston, also includes additional allegations against several former Insys executives and managers who were initially indicted in December 2016.
The superseding indictment charges that Kapoor and a slew of executives in the company, conspired to bribe practitioners in various states, many of whom operated pain clinics, in order to get them to prescribe a fentanyl-based pain medication.
The indictment also alleges that Kapoor and the six former executives conspired to mislead and defraud health insurance providers who were reluctant to approve payment for the drug when it was prescribed for non-cancer patients. They allegedly achieved this goal by setting up the “reimbursement unit,” which was dedicated to obtaining prior authorization directly from insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. In exchange for bribes and kickbacks, the practitioners allegedly wrote large numbers of prescriptions for the patients, most of whom were not diagnosed with cancer.
The details contained in the charging documents are only allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
“In the midst of a nationwide opioid epidemic that has reached crisis proportions, Mr. Kapoor and his company stand accused of bribing doctors to overprescribe a potent opioid and committing fraud on insurance companies solely for profit,” Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb is quoted saying in the press release.
The charges of conspiracy to commit RICO and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud each carry a maximum sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000, or twice the amount of pecuniary gain or loss. The charges of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Law provide for a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $25,000 fine.
Ahmedabad: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj addresses at a ‘Mahila Town Hall’ in Ahmedabad on Oct 14, 2017. (Photo: IANS)
NEW DELHI – External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday sought a thorough probe into adoption process of the three-year-old Indian American girl Sherin Mathews who has died in Texas.
Sushma Swaraj tweeted that she has requested Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi “for a thorough investigation into the adoption process of Baby Saraswati Sherin Mathews who has been killed by her foster father Wesley Mathews in the US.”
She also said that she has asked Anupam Roy, Consul General of India in Houston, to ensure that the murder of Sherin was taken to a logical conclusion.
Police in Texas charged Wesley Mathews after he admitted that the child choked while he was making her drink milk and died in their home in Texas, according to court documents.
He had earlier told police that Sherin disappeared when he made her stand in a lane behind their house in Richardson city at 3 a.m. on October 7 as punishment for not drinking milk.
After nearly two weeks of searching by police using drones, her body was found on Sunday in a ditch near their house in the city near Dallas. While the search was going on, Mathews stuck to the story about Sherin’s punishment and mysterious disappearance.
Mathews, who was arrested on Monday, was charged with causing injury to a child which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
He was being held in jail with bail set at $1 million. Mathews, 37, who works in IT, is of Indian origin. He and his wife Sini, a nurse, had adopted Sherin from an orphanage in Bihar.
According to court documents, on Monday Mathews came to the police with his lawyer and said that he “physically assisted” Sherin with drinking milk in the garage of their house after she had earlier refused to drink it.
The child began coughing and choking, her breathing slowed and then there was no longer any pulse, he told police.
In separate tweets, Sushma Swaraj also said that in view of the Sherin Mathews case, “we have taken a decision that passports for adopted children will be issued only with prior clearance by Ministry of Child Development in all cases.”
Sherin Mathews, of Richardson, Texas, is missing after disappearing Saturday morning. She had been sent outside at 3 a.m. as punishment for not drinking her milk. (Richardson Police Department)
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
WASHINGTON – The world looks different when you sit behind the Resolute desk.
At the request of the CIA, FBI and others in the national security community, President Donald Trump made a last-minute decision to delay the release of thousands of pages of classified documents related to the John F. Kennedy assassination.
The president allowed the National Archives to publish about 2,800 records that the agencies did not object to making public. But about 300 additional records – the ones historians were most interested in seeing – will stay secret for now.
Federal agencies have known since 1992 that the midnight deadline was coming up. It was created by Congress, in a law signed by George H.W. Bush, after Oliver Stone’s “JFK” movie in 1991 suggested a broad conspiracy to kill the president that included the CIA, the FBI and the military.
But they were sending requests to the White House to withhold documents as late as midday Thursday. Trump acquiesced under the pressure.
Even as he holds back some of the juiciest stuff, the president wants credit from his base for releasing the documents. “I am ordering today that the veil finally be lifted,” Trump said in a statement. “At the same time, executive departments and agencies have proposed to me that certain information should continue to be redacted because of national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns. I have no choice – today – but to accept those redactions rather than allow potentially irreversible harm to our nation’s security.”
Trump is probably the most conspiracy-minded president in U.S. history. At the very least, he is the most likely to buy into far-fetched conspiracy theories since Richard Nixon. He catapulted to stardom on the right by falsely claiming that Barack Obama is from Kenya – not Hawaii. He’s wrongly claimed that his predecessor didn’t attend Columbia University. He insisted that Obama personally bribed New York’s attorney general to investigate Trump University. He accused Obama of “bugging” Trump Tower after taking office.
