Terrell Lewis' lock screen wallpaper – a list of every outside linebacker drafted before him this year. https://t.co/Kx4o5J5hVi

— Stu Jackson (@StuJRams) August 24, 2020

Jourdan Rodrigue, 8/24: from https://theathletic.com/2012176/2020/08/24/the-pile/?source=emp_shared_article

Lewis could see the field pretty often as a rookie because new defensive coordinator Brandon Staley loves to rotate his front by mixing looks and moving guys around. And one of the traits the Rams liked about Lewis at Alabama was the way he played every position on the defensive line, from the seven-technique to the three and, a few times, even nose tackle.

Lewis is in no need of filling out. He’s 6-foot-5 and 263 pounds (10 pounds over his playing weight while at Alabama, by design) with a motor. He caused a visible reaction from teammates on one play in camp last week when he chased down starting quarterback Jared Goff. And even though Lewis missed nearly two weeks of team work while recovering from COVID-19, he has been very quick to bond with veterans Brockers and Floyd, with whom he lifts weights.

“My standard, I want to be way better than where I’m at,” he said. “But I understand I came in a little bit behind the other guys, still getting acclimated and still trying to get the feel for the NFL speed of the game, the mental side of it, the plays that are coming my way. And at this level, everybody is good. … I know my standard, and I want to be as good as possible.”

Lewis is one of a few players who, though new to the roster, is turning heads.

from http://theramshuddle.com/topic/rams-looking-to-build-off-of-2019-red-zone-success/

Jared Goff continued to outperform in the red zone [in 2019]. His 112.0 rating in that area trailed only MVP Lamar Jackson among qualifying passers, according to Sharp Football. Goff delivered 18 touchdowns (plus two rushing scores) without an interception.

#Rams RB Darrell Henderson Jr. suffered a low-grade hamstring strain in last night’s scrimmage — not serious and shouldn’t miss much time, source said. Optimism he’ll be ready for Week 1.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 23, 2020

What's Camp Life like for a rookie vs. a vet?@VanJefferson12 + @J_Rey_11 take you inside #RamsCamp!

Watch full episode » https://t.co/c4AFJk9Am6 pic.twitter.com/gICm5dNin1

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) August 23, 2020

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Good morning, I am genuinely not trying to flame this guy by sharing this – but I have gotten the second question a lot so again, we have a protocol here to respect so would like it to serve as a general and final PSA –

Portland police stand by as Proud Boys and far-right militias flash guns and brawl with antifa counterprotesters

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/22/portland-police-far-right-protest/

PORTLAND, Ore. — On Saturday afternoon, a large crowd of more than 100 far-right activists, including Proud Boys and armed militia members, descended on Portland, Ore., staging a “Back the Blue” rally in front of the Justice Center that houses the downtown police precinct. Hundreds of antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters gathered to oppose the far-right crowd.

People in the far-right crowd came armed with paintball guns, metal rods, aluminum bats, fireworks, pepper spray, rifles and handguns. Some people in the opposing left-leaning crowd brought rocks, fireworks and bottles filled with chemical solutions. Both crowds sported shields and helmets.

The two groups sparred for more than two hours, as people exchanged blows, fired paintballs at each other and blasted chemicals indiscriminately into the crowd. People lobbed fireworks back and forth. At least one person was hit in the abdomen with a device that flashed and exploded, causing bleeding.

The rally followed a much smaller right-wing event last week that ended with gunfire. On Wednesday, Portland police arrested and seized a gun from 27-year-old Skylor Noel Jernigan, a far-right activist who has frequently rallied against antifascists in the city in recent years. Many of the same people came out again Saturday, including Alan Swinney, who brandished a gun and pointed it at the opposing crowd.

Violent clashes erupt between far-right groups and racial justice protesters in Portland and other cities

As the brawls unfolded, Portland police officers remained at a distance. They made several announcements over loudspeakers, encouraging the crowds to “self-monitor for criminal activity,” even as people beat others with sticks, and at least two right-wing activists brandished handguns.

“Each skirmish appeared to involve willing participants and the events were not enduring in time, so officers were not deployed to intervene,” the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement.

Police said they did not stop the violence, although the event met the criteria to be declared a riot, because too few officers were available to respond and they deemed it too dangerous to intervene. Officers were tired from responding to a much smaller and less volatile protest that was declared a riot the night before, the bureau said in a statement, and incident commanders also had concerns that officers would be targeted by the crowd.

