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HOUSTON BALLET PREPARES A VIRTUAL TREAT, NUTCRACKER SWEETS

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While the ongoing pandemic presents challenges for performing arts organizations, Houston Ballet seizes the opportunity to make its beloved holiday tradition more accessible through an affordable digital program. Nutcracker Sweets presented by Houston Methodist Hospital launches for on-demand viewing December 15 – January 8 with an abbreviated version of Stanton Welch’s The Nutcracker and new works for the holiday season.

 

“It is important for us to keep going and do our part during this pandemic,” says Stanton Welch, Houston Ballet Artistic Director. “As artists, we need to keep creating and reflect this time, but we also owe it to our audience to instill joy this holiday season.”

 

The new works capture the unique 2020 holiday spirit. Featured tracks include “Jingle Bells” by Barbra Streisand and “Santa Baby” by Eartha Kitt. Each piece was filmed one Company dancer at a time in the Margaret Alkek Williams Dance Lab at the Houston Ballet Center for Dance under safety guidelines from Houston Methodist Hospital. Houston Ballet Academy will also have a dedicated number, continuing to offer performance opportunities for students.

 

The abbreviated version of Stanton Welch’s The Nutcracker follows the story of Clara’s magical journey to the Kingdom of Sweets and includes many iconic divertissements from the ballet. The 2018 performance footage features Yumiko Fukuda as Clara, Oliver Halkowich as Drosselmeyer, Mónica Gómez as The Sugar Plum Fairy and Luzemberg Santana as the Nutcracker Prince.

 

With an average single ticket price of $72 for an in-theater performance of The Nutcracker, Nutcracker Sweets offers a taste of The Nutcracker magic for a very sweet price of just $35. The program is available for pre-purchase now and can continue to be purchased through the final on-demand day at houstonballet.org.

Houston Ballet Winter Filming of its Holiday Program

 

ABOUT HOUSTON BALLET

With more than 50 years of rich history, Houston Ballet has evolved into a 61-dancer Company with a budget of $33.9 million and an endowment of $79.2 million (as of June 2019), making it the country’s fifth largest ballet company. Its Center for Dance is a $46.6 million state-of-the-art performance space that opened in April 2011 and remains the largest professional dance facility in America. Houston Ballet’s reach is global, touring in renowned theaters in Dubai, London, Paris, Moscow, Spain, Montréal, Ottawa, Melbourne, New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and more.

 

Houston Ballet attracts prestigious leaders in dance. Australian choreographer Stanton Welch AM has served as Artistic Director of Houston Ballet since 2003, raising the level of the Company’s classical technique and commissioning works from dance legends such as Julia Adam, George Balanchine, Aszure Barton, Christopher Bruce, Alexander Ekman, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Edwaard Liang, Trey McIntyre and Justin Peck. Executive Director James Nelson serves as the administrative leader of the organization, a position he assumed in February 2012 after serving as the Company’s General Manager for more than a decade.

 

Beyond its stage presence, Houston Ballet maintains a strong foothold in continuing to foster a love for dance in future generations. Its Education and Community Engagement program reaches more than 70,000 individuals in the Houston area annually. Houston Ballet Academy trains more than 1,000 students every year, producing more than 50 percent of the elite athletes that comprise Houston Ballet’s current Company.

For more information on Houston Ballet, visit houstonballet.org.

Governor Abbott Appoints Workman To Governor’s Committee On People With Disabilities

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The State Of Texas Governor Seal

Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Kris Workman to the Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities for a term set to expire on February 1, 2021. The committee recommends changes in disability policies and programs and supports a network of committees on people with disabilities, issues awards to promote greater awareness, and promotes compliance with disability-related laws.

 Kris Workman of Sutherland Springs is a Worship Pastor and survivor of the shooting at Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church. Previously, he worked as a Manager at Rackspace Inc.  Workman received an Associate of Applied Sciences in computer maintenance from Texas State Technical College.

UK’s priority list for Covid-19 vaccines

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The UK government has set out the order in which groups will be prioritized for the vaccine roll-out, with care home residents, health workers and the elderly coming first.

Some Houstonians could be in line for a $1,200 stimulus check

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How does a $1,200 stimulus check sound? The city is considering a one-time $1,200 payment to more than 23,000 Houstonians to help them during the pandemic.

The proposal was on the agenda during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

The contract proposal is with BakerRipley and would move up to $30 million of CARES Act money into the accounts of Houstonians. The initial disbursement would be $10 million. BakerRipley also administers the city’s COVID-19 relief program money.