He said there’s something “very fishy” about Vince Foster’s suicide. He suggested that Antonin Scalia may have been a victim of foul play after the Supreme Court justice died in his sleep. He said the IRS audits him because he’s a Christian. He’s peddled the dangerous falsehood that vaccines are connected to autism. He has never backed off his assertion that he watched TV footage of thousands of Muslims celebrating in New Jersey on 9/11 after the collapse of the World Trade Center.
He suggested before the final primaries in 2016 that Ted Cruz’s Cuban-born father, Rafael, was somehow involved in the Kennedy assassination and knew Lee Harvey Oswald. After the Texas senator refused to endorse him at the Republican National Convention, he revived the silly claim again last summer.
Against that backdrop, no one can deny that the president’s impulse is to get all these files out. His longtime adviser and friend Roger Stone wrote a book alleging that Lyndon Johnson had Kennedy killed, and he’s been lobbying the president to open all the files.
Trump has already shown that he wants to make public anything that might back up his conspiracy theories or reflect poorly on what his supporters derisively call “the deep state.” Remember, after losing the popular vote last November by 2.9 million votes, the president began insisting that 3 million to 5 million undocumented immigrants voted illegally. When every expert called that claim preposterous, Trump didn’t back down. Instead, he created a taxpayer-funded commission to look into it.
But the president was reminded again Thursday that it’s really hard to tell national security officials “no” when they’re warning you of potential dangers to the country and its intelligence apparatus if certain information goes out.
For example, CIA officials say that they pushed to withhold documents to protect their assets, the identities of current and former officers, intelligence-gathering methods and sensitive partnerships that remain in effect today. “Every single one of the approximately 18,000 remaining CIA records in the collection will ultimately be released, with no document withheld in full,” the agency said in a statement, adding that the redacted information in the 18,000 pages represents less than 1 percent of all CIA information in the Kennedy collection.
To varying degrees, every president finds himself persuaded by these kinds of arguments – no matter how spurious. The best example of this came in 2014 when Barack Obama’s White House aggressively worked behind the scenes to limit how much the public got to see of a Senate Intelligence Committee report documenting the CIA’s brutal interrogations of terrorism suspects. The effort to conceal the findings of the investigation was completely at odds with the spirit that animated Obama’s 2008 campaign. (He also never closed Gitmo.)
In the national security realm, Trump has already backed away from several commitments he made during the campaign. He escalated in Afghanistan after promising withdrawal. He explicitly endorsed NATO’s Article V after initially refusing to. He didn’t pull out of the Iranian nuclear deal, instead settling for a middle-ground compromise pushed by his advisers. The list goes on.
The presidency has a way of warping a person’s perspective. George W. Bush said no more nation building during the 2000 campaign. After invading Afghanistan and Iraq, he did more of it than anyone since Harry Truman unveiled the Marshall Plan.
This is a tale as old as the presidency. A generation of presidents never tried to remove J. Edgar Hoover as FBI director because they worried what dirt he might have on them.
Trump’s decision to acquiesce to the CIA will only add to the cloud of public suspicion that hangs over the official story line – even 54 years later – that Oswald acted alone.
Secrecy corrodes public trust in government. The government’s refusal to be fully transparent and forthright has contributed to a climate in which few citizens trust institutions. The feds have long had an over-classification problem, erring on the side of marking files secret that really don’t need to be. It has become even worse since the 9/11 attacks.
A poll conducted last week by SurveyMonkey for FiveThirtyEight found that only 33 percent of Americans believe that one man was responsible for the Kennedy assassination, while 61 percent think that others were involved in a conspiracy.
“In pretty much every demographic, most respondents believed that Oswald didn’t act alone,” Harry Enten notes. “A majority of men, women, white people, people of color, registered voters, non-registered voters, old people, young people, Democrats, Republicans and so on all believe that more than one person was involved in Kennedy’s assassination. This is one of the few questions in this polarized age on which you can even find agreement among Hillary Clinton voters (59 percent believe in a conspiracy) and Trump voters (61 percent). . . . African-Americans (76 percent) and Hispanics (72 percent) are far more likely than whites (56 percent) to believe that Oswald didn’t act alone. The government, of course, has a history of lying to the black community, which may be why African-Americans are more likely to think the government isn’t telling the whole story about Kennedy’s death and other major news stories.”
What exactly is still being withheld? “Some of the material that assassination experts had been most eager to review was not included in the documents released Thursday,” The Post’s Ian Shapira, Steve Hendrix and Carol D. Leonnig report. “The missing records include a 338-page file on J. Walton Moore, the head of the CIA office in Dallas at the time of the killing, and an 18-page dossier on Gordon McClendon, a Dallas businessman who conferred with Ruby just before he shot Oswald. Several files on notorious anti-Castro Cuban exiles were apparently withheld, including those focusing on Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch, who had been accused of a 1976 airline bombing that killed 73 people . . .
