{"id":1568,"date":"2018-07-19T20:57:31","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T00:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/?p=1568"},"modified":"2018-07-19T20:57:31","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T00:57:31","slug":"features-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/newindy\/?p=1568","title":{"rendered":"Features"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Steel Drums at the Briggs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>by Maralyn Fink<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YB_0M7pMTpg\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday evening I attended the Steel Drum event at Briggs Library.<\/p>\n<p>The band started in 1988 with parents from Trinidad and grew into a family affair.  Their home base is Florida and Michigan.  Loretta, a member, said that they do gigs every day of the week and all over in and out of the country.  There are five family members altogether.<\/p>\n<p>Loretta said it was a joy to be here and seeing the smiles on the faces of those in attendance.  They love sharing music with the people, and most of all they want to keep the &#8220;pans&#8221; culture. The theme for doing Libraries this year is Libraries Rock.<\/p>\n<p>It was a very great evening watching them interact with adults and children from hula hoops, dancing and explaining this culture.  I was very happy I went to see all the fun the little ones had and their expressions.  If they should return in the future, don&#8217;t miss out and do try to attend.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Check out the new Boutique<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>by Maralyn Fink<\/p>\n<p>Chris Roberts is opening a new Boutique in downtown St Johns. On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, there was a showing of some of her clothing at Unique Reflections.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4-NVhEGtS8k\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I stopped by to see Chris and her clothing. Chris likes fashion and unique things, so she decided to open The Mint Door Boutique that will be located at 105 W. Higham as soon as the remodeling is finished.<\/p>\n<p>Chris has a nice selection of clothing including dresses, skirts, sweaters and coats and jackets. Everything is reasonably priced, and she has many nice things. Stay tuned for the Grand Opening.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Farewell to Radio Shack<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wyXGBnBa2aM\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>an album by Maralyn Fink<\/p>\n<p>Jim Sytsma, the owner of Clinton Electronics, a Radio Shack dealership in downtown St. Johns, says that for various reasons, after 37 years of serving the greater St. Johns community they are finally closing their doors. They are having a going-out-of-business sale that began on Saturday July 7, and which will run for approximately 6 weeks.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>A Look Back<\/strong> &#8211; St. Johns High School Baseball Team<\/p>\n<p>by Barry Clark Bauer<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/bball.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"345\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1575\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This, circa 1970, photo shows the team members of the St. Johns High School Baseball team.<\/p>\n<p>None of these guys are identified.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Letters<\/strong> &#8211; Support for House Bill 4226<\/p>\n<p>The United States is the only country in the developed world that does not offer paid maternity leave, with a few states as exceptions that have their own policies. In fact, only 12% of women and 7% of men are offered any sort of paid family through their employers in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>There are a multitude of benefits that come with offering paid family leave. For example, paid family leave is associated with higher rates of breastfeeding and less incidences of postpartum depression. Not only is it beneficial to new parents and their children, but it also has many benefits for employers and our economy as a whole. When employees have access to paid family leave, research shows that there is higher moral, increased productivity, lower turnover rate, more loyalty from staff, less claims for disability insurance, and overall more profitability and growth for the businesses. As for the economy, with more policies surrounding paid family leave, it allows for more financial stability and less dependency on government assistance.<\/p>\n<p>Michigan has the opportunity to join the few other states in the U.S. that offer paid family leave and lead the way towards changing policy within the U.S. House Bill 4226 was introduced on February 15th, 2017 to the Michigan House of Representatives. This bill would allow four weeks of paid family leave, not only for the birth of a new child, but for the adoption of a child as well. It covers both mothers and fathers and follows similar guidelines to the federal policy already in place, the Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA. FMLA provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave. While this is a step in the right direction, many families still cannot afford to take this unpaid leave from work, and many employees do not qualify for it. This bill would require an employee to have worked 12 consecutive months and at least 1250 hours during these 12 months. This bill would reduce the stigma around mothers who have postpartum depression and allow them to get the proper help they need before returning to work. It would also allow more mothers to take longer leaves, therefore allowing them to breastfeed longer and exclusively. Paid leaves would greatly affect a child\u2019s attachment to their primary caregiver and allow caregivers more time to bond with their new baby without the financial stress weighing on them.<\/p>\n<p>At this time I encourage you to contact the Committee of Commerce and Trade Chairman, Eric Leutheuser to urge him to put H.B. 4226 on the agenda for their next committee meeting. His contact information is ph: 517-373-1794, Email: <a href=\"mailto:ericleutheuser@house.mi.gov\"><font color=\"#0000CC\">ericleutheuser@house.mi.gov<\/font><\/a>, and address: P.O. Box 30014 Lansing, MI 48909.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you,<br \/>\nStephanie Nelson<br \/>\nClinton County <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Steel Drums at the Briggs by Maralyn Fink On Tuesday evening I attended the Steel Drum event at Briggs Library. The band started in 1988 with parents from Trinidad and grew into a family affair. Their home base is Florida and Michigan. Loretta, a member, said that they do gigs every day of the week <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/newindy\/?p=1568\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/newindy\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/newindy\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/newindy\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/newindy\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/newindy\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/newindy\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/newindy\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/newindy\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/newindy\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}