I’m selling my ticket for $250; full price online is $281.19.
Please DM if interested! The festival is in Newport, Rhode Island, not in NYC, but figured there might be some NYC-based jazz fans who want to attend!
https://newportjazz.org

Best way to meet new people? I'm a Rhode Island guy in my mid 30's (white 6ft 195 shaved head, short beard). Idealistically looking for a lady to hangout with. Sober Genuinely interested in just having some fun and doing some interesting things but open to dating as well. Willing to message/text etc to see if there is chemistry. Reply to this post or send me a private message.

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 39%. (I'm a bot)

PFAS-related litigation involves more than 4,000 cases, filed in federal courts across the country but largely consolidated before a federal judge in Charleston, S.C., as so-called multidistrict litigation because the lawsuits involve a common set of facts and allegations.
It is not uncommon for so-called mass tort cases to be grouped together like this in federal court, making it easier to conduct discovery and take depositions when so many plaintiffs and defendants are involved.
Elizabeth Burch, a professor at the University of Georgia who studies mass tort litigation, said, "Without the settlement documents being made public, it's hard to say for certain which claims are covered by the purported deal."
The list of cases against the companies continues to grow.
Maryland filed two suits this week against 3M, DuPont and others.
Days earlier, a similar one filed by Rhode Island's attorney general accused the companies of violating "State environmental and consumer protection laws."

Summary Source FAQ Feedback Top keywords: litigation^#1 cases^#2 filed^#3 federal^#4 more^#5
Post found in /worldnews, /environment, /AutoNewspaper and /NYTauto.
NOTICE: This thread is for discussing the submission topic. Please do not discuss the concept of the autotldr bot here.

For one week this July, starting point Paris, ending point Dublin.
My budget is €1000 including flights and accommodation, so would prefer to have a place that has hostels.
I first looked into Corsica, because I was interested in its history and has cheap flights from Paris, but gosh that island is really expensive, accommodation on average is about €200 a night with no hostels.
And nearby Sardinia is only a tad cheaper but also has no hostels.
I’ve already been to: Mallorca, Santorini, Malaga, Mykonos, Rhodes, and the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. Would be open to new destinations.
Goals: just would like some beautiful warm beach to relax on for a week, some good Mediterranean food, and preferably direct flights. Not too interested in partying.

Hello friends, I’ve never visited your city but am planning to this weekend, is there anywhere near the Rhode Island convention center with affordable, safe overnight parking? Additionally if you have any things to do recommendations or places to eat hmu thanks in advance friends!

Hey all, I realize this is a bit of a long shot, but is anyone aware of any kumite oriented dojos in SE Mass/RI? I’m jot particular on style, per se, but I’d like to find something that resembles classic shotokan/WKF/Olympic style kumite

TL;DR**:** Hypergryph is relying way too much on Alters to give some much needed spotlight to some characters, when Alters shouldn't be a must to give low-rarity characters their own events or plots and if they continue that trend it will kill my hype for their stories, particularly in those cases where an Alter was simply not needed lore-wise before their event (A.K.A Silence Alter).

Welcome everyone to my heavily biased rant that no one but me might agree with and that will most likely be downvoted to oblivion. That's okay, you might have your own take, this is just my opinion. Feel free to disagree with everything I'm about to rant here like the madwoman screaming to the wall that I am right now.
With that out of the way and if you are still reading this, let's begin.

Alters on Arknights: A story-telling tool

...Let's talk about Alters, shall we?
Love them or hate them, they can be a tool for when an unit has potential and powers on their lore that aren't reflected on the original unit for whatever reason, or stuff that is foreshadowed on their lore that has a good reason to be relegated to an Alter unit (Texas having left the mafia for example, or Shining having made an oath to never use her sword again... whenever Shining Alter ever actually happens).
Something I liked going into Arknights is that Alters were rarely used solely as a money-grabbing scheme. They were that too, don't get me wrong, this is still a gacha game, but still... I got the sense that, unlike in other gacha games, Alters in Arknights actually had a narrative purpose, and it was one that wasn't deliberately engineered in a way that you could say that a certain event was just written in such a way to make an Alter happen (There's just 2 examples, maybe 4, of that happening in this game from what I counted, with only 3 of those released in Global right now, but we'll get to those ones in a second), but it was always born from lore that had already long existed before the Alter unit did.
With very few exceptions, all of the Alters we have gotten on Arknights actually have a reason to exist that was mentioned or at least hinted at long before their debut... Which makes those who did came out of the blue stick out all the more like a sore thumb.
To prove my point, I'm gonna list every Alter on the game so far with the exception of one, including the newly announced Executor Alter, and I'm gonna give a short summary of the lore that had been established for their existence prior to their actual release:
​