“Researchers had hoped the release would shed new light on Oswald’s movements and contacts in the months before he shot Kennedy. Historians were particularly eager for new details of Oswald’s six-day trip to Mexico City, where he met with Cubans and Soviets two months before the assassination. None of those documents appeared to be in the batch released Thursday. Nor were there revelations on Watergate burglars E. Howard Hunt and James McCord, both of whom were longtime CIA operatives of interest to assassination theorists.”
What might the CIA be afraid of? “Since the Warren Commission concluded its investigation, historians and journalists have written extensively about how the CIA deliberately concealed information about Oswald’s interactions with Cubans or Soviets in Mexico City before the killing,” per Ian, Steve and Carol. “Philip Shenon, author of a 2013 book on the Warren Commission, interviewed one of the commission’s chief investigators, David Slawson, for Politico two years ago and showed him documents that had been declassified in the 1990s but that Slawson had never seen. Slawson’s conclusion: The CIA tampered with surveillance evidence of Oswald in Mexico City that would have revealed the agency knew of Oswald’s threat well before the assassination . . .
“Even the CIA publicly acknowledged in 2014 that John McCone, its director at the time of the assassination, participated in a ‘benign cover-up,’ according to a paper by agency historian David Robarge. His article said McCone was ‘complicit in keeping incendiary and diversionary issues off the commission’s agenda.’ The agency historian wrote that McCone purposely did not tell the commission about CIA-Mafia plots to kill (Fidel) Castro, some of which had been planned at the Mexico City station. ‘Without this information,’ Shenon concluded in a 2015 Politico story, ‘the commission never even knew to ask the question of whether Oswald had accomplices in Cuba or elsewhere who wanted Kennedy dead in retaliation for the Castro plots.'”
The White House insists that Trump remains committed to disclosure. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president has directed the agencies “to minimize redactions without delay,” and that redactions will only be made on the remaining documents “in the rarest of circumstances.”
But many Kennedy experts are dismayed about what they see as the president caving. They worry the final batch will still be heavily redacted and think the odds are high that the new six-month deadline will slip. University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato, for example, wrote a 2013 book on the assassination:
Sabato tweeted: “54 yrs since #JFK assassination, 25 yrs since mandated release TODAY, and we’ll have to wait another 6 months to MAYBE see the good stuff.”
— What is in the files that did come out? More than a dozen reporters and editors for The Washington Post combed through the 2,800 records after the went live at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. Here are some of the wildest nuggets they found:
“An FBI file contains information on the bureau’s attempt to locate a stripper named ‘Kitty,’ last name unknown. According to the file, another stripper named Candy Cane said Kitty had been an associate of Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who killed Oswald on Nov. 24, 1963. Leon Cornman, business agent with the American Guild of Variety Artists in New Orleans, told the FBI that ‘the only stripper he knew by the name of Kitty who worked in New Orleans was Kitty Raville.’ He advised (that) Raville committed suicide in New Orleans in August or September 1963,’ the report states.
“Several documents summarize internal discussions within Communist Party meetings after the assassination, discussing whether Oswald was innocent and whether communists would be blamed for Kennedy’s death. Agents ran down rumors from prisoners and poets.
“The documents show that for years, the FBI used informants to monitor the Communist Party in Dallas – a group that consisted of 5 or 6 people – so small they could sometimes hold a meeting inside a car.
“An April 1964 memo from J. Edgar Hoover ordered the FBI to check out a report that Jack Ruby and Dallas Police officer J.D. Tippitt – fatally shot by Oswald shortly after Oswald killed Kennedy – had met at Ruby’s strip club, the Carousel Club, sometime prior to the assassination. Hoover seemed skeptical.
“One memo described tensions between CIA and FBI officials that still exist today. It quotes FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover saying, ‘more and more we are telling CIA about our domestic operations and always to our detriment. I want this stopped.’
“A 1964 FBI memo describes a meeting in which Cuban exiles tried to set a price on the heads of Fidel Castro, Raul Castro and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. ‘It was felt that the $150,000.00 to assassinate FIDEL CASTRO plus $5,000 expense money was too high,’ the memo noted. At a subsequent meeting, they settled on more modest sums: $100,000 for Fidel, $20,000 for Raul and $20,000 for Che.
“Some of the papers recounted the agency’s well-chronicled schemes to kill Castro. One document, a summary of the CIA’s plans to assassinate foreign leaders, recounted how the CIA tried to use Gen. William Donovan, the former head of the agency’s precursor, the Office of Strategic Services, for one plot. He would give Castro a contaminated skin-diving suit while the two negotiated for the release of the Bay of Pigs prisoners. . . . Donovan didn’t go through it, instead presenting the Cuban leader with ‘an uncontaminated skindiving suit as a gesture of friendship.’
“A draft report by the House Select Committee on Assassinations found it unlikely that Cuba would kill Kennedy as retaliation for CIA’s attempts on Castro’s life. ‘The Committee does not believe Castro would have assassinated President Kennedy, because such an act, if discovered, would have afforded the United States the excuse to destroy Cuba,’ the draft states. ‘The risk would not have been worth it.’
