NEW YORK – Josh Gordon, the Cleveland Browns’ wide receiver has this quote attributed to him, which kind of sums up a tumultuous 2017 – winding down with historic tax breaks for businesses and individuals: “Perhaps the holidays are a way to get away from the pain of the year, creating something people can laugh at. That’s a gift.”

In a year of midnight tweets – thanks to President Donald Trump’s unerring generosity; calculated tweaks – to hallowed immigration laws that were once sacrosanct and only Congress could amend, which residents with visas now realize to their dismay is not the case anymore; and terror, emanating with disturbing regularity, making brown-skinned immigrants wonder if they would be gunned down one fine day by a White, hate-spewing extremist like Srinivas Kuchibhotla was, in Kansas, or fall prey to a mass shooting in a crowd, it’s best to enjoy the holidays, and hope for a better year, in 2018.

Yet, in hindsight, it’s not been an unkind year to many Indian Americans, especially those who aspired for public office, and hired in droves by the Trump Administration.

A prime example of Trump’s penchant to hire Indian Americans is UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, the former Governor of South Carolina, who is now undoubtedly one of the President’s most trusted lieutenants, and a strong candidate for Secretary of State, if and when incumbent Rex Tillerson is forced to call it a day. That, if it happens, would be yet another fiber glass ceiling upended by the community.

SUCCESS IN POLITICS

There was plenty of excitement when Bobby Jindal became the Governor of Louisiana, in 2008, after his successful stint in Congress – the first Indian American to become so not only in the state, but the US, but it pales in comparison to the swirl of frenzied buzz around the rise and rise of Kamala Harris, whose mother is from India, and father from Jamaica.

Even before Harris, as expected, beat her Latina rival Loretta Sanchez, to grab a spot in the US Senate, there was talk of her aspiring for the highest office in the land, something Hillary Clinton incessantly dreamt in vain for years. It proved to be as futile as winning a triathlon with a bout of flu.

In some ways, Harris has perfect roots to emerge on top in the divisive political arena in the US: it’s not just her Indian American origin, but also the fact that she became only the second black woman in the nation’s history to serve in Congress’ upper chamber. As black voters showed their might in Alabama, booting out Roy Moore, they again will be an energized and important lot if Harris decides to run for President in 2020, or wait it out till 2024.

There was also plenty of cheer for some other Indian Americans who savored political victory in races across the country, which in some cases thrust them into the national limelight.

Of special significance was the win of debutant Manka Dhingra, who in winning Washington’s 45th District special Senate election with no prior political record, helped Democrats not only control both chambers in the Legislature, apart from the governorship, but helped tick off the blue corner for the entire West Coast, in favor of the Democrats.

Of similar interest was the win of Vin Gopal, the former Monmouth County, New Jersey Democratic chairman, who in defeating longtime state Sen. Jennifer Beck in the state’s 11th legislative district, tipped the scales in the Democrats’ favor in the upper house of the state. The race was one of the most expensive and closely watched in the state.

Also, in New Jersey, Ravi Bhalla, a turbaned Sikh, created history by winning the Mayoral elections in the town of Hoboken, the first Sikh to do in the Mile Square City and the state, heartening the beleaguered Sikh community, who have strived relentlessly in the aftermath of 9/11 to educate mainstream America of their religion, even as senseless atrocities, bullying and killings mounted.

There was further good news for the Sikh community when New Jersey Governor-elect -Phil Murphy announced he will nominate Bergen County prosecutor Gurbir Grewal as the state’s next Attorney General, the first Sikh to rise to such a position in the US.

Grewal has deep roots in the South Asian community, as he was a past president of the South Asian Bar Association of New York and a member of the New Jersey Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association. It augurs well for the burgeoning community in New Jersey which has often raised issues of rampant racism and police excesses, in past administrations.

Sikh women made their mark too.

Preet Didbal, a sexual assault victim at the age of 19, is now the new mayor of Yuba City in California, the first Sikh American to achieve that distinction in any town in the US. She had shown her mettle early, by becoming the first Sikh woman to serve on the City Council. The future looks bright for her with a run for Congress likely not too far away.

For Bhalla, who was born and brought up in New Jersey, it was also a testament of the local community’s faith in his leadership abilities, after he became the target of a xenophobic, racially motivated, cowardly mail campaign, that tried to define him as a terrorist and outsider. Hobokoners, however, saw beyond Bhalla’s turban, his religion, and color of skin.

Bhalla was not the only target of extremist propaganda, in New Jersey.

Days before, an unknown group sent mailers to homes in Edison proclaiming ‘Make Edison Great Again’, calling for the deportation of Asian school board candidates Jerry Shi and Indian American Falguni Patel. Patel and Shi coasted through, just like Bhalla, after the votes were counted.

While the country is mulling over the new aggressive feminist movement #MeToo, which seeks to redefine sexual harassment laws by opening up narratives, and has led to the  humiliation and tumble of numerous media titans and politicians, for the Indian American community, women who made headlines stood out for their accomplishments in their chosen careers.

Along with Harris, the other groundbreaking Indian American politician Pramila Jayapal – the first Indian American women to become a US Congresswoman, was recognized in the respected Politico’s ‘Power List’, for having assumed the mantle of a House ‘Leader of resistance’.

Yet, despite all the success in politics – with Democrats’ impressive wins in races in Virginia and Alabama, a new sense of national disenchantment with Congress mushroomed in 2017.

For many voters, it felt as if a higher power took over the normal course of politics; authoritarian directives from the White House brutally stamped out the deeds of mere mortals on Capitol Hill.

However, that’s what many others had hoped for in electing Trump, so half of the country is surely pleased. The tax reforms enacted by Republicans can be attributed to the will and machination of Trump, than to any kind of bipartisanship, or carefully crafted work by the GOP.

INDO-US TIES

This was meant to be a year of meeting of the minds, Modi and Trump’s that is.

Both men share both than just abhorrence for alcohol and radical Muslim fundamentalists. They are overwhelming popular in their respective countries, amongst those who believe in their political agenda. They are contrarians though, when it comes to matter of food, what with Trump’s penchant for ice cream and Modi preferring to fast, than savor fast food.

But apart from a hearty embrace by Modi, trying to envelop the bulkier Trump in a warm bear hug, and Trump trying to be as pleasant as possible during the whole interaction on the lawns of the White House during their historic meeting, the story of the year 2017 as far as bilateral relations go between the two countries was more about how India took to Ivanka Trump, and made her feel like a princess.

Defence deals between the two countries, import-export narrative, is now a given, what with the growing business and trade ties between the two largest democracies, catering to the growing affluence of the middle class in both countries.

What really mattered for India was how to leverage Trump in his first term, to speak out against Pakistan and China, force them to cut down on cross-border infringements and terrorism.

To an extent, India succeeded. Yet, they have found the going frustrating too, with Trump’s flamboyance and attitude in staying firm to commitments, unless he sees benefit in it for America, on any given day. Pakistan is getting their arms twisted by Trump, but not handcuffed as yet. That is India’s biggest grievance.

A major hindrance between India and the US is also Trump’s stance on work visas. He has gone hard against H-1B visas, hounded the work permits for H-4 visa holders – the spouses of H-1B visa holders.

This strangely has come about with an almost vicarious pleasure in the process, despite persistent pleas from India, with all its top ministers and even Modi, reportedly, broaching the subject with Trump and his top administration officials; to not create protectionist barriers.

The two issues of the H-1B and H-4 visas will surely become a matter of contention between the two countries in 2018, as new laws come into effect. There is already trouble between the two countries with the US taking India to the WTO over the issue of solar energy, and India, if pressurized further, might take up the issue of work visas to a global court.

For Trump, it’s just be a matter of overturning President Barack Obama’s executive orders, and laws, especially on immigration. But to India, who found Obama, and before that George W. Bush, easier to work with, it’s been a harsh lesson in bilateral play in the Trump era.

Stark realization has dawned, much before this frigid New Year’s Eve: gone are the days of lobbying with Congress paying off. Deal with the boss in the White House now, at your own peril.

What really put sheen to a bond between Indo and the US, and truly warmed Trump towards India, however, was his daughter Ivanka Trump’s visit to Hyderabad, where in an unprecedented, but calculated move, Modi hosted a regal, gala dinner in her honor at the Falaknuma Palace.

The beautiful and charming Ivanka made the most of all the global attention heaped on her at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad, with some media speculating she was presidential material.

It was a perpetuation of the love affair with Ivanka and India that started in New York weeks before her trip to India, when she was warmly met by India’s effervescent External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meet.

BIZARRE CRIMES AND SCAMS

It’s hard to contemplate such a bizarre scenario, but the one crime in 2017 where an Indian man was gunned down by a white supremacist, and made global headlines, not just in the US, also turned out to be the most healing for communities at large. America became a better nation in the wake of Srinivas Kuchibhotla’s murder in Olathe, Kansas.

Srinivas Kuchibhotla’s death put sharp national focus on the dangers of leaning too far to the right, buying into the dream of a white nation. Most Americans realized to their horror that the narrative of ‘Make America Great Again’ had been twisted beyond redemption by the murder of an innocent man, whose only fault was that he was of brown skin.

Yet, the heroism that a White American man, Ian Grillot, displayed in trying to save Kuchibhotla from being shot dead by the accused Adam Purinton, was lauded by not just the Indian American community but by people all across India too, apart from Americans of all color. Time magazine recognized Grillot in its list of five heroes of the year. Grillot’s life changed overnight as money poured in for him to start a new life.

Purinton no doubt figures in the long list of villains that sprouted in the US this year, madmen who plotted mass murders and shootings, gave vent to their inner beast; but there were plenty of other evil crimes that shook the faith of humanity.

The brutal and ghastly double homicide of an Indian woman, Sasikala Narra, 38, and her six-year-old son Anish Narra, on March 23^rd in Maple Shade, New Jersey, is an inexplicable horror story that has yet to be unraveled by the police.

The duo were found stabbed to death, with both mother and son stabbed repeatedly on their face, after the mother brought her son back from school. The bodies were found by the husband and father of the victims, Hanumantha Rao Narra, a software professional working with Cognizant, at that time.

Although the police have even declared a reward in the case, there have been no breakthroughs as yet.

If the double homicide in New Jersey remains a mystery, the grisly truth that emerged from the investigation surrounding the death of three-year-old Sherin Mathews, in Dallas, Texas, has saddened millions of hearts.

Mathews, who was adopted from India, was reported missing in October and was later found in a culvert near the family’s home. Her father Wesley Mathews is charged with injury to a child and her mother Sini Mathews is charged with endangering a child. There have been several reports of brutality that the child suffered before she died, but full details of the crime is still unspooling as the police investigation continues.

In November, there was yet another senseless killing, of a young dental student, Taranjit Kumar Parmar, who was run over by a man, after an altercation on a road, in New York. Policed have nabbed a suspect. The killing of Parmar exemplified road rage that often rears up its ugly head.

Another young Indian American woman, 25-year-old Harleen Grewal, was trapped and died after a cab she took caught fire after an accident, in Brooklyn, New York. The accused driver, Saeed Ahmad, was caught on camera fleeing the vehicle and hailing down a cab, without trying to help the victim. He was charged with depraved indifference murder and vehicular homicide.

The case of Nausheen Rahman, who threw her new-born baby into trash, shocked the nation too. Rahman has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

There were plenty of Indian-origin men and women ensnared by law enforcement for devious schemes and scams.

Prominent among them were the likes of billionaire investor John Kapoor, the founder of pharma company Therapeutics, who was arrested on charges of bribing doctors to needlessly prescribe his firm’s opioid painkiller.

Hot yoga guru Bikram Choudhury was in the news for several sexual assault and discrimination cases, and the company has gone bankrupt in the wake of the lawsuits that total over $16 million.

YOUNG HEROES

Around the world, nations wait every four years to throw up heroes and stars, in the sports arena, like the Olympics, but here in the US, the Indian American community is always able to stay in the limelight, through the year, because of the stupendous achievement of their child and teen prodigies.

The year 2017 was no different, with Indian American youngsters sweeping several competitions, showing their vast potential for more glory in a chosen field, down the road.

The Scripps Spelling Bee has been deemed a sport for many years now, and viewership has been growing since live broadcast by ESPN and ABC network.

Ananya Vinay, a sixth grader from Fresno, California, in 2017 became the 13^th Indian American to win the competition in a row. Her winning word ‘marocain’, which means a type of dress fabric of ribbed crepe, may be as foreign to most as the ambiguous word covfefe, invented by President Trump, but it exists in the dictionary.

It’s a remarkable achievement, given that 18 of the past 22 winners have been Indian Americans, beginning with the 1999 win of Nupur Lala, featured in the documentary Spellbound. Over the years, it’s become a desi spell fight as the top 10 is now comprised of mostly from the community.

