Allyson Felix is a mom, businesswoman and Olympic sprinter who won her 12th gold medal at a track-and-field world championship last month.

Her win, which came just 10 months after giving birth to her daughter Camryn, broke Usain Bolt's record for the most track-and-field gold medals at a world championship.

Though the 33-year-old has seen a lot of success in her career, she says there is one piece of advice she wishes she knew as a young athlete who was turning pro. "I look back at when I did my first deal at 17 to where I am now," she told CNBC Make It at a recent event for personal finance company SoFi, "and I wish I was being more present in those conversations and had more knowledge about what was going on in the negotiation process."

Allyson Felix of the United States competes in the 4x400 Metres Mixed Relay during day three of 17th IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 at Khalifa International Stadium on September 29, 2019 in Doha, Qatar.

Maja Hitij | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

Like many athletes, Felix said she relied solely on her agent at the start of her career to negotiate all of her business deals. "You know, you're coming in either straight from college or even younger than that, and you don't have experience in this," she said. "So, you don't know what to ask for. A lot of times I think we're just grateful to get offered something."

But being grateful for any deal that comes your way can be problematic, she said, especially when you don't know the details of the contract. Earlier this year, Felix penned an op-ed for The New York Times where she opened up about her experience with renegotiating her contract with Nike as a pregnant athlete.

Despite being one of the most decorated athletes in history, Felix said Nike wanted to pay her 70% less than before, and they didn't want to offer her maternity protection during the months following her child's birth. "I asked Nike to contractually guarantee that I wouldn't be punished if I didn't perform at my best in the months surrounding childbirth," she wrote. "I wanted to set a new standard. If I, one of Nike's most widely marketed athletes, couldn't secure these protections, who could?"

After facing a lot of backlash for its policies surrounding female athletes, Nike later announced that it was updating its contracts to protect its pregnant clients more. Under the new terms, the sportswear brand said that no performance-related reductions could take place for an 18-month period, starting eight months prior to a woman's due date.

Nike did not immediately respond to Make It's request for comment.

Felix, who signed a new sponsorship deal with Athleta in July, said her experience with Nike taught her that you have to be ready to negotiate for more than just money.

"I'm excited about this new partnership deal, and it's different," she told the crowd at SoFi's "Get That Raise" event. "I had been with Nike for so long, and I really don't think they thought I would leave the brand. But, I realized there are things that are more valuable than money."

College and career coach Kat Cohen agrees with Felix and explained that even if you aren't an athlete, you should still consider more than just money when negotiating with an employer.

"You should look at compensation holistically," she told CNBC Make It. "This means reviewing the retirement savings, paid time off, commuter benefits and whatever other benefits are offered."

Cohen added that in some cases, such as with tuition reimbursement, your benefits can actually help to cut down your monthly payments on a bill. In this situation, she said, it should not be a deal breaker if a company can't increase your pay.

Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube!

Don't miss: 8 successful women share how they negotiated their first big raiseand the advice they'd give others looking to do the same

See the original post here:
12-time gold medalist Allyson Felix on the negotiating advice she wishes she knew at the start of her career - CNBC

Getty

We hire for success but fire for failure. We promote people with the best education and experience and then complain that they cant lead their teams, build coalitions or resolve conflict. We think of people as great leaders and then get disappointed when they dont know how to manage. Disastrous hiring and performance management methodologies are causing organizations, leaders and employees to fail.

Both sides are unhappy. Employees arent being set up for success, and supervisors report being drastically dissatisfied with employee performance. The Eagle Hill National Attrition Survey found that employers end up with average or low performers 75% of the time. This is a huge problem. We employers, hiring managers and supervisors get too excited about what people promise and too disappointed when they dont deliver.

This is the bitter truth about why people fail to succeed in their jobs.

We know that the most effective leaders and employees demonstrate superior skills in communication, conflict resolution, critical thinking, ethics and emotional intelligence. Soft skills trump hard ones, but we dont hire for them. Instead, we still prioritize candidate rankings by experience, education and school brands.

Education and experience matter, and depending on the job, hard skills such as budgeting, writing, software design, typing, engineering, etc. really matter. Hard skills are important considerations when making hiring and promotion decisions. I consider these factors when making hiring decisions, and depending on the position, the minimum education and experience requirements may be rather non-negotiable. However, the bitter truth is that soft skills provide a better metric than education and experience ever will for assessing performance and predicting success. Highly educated and very experienced employees get fired every day because they fail to demonstrate critical soft skills.

Ive worked with thousands of supervisors and executives, and they are not talking about how they need to hire people with higher levels of education and more experience. No, that is not their challenge. They tell me that they desperately need to get people who will demonstrate better behavior. They want people who can communicate better. They want people who can resolve conflicts better. They want people who think critically and who ask thoughtful questions. They want people who are ethical and demonstrate integrity. They want emotionally intelligent people who are self-aware, reflective, disciplined and motivated. They want people who will give feedback and are also happy to receive it.

Work experience is not a substitute for soft skills unless the hiring manager is able to design and apply metrics to evaluate the development level of specific soft skills. Also, a college degree cant substitute for soft skills. Supervisors and managers report that they want employees who are intentional about behavior, and a degree only shows that an employee was intentional about an accomplishment.

We can hire people for what they know (for all their education and experience), but they will fail if they dont make it a priority to manage their behaviors. Following is a list of reasons a cross-section of directors, managers and supervisors shared with me during a meeting on performance management systems.

I asked the group of about 200 to share the real reasons that they either fired, refused to promote or downgraded a performance review on an employee within the prior two years. This is an aggregate list (in order of number of responses) for what they provided.

Employees were fired, not promoted or rated poorly because they

As you probably noticed, the lack of a college degree and a lack of prior work experience arent listed as mitigating factors. It is clear that most identified issues are directly connected to deficiencies in soft skills and behavior rather than any education or experience deficiency.

Organizations absolutely have to create and apply better hiring and performance management methodologies.

Sure, employees are responsible for their own behavior, but they are not responsible for establishing the behavior or performance standards which they will ultimately be evaluated against. More often than not, the directors and managers in the group reported to me that they didnt have clearly defined performance standards and metrics for behavior or soft skills. The really couldnt properly develop or evaluate an employee for these aspects of the job, so they would find other justifiable reasons and ways to deal with the employee without ever really dealing with soft-skill deficiencies.

