Members of Brownie Troop 60125 volunteered at the Family Giving Tree warehouse in Sunnyvale on Dec. 7, sorting, wrapping and organizing gifts and getting them ready for bagging for the nonprofit’s Holiday Wish Drive. The troop also hosted a Virtual Giving Tree along with Junior Troop 60174, adopting 25 wish cards, and used cookie sale proceeds to shop for gifts at Pennyland Toys in Campbell, which offered the troops a discount. Donations to the Virtual Giving Trees can be made until 9 p.m. on Jan. 15, 2026, at https://wishdrive.org/girlscouttroop60125
Founded in Milpitas and now located in Santa Clara, Family Giving Tree has already collected more than 24,000 gifts this season and is working toward helping 50,000 children and families across the Bay Area, according to Evelyn Huynh, director of community resource development.
Peninsula Symphony concert
Grammy-nominated pianist Joyce Yang will perform with the Peninsula Symphony Jan. 17, 2026, in a program balancing the First Concerto of Beethoven with three orchestral visions of the story of “Romeo and Juliet.” Works by Strauss, Prokofiev and Diamond complete this program, to be performed at Campbell’s Heritage Theatre, located at 1 W Campbell Ave.
Ever wondered how long it would take to build an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, in your backyard?
In the case of Alvaro “Al” and Nenette Alcazar, a retired couple, who downsized from a six-bedroom home in New Orleans to a one-bedroom ADU in Los Angeles, it took just 3½ months.
“We went on vacation to the Philippines in November, right as they were getting started on construction,” Al says of the ADU his son Jay Alcaraz and his partner Andy Campbell added behind their home in Harbor Gateway. “When we returned in March of this year, the house was ready for us.”
The Alcazars were surprised by the rapid completion of their new 570-square-foot modular home by Gardena-based Cover. By the time construction was finished, they hadn’t yet listed their New Orleans home, where they lived for 54 years while raising their two sons.
Andy Campbell, seated left, and his partner Jay Alcazar’s home is reflected in the windows of the ADU where Alcazar’s parents Al and Nenette Alcazar, standing, now reside.
Jay Alcazar and Andy Campbell’s backyard in Harbor Gateway before they added an ADU.
(Jay Alcazar)
Alexis Rivas, co-founder and CEO of Cover, was also surprised by how quickly the ADU was permitted, taking just 45 days. “The total time from permit submittal to certificate of occupancy was 104 days,” he says, crediting the city’s Standard Plan and the ADU’s integrated panelized system for making it the fastest Clover has ever permitted.
For Al, a longtime religious studies professor at Loyola University New Orleans and community organizer, the construction process was more than just demolition and site prep. Seeing the Cover workers collaborate on their home reminded him of “bayanihan,” a Filipino core value emphasizing community unity and collective action.
“Both of my parents were public school teachers,” says Al, who was exiled from the Philippines in 1972. “When they moved to a village where there were no schools, the parents were so happy their children wouldn’t have to walk to another village to go to school that they built them a home.”
“It’s only one bedroom but we love it,” says Nenette Alcazar. “It’s the right size for two people.”
Like his childhood home in the village of Cag-abaca, Al says his and Nenette’s ADU “felt like a community built it somewhere and carried it into the garden for us to live in.” Only in this instance, the home was not a Nipa hut made of bamboo but a home made of steel panels manufactured in a factory in Gardena and installed on-site.
Jay Alcaraz, 40, and Campbell, 43, had been renting a house in Long Beach for three years when they started looking for a home to buy in 2022. Initially, they had hoped to stay in Long Beach, but when they realized they couldn’t afford it, they broadened their search to include Harbor Gateway. “It was equidistant to my job as a professor of critical studies at USC, and Jay’s job as a senior product manager at Stamps.com near LAX,” Campbell says.
When they eventually purchased a three-bedroom Midcentury home that needed some work, they were delighted to find themselves in a neighborhood filled with multigenerational households within walking distance of Asian supermarkets and restaurants.
The ADU does not overwhelm the backyard. “It looks like a house in a garden,” says Al Alcazar.
“We can walk to everything,” says Jay. “The post office. The deli. The grocery store. We love Asian food, and can eat at a different Asian restaurant every day.”
Adds Campbell: “We got the same thing we had in Long Beach here, plus space for an ADU.”
