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ageofnations · 2 years

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Seams of Gold (NSFW)

josh kiszka x fem!reader

Warnings: NSFW 18+ ONLY!!!! unprotected penetrative sex (wrap it up plz!), spanking (once lmao), little hair pulling, praise kink, slight degredation, edging if you squint

Word Count: ~3k

A/N: this is the first bit of complete smut i’ve done and i don’t know how i feel about it so plz be nice. I just couldn’t get this image out of my head…especially since he wore it THREE times (so far). anyways, hope you enjoy! (Also this is not my picture!)

You felt dirty.

You felt like a little kid doing exactly what their mother warned them not to do.

It was a silly thing to feel such a thrill about, but Josh had made you promise not to open his concert closet. You had complained and whined about how much you loved his jumpsuits, that you wanted to see them up close and away from the bright lights of the stage, but he was adamant about it.

You were to not come near them.

He made some bullshit excuse of having his jumpsuits for future shows in the closet and how he didn’t want to ruin the surprise for you before you saw them on stage. He knew he was lying, though. He didn’t even keep those jumpsuits in his personal closet space until after he at least wore them once. He himself wasn’t positive as to why he made the rule, but you went along with it to make him happy.

That was, until today.

He and the boys were all hanging with each other and their families, celebrating the return to their home state and the start of a new tour. You had opted to stay behind since you got to see him essentially any time that you pleased. The hustle and bustle of the night prior, the show in Kalamazoo, had exhausted you, so you planned to use the time to recharge.

You were laying down in nothing but one of your favorite robes, one made of lavender silk. You chose comfort while reading a book Josh had bought you, rejecting the idea of confining clothing. No matter how hard you tried to focus on the book in your hand, though, you were incredibly distracted by Josh’s closet. It seemed to have a type of magnetic energy to it. It was almost calling to you, persuading you to open it and quiet your curiosities. You couldn’t stay away if you tried. You didn’t fight the urge too hard, though.

Now, you stood in front of the open doors, running your fingers across the colorful array of satin and crushed velvet. The colors were all more vibrant than they appeared on stage, and you admired how each one had its own unique and intricate design. You were especially drawn to the one from the night before. The jumpsuits from the previous tour were beautiful, but you had seen many videos and pictures of them from the fans and photographers. This one, though, was still fresh.

The vibrant gold embodied the exact aura of Josh, and you thought about how perfect it was for the opening night. The appliques were arranged throughout the fabric in just all the right spots. You imagined Josh in front of you wearing the suit, you running your hands down his chest and around to grab his hips. The suit itself was beautiful, but the duster is really what caught your eye.

You were slightly disappointed that Josh hadn’t worn it longer during the show. He looked so elegant, like a king of sorts. You hadn’t noticed the details in the fabric until now, and you were growing more and more curious about how it felt to wear it.

You checked the time to see that Josh was set to be home in around 30 minutes. You had plenty of time.

You made quick work to slip out of the robe you were wearing, but you paid extra time retrieving the sheer fabric from it’s hanger. You were afraid to mess up the delicate article, and you wanted to be sure you could cover your tracks when you were done.

The cool air on your now completely exposed skin sent chills down your spine. You could feel your nipples harden and goosebumps spread across your body. You clutched the gold fabric to your face, inhaling the smell of Josh and detergent, and wished that you could live in this feeling forever. You turned to look at yourself at the full body mirror behind you and slowly walked to it. You held the piece up to your naked frame and smiled at how the gold looked even better against your complexion. The designer had outdone themself with this, and you couldn’t wait to see what else Josh had picked for the tour.

You carefully slipped your arms into the sleeves one at a time. The sheer fabric did little to protect you from the chill in the air. The butterflies in your stomach grew as you were not only breaking Josh’s rule, but completely going against them. You blushed as your mind wandered to what he would say, or do, if he caught you.

You met the reflection of your frame in the mirror. You did a little spin for yourself, feeling as if you were a child playing dress up. You twisted and turned to admire your appearance with a smug grin. This duster looked like it belonged to royalty, and it even made you feel as if you were royalty while wearing it.

“Looks like you’ve had your nose where it shouldn’t have been.”

Your heart dropped with the grin that you were wearing. You snapped your head to see Josh leaning in the doorway of your bedroom. You hadn’t heard the front door open or close. You were supposed to still have a little bit of time before he came home. Confusion mixed with embarrassment in your expression. Josh, however, kept his normal smirk as he let his eyes gloss over your body.

“What? Are you not happy to see me?” Josh’s unusually low tone caused even more goosebumps to adorn your skin.

“Josh, I was just-”

He shook his head and began to walk to you. “No, I know what you were doing, baby. Exactly what I told you not to do.” The confidence that he exuded became even more intoxicating as he finally reached you. He caressed your jaw with his right hand and gently positioned his left hand on your hip. “You don’t like to listen, do you?”

You felt your cheeks pinken again and let your head drop from embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”

He placed a quick kiss on your forehead and moved his hand from your cheek to the back of your neck. His fingers laced in your hair as he set his chin on top of your head. He pulled you closer to him, and you wrapped your arms around his waist. “It’s okay, my love. I can’t be upset with you when I knew it would happen sooner or later.”

You look back up at him. He didn’t seem mad or annoyed in the least bit. The smile on his face implied endearment with a hint of pride. “Besides,” he started again. “You look absolutely incredible.” His left hand dropped to give you a pat on your ass, and he gave you a proper kiss on the lips. You untangled yourself from him with a quiet giggle. He turned to walk to his open closet.

“So you promise you’re not mad at me?” You asked sheepishly.

He laughed. “Of course I’m not mad, baby,” he assured as he closed the closet doors. “But I am gonna need you to keep that on while I fuck you to remind you who’s in charge.”

Your eyes widen at Josh’s statement. You felt your knees buck, and you would’ve fell if you didn’t catch yourself. It seemed as if he had completely flipped a switch within you. You could feel your core aching with desire. He turned back to face you. His eyes were dark and glazed over. He nodded to the bed, giving you a silent demand.

You obliged immediately, and took your place at the edge of the bed on your knees with your hands on your thighs, facing Josh as he walked back to you. He snaked his hand to the back of your neck again. You looked up at him through your lashes and smiled at how gorgeous he looked. He lightly tugged your hair with an endearing smile in response. You enjoyed the sweet moments such as these, but you couldn’t help but anticipate what was to come.

“Are you gonna be good for me?” Josh rasped.

You nodded, unable to form a coherent response.

“Words, baby. Use your words,” he tsked.

It was easier said than done. The excitement bubbling within you made your skin feel electrified. You wanted nothing but for him to stop with the teasing, but you decided to play along. “Yes, Josh. I’ll be good.”

Josh hummed, pleased with your response. He released his grip on your hair, but brought his hand to the top of your head to run his fingers across your skull. The way he was touching you and looking at you, as if you were an idol that deserved to be worshipped, made your mouth water. You reached out to undo his belt, but he quickly smacked your hands away, a dramatic contrast in how he had been treating you. You frowned at him and whined.

“None of that, Y/N. You’ve had your fun.” He leaned down to be at eye level with you. His hands returned to both of your cheeks, cupping them gently. His eyes softened with his demeanor. “I want to get straight to it, if you’ll let me.”

You give your consent with an enthusiastic nod before you remember his need for a verbal response. “Josh please-”

“Turn around. Ass up, mama,” he interupted. His hot and cold attitude kept you on your toes, not knowing what to expect. You rarely got to see Josh’s dominant side, so you were pleased that you had gotten yourself in this predicament. You quickly turn around and comply with his commands. You were careful to not mess up the sheer duster still wrapped around you as you moved.

You could hear the shuffling of Josh undressing behind you, and it pained you to not do it yourself. Taking your time with undressing him had always been one of your favorite parts. You loved to kiss every inch of his body, loving every bit of it as it was unveiled to you. You could tell he didn’t feel like waiting since he took the task upon himself.

You felt him hike the duster up to your hips, your ass now completely exposed to him. He inched closer to you, and you could feel the warm breath against your core. You held your breath in anticipation. You longed to feel his mouth devour you, but he didn’t give you that satisfaction. You heard a low chuckle, which caused more air to prick your heat.

You whined at him again, tears forming from frustration. “Josh, please.”

He groaned and placed a deep kiss on your heat, but pulled away almost immediately. You chased the contact by pressing your hips towards him. He strengthens his grip on your waist and holds you in place. “You sound so pretty begging for me like that, baby.” He goes lower and licks a single stripe down your folds. “But I promise I will make you feel good. No need to worry.”

The bed dipped behind you as Josh potisioned himself on the mattress. He gathered the duster to one side and held the fabric in place with one hand. You grinned at the thought of him getting his mic fixed during the performance, holding the fabric in the same place on his body. If only you knew then what was to come less than 24 hours later.

He stroked himself a few times and lined himself up with your entrance. He paused. “You okay, mama?”

You smiled at his thoughtfulness. “More than okay,” you answer.

He bent down to place a quick kiss to your spine before lining himself up again. He slowly pressed into you with a sigh. You clutched the comforter under you as you felt him fill you up completely, the sweet burning sensation that you had begun to crave. He paused so you could get used to the feeling again, his left hand rubbing and squeezing any bit of you that he could to soothe you.

You blindly reached behind you to grab his wandering hand and squeeze it, giving Josh the green light to start moving.

His rhythm was painstakingly slow to begin with, but he kept his word to make it feel good. You could feel every curve and vein as he thrusted slow and deep. The sounds escaping you both, plus the smacks of your skin coming in contact was anything but pure. You knew that the grip he had on your hips would cause bruises, but you didn’t mind at all. In fact, picturing yourself with marks from times like these with him only made you more aroused. You decided to rut your hips against his to allow a deeper angle.

Josh let out another groan and quickened his pace. “You’re gonna ruin me if you keep on with that, Y/N,” he warned. “You feel so good.” He let go of the fabric in his hand and opted to grab your hair instead. You moaned as you started to feel your climax building, sooner than you had hoped.

“You’re close, I can feel it,” he whispered behind you. “You’re already gripping so hard, baby.”

Your eyes roll back. “Fuck, Josh. I’m gonna-”

Just before you could finish your sentence and your climb to the peak, Josh pulled out completely. You shudder at the complete loss of contact. You snap your head furiously to look at him while he held a cocky grin. “What the hell, Josh?”

He gave a hard smack on your ass, making you moan through your frustration. “Don’t get mad at me baby. You’re the one breaking rules here.”