The bitter truth is that weve got to do better. Organizational leaders must design and apply methodologies for hiring and for effectively evaluating and managing performance. The organization deserves better. The struggling supervisors deserve better. The employees deserve better. The customers deserve better.

Organizational leaders can do better by taking these action steps:

We hire for experience, but we dont fire for it. We hire for a degree, but we dont fire for it. We hire for a particular certification, but we dont fire for it (except in instances where the person has lied about it). And we dont mitigate poor performance as a result of these credentials. Most, if not all, factors that contribute to poor performance and/or employee terminations correspond to deficiencies in soft skills and human behavior.

Until we align the primary hiring factors to the primary firing factors, nothing will change.

More here:
The Bitter Truth About Why People Fail To Succeed In Their Jobs - Forbes

Casey Michel is a writer living in New York, and his writing has been published in outlets like Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, and The New Republic, among others. He can be followed on Twitter at @cjcmichel.

Until the election of Donald Trump, no sitting president had ever requested a foreign governments help to discredit a political rival. Coupled with Trumps appeal to Russia during the 2016 campaign that Moscow use its cyber power to uncover Hillary Clintons missing emails, not to mention his eldest sons eagerness to accept anti-Clinton material from Kremlin allies, Trumps willingness to allow foreign governments to influence American elections is historically unprecedented.

Just how unprecedented becomes clear when you look back at the long history of attempts by foreign powers (almost always Russia) to tip an outcome to their advantage. On multiple occasions since the start of the Cold War, Moscow has proffered money, dirt and manpower to undermine a candidate perceived to be harmful to their interests. But in nearly every instance, the interference never came to pass. And this is the starkest difference between Trump and other presidential candidatesand between Trump and every one of his presidential predecessors. Where Trump has welcomed such assistanceand, in the case of his controversial call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, demanded itother candidates, to a man, rejected the aid.

Story Continued Below

What these examples show is that across parties and across decadeswhether or not there were laws in place banning the foreign aidaspirants to the nations highest office recognized the impropriety of the offers. Even as they knew how valuable it might be to them, especially as challengers, they understood that accepting the assistance would compromise them and the underpinnings of American democracy, should they win.

I cant think of any precedent for this kind of prima facie corrupt action on the part of an American president, Brad Simpson, an associate history professor at the University of Connecticut with a focus on U.S. foreign policy, said. I think that [this is] a president whose whole political life has been prone to conspiracy theories, but who now has the apparatus of the executive branch to try and do something about itand thats whats really novel.

Or as Dov Levin, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong and renowned expert on American interference efforts, told me. For a sitting president to do that, if its confirmed, would be something which is new, thats for sure.

We have known for decades that when it comes to foreign interference efforts, campaigns are the front-linethe first targeted, and the first to know. And for decades, the campaigns refusals have stopped interference efforts in their tracks. As we already know, hostile regimes such as Russia successfully injected themselves into the 2016 electionwithout asking permissioncoaxing armed white supremacists onto the street, stealing internal emails and planting fake news stories, and creating some of the most popular social media feeds during the election. And Russia is almost certainly gaming out how to reprise its efforts in 2020. The difference now is that the interference, after decades, has been sanctioned by the president himself.

***

For most of U.S. history, other countries have largely resisted the impulse to meddle in our affairs, both out of indifference and a desire not to get on the wrong side of the other political party. There were a handful of examples in our republics early daysin 1796, in 1812of American officials reaching out to British or French counterparts to try to coax them into interfering in upcoming elections. (The historical record doesnt make it clear exactly which Americans these were, but none, obviously, were sitting presidents.) But those requests for foreign help went nowhere, and for decades afterward, European governments paid little thought to helping, say, Ulysses S. Grant or Grover Cleveland earn a second term in office.

It wasnt until after World War II that these interference efforts, driven by foreign capitals, began in earnest. By then, Americas role on the global stage had never been greater. And its primary adversary, led by a paranoid clique sitting in the Kremlin, began probing for weaknesses in Americas electoral defenses, and began looking for American candidates willing to brook foreign interference.

Henry Wallace, commerce secretary under Harry Truman, was the first candidate Moscow targeted for support, back in 1948. Broadly sympathetic to Soviet designs, Wallace set the tone for his pro-Soviet views early. The first thing we have evidence for is, in Oct. 1945, when he was still the secretary of commerce, Wallace contacted the NKVD [the forerunner to the KGB] station chief in Washington, basically telling him that the people who support him are fighting for Trumans soul, and that other people in the Truman administration are more anti-Soviet, Levin said. He basically asked, Come and help meIll be an agent of influence to make sure there will be better policies. He basically believed that [Joseph] Stalin and the Soviets had benign intentions.

Wallace carried those beliefs into the 1948 election, as the head of the third-party Progressive Party. A clear longshotthink of his run as something closer to Jill Stein, rather than Donald TrumpWallace made rapprochement with the USSR a key plank. A few months before the election, Wallace thundered in New Yorks Madison Square Garden about the need to decrease tensions between Moscow and Washington. And he immediately got a public show of support from the man presiding over the Soviet Unions efforts at ethnic cleansing, totalitarian designs, and destruction of nascent democracies across Eastern Europe: Stalin.

Stalin wrote a letter, published in newspapers across the U.S., that was straightforward. Wallaces call for easing tension was the most important political platform of recent times, the Soviet dictator wrote. As far as the government of the USSR is concerned, we believe that the program of Wallace could be a good and fruitful foundation for such understanding and for the development of international cooperation.The Soviet tyrants praise immediately reverberated. It was a big commotion, Levin said. [Stalins letter] dominated news for a whole month, with some people hoping it would end the Cold War before it started. More pertinently, Wallace wasnt surprised to receive the show of support; thanks to back channels between Wallaces supporters, members of the U.S. Communist Party, and Soviet partners, Stalin had let him know ahead of time that the letter was in the works, Levin added.

The missive didnt do much for Wallaces chances; the former commerce secretarys campaign barely registered during the 1948 election and failed to carry a single state. But to Moscow, that didnt necessarily matter. The seed of interfering in American elections was planteda plan that, over the coming decades, would try to take root time and again, but only succeed once Donald Trump announced his campaign for the presidency.