“In an internal FBI report from May 1964, an informant told the FBI that the Ku Klux Klan said it ‘had documented proof that President Johnson was formerly a member of the Klan in Texas during the early days of his political career.’ The ‘documented proof’ was not provided.
“The records also reveal a deposition given before the presidential Commission on CIA Activities in 1975 by Richard Helms, who had served as the agency’s director.
After a discussion of Vietnam, David Belin, an attorney for the commission, turned to whether the CIA was involved in Kennedy’s killing. . . . Belin asked: ‘Is there any information involved with the assassination of President Kennedy which in any way shows that Lee Harvey Oswald was in some way a CIA agent or agent. . .’ Then, suddenly, the document cuts off.”
— How it’s playing elsewhere:
NBC News: “J. Edgar Hoover Said Public Must Believe Lee Harvey Oswald Acted Alone.”
Politico: “A Cuban intelligence officer told another Cuban that he knew that Oswald was a ‘good shot,’ because he ‘knew him.'”
New York Post: “Unsealed docs reveal KGB thought LBJ could have been behind JFK assassination.”
Dallas Morning News: “Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev believed Kennedy could not have been killed without complicity by Dallas police.”
The Guardian: “New JFK files reveal FBI warning on Oswald and Soviets’ missile fears.”
The Evening Standard: “Local UK newspaper warned of ‘big news’ by mystery caller 25 minutes before president shot dead.”
Washington Examiner: “WikiLeaks offers bounty for unreleased JFK assassination records.”
There’s a quick and simple way President Donald Trump could immediately help Americans addicted to opioids – but it’s not part of the emergency declaration the president issued yesterday at the White House.
Here it is: allow Medicaid to start paying for treatment at large institutions for mental disease (known as IMDs). Under a current policy known as the “IMD exclusion,” people on Medicaid can’t get substance abuse treatment at facilities with more than 16 beds.
Treatment advocates, governors and medical providers have lobbied heavily to remove this exclusion, which has been in place since the Medicaid program was created half a century ago. Back then, there was a big push to deinstitutionalize mental-health patients in favor of integrating them into communities.
But now – as the nation grapples with an opioid abuse crisis that claims the lives of around 100 people every day – the overriding concern is how to help these patients break from their addictions, which often requires 24-hour monitoring over a period of several weeks, rendering residential settings crucial to the overall effort.
Trump’s opioid commission, led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, R, identified removing the IMD exclusion as the top way to make treatment available to patients immediately. “This is the single fastest way to increase treatment availability across the nation,” the report said.
Yesterday, the president declared opioid abuse a public health emergency – a move that allows the federal government to more quickly direct resources toward the effort by giving states more flexibility in how they use federal funds and expanding the use of telemedicine treatment, my colleagues Jenna Johnson and John Wagner reported.
“Addressing it will require all of our effort, and it will require us to confront the crisis in all of its real complexity,” Trump said during a speech in the East Room of the White House. “As Americans, we cannot allow this to continue. It is time to liberate our communities from the scourge.”
But “liberating” residential facilities from Medicaid’s bed limits is, to the people who run them, a no-brainer way to combat the opioid abuse epidemic. Even before the Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor was the country’s single largest source of coverage for those with substance abuse disorders.
For example, the Gateway Foundation, which bills itself as the country’s largest nonprofit provider of addiction treatment, could treat opioid abusers at its chain of clinics across Illinois and Delaware if the exclusion were lifted. Right now, none of its 43 clinics meet the bed limitations; its smallest center has 44 beds and its largest has 125 beds.
“The type of person who needs to go residential is too sick to do [treatment] in the community,” the group’s president, Tom Britton, told me.
Trump couldn’t erase the exclusion, because it’s written into law. But he could direct the Department of Health and Human Services to issue all 50 states waivers from it. West Virginia obtained just such a waiver this month, and New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan are still awaiting word on their applications.
Of course, Congress could also vote to repeal the IMD exclusion – although the Congressional Budget Office has estimated it would cost an additional $40 billion to $60 billion over a decade. A bipartisan group of eight senators – led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced legislation in May that would somewhat ease it by raising the 16-bed limit to a 40-bed limit.
“By maximizing Medicaid coverage gains and offering treatment for people suffering from addiction – rather than simply arresting them or turning them away from help – we can reduce crime, save money, improve health, and save lives,” the senators wrote.
NEW YORK – It’s not the first time, and likely, not be the last either, at least as far as negotiations with the Trump administration on business and bilateral issues are concerned: whenever India earnestly tries to engage and broker a deal with the US through top officials, especially on visa matters, fortify itself against potential damage from an abrasive move on Capitol Hill that may dent relations and spook remittances, they find that a breach has been ordered surreptitiously from the White House. Like in the aftermath of a drone attack, India is left to contend with the extent of the damage done.