Pranay Varada, a 14-year-old from Irving, Texas, won the National Geographic Bee, another competition which the Indian Americans have dominated in recent years. He is now the sixth consecutive Indian American to win the title.

Gitanjali Rao, an 11-year-old from Colorado, won the top award at the 2017 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, getting the title of ‘America’s Top Young Scientist’ for inventing a quick, low-cost test to detect lead-contaminated water.

Rao told the media she was inspired by the catastrophe in Flint, Michigan, where officials are facing charges including manslaughter over water contamination, and spent three months collaborating with scientists to develop her idea.

Rao’s device uses carbon nanotubes to detect the presence of lead.

In the following pages, News India Times takes a closer look at individuals and incidents that grabbed headlines in 2017, including entertainers like Aziz Ansari and Riz Ahmed, who got plenty of accolades.

We wish our readers a Happy New Year! with these words from the poet Rainer Maria Rilke: “And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been.”

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NEW YORK – President Donald Trump ends the year 2017 on a remarkable high, with the heavily Republican-skewed Rasmussen Reports poll concluding that his approval rating going into 2018 is the same as that of Barack Obama, at the end of the year 2009, his first year in office. There’s plenty to cheer for Trump on this frigid New Year’s Eve, what with the historic tax cuts and the zooming Dow, which fell just short of breaking through 25K on the final business day of the year.

Here’s a list – mind you, some fanciful, and in no particular order – that Trump should do in the new year, 2018, to further boost his approval rating, in the United States and overseas.

1. Visit not just a church on New Year’s Day, but also a temple, mosque, and synagogue. Tax cuts are done, a huge bet laid out for a prosperous, economically booming America. It’s the right time to sow healing, show people of all faith are respected and welcomed.
2. Tweet at least one tweet every week praising Democrats for what they do on Capitol Hill. This will build bipartisanship, which in 2017 was hiding in a graveyard, waiting for a burial spot.
3. Remove the country cap on those waiting for a Green Card, which will benefit skilled Indian workers, who languish in the pipeline for several decades waiting for permanent residency, while individuals from most other nations sometimes get it the next day after a petition is filed. Or, pass an executive order to make it mandatory for skilled workers who have been waiting for minimum 8-10 years, to get a Green Card.
4. Increase the quality standard for an H-1B visa aspirant, with an increase in minimum salary, and educational qualifications. Some proposed bills in Congress want the minimum threshold to be $100,00-$135,000. However, make the playing field even for foreign students who graduate from accredited US universities. Most of them will not get a job in the US, starting out. Make that minimum ceiling lower for entry level jobs for foreign students, at par with domestic students vying for similar jobs. Mind you Mr. Trump, by getting the crème de la crème of talent from overseas at higher salaries, you are also thumbing your nose at your former friend-turned-foe Steve Bannon, who disliked having Asian-origin tech CEOs in Silicon Valley. After the new H-1B visa rule goes into effect, in just a decade, or under, forget Silicon Valley companies, all American companies are going to be led by either an Indian or a Chinese man or woman. Those brilliant Indian and Chinese high school kids don’t know it as yet. You are their biggest secret friend, Santa Claus in disguise.
5. Visit India, and pose wearing a Nehru jacket with Melania Trump in a saree, at the Taj Mahal. You may not realize it Mr. President, the Taj Mahal needs you desperately, what with all the negative publicity around it fomented by the UP government.
6. Declare your tax returns. You are anyway going for a physical checkup after a slurred speech; the results of which will be made public in early 2018. Make that a double bonanza for those waiting fervently to see how wealthy you really are. Anyway, after being President, who wants mere money anymore?
7. Institute an annual Model Minority Awards. It doesn’t mean only pretty young models from Russia will win the awards – who of course, would be eligible too, but will primarily go to model legal immigrants who contribute to society and high achievers. Kill the Diversity Visa Lottery, but create a new immigration lottery where every year 10 model immigrants will get a Green Card.
8. Ban the words ‘Golden Shower’ from all dictionaries and public domain. I’ve had a hard time explaining to my two pre-tween kids that the word ‘Covfefe’ you invented is actually you making fun of a man from Kerala with a stammer who tried to say ‘coffee’. I really don’t want to tell my sons that ‘Golden Shower’ means a tree or a comet emitting fire, when some months or years down the road they will find out to their dismay that the word has more of a connotation with water than fire. Help me here, Mr. President.
9. Take the most eligible worker in America, Barack Obama, to dinner, and unlike the way you ditched poor Mitt Romney, actually give the job of Secretary of State to Obama. He will be exemplary in his new role. You would shock the entire political establishment, which you love to do anyway.
10. Read News India Times every week. Reports say you like to watch TV for 5 hours daily. Well, for most working couples that’s daily binge watching. But hey, if being the President you cannot do what you want to do, what’s the point of living in the White House? But, please take some time out for a humble Indian American community newspaper too.

(Sujeet Rajan is Executive Editor, Parikh Worldwide Media. Email him sujeet@newsindiatimes.com Follow him on Twitter @SujeetRajan1)

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Save $350 on Central Holiday’s Treasures of Greece tour. With the discount, the trip starts at $949 per person double and includes six nights’ lodging in four locations; daily breakfasts and three dinners; six tours with entrance fees; motorcoach transport with guide; and taxes. Depart Saturdays through March 28. Info: 800-539-7098, centralholidays.com/Consortia/winter-special

Naya Traveler, which specializes in tailor-made itineraries in select international destinations, is offering returning guests a $1,000 discount and new travelers a $500 credit. The deal applies to trips departing in 2018 and lasting at least seven days. For example, the 10-day Ethiopia trip costs $5,200 and $5,700 per person double, respectively. Price includes accommodations, private guides, activities and excursions, ground transfers and transportation, internal flights, some meals and taxes. Book by Jan. 31. Info: 301-358-5096, nayatraveler.com

Sea

Star Clippers is offering two free nights of pre- or post-cruise hotel accommodations on select Mediterranean cruises. For example, book a five- or seven-night cruise departing in May, June, September and October and receive two nights with breakfast at the Radisson Blu 1835 Hotel in Cannes, France. The hotel rate typically starts at about $600 for two nights. Cruise fares vary. For example, the seven-night Star Flyer cruise sailing round trip from Cannes on June 9 starts at $1,690 per person double, plus $270 port charges. Info: 800-442-0551, starclippers.com

With Azamara Club Cruises, receive half-off fares for the second guest sharing a cabin and free WiFi, depending on cabin category. The deal applies to select departures on or after May 5. For example, book an oceanview cabin on the eight-night Iberian Passage Voyage departing Lisbon on Sept. 21 and pay $4,186 for the first passenger and $2,186 for the second guest, including taxes and unlimited Internet package for one device (worth about $20 a day). Book by Feb. 28 and use promo code BOGOHO. Info: 855-292-6272, azamaraclubcruises.com

Air

Royal Air Maroc has a sale on nonstop flights from Washington Dulles to Casablanca, Morocco. Round-trip airfare starts at $788; connecting flights on other airlines start at about $850. Travel Feb. 1-15, although the fare is available outside those dates. Book by Jan. 31 at royalairmaroc.com

SAS has a fare sale to Scandinavia. For example, with the Pre-Big Fare Sale, round-trip flights from Washington Dulles to Copenhagen start at $527, including taxes; air to Oslo starts at $477. Other airlines are charging at least $100 more. Book by Dec. 30 and travel Feb. 1-April 30. Info: flysas.com/en/us

Package

Tripmasters is offering a deal on an independent trip to Costa Rica. The package in mid-March, for example, starts at $978 per person double and includes round-trip air from Washington to San Jose, Costa Rica; three nights at Casa Luna Hotel & Spa, near the Arenal Volcano; three nights at El Faro Beach hotel, near Manuel Antonio National Park; SUV car rental with manual transmission; and taxes. Priced separately, the trip would cost about $125 more. Info: 800-430-0484, tripmasters.com

THE WASHINGTON POST

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In an interview with The New York Times and a Friday morning tweet, President Donald Trump said any deal that would grant legal status to immigrants brought to the United States as children needed to include funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Look, I wouldn’t do a DACA plan without a wall,” Trump said to the Times, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program he has set to expire next year. “We need it. We see the drugs pouring into the country, we need the wall.”

He reiterated that point in his tweet on Friday morning, adding that a DACA deal needed to end “chain migration,” the policy that allows naturalized immigrants to petition for relatives to come to the United States. In the Times interview, Trump had mentioned the policy – ending it is a White House priority – but had not directly tied it to the DACA deal.

Democrats, whiplashed for months by the president’s changing stances on DACA, reacted to the new positions by looking forward to next week’s negotiations with Republican congressional leaders and the White House.

“We’re not going to negotiate through the press and look forward to a serious negotiation at Wednesday’s meeting when we come back,” said Drew Hammill, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s press secretary.

Funding for a border wall, a modified Trump campaign promise, has found little support in the Republican-controlled Congress. During the campaign, candidate Trump repeatedly said that Mexico would “pay for the wall.” Since January, House Republicans have instead proposed paying for the wall up front, and moved legislation through the Homeland Security Committee that would devote $10 billion to wall construction. In an earlier statement on DACA, the president said border wall funding and an end to chain migration needed to be discussed as part of any deal.

“Without these reforms, illegal immigration and chain migration, which severely and unfairly burden American workers and taxpayers, will continue without end,” Trump said in October.

Democrats remain resolutely opposed to wall funding, and many Republicans favor funding for “border security” that would not be earmarked for an actual wall. Polling this year has found low public support for the wall concept; in August, a Fox News poll found barely 3 in 10 Americans supportive of the idea, and about as many convinced that Mexico could be made to pay for it. The president, by citing a yearlong drop in illegal border crossings, has also given some breathing room to moderate Republicans who see security funding, not a wall, as a reasonable compromise.

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WASHINGTON – Democrats who voted on a spending bill this week to keep the federal government open are facing backlash from their party for not demanding a permanent solution for thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

Immigration advocates in and out of Congress are railing against those who voted for the stopgap spending bill Thursday despite promises from Democratic leaders that they would force action on the issue by the end of the year. Even before the Senate vote, a group of House Democrats burst into the office of Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the Senate minority leader, demanding an explanation. Protesters shouting “Shame on Kaine!” briefly occupied the office of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., who said he voted for the measure to prevent a partial government shutdown and protect federal employees.

“Every single Democrat who voted for the continuing resolution just voted to deport ‘dreamers’ and leave kids without access to health insurance,” said Murshed Zaheed, the political director of the California-based progressive group CREDO Action. “Quite frankly, it’s a pathetic way for the Democratic Party’s leadership to close out a year in which millions of Americans fought back and resisted the Trump regime’s racist, xenophobic and dangerous agenda.”

The internal party drama is sure to increase the pressure on Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to pass the Dream Act in January, when the latest stopgap spending bill is set to expire. It also threatens the party’s unity – and perhaps divisive primary challenges – at a time when Democrats are looking ahead to the 2018 midterms with new optimism that they have a chance to take control of both chambers.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., appears to have anticipated the backlash. Feinstein, who is up for election next year in the state with the largest population of “dreamers,” surprised activists earlier this week when she said she would vote for the spending bill rather than risk a shutdown over immigration. But Feinstein switched her vote at the last minute.

A new poll, and pressure from activists, may have played a role in her thinking. On Wednesday, the University of California at Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies released a survey showing her leading by 14 points in a race against Kevin de León, the Democratic leader in the California Senate. De León, who has been in the race for two months, was among the loudest voices demanding that Feinstein oppose the stopgap bill.

“I’ve talked with them, I’ve met with them, I understand their plight and it breaks my heart,” Feinstein said in a statement. “To allow these young people to suffer is tragic.”

The push for immigration legislation erupted in September, after President Donald Trump vowed to end a program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which was instituted by former president Barack Obama via executive action and allowed some immigrants brought into the country as children to stay legally.

At the time, Pelosi and Schumer pledged to enshrine the protections of DACA into law quickly, and advocates have kept the pressure up to ensure they do. This week, no Democrat who voted to fund the government was spared – and emotions ran high as a result.

On Thursday afternoon, Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, D-Ill., led a delegation from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus into a bitter showdown with Schumer. DACA recipients, Gutiérrez said, were being thrown “under the bus” out of convenience. Schumer told Gutiérrez to stop insulting his fellow Democrats.

Gutiérrez shot back, telling Schumer, “Don’t raise your voice.”

In addition, United We Dream, an immigrant advocacy group that dispatched protesters to the Hill all week, announced on Thursday that it would “go after Democrats that are now the #DeportationCaucus, the shameful Senators and Representatives who voted to deport immigrant youth.”