At a time when multigenerational living is growing among older men and women in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center, it’s not surprising that the couple began considering an ADU for Jay’s parents soon after purchasing their home, knowing that Al and Nenette, who no longer drives, would feel comfortable in the neighborhood.
They started by reviewing ADUs that the city has pre-approved for construction as part of the ADU Standard Plan Program on the city’s Building and Safety Department website. The initiative, organized by former L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office in collaboration with Building and Safety in 2021, was designed to simplify the lengthy permitting process and help create more housing.
The 570-square-foot house has a single bedroom and bathroom.
Jay and Al Alcazar have coffee in the kitchen of the ADU.
They reached out to several potential architects and secured a line of credit for $300,000. They decided to go with Cover after touring its facility and one of its completed ADUs. “We liked that they were local and their facility was five minutes away from us,” Campbell says.
The couple originally envisioned removing their backyard pergola and lawn and adding an L-shaped ADU. But after consulting with Rivas, they decided on a rectangular unit with large-format glass sliders and warm wood cladding to preserve the yard.
The configuration was the right choice, as the green space between the two homes, which includes a deck and drought-tolerant landscaping, serves as a social hub for both couples, who enjoy grilling, sharing meals at the outdoor dining table and gardening. Just a few weeks ago, the family celebrated Al’s 77th birthday in the garden along with their extended family.
Nenette, a self-described “green thumb,” is delighted by the California garden’s bounty, including oranges, lemons, guava trees and camellias. “I can see the palm trees moving back and forth and the hummingbirds in the morning,” she says.
“They’re a lot of fun,” Jay Alcazar says of his parents. “They are great dinner companions.”
Although some young couples might hesitate to live close to their parents and in-laws, Jay and Campbell see their ADU as a convenient way to stay close and support Jay’s parents as they age in place.
Besides, Jay says, they’re a lot of fun. “They are great dinner companions,” he says.
Campbell, who enjoys having coffee on the outdoor patio with Al, agrees. “When I met them for the first time 12 years ago, they had a group over for dinner and hosted a karaoke party until 3 a.m.,” he said. “I was like, ‘Is this a regular thing?’”
A teak bed from the Philippines and family mementos help to make the new ADU feel like home.
Unlike the Alcazars’ spacious 1966 home in New Orleans, their new ADU’s interiors are modern and simple, with white oak floors and cabinets and Bosch appliances, including a stackable washer and dryer. Despite downsizing a lifetime of belongings, Al and Nenette were able to keep a few things that help make the ADU feel like home. In the living room, mother of pearl lamps and wood-carved side tables serve as a reminder of their old house. In their bedroom, a hand-carved teak bed from the Philippines, still showing signs of water damage from Hurricane Katrina, was built by artisans in Nenette’s family.
“Madonna and Jack Nicholson both ordered this bed,” Nenette says proudly.
The couple chose a thermally processed wood cladding for its warmth. “It will develop a silver hue over time,” says Alexis Rivas of Cover. “It’s zero maintenance.”
But one thing didn’t work out in their move West. When they realized their sofa would take up too much room in the 8-foot portable storage pod they rented in New Orleans, they decided to purchase an IKEA sleeper sofa in L.A. It’s now in the mix along with their personal artifacts and family photos that further add memories to the interiors, including a reproduction of the Last Supper, a common tradition in many Filipino homes symbolizing the importance of coming together to share meals. With limited storage, the families share the two-car garage, where Al stores his tools.
“It’s only one bedroom, but we love it,” says Nenette, 79, of the ADU, which cost $380,000. “It’s just the right size for two people.”
The ADU feels private, both couples say, thanks to the 9-foot-long custom curtains they ordered online from Two Pages Curtains. “When the curtains are open, we know they are awake, and when their curtains are down, we know to leave them alone,” Jay says, laughing at their ritual.
In terms of aging in place, the ADU can accommodate a wheelchair or walker if necessary, and Rivas says a custom wheelchair ramp can be added later if necessary.
Now, if only Jay could mount the flat-screen television on the wall, Al says, teasing his son. It’s hard to escape dad jokes when he’s living in your backyard — and that’s the point.
“It’s really nice having them here,” Andy says.
Jay Alcazar and Andy Campbell enjoy having Al and Nenette Alcazar close. “They feel like neighbors,” Jay says.
