We are calling to order meeting number 266 of the Massachusetts Gaining Commission on May 1st 2019 at 10 a.m. At our offices at 101 Beto Street We will begin with agenda item 2, please Commissioner Stevens approval of minutes. Good morning madam chair in your packet. You have the meeting minutes from the March 28th 2019 Meeting I would move their approval against subject to correction for any typographical errors or any other non-material matters second Any further discussion? All in favor I opposed Five one. Thank you Zero oh and five zero. I'm sorry. Good morning, and it is a happy May Day As to the commission's report as you know last night The commission issued its decision Regarding the suitability of wind resorts and wind mass LLC. I Wish first to thank my fellow commissioners. This has been a complex process Requiring focus and thoughtfulness over the course of many many hours many many days of deliberation And to the entire team on behalf of the Commission, thank you As I said last night in an email to all of you We the commissioners were able to focus on the process and doing our job Because we knew that each of you have and would continue to fulfill your professional responsibilities It is particularly important and I Imhesitant to do this but to thank individuals Because I hope you all know that we truly think the entire team But I would be remiss to not point out the excellent work of the IEB and particularly Karen Wells the director Loretta Lilios and detective The lieutenant detective lieutenant Brian Connors Your work was excellent as we noted at the adjudicatory hearing. We were Helped thoroughly by your methodical approach and care. I Also would be remiss not to thank Edward Roshan our executive director for his steady hand throughout this period and Of course the legal team Who has helped us stay in day out headed by Catherine blue general counsel Todd Grossman Justin Stembeck and Carrie Troisi who is having a birthday today? Happy birthday Carrie. I think she noted that maybe about the beginning of this week How much she was looking forward to Wednesday? So thank you Our mission is clear here at the gaming commission Ensuring public confidence in the integrity of the gaming industry and the strict oversight of the gaming establishments Through rig rigorous regulation is without question our paramount objective We all understand that the award of a gaming license in Massachusetts is different It was never intended to be anything short of a peerless privilege and The law requires that our licensees be held to the highest standards Including an obligation to maintain their integrity on a continued basis Please know that we made our decision with great care as We methodically weighed the evidence in this matter Conforming to the standards of review that the law requires and expects of us the law affords a commission Significant breath on our decision-making, but with that comes a Significant duty to be fair And we are very confident that we have struck the right balance and met our legal and ethical burdens For the reasons that are detailed in the written decision the licensee and its qualifiers remain suitable Although the commission did not find Substantial evidence necessary to disrupt the licensee suitability status the decision speaks for itself We the entire commission Were profoundly disturbed by repeated systemic failures and the pervasive culture of non-disclosure Presented in the IEP's thorough investigative report and the three-day adjudicatory hearing to help ensure future compliance and Indeed to punish for transgressions the commission has imposed a series of penalties and Conditions Including a 35 million dollar fine on wind resorts and the requirement of an independent monitor to ensure the continued and Proper implementation of the company's proposed remedies It's fair to say that recent changes to the company's governance model policies trainings and operations show a new commitment and focus on all levels of employees Which combined with the ongoing successful business operations Continue to demonstrate that when will likely be a successful operator in Everett Given our findings it is now in the interest of the Commonwealth But the gaming licensee move forward Establishing and maintaining that successful gaming establishment Here in Massachusetts One of the key metrics by which we will measure that success will be the overall Well-being safety and wealth welfare excuse me of the employees a Second but equally important metric is the importance of compliance and Communication with the commission as the regulator We believe our decision in its entirety is designed to ensure full effective implementation of the practices The commission however Acknowledges that our role is not to micromanage corporate affairs or to substitute our judgment for theirs Instead our rule is of gatekeeper Standing guard to ensure that the gaming license is operating consistent and with an obligation to integrity But to be clear transparency and self-reporting With the regulator is a hallmark of the regulatory landscape We will expect nothing less of our licensee again, I Wish to thank my fellow commissioners. This has been a demanding process And I would like to offer the opportunity for you to share your thoughts at this time I'd just like to echo your thoughts and thank the team We were faced with a significant challenge the entire commission frankly, and I'm very proud of the way the team Put a plan in place Executed the plan the investigative team countless trips to get to the facts to get to the truth and provide us with With a really strong investigative report To work from so I just I really want to thank everybody Ieb in particular for the work that was done legal has worked tremendously hard and every one of the commission understood How important this was and took their jobs very seriously, and I'm very proud of the team. I Would echo the same thing. I don't think it can be understated how critical the work of the Ieb was to this process And also the work of the legal staff and helping these Five commissioners come to the conclusion of the deliberations that we did last week I don't think that can be understated Well, I'll restate it again, and I think it's also I Think it's tremendous work. I think the record shows and will show that The work was very extensive and very thoughtful I think as an adjudicatory matter The the law and the and the regulations also afforded the licensee Significant rights of due process and on in that context the timeframe is one that we had to respect and Allow for it to play through in terms of the discovery piece in terms of the investigation But also the submission of materials With the proper turnaround for our own team, etc. So I think that's important to to state here We thought we were gonna be addressing this issue a little earlier than than we have and there was this Real milestone if you will linger in the in the horizon in the opening of this or the scheduled opening of This operation, but at no time we wanted to compromise and we I don't feel that we did These two process that I'm talking about We operated in parallel tracks, but importantly We had to address these and get it right I really believe that we did and again the Decision speaks for itself. I also would add my thanks to the to the IEB team the legal team You know for their work over literally the past year Helping us to get this right. I also want to thank our other departments who have Done their work to maintain the short maintain the commission's obligations with our other Licensees over the last year and actually opening up another resort casino less than a year ago during this time frame. I Also want to thank my fellow commissioners You think back to the gaming statute and how it's specifically wanted Commissioners with different backgrounds and different experiences to come together to work and I found that personally Extremely helpful as we went through our deliberations. So thanks to the four of you as well You know, let me let me add that as well that thank to to all of all of my fellow commissioners But especially the newer ones madam chair. I think you have really stepped up to the challenge You have come a little newer than the rest of us on the matter but but throughout the this whole process and Commissioner Brian as well. I think the thoughtfulness that you bring to trying to understand what is at least with on some of us Maybe less unfamiliar topics were really at this play and I think It's it's great. It's great that you're here Before we do take a break. There is one clarification that I've asked on Count general counsel blue to address and that's the timing of the payment of the fines that Have been imposed by our decision. It is a statutory matter if you would like to address that now that would be helpful Thank you. Thank you madam chair This matter is a is addressed in our enabling act 23 K section 36 sections F through G And what that requires is that any fine? It's assessed would be paid within 30 days of the assessment of the fine unless there is a request for judicial review And if the person requesting judicial review is the person who's paying the fine The money goes into escrow in a court unless there was a petition to the court to replace that with a bond So it is it has a pretty specific process for that. It is 30 days unless there is some sort of judicial review Thank you. So that the just to emphasize the Licensee can ask for a reconsideration What you said or appeal our decision? So Reconsideration would be an internal commission type process and we have had in other matters where the commission has active requests for Reconsideration, but the most logical next step would be review by a court Which would be the superior court in this case and the licensee could do that if they so chose And they have to do these within 30 days. Yes, that's right All right, any questions and before we break because I was so excited about wishing Carrie her birthday I've neglected to mention you Sharra Sharra Bernard to thank you so much for For all the work that you were doing in many ways behind the scenes that make everything run very smoothly for us our paralegal On our schedule, we would like to take a short break now, and then we'll return to the commission's business of the day Thank you as As I stated earlier ensuring public confidence in the integrity of the gaming industry and the strict oversight of the gaming establishments Through rigorous regulation is without question Our paramount concern and objective We all understand that the awarding