The Milken Institute publishes an annual index of Best-Performing Cities, which has become an eagerly anticipated assessment of how municipalities are doing to create jobs and stimulate economic growth. I have already been receiving inquiries when the next ranking will be released.
This year, Best-Performing Cities 2018: Where America's Jobs are Created and Sustained will be published on Thursday, January 24, 2019.
Regional economic factors played a major role in recent strategic investments announced in 2018 by Amazon and Apple. In addition, volatility in financial markets, along with the possibility of an extended federal government shutdown, could have a significant impact on wage and job growth, making the information extremely valuable to government officials, community and business leaders, and others who are seeking ways to help their cities navigate these challenges and opportunities.
Of particular note, the authors document a growing competition for talent, pushing firms to expand into new regions.
In the report, researchers analyzed economic data--such as growth in jobs, wages, and technology output--across more than 400 metropolitan areas.
For background, here is a link to the data from the 2017 report: www.best-cities.org
An embargoed copy of the report can be made available upon request beginning Tuesday, Jan. 22.
Minoli Ratnatunga, lead author and director of regional economics research at the Milken Institute, along with Kevin Klowden, executive director of the Center for Regional Economics, are available for interviews. They will be able to provide specific data for each city, as well as larger trends impacting economic growth in the U.S.
===============
Premieres New Music Video
"The Fire, The Dark"
Exclusively with PopCrush
and Loudwire
The Great Depression Tour: Act II
Kicks Off Tonight in Los Angeles, CA
With Support from Sharptooth, Hold Close and Point North
In Partnership with A Voice for the Innocent
Tickets On Sale Now At https://asitisofficial.com/
January 17, 2019 - Brighton, UK - As It Is have wasted no time kicking off 2019. Today, the band is premiering their new music video for "The Fire, The Dark" exclusively with PopCrush and Loudwire. The video shows footage from the band's recent headlining UK/EU Tour and is a special "welcome" to Guitarist Ron Ish, who was announced today as an official member of As It Is. He shared "Collectively, the team is the strongest it's ever been and we're all excited for our future together. The amount of love and support from fans all over the world has been incredible thus far and finally being able to announce my permanency with As It Is and say it out loud feels good. Thanks for having me. Got love." Fans can check out the music video and full feature at found.ee/thefirethedark.
"The Fire, The Dark" is the latest single from the band's recent release, The Great Depression. Released via Fearless Records last Fall, this album is comfortably As It Is' most layered, technically accomplished and certainly most aggressive release to date. The Great Depression was produced by legendary producer MACHINE (Lamb Of God, Every Time I Die) and is a record that establishes the band as one of the most daring creative forces in their scene. Music videos for "The Wounded World", "The Stigma"
and "
" further prove the creative and storytelling power of the Brighton-based quartet.
In an exclusive interview with Loudwire, Vocalist Patty Walters shares "I suppose our two main goals were to restructure the way this scene depicts depression and to shatter stigmas surrounding mental health along the way. This album has completely changed us as people and the band we intend to be in the future."
Tonight, the band is kicking off The Great Depression Tour: Act II inLos Angeles, CA. Fans can tune into PopCrush's Instagram Story throughout the day for a behind the scenes look into the first day of tour. Tickets and VIP packages for all dates are available at http://asitisofficial.com.
With support from Sharptooth, Hold Close and Point North, this tour is in partnership with A Voice for the Innocent, a non-profit organization that provides community, resources, and support for people who have been affected by sexual violence. They will have a representative at every date of the tour to educate fans and act as a resource for anyone that may need their assistance. As It Is continues to encourage fans and the larger music community to not only speak up, but to also listen.
A full list of upcoming North American tour dates can be found below:
Jan 17 - Los Angeles, CA - Teragram Ballroom
Jan 18 - Ventura, CA - Rock City
Jan 19 - San Diego, CA - Soma
Jan 20 - Mesa, AZ - Club Red West
Jan 22 - Albuquerque, NM - Launchpad
Jan 24 - Oklahoma City, OK - 89th Street
Jan 25 - San Antonio, TX - Jack's Patio Bar & Grill
Jan 27 - Houston, TX - The Secret Group
Jan 29 - Dallas, TX - Prophet Bar
Jan 31 - Nashville, TN - The End
Feb 1 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade (Hell)
Feb 2 - Tampa, FL - Crowbar
Feb 3 - Orlando, FL - The Social
Feb 5 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
Feb 6 - Richmond, VA - Canal Club
Feb 7 - Philadelphia, PA - The Voltage Lounge
Feb 8 - Amityville, NY - Revolution Music Hall
Feb 9 - Asbury Park, NJ - House of Independents
Feb 10 - Cambridge, MA - Middle East
Feb 11 - Toronto, CA - Velvet Underground
Feb 13 - Grand Rapids, MI - The Intersection - The Stache
Feb 14 - Columbus, OH - Woodlands Tavern
Feb 15 - Chicago, IL - Subterranean
Feb 16 - Saint Louis, MO - Fubar
Feb 17 - Kansas City, MO - Encore at The Uptown Theater
Feb 19 - Denver, CO - Hi-Dive
Feb 20 - Salt Lake City, UT - Loading Dock
Feb 21 - Las Vegas, NV - Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Feb 22 - Anaheim, CA - Chain Reaction
From public perception, to internal war, the band unflinchingly confronts the most difficult questions around depression, the value of life over death, and whether the rhetoric around 'reaching out to talk' is ostensibly hollow, if no one is prepared to hear those words. The Great Depression is available to stream and purchase at https://asitisofficial.com/.
