Podcast appearances and mentions of William Hoffman

Three media companies, in vaguely the same vicinity, in fair debt markets where we lay our scene — where ancient business models encounter new scrutiny, and AI generates images you can't unsee…Valentine's Day has been and gone, so why on earth are we besmirching Romeo and Juliet with terrible puns? You should listen to the episode for the full picture, but basically we're discussing three recent debt transactions from X/Twitter, Snap, and Getty Images.These deals might not seem immediately connected, but there's a thread running through all three. In an age of political upheaval and rapid technological advancement, what do they tell us about the future of media? William Hoffman, David Bell and Will Caiger-Smith are here to discuss, and to crowdsource ideas for sponsored 9fin Snapchat filters.Want to share feedback on this episode? Send us a note at podcast@9fin.com.

The Educational Interview meeting featured Will Hoffman, a seasoned expert with over 20 years of experience in retirement plans and medical insurance, as he discussed advanced retirement strategies tailored for business owners. Kevin introduced the session, highlighting key topics such as the various ways business owners can receive compensation, including salaries, business sales, and retirement plans. Notably, Will explained cash balance plans, showcasing their potential savings, like a doctor's group saving over $250,000 annually. He also covered non-qualified deferred compensation plans, life insurance for tax-efficient savings, and a new 401(k) product offering a 20% hedge against market declines. Furthermore, the discussion emphasized the use of retirement plans to attract and retain talent, with a focus on the importance of annual benchmarking. The meeting concluded with action items for exploring these advanced strategies and contacts for further personalized support from Will Hoffman.

Stop me if you've heard this one before but what the heck did DISH (Echostar) and DIRECTV just say they were going to do? And will it actually happen this time?In this week's episode of Cloud 9fin, listen in as senior reporter William Hoffman sits down with 9fin credit analysts Kartik Dar and Daniel Stone to untangle the DISH and DIRECTV transactions and debt exchanges and speculate on the merger's antitrust prospects.Find Dan's latest piece on the path to regulatory approval for the DISH-DIRECTV merger here, and find Kartik's latest analysis on the deal here. Another worthy read is this piece by our distressed team, co-authored by William, Kartik and our deputy distressed editor Rachel Butt.If you have any feedback for the team or would like to learn more about how to get involved, send a note to podcast@9fin.com. Thanks for listening.

All eyes are on media giant Paramount Global and its $13bn debt stack, amid the threat of a downgrade to junk status. With streaming wars intensifying and cable subscribers slowly converting to Paramount Plus, many are left asking: Is Paramount's debt heading for a rocky road, or is there still a way back to stability?Despite its challenges, Paramount holds a strong liquidity position with $2.3 billion in cash and $3.5 billion in undrawn revolver capacity. However, with debt maturing soon and uncertainty surrounding the Skydance acquisition, the stakes are high as Paramount works to balance leverage and boost cash flow amid a shifting media landscape.For this week's episode of Cloud 9fin, senior reporter William Hoffman and credit analyst Dan Stone explore the drama unfolding at Paramount, the implications of its potential downgrade, and whether other media giants like Warner Bros. Discovery could be next in line.

The Ozempic effect is coming for more than just your wardrobe! Last week, 9fin reported that a group of lenders to Weight Watchers parent WW International organized with law firm Gibson Dunn as the company loses subscribers to weight loss drugs. On a somewhat related note, 9fin also reported that Herbalife is facing challenges of its own after a bad set of earnings. What use are health shakes when you can take a pill to slim down? Listen as our US deputy distressed editor Rachel Butt and senior reporter William Hoffman talk about these stories, and how Oprah Winfrey is at the center of it all. 

At just 10 years old, William Hoffman's son Liam was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis (NF), a rare genetic condition that causes tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body. When Will and his family got the news, they could have succumbed to despair.  Instead, Will leaned into it, and has made it his mission to find … Read More Read More

In this episode, Mike shares new breakthroughs in artificial intelligence technology used to locate invasive ants, Laura highlights research looking at how age impacts malaria transmission in mosquitoes, and Ellie reviews a recent study investigating if mosquito repellent devices impact pollinators. We're joined by special guest, William Hoffman of Hoffman Exterminators.  Be sure to check out NPMA's Pestology blog for more information on the research covered in this episode! https://npmapestology.com/ 

It's been a hot and heavy summer, and the pipeline is looking encouragingly full for next month — especially compared to this time last year.For this week's episode of the podcast, Will Caiger-Smith and William Hoffman take a tour through the primary calendar and evaluate each deal's chances for a smooth syndication.Featuring: Worldpay, Vistra, Syneos Health, Simon & Schuster…and many more. Check out our piece from earlier this week for the full slate.

Casino operator Penn Entertainment is betting that a $2bn partnership with ESPN will supercharge the company's foray into the online sports wagering market.It could be an expensive gamble: online sportsbooks have been a hotspot of growth in the US gambling industry, but competitors such as DraftKings and FanDuel are already starting to pivot to profitability from a “growth by any means” mentality after spending big to take market share.Will Penn's investors have the patience for another growth story? And how could a regulatory backlash against online gambling impact the industry?On this week's US edition of Cloud 9fin, US deputy editor David Bell quizzes senior reporter William Hoffman on Penn's new tie-up with ESPN and what it means for leveraged credits in the sector.

Published: November 04, 2020 On today's show, we replay the October 27, 2020, webinar panel discussion called Advancing Our Parishes Through Challenging Times. During the conversation, our panelists discuss ways that parishes and dioceses have successfully engaged parishioners throughout the pandemic; and how these Church leaders have adopted effective strategies for maintaining and improving crucial aspects of parish life, including communications, offertory, and outreach.Our panel is moderated by Changing Our World‘s Anna Vallez and Fred Roberts, with special guests Dave Baranowski, Director of Parish Stewardship and Leadership Formation in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Mariann Gilbride, CFRE, Director of Development for the Diocese of Camden, Rev. Msgr. Paul T. Dotson, Pastor of St. Lawrence Martyr Catholic Church in Redondo Beach, CA; Rev. Rex Hays, Pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Patterson, CA; and Rev. William Hoffman, Pastor of St. Philip Catholic Church in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Watch the Video Presentation of the Discussion https://youtu.be/Cbw2Ko7RAOE Recorded: October 27, 2020 Don't miss Changing Our World's FORGING FORWARDDon't miss the webinar series FORGING FORWARD, a virtual philanthropic conference designed to bring you nonprofit experts from around the country who are leading through the COVID-19 crisis. Daily Spiritual Reflection and Prayers on “Kristin's Crosses” Join Jim and Kristin Friend and their family on Kristin's Crosses YouTube Channel for “Today's Catholic Prayers.” Jim and Kristin offer the daily Gospel and Reflection along with the Rosary and Catholic Prayers of the day. Click here to visit the YouTube Page and subscribe. If you would like to join the Kristin's Crosses prayer group on Facebook, click here to request to join.

Ever pulled an all-nighter to prepare a pitch, or had your weekend ruined by a last-minute fire drill from your MD? Imagine if artificial intelligence could crunch the numbers and format the slidedeck for you. What would you do with the extra free time?But also, what valuable, formative experiences might you miss out on if you could outsource rote tasks to technology? And how might that change the culture of your institution?Everyone's talking about AI, and how it could revolutionize basically everything. We wanted to figure out what it might mean — both good and bad — for the debt markets, so 9fin reporters William Hoffman and Shubham Saharan hit the phones for some philosophical conversations.In this week's episode of the podcast, we're asking: is AI coming for your finance job?

The US auto lending industry is a finance juggernaut, but not all auto loans are made equal. In this episode of Cloud 9fin, Will Caiger-Smith sits down with reporter William Hoffman to dig into two of the high yield market's best known subprime auto lenders. What does the future have in store for these companies as consumer credit quality teeters on the brink of a downturn?

In "A High Plain Plateau," Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall discuss the trajectory of the BA.5 wave in the U.S. and around the world, the updated CDC COVID guidelines, and the latest data on long COVID. Dr. Osterholm also provides an update on the monkeypox outbreak and answers a query about polio. Email us your questions: OsterholmUpdate@umn.edu ‘Living with Covid' should be countered by containing the virus once and for all (Eric Topol, The Guardian): https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/15/cdc-living-with-covid-should-be-countered-by-containing-virus It's not just long COVID (Hank Balfour and William Hoffman, The Atlantic): https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/08/long-covid-monovirus-ebv/671080/ Unexplained post-acute infection syndromes (Choutka et al., Nature Medicine): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01810-6 Asking gay men to be careful isn't homophobia (Jim Downs, The Atlantic): https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/08/monkeypox-aids-gay-men-safe-sex/671126/ Let's speak clearly: monkeypox is mostly being transmitted via sex (David Mack, Buzzfeed News): https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/monkeypox-sex Laura's beautiful place: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/lauras-beautiful-place Meredith's beautiful place: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/merediths-beautiful-place Donate to support this podcast: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/donate Browse the podcast and CIDRAP merchandise store: cidrap.umn.edu/shop

Cloud 9fin goes for the W, as US editor Will Caiger-Smith dials up reporter William Hoffman to talk about Maxar Technologies. The satellite imaging company has been all over the news with its wartime images of Ukraine — has its credit profile caught up with this newfound fame?

