Two commercial flooring executives, Robert A. Patrey Jr. and Kenneth R. Smith, pleaded guilty for their role in an antitrust conspiracy to rig bids and fix prices for commercial flooring services and products sold in the United States, the Department of Justice announced. The defendants are cooperating with the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation.

The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and The Federal Trade Commission today issued a joint statement detailing an expedited antitrust procedure and providing guidance for collaborations of businesses working to protect the health and safety of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, a federal district court in Washington, D.C., concluded that the Antitrust Division’s resolution of its challenge to the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint was in the public interest and entered the proposed final judgment following an extensive Tunney Act process. This order gives effect to the settlement that the Department of Justice and numerous states reached with the merging parties and Dish Network Corp. to allow the T-Mobile/Sprint transaction to proceed, subject to substantial divestitures and other remedies.

"At trial, the Antitrust Division argued that Sabre’s acquisition of Farelogix would extinguish a crucial constraint on Sabre’s market power and would result in higher prices and less innovation. While we are disappointed with the court’s decision, we appreciate the court’s thoughtful consideration of this important case. We will closely review the court’s opinion and consider next steps in light of our commitment to preserving competition for the benefit of the American consumer."

South Korea-based company Jier Shin Korea Co. Ltd., and its president, Sang Joo Lee, have agreed to pay $2 million to the United States for civil antitrust and False Claims Act violations for their involvement in a bid-rigging conspiracy that targeted contracts to supply fuel to U.S. military bases in South Korea, the Department of Justice announced today.

The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Bureau of Competition jointly released a statement today affirming the importance of competition for American workers.  The agencies also announced that they will protect competition for workers on the frontlines of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) response in the United States by enforcing the antitrust laws against those who seek to exploit the pandemic to engage in anticompetitive conduct in labor markets.

The Department of Justice announced today that it will not challenge a proposal by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) to operate an online platform for advertisers to solicit bids from companies that provide production services for commercial advertisements. The Department’s position was stated in a business review letter from Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim for the Antitrust Division to counsel for the AICP.

The Department of Justice announced today that it will not challenge collaborative efforts of AmerisourceBergen Corporation (AmerisourceBergen) to identify global supply opportunities, ensure product quality, and facilitate product distribution of medications and other healthcare supplies to treat COVID-19 patients.

Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute LLC (FCS), an oncology group headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida, was charged with conspiring to allocate medical and radiation oncology treatments for cancer patients in Southwest Florida, the Department of Justice announced.  This charge is the first in the department’s ongoing investigation into market allocation in the oncology industry.

Sabre Corporation and Farelogix, Inc. announced today the termination of their merger agreement.

Apotex Corp., a generic pharmaceutical company headquartered in Florida, was charged with fixing the price of the generic drug pravastatin, the Department of Justice announced today.  According to the one-count felony charge filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Apotex and other generic drug companies agreed to increase and maintain the price of pravastatin, a commonly prescribed cholesterol medication that lowers the risk of heart disease and stroke.  The conspiracy began in May 2013 and continued through December 2015.

WBAL NewsRadio 1090 hosted a town hall with a number of WBAL listeners to discuss President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office.

We would like you to come and sit alongside C4, Derek Hunter and other WBAL listeners at the WBAL Penthouse at 3800 Hooper Ave.

It’s that time of year again for private school acceptance letters and all the excitement they can bring.

Take a listen to Jonathan Murray on WBAL News Now from Monday.

Four graduating Glenelg High School seniors were arrested after allegedly spray painting racist graffiti.

House Speaker Mike Busch and Senate President Mike Miller say they are waiting for the results of a disparity study of the state's medical cannabis program, and will consider emergency legislation when lawmakers return to Annapolis in January.

In the U.S., there are at least 25,000 cases across all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington D.C. At least 323 have died from the virus.

The battle against coronavirus has intensified across the country as more workers are laid off, medical supplies dwindle, and states enact new rules to get Americans to stay home.

This is the easiest way to listen to WBAL NewsRadio 1090 and FM 101.5 on Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

WBAL NewsRadio, 98 Rock, WBAL-TV 11 and our partners at Howard Bank are proud to launch ‘Operation: Shop Local’ a community initiative to benefit small businesses in the Baltimore region.