***

In 1960, with the Cold War in full bloom, the Soviet ambassador, Mikhail Menshikov, arranged a sit-down meeting with perennial Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson. According to Stevensons recollections, Menshikov got right to the point, pulling a slip of paper from his pocket with a message from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

We are concerned with the future, and that America has the right President, Menshikov dictated. All countries are concerned with the American election. It is impossible for us not to be concerned about our future and the American Presidency which is so important to everybody everywhere. The Soviet ambassador continued, unspooling Khrushchevs offer:

Because we know the ideas of Mr. Stevenson, we in our hearts all favor him. And you Ambassador Menshikov must ask him which way we could be of assistance to those forces in the United States which favor friendly relations. We dont know how we can help to make relations better and help those to succeed in political life who wish for better relations and more confidence. Could the Soviet press assist Mr. Stevensons personal success? How? Should the press praise him, and, if so, for what? Should it criticize him, and, if so, for what? (We can always find many things to criticize Mr. Stevenson for because he has said many harsh and critical things about the Soviet Union and Communism!) Mr. Stevenson will know best what would help him.

Stevenson, according to his notes, blanched. Following Menshikovs bid, Stevenson offered his thanks for this expression of Khrushchevs confidence. But the red line Menshikov had crossed was undeniable: [I detailed my] grave misgivings about the propriety or wisdom of any interference, direct or indirect, in the American election, Stevenson said. I said to him that even if I was a candidate I could not accept the assistance proffered. I believe I made it clear to him that I considered the offer of such assistance highly improper, indiscreet and dangerous to all concerned.

Rejected by Stevenson, Moscow turned elsewhere. As Christopher Andrew detailed in The Sword and the Shield, his 700-page run-through of documents smuggled from former KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin, Khrushchev especially feared the election of Republican nominee and Cold War hawk Richard Nixon. (Nixon would leave a trail of ignominy not only for his eventual resignation, but also, in a nod to Trump and Russia in 2016, for his willingness as a candidate to set up back channels with South Vietnamese partners in the run-up to the 1968 election.) The KGB resident in Washington, Alexander Feklisov, received orders from the Kremlin to propose diplomatic or propaganda initiatives, or any other measures, to facilitate [John F.] Kennedys victory. As Feklisov added in his autobiography, his mission centered on providing ideas to Moscow that could help secure a Kennedy victory. The details on Feklisovs and Moscows ideas remain scantyet another casualty of Moscows unwillingness to allow access to archival materialbut we do know that, as part of his mission, Feklisov reached out directly to those surrounding Robert Kennedy, JFKs lead campaign surrogate. But the Kremlin again got nowhere; as Andrew wrote, Feklisov and his teams offers of help were politely rebuffed.

Nixon, of course, lost that 1960 election. But when he stood again eight years laterwith Leonid Brezhnev, the man whose policies of stagnation would eventually erode Soviet power, now overseeing the KremlinMoscow espied another opportunity. As Anatoly Dobrynin, Moscows man in Washington, detailed in his 2001 memoir, the Kremlin cooked up an idea to tilt the election once more in the Democrats favor.

Our leadership [in Moscow] was growing seriously concerned that [Nixon] might win the election, Dobrynin wrote. As a result, the top Soviet leaders took an extraordinary step, unprecedented in the history of Soviet-American relations, by secretly offering [Democratic candidate Hubert] Humphrey any conceivable help in his election campaignincluding financial aid. Dobrynin led the effort, breakfasting during the campaign with Humphrey himself. As the conversation wound toward the state of Humphreys campaigns finances, the candidate quickly discerned what was on offerand immediately put a stop to it. He knew at once what was going on, Dobrynin wrote. He told me it was more than enough for him to have Moscows good wishes which he highly appreciated. The matter was thus settled to our mutual relief, never to be discussed again.

But that wouldnt be the end of the Kremlins offers of aid. With Yuri Andropov as premier in 1983the man whose untimely demise would eventually give rise to Mikhail Gorbachev and to the dissolution of the Soviet Union itselfKGB leadership directed those overseeing American operations to begin planning active measures to ensure [Ronald] Reagans defeat in the [1984] presidential election, writes Andrew. Per the smuggled KGB archival documents, KGB agents were directed to acquire contacts on the staffs of all possible presidential candidates and in both party headquarters. And it wasnt just limited to the U.S.; KGB residencies outside the United States were told to report on the possibility of sending agents to take part in this operation. [KGB leadership] made it clear that any candidate, of either party, would be preferable to Reagan.

With KGB archives from this period remaining effectively inaccessible, the details of these 1983-84 operations remain murky. (KGB residencies around the world were ordered to popularize the slogan Reagan Means War!, Andrew wrote, highlighting one of the few particulars we know about.) However, theres no evidence that any campaigns opposing Reagan ever took the bait. If anything, Andrew added, Reagans landslide victory in the 1984 election was striking evidence of the limitations of Soviet active measures within the United States.

The Soviet Union, weighed down by a crumbling economy and fractured by nationalist movements, didnt last much longer. But Moscows presence in American elections, even during the 1990s, didnt collapse alongside the Soviet implosion. As The New York Times reported this month, a trio of Republican representatives came to President George H.W. Bush in the lead-up to the 1992 election with an idea: reaching out to the Kremlin directly for dirt on Bill Clinton, nipping his opposition campaign in the bud.

But like Stevenson, Kennedy, and Humphrey before him, Bush and his inner circle balked. They wanted us to contact the Russians to seek information on Bill Clintons trip to Moscow, James A. Baker III, Bushs White House chief of staff, wrote in a memo. I said we absolutely could not do that. Baker shut the conversation down, and with it any consideration of reaching out to Russia for help in tilting an American election. Shortly thereafter, Clinton won, resoundingly. And he brought with him a First Lady who, a quarter-century later, would be on the receiving end of unprecedented interference efforts out of that same Kremlinand who would face an opponent in Donald Trump who had no problems accepting Moscows offers of help, and who would become the first sitting president to toss the floodgates open, with all comers, and all interference, now welcome.

Read the original:
Russia's Long and Mostly Unsuccessful History of Election Interference - POLITICO

Video games were invented for humans, by humans. But that doesn't necessarily mean we're the best when it comes to playing them.

In a new achievement that signifies just how far artificial intelligence (AI) has progressed, scientists have developed a learning algorithm that rose to the very top echelon of the esports powerhouse StarCraft II, reaching Grandmaster level.