As It Is is Patty Walters (Vocals), Benjamin Biss (Vocals, Guitar), Patrick Foley (Drums), Alistair Testo (Bass) and Ron Ish (Guitar).
###
Download The Great Depression Cover Art Here
Download As It Is' Press Photo Here (Credit Ian Coulson)
Download As It Is' Bio Here
Download The Great Depression Tour Admat Here
Follow As It Is:
https://www.facebook.com/asitisofficial
https://twitter.com/asitisofficial
https://instagram.com/asitisofficial
=========================
The Annual Whitewashing of Martin Luther King Jr.
by Wim Laven
899 words
Every year I ask myself questions about the shameful exploitation of Martin Luther King Jr.--why do Americans love to disgrace his message so much? Why is it so popular that we see it year after year? Remember last year? Trump was talking about "s@!#hole countries" while tweeting “I encourage all Americans to observe this day with appropriate civic, community, and service activities in honor of Dr. King’s life and legacy.” What is to stop longtime racists like Rep. Steve King from copying and pasting a quick quote into their twitter feeds? Last year he posted: “Ive been to the mountain top. And I’ve seen the promised land. ...we, as a people, will get to the promised land.” And yet his long list of racially offensive comments and associations with avowed white nationalists, recently published in the New York Times, reveal his use of Dr. King’s words to be a snide mockery.
Of course the GOP has recently (finally) taken a moment to be critical of Steve King’s flagrant white supremacy in 2019, but they still refuse to comment on the same racist behavior from President Trump. Minority leader Kevin McCarthy said about King’s outlandish comments defending white nationalism, “That is not the party of Lincoln and it’s definitely not American.” Great. Now how about Trump’s longtime racism? Trump’s “My Kevin” (Trump’s nickname for him when McCarthy was House Majority Leader) doesn’t get this, hence more MLK Day whitewashing.
Sadly, Trump’s Kevin is wrong; racism has never been beneath the “dignity of the party.” Nothing is more Republican than racism—a wall serves as a modern day burning cross and the rallying point of contemporary bigotry; Nothing is more American than racism—the country’s vast fortunes were built on slave labor and theft of land from indigenous people. Nothing could be further from the message so many in the GOP copy, paste, and ignore: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” It is the kitsch of far-right Rep. Barry Loudermilk and politicians across the country, cynically misappropriating words they neither earned nor deserve. A firm commitment to Trump’s racist promises isn’t just cowardly; it is antithetical to the love that Martin Luther King Jr. preached. Teen Vogue, in a great piece on MLK one year ago, gets it better than these jellyfish do, MLK was radical in his support the love supreme Jesus preached: “Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another.”
His message was his life, and justice was not an accessory. Trying to score some easy political points by pretending to condemn racism for a second fails the larger picture. “It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.” In a country with too many warmongers, “the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” Leaders who’ve sacrificed are rare, the pronouncements we hear are for expedience, and we see those making empty declarations simply don’t measure up. The failures are not just at the level of leadership. As citizens MLK provided us with clear guidance: “what are you doing for others?” “Change,” he told us, “comes from continuous struggle.” Are we living up to these instructions?
“The Dream” is not a feel-good story. It is the story of resistance and struggle. This is why few things could be more offensive than sanitizing his words and using them with the intention of pacifying the oppressed. MLK spoke to defend those who demanded equal pay and equal access—people were tired of being pushed around. Forget the “our party freed the slaves” and think about the ongoing need for dignity and equality. MLK died in solidarity with sanitation workers--maybe you can stick up for those furloughed or out of work in a racist and classist political stunt. We’ve got to get past the sentimentality.
When MLK spoke to us he pressured us to look deeper and bigger. “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” The gap between the rich and the poor is only growing, and trillion-dollar tax giveaways to the rich are not helping. “The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit,” and his observance of our ubiquitous engagement in violent conflict continued that it would not end until “there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.” So, finding quotes is easy, but this last one is key: "Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism." The cowards cannot get behind the radical message, and they will not get there on their own; “there is a promised land” but don’t forget it was envisioned by Martin Luther King working for the Poor People’s Campaign, uniting poor Whites, Blacks, Natives, Latinx and many others. That’s the Martin Luther King Jr. coalition, not the Rep. Steven King segregated fan group.
~~~~~~~~
Wim Laven, syndicated by PeaceVoice, worked on reconstruction in Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami, is an instructor of Political Science and International Relations at Kennesaw State University, and on the Governing Council of the International Peace Research Association.