***The views expressed in this episode reflect only those of the speaker and not necessarily those of the Department of Defense, the US Air Force, or the Brooke Army Medical Center.*** This week we are discussing aeromedical reform with Aeromedical researcher, Dr. William Hoffman. Dr. Hoffman is a physician, aeromedical examiner, and researcher who leads an aeromedical research group in the United States Air Force. He and his team are working to understand the pilot healthcare barrier and their studies are the largest to ever be conducted on pilot healthcare seeking behavior. While this issue is often common knowledge to pilots, it has almost 0 reference in medical literature. Dr. Hoffman is also the award winning author of ‘Wing of Deceit' and his latest book ‘Intrepid Pursuit' is available now! We will be posting any and all information regarding future and upcoming studies on our Instagram and website, stay tuned. UND SUMMIT: https://youtu.be/zNUA7dL_mgo CASE STUDIES: Pilots' Healthcare Seeking Anxiety When Experiencing Chest Pain - PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33533702/ BOOKS: https://www.amazon.com/Wings-Deceit-riveting-aviation-thriller-ebook/dp/B07QRG3VMV https://www.amazon.com/Intrepid-Pursuit-disaster-decades-making/dp/1733906843 SOCIAL LINKS- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/thepilotspandemic https://instagram.com/emneonicon https://Instagram.com/thefitaviatrix Link for aeromedical reform petition: https://www.change.org/apilotspandemic WEBSITE: https://msha.ke/thepilotspandemic/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thepilotspandemic/support

Spine specialist, Dr. William Hoffman shares a story of a 51-year-old, emergency room physician suffering with lower back and left leg pain. A Note from Dr. Hoffman My goal is to help as many people as I possibly can to regain and maintain their health through chiropractic care. I've dedicated my life to providing my patients with the best possible care. Each patient receives a thorough history and consultation. This is followed by a comprehensive examination and recommendation for care. All patients are given the opportunity to not only get out of pain, but to correct any underlying structural problems that have contributed to their present health concern. Once their problem has been corrected, a maintenance or wellness program is tailored to each patient's individual needs. I strongly believe in the maxim 'health is wealth.' Most people just don't realize, until it happens to them, how expensive it is to get sick. According to researchers at Harvard University, every 30 seconds in the U.S., someone files for bankruptcy as a result of the treatment they receive for a serious health problem. The good news is, there are solutions that every one of us can do something to reduce our risk of bankrupting ourselves. The ultimate solution for our health care crisis is to have 'more people less sick.' The only way we can have more people less sick is to have more people choose better health through better living. I want to help you achieve that. By maintaining your neuro-musculo-skeletal system, this is an achievable goal. Education Doctor of Chiropractic: Los Angeles College of Chiropractic Master of Public Health: University of California, Berkeley Bachelors of Sciences: San Diego State University Certified Cox Technic Doctor Memberships & Associations California Chiropractic Association (CCA) Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research American Chiropractic Association (ACA) Resources: chiropracticsolutions.org Find a Back Doctor The Cox 8 Table by Haven Medical    