• Lava the Purgatory, Kroos the Keen Glint, Hibiscus the Purifier and Greyy the Lightningbearer: Putting all four of these together because they share the same theme, and that theme is "Young/Inexperienced Operators growing up". With the exception of Greyy, all of these were 3 stars. The Op Reserve A1 Operators have some lore going on that has yet to be completely explored, and their 3 star selves being young gives them lots of room to grow. 4 star Greyy is a literal child, so it makes sense that when he shows up again, now older and a little more experienced, his rarity would reflect that. And while all of these, particularly Greyy's, may have less of a reason to exist that most of the other Alters on this list, that's more forgivable than say, Chalter, because all these four are either welfare or have a low rarity, with both Hibiscus Alter and Greyy Alter being rather niche 5 stars, which makes them unlikely to have been just a money-grabbing decision despite being gacha.
• Skadi the Corrupting Heart: Ever since her release, Base Skadi's files already described her as a "walking Catastrophe"... despite the fact that, prior to Gladiia's existence and the modules that would make the Abyssal Hunter niche a game-breaking team, she was actually considered one of the worst 6 stars of the game, and even today she's still rather mediocre at best without her faction supporting her, particularly when compared to other 6 star units. And even though the whole Ishar-mla sideplot wasn't introduced until her debut event, there were already hints of something Lovecraftian going on (Skadi's files, Specter's files, even Operators mostly unrelated to them as of this writing like Blue Poison's files and Deepcolor's... well, everything), with lots of lore readers predicting that something was going to happen, even on this very subreddit. And even though that something being a Bard Alter with a whole alternate universe Bad Ending storyline cop-out wasn't in anyone's predictions, it still had a lot more lore build-up to it than, say...
• Ch'en the Holungday: I don't need to repeat that lots of cans of worms got opened back when she released, but in case you don't know, here's an essay from two years ago about that whole drama. There's really not much more to say about her, she exists, moving on.
• Nearl the Radiant Knight: Base Nearl's files were already foreshadowing an Alter, what with them saying that "her current gear is somewhat limiting Nearl's combat utility". So when she got one in the Near Light event, I doubt anyone was truly surprised by it. Not much else to say, really.
• Specter the Unchained: If there were any doubts about Specter getting an Alter (or at the very least regaining her sanity during the Abyssal Hunter plotline), Under Tides and the second Operator Record that Specter got in that update, in which she became lucid again for a brief period of time only to lose it again after returning to Rhodes Island, should have been strong enough hints that HG was gonna do something with her in the sequel to that event. The only issues with the idea of an Alter, of course, being that any 6 star Alter would have felt redundant to what's quite possibly one of the best 5 stars of the game, and Specter Alter indeed had to get modules after her release to make her truly worth building. But gameplay aside, Specter getting an Alter made perfect sense with her pre-established lore.
• Gavial the Invincible: If Nearl getting an Alter was obvious, then Gavial might as well have had "I'm getting an Alter one day" tattooed on her tail. Her whole lore is that she is a warrior with excellent fighting prowess who just happened to chose to save more lives by being a medic instead. And even then, unlike Shining, her files and voicelines constantly have her willing to fight people herself... despite her 3 star medic self not having any abilities that would let her deal damage on her actual in-game kit. Like, at all. So if anything, Miss "I regret not giving them a few whacks with this staff here" not getting an Alter would have felt like a waste.
• Reed the Flame Shadow: Here's another Alter that was hinted at on the files of the original Operator long before their release. Even leaving the whole Victoria plotline aside, here we have an Operator who is described on her files as having Arts that are not mere pyrokinesis, but rather the manipulation of life itself**.** And that description was in the files of... a 5-star Charger Vanguard with just a 35% of Arts attack during skill activation, and that's with that skill having a full M3. Yeah... This Alter was not a question of "if", but rather "when".
• Texas the Omertosa: The case of this Alter would be on the same boat as Nearl's and Reed's if it wasn't for a funny little detail: I could be wrong, but I think that Base Texas and Lappland have been in the game since launch. That means that this Alter had been teased since Day 1. Let that sink in for a moment. But yeah, you all know the drill with this one: Mysterious past, mafia connections being mentioned here and there, Lappland mentioning that she "might try to bring back the old Texas", how she used to fight with two swords, ect... If anything, those who saw the hints early and liked what was being foreshadowed would have to wait a long time to finally get it, though HG made sure that those who had to wait no less than 2 years for this Alter to finally happen would be rewarded with a very powerful unit. Maybe a little too powerful in fact, but that's another topic entirely.
• Executor Alter (...what was the full name of this one again? I don't know Chinese): This one is similar to Skadi's case but without any non-canonical alternate timeline shenanigans (...I hope). Our good ol' friend Federico here is a very powerful individual, a true one-man army, or so his files have always said. There's even a mention that he singlehandedly prevented a war from happening (or nearly caused it himself? The way it is written is kinda vague...), damaged six buildings while on a mission, and killed a vicious beast with his bare hands. All that while still being a rather unremarkable (Not bad, just... unremarkable) 5-star spreadshooter sniper. So him getting a 6-star Alter is not that surprising.