His comment made you blush and remember exactly why you were in this predicament in the first place. You had almost forgotten that you were wearing a piece of his outfit. He lowered himself to your ear and moved your hair to the other side of your face. His breath tickled your neck as he whispered, “Now ride me like the good little slut you are.”

The dirty words leaving the mouth of the angel that was your boyfriend made you gasp, but you enjoyed this side of him. You swiftly climbed on top of him once he laid on his back, still careful to not ruin the gold duster. You wasted very little time on theatrics, you simply wanted to continue chasing that high that Josh had denied you.

You both sighed as you sank down onto him. He placed his hands under his head in a carefree manner, but you knew it was paining him not to touch you. You put your hands against his chest to steady yourself as you began to move. The rocking motion of your hips allowed your clit to deliciously rub against Josh, bringing your climax back faster than ever.

“Good girl,” he purred. “Good fucking girl.” The raspiness of his voice as he praised you sounded like sweet and heavenly hymns.

He finally lifted his hands from behind his head and reached under the duster to play with your breasts. He lightly pinched your nipples between his fingers, making you let out a small yelp as you continued your movements against him. He seemed pleased with himself for causing such a reaction from you.

“You like that, sweet girl? You like using my cock to fuck yourself?”

You bit your lip and nodded. He grabbed your hips again and decided to take charge once more. He lifted you slightly and began thrusting himself into you at an unrelenting pace. You tip your head back and moan obscenly loud at the new sensation, but just as he had done before, he stopped.

Your head snapped down at him again as you tried, and failed, to moved your hips against his. His grip had you locked in place. “Look at me while I’m fucking you, or I’m not gonna let you finish at all.” You nod in understanding, and he slowly began to thrust into you again. You attempted to keep the eye contact, but with the increasing speed and sight of Josh panting under you, you felt them slowly close again.

Just as promised, Josh slowed his thrusts again. “I’m serious, mama.”

You take a deep breath and meet his gaze again. He gives you a loving smile before continuing his thrusts, faster than before.

You could feel your jaw go slack and hands claw at his chest as he continued to pound you. He moved his hands from your hips back to your ass, but kept the same grasp as he had before. This new hold allowed him to incorporate the rocking motion you had used while he thrusted. Your eyes fluttered again, but you didn’t dare close them again.

“Josh, I’m close,” you stuttered out.

He groaned. “I know baby. Me too.” He let go with one hand and started to rub your clit as he thrusted. “Let go for me.”

Before he could finish his statement, you tipped over the edge. You felt fireworks and flowers bloom. You felt waves crash and winds blow. Your climax enveloped your senses and had you reciting every praise and curse known to man, which caused Josh do do the same. You felt him finishing inside of you within a few final thrusts. You both were a panting mess as you came down from it all. You rolled off of him with a slight hiss at the sensation.

Josh immediately wrapped you in his arms. “You okay baby?” He asked. You gave him a nod, still unable to catch your breath. “You did so good for me.” He kissed your head and began to stroke your hair.

You giggled and snuggled against him the best you could. “I should break rules more often. I liked playing dress-up.”

Josh gave his signature boisterous laugh. “You do look really good in my clothes.” He gave you another kiss. “I’m gonna go start us a bath.” He unwrapped himself from your embrace and began walking to your bathroom. You couldn’t help but watch his figure as you also got up from your place on the bed.

“Oh and put that thing in the washer!” Josh called over his shoulder. You could hear the smile hidden in his voice as he finished with, “I think I’m gonna wear it again tomorrow.”

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esytes69 · 4 years

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Hollywood Biggest Celebrity Scandal

Tim Allen arrested for dealing cocaine, 1978 Before he became everyone’s favorite Santa Clause (or the handy tool man, or Buzz Lightyear), Tim Allen was caught dealing drugs—specifically cocaine. He was arrested for possession of nearly a pound-and-a-half of cocaine at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International airport in Michigan in 1978. He spent 28 months in a federal prison, as opposed to a life sentence, for giving up the names of other drug offenders.

Marvin Gaye murdered by his father, 1984 The soul singer of the 80s, known as the Prince of Motown, was shot and killed by his father, Rev. Marvin Gay Sr. after an altercation. (Note: The "e" was added to the singer's stage name.) Gaye's brother Frankie, reportedly held him in his final moments. In his memoir, Frankie wrote that his brother's last words were, "I got what I wanted…I couldn’t do it myself, so I made him do it."

Rob Lowe made a sex tape with a 16-year-old, 1988 A video of the then-24-year-old Parks and Rec star having sex with two women was reportedly recorded the night before the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. (Side note: Lowe was largely into politics before his acting career took off.) When it surfaced, it was discovered that one of the girls was only 16 years old. Her mother slapped him with a civil lawsuit, and he ended up settling, paying her a large sum of money and doing 20 hours of community service.

Michael Jackson accused of sexual assault, 1993 In 1993, Michael Jackson was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy named Jordan Chandler. After the accusations went public, Jackson cancelled his tour due to health issues from the scandal. He later settled the case, paying the Chandlers $23,000.

O.J. Simpson arrested for the murder of his wife, 1994 Football star O.J. Simpson was arrested for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, following a now-iconic car chase through Los Angeles. After 15 months in jail, Simpson was famously acquitted of both counts, thanks in part to his lawyer's "if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit" line. In 2008, 13 years later, Simpson was convicted of robbery and kidnapping for a separate incident.

Hugh Grant caught with a prostitute, 1995 In 1995, Hugh Grant paid a sex worker to give him a blow job on the Sunset Strip but the two were found by police and the Four Weddings and a Funeral actor was arrested for "lewd conduct" in a public place. At the time of his arrest, he was with his longtime girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley, who tried to work through the incident. She ended up leaving Grant five years later.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana divorce, 1996 After years of marital strain and four years of separation, Prince Charles and Princess Diana formally divorced in August of 1996. Their marriage was tainted by controversy, especially at the end, with both sides cheating—Charles most famously with long-time love and now-wife, Camilla Parker Bowels. As the future King of England, Charles' status as a divorcee is particularly scandalous.

Princess Diana killed in a car accident, 1997 Less than a year after she and Prince Charles got divorced, Princess Diana was killed in a car accident in Paris after being chased by paparazzi—and it was rumored that the future king planned her death. Later a letter from the princess to her former butler was discovered. In it she wrote that she felt Charles was setting up an incident so he could marry Tiggy, the former nanny of Princes William and Harry, but many believe the note was forged and an inquest concluded in 2008 found no wrongdoing on the part of the royal family.

Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky made public, 1998 In 1995, former President Bill Clinton began having an affair with a then-21-year-old Monica Lewinsky, who was an unpaid White House intern. The huge scandal was made public in 1998, and Clinton denied that he had "sexual relations" with Lewinsky. He later admitted that he did have an affair with her, which contributed to his impeachment in 1999.

Marilyn Manson's music blamed for the Columbine shooting, 1999 After one of the deadliest schools shootings—in which two seniors murdered 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School—people pointed the finger at musician Marilyn Manson. It was thought that the two students loved Manson and his music, and it was said that the singer's songs inspired them to carry out the tragic act. The rumor was proven false, but Manson's reputation was hurt badly from the reports.

Winona Ryder arrested for shoplifting, 2001 In 2001, the Stranger Things actress was caught stealing over $5,560 worth of merchandise from a Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, California. She reportedly ripped tags off of clothing items and stashed them in her bag. Ryder later spun the incident positively, telling Daily Mail, "In a weird way, it was almost like the best thing that could have happened, because I’d never asked myself the question before of, Is it okay if I’m not going to act? Is there anything else? because that was all that I really knew."

R. Kelly arrested for child pornography, 2002 R. Kelly was indicted on 21 counts of child pornography after a tape showing him having sex with and urinating on an underage woman was sent to the Chicago Sun Times. He plead not guilty to all charges. Since, dozens of women have claimed to have been held in a sex cult by the singer. The hashtag #MuteRKelly started spreading recently, and Spotify was the first company to actually take action.

Madonna and Britney Spears kissed on stage, 2003 During a 2003 MTV Video Music Award performance, Britney Spears and Madonna shocked everyone when they kissed on stage. Christina Aguilera was performing with them, too, and got a smooch from Madonna, but the cameras switched shots and their kiss wasn't televised. Videographers instead cut to a shot of Justin Timberlake's shocked face.

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston announced their divorce, 2005 In January 2005, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston made a shocking joint statement that revealed they were breaking up. "We would like to announce that after seven years together we have decided to formally separate. For those who follow these sorts of things, we would like to explain that our separation is not the result of any of the speculation reported by the tabloid media," they said in the statement. "This decision is the result of much thoughtful consideration," the statement continued. "We happily remain committed and caring friends with great love and admiration for one another. We ask in advance for your kindness and sensitivity in the coming months." It was thought that their divorce was the result of the scandalous affair Pitt had with Angelina Jolie while filming the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Britney Spears shaved her head, 2007 Also in 2007: Britney Spears shaved off all her hair. The "Oops I Did It Again" singer hit rock bottom, beating up a photographer's car with an umbrella just days after going at her head with a buzz cutter. That year was a rough year for Spears, and it started the famous meme: "If Britney Spears can make it through 2007, then I can make it through today."

Kim Kardashian's sex tape made public, 2007 Before she was married to Kanye West, Kim Kardashian was in a serious relationship with another singer: Willie "Ray J" Norwood. The couple reportedly filmed a sex tape back in 2002 during a trip to Cabo, Mexico, and it was released to the public five years later when Kim began getting more media attention for being friends with Paris Hilton (who also has a sex tape). Kim sued in an attempt to prevent the 41-minute film from being accessible, but it still found its way to the internet.

Heath Ledger found dead, 2008 In 2008, the 10 Things I Hate About You actor was found dead in his bed in New York city. The NYC Medical Examiner's Office later determined that the cause of death was an accidental overdose of prescription painkillers, including anti-anxiety meds and sleeping pills. The Dark Knight, starring Ledger as the Joker, was released that summer in theaters, and his performance won him a posthumous Oscar.

Chris Brown assaulted Rihanna, 2009 Back in 2009, Chris Brown beat up then-girlfriend Rihanna after she discovered a text message from one of Brown's former flames. The "Forever" singer reportedly punched her in the face, repeatedly bit her, and choked her, but not to the point of unconsciousness. In a 20/20 interview, Rihanna opened up about the incident. "It was ugly," she said. "I fended him off with my feet…but it was not like, it was not like a fight with each other. I just…I really just wanted it to stop."