You're listening to the Westerly Sun's podcast, where we talk about the best local events, new job postings, obituaries, and more. First, a bit of Rhode Island trivia. Today's trivia is brought to you by Perennial. Perennial's new plant-based drink “Daily Gut & Brain” is a blend of easily digestible nutrients crafted for gut and brain health. A convenient mini-meal, Daily Gut & Brain” is available now at the CVS Pharmacy in Wakefield. Now for some trivia. Did you know that Rhode Island native, Peter Manfredo Jr. is a former professional boxer and former IBO middleweight champion? Known as the “Pride of Providence”, he has challenged twice for upper-level world titles, at middleweight and super middleweight, as well as having won the NABO, IBU and European Boxing Association light middleweight titles. Now, for our feature story: The Department of Justice has issued more than $750,000 in grant funding to Rhode Island law enforcement agencies including the Richmond Police Department to assist with the hiring and retention of officers to focus on community policing. Richmond is one of five agencies that was selected during a competitive process, the department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, said in a news release. The COPS Hiring Program provided more than $139 million across all 50 U.S. states in the latest grant funding, with direct funding going to 183 agencies. In the latest round, Richmond will receive $125,000 to be used specifically “to hire new or rehire additional career law enforcement officers, thereby increasing their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts”. Although the town's population has grown over both the past decade and considerably over the past two years, the Richmond Police Department has remained the smallest law enforcement agency in Washington County with just 14 sworn officers, including Police Chief Elwood M. Johnson Jr. In addition, the agency has maintained jurisdiction over the Chariho campus, which houses both the middle and high schools and is home to approximately 3,000 students and staff.   “In the Chariho area, one of the best community policing models is the School Resource Officer program, where thousands of our students are congregated daily during the school year.” Johnson said the grant money, which the chief applied for in June, would be used to provide the department with an additional full-time sworn officer. The federal funding, if approved by the Richmond Town Council, would provide 75% of pay, training and benefit costs for the new position over three years. The town would be required to finance the remaining 25% of the cost as well as being financially obligated to retain the position for at least one additional year at the end of the three-year grant period.   The COPS Hiring Program is a competitive award program intended to reduce crime and advance public safety through community policing.  Since its creation in 1994, COPS has invested more than $14 billion to advance community policing. For more information on jobs and employment, check out this story and more at thewesterlysun.com Today we're remembering the life of William Hoffman. He was the beloved husband of Sandra for 64 years. A proud United States Navy veteran, Bill served as a Sea-Bee in the Korean War. Bill is also survived by his four loving children, grandchildren, sister in law, and several nieces, nephews and many great grandchildren. Bill, also known as Barney, owned and operated Coveside Marina in Stonington and later, Hoffman construction company. Bill loved his family, fishing and running his machinery which is where he felt the happiest. Thank you for taking a moment with us today to remember and celebrate Bill's life. That's it for today, we'll be back next time with more! Also, remember to check out our sponsor Perennial, Daily Gut & Brain, available at the CVS on Main St. in Wakefield! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just in time for the anniversary of the beginning of the Gettysburg Campaign, we're re-releasing Narrative Episode 2, this time with all three parts strung together so you don't have to go searching for each part. This episode brings you through the month of June up the the night of June 30.  Excerpts from the script: Synopse [BEGIN “BEAR WALTZ”] As 1863 began, the Union Army of the Potomac found itself in a general malaise. Its failed attempt at another push towards Richmond, known as the “Mud March,” had served as the nail in the coffin of army commander Ambrose E Burnside. When Joseph Hooker took his place as commander of the Army of the Potomac, the changes he implemented helped boost the morale and confidence of his troops. But Hooker squandered that goodwill by bungling the Chancellorsville Campaign, in the early days of May 1863. While many believed that drunkenness or the artillery round that knocked him out for a short time were the probable causes of such bungling, Hooker himself told Major General Abner Doubleday, while on the road to Gettysburg,  “I was not hurt by a shell and I was not drunk. For once I lost confidence in Hooker, and that is all there was to it.”     After Chancellorsville, while Hooker was looking for ways to redeem himself, Robert E. Lee was setting the wheels in motion for his second invasion of the north.    Meanwhile, every day citizens in a bustling country town called Gettysburg, were going about their daily business while reading about the war in any or all of the town’s three newspapers. War had not left them untouched, however. They had sent their ablest young men off to fight for the Union cause and constant threats of invasion plagued them since they first sent their local militia, the “Gettysburg Blues”, to fight to preserve the Union, in 1861. By the Fourth of July of 1863, this small town of 2400 would be left with the daunting tasking of cleaning up the carnage and healing 10 times their number.     By mid-June, two great armies, totaling somewhere around 150,000 men, with tens of thousands of horses and mules, miles of wagons and, in one of those armies, human beings that were owned by other human beings, marched north into Pennsylvania. One army moving cautiously in order to determine its enemy’s intentions, while the other army smashd a Union garrison at Winchester and then happily ran roughshod over the lush and untouched farmlands of Pennsylvania while its citizens, like Gettysburg’s Sarah Broadhead wondered where their own army even was.    On the last day of June, a Tuesday, the lead elements of these two armies would be poised for the commencement of the greatest, bloodiest battle ever fought in the Western Hemisphere, but very few, if any, had any notion of that as they closed their eyes to sleep.   [BEAR WALTZ END] ........... THE BATTLE OF BRANDY STATION FRANK ROBERTSON: “The only time in my 14 month service with General Stuart that he seemed rattled was when Frank Dean, one of his couriers, dashed up and told him the Yankees were at Brandy Station. This was startling indeed. Frank Robertson, General Stuart’s Staff.” [FADE IN DIFFERENT NIGHT SUMMER AMBIENCE][FADE IN GENTLE RIVER SOUND] No fires were allowed in the Union cavalry camps on the night of June 8. Troopers ate cold dinners, then slept on the ground with their horses’ reins looped around an arm. All was quiet and calm, for, just across the Rappahannock, camped Jeb Stuart’s confederates.  Pleasonton's combined force of 11,000 cavalry and infantry was poised for a double-envelopment of JEB Stuart and his 9500 cavaliers.  Just around 4:30am, John Buford’s Union division, led by the brigade of Colonel Benjamin “Grimes” Davis, crossed the Rappahannock River at Beverly Ford  [HORSES SPLASHING] in a thick fog and brushed aside confederate pickets from the 6th Virginia Cavalry. [LIGHT MUSKETRY] CONFEDERATE SOLDIER: “At about daylight the Yanks drove in our pickets stationed at Beverly’s Ford on the Rappahannock and came near surprising us in bed...they charged up to our camp and killed and wounded several horses before we could get out. Confederate Artilleryman” Behind the picket line were four batteries of Stuart’s horse artillery, parked in preparation for the day’s march. Further behind them, about two miles from the ford, at St James Church, was the brigade of William “Grumble” Jones.  Carbine and pistol shots crackled through the morning air waking Jones. It took only a moment for him to come to his senses and, once aware of what was going on, Jones sent the 6th and 7th Virginia to meet the threat. In their haste to get at these Yankees [CHAOTIC VOICES, TRAMPLING HOOVES, GUNFIRE] some troopers were barely dressed and many rode their horses bareback. Major Cabell E. Flournoy, of the 6th Virginia, was able to rally about 100 men and charged with them into the Federals. But Flournoy was soon forced to withdraw in a hurry as he and his men were badly outnumbered.  Lieutenant R. O. Allen’s horse was wounded, causing Allen to be left behind during Flournoy’s withdrawal. Allen took cover in a treeline when he spotted a Union officer, Colonel Benjamin Grimes Davis, at the head of the column of the Yankees.  Down to one bullet in his revolver, Allen decided it would be best spent taking out the brave blue-bellied officer daring to lead his men from the front. So Allen spurred his wounded horse towards Davis, whose back was turned.  In the nick of time, Davis turned around and faced Allen for long enough to see that Allen was charging at him. Davis began swinging his saber in an effort to hit the charging rebel. Allen saved himself by dropping down to his horse’s side and fired his revolver at Davis, sending his last bullet through the colonel’s brain. Allen galloped off to the safety of his own lines.  [ABOVE SOUND EFFECTS DIP IN VOLUME AND PAN TO LEFT SPEAKER] The action of Grumble Jones’ men enabled most of Stuart’s artillery, which was camped dangerously close to Buford’s troops, [OFFICERS SHOUTING ALL KINDS OF ORDERS; MOST INDISTINCT...CHAOS] to to fall back and form a line around St James Church.  Meanwhile, on Fleetwood Hill, Stuart, was drinking his morning coffee at his headquarters. Fleetwood Hill, which ran north and south, and was about a half mile northeast of Brandy Station and around four miles behind the scene of Buford’s crossing. Stuart hastily sent his supply wagons towards Culpeper while his staff scurried this way and that to get themselves together to meet whatever danger was about to befall them. Stuart then ordered reinforcements ahead to the sound of the fighting.  As Buford’s brigades pushed their way further into the confederate lines, they were met by the confederate troops of Brigadier General Wade Hampton, who formed his brigade to the right of Grumble Jones.  At that moment, Major Robert Morris, commander of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry, was ordered to clear the confederates from his front. Morris and the 6th Pennsylvania, also known as “Rush’s Lancers”, charged against the Confederate artillery.  CAPTAIN HENRY WHELAN- “We flew along-- our men yelling like demons. Grape and canister were poured into our left flank and a storm of rifle bullets on our front. We had to leap three wide, deep ditches and many of our horses and men piled up in a writhing mass in those ditches and were ridden over. Captain Henry Whelan, 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry.” The 6th Pennsylvania’s charge failed when Confederates counterattacked and drove them back after a brutal hand-to-hand melee.  Major Morris was captured. One Confederate described the charge as “brilliant and glorious.” [CHARGING CAVALRY, MEN SHOUTING, CANNON FIRING LOUDLY, HORSES SCREAMING]  The 6th PA suffered the highest casualty rate of any regiment at Brandy Station.  This charge, however, seemed to stabilize the battle for the time being.  As Buford’s troopers began to fall back towards the Rappahannock, groups of them would dismount and join the infantrymen of Adelbert Ames’ brigade which had come up in support.  While his regiments were forming to charge, messengers from Beverly Robertson's brigade brought Grumble Jones, on the confederate right, some unwelcome news: a large dust cloud had been seen rising from the direction of Kelly’s Ford to the Confederates’ right-rear. Jones rushed a courier to Stuart.  JEB Stuart was on the scene of the St James Church line. The seriousness of the event still didn’t seem to occur to Stuart or his staff as a few of his more youthful staff members climbed a nearby cherry tree. Jubilantly, they picked and ate and picked and threw cherries down to their comrades on the ground until a federal shell carened through the tree. The shell sent splintered branches flying and the young staff officers plummeting to the relative safety of the ground.  Stuart, beside himself with laughter, said: “What’s the matter, boys? Cherries getting sour?” Around this time one of Jones’ couriers rode up to Stuart and delivered the message about the threat to his flank. The doubtful Stuart arrogantly replied, “Tell General Jones to attend to the Yankees in his front, and I’ll watch the flanks.” Upon receiving this reply, Jones grimly scoffed: “So he thinks they ain’t coming, does he? Well, let him alone, he’ll damned soon see for himself.” ........... What the Second Battle of Winchester dispelled, however, were doubts about Ewell’s competency at the helm of a corps and confirmed the faith that his troops had in him. One of the Union boys lying mortally wounded by Ewell’s bullets, was a member of the 87th Pennsylvania, Johnston “Jack” Skelly, a native and citizen of Gettysburg.  Upon learning of Jack’s presence, Confederate soldier, John Wesley Culp, went to find him. Jack and Wes had grown up together in Gettysburg. In the 1850s, Wesley had taken employment with local carriage maker, C. William Hoffman. In 1856, Hoffman decided to move his business to Shepherdstown, Virginia and invited several of his employees along. Wes’s brother, William declined, but Wesley Culp accepted the invitation, leaving his childhood home, family and friends behind in Gettysburg. In Shepherdstown, Wesley and Hoffman’s three sons joined the Hamtramck Guards, the local militia and drinking club. When Civil War broke out, Wesley bid his fellow Gettysburg transplants a fond adieu as they left to return to Pennsylvania and fight for the Union. Wesley and the rest of the Hamtramck guards enlisted in the Confederate service on the 20th of April, 1861 at Harpers Ferry. They became Company B of the 2nd Virginia, which was placed in the First Brigade under the command of Colonel Thomas Jonathan Jackson The brigade and the man would, in a short time, earn the nickname “Stonewall”.    But Culp was a confederate. Sure that he was dying, Jack asked Wesley to deliver a letter to Jennie should he ever find himself back home in Gettysburg. Wesley took the letter, promising to do so.  LINCOLN: “To General Hooker: Winchester and Martinsburg were both besieged yesterday...the enemy holds both places. Confederate troops are crossing the Potomac at Williamsport… I would like to hear from you.-- Abraham Lincoln.”  [CADENCE BEGINS] From  Winchester, Ewell sent Robert Rodes’ infantry division, north to raid Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Along with Rodes’ Division was the irregular cavalry brigade of Albert Jenkins, a colorful character who often tucked his long beard into his belt when the wind was up.  At 2am, on June 15, Jenkins led his cavalry on the road to Chambersburg.  ............. SARAH BROADHEAD: “No alarm was felt until Governor Curtin sent a telegram, directing the people to move their stores as quickly as possible. This made us begin to realize the fact that we were in some danger from the enemy, and some persons, thinking the Rebels were near, became very much frightened, though the report was a mistake. Sarah Broadhead” Sarah “Sallie” Broadhead, was a Gettysburg resident and wife of train engineer Joseph. Thirty year old Sarah and Thirty-two year-old Joseph had a four year-old daughter named Mary. Together, they lived at 217 Chambersburg Street. After hearing the news of Confederate mischief along the Potomac, Sarah began a journal.  Ever since word of the Confederates crossing the Potomac first reached them, residents of Gettysburg and many other south-central Pennsylvania towns were beginning to panic and prepare as best they could for the approaching invaders. No one knew just where the Confederates were heading. No one knew what the Confederates would do to them should they descend on their city or town. And no one knew where their own army was to protect them and drive off the rebel hordes.  Civilian militias began to form. Still, the townspeople worried, for what good could days-old militia do against Robert E Lee’s formidable veterans? TILLIE PIERCE: “We had often heard that the rebels were about to make a raid, but had always found it a false alarm. ~ Tillie Pierce, Gettysburg Resident” In truth, Gettysburg lived under a constant cloud of worry ever since the Civil War broke out in 1861. Just ten miles to its south, is the border with Maryland. While a border state that remained within the Union, Maryland’s doing so was fragile. Its citizens had sympathies for both sides of the war.  Virginia, the state which was home to the Confederate capital of Richmond, was not much farther beyond Maryland.  On April 22, 1861, Gettysburg proudly sent “The Gettysburg Blues”, its local militia that mainly had experience performing ceremonial duties, off to fight for the Union. Almost immediately, townspeople began to feel uneasy about sending its only armed forced away. And, so, that same night, the people of Gettysburg gathered in the courthouse to discuss forming a new Home Guard to ease the peoples’ minds. Out of nowhere, two unknown men burst into the courthouse yelling “the Rebels are burning Hanover and Gettysburg is next!” The report was that 500 or more “pug-uglies” from the city of Baltimore--a city with deep Confederate sympathies-- were heading towards Gettysburg. As the citizens filtered out into the street, a single rider galloped into town along York Street. “To arms! The Rebels are coming!” The calm curiosity that the people of Gettysburg embodied only a moment before, gave way to utter panic and chaos. Word spread quickly through the town. The streets were crowded with panic-stricken people. Bells pealed across town to raise alarm. Riders in the style of Paul Revere were dispatched in every direction to warn neighboring hamlets and farms. Of course, all firearms and the ammunition for those firearms had left hours earlier with the Gettysburg Blues. All that was left was a smattering of shotguns, antique muskets, shovels, hoes, axes, knives and various other items of little to no real use against the coming pug-uglies. Finally, after midnight, Gettysburg’s cooler heads decided to send a train to Hanover to see just what was up.  The train returned around dawn with the shocking news: it was a false alarm. Furthermore, those unknown harbingers of alarm who started the pandemonium, were nowhere to be found.  Time and time again, between June of 1861 and June of 1863, the alarm would be raised, panic would ensue, and all would be let down as no Rebel threat had developed. The only time that the threat came close to being real was in 1862 when Jeb Stuart’s Cavalry invaded Pennsylvania and raided Chambersburg, then appeared at the foot of the mountains at Cashtown, just 8 or so miles west of Gettysburg. But Stuart had no interest in Gettysburg that day and her citizens, once again, breathed a sigh of relief.  Stuart’s raid aside, a sense of “the boy who cried wolf” began to lull the people of Gettysburg into a complacency that would last up until the first shots of the battle.  By nightfall of June 15, 1863 Jenkins cavalry brigade, the lead element of Robert Rodes’ Confederate division, had reached Chambersburg, some 25 miles to the west of Gettysburg. A flood of refugees would soon filter through Gettysburg with that same old song of “the Rebels are coming.” Not all Gettysburg residents brushed these warnings off in June of 1863. Michael Jacobs, a professor at Pennsylvania College, was not so dismissive when he noted in his diary that there were “unmistakable signs of the coming storm.” ............. MEADE TAKES COMMAND [FADE IN GENTLE SUMMER NIGHT SOUNDS. CRICKETS, crackling fire, etc.] It was 3 am and so quiet at Fifth Corps headquarters that the slightest sounds could be noticed. So it was no surprise that Fifth Corps Commander Major General George Meade’s slumber was disturbed by the sound of voices outside his tent. There was a visitor to camp who was asking for access to the General. Being that Meade’s staff officers were all camped in the vicinity of his tent, they, too, could hear the voices and, one by one would emerge, curious as to the matter at hand.   When Meade lay down to sleep only a few hours earlier, he did so having fulfilled his duties for the day and expecting to wake up in the morning and fulfill whatever duties he would be assigned for that day. He marched his men 16 miles from near the Monocacy River to Ballinger’s Creek, three miles due south of Frederick, Maryland. Upon arrival, he went ahead into town to find Hooker, whom he had not seen since June 13. Hooker had not yet arrived, so Meade returned to his corps, saw to their encampment and retired for the night. He was unaware that Hooker had resigned the night before and that one of General-in-Chief Halleck’s staff officers, Colonel James A. Hardie, and a small party were on their way to Meade.  Hardie roused Meade in his tent and told him that he came bearing “trouble”. Meade, whose sense of humor was just as groggy as he was at this hour, assumed that Hardie’s mission was, as he wrote his wife, “to either relieve or arrest me”. So, Meade’s response to Hardie’s joke was “my conscience is clear.” Hardie then handed Meade a communication to read which relieved Hooker as commander of the army of the Potomac and put Meade in his place. Unlike previous times when Lincoln replaced a general, this was not an offer, nor a request. It read:  “GENERAL: You will receive with this the order of the President placing you in command of the Army of the Potomac. Considering the circumstances, no one ever received a more important command; and I cannot doubt that you will fully justify the confidence which the Government has reposed in you.” It was an order... and Meade, ever the dutiful soldier, complied with the order.  [BLEND IN THREE HORSES AT A WALK] And so, Meade, Hardie and Meade’s son and staff officer, Captain George Meade, Junior, rode to Army Headquarters in Frederick to meet with Hooker. There was little conversation among the three as they rode. Now and again Meade, the elder, would depart from his visibly evident deep-thought and ask Hardie a question. Then he’d go back to thinking.  [CROSS FADE HORSES TO INDOOR SOUNDS. CRACKLING FIRE, FOOTSTEPS ON A WOODEN FLOOR, PERHAPS AND INDISCERNIBLE VOICES] At Frederick, he met with Hooker who, with his usual charm, tried his best to assuage the embarrassment and awkwardness of the occasion. They sat down and had a lengthy discussion and were eventually joined by the Army’s chief-of-staff, Daniel Butterfield.  [CROSS FADE INDOOR TO CRICKETS] Finally, Meade came out of the meeting with the same grave look on his face as when he went in. Upon seeing his son, he perked up slightly, “Well, George,” he said, “I am in command of the Army of the Potomac.” It can be assumed that Meade learned about the disposition of the army, though he did admit that he had “no exact information about the condition of the troops and the position of the enemy.” He would also later claim that Hooker offered him “no intimation of any plan or any views he may have had up to that moment.” Meade formally accepted command in a message to Halleck. MEADE: “The order placing me in command of this army is received. As a soldier I obey it, and to the utmost of my ability will execute it. George Gordon Meade.” Overall, Meade’s appointment to command was well received, even though most outside of his own fifth corps knew little about the man. A good deal of the rank and file wished that McClellan would be reinstated and Lieutenant Henry P. Claire, the 83rd NY’s adjutant, prayed that McClellan be placed in command, once again. If not, then he prayed that “Jeff Davis enters Washington, hangs Lincoln and all his damnable associates proclaiming himself President.” Claire was willing to part with a month’s pay “to see Washington sacked and the present clique chased like bayed foxes with bloodhounds after them.” In the high command, Major General Daniel Sickles was the only general who was sad to see Hooker go and he and Meade were not friends. The others were pleased with the selection. John F Reynolds was the ranking general of them all and Lincoln had offered him command of the army prior to assigning it to Meade. But Reynolds had seen how much Washington meddled with the army commander’s operations and respectfully declined the offer. Reynolds was also Meade’s friend. When Reynolds first saw Meade after he took command, Meade told him that his new job was, not only a surprise, but an unwelcome one, at that. Reynolds told Meade that the commanding general could rely on him and that he was satisfied to see Meade at the head of the army.  Things were now accelerated. Meade conferred with staff and drew up orders announcing that he was placed in command of the army along with marching orders for the day. Each corps knew where it needed to be by nightfall and by what roads and, by nightfall, all were where they should have been. Only Hancock’s Second Corps was just a few miles short of its destination because it got a late start due to receiving its orders late. GENERIC UNION SOLDIER: “Carrying rifle, knapsack and contents, accoutrements, haversack containing rations and sixty rounds of cartridges-- over fifty pounds.-- Union Sixth Corps soldier.” Lee’s Army was enjoying the bliss of ignorance. Longstreet’s and Hill’s Corps were concentrated around Chambersburg, to the west of Gettysburg, while Ewell was still split up between York, to the east and Carlisle, to the north. Stuart had now ridden himself so far from Lee that the Union army was separating the two. Therefore, Lee had lost the “eyes and ears”-- as he described cavalry’s main role-- of his army.  The 9th Alabama, of Anderson’s Division of AP Hill’s Corps, passed through Marion and Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. One soldier recorded a touching event that he witnessed in his diary.  GENERIC CONFEDERATE SOLDIER: “The females of Chambersburg seem to be spiteful, make faces, sing, wave their banners, etc. A widow in the place discovered the knapsack of her deceased husband in the command. She wished it and the soldier gave it to her. He had picked it up on the battlefield of ‘Gaine’s Mills,’ where we fought the Pennsylvania Bucktails. Such is war.” At around 3am on the morning of June 28, JEB Stuart’s cavalry had finally crossed the Potomac and was in Maryland. But Stuart... was east of the Union army... which was east of his own army. Along the way, Stuart’s men managed to cut the telegraph lines connecting Frederick, Maryland to Washington D.C., stymying the Army of the Potomac’s ability to quickly communicate with Washington. Meade set up a courier  service along the telegraph route, but this slowed information coming to and going from his Headquarters. As Hooker had to before him, Meade had to rely on Colonel Sharpe’s Bureau of Military Information.  It was Lee’s intention to hold the Cashtown Gap in order to protect his lines of communication, supply and retreat back into the valley and Virginia. A.P. Hill’s Corps took the lead, east through the mountains to Cashtown, followed by Longstreet’s Corps. At the head of Hill’s column was the division of newly-minted Major General Henry “Harry” Heth. Upon reaching Cashtown, Heth detached a mix of North Carolina and Mississippi troops to guard his flank to the south at Fairfield with specific instructions to keep an eye on the approaches from Emmitsburg, Maryland to the south.  Upon reaching Cashtown, a gunner in Hill’s corps was unsettled by the words of a woman on the roadside: "You are marching mighty proudly now,” she shouted, “but you will come back faster than you went.” Unable to resist the temptation, an officer asked why she thought that was. “Because,” she quickly replied, “you put your trust in General Lee and not in the Lord Almighty.” Up north in Carlisle, General Ewell declared this day “a day of rest”. Despite this, he sent Jenkins’ Cavalry ahead to Harrisburg, his next objective. Stonewall Jackson’s former chaplain, the Reverend B. Tucker Lacy, held two church services at the Carlisle Barracks. General Ewell  was asked by local clergy if he objected to their offering their routine prayer for President Lincoln at their respective churches. Ewell replied, “Pray for him. I’m sure he needs it.” Longstreet’s and Hill’s Corps were almost entirely up in the Keystone state with Longstreet at Chambersburg and Hill, about seven miles to Longstreet’s east, at Fayetteville. Both corps were within twenty five miles of Gettysburg.  Meanwhile, General-in-Chief Halleck gave Meade a wide berth with which to command the army. In essence, he gave Meade what he denied Hooker. --OR (read both)-- the red tape was cut in order to expedite the response to this national emergency. When Meade requested permission to pull the 7000-man garrison from Harpers Ferry, Halleck approved.  Part of Meade’s orders placing him in command also gave him the authority to promote, demote or replace any officer in the army to a position that he saw fit. Between June 28 and June 30, Meade would jump three promising young captains up four ranks to brigadier general. Those junior officers were Elon J Farnsworth, Wesley Merritt and the long-haired George Armstrong Custer.  Early in the evening of the 28th, Gettysburg resident, Samuel Herbst, whose horse, somehow eluded Early’s Confederates on the 26th, rode the animal to the south, towards Emmitsburg, Maryland. He returned with very welcomed news: thousands of Federal soldiers were on their way to Gettysburg. One Gettysburg resident remembered: “The news flew through the town like wildfire.” _______________________________________________________ Help us make these episodes come out more quickly. Become a patron! CLICK HERE