According to the researchers who created the AI called AlphaStar the accomplishment of reaching the Grandmaster League means you're in the top 0.2 percent of StarCraft II players.

In other words, AlphaStar competes at a level in this multi-player real-time strategy game that could trounce millions of humans foolhardy enough to take it on.

In recent years, we've seen AI come to dominate games that represent more traditional tests of human skill, mastering the strategies of chess, poker, and Go.

For David Silver, principal research scientist at AI firm DeepMind in the UK, those kinds of milestones many of which DeepMind pioneered are what's led us to this inevitable moment: a game representing even greater problems than the ancient games that have challenged human minds for centuries.

"Ever since computers cracked Go, chess, and poker, StarCraft has emerged by consensus as the next grand challenge," Silver says.

"The game's complexity is much greater than chess, because players control hundreds of units; more complex than Go, because there are 1,026 possible choices for every move; and players have less information about their opponents than in poker."

Add it all together and mastering the complex real-time battles of StarCraft seems almost impossible for a machine, so how did they do it?

In a new paper published this week, the DeepMind team describes how they developed a multi-agent reinforcement learning algorithm, which trained itself up through self-play, including playing against itself, and playing humans, learning to mimic successful strategies, and also effective counter-strategies.

The research team has been working towards this goal for years. An earlier version of the system made headlines back in January when it started to beat human professionals.

"I will never forget the excitement and emotion we all felt when AlphaStar first started playing real competitive matches," says Dario "TLO" Wunsch, one of the top human StarCraft II players beaten by the algorithm.

"The system is very skilled at assessing its strategic position, and knows exactly when to engage or disengage with its opponent."

The latest algorithm takes things even further than that preliminary incarnation, and now effectively plays under artificial constraints designed to most realistically simulate gameplay as experienced by a human (such as observing the game at a distance, through a camera, and feeling the delay of network latency).

With all the imposed limitations of a human, AlphaStar still reached Grandmaster level in real, online competitive play, representing not just a world-first, but perhaps a sunset of these kinds of gaming challenges, given what the achievement now may make possible.

"Like StarCraft, real-world domains such as personal assistants, self-driving cars, or robotics require real-time decisions, over combinatorial or structured action spaces, given imperfectly observed information," the authors write.

"The success of AlphaStar in StarCraft II suggests that general-purpose machine learning algorithms may have a substantial effect on complex real-world problems."

The findings are reported in Nature.

Read more:
StarCraft II Has a New Grandmaster, And It's Not Human - ScienceAlert

Ever wonderhow your monthly student loan payments might stack up next to someone who graduated with a completely different major?

The range can be significant starting at $406 a month in the retail industry all the way up to $685 a month for those working at private hospitals and other companies in the social assistance industry.

The averages are based on data released by Fidelity Investments and give a glimpse how some fields can leave employees burdened with more student loan debt than others.

The figures which are higher than other studies are based on information fromnearly 30,000 users of Fidelity's Student Debt Tool. Those individuals may be more likely to take the time using the tool exactly because they're overburdened by college debt.

The tool is widely available at major companies where Fidelity is a record keeper for the 401(k) plan. The tool is available online to the general public, too. See: http://www.fidelity.com/studentdebt.

The Fidelity data includes those with graduate degrees, as well as undergraduate degrees.

"Here's a snapshot of people looking for help," said Asha Srikantiah, head of the student debt program for Fidelity Investments.

We're moving into the time of the year when many new graduates from the Class of 2019 will start making payments on their student loans as theirsix-month grace period ends.

College grads had an average of $29,200 in college loans a record in the United States based on data for the Class of 2018 for those with bachelor's degrees, according to the latest report by the Institute for College Access & Success. That's up 2% from the 2017 average of $28,650.

Graduating with $35,000 in college debt could amount to a $371 a month payment under a standard 10-year repayment plan, assuming a 5% interest rate. That's just a tad lower than the average car payment for a used car.

Student loan borrowers should fill out the FAFSA as soon as they can to get the most aid. Oct. 1 marks the kick off date for those who will be in college in the fall of 2020.(Photo: BrianAJackson, Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Many times, college grads focus on trying to make those monthly payments as low as possible by signing up for various repayment plans. The trade off, though, is that extending your payments often means you're delaying paying off the loans as interest keeps building.

It's not unusual for many people to see student loan debt build over time the longer they're out of college because they've been paying too little on the debt.

You're not alone, for example, if you're looking at $400 or $500 a month for student loan payments, according to the Fidelity data.

The Fidelity report showed:

To be sure, the average monthly payments listed via Fidelity are considerably higher than the overall averages nationwide. The typical student loan payment falls between $200 and $299 a month, according to data from theFederal Reserve Report on the Economic Well-Being on U.S. Households in 2018.

In general, estimates for those with bachelor's degrees shows that grads majoringin education and communications tended to have lower monthly payments (in the low $300 a month range) than those with engineering or physical science degrees (in the $375 to $395 a month range). That's based on a study of monthly payments in 2012 for those who graduated in 2008 done by the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education.

Those earning degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics may need to borrow more money in some cases.

"The debt of STEM graduates may be higher, but they also have higher income," saidMark Kantrowitz,publisher and vice president of research forSavingforcollege.com.

Millennials have an average student loan balance of $45,548 compared to $55,870 for Generation X and $56,652 for Baby Boomers, according to a Fidelity Investments review of borrowers using its Student Debt Tool.(Photo: Wavebreakmedia, Getty Images/iStockphoto)

According to the Fed's report, 54%of young adults who went to college took on some debt, including student loans, for their education.

Make sure you know the depth of your debt. Add up all of the different student loans that you've taken out over the years and get a clear picture on how much you owe, said Srikantiah at Fidelity.

Then, she said, try to examine what options are out there when it comes to federal repayment plans or possibly refinancing your student loans.

You want to understand the potential trade-offs with any move you make. Paying as much as you can on those loans will reduce your overall cost in the long run but you may need to live on a very tight budget to make that happen.

The Fidelity Student Debt Tool is used by borrowers who want to see all theirstudent loandata in one place and explore the impact of different repayment options.

Fidelity is offering access to a student debt refinancing platform through Credible.com via the student debt tool. Users can compare pre-qualified rates from up to 10 different refinancing lenders without affecting their credit score. In select states, borrowers currently will get a $750 bonus in the "near future" once they close on refinancing a loan.

