The Mariners set up a reverse signing event at the Seattle Children’s Hospital so the players could receive items signed by the kids

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Topps (@topps)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Seattle Mariners (@mariners)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Seattle Mariners (@mariners)

The Mariners participated in a “reverse signing” with a group from Seattle Children’s Hospital before the game today. Mitch Haniger set up the event. pic.twitter.com/swWA2o8DiT

— Shannon Drayer (@shannondrayer) August 6, 2024

Organization benefiting people with intellectual disabilities was created as a "cover" for a group practicing "spiritual direction with nudity and sexual touch"

Background from the founder's Wikipedia page:

In 1964, through [the founder's] friendship with a priest ..., he became aware of the plight of thousands of people institutionalized with developmental disabilities. [He] invited two men . . . to leave the institutions where they resided and live with him in Trosly-Breuil, France. Their time together led to the establishment of L'Arche at Trosly-Breuil, a community where people with disabilities live with those who care for them. Since that time a network of 150 L'Arche communities have been established in 38 countries

Christianity Today (the article goes into detail):

From the famous Christian community he developed in Trosly-Breuil, France, the Catholic theologian and leader perpetuated a hidden “mystical-sexual” sect. Over a nearly 70-year period, [he] violated at least 25 women—all of them adults without disabilities—during prayer and spiritual devotion.

...

While the ministry brought dignity and fellowship to the vulnerable over the decades, the report suggests that [he] founded L’Arche as a cover to reunite a group who practiced contemplation and spiritual direction with nudity and sexual touch.

...

Despite the founders using L’Arche as a cover for their mystical and sexual practices, the researchers concluded that “L’Arche as a project and as an organization has nothing to do with a sect” and that the beliefs of L’Eau vive hadn’t spread to L’Arche leaders elsewhere.

...

They called it “astonishing” that the sectarian practices hadn’t proliferated more widely

Catholic News Agency:

Contacted by CNA, [the] chaplain of L’Arche in France for 16 years until 2020, expressed his deep pain and dismay at reading the new report and the details of the abuses committed [by the founder].

...

“This warns us against the all-too-common temptation to canonize people during their lifetime by putting them on a pedestal” 

...

“It would be a great shame if people who need to be welcomed by L’Arche were to suffer the double punishment of being rejected by society in principle, and now rejected a second time because of this case which concerns its founder only

*Previously: Lawsuit alleges that Panda Express workers were "forced to strip in 'cult-like' team-building seminar"

Update on Jose Andres's World Central Kitchen in Ukraine

This is true bravery & courage…I am in awe of these heroes in Kharkiv! One kitchen is only 500 meters from where the missile hit yesterday…Everyone is okay & they are still cooking, sometimes without lights hearing the attacking planes overhead… #ChefsForUkraine 🇺🇦 @WCKitchen https://t.co/ZwXAwRt7mP pic.twitter.com/tbGPCMH8TX

— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) March 2, 2022

People of the World…Hello from Lviv in Ukraine 🇺🇦 Let me introduce you to one of our incredible @WCKitchen restaurants here! Chef Mike & his team are cooking amazing meals…delivering multiple times each day to the train station, shelters & more in Lviv! Heroes! #ChefsForUkraine pic.twitter.com/Du0571QbMI

— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) March 2, 2022

"how Brad Pitt’s post-Katrina housing project went horribly wrong"

Guardian:

The project seemed cutting-edge, if not utopian. Architects like Frank Gehry, David Adjaye and Shigeru Ban helped design the houses, which incorporated next-gen features like solar panel roofs, energy-efficient heating and cooling, and sustainable materials. And each house would be sold well below cost: $150,000. 

...

But almost as soon as the camera crews left and they began settling in, the issues became apparent. Some houses had flat roofs and lacked basic features like rain gutters, overhangs, covered beams, or waterproof paint to weather New Orleans’ torrential downpours. Within weeks, houses began to develop mold, leaks and rot.

Wikipedia:

In early 2022, it was reported that only 6 of the 109 Make It Right houses remained in what an urban-studies researcher deemed to be "reasonably good shape." 

Jose Andres is in the Bahamas with plans to provide emergency meals

How do we organize a response in Bahamas? Here’s our current map we are working from.... @WCKitchen has kitchens ready to go and shelters mapped out. If kitchens are destroyed, we build one and cook in big paella pans! https://t.co/yNzrfrKIaS pic.twitter.com/fa4sBN8qMe

— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) September 1, 2019

We @WCKitchen are 80 miles from #HurricaneDorian eye & feeling this!! Imagine what the people of Abaco+Grand Bahamas will experience! Bahamas @opmthebahamas Goverment will need major help! @ClintonGlobal @RedCross @TeamRubicon ...Florida should also get ready for major winds! pic.twitter.com/lIa9ghhUdk

— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) September 1, 2019

As #HurricaneDorian approached the #AbacoIslands, NOAA's #GOESEast zoomed in on the powerful storm's eye. The Cat. 5 storm's "maximum winds have increased to near 175 mph with gusts over 200 mph," according to @NHC_Atlantic. Follow the storm: https://t.co/VDEWvXtPxt pic.twitter.com/wLnZjJJYMO

— NOAA Satellites (@NOAASatellites) September 1, 2019

Related:

The original goal for @JJWatt’s Hurricane Harvey relief fund was $200K.