!!!!!!!!!! IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER !!!!!!!!!The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speaker's alone and do not represent the views of the US Government, the US Department of Defense, the Brooke Army Medical Center, or the Federal Aviation Administration. END DISCLAIMER On this weeks episode I speak to Dr. Billy Hoffman. We discuss his recent studies on pilot health care seeking anxiety, his book ‘Wings of Deceit’, and more aero-med related topics. Billy Hoffman attended Georgetown University School of Medicine and is a neurology resident physician, aeromedical researcher, and FAA Aeromedical Examiner (AME). He is a private pilot passionate about the interface between neuroscience and aerospace. His novel 'Wings of Deceit' won first place at the 2019 American Fiction Awards and has been sold around the world. His second novel, 'Intrepid Pursuit' will be available Summer 2021. The study links: US Study: https://survey.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bJxYXAp4zsy0GjP Canadian Study: https://redcap.link/PilotHealthCAN Published study’s below: 1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31306268/ 2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33533702/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Hearts broke all over the world, flags were lowered to half mast and the news was printed on every newspaper in America.  John F. Kennedy had been shot.  Even today, the idea of conspiracy seems prevalent when the even is brought up.  But it isn't without good reason... Readers Digest.  Cuba, Castro and John F. Kennedy.  Richard Nixon.  November 1964.  https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP75-00149R000500440001-1.pdf The United States Information Agency.  Research and Reference Service.  The Assassination of John F. Kennedy in East European Propoganda.  December 12th, 1963.  https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80B01676R002900180002-2.pdf Behold of Hell Horrors Letter from The Attorney General to the Department of Justice regarding Clay Shaw.  September 22, 1967.  Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP75B00380R000800140020-0.pdf Live Science.  Did Weather Play a Role in JFK’s Assassination?  Samantha-Rae Tuthill.  2013.  https://www.livescience.com/amp/41447-jfk-assassination-50th-anniversary.html John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.  JFK in History.  https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/november-22-1963-death-of-the-president Witness Tells how Oswald Got Book Depository Job.  Sunday Star.  February 23rd, 1969.  http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/S%20Disk/Shaw%20Clay%20Trial%20Defense/Item%2019.pdf JFK’s Murder was not a Conspiracy.  Paul Brandus.  The Week.  10/14/2013.  https://theweek.com/articles/458953/jfks-murder-not-conspiracy US National Library of Medicine.  National Institutes of Health.  Psychiatric Aspects of Psychomotor Epilepsy.  A. E. Bennett.  December, 1962.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1575714/ AARP.  Politics and Society.  50 Facts About the JFK Assassination.  Betsy Towner.  AARP Bulleton.  https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-10-2013/50-facts-about-jfk-assassination.html National Archives.  JFK Assassination Records.  Chapter 4:  The Assassin.  https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-4.html Britannica.  Assassination of John F. Kennedy.  United States History.  Jeff Wallenfeldt.  https://www.britannica.com/event/assassination-of-John-F-Kennedy LIFE.  JFK’s Funeral:  Photos From a Day of Shock and Grief.  Ben Cosgrove.  https://www.life.com/history/jfks-funeral-photos-from-a-day-of-shock-and-grief/ Iowa State University.  The Media and the Kennedy Assassination:  the social construct of reality.  Ross Frank Ralston.  A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.  1999.  https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=13477&context=rtd History.  Jack Ruby Kills Lee Harvey Oswald.  November 20, 2020.  https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jack-ruby-kills-lee-harvey-oswald The South Florida Sun Sentinel.  The Oswald Connection.  Murray Weiss and William Hoffman.  November 21st, 1993.  https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1993-11-21-9311020601-story.html HubPages.  The Mystery of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Double.  Nathan M.  July 2nd 1018.  https://discover.hubpages.com/politics/The-Mystery-of-Lee-Harvey-Oswalds-Double An Introduction to the JFK Assassination.  Is Robert Vinson’s ‘Oswald Double’ Story Credible?  Jeremy Bojczuk.  Boxgrove Publishing.  October 2014.  http://22november1963.org.uk/a-brief-guide-to-the-jfk-assassination The New Republic.  A Month Before JFK’s Assassination, Dallas Right Wingers Attack Adlai Stevenson  Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis.  November 18th, 2013.  https://newrepublic.com/article/115601/jfk-dallas-right-wingers-attack-adlai-stevenson Wanted for Treason.  Dallas Flyer.  https://www.google.com/search?q=black+bill+president+kennedy+dallas+flyer&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiVtJTzv9TuAhUPU80KHfpDD_sQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=black+bill+president+kennedy+dallas+flyer&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQA1DG_AFY550CYOCfAmgAcAB4AIABc4gBgwSSAQM1LjGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=aiUeYJXXAY-mtQb6h73YDw&bih=791&biw=630#imgrc=mg2z6PkrsQhgxM Testimony of Amos Lee Euins.  McAdams.  http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/euins.htm National Archives. JFK Assassination Records.  Chapter 5:  Detention and Death of Oswald.  https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-5.html JFK Assassination System.  J. Edgar Hoover Statement regarding threats against the life of Lee Harvey Oswald.  https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32263509.pdf Leonardo Newtonic.  10 Major Accoplishments of John F. Kennedy.  Anirudh.  April 11, 2016.  https://learnodo-newtonic.com/jfk-accomplishments Bulgarian Umbrella.  1978, USSR (KGB). The International Spy Museum.  Washington D.C. https://www.spymuseum.org/exhibition-experiences/about-the-collection/collection-highlights/bulgarian-umbrella-replica/ Town and Country Magazine.  Who Was the Real Life Umbrella Man at the Kennedy Assassination?  Caroline Hallemann.  August 2nd, 2020.  https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a33485165/umbrella-man-jfk-assassination-academy-true-story/ Some Researchers Insist Oswald Could Not Have Done it Alone.  Lee Winfrey.  Knight Newspapers.  Nevember 18th, 1973.  https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-01208R000100250087-1.pdf JFK Assassination:  Why suspicions still linger about ‘Umbrella Man’.  Patrik Jonsson.  November 22, 2013.  https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2013/1122/JFK-assassination-Why-suspicions-still-linger-about-Umbrella-Man Human Events.  Kennedy Assassination and Soviet KGB Connection Explored in Book.  Mledeen.  December 28th, 2007.  https://humanevents.com/2007/12/28/kennedy-assassination-and-soviet-kgb-connection-explored-in-book/ Newsweek.  World.  Did Russia Kill a US President?  New CIA Documents Reveal Spy’s Theory About JFK’s Death.  Tom O’Connor.  7/27/2017.  https://www.newsweek.com/cia-releases-secret-interviews-russian-spy-imprisoned-jfk-assassination-642486 National Archive.  New York Times.  National Politics.  Johnson is Nominated for Vice President; Kennedy Picks Him to Placate the South.  W.H. Lawrence.  https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/600715convention-dem-ra.html JFK Facts.  Why Was Oswald’s Name Taken off the FBI’s Watch List?  Jeff Morely.  Assassination.  March 28th, 2018.  https://jfkfacts.org/why-was-oswalds-name-taken-off-the-fbis-watch-list/ JFK Assassination System.  1/5/99.  CIA Archives.  Cable Message regarding Sylvia Duran.  https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=8599 JFK Files:  CIA Started to Disavow Knowledge of Lee Harvey Oswald Within Hours of Killing.  Ray Locker.  USA Today.  November 6th, 2017.  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/11/06/jfk-files-cia-started-disavow-knowledge-lee-harvey-oswald-within-hours-killihttps-presto-gannettdigi/835030001/ ABC News.  Politics.  Jaqueline Kennedy Reveals that JFK Feared an LBJ Presidency.  Rick Klein.  September 8th, 2011.  https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Jacqueline_Kennedy/jacqueline-kennedy-reveals-jfk-feared-lbj-presidency/story?id=14477930 The Legacy of the Sixties:  Military Industrial Complex Killed Kennedy to Prevent Him from Ending the Cold War.  Oil Empire US.  https://www.duq.edu/assets/Documents/forensics/Annual%20Symposium/2018/jfk.pdf JFK in History.  Cuban Missile Crisis.  JFK Library.  https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/cuban-missile-crisis?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwq6V0M_w7gIVh7zACh0iZgosEAAYASAAEgK8ZfD_BwE Sun Signs.  Allen Dulles.  Diplomat.  https://www.sunsigns.org/famousbirthdays/d/profile/allen-dulles/ Spartacus Educational. Barr McClellan.  American History.  https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKmcclellan.htm Spartacus Educational.  American History.  The Assassination of JFK.  Nancy Carole Tyler.  https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKtylerN.htm The Washington Post.  George Lardner Jr. Gaps in Kennedy Autopsy Files Detailed.  August 2nd, 1998.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/08/02/gaps-in-kennedy-autopsy-files-detailed/f374ef5c-7be3-48ad-a661-394a170a6e67/

