Friday, July 31, 2020

Padma Lakshmi Hosts and Produces "Taste the Nation" and "Top Chef"


Padma Lakshmi is an international model, the host and executive producer of the TV show "Top Chef" in USA, and now she is the host of the new food and travel programme, "Taste the Nation" on Hulu, a leading Disney video service, where she visits chefs in immigrant communities who have contributed to the American culinary heritage.


The interview lasts 41 minutes, so it can be used by C2 students and experts as background listening while you are doing something else, like walking, gardening or ironing. There is a full script which helps to pick up unintelligible words, or to do a reading and listening exercise with C1 students.  You can also find a text that summirizes the highlights of the interview.

The interview contains many new words, including cooking ingredients: to acknowledge, cages, backbone, to pick up, to leave off, to be vilified, insight, a diner, to get heckled, [to sneak] snuck snuck, to take somebody to task, a rocking chair, dosa, lentil, crepe, batter, upma, sauteed, sooji, rava, couscous, quinoa, to streamline, carnivorousness, pepperoni, baloney, cold cuts, squeamish, tripe, offal, brewers, to be spotted, audition, legit, booker, mortified, a rocky start, outsider, appeal, scar, to dawn on me, cachet, S & M, pose, to squander, knickers, stockinged, cleavage, duster jacket, keloid, whole-hog, grunge, billboards, self-loathing, to admonish, to rear-end, embankment, jaws of life, windshield, ribs, home-bound, penance, secular, to have a career in [food], a major in theatre, to pay off, collage loans, premiere, cookbook, a spiral notebook, to jot down, splash, ploy, freak, compound, a knitted blanket, a crocheted blanket, to sling slung slung, a platter, gosh, to dress up, guilt, to make waves, sexually assaulted, op-ed, to be challenged [in court], unwillingness, it weighed on me, date rape, taxing, to rip off, to cherish, chronic pain, to crumple in bed, a heating pad, the period, to handle, to dispel, to wreak havoc, lining, leftover tissue, memoir, to instil in [somebody], cuddly, siblings, hem, sari, a well-read person, verbatim.

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Sam Giambalvo, a Nurse and a Moving Embrace at the 7:00 Clap

This is a "human interest" story from Humankind, a USA Today video channel on YouTube and Facebook that features "uplifting stories about kindness, triumphs and special relationships". 

Sam Giambalvo is a travelling nurse who tells an emotional story at the 7:00 clap back in June 2020. She speaks fast, standard American English, but there are subtitles, which can be very helpful. You will hear lots of expressions related to feelings, for example: sirens, applause, honoring, frontline workers, to pass away, ER, to follow your feelings, comforting, I lost it, let me be upset, a split second, to get me through the shift, to give a hug, to look forward to something, a terrace, a storey, to hold a sign, to wave for you, to point at you, he fist pumps, he'll blow kisses, sirens wailing, joyous, appreciation, to sprint out there, to show up, God is blessing us, break, upbeat music.
 
This video can be recommended to C1 students (with the subtitles).


Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Morgan Bullock, an African American, Irish Dancer

Morgan Bullock is a 20-year-old African American from Richmond, Virginia, who uploaded an Irish dance version of BeyoncĂ©'s "The Savage Remix" on Tik Tok, which went viral. Many people loved her artistic performance, but there were some who accused her of "cultural misappropriation".  If you want to find out the end of the story you can click on the following BBC link to watch a 4:15 video of the story with subtitles, which could be accessible to B2 students: bbc.in/30p2Y6w

But if your level of English is higher, you can try the full BBC video report below, which is 10:51, and has no subtitles


Friday, July 17, 2020

100,000 Mink to be Culled in Aragon

The BBC reports that 100,000 mink are going to be culled in a farm in Puebla de Valverde (Teruel) because they have been infected with coronavirus, after JoaquĂ­n Olona, agriculture minister for the Aragon region, announced the decision yesterday.  The outbreak was discovered back in May, when the wife of a farm worker was infected with the virus.  It is not clear, though, if transmission from animals to humans and viceversa is possible.  Similar cases have been found in the Netherlands and Denmark, major producers of mink for their fur. Click here if you want more details of the story.

This report is suitable for B2 students.  You will find interesting words and expressions in context like mink, to be culled, an outbreak, to contract the virus, to test positive, to be bred for their fur, hotspots, to stress [an idea], unwittingly, an unsubstantiated theory, to pass on a disease, to be slaughtered.

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen published a memoir in 2016, entitled "Born to Run", after his greatest hit, where he reveals some hidden aspects of his life and personality, so, he was interviewed by Terry Gross, to present his book on NPR's Fresh Air radio programme.  The listening is long, 22 minutes, so, it is problably very suitable for "extensive listening", that is, to listen to while you are doing something else, like walking, driving, or ironing, but you can always go the the script, if you are lost or if you want to check a word that you didn't pick up.

