I know Diabolis in Musica isn’t a fan favorite, but I love it and the songs are great IMHO.

"Can't park there, mate."

That’s who “Revenge of the Fifth” is for.

When Xcloud eventually (promises, promises, Phil) gets purchased games access, there'll be no need for the console anymore. Hell, PC gamers could (in theory, anyway) play GTA VI by buying the Xbox version and playing it on Xcloud (again, if purchased games comes to it, it's been promised for years).

Two nonprofits have dropped out of Philly’s child welfare system. The disruption will cost the city $66M.
“What the provider wanted the city to do was pay to indemnify them for their own negligence, and that is what the city was not going to do,” DHS Commissioner Kimberly Ali told City Council.

Two organizations that provided child welfare casework for half of Philadelphia have declined to renew their contracts with the city, a significant disruption that the city now says could cost taxpayers about $66 million and affect several hundred families.

The Department of Human Services outsources the task of checking in on kids in foster care and kinship care to a network of nonprofit providers, called “community umbrella agencies” or CUAs, covering 10 geographic areas in the city. The privatized system was created a decade ago in the wake of the grisly starvation death of 14-year-old Danieal Kelly while under DHS supervision.

Turning Points for Children managed four of the 10 regions until deciding in late 2022 to leave the program. Tabor Community Partners, which had one of the regions, in Northwest Philadelphia, is now transitioning out of the CUA network as well after informing the city in January that it will not be renewing their agreement.

The tumult has revealed a new wrinkle in the yearslong debate about the effectiveness of the CUA system: insurance costs.

Child protective work is complicated, and costly lawsuits against government agencies and nonprofit providers are common. Insurance to cover litigation costs has been increasing, and the city is trying to strike a balance between discouraging practices that can lead to abuse and ensuring that its contracted providers can stay in business.

Tabor last year agreed to pay $11 million to settle a lawsuit in a case involving an infant who suffered near-fatal and life-altering brain injuries while under the organization’s supervision. Tabor was accused of failing to make weekly visits to the child’s home, document required health information, or communicate with doctors.

In 2021, Turning Points paid $6 million after being accused of improperly allowing three sisters to be returned to their sexually abusive father.

DHS Commissioner Kimberly Ali said that Turning Points left the CUA program because the city would not agree to help protect its bottom line even, she said, in cases where the organizations was found to be negligent. The city and state have increased support to the nonprofits to help with rising insurance premiums, Ali said, but Turning Points’ request went too far.

“What the provider wanted the city to do was pay to indemnify them for their own negligence, and that is what the city was not going to do,” Ali told Council.

A Turning Points representative declined to comment.

Tabor did not respond to requests for comment. Ali said they explained their departure to the city as “a business decision.”

Former DHS Commissioner Cynthia Figueroa, who now heads JEVS Human Services, said the question of financial liability is a problem “that dates back all the way from the inception” of the CUA system.

State law caps the amount of money government agencies can be obligated to pay out in civil cases, but no such protections exist for nonprofits like Turning Points.

“Insuring this work is very difficult, and the indemnification issue is a real issue for the CUAs,” Figueroa said.

A ‘disruption’ for hundreds of families
The departure of “two CUAs — one of which had four regions — is a disruption for the several hundred families involved,” Figueroa said. “There are new systems, new faces, new players. Any time there is transition of a system, it’s a disruption.”

Ali said the city isn’t considering abandoning the CUA program, which is called Improving Outcomes for Children, and noted the progress it has made since a rocky rollout around 2014. The purpose of breaking up child welfare case management into 10 geographic regions, she said, was to build trust with the kids and families under city supervision by leaning on local nonprofits that would hire residents in the communities they serve, rather than DHS social workers.

Now, DHS employees investigate accusations of abuse, and if abuse is found or a child needs to be removed from their household, the city relies on CUA providers to manage casework for those families.

“The decision was made because we did not have a presence with community, so we lacked the engagement of communities,” Ali said.

The city has tapped four other nonprofit providers to replace Turning Points’ role in the network, and it is currently reviewing bids from organizations hoping to take over for Tabor, Ali told City Council last week. The city is striving to reduce disruption for families in the child welfare system, Ali said, by having the new providers hire employees from their predecessors.