“PPB members have been the focus of over 80 days of violent actions directed at the police, which is a major consideration for determining if police resources are necessary to interject between two groups with individuals who appear to be willingly engaging in physical confrontations for short durations,” the bureau said in a statement. “While the activity in the group met the definition of a riot, PPB did not declare one because there were not adequate police resources available to address such a declaration.”

The Portland Police Bureau has struggled to quell confrontations between far-right groups and antifascists in the city since at least 2017, when a string of violent riots broke out over the summer and fall.

Violent protest clashes turned Portland into a ‘right-wing boogeyman.’ Here’s how it happened.

The decision not to intervene was a striking contrast to police tactics at several left-leaning Black Lives Matter protests in recent weeks. Officers have consistently declared unlawful assemblies and riots at nighttime protests that have devolved into property damage and projectiles thrown at police. Although those events have involved significant property damage at times, they have not involved firearms or rampant brawling among demonstrators.

Several people were injured in the chaos at the warring protests. Dakota Means, 25, was hit in the eye with a paintball fired by a man in the far-right crowd wearing a tactical vest with a “Texas” patch across his chest.

“I counted six shots — three of them whizzed past me, two of them landed in front of me, but the last one hit me right in the corner my eye, right where the bridge of my nose is,” Means said. “I stumbled back and dropped to my knees and passed out for about a minute, and then when I woke up, there was medics all around me trying to figure out what was happening.”

Means, who described himself as mixed race and a Marine Corps veteran, said he was at the rally to support Black Lives Matter and to oppose a right-wing crowd that was threatening to shoot civilians.

“They’re not welcome in the city,” he said. “I’m gonna make sure they’re ran out.”

The right-wing crowd chanted “USA! USA!” and expletive-filled chants against antifa. The opposing leftists responded with shouts of: “Go home, Nazis.”

After more than two hours of violent clashes, the far-right crowd retreated to their cars. Antifa demonstrators followed them as they moved through downtown to a parking garage a few blocks away. The two groups lobbed rocks at each other and exchanged more pepper spray.

Amid the right-wing crowd was a widely known Proud Boy, Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, who has frequently brawled in Portland since early 2017.

Last year, he pleaded guilty in a 2018 assault in exchange for a two-year probation that requires him to stay away from protests until his probationary period ends in 2021. Even before he showed up at Saturday’s rally, there was an active warrant for Toese’s arrest for violating other terms of his probation.

As the far-right crowd left downtown Portland, Toese walked past several Portland police officers who did not attempt to apprehend him.

After the far-right groups had cleared out of downtown, members of the left-leaning crowd reconvened in Terry Schrunk Plaza, which is federal property. Federal police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and drove the protesters out of the plaza, though the crowd had become largely peaceful as the afternoon waned.

Experts say this backsliding is predictable — in the face of what feels like chronic risk, we are less motivated to take specific action against the threat.

Biden offers sharp attack on Trump as a dark force and promises to be ‘an ally of the light’ as president
His acceptance speech caps a week of unity among sometimes fractious Democrats

From Facebook

In 1990, the high school dropout rate for Dolly Parton’s hometown of Sevierville Tennessee was at 34% (Research shows that most kids make up their minds in fifth/sixth grade not to graduate). That year, all fifth and sixth graders from Sevierville were invited by Parton to attend an assembly at Dollywood. They were asked to pick a buddy, and if both students completed high school, Dolly Parton would personally hand them each a $500 check on their graduation day. As a result, the dropout rate for those classes fell to 6%, and has generally retained that average to this day.

Shortly after the success of The Buddy Program, Parton learned in dealing with teachers from the school district that problems in education often begin during first grade when kids are at different developmental levels. That year The Dollywood Foundation paid the salaries for additional teachers assistants in every first grade class for the next 2 years, under the agreement that if the program worked, the school system would effectively adopt and fund the program after the trial period.

During the same period, Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995: The idea being that children from her rural hometown and low-income families often start school at a disadvantage and as a result, will be unfairly compared to their peers for the rest of their lives, effectively encouraging them not to pursue higher education. The objective of the Imagination library was that every child in Sevier County would receive one book, every month, mailed and addressed to the child, from the day they were born until the day they started kindergarten, 100% free of charge. What began as a hometown initiative now serves children in all 50 states, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, mailing thousands of free books to children around the world monthly.

On March 1, 2018 Parton donated her 100 millionth book at the Library of Congress: a copy of “Coat of Many Colors” dedicated to her father, who never learned to read or write.