The group also released a video showcasing all of their protests inside the Capitol, with a warning to Democrats: “We’ve taken over your offices. We’ve blocked your tunnels. We’ve closed your cafeterias. Because we’re not going anywhere.”

Members who voted for the spending bill, which keeps the government open until Jan. 19, will be pressured to block next month’s version if a DACA fix fails to materialize. That includes seven of the 10 Democrats facing reelection next year in states won by Trump. Just three Democrats up in Trump states – Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Sen. Robert Casey Jr., D-Pa. – opposed the spending bill. If nine more Democrats had opposed the bill, it would have stalled, giving United We Dream and their allies a strategy and a hit list for January.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., was not among them. Earlier in the week, Nelson had left open the possibility of opposing the spending bill as protesters camped out in his office. But he ultimately supported it.

Republicans, who initially worried that the end of DACA could backfire on their party, have taken some pleasure in the Democrats’ agony – and are unlikely to make it any easier for them. At his year-end news conference Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said a DACA working group would get “some floor time in January,” but he cautioned that Republicans wanted DACA coupled with reforms “that improve the legal immigration system” – an unreasonable demand for activists who have demanded a “clean Dream Act” and no less.

“Schumer is trying to push it forward, and I understand that,” McConnell said. “But there is no emergency until March.”

The issue is also affecting the relationship between party leaders and its base. New liberal organizations that have sprouted since Trump’s election have allied with Democrats to block efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act – and helped ensure that every Democrat voted against the GOP’s tax-cut package.

The fight for the Dream Act is messier, reminiscent of previous direct-action campaigns for gay rights and civil rights, when Democrats who thought themselves to be politically safe faced sit-ins and hecklers. Schumer, whom protesters targeted at the start of the year because he did not oppose more of Trump’s nominees, will face fresh protests this weekend for not bringing his caucus behind an effective DACA strategy. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., the party’s preferred candidate for Arizona’s open Senate seat, has also courted controversy with progressives by backing the spending bill in the House.

“Those 32 Democrats who voted for this bill voted to deport Dreamers,” said Angel Padilla, the policy director of the Indivisible Project, in a statement referring to both House and Senate Democrats. “Nearly 4,000 DACA recipients will lose their status between now and January 19, when this current CR expires. Indivisible groups in each of their states will remember this vote.”

But Feinstein’s surprise move against the continuing resolution, or CR, demonstrated how complicated the politics still are. Feinstein, whose national reputation as a liberal Democrat conflicts with her center-left role in California politics, is facing the most credible primary challenge of any Democrat up for reelection next year.

“Dreamers make up hundreds of thousands of Sen. Feinstein’s constituents, and while talking a good game on Dreamers, when it comes to standing up and supporting them, she is AWOL,” de León said at a Wednesday morning news conference, before Feinstein changed her position. “Don’t come back to California if you haven’t demonstrated your leadership and your courage to stand up for these young men and women.”

California’s top-two primary system, which produced an all-Democratic race for Senate in 2016, may put Feinstein in a prolonged race with de León. Even after siding with activists, progressives plan to hold Feinstein accountable in the primary, citing her vote as a reason she can’t always be trusted.

“By dragging her feet and reinforcing the notion that she was either indifferent or outright hostile to the plight of the dreamers, Feinstein just gave De León a much-needed opening,” said Markos Moulitsas, the Berkeley-based founder of the progressive blog and activism resource Daily Kos. “It just reminded core Democrats that we can’t count on Feinstein to do the right thing without having to pressure her to do so. In California, we should be able to count on our senators to automatically do the right thing.”

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Americans in California will learn more about the Indian-American langar, or community meals that are part of Sikh culture and religion at the upcoming Rose Parade in Pasadena Jan. 1.

Sikhs have been part of California’s multicultural community for more than 100 years. Despite that, there have been several incidents of racial and religiously biased attacks on members of the Sikh community in recent years.

The ‘Tournament of Roses,’ as it is formally called, will feature a Sikh langar, or community kitchen, the Sikh Coalition, an advocacy organization, announced Dec. 29. The “United Sikh Mission” is listed as the 55th in the lineup of the Rose Parade’s 88 floats, bands, and other entries like equestrians, in the parade, according to the parade website. Sikhs have been part of the parade for a few years now.

The Rose Parade is a 129-year tradition attended by some one million people and is broadcast nationally on many channels, akin to the Times Square ball-drop that takes place at the stroke of midnight Dec. 31 in New York City.

“This year, the Sikh American float will highlight the theme of langar (free community kitchen and meal) and evoke the Sikh teachings of seva (selfless service) and the important charitable work that is being done by the Southern California Sikh community to take care of those in need,” the Sikh Coalition said in a press release.

The Sikh float is using 90,959 flowers and 500 pounds of vegetables to symbolize the meals that can be expected in a langar hall. The float will also showcase beautiful brick walls, a marbled dome roof and scalloped arches to replicate those found at the Darbar Sahib in Amritsar.

“Growing up in California, it was always a dream to see a Sikh float in the Tournament of Roses Parade,” Bhajneet Singh, a member of the Sikh committee responsible for the float entry for the fourth consecutive year, is quoted saying in the press release. “The theme of langar really speaks to the values of Sikhism and the work that we are doing to help our communities every day here in California and across the world.”

According to the Sikh Coalition, the Golden Temple or Darbar Sahib in Amritsar, serves an estimated 100,000 free meals every day, making it one of the largest free kitchens in the world. The Southern California Sikh community “quietly feeds thousands of people across the greater Los Angeles area every single month,” it adds.

Some of the ways in which the community feeds people include the Khalsa Food Pantry open every Friday evening, monthly barbequeues, and visits to Skid Row. “We are excited for millions of Americans to learn more about this important aspect of Sikhism during the Rose Parade.”

In addition to the theme of langar, the float will visually transport spectators back to Punjab.

The Rose Parade will start at 8:00am Pacific Time, Jan. 1, and is “a festival of flowers, music and sports unequaled anywhere else in the world,” the Rose Parade website says, adding, “It’s America’s New Year Celebration, a greeting to the world on the first day of the year, and a salute to the community spirit and love of pageantry that have thrived in Pasadena for more than 100 years.”

The massive parade is organized by the non-profit Tournament of Roses Association, which says it is dedicated to presenting an internationally-recognized New Year’s celebration.

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Following a year of dizzying news cycles, Twitter flame wars and increasingly deep political divisions, getting engrossed in a meaty book on leadership lessons, in-depth career advice or ideas for improving the way we work may sound pretty tempting.

So we’ve poured through 2018 book lists from publishers, asked business thinkers for recommendations, and sorted through upcoming galleys sent our way for the leadership titles that most pique our interest. From high-profile names — former FBI Director James Comey is releasing a book on leadership in May — to lesser-known authors whose books sound like worthwhile reads, the list below is a roundup of 11 titles coming in the first half of the year to consider adding to your business bookshelf.

– “When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing”
By Dan Pink, expected Jan. 9
Pink dives into the research behind not just what makes people good at their jobs or how they do it, but when: The most productive time of day to do the hardest work, the right time of year to start a new project, the best time in life to change jobs. Known for his popular books on motivation and creativity, Pink tackles the science behind how we organize our time and how we should set up the routines of our days.

– “Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility”
By Patty McCord, expected Jan. 9
The former chief talent officer at Netflix, McCord led human resources at the streaming video company when a popular slide deck about its culture went viral years ago. With the title “Freedom & Responsibility,” the slides described how Netflix thinks about retention (“adequate performance gets a generous severance package”), hiring (no “brilliant jerks”) and its efforts to curtail “rule creep” (the company was one of the first to say it had no vacation policy). Now a consultant, McCord promotes the idea of “radical honesty in the workplace,” sharing lessons from her time at Netflix and elsewhere.

– “Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More ”
By Morten Hansen, expected Jan. 30
Written by a co-author of famed business guru Jim Collins, Hansen’s book is based on a five-year research study of 5,000 managers and employees which resulted in seven practices that the best of them share. The leaders he profiles have more compelling stories than the typical CEO: A principal who turned around a failing high school, a sushi chef in Tokyo who received three Michelin stars and the first explorer to reach the South Pole in 1911.

– “The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups”
By Daniel Coyle, expected Jan. 30
Recommended by both organizational behavior expert Adam Grant and “The No A**hole Rule” author Robert Sutton, Coyle’s book examines how successful groups of people — from the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six to the San Antonio Spurs — work together so well. Coyle, who works as an adviser for the Cleveland Indians and is the author of other books about talent, promises to “demystify” the murky topic of organizational culture by examining the key skills that prompt group cooperation.

– “Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have all the Facts”
By Annie Duke, expected Feb. 6
This book’s subhed describes exactly what leaders so often have to do: Make decisions before they know everything. And for those interested in getting ideas from diverse fields, Duke’s background certainly offers one: A former World Series of Poker champion, she was earlier awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship to study cognitive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Duke is now a business consultant who speaks and coaches on decision strategy with corporate clients, the lessons of which are distilled in this book.

– “Radical Inclusion: What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught us About Leadership”
By Martin Dempsey and Ori Brafman, expected March 6
Dempsey, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commander of the 1st Armored Division in Baghdad, wrote this book with Brafman, an author and consultant who writes about networks and organizational culture, and the book’s description says the two have been friends for almost 10 years. The connection makes sense: Brafman’s well-known first book, “The Starfish and the Spider,” was about the power of decentralized organizations, and Dempsey served as an Army leader amid the growth of decentralized terrorist networks. Their joint effort argues that in today’s complex world, leaders should focus on “radical inclusion,” involving as many people as possible, rather than the exclusionary direction the world appears to be headed.

– “Dying for a Paycheck”
By Jeffrey Pfeffer, expected March 20
Stanford professor Pfeffer, who has written about power, leadership development “BS” and the need for more evidence-based management practices, takes a frank look at the health risks of modern work life. The book has nothing to do with physically dangerous jobs: Pfeffer examines how the long hours, family conflicts and economic insecurities in professional workplaces can lead to health problems, some life threatening, even while they don’t help corporate bottom lines. He argues that the stresses of the professional workplace, not subject to Occupational Safety and Health Administration reporting or intervention, must be dealt with by organizations that promote their environmental sustainability records, while doing too little to enhance the sustainability of their own employees.

– “Dear Madam President: An open letter to the women who will run the world”
By Jennifer Palmieri, expected March 27
Palmieri, the communications director for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, White House communications director for President Barack Obama, and a longtime figure in Democratic circles, writes a letter to future women leaders based on her experiences. Arguing that the world still hasn’t adjusted to what it should look like for a woman to be president, the book offers lessons from the campaign trail, directed at the women who will aim for the country’s top office in the future. In a year expected to bring a record number of female candidates for elected office, the book is likely to offer an insider’s look at Clinton’s campaign as well as insights for female leaders.

– “On Grand Strategy”
By John Lewis Gaddis, expected April 3
While hardly the sort of book that populates the business shelf — Gaddis, a distinguished Cold War historian at Yale University, is no consultant with a schtick to peddle — “On Grand Strategy” offers a serious look for leaders interested in strategy and the art of leadership. In the book, its publisher writes, Gaddis reflects on what he’s learned from a program he, Charles Hill and Paul Kennedy have co-taught at Yale for years. There are chapters “extending from the ancient world through World War II,” in which he “assesses grand strategic theory and practice in Herodotus, Thucydides, Sun Tzu, Octavian/Augustus, St. Augustine, Machiavelli, Elizabeth I, Philip II, the American Founding Fathers, Clausewitz, Tolstoy, Lincoln, Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Isaiah Berlin.” Talk about a way to impress the boss at the next strategy meeting.

– “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership”
By James Comey, expected May 1
The former FBI director — fired by President Donald Trump and now, some say, a Zen-like master of throwing subtle shade on Twitter and Instagram — inked what was reported to be a multi-million dollar book deal in August. The book’s publisher has said the book by Comey, also a former Justice Department official and lawyer, promises to give readers “unprecedented entry into the corridors of power, and a remarkable lesson in leadership itself.” Comey, who frequently uses social media to share quotations about character, justice, leadership and power, tweeted an image of the Statue of Liberty on Dec. 5, saying he was in New York to meet with his publisher, with the note: “Hope leadership book will be useful. Reassuring to see Lady Liberty standing tall even in rough weather.”

– “A Good Time to be a Girl”
By Helena Morrissey, expected June 5
Morrissey, an investment management executive in Britain, founder of the 30% Club campaign to get more women on boards, and mother of nine — yes, nine — offers another response to Sheryl Sandberg’s 2013 book “Lean In.” Morrissey’s book, which pulls from her own experiences as a working mother and activist on gender parity in the boardroom, has been described as a manifesto for new ways women and companies can work and manage rather than trying to get ahead in “a patriarchal system that is out of date.” Morrissey told London’s Evening Standard newspaper that “it will be a handbook for young women, those mid-career and also companies, because it matters what you lean in to.”