The latest instance is new tough rules on the vexatious H-1B visa and L visas, which may make it hard for existing and new workers on those visas to get an extension after the first three years of work.
Two of India’s top ministers, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, had in recent visits to the US, implored several top Trump officials not to take negative steps to curb or hinder the flow of IT and engineering workers from India, in keeping with broad industry demand.
The rhetoric has a robotic monotone to it. In the recent past, since President Donald Trump assumed office, on each and every Indian official’s visit, or on the sidelines of international meets, the issue of H-1B visa crops up shining bright.
It’s almost as if unless a satisfactory dialogue on the H-1B visa is initiated by ministers and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi – even if the purpose is futile – somebody, somewhere in India will feel chagrined the Indian government is not doing enough to preserve the business interests of the wealthy IT service industry, and mitigate the unemployment crisis of the educated workforce, who seek to work overseas.
However, there’s more to it than just free trade: India’s bilateral ties with the US is closely associated with a robust growth in numbers of the Indian Diaspora. Not only is the Indian community the wealthiest community in the US, and their remittances help boost India’s Forex reserves, over the decades they have entrenched themselves in top positions in various walks of life.
In turn, as the past two governments at the center in India have realized – starting with the push for a civil nuclear deal and more FDI – it really pays to have a strong Diaspora to turn to, in the US. India probably gets more FDI through personal rapport than actual pitches by state governments or the Centre. Or at least, conviction is often borne out of knowing influential Indian Americans who vouch for safety of investment, and its vast potential.
Now imagine, if this migration from India is stopped, or curtailed. What would happen?
It’s likely, that within a decade, the influence of the community would begin to diminish sharply. While the second- and third-generation Indians Americans will, no doubt, continue to flourish, it’s the first-generation Indian Americans with strong emotional and investment ties to their motherland, that India count on for remittances and support.
In the latest instance, ironically, even as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sat down for talks with his counterpart, Swaraj, on Wednesday, after he reached India for his maiden visit, and the duo dug into thorny immigration issues, came a curve ball from the White House, that reduced their ambitious talks to mere diplomatic blabber.
The White House announced that the onus of an extension of H-1B visa now lies on the worker, with additional document and proof required that it’s indeed necessary for him to continue his job. That essentially, would likely mean tens of thousands of H-1B visa workers would likely be forced to go back home after three years of work, or companies who sponsor them give up on them, in sheer frustration.
Since the beginning of last year, several such impediments have been added by executive orders by Trump, including sharp escalation in refusal of visas due to inadequate documentation, which is infuriating for both applicants and companies who sponsor them, and ends up in loss of the visa; freezing H-1B premium processing temporarily – again, a delaying tactic; targeted site visits to large H-1B visa employers; and more ‘requests for evidence’ that delays visa applications, and throws a spanner for extensions.
There are also proposals in the House and Senate to end ‘chain migration’ or family-based visas, in favor of only highly skilled workers, as in Canada. The end of ‘chain migration’ would be felt hard by the Gujarati community in particular, who over the decades have expanded small businesses with the help of family members, who in turn bring other relatives over.
It would also be a huge hit for first generation Indians emigrating to the US. In turn, and time, it would lead to rootlessness among the second-and-third-generation Indian Americans, who would find their interest in India waning, cumbersome, or just totally over with.
It’s time India confronted the US, by taking the bull by its horns: demand that Trump stop issuing executive orders to hurt the H-1B visa. Or else, India would take the issue to international courts.
Just like Trump, India wants to win too.
(Sujeet Rajan is Executive Editor, Parikh Worldwide Media. Email him sujeet@newsindiatimes.com Follow him on twitter @SujeetRajan1)
Kenneth Ian Juster, President Trump’s nominee for ambassador to India. On Oct. 26, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent back his nomination for consideration in the full senate.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent the nomination of Kenneth Ian Juster Oct. 26, to the full Senate for confirmation as President Trump’s choice for ambassador to India. The vote on his confirmation is scheduled to take place Oct. 30, according to the Senate Executive Calendar.
Juster, who was a key player in the making of the U.S. – India civil nuclear agreement back in 2005, is the point-man for carrying forward the administration’s ambitious agenda of strengthening the strategic alliance with India which Washington sees as an emerging global power.
The Senate committee clearance came shortly after Secretary of State Rex Tillerson returned from his first visit to India as a cabinet member. While in India, Tillerson reiterated strong warnings to Pakistan for providing safe havens for terrorists, and elevated India’s role especially in the Indo-Pacific region to counter China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea and with its One Belt One Road initiative that traces a path through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Juster should be New Delhi bound in the near future, if his confirmation is not held up by partisan political football, though Juster is from most accounts, has bipartisan support. Juster was nominated several months after President Obama’s appointee Richard Verma resigned back in January. Following the Sept. 5 nomination, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took almost a month to hold a hearing on Oct. 3. Then took nearly three weeks for the Committee to send to the full Senate floor Oct. 26.