Refinancing a federal loan into a private loan, though, may mean giving up an opportunity for various repayment options.Fidelity's Student Debt Tool helps borrowers assess the pros and cons of refinancing, including the impact on Federal loan repayment options.

"Repayment of this debt can be challenging," the Fed report stated. "In 2018, two in 10 of those who still owe money are behind on their payments little changed from the prior year."

The Federal Reserve noted in its report that individuals who did not complete their degree or who attended a for-profit institution are more likely to struggle with repayment.

Comparatively speaking, the Fed noted that otherswho completed a degree from a public or private not-for-profit institution, even including those who took on a relatively large amount of debt, had less difficulty.

Typically, a general guideline is that you don't want to owe more than what you can make that first year out of college.

If total debt is less than annual income, you should be able to repay your student loans in 10 years or less, Kantrowitz said.

High monthly payments, of course, cut into one's ability to save money or borrow for something else.

When you're looking at a $450 a month student loan payment, the last thing you want to do is go out and take out a new car loan.

The average new car payment, after all, is about $550 to $595a month, based on data from Experian and Cox Automotive's Dealertrack.

More: Black women bear largest burden in student debt crisis

More: Givling app helps trivia players pay student loans, mortgage debt but it could cost you

More: College grads average $32,158 in debt in Michigan. Here's what some didn't know

More: Struggling to pay student loans? You could be targeted by scammers

One's ability to save for the future or establish roots by buying that first home may also be hindered by a big college debt burden.

Many individuals delaycontributing to their retirement savings plans and many may even take out loans against their 401(k) plans.

Roughly one in five college loan borrowers who used the Fidelity tool reported contributing nothing to their 401(k) plan.

And nearly one out of seven borrowers reported having a loan outstanding against their 401(k), according to the Fidelity research.

What's even more startling: Baby boomers tend to have the largest levels of student loans based on the Fidelity data. Baby boomers had an average monthly payment of $565 for student loans. Their average student loan balance was $56,652.

By contrast, millennials had average monthly payments of $469 on average student loan balances of $45,548.

Over the last decade, the average debt at graduation has increased by 21% for bachelors degree recipients, Kantrowitz noted.

And in the past decade, he said, the average debt at graduation has gone up by 53% for parents.

"Parent debt has increased because students in bachelor's degree programs are running up against the federal student loan limits," Kantrowitz said.

"For a dependent undergraduate student, the aggregate limit for Federal Direct Stafford loans is $31,000 and the sum of the first four years of annual limits is $27,000. As more students hit these limits, it shifts further borrowing to parent and private loans," he said.

Yet parents, too, need to pay careful attention to how much they're willing to borrow to send their children to college.

"My rule of thumb for a parent is 'Don't borrow more than your annual income for all your children,'" Kantrowitz said.

"If your total parent education debt is less than your annual income, you should be able to repay your parent loans in 10 years or less," he said.

If you're an older parent, though, and likely to retire in less than 10 years, you'd want to borrow even less money to send your children to college.

"For example, if retirement is only five years away, borrow half as much," Kantrowitz said.

Contact Susan Tomporat 313-222-8876 or stompor@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @tompor. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.

Read or Share this story: https://www.freep.com/story/money/personal-finance/susan-tompor/2019/10/31/student-loan-debt-average-plan/2483586001/

Read more here:
Who's dealing with the biggest student loan payments? - Detroit Free Press

Buy Photo

weVENTURE mission is to accelerate sustainable business growth for women entrepreneurs. Left to right: Susan Erickson, Kathy Register and Val Williams with their big W that they take with them for promoting weVENTURE. (Photo: MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY)

The businessesweVENTURE helpsput food on the table for local women and their families.Through weVENTURE's guidance,women realize their dream of business ownership and work their way toward financial well-being.

That work has earned weVENTURE a spot as a finalist for Organization of the Year.

weVENTURE started outas the Women's Business Center at Florida Tech in 2007 through a collaborative grant with the U.S.Small Business Administration. Since then, the organization has grown and evolved to provide assistance to small businesses, aspiring entrepreneurs, and growth phase businesses.

Organization of the Year 2018 nominee: Tied Together of the Space Coast

Organization of the Year 2018 nominee: 321 Millennials

Organization of the Year 2018 nominee: Early Learning Coalition

In the 2018-2019program year alone, weVENTURE trained and counseled more than600 clients,helping them gain the confidence to start and grow their business, orempowering them to excel in their chosen profession. weVenture has helped people start more than25 businesses this year. And since its inception, theIGNITE360 business mentoring program has worked with more than100 businesses who cite impressive revenue growth.

"Most rewarding is being able to see our clients achieve their goals," said Val Williams, program director andstrategic business coach. "We've worked with women in businesses all the way from cottage industry to million-dollar-revenue companies. But when they come in, no matter who they are, they have many of the same concerns."

weVENTURE's mission is to accelerate sustainable business growth for women entrepreneurs. Left to right: Val Williams, Kathy Register and Susan Erickson.(Photo: MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY)

weVENTUREaddressesthose concerns one-on-one, form beginning points to mapping out success strategy and importantly, how tomeasure success.

"That's why we do what we do," said Williams. "Women do business a little bit differently. They're parents. They're wives. Their priorities may be different from those of their male counterparts, so they have fears of not being enough ... how will this affect my family? How will this compromise my time? Those soft skills are not always addressed in traditional business coaching, and we look at the complete woman, incorporating personal goals."

weVENTURE believes that "mentorship is important, strong businesses mean a stronger economy, strong businesses need strong leaders and women's voices should always be a part of the conversation,"said board member Ann Luke, who works in the financial services industry.

"It's a treasure to be able to refer entrepreneurs to a local, tested and respected organization to get the help they require, wherever the business is in their growth stage," Lukesaid.

Contact Kennerly at 321-242-3692 or bkennerly@floridatoday.com, Twitter @bybrittkennerly or at Facebook.com/bybrittkennerly.

Read or Share this story: https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2019/10/30/weventure-organization-year-finalist-2019-volunteer-recognition-awards/3881474002/

More here:
weVENTURE is 2019 Organization of the Year finalist in FLORIDA TODAY Volunteer Recognition Awards - Florida Today

Yanely Espinal knows what the power of a financial education she came from a low-income home with two parents and nine children, and ended up with credit card and student loan debt even after receiving a full scholarship to college.

