No. 20 La.-Lafayette tops App St. 24-16 for Sun Belt title
by: BRETT MARTEL, Associated Press
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Billy Napier took his time walking off of Cajun field, soaking in the celebration of a league championship, and at times wiping his eyes, after his final game as coach at Louisiana-Lafayette before he takes over the Florida Gators.
Levi Lewis scored on a career-high 56-yard run and passed for another touchdown, and No. 20 Louisiana-Lafayette defeated Appalachian State 24-16 on Saturday in the Sun Belt Conference championship game.
“I feel like we’ve been chasing this thing down for a long time,” said Napier, who coached the Ragin’ Cajuns to four straight Sun Belt West Division titles and lost the conference’s first two championship games and had the 2020 title game canceled because of the pandemic.
Napier was hired by Florida last weekend to fill the vacancy created by the firing of Dan Mullen, but he insisted on being able to coach for the Cajuns in their conference title game before leaving the team to move on to its bowl game without him.
“Nothing’s more important to me than doing the job for the players on this team, and you’ve got to compliment the players for their ability to focus,” Napier said. “Our team was well prepared. There’s no question. We executed our plan tonight.”
Emani Baily rushed for 117 yards, highlighted by his 35-yard touchdown run on a third-and-9 play to give the Cajuns a two-touchdown lead early in the fourth quarter.
Lewis passed for 210 yards without a turnover and finished with 43 net yards rushing as Louisiana-Lafayette (12-1, 9-0 Sun Belt) lengthened its school-record winning streak to 12 games.
“It means the world,” Lewis, a fifth-year senior and three year starter, said of winning the league title. ““I’m going to go home and just go cry. … It’s been a long time coming to win this championship.”
Cameron Peoples ran for a 43-yard touchdown in the first half for Appalachian State (10-3, 7-2), but the Mountaineers’ offense struggled to match its usual production.
Appalachian State QB Chase Brice, who averaged 241.8 yards passing per game during the regular season, completed 12 of 30 passes for 119 yards and was sacked three times — twice by Cajuns defensive lineman Zi’Yon Hill.
The only time this season that Appalachian State scored fewer than 16 points was a 41-13 loss at Cajun Field in October.
Appalachian State coach Shawn Clark noted that the Cajun defense was able to stop the run while playing two deep safeties, adding that when an opponent can do that, “it’s going to be a long day.”
But Brice scrambled for several first downs and kept the Mountaineers’ hopes alive in the fourth quarter when he rolled out on fourth-and-10 and connected over the middle with Thomas Hennigan, who slipped tacklers to get into the end zone. The Mountaineers then went for two but the Cajuns pressured Brice into an errant throw.
App State got the ball back once more at its own 35-yard line, down eight with 29 seconds left, but outside linebacker Chauncey Manac stripped Brice near mid-field and recovered the fumble to seal the victory.
“It was a great football game,” said Clark, complimenting both his own team’s effort and the Cajuns’ execution. “We just couldn’t get into the rhythm that we’re used to.”
Lewis made several big throws on the game’s opening series to give the Cajuns an early lead, starting with his 35-yard completion to Peter LeBlanc on third-and-7. Lewis kept the drive going with a 10-yard completion to Dontae Fleming while scrambling to his left on fourth-and-3. That set up Lewis’ 27-yard scoring strike over the middle to Michael Jefferson.
The Cajuns took a 14-0 lead on Lewis’ long TD run on a read-option play.
“That kid, he’s one in a million — one in 10 million,” Napier said of Lewis, highlighting the quarterback’s work ethic and knack for infusing teammates with confidence. “It’s one thing to be a great player. It’s another thing to be an incredible person and that’s what that guy is.”
Lewis’ 30-yard pass to LeBlanc in the final minute of the half allowed the Cajuns to set up Nate Snyder’s 33-yard field goal to make it 17-7 at halftime.
The Mountaineers nearly closed the gap when Corey Sutton got both hands on Brice’s 39-yard pass to the corner of the end zone, but cornerback Eric Garror ripped the ball out as both players crashed to the turf. That drive ended with a field goal.
Appalachian State: The Mountaineers’ only losses in conference play all season came against the Ragin’ Cajuns in Lafayette. It was the third time in four years Appalachian State had played in the Sun Belt title game, beating Louisiana-Lafayette the first two times in Boone, North Carolina.
Louisiana-Lafayette: Napier finished 40-12 in four years — 33-5 during the past three seasons.
““I would say I’m hopeful some of progress we made will be continued,” Napier said, praising how the players at ULL and the surrounding community has affected him and his family. “They’ve impacted us. We’re better because of our time here.”
Appalachian State: Awaits what will be its seventh straight a bowl bid.
Louisiana-Lafayette: Awaits the program’s fourth straight bowl bid.
More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25
Small businesses set for weekend showcase
Joe Rogan called Tesla’s Cybertruck ‘coolest car …
Louisiana-Lafayette quarterback Levi Lewis (1) evades a tackle by Appalachian State linebacker Logan Doublin (40) before scoring a touchdown in the first half…
Louisiana-Lafayette quarterback Levi Lewis (1) evades a tackle by Appalachian State linebacker Logan Doublin (40) before scoring a touchdown in the first half of the Sun Belt Conference championship NCAA college football game against Appalachian State in Lafayette, La., Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
Check High School Football Scores Here!
Carthage Humane Society reports 2021 year, encourages …


Perrigo Announces Leadership Change in Rx Pharmaceuticals Segment
Appoints John Wesolowski as Acting General Manager, Rx Pharmaceuticals
DUBLIN, July 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Perrigo Company plc ("Perrigo" or the "Company") (NYSE: PRGO; TASE), a leading global provider of Quality Affordable Healthcare Products®, today announced the departure of Douglas Boothe, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Rx Pharmaceuticals. John Wesolowski, Senior Vice President of Rx Commercial Operations, will assume the role of Acting General Manager, Rx Pharmaceuticals.
Perrigo's Chief Executive Officer John T. Hendrickson said, "John Wesolowski has the full confidence of our executive team to advance the business. He has 24 years of generic and specialty pharma experience and brings strong customer relationships, a deep understanding of our industry, and steady commercial leadership. We are conducting a thorough search process for a business leader who will focus on performance across our Rx portfolio and invest for future long-term growth. We are examining our overall Rx strategy and will continue to drive this organization to execute in the best interests of our shareholders."
As Senior Vice President of Rx Commercial Operations, Mr. Wesolowski oversees Rx sales, marketing, contracts, and customer service. In addition to these responsibilities, his role will now also include oversight of Rx finance and business development. Prior to joining Perrigo as Vice President of Commercial Operations in February 2004, Mr. Wesolowski served in several customer-facing roles at E. Fougera and Company from 1993 to 2004.
Mr. Hendrickson concluded, "We thank Doug for his contributions and wish him well in his future endeavors."
Perrigo Company plc, a top five global over-the-counter ("OTC") consumer goods and pharmaceutical company, offers patients and customers high quality products at affordable prices. From its beginnings in 1887 as a packager of generic home remedies, Perrigo, headquartered in Ireland, has grown to become the world's largest manufacturer of OTC products and supplier of infant formulas for the store brand market. The Company is also a leading provider of generic extended topical prescription products and receives royalties from Multiple Sclerosis drug Tysabri®. Perrigo provides Quality Affordable Healthcare Products® across a wide variety of product categories and geographies primarily in North America, Europe, and Australia, as well as other markets, including Israel, China and Latin America. Visit Perrigo online at (http://www.perrigo.com).
Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements." These statements relate to future events or the Company's future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements of the Company or its industry to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or the negative of those terms or other comparable terminology. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on its current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While the Company believes these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, including the timing, amount and cost of share repurchases, future impairment charges, our ability to achieve our guidance and the ability to execute and achieve the desired benefits of announced initiatives. These and other important factors, including those discussed under "Risk Factors" in the Company's Form 10-KT for the six-month period ended December 31, 2015, and form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 2, 2016 as well as the Company's subsequent filings with the SEC, may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release are made only as of the date hereof, and unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
For further information: Perrigo Contacts: Bradley Joseph, Vice President, Global Investor Relations, (269) 686-3373, bradley.joseph@perrigo.com, or Arthur J. Shannon, Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs and European Investor Relations, (269) 686-1709, ajshannon@perrigo.com


Call 800-216-6864 to register for a free webinar.
In The Musikgarten
The blog for Musikgarten teachers
Tag Archives: music and movement
How Music Strengthens Community
December 2, 2021 Uncategorisedmusic and movement, Music Education, Music Teacher, Music therapyMusikgarten
Just about anyone who has ever listened to a musical group, whether it is an orchestra, choir, rap group, rock band, or jazz group can understand that music involving several entities requires a certain cohesiveness to succeed. This concept is not, by any means, a new one. The actual origins of “music” as we know it is far from settled, whether it began with human voices or the earlies known musical instruments. Whatever its origins, there is considerable science to show the social connections and benefits that music has provided, and still provides, to human kind. Music Strengthens every community.
Tribal customs and storytelling – Group music has shown to be an integral part of ritual and customs in the earliest tribes of humans. Rhythm and singing around a fire or while performing daily tasks retold stories, asked for blessings, and communicated with neighboring groups. This, in turn, strengthened the cohesiveness and cooperation between members of the tribe with an increased sense of safety and belonging. Songs that were repeated over generations were not as subject to “the grapevine” that verbal communications alone may distort over time. Music thus became a more dependable chronicle of tribal history.
Emotional and social skills in children – In previous installments, we have taken a deep dive into how early childhood music education helps children to share, take turns, and speak up, but additional studies have shown that group musical training increases collaboration and coordination. Children that were involved in a weekly group music lesson over a period of time showed an increased motivation to provide support for others and a willingness to accept help from peers.
Neuro-chemicals in the brain – Studies have also shown that singing together and listening to music has shown to directly impact neuro-chemicals in the brain that play a role in closeness and connection. This reactivity to music promotes the release of endorphins and dopamine in the brain, which makes us feel good and connect with others. The rhythm of music seems to be the factor that helps a group synch together and coordinate voices and body movements, increasing positive associations with and loyalty to ingroup members.
Music as a catalyst for social awareness and change – Throughout history, music has served to send a message that mere words cannot alone communicate. Some were songs of social unrest and calls to action. While Stephen Stills originally wrote the song For What Its Worth because of the sunset strip curfew riots of 1966, it quickly became an anti-war anthem that inspired and gave voice to a generational movement. Many other musical events and songs were designed to create awareness and provoke positive action in global society. Whether it be USA for Africa, Live Aid, or Farm Aid, these musical events brought many different communities, societies, and cultures together for a common cause.
The power of music continues to create community today – As Covid-19 started to take hold in nearly every society throughout the world, music again proved a powerful catalyst to bring people together. You may recall in the early stages of the pandemic, the world watched as Italians emerged onto their balconies to sing the national anthem together. As an auditory domain, music has the advantage of not requiring close proximity to share. As the pandemic has shown in home produced concerts online, beautiful group music can still be created with participants in different physical spaces. And even as the world waited in quarantine, music served as a way to create a sense of control over our lives, making us feel better and closer to one another.
The power of music has been demonstrated and acknowledged throughout history. Plato said “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” It has helped families bond and tribes tell their history, given a voice to those who didn’t have a seat at the table, and created human solidarity across borders and oceans. It is no wonder then, why it plays such an important role in our society, and that we would want to teach music to our children at the earliest age.
Key Issues in Early Childhood Education: Part 3
September 28, 2021 Early Childhood Music, music and movement, Musikgarten Teachers, Science of Musicmusic and movement, Music Education, Musikgarten, science of musicMusikgarten
Content and Measurement of Success in Early Childhood Education
This final installment in our continuing series of key discussion topics that early childhood educators face in the classroom has touched on several traditional assumptions that educators often make. Debunking many of those academic myths, we have focused instead on successfully nurturing children through inspired music education. Most of these conclusions and deliberations are posed and explored in an article published in Early Childhood Connections by renowned neuroscience educator Dr. Dee Joy Coulter, Ed. D. Our last blog topic considered the unnecessary urgency that some music educators place on curriculum and lesson plans. This final post of the series will address the issue of content and measurement of success in early childhood music education.
The difference between children’s music instruction and education
In the academic world, there is much debate and passion about the difference between instruction and education. In these approaches, roles of teacher and student are reversed, where in instruction the place of the teacher is central whereas the student is central in education. These methods in academia are not mutually exclusive, however. Music instruction, for example, requires technical training such as the proper way to hold a violin or drum mallet. These skills establish an important foundation for future musicianship, creating both respect for the instruments, but also developing ergonomically sound movements and postures. Repetition of these, in turn, introduce children to a world of practice. Children who have discovered the “practice effect” become much better equipped to deal with frustrations and failures in life without falling into a feeling of helplessness. Instructing these basic skills thus provides the music educator with a foundation of content that creates a fertile environment for children to inquire and explore musical concepts.
How do we measure the mastery of music instruction content?
There is a trend in education that puts emphasis on evaluation immediately after the lesson has been offered. Often referred to as summative evaluation, this is sometimes appropriate in the case that the lesson contained a range of facts or skills to be reinforced. However, the thinking of a child cannot be measured through a matter of facts or skills. So how and when should a children’s music teacher evaluate or measure success of musical thinking? It’s important for teachers to share ideas on these questions, but at the end of the day they must decide for themselves what they believe is worth teaching. Teachers often struggle with this concept, especially in early childhood education. Even early childhood education researchers continue to hunt for the most appropriate questions to ask in evaluating outcomes. Over time, educators should take time to understand what they really believe is worth teaching and learning in the early childhood music education field, and then continue to establish ways to measure these most important qualities.
General educators, and specifically children’s music teachers, are faced with several challenging issues that warrant continued exploration and discussion. Through this series of blog posts, we have endeavored to investigate some of those topics that we have found to appear time and time again. It is important for educators to contemplate and reflect on these issues as a way to reinvigorate and renew their commitment to teaching. As these important topics endure, so should the internal considerations and peer discussions by early childhood music educators. The gift of music to a child is something that warrants the devotion of those that are asked to inspire and educate.
This series of articles are based on the article DEFENDING the MAGIC: CURRENT ISSUES in EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION, which appeared in Early Childhood Connections and written by Dee Joy Coulter, Ed. D. For more information on Dr. Coulter and her insights into early childhood music education, visit https://embraceyourbrain.com/
Key Issues in Early Childhood Education: Approaches to Children’s Music Curriculum and Lessons
September 15, 2021 Early Childhood Music, music and movement, Science of Musicearly childhood music, music and movement, neuroscience, science of musicMusikgarten
Over the past several weeks, we have been delving into several key discussion topics or issues that early childhood educators face in the classroom. Much of this content is based on the observations and writings of neuroscience educator Dr. Dee Joy Coulter, Ed. D. The last installment explores how children’s music teachers can provide nourishment to children through soul, body, and mind, while feeding their developing and amazing frontal lobes. This next post will address the validity of two discussion issues related to children’s music curriculum and the role of lesson plans and content.