After losing his family and home in the Philippines when Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the country, Al, who once studied to be a priest, says he’s deeply moved to be the recipient of the bayanihan spirit once again.
“I was tortured in the Philippines, and it didn’t break me,” he says. “So having a home built by a friendly community really points to a shorter but more spiritual meaning of bayanihan, which is, ‘when a group of friends,’ as my grandma Marta used to say, ‘turns your station of the cross into a garden with a rose.’ Now, we have Eden here in my son’s backyard.”
Campbell’s said Wednesday that Martin Bally, an executive who allegedly made comments to a former employee that disparaged Indian workers and said the company’s products were for “poor people,” has left the company.
In a statement, Campbell’s said it determined that a recording that captured the purported conversation involving Bally is authentic. The company said Bally, a vice president in information technology at the food manufacturer, “is no longer employed by the company.”
The alleged comments came to light last week in a lawsuit filed by Robert Garza, who was hired by Campbell’s as a cybersecurity analyst in September 2024. In the complaint, Garza claimed Bally made the offensive remarks during a November 2024 meeting to discuss his salary.
According to the suit, Bally made several comments about Indian workers and said Campbell’s makes “highly [processed] food” for “poor people.”
The discussion between Garza and Bally was recorded, according to Runyan Law Group, which is representing Garza. That recording captured comments, allegedly by Bally, that claimed the company’s soup uses “bioengineered meat” and that denigrated the abilities of Indian workers.
“The comments were vulgar, offensive and false, and we apologize for the hurt they have caused,” Campbell’s said in its latest statement. “This behavior does not reflect our values and the culture of our company, and we will not tolerate that kind of language under any circumstances.”
The company added that it learned about the lawsuit and first heard “segments” of the recording on Nov. 20, noting that neither Garza nor his attorney had notified Campbell’s about the audio recording’s existence.
According to Garza’s lawsuit, he informed his manager about the comments on Jan. 10, and further alleged he wasn’t encouraged to report the incident to human resources. Garza was then “abruptly terminated from employment” shortly afterwards, the lawsuit alleges.
Garza’s suit alleges he suffered stress, humiliation, embarrassment and mental anguish as a result of Bally and his manager’s actions. He is seeking compensation for emotional, reputational and economic harm, as well as attorneys’ fees, according to the complaint.
A lawsuit filed in Michigan last week alleges that a Campbell Soup Company executive made offensive comments about Indian workers and said the company’s products were for “poor people” during a conversation with a former employee.
The suit was filed by Robert Garza, who was hired by Campbell’s as a cybersecurity analyst in September 2024.
Garza alleges that Campbell’s executive Martin Bally made the offensive remarks during a meeting in November 2024, which was intended to discuss his salary. According to the lawsuit, Bally made several comments about Indian workers and said that Campbell’s is “highly [processed] food” for “poor people.”
Garza said he informed his manager, J.D. Aupperle, about the comments on Jan. 10 and claims Aupperle did not encourage him to report the incident to human resources.
Garza was then “abruptly terminated from employment” just weeks later, the lawsuit says. The discussion between Garza and Bally was recorded, according to Detroit television station WDIV.
James Regan, a Campbell’s spokesperson, said the company was not aware of the recording before it aired on WDIV on Thursday and doesn’t know if it’s legitimate.
Bally is one of many vice presidents at Campbell’s, according to Regan. His LinkedIn lists his title as vice president and chief information security officer.
Campbell’s said in a statement to CBS News that Bally is temporarily on leave while the company conducts an investigation.
“If the comments were in fact made, they are unacceptable,” the company said. “The comments heard on the recording about our food are not only inaccurate — they are patently absurd.”
Campbell’s also defended the quality of its food products. “The person alleged to be speaking on the recording works in IT and has nothing to do with how we make our food,” Campbell’s said in its statement.
On Monday, James Uthmeier, the Attorney General of Florida, said in a social media post that the state’s Consumer Protection division is investigating the quality of Campbell’s products.
Runyan Law Group, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Garza, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Garza is seeking compensation for emotional, reputational and economic harm, as well as attorneys’ fees.
N.C. State’s Terrell Anderson jumps into the end zone to score a touchdown during the first half of the Wolfpack’s game against Campbell on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025, at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C.