Hearts broke all over the world, flags were lowered to half mast and the news was printed on every newspaper in America.  John F. Kennedy had been shot.  Even today, the idea of conspiracy seems prevalent when the even is brought up.  But it isn't without good reason... Readers Digest.  Cuba, Castro and John F. Kennedy.  Richard Nixon.  November 1964.  https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP75-00149R000500440001-1.pdf The United States Information Agency.  Research and Reference Service.  The Assassination of John F. Kennedy in East European Propoganda.  December 12th, 1963.  https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80B01676R002900180002-2.pdf Letter from The Attorney General to the Department of Justice regarding Clay Shaw.  September 22, 1967.  Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP75B00380R000800140020-0.pdf Live Science.  Did Weather Play a Role in JFK’s Assassination?  Samantha-Rae Tuthill.  2013.  https://www.livescience.com/amp/41447-jfk-assassination-50th-anniversary.html John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.  JFK in History.  https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/november-22-1963-death-of-the-president Witness Tells how Oswald Got Book Depository Job.  Sunday Star.  February 23rd, 1969.  http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/S%20Disk/Shaw%20Clay%20Trial%20Defense/Item%2019.pdf JFK’s Murder was not a Conspiracy.  Paul Brandus.  The Week.  10/14/2013.  https://theweek.com/articles/458953/jfks-murder-not-conspiracy US National Library of Medicine.  National Institutes of Health.  Psychiatric Aspects of Psychomotor Epilepsy.  A. E. Bennett.  December, 1962.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1575714/ AARP.  Politics and Society.  50 Facts About the JFK Assassination.  Betsy Towner.  AARP Bulleton.  https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-10-2013/50-facts-about-jfk-assassination.html National Archives.  JFK Assassination Records.  Chapter 4:  The Assassin.  https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-4.html Britannica.  Assassination of John F. Kennedy.  United States History.  Jeff Wallenfeldt.  https://www.britannica.com/event/assassination-of-John-F-Kennedy LIFE.  JFK’s Funeral:  Photos From a Day of Shock and Grief.  Ben Cosgrove.  https://www.life.com/history/jfks-funeral-photos-from-a-day-of-shock-and-grief/ Iowa State University.  The Media and the Kennedy Assassination:  the social construct of reality.  Ross Frank Ralston.  A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.  1999.  https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=13477&context=rtd History.  Jack Ruby Kills Lee Harvey Oswald.  November 20, 2020.  https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jack-ruby-kills-lee-harvey-oswald The South Florida Sun Sentinel.  The Oswald Connection.  Murray Weiss and William Hoffman.  November 21st, 1993.  https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1993-11-21-9311020601-story.html HubPages.  The Mystery of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Double.  Nathan M.  July 2nd 1018.  https://discover.hubpages.com/politics/The-Mystery-of-Lee-Harvey-Oswalds-Double An Introduction to the JFK Assassination.  Is Robert Vinson’s ‘Oswald Double’ Story Credible?  Jeremy Bojczuk.  Boxgrove Publishing.  October 2014.  http://22november1963.org.uk/a-brief-guide-to-the-jfk-assassination The New Republic.  A Month Before JFK’s Assassination, Dallas Right Wingers Attack Adlai Stevenson  Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis.  November 18th, 2013.  https://newrepublic.com/article/115601/jfk-dallas-right-wingers-attack-adlai-stevenson Wanted for Treason.  Dallas Flyer.  https://www.google.com/search?q=black+bill+president+kennedy+dallas+flyer&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiVtJTzv9TuAhUPU80KHfpDD_sQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=black+bill+president+kennedy+dallas+flyer&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQA1DG_AFY550CYOCfAmgAcAB4AIABc4gBgwSSAQM1LjGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=aiUeYJXXAY-mtQb6h73YDw&bih=791&biw=630#imgrc=mg2z6PkrsQhgxM Testimony of Amos Lee Euins.  McAdams.  http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/euins.htm National Archives. JFK Assassination Records.  Chapter 5:  Detention and Death of Oswald.  https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-5.html JFK Assassination System.  J. Edgar Hoover Statement regarding threats against the life of Lee Harvey Oswald.  https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32263509.pdf Leonardo Newtonic.  10 Major Accoplishments of John F. Kennedy.  Anirudh.  April 11, 2016.  https://learnodo-newtonic.com/jfk-accomplishments