Discussion Topic One: The driving force behind music must be an elaborate curriculum with clear objectives and activities, for which content is the critical element.
Rudolf Steiner, Austrian scientist, thinker and founder of Waldorf Education, suggested in the early 1920s that parenting was quickly evolving from natural instinct to a more formal and conscious understanding. With all of the subsequent literature and available instruction available to parents today, it is plain to see that this prediction came to pass. This same evolution can be seen in the development of education, where carefully developed curricula with well-planned objectives and timelines of activities offer benefits to music educators and students alike.
However, it is important to understand that children are the critical element in the classroom, not the lesson plan. It is up to teachers to adapt and shift focus as needed based on each moment with students to provide the nourishment of mind, body, and spirit. Content and form represent only ten percent of the learning experience, whereas the “magic of the moment” represents ninety.
Discussion Issue Two: It is important to cover all the lesson plans in a timely manner or children will “fall behind.”
This is a longstanding conflict in the field of education – Do teachers educate or instruct? Do children unfold, or do they acquire knowledge? The root for the word educate is educare, and mean “to draw forth,” whereas the root word for instruct is instruere, meaning “to pile upon. While educating children, especially in music, there is a building process where we are adding knowledge and skills on top of one another. So, within reason we do tend to “pile upon them” rules and ways as they enculturate and prepare themselves to be new members of our culture.
However, if we are focused too completely on the time lines of learning particular content, children can quickly be overwhelmed. Staying attuned with what students are hungry for and offering them nutritionally sound material helps music teachers understand the next developmentally appropriate steps in the learning process. As early childhood music teachers, we want to leave children more inspired than exhausted.
As educators, we are often asked to place and emphasis on organization and metrics in the classroom. This is often done not for the purpose of the students or for education itself, but for outside stakeholders to have something to measure. We will tackle that discussion issue in our next and final installment. Many children’s music teachers already understand the lessons learned from the two issues discussed above. While well-designed curriculum and lesson plans have their benefits in children’s music education, teachers should stay attuned to the natural progression of each student and inspire them with nutritional offerings that feed mind, body, and spirit.
Issues in Early Childhood Education
August 25, 2021 Early Childhood Music, Musikgarten Teachersearly childhood music, music and movement, Music EducationMusikgarten
Most teachers, especially teachers of children, will attest that they did not get into education for the money. In an Association of Teachers and Lecturers survey, 80 percent of educators said that they teach because they enjoy working with children, while 75 percent said they were motivated by a desire to make a difference for children. The combination of these two factors can be credibly linked to the amount of passion a teacher has for their job. Nationally recognized neuroscience educator Dee Joy Coulter, Ed. D., notes that this passion is amazingly frequent among children’s music teachers. Teachers with passion inspire students to seek and experience new ideas. Therefore, it’s a motivating factor that is necessary for high quality learning and teaching. Over the next several weeks, Dr. Coulter’s writings will guide us through some key issues these early childhood music teachers face, while exploring ways to meet these concerns.
Whatever Children Can Learn, They Should Learn – and the Earlier the Better
A young child’s way of learning is one of absorbing what is around them in an unpretentious and almost unconscious way. As such, they are so busy observing the world around them that they do not yet notice caregivers and teachers observing them. As this point, it does not occur to their wonderful beginner’s mind to begin observing themselves. It’s important for children’s music teachers to keep things this way for as long as possible, for as they become self-conscious, children’s minds give way to reasoning and shift to a more impressionable approach to learning.
The earlier stage of innocence is where passion for teaching music to children plays a most important role. At this point, they are still deeply impressionable, absorbing the educator themselves as much as what is being offered. Therefore, strive to offer children only the most inspired musical experiences that you really love, so that their early learning minds sense that joy and enthusiasm. Watch what they are inspired by, paying close attention to their responses. If there are things that do not inspire them, trust their taste. Young children are instinctively drawn to what they need next in development. This will give the observant music teacher clues as what to teach next and what to postpone. At this point, your passion is what you want to inspire in children, because it will expose their minds to that same excitement and a long-term love for music.
Children in a Musikgarten Toddler Class.
Most Children do not have to be Taught How to Pay Attention
It’s a fallacy that most children have short attention spans and therefore need to be taught to learn from a music lesson. If provided fundamentally nourishing information in a passionate way, there is an amazing quality and duration of attention children can give in early childhood music classes. Rather than trying to teach children to listen, music teachers should offer something welcoming and playful that engages their interest and sustains their attention. If offered activities and objects in a nourishing environment, children exhibit surprisingly long attentions spans. In fact, music therapy is often used with children that exhibit developmental disabilities such as ADHD or Autism to grasp and hold their attention. Passion again has a key role to play in teaching at this point.
Over the next several weeks, we will continue to explore several other key issues that early childhood music educators and studio owners face when instructing children. To effectively address all of these issues, passion is perhaps the most important tool a teacher can have to inspire young minds to also love music. A young child’s mind is constantly open to new and exciting concepts without bias, instinctively picking up on a music teacher’s enthusiasm and excitement. When music is provided in a fundamentally inspiring and nourishing way, children have a great capacity to pay attention for long periods of time and absorb information.
Music and Fine Arts Education More Important Than Ever
August 3, 2021 Early Childhood Marketing, Early Childhood Musicearly childhood music, early childhood music marketing, music and movementMusikgarten
It is no surprise to anyone involved in fine arts education over the last several decades that arts classes have been gutted in public schools all across America. Since the recession of 2008, 80% of the nations schools were faced with budget cuts. That, along with No Child Left Behind and Common Core State Standards, pushed education administrators to prioritize math and science over other subjects such as music, drama, and art. Although the economy eventually recovered, these programs still have not. More recently, a robust economy showed some of the best state tax revenues in decades, administrators were looking at bringing back some support for these programs.
Enter Covid-19. The estimated impact of the pandemic on America’s creative economy is well documented. Quarantined from school, many children had no other access to music instruction or the fine arts. These cuts to the arts in public education has created a greater need for other organizations, such as early childhood music studios, to step up and fill the gap. Owners and educators of fine arts studios understand the many and crucial benefits that the arts provide to people of all ages, especially children.
The Benefits of Music and Fine Arts Education for Children
Over the years, this blog has served to remind children’s music educators what they already know about the benefits of music instruction at the earliest ages. But in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, fine arts education is more important than ever:
Children’s Music Class is a Chance to Actively Engage – Children crave interaction, both with their caregivers and peers. Music class provides a chance to sing together, dance together, and feel like part of a group. With so much isolation from others throughout the last year, it is important for children’s mental health to connect with others in a meaningful way.
Children in a Musikgarten Music Makers: at Home class.
Music Class builds Self-Esteem in Children – Participation in music helps children to feel smart and accomplished. Singing and dancing together aids music students in understanding that an ensemble is more powerful than its parts, with everyone contributing their singular efforts to create something bigger. Helping them to understand that their part is important to the success of the entire sound create a sense of worth and value.
Music can Help Relieve Stress in Children and Caregivers – Science tells us that simply listening to music releases dopamine and serotonin, but actively engaging and singing music also releases a hormone called oxytocin, which can alleviate stress and anxiety. This is not only helpful to children during the stressful home situations that Covid has produced, but for parents and caregivers as well. Participatory music classes with parents and children creates a way for a family to release anxiety.
Music Exercises the Brain and Improves Learning in Children – Participating in music, as well as learning a new instrument such as piano, changes the brain and improves learning. Like exercise does for the body, music does for the brain – improving understanding of language and written communication. While teachers have been trying their best to keep children engaged over screens during the pandemic, music can serve to help keep their brains tuned up for learning and prepare to return to the classroom.