Kaitlin McKeown
The News & Observer
RALEIGH
Coming off two consecutive crushing losses, N.C. State responded in a big way Saturday, crushing in-state FCS foe Campbell, 56-10, in a virtual must-win game for the Wolfpack and head coach Dave Doeren, who has been the subject of heavy criticism the past few weeks.
Hollywood Smothers was the embodiment of tenacity and swagger in his personal rebound. In the Pack’s loss against Virginia Tech, Smothers finished with a season-low 67 yards. It was his lowest output since Nov. 9, 2024, when he recorded just 13 yards in N.C. State’s loss to Duke.
Saturday, the Charlotte native put up 123 yards and a score on just four carries — including a career-long 59-yard run — and added 30 yards and a TD on two receptions.
N.C. State’s Hollywood Smothers runs the ball during the first half of the Wolfpack’s game against Campbell on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025, at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C. Kaitlin McKeown The News & Observer
The Wolfpack (4-2) used Smothers’ individual bounce back, a versatile offensive attack and better defensive attack to smother the Camels (1-5) in the first meeting between the teams.
Smothers was already statistically one of the best tailbacks in the nation before Saturday’s game, but he continues to beef up his resume for national awards and a shot at the NFL. Smothers entered the weekend with 570 rushing yards this season, fourth in the nation and No. 2 among Power Four players, behind Missouri’s Ahmad Hardy.
After his performance against the Camels, Smothers has 693 total yards this year to move him into second place in the NCAA for net rushing yards.
Smothers dominated on the ground, but he was not the only contributor. Duke Scott and quarterbacks CJ Bailey and Will Wilson all gained positive rushing yardage. Nine different players nabbed a reception and four scored. Tight end Cody Hardy recorded his first touchdown with the Wolfpack after a 37-yard grab and short scamper into the end zone.
N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren watches from the sidelines during the second half of the Wolfpack’s 56-10 win over Campbell on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025, at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C. Kaitlin McKeown The News & Observer
N.C. State recorded 482 yards of total offense and scored 49 points in the first half alone. The Wolfpack’s yardage was the most in an opening half by any FBS team this season. Its 49 points was tied for the third-most first-half points in the NCAA this season and the most by an N.C. State team since 2001 against Duke.
Most of the Wolfpack’s starters opened the second half, but they were gradually replaced to give younger or less experienced players some field time.
Quarterback Lex Thomas earned playing time in the third quarter. He is the younger brother of former N.C. State standouts Drake and Thayer Thomas. Lex Thomas, a redshirt sophomore, missed two years due to an injury and has played limited minutes for the Pack. He went 2 of 6 passing for 18 yards.
Will Wilson, who has primarily been used in short yardage situations, also got into the backfield for several snaps. The freshman finished 3 of 5 for 16 yards and one interception. He also ran for one touchdown.
After allowing Virginia Tech to rack up 406 yards of total offense, including 229 yards rushing, the defensive front shut down Campbell. It held the Camels to 188 total yards and 67 rushing yards, while adding two sacks, seven tackles for loss and four quarterback pressures.
Campbell quarterback Kamden Sixkiller finished 12 of 22 for 87 yards and one touchdown.
What we learned from the Wolfpack’s commanding win over the Camels:
New, young players step up on defense
N.C. State’s defense is battered, bruised and in bad shape, but it took a step forward.
The team announced in its game notes that three players in an already-thin secondary are out for the season. Linebacker Sean Brown and safety Brody Barnhardt were both out against Campbell due to injury, while cornerback Jackson Vick missed his third game.
N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren gives instructions to his players prior to the Wolfpack’s game against Campbell on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025, at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C. Kaitlin McKeown The News & Observer
“It’s sad as a coach when you see a kid go down,” Doeren said this week. “We love these kids, man. You don’t want to see anybody get injured. Football is a physical sport, and that is part of the game. The next guy in there has to do a great job.”
Ronnie Royal was one such player. The redshirt freshman came into the game with a defensive grade of 43 on Pro Football Focus, the team’s worst defensive grade. He also ranked last in his tackling grade (31.2). Royal’s performance looked more like an upperclassman, with the way he wrapped up Camel players. The young safety finished with eight tackles.