THE WASHINGTON POST

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As 2017 comes to a close, the major events of the year will dominate the year-end retrospectives: President Donald Trump’s tumultuous first year in office, European elections from the Netherlands to France to Germany, the dramatic rise of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the body blows dealt to ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the on-again off-again trade tensions with China, the shadow of Russia in U.S. politics, the United Kingdom’s tortuous Brexit negotiations and the North Korea nuclear challenge, among others.

However, the events that make headlines are not always the most consequential stories. Often, hidden beyond the headlines of the day, the tectonic plates are shifting imperceptibly, quietly – these deserve our close attention.

Here are my top four ICYMI (in case you missed it) stories of 2017 that were just below the radar but will have significant consequences for the United States and the world.

1. China’s artificial intelligence strategy

By now, we’ve all heard of the extraordinary promise – and peril – of artificial intelligence (AI). The business world is being transformed by AI and, in the military sphere, industrial-scale robotic killing capacity awaits us. In our personal lives, from virtual assistants to driverless cars, AI is changing how we live, consume, and connect. The Swiss economist and founder of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab put AI at the heart of what he calls the coming Fourth Industrial Revolution, a transformation that he argues “will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before.” Elon Musk warns that AI advances could lead to World War III and Vladimir Putin has declared that the winner of the AI race will be “ruler of the world.”

Enter China. They quietly declared an AI strategy through the year 2030 that aims for nothing short of global dominance of the industry. “The rapid development of artificial intelligence will profoundly change human social life and the world,” the report with the clunky title, “Notice of the State Council Issuing the New Generation of Artificial Intelligence Development Plan,” begins. Eric Schmidt, the recently departed Executive Chairman of Google’s parent company says the United States desperately needs an AI strategy, too. So far, no takers in the Trump administration. Watch this space.

2. Post-American trade deals

Within days of sitting in the Oval Office, Trump declared the multilateral Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, encompassing some 40 percent of the global economy, dead on arrival, leaving longtime allies like Japan, Singapore and Australia in the lurch. Meanwhile, as U.S. trade negotiators are chipping away at the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the president turned up at global conferences in Europe and Asia declaring “America first” and the days of getting “taken advantage of” by others are over. The United States, the leader and founder of the rules-based, post-World War II liberal trade order, seemingly wants out.

Trump’s views notably sparked hand-wringing across the globe, but the hand-wringing changed to hand-shaking as countries from Europe to Asia, Latin America to Africa are going on with trade deals of their own, inaugurating what might be a series of post-American trade deals. Mexico and the European Union are close to launching a new trade deal. Japan and the EU are also working on a major deal. Several TPP members frustrated by Washington are signing on to a China-led trade deal, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), that will account for nearly half the world’s population and a quarter of the global economy. As for the TPP that Trump declared dead, Tokyo is leading an effort to revive it – without the United States.

3. The news of Europe’s death was greatly exaggerated

Brexit and the rise of populist nationalism dominated the headlines out of Europe this year. Three elections – Netherlands, France and Germany – were framed as pivotal turning points for the future of Europe. In all three, the far-right parties gained but could not achieve majorities and attention was turned back to Europe’s other tragic drama: the United Kingdom’s Brexit negotiations, a remarkable own goal in slow motion that is difficult to watch for those who admire the island in the North Atlantic.

But something happened amid the election excitement and the Brexit twists and turns: Economic growth returned to Europe. The euro-zone countries are on pace for the fastest growth in a decade with 2.4 percent growth on the year.

4. The enduring popularity of Narendra Modi

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have had a rough year. In early 2017, he had to deal with the fall out of a currency demonetization program that wreaked havoc on the economy and slowed economic growth. The after-effects lingered throughout the economy for much of the year. Then, in another major economic initiative rolled out with much fanfare, Modi eliminated a series of taxes that inhibited India from becoming a truly common market of 1.3 billion people. While full of long-range potential, the tax reform roll out had more than its fair share of glitches and is still hurting small businesses, the backbone of the economy.

Despite these stumbles, Modi’s popularity ratings remain sky high, and Indians are among the most optimistic about their future in the world, according to polling from Pew Research Center. After years of policy sclerosis, many Indians might simply be pleased to see a prime minister “doing something” to break the logjams to India’s development, willing to countenance short-term loss for long-term gain. Or it might be that Modi is an excellent showman who knows how to touch populist and nationalist nerves. Whatever the case, for his uncanny ability to remain popular while enacting ambitious reforms that could finally unleash India’s true economic potential, Modi should win the emerging world’s person of the year.

(SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POST)

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As we approach the end of President Donald Trump’s first year in office, the list of extraordinary things he has done – for both good and ill – is nothing short of remarkable. Trump inspires such deep emotions in his critics and supporters that many have struggled to objectively assess his presidency. Some are so blinded by their hatred of Trump that they refuse to acknowledge the good he has done, while others are so blinded by devotion that they overlook almost any transgression.

In my columns, I’ve tried to give Trump the credit he deserves when he does the right thing, while calling him out when he does the wrong thing. So, here is my list of the 10 best things Trump has done in his first 11 months. (In a subsequent column, I will give you my list of the 10 worst.)

10. He enforced President Barack Obama’s red line against Syria’s use of chemical weapons. When the regime of Bashar Assad used a toxic nerve agent on innocent men, women and children, Trump didn’t wring his hands. He acted quickly and decisively, restoring America’s credibility on the world stage that Obama had squandered.

9. He has taken a surprisingly tough line with Russia. Trump approved a $47 million arms package for Ukraine, sent troops to Poland’s border with Russia and imposed new sanctions on Moscow for violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

8. He recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Four American presidents promised to do it, but only one actually did. This is why the American people elected Trump. He does what he promises to do, for better or for worse – in this case, definitely for the better. Even Jeb Bush tweeted his approval.

7. He withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. After George W. Bush pulled out of the disastrous Kyoto treaty, U.S. emissions went down faster than much of Europe. The same will be true for Trump’s departure from the Paris accord. Combined with his approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, and opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to exploration, Trump is helping usher in a new age of American energy development.

6. He got NATO allies to kick in $12 billion more toward our collective security. Decades of pleading by the Bush and Obama administrations failed to get NATO allies to meet their financial commitments to the alliance, but Trump’s tough talk and reticence to affirm America’s Article V commitment did the trick. NATO is stronger as a result.

5. He has virtually eliminated the Islamic State’s physical caliphate. Trump removed the constraints Obama placed on our military and let it drive the terrorists from their strongholds.

4. He admitted he was wrong on Afghanistan and reversed Obama’s disastrous withdrawal. In a rare admission, Trump declared: “My original instinct was to pull out . . . But all my life, I’ve heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office. . . . A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum for terrorists.”

3. He enacted historic tax and regulatory reform that has unleashed economic growth. Trump signed the first comprehensive tax reform in three decades and removed the wet blanket of Obama-era regulations smothering our economy. We are now heading into our third consecutive quarter of above 3 percent growth.

2. He is installing conservative judges who will preside for decades. With his appointment of Neil M. Gorsuch, Trump secured a conservative majority on the Supreme Court, and he is moving at record pace to fill the federal appeals courts with young conservative judges.

1. He, not Hillary Clinton, was inaugurated as president. Trump delivered the coup de grace that ended the corrupt, dishonest Clinton political machine.

There are many other significant achievements that did not make the top 10. Trump has taken a clear, strong stand against the narco-dictatorship in Venezuela, and he renamed the “Asia-Pacific” the “Indo-Pacific” to include India in the larger task of preventing Chinese hegemony in Asia. Trump has made clear that he is willing to use force to stop North Korea from deploying nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of destroying U.S. cities – which has prompted China to finally put real pressure on Pyongyang. We’ll see if it works.

The record of achievement suggests that, despite the noxious tweets and self-inflicted wounds emanating from the White House, Trump has the potential to become one of the most consequential conservative presidents in modern American history. The question is: Does all this good outweigh the bad? We’ll review the 10 worst things Trump has done in a forthcoming column.

THE WASHINGTON POST

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Is the outlook for technology in 2018 exciting – or slightly terrifying? Flip a coin, you’d be right either way.

As I look into my crystal ball at what new technologies are most likely to shape our lives in the next 12 months, I see science-fiction dreams coming to life: glasses that mix reality and imagination, an electric car in my driveway and gadgets that charge without plugs.

But coming out of a year where most Americans were hacked and Silicon Valley got scolded by Congress, there’s plenty to worry about. How many ways will artificial intelligence make decisions without us? And how long should we remain panicked about cybersecurity lapses?

Tech’s not just about shiny new gadgets anymore. So I put together this list of 10 technologies to look out for in 2018, for better and worse.

5 reasons to be excited

1) Tesla moves the car forward

Whether you’re an Elon Musk skeptic or true believer, it’s hard to deny the Tesla Model 3has generated iPhone-level buzz about electric cars. Since this “affordable luxury” $35,000-and-up sedan was unveiled in 2016, roughly 450,000 people have preordered one. Now if only Tesla could make them. Significant manufacturing issues keep pushing back the Model 3 delivery timeline, but there’s a good chance you’ll see some on the road in 2018. What’s the big deal? Tesla is forcing all car companies to act more like consumer tech companies, pushing into electric and making standard such capabilities as accident prevention and connectivity. My favorite Model 3 idea: it comes with the cameras, sensors and computing power it needs to eventually allow the car to drive itself.

2) The HomePod gets Apple talking

Hey Siri, glad you’re finally joining the house party. First introduced in summer 2017 and then delayed, the $350 HomePodis Apple’s first talking speaker. For people who buy Apple everything, the HomePod has the potential to tie together music, the TV and the smart home in a way that the iPhone alone hasn’t. But there are huge doubts: Apple missed two holiday seasons that ushered competing Amazon Echo and Google Home products into many homes. Apple has mostly been touting the HomePod’s sound quality, but in my experience many people can’t actually tell the difference – or at least aren’t willing to pay extra for it.

3) Augmented reality is going places

Pokémon Go introduced the world to augmented reality, a fancy term for mixing the real world with digital information. In the year ahead, we’ll test whether that idea is more than a gimmick. Thanks to new AR-enabling tech in smartphones, the camera can be a search engine, interior design tool or teacher. We’ll also finally get our hands on an AR headset from Magic Leap, a much-hyped start-up that has raised $1.9 billion in funding. They call their forthcoming Magic Leap One gadget a “lightweight, wearable computer that enriches your experience in the real world with digital content” – though to me it looks like a prop from “Max Max: Fury Road.”

4) Wireless charging gets a much-needed jolt

Soon you might be able to leave the house without a rat’s nest of power cords. The tech to charge gadgets without plugs has been a non-starter for years because one very important brand was missing: Apple. But the iPhone maker just added wireless charging to the X and 8, putting its stamp of approval on a charging standard called Qi. Now coffee shops, furniture makers and car companies might be more confident about building wireless charging pads into everyday things. Let’s hope they do, because phone battery life isn’t improving nearly fast enough to keep up with how much we use them.

5) Digital subscriptions as the new norm

In 2018, paying for online video, music, games and (yes) news subscriptions will feel as normal as a $4 latte. Deloitte predicts that by the end of the year, 50 percent of adults in developed countries will have at least two online-only media subscriptions. Expect Apple to redouble its subscription video efforts, as well as big battles over streaming rights for sports. The shift to subscriptions is good for high-quality content creators who can’t make it with advertising alone, but consumers may start to feel the pain of too many $10-per-month subscriptions. Here’s to hoping we see more bundle options, like a recent $5 a month combo deal of Hulu and Spotify for college students.

5 reasons to worry

1) Online political ads get more devious

Oh, you thought the 2016 election was bonkers? In the 2018 midterm elections, there will be even more tech to data-mine the lives of American voters. Instead of just demographics, ads could use “psychometrics” – gleaned from how we use social networks and other data – to target us based on our mindsets and personalities. It raises a host of thorny questions about how technology, particularly social networks, can be used to manipulate us and divide society. Online ads may also still be a lure for foreign meddlers, though Facebook and Google have promised more disclosure about who’s buying political ads.

2) The cybersecurity menace keeps growing

Please maintain your near-constant state of alarm about hacking. In 2018, the risks are likely to only increase, and cyber sleuths say possible targets include connected gadgets and U.S. election systems. Businesses will be on the hunt for new ways to verify our identities in a world where Equifax data is out in the wild. And you’ll find a lot more apps and websites requiring extra steps to log in, such as “two-factor” systems that require a special code. My recommendation: Take an hour and change your password to something unique on every site with personal information. A password manager such as Dashlane or LastPass can help you keep track.