MapProvision is an online service to present data as dynamic layers on an online map. They have now added an Sankey overlay feature.

This screengrab is a from a sample provided by them using World Trade Organization import and export data for 2017.
[See image gallery at www.sankey-diagrams.com]
Here I have selected imports of machinery being imported to Mexico. Flows displayed are based on value of the goods in mio US$ per year. Hovering over the arrows reveals detailed data, a summary of imports for the selected category is shown when hovering over the bracket at the destination.

This comprehensive blog post has more details on how to adapt the Sankey overlay and the different options you have, including color settings and minimum width for Sankey arrows. It also contains an embedded example for fish import to Japan.

Nice work and fun to play around with. Doing Sankey diagrams on a map is particularly challenging in my opinion due to routing issues and because in many cases trade flows between neighbouring countries tend to be high volume, so that the shortest Sankey arrow paths are typically the widest ones (as is the case with the U.S. here).

Two years ago I posted an early version of the energy balance for the French overseas region La Réunion, an island in the Indian Ocean. Visiting the website of Horizon Réunion (formerly Energies Réunion) now, I am happy to see that they have taken the elaboration of the energy balance much further, and are now publishing this detailed Sankey diagram for energy flows in 2018.

The diagram has been created by Observatoire Énergie Réunion (OER). Flows are in ktoe (ktep, kilo tonne d’équivalent pétrole in French). Overall primary energy for the island was 1441.8 ktep, of which 87% is fossil and 13% from renewable sources. We can see that mobility is the largest chunk of energy use with 64.5%.

You can access the full report with all background data here.

The study ‘Sustainable biomass and bioenergy in the Netherlands’ was carried out by researchers Goh, Mai-Moulin and Junginger from Utrecht University in the framework of the Netherlands Programmes Sustainable Biomass. It looks at “biomass from the three major categories, i.e. woody biomass, oils and fats and carbohydrates used in different sectors in the Netherlands”.

For each of these three categories a Sankey diagram is presented, like for example this one for oils and fats.
[See image gallery at www.sankey-diagrams.com]
The diagram has a very clear structure. Import streams are from the top and exports leave to the bottom. Domestic Dutch production is from the left, use of oils and fats in the Netherlands is to the right. Flows are in million tons (MT) dry mass. Data is for the year 2014.

See the full report here.

From the museum of Sankey diagrams comes this beautiful visualization of migration flows between Canadian provinces in the years 1956 to 1961. Sorry but I didn’t note the source… still wanted to share it with you.
[See image gallery at www.sankey-diagrams.com]
Unfortunately, flows are not to scale: compare, for example, the exits from the Atlantic provinces in the period (86,078 people) which should have an arrow similar to the inflow of 85,476 to British Columbia. Or look at the exodus from Ontario provice, which seemingly is larger than the influx to the provice (but in fact is smaller).

From the museum of Sankey diagrams, here is a black&white classic. This Sankey process diagram for rapeseed oil production is taken from the year 2002 dissertation ‘Simultane Öl- und Proteingewinnung bei Raps’ (Simultaneous oil and protein production from rapeseed) by Andreas Waesche, Berlin Technical University.
[See image gallery at www.sankey-diagrams.com]
Flows are in kilograms per ton of rapeseed input. Black is the water fraction, dark gray is oil, and light gray is oil free dry matter. Rapeseed husks, filtered matter and liquid rejects branch out on arrows to the right. Extract from the T4 separation stage (‘Extrakt als Ruckfuhrung’) is fed back into the second node although this loop is not shown here.

Came across an interesting article by Tei Carpenter, ‘Waste Not, Want More: Zeroing In on Designing Waste’ in the Avery Review 33 (September 2018). It describes a transition to a zero waste scenario for New York in 2030.

This is the Sankey diagram for the waste situation today (that is… 2018). An incredible 12,838 tonnes per year. Of which 75% would theoretically be recyclable. Instead, 80% end up as refuse, while only 20% are “diverted”.
[See image gallery at www.sankey-diagrams.com]
There is also a second Sankey diagram that shows how the city would handle its waste in 2030 with a zero waste strategy. Read the article at Avery Review or download as PDF.