Linebacker Kenny Soares isn’t young but he is new to the program. The Northwestern transfer had his best game of the season for N.C. State, leading the team with nine tackles. He recorded 13 in the previous five games. Soares hasn’t been a bad player for N.C. State, but he hadn’t been dominant. The win over Campbell felt like a breakout game.
The Wolfpack still got positive contributions from its top players, including Sabastian Harsh and Cian Slone — he contributed a major fourth-down stop — but they didn’t need to carry that side of the football. That’s something to keep building on.
Big bombs for Bailey
CJ Bailey continues to fly under the radar when it comes to national attention, but he’s one of the best in the country and more than solidified himself in the Wolfpack record books.
Like Smothers, Bailey put together an elite performance Saturday after two weeks where he didn’t always look like himself. The sophomore finished with 337 yards and a career-high four touchdowns. He went 20 of 23 passing for an 87% completion rate. It was his third 300-yard passing game this season.
Bailey was more decisive and did not commit any turnovers in the team’s Week 6 game, an issue that popped up against Duke and Virginia Tech. He made smarter decisions and spread the ball around well, all while recording eight explosive passing plays of more than 15 yards.
Through the first 14 career starts, Philip Rivers recorded 3,822 yards, 30 passing touchdowns and 13 interceptions on a 63% completion percentage. Wolfpack great Russell Wilson had 2,602 yards, 25 touchdowns and one interception on 63% passing.
Bailey had 3,308 yards, 24 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and a 68% pass completion rate through that period.
With his performance against Campbell, the sophomore is up to 3,645 passing yards in his first 15 career starts and reached 4,073 yards in his career.
And he still has room to improve. The sophomore may not win the Heisman Trophy, but he’s among the best quarterbacks to play for the Pack. That has to count for something.
Uncharted waters for NC State special teams
The Wolfpack’s special teams unit has been consistent the last several years, but the issues for this year’s squad reared their ugly head again.
N.C. State pulled freshman receiver Teddy Hoffmann as its punt returner after he fumbled two punts before the half. The first mistake put Campbell on the Wolfpack 14-yard line. Miscommunication from the defense allowed the Camels to turn Hoffmann’s error into a touchdown. He bobbled a second punt later in the half, but linebacker Kelvon McBride jumped on the ball to prevent another possession change.
Hoffmann muffed a punt against Duke, as well, which required N.C. State to march down the field for a 99-yard touchdown. The rookie was replaced on Saturday by Terrell Anderson, a receiver who entered the game leading the team in receiving yards.
Anderson’s first return was a 78-yard touchdown run, but a holding penalty wiped his effort from the board.
The rest of the game was largely uneventful, but the Wolfpack needs to get its special teams in order. It can’t afford to have touchdowns called back or to give free possessions against tougher competition.
This story was originally published October 4, 2025 at 5:27 PM.
A driver on Tuesday struck and injured two tow truck drivers in Campbell while they were working at the scene of a crash, according to police.
The collision happened at about 11:08 a.m. in the area of San Tomas Expressway and Hamilton Avenue, police said.
The tow truck drivers were outside of their vehicles assisting with a two-car crash when they were hit, police said. They were both taken to the hospital, where they were listed in stable condition.
The driver who hit the tow truck drivers was cooperating with officers, police said. Drugs and alcohol do not appear to have played a role in the collision.
Westmont High School student Kaylee Garcia was among 25 student leaders who helped their peers from Silicon Valley Career Technical Education (SVCTE) center in the Breaking Down the Walls (BDTW) on Aug. 29.
Garcia and the other student leaders completed a three-hour training to prepare them to guide their peers through a full day of activities designed to build meaningful connections. More than 100 students participated in the BDTW event, organized by ignite2unite.
“What inspired me to step into this student leadership position was I felt it was a really great opportunity to put myself out there in a way that I wasn’t really familiar with, and I just felt like it was a really great chance to get to know my peers and people that I maybe kind of recognized but never got a chance to talk to otherwise,” Garcia said in a release.
Run by the Metropolitan Education District, SVCTE provides career technical education for high school students in Santa Clara County. Mobile apps and web development teacher Jesus Correa, who co-led the event, said the goal in bringing in BDTW was to “create an opportunity for students from all of our different courses and from the 45-plus schools that attend SVCTE to come together in a meaningful way.”
Correa said student leaders were nominated by their teachers and staff for their leadership potential, positivity and willingness to support their peers.