of a gaming license in Massachusetts was never intended to be anything short of a peerless privilege And there were law requires that our licensees Be held to the highest of standards on an ongoing basis As I stated earlier, we made our decision with great care as we methodically Wade the evidence before us conforming to the standards of review that the law requires The law does afford the commission significant breadth in our decision-making But with that comes an equally significant duty of fairness We took that very seriously We are confident that we have struck the correct balance and met our ethical and legal obligations Again as I stated earlier, and it can't be overstated how much I wish to thank my fellow commissioners This has been a demanding process And to the entire team again at the commission on behalf of my fellow commissioners who truly join me We thank the entire team for their diligence and patience We recognize that this matter was professionally challenging and at many times required personal sacrifice We thank all of the team for their important work on behalf of the Commonwealth and we're available to take questions I think that the main message that we want to send is how much we feel our role is to secure the integrity of the gaming industry here to Ensure that our gaming establishments rise to the level of excellence that our statutes require And we also really want to make sure that the people of Massachusetts know that we will always protect the vulnerable and make sure our employees here in Massachusetts are safe You know we can't speculate we're looking forward to continuing a continued relationship our decision stands on its own You know our deliberations are private. I'm going to let my fellow commissioners join us It's important to recognize that the deliberations Private we honor each other's opinions and we respect our opinions But we did make a decision and we feel it supports and reflects the deliberative process But I'm happy to have commissioner Cameron. Would you like to join in? I think I think you said it well I think anyone that observed the hearing and read the decision understands clearly what our concerns were individually and collectively and I believe that our decision reflects that those concerns We looked at all of the violations all of the behavior and we really believe our Our numbers are commensurate with that Sure as as commissioner Cameron mentioned we do feel that that fine reflects the scope and multitude of the violations We were very mindful that it should be Have the effect of two things one it should serve as a punishment to really address those violations that we felt were The responsibility of certain executives and certain members of the board of directors We also felt it was necessary to provide a message of deterrence to ensure future compliance Is there anything that you'd like to add Yeah, if I may that as a decision states There's a number of instances not just in in terms of the allegations that happened But also in terms of disclosure to the commission that came that failed to come at different times So the as the chair stated The the fine is meant to also act as the Terrence and future compliance to that self-reporting Peace that we also expect The statute provides for that it go to the gaming revenue fund which is Divided by you know into several funds that you can check our website It goes to a number of places that are all statutory Not that we know of there is continues to be many decisions in front of us And we will be starting to address those going forward in our meetings between now and their anticipated opening day Is that fair to say? Why not You know, I think that would really force us to speculate and aren't the requirement before us was to really look at the facts That were squarely before us. I'm not sure if perhaps would you like to add to that? I was referenced before once the license is attached while it is revocable There are due process rights and procedures that apply to any Rejudication that would take away the license and I think this decision does stand for itself if you look at The process that this commission went through in terms of assessing the record before us under the lens of what the statute allows us to do In the evidence before us and we got to this decision that in our opinion the evidence and the statute that we have to go by mandated Can I add something to that because I think it's important, but it's also in the decision The company also took a number of steps before we made this decision that are that have to be taken into account They there's not there's a number of people who are no longer at the company who were directly Involved and implicated in some of these allegations and they presented a number of Processes and procedures that we will verify by the way and that's part of the monitoring piece That's also part of the conditions That that we believe have to be taken into account when when determining the whole You know, it's our understanding that the company did make certain proposals for conditions and we reviewed those and with respect to that We decided that not to incorporate that formally into our conditions But certainly the the company thought it was a good idea. We'll let them proceed as they see fit Well, you know, we have imposed fines and we've imposed some significant conditions and one of them will be to Have a independent monitor go in there the company has proposed to us what we consider were quite comprehensive proposals and practices that would mitigate their past transgressions and You know really work for their transformative process and change that they told us about but to really ensure in fact the effect of Implementation that you're considering and questioning about the independent monitor will report back to us on that and that should give us the confidence to know that in fact that change is real and that Monitor will be selected by us at the company's expense No Now our deliberative process is is really a private process and how it was managed is probably not really a matter for Public purview, but we were very respectful of hearing everybody's opinions and and and we really were able to come out Comfortably with an outcome that we fully as a commission as a group support I think the decision is so detailed. It speaks for itself We will now reconvene meeting number 266. Thank you administrative update Good morning commissioners So I would be remiss if I also didn't add My thanks to staff and the commission For all their work in the past year year and a half and I want to reflect specifically what commissioner Stebbin said was that in addition to the sort of obvious portions of commission staff the IEB And the GEU that was working hard doing the investigation. There were many other Portions of the staff that kept their heads down and did the day-to-day work Including some you'll hear from today finance and in Racing, you know, we had HR our administrative staff. There were a lot of folks who during this serve Semi-convultuous times really kept their head down and did their jobs Is as proud as I am of the obvious folks? I'm even more proud of those folks. So commissioner Stebbins and commissioners. Thank you for Noting that in your comments. Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank you you are in a Super challenging position you had to wait for a lengthy investigation in a situation in which there was a Outward deadline that could have influenced Events did not and you were patient In a time period in which patients could have been at a low level You were respectful of the process And you gave me as executive director The authority to try and and get us through this time With the backup and I truly appreciate that. So thank you very much but But now on to our regular business and as I have said in past meetings While the IEB was conducting its investigation and even during the commission's deliberations Other staff members were working on a we've called the parallel path to prepare for what we called the time a potential Opening of encore boss at harbor and now the commission has reached a decision there are Pre-opening matters that need to be cited by the Commission and can only be decided by the Commission and To that end I'm going to ask permission to schedule a public meeting of the Commission And I will just say reasonably soon To start to address these matters I think this would also reflect that between now and the opening date We may need to schedule commission meetings More frequently it may be out of order of what our usual every other Thursday is And so I just want to alert and work with the Commission on that so That we have a path forward the good news is as I said those portions of staff have been preparing but we do we now need your assistance and so If with your permission, I will as I said reasonably soon schedule us those issues in front of the Commission So that is again. Thank you very much. That is my update and if there are any questions I will answer them. If not, I will turn it over to Derek Lennon one of the one of the folks I talked about who kept his head down and kept You know the money flowing for lack of better term kept the finance and budget and everything on track during this time Thank you executive director for derogation Good morning, madam chair and commissioners. Good morning. We I am joined by Agnes Bolier Douglas and Donald And we get to present to you the FY 19 third quarterly budget update But before we do that, we'd like to echo the sentiments of everyone that's said it already the Herculean efforts and difficult decisions and thoughtful process you went through For your decision on suitability So thank you for the time and effort, but now we want to really get on to the interesting stuff You know our third quarterly budget update Spoken like a spoken like a CFO A little bit of dry humor there The Bass gaming commission approved an FY 19 budget for the gaming control fund of 33.4 million composed of 22.6 million in regulatory cost and 10.79 million in statutorily required costs the gaming control fund required an initial assessment of 28.32 million on Licensees as of the last update the commission's budget increased by 3.1 million Which was funded through a combination of carry forward revenue from FY 18 Licensing fees outpacing projections and an additional assessment on licensees For this third quarter staff is seeking to increase the budget again by 1.3 million all in legal costs However, we're not looking to increase the assessment on licensees as the majority of the additional costs