Including musical training, drama, and art into a school’s curriculum has been recommended by educational researchers again and again, but many school systems show no inclination to reintroduce these classes any time soon. Therefore, it falls upon outside fine arts education organizations to provide these all-important opportunities. For children’s mental health and preparedness in the aftermath of a pandemic, fine arts instruction is more important than ever.
How Early Childhood Music Classes Prepare Children to Learn Piano
May 26, 2021 Early Childhood Music, Group Piano, music and movement, Piano Teachersgroup piano, music and movement, Musikgarten, piano pedagogy, piano teacherMusikgarten
Part 2 – Through THE MIND
Children’s piano instructors understand that a strong foundation in music from the earliest ages will help improve student’s progress and understanding of the keyboard later in childhood. We began by exploring how movement and the body influence this early instrumental preparation. As we continue to delve into how various areas of influence in early music education grooms children for the piano, or any musical instrument, we reveal how it prepares the MIND.
Early Childhood Music Education Prepares the Mind for Piano Lessons
Is there a purpose to learning an instrument or reading music if a child has not first absorbed musical thoughts? For a very long time, expressive body movement was not linked to higher brain function in formal education. Until as recently as 1995, researchers and educators limited the health benefits of movement and exercise solely to the body rather than the brain. Now it is clear that movement is not separate from higher brain function or development, and that expressive movement combines body functioning with affective areas of the brain such as imagination. These neural connections can be seen in language, literacy, and dominance of ear.
Learning Musical Language through Songs and Singing – It is easy to understand that children would not be asked to speak a language they have not heard, nor read a language they cannot speak. It stands to reason that there should be no exception for listening to and “speaking the language of music” before learning an instrument. Asking a child to read and sing or play a song on an instrument before they have ever heard it would not give it meaning of familiarity and affinity. This could be one reason why so many young piano students learn to play only “notes” instead of expressing musical ideas. The large repertoire of songs children have sung with friends and family as well as in the early childhood education classroom equips them with a musical language that will eventually allow them to better learn and play an instrument such as piano.
Childhood Music Education Provides Foundation in Music Literacy – Through moving and singing children gain a multitude of experience with rhythmic patterns and steady beat, as well as tonal patterns and home tone. Just as a child learning to read looks for familiar patterns in words and sentences, so do they seek rhythmic and tonal patterns in music. This familiarity with musical motifs enable children to better express musical ideas, as their literacy brings harmony to mind and spirit. The ability to better grasp the patterns and language of a musical instrument is also influenced by dominance of ear.
Listening and Singing melodic patterns during a Musikgarten class.
Listening Skills and Dominant of Ear in Learning Piano – Children who have participated in early music education have learned to be led musically by their ears. Piano teachers discover that they have better listening skills and aural preparation, allowing the eye to more easily recognize what the ear already knows. As one of the first senses to develop in the womb, the ear is dominant in early childhood as children learn language and familiar sounds. Discriminatory listening skills develop as they attune to important sounds in the environment, such as a mothers voice. Early childhood education programs promote these aural insights by teaching children to focus tentatively on a sound source while imitating sounds vocally. Understanding slight distinctions in sound is a vital foundation for all learning.
The ear, arguably the most vital sensory channel to most children’s learning, is the linchpin for Listening, speaking/singing, and balanced/coordinated movement. It is no wonder that early childhood music education is so vitally important in learning an instrument such as piano since music links the ear, the voice, and the body.
This commentary is based on the article The Well-Prepared Beginner: Prepared in Body, Mind, Spirit, and Family by Lorna Heyge, Ph. D. Dr. Heyge is a pioneer in childhood music instruction, as well as a piano teacher of many years.
How Early Childhood Music and Movement Classes Prepare Children to Learn Piano
May 14, 2021 Early Childhood Music, Group Piano, Musikgarten Teachers, Piano Teachers, Science of Musicearly childhood music, group piano, music and movement, MusikgartenMusikgarten
Part 1 – Through THE BODY
Children’s piano teachers often must “start from scratch” in teaching the child not just the keyboard, but all of the different facets of music. That is why many piano instructors will attest to how a child that has been involved with music education classes from an early age is often better equipped to learn piano, while doing so at a much greater pace. The benefits of introducing music to babies at the earliest stages of life are well known, and some of those same benefits can be applied to learning the piano. There are several reasons for this, which can be roughly broken down into the areas of Body, Mind, Spirit, and even Family/Community.
In the following months we will start to explore how participation in a children’s music curriculum, even at the earliest stages of infancy, help to set a strong foundation for learning any musical instrument later in life. The first facet of this strong musical foundation that will be examined regards the body.
In Musikgarten classes movement is central to steady beat, language development, and expression.
How Body Awareness through Music Helps Children Prepare for Piano Lessons
During the first developmental period of birth through age six, children gain control and awareness of their bodies. As their rhythm and motor instrument, a well-coordinated body will provide the gross and fine motor skills a child will need to play the piano. A vital and natural part of this first stage of life, movement enables a child to communicate non-verbally how they see the world.
Today, however, children are too often sitting – in front of the television, a computer screen, or in a car seat while busy parents run errands. This sedentary situation results in children having less control over their body movement at an early age. Music promotes movement, and purposeful movement through music responses help children with particular skills such as hopping or swinging, while also developing such musical skills as a sense of beat and meter.
Music and Movement Teaches Children a Steady Beat – Children experience their own internal pulse, which allows them to naturally recognize and adapt to the pulse of an external source. Infant movements such as rocking or bouncing is often in response to a beat, whether musical or otherwise. Through musical exposure and encouragement, these movements can be cultivated into the understanding of a steady beat.
Language & Movement Help Teach Musical Understanding – Impulse control is a vital ability that tells our body when and how to move. Musical games, like Walk and Stop which incorporate movement instructions, help children establish important connections between language and motor skill. Later in childhood, this developing self-control prepares children to enter instrumental lessons that require language-mediated movement.
Expressive Movement Supports Self-Awareness – Children delight in singing and dancing. When they are exposed to songs with purposeful movement and phrasing, they develop a sense of meter and how to feel the phrase through both music and movement. This relationship reinforces kinesthetic awareness and perception essential to self-awareness.
Simple Instruments Build Coordination and Concentration – Playing simple rhythm instruments, such as shakers, rhythm sticks, bells, or drums, serve as an excellent preparation for finger, hand, and arm coordination needed to play the piano. While whole-body control and coordination are gained through dancing and other locomotor activities, simple instrument playing supports upper-body control and finger dexterity. Learning body control, including quieting the body between beats, helps children’s ability to focus their listening and concentrate on the finger movements required in playing a musical instrument.
Learning body awareness and purposeful movement are important in the development of a child’s motor skills and coordination. Exposure to musical instruction at an early age, whether through purposeful movement or simple instruments, reinforce the steady beat, fine motor skills, and focused listening skills that will help them to approach keyboard instruction with a strong foundation.
The Listening and Movement Connection
February 25, 2021 Early Childhood Music, Group Piano, music and movementgroup piano, listening and movement, music and movement, MusikgartenMusikgarten
Our series on how early childhood music programs influence Music Literacy at the Keyboard continues with the importance of body movement with music and listening. We have explored how singing a repertoire of familiar songs, as well as setting a good foundation of keyboard posture, are vital to instrumental education. Now the close relationship between music and movement complements these footings toward success in music literacy.
The Connection Between Music and Movement
Cultures all across the globe have used movement as the body’s expression of rhythm, which shapes the way we use and understand language. Children naturally desire and enjoy movement because it is exhilarating and energizing. A good foundation of understanding body manipulation helps them to play an instrument expressively.