The Brooklyn native said she often saw a difference between herself and some of the wealthier students around her. She attended high school near Lincoln Center in Manhattan, where many students wore brand-name clothes and returned from holiday break with the latest gadgets. When she went to Brown University, her friends were often going bowling or eating at Chipotle, CMG, +1.53% activities she couldnt afford on a regular basis.

So she opened her first credit card at 18 years old, with a $1,500 limit. I never had that much money before, she said. She used that credit card and three others she opened during her college years for textbooks and a laptop, as well as trips to the movies and restaurants. By the time she graduated, she had nearly $20,000 in debt $15,000 in credit card debt and $5,000 from a student loan. Her credit card interest rates were around 21%.

See: Financial literacy skills have taken a nose dive since the Great Recession

A $9 book called Women and Money by Suze Orman caught her eye one day while she was buying shampoo at Duane Reade. That book taught me everything I wish I knew before I was 18, she said. She spent the next few years reading up on saving and investing, and listening to podcasts and TED talks about financial topics.

I became obsessed with knowledge I felt I was deprived from, she said. It was social justice and financial empowerment, and that combination helped fuel my curiosity to learn as much as I could. She started her own YouTube channel, MissBeHelpful, to share some of her own lessons about money as well.

After the YouTuber paid off her debts, in less than two years, she opened her first Roth IRA and then allocated whatever debt payments she used to make into savings and investing. Three years after that, in March 2018, she had amassed just shy of $50,000. In the last 18 months, shes doubled her net worth. Part of her inspiration was the goal to eventually have a comfortable retirement.

Espinal, now 30, is the director of educational outreach at Next Gen Personal Finance, a nonprofit organization that offers free resources and tools to educators interested in teaching personal finance.

Less than half of U.S. states have a financial literacy requirement for high-school students. Financial illiteracy is a growing problem in the U.S., especially for young adults. Less than one-third of college students (28%) could correctly answer three multiple-choice questions about interest, inflation and risk diversification, according to a 2015-2016 FINRA study, and slightly more than half (53%) could do the same.

Although financial literacy is useful, there is a debate about when and how to dispense these lessons. Presidential candidate Andrew Yang tweeted in September that, in his experience, teaching financial literacy is difficult to people who dont have money. Some Twitter users criticized him for the statement, saying individuals can make the most of the lessons they learned when they finally do come into money, while others agreed with him that having the funds beforehand allows people to put their financial education to use immediately.

Still, there are steps anyone can take to get started on the path to financial freedom and eventually a nest egg like Espinals. Here are a few:

Dont miss: Money expert Jean Chatzky on how Americans should save for retirement and what youre getting wrong about the FIRE movement

Much of Espinals success can be traced back to her thirst for knowledge, and all the time she spent reading up on financial topics and soaking up information in podcasts and shows about money.

When you dont know about your money and you dont know about money, you are in this helpless place, she said. Learn as much as you can and look at your situation.

There are plenty of benchmarks and metrics online to measure how well an individual is doing compared with her peers. Sometimes these guidelines can be useful, as a way to gauge what is average, but sometimes they can be discouraging. The key, Espinal said, is simply to assess your current financial situation, and see if there are any tweaks that can be made to spending and saving, as well as other personal factors, like the interest rate youre being charged on your loans or the payment schedule thats set up. Espinal said the interest rates were about five times as high as what she would have been charged if shed taken out student loans instead, but she didnt realize that until it was too late.

Every dollar in a paycheck matters to someone who is living paycheck to paycheck. Although it might seem impossible to part with that money to pay down debt as well as save for retirement and other future goals, it is imperative, Espinal said.

Some people may find they are spending on products and services they dont actually care that much about such as one too many happy hour tabs or a superfluous subscription box (it doesnt always have to be a cup of coffee or avocado toast).

Many financial advisers suggest putting aside 10% (or more) of a salary for retirement, but thats not always feasible. For people who cant afford that, Espinal suggests cutting that rate in half. And if that seems impossible, try putting 3%. The goal is to set aside something anything even when money is tight. This is especially true when an employee has access to an employer-match, which is essentially free money. In that case, most financial experts will say put at least the amount to meet the full match.

Also see: This new Broke Millennial book has secrets for young people who dont want to think about retirement

Making financial decisions can be stressful, especially when there isnt that much money in the budget that may lead people to making the less optimal choice. Automating financial decisions, such as saving a set percentage of every paycheck or when to pay off credit card debt, can support good financial habits, said Tim Ranzetta, co-founder of Next Gen Personal Finance, where Espinal works. Its hard to set aside money for the future when the current situation feels so urgent, he said. Automating it means you dont even have to think about it.

The first savings goal should be an emergency account, which can help pay for an unexpected car repair or a trip to the hospital. Eventually, people can use automation to create and build an investment account, Ranzetta said.

Automatic deposits and automatic escalation of retirement contributions has proven to help Americans for decades. Richard Thaler, who received the Nobel Prize in economics in 2017, is credited with helping Americans put nearly $30 billion in their retirement accounts, because of his and colleagues research on behavioral finance and auto-enrollment and auto-escalation.

Money isnt the easiest thing to talk about, but its important. Parents can teach their children a lot about finances, as can their children eventually teach them when theyre older. Friends and family members should try being more open about these discussions, which can help in many ways, including knowing theyre not alone in a difficult situation or finding useful advice for a problem.

Opening up about your financial situation can also mean finding an accountability partner, said Joe Buhrmann, manager of financial planning support at Country Financial. Friends can become accountability partners, looking for budget-friendly activities and meals, or emotional support systems.

Not everyone has the time or means to create a side income stream or work another job, but its one surefire way to make extra money to put toward debt, and eventually savings. Espinal said she juggled a few jobs to earn more, especially when she was paying down all of her debt. Shed tutor on Saturday mornings, which seemed like a sacrifice when friends were on their way to the beach, but it ensured shed get to a place where was financially comfortable. Get creative coming up with income, she said. Its 2019. There are so many ways to find side gigs and hustles.

Original post:
This woman went from deep debt to retirement riches in a few years by teaching herself financial literacy - MarketWatch

So, after 13 years, its farewell to The Bernard Shaw.