are associated with the wind Resort suitability review and are therefore a hundred percent reimbursable In addition licensing fees continue to outpace even the revised Revenue estimates and we've increased that budget item by 295,000 Of the 1.3 million that we're seeking in legal fees about 800,000 that's already spent and the other 500,000 are bills we're waiting to get In and that we think at least 50 to 70% of that should be reimbursable as part of the regulatory review after reviewing it with Catherine so that's the reason that we're not looking for an increase to the assessment at this time In conclusion staff is seeking a vote to increase the gaming control fund budget by 1.3 million to 37.8 million And it's based on the information in your packet Yes, yes, you were seeking a vote. Yes to increase the budget. I'm sorry. I don't know if We had noted that on our is that an issue then should we Well, I would like to share with the Commission that the Attorney General's open meeting law division has actually just issued an opinion Where this question came up and they came down on the side of as long as it was reasonably described on the agenda But vote was not there. You could in fact vote on that. So this is a decision that came down in the last week or two Having said that and I of course because it's under my administrative item. I probably own part of this as I said I Anticipate another meeting Reasonably soon So I wouldn't think it's a big deal just to put this off for that reasonable period And then the vote would be relatively hopefully relatively quick I would suggest that although I do appreciate that opinion of the AG's office I think if that would be acceptable to you does that in any way impact your work No, it doesn't because we've already sent out the assessment because we're not increased our third quarterly billing because we're not increasing the assessment But our internal policy is any time we change the budget the Commission has to approve it. Okay. Thank you very much then We will make sure at our next meeting to address this with respect to noting a vote needed. Thank you And at this point, I'd like to turn it over to Agnes to give us an update on our diversity vendor spend Good morning, madam chair and commissioners Today in your packets you have the supply diversity program benchmarks in the Massachusetts gaming Commission's total spending and Converances to date through the third quarter for FY 19 Currently we have reached and surpassed our benchmark for the small businesses and the minority owned businesses We are continuing to work towards our goal for the women owned businesses and There are a few more encumbrances that we are looking to add For the end of the year But we are still reaching out to all of our vendors to see if they have any subcontractors that they can that can be applied to This category this however this category still remains a challenge for us We have also engaged the services of a vendor that is reviewing our procurements and reaching out to potential vendors for responses The final category of service disabled veteran owned businesses remains a bit of a challenge But we have identified a vendor for office supplies and continuing to work with them. We are looking to use the vendor Whenever it is economically prudent to do so and we have More bills that have recently come in from them so that will be in the fourth quarter's update Just just to touch on a few of those items The women owned businesses has been a difficult area for us for the last two or three years So we have actually engaged a vendor named vera cloud. We'd like to bring them in Later on in the year when things kind of quiet down a little bit to give you an idea of what they've been helping us with They actually look through all of our statewide contract spend all the statewide vendors to figure out their areas that we can Change where we're doing work And give give business to another vendor for all of our RFRs We give them advanced notice of when they're going out what services we're looking at and they actually reach out to Vendors who are on the list, but that haven't actually received Contracts in the past with the Commonwealth. So they have gotten us two to three time multipliers of diverse vendors that are submitting proposals, but once again, if it's not the best value we Can't we can't procure with them, but they've actually gotten us three or four additional Minority women owned suppliers that we hadn't contracted with and hadn't received state contracts in the past and they're relatively inexpensive I think they charge about twenty five hundred to three thousand per procurement that they worked on for us or per engagement Which we would burn through much quicker in staff costs to utilize this their statewide vendor as well Unfortunately, they do not check any of the boxes as far as minority or women own door But they are on the incubator procurement and on the veterans side we I've actually taken this issue to Jill's group of of quasi groups and It was run by Habes And this is an issue that everyone's coming into with veterans They don't have a great way to deal with it. I begged and pleaded I said we're having a hard time finding vendors in this area Unfortunately, a lot of the vendors that a veteran status have to do with construction. We don't do much construction On our own spend while our licensees may we do not So office supply is one of the areas that our Veraclod pointed out to us So we're shifting costs over to them even though as our licensees might not like to hear It may be a little bit more expensive, but it builds that base allows them to grow their Their business and then get a little more competitive in pricing Well, it may also help our licensees So I know we're also facing the same challenge of finding veteran owned businesses Sharing that information they may be able to increase their vendor spendings. Yes Yeah, and really I really like the idea of having a demonstration in the future from what Veraclod does I Understand it at a very High level. There's some kind of an online platform that they can check through technology all of the things that you were talking about Maybe people who are submitting bits, but not getting them among other things So I think would benefit from from a demonstration Yeah, I appreciate the effort it seems to me that you really you know, there's a goal You know, it's important for us to meet our goals and you're not just saying well, we couldn't do it Because you know, no one applied or they weren't competitive price-wise, but you're making that extra effort and I think that's important Well, and I think we're just an interesting Entity in that we're almost putting the same requirement on the people that we regulate It's nice if we can say we're trying to meet those same goals and efforts as one It's paramount really, so I think that you've taken good initiative to address really a challenge Are you also working with OSD? So we we do work closely with Dimitri. We work closely with Bill back avoid we and you know, they they come to those same groups They have the same issues the same challenges and getting the base and getting the a lot of it is getting People understand what the right commodity codes are too, which is what Vera cloud has helped with their data mining skills are quite impressive To say to vendors you're not getting Information on these RFRs or on these opportunities because you haven't signed up for the right code so when State agency post something in their public procurement side. You're not getting notification even though you fall under these services So that's what Vera cloud has helped us with a lot As well as going out and just pounding the streets and saying to people working with chambers of commerce and saying hey Do you have other vendors that can register? I know the administration has taken a lot of steps to streamline the process to make sure Certification is accessible to the vets and to the women-owned businesses and minority-owned businesses So it sounds like you're getting good guidance so that we make sure we're not creating additional obstructions to the there they're Replying to RFPs, whatever we can do to sort of keep its Streamline Good, yeah, I imagine that I'm quite frankly there anything else Derek. I do have just Just looking at prior trends our budget has mostly increased on the labor side will be and will be hiring More gaming agents and whatnot There's that how does that change if at all the calculation of the diversity spent So it's actually The administration and we follow the administration rule has actually increased the percentages of your Targets for diversity spend so while our budget may be shrinking and our discretionary budget may be shrinking the Rate applied is increasing So we've stayed pretty much consistent as far as what we're required to spend even though we've continued to downsize on consultants We've continued to streamline in the IT area with bringing more things in-house a lot of our contract are already locked up but and you know, so we've really had to push for our Contractors to look for subcontracting opportunities to meet these goals because when you look at IT a lot of that goes to our central monitoring system when you look at The consultants or legal budget it's all with one or two vendors And they don't they don't have that Minority distinction, but it doesn't mean that it's excluded Because you're supposed to try and work for some Well, we appreciate this report and and I suspect that we will be also joining you and thinking about this Innovatively because it's so important. We look forward to that Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. That is the end of the administrative update Thank you executive director Petrosian Next we will hear from director Wells on an MGM qualifier Thank you and again It's an opportunity to remind folks how thankful and appreciative we have been for your thorough work in the IEB Investigative report and at the hearing. Thank you very much. We wish your colleagues were next to you right now But it's nice to see you. I'm sure in a different role right now Yes, I was very fortunate to have the best team available Working on that investigation Brian Connors, Loretta Lelios, Gina Joyce, Kevin Condon We had an assistance from some outside consultants just an unbelievable team So I'm very proud of the work that they've completed You is that on or can you get close? Yeah, so I have not sat before you in my General capacity as the director in 15 months. So for the first item up on the IEB's agenda We have