He just posted a two-year update 🙏

◽️ $40M+ raised
◽️ 239M meals served
◽️ 1,183 homes rebuilt
◽️ 971 childcare centers rebuilt (108,731 kids)

➡️@brgridiron pic.twitter.com/cgIpHnQeCg

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 29, 2019

By the way:

So @ksonney casually mentioned that before the internet, they used to teach kids how to plot hurricanes on a map in grade school, and the grocery store handed out maps so you could track it. Mind. Blown.

— The Wombat Resists (@UrsulaV) September 1, 2019

"The Alaska village where every cop has been convicted of domestic violence"

Anchorage Daily News:

Next is a class of cops unique to Alaska: village public safety officers (VPSOs), who are nearly as well-trained as troopers and are also paid by the state. But the number of VPSOs appears to be at an all-time low, with just 42 officers statewide this year, compared with more than 100 in 2013.

On the same day the federal government announced millions in emergency funds for Alaska rural police in June, Gov. Mike Dunleavy revealed he had vetoed millions from the VPSO program, saying the money was for vacant positions.

Dunleavy, a Republican, has declared a “war on criminals”

....

In Stebbins, Nashoanak said it’s impossible to avoid candidates with a felony or a misdemeanor within the past five years, who should be prohibited from serving as cops by law, because of constant burnout and turnover. Officers are paid $14 an hour.

Factor in small-town politics and the pressure to look the other way when an influential person or family gets in trouble, and it’s easy to see why officers are constantly quitting.

Related:

Weeks go by, then months, and Notre Dame sees nothing from the billionaires. The promises of mid-April seem to have been forgotten by mid-June. “The big donors haven’t paid. Not a cent,” a senior official at the cathedral tells journalists.

...

Meanwhile, the salaries of 150 workers on site have to be paid. The 300 or so tonnes of lead in the church roof pose a toxic threat that must be cleaned up before the rebuilding can happen. And pregnant women and children living nearby are undergoing blood tests for possible poisoning. But funding such dirty, unglamorous, essential work is not for the luxury-goods billionaires. As the Notre Dame official said last month, they don’t want their money “just to pay employees’ salaries”.

"How 2 New Yorkers Erased $1.5 Million in Medical Debt for Hundreds of Strangers"

NYT:

Last spring, Judith Jones and Carolyn Kenyon, both of Ithaca, N.Y., heard about R.I.P. Medical Debt, which purchases bundles of past-due medical bills and forgives them to help those in need. So the women decided to start a fund-raising campaign of their own to assist people with medical debt in New York.

Over the summer months, the women raised $12,500 and sent it to the debt-forgiveness charity, which then purchased a portfolio of $1.5 million of medical debts on their behalf, for about half a penny on the dollar.

"The smaller populations of shelter dogs make it harder for some rescue groups, especially those dedicated to specialty breeds, to find what adopters want"

WaPo:

An effort that animal rescuers began more than a decade ago to buy dogs for $5 or $10 apiece from commercial breeders has become a nationwide shadow market that today sees some rescuers, fueled by Internet fundraising, paying breeders $5,000 or more for a single dog.

"Tumult After AIDS Fund-Raiser Supports Harvey Weinstein Production"

NYT:

In May 2015, the entertainment producer Harvey Weinstein arranged for two items to be auctioned off at a fund-raiser for amfAR, a New York-based charity that works to cure AIDS.

The offers — a sitting with a famous fashion photographer and a package of tickets to a Hollywood film awards event and parties — came with a condition: $600,000 of the money raised at the auction, in Cannes, France, would go to the American Repertory Theater, a nonprofit playhouse that had done a trial run of “Finding Neverland,” a Broadway musical that Mr. Weinstein produced.

...

Mr. Weinstein, who is a longtime supporter of the AIDS organization and was a chairman of the 2015 event, said that he had done nothing wrong and that everyone benefited from the arrangement, which raised $309,669 for amfAR. “I honestly thought we were doing something fantastic for both sides,” he said in an interview. “We get money, they get money, and it’s all our money.”

Pink drill bits to fight breast cancer

Not a hoax...

For the second consecutive year, Baker Hughes is donating $100,000 to support Susan G. Komen®, the world’s leading breast cancer organization. The year-long partnership with Komen is an extension of the company’s participation each year in the Komen Houston Race for the Cure, where Baker Hughes sponsor’s the Survivor Pin Celebration. 

This year, the company will paint and distribute a total of 1,000 pink drill bits worldwide. The pink bits serve as a reminder of the importance of supporting research, treatment, screening, and education to help find the cures for this disease, which claims a life every 60 seconds.

Via.

823KEYPROJECT

The plan is to sell 823 vintage skeleton key/necklaces and then use the proceeds to fund an artist. And then start selling another 823 and so on until 26 artists have received grants. You can buy a key here. Or go here to find out how to apply for a grant.

Lockpicking Hamster

I've previously mentioned the upcoming benefit Dungeons & Dragons (With Girls!). As part of the benefit, you can donate money to buy your favorite adventurer special items. For example:

$15 Lockpicking Hamster

Cute and cuddly, hamsters have always made great companions and pets. And now you can buy one that's already been trained to pick nearly any lock you may stumble across! Unfortunately, they haven't been trained to detect traps, so please use with caution.
Hamsters can fit into even the smallest of gaps!

Click here to see the full item list.