Ampzilla

@SinaiLawFirm @__Cybernetic__ It seems to me potential landlords should have the right to access this information? How else can they assess risk?

@__Cybernetic__ correct

Do you want to know why rent is so expensive in LA? Why the application process takes so long? Why landlords want so much info from you? Here is a recent story: A family was referred to me for their eviction case. They were heading to a jury trial in one month and didn't have a lawyer, yet. They did all the paperwork and filing themselves, in-house to save on legal fees. And surprisingly, they did a great job. They filed the paperwork with LAHD. Gave proper notice to the tenants. I reviewed their paperwork and it was better quality than 90% of other eviction lawyers. I didn't see any viable way to dismiss the case on a technicality. As long as they were properly represented in trial, the family was going to win the eviction. They did everything by the book. Followed all the local rules. Gave all the necessary notices. The family told me the judge ordered the parties to mediate at the first court appearance. The family attended the mediation in court without a lawyer. The tenant was provided a lawyer by the city, for free. At the mediation the lawyer for the tenants offered this settlement: 1. 4 months to vacate the property 2. Cash to leave, paid upfront 3. Waiver of all owed rent 4. Sealed record They rejected the offer, of course. Why would they accept this? The family then asked me a great question. "What is our best case scenario with you in trial?" Based on my review, I gave them my most realistic estimate of the best case scenario in trial: 1. Both parties announce ready at the next trial date (1 month away) and trial takes 3 days. We win the trial. 2. Sheriff locks out the tenant 75 days after the trial. 3. about 110 days to possession. 4. Gave them an estimate cost for fees/prep time. 5. No viable collection of back rent, tenants had no assets. Obviously, this was the best case scenario. It could be worse. Trial can be delayed. While I was confident we are going to win, juries are unpredictable. This is where we had a surreal moment of collective clarity. The settlement offer they rejected is basically their best case scenario if they win the trial. This was not a coincidence. The attorney for the tenants asked for pretty much the same amount I quoted them for my fees. The lawyer for the tenants knew the family had to hire a lawyer for a jury trial. The lawyer knows it takes the sheriff 2-3 months to lockout after a judgment. The lawyer knows it's hard (and expensive) to collect against tenants with no assets. State and local government created a system in which cases take forever to litigate, eviction laws are extremely complex and technical, easy to dismiss cases, only one side has to pay a lawyer, and worst of all, possession enforcement takes 60-90 days instead of 5. And it's all getting worse. The leverage for the tenants is systemic. It's by design. Why would the tenants make any other offer? The landlords are left with no real options but a shitty settlement. There are no real choice. Even when you do everything right, you still lose. Tenants don't pay rent during evictions. They had no viable way to win the trial. There were no habitability issues. The landlords posted all the notices. Never raised the rent. Didn't retaliate. The landlords did everything right. And the tenants still win. The mother looked at me and asked "our base case in trial is the same as the shitty settlement offer? Are you telling me we should have taken the offer we rejected?" I didn't know how to respond.

@nyttypos @NYTimesPR @LeorSapir much more literate people than *they

@NYTimesPR @LeorSapir Randomly bolded comma and period. Under The Times’s stylebook, which the PR team should follow because it was written by much more literate people than them, these titles should be lowercase because they trail their bearers’ names.

The American Medical Association has just clarified that it does NOT, in fact, endorse the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ statement on gender surgery. AMA says that its statements to the press were misinterpreted, and that its support for hormones/surgeries remains unchanged.

@MichaelPetrilli @timderoche @JudeSchwalbach @FlowTap1 @CharlesBarone In Nola, there are no longer district pub schools. Parents submit a list of preferred schools in order and a lottery determines placement. Many pros to this, but some cons too. Bussing is inefficient resulting in really long commutes for some kids. It’s also far more expensive.

No more lines! Our debate on neighborhood schools and school boundaries continues with takes from @timderoche @JudeSchwalbach @FlowTap1 @CharlesBarone & Eric Premack.

@ANon46561976893 @mattyglesias @benryanwriter Trans identifying females aren’t clamoring to compete in the NFL because they know they can’t escape the reality of their biology.

@mattyglesias @benryanwriter Not sure this is true, anti-trans animus is overwhelmingly targeted at trans women.

Biological females do not hold a competitive advantage in the male category even when they take testosterone.

@BethlehemAmanda @ehaspel Including non-native English speakers in the assessments muddies this too.

@ehaspel A Level 2 score on the PIAAC is very low reading comprehension. Here's a Level 3 question: "What is the latest time that children should arrive at preschool?" Literally: can you read a short list of rules and find the important info? Half of American adults can't.

While I generally agree with @mattyglesias' Slow Boring piece today about pundits embracing a self-awareness of being out-of-touch from 'typical' Americans, I want to challenge this particular assertion -- it's not quite accurate.

@dilanesper I keep seeing variations of the argument: who cares about girls’ sports? They’re unimportant anyway. And the answer is girls. Girls care about their sports, It’s important to THEM, which is why males aren’t welcome to compete in the “obscure track meets” for 16 yo girls either.