the results of the suitability investigation for Patrick Martin who is a qualifier for MGM resorts International you have already received and presumed reviewed the investigative report on mr. Martin The investigation was conducted by trooper John Morris and financial investigators David McKay and Monica Chang Mr. Martin was hired by MGM As vice president of regional compliance in February of 2018 based on his position We made a determination that he be Deemed a qualifier for the region be casino license and that he be required to be found suitable by you as members of the Commission He submitted his application materials on April 30th, 2018 Submitted all those forms along with supplemental documentation requests to the licensing division and the investigators and complied with all the requests made by the Massachusetts gaming Commission Areas covered during his background check included his employment history criminal record education political contributions references media coverage Directorships and shareholder interests civil litigation bankruptcies and property ownership among other things Mr. Martin is was interviewed in person by the IEB state police and financial investigators on February 7th of 2019 as part of the investigatory protocol and investigators all can also conducted a financial responsibility evaluation and that had positive results as you have reviewed in the report Mr. Martin attended the University of Kansas where he entered earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1995 He returned to the University of Kansas from 1999 to 2002 where he received his Juris doctorate. He is an attorney As for his employment history He has worked at three law firms both prior to becoming an attorney and as an attorney shook hearty and bacon fleece and gooey and Coulson sugar Thompson and kill Roy and then he transitioned into His positions as a gaming regulator first working at the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission as general counsel and executive director And then at the Ohio casino Commission as director of regulatory compliance. He then Was offered and accepted a position with MGM resorts International as the vice president of regional compliance, which is why his Consideration for his suitability is before you today He explained to investigators that MGM resorts is a generally Comprised of three regions. They have the Macau region the Las Vegas region and then what he deemed everything else Properties outside of Las Vegas and Macau are referred to by MGM internally as their regional properties in his role Mr. Martin overseas compliance for MGM properties in Detroit, Michigan Springfield, Massachusetts Atlantic City, New Jersey Yonkers, New York Washington DC, Mississippi and Ohio He works out of an office located near MGM resorts National Harbor property in Washington DC. He's responsible for ensuring that his regional compliance team Adheres to and complies with the various regulations placed on MGM by the different states in which the company operates Mr. Martin said that part of his role includes on-site visits to the different Regional MGM properties and then he attempts to visit at least one property every couple of weeks He reports directly to mr. Steve Martino who was previously found suitable by this commission He disclosed that he has three gaming related licenses or registrations due to his role with MGM That's in New Jersey a Michigan in Maryland Investigators confirm with the following gaming jurisdictions that he has registered licensed or has been found suitable under MGM resorts International that's Michigan Gaming Control Board and the Maryland Lottery and Game Control Commission No derogatory information was discovered in those jurisdictions and at that the time of this report for you today The results to inquiries remain pending with the New Jersey Casino Control Commission Mr. Martin was involved in civil litigation matters related to his positions at the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission and Ohio Casino Control Commission and nothing in those matters negatively impacted his suitability for licensure During his interview. He was asked if he had personally or through any established LLC or other financial vehicle paid out any settlements of any amount And he answered he had not he was asked of any allegations ever had been made against him relative to harassment discrimination or misconduct of any kind or if he had participated in any act of harassment discrimination or sexual misconduct and He replied in the negative. There were no significant issues uncovered related to mr. Martin's application for licensure So overall he demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence. He is suitable for licensure in Massachusetts Therefore the IEB is recommending that the Commission find him suitable here today. I Thought it was a good report. I think what's interesting and ironic is the conversations we had earlier this morning about The relationship between the regulator and the regulatory right that his background has been on the public sector side and Even more importantly his relationship with Stephen Martino who we all know when he was executive director of the Maryland Lottery Somebody who gave us a lot of direction early on and standing up at this Commission, but We know Patrick will take our interest to heart in this new position. I'm sure Yeah Madam chair, I think this is a clean report and I would move that this Commission Approve panel Patrick Daniel Martin vice president of regional compliance for MGM resorts international Approve his his the recommendation of IEB that he is suitable As a qualifier second Any further discussion all those in favor I Opposed 5-0 and thank you for your thorough report. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you director Wells next up Good morning, dr. Light Brown Morning, it's good to see the three of you you have three items for us to consider today First of all, I'd like to thank you all and Director Bedrosian and general counsel blue and her legal team for everything you guys have done over the past year Although you've been very busy Everybody's made sure that there was time for racing and to address different items that have come up from us So I appreciate that Our first item is reimbursement of the 2017 unclaimed tickets This is a ongoing process that started earlier this year where any Individual patrons who had claims on tickets were validated by Chief Financial Analyst Chad Bork with the different tracks that came before the Commission for approval once that was approved it went back to Letters to the tracks asking for the money to be sent to the Commission and the Commission received the money And then now at this point we're asking for a vote to send this money back to Where the money stature towardly goes from the unclaimed tickets for the horse tracks that goes to the purse accounts Where there's no greyhound racing when that ended the legislature Created the greyhound racing stabilization fund and then money goes into that fund now and originally that money went to owners and trainers Through a program that ended several years ago and now the money there's not a mechanism for the money to go out But it still goes into that So I'll turn it over to Chad now Before you do that Alex remind you what on the on the when you point about the dog racing Have we do we approve those transfers or do they happen automatically? Transfers to the you approve you're proving that today. Yes. Well, we're voting that later The next Thank you behind the opaque. Yes So those are there as well Morning madam chair and commissioners. Good morning So for the unclaimed tickets for horse tracks, those go back into the purse accounts and For 2017 the amount sterling Suffolk will reimburse is for 224,045 dollars and 33 cents and The amount for a plain ridge race course They will reimburse for 186,705 dollars and 64 cents The unclaimed tickets from the greyhound tracks will go into the racing stabilization fund for 2017 the amount Wonderland will reimburse is for 7,981 dollars and 23 cents and the amount for Rainham Park will reimburse is for 150,144 dollars and 70 cents these funds They were delivered to the commission. They have cleared and so with your approval. We will go ahead and Allocate the funds accordingly Any questions? Do we need to address this separately or can we combine this would it be? Actually Catherine do you recommend it to be separate votes with respect to the dog racing versus the horse racing? Separate votes as to each track or dogs versus horses I think separate tracks as separate votes as to dogs versus horses. Yes Madam chair, I'd move that the commission approve The deposit of unclaimed wagers and the person found so the rating racing meeting licensees As prescribed in the packet to sterling Suffolk bounds Do I have a second second all those in favor I opposed Five zero. Thank you Mr. Stevens Secondly, I'd move that the commission approve the amounts from unclaimed tickets by Greyhound meeting licensees Be dedicated to the racing stabilization fund is prescribed in the packet to Wonderland Greyhound Park and Rainham Park Second All those in favor I opposed Five zero Okay, thank you The next two items are Dealing with Suffolk Downs opening. They are going to be racing the 18th and 19th of May. Those that'll be their first weekend Today representing Suffolk Downs. We have Jessica Pickett President of marketing Just an update Suffolk did get their NTR a accreditation through the safety and integrity Alliance Reupt for this year and also the track inspection is going to be done later on this week Thanks, our first item is the Suffolk Downs request for reduced takeout Satutorily they can take out no more than 19% on one place and show and 26% on Exotics for the last this is something they've asked for for the last five years And the Commission has approved it They have felt that it's been a success for them and they're asking to do it again this year with similar takeouts from before 16% on the win place and show and the 19% on the exotics and this does require a vote Madam chair. I familiar with this. I think it's an appropriate request and I move that the Commission approve the request of Suffolk Downs to reduce the takeout To 16% on win place and show and 19% on exotics as recommended by our racing division second Any discussion questions all those in favor? Opposed 5-0 Thank you And the next item is the Suffolk Downs request for approval of their P-operating personnel and racing officials This is something similar to what you did about a month ago with Plain Ridge for their P-operating and officials Again a lot of these people are coming from out of town and they may not be licensed with us currently So we're asking that you approve them Pending satisfactory completion of their background checks by the state police and pending approval by the stewards Just looking at the list of folks on there. It's they're all familiar to us and have been in these positions before Dr. Leipem, I don't see Susan's name on there. Will she not be judging this year? Well, Susan it works for the Gaming Commission We don't have to approve her We've already approved her. I would have okay I'm happy to see she's back. Yes. She wouldn't miss it Do we have a motion or further questions? Madam chair and move the commission approved the request of Suffolk Downs to approve their April 24 2019 listed key operating personnel and racing officials pending approval by the stewards and satisfactory completion of the background checks by the Massachusetts State Police Second Any further discussion questions?  