At the Oct. 3 hearing of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Oct. 3, Senators grilled Juster on a wide range of concerns from the trade imbalance, human rights, bonded labor, sex trafficking and religious liberties, as well as child abduction and infant and maternal mortality.
In his testimony, Juster said he looked forward to advancing “our strategic partnership with India – a relationship that is critical to promoting U.S. national security and economic interests.” He also spoke of the contributions of the nearly 4 million Indian-Americans. He also stressed that as a democracy, India’s government and its civil society community was already “grappling” with issues like bonded labor and human rights as well as sex trafficking. He said he would find the right “interlocutors” to address American concerns in every area of concern.
Mumbai: Actors Kalki Koechlin, Arslan Goni and Richa Chadda during the promotion of their upcoming film “Jia Aur Jia” in Mumbai on Oct 12, 2017.(Photo: IANS)
Film: “Jia Aur Jia”; Director: Howard Rosemeyer; Cast: Richa Chadha, Kalki Koechlin and Arslan Goni; Rating: ***
Why should boys have all the fun? Just the sheer pleasure of watching two of our feistiest actresses in a road movie set in Sweden is enough of a kickback to sail through what is at best a girl-bonding flick with plenty of perk and pizzazz, thanks to the crackling and hissing chemistry between the two lead actresses.
The basic premise is promising. Two very dissimilar girls share the same name and nothing else. Kalki is outgoing, loud, gregarious and ‘bindaas’. Richa is quiet, withdrawn and repressed. One wants to live every moment. The other wants her life to end — the sooner, the better.
Though the aggression between them is overdone, their initial bickering is well-scripted and gives away some of what the characters are holding back. The striking visuals help anchor the two protagonists’ road journey. Very often, the film looks like a pretext for promoting Swedish tourism. But then debutant director Howard Rosemeyer has some surprises for the second half when the narrative sobers down to a treacly trickle of tears.
Despite its manipulative mould of getting our attention — if one of the protagonists is dying and the other one just wants to die, then the audience is bound to get concerned — the characters move us into believing in their grief and spurts of joy.
It’s hard to imagine the film working without the Jias. Richa Chadha and Kalki Koechlin sneak a seductive synergy into the proceedings. They know they are playing ‘sober’ and ‘bindaas’ and they bring their most cherished acting chops into the picture. You will be thoroughly regaled by the two actresses, specially in the way they reverse gender biases.
Kalki openly lusts after Swedish men on the streets, the way a single Indian male would if he saw firangi women in a foreign town. The two girls sing raunchy songs, swig beer and swing together through some madcap adventures which don’t always make sense.
A third interesting character, played by Kashmiri actor Arslan Goni, adds a bit more glint to this curiously quaint yet feisty and sexy road film which adds value to its zany touristic good-times-in-distant-lands theme with a sobering message on why life needs to be valued beyond the calamities that are bestowed on us.
Watch out for the sequence in a hospital bed where Kalki talks about her future and why she can’t have it.
See the film for the Kalki-Richa jugal-bonding and yes, for the way the film uses the evergreen Shankar-Jaikishan/Lata Mangeshkar/Mohd Rafi song “Jiya oh jiya kuch bol do” to reiterate life’s most valuable lessons.
Mumbai: Director Atanu Mukherjee and actors – Manoj Bajpayee, Smita Tambe, Adarsh Gourav during the screening of their upcoming film “Rukh” in Mumbai on Oct 21, 2017. (Photo: IANS)
Rukh, which means direction, has been astutely used as a metaphor in debutant director Atanu Mukherjee’s film.
But, on the face of it, the film is about a son’s quest to know the truth about his father’s death. It is his internal journey.
Three years after being rusticated from his school for ruthlessly injuring his classmate, Dhruv Mathur finds himself at a loose end when he hears of his father’s accident and subsequent death. Not that he has a strong bond with his father, but then how the death and accident is hushed up by everyone, including his mother is what makes him and the audience curious.
Following his own instincts, Dhruv tries to investigate his father Diwakar’s accident and in the process, he comes across some home truths; that his father was “a good man, a man of his word,” and that he was under pressure for want of funds because his best friend and business partner Robin (Kumud Mishra) had betrayed him.
Now that Robin is trying to frame his dead father in a money laundering scam, makes him assume that his father’s accident was staged and that he was actually murdered. With this preconceived notion, he sets out on a journey of redemption and self-reconciliation.
Set in a melancholic tone, “Rukh” excels as a fine example of a neo-realism film. It subtly captures the time and the current political scenario with flourish. But the screenplay by Akash Mohimen and Atanu Mukherjee, falls short in its endeavour as it pursues to convert the drama into a mystery thriller. The wrinkles in the mystery quotient seem forced and is probably what sets in the irritant factor.
But what makes the film fulfilling are the performances. Manoj Bajpayee is too passive a character to leave much of an impression. But he leaves his mark in a scene opposite Kumud Mishra, who plays Robin, where both of them accuse each other of extracting their pound of flesh.