In part 2 of her interview with Tax Notes senior reporter William Hoffman, former National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson discusses her ongoing fight for taxpayer rights and the upcoming fifth International Conference on Taxpayer Rights in South Africa.For additional coverage, read these articles in Tax Notes:IRS Free Tax Return Preparation Remains Out of ReachPreparers See Benefits of Form 1040-SR, but Maybe Not for ThemPolitically Active Exempts May Have Escaped IRS PenaltiesA Look Ahead: Focus on Low-Income, ESL Taxpayers in IRS Overhaul, Advocates SayEnforcement Push Puts Taxpayer Rights at Risk, Olson Frets

Nina Olson, who retired as the National Taxpayer Advocate six months ago, talks about her new nonprofit and the need for Treasury to soon name her permanent successor. This is part 1 of her interview with Tax Notes senior reporter William Hoffman. For additional coverage, read these articles in Tax Notes:IRS Free Tax Return Preparation Remains Out of ReachTaxpayer Advocate Stresses Link Between IRS Enforcement, ServiceA Look Ahead: Focus on Low-Income, ESL Taxpayers in IRS Overhaul, Advocates SayEnforcement Push Puts Taxpayer Rights at Risk, Olson FretsRettig Names Acting National Taxpayer AdvocateOlson Bids Adieu, Leaving ‘Big Shoes to Be Filled’In Willis Weighs In, Tax Notes contributing editor Ben Willis discusses vote-to-value disparity related to his article.

For this week's episode, William Herbst takes over and invites four senior football players after their last game of the season: Marik Dickson, Lucas Topping, Bennett Cutsforth and William Hoffman, '20. The groups recounts some of their highlights from playing football, from freshman year to now.

In part 2 of an interview with former IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, Tax Notes Today senior reporter William Hoffman and Koskinen discuss President Trump’s tax returns, transparency, and whistleblowers. For additional coverage, read these article in Tax Notes:No Interview Yet Between Neal and IRS WhistleblowerTreasury IG to Review Handling of Trump Tax ReturnsHouse Lawyers to Interview Trump Tax Audit WhistleblowerTrump Audit Meddling Claim Deepens Questions About Whistleblower***This episode is sponsored by University of California, Irvine Law School’s Graduate Tax Program. For more information, visit law.uci.edu/gradtax.

In part 1 of an interview with former IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, Tax Notes Today senior reporter William Hoffman and Koskinen discuss IRS resources, enforcement, and taxpayer services. For additional coverage, read these article in Tax Notes:IRS Rules New Cryptocurrency From Hard Forks Is TaxableIRS Exams Focus on EITC Claims, Not Poor, Inspector General SaysIRS Budget Reduced Billions in Employment Tax CollectionsSmall Business Enforcement Gets Fresh Focus From New IRS Bosses

Today on Aviation LO Down, I sit down with William "Billy" Hoffman, author of 'Wings of Deceit', one of my favorite books based on aviation. Billy attended Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC and is currently doing a residency in neurology. He is a private pilot, member of the U.S. Air Force, and in particular, is interested in the interface between neuroscience and aerospace. Billy is also interested in a number of studies having to do with pilot health; some of Billy's studies ask fascinating questions, such as the one that looked to see how likely pilots are to report medical concerns. The results may surprise you. Billy continues to do these sorts of studies, and asks the listeners to participate, if they wish. For more information, you can e-mail Billy Hoffman at wrh35@georgetown.edu.Don't forget to pick up a copy of Wings of Deceit, available on Amazon!

Picture getting on your flight, and then having to get off it, twice. Then picture waiting at your gate for 18 hours. This is what happened last night (into this morning) at JFK airport in NYC to Delta Flight 975, with service to Los Angeles (LAX). What do you think the airlines are responsible for? There were massive storms rolling through the area. Should the airline have helped accommodate the passengers better, or were they simply victim to weather, a random event that the airline doesn't have much control over. Send your opinion to LO@aviationLOdown.comExclusive Interview with William Hoffman, author of Wings of Deceit TOMORROW! Don't miss it.

In part 2 of an interview with National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, Tax Notes Today senior reporter William Hoffman and Olson discuss her impending retirement, her work as the national taxpayer advocate, and her future plans.

In part 1 of an interview with National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, Tax Notes Today senior reporter William Hoffman and Olson discuss the filing season, the Taxpayer First Act (H.R. 1957), the disclosure of program manager technical advice, and congressional efforts to get President Trump's tax returns.For additional coverage, read these article in Tax Notes:Treasury Misses Dems’ Deadline for Handing Over Trump’s ReturnsHouse Approves IRS Reform Measure Despite Free File FightRelease of Emailed Chief Counsel Advice Dropped 17 PercentTaxpayer Advocate: IRS Using Email to Avoid Advice Disclosure

William Hoffman checks in on the the first round of tax filings under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, including the data on refunds and the effect of the government shutdown on the filing season.For more detailed coverage, read these articles in Tax Notes:Refunds Turn Higher, but Treasury Warns of ChangesPolicymakers Debate Causes, Remedy for Tax Refund LagEconomic Analysis: Will Disappointing Refunds Derail the TCJA?IRS Recovery From Shutdown ‘Amazing,’ Rettig SaysDon’t Blame Smaller Refunds on Withholding Tables, Says TreasuryTax Refunds Turn Into Political Football as Treasury Calls FoulFiling Season Stats Down Across the Board in First IRS NumbersNeither Bang Nor Whimper, Filing Season Starts With a Grind

Mark William Hoffman never came across as a legend in the making as a pre-teen, collecting coins and attending Mormon church with his devout parents. He went on his mission and when he returned to become a pre-med student, got married, had 4 kids, and was an excellent father. His skills in hunting down valuable historical documents were unbelievable; and they shouldn't have been believed. The Kafka-esque story of master forger, secret-apostate, and eventual mail-bomb murderer's fate is almost as unbelievable as the criminal life he once lived. 