Michael Jackson killed, 2009 Michael Jackson was found dead on June 25, 2009. The cause? Surgical anesthetic Propofol, which was given to him by his personal doctor, Conrad Murray. Murray claimed to be injecting the King of Pop with the drug as a treatment for his insomnia. Jackson's death was ruled a homicide, and Murray blamed for negligent monitoring. He spent two years in jail for involuntary manslaughter.

Whitney Houston found dead in a bathtub, 2012 The world was shocked when Whitney Houston was found dead in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in 2012. An autopsy revealed that the singer died from accidental drowning. Her body was found with numerous drugs in it, including cocaine, marijuana, Xanax, and Benadryl. Houston had heart disease, so it is thought that the disease mixed with cocaine contributed to her death.

Solange Knowles gets into elevator fight with Jay Z, 2014 Following the 2014 Met Gala, leaked surveillance video captured Solange Knowles physically fighting her brother-in-law Jay Z in an elevator at the Standard Hotel in New York City. Although there was no shortage of speculation on the internet, the Carter-Knowles family gave little information as to what actually went down. “They both acknowledge their role in this private matter that has played out in the public. They both have apologized to each other and we have moved forward as a united family,” they said in a statement given to the Associated Press. Although the family has remained incredibly mum’s the word on the situation, Jay Z broke his silence in 2017 to share that he and Solange truly have moved on. "We had one disagreement ever. Before and after, we've been cool. She's like my sister. I will protect her. That's my sister, not my sister-in-law. My sister. Period,” he said during an appearance on Rap Radar.

30 Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and Taylor Swift feud over "Famous" lyrics, 2016 Kanye’s infamous “I’mma let you finish” at the 2008 Video Music Awards turned out to only be the beginning of his beef with Taylor Swift. In 2016, Kanye released the song “Famous” on his The Life of Pablo album, which explicitly mentions Swift in the opening: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous/Goddamn, I made that bitch famous.” Although Swift claimed she didn’t know about the song, Kim Kardashian decided to interject on her husband’s behalf. In a series of Snapchats, Kardashian leaked a recorded phone call between Kanye and Swift—Kanye shares a clip of the song for Swift’s approval, and the singer is heard saying, “Yeah, I mean, what's dope about the line is it's very tongue in cheek either way. And I really appreciate you telling me about it, that's really nice.” Swift’s response to the Snapchats? The singer claimed Kanye never shared the most offensive part of the lyrics with her. “Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me ‘that bitch’ in his song? It doesn’t exist because it never happened. You don’t get to control someone’s emotional response to being called ‘that bitch’ in front of the entire world,” she wrote on Instagram. To this day, the feud still remains a case of he-said-she-said.

Harvey Weinstein accused of sexual assault, 2017 On October 5, 2017, Ashley Judd accused longtime movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment—a bombshell accusation that led to the historical Time's Up and #MeToo movements. Since the first allegations, a number of other actresses have come forward with their stories of being sexually harassed or assaulted by Weinstein. After eight months, he finally turned himself in to police in New York City.

20-year-old Kylie Jenner quietly gives birth to first child, 2018 After months of speculation, an uncharacteristically quiet Kylie Jenner took to Instagram to share that she had given birth to a baby girl on February 1. Although news of her reported pregnancy with boyfriend Travis Scott leaked in September 2017, the reality star chose to stay quiet through all nine months, never confirming the news. “I’m sorry for keeping you in the dark through all the assumptions. I understand you’re used to me bringing you along on all my journeys. My pregnancy was one I chose not to do in front of the world,” she wrote in an Instagram post announcing the news. The 20-year-old also released a home video, “To Our Daughter,” that gave fans a peek at her hidden pregnancy.

Princess Diana's phone calls with her lover, James Gilbey, released, 1992 In 1992 The Sun leaked a transcript of Princess Diana's secret phone calls with her lover, James Gilbey. Diana was still married to Prince Charles at the time, who was also reportedly having an affair of his own with now-wife Camila Parker-Bowles. Read the full article

#billclinton #bradpitt #britneyspears #heathledger #hollywoodcontroversies #jayz #jenniferaniston #kanyewest #kimkardashian #kyliejenner #maddona #michaeljackson #princecharles #princessdiana #rihanna #spotify #taylorswift #Timallen #whitneyhouston

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epicfales · 4 years

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When I hate My Body, I Remember What It Has Given Me

It is day twenty-seven of strict social distancing. I only know this for sure because I checked my most recent Instagram post, which says that two days ago was day twenty-five. Today is Wednesday, April 8, 2020. I only know this because I checked my watch. The days feel long and short at the same time, and I’m not sure how that can be. There are many things I’m unsure of, these days; and I trust that we all feel that way to some extent. This pandemic has shattered our collective sense of normalcy and routine, as it’s disrupted weddings, graduations, proms, birthdays, and funerals—rituals that many people cannot fathom living without. I cannot go another day without confessing what I know to be true: it’s easy to live without those things when you have no choice.

At some point over the past twenty-seven days—they all blend together—I was talking to my friend, Liv, who was impacted by cancer. I hate how people use words like “fighting” or “beating” when putting verbs alongside a beast like cancer. Because no verb in any language can describe the deeply physical, emotional, and spiritual experience of being sick in that way. Sometimes when I imagine her being pulled from what was her happy and blessedly normal life, I see her being dragged into an arena, and cancer is not the lion—she is the lion—and cancer is this dark amorphous force that engulfs her body. I imagine that she roars, and her voice is so strong that I can see the sound released from every fiber of her being, and then watch as her very essence tangles with that darkness. Other times, I imagine her as she is in a photograph: dressed as Muhammad Ali, strutting down a hospital hallway, bald and in a mask, donning boxing gloves and a cape, staring down the camera. Everyone felt the need to reassure her that even without hair, she was beautiful. This pisses me off, because they all confront that photo with the unconscious premise that hair is a vital part of the human body, and my God, do they not notice the cape?

The Muhammad Ali quote that she boldly posts alongside that photo: “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’’

I turn to my conversations with Liv in the moments when I feel most defeated. She is one of my only friends my age who knows what it’s like to be chronically sick—sick in a way that doesn’t get better. Our diseases are extraordinarily different, but our shared experiences unite us in a unique bond. Today, I feel a humiliating level of defeat. And of course, it’s all rather absurd, because today isn’t different from any other day. The catalyst for my defeat: a bike ride to the mailbox at the end of my dirt road. I can’t put the words together to confess how difficult this exercise was for me. I’m just too disappointed in myself, and too ashamed. It’s only a mile to the mailbox and a mile back, but the road is hilly, and the terrain is rough. I’m grateful no one saw me. What had begun as a leisurely ride quickly became the most difficult exercise I’ve done in memory. I pushed myself way further than I should have, and my endurance was fueled by a profound anger towards my body’s many inadequacies. It was also fueled by the simple fact that I had no choice but to keep going; I needed to get home, and putting one foot in front of the other was the only way to get there (at that point I was walking alongside the damn bike). When I finally collapsed onto the living room floor, I Facetimed my family in Kalamazoo . . . their first reaction was to laugh. I don’t blame them for this, because I really did look pathetic, and it always takes people a minute to switch from the superficial observation, “Jess is horribly out of shape” to the more somber realization, “Jess is sick”. Nevertheless, I put on an almost childlike tantrum as I raged against my body. I said to my body, “You are weak, and pathetically inadequate. I’m ashamed to look at you in the mirror. Your scars are ugly. You are undesirable. No one likes you.” We all know the guilt and remorse felt after being mean to someone who doesn’t deserve it. My poor body. It has endured so much for me, more than most bodies endure, and I’m ashamed of it. I forget that it has made me a champion.

There was a brief period at the beginning of the pandemic when the chronically ill imagined that the rest of the world would finally understand what it’s like to be us. We saw people voice dismay over missed sports games, over canceled proms, and over abandoned vacation plans. We hoped their dismay would turn into empathy, and we waited for them to realize that the sacrifices being asked of them are sacrifices that we’ve had to make for years. It quickly became evident that such empathy could not be expected. We watched from afar as young people descended upon Florida beaches, as friends took advantage of cheap airline tickets, as communities gathered at packed bars, and as people selfishly hoarded toilet paper and hand sanitizer. They will never know what it’s like to be us.

I’ve heard all sorts of justifications for the social shenanigans plastered across our Facebook timelines and Instagram feeds. Mostly, people claim they deserve such festivity, and the use their feelings of “missing out” to rationalize having a good time. There’s the infamous youth on spring break who went viral for saying, “If I get Corona, I get Corona. I’m not going to let it interfere with me partying.” What it comes down to is this: people believe they are entitled to undisrupted lives. Our culture is based on comfort, indulgences, and personal gratification. For many, the mandated social restrictions have quickly become the worst thing to ever happen to them. If social distancing is the worst thing to happen to us by the time this is all over, we will be incredibly blessed.

I could say that I wish we lived in a world where bad things didn’t happen to good people and where life was fair. But I don’t wish that. Not even a little bit. Life is often ruthless, unpredictable, and unjust. When my complex autoimmune disease caused me to go deaf five days before starting college, I involuntarily put my life on hold to get Cochlear implants; and when I recovered from that I then faced a series of dangerous infections over the years, as all immunocompromised people are prone to do. Liv learned she had Leukemia while on a school trip and had to drop everything to return to California for life-saving treatment—a treatment that went on to cause its own disease. Years later, few of our past dreams or expectations for life turned to reality. None of this is fair. Bad things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people. And we are better for it. Having our lives spontaneously disrupted proves to us that life is hard but reminds us that we can do hard things.

When I was fifteen—before I got sick—I encountered a proverb that fundamentally challenged how I viewed the world: “Tell me what you need, and I will tell you how to live without it.” Sometimes I find myself randomly reciting those words, as a reminder to reevaluate my values and priorities. It’s amazing what we can live without. As this global health crisis unfolds, we are all forced to question what is necessary, and to make the distinction between comfort and survival. I pray that on the other side, we can all call ourselves champions.

#immunocompromised #autoimmune #Cancer #covid-19 #social distancing #priorities

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travel-pakistan · 4 years

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xeford2020 · 4 years

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Celery in Western Michigan

Keystone Stereograph #149 “Harvesting Celery Blanched by Boards, in Michigan’s Famous Celery Fields, Kalamazoo, Mich. THF 145691 What comes to mind when you think of celery (Apium graveolens L. var. dulce)? The essential ingredient in chicken soup, an attractive tomato drink garnish, a low-calorie and healthy snack (with peanut butter added!), or all of the above? The low-calorie nutritious vegetable (in the same family – Apiaceae -- as the herb, parsley) can also lead you on a journey through local history, consumer demand, patent medicine promotion, and commodity chains that spanned the globe. The ancient Greeks and Romans harvested seeds from wild celery, also called smallage (Apium graveolens L. var. secalinum). It grew best in temperate climates and in moist soils. The plant stalk and leaves had curative properties and seeds had a strong flavor and scent when dried and when processed into essential oil. Europeans included celery seed into tincture recipes in pharmacopeia and cultivated the crop in gardens by the mid-1600s. Over centuries plant-breeders created celery varieties with taller tastier stalks. Thus, celery shifted from a landrace (a plant evolving in a location over time) to a market garden crop by the mid-19th century. Celery growers in the Grand Rapids area helped make it an international commodity.