3) Dongles stick around

Dongle is the icky term for an adapter we need to connect things to phones and computers and proceed to lose at the bottom of bags. And it’s an icky part of gadget life that isn’t going away soon. Dongles were supposed to be a temporary bridge to the future for gadgets like the MacBook Pro, which removed the traditional wide USB port. But since 2016, the smaller USB “type C” plug Apple and others began using on laptops just hasn’t become common for accessories. (Even Apple’s own flagship iPhone X doesn’t come with a type-C cable.) This is a design flaw that afflicts an entire industry – and we’re the ones stuck with the dongle life.

4) Artificial intelligence judges you

Much of the conversation about AI to date has been hype. But in a million quiet ways, the tech is seeping into our lives – and for every happy use of AI, there seems to be a creepy one. It’s making decisions about what we watch and read. It can even be used to create authentic-looking fake content that has a scary name: “counterfeit reality.” How might AI be used to judge our voices, faces, emotions – or even whether we’re worth hiring? Companies are starting to discuss AI ethics, but keeping this tech accountable will be hard because we won’t always recognize its invisible hand.

5) Big tech keeps getting bigger

Silicon Valley got raked over the coals in 2017 about sexism, security and its influence on national affairs. But it hasn’t really grappled with the bigger problem: There’s too much power in the hands of too few. All five of America’s largest publicly traded companies are tech firms. Just the specter of Amazon’s expansion has prompted megamergers in recent months between Disney and Fox as well as CVS and Aetna. (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post.) Nobody’s been able to significantly challenge Apple in smartphones. Google and Facebook dominate not just the media, but also our time and attention. Expect to see tech giants flogging their “social good” efforts in the year ahead, but our trust won’t be restored by watching them act like benevolent dictators.

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NEW YORK – Hundreds of thousands of merrymakers are making the annual pilgrimage to New York’s Times Square on Sunday to witness the giant New Year’s Eve ball drop at midnight, undeterred by bitter cold and an unprecedented security operation.

The temperature in midtown Manhattan is expected to plunge to about 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 12 degrees Celsius) in the waning hours of 2017, with a “Real Feel” of 4F (minus 15C), according to AccuWeather.com.

If forecasts prove accurate, 2017 would match 1962 as the second-coldest New Year’s Eve on record. Top honors go to 1917, when the mercury in Times Square dropped to 1F (-17C) and the wind chill came in at -18F (-28C).

Madry Cox, 16, and his sister, Mattison, 19, traveled from Lubbock, Texas, to New York with their father for what he called a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to see the glittering spectacle that unfolds in Times Square every Dec. 31.

“It’s worth bearing the cold to see the ball drop on New Year’s Eve,” he said. “It’ll be great.”

Mattison Cox said she plans on wearing plenty of clothes, while still managing to look “a little bit cute,” and drinking coffee to stay warm.

“I’ve only seen it in the movies,” she said. “It’s nice to come witness in person.”

This year, police expect roughly 2 million people to crowd into the general vicinity of Times Square, the bow-tie-shaped plaza formed by the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue in midtown Manhattan. That is roughly the same number as last year, when the temperature at midnight was a comfortable 44F (7C).

A limited number of people will have access to fenced-off viewing areas within the square, giving them an unobstructed view of the giant crystal ball mounted on a pole atop a building at the southern end of the square.

After hours of waiting, the throng will witness the ball’s one-minute descent ending at the stroke of midnight, when a barrage of fireworks and confetti will punctuate the moment.

“This event every year, New Year’s Eve, is one of the things that people all over the country, all over the world, most associate with New York City,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters last week. He said the annual rite of winter was a source of pride for the city and “a huge, joyous event.”

Revelers will count down the final hours of 2017 with a lineup of musical acts including Nick Jonas and Neil Diamond.

Mariah Carey is returning as well, no doubt hoping to make amends for last year’s highly criticized performance marred by technical difficulties. Andy Grammer will perform his hit song “Fresh Eyes” and John Lennon’s “Imagine” just before midnight.

Then comes the ball drop, a tradition that dates to 1907, three years after New Yorkers started gathering en masse in Times Square to usher in the new year.

The lighted ball, actually a geodesic sphere 12 feet (3.7 meters) in diameter and covered by illuminated crystals, will descend 70 feet (21 meters) in the final 60 seconds.

SHOW OF FORCE

Thousands of police will be on hand, some of them heavily armed, others undercover. The show of force is part of a beefed-up security plan that follows a spate of attacks in the city and around the world that authorities have labeled as terrorist.

The New York Police Department has provided officers with specialized training to stop any suicide bombers in response to an attempted bombing in a Times Square subway station walkway on Dec. 11.

Police will also deploy observation teams trained to spot snipers, increase the number of explosive-detecting dogs and position more officers throughout the area this year.

People who want to see the New Year’s Eve musical acts and other entertainment up close in Times Square will have to pass by dogs trained to detect explosives and heavily armed officers, go through a magnetometer to check for weapons, have their bags inspected, and then repeat all those steps a second time.

Police will again use dump trucks filled with sand, police cars and cement blocks to close streets starting at 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) on Sunday. About 125 parking garages in the area will be emptied of all cars and sealed.

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What to expect from our unpredictable president

President Donald Trump entered the White House promising unity (in his election night speech) and depicting “American carnage” (in his inaugural address) – a revealing rhetorical scramble that foreshadowed his first year in office.

His 2018 is practically guaranteed to be as unpredictable. The only certainty: his gleeful (and at times self-sabotaging) use of Twitter.

The president begins his second year in office facing down the momentum of all he could not control and all he failed to accomplish. His lawyers promised him that special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe would be over by now. The longer it goes, the more it’s likely to anger the mercurial president, who has repeatedly denied any collusion and dismissed the investigation as “rigged.” Trump, accused by more than a dozen women of unwanted kissing and groping, will also find himself a renewed target of the #MeToo movement toppling powerful men.

The president has a long list of tasks. In Congress, the Republican tax plan squeaked through before the holidays. But there’s also infrastructure and immigration – including a solution to the predicament he put “dreamers” into by ending the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which had protected them. The 2018 midterm elections will have him traveling the country to fight for his party’s political survival.

But Trump has repeatedly defied political gravity and expectations. In 2018, the president will be gracious and disciplined when even his aides are bracing for an explosion. And he will be brash and erratic when triggered by something as simple as an errant comment on cable news.

With this president, prognosticators would be wise to save their money. Just don’t forget to set your @realDonaldTrump Twitter alerts.

– Ashley Parker

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How much can Trump shrink the government in 2018?

In 2016, Donald Trump pledged to “drain the swamp.” But many corporate lobbyists – ostensibly Trump’s target – have scored wins on policies from the new tax law to changes in labor, environmental and energy rules. Federal employees, though, haven’t been winning at all.

President Trump is trying to shrink government more dramatically than anyone since Ronald Reagan – and 2018 could show whether he can continue to translate his rhetoric into reality.

The new administration has been slow to nominate and fill Senate-confirmed posts, and not by accident. Of 624 Senate-confirmed posts, according to The Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service, 249 have no nominee. In an interview on “Fox and Friends” in February, Trump described this as a deliberate strategy: “Well, a lot of those jobs, I don’t want to appoint, because they’re unnecessary to have.”

Several members of Trump’s Cabinet are trying to usher federal employees out the door, even if their proposed budget cuts have not become law. At the Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, several hundred staffers have accepted buyouts, and the EPA is not replacing them or new retirees. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke remarked in September, “I got 30 percent of the crew that’s not loyal to the flag,” and his reassignments of senior career staffers and proposals to move divisions out of Washington are prompting employees to leave.

But Trump’s war on the bureaucracy will hit some limits – it’s hard to shrink government and also keep it operating. “Success here is probably measured in the measure of millimeters,” said Barry Bennett, a GOP consultant who advised Trump in 2016. “That’s just how set in stone the bureaucracy really is.”

– Juliet Eilperin

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Iran-Saudi Arabia rivalry will do great damage

If you want to see the future, look to Yemen.

The country’s government has collapsed. Because of a blockade, its citizens are suffering widespread famine and the largest cholera epidemic in world history. Thousands have been killed in airstrikes.

Yet the war being waged there has little to do with the Yemeni people – and everything to do with the struggle for dominance between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Their rivalry is at the heart of the unrest in Yemen (where Saudi Arabia supports the government and Iran backs the Houthi rebels), as well as in Syria (where Iran supports the government and Saudi Arabia backs the rebels), Lebanon and beyond. In 2018, their tit for tat and battles by proxy are going to get worse.

The BBC has predicted that “the region could be entering a version of the Thirty Years’ War, which saw Catholic and Protestant states battle for supremacy in the 17th Century.” In the coming year, the conflicts in Syria and Yemen are likely to deepen, leaving the door open for violent extremists to gain ground. In Iraq, the two countries may destabilize the fledgling effort to rebuild after the defeat of the Islamic State. And meddling in Lebanon’s spring elections could disrupt the delicate balance among the country’s religious groups, leading to major unrest that could ignite the Middle East.

Western allies may be drawn into the conflict, too, especially if it spills into the waters of the Persian Gulf, which the United States and other Western powers count on being able to navigate.

Few experts predict an outright war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Fewer can imagine any path to victory for either side. What is clear, though, is that the cost of the struggle will continue to be borne by the innocent. People will starve and kids will be blown up in places far away from Tehran and Riyadh.

– Amanda Erickson

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The opioid crisis will become even more deadly

As bad as it is, the U.S. drug crisis is almost certain to get worse before it gets better.

This year ended with a grim announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Drug overdose deaths had soared 21 percent, to 63,632, in 2016 (official statistics lag by a year). That’s about equal to the population of Portland, Maine.

Opioids killed more than 42,000 people, a 28 percent increase from 2015.

The drug death toll is so high that it is now primarily responsible for the second straight year of decline in overall U.S. life expectancy – a trend basically unheard of in the developed world.

Brace for worse news in 2018. Bob Anderson, who studies mortality statistics for the CDC, said the data through May 2017 is “at least as bad” as the 2016 numbers. People are still being killed by overdoses of pills and heroin, and in increasing numbers. But the problem now is clearly fentanyl, an illegal synthetic opioid that is smuggled from China and mixed with heroin – creating a stronger high and a greater likelihood of death. Fentanyl and similar synthetic opioids killed 19,413 people in 2016, more than double the number in the previous year. That’s an incredible leap in just 12 months. (Because many users die with more than one drug in their bodies, a single death can be attributed to two or more drugs.)

So what are we doing about this? Not enough, according to most authorities. The number of prescriptions for opioids is down a bit in recent years, and some doctors are trying to give each patient fewer pills. That might help patients avoid dependence and keep unused extras off the street. Meanwhile, stopping fentanyl and heroin from entering the country has proved difficult. And although President Donald Trump has declared the drug crisis a national emergency, the government has devoted little money to making treatment more available.

– Lenny Bernstein

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The fashion industry will wear feminism on its sleeve

The fashion industry’s customer base is overwhelmingly female. But how does Seventh Avenue actually feel about women – black, white, Latina, plump, poor, petite? We may find out in 2018.

Fashion has been reveling in its newfound interest in feminism for more than a year. Maria Grazia Chiuri helped to kick things off in the fall of 2016 when she made her debut at Dior. Her appointment as creative director marked the first time a woman would lead the 71-year-old French house, and Chiuri set the tone with a collection that incorporated the poetic prose of feminist author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The designer inscribed T-shirts with the title of Adichie’s famous Ted talk, “We Should All Be Feminists.” A year later, Chiuri found inspiration in the late Linda Nochlin’s 1971 feminist critique of art history: “Why Have There Been No Great Female Artists?”

Other members of the fashion community have added to the conversation. Missoni, the Italian knitwear firm, filled its runway with models wearing pink “pussy hats.” New York designer Mara Hoffman put the organizers of the Women’s March on her runway. The Council of Fashion Designers of America honored Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards and activist Gloria Steinem. And in September, fashion’s most influential luxury conglomerates wrote corporate guidelines aimed at institutionalizing a simple fact: Models are not simply clothes hangers; they’re human beings who should be treated with dignity.

Fashion is waking up to the realization that it should work on behalf of women, in service to them and alongside them – respectfully.

The next year promises to be a test of whether fashion can put the slogans on its runway into practice.

– Robin Givhan

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More cautious relationships will mean less sex

Now that the country is waking up to the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault, sex is going to change. Not overnight. But the conversations that had been happening on college campuses – about how to get consent before getting physical, about what’s OK and what’s not – are spreading well beyond the ivory tower. Sex in 2018 will be more deliberative, cautious and confusing.