Listening is vital to nearly all learning, not the least music education. And just as controlling body movement is more challenging for children today, so is learning to listen well. Developing a “listening ear” must compete with the increased amount of noise/sound and visual stimulation in a child’s environment.
Listening and movement are closely aligned through the ears two major functions. The first is vestibular, which controls balance, and thus nearly all movement. The second is the auditory, which directs hearing and voluntary listening. Therefore, it is vital to establish the important link between those two functions in early childhood music education.
Music and movement during a Musikgarten group music class.
How Movement Benefits Early Childhood Music Education
Rhythm and beat competency are emphasized in movement activities in early childhood music classes, particularly through tapping and drumming. Clapping, tapping one’s body, or using instruments such as rattles, sticks, bells or drums while singing helps to develop a child’s rhythm and beat. These, along with other group activities such as passing a beanbag in a song circle, brings children joy and social fulfillment. Drumming, in particular, has been a unique attraction for young and old alike in cultures all across the world. The tactile use of hands provides muscular memory while reinforcing the idea that the sound produced is directly related to the quality of the touch.
Dancing to recorded music as a group also provides a good opportunity for children to experience the flow of music while connecting to the larger community of their peers and teachers. In the most successful children’s music curriculum, teachers repeat these movement activities early and often so that the child in time feels free to express themselves through movement.
Early Listening Skills Make Children Better Musicians
Listening is defined as giving attention with the ear with the purpose of hearing. With the constant assault of noise and sound in our environment today, active listening is extremely important in order for children to concentrate. The very best training for listening employs the use of singing, chanting, and body movement to make the aforementioned connection between the auditory and balance/movement functions in the ear. Therefore, children’s music curriculum and teachers will continually engage in listening activities such as singing, reciting, and listening to music. The music teacher also instructs children to develop a listening posture that allows them to hear the music in their heads. This is particularly helpful at the piano, where body posture and hand position and technique are important for learning the keyboard. Through modeling and encouragement, the successful teacher is demonstrating attentive listening both through movement and posture.
Establishing and reinforcing the important connection between movement and listening helps prepare young children for playing any instrument. The union they feel between singing, drumming, and dancing will support the transfer of their understanding to piano. By introducing the keyboard as an extension of the body in this way, children learn to play the instrument musically – feeling the total experience of the instrument.
In our final installment of this series about Music Literacy at the Keyboard, we will see how all of these different foundational music teaching tools set children on the deliberate Pathway to Literacy.
Much of the content for this post was based on the introduction to Music Makers: at the Keyboard, childhood music curriculum developed by Musikgarten.
Music Literacy and the Second Stage of Child Development
January 26, 2021 Early Childhood Music, music and movement, Musikgarten Teachers, Science of Musicearly childhood music, music and movement, Musikgarten, piano pedagogy, piano teacherMusikgarten
Merriam-Webster first defines literacy as simply “the ability to read and write,” but a second definition expands that to “knowledge that relates to a specified subject.” This is an important distinction, especially when considering childhood music literacy. In our next series of articles, we will explore how music literacy applies to the second stage of child development, specifically in playing the piano and instrument instruction. While most children’s music programs focus on music and movement in the first stages of development, many fall short of continuing the progress in the second stage of child development necessary to achieve music literacy.
The Second Stage of Childhood Development
Developmental biologist Jean Piaget established the theory of phases of normal intellectual development from infancy through childhood. The second stage, which Paiget terms Concrete Operational, is where children’s thinking becomes less on themselves and more on their awareness of external events. Some experts argue that development is actually continuous, but Piaget did agree that the depending on the child, the age ranges could vary slightly. While Piaget defines the second stage of childhood development being from ages 7 to 11 years, our focus in this series of articles will focus on the 6 to 9-year-old child.
Ready to Face and Decipher New Challenges
From ages 6 to 9 years, the child has begun a new phase of development both physically and cognitively. They are eager to face fresh challenges and have a growing aptitude for the refined movement needed to play an instrument. Their sensory motor functions have been well-integrated over the last six years, and serve as a good foundation for abstract learning. They are starting to not be satisfied merely with knowing the name of an object, but having the desire to know the how and why of things. One result is that the child’s mind is now interested in symbols, patterns, and codes to explore. This in turn helps to develop an appetite for improvisation and cooperative learning with other children.
Children Love to be Part of a Group
Beginning in the second stage of development, and sometimes earlier, children are self-aware and ready to become part of a group, especially with peers. A peer group setting becomes a place where the child can begin to learn rules, push limits, and test ideas. This important stage of identity has the benefit of teaching important social skills of how to work with others in teams.
Groups are considered very useful for learning things, as questions can be asked and addressed from different perspectives. This is why nearly all children’s education programs use group activities in the learning process. This is no different for childhood music programs. Children love being with and making music with others. The desire to contribute to the group requires deep concentration and absorption while teaching valuable lessons in cooperative learning.
Music Literacy through Children’s Group Keyboard Lessons
Learning the keyboard provides children with the cognitive challenges and group dynamic that they desire. Music literacy applied to piano playing is much more than reading and recognizing notation or finding the correct keys, but also gives meaning to those notes in a way that allows for composition and improvisation. It is a child’s desire to communicate that motivates them to further develop a deep relationship with the aural and written art of music. This aural approach to music literacy becomes the foundation which provides the child a delightful transition to the world of music notation and understanding. This aural-to-visual method of literacy allows children to understand and appreciate music in terms of its tonality, meter, and style, while further refining their ability to listen.
In our next installments, we will explore specifically how discovering the keyboard in a group setting can be very different from the mechanical drills and rote learning that traditional piano learning imposed.
Understanding the Nature of the Young Child in Teaching Music
October 15, 2020 Early Childhood Music, music and movement, Musikgarten Teachers, Science of Musicearly childhood music, music and movement, science of musicMusikgarten
Maria Montessori, the acclaimed Italian physician and educator best known for the pedagogical philosophy that bears her name, once wrote “follow the child.” The statement is acknowledgement that children have their own particular pattern, of which careful observation is key to understanding in the classroom. Many childhood music programs approach and develop their curricula based on this philosophy. But the story, however, of each child begins even before the classroom – with the family in the home. At birth, babies are immediately exposed to a world of senses, each of which influences their process of self-construction. The environment in which they are submerged has a fundamental effect on the rest of the child’s life. Over the next several posts, we will explore how those early years are so formative, what influences that growth, and how the role of parents and caregivers is so important.
Phases of Childhood Development
Throughout time, psychologists and academics have sought to divide childhood development into phases, stages, or periods. Whether it is Piaget’s 4 stages of Cognitive Development, Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development, or Montessori’s Sensitive Periods of Development, each differs slightly from each other, either in behavioral approach or developmental milestones. But all of these agree that the most formative stages occur in the earliest part of life. While there is slight variation in the exact milestones, for discussion we can identify two major phases in childhood development:
Phase 1 – From birth to age three are years of intense activity and absorption.
Phase 2 – From age three to six years is a time to consolidate the gains from the first period
Whether cognitive or social, there is no more significant phase in human development than these early years, and even more influence is placed on the first three years of life.
A Child’s First Three Years are Critical
An incredibly complex stage of development takes place during the first three years of life, as a child becomes consciousness of being separate from others and builds competencies off of stimulating experiences. In the creative process from newborn to three-year-old, a series of transformations take the child from helpless infant to becoming a confident person in his or her own right. During this time they experience a growing sense of selfhood with an ability, through language as well as mobility, to communicate their individual needs and desires.