I don't think I've seen you to thank you or Really hosting me on the opening day at Plain Ridge. I was there with Executive director for Drogion and It was a lot of fun. So thank you It was interesting and it was a real a real treat for me But you also showed a level of professionalism around the and introduced me to the Racing officials and the people down there and it was impressive and I appreciate very much your time So thank you. It was wonderful having you out there Dr. Leipem while you're here We've had we've had a few weeks of racing to any update on how things are going at Plain Ridge any issues or concerns They're going well. They've been they've had some of the 12 race days Which is what Steve O'Toole was hoping for was to move up and have more races per day The fields have been fairly close. So that's you know gone well as far as that goes. I look forward to getting out there Yeah, thank you Any further questions? Thank you. Thank you. Just thank you. Thank you We're on item seven commission commissioners updates. Do we have any in particular? Well, I will just give a quick update that as you all know we We have been selected by the international gaming regulators to host the 2020 gaming regulators conference So we will have regulators from around the world here and I just wanted to thank Janice Riley for working Dilligently on this a lot of prep work that has to be done bids for hotels And and she's really been taking the lead and I just wanted to thank her and let all of you know that It's being done in a very professional way, and I know that the the board from the international regulators is Is very pleased and appreciative of the work we're doing well in advance of that conference Yeah, it would it's it's great visibility. I think for the state and for this for the industry Do we know where it's gonna take place? No, we're in that process now. We've received bids We're certainly trying to get mindful that these folks are regulators trying to get an appropriate price point is challenging in Boston, but I know that Janice is on it and working hard to negotiate Great any other items Do we have any further business from from you executive director Prochotian? I'll set. Thank you very much. I Moved to adjourn a second second all those in favor. Aye. Opposed five zero and thank you everyone


When you think about your goals and you place yourself on a scale of zero to ten for whatever goal you want to achieve What number would you give yourself? Are you at a zero right now? Are you at a two or you had a five are you at an eight and Do you keep looking at that ten all the time? If you do you might feel anxious That's me that may be where some of your anxiety is coming from you keep looking at the ten This is I'm not there yet Instead I want to encourage you if you were at a two for example right now say okay What would be a three that I couldn't get to if I get from a two to a three? I'm closer to the ten But let me focus on that three right now instead of focusing on the ten Do you see what I mean? You can apply this to any Goal or dream in your life or any problem you're trying to solve if it's a problem Maybe it's from a scale of right now The you know the pain is at a negative five and you want to get it to a zero We'll get it from a negative five to a negative three right so think about so so be Conscious about what number you're at in terms of your achievement of your goals or you're solving of problems And just say what is that next number instead of thinking I'm not there at that perfection yet You see and so this is especially important when you're comparing yourself to other people You really can't compare you don't know what circumstances other people have had in order to get to where they are They might have had so much privilege from their family. They might have had Just really really fortunate to have certain friends that got them to where they were or their brain just works differently Right, so just look at your own Scale of goals from zero to ten place yourself and says what is that very next number that it's doable today? Or this week or this month and then just do your best Just do what you can to try to get to that next number. That's it. That's it and then you can say to yourself This is my best for today. This is what I can do for today Even if it's something as simple as let me breathe in a little bit more positivity into the situation Let me bring just a little bit more light Maybe a little bit more joy a little bit more love into the situation Then you've done enough for today Okay, don't be so harsh on yourself Celebrate more so that that will build your your your sense of confidence and your your actual your internal Motivation to get to the next stage to get to the next little step So until the next video, I'm George Cal Encouraging you to celebrate the progress you've already made and that you are making every single day and just get to that Next little number on your on your road from zero to ten Wishing you well


Statistics and Excel. Wages, data, box plot or box and whiskers. Got data? Let's get stuck into it with statistics and Excel. You're not required to but if you have access to this online one note we're in the icon left hand side the one note and Excel presentations 10-20 wage box plot tab. We will also try to upload our transcripts so that if you choose to you could go to the view tab up top use the immersive reader tool you can change the language here if you so choose and either read or listen to it in multiple languages. One note desktop version here looking at our information our data on the left hand side which we are imagining to be salary income information possibly related to employees of a corporation or a business or possibly related to faculty at a school if you want to imagine it that way so note that usually when we first get the data it's not going to be organized in a fashion that's going to be very useful to us so for example if we did a random sample if we asked people what their salary is if they were willing to give us what the actual salary was then we might order the information by the people that we randomly asked what their salary was or we might get the information if we have access to these salaries by alphabetical order we might have a list of our employees in alphabetical order and the salaries related to them clearly when we just look at the data set in that way we might be able to extract some information from it but it becomes quite difficult to do so because there's no ordering of the data it's going to be difficult to get meaning from that data and clearly if you're in a situation with salaries the common situation would be that you're trying to argue that you should have more salary you should have a larger income level so you might look up data if you had access to the actual salary level in your particular organization or you might look up salary related to people in your profession and say hey look this is the comparative salary this is what I'm making and so on and so forth but clearly if you were to present something in this order it wouldn't be that useful right if you had a list of people salaries and and you presented in a meeting and tried to argue that you should get a raise because of this list of salaries then this wouldn't be the most efficient way to present that list if it was an alphabetical order or something like that what you would want to do typically is organize this and the first way to organize often will be from lowest to highest or highest to lowest so in Excel we will do this by basically making a table we have a nice sort field so we can do this sorting very easily at one time it was not so easy it's great that we can easily sort this information now so now we've got it from highest to lowest which is probably what we're going to be looking for we're gonna be saying hey look this person's making 84,000 I'm not you know whatever and so on and so forth and we can get a decent idea of the range by simply looking at it in order now that's clear when you look at this kind of data but if you are looking for a huge set of data that has a lot more information in it then this would still be fairly difficult to look at and extract a lot of meaning from it so the next thing to do is usually to make some kind of pictorial representation of the data so the pictorial representations very important they're not simply just a crutch type of tool to explain stuff to the layman we want to have the pictorial type of data now the the box and whiskers or box plot is a fairly easy kind of thing to put together and I think one of the attractiveness of the box plot versus what we'll take a look at later which will be a histogram another way to sort the data possibly one that you'll see more commonly because it gives you another sense or a different sense of the spread of the data but I think the box plot was kind of easier to draw if you had to draw something by hand you know it might be a little easier to draw the box and whiskers than the histogram but now of course we have Excel so we can fairly easily draw whatever we want to draw so we can make the box and whiskers if we so choose and we can make the histograms fairly easily if we so choose and we can make bar charts which we will practice in Excel so if we were to plot this data we could we could see what we have here we've got the wages and we have to come up with what we want to be the intervals of the wages so it starts at 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 and then we've got our