Madea’s back — hallelujer! Tyler Perry returns with everyone’s favorite character in Tyler Perry’s A Madea Homecoming, the newest film in the MADEA franchise set to debut on Netflix. Writer-director-producer Perry stars in the film that centers around Madea’s great-grandson’s college graduation, though the celebratory moment hits a halt as hidden secrets and family drama threaten to destroy the happy homecoming. The film features all-stars of the MADEA franchise, including Tamela Mann (Cora), David Mann (Mr. Brown),Cassi Davis Patton (Aunt Bam) as well as a guest appearance from iconic Irish actor Brendan O’Carroll, who matches Madea’s comedic prowess as Agnes Brown.

Before the release of the new Madea film, Tyler revealed why another Madea movie was necessary. He also talked about the hilarious memes that has been circulating on social media. Press play for the full interview.

You want your employees to stay safe on the road, especially while in a company-owned vehicle. For those who may travel great distances for work, having a company car is essential, so the costs of gas and travel don’t come out of their own pocket.

Company cars have several benefits, but they require great responsibility on behalf of the driver, too. Follow this checklist to see how any employer can start to trust their employees with responsibility for a company-owned vehicle.

1. Business Vehicle Insurance

Consider getting business or corporate insurance for your company cars. This insurance gives you more protection than personal car insurance would, so if you’re lending out quite a few vehicles, purchasing the right insurance is vital. This type of insurance does the same as any personal car insurance — protects the driver and the cost of damages if there happens to be a wreck somewhere.

Just remember that you are the one liable for any extreme bad driving your employees show on the road. As such, you may choose to have a driving class or restrict the use of company cars to only experienced drivers with excellent track records. Negligence is not an option, so carefully choose who will drive your company cars.

2. Detailed Records

Ensure that you keep a detailed record of which employees currently drive company cars and where they go. You might be able to install a tracker that maps out the routes a company car drives, allowing you to make sure you know where one of your cars is going. If you don’t have the resources or desire for tracking, ask your employees to keep a record of where they’ve gone and rely on the honor system.

Alongside your detailed records, you can motivate your employees to drive safely. Providing incentives for the safest drivers in your company can encourage everyone to be more aware when they drive — which ultimately protects them in both their personal and company cars and saves you the trouble of dealing with insurance.

3. Discretion Upon Hiring

You want to ensure that the people you trust with company property won’t speed or drive in other reckless ways. The best way to get ahead of this issue is to screen potential hires who may use company cars after they spend some time with your company. Look up driving records before you decide to hire someone. Think carefully about whether they would be a good fit for a position that requires or allows optional use of a company car.

Also, you should create policies and procedures for dealing with company cars that potential hires and existing employees can peruse before they choose to lease a company car. Make a set of rules that employees will have to follow to keep the company car, and if they don’t follow them, deal with repercussions accordingly.

4. Preventative Maintenance

Company cars see more wear and tear than personal cars, especially when traveling over long distances. As such, you may have to take your company cars in for maintenance more than your personal car. How much you get it seen by professionals depends on how often your employees drive the company cars and for how long.

Doing things like changing the brake fluid and checking on the AC unit can keep your company car running for years without a breakdown that could render it useless. With routine maintenance, you’ll know if something is wrong before the problem exacerbates. If an employee doesn’t keep the company car at their house and only uses it for trips, consider getting a car checked after every trip. Doing so will also let you know whether an employee should be held responsible for something happening to the vehicle.

Keep Your Employees and Your Company Property Safe

By the end of a given year, around 10% of all cars on the road are owned by a company rather than an individual. When your employees are traveling, you strive to keep them safe. By taking the steps listed above, you’ll ensure that only the safest, most trustworthy drivers are handling your company vehicles, thereby avoiding small issues like speeding in company cars.

“In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups. The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.”

DUN DUN!

We heard those words for the first time on September 13, 1990. For twenty seasons we followed the stories of the investigating cops and the prosecuting lawyers. The program never jumped the shark. Yeah, there were some seasons that weren’t so great. Yeah, there were characters that didn’t always ring true….don’t get me started on Serena asking if her being a lesbian was the reason she was fired. But Sam Waterston as Jack McCoy and Jerry Orbach as Lennie Briscoe were so great that they’ll be remembered forever.

We last saw the original L&O on May 24, 2010. There were many more stories to tell but NBC pulled the plug after twenty years. The fans of the show were disappointed but we always felt there was a chance that it would return. When it was announced that Law and Order was coming back, there was excitement and anticipation. Would the latest version live up to the excellence of the 1990-2010 version?

Last night was episode one of the reboot. There was some good and some things that need a little work.

It’s great to see Anthony Anderson reprise his role as Detective Kevin Bernard. It adds some continuity between the old and new show. Howver, I didn’t feel a connection between him and his partner, Frank Cosgrove, who is played by Jeffrey Donovan. We’ll see if they grow as a team in future episodes.