Santa Anita Park officials are hoping to get word early this week from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the county's Department of Public of Health on whether racing can resume at the Arcadia, Calif., track. Belinda Stronach, whose family's company owns Santa Anita, and Aidan Butler, the executive director of California Racing […]

The post Santa Anita Hoping On-Site ‘Jockey Colony,’ Other COVID-19 Protocols Will Lead To Racing Resumption appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Four men arrested March 9 as part of the federal government's racehorse doping investigation pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in a telephonic arraignment conducted by District Court Judge P. Kevin Castel for the Southern District of New York. The defendants waived their right to physically appear in court because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Veterinarian […]

The post Grasso, Three Others Enter Not Guilty Pleas; Feds Outline Volume Of Discovery In Doping Investigation appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Jim McIngvale, aka Mattress Mack, is a legendary Houston, Texas, furniture store owner who's brought his unique brand of marketing to the Thoroughbred world. If you're not familiar with his medication-free champion sprinter Runhappy, the Claiborne Farm stallion he's been promoting the last several years, there's no point in reading any further. You're clearly from […]

The post ‘We Need To Get In The Game’: McIngvale Urges Racing To Embrace Lower Takeout, Millennials’ Thirst For Sports Betting Action appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Thoroughbred racing remains on hold in three of the most important circuits in the United States, and despite discussions between track and government officials there is no agreement for a start-up date to resume the sport – even without spectactors on-site – in California, Kentucky or New York. On […]

The post COVID-19 Update: Talks And Proposals But No Resumption Of Racing In Kentucky, California Or New York appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

After all these years, it was finally going to be decided — the biggest question that shedrows across America have been debating since one Revolutionary farmer said to his neighbor, “I'll bet my horse can beat yours!” Right there on national television, before an event-starved nation full of pandemic fear, a tiny computer chip was […]

The post Lamoreaux: The Verdict Is In – Secretariat Vs. Citation appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

When the Kentucky Horse Racing Committee holds its next scheduled meeting on June 16, it will have a new chairman and four new members. On April 28, an executive order from Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear appointed Alan J. Leavitt, Dr. Naveed Chowhan, Jonathan Rabinowitz and James Edwin “Ed” Worley to the commission. Charles Francis O'Connor […]

The post Beshear Appoints Four New Kentucky Racing Commissioners, Rabinowitz New Chairman appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

With two stakes victories and a five-win day, Joel Rosario was voted the Jockeys' Guild Foundation Detox Jockey of the Week for April 27-May 3. The award is voted on by a panel of experts for riding accomplishments by members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 950 riders in North America. […]

The post Five-Win Day At Oaklawn Nets Rosario Jockey Of The Week Honors appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Attn. Paulick Report readers:    Our website will be undergoing a bit of construction over the next day or so.  Most readers will notice no difference as these changes are made, but a small minority of people could experience delays in the updating of content.   We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.  We […]

The post Paulick Report under brief construction appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Stallion Spotlight offers stud farm representatives a chance to address breeders and answer questions as they finalize their mating decisions for the 2020 breeding season. In this edition, Tom Hamm, director of stallion seasons at Three Chimneys, talks about Funtastic, a Grade 1 winner whose first foals are arriving in 2020. Funtastic Gr. or ro. h., […]

The post Stallion Spotlight: Tom Hamm Of Three Chimneys On Funtastic appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Following is a statement from Rusty Ford, equine operations consultant for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture's Office of State Veterinarian, laying out guidelines for summer yearling inspections in regards to COVID-19. The public health threat presented by COVID-19, otherwise known as coronavirus, is impacting all, and the equine industry has not been immune to it. […]

The post Kentucky Department Of Agriculture Issues COVID-19 Guidelines For Yearling Inspections appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

The board of directors of Equine Sales Company voted in favor of changing the date of its 2020 Consignor Select Yearling Sale including 2-Year-Olds in Training from Sept. 3 to Aug. 20. With the announcement of Fasig-Tipton consolidating its three yearling sales, which will be held on Sept. 9-10 in Lexington, Ky., and the Kentucky […]