The city says the program is necessary to help those who are “experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19 and its secondary effects.”

The funding would provide a one-time payment of $1,200 to 23,750 people in Houston.

According to the proposal, a management fee of no more than 5.26% and not to exceed $1.5 million, will be paid to BakerRipley to administer the program.

UK becomes first country to approve Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine

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The United Kingdom has become the first Western nation to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, a landmark moment in the coronavirus pandemic that paves the way for the first doses to be rolled out across the country next week.

“Help is on the way,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Wednesday morning, after UK regulators granted emergency authorization for a vaccine made by US pharma giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
A final analysis of the Phase 3 trial of Pfizer’s vaccine shows it was 95% effective in preventing infections, even in older adults, and caused no serious safety concerns, the company said last month.
The announcement means the UK has vaulted past the United States and European Union in the race to approve a vaccine, months into a pandemic that has killed almost 1.5 million people worldwide.
“We believe it is really the start of the end of the pandemic,” BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin told CNN in an exclusive interview on Wednesday. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla hailed the emergency authorization as “a historic moment in the fight against Covid-19.”
The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine — enough to vaccinate 20 million people. Hancock told the BBC that an initial 800,000 doses would be delivered from Pfizer’s facilities in Belgium to the UK next week, and “many millions” more before the end of the year.
Elderly people in care homes, those who care for them, health workers and other vulnerable people will be top of the priority list.

HISD says 42% of its students failed one or more classes during first grading period

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Houston Independent School District said 42% of its students failed one or more classes in the first grading period.

In a statement, Texas’ largest school district said the first grading period included six weeks of 100% virtual education. Students returned back to school for face-to-face instruction on Oct. 19.

As classes resume following Thanksgiving break, the district says 59% of its students have chosen virtual instruction as opposed to 41% who have chosen in-person learning.

In a meeting before the break, the HISD’s Teachers Union asked the school district to go fully virtual after Thanksgiving due to the prolonged and ongoing COVID-19 surge.

Following the meeting with HISD, Dewey said the district told the federation there is no decision at this time and currently as it stands, students will be returning online and in-person.

COVID-19 vaccines will arrive soon. Here’s who will get one first.

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Coronavirus vaccines will soon be headed this way, but unfortunately, there won’t be enough to go around at first. There are over 330 million people in the US, but Pfizer, whose vaccine is expected to be the first to receive Food and Drug Administration authorization in the coming weeks, says it expects to produce enough to vaccinate about 12.5 million Americans by the end of 2020, or about 3.7% of the US population.

Other vaccines, like the one from Moderna that uses similar technology to Pfizer’s, may be authorized in the next few weeks or months as well, which will add to the overall stockpile. Regardless, most people in the US will have to wait several months at least before those who want a vaccine might be able to get one, and it could take years to vaccinate everyone in the world.

The question then becomes, who will get those first doses of vaccines and how long will you yourself have to wait to get vaccinated? So far, there are no definitive answers. A lot depends on who needs immunization against COVID-19 the most — older adults, those with underlying conditions and so on. But another factor will be how the different vaccines themselves actually work. For example, some single-dose vaccines might better serve one group, like rural populations. Other groups — city-dwellers, say — might be equally well-protected by vaccines that require subsequent “booster” doses.

We won’t know for certain who will be first in line to get a coronavirus vaccine until one or more are approved, but we can look at available information to get an idea. Many of the agencies involved in creating and implementing those guidelines have already begun explaining how they plan to make those decisions when the time comes.

We dug through reports from agencies such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to piece together a rough outline of who the experts expect will be the first groups to get COVID-19 vaccinations and why. This article is updated periodically and is intended to be a general overview and not a source of medical advice. If you’re seeking more information about coronavirus testing, here’s how to find a testing site near you.

When will the first COVID-19 vaccines arrive? Will there be more than one?

Short answer: The first vaccine is expected soon and it looks like there will be more than one safe, effective type. Pfizer, which says its vaccine candidate is 95% effective at preventing coronavirus infections, is expected to be the first COVID-19 vaccine to receive Food and Drug Administration authorization in the coming weeks and to start delivering doses before year’s end.

Moderna isn’t far behind and is expected to release efficacy results in the coming days. It could have FDA authorization by December. Vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson are wrapping up late-stage trials, while a fifth manufacturer, Novavax, is set to begin the final trial for its vaccine sometime later this month.