Kalamazoo Celery Company, How to Grow Celery, 1886 The Celery Fields near Grand Rapids, Michigan Agricultural stories start with land access (or lack thereof). The introduction and expansion of celery cultivation in west central Michigan began in the decades following removal and confinement of indigenous people. Maps indicate the rapid changes that occurred as lands once tended by the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Potawatomi became the property of Euro-Americans.

John Farmer published this map in 1831 and marketed it as “The Emigrant’s Guide; or, Pocket Gazetteer of the Surveyed Part of Michigan.” It included “An improved map of the surveyed part of the Territory of Michigan.” THF136462 The wetlands that once sustained indigenous agriculture became a commodity that other entrepreneurs used to build a celery empire. The map that J. H. Young produced in 1835, “The Tourist’s Pocket Map of Michigan,” implies a leisurely pursuit, but instead, developing land into productive farms consumed time and money, and it required brute force. Yet, settlement equated to “progress” and economic growth in the expanding nation and in the territory of Michigan.

J. H. Young, “The Tourist’s Pocket Map of Michigan,” 1835. THF136466

Celery Entrepreneurs Different individuals, all migrants to the area, receive credit for launching the celery enterprise. George Taylor, a Scottish market gardener, reputedly introduced commercial celery growing in the United States when he settled in Kalamazoo in 1855. Other individuals, all well-heeled citizens of the area received credit as celery pioneers. Joseph Dunkley, an immigrant from Somersetshire, England, established celery fields by 1866 north of Kalamazoo and began shipping his crop via rail in 1880 to eastern and southern markets. Glenn Douglass Stuart received most acclaim -- “Were the lovers of this esculent herb to have a voice he would be crowned what he is already, ‘The Celery King’.” Stuart arrived from Gowanda, New York, via Oberlin, Ohio, in 1883, and by 1892 his biography in the 1892 Portrait and Biographical Record claimed that his firm (based in celery) employed one-quarter of the Kalamazoo population.

Joseph Dunkley’s nursery business, Kalamazoo, Michigan, “Portrait and Biographical Record of Kalamazoo, Allegan andOttawa Counties” (1892), pg. 935. Lands further west developed as celery fields later. Celery pioneer George Hudson introduced the crop to Grand Haven around 1878, according to the 1892 history of Ottawa, County, Michigan. Hudson immigrated from Devonshire, England, worked as a market gardener in New York, and a lumberman in Spring Lake before settling down to celery in the Grand Rapids area. Advertisement of George Hudson, “Historical and Business Compendium of Ottawa County, Michigan” (1892), pg. 30; with information on Mr. Hudson (pgs. 192-193). Immense fields of celery thrived by 1880, and dominated in celery production to the 1940s, earning two cities on both ends of the celery zone the names “Celery City” (Kalamazoo) and “Celery Center” (Hudsonville). Laborers in the Fields While some immigrants received accolades for establishing the industry, other individuals received little recognition for the labor they performed. Families who migrated from The Netherlands did the bulk of the work turning wet soils into fertile celery fields between Kalamazoo and Hudsonville. Stereographs and postcards depict the intense physical labor that farm owners and laborers performed.

Keystone Stereograph #149 “Harvesting Celery Blanched by Boards, in Michigan’s Famous Celery Fields, Kalamazoo, Mich. THF145692 Growing Celery Before celery growing became concentrated in the area near Grand Rapids, market gardeners raised the spring vegetable and sold it directly to customers in public markets. The May 15, 1849 issue of The Michigan Farmer included growing directions from an English gardener. He advised planting the seeds in January in a greenhouse (and following with additional plantings in February and March to stagger harvests and meet market demand). Then growers should transplant the seedlings to the garden and protect the plant with a “hand glass.” Growers then earthed up the celery, setting the plants in trenches and hilling the soil around them to shield stalks and leaves from the sun. This reduced the acidic taste and stringiness of the stalks. Such intensive cultivation practices yielded a crop that met the demand of wealthier customers seeking a spring tonic. A speaker explained the advantages of celery to members of the Kalamazoo Agricultural Society in 1850 -- celery was “peculiarly acceptable because it comes when our horticulture has no other fresh supplies to offer us.” The only other vegetables available at the time included potatoes, turnips, and cabbage. Such intensive After Harvest Wealthier families displayed the fresh leafy celery stalks in glass vases like this one. The vase held chilled water that helped keep celery stalks fresh during formal dinners. Diners consumed the carefully cultivated stalks raw.

Celery Vase, 1820-1840. THF 168522 The cost of celery declined as mass production and marketing reduced the cost per bunch. This shifted celery from a delicacy to an essential vegetable for a growing non-gardening population. Celery after harvest, took other forms.

Product Label for Celebrated Celery Sauce by Heinz & Noble, "Put Up Expressly for Family Use," 1871. THF117109 Product marketing often featured larger-than-life products derived from celery.

Heinz wagon with Celery Sauce advertising, circa 1879. THF 117121 Celery, the vegetable grown around Grand Rapids, attracted the attention of health food entrepreneurs like Dr. Vincent C. Price (1832-1914). He purchased Tryabita Celery Food Company in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1902 and operated it as Price Cereal Food Company. He also produced and marketed Dr. Price’s Wheat Flake Celery Food as essential for the health of vegetarians and the infirm.

Advertising Poster, "Dr. Price's Food, Nature's Food for Man, the Only Wheat Flake Celery Food," circa 1910. THF 96676 Celery growers in the Grand Rapids area helped establish the crop in Sanford, Florida, in 1895. Growers planted in the fall and harvested in the spring. By 1898 they started shipping their crop via refrigerated railcars to northern markets including Philadelphia and New York City. California growers also established celery fields from Kalamazoo stock by the late 1890s, but their harvest reached market during the fall, thus theoretically avoiding direct competition with other growing areas. Celery did not appear on lists of common garden vegetables because creating a tasty crop required more work than most hobby gardeners wanted to commit to the crop. Thus, celery did not usually appear in photographs or graphic arts that depicted garden baskets laden with potatoes, beets, cabbage, turnips, and other vegetables. This poster from World War I proves an exception, featuring a schoolboy with a healthy bunch of celery in his basket (on the left side, between the onions and the beets).

World War I Poster, "Raised 'Em Myself in my U.S. School Garden," circa 1918. THF112810 As salads became a more common element of American dinners, fresh celery gained more visibility. This advertisement for Heinz vinegar (an essential salad-dressing ingredient) included a bunch of celery, along with another relatively new addition to American dinners, iceberg lettuce (behind the celery and the vinegar bottle).

Advertising Layout Drawing for Heinz Vinegar, 1924. THF292743

Celery reached consumers in packing crates. Storekeepers usually displayed the crop in the crate, as this image of J. F. Ryder’s Market in Maine, shows. Grower cooperatives helped expand markets during the early 20th century. The Celery Growers of Michigan existed at least by 1935, the year that growers specified six standard packages for celery. This container was a "square" at the ends (8 inches by 8 inches) and it held celery bunches laid flat that were 10 inches to 18 inches in length.

This “square” packing crate likely came full of celery from the farm operated by Ralph Schut, a descendant of Dutch immigrants in Georgetown Township/Hudsonville, aka “Celery Center.”THF173353 Historically, celery was much more than a garnish in your favorite tomato-juice drink.

Heinz Tomato Juice Advertisement, “Talk About Your Aristocracy!,” circa 1935. THF252238 Why are there more tulips in Holland and the Grand Rapids area today than celery? Growers responded to disease affecting their crops and increased competition reducing their market dominant by concentrating their resources on horticulture. Many celery growers already had green houses and operated nurseries, so they diversified their production by adding bedding plants and flowers to their market crops. The region’s celery history remains visible through the Celery Flats Interpretive Center in Portage and in celery fields managed by grower-members of the Michigan Celery Cooperative, founded in 1951. Debra A. Reid is Curator of Agriculture and the Environment at The Henry Ford.

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paigelykyo · 4 years

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Haley, Jordan, Theo and Maggie

I met these four around Kalamazoo in the evening! I had met them prior at a wedding, and Haley reached out for family photographs during a time I wasn’t doing them, however as I opened up my schedule she was the first I contacted.

The weather was SO perfect, and Chelsea, a mutual friend, came to help hold, and watch Theo and Maggie whenever the time presented itself. This family is so stinkin’…

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#apaige photography #family #family photography #lifestyle

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finishinglinepress · 5 years

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FINISHING LINE PRESS BOOK OF THE DAY:

Hail, Radiant Star!: Seven Medievalist Poets

$19.99, Full-length, paper

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ADVANCE PRAISE FOR Hail, Radiant Star!: Seven Medievalist Poets

There are seven poets who have written poems to light up the little universe of the book: Jane Beal, Gail Berlin, Albrecht Classen, Thom Foy, Katharine Jager, A.J. Odasso, and Katherine Durham Oldmixon (Garza). Each poet has contributed a group of nine poems, and in reading and re-reading these verses, readers may be able to discern themes that unify each group like constellations are connected by stars in the night sky … There are eighty-eight constellations in the night sky. In the microcosmos of Hail, Radiant Star!, there are just seven: the Crown, the Lyre, the Pegasus, the Lion, the Ship’s Keel, the Twins, and the Virgin. Yet hopefully there is enough light from them to brighten a reader’s heart.

–Jane Beal, editor of Hail, Radiant Star!: Seven Medievalist Poets

About the Authors:

Jane Beal, PhD is a poet. She has published many collections of poetry, including _Sanctuary_ (Finishing Line Press, 2008), _Rising_ (Wipf and Stock, 2015) and _Journey_ (Origami Poems, 2019) as well as three audio recording projects combining music and poetry: “Songs from the Secret Life,” “Love-Song,” and “The Jazz Bird.” She also writes fiction, creative non-fiction, literary criticism, and music. She teaches at the University of La Verne in southern California. See http://janebeal.wordpress.com.