In other words, the moment someone who was an obvious elite men's athlete transitioned, the jig was going to be up anyway. I've commented about how I am annoyed that the right wing plasters all these 16 year old trans girls winning obscure track meets by 20 yards.

Since the IOC decision on trans athletes is getting a lot of attention (I will leave Intersex athletes aside for this tweet, as that issue is a little more complex): I don't think the trans movement was EVER going to be able to keep trans women eligible for ELITE women's sports.

@AdeleScalia My mom: “One day I hope you have a child just like you.” Me: “awww… hey, wait a minute”

My mother when she disagrees with some aspect of my parenting: “I really thought I could trust you with my grandchildren.”

@FeysRaf @DTWillingham Are you asserting the Flemish teach skills over knowledge? We would need to know something about the differences in Flemish versus American education methods to assess them in relation to one another.

@DTWillingham Maar hoe verklaar je dat b.v. onze Vlaamse leerlingen destijds ook heel hoog scoorden voor begrijpend lezen. Wek a.u.b. niet de indruk dat je nu lees-ei van Columbus hebt uitgevonden & dat wat je propageert ook gemakkelijk in klas toepabaar is.

New article from E. D. Hirsch and me on (1) the evidence for the importance of knowledge in reading; (2) why it’s taken so long for people to acknowledge the evidence; (3) what we predict if the role of knowledge is taken seriously. educationnext.org/rediscovering-…

@larissaphillip Poor baby. Hope he feels better soon and you and your family as well. It’s so hard to lose a pet.

@Terraphant Aw that’s so sad! Blue was an outdoor dog, so I’m not sure he totally noticed the loss of our other dog. (Our one remaining dog is a bit of mess though. Can’t settle at night.)

We are running out of dogs to die. RIP Blue, 8, just a few weeks after we lost his buddy Arlo. I thought he had asthma and that he needed IDK like a steroid shot. By the time we got to the emergency vet 50 minutes away, his tongue was blue. They took him—to intubate him, what?—and then came back minutes later to tell me his heart had stopped and they were doing CPR. I finally had to tell them they could stop. A shocking death might be worse than the long loving hospice our other dog got. Blue deserved a better ending. 💔 He was a spectacular dog.

@S___Elliott Kubrick’s version of the Shining. Actually, the book was a lot of fun but doesn’t translate well into a movie, if done faithfully. Kubrick’s version captures the atmosphere of the book. King didn’t like it, but he was wrong.

Movies are that are better than the book: No Country For Old Men Goodfellas The Godfather Strangers On A Train

@GrowSF What’s their reasoning? Why would they make them take two maths concurrently?

🚨 We need you to take action 🚨 We fought to bring back 8th grade algebra. SFUSD’s proposed version forces kids to give up an elective to take it. That’s not real access. Send an email and demand real flexibility and advancement options growsf.org/advocacy/8th-g…

@mattyglesias Combination of grade inflation and relaxed standards, resulting in fewer disciplinary consequences.

@benryanwriter @colorblindk1d Tbf to your mom jorts are a crime against fashion.

@colorblindk1d My mom told me I couldn’t wear those jeans shorts to school. I just changed in the car. They were cut off just above the knee! They weren’t Daisy Dukes or anything.

I never would've seen this coming when I was a very miserable little gay boy in the early 1990s.

@benryanwriter @CyrusVinci87033 Years ago when I volunteered at my kids’ school a mom shocked me by saying she inherited her grandmother’s wooden (spanking) spoon and used it on her daughter. I thought she was crazy, but the kid did turn out great & they are very close 🤷🏻‍♀️ I guess it’s one of those ymmv things.

@CyrusVinci87033 I was spanked a few times. Didn’t seem like that big of a deal. My mother conveniently forgot she’d ever done it and expressed surprise when I later said she had.

Things are looking murky for the gays.

@benryanwriter I’m also surprised by the death penalty. I’m a little surprised people still think affairs are immoral (though I agree).

@DrKERMD @cremieuxrecueil Are they diabetic?

@cremieuxrecueil Something that definitely is not talked about enough from the trials - over 10% of patients on a GLP do not lose a significant amount of weight. I’ve had patient not lose anything on max dose tirzepatide. It happens.

This is not good: People have learned that GLP-1s are really effective, so if they're not losing weight, they know they're in the placebo group. So these people getting placebos are getting mad and leaving the trials.

@MrDanielBuck Do most kids start school or even daycare in K? I wonder if spending most of their waking hours in various care settings leads to inconsistency in toilet training & other skills (dependent on quality of care). When both parents work, childcare can get cobbled from various sources

New Survey: 50% of kindergarten teachers report their students are having more difficulty using bathroom on their own? Look, schools cannot function if parents don't do even the basic minimum in teaching their own children to toilet independently What a disheartening survey

@SwipeWright Salt and honey in coffee is sublime

Started putting salt in my coffee, and I’m never going back to the before-times. ☕️🧂

@smorrisey Do you teach in a public or private school?

Dear US administrators, Yesterday, I had close to 5 hours of time with my 5th graders. Not 1 minute was spent on a Chromebook. We read, wrote, did math, learned about waves. The boys created a semantic map around the word "war" & the girls around the word "peace." 1/