NEW YORK — shopping can be a competitive sport in certain New York neighborhoods but a cluster of SoHo retailers is banding together for more of a goodwill get-together.A thousand shoppers are expected to show up for Thursday’s Block Party on Howard Street.Michele Varian, who moved into the neighborhood in 2001 with her signature lifestyles shop at 27 Howard Street, cooked up the pre-holiday event.She made sure to include an ugly sweater contest.A committee will review participants’ photographs and the winner will be revealed on Friday.Block party goers will also find select discounts and extended hours at such stores as Outdoor Voices, The Arrivals, Roll & Hill and The Affirmation, among others.Trying to take the pajama trend to new heights, Andy Spade’s Sleepy Jones will host an attempt to break the world record for jumping up and down on a Floyd of Detroit-made platform bed.Not surprisingly, the dress code calls for Sleepy Jones pajamas.With extended store hours until 9 p.m., is aiming to ramp up sales to benefit Kids in Need of Defense, a nonprofit whose goal is to ensure that no refugee or immigrant child deals with the U.S.

Block party shoppers at Tom Dixon’s three-floor store will be able to take holiday images in the elevator and Block Watches will be awarded for the best ones.(Tom Dixon fans can also find his collection at a new 850-square-foot shop at ABC Carpet & Home — the British designer’s third outpost in the U.S.) Consumers will also be able to catch a live art installation by Emily Johnston at the Canal Street Market, a multivendor space that houses such outposts as Saint Clair, Forge & Finish, Pat Kim Design, Upstate Stock and a number of multidisciplinary design studios including Conmateria, Studio Proba and Fort Standard.ethereum coin mining rigAs any Fifth Avenue pedestrian can attest to, navigating the streets of New York at this time of year requires a certain amount of fortitude.litecoin price forecastBut a Howard Street Block Party spokeswoman said this week’s merriment is “more of a chance for the neighborhood to come together and have some fun whilst offering shoppers late-night opening hours.”litecoin spend

A Republican and elected official says he regrets endorsing “that idiot” Bobby Jindal.And it isn’t only Jindal Sheriff Newell Normand of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana regrets, but the whole Republican establishment, from elected officials to Grover Norquist.Speaking at the Metropolitan Crime Commission’s annual awards luncheon on Tuesday, Sheriff Normand unleashed hell on the Republican Party “What a mess.Bobby Jindal was a better cult leader than Jim Jones.bitcoin html tickerWe drank the elixir for eight years.bitcoin atm brazilWe remained in a conscious state.bitcoin achat canadaWe walked to the edge of the cliff and we jumped off and he watched us and guess what?Unlike Jim Jones he did not swallow the poison.What a shame.” Watch courtesy of WVUE Fox8Live: FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports, Social He said Jindal is “trying to re-write history,” with himself as the hero of the piece.

“He’s trying to get everybody to believe that he did a phenomenal job.We have to just say no.But I’m not a hypocrite.… We did this to ourselves, myself included, because I endorsed that idiot.And now we’re going to try to play partisan politics as it relates to this.” According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the budget gap is “estimated at $943 million between now and the June 30 end of the fiscal year.The state is also estimated to face a $2 billion shortfall in the 2016-17 budget year.” Then it was Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) leader Grover Norquist’s turn: “We better get concerned.We better wake up.We better be honest.We better talk about the issues because we are going to pay the price…We do not need to face the stupidity of our leadership as it relates to how we’re going to face balancing this budget and talking about these silly issues because we’re worried about what Grover Norquist thinks.To hell with Grover Norquist!I don’t care about Grover Norquist!

We’re worried about the ATR report card.” The Republicans in Washington did not escape either, for their ideological attacks on Obama: “And I have to listen to my Republican counterparts talk about gobbledigook.Blah, blah blah… And I’m so sick and tired of hearing: Obama, Obama, Obama.You know how much intellect it takes to blame something on somebody else?Work together.” Normand put his money where his mouth is.According to NOLA, “Normand endorsed Republican Lt.Jay Dardenne for governor in last year’s primary race, and is a member of the Louisiana Sheriffs Association that endorsed Democrat John Bel Edwards before his runoff victory over Republican David Vitter.” Of course, Republicans are trying to blame Louisiana’s budget woes on Edwards after only some forty days in office, and those attacks on Edwards riled Normand up as well.It’s no surprise Edwards gets the blame after just 40 days in office.After eight months in office we’re told Bush still wasn’t to blame for 9/11, and though he wasn’t even IN office yet, Obama gets blamed by Republicans for Hurricane Katrina – and even for 9/11.

You see how this works.So too now does Sheriff Normand.He went on to appeal to his fellow Republicans: “C’mon folks, we have to wake up.Let us be honest about what we’re doing.Let’s work together and collaboratively toward an outcome that’s going to make sense for us as a society.” Of course, what Fox affiliate WVUE of New Orleans got out of this epic shredding of Republican politics is that “JP Sheriff Normand calls Jindal a ‘cult leader’ during speech.” Calling Jindal a ‘cult leader’ was – as you can see – only a small part of what Normand did.It’s no surprise that Fox News would not advertise Normand’s condemnation of the GOP turning ‘compromise’ into a dirty word, but that’s exactly what he did, and it was that, and not Jindal, that was the focus of his condemnation of the GOP from top to bottom.Jindal is just a symptom of what is wrong with the GOP.We’ve all been thinking it.Many of us have been saying it.But few Republicans have been willing to really open up on the stupidity and ideological rigidity of their own party.

Our warnings have generally fallen on deaf ears.Jindal himself famously warned that the GOP needs to “stop being the stupid party,” and then embraced that stupidity with both arms, and, as Normand says, led his flock off the cliff.This is happening in Red State after Red State.Back then (2013) Jindal claimed “We had a number of Republicans damage the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments,” but he had his own share of appalling statements, including calling the Obama administration “science deniers.” The reality-free Republican leadership won’t hear Sheriff Normand, but some rank and file Republicans do hear, and change must start at the grass-roots level.Just as Florida mayors are rebelling against GOP climate-change denial, and Indianapolis rejected its state’s attack on religious freedom, so New Orleans and other cities can reject other aspects of Republican politics.The Republican Party is destroying America, and it won’t stop until people like Nomand stand up, speak out against it, and make it stop.