information on the box and whiskers for the pictorial representation so we actually put the data in here as well which you can do in Excel so now let's kind of analyze each of these points of the box plot that's going to be our next kind of component so I'm going to make this a little bit smaller here so here's our same box plot on the right and let's look at the meaning of some of these numbers in the box plot so usually we want and we have the average or mean that's one of the first types of calculations that we will typically do so if I think about the average how would we calculate the average of this set of numbers now if you had to do this old school with a calculator it would be quite tedious but the concept is fairly straightforward we're going to add up all of these numbers boom boom boom boom boom boom and then we're going to divide it by the total number of numbers that we have we'll count the numbers and divide by the total so if I if I was to do that the manual calculation I can add up all of the numbers and then divide it out so I can think about that with two functions the sum function which would add up all the numbers and then divide represented by the slash here and then this count function actually simply counts the numbers so if you're interested in that in Excel we'll get to it you can take a look at a problem in Excel and then if I wanted to use and just a function the function is the average function so in Excel I can just use the average function and then select this entire column of numbers it'll give me the average remember in the average is the mean same thing two words same concept so that's going to be how we can calculate the average that's represented over here with the X now note that the X is not exactly the same thing as the line the the X is the is the average the line represents the median the middle point of the number so let's look at the next one the minimum not included not including outliers so the minimum number not including the outlier


summit of the major industrial democracies. This will be the sixth year that I've met with my colleagues from Europe and Japan, thanks in part to the principles that we've been promoting since the first summit, which was in Ottawa in 1981. The summit nations are now in their fourth year of economic expansion. I'm sure our discussions there in Tokyo will focus on the importance of maintaining cooperative efforts to promote sustained non-inflationary market-oriented growth and enhanced market stability. But this summit is different because it's taking place in Asia. Before we get to Tokyo I'll have a chance to sit down with the foreign ministers of the ASEAN countries. In the last generation Pacific nations with almost no territory few natural resources have become dynamic centers of commerce with a remarkable annual growth rate. This energy is changing the economic center of gravity. The U.S. and Canada now exchange more goods with Asia than we do with Europe. Our trade enriches the quality of life on both sides of the Pacific. What's important both in my meetings in Indonesia with the Southeast Asian countries and in Tokyo with the greatest industrial nations the world has ever known is not just economics. It's the relationship between freedom and prosperity. Between democratic government and economic progress. And there are bonds between free people everywhere. There's been a long climb back from the dark days of the 70s when the Western democracies suffered economic and political reversals which sapped their confidence. The climate now is one of renewal, energy, even excitement. I think the democracies have gained in past years a new sense of purpose and direction and this in great measure the result of our willingness to affirm that freedom is both the right thing and the best thing. That freedom works and that it's on the march. And it's in that spirit that we look to this trip. And that's enough of monologue now. I think you're more interested in the dialogue. So fire away. Yes. Your letters have your thinking on salt too. Well this is in a kind of limbo. We're discussing with our friends on the hill now and I'm also going to be discussing this with a well as a matter of fact we have two ambassadors Nitzien Rowney that are journeying one to Asian one to Europe to discuss this with our allies. We want to consult with them on that that matter. So there isn't anything that I can tell you about this beyond the statement that I made some months ago which I still hold to and that is that if the decision is to continue trying to observe the restraints we shall do it in conformity with the extent to which the Soviet Union has observed those restraints. Mr. President there was a new speculation in this room today as to the possible reason for Soviet foot dragging on the next summit that is the powerful performance that you turned in in the last one. Do you subscribe to that theory that they're more or less afraid to meet you? That's not a precise quote. But I did say that you turned in a powerful performance at the last one. Well I am hoping that they're not going to turn away from that. I think that we have met them in the meeting that we did have with and expressed a form of realism that we don't go there with what I think has characterized some meetings in the past or have them here with the idea that oh we can just show them that we're nice people they'll become nice people too. I think we have to recognize they've got goals and they're set upon those goals and the gist of it has got to be that if we're to reduce the weaponry we're going to have to reduce the mistrust and there's only one way to do that. Deeds not words. They're going to have to take actions that reveal that that they honestly do seek peace instead of attempting to rearrange the world to meet their their ideas. Of course I must say I saw another side of him when he met Mr. Honaker in the pictures in the press about that. How satisfied are you now with the way the allies are coming along as to terrorism and what are your goals for the summit to get them to do more? Well I think we're going to have to have a very frank sharing of thoughts and a meeting of the minds there on this. I've been encouraged that in spite of the fact that I haven't come as far as we would like they now some of them are taking actions. One country has openly expressed the view that if they that country is attacked they're going to respond. Others are sending diplomatic Libyan diplomatic personnel home and reducing their their presence. We know that England is even expelling some students that they believe were acting in a way that violated their hospitality so I think that we can make some progress. We have made progress with regard to intelligence and the sharing of that and that's what's made it possible for us to abort a great many planned terrorist actions. 126 last year and it was one of the reasons well our action not only did we have the irrefutable evidence that they were responsible for the tragedy in Berlin but we had definite intelligence information on 35 additional targets principally aimed at Americans but scattered throughout a half a dozen to a dozen countries. This is hypothetical but if the Libyans did give the Soviets a naval base as they longed then after in the Mediterranean there on the Libyan coast would that affect your your feeling about dealing with the Libyan factor in the terrorist war? Well this is a what-if question and I never like to I never like to answer answer those. I have to question very much whether the Soviet Union is ready right now to have a base in Libya and that's right just maybe there a case of the smarts. Yeah on the economic side of the summit what do you hope will be the principal achievement you'll take away from Tokyo? Principal achievement take away from Tokyo oh I tell you I couldn't speculate on one thing more than another we know that we're still discussing a further gat round we know we're going to be talking about more progress toward free and fair trade open markets on all sides and so forth and as I've already expressed we're going to try to arrive at a better meeting in the minds on this what is a worldwide problem of terrorism so and I have to say this I'm optimistic about this every this as I said is the sixth one that I will have been going to but looking back on history and what we've seen in the past among nations supposed to be friendly and all we have established a bond between these seven governments and thus these seven nations that is something I believe better than when the world is known for a long time and I think just the very fact of of maintaining that of talking to each other instead of about each other is is worth the trip but we'll also try to make some real concrete gains yeah you were pretty critical of president Ford some years ago when he would not see Alexander Solzhenitsyn yet Andre Sakharov's wife is here eager to get to see you and is unable to do so how come well I think there's a sizable difference between the two Solzhenitsyn was an exile and there was no nothing political involved in seeing him he had been thrown out of his own country but miss Sakharov left for the health reasons we all know but left the Soviet Union with an agreement that she would not get with the press or make statements and so forth we're very interested in doing all we can to get her husband out of the Soviet Union as well as thousands of other people and I believe the best way to do that is not on the front pages or by demands that put another political figure in a corner in which he can't get out of the corner without appearing to be kowtowing to a foreign government in this case our own and I believe that quiet diplomacy is the best way to succeed in in getting this human right observed the right of dissidents to leave the country and I felt that first of all I didn't know that she was meeting with others in the White House at the time it happened but I I had to I would have felt if I had that this could have put a strain on what we're trying to accomplish I think it would be counterproductive and yet I'm in complete sympathy with what she's trying to do and with her husband's desire to leave that country back on the terrorism question Mr. President will you ask the allies that you mean was in Tokyo for specific commitments in dealing with terrorist incidents for joint action or for more cooperative action that we had last time from the French for example Jack I think that's good I have to come out of the conversation I'll tell them what I think and what we know that and the all the information that we have