The post Equine Sales Company Moves Combined Auction To August 20 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

The Jockey Club board of stewards today announced that it has adopted a final rule limiting the annual breeding of individual stallions. The rule reflects The Jockey Club's goal to preserve the health of the Thoroughbred breed for the long term and will apply prospectively to stallions born in 2020 or later. Effective today, The […]

The post The Jockey Club Officially Adopts Rule Limiting Stallion Book Size To 140 Mares appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Keeneland's four auctions on the calendar are tentpoles of the bloodstock industry, but BloodHorse reports that the growing online auction space spurred by social distancing has the company testing out web-based platforms for a year-round marketplace. Over 40 consignors and buyers took part in a recent simulated online auction hosted by Keeneland to test the […]

The post Keeneland Conducts Focus Group Tests For Virtual Auctions appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Stallion Spotlight offers stud farm representatives a chance to address breeders and answer questions as they finalize their mating decisions for the 2020 breeding season. In this edition, Claiborne Farm president Walker Hancock and stallion seasons and bloodstock manager Bernie Sams discuss First Samurai, the sire of Grade 1 winners Lea, Justin Phillip, and Executiveprivilege. First […]

The post Stallion Spotlight: Claiborne Farm’s Walker Hancock And Bernie Sams On First Samurai appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Jockey Joao Moreira, a three-time champion rider in Singapore, capped off his whirlwind U.S. tour at Churchill Downs on Monday, where he rode Judy the Beauty to a second-place finish in the G3 Winning Colors Stakes. Moreira traveled to the U.S. to ride for trainer Wesley Ward, riding at Arlington Park on Saturday before heading to […]

The post Champion Singapore Jockey Enjoys Time in U.S. appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Darrel McHargue, a jockey for 16 years until 1988, when he retired from the saddle to become a racing official – the last 30 years as a steward/Chief Steward with the California Horse Racing Board – has been elected to the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame for his riding accomplishments. He will be […]

The post ‘A Complete Surprise’: 1978’s Champion Jockey Darrel McHargue Honored To Join Hall Of Fame appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

The Infectious Disease Committee of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) has issued revised guidelines for the administration of selected core and risk-based vaccines to horses. The recommendations are based on the age of the horse and its previous vaccination history and are meant to serve as a reference for veterinarians. Reviewed guidelines include […]

The post AAEP: Routine Vaccinations Considered Essential During COVID-19 Pandemic appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Lameness is a huge focus for Dr. Judith Koenig as a clinician, researcher and instructor at the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC). Koenig is also a rider with a keen interest in helping grass roots riders and upcoming high-performance athletes. In this video, Dr. Koenig explains her current research endeavoring to heal tendon injuries faster and […]

The post Lameness Research And Prevention Tips With Dr. Judith Koenig Of The Ontario Veterinary College appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

When some metro youth soccer teams switched to video-conference training sessions during the coronavirus pandemic, they found an unexpected new teammate on-screen.

Minnesota's stay-at-home order supersedes the league's slow return guidelines.

Chris answers some audience questions about Lightroom: How to backup and restore Lightroom and how to select and export thousands of photos over multiple folders. Chris also just made an observation about how his HomeKit cameras could breathe new life into his favorite photo exercise. Photo by Siarhei Horbach [sc:podlovebutton] Links: SPONSOR: Vistaprint: Get 500 … Continue reading "869 Home Automation and Photography"

The post 869 Home Automation and Photography appeared first on PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FROM THE TOP FLOOR.

Are you one of those people who have given their camera a name? If the answer is yes, .. this might be one of the most normal things in the world. Today i’d like to explore the emotional relationship between us and our photographic machines. Special guest: Monika Andrae. Photo by William Daigneault Links: Photo … Continue reading "883 The Man Machine Connection"

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Chris looks at wind speeds, slow drones, a mini assignment AND you’ll learn that telephoto compression isn’t really a thing. This week’s assignment is Aperture. Post your photos online and use the hashtags #tfttf #assignment #aperture Download the MP3 for this episode Receive TFTTF updates via email

The post 885 The Biggest Misconception in Photography appeared first on PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FROM THE TOP FLOOR.