This formation is possible at a pre-conscious level because nature directs the development in the earliest stages of childhood. These are “critical” periods, where the developing child focuses on the necessary factors in their environment that direct the work of inner construction. The first three years of human life are so critical because it is a period in which intellectual growth rapidly occurs and cognitive functions are being established. Therefore, early experiences within an interesting and stimulating environment promote optimal development physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually and intellectually.
The Senses are the Child’s Window to the World
Even before they are born, babies have some senses in the womb. They can hear their mothers voice and music being played, they can also sense vibration when their mother rubs her belly, and often engage in self-touch as their skin gradually becomes more sensitive to stimulation. At birth, they begin to absorb their surroundings with enthusiasm during every waking moment. Through exploration and manipulation, sensory information (taste, smell, touch, vision, and hearing) is confirmed though movement. This sensorimotor exploration is a way for babies to learn without language and begin to develop the symbolic system that is the basis of concept formation and cognitive learning. In just three years, babies have organized what their senses have taught them in ways that encapsulate their own understanding.
The process by which infants and toddlers learn is based on an important and impressionable phase during the first three years of life. It is during this formative period that the child organizes information that has been gathered through their senses to begin to establish selfhood and identity. During this time and the next three years of life, several factors determine how the child will learn and grow physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually and intellectually. Continuing to explore the Nature of the Child, our next post will expand on the important factors that influence these critical formative years.
Much of the content for this post was based on the introduction to Family Music for Babies and Family Music for Toddlers, an early childhood music curriculum developed by Musikgarten.
A Note to Our Readers:
In The Musikgarten is written to help you manage, grow, and enjoy your Musikgarten studio. Each month, we explore a new topic suggested by Musikgarten teachers and provide you with smart insights and totally do-able ideas that come from real teaching experience. You’ll also find interviews with experts and successful Musikgarten teachers as well as the latest news in music education research.
Please feel free to suggest a blog topic or ask us a question. We’d love to hear from you!
A Short History of Do-Re-Mi
Teaching Children Thankfulness in the Music Classroom
A Brief History and Evolution of the Piano
The Science Behind the Benefits of Childhood Piano Lessons
©2015 Musikgarten, All Rights Reserved.


Vegas Golden Knights center Mattias Janmark (26) eyes the puck after colliding withTampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos (91) during the third period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/L.E. Baskow)
NHL set to resume after 6-day break, eyes new CDC guidance
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut the recommended isolation period from 10 days to five
Tampa Bay Lightning officials pulled a player out of a meeting because he tested positive for the coronavirus and no one in the room flinched.
As Anthony Cirelli went into the now-familiar COVID-19 protocol, the two-time defending champions practiced with their goaltending coach and an emergency backup in net and prepared to play Montreal on Tuesday night in a Stanley Cup Final rematch without either of their NHL goalies or their coach on hand.
“It’s just the norm,” assistant Derek Lalonde said Monday. “Not trying to downplay it, but I just think it’s a reality of today’s world and today’s NHL.”
Hockey will return Tuesday after the league took an extended holiday break in the hope that virus cases will not continue to disrupt the season. While three more games this week were postponed — bringing the total to 70 this season — the NHL like other leagues will try to power through the latest twist in the pandemic with a possible boost on the way in the form of shorter absences for players and coaches who test positive.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday cut the recommended isolation period from 10 days to five, and other North American professional sports leagues have already moved in that direction. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said, “Obviously it will spur a review of the protocol” currently in place, which includes 10 days away for those who contract the virus and experience symptoms.
While many of the cases across hockey have been asymptomatic or mild, the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant has led to a rash of positive COVID-19 test results across the league’s 32 teams. Dozens more players entered virus protocol Monday, with minor leaguers taking their place and taxi squads added to keep the NHL season going amid concerns about the quality of the on-ice product.
“Unfortunate what’s going on around the league with a lot of teams having to deal with COVID issues right now, including ourselves, but I don’t think a lot is going to change moving forward here for the next couple weeks,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. “We do have to get some games in if we can do it safely, and we can do it where teams have adequate players in the lineup.”
Stamkos and his teammates were preparing to play without reigning playoff MVP goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, five other players and coach Jon Cooper. Montreal will also be without several players for the start of a three-game U.S. trip; back home, Quebec has banned fans and all eyes are on virus restrictions in Canada that could further upend the season for a league with seven teams based north of the border.
The virus continues to play a role on either side of it. Pittsburgh and Washington each added six players to the COVID-19 protocol list, and the Vegas Golden Knights found out they won’t have coach Peter DeBoer behind the bench for their game Tuesday night at Los Angeles.
READ MORE: NHL brings back taxi squads in effort to keep season going; 3 more games postponed
Washington is set to play again Wednesday against the Nashville Predators, who are dealing with their own virus absences, but the game is scheduled to go on as planned.
“It’s not about who’s out,” said coach John Hynes, whose Predators put captain Roman Josi and two other players on the COVID-19 protocol list. “It’s about the players that are in and making sure we’re physically ready to play and mentally ready to play.”
Not every game will be played on time. Chicago’s game at Winnipeg scheduled for Wednesday and a home-and-home series Wednesday and Friday between Dallas and Colorado are the latest to be postponed because of coronavirus concerns.
The province of Manitoba capped ticketed crowds at 250, so any Winnipeg home games for at least the next two weeks would be played with no fans in attendance. Along with needing to find new dates for the games postponed and more sure to come, the league also could shift games in Canada to later in the season with the goal of making sure there’s a crowd in the stands.
As of now, the Winter Classic between St. Louis and Minnesota is still scheduled to be played in front of a crowd of almost 40,000 at Target Field in Minneapolis on Saturday night in keeping with the league’s New Year’s Day tradition.
“We’re just happy to be playing hockey,” Blues defenseman Justin Faulk said. “I don’t want to be sitting at home doing nothing during this time. I think we should be playing.”
In an effort to do just that, the league brought back “taxi squads,” a feature from the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Each team will be able to keep up to six players on the taxi squad and can make more emergency recalls from the minors to make sure there are 18 skaters and two goaltenders available for every game.
“It’s what needed to happen,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “You’re going to have a lot of these issues, so that’s one way to take care of it, have enough players around that you can keep playing. I think at the end of the day that’s what we’re trying to do: have a system in place that you can get guys into the lineup quickly.”
The league shut down for the annual Christmas break two days earlier than usual and extended it through Monday given the rapidly growing number COVID-19 cases. Several teams have reported asymptomatic or very mild cases, including 63-year-old Buffalo Sabres coach Don Granato, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2015.
“Everybody’s asymptomatic, which is great, and, obviously, they’re testing every day, so if they get a negative test, they come back in,” Buffalo general manager Kevyn Adams said, referring to Granato and forwards Zemgus Girgensons, Dylan Cozens and Mark Jankowski, who are in the virus protocol. “It it is hard when even if you’re asymptomatic and you come back and you’ve been back for a while, you need a little time to get yourself back. But, yeah, so far with the way our staff and players have been asymptomatic across the board.”
AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow and AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker contributed.
Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press
CoronavirusNHL
NHL brings back taxi squads in effort to keep season going; 3 more games postponed
U.S. forfeits world juniors game against Switzerland due to COVID-19 quarantine


rpc-text_1
Delegate Sponsorship
Call for Papers Guidelines
Prison Visit & Pre-Conference Workshops
15th Reintegration Puzzle Conference
26–28 June 2019 · Darwin Convention Centre – Darwin, Northern Territory
Supporting Indigenous People Leaving Prison in the ACT: An Introduction to the Worldview Foundation:
Lorana Bartels commenced as Professor of Criminology at the Australian National University in May 2019. Prior to that, she was Professor of Law at the University of Canberra, where she was the Head of the School of Law and Justice from 2016 to 2018. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Tasmania and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. Lorana is a member of the ACT Law Society Criminal Law Committee, ACT Reducing Recidivism Advisory Group, Prisoners Aid ACT management committee, National Sentencing Network Leadership Committee, International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence Global Advisory Council and the editorial boards of the Alternative Law Journal, Criminal Law Journal and International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. She has published extensively on criminal justice issues, especially sentencing, corrections and the treatment of Indigenous peoples and women in the criminal justice system. She is currently undertaking research on two Australian Research Council grants on public opinion on parole and sentencing for sex offences. Her publications include three books; over 80 refereed journal articles, book chapters and conference papers; and consultancy reports for the ACT Chief Magistrate, ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate, Corrections Victoria, Indigenous Justice Clearinghouse and Tasmanian Sentencing Advisory Council.
This paper gives an overview of Worldview Foundation, which runs a holistic well-being and employment opportunity and is currently focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the ACT criminal justice system. This includes an intensive 13-week pre-release course run over 5 days per week, which focuses on mindset change and forming productive lifestyle habits. Post-release, team members are fully employed in Worldview's social enterprises, accommodated in shared transitional housing, and intensively supported by Indigenous and non-Indigenous mentors for up to 6 months. Worldview continues less intensive support for up to 12 months and will conduct monitoring and evaluation for 5 years, with independent evaluation by the Centre for Social Impact underway.
Worldview’s philosophy is to set a very high standard of success for team members and then to do whatever it takes to help them reach this standard. A successful team member will be working at least 21 hours per week, attending the gym 3 days per week, paying rent on a property and maintaining a productive and healthy lifestyle, which includes making new positive social connections and developing relationships with family. Success coaching and ongoing mentoring is the essential glue which holds the program elements together, as it enables team members to achieve the mindset change required for this level of success. Other components include nutrition, personal development, addiction treatment, social and cultural connection, healthy relationships, education and training.
The paper draws on the presenter’s involvement and observations as an Academic Adviser to Worldview.


\ Antitrust Enforcement \ Antitrust in the US \ Competition and Pharma \ Michael A. Carrier and Carl J. Minniti III ‘Biologics: The New Antitrust Frontier’ (2018) University of Illinois Law Review 1
| Posted July 14, 2017 , updated on June 6, 2018 By antitrustdigest
Michael A. Carrier and Carl J. Minniti III ‘Biologics: The New Antitrust Frontier’ (2018) University of Illinois Law Review 1
This paper – which can be found here – can be read together with the paper on biologics that was reviewed here.
Biologics differ from small-molecule drugs along multiple axes. They are more expensive, costing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop. They also cannot be precisely replicated. As a result, they are likely to present different challenges than chemical generics. This article develops an antitrust framework for the problematic conducts most likely to arise.
Part I provides a primer on biologics, offering a brief history before focusing on the relevant science and markets. In a nutshell, the pharmaceutical industry consists of small-molecule drugs and biologics. A biologic is a large, complex molecule derived from a living organism, most commonly a protein. Through an intricate manufacturing process, biologics are harvested in genetically modified cell lines and purified through complex, lengthy procedures.
For most of the twentieth century, innovation resulted in small-molecule therapies in the form of compounds produced through chemical synthesis, up until the development of techniques to manipulate DNA in living cells in 1976. The science underlying biologics and small-molecule drugs is profoundly different. Small molecules are created through a series of chemical reactions known as chemical synthesis. This process is relatively predictable, allowing generics to imitate brand drugs at low cost. In biologics, “the product is the process” and the use of living cells to create biologics is inherently sensitive. This unpredictability has dramatic effects, determining whether a drug confers therapeutic or toxic effects.
If variability in biologic development and immunogenicity is a concern for the biologic manufacturer in making its own product, a follow-on maker will confront even higher hurdles. While these entities can rely on patent disclosures and other materials in the public domain, they will lack access to critical information that the biologic manufacturer protects as a trade secret. Because biologics are “so closely defined by their manufacturing process,” this secrecy blocks competition. Furthermore, developing biosimilars is much more expensive than chemical generics – while launching a generic costs on average roughly $2 million, biosimilar development, which involves more intensive and uncertain research and development, costs as much as $200 million. This explains why, despite clear market opportunities, biosimilar introduction has been relatively slow.
Part II then introduces the federal and state regulations addressing small-molecule drugs and biologics. The paper – which focuses on the US – begins by comparing the Hatch-Waxman Act (which regulates generics) and BPIAC (which regulates biosimilars).
This is likely to be of reduced interest, so I will not review it here (some elements may be mentioned in the next section). It is worth mentioning, however, that the benefits of obtaining follow-on approval under the BPCIA differ from those under the Hatch-Waxman scheme. A small-molecule generic is eligible for a 180-day period of exclusivity, while the first-to-file biosimilar does not benefit from such protection. Rather, exclusivity is granted only to the first biosimilar found to be interchangeable. To attain this status, the applicant must show that the follow-on version (i) is biosimilar to the reference product and (ii) can be expected to produce the same clinical result as the reference product in any given patient. Up until now, no biosimilar has applied for interchangeability status.
Part III is the heart of the Article. It identifies seven conducts have been subject to antitrust scrutiny in the pharmaceutical industry in the small-molecule context. It provides an overview of such conducts and their antitrust treatment. It then assesses how likely they are to apply to biologics:
Reverse-payment Settlements – The authors find that this conduct is less likely to occur in the biosimilar setting. First, biologic manufacturers do not face losses as drastic from biosimilar entry as brands face from generic entry. In contrast, given high development costs and a more finite universe of potential biosimilar entrants, the price likely will not fall as significantly upon biosimilar entry, which may reduce biologics’ urgency to enter into settlements. These modest effects are compounded by biologic manufacturers’ lasting first-mover advantage, which arises from reduced substitutability of biosimilars when compared to chemical generics.
Regarding the appropriate antitrust treatment, given the relative similarity of the applicable regulatory frameworks, the authors think that the rule-of-reason test developed in Actavis should be adopted.
Product Hopping – Product hopping occurs when a manufacturer switches from one version of a drug (say, capsule) to another (say, tablet). Many switches do not raise anticompetitive concern because they offer legitimate benefits and the manufacturer continues to promote the original version. Sometimes, however, the manufacturer undertakes activity like switching its prescription base from a profitable drug to a modestly changed version that only makes sense if it delays a follow-on’s entry.
The authors argue that “biologics’ differing science, markets, and regulations suggest a reduced frequency of product hopping but still require robust antitrust analysis”. The reduced frequency can be attributed to three main reasons: (i) in contrast to the straightforward reformulations that characterize small-molecule drugs, biologics are larger and more complex, which reduces the frequency of reformulations; (ii) the structural variability and complexity inherent in biologic development cause follow-on versions to strive only for similarity, and the less-pronounced price reductions in biologics compared to generics reduce incentives for originators to engage in product-hopping; (iii) the regulatory structure, which reduces the benefits of engaging in product-hopping.
Regarding antitrust assessments: “courts are less likely to confront the antitrust implications of the conduct. But when they do, they can apply an improved version of the antitrust analysis they have developed in the small-molecule setting, evaluating a “no economic sense” test and timing-based safe harbor that incorporates the realities of the pharmaceutical industry.”
Regulatory Abuse – This is a bit of a catch-all category that allows antitrust enforcement when sectoral regulation (and regulators) are unable to bite. It includes, to a certain extent, reverse settlements (above) and denial of samples (below), but also the manipulation of rules to streamline patent litigation (which provide in certain contexts for a stay on FDA approvals) and the fraudulent listing of patents.