Gail Ivy Berlin has poems published in Lilliput Review, Poetry Depth Quarterly, and the New Growth Arts Review. She attended Bread Loaf as a tuition scholar in poetry in the summer of 2016. Her poetry explores the mysterious interconnections between identity and transformation, past and present, the living and the dead, silence and the edges of language. She aims for a sense of expansion. Recently retired from Indiana University of Pennsylvania after a thirty-two year career, Gail has worked as a medievalist specializing in Old and Middle English language and literature and medieval women. Her publications include work on the Aesop’s Fables in the margin of the Bayeux Tapestry, Moses in Middle English biblical literature, and Tonwenne’s breast baring gesture in Laȝamon’s Brut. Much of her current research deals with the Brut, and she enjoys placing particular episodes from this text within a cultural context. For this purpose, she has dealt with such topics as magic and gadgets, uroscopy, early attempts at flight, bridge sacrifice legends, and medieval ditches, all with equal joy.

Albrecht Classen is University Distinguished Professor of German Studies at the University of Arizona where he teaches and researches the European Middle Ages and early modern time. In his by now 96 scholarly books and ca. 640 articles, he has investigated a wide range of topics, including women in the pre-modern world, medieval ecocriticism, magic and science, friendship, urban and rural space, multilingualism, mental health and hygiene, crime and punishment, war and peace, and communication. He is the editor of the journals Mediaevistik and Humanities Open Access. He has received numerous awards for his teaching, research and academic service. Most recently, he received the rank of Grand Knight Commander of the Most Noble Order of the Three Lions (GCTL). He is also an accomplished poet, having published nine volumes of his own, and close to individual 150 poems in various journals and magazines.

Thom Foy’s poetical interests are far reaching, always striving for the infinite within human thought, mediated by language. He teaches writing and rhetoric at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. His research interests include medieval romance and metaphysics as well as adaptation. Since 2014, he has adapted and performed several of Tolkien’s works for reader’s theater at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and at the 2017 Congress, he staged his adaptation of Tolkien’s “Leaf by Niggle.” He enjoys his family and his students, and he also finds joy in the solitude of running and the fellowship of travel.

Katharine Jager is a poet and a medieval scholar. She is associate professor of English at the University of Houston-Downtown, and has published poetry in Before the Door of God: An Anthology of Lyric Devotional Verse (Yale); The Gettysburg Review; Found; Canteen; Friends Journal; The Great River Review; and GoodFoot among other journals. She has an MFA from New York University.

A.J. Odasso‘s poetry has appeared in a variety of publications, including Sybil’s Garage, Mythic Delirium, Midnight Echo, Not One of Us, Dreams & Nightmares, Goblin Fruit, Strange Horizons, Stone Telling, Farrago’s Wainscot, Liminality, Battersea Review, Barking Sycamores, and New England Review of Books. A.J.’s début collection, Lost Books (Flipped Eye Publishing), was nominated for the 2010 London New Poetry Award and was also a finalist for the 2010/2011 People’s Book Prize. A second collection with Flipped Eye, The Dishonesty of Dreams, was released in 2014; a third-collection manuscript, Things Being What They Are, was shortlisted for the 2017 Sexton Prize. A.J. holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Boston University, where A.J. was a 2015-16 Teaching Fellow, and A.J. has worked at the University of New Mexico. A.J. has served in the Poetry Department at Strange Horizons magazine (www.strangehorizons.com) since July 2012.

Katherine Durham Oldmixon (Garza) is the author of Water Signs, finalist for the New Women’s Voices Award (Finishing Line Press, 2009). Her poems and photographs appear in many print and online journals, such as Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Solstice Literary Magazine, The Bellevue Review, The Normal School, Sequestrum, Minerva Rising, the Cider Press Review, Mom Egg Review, and the anthologies Improbable Worlds: An Anthology of Texas and Louisiana, Lifting the Sky: Southwestern Haiku and Haiga, Bearing the Mask: Persona Poems of the Southwest, and Red Sky: Poetry on the Global Epidemic of Violence Against Women. Katherine holds a Ph.D. in English from UT-Austin, where she wrote her dissertation on the Middle English Breton Lays. She earned her MFA in creative writing from University of New Orleans, and an M.A., with a concentration in medieval folklore, from University of Houston. Co-director of the Poetry at Round Top festival and a senior poetry editor for Tupelo Quarterly, Katherine is professor and chair of English at historic Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, TX.

PREORDER SHIPS SEPTEMBER 20, 2019, RESERVE YOUR COPY TODAY

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presssorg · 5 years

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Petroleum terminal expands to allow more oil trains

Petroleum terminal expands to allow more oil trains PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland petroleum terminal is significantly expanding its capacity to unload rail cars, a move that sets the stage to more than double the number of oil trains along the Columbia and Willamette rivers into Oregon’s biggest city, OPB has learned. Zenith Energy, sandwiched between the river and Forest Park in the city’s northwest industrial district, began receiving train shipments of crude from Canada’s oil sands last year, records show, which it stored in tanks and later pumped onto ocean-going vessels. Zenith’s outpost in Portland now has visible construction underway on a project to build three new rail platforms that will nearly quadruple the site’s previous capacity for offloading oil from tank cars, according to building plans filed with the City of Portland in 2014, which the city’s Bureau of Development Services confirmed Wednesday. When operational, a terminal with such a capacity could handle multiple oil trains per week — a sizeable increase over Zenith’s 2018 operations. According to Oregon Department of Environmental Quality estimates, the site handled fewer than 30 full oil trains throughout last year. Public Resistance To Oil Projects The site’s expansion of crude-by-rail infrastructure comes despite much public resistance in the Northwest for new oil projects. That includes a vote by Portland’s City Council in 2016 to oppose any new fossil fuel infrastructure. That same year the Northwest experienced firsthand one of the oil-train mishaps that have occurred across North America as more and more oil has been moved by what critics have dubbed “rolling pipelines” and “bombs trains.”

Portland, OR - Petroleum Public records and interviews with state officials indicate those trains would carry a kind of heavy oil that presents a new risk for Northwest communities and rivers, and one the state’s emergency spill responders say they are ill-equipped to contain if it spills. “It greatly complicates the spill. It’s going to take a lot more money and time and cause a lot more harm to the environment probably,” said Scott Smith, who regulates the Zenith terminal’s oil spill preparedness as part of the Oregon DEQ emergency response program. He said the increased oil-by-rail traffic creates a risk in Portland of an environmental disaster like the one in Michigan in 2010, when heavy Canadian oil spilled from a pipeline into the Kalamazoo River. It took more than five years and $1 billion to clean up. “It’s really among the most challenging spills we have out there, and if it was a large spill, it would cause quite a bit of damage,” Smith said. Zenith declined to comment on how the project would affect its ability to unload more crude oil, saying only that the project would allow it to fit additional railcars on site and minimize the need to shuffle cars around. “The multi-million-dollar project will provide an even safer and more efficient operation,” Megan Mastal, a public-relations representative for Zenith Energy, said in an emailed statement. The company also declined to say what products it would handle. Mastal disputed that Zenith would be handling what’s known as bitumen, which is a type of petroleum extracted from Canada’s oil sands. It is thick like peanut butter and often diluted with other petroleum products before it is transported. “We are not handling bitumen crude through our terminal,” Mastal said. Records show the facility did handle diluted bitumen in 2018, and Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality said it anticipates the facility will be handling heavy crude from Canada’s oil sands. Recent site inspections from Oregon’s Department of Transportation found railcars with the placard UN 1267 (Petroleum Crude Oil) on the tracks outside the Zenith facility, and that the cars were from Canada. Photographs of cars at the terminal from earlier this month also show cars with the 1267 placard, along with a placard warning of toxic inhalation.

From Asphalt To Canadian Crude Five years ago, the site was an asphalt plant in limited operation when a company called Arc Logistics Partners LP, later acquired by Zenith Energy, purchased it and shifted operations to crude. That transition coincided with the North American oil boom and subsequent spike in oil moving by rail. While those shipments have declined since their peak nationally, data from the Energy Information Administration show oil by rail has reached its highest level in three years, driven largely by Canadian oil. The Zenith site spans 39 acres with a storage capacity of nearly 1.5 million barrels and access to a nearby dock. Trains can reach it crossing the Willamette over the BNSF Railway bridge south of St. Johns or on Union Pacific tracks across the Steel Bridge. Its main constraint has been rail capacity. When construction began, the terminal had space to unload 12 cars at a time, records show. Plans for the facility upgrade of Arc Terminals filed in 2014 with the City of Portland depict a system capable of unloading 44 cars. The company’s storage tanks are not getting any larger, but unloading more train cars simultaneously can expedite the process of transferring oil to ships, bound for export or other domestic markets. Mastal said the work includes new emissions-control technology, which is required by regulations, as well as a state-of-the-art fire suppression system and barrier along the street. The Portland Bureau of Development Services confirmed the work includes numerous safety upgrades, many of which are now required by code. Mastal said the terminal employs 18 people full time, all of whom are “trained and certified to maintain the highest environmental and operational standards.” “Since Zenith purchased the terminal, we have added full-time staff positions. These jobs pay a family wage with benefits,” Mastal said. “In addition, the multi-million-dollar construction project uses local vendors and suppliers – currently averaging 125 individuals on site per day – providing significant economic stimulus for the area.” The city issued permits for the work in 2014, two years before its leaders voted to oppose new fossil fuel infrastructure. ‘These Trains Present A Significant Risk’ Eileen Park, spokeswoman for Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, said the mayor “supports further action to prohibit the construction of new fossil fuel infrastructure like the site in question.” “These trains present a significant risk to Portlanders, most especially those residents close to railroads and routes through the city,” Park said. “On a larger scale, the threat of climate change depends on the bold and decisive actions of governments and leaders. The Mayor’s administration will not be supportive of any action that threatens the health and well-being of our city’s residents or our natural resources and environment.” Mastal said Zenith’s Portland terminal meets all local, state and federal standards, including Portland’s 2016 ordinance. “We are committed to delivering safe, reliable, efficient and flexible service to our customers while maintaining the highest environmental and operational safety standards,” she said. Environmentalists say they fear a “rolling pipeline” of trains through Portland. “To us, it seems like it’s another quiet effort to increase the capacity of that terminal to handle tar sands crude,” said Travis Williams of the Willamette Riverkeeper. “The vast majority of people in the City of Portland don’t want the risk — they don’t want the potential safety risk, the risk to the Willamette River, the risk to air quality in that area.” Williams said he fears a repeat of the 2016 oil train derailment in Mosier, Oregon, only with a type of oil that is more difficult to contain and in an area like the Willamette, with a dense population and already a problem with existing pollution. —- OPB’s Amelia Templeton contributed reporting. Published at Mon, 18 Feb 2019 21:13:43 +0000 Read the full article

#crude #environment #fracking #greenpeace #pipeline #portland #pretroleum #zenith

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finkanie · 3 years

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Baby's 1st Yr. → Photo Session © finkanie photography

Throughout the 1st year of Mia’s life, I was awarded the honor of photographing her at milestone ages, and she just kept getting cuter and cuter each time! Here are some highlights from her sessions!