Women and men are relearning how to interact with each other. In my interviews with singles, women talk about how each new revelation of sexual assault or harassment erodes their trust in men and makes them less likely to want to take a chance in their dating lives. “I have no desire to be romantic with someone, or even put myself in a romantic situation, because all the news is so disheartening,” said Claire Meneer, a 25-year-old in Washington. And regular guys – not just misbehaving politicians, filmmakers, sports figures, chefs – are confused about how to let women know they’re interested. Many of them aren’t sure what crosses the line in courtship.

As people get more thoughtful and cautious about sex, we will probably have less of it. According to studies of sexual frequency, Americans were already trending in this direction – with married people showing the steepest decline. Even singles, commonly thought to be promiscuous, are falling out of love with casual encounters. Laurie Watson, a sex therapist in North Carolina, thinks the hookup is dead. “In order to ask permission in a way that is sexy, you actually have to know somebody before you want to have sex with them – or ask to have sex with them,” Watson says. “I think it’s going to change the culture back to where people get to know each other. It turns out that listening is sexy.”

Hopefully that means sex in 2018 will be more consensual and collaborative, too.

– Lisa Bonos

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Big tech companies will confront their dark side

For years, it seemed the technology industry could do no wrong. It was celebrated for innovations from cutting prices (e-commerce) to democratizing communication (Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp) to building products that will take us into the future (artificial intelligence, self-driving cars). Social media platforms have been credited with helping to usher in political and social transformations, including the Arab Spring and the #MeToo movement.

But these technologies have become so powerful that their flaws have global consequences. People worry that social media can be manipulated by foreign governments, poisoning democracy and tilting the outcomes of elections. They fear that software algorithms are fueling disinformation, censorship and hate speech. And they are concerned that tech giants have become powerful gatekeepers.

In 2018, there will be more calls for Silicon Valley to confront its dark side. Facebook made a start this month, conceding, for the first time, what researchers have found: that scrolling endlessly on your social media feed has negative effects on your psychological well-being. Google and Facebook also have plans to hire thousands more workers to police unwanted content.

The question is whether tech companies can actually fix these problems. It is not clear, for example, that it is possible to teach software – or humans – to detect every racist social media post or live-streamed violent act, or whether a bot is posting a fake political screed.

If they don’t do enough, tech giants will probably face greater regulation in the United States and Europe. Some Democrats and Republicans are already calling for it. The regulatory free ride that enabled these companies to grow so quickly, with so few checks and balances, may soon be ending.

– Elizabeth Dwoskin

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TV won’t be able to avoid this cultural reckoning

As the calendar flips to 2018, Hollywood is beginning a long, painful journey in the post-Weinstein era. The leaders of the entertainment world have to figure out how to handle the disturbing topics of sexual harassment and assault in an industry that focuses on, well, entertainment.

We have yet to see how movies or scripted TV handles the cultural shift, although “Law & Order: SVU” has confirmed it’s working on a Weinstein-inspired episode for 2018. For now, the response is being led by late-night talk show hosts – they have the easiest access to A-listers, who are contractually obligated to promote their projects. When Ben Affleck was on his publicity tour for “Justice League,” Stephen Colbert asked him about Weinstein and about Affleck’s apology for groping a host on MTV. Dustin Hoffman, expecting a lighthearted back-and-forth about the 20th anniversary of “Wag the Dog,” didn’t take kindly to John Oliver’s questions about allegations of sexual harassment.

In 2018, this situation will be inescapable as more celebrities face public questioning about sexual harassment – particularly if they have to promote projects whose stars have been removed after allegations of misconduct: Kevin Spacey on “House of Cards,” Danny Masterson on “The Ranch,” Mario Batali on “The Chew.” (Jeffrey Tambor said he was leaving “Transparent,” though now that’s in question.)

In 2017, late-show hosts grappled with how to handle President Donald Trump’s administration – Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers got serious on issues from health care to gun control. Jimmy Fallon pointedly stayed away from politics; he sees his role as helping people escape the daily news. Yet as this new era begins, it will be increasingly impossible for television to ignore the cultural reckoning.

– Emily Yahr

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The #MeToo movement will rock the sports world

#SportsToo.

It was only a matter of time before the brave and overdue national pushback against sexual harassment and assault rocked the male-dominated confines of athletics. Now that the #MeToo movement seems to be at full throttle, 2018 could be a troubling year for misogynistic sports figures.

In December, the focus on misconduct started to include sports, alongside Hollywood, music, comedy and politics. Former USA Gymnastics team physician Larry Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in prison on federal child pornography charges. He still must be punished for the sexual assaults to which he also pleaded guilty. Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson said he will sell his NFL team after Sports Illustrated exposed a history of reprehensible behavior that resulted in at least four monetary settlements with former employees. A former wardrobe stylist at the NFL Network filed a lawsuit accusing executives and commentators of sexual harassment. And the executive assistant for Warren Moon’s marketing firm sued the Hall of Fame quarterback, alleging that he made her wear lingerie and sleep in his bed during road trips, watched her take showers and drugged her.

Can it get worse? Sadly, yes. Most of the sports world has operated in a bubble where men often have skewed perceptions of decency. That applies to athletes, coaches, staffers, team executives, league officials – even media outlets. At every level, men greatly outnumber women. The environment makes the industry susceptible to chauvinism. At the very worst, it can foster a culture of misogyny and assault.

Now that women won’t be immediately called liars or gold diggers for coming forward, dirty men – even those celebrated for flaunting their masculinity on a field of play – can’t rely on silence to protect them.

– Jerry Brewer

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The religious left will come into its own

Just as white evangelical Christians – the heirs to the Reagan-era “religious right” – have been a dominant force in U.S. politics in recent years, the loosely organized “religious left” will assert its place in 2018.

This coalition is fired up. Progressive clergy members, from mainline Protestant pastors to black ministers to rabbis, have been on the front lines of 2017 protests and will become leading voices in the new year: on immigration, climate change and the social safety net.

Meanwhile, communities are girding for more neo-Nazi marchers, with their chant of “Jews will not replace us.” Churchgoers worry that their houses of worship could be the next First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, where a gunman massacred believers in their pews. Their fears and frustrations will resound in sermons and voting booths in 2018.

The Muslim community, too, has been dragged into politics – by President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about “radical Islamic terror,” his orders banning travelers from Muslim-majority countries and his retweeting of videos meant to slur Muslims. Hate crimes against Muslims are not likely to let up in 2018. Expect a strong Muslim response. We might even see the first Muslim governor, as Abdul El-Sayed mounts an impressive campaign in Michigan.

Most conservative Christians who have supported Trump will stick with him. They are especially pleased with his appointment of Neil Gorsuch and other conservative judges. In 2018, we’ll start to see the impact of those judges. Watch the Supreme Court as it decides whether a religious baker who opposes same-sex marriage should have to make a cake for a gay wedding – a case with wide-ranging implications for the role of faith in the public sphere.

– Julie Zauzmer

The post 2018: The year in preview appeared first on News India Times.

In what is possibly his first act of 2018, President Donald Trump declared Washington would give no more aid to Pakistan.

In an early morning tweet, Trump said Islamabad had not kept up its end of the bargain in dealing with terrorists despite receiving billions in aid from the United States.

“The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools,” said President Trump.

“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan with little help. No More!” the President declared. Within a few hours, Trump’s tweet on Pakistan garnered 96,000 likes and was retweeted more than 35,000 times, within a few hours of being posted.

A few months ago, in his National Security Strategy, Trump had warned Islamabad it must do more to deter terrorists from operating from within its homeland. Now his emphatic statement indicates he will act.

Islamabad has yet to respond, but the Foreign Minister Khwaja M. Asif indicated Trump was not accurate in his statement.

“We will respond to Trump’s tweet shortly Insha Allah… Will let the world know the truth… Difference between facts and fiction,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khwaja M. Asif, said in a tweet reported by Indo Asian News Service.

One of India’s foremost bilateral issues with the U.S. has been Pakistan providing safe havens to terrorists. Past U.S. administrations have acknowledged this was happening and chided that country about it, but Trump was the first to threaten to cut aid to Islamabad. Now it appears Washington may be the closest it has been to cutting aid to that its ‘Major Non-NATO Ally.”

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2018 has the makings of a year of advances for Indian-Americans in the Tri-state area as they build on the gains made on multiple fronts in 2017

“Happy New Year! We’re ready! #Hoboken#NextMayor#StartStrong” tweeted Hoboken, N.J.’s new Mayor Ravinder Bhalla the morning of Jan. 1, when he was sworn in to lead the trendy neighbor of the Big Apple, just across the Hudson. Bhalla signed his first executive order at City Hall designating Hoboken as a “Fair and Welcoming City,” gave a rousing speech to some 700 people, and recalled how far the state had come from the “Dot Busters” attacks of 1987

“What a long way we’ve come,” he said. “This past election was a model of diversity showcasing for New Jersey and America a city that cares less about who you love, where you came from, what your gender is, where you worship than they care about your ability to take on the challenges ahead for our city,” Bhalla is quoted saying to the crowd, nj.com reported.

The first Sikh and first Indian-American elected Mayor of Hoboken, Bhalla has caught the national imagination as a symbol of diversity in America at a time when many are concerned about a toxic divided nation.

His inauguration Jan. 1 is setting the trend for 2018, which is expected to be a pivotal year in politics and Indian Americans are looking forward to it.

The new year will see more Indian-Americans running for political office, including Connecticut State Assemblyman Prasad Srinivasan, a Republican, who is asking for GOP to support his run for Governor; and Democrat Dita Bhargava, who has a degree in electrical engineer, was a Wall Street trader, and is vice-chair of the Connecticut State Democratic Party, hopes her party will back her run for the same office.

With Gov. Murphy at the helm in New Jersey, Indian-Americans are hoping to get more appointments to important positions. Already the first cabinet appointment he announced was that of is New Jersey’s first Attorney General of Indian descent Gurbir Grewal,

The year 2017 proved to be a bonanza for Indian-Americans in the Tri-state area as several of them were catapulted to positions of power up and down the political ladder.

Politics

The Nov. 7 election results in New Jersey were a bell-weather of the state of Indian-American politics New Jersey and the country, considering that this state has the largest concentration of Indian-Americans in the country, and the Tri-state region is among the few in the country that boasts a large concentration of the community. Successes in New Jersey went down-ballot from the governor to township councils, in what could spell a breakthrough in voter mobilization, and effective campaigning.

For decades Indian-Americans have hankered after political power and activists have constantly emphasized the need to engage the system. “My dream came true. We brought each and every Indian American to the polls,” Ritesh Shah,co-founder of the South Asian Registration Initiative, told News India Times, after the first Indian-American, Vin Gopal was elected to the New Jersey state Senate, another first for the community.  Gopal, representing the 11th District, goes into the upper chamber Jan. 11. His focus has been pensions, education funding, and government waste, according to a Newsmax interview Dec. 14. Grewal would take office if  confirmed following his nomination by New Jersey’s incoming governor Phil Murphy, who heavily courted the Indian-American community. Incumbent Democratic N.J. Assemblyman Raj Mukherji was re-elected.

Some of the other winners included Shanti Narra being re-elected to the North Brunswick City Council; Sadaf Jaffer, an Indian-American woman, won her race for the Montgomery City Council; Sangeeta Doshi was seated in the Cherry Hill Township Council in New Jersey. Rutgers senior Mussab Ali won a tight race for a seat on the Jersey City school board.

Other notable events, though certainly not exhaustive, included Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan being kicked out of office by President Trump early in the year. Almost reveling in his ouster, Bharara turned it into a cause celebre snagging not just an exclusive podcast “Stay Tuned With Preet,” but also becoming a regular on CNN.

In March, Jenifer Rajkumar, a former Democratic Leader in Lower Manhattan, became New York State’s director of immigration affairs and special counsel for the New York Department of State in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration.

Social Services

From religion to social services, and youth action to education, Indian-American organizations are poised to build on their leadership positions in their spheres in the Tri-state area. From the BAPS Swaminarayan Temple to social service organizations like Chhaya Community Development Corporation based in Jackson Heights, N.Y.; South Asian Youth Action of Elmhurst, N.Y.; South Asian Council for Social Services (SACSS) based in Flushing, N.Y., these organizations are making a change.

The youth organization SAYA, announced the launch of its monthly giving program: 21 for 21, in 2018, which celebrates SAYA’s over two decades of service. During 2017, SAYA said it had encouraged more than 1,000 youth to belong, grow and thrive. “From STEM courses to campus visits, youth from elementary school through college had the opportunity to explore their interests, discover their passions and achieve their goals,” the organization which is led by Indian-American Rasika Reddy, said on its website.

Seniors organizations around the tri-state area grown to help the increasing number of older Indian-Americans; and women’s organizations like Sakhi and Manavi have continued their work. These non-profit groups have become established over the years and gained standing as well as sometimes state government support.