The much-loved Portobello pub will close its doors for good on Sunday 3rd November after a protracted struggle with An Bord Pleanla and local residents over the noise generated by its beer garden.

Added to the mix has been the rate of development in the local area. Planners stated that for the Shaw to continue in its current form would be inconsistent with the emerging pattern of development in the vicinity , specifically mentioning the imposing new block that has risen like a villains lair opposite the pub. Stand in the beer garden, look up and youll see the skyline bristling with cranes as new structures go up all around it.

The venues owners Bodytonic have remained tight-lipped over the precise reason for the closure financial viability doesnt seem to be an issue, as the Irish Times reported that Bernard Shaw Taverns Limited made a 622,416 profit in 2018 but this part of Dublin has turned into something of a hostile environment for a bohemian drinking spot.

Sunday will be a sad day, and theres no doubt that The Bernard Shaw will leave a colossal hole in Portobellos nightlife, and in its many regulars lives. The place never looked like much from the outside much as they tried to give it some jaunty paint jobs and it always appeared to be on the brink of collapse inside; all wobbly walls, too-narrow alleyways, steps where you dont expect them and some of the dodgiest toilets south of Busras.

But what the Shaw did have was charm and easygoing cool. It looked the way it did because it wasnt making an attempt to impress anyone, or fit in with the upwardly mobile venues around it. It was a reflection of many of the people that hung out there: scruffy but interesting.

Music was always a huge part of the place, from the permanent soundtrack of low-level house played throughout the day to new and established DJs from Thursday to Sunday nights. Im lucky to have been able to DJ there several times, the first place in Dublin that would have me after I moved here in 2016.

Then there were the bands that crammed into the tiny downstairs bar or the top-tier touring acts that would make the walls sweat on special occasions. Where else would you be likely to find legendary DJs like Andrew Weatherall, Optimo or Motor City Drum Ensemble playing in a room holding no more than 60 people?

There have been flea markets, art exhibitions, gin festivals, poetry and spoken word, graffiti jams, the Big Blue Bus and so much more. It was a haven for activism International Womens Day, Dublin Pride, Repeal The Eighth and other causes found a home there. And it was the ultimate spot for post-work Friday pints or a Sunday recovery session.

The Shaw was often dismissed as a hipster hangout not least by councillor Mannix Flynn, an advocate for local residents but for a generation of Dubs and visitors from around the country it felt like home.

Bodytonic have now bought the former Porterhouse Whitworth pub beside the Royal Canal, on the boundary of Phibsborough and Glasnevin, and announced plans to move the Shaw lock, stock and barrel as far as possible to the Northside.

Thats an exciting prospect, and an apparent lack of residents within earshot should make it a sustainable location for generations to come.

But the fact remains that the Shaw as we know it is dead. Long live the Shaw.

You can like our main Facebook page here.

Our Dublin Live Sports Page - which brings you all your Dublin sports news - can be found here.

The Dublin Live Twitter account is @DublinLive.

Our Instagram account can be found here.

Go here to see the original:
A fond farewell to The Bernard Shaw as the Portobello pub finally shuts its doors - Dublin Live

Gingold Theatrical Group continues the 14th Season of Project Shaw, Art as Activism: A Theatrical Survival Guide, a special series of evenings of plays that embrace human rights and free speech.

All of GTG's programming, inspired by the works of George Bernard Shaw, are designed to provoke peaceful discussion and activism.

"We get so many requests for Arms and the Man it's already selling out! It's a superbly crafted romantic comedy from top to bottom with every strongly delineated character given a very specific point of view. It's Shaw, so big thoughts and issues are explored, but always in a human and accessible way, with it all coming together in a streamlined and inevitable balance of adventure and romance. For this event we're honored to partner with Evan Yionoulis," said David Staller.

Arms and the Man, one of Shaw's most enduringly popular comedies, is on just about everybody's 'Favorite Shaw' list. The plot follows a hunted soldier who, seeking refuge in a young lady's boudoir, starts in motion a series of highly engaging and unlikely comedic events. His unusual philosophies about love, war and life in general open up a world of thought she'd never previously entertained-certainly not with her dashing war-hero fiance who also arrives unexpectedly. This early work of Shaw's is remarkably pithy.

Photo Credit: Stephen Brown-Fried

Alison Fraser and Bradford Cover

Max Gordon Moore

Arnie Burton and Talene Monahon

Bradford Cover and Amelia Pedlow

Evan Yionoulis and David Staller

Evan Yionoulis Talene Monahon, Alison Fraser ad Amelia Pedlow

Evan Yionoulis Talene Monahon, Alison Fraser, Amelia Pedlow, Max Gordon Moore, Arnie Burton, Bradford Cover and Ben Davis

Evan Yionoulis Talene Monahon, Alison Fraser, Amelia Pedlow, Arnie Burton, Bradford Cover and Ben Davis

David Staller, Kate Mandracchia and Arysbells Figueredo join with Evan Yionoulis Talene Monahon, Alison Fraser, Amelia Pedlow, Max Gordon Moore, Arnie Burton, Bradford Cover and Ben Davis

Arysbells Figueredo and Kate Mandracchia join with Evan Yionoulis Talene Monahon, Alison Fraser, Amelia Pedlow, Max Gordon Moore, Arnie Burton, Bradford Cover and Ben Davis

Alison Fraser, Amelia Pedlow, Bradford Cover and Ben Davis

Alison Fraser and Max Gordon Moore

Amelia Pedlow and Ben Davis

Amelia Pedlow and Ben Davis

Amelia Pedlow and Max Gordon Moore

Amelia Pedlow and Max Gordon Moore

Alison Fraser, Amelia Pedlow, Max Gordon Moore, Bradford Cover and Ben Davis

Alison Fraser, Amelia Pedlow, Max Gordon Moore, Bradford Cover and Ben Davis

Arnie Burton

Arnie Burton

Talene Monahon and Alison Fraser

Ben Davis and Talene Monahon

Alison Fraser, Talene Monahon Amelia Pedlow, Evan Yionoulis, Max Gordon Moore, Ben Davis, Bradford Cover and Arnie Burton

Ben Davis, Evan Yionoulis and Max Gordon Moore

Continued here:
Photo Coverage: Project Shaw Presents ARMS AND THE MAN - Broadway World

Washington National Opera opened its 2019-20 season at the Kennedy Center on Saturday night with a performance of Giuseppe Verdis Otello signaling that the company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Francesca Zambello and General Director Timothy OLeary, goes from strength to strength as it embarks upon its 64th season.