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pandemicspring · 4 years

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End of Second Week

The grocery stores. Packed yesterday in anticipation for Easter. My mom and I had forgotten Easter is a thing. The store was much different than when I last went 3 weeks ago. We didn’t go to Meijer on Westnedge because it looked too full. We went to Hardings on Cork Street and it was still very full, but smaller. Only me and my mom went in and my younger siblings stayed in the car. The prices were higher than they usually are. Most noticeably, Eggs running twice their normal value at 3$/a dozen. Yogurts, 3$/4 yoplait that are usually 2$/10. Chicken thighs and ground beef at 4$/ a pound. Many more people wore masks and skirted around each other nervously, apologizing when accidentally coming too close. We grabbed what we Needed and felt a risk in indulging in extras. Both in cost and in extra exposure time. The employees each talked about feeling nervous/when their last day at work would be.

I do want to recognize how privileged we were in being able to make that trip. We don’t have pre-existing conditions to worry about. We were able to get food for both my mom’s house and my own. All essentials including bread, butter, eggs, oil, and milk were available. A great many things were available and I was even able to get some frozen foods and chicken for my place.

When I think about all the panic of essentials literally not being available in the grocery store, I think about how that’s a new concept in the U.S. and one we extremely take for granted. When I talked to folks in Cuba, they expressed frustration about regularly feeling uncertain the availability of essentials. We worry now about our food system collapsing, but they struggle every year with access to fruits, vegetables, grains, and livestock products. After the blockade implemented in 1960, Cuba was cut off from its main trade partners in the Americas. They were left struggling with the aftermath of colonization that had overfarmed the island in sugar cane that strips the land, left imported cows that eat imported grain not grass, a people whose diet revolved around rice (has to be imported). After the revolution, there was an argument to diversify the agriculture and the economy, but in order to survive they had to rely on the Soviet Union. This meant they had to keep producing sugar as a main crop in order to satisfy the super power. People don’t understand that an Island of 6 million people that had spent 400 years as a colony of the spanish and then 60 under the impact of direct U.S. intervention cannot suddenly stand on its own while also being cut off from all of its other trading partners. In 1991 when the soviet union collapsed, Cuba was launched into the special period by losing 90% of its food supply. Accompanied by the loss of oil imports that it took to grow their own. Cuba has steadily risen and improved conditions with the development of their biotechnology, tourism, and nickel industries, but without imports a consistent food supply remains a struggle. For example, if a hurricane knocks out the agriculture on the island, that’s it. There is none of whatever crop until the next year. That’s why the blockade is murderous. Here in the U.S., we import things all year around from all around the world. Especially from exploitative conditions created by U.S. intervention in Latin America. What we don’t import, we acquire for cheap through farmworker exploitation of the migrants escaping those same conditions. I want to make it very clear. The U.S. survives by our military robbing underdeveloped countries. End the blockade. VIVA CUBA.

Continuing on, one thing I’ve been trying to be a part of is changing the working conditions in the community most immediate to me, our school. As a composting intern employed under facman and as a student focused on sustainability, what I’m most closest to is our facilities management crew. It’s common knowledge around campus that they’re overworked and underappreciated. The director, Susan Lindemann is the head of facilities and also sustainability. Two big jobs for a person that hasn’t even been signed for a full time position. Right now, due to the state’s stay home orders, they are off work. I do appreciate our school assuring that they will still receive paychecks. However, I still want to push for more when we return to campus. To draw attention to the issue, I’ve begun photographing the campus. Every spring our campus is so beautiful, but part of that is because so much work is put on by facilities to manicure it. Right now since we’re just coming out of spring, not much has changed, but I’m going to continue capturing photos into the spring to show what campus would look like without the work of facman. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of what the campus normally looks like, but if that devalues the display very much, then I have no problem making this into a long term project and capturing photos next spring. What matters is that in the long term, more attention is paid to our facilities management crew. I invite anyone reading this to take pictures as well for anything they see and find striking, or just spots on campus that they normally find very beautiful. A Kalamazoo tenants union is in the works. I don’t know how involved I’ll be yet, but so far I’ve taken to attending their meetings and spreading the word to collect information. The goal is to first, respond to concerns created by the crisis, and then handle general maltreatment in the long run. I think it’s promising, though, like many things in Kalamazoo, I have doubts for its ability to reach neighborhoods facing the most struggle. I often feel a guilt because in organizing circles that I’ve been part of in Kalamazoo, I’m usually the only one actually from one of these struggling neighborhoods. I should serve as an ambassador of sorts. I struggle though, honestly. When I go home, it’s as a person at the most. I don’t feel good leaving to college and then coming back as an ‘organizer. Maybe it’d be different if I hadn’t moved around so much (my extended family has lived there for the last 40 years, but my immediate family moved back and forth while I was growing). Maybe it’d be different if I wasn’t trans. I don’t know. But it’s something I struggle with.

If you’ve read this far and would like to continue into my personal experience, continue haha, but if you have other things to do I understand as well. But it helps me a lot to write them. I’m feeling a lot better going into 3rd week. I have some assignments in and I’m looking forward to hearing feedback about them. I got back up to cooking for myself. I’m getting used to video chats and beginning to really enjoy them. I think it really helped to videochat with my orgs. I still struggle to get down to business writing things, but I’ve always struggled with homework and maybe I always will. What helps a lot is my professors being accepting of late work because I’ve never not turned in an assignment.

Today I got to talk a little with my 6 year old cousin. I feel guilt frequently for not being a bigger part of his life. I have to consistently remind myself to extend compassion and do better when I can. The energy put towards guilt helps nobody. He showed me today that he can ride a bike without training wheels now. I hope to borrow my housemate’s bike and ride with him when it gets warm soon.

My mom made some delicious chicken, potatoes, corn, and garlic bread. She’s really getting back into the swing of cooking. I appreciate it a lot, and the fact that I’ve been able to rely on her and through our family, believe that God will take care.

I’m getting hungry and going to go eat now. Love, peace, and solidarity to all. Thank you for being with me in these times.

#Good morning

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esytes69 · 4 years

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New Post has been published on https://acqro.in/hollywood-biggest-celebrity-scandal/

Hollywood Biggest Celebrity Scandal

Tim Allen arrested for dealing cocaine, 1978

Before he became everyone’s favorite Santa Clause (or the handy tool man, or Buzz Lightyear), Tim Allen was caught dealing drugs—specifically cocaine. He was arrested for possession of nearly a pound-and-a-half of cocaine at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International airport in Michigan in 1978. He spent 28 months in a federal prison, as opposed to a life sentence, for giving up the names of other drug offenders.

Marvin Gaye murdered by his father, 1984

The soul singer of the 80s, known as the Prince of Motown, was shot and killed by his father, Rev. Marvin Gay Sr. after an altercation. (Note: The “e” was added to the singer’s stage name.) Gaye’s brother Frankie, reportedly held him in his final moments. In his memoir, Frankie wrote that his brother’s last words were, “I got what I wanted…I couldn’t do it myself, so I made him do it.”

Rob Lowe made a sex tape with a 16-year-old, 1988

A video of the then-24-year-old Parks and Rec star having sex with two women was reportedly recorded the night before the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. (Side note: Lowe was largely into politics before his acting career took off.) When it surfaced, it was discovered that one of the girls was only 16 years old. Her mother slapped him with a civil lawsuit, and he ended up settling, paying her a large sum of money and doing 20 hours of community service.

Michael Jackson accused of sexual assault, 1993

In 1993, Michael Jackson was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy named Jordan Chandler. After the accusations went public, Jackson cancelled his tour due to health issues from the scandal. He later settled the case, paying the Chandlers $23,000.

O.J. Simpson arrested for the murder of his wife, 1994

Football star O.J. Simpson was arrested for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, following a now-iconic car chase through Los Angeles. After 15 months in jail, Simpson was famously acquitted of both counts, thanks in part to his lawyer’s “if the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit” line. In 2008, 13 years later, Simpson was convicted of robbery and kidnapping for a separate incident.

Hugh Grant caught with a prostitute, 1995

In 1995, Hugh Grant paid a sex worker to give him a blow job on the Sunset Strip but the two were found by police and the Four Weddings and a Funeral actor was arrested for “lewd conduct” in a public place. At the time of his arrest, he was with his longtime girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley, who tried to work through the incident. She ended up leaving Grant five years later.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana divorce, 1996

After years of marital strain and four years of separation, Prince Charles and Princess Diana formally divorced in August of 1996. Their marriage was tainted by controversy, especially at the end, with both sides cheating—Charles most famously with long-time love and now-wife, Camilla Parker Bowels. As the future King of England, Charles’ status as a divorcee is particularly scandalous.

Princess Diana killed in a car accident, 1997

Less than a year after she and Prince Charles got divorced, Princess Diana was killed in a car accident in Paris after being chased by paparazzi—and it was rumored that the future king planned her death. Later a letter from the princess to her former butler was discovered. In it she wrote that she felt Charles was setting up an incident so he could marry Tiggy, the former nanny of Princes William and Harry, but many believe the note was forged and an inquest concluded in 2008 found no wrongdoing on the part of the royal family.

Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky made public, 1998

In 1995, former President Bill Clinton began having an affair with a then-21-year-old Monica Lewinsky, who was an unpaid White House intern. The huge scandal was made public in 1998, and Clinton denied that he had “sexual relations” with Lewinsky. He later admitted that he did have an affair with her, which contributed to his impeachment in 1999.

Marilyn Manson’s music blamed for the Columbine shooting, 1999

After one of the deadliest schools shootings—in which two seniors murdered 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School—people pointed the finger at musician Marilyn Manson. It was thought that the two students loved Manson and his music, and it was said that the singer’s songs inspired them to carry out the tragic act. The rumor was proven false, but Manson’s reputation was hurt badly from the reports.

Winona Ryder arrested for shoplifting, 2001

In 2001, the Stranger Things actress was caught stealing over $5,560 worth of merchandise from a Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, California. She reportedly ripped tags off of clothing items and stashed them in her bag. Ryder later spun the incident positively, telling Daily Mail, “In a weird way, it was almost like the best thing that could have happened, because I’d never asked myself the question before of, Is it okay if I’m not going to act? Is there anything else? because that was all that I really knew.”