Chhaya helped hundreds of South Asians with housing, loans, immigration issueis including new legislation, renters rights, family safety (hate crimes, Islamophobia, xenophobia), and how the new tax plan could impact individuals and families’ financial well-being.

The SACSS will continue with its successful South Asian Pantry, offering ethnic-specific foods like pulses and spices, to help those in need, including seniors and those with disabilities. It’s pantry was featured in the New York Times. Created in 2000, the organization helps individuals and families in the areas of healthcare access, senior services, other benefits and civic engagement. It provides basic and advanced English and computer classes. All its programs are free and those availing of the programs, are helped by staff who speak Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Kannada.

Be Jersey Strong, a New Jersey non-profit, founded and led by Aakash Shah,  that trains volunteers from campuses across the state to connect with eligible, but uninsured individuals for healthcare coverage, was honored Dec. 7, in the state Assembly.

Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, drew admiration for introducing at least 10,000 girls to coding through after-school and summer programs. She also rejected an invitation from the White House to discuss a computer-science education initiative that Ivanka Trump, advisor to the President, was spearheading. “She wanted the organization I founded, Girls Who Code, to join,” Saujani revealed in a September oped in The New York Times. After a Trump administration ruling barring Syrian refugees to come in, Saujani decided to stay away from it.

Entrepreneur Anu Duggal, who started Female Founders Fund or F Cubed, was recognized in InStyle magazine’s list of Badass Women in 2017. F Cubed has helped more than 30 women procure investor funding to start their own tech companies, raised more than $400 million in venture capital over 3 years. Companies she helped now employ more than 600 people across the New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles areas, InStyle reported.

New Jersey teenager Indrani Das, won the top prize of $250,000 in the Regeneron Science Talent Search competition for her research on treating brain injury and disease.

Among Other Achievements

By no means were the achievements of Indian-Americans in the tri-state area restricted to politics. Comedian, author, and filmmaker Aziz Ansari’s received some Golden Globe nominations for his segments in Master of None; New York Times books editor Radhika Jones was appointed editor-in-chief Vanity Fair, the celebrity-driven fashion and culture magazine;  Broadway production designer Neil Patel was critically acclaimed for bringing to life “Time and the Conways,” a 1937 “drawing room” play written by J.B. Priestley.

As he year wore on, U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati, a Columbia University professor, appeared to be on his way out after years of service to the organization.

At the Glamour magazine Women of the Year Summit gala in mid-November in Brooklyn, the first Barbie in a hijab, named after U.S. Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhhammad, was released, much acclaimed by Muslims and non-Muslims in the Tri-state, and the country.

Bollywood came to New York in a big way with the Indian International Film Awards event, bringing mega stars like Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, and Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, among others. Priyanka Chopra was on several New York nightly talk shows including Jimmy Fallon.

The traditional India Day Parade Aug. 19, organized by the Federation of Indian Associations, , attracted tens of thousands of Indian-Americans and others, to Madison Avenue,  to celebrate not just India’s independence from British rule, but also the diversity of the community living in this country.

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WASHINGTON – Congress faces a jam-packed to-do list this month with deadlines looming on difficult issues – including how to fund the government and avoid a shutdown, stabilizing the nation’s health-insurance program for poor children, and whether to shield young undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Fresh off a party-line vote in favor of legislation overhauling the tax code, the negotiations will test whether Congress and the White House still have the potential to craft any form of bipartisan agreement. If so, several of the year’s most contested issues might be resolved with months to spare before the 2018 midterm campaign heats up.

If not, the government could soon be on the verge of a shutdown, with pressing questions regarding health care, immigration and other policies left unresolved. Also on the agenda is emergency relief for regions upended by last year’s natural disasters, a key national security program and the fate of an agreement to stabilize health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act.

A big unknown is whether the shortened timeline will prove an asset in addressing all the issues before Congress, or a hindrance.

“Some of these things they’re talking about are huge, contentious issues,” said Jane Calderwood, who served as chief of staff for then-Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. ” I can’t imagine it’s doable, and certainly not doable in a thoughtful way.”

Jim Manley, who served as an aide to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, “I’m not sure I’ve seen anything like it, at least in recent years, where so much high-profile stuff has to be done right out of the gate,”

Officials in both parties hope to make progress by Jan. 19, when a short-term government funding bill that Congress passed last month expires. The Senate returns Wednesday, and the House returns next Monday.

On Wednesday, senior congressional leaders from both parties will meet at the Capitol with White House budget director Mick Mulvaney and legislative-affairs director Marc Short to renew talks on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which expires on March 5. In September, President Donald Trump decided to sunset the program – started under President Barack Obama – that protects 700,000 young immigrants, often called “dreamers,” from deportation.

Congressional Republicans and the White House have demanded that any deal to protect these immigrants include stronger border enforcement – but exactly what that looks like is expected to be a key sticking point in negotiations.

“The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc.,” Trump said Thursday on Twitter. “Chain migration” refers to the policy that allows naturalized immigrants to petition for relatives to come to the United States.

Congressional Democrats express openness to finding additional funding for border security but have ruled out funding the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border that Trump promised during his presidential campaign.

“We’re not going to negotiate through the press and look forward to a serious negotiation at Wednesday’s meeting when we come back,” said Drew Hammill, an aide to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Democrats are under intense pressure from Hispanic lawmakers and liberal activists to reject any government funding deal that does not resolve the issue. Already, Democratic senators have helped pass multiple funding deals that did not include DACA protections, including one in December.

About 22,000 DACA recipients failed to renew their applications after the Trump administration gave them 30 days to do so this September, with reports emerging of some applications getting lost in the mail. At least 7,800 people in this group had lost their DACA status by December, and the rest will lose protection before March, according to the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.

“If Democrats don’t hold the line and ensure dreamers get protected, the unity between the grass roots and the elected party will shatter,” said Ben Wikler, Washington director of the progressive group MoveOn.org. “Democrats and Republicans have already kicked this can down the road three times already. A fourth time is unacceptable.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said last month he hopes a bipartisan working group led by Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, comes up with a deal the Senate can pass in January. But he didn’t commit to a specific timetable for a vote.

“We have been gridlocked on this issue for years,” McConnell told reporters last month. “We do not want to just spin our wheels and have nothing to show for it.”

But congressional Republicans face pressure from conservative lawmakers and activists not to find protections for dreamers. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, an immigration hawk, said last month that he urged Trump in a private phone call not to renew DACA.

“Granting amnesty rewards lawbreakers and destroys the rule of law,” King said.

Beyond DACA, lawmakers will also have to agree to new government funding levels or pass another short-term extension of spending limits – known as a continuing resolution – by Jan. 19. Failure to do so would cause a government shutdown, which would cost the economy about $6.5 billion every week it lasts.

Keeping the government funded at existing levels (or increasing government spending) would put Congress on track to trigger automatic spending cuts through what is called the sequester, because of a 2011 law that imposed caps on spending. Congress must raise these caps, as it did in 2013 and 2015, by February to avoid these across-the-board cuts to government programs.

But Democrats and Republicans have been unable to resolve an impasse over how to raise the caps. Republicans passed a bill in December to increase military funding alone by $650 billion through Sept. 30. Congressional Democrats have held firm to the line that every dollar increase in military spending must be met by an equal increase in domestic spending, in line with previous agreements in the past to avoid the sequester.

Lawmakers also will have to increase the debt ceiling by March, when the Treasury Department can no longer meet the federal government’s financial obligations without additional borrowing, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Similarly unresolved is the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which 9 million children use to help meet their medical costs. Right before the Christmas break, Congress plowed $3 billion into CHIP – money that will prevent 1.9 million children from losing coverage in January, according to the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. But that temporary solution keeps CHIP funded for only three more months, and state health programs throughout the country have begun notifying families that funding could expire.

In November, House Republicans passed a bill to fund CHIP, but Democrats argued that the measure did so by removing money from a public-health preventive-care fund set up under the Affordable Care Act. Democrats want CHIP funded without cutting funding for other federal health programs.

The law authorizing the government to obtain communications of foreign intelligence targets without an individualized warrant – a process that also collects the emails and phone calls of any Americans in communication with the foreign targets – is set to expire on Jan. 19. The program, originally set to end on Jan. 1, was extended for three weeks at the last minute before the Christmas recess.

Intelligence officials have said that under the law, which is known as Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, existing court orders allowing surveillance will remain in effect until April. Security hawks and the intelligence community have defended it as an essential safeguard against terrorism and a valuable tool for gathering foreign intelligence, while civil-liberty advocates say without revisions it creates the potential for abuses of government power. A House aide predicted that the program would be put to a stand-alone vote shortly after Congress returns.

Before the Christmas break, the House approved an $81 billion relief package for victims of recent hurricanes and wildfires in California. Democrats criticized that plan as inadequate, particularly for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, which are still struggling with widespread power outages. Democrats in the Senate rejected the House package right before the Christmas recess, but members of both parties agree on the imminent need to allocate emergency funding.

Disaster funding “may have to slip to next year,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said last month. “I think we can work it out in a bipartisan way. I certainly do. But just jamming it through without consulting us and not being fair to so many other parts of the country doesn’t make sense.”

Senate Republican leadership also had promised Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, passage of a bill to shore up the Affordable Care Act’s individual markets in exchange for her yes vote on the GOP tax package.

The Republican tax bill is expected to undercut the insurance markets by eliminating the individual mandate – a requirement under the ACA that Americans buy insurance or face a penalty.

Collins has backed one measure to give insurers $4.5 billion to compensate costs for the very sick and another that would restore “cost-sharing reductions” for poor people. (The Trump administration cut off these payments.) Either one would help offset at least some of the impact to the markets caused by the tax law and other administration actions.

But it is not clear that the measures can get through Congress. Republicans in the House have signaled they may refuse to let McConnell honor that agreement, to which they were not a party.

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ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has summoned the U.S. ambassador to protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s angry tweet about Pakistani “lies and deceit”, which Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif dismissed as a political stunt.

David Hale was summoned by the Pakistan foreign office on Monday to explain Trump’s tweet, media said. The ministry could not be reached for comment but the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad confirmed on Tuesday that a meeting had taken place.

Trump said the United States had had been rewarded with “nothing but lies and deceit” for “foolishly” giving Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid in the last 15 years.

“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” he tweeted on Monday.

His words drew praise from Pakistan’s old foe, India, and neighbouring Afghanistan, but long-time ally China defended Pakistan.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Tuesday chaired a National Security Committee meeting of civilian and military chiefs, focusing on Trump’s tweet. The meeting, which lasted nearly three hours, was brought forward by a day and followed an earlier meeting of army generals.

Relations with Washington have been strained for years over Islamabad’s alleged support for Haqqani network militants, who are allied with the Afghan Taliban.

The United States also alleges that senior Afghan Taliban commanders live on Pakistani soil, and has signalled that it will cut aid and take other steps if Islamabad does not stop helping or turning a blind eye to Haqqani militants crossing the border to carry out attacks in Afghanistan.

In 2016, Taliban leader Mullah Mansour was killed by a U.S. drone strike inside Pakistan and in 2011, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was found and killed by U.S. troops in the garrison town of Abbottabad.

Islamabad bristles at the suggestion that it is not doing enough to fight Islamist militants, noting that its casualties at the hands of Islamists since 2001 number in the tens of thousands.

“DEAD-END STREET”

Foreign Minister Asif dismissed Trump’s comments as a political stunt born out of frustration over U.S. failures in Afghanistan, where Afghan Taliban militants have been gaining territory and carrying out major attacks.

“He has tweeted against us and Iran for his domestic consumption,” Asif told Geo TV on Monday.

“He is again and again displacing his frustrations on Pakistan over failures in Afghanistan as they are trapped in dead-end street in Afghanistan.”

Asif added that Pakistan did not need U.S. aid.

A U.S. National Security Council official on Monday said the White House did not plan to send an already-delayed $255 million in aid to Pakistan “at this time” and that “the administration continues to review Pakistan’s level of cooperation”.

Afghan defence spokesman General Dawlat Waziri said Trump had “declared the reality”, adding that “Pakistan has never helped or participated in tackling terrorism”.

Jitendra Singh, a junior minister at the Indian prime minister’s office, said Trump’s comment had “vindicated India’s stand as far as terror is concerned and as far as Pakistan’s role in perpetrating terrorism is concerned”.

But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, asked during a briefing about Trump’s tweet, did not mention the United States.

“We have said many times that Pakistan has put forth great effort and made great sacrifices in combating terrorism,” he said. “It has made a prominent contribution to global anti-terror efforts.”

Pakistani officials say tough U.S. measures threaten to push Pakistan further into the arms of China, which has pledged to invest $57 billion in Pakistani infrastructure as part of its vast Belt and Road initiative.