Kumud is a charismatic actor, but as the slimy Robin, he is deadpan, yet effective. Smita Tambe as Nandini, Dhruv’s mother, is realistic and relatable.
Adarsh Gourav is a compelling actor. He portrays Dhruv’s anguish and anger with flourish, while being obsessed with unearthing the mystery shrouding his father’s death. Those are the only two emotions the script allows him to display. His backstory seems forced, just inserted in a formulaic fashion to build his character.
The others in the supporting cast like Jayant – Diwakar’s accountant, Hassan and Shinde – Diwakar’s labourers and Amit – Dhruv’s friend, have their moments of on screen glory. Each one of them is natural and they standout for their soulful delivery.
On the technical front, the production design is simply realistic and awe-inspiring. Pooja Gupte’s camera work seems to be non-intrusive making the entire viewing experience natural.
The two songs, “Hai Baaki” and “Khidki”, along with the background score by Anjo John, merge well with the narrative elevating the viewing experience.
Overall, despite a few blemishes, “Rukh” is a film that keeps you riveted.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan and his team visit the Incubation Centre of Tandon School of Engineering at New York University, October 26, 2017. Photo: Jay Mandal/On Assignment.
NEW YORK – What happens when the only two Chief Ministers of India, Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh, and N. Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, who have a ‘Department of Happiness’ in their state administration, come to town the same month? They become consummate CEOs; go into overdrive, pitch incessantly to the business and Diaspora community, to garner investment for their respective state.
Naidu visited several states in the US last week – New York City, Des Moines, and Chicago – coming over after a pitch in the Gulf. Chouhan is still in the New York tristate area, this week, with several rounds of meetings and talks under his belt, including in Washington, DC.
Strong orators, with a great deal of warmth and empathy when they speak to audiences stateside and overseas, both Chouhan and Naidu have taken a leaf out of each other’s book.
Chouhan seems to be on a development-driven agenda based on the experienced Naidu’s time-tested method of appealing to the business community in the US with attractive incentives and promise of ease of business – which put the southern state and Hyderabad, especially, on the world IT map.
Naidu earlier this year initiated, on the lines of Madhya Pradesh, a ‘Department of Happiness’ in Andhra Pradesh, to help through volunteers, underprivileged people in society.
Even if one is skeptical of politicians, and their ‘ulterior’ motives – which translates to promises galore, fulfilled or not, to secure more time in office – it’s admirable and commendable of Chouhan and Naidu to strive for the betterment of their respective state, seek the help of the Diaspora in their mission.
Chouhan, apart from performing pooja at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Akshardham at Robbinsville in New Jersey, visited the Incubation Centre of Tandon School of Engineering at New York University, a day after he addressed investors at a business roundtable organized by CII and USISP Forum, in Washington, DC.
At a reception for him on Thursday, at the Indian Consulate in New York, organized by the Friends of MP, Chouhan extolled the potential of Madhya Pradesh, apart from giving his take on Halloween, saying that in India people scare away ghosts by taking the name of Hanuman, which drew peals of laughter from the audience present.
Chouhan, who has earmarked food processing, drinking water, roads, electricity, healthcare, automobiles, tourism and education as focus areas for FDI and targeted growth areas, also talked of exporting the famous snacks of Indore and Ratlam to the US. He also exulted in the fact that the Rewa Ultra Mega Solar plant is touted as the world’s largest upcoming solar plant.
Chouhan also talked of transforming Indore university into a world-class institution, which is keeping in line with Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s call to establish several centers of world class educational institutions in India.
Chouhan, who started his speech with a vision for India, and lauding the growth of bilateral relations with the US, is a moderate face of the BJP. He is in the reckoning for the Prime Minister’s job in the future, when and if Modi were to step aside.
Speaking in Hindi, Chouhan said he has launched a venture fund of Rupees 100 crores in Madhya Pradesh to support startups and innovative enterprises. He encouraged the Diaspora to come up with creative business ideas, which he promised, if found feasible, the state would help set up, financed by the government.
“Youth have ideas and vision to tackle many global issues of agriculture productivity, energy security etc. They need support and guidance,” he tweeted, pointing out that the state has several schemes to promote entrepreneurship, such as Mukhyamantri Yuva Udyami Yojna.
“I have proposed to NYU Tandon School of Engineering Dean Shri K R Sreenivasan to explore a possibility of entering into MoU for the same,” he said after his visit to the Future Labs/Incubation Centres/StartUp Labs, with the aim of replicating them in MP.
“Every Monday I meet with investors with all my officials. I am the CEO of the state and I support investors as it brings employment to MP,” he said.
Chouhan also declared that in next three years’ time, there will be no homeless person in Madhya Pradesh.
Chouhan also cleared the air on the social media and political storm over his statement that roads in Madhya Pradesh are better than those in the US.