R. Kelly arrested for child pornography, 2002

R. Kelly was indicted on 21 counts of child pornography after a tape showing him having sex with and urinating on an underage woman was sent to the Chicago Sun Times. He plead not guilty to all charges. Since, dozens of women have claimed to have been held in a sex cult by the singer. The hashtag #MuteRKelly started spreading recently, and Spotify was the first company to actually take action.

Madonna and Britney Spears kissed on stage, 2003

During a 2003 MTV Video Music Award performance, Britney Spears and Madonna shocked everyone when they kissed on stage. Christina Aguilera was performing with them, too, and got a smooch from Madonna, but the cameras switched shots and their kiss wasn’t televised. Videographers instead cut to a shot of Justin Timberlake’s shocked face.

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston announced their divorce, 2005

In January 2005, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston made a shocking joint statement that revealed they were breaking up. “We would like to announce that after seven years together we have decided to formally separate. For those who follow these sorts of things, we would like to explain that our separation is not the result of any of the speculation reported by the tabloid media,” they said in the statement.

“This decision is the result of much thoughtful consideration,” the statement continued. “We happily remain committed and caring friends with great love and admiration for one another. We ask in advance for your kindness and sensitivity in the coming months.” It was thought that their divorce was the result of the scandalous affair Pitt had with Angelina Jolie while filming the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Britney Spears shaved her head, 2007

Also in 2007: Britney Spears shaved off all her hair. The “Oops I Did It Again” singer hit rock bottom, beating up a photographer’s car with an umbrella just days after going at her head with a buzz cutter. That year was a rough year for Spears, and it started the famous meme: “If Britney Spears can make it through 2007, then I can make it through today.”

Kim Kardashian’s sex tape made public, 2007

Before she was married to Kanye West, Kim Kardashian was in a serious relationship with another singer: Willie “Ray J” Norwood. The couple reportedly filmed a sex tape back in 2002 during a trip to Cabo, Mexico, and it was released to the public five years later when Kim began getting more media attention for being friends with Paris Hilton (who also has a sex tape). Kim sued in an attempt to prevent the 41-minute film from being accessible, but it still found its way to the internet.

Heath Ledger found dead, 2008

In 2008, the 10 Things I Hate About You actor was found dead in his bed in New York city. The NYC Medical Examiner’s Office later determined that the cause of death was an accidental overdose of prescription painkillers, including anti-anxiety meds and sleeping pills. The Dark Knight, starring Ledger as the Joker, was released that summer in theaters, and his performance won him a posthumous Oscar.

Chris Brown assaulted Rihanna, 2009

Back in 2009, Chris Brown beat up then-girlfriend Rihanna after she discovered a text message from one of Brown’s former flames. The “Forever” singer reportedly punched her in the face, repeatedly bit her, and choked her, but not to the point of unconsciousness.

In a 20/20 interview, Rihanna opened up about the incident. “It was ugly,” she said. “I fended him off with my feet…but it was not like, it was not like a fight with each other. I just…I really just wanted it to stop.”

Michael Jackson killed, 2009

Michael Jackson was found dead on June 25, 2009. The cause? Surgical anesthetic Propofol, which was given to him by his personal doctor, Conrad Murray. Murray claimed to be injecting the King of Pop with the drug as a treatment for his insomnia. Jackson’s death was ruled a homicide, and Murray blamed for negligent monitoring. He spent two years in jail for involuntary manslaughter.

Whitney Houston found dead in a bathtub, 2012

The world was shocked when Whitney Houston was found dead in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in 2012. An autopsy revealed that the singer died from accidental drowning. Her body was found with numerous drugs in it, including cocaine, marijuana, Xanax, and Benadryl. Houston had heart disease, so it is thought that the disease mixed with cocaine contributed to her death.

Solange Knowles gets into elevator fight with Jay Z, 2014

Following the 2014 Met Gala, leaked surveillance video captured Solange Knowles physically fighting her brother-in-law Jay Z in an elevator at the Standard Hotel in New York City. Although there was no shortage of speculation on the internet, the Carter-Knowles family gave little information as to what actually went down. “They both acknowledge their role in this private matter that has played out in the public. They both have apologized to each other and we have moved forward as a united family,” they said in a statement given to the Associated Press.

Although the family has remained incredibly mum’s the word on the situation, Jay Z broke his silence in 2017 to share that he and Solange truly have moved on. “We had one disagreement ever. Before and after, we’ve been cool. She’s like my sister. I will protect her. That’s my sister, not my sister-in-law. My sister. Period,” he said during an appearance on Rap Radar.

30 Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and Taylor Swift feud over “Famous” lyrics, 2016

Kanye’s infamous “I’mma let you finish” at the 2008 Video Music Awards turned out to only be the beginning of his beef with Taylor Swift. In 2016, Kanye released the song “Famous” on his The Life of Pablo album, which explicitly mentions Swift in the opening: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that bitch famous/Goddamn, I made that bitch famous.” Although Swift claimed she didn’t know about the song, Kim Kardashian decided to interject on her husband’s behalf. In a series of Snapchats, Kardashian leaked a recorded phone call between Kanye and Swift—Kanye shares a clip of the song for Swift’s approval, and the singer is heard saying, “Yeah, I mean, what’s dope about the line is it’s very tongue in cheek either way. And I really appreciate you telling me about it, that’s really nice.”

Swift’s response to the Snapchats? The singer claimed Kanye never shared the most offensive part of the lyrics with her. “Where is the video of Kanye telling me he was going to call me ‘that bitch’ in his song? It doesn’t exist because it never happened. You don’t get to control someone’s emotional response to being called ‘that bitch’ in front of the entire world,” she wrote on Instagram. To this day, the feud still remains a case of he-said-she-said.

Harvey Weinstein accused of sexual assault, 2017

On October 5, 2017, Ashley Judd accused longtime movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment—a bombshell accusation that led to the historical Time’s Up and #MeToo movements. Since the first allegations, a number of other actresses have come forward with their stories of being sexually harassed or assaulted by Weinstein. After eight months, he finally turned himself in to police in New York City.

20-year-old Kylie Jenner quietly gives birth to first child, 2018

After months of speculation, an uncharacteristically quiet Kylie Jenner took to Instagram to share that she had given birth to a baby girl on February 1. Although news of her reported pregnancy with boyfriend Travis Scott leaked in September 2017, the reality star chose to stay quiet through all nine months, never confirming the news. “I’m sorry for keeping you in the dark through all the assumptions. I understand you’re used to me bringing you along on all my journeys. My pregnancy was one I chose not to do in front of the world,” she wrote in an Instagram post announcing the news. The 20-year-old also released a home video, “To Our Daughter,” that gave fans a peek at her hidden pregnancy.

Princess Diana’s phone calls with her lover, James Gilbey, released, 1992

In 1992 The Sun leaked a transcript of Princess Diana’s secret phone calls with her lover, James Gilbey. Diana was still married to Prince Charles at the time, who was also reportedly having an affair of his own with now-wife Camila Parker-Bowles.

#bill clinton #brad pitt #britney spears #heath ledger #hollywood controversies #jay z #jennifer aniston #kanye west #kim kardashian #kylie jenner #maddona #michael jackson #prince charles #princess diana #rihanna #spotify #taylor swift #Tim allen #whitney houston

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socialjusticeartshare · 4 years

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The Youngest Child Separated From His Family at the Border Was 4 Months Old

Baby Constantin spent five months of his first year in a foster home. His family got a painful look at America’s experiment with family separation as an immigration policy.

By Caitlin Dickerson Photographs by Todd Heisler

This article is originally from June 16, 2019 - a sad reminder :(

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The text messages were coming in all day and night with only two data points: Gender and age. With each one that arrived, the on-call caseworker at Bethany Christian Services in Michigan had 15 minutes to find a foster home for another child who was en route from the border. On a brisk winter day in February 2018, Alma Acevedo got a message that caught her breath: “4 months. Boy.”

Since the summer of 2017, the 24-year-old social worker had been seeing a mysterious wave of children arriving from the border, most of them from Central America. Those who were old enough to talk said they had been separated from their parents. “The kids were just inconsolable, they’d be like, ‘Where’s my mommy? Where’s my daddy?’” Ms. Acevedo said. “And it was just constant crying after that.”

None of them had been this young, and few had come this far. When he arrived at her office after midnight, transported by two contract workers, the infant was striking, with long, curled eyelashes framing his deep brown eyes. His legs and arms were chubby, seeming to indicate that he had been cared for by someone. So why was he in Michigan?

Ms. Acevedo went to her computer and pulled up the only document that might help answer that question, a birth certificate from Romania naming the baby, Constantin Mutu, and his parents, Vasile and Florentina. She searched a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency database that showed the baby’s father was in federal custody in Pearsall, Tex.

Constantin was ultimately the youngest of thousands of children taken from their parents under a policy that was meant to deter families hoping to immigrate to the United States. It began nearly a year before the administration would acknowledge it publicly in May 2018, and the total number of those affected is still unknown. The government still has not told the Mutus why their son was taken from them, and officials from the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment for this story.

In Constantin’s case, it would be months before his parents saw him again. Before then, his father would be sent for psychiatric evaluation in a Texas immigration detention center because he couldn’t stop crying; his mother would be hospitalized with hypertension from stress. Constantin would become attached to a middle-class American family, having spent the majority of his life in their tri-level house on a tree-lined street in rural Michigan, and then be sent home.

Now more than a year and a half old, the baby still can’t walk on his own, and has not spoken.

***

Though the vast majority of families streaming across the border from Mexico in recent months have come from Central America, running from poverty, drought and violence, the Mutus came from much further away — Romania, where a small but steady number of asylum seekers fleeing ethnic persecution have for years made their way to the United States.

As children growing up in their small hillside village, Vasile and Florentina Mutu helped their parents beg for money for food. They are members of the Roma minority group, which originated in India. In Romania, the Roma were enslaved for more than 500 years. Violent attacks against them persist throughout Europe. Exclusion from schools, jobs and social services is commonplace, and human rights groups have documented the practice of forced sterilizations.

A decade or so ago, as the Mutus recall, the first Roma family from their village announced that they were leaving for the United States. Word made its way back that the family had found great success — their children learned to speak perfect English, and they had become rich, though it wasn’t clear how. Over the years, more than a dozen other families followed, including Florentina’s older brother, who left a few years ago with his wife and three children. He had posted pictures on Facebook of palm trees, luxury car dealerships and American cash.