The general consensus has been — and  continues to be — that the first COVID-19 vaccines will probably be approved in the US soon, but won’t reach widespread distribution until closer toward the end of 2021. Until then, supplies are expected to be limited, which is partially why we will need multiple vaccines to treat as many people as possible.

How soon after approval will inoculations start?

“[The government] has plans to distribute vaccines within 24 hours after the ACIP gives its final approval,” Paul Mango, a Health and Human Services official, told reporters in October, referring to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which is the group that officially sets national guidelines for who should get vaccines once they’ve been authorized by the FDA.

Who will get the coronavirus vaccine first?

Bill Gruber, Pfizer’s senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development, told Scientific American that Pfizer’s vaccine is on track to be distributed to health care workers on the front lines as well as people at high risk of severe disease as soon as the drug is authorized, probably around mid-December.

Here’s who the CDC identified as the top four priority groups to receive the first COVID-19 doses.

Health care workers: Vaccinating roughly 20 million US doctors, nurses, lab technicians and other health care providers helps protect both the country’s front-line COVID-19 responders and the patients they care for.

Essential workers: Approximately 87 million US workers provide the basic goods and services we need to survive. Most can’t work from home and many jobs require interacting with the public, so guarding against COVID-19 among this population would have a ripple effect across the whole country while also reducing critical service interruptions.

People with underlying medical conditions: Specifically, the 100 million or so people with conditions putting them at high risk for illness or death from COVID-19. Any disease affecting the lungs, but also anything that could compromise a person’s immune system, like cancer or HIV.

Older adults: Risk of severe complications from COVID-19 increases with age. The CDC’s ACIP recommends the approximately 53 million US adults age 65 and over be among the first to get vaccinated.

What if I’m not in one of those groups?

The reality is that you may just have to wait. The top infectious disease expert in the US, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told Good Morning America in November that he expects “the ordinary citizen” should be able to get a vaccine by April, May or June 2021.

Mayor Turner’s Statement on Hewlett Packard Enterprise HQ’s Relocation to Houston Region

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Mayor Turner Welcomes Hewlett Packard Enterprise HQ Relocation to Houston Region
HOUSTON – Earlier this afternoon, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced the company will relocate its global headquarters from San Jose, California to the Houston region and its new Springwoods Village campus. The expansion and headquarters relocation to the Houston area has the potential to add hundreds of jobs in the coming years.

Mayor Sylvester Turner, the Greater Houston Partnership, and leaders from the Houston region have been visiting with the HPE leadership team for several years, both to retain their existing Houston footprint and to explore expansion opportunities. This activity culminated in a virtual mission to Silicon Valley in October. The Houston delegation, including Mayor Turner and Rice President David Leebron, met with HPE CEO Antonio Neri and the company’s leadership team.

“I have said we are not just running, but we are sprinting to boost our tech and innovation scene. HPE’s announcement is something we should all celebrate. The city’s efforts to bolster Houston’s position as a leading digital tech hub and global headquarters city are paying off,” said Mayor Turner. “I had the opportunity to visit with HPE CEO Antonio Neri a few weeks ago about HPE’s presence in Houston, and am delighted they decided to move their headquarters to the Houston area.”

The addition of HPE expands the Houston region’s Fortune 500 headquarters roster to 23 companies. HPE is ranked number 109 on the 2020 Fortune 500 list. The most recent Fortune 500 headquarters relocation came in 2014 when Occidental Petroleum moved to Houston from California. The last non-energy Fortune 500 headquarters move was in 1998 when Waste Management moved to Houston from Chicago.

President-Elect Biden Announces Key Members of Economic Team

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Washington, DC…Today, President-elect Joe Biden announced key members of his economic team, including Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury; Neera Tanden, Director of the Office of Management and Budget; Wally Adeyemo, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury; Cecilia Rouse, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers; and Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey, members of the Council of Economic Advisers.

 

 

This crisis-tested team will help President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris lift America out of the current economic downturn and build back better — creating an economy that gives every single person across America a fair shot and an equal chance to get ahead. These choices reflect the president-elect’s commitment to building an administration that looks like America, drawing on the diverse backgrounds and lived experiences of some of our nation’s foremost economic experts.