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Ennio Morricone, the Italian Composer Who Wrote the Soundtrack of the Far-West

Ennio Morricone has died at the age of 91 in Rome. He was the composer of the score of  more than 500 films, including successful "spaghetti westerns" like "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", "Once Upon a Time in the West" with director Sergio Leone and other box office hits like "Cinema Paradiso", "The Mission" or Brian de Palma's "The Untouchables".  He won an honorary Oscar in 2007, and an outright one for Quentin Tarantino's film "The Hateful Eight" in 2015.  He was recently awarded the 2020 Princess of Asturias Prize for the Arts by the Spanish Crown.

He managed to create an atmosphere of mystery, toughness and humour by orchestrating music based on "howls, gunshots and groans".  Rose Friedman, writing an appreciation for NPR, says that in Western movies, where dialogue was minimal, "music did the talking". Here you can listen to a 4-minute radio report with its script, and a written version of the story. Both can be accessible to B2 students.

The vocabulary level of the reports is challenging, though, and you will find words like "sneaky tricks,  whistles, animal calls, creaks, gunshots, groans, howls, hip, a raucous sound, avant-garde, to be off-and-running, choirmaster, the score, to pay off, to win a prize".

Monday, July 6, 2020

Michigan groups sue to "Stop the Hamster Wheel" - Medicaid hearings that are never resolved due to lack of adequate funding



A press release from three legal advocacy groups, Including Michigan Protection and Advocacy Services (MPAS), alleges "Systematic Due Process Violations in Michigan Medicaid Program":

...Lansing, MI – Medicaid recipients have long had rights to “fair hearings” to challenge actions affecting their benefits. According to a new lawsuit, however, recipients in Michigan cannot get relief from those hearings, even when they win.

The suit, filed by attorneys for Michigan Protection & Advocacy Service, Inc. (MPAS), the National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ) and Legal Services of South Central Michigan (LSSCM), says that the administrative law judges (ALJs) presiding over fair hearings lack the power to order the agency to grant the benefits it had wrongfully denied. All they can do is send the case back to the agency to “reassess” the recipient. And when the agency comes back with the same decision on reassessment—as it often does—all the recipient can do is ask for another fair hearing, where the same thing will happen again. This is the Michigan Medicaid “Hamster Wheel”: recipients run and they run and they run, but they never get anywhere.

Named Plaintiff Kevin Wiesner lives with various disabilities, and he relies on Medicaid-funded community living supports (CLS) to stay in the community. In 2019, he challenged the CLS budget provided by Washtenaw County Community Mental Health (WCCMH), and the ALJ held in his favor in every respect: The budget was insufficient to meet Kevin’s medical needs, it had been insufficient since at least 2015, and at least a certain, specific amount was required to make it sufficient. But the ALJ did not—because he said he could not—order a budget of that amount. Instead, he told WCCMH to “reassess” Mr. Wiesner’s needs. To no one’s surprise, WCCMH’s “reassessment” ignored the ALJ’s determination and denied Mr. Wiesner any increase at all.

“For more than 50 years, the Constitution and federal statutes have guaranteed public benefit recipients the right to an impartial determination of their benefits,” said Ed Krugman, a senior attorney at NCLEJ, “The Michigan Hamster Wheel makes a mockery of that right. Kevin Wiesner fought for the services he needs, and he won, but he got precisely nothing. That is a travesty.”

“The Medicaid Fair Hearing System is supposed to give recipients the right to challenge actions that negatively affect their benefits,” said Kyle Williams, legal director for MPAS. “If administrative law judges are only allowed to order reassessments, they can never win those challenges, because the reassessment decision is ultimately in the hands of the agency that took the negative action in the first place.”

Nick Gable, attorney for LSSCM, offered a similar thought. “The Medicaid fair hearing “Hamster Wheel” has been a problem for years, to the point that appeals challenging personal care or home and community-based support services denials are rendered futile. A legal challenge to the Hamster Wheel is overdue.”

The suit names WCCMH, Community Mental Health Partnership of Southeast Michigan, their directors, and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon as defendants. The requested relief seeks to end the practice of ALJs remanding cases without ordering specific relief for Medicaid recipients.


Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service, Inc. (MPAS) is the independent, private, nonprofit organization designated by the governor of the State of Michigan to advocate and protect the legal rights of people with disabilities in Michigan.
www.mpas.org

Since 1965, the National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ) has worked with low-income families, individuals, communities, and a wide range of organizations to advance the cause of economic justice through litigation, policy work, and support of grassroots organizing around the country.
www.nclej.org

Legal Services of South Central Michigan provides free legal advice and representation to low-income individuals, families, and older adults.
www.lsscm.org
###

For more information, contact:

Mark McWilliams
mmcwilliams@mpas.org

or Edward P. Krugman
krugman@nclej.org

Kerry Kafafian [kerrykafafian@gmail.com ], Kevin's mom, is also willing to provide more information about the lawsuit.

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