“Their role was crucial because they set the tone for the activities, encouraged participation and helped create a safe environment for honest conversations,” he added.
A 25-year-old was arrested after he was accused of randomly attacking two men in California, officials said.
Getty Images/iStock photo
A 25-year-old was arrested after he was accused of randomly attacking two men, California police said.
A man walking down the street on May 4 was punched in the stomach by a man later identified as Nicholas Hosteter, according to a Facebook post by the City of Campbell Police Department.
The attacker fled the area, but the victim followed him, officers said.
The victim was able to take a picture of Hosteter, who “seemed to pause for the photo before continuing to flee,” police said.
On May 24, Campbell officers received a report of a 75-year-old man punched in the face while out on a walk, according to a Facebook post.
When the man and his family returned to the area to look for surveillance cameras, Hosteter tried to “fight the family before leaving,” police said.
On May 25, with the help of his parents, Hosteter was arrested and booked into the Santa Clara County Jail on two counts of elder abuse and one count of battery on an officer when he was accused of kicking an officer during his booking, police said.
Campbell is about a 50-mile drive southeast of San Francisco.
If you suspect an elder adult or an adult with disabilities has experienced, is currently experiencing, or is at risk of experiencing abuse, neglect, self-neglect, or financial exploitation, your first step should be to contact the appropriate agency.
A police officer in Campbell shot and killed an armed suspect early Tuesday morning during a domestic violence response, according to the police department.
At about 3 a.m. Tuesday, Campbell officers responded to the 1800 block of South Bascom Avenue on a report of a potential domestic violence incident at a residence, police said.
Officers met with the victim outside the home, but her children remained inside with the suspect, later identified as Miguel Agustin Nava Gomez, 31, of Campbell, police said.
The victim had a restraining order against Gomez, who had an outstanding warrant for domestic violence, police said.
About an hour after responding, Campbell officers contacted Gomez, who disobeyed police instructions and fired shots at officers, police said. One Campbell officer returned fire, hitting Gomez, who later died at the scene.
Per protocol, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and Campbell Police Investigations Division are investigating the police shooting.
Campbell Harvey, a Duke University finance professor best known for developing the yield-curve recession indicator, says the Federal Reserve’s read on inflation is out of whack. And, as a result, the likelihood that the U.S. slips into a recession is increasing.
The big question now is the severity of the economic downturn to come, if the central bank continues unabated on its high-interest-rate path.
On Wednesday, the Fed, which began raising rates from near zero last year, held them at a range of 5.25% to 5.5%, a 22-year high, in its effort to get inflation under control.
“The [inflation gauge] that the Fed uses makes no sense whatsoever, and it’s totally disconnected from market conditions,” Harvey told MarketWatch in a phone interview.
The Fed’s measures of inflation are heavily weighted toward shelter costs, which reflect the rising price of rental and owner-occupied housing. For example, shelter inflation has been running at 7.3% over the past 12 months, and also as of the most recent consumer-price index, for August. Shelter represents around 40% of the core CPI reading.
Harvey says that’s a problem because shelter’s retreat loosely follows the broader trend lower for headline inflation but at a lag, and the Fed wouldn’t be properly accounting for that lag if it decided to keep its target interest rates restrictively high.
Separately, MarketWatch’s economics reporter, Jeff Bartash, notes that CPI also fails to capture the millions of Americans who locked in low mortgage rates before or during the pandemic and who are now paying less for housing than they had previously.
“The Fed is … using inflation, in what I call a false narrative,” Harvey said.
Harvey said that if shelter inflation were normalized at around 1% or 1.5%, overall core inflation would measure closer to 1.5% or 2%. In other words, at — or substantially below — the Fed’s 2% target.
Consumer prices ex-shelter were up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis in August, up from 1% in July, according to the Labor Department.
The Canadian-born Duke professor says that the Fed risks driving the U.S. economy into recession because it has achieved its goal of taming inflation, which peaked at around 9% in 2022, and isn’t making it clear that its rate-hike cycle is complete.
“Now, the higher those rates go, the worse [the recession] is,” he said.
Harvey pioneered the idea that an inverted yield curve is a recession indicator, with the curve’s inversion depicting the yield on three-month Treasurys rising above the rate on the 10-year Treasury note BX:TMUBMUSD10Y.