President-elect Joe Biden said, “As we get to work to control the virus, this is the team that will deliver immediate economic relief for the American people during this economic crisis and help us build our economy back better than ever. This team is comprised of respected and tested groundbreaking public servants who will help the communities hardest hit by COVID-19 and address the structural inequities in our economy. They will work tirelessly to ensure every American enjoys a fair return for their work and an equal chance to get ahead, and that our businesses can thrive and outcompete the rest of the world. This team looks like America and brings seriousness of purpose, the highest degree of competency, and unwavering belief in the promise of America. They will be ready on day one to get to work for all Americans.”

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said, “President-elect Biden and I have said that our top priorities upon entering the White House are getting this virus under control and opening our economy responsibly. The outstanding economic team that President-elect Biden is bringing together will help us deliver on our commitment. They are not only some of America’s most brilliant economic minds, they are also proven leaders who reflect the very best of our country. And they share a fundamental commitment to ending this economic crisis and putting people back to work, while rebuilding our economy in a way that lifts up all Americans. With the selection of these crisis-tested public servants, the American people are getting the economic team they need — and deserve.”

This distinguished slate of nominations and appointments includes several historic trailblazers:

Janet Yellen is nominated to serve as Secretary of the Treasury. If confirmed, she will be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department in its 231-year history, and the first person to have served as Treasury Secretary, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Chair of the Federal Reserve. She has previously been confirmed by the Senate on four separate occasions.
Neera Tanden, whose career has focused on pursuing policies designed to support working families, foster broad-based economic growth, and curb rampant inequality, is nominated to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. If confirmed, Tanden would be the first woman of color and first South Asian American to lead the OMB.
Wally Adeyemo, a veteran of the Executive Branch and expert on macro-economic policy and consumer protection with deep national security experience, is nominated to serve as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, having previously served as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, Deputy National Security Advisor, and the first Chief of Staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If confirmed, Adeyemo would be the first African American Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.
Cecilia Rouse, a leading labor economist and the Dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, is nominated to serve as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, having previously been confirmed by the Senate as a member of the CEA in 2009. If confirmed, she will become the first African American and just the fourth woman to lead the CEA in the 74 years of its existence.
Jared Bernstein, who previously served as Chief Economist to President-elect Biden in the first years of the Obama-Biden Administration, will serve as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Heather Boushey, a distinguished economist focused on economic inequality and the President, CEO, and co-founder of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, will serve as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers.
The following White House announcements were made today:

Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury
Link to hi-res photo

Janet Yellen served as the 15th Chair of the Federal Reserve, the first woman to lead America’s central banking system since its creation. Among the most accomplished and decorated economists in modern history, if confirmed, she will become the first woman to lead the Treasury Department in its 231 years of existence, and the first person to ever serve as Treasury Secretary, Chair of the Federal Reserve, and Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Prior to her leadership of the Federal Reserve, Yellen served as the body’s Vice Chair from 2010 to 2014 following an earlier term on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She served as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton, has held a litany of high-profile leadership roles with national and international economics organizations, and has forged a prolific career as a professor of economics, including as a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley for the last 40 years. Born and raised in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Yellen received her bachelor of arts degree from Brown University and her Ph.D. in economics from Yale University.

Neera Tanden, Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Link to hi-res photo

Neera Tanden currently serves as President & CEO of the Center for American Progress, an organization dedicated to advancing policies that increase opportunity for every American. A veteran of multiple presidential administrations, Tanden has been a leading architect and advocate of policies designed to support working families, foster broad-based economic growth, and curb inequality throughout her career. Her experience as a child relying on food stamps and Section 8 housing — a social safety net that offered her single mother the foundation she needed to land a good job and punch her family’s ticket to the middle class — instilled in her the true necessity of an economy that serves the dignity and humanity of all people. If confirmed, Tanden would be the first woman of color and the first South Asian American to lead the OMB.

Prior to her tenure as President & CEO, Tanden held the post of Chief Operating Officer at the Center for American Progress. She currently serves on the New Jersey Restart and Recovery Commission, and previously served as senior adviser for health reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services developing policies and provisions of the Affordable Care Act, as director of domestic policy for the first Obama-Biden presidential campaign, and in a variety of other roles in government and on the campaign trail. A native of Bedford, Massachusetts, Tanden received her bachelor of science degree from UCLA and her JD from Yale Law School.

Wally Adeyemo, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
Link to hi-res photo

Wally Adeyemo currently serves as the president of the Obama Foundation, the non-profit organization founded by former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama to continue their work in service to their community, our nation, and the world. A leader with deep experience across both the economic and national security space, Adeyemo has served as a trusted adviser to the country’s foremost policymakers in times of crisis.

