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Letter to the editor: Spot signs of child abuse ACROSS the country, thousands of children and young people are subjected to horrific exploitation and abuse every year. They are groomed by predators with offers of friendship, gifts, cash and status then coerced using terrifying threats and violence into crimes like trafficking drugs in ‘county lines’ operations. Children are also exploited for sex and some are forced to work in premises like car washes and nail bars. In the South West in 2019/20, gangs were identified as a risk 870 times in assessments of children referred to social services, while trafficking was deemed to be a factor on 200 occasions, both indicators of child criminal exploitation. Risks of child sexual exploitation were highlighted in 1,660 assessments and in 1,370 instances, children going missing, also a si
John Mailanderâs Forecast Lights Up The 5 Spot The genre-bending collective played Tweet
Watching
John Mailanderâs Forecast live is a bit like trying to watch gravity. You know thereâs a force holding it all together, even if you canât see it, even when the jazz- and bluegrass-inspired collective teeters on the edge of spinning out of orbit. Those spacey improvisations took center stage during the bandâs album release stream Thursday. Mailander and his group returned to their frequent hangout
The 5 Spot for their first live show since the pandemic began, to celebrate the release of
In an interview with the
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Watching John Mailanderâs Forecast live is a bit like trying to watch gravity. You know thereâs a centripetal force holding it all together, even if you canât see it, and even when the jazz- and bluegrass-inspired collective spins out of orbit. Those spacey improvisations took center stage at the bandâs May 6 album release stream. Mailanderâs group returned to the Five Spot, their first live show since the pandemic began, to celebrate the release of
Look Closer, a six-track EP and Mailanderâs third full-length solo album. Mailander has previously said he feels most grounded in the bluegrass tradition, constituting the building blocks of his storied professional career as a fiddle player. Heâs toured and done studio sessions with Nashville icons like Molly Tuttle and he played on Billy Stringsâ Grammy-winning album
L
ook Closer, the new EP from John Mailanderâs Forecast, feels a bit like a microcosm of our pandemic experiences. Before lockdown, the stellar fiddler and his band were all set for a residency, but COVID-19 forced them to put the run of shows on hold. As quarantine continued, the group set up together in one room for masked and socially distanced recording sessions. Thursday, the band makes a return to its frequent haunt, Five Points bar and venue The 5 Spot, for a streaming virtual release show. As the pandemic stretches into a late stage where exhaustion, caution and hope mingle, most everyone is looking for some kind of solid ground on which to build their new version of normal. The Forecastâs bittersweet and genre-bending combo of jazz, bluegrass and roots music might be the perfect soundtrack.
The battle outside ragin’
And rattle your walls
-Bob Dylan
A change in presidential administrations brings with it the uncertainty of what the political, legal and tax landscape will look like in the future. Statements from the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service and the President of the United States are starting to provide clarity of what things will look like going forward. Here’s what we know and what you, as a taxpayer, should be thinking about as you adjust your financial planning.
Government Spending is at Record Levels
The national debt is now
more than $28 trillion dollars. The global pandemic and three rounds of stimulus money have costs. Those costs are only getting bigger as President Biden signaled an aggressive