The legal side of the show was much better. I like the connection between the prosecutors who are played by Hugh Dancy and Odelya Halevi. Her closing argument at the end was moving and I bought in to what I was watching. Plus, although I liked the Jack McCoy character better when he was an Assistant District Attorney instead of the head of the office, it’s always special when you get Sam Waterston involved, no matter how small a role he has. Also, having Carey Lowell return as Jamie Ross was great. She was always my favorite assistant prosecutor. I hope we see more of her in future episodes.

So to recap last night’s proceedings, it was a good start for the original of the Law and Order franchise. Let’s hope they can keep the good stuff, and improve the rest. I look forward to seeing if they can succeed.

DUN DUN!!

Related Post: Are you excited for the Law and Order reboot?

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As a little boy, I would often look in wonder at the black and white images flickering on the screens of American television that gave me a look at the May Day parades in Red Square. I was sure I would never be able to actually go to Red Square and see those funny-looking spiral rooftops of the churches that everyone immediately recognizes as iconically Russian.

As an adult, I and my entire family of six got to go to Red Square through the help of a very good friend that I had made during my days climbing up the ladder. I think we both enjoyed each other’s company and trusted each other’s opinions. The trip was an eye-opener for all of us and one with a few surprises including our ability to stay in a corporate apartment at no charge. We had a hotel booked and this last-minute opening not only saved us money but had us staying only a few blocks from Red Square and the Kremlin at a location known as Pushkin Square. For those who aren’t familiar with Russian poets, Pushkin is one of the greatest – he’s their Mark Twain or Shakespeare that every bureaucrat loved to quote no matter where their political affiliation lie.

Last night approximately 17 to 18 hundred Muscovites braved the cold to protest Putin’s WAR. About 1400 of those protesters were arrested and carted off to jail. There was a time, not that long ago when you could actually peacefully protest in Russia after perestroika and before Putin went from being a deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg to the heir apparent gaining that distinction by working for the democratically elected Boris Yeltsin following the fall of the Communist Party. Today, democratic norms like peaceful protest, confirmed by the Russian Constitution are mere figments of previous dreams that turned into a nightmare as one man became an autocrat that turned into a dictator. There is no room for dissent in Russia today – NONE – NYET!

That’s why what the Russian citizens did in Pushkin Square matters. They are openly defying a regime that no longer tolerates any form of dissent. Russians are, based on my time in that country, good people and many are against the war, especially with Ukraine where many have family and friends.

In St. Petersburg, on that same night, the first day of Putin’s war, some 8,000 Russians protested against the war. That police presence dared not challenge such a large group.

We in America and the world should appreciate the sacrifice of those in Pushkin’s Square to GO DO GOOD, even if it meant suffering arrest and imprisonment because PUTIN’S WAR needs to be challenged from within Russia as well as by the rest of the world. Let the people of Ukraine live in peace, let them have their right to self-determination, and may their resolve be supported by all – including the good people of Russia.

The GOES-West weather satellite has had problems ever since it reached orbit and went into operation in 2018. Meant to capture images and data that is critical to meteorologists and researchers, the malfunctions and flawed data have been of huge concern to the engineers and operators responsible for the satellite.

Fortunately, the problem was identified, and a new weather satellite is launching to orbit to take its place.

What Happened with GOES-West?

The GOES-West satellite began its life as GOES-S and launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 1, 2018. Approximately three and a half hours after launch, the spacecraft was delivered into geostationary orbit 22,300 miles above Earth and reclassified GOES-17. Once in orbit, the satellite’s Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) was powered on.

By May 23, 2018, operators on the ground had noticed that both of the ABI’s Loop Heat Pipes (LHPs) were not effectively transferring excess heat away from the instrument. This excess heat caused the instrument to overheat and led to a loss of data at certain times of the year. Between May 29th and September 28th, an Independent Review Team (IRT) worked to find out why the LHPs failed and find any solution to preserve as much data quality as possible.

Exploded view of the ABI instrument showing detail of the Loop Heat Pipe System. Credit: NASA/NOAA/L3 Harris

The team was able to work out alternate operations, procedures, and operating limits to preserve a 97% data availability for the GOES-17 satellite. Examples of this include changing the position of the satellite to limit the amount of sunlight that reaches the ABI. Having restored 97% data availability, GOES-17 was declared operational and renamed GOES-West.

How Does the Loop Heat Pipe Failure Affect GOES-West Data?

During nighttime hours at certain parts of the year, the Sun will heat up Infrared (IR) detectors inside the ABI. Because the LHPs are unable to cool these detectors, they become warmer than they were designed to operate. The IR detectors were designed to measure the thermal energy radiated from the Earth’s atmosphere. When these detectors become too warm, they radiate at temperatures close to the wavelengths they are attempting to detect from the Earth. Eventually, these emissions overwhelm the signal from the Earth “saturating” the detectors and making the data they provide unusable.