During the Obama-Biden Administration, Adeyemo served as the President’s senior international economic adviser and held a broad range of posts, including Deputy National Security Advisor, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, the first chief of staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and senior advisor and deputy chief of staff at the Department of the Treasury. Before and after his service in the Obama-Biden Administration, he has advised a range of leading non-profit and private sector organizations, including the Center for Strategic & International Studies. Born in Nigeria and raised in southern California’s Inland Empire, Adeyemo received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley and his JD from Yale Law School. If confirmed, Adeyemo would be the first African American Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.

Cecilia Rouse, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
Link to hi-res photo

Cecilia Rouse currently serves as Dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. If confirmed, she will become just the first African American and just the fourth woman to lead the CEA in the 74 years of its existence. A renowned labor economist with expertise centered in the economics of education and equality, she is an accomplished leader who has held prominent roles across academia and government service.

Before taking on her current role as Dean in 2012, Rouse served as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama-Biden Administration and on the National Economic Council in the Clinton Administration as Special Assistant to President Clinton. Rouse joined the Princeton faculty in 1992 and has authored landmark papers on a variety of economic policy issues. Originally from California, Rouse received her bachelor of arts degree and her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.

Jared Bernstein, Member of the Council of Economic Advisers
Link to hi-res photo

Jared Bernstein served as chief economist to then-Vice President Biden in the Obama-Biden Administration before joining the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where he has served as a senior fellow since 2011. A former social worker, Bernstein has a long and distinguished track record devising economic policies that expand opportunity for working Americans.

Bernstein has previously served as Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class and as an economic advisor to President Obama; prior to his service in the Obama-Biden Administration, he was a senior economist and director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute, and served as Deputy Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor under President Clinton. In addition to authoring numerous books, Bernstein has been a regular commentator on economic issues for leading national print and television outlets, including The Washington Post and CNBC. Bernstein received his bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, his master of social work degree from Hunter College, and his Ph.D. in social welfare from Columbia University.

Heather Boushey, Member of the Council of Economic Advisers
Link to hi-res photo

Heather Boushey is a long-time economic counselor to President-elect Biden and currently serves as President & CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a non-profit research and grantmaking organization she co-founded in 2013. An expert on the impact of structural inequities on economic growth, she is a leading voice on matters of economic policy.

Boushey served as chief economist for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential transition team, and previously served as an economist for the Center for American Progress, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and the Economic Policy Institute. She currently sits on the board of the Opportunity Institute, is a senior fellow at the Schwartz Center for Economic and Policy Analysis at the New School for Social Research, and serves as an Associate Editor for Feminist Economics. Born and raised in the Seattle area, Boushey received her bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and her Ph.D. in economics from the New School for Social Research.

Former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh died from accidental smoke inhalation more than a week after he was trapped in a fire

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Tony Hsieh, the retired CEO of Zappos credited with revolutionizing the shoe industry, died as a result of complications from accidental smoke inhalation, the office of the chief medical examiner in Connecticut told Insider.

Hsieh (pronounced Shay), who announced his retirement from the shoe retailer in August, died on Friday, more than a week after he sustained injuries in a November 18 fire in New London, Connecticut. He was visiting family at the time of the fire, The New York Times reported.

The Day, a local newspaper, reported on November 18 that firefighters were called to 500 Pequot Ave. after 3:30 a.m. The victim in the fire, believed to be Hsieh, was rescued from the home and transported to a hospital with serious injuries, to be treated for “possible burns and smoke inhalation,” the report said.

New London Fire Chief Thomas Curcio told the outlet that emergency personnel removed the victim and performed CPR on him before they transported him to the hospital. The victim was later taken by helicopter to the Connecticut Burn Center at the Bridgeport Hospital, about 60 miles west of New London.

Local news outlet WFSB reported the victim had been trapped in the basement of the home before he was rescued by firefighters.

According to audio posted by Broadcastify and verified by Storyful, emergency personnel on the scene mentioned a male who was “barricaded” inside the home and said that the trapped individual was not answering the door while others in the home had been able to successfully escape the fire, The Wall Street Journal reported.

As Insider previously reported, the property where the fire occurred was purchased in August by Rachael Brown. A woman of the same name has been a longtime employee of Zappos, overseeing the company’s training program.

The New London fire chief told Insider over the weekend that the cause of the blaze was still under investigation. He did not immediately return Insider’s request for an update Monday.