Out of all these Alters, only Chalter was truly gratuitous in that she is only Ch'en with a modified water gun, nothing leading up to her existing prior to Dossoles Holiday. Other than her, only Greyy Alter and maybe Skalter could be criticized for coming out of nowhere, and even then they still have a decent enough reason to exist, with Skadi having already had a whole event and pre-existing lore prior to Under Tides, her Alter, and the whole Bad Ending stuff that came with it that would eventually lead to IS3.
...Oh yeah, there's also Yato and Noir Corne randomly getting Alters as part of the Monster Hunter collab, but other than my personal take on it and how I really hope Collab Alters won't be a recurring thing... It is just a collab, what did you expect? And even then, it could be argued that it makes sense for those Operators in particular to have been given the Alters, as they are both said to be experienced and reliable ops in their lore, but are held back from fully being that in-game because of their 2 star rarity.
My point is that, so far, almost all Alters had some lore reason to be that I could agree with.
And then... Silence Alter was announced.

Silence the Paradigmatic: One step forward, two steps back

When I first saw the Lonetrail trailer and saw Silence Alter, I was hyped. Silence was getting an Alter, and not only that, she was gonna be welfare? Could this be a sign that HG is finally gonna leave the trend of Limited Alters behind? My happiness was unmeasurable.
But then, after my excitement died down and I started to think, I realized something...
Go and read all the current Rhine Labs lore Including the manga. Including OG Silence's files, especially OG Silence's files.
Now, let me ask you a question: Did Olivia Silence, as a character, needed an Alter?
Was there anything on her files, or in the manga, or on some module or an Operator Record, that said anything about her character that would require her to be stronger in-game that she already was? Or something that would need to have her change her whole in-game class or kit?
Because, and this is just in my honest, humble opinion: No. No there was not.
Silence was not some kid or teenager like Greyy or the Reserve A1 squad. She wasn't holding back any "true power" cliché nor was she currently anything other than what she was in the past, like Gavial or Nearl. Silence was just Silence: A woman, a mother, a medic.
That's not to say that Olivia Silence didn't had room to grow as a character, I for one was very hopeful for a Rhine Labs event to touch on her strained relationship with Saria once again and I'm happy that Lonetrail seems to have gone there. But unlike, say, Texas or Reed, none of the character growth that was ever hinted at with Silence seemed to have anything to do with the possibility of an Alter. There was nothing on her files or she as a character that screamed "I need an Alter".
Olivia Silence and her whole character arc didn't need her to have a sudden 6 star Alter, just as she didn't need a 6 star Alter when she left Rhine Labs in her backstory, nor after the "present day" sideplot in the manga. Just like she didn't need one in Dorothy's Vision. There was nothing, no plot or event or sequel to the manga or whatever, that wouldn't had made sense with Silence just remaining her 5-stars Medic self.
Her class, her kit, heck arguably even her rarity made sense with her lore.
But now, she's an Abjurer supporter because... she went to space? That at its core it's not that much better than Chalter existing because Ch'en went to Dossoles and Tequila sold her a water gun there...
Okay, that was just me taking the piss, but still... Look, I'm sure Lonetrail is gonna be great and that I'm gonna love reading it once it comes to Global, and might give a good explanation as to why Silence Alter exists, but that still leaves this Alter with a flaw that, as I have exposed earlier, few of the Alters in this game actually had: There was little to no reason for this Alter to exist prior to the event it came out with. Whatever lore reason Lonetrail gives, it will be a self-sustained one because the Alter is already there.
You could argue than the pre-existing lore here is Silence's already established desire of curing Oripathy. But if that alone was the case, then a lot of other Operators at Rhodes Island should also get an Alter, starting with Sussurro. That alone doesn't feel like enough of a reason for an Alter.
​

Character growth equals... Alter?

And that's when it hit me: I was not angry or disappointed that Silence was given an Alter with zero build-up to it.
I'm disappointed and a little salty because HG took a character arc I was patiently waiting for and then shoved up a good but still unnecessary Alter into it as if Alters were now obligatory, limited unit or not.
As if a low-rarity character can't have character growth or their own story arc without relying on an Alter. As if HG isn't confident enough on their own event stories without a shiny new Alter unit to help them promote them.
I like this game, and I love its characters, but I don't want to have to expect an Alter out of my favorite character just because I want them to finally appear on their own plotline. I don't want Andreana to finally appear on the next Abyssal Hunter event but as a weird Alter version of herself with the white hair and red eyes of the other Hunters like some people on this subreddit have suggested, not when Andreana's whole deal on her files is that she is her own thing: A gun-loving but normal woman who just happened to have been experimented on in the past, and giving her a more abyssal appearance or changing her class would erase that. I don't want Thorns to suddenly have a completely unnecessary Geek or Medic Alter just because I want him to have his own sidestory and have his past explored. Cuora finally regaining her memories... Okay, I guess an Alter wouldn't be so out of place there, but you surely get my point by now, do you?
You don't need Alters to tell a good story, and Alters shouldn't have to be equivalent to character growth.
"But that's just how gachas work!" Maybe. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.
​
That's all. Thanks for reading my nonsense if you reached this far, thank you.