But the transition is proving costly for the city, with DHS planning to spend $66 million over two years to build capacity for the new providers on top of the $110 million per year it spends on regular payments for CUA contracts.

The Philadelphia providers formed a coalition to lobby the city and state to change the system so that CUAs have more financial protection. Mustafa Rashed, a Philadelphia lobbyist who represents the providers group, said it is becoming increasingly infeasible for CUAs to operate without being indemnified — as the city was for its social workers before the privatization of the system.

“It is a serious crisis that’s coming because if the agencies can’t get insurance coverage, they can’t provide the coverage,” Rashed said.

The providers replacing Turning Points’ work include two new providers and two that are expanding from other areas of the city.

The Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha, which provided child welfare services in part of eastern North Philadelphia, including Kensington, will now also cover the Logan and Olney areas. Bethanna, which served Center City and South Philly, now also works in much of West Philadelphia.

The new providers are Concilio, or the Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations of Philadelphia, which covers the Lower Northeast; and the Greater Philadelphia Community Alliance, which has taken on Southwest Philadelphia.

City Councilmember Cindy Bass, a longtime critic of the city’s decision to privatize DHS’ case management work, said the fact that two CUAs dropped out of the program for financial reasons represents “a glaring problem.”

Bass, however, isn’t entirely sympathetic to the providers, which she said likely couldn’t afford to continue due to legal costs “based on the conduct of some of their employees and some of the things that were allowed to happen to a very, very vulnerable population.”

Still have my DC and copy of PSO. Save still loads to, IIRC (it's been a few months since I tried playing PSO). Great game, one of my favorites of all time. I still listen to the OST.

Being able to gift games, parental controls, etc. Plenty of other reasons to set this up. As long as we'd be able to just not share games in case this happened, I'd be cool with that.

I understand why, and it makes sense to me. But I wouldn't want to take that chance.

It's not so much that I know a family member would knowingly cheat, but who knows if a friend might convince them to try a mod or something, and not know it could potentially get them banned, ya know?

What happens if my brother gets banned for cheating while playing my game?
If a family member gets banned for cheating while playing your copy of a game, you (the game owner) will also be banned in that game. Other family members are not impacted.

Fuck that, yo.

This was on repeat when I broke up with a girl back in '95.

YT Music
https://www.techradar.com/audio/audio-streaming/your-apple-homepod-finally-supports-youtube-music-heres-how-to-set-it-up

Tidal
https://9to5mac.com/2022/04/21/tidal-is-the-latest-music-streaming-service-to-add-siri-integration-heres-how-it-works/

You were saying?

It supports services apple decided aren’t competing with Apple Music.

So, Apple's in the wrong because Spotify didn't add the Siri music API?

In 2020, Apple did a HomePod Siri music API, and some services, such as Pandora, have adopted it.
Unfortunately, Spotify, the biggest music streaming service, has still not implemented this

https://9to5mac.com/2023/09/21/ios-17-play-spotify-music-on-homepod/

It’s worth mentioning Apple has released a new API for music streaming apps allowing them to be controlled by Siri through a HomePod. However, Spotify, for whatever reason, has refused to implement the software into its app on iOS.

https://www.techradar.com/audio/speakers/apple-homepod-finally-gets-hands-free-spotify-thanks-to-this-ios-17-workaround

Like, I get it: the internet has a hate boner for Apple, and in a lot cases it's justified. But it's 100% on Spotify for this one.

That’s on Spotify, HomePods have been able to stream from other music services for years: https://screenrant.com/apple-homepod-supported-music-services-how-many/

All good. I was like ”one of these things is not like the others” lol.

Did you mean to link to the song “War Games”?

Well, shit.

They aren’t discounted on the Switch at the moment. At least NA, anyway.

Edit: now they’re discounted, lol.

Pool alleged that the family's lawyer said she wants to “bankrupt” the school district and its leaders during the legal proceedings.

Isn't that a Republican's job?

I get it, I can't imagine being away from your family for so long. I'd probably choose family in that situation, too. Dystopia is one of my favorite albums, so he clearly had an impact on my thoughts on newer Megadeth.

I know it gets quoted a lot, but Gabe was 100% right. It boggles my mind how people in power over these streaming services just don't get it:

One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue. The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.