MARKETING FEATURE
Magazine
The Local Paper - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - Page 9
Stateside with Gavin Wood in West Hollywood
Welcome to a new way of doing things
■ Hi everyone, remotely from my suite at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Suites in West Hollywood comes this week’s news
Out and About
Destinations start to open
11 times more likely to die
■ It now seems the world is slowly opening up to travellers after the most horrendous twoyears of our lives. The airlines are opening up new destinations to fit in with the countries that have reached their targets in immunisation. This has been the biggest event in our lives and we are now entering into a whole new world. I hope the planet has rebirthed after this two-year break on its resources. Everyone is now gearing to take full advantage of this new beginning. It’s like starting all over again and I hope we have learned a few lessons in the break that we have had. Let’s hope for a kinder and gentler world. The exciting messages is that America will be open to us in the new year. Pictured at a tourist planning meeting in West Hollywood is the General Manager of the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Suites, Bill Karpiak, with his Managing Director, Alan Johnson. They are getting the Ramada Plaza on Santa Monica Boulevard ready for the influx of Australian tourists.
7000 steps every day
■ Taking 7000 steps a day during middle age can keep a person's arteries healthy and reduce their risk of death by up to 70 per cent, a new study concludes. The findings by researchers from across the United States suggest that this lower number is still enough to protect against serious heart complications rather than the common recommendation of 10,000 steps per day. The study examined a group of adults between 38 and 50 who took at least 7000 steps daily about three miles and discovered that these individuals were much less likely to die over the next decade. Mortality rates among both White and Black participants fell by 63 and 70 per cent respectively compared to their sedentary peers. Study authors also identified a difference among men and women raising their daily step count. Deaths among men fell by 58 per cent however, that rate jumped to 72 per cent among women. "This cohort study found that higher daily step volume was associated with a lower risk of premature all-cause mortality among Black and White middle-aged women and men," lead author Dr Amanda Paluch of the University of Massachusetts and her team writes in the journal JAMA Network Open. The 2110 volunteers wore an accelerometer from 2005 to 2006 and researchers followed them for an average of nearly 11 years. The volunteers were all taking part in a program looking into the risks of coronary artery disease. "Participants taking at least 7000 steps, compared with those taking fewer than 7000 steps, had a 50 per cent to 70 per cent lower risk of mortality."
● Bill Karpiak and Alan Johnson
Fourth Amendment rights
GavinWood
From my Suite at the Ramada Plaza Complex on Santa Monica Blvd
■ A federal court ruled this month that evidence of drugs obtained by police from a package at a FedEx sorting centre was not seized unconstitutionally, rejecting the defendant's arguments that the seizure violated his Fourth Amendment rights. At the centre of the decision is a little-known agreement allowing law enforcement agencies to seize parcels at the shipping behemoth's sorting centers. Police are permitted to take packages only if a drug dog indicates there may be contraband inside. Individual cops, however, determine which packages merit attention, allowing them to zero in on people's property, dress up as FedEx delivery men, and proceed with arrests if they testify that a drug dog alerted them appropriately. Such was the case with Herbert Green, who had his package singled out at a FedEx sorting center after Kansas City Police Department (KCPD) Detective Antonio Garcia noticed a return label from Brownsville, Texas. That's a "source city for illegal narcotics," the officer said, who was further interested by the parcel's glued seams and the fact that it was a "moving" box. Those get his attention "right away", he testified, because of their material, which he claims are well-suited to shipping drugs.
Death of rockin’ legend
Marijuana use up
■ You may soon be in the minority if you're of a college-age adult and not using marijuana, according to a new national poll. Marijuana has steadily become more and more socially accepted and popular in recent years. Now, a new study reveals weed use among college students and their peers reached historically high levels in 2020. In fact, researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) say marijuana use hasn't been this high since the 1980s. "The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the way that young people interact with one another and offers us an opportunity to examine whether drug taking behaviour has shifted through these changes," says NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D., in a media release. ■ If you are considering coming over for a holiday to see the in 2022, then I have got a special deal for you. We would love to see you at the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Suites, 8585 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood. I have secured a terrific holiday deal for readers of the Melbourne Observer and The Local Paper. Please mention ‘Melbourne Observer’ when you book to receive the ‘Special Rate of the Day’ for your advance bookings. Please contact: Jennifer at info@ramadaweho.com Happy Holidays, Gavin Wood
■ Unvaccinated people are 11 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than fully vaccinated people, a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows. The study, which examined 600,000 COVID-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths in 13 states from April 4 to June 19 and from June 20 to July 17, "found further evidence of the power of the vaccination," CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a press briefing, according to CNBC people were over 10 times more likely to be hospitalised due to COVID-19 and are four-and-a-half half times more likely to contract the virus, according to the study. The results come just one day after President Biden announced new COVID-19 rules that require private companies with over 100 employees to mandate the vaccine, and federal employees, contractors and healthcare workers to get the shot. "As we have shown study after study, vaccination works," Walensky said during the press briefing. "CDC will continue to do all we can do to increase vaccination rates across the country by working with local communities and trusted messengers and providing vaccine confidence consults to make sure that people have the information they need to make an informed decision," Walensky said. Currently, 75 per cent of US adults ages 18 and older have received at least one shot, while 53 per cent of the nation is fully vaccinated, according to The New York Times.
● Chuck E. Weiss
www.gavinwood.us
■ Chuck E. Weiss, the musician who helped launch the Viper Room with Johnny Depp and was a fixture of Los Angeles' music scene for decades, died on Tuesday. He was 76. His bandmate Jimmy Wood confirmed his death, telling Variety, "Chuck E. Weiss left the room yesterday morning around 8:30. JJ Holiday was by his side. He was one of a kind and certainly made Los Angeles a better city!" Known for his friendship with Tom Waits and for being the subject of Rickie Lee Jones' hit song 'Chuck E.'s In Love,' Weiss spent his career as a LA scene-maker, releasing uniquely rhythmic music himself that teetered between blues and rock. Weiss and Waits eventually decided to move to LA, and the two lived in West Hollywood's Tropicana Motel, a storied hangout for rockers like Joan Jett and the Ramones. The Tropicana Motel became the Ramada Plaza Hotel and Suites, 8585 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, walking distance to all the Sunset Strip music venues and the local recording studios. While there, Jones penned the song 'Chuck E.'s In Love' inspired by Weiss, while she was romantically involved with Waits. "He sure has acquired this kinda cool and inspired sorta jazz when he walks, where's his jacket and his old blue jeans? Well this ain't healthy, it is some kinda clean," Jones croons on the track.