Example of unusable data in 7 of the Infrared bands due to overheating of the ABI instrument. Credit: NOAA/STAR

The GOES Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI)

The ABI is the primary instrument on the GOES-R series of satellites. It is a mission critical payload that provides 65% of all mission data. The ABI views the Earth with 16 different spectral bands or “channels”. Two visible channels, four near-infrared channels, and ten infrared channels. Past GOES satellites only used 5 spectral bands. Data from the ABI is used by meteorologists to monitor the weather, oceans, land, climate, and hazards such as forest fires, volcanoes, flooding, hurricanes, and severe storms.

The GOES-R ABI Instrument. Credit: NASA/NOAA/L3 Harris

The ABI can track and monitor cloud formation, atmospheric motion, convection, land surface temperature, ocean dynamics, the flow of water, fire, smoke, volcanic ash plumes, aerosols and air quality, and vegetative health. It enables meteorologists to pinpoint and track developing storms with much greater detail. The ABI can provide images at 5–10-minute intervals. During severe weather situations, images can be provided as fast as 1 minute or 30 seconds.

Replacing GOES West with GOES-T

Based on recommendations from the IRT, the GOES-T LHPs have been redesigned to limit the chance of future cooling anomalies. The new design will be a simpler configuration and eliminate the filters in the LHPs that are susceptible to being clogged.

Artist rendition of the GOES-R satellite observing the Earth. Credit: NASA/NOAA

On June 24, 2021, the decision was made to replace GOES-West with GOES-T due to the ongoing issue with the LHP. GOES-T is scheduled to launch on March 1, 2022. Shortly after reaching its orbit, it will be renamed GOES-18. After it completes system checkouts it will take the place of GOES-17 as GOES-West. GOES-17 will then be placed into on-orbit storage.

I have this tradition at every concert where I ask the people around me what they think the opening song is going to be? Allison said, “Pictures,” and Jamie said, “Kilby Girl!” I was thinking “Shut Your Mouth,” or “Pool House,” but never in a million years did I think they would warm up the audience with their hit.

Joshua Harmon, (lead vocals and guitar)
Photo by Adam Franklin

The Backseat Lovers did just that, playing a card I’ve rarely seen played, and opened with a song that has been streamed over 100 million times, “Kilby Girl.” While I was wrong, and my brother was right, this is not about us, but a band that is at a career-defining moment.

The Backseat Lovers at The Vic In Chicago, Illinois.

Touring with enough confidence to burn their biggest hit first, knowing their small, yet incredible, catalog has enough steam to power them through the night. It takes an understanding of how invested your fans are and how good your songwriting is. More than that, it takes guts, knowing that if they play their biggest song, they have 15 other great tunes right behind it. So why not ratchet the energy level up to 11 and keep it there all night?

They did that as well. The Backseat Lovers have sharpened their repertoire to a fine point, expanding bridges into jam sessions, and extending the endings to nearly every song. These four players are a tightly knit unit that can go from zero to one hundred at the drop of a dime as evidenced on “Pool House,” where they break it down to a few, quiet notes before they all come stomping back into the hook, and the crowd screams, “Wait inside, I’ll be fine.”

Drummer Juice Welch and bass player KJ Ward are the bedrock that allows for such versatility while Joshua Harmon, (lead vocals and guitar) does his best Thom Yorke, skittering around the room, leaving just enough sonic space for Jonas Swanson (lead guitar and vocals), to lay down his Johnny Greenwood-like guitar effects.

L to R: KJ Ward (bass player), Jonas Swanson (lead guitar and vocals), Joshua Harmon, (lead vocals and guitar), and Juice Welch (drummer). Photos by Adam Franklin

During the set, a guy next to us leans over and says, “I’ve never heard The Vic sound this loud!” It’s true, the crowd was raucous, people in the balcony were standing and singing every word, and on most songs, there was a call-and-response routine. On “Maple Syrup,” when we get to the intimate moment where frontman Harmon sings, “Did it hurt,” the crowd responds, “When I kicked you to the curb?” That last line felt hard to sing, but seeing as the rest of the crowd was smiling and following through, I joined back in! “Now I’m all alone, I guess I’ll never learn.” It’s been a long time since I felt this much togetherness and positive energy.

“Davy Crochet” brought the fun, while “Dugout” showcased some of the hardest rocking moments of the night, including dueling guitars and the best fretwork of the concert. I can’t forget the incredible version of “Sinking Ship” in which the band did NOT “hold back” one iota.

Backseat Lovers Photos By Adam Franklin

From their self-produced Elevator Days we were treated to “Write Your Letters,” and the song that got this band started, “Out Of Tune.” “Pictures” too, which sent me home singing, “Take your pictures, take another shot of liquor/I want records, You want babies, I want a table for two.”

It was a beautiful set, with “Heavy” and “Close Your Eyes,” giving us a look into what their sophomore album will sound like as the band begins to write more together. I left feeling overwhelmed by their talent and impressed by their maturity. How can this band be so good at such an early point in their career? Hard work and determination.

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