Longer-term Treasurys typically have higher yields than shorter-term U.S. government debt, and the inversion of that relationship historically has predicted economic contractions.
Harvey says that that his yield-curve-inversion model has an unblemished track record — 8-out-of-8 — for predicting recessions over the past 70 years. A recent inversion of U.S. yield curves implies that a U.S. recession is still a possibility.
On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA
fell 1.1%, while the S&P 500 SPX
tumbled1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite COMP
slumped 1.8%, marking one of the worst days for stocks in months.
Some, like Iran (#1) and Venezuela (#4) are no surprise, but seeing Estonia as #2 was pretty shocking. Authorities are unable to determine why Mongolia appears three times on the list (#17, #82, and #104), or why the U.S. government seems to think Myrtle Beach (#31) is its own country.
Inspired by the incredible true story of the 52-hertz whale, author Johnny DePalma’s latest rhyming picture book, ’52 – A Tale of Loneliness’, echoes emotions that may be felt at home.
Press Release –
updated: Mar 23, 2021
SAN FRANCISCO, March 23, 2021 (Newswire.com)
– Known throughout the San Francisco Bay Area for curating the pandemic’s Emergency Art Museum (emergencyartmuseum.com), award-winning author Johnny DePalma’s latest literary accomplishment dives deep into innate human feelings, emotions, and loneliness – something all too common in a COVID-19 world.
“I would say all my books are somewhat autobiographical,” said DePalma, regarding his latest book, ’52 – A Tale of Loneliness.’ “Loneliness is such a universal and complex emotion. For me, my days of loneliness were also my days of unlimited imagination. I would take the time to connect with all of the small, seemingly invisible things in my life. And, looking back, I think those moments we’re incredibly important. Years later, when I learned about the 52-hertz whale, (also known as the loneliest whale in the world) I knew I wanted to write a book that reconnects with that misunderstood emotion.”
This children’s tale, recommended for ages 4-8, has recently hit home for an audience of all ages. Taking place far beneath the beautiful sea, a unique whale sings a song that is all his own. Told in short, poetic passages, this whale, simply known as 52, celebrates the joy of life he’s found beneath the ocean waves. Yet, despite his isolation, 52 remains optimistic and introduces readers to the magic, beauty, and joy found within his own invisible world.
DePalma details the beauty of isolation with effortlessness throughout the book, writing, “And that’s all mine! I get to see, the things invisible, like me! So, every night, I say hello, to all the barnacles below. To every bubble, kelp, and shell. To every grain of sand as well. For all these things make up my home, and with them, I don’t feel alone.”
“It’s been greatly inspired by the California coast,” said DePalma. “After all, that is where the real-life 52-hertz whale has been known to travel. In 2018, my good friend and illustrator, Kyle Brown and I took a research trip from Point Conception, to Monterey, and eventually through San Francisco to find the creative spark needed for the illustrations in this book. I couldn’t be happier with the result. It’s my hope that children and families alike will uncover that same special spark of joy that 52 has found. Considering what we’ve all been going through, I think embracing some of these feelings, and putting a voice to them is going to be an important step for children moving forward.”
DePalma went on to say, “As children start heading back to school, social and emotional learning tools are going to be imperative. Characters like 52 are there to help guide children through those difficult feelings and to help them find their voice in a world that might suddenly feel a bit different. I want children to know that being unique can be a positive and powerful thing. Sometimes, it just takes the right perspective for them to see that.”
One recent reviewer stated, “DePalma effectively validates feelings that are relatable to children of various ages. Although 52 experiences loneliness, and sometimes feels invisible, he still sings, and his tale is not a sad one. This good-natured whale exemplifies themes of self-acceptance, individuality, contentment, empathy, bravery, and joy.” – Cecilia_L
Terra Jolé, of “Dancing with the Stars,” fame stated, “This book is a wonderful way for children to feel content with who they are. This speaks loudly to me as a mother isolating her family through the pandemic. Embracing a world you’re creating for yourself is a powerful message in a children’s book.”
To date, 52 –A Tale of Loneliness has won a Mom’s Choice Gold Award, and a Reader’s Favorite Five Stars. The book also includes a downloadable companion audiobook read by Emmy Award-winning actor, Patton Oswalt.