He said, to laughter from the audience at the Consulate, that he felt the road coming from the Indore international airport into the city, was better than the road from the airport in Washington, coming into Capitol Hill.
Chouhan also spoke at length about his ‘happiness’ department in the state, which was set up in August 2016. Andhra Pradesh did the same in April of this year. Critics have, however, lambasted the initiative as a publicity stunt.
Chouhan seemed to be replicating some of the ideas Naidu seemed keen on, on his 3-day US tour last week, including to shore up the agriculture industry through cutting edge technology.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu in New York City, October 20, 2017. Photo: Jay Mandal/On Assignment.
Naidu’s main motive seemed to be to sell the city of Amaravati as the ‘newest Capitalist city of India’, to global investors, in his business meetings in all the three cities.
Naidu disclosed that the Andhra Pradesh government has a tie-up with Iowa State University to develop a Mega Seed Park in Kurnool, for seed R&D, and the foundation stone for which was laid by him earlier this month. Naidu envisions the park to have world class laboratories and seed processing facilities, and he wants to develop a world-class organic agriculture sector for the state. In Des Moines, Iowa, Naidu attended some World Food Prize events at the Iowa State University.
Like Chouhan, Naidu too is banking big on the Diaspora community to help him in his mission to help Andhra Pradesh prosper.
In an interview to the Hindu newspaper, Naidu said: “Andhra people are strong professionals and entrepreneurs. In Chicago, I met with many of them. Seventy companies or entrepreneurs have agreed to set up activities in AP, that could create 8000 jobs in all,” adding, that he encouraged the Diaspora to not only help their adopted home but also their birth place, “the karmabhumi and the janmabhumi.”
“America is a great land of opportunity where Andhra people have done well. I urged community members who met me to integrate into the American society,” he said.
Speaking to the Diaspora in Dubai prior to landing here, Naidu envisioned making Andhra Pradesh the number one state in India by 2029 not just in terms of development but also in the ‘happiness’ index.
(Sujeet Rajan is Executive Editor, Parikh Worldwide Media. Email him sujeet@newsindiatimes.com Follow him on twitter @SujeetRajan1)
Council President Bruce Harrell of Seattle’s city council, has decided that the city will help defend Indian American Councilmember Kshama Sawant in a defamation lawsuit brought against her by two Seattle police officers.
According to a Seattle Times report, the lawsuit claims that Officers Scott Miller and Michael Spaulding were defamed when Sawant falsely declared they had committed a “brutal murder” in last year’s fatal shooting of Che Taylor.
The allegation was not supported later by an inquest jury and by the city charter so Harrell had to decide whether or not Sawant had made the alleged statement “within the course and scope of employment” according to the rules. He concluded in Sawant’s favor that it had been.
The city is already representing Sawant in a second defamation lawsuit, which was brought by Carl Haglund, a landlord who said that Sawant was referring to him “as a ‘slumlord’” and that too, a ‘notorious’ one.
Joe Groshong, an assistant city attorney and the city’s torts section director, told the Seattle Times that he “wouldn’t be surprised if total litigation costs exceeded $300,000,” referring to both of the lawsuits.
The Seattle Times reported that in a seven-page letter, Harrell explained his reasoning on why Sawant “was speaking about issues important to her constituents” and therefore, allowed the city to defend her.
Harrell wrote; “My goal was to make sure this decision has nothing to do with politics but rather a review of the pertinent facts and application of the law. I suspect my decision may be unpopular in the views of many but I believe the decision that I have reached and the process that I used to make this decision was logical; performed in good faith; has well-considered factual basis and is consistent with applicable law.”
Upon hearing the decision, Dmitri Iglitzin, Sawant’s attorney, told the Seattle Times that “it’s extremely important that public officials in trying to perform their duties shouldn’t fear personal liability. There is a lot of intimidation and fear in our political system now.”
Adam Rosenberg, the attorney for the officers, could not be reached for comment by The Seattle Times. The newspaper reported that the officers sued Sawant and not the city, saying they did not want “one red cent of public money.” They are asking for damages “to be proven at trial,” and a public retraction of Sawant’s alleged statements, the report said.
Rosenberg did write to the city earlier saying that if the city did decide to defend Sawant, “we would have no choice but to amend our complaint to add Seattle to the litigation.”
The controversy centers around the Feb. 25, 2016, shooting of Che Taylor.
A Facebook video shows Sawant using a megaphone at a downtown protest where one can hear words like “the brutal murder of Che Taylor, the blatant murder at the hands of the police … I am here as an elected official … I am completely committed to holding the Seattle Police Department accountable …”
Harrell, in his letter contended that “Sawant described the shooting as a ‘murder’ within a longer speech that she was giving regarding the need for police reform and accountability …” He also said that there is “not sufficient evidence” to support the contention that Sawant “was acting dishonestly, fraudulently, criminally, or maliciously.” Her statements, Harrel stressed, were “consistent with policy positions that she has taken on behalf of her constituents.”