Hi all,
I was laid off on Wednesday. I worked as a software engineer, but in a very low-paying company and stuck around solely because of the job security. So much for that. Anyway...
At the time of my layoff, I had about $600 in my savings account. Here's a big picture of my finances:

• Income before layoff: $3500/month after taxes, healthcare, and Roth 401k contribution.
• Contributed $300/month to Roth 401k monthly, and got about $200 in employer match as well. Currently has $12,000 in it.
• Rent: $1940. I split this with my fiancee, my share is $1164. We literally just renewed our lease 2 days before my layoff, so moving isn't an option.
• My share of utilities (Water, Gas, Internet, Electricity): $283
• My share of groceries, dates, trips into the city, etc: About $500/month
• Cell phone: $100/month, this includes a 0% APR payment plan on the physical phone itself.
• Car is paid off, likely needs some maintenance soon but it can wait.
  
• Credit card #1 - $781 at 27% APR. Minimum monthly payment is $35/month. This was up to $8000 at one point because my employer didn't pay for my relocation and it was my first job out of college, so I used it to move and buy furniture for my first apartment; I've been throwing as much money as possible at it since then.
  
• Credit card #2 - $3355 at 0% APR for the next 18 months or so. This started at $4000 with 0% APR for 21 months; I used it to finance my fiancee's engagement ring. I've been putting $200/month towards it since then. Minimum payment is $34/month.
  
• No student loan debt.
  

It seems like unemployment insurance will net me about $600/week, and I've been DoorDashing since Wednesday to try and supplement that but it doesn't seem to help much (it's like $12 an hour). From what I understand, as soon as I reach half of my unemployment check in income from DoorDash, my unemployment check will start to decrease for every dollar I make outside of UI, so my cap on DoorDash is $300 a week.
The employer is offering 2 weeks pay as severance; this is about $1850-$1900 after taxes. I'm considering trying to negotiate for more, as they want me to sign away my right to take legal action against them in exchange for the severance and in my opinion 2 weeks is laughably low for that. I emailed HR about it on Thursday, but haven't heard back. I have a history with HR at this company in which I email them, they don't respond to me, then they come back 6 months later complaining about the same thing I emailed them about; so I'm not sure if they'll even respond to my questions about the severance.
My fiancee makes $35k a year, about $2k per month net. She is a teacher and has two master's degrees, both in Education. School is out, but her mom is sick and I don't want to ask her to pick up a summer job if we can help it as she's spending a lot of time with her mom right now.
Our wedding is in about 12 months. We've already paid half of the venue cost (about $3500, includes food, drink and music) and half of our photographer's fee (about $2000). She also already bought her dress, so we're pretty set on wedding expenses for now.
A couple of questions for the group:

• I know that pulling out of your 401k is a last-resort and should never be done if it can be helped; but with the fact that it's a Roth and I think I should be able to pull out contributions penalty-free and tax-free, it would give me a lot of peace of mind right now to have that money available for rent once my severance runs out rather than in over 40 years when I retire. Is this something I should consider if I'm unemployed for long enough that I stop receiving unemployment, or if I get denied for unemployment? If I rollover into a personal IRA, can I still pull from my contributions later down the road?
  
• Is there anything here I'm overlooking that can be done to supplement my income while on unemployment? I am in Illinois, but my paychecks were taxed in Rhode Island because that's where I was originally employed. I've been living and working in Illinois for over 12 months, but this is one of those things that I emailed HR about multiple times and never got a response, so my paystubs were never updated to reflect it. I ended up having to hire a CPA to navigate getting a refund for my RI income taxes and paying Illinois taxes this year. I think I will also have to file for Rhode Island unemployment as that's what has been taken out of my paychecks.
  

Thank you!!

On my vacation here I only stopped for gas once while in the state of Rhode island. I went to gas station and said put 20$ gas (regular) on the pump. I bought a bottle of water with it. When he rang me up the pad said 33$. So I said "I only asked for 20$ gas" he then said yes I know the rest is tax! Indeed when I got the receipt it said 12$ in tax. Did I get robbed lmao or is this normal here and other places. I am from New York.