and hear their their concerns and what it is that's holding them back and then we'll find out how we can within the framework of our alliance to come together on plans of action the Libyan Foreign Minister today at a news conference predicted that there would be a number of major terrorist incidents in Western Europe in the next few hours I think is what he said and he blamed the United States and Israel it sounds a little bit like the Libyans having set something in motion some weeks ago are now trying to disassociate themselves from something they can't control anymore if there are such incidents what will the American response to well again that's something I don't think I should I should answer but we will be watching them and as I say we we have the intelligence on 35 things that they planned as a matter of fact planned even before the Gulf of Sidra naval exercise so for them now to take advantage of speculation that's been going on publicly that what we did might lead to more terrorism I think that's what they would be trying to do that these are acts that they've they've planned and they intended to do and now they'd like to to blame us for it and hope they could get some sympathy among other countries that we had brought this about they had every intention of doing these things and have had that intention for a long time Mr. President last week Secretary Weinberg and Secretary Schultz said the United States had evidence that there was dissension within the Libyan army armed forces that there was battling going on and so forth possibilities of a coup against Gaddafi a week later now what information do you have on that what is the outlook on that well I don't know that we have any information later that would lead us to think that this conflict going on we do know from members of your own profession who were there and eyewitnesses that after our attack there was shooting in the streets and there were eyewitness accounts of seeing this firing and so forth so evidently there was an anti-castro anti-castro anti Gaddafi well I could see where you get confused between the two an anti Gaddafi feeling that that led to conflict apparently that has been put down and there aren't any signs that we have of of further actual combat going on appears as of now to be in firm control at home of as far as we can tell there's we don't have any knowledge of hostilities going on or civil war of anything of that nature but Mr. President in dealing recently with Libya and in earlier instances when you've considered the use of military force have you felt in any way constrained in what you might do by the war powers act no I think that what we've done and there are some that are critical of it to some members of the Congress but we with the idea the security of our own personnel and the necessity of not revealing our plans and with the knowledge that the building leaks like a sieve we think that we've concerned we've gone to them at before the attack takes place and I feel that that what I'm doing is within the constitutional prerogatives of the president to do you had to change anything you might do because of that no no another question about constraints if Libya has been planning all these attacks against Americans and if Libya is a one industry country why is it that you chose to attack no economic targets and it's not going to be your policy and future this was very much considered by us and I don't say that we forever after ruled it out but our thought was that we wanted the specific targets that could be associated with the violent kind of action that had been taken against us and the other that can you attack the economic targets without in a sense attacking the people of Libya and we feel that since this man and his coup some years ago and taking over there's every evidence that there is a pretty sizable segment of Libyan society that does not approve of him and would rather have him gone and therefore we thought it'd be counterproductive to be hitting the targets that would bring down hardship on on the people of Libya I don't think we asked for any such thing we just simply let them know at the very last minute that what we were doing and did that in the spirit of Geneva but no we never we never sought their approval and we wouldn't have gotten it apparently by their comments since the exclusive target of American military response to terrorism or would you employ similar means that evidence would link obviously Syria or Iran those I think states supported terrorism we must have the same policy the difference is that in this case it's much more difficult to trace to the source terrorism sponsored by others than it is with Libya because he's just as I say we have the plans we know also that he has apparently been supporting with financial aid and other services terrorist gangs that aren't Libyan at all some of those they're indigenous to the European countries that the bait of minehawk and gangs of that kind in other words anybody that's out to but take a crack at us or even their host nations he's willing to support but yes if we if there's evidence and we can directly that we can have the year in irrefutable evidence that we've had with him why yes I think we should do that state-supported terrorism is a form of warfare and you just can't sit by and let somebody else declare war on you and pretend that you're still at peace you mean Damascus and Tehran perhaps if that evidence came to us if yes if we had that kind of evidence may I just in closing I know that you've taken your questions but let me give you an example of why there should be more of an alignment of all of us on this I don't think it's revealing any secrets to say now that we had definite information about a planned action in France and France as you know immediately and before our attack sent some Libyan diplomats home this attack the arms had been distributed grenades and small arms this was to be an attack on the people lined up to get visas from the American Embassy so the only extent to which we were the target was the fact that it was our embassy but Americans don't have to get visas to come back here so this would have been the people that would have been mowed down they line up there in the street they're a target would have had to be of people of other countries probably the bulk of them French but that we're waiting to get a visa and that was the nature of the attack and again it was a result of our combined intelligence with ourselves and in this case the French that we were able to abort that particular mission all right


Recorded books presents A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers, narrated by Deon Graham. One. Alan Clay woke up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It was May 30, 2010. He had spent two days on planes to get there. In Nairobi, he had met a woman. They sat next to each other while they waited for their flights. She was tall, curvy, with tiny gold earrings.  Alan liked her more than many of the people in his life, people he saw every day. She said she lived in upstate New York, not that far from his home in suburban Boston. If he had courage, he would have found a way to spend more time with her. But instead, he got on his flight and he flew to Riyadh and then to Jeddah. A man picked him up at the airport and drove him to the Hilton. With a click, Alan entered his room at the Hilton at 1.12 a.m. He quickly prepared to go to bed. He needed to sleep. He had to travel an hour north at 7 for an 8 o'clock arrival at the King Abdullah Economic City. There, he and his team would set up a holographic teleconference system and would wait to present it to King Abdullah himself. If Abdullah was impressed, he would award the IT contract for the entire city to Reliant and Alan's commission in the mid-six figures would fix everything that ailed him. So he needed to feel rested, to feel prepared. But instead, he had spent four hours in bed, not sleeping. He thought of his daughter, Kit, who was in college, a very good and expensive college. He did not have the money to pay her tuition for the fall.  He had not planned well. He had not had courage when he needed it. His decisions had been short-sighted. The decisions of his peers had been short-sighted. These decisions had been foolish and expedient. But he hadn't known at the time that his decisions were short-sighted, foolish, or expedient. He and his peers did not know they were making decisions that would leave them, leave Alan. As he now was, virtually broke, nearly unemployed, the proprietor of a one-man consulting firm run out of his home office. He was divorced from Kit's mother, Ruby. They had now been apart longer than they had been together.  College is your thing, she told him. Be a man about it, she said. Now Kit would not be in college in the fall. Alan had put his house on the market, but it had not yet sold. Otherwise, he was out of options. He owed money to many people, including 18K to a pair of bicycle designers who had built him a prototype for a new bicycle he thought he could manufacture in the Boston area.  He owed money to Jim Wong, who had loaned him 45K to pay for materials in the first and last on a warehouse lease. He owed another 65K or so to a half-dozen friends and would-be partners. So he was broke. And when he realized he could not pay Kit's tuition, it was too late to apply for any other aid. Too late to transfer. Was it a tragedy that a healthy young woman like Kit would take a semester off of college? No, it was not a tragedy. The long, tortured history of the world would take no notice of a missed semester of college for a smart and capable young woman like Kit. She would survive. There was no tragedy. Nothing like tragedy. They said it was a tragedy what had happened to Charlie Fallon. Charlie Fallon froze to death in the lake near Alan's house, the lake next to Alan's house. Alan was thinking of Charlie Fallon while not sleeping in the room at the Jeddahilton. Alan had seen Charlie step into the lake that day. Alan was driving away on his way to the quarry. It had not seemed normal that a man like Charlie Fallon would be stepping into the shimmering Black Lake in September, but neither was it extraordinary. Charlie Fallon had been sending Alan pages from books. He had been doing this for two years. Charlie had discovered the transcendentalists late in life and felt a kinship with them. He had seen that Brook Farm was not far from where he and Alan lived, and he thought it meant something. He traced his Boston ancestry, hoping to find a connection, but found none. Still, he sent Alan pages.