  If any of you are suffering, they should pray. If any of you are happy, they should sing. If any of you are sick, they should call for the elders of the church, and the elders should pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. Prayer that comes from faith will heal the sick, for the Lord will restore them to health. And if they have sinned, they will be forgiven. For this reason, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous person is powerful in what it can achieve. Elijah was a person just like us. When he earnestly prayed that it wouldn’t rain, no rain fell for three and a half years. He prayed again, God sent rain, and the earth produced its fruit.   William Hoffman, who was a writer and a professor at Hampton-Sydney College, wrote a short story called The Question of Rain, one I’ve shared a couple of times in the past, because, well, it really is one of my favorite short stories. Hoffman tells of a town and a minister caught in a theological tussle about prayer and its meaning, and especially the appropriateness of its use in asking God for those things we need/want/desire. In this short story, we have a well-meaning minister who is beset by his congregation to hold a worship service specifically calling for rain for the drought stricken farming land of his congregants. But Wayland, the minister, is reluctant, in good Calvinistic fashion, he’s simply reluctant to specifically ask God for rain, since rain may not be in God’s will for the people of that county, at least not at the moment – you see, classic Calvinists, followers of the Protestant reformer John Calvin, hold fast to the idea that God is sovereign, that God will do what God will do, and that humans have little real sway over this divine King – the spiritual world is not a democracy, but a kingdom with God enthroned as the all-knowing, all powerful ruler of the universe.   So, when Wayland was first asked by some members of his congregation about this possible prayer service, the minister promises to pray personally for rain but declines the suggestion to lead a prayer service for rain. In response to a delegation from the church, he says, “Bess, to repeat my position, let me state that I’m strong in favor of prayer, but I feel what people really want is a medicine man and I never rattle bones, do a rain dance, or wear chicken feathers.” And to another person, Wayland says, in a classic Calvinist vein, “Caroline, we can’t twist God’s arm, and all we have has is given us by His grace, and we are undeserving of even that.” Nevertheless, the congregation persists, and again and again he is asked by yet more members for a prayer service, and even people outside the church begin to ask him about a possible prayer service to ask God for rain. Eventually these request becomes a crisis of faith of sorts for Wayland, one that is echoed by an older member of his church, though he gently challenges Wayland by using the collective we when he asks Pastor Wayland, “are we afraid to put our faith to the test? “And if we fail?” Pastor Wayland replies. “Then it’s us, not God, whose failed,” the member says in turn. Now, I must say that this wiser, older member may have been wrong when he says such a thing, because I don’t know if it’s possible to “fail” at prayer – and blaming ourselves when God says “no” to us, to our good prayers, is not fair to human beings, and assumes that God will only answer our prayers if certain prayers are said in a certain way. A parent praying for the health of a child does not fail in prayer because the child never gets better. Still, there are haunting themes in this story, questions of whether or not Pastor Wayland believes that God actually does or does no intervene in the world – and his fear that if no rain comes, what will that do to the faith of his church members, and, perhaps to his own faith as well. And underneath that is a question about what prayer is for – what does it do, to God, to us, to the nature of the lived world?   So, in the text from the letter of James, we have the writer inviting us to do the very thing Pastor Wayland is reluctant to do, to ask God to do a specific thing, in hope and expectation that God will do what we ask, and in this case, a prayer for healing for the sick. Again, note the specificity of the text from James – if someone in particular is sick, they are told to call upon the elders of the church, the leaders of the congregation, and to have them pray over this person and anoint them with oil. Anointing is all over the Bible, from its use in cosmetics and its use in hygiene, to its use in a ritual where the oil is placed on the forehead, marking that person as one destined for change, in terms of status or identity, especially as seen when it comes to anointing a king to service to Israel. Here James says to anoint the sick, something that Jesus asked his disciples to do when he sent them out to share his message and be instruments of diving healing (Mark 16:17-18). And again, the specificity is all over the text – if anyone is suffering, if you and I are suffering, the elders of the congregation should gather and pray for us, for me, for you, in particular – not just a general prayer, but a prayer for Kevin in particular. And James is very confident that if we pray for those who suffer, for those who are in need of healing, God will hear that prayer and God will heal the sick and alleviate her suffering. James has great trust that what is prayed for will be given. He even uses a story of Elijah and rain, rain, where Elijah prays that God will shut the heavens up so that the people will be forced to repent and acknowledge the power of God’s messenger, the one calling the people to faithfulness and justice. Elijah prayed for no rain, and no rain came, and when the time was up, when the people were ready to repent, he prayed again, and the rain fell.   But, of course, in all honesty, texts like these, ones of that are so often put forth to show the efficacy of prayer, that if only we will pray the sick will recover, and the sufferer will cease to suffer, they come with some baggage, some complexity, something you feel in Pastor Wayland’s reluctance to pray so specifically for something. There is the reality that each of us can share when we prayed fervently for someone to be healed and it didn’t come to pass, something that seems to challenge James’ certainty about the power of prayer. And then there is the linkage between sin and health that is certainly problematic, at least partially. James is pretty clear here – he links health and confession of sin, assuming that somehow and someway our sin has caused us to become unhealthy, that sin has caused our disease. Now, to be fair, James does say that IF they have sinned they will be forgiven during the act of healing, so the connections between sin and health is not clear, though a few words later he seems to imply that if only we will repent and confess our sin, we will be healed, as if our sin was getting in the way of our healing. That is troublesome because it seems to blame the sick for their own sickness, the disabled for their own disability. Again, maybe is there is a sometimes a connection between sin and sickness, but it is rare – and frankly, there are clear indications that Jesus consistently disconnects sin and sickness because he simply he doesn’t believe they are, in fact, connected at all. In the Gospel of John, in chapter 9 Jesus is asked whether or not the blind man before him has sinned or have his parent’s sinned – you see the bad assumptions Jesus’ own disciples share with the writer of James. Jesus replies that neither the man’s sin or his parent’s sin have anything to do with this man’s blindness. And in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, Jesus says that the rain falls on the just and unjust alike, indicating that challenges that happen to people have nothing to do with their goodness or badness. Bad ideas are hard to shake, as you can see from James’ bad assumption in our text, even decades after Jesus was among his disciples, though I understand why we believe bad theology like this. These untruths help us navigate the world, poorly of course, but they help us explain why some get sick and others don’t, why some get well and others don’t. The truth is that the rain, well, it falls on good and evil among us, the kind and cruel in our midst, the believers and the unbelievers beside us, the ones who have no doubts and those who have nothing but doubts. Maybe James didn’t know of Jesus’ words – remember, there were only oral traditions about Jesus when this letter was written, and thus no written Gospel for James to check his assumptions against what Jesus said and taught, including being able to check their bad theology against Jesus’ better theology.   So, does prayer for healing make a difference? Does the anointing of the sick do anything for sufferer, the one in need of physical, spiritual and emotional healing? I think the writer of our Modern Lesson is trying to answer that question, the former Archbishop of the Anglican Communion, Rowan Williams. When we pray for others, often called intercessory prayer, we do something so obvious, so plain, that we often forget it – and that is we throw in our lot with the one we prayed for, we cast our lot in with humanity, in our prayer for them, we enter into their world of uncertainty and sickness. It is interesting that James calls for elders, plural, to gather around the sick one, plural – the leaders of a community gather around the one in need of God’s healing, and they, THEY pray for him or her. I’m very skeptical of the idea that somehow God responds more to twenty prayers for healing than one prayer for healing – this is not God won’t do a thing until a certain threshold is met and then finally God will relent because some sort of divine quota was met. But the gathering together, the praying that we do for each other, over the sick, during our times our joys and concerns every Sunday during worship, something about that we do it together, it seems to matter to us, and maybe to God as well. What Rowan Williams seems to be saying here in our Modern Lesson is that when we pray for others we create more and more space for empathy, for care, for concern – we become open to the crucifixions of others and somehow within us an empty space is cleared out where the world is not just not about me and my joy and my suffering, but a space within that can be filled with the Spirit of God that helps us recognizes that when you suffer, I suffer, than when a child is taken away from its parents at the borders, that is my child being taken from me. Somehow, when we throw in our lot with the crucified of the world, the hurting of the world, which includes all of us, at some point in our lives, somehow when we clear space in our lives to pray for others, the Spirit can change the world because we have been cracked open with our concern for this singular soul before us, this one who has asked for our prayers. We become God’s hands and God’s healing of others, when we allow our prayers for others to become embodied in our kindness and our passion for justice – and we do so as a people, as God’s people.   And, of course, we have to acknowledge that so often our prayers are actually answered the way we’d like them to be answered, more than we often recognize. It’s the ones that didn’t get answered that we remember so well, and which are so painful, so challenging and sometimes God just says no and sometimes the natural course of time and disease just take their course. Look, miracles are actually pretty rare – there is reason why people were so excited by Jesus’ ability to heal – it wasn’t something very common. Prayers for miracles do get answered sometimes, the anointing of the sick can have an effect, but remember that those prayers for others can change us, personally and as a people. You only have to look at how our story by William Hoffman concludes, because in the end the pastor says yes to their requests for a prayer service and so the community gathers and they pray together, together. And then, and then, well, let’s hear Hoffman end his short story.   [Wayland, the pastor,] would not anticipate. Rain wasn’t necessary. He and his congregation had acknowledged God’s fathership, which was the main thing. He turned his back to the window, so he wouldn’t be tempted to judge the quality of the afternoon sunlight edging the drawn shade. Yet he felt a stillness, the absolute hush of the day. Even the locusts were silent. A distant rumble had to be a truck. He stood, went downstairs, and walked out onto the screened porch where [his wife] Mims sat. She wore her lavender church dress in case of visitors, but had pushed off her white pumps so that her heels were free. The expression on her clean face was strange as she gazed upward. He looked at the sky and, tingling, saw the dazzling cloud growing, building rapidly into a thunderhead, the underside purplish, the crown of radiant whiteness seething as it mounted into a cathedral of a cloud. People came from their houses to stare. Then Wayland felt a coolness, a nudge of air, and knew rain must be close. In wonder Mims watched the sky. Wayland’s amazement gave way to rapture as the majestic thunderhead conquered the heavens. He realized his mouth had opened as if to catch the rain on his lips. The pressure of gratitude brought him near to weeping. During the slashing, luminous rain, he put on his shorts to walk in the yard. With his face uplifted, he gave thanks. Children, despite lightning, ran in the streets, and across glossy lawns. Adults too splashed through puddles. The artificial pond in his rock garden overflowed. The telephone rang so often that Mims, now wearing her pink bathing suit, took it off the hook.   Friends, I invite you to come forward if you are need of healing, any kind of healing, of any wound, emotional and physical, and receive the anointing from Pastor Megan and me. We will anoint your head with olive oil, but if you open your palm, we will anoint there instead. Come please come forward as you feel lead to.