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MUMBAI – Angry Dalits staged rail and road blockades and took out processions in Mumbai and carried out agitations in different parts of Maharashtra on Tuesday to protest against violence in Pune a day ago which left one youth dead.

The Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh, a Dalit party headed by Prakash Ambedkar – the grandson of Bharat Ratna B.R. Ambedkar, called for a ‘peaceful Maharashtra shutdown’ on Wednesday to express anger over the Pune incidents.

On Tuesday afternoon, thousands of Dalits took to the streets in Chembur, Mankhurd, Ghatkopar, Bhandup and other strongholds in north-eastern parts of the city demanding action against the perpetrators of the Pune riots.

Scores of Dalit youth blocked the Harbor Line of Central Railway near Chembur on Tuesday afternoon, leading to stoppage of the local train services for hours.

Several lakhs of commuters were stranded on stations or in stationary trains and many preferred to walk on the railway tracks to their destinations.

Similarly, hundreds of youths swooped onto the roads in eastern suburbs asking shops, restaurants and commercial establishments to down shutters, and staged road blocks.

However, police intervened and traffic movement resumed, though it resulted in massive vehicular snarls all over the city, some several kilometres long.

Protests and violent incidents were witnessed in other parts of the state, including Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Dhule, Beed, Nashik, Pune, Solapur, Thane and Palghar as Dalits expressed their ire over Monday’s incidents in Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district.

At least 25 buses of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, besides private luxury buses and other vehicles, were damaged in stone pelting by riotous mobs.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced a judicial probe by a sitting High Court judge and a CID investigation into Monday’s violence in Koregaon-Bhima.

The disturbances erupted in the village of Koregaon-Bhima on January 1 during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Anglo-Maratha War between the army of Peshwa Bajirao II with a small force of the East India Company that comprised a large number of Dalits.

Several lakhs of Dalits had congregated around the Victory Pillar (Vijay Stambh) erected by the British in Sanaswadi village when suddenly stone pelting started, allegedly by some right-wing groups carrying saffron flags.

In the clashes that ensued between the two groups, more than 30 vehicles, including buses, police vans and private vehicles, were torched or damaged and one youth, Rahul Fatangale, 28 of Nanded lost his life.

The police fired tear gas to control the mobs and prohibitory orders were imposed in the entire Pune district, with the situation reported tense but calm on Tuesday.

On Tuesday in most districts, protesters staged road blockades stopping traffic and enforced shutdown of shops and commercial establishments even as additional police forces were deployed.

Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar blamed the state government for “lapses” that resulted in the Monday violence.

“Why did the administration not take adequate precautions for this event which has been celebrated peacefully for 200 years? Due to its lapses, there was confusion and rumour-mongering, resulting in the violence,” Pawar demanded.

Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday hinted at a “big conspiracy” in the recent spurt in sporadic caste-related violence that has been erupting in the state, which needs to be thoroughly investigated and “the hidden hand” must be exposed.

On his part, Ambedkar appealed to his supporters to ensure that Wednesday’s shutdown call in the state passes off peacefully without inconveniencing the public and demanded action against those responsible for the Koregaon-Bhima incident.

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MILWAUKEE – A record-shattering Arctic freeze kept its grip on much of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains on Tuesday but temperatures everywhere except the Northeast were expected to warm within 24 hours.

Many school districts shut their classrooms due to the cold snap, which claimed four lives over the long New Year’s weekend.

The National Weather Service issued wind chill warnings for Tuesday as dangerously low temperatures were due from eastern Montana across the Midwest into the Atlantic coast and the Northeast and down through the deep South.

School districts in Iowa, Massachusetts, Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina canceled or delayed the start of classes as bitterly cold temperatures, 20 degrees to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (11 to 17 degrees Celsius) below normal, were expected across the eastern half of the United States.

“Just the bitter cold which is just too dangerous to put kids out on the street waiting for a bus that may not come,” Herb Levine, superintendent of the Peabody Public Schools, north of Boston, told a local CBS affiliate television station.

The cold was blamed for the deaths of two men in separate incidents in Milwaukee, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A homeless man was found dead on a porch in Charleston, West Virginia, while another man was found dead outside a church in Detroit and police said he may have froze to death, local news outlets reported.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser urged residents to call the city if they saw people outside.

“We want every resident to have shelter and warmth,” she said in a tweet.

Many places across the United States experienced record low temperatures over the last few days. Omaha, Nebraska, posted a low of minus 20F (minus 29C), breaking a 130-year-old record, and Aberdeen, South Dakota, shattered a record set in 1919 with a temperature of minus 32F (minus 36C).

The cold should ease across most of the country after Tuesday, but the northeastern section of the country will see a repeat of the frigid weather on Thursday or Friday as another arctic blast hits the area.

Private AccuWeather forecaster said the cold snap could combine with a storm brewing off the Bahamas to bring snow and high winds to much of the Eastern Seaboard as it heads north on Wednesday and Thursday.

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NEW YORK – The Sri Sri Radha Govinda Mandir, the Hare Krishna temple located in Brooklyn, is mired in controversy after fight over leadership – pitting the temple president and his board of trustees against the leaders of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, and a possible sale of the temple for close to $60 million to a developer, reported The New York Times.

The man who started the Hare Krishna movement in the United States, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, was part of Mahatma Gandhi’s civil disobedience movement in India and later became a disciple of a prominent Hindu guru who asked him to spread his teachings to the English-speaking world, said the report. So in 1965, at the age of 69, Swami Prabhupada stowed away on a cargo ship, arriving in New York with about $7 in Indian rupees and a crate of Sanskrit texts, according to the documentary “Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami Who Started It All.” He founded the Hare Krishna Society in 1966.

In Brooklyn, the temple attracted hundreds of people for Sunday services at first, but the congregation soon started to fracture, as did the organization at large. In 1996, a prominent leader in West Virginia, who had once run the largest Krishna community in the United States, was accused of murder and jailed for racketeering. Two years later, the Hare Krishna Society conceded that physical, sexual and emotional abuse of children occurred at its boarding schools across the country, including in Dallas, Seattle and several in India, the Times reported.

Although there were between 50 and 60 devotees who lived at the Brooklyn temple in the ’80s, the number of full-time volunteers dwindled over the years. By the ’90s, many of the congregants were Indian and Bangladeshi immigrants who traveled from Queens and Long Island to the temple, which prompted the idea of building a new temple in Queens, said Heather Britten (Satya Dasi), the temple’s treasurer.

Britten said that she believes a more modern space would benefit the community and help attract future members. Even though Downtown Brooklyn is booming, she explained to the Times, “The rent is so high in the area, there’s not a lot of people from our congregation who live around here anymore.” About 100 or so members attend Sunday services on a regular basis, she said.

The temple’s president, David Britten (Ramabhadra Das), and his board twice asked the Hare Krishna Society’s ecclesiastic directors, known as the Governing Body Commission, for permission to “move the deities,” which implied a property sale — once in 1998 and again 2008. Britten and his board were given approval both times, said Seth Spellman (Sesa Das), a commission member and the head of a group tasked with halting the current sale. But a lack of interest from buyers, and then the financial crisis, held back possible deals, the report said.

As the economy and the real estate market once again gathered steam, however, it became easier for the board to find a buyer. Two years ago, congregants were shocked to discover that the temple board had signed a sales contract with a developer for $58.8 million.

Many members say an existing temple, and more important, the deities that live there, cannot be moved unless there’s an urgent need, as stipulated in Swami Prabhupada’s will. It is sacrilegious, said Shakti Assouline, a 36-year-old yoga instructor and former congregant of the Brooklyn temple who said she is no longer welcome there because of her differing opinion, the report said.

Tensions erupted in late July 2017, when the commission tried to remove Mr. Britten from his post after decades of service. He refused to leave the temple, where he lives, or abdicate his position. Instead, he locked the temple doors for several weeks, shuttering Govinda’s as well. Although Sunday services resumed a few weeks later, congregants noticed private security personnel at the door blocking several members who had been vocally against the sale from entering the building.

The commission grew more concerned when the large Hare Krishna Society temple sign was removed from the building’s facade in August, leading some to believe that Mr. Britten was disassociating the temple from the society.

The tension, of course, is over which governing entity — the local temple board, led by Mr. Britten, or the global Hare Krishna Society, led by the Governing Body Commission — will have control over the millions of dollars from the property sale, if it is allowed to proceed, the Times reported.

The temple property is owned by a religious corporation called the Bharati Center Inc., which legally makes the temple board trustees the owners of 295-311 Schermerhorn Street.

If the sale goes forward, the commission is worried that the money will be in the hands of a temple board that no longer seems to be part of the Hare Krishna Society, so it has taken steps to wrestle back control of the temple by forming a new board of trustees, which includes Mr. Surti. But the Brittens, as well as the other board members who are supportive of the sale, continue to exist and operate.

The New York State attorney general’s office told the Bharati Center board in September that the multiple proposals it had submitted didn’t meet the legal requirements for approval and that it should find recourse in court. A date has been set for late January at State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, the New York Times reported.

The fractured Brooklyn congregation has led to the formation of many smaller Hare Krishna groups. Surti said a group in New Rochelle attracts society members from Westchester, the Bronx and Upper Manhattan, while there are several in Queens, including a Bengali and Gujarati group that meets in Long Island City and Jackson Heights, the report said.

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NEW YORK – The medical license of an Indian American physician, Dr. Sanjiv Patankar, a colon and rectal surgeon based in East Brunswick, New Jersey, has been temporarily suspended for allegedly reusing disposable anal catheters on multiple patients at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

According to an NJ.com report, Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino and the Division of Consumer Affairs said in a statement that Patankar “allegedly washed and reused the small, flexible catheters that are inserted into patients’ rectums during medical procedures.”

“It is appalling that a doctor would engage in such an unsanitary and dangerous practice. Through his alleged conduct, Dr. Patankar has demonstrated a reckless disregard for public safety that placed countless patients at risk of communicable diseases,” Porrino said in the statement.

During a hearing held on Dec. 19, 2017, the state documented evidence which allegedly showed that 82 anal evaluation tests were performed in Patankar’s office between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30 last year and only five catheters were ordered within those 11 months.

As stated in a Daily Mail UK report, anal catheters, which can be sold for as little as $0.25 each on Alibaba, are basically plastic tubes which are inserted into the anus to collect fecal matter or to put fluid into the anal cavity and intestines as well as flush a patient’s insides with saline solution or collect stool samples to test for signs of abnormalities, all of which Patankar was doing.

Anorectal manometries tests are performed by inserting the small end of the tube into the patient’s rectum, which would inflate a small balloon to open up the rectal cavity and the other end of the tube is attached to a machine to gauge pressure, these tests are used to evaluate patients for constipation, fecal incontinence, lack of bowel control and other possible disorders.

A press release from the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General (OAG) stated that Patanker was also using an outdated version of this machine.

The state also argued during the Dec. 19 hearing that the catheter tubes were on back order.

According to a testimony from some of his medical assistants Patankar had them wash the catheters tubes in soap and water first, then soak them in bleach for 30 minutes and were reportedly rinsed again and left out to air dry before they were replaced in their original plastic packages, which prosecutors argued, are clearly marked ‘do not reuse.’

A Forbes article explains the dangers of reusing a catheter tube: “it can be a bit like washing and then reusing used toilet paper. Neither toilet paper nor single-use catheters are designed to be washed, making them difficult to adequately clean and disinfect. Microbes such as bacteria and viruses can hide out in the various cracks, crevices, and pores in the catheter.”

The Forbes article further states that, “such unacceptable re-use can help transmit infectious diseases from one patient to another” and washing the device “can significantly damage any device, equipment, or material that is not designed to be washed” which “can not only impair the functioning of the catheter but also create more cracks, tears, and other places for microbes to hide.”

Patankar’s license will remain temporarily suspended as a full hearing in the state Office of Administrative Law is still pending and nothing can be done until the Board of Medical Examiners takes final action based on further findings.

According to the Forbes article, steps which can be taken to avoid such malpractice include: choosing your doctors, clinics, and hospitals carefully; scanning the surroundings such as the office space, examining room, procedure rooms and the overall environment for cleanliness; familiarizing yourself with every procedure you are to receive; inquiring about the procedures which are used to clean and check equipment, watching the equipment being taken out of its packaging; being aware of any signs of damage, wear and tear, or hygiene issues; asking to see and read the packaging to check if the device is labeled as single-use and asking how the devices and equipment are handled.

The State of New Jersey says that patients who suspect they were treated improperly by a licensed health care professional can submit a complaint online with the state Division of Consumer Affairs by visiting NJConsumerAffairs.gov or by calling 1-800-242-5846 (toll-free within New Jersey) or 973-504- 6200.

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