Verdi esteemed no writer more highly than Shakespeare, and the extent of the bards influence upon the composer extends well beyond the three operas (Macbeth, Otello, and Falstaff) that are directly based on Shakespeare plays. It is no surprise, therefore, that Verdi couldnt resist an invitation from his publisher to collaborate with the young librettist, Arrigo Boito, on an opera based on Othelloeven if it meant interrupting a comfortable retirement. The overtly operatic qualities of Shakespeares play (George Bernard Shaw went so far as to refer to the source work as a play written by Shakespeare in the style of Italian opera) are maximized by Boito and Verdi in what is widely regarded as one of the crowning glories of Verdis storied career.

The success of any production of this opera rests largely upon the shoulders of the three singers portraying Otello, Iago, and Desdemonaeach of them given music of exceptional range that demands great versatility from the artists. Desdemona is the most conventionally Italianate of these characters, with music in which Verdi himself said that the melodic line never ceases from beginning to end.

But it is not quite so simple, as Verdi still demands very different types of singing from his female leadfrom the gentle lyricism of Acts I and IV to the demanding dramatic work of Act III. The soprano Leah Crocetto negotiated these shifts with admirable facility and shone most brilliantly in the wrenching Act III scene with Otello where the full power of her clarion upper register reflected her increasing desperation and her impassioned but ultimately futile declarations of innocence. While one might have hoped for a more understated rendering of the Willow Song, Crocettos stunning Ave Maria in Act IV (ably supported with responsive playing from the WNO Orchestra string section) was a masterclass in subtlety and control and proved to be a true showstopperthe only moment in Saturdays performance when the continuous flow of Verdis music was interrupted by audience applause.

Iago is at the other extremea character who infrequently sings in the true sense of the word but, as Verdi described it, more often declaims in a constantly shifting style matching his protean capacity for duplicity and manipulation. In his WNO debut, the baritone George Gagnidze was a commanding presence both musically and dramatically, whose performance helps one understand why Verdi and Boito initially planned to call their opera Iago. From the frantic energy of the Act I drinking song, to his shattering interpretation of the iconic Credo, to the calculated guile of his conversations with Otello, Gagnidze was everything that one could have hoped for in this most complex of Shakespearean villains.

Otello closes November 16, 2019. Details and tickets

The music of the title character makes the most varied demands upon the singerrequiring both the easy lyricism of a bel canto lover in the fleeting moments of tenderness with Desdemona and the stentorian tones of a warrior hero. The tenor Russell Thomas has steely, ringing high notes in abundance, and, while never actually losing control of his voice, he went about as far as he could in an effort to suggest the extent of Otellos undoing at the hands of Iago. The approach was risky, bold, and largely successful. Thomass depiction of Otellos emotional outbursts came across as uniformly intense, but, with more nuance and variety, he might have traced a more progressive journey from suspicion to madness.

Among the smaller roles, the tenor Zach Borichevsky had a strong turn as Cassio, and the mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel brought pathos and power to the role of Emilia, stepping out of the shadows to command the stage in the final moments of Act IV.

The Italian conductor Daniele Callegari, returning to WNO for the first time since leading Un Ballo in Maschera in 2010, maintained a taut sense of pacing throughout the evening while allowing adequate breathing space for the operas relatively few moments of lyrical repose. Revelling in the infinite colors of Verdis orchestration, Callegari elicited sensitive and detailed playing from the WNO Orchestra with especially fine contributions from the winds and brass. The WNO Chorus, prepared by Chorus Master Stephen Gathman, rose to the considerable challenges of the score, singing with fine diction and rhythmic energy.

The staging, a co-production of English National Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, and the Teatro Real Madrid, directed by David Alden, paled in comparison with the musical strengths of the production. With a single large set piece framing both interior and exterior scenes in and around a dilapidated structure washed in gray, the staging was both visually bland and, at times, logically inconsistent.

The bonfire kindled outside the castle in Act I was re-ignited in Act IV, but now in Desdemonas bedchambera sparsely furnished space with no bed. The fire in Acts I and IV was one of the more graceful and effective lighting choices in a production otherwise bathed in whitish-gray hues, the monotony of which further blurred the distinction between interior and exterior spaces. Costumes and props were vaguely suggestive of the first quarter of the 20th century, but details were imprecise. The use of an icon of the Madonna as a symbol of Otellos idealized vision of Desdemonaplaced next to her in Act II, desperately clutched by Otello at the beginning of Act III, then lifted over his head as he is poised to strike Desdemona, then finally used as a dartboard by Cassiowas a clumsy and gratuitous choice.

In her welcome letter to the audience, Zambello noted that it had long been her wish to bring Otello to WNO but that she waited to line up all of the right elements to present the work here in DC. Overall, Saturday nights production suggested that Zambellos patience has paid offas she has indeed brought together many, if perhaps not all, of the pieces to do justice to Verdi and Boitos masterful treatment of Shakespeare.

Otello, an opera in four acts. Music by Giuseppe Verdi. Libretto by Arrigo Boito. Based on the play by William Shakespeare. Conductor: Daniele Callegari. Director: David Alden. Washington National Opera Orchestra, Washington National Opera Chorus, Washington National Opera Childrens Chorus. Cast:Leah Crocetto (Desdemona), Russell Thomas (Othello), Iago (George Gagnidze), Deborah Nansteel (Emilia), Zach Borichevsky (Cassio), Alexander McKissick (Roderigo), Hunter Enoch (Montano/Herald), Wei Wu (Lodovico), Claudia Agero, Mario (Solo Dancer).Set and Costume Designer: Jon Morrell. Lighting Designer: Andrew Cutbush. Choreographer: Maxine Braham. Fight Coordinator: Casey Kaleba. Cover Conductor & Diction Coach: Giovanni Reggioli. Assistant Conductors: Michael Baitzer & Matthew Lobaugh. Chorus Master: Steven Gathman. Assistant Director: David Toro. Stage Manager: Lynn Krynicki. Produced by Washington National Opera .Reviewed by Richard Giarusso.

Related

The rest is here:
Review: Otello from Washington National Opera - DC Theatre Scene