Lynn Nichols Federal Tax Update Podcast August 20, 2018, edition Listen as Lynn Nichols provides commentary on 8 Items pertaining to current developments in U.S. tax law. This week’s topics include: Final Regs Provide Substantiation Rules for Charitable Contributions The IRS has issued final regulations on the substantiation and reporting rules for charitable contributions at various monetary thresholds and for donated clothing and household items. The final regs also address the new definitions of qualified appraisal and qualified appraiser for noncash contributions and recordkeeping requirements for all cash contributions. [T.D. 9836; 7/27/2018]    Tax Court Correctly Dismissed Employment Tax Liability Challenge The Eighth Circuit held that the Tax Court properly dismissed on jurisdictional grounds an attorney’s claim that he did not owe additional employment tax on payments he received as the sole owner and officer of an S corporation, finding that because there was no actual controversy involving a determination that he was an employee for FICA purposes, the Tax Court was deprived of jurisdiction. [Azarian, Martin S. P.A. v. Commissioner; CA 8; No. 17-2134; 7/27/2018]     Eighth Circuit Sides With IRS in Employment Tax Dispute Challenges to reasonable compensation determinations for S corporations must allege taxpayer employment issues for the Tax Court to have jurisdiction. [Tax Notes Today; 7/31/2018; Article by Eric Yauch]     Horse Breeding Organization Is Denied Exemption The IRS denied an organization's application for tax-exempt status because its primary activity, conducting a horse breeding program, does not further exempt purposes and the organization serves the private interests of horse breeders. [LTR 201830023; 5/1/2018; rel. 7/27/2018]   IRS Revokes Exempt Status of Social Horse Club The IRS revoked the tax-exempt status of a social club organized to promote interests in horses and horsemanship because its investment and non-member income exceeded the 35 percent threshold, and its non-member income exceeded the 15 percent threshold on a regular basis. [LTR 201830018; 1/11/2018; rel. 7/27/2018]      IRS Isn't Exercising Its Authority Over Unregulated Preparers The IRS failed to assess more than $121 million in preparer tax identification number penalties, despite evidence of “incompetent and unscrupulous” conduct by unregulated return preparers. [Tax Notes Today; 7/31/2018; Article by William Hoffman]   Tax Court Finds Individual’s Mary Kay Activity Wasn’t for Profit The Tax Court, sustaining accuracy-related penalties, held that an individual didn’t engage in her Mary Kay consulting activity for profit but attempted to shelter her taxable wage income by deducting otherwise nondeductible personal expenses, such as trips to Disney World and Europe, as business expenses. [Nix, Kimberly S. v. Commissioner; No. 4000-16; T.C. Memo. 2018-116; 7/30/2018]   Debate Over Parsonage Allowance Continues in Dueling Briefs Supporters of a 64-year-old tax break for clergy housing are continuing their fight to preserve it after a court declared it unconstitutional last fall. [Tax Notes Today; 8/1/2018; Article by Fred Stokeld]   Clergy Urge Court to Hold Rental Allowance Constitutional In a reply brief for the Seventh Circuit, a group of ministers and churches argued that section 107, which allows ministers to exclude from income a rental allowance paid as part of their compensation, is constitutional because it is an exemption and not a transfer of funds and because it applies the convenience-of-the-employer doctrine to ministers. [Annie L. Gaylor et al. v. Steven T. Mnuchin et al.; No. 18-1277; No. 18-1280; 7/30/2018]         Yacht Deductions Disallowed, but Penalties Deep-Sixed The Tax Court jettisoned a taxpayer’s claim that his sport fishing yacht deductions were marketing expenses but chose not to weigh him down with accuracy penalties. [Tax Notes Today; 8/3/2018; Article by Kristen Parillo]   Property Developer Fishing for Yacht Deductions Comes up Empty-Handed The Tax Court held that a Florida property developer wasn’t entitled to deduct expenses for a fishing yacht that he claimed was a marketing tool, finding that the expenses were for entertainment and he failed to provide substantiation. The court didn't impose accuracy-related penalties because the IRS failed to show supervisory approval. [Becnel, Damon R. v. Commissioner; No. 14707-14; T.C. Memo 2018-120; 8/2/2018]

Lynn Nichols Federal Tax Update Podcast July 23, 2018, edition   We are back after a short hiatus! Listen as Lynn Nichols provides commentary on 8 Items pertaining to current developments in U.S. tax law. This week’s topics include: How to Decide Whether an S Corp Is a Corporation In news analysis, Marie Sapirie discusses whether Treasury has the authority to say that an S corporation isn’t a corporation for purposes of the carried interest provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. [Tax Notes Today; 7/16/2018, Article by Marie Sapirie      IRS to Issue Regs on Suspension of Miscellaneous Itemized Deductions The IRS has announced its intention to issue regulations clarifying how newly enacted section 67(g), which eliminates miscellaneous itemized deductions for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, and before January 1, 2026, affects the deductibility of some expenses that are incurred by estates and non-grantor trusts. [Notice 2018-61; 2018-31 IRB 1; 7/13/2018]      IRS Drops Donor Disclosure Requirements Most types of tax-exempt organizations will no longer have to disclose identifying information about their donors, the Treasury Department and IRS announced late July 16. [ Rev. Proc. 2018-38; 7/16/2018]      Expect 199A Guidance in ‘Weeks, Not Months,’ Kautter Says Tax practitioners should expect a raft of new IRS guidance in coming weeks resulting from changes wrought by the 2017 tax bill, according to acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter. [Tax Notes Today; 7/18/2018; Article by William Hoffman]      IRS Gives Tax Pros 6 Safeguards to Protect Taxpayer Data The IRS and its Security Summit partners have outlined the “security six” safeguards for tax professionals to use to protect sensitive taxpayer data stored on practitioners’ computers, noting that many of the safeguards are also useful for any taxpayer or small business. [Information Release, IR-2018-150, 7/17/2018]      IRS Highlights Pitfalls of New Due Diligence Requirement The IRS is warning tax return preparers to be wary of married taxpayers trying to claim head of household status, especially given the tax law’s new due diligence requirement. [Tax Notes Today; 7/19/2018; Article by Stephanie Cumings]    Wife Can’t File Separate Returns for Refunds After Joint Filings A U.S. district court held that joint returns an individual’s husband filed by signing her name without her knowledge or consent were valid returns because she left all tax matters to her husband and intended to file joint returns with him; the court held that she could not replace the valid joint returns with separate returns seeking refunds. [Coggin, Alice J. v. United States; USDC Mid NC;  No. 1:16-cv-00106; 7/17/2018]

In this episode of the Award-winning PRS Journal Club Podcast, 2018 Resident Ambassadors to the PRS Editorial Board – Francesco Egro, Nicole Phillips, and Ira Savetsky - and special guest William Hoffman, MD discuss the following articles from the July 2018 issue: “To Admit or Not to Admit? - That is the Cleft Lip Question: Confirming the Safety of Outpatient Cleft Lip Repair” by Fahradyan, Galdyn, Azadgoli, et al. “The impact of once versus twice daily enoxaparin prophylaxis on risk for venous thromboembolism and clinically relevant bleeding” by Pannucci, Fleming, Agarwal, et al. “Do Adolescents with Gynecomastia Require Routine Evaluation by Endocrinology?” by Malhotra, Amed, Bucevska, et al. Special Guest William Hoffman, MD is a Professor and Vice-Chair of the Department of Surgery and Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at University of California San Francisco. #PRSJournalClub  

On October 28, 1985, Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation invited Peter Zeisler to moderate a panel featuring journalists Thulani Davis and Erika Munk, playwright William Hoffman, and directors Rhoda Levine, Judith Malina, and Emily Mann. They speak in-depth about the role of theatre in society in the past, present, and how it is evolving into the future. In this conversation, theatre’s reach and impact is compared to the mediums of film and television. Other topics include how fiction can convey political reality and why particular issues should be examined in the theatre. This lively discussion gets to the heart of the important role theatre plays in community.