By the time their fifth child was born, the Mutus had settled into a system where they raised money elsewhere in Europe, begging and doing menial work, then came back for a few weeks at a time to Romania, where the money stretched further. They had occasional run-ins with police. Once, Mr. Mutu said, he was arrested for stealing cable from a construction site.

Vasile and Florentina Mutu with their children in Olteni, Romania, the village where they grew up.

Extended family lives nearby and often gathers for meals.

The family makes finely honed brooms and axes out of wood, a trade passed down through generations of their ancestors.

Though most of their children had been born at home, Constantin had to be delivered by C-section. Vasile sold two pigs and a cow to pay a doctor to do the procedure. In a haze of pain while she was in labor, Florentina signed documents that she couldn’t read. When she returned to the hospital for an appointment to check on her recovery, a hospital employee told her that the doctor had also performed a tubal ligation. She and her husband had planned to have more children, as is traditional in their culture. They were devastated.

Soon after, in between middle-of-the-night feedings of Constantin and while the rest of their children slept, Vasile and Florentina formed a plan: They would try to seek asylum in the United States with their two youngest children and send for the others when they were settled.

Within weeks, the Mutus had sold their home to pay a man who would arrange to get them into America through Mexico. Florentina packed a suitcase with diapers, a change of clothes for each of them, holy oil and dried basil — a Romanian good luck charm. On the plane, Constantin started to run a fever.

Mexico City was a whirl of chaos and noise. They couldn’t understand the voices or signs in Spanish. Beggars banged on the window to their taxi to ask for money; though they had done the same themselves in Europe, it somehow seemed scarier. They met a smuggler who led them to a crowded bus headed for the border.

The Mutus found seats out of sight from one another, and for the next several hours, took turns caring for Nicolas, their 4-year-old, and Constantin, who was getting warmer. As they approached the border, they got off at a stop and split up to look for medicine. Mr. Mutu had settled into the last leg of the journey on the bus when Constantin started crying on his lap. Mr. Mutu stood up, shimmying toward the back of the bus to get a bottle.He spotted the seats where his wife and son had been sitting, which were now empty.

Mr. Mutu looked around frantically and pulled out his phone to call his wife, but both of them had drained their minutes by making calls back to Romania to check in with their other children. Unsure of what else to do, he paid a cabdriver to take him and Constantin to the foot bridge into the United States, thinking that he could call his wife when they reached the other side. It was dark outside when he reached an immigration officer stationed outside the American border. He told the officer that he wanted political asylum and was taken in to be interviewed with the help of an interpreter on the phone. Mr. Mutu explained that he had lost his wife and son, and that they were fleeing persecution in Romania.

Florentina praying at a monastery near the family’s home. She sobbed when she was finally able to see Constantin on a video call arranged through a social worker.

A handful of officers entered the room. They took Constantin, placed him on a chair, and shackled Mr. Mutu’s hands and feet.

“The police wiped the floor with me,” he said through a translator, explaining that he was dragged out of the room while Constantin stayed behind with some of the officers. “I started crying because I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I couldn’t speak English. I told them, ‘I don’t understand. Why?’”

Florentina Mutu was still at the bus stop with Nicolas, crying on a bench since she had discovered that the bus had pulled away without her, when she got a call from her mother. Border officials had reached her in Romania and explained that she would also be arrested if she crossed the border. The relatives quickly scraped together money to get them home.

***

Constantin was placed with a foster family in Michigan while Ms. Acevedo worked to connect with his parents. She got a phone number for his mother in Romania and made a video call during what was the middle of the night there. A disheveled woman answered, sitting in darkness, looking like she had just been woken up. She spoke frantically, but Ms. Acevedo couldn’t understand, so she pulled up Google Translate on her computer and typed a message about Constantin in English, which she then played in Romanian.

Florentina Mutu started to sob. She repeated her full maiden name, which was listed on Constantin’s birth certificate, over and over. “She said it like 20 times,” Ms. Acevedo said “She said, ‘Florentina Ramona Patu,’ and I said ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ I just wanted her to know that he was somewhere. He wasn’t lost or disappeared or something. I wanted her to know that he was with people.”

Ms. Acevedo started making weekly video calls between Constantin and his mother, propping the baby up on the couch. Ms. Mutu would mostly cry as she spoke desperately to him in Romanian.

Vasile Mutu, still in detention, sank deeper into depression. He couldn’t sleep and refused most of the food that he was offered. Occasionally he was handed documents in English or Spanish, which he couldn’t read. He cried so much that his cell mates started beating him to make him be quiet. He thought about committing suicide. “No one was telling me anything. They kept telling me to wait and wait.”

Two months into his detention, an immigration officer came to Mr. Mutu with an offer. As he understood it, if he gave up his claim for asylum, he would be deported back to Romania with Constantin. He agreed, and on June 3, 2018, he was released from his cell and loaded into a van.

He looked everywhere for Constantin and asked the officers where his son was, but was not given a clear answer. At the airport, he refused to board without the baby. The immigration officers, he said, told him that Constantin would be handed to him once he had taken his seat. But the plane lifted off and the baby never came.

When Mr. Mutu arrived home, it felt more like walking into a funeral than a celebration.

***

While the months dragged on waiting for his day in immigration court, Constantin settled into a routine with his foster family, in their comfortable brick house on a hilly road in rural Michigan. The family, which had started fostering immigrant children a year earlier after a life-changing experience doing missionary work in Ethiopia, asked not to be identified in this story because it would violate the terms of their contract with the federal government. Their three daughters immediately became enamored with Constantin and would argue over who could pull him out of his crib when he woke up from a nap.

The baby’s foster mother meticulously documented his developments for Ms. Mutu, keeping in mind how hard it would be to miss moments like when he first scooted across the living room floor or developed the belly laugh that shook his whole body. “He would do new sounds or something, and they only do it for a short amount of time, and so you want his mom to be able to hear that,” she said. “And she always wondered if he had teeth yet, and so when he would smile, you could see. So I just wanted her to see that.”

She poured herself into caring for Constantin while she struggled to fathom how he had come into their home. “I can’t imagine being the person who grabs a hold of a child and takes them. I don’t know where you have to go in yourself to be able to do that job,” she said. “If we were in that situation, I would want someone to take care of my child. I would want them in a home, in a bed. I would want someone asking them, ‘What snack do you want before you go to bed at night? Do you want a pink toothbrush or a green toothbrush?’” she said. “Or rocking them in the middle of the night, helping them go back to bed when they have bad dreams.”

Constantin was still in diapers when he appeared in federal immigration court in Detroit, four months to the day after he had arrived in Michigan, on June 14, 2018. During the five-minute proceeding, he babbled on his foster mother’s lap as she sat on the defendant’s bench. His pro bono legal representative requested that he be returned to Romania as soon as possible at government expense.

A lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security argued against the request, stating that as an “arriving alien,” Constantin was not eligible for such help. The judge quickly ruled against her, questioning the idea “that the respondent should be responsible for making his own way back to Romania as an 8-month-old.” The judge granted the request made on behalf of Constantin, giving the government three months to either appeal or send him home.

By the time Constantin’s travel plans were booked for July — a few weeks after President Trump, facing a wave of public outrage, had rescinded the family separation policy — he was 9 months old and had spent the majority of his life in the custody of the United States government.

Florentina and Vasile Mutu didn’t sleep the night before the reunion. They were standing at baggage claim at the airport in Bucharest when they finally spotted Constantin, hours behind schedule, bobbing toward them in his foster mother’s arms. She handed the baby to his mother, but he screamed and reached back in the other direction, his face crumpling into a knot of terror.

The Mutus had to stop several times on their way home to console Constantin, who bucked and wailed to the point of hyperventilation. For weeks afterward, his mother struggled to get him to eat or sleep and exchanged text messages with his foster mother, who offered advice on how he liked to be cuddled and fed. In the suitcase she had packed, she included $200 in cash — the daily allowance that Bethany Christian Services’s foster children receive — along with clothes, pacifiers, toys and books that Constantin liked, and his favorite blue-and-green striped blanket.

Florentina Mutu struggled with conflicting feelings of gratefulness and guilt. “He’s been spoiled,” she said. “He lived comfortably there, in a decent house. Not like we live here.”

The Mutus, who are pursuing a claim for damages against the United States, are back in the village where they grew up, crammed temporarily into a small house they share with another family — one bathroom with no shower shared among 11 people. They bathe with cups of water warmed on the stove and keep their clothes in an attic, climbing a rickety ladder every few days in order to change them.

Constantin has acclimated slowly. He’s sensitive to loud noises, and crowds make him cry, which is a problem, says his mother, because both are part of Roma culture. “He is not the same as he would be if we had raised him,” she said.

At 18 months old, he still can’t walk without holding onto someone’s hand. He babbles and squeals, but as far as words go, she said, “He says absolutely nothing.”

After Constantin’s return to Romania, his foster parents took two months off from fostering to adjust to him being gone. Ms. Acevedo quit her job after all of the separated children on her caseload were reunited with their parents. “I just couldn’t get over it,” she said. “So if I couldn’t get over it, imagine the kids.”

The Mutu family has returned to traveling through Europe to earn enough money to buy a new home. In the last few months, they have lived in a trailer and picked produce in Sicily, and gone to Ukraine and Poland to rummage for secondhand clothing that they can resell — Constantin and his siblings always in tow.

Both of the parents still dream out loud about returning to the United States. “I’d have to get to Canada,” Mr. Mutu said recently. ”From Canada, I could take a taxi to America, and pay seven or eight or ten thousand dollars to prepare the documents that I would need.”

Ms. Mutu’s brother, who has since returned from Florida, said he thinks they are deluded. He hated the United States, he said; it was full of struggling immigrants and other poor people. By then, he had admitted to them that he had ended up in a cramped, three-bedroom apartment shared with several other families, struggling to make the rent. The only food he could afford to eat, he said, was worse than what they had in Romania. “The laws are very strict there,” he said. “You can’t even beg there.”

“That’s not true,” Vasile Mutu shot back at the idea later. He had grown up looking at Americans — on television and now on social media — and saw their privilege not only in the way they dressed, but also how they moved and spoke, and in their expressions. The only poor people in America he saw were the ones who were detained with him at the border, hoping to get in.

Caitlin Dickerson is a Peabody Award-winning reporter based in New York who covers immigration. She has broken stories on asylum, detention and deportation policy, as well as the treatment of immigrant children in government custody. @itscaitlinhd

A version of this article appears in print on June 17, 2019, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: 4 Months Old, and Whisked Away. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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