Well, there's a couple of things that we always like to do and that we've done for a lot of years. And one, you're gonna wanna focus on building your technique. Now, you have full range of motion squats and I like that because if you can't get your hips below the knees, this is also gonna give you kind of some indicators of potential limitations which could be at the ankle, at the knee or at the hip. So one of the big things that you're gonna wanna do in the off season is if you wanna increase your squat strength, you need to understand the importance of focusing on accessory lifts and mobility throughout your lower body. Now, remember when you have good ankle mobility, knee mobility and hip mobility, you're gonna be able to go through the full range of motion on the squat. Now remember, there's a whole bunch of myths out there for years they talked about like squats are bad for the knees or deep squats are bad for the knees and what they've actually shown through multiple studies is that squats through the full range of motion are actually less stressful on the knee joint because you're moving through the entire range. And one of the things that we've always done for a lot of years is always incorporated full range of motion Olympic lifts and full range of motion squats. We go through a lot of front squats and a lot of back squats. So a couple of other things that you can kind of focus on besides looking at mobility and range of motion, right? If you have any limitations there, you're setting yourself up for maybe potential injury in the future. Once you start to put more load on the body and the joints don't move through the range, through their full range, right? You're gonna start absorbing stress at other points. It's gonna have to shift the stress somewhere if the joints aren't moving through the proper range. So that's why one of the big things that you can do to improve your squat strength, believe it or not, is simple things like ankle, knee and hip mobility. Now, one of the other things that's really easy for you to kind of hit and attack with trying to build your off-season strength for your squat is switching up the type of squat and adding variation. Louis Simmons of West Side Barbell always talks about. So you could take something like a regular squat in week one, go wide width squat in week two and then you could do, you know, a narrow base squat on week three. Real simple explanation of like simple variation. You could do a regular squat, you could add bands to it and you could add chains to it. So you can do different depths on box squats. So these are all different things you wanna do. One of the biggest problems I see with athletes when they're trying to train the off-season, they see these lifts, they see big things, you know, from the elite throwers. Those are really great moments, right? A guy who's one of the best throwers in the NCAA or in the world and he's putting up a really impressive squat. It's really cool. So they take a video and they catch that and it's a great Instagram moment. But what you're not gonna see is that often what stuff that's not super exciting is all the accessory work these guys do. So you're gonna be focusing a lot on building the hamstrings, the gastrocs, right? You wanna build up the calves. Again, that's gonna be kind of tied into a little bit of that ankle range of motion. So you're gonna be focusing on movements, single leg unilateral movements like lunges. We had recently posted a video about how to build single leg strength. I think we'll probably link that up. So remember, there's a number of things you can do but one of the biggest things is making sure your technique's right. Like we talked about range of motion at the knee, ankle, and the hip and then adding in your accessories and adding in variation.  Remember, the body's always trying to adapt and the body is typically pretty efficient at adapting and the more advanced an athlete gets, the more difficult it is to make gains because the body's so proficient at adaptation. So remember, when you're a younger lifter, things like just improving your squat technique will make a huge difference in gains and jumps tend to happen right away. But once you start to lift for a few years and your technique's becoming better, your strength levels and the gains can get a little slower. So simple things, adding in variation, making sure you're putting enough glute specific, hamstring specific, all these different accessory movements. Romanian deadlifts, RDLs, hip thrusts. We like to do banded hamstring curls. We can do seated hamstring curls. We can do a number of different things that are gonna add support. And again, using Louis Simmons as an example of Westside Barbell, he was one of the things he said, hey, if you've got a 600 pound squat and a 400 pound back, you're gonna get injured. So the same thing kind of applies. Remember, the quads, you know, you have your four main quad, the VMO, the vastus intermedius, the rectus femoris and the vastus lateralis, right? Those are your four quad muscles.  Those are the main big hamstring muscles. So you need to make sure that these things have a balanced ratio.  And yes, you're gonna be incorporating glutes, hips, you know, calves, all these sorts of things are incorporated, but they're quad dominant movements. Everything we do in life is anterior dominant.  Now remember, one of the other things to increase your squat strength is upper body strength. You need to have the posterior chain. The back muscles need to be strong to be able to keep the back in a nice position and keep stress off the lumbar spine. So if you're sitting on a weight and you're gonna collapse down or you rounded forward on a back squat, this is gonna cause an issue as well and you need to be able to have those erector muscles, those scap retractors, right, the rhomboids, everything nice and tight. So when you put that bar on your back, you're gonna be sitting up nice and straight and strong and that's gonna help you with that neural drive, right?  So remember, those are just a handful of things that you can do. You wanna think about your squat training differently. If you're trying to get better for whatever sport, specifically, obviously, if you're trying to improve your squat to be a better shop putter, discus thrower, this is what a lot of people fail to do. So they a lot of do a lot of tricks, but they're not doing a lot of extra assistance movements and they're getting stuck with things like we're doing squats and then we're doing, you know, leg extensions and leg curls and those we've shown are not the best movements. There's many that are much better and when you can add all that in, understand how to add the variation, understand mobility and understand even that back strength, now you've got a complete picture of how you're gonna be able to really ramp and make big jumps in your squat strength, which should translate to bigger, better throws. Okay guys, so hopefully that helps. If you have any questions, be sure to comment below and we'll see you guys on the next video.