The authors conclude that regulatory abuse is more likely for biosimilars than for generics because: “in the world of biologics, abuse of the patent provisions may cause delay years after a biosimilar application has been submitted and millions of dollars invested in a dispute”. This could be compounded by biologic’s originators assertion of late or hidden patents (i.e. by obtaining patents during periods which regulation sets out as being devoted to good faith negotiation and invoking them late in that process; or by assigning patents to third-parties and then being re-assigned such patents at a time of their convenience).
As above, the courts should conduct antitrust assessments based on a no economic sense test.
Denials of Samples – The paper is here very similar to the more extensive discussion contained in the paper immediately above. As with generics, biosimilar must have access to samples to access the market. Given that biologics are more complex than small molecules, undergo changes during the product’s maturation, and do not allow the analysis of protein structure, which make it more difficult to predict how they will operate: “the FDA will (at a minimum) be as likely to impose REMS programs on biologics as on small-molecule drugs.”
It is noted that sample refusals blatantly contradicts the goals for which the relevant statutes have been enacted, and often have no reasonable goal other than to prevent market entry: “For that reason, antitrust has a crucial role to play in addressing the denial of biologic samples.”
“Citizen Petitions” – In theory, citizen petitions filed with the FDA are designed to raise concerns that a drug is unsafe. Citizen petitions are a means by which any “interested person” can request that the FDA “issue, amend, or revoke a regulation or order” or “take or refrain from taking any other form of administrative action.” Some citizen petitions may raise valid safety concerns, but in many cases, they offer little value and the FDA is forced to spend considerable time responding to them.
Thus,“ in practice, [citizen petitions] bear a dangerous potential to extend brands’ monopolies by delaying approval of generics at a potential cost of millions of dollars per day. (…) [In the small-generics context] brands have used the process as a last-ditch effort to prolong their monopoly power.”
Regarding biologics, the authors foresee that there will be more petitions filed in the biologic setting than in the small-molecule context. However, they expect that: “the proportion of frivolous, anticompetitive (…) petitions will decrease while those raising legitimate scientific concerns will increase. (…) [B]iologics are complex and unpredictable, implicating legitimate safety and efficacy concerns. These characteristics are magnified because biosimilars will, at most, be similar (rather than identical) to the biologic. In addition, many biologic makers have also taken on the role of biosimilar manufacturers.”
Regarding antitrust assessment, the nub of the matter will usually be whether the (higher) threshold set out in the Noerr-Pennington doctrine (which grants antitrust immunity to those petitioning the government, subject to an exception related to sham petitions) is met. “In the biologics setting, the inherent complexity of the medicines and safety issues arising from follow-on products not identical to reference products will make it harder to prove that a petition is a sham.”
Disparagement – Courts have recognized that disparagement can give rise to a cognizable antitrust claim. Such behavior can be uniquely effective in erecting barriers to competition.
However, given the nature of competition between brands and generics, there have been few antitrust cases challenging disparagement. On the other hand, since “promotion, marketing, and the education of stakeholders will be crucial to the coming biosimilar wave,[this] could implicate disparagement and require courts to address novel antitrust theories. (…) Unlike the relationship between brands and generics, competition between biologics and biosimilars will require marketing and advertising to differentiate products, which increases the likelihood of disparagement. In the small-molecule setting, the products are nearly identical, which reduces the need for brand advertising campaigns against generics. (…) [Instead, biologics] may seek to influence, or even intimidate, prescribers by exaggerating the differences with biosimilars and highlighting potential tort liability, and sales representatives could communicate false information against biosimilars.”
Regarding the applicable antitrust framework: “disparagement will present challenges that have not been confronted in the small-molecule setting. Analysis should consider the science and markets of biologics and biosimilars and significant competitive effects of false statements.”
Price Collusion – unlike the conducts reviewed above, little nuance is required in the antitrust analysis of price collusion. Yet: “compared to the small-molecule setting, characteristics of the biologics market point in the direction of increased collusion. The likelihood of collusion is higher because of (1) the smaller number of biologics and biosimilars, which makes it easier to coordinate, (2) an inelastic demand for the products because consumers lack effective substitutes, and (3) a more private negotiation process between the parties. On the other hand, the heterogeneity of the products makes it more difficult to coordinate on price.”
In short, the authors conclude that: “because of the importance of marketing and the difference with follow-on products, we believe biologic manufacturers will more frequently disparage biosimilars. We also predict that increased complexity will result in more citizen petitions. And we anticipate that the private nature of patent litigation and notice will lead to more collusion and (at least in the short term) regulatory abuse.(…) At the same time, biologics’ complexity will tend to reduce the incidence of product hopping, and the smaller losses from generic entry and increased use of inter partes review (“IPR”)3 should reduce the number of reverse-payment settlements.”
I would seriously recommend that anyone interested in pharma reads this paper. Not only does it contain the best discussion of the difference between chemical and biological medicines (and generics and biosimilars) I have read, it also contains a detailed overview of anticompetitive practices in the pharma sector. I can’t really say whether the author’s prognosis regarding antitrust issues for biosimilars will prove correct, but even on that front the paper provides a potentially useful roadmap.
Categories Antitrust Enforcement, Antitrust in the US, Competition and Pharma
Michael A. Carrier ‘Sharing, Samples, and Generics: An Antitrust Framework’ (2017) Cornell Law Review 103(1) 1
Herbert Hovenkamp ‘Antitrust and Information Technologies’ 2017 Fla. L. Rev. 68 419


Wind farm TIF approved
Posted By National Wind Watch On June 3, 2008 @ 11:19 am In Maine | Comments Disabled
FARMINGTON – The Franklin County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved creation of a 20-year tax break for TransCanada’s Kibby Wind Power Project that will be built in the unorganized territory near the Canadian border.
Public opposition to the deal has revolved around the $9 million of property taxes TransCanada would have paid on the $220 million taxable investment that under the Tax Increment Financing program, will be returned to the company. That money would have lowered municipality’s county taxes substantially, local officials have said.
Support for the project has been the $4 million the county will get over 20 years to invest into economic development improvements in the Franklin County unorganized territory. The money will be used to increase tourism and market the region, improve emergency telecommunications and services in the remote townships, use for mapping trails, support half the county’s annual fee for Greater Franklin Development Corporation, and for scenic byway improvements.
Commissioner Fred Hardy of New Sharon said the decision was the hardest he has had to make in his 15 years on the board.
“I firmly believe the TIF can be a benefit to Franklin County. I’m not doing this to give TransCanada a tax break. I am doing it to benefit the entire county,” he said.
“Everyone will benefit with additional economic development,” he said. “Tourism is the only (industry) we have left.”
Public comment at last week’s public hearing was overwhelmingly opposed to the TIF and commissioners continued to receive letters and calls through Tuesday morning. They said those comments appeared to favor the tax break deal but a tally of the responses was not immediately available.
David Cota, a vocal opponent of the TIF for TransCanada, said he was anxious to see copies of the letters to ensure that the public hearing process was honored.
By Morning Sentinel Staff Report
news.mainetoday.com
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/06/03/wind-farm-tif-approved/


Alex on Film
Film Commentary by Alex Good
*. I’ve written before about how the Halloween movies constitute perhaps the most chaotic horror franchise ever. You can’t combine more than a couple of these films together into any kind of a coherent Michael Myers story. This movie, the third to be simply titled Halloween (following up John Carpenter’s 1978 original and Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake), doesn’t change this. Technically it’s a sequel to the original, taking place forty years later. But it rejects the further plot developments offered in previous sequels, including all the business about Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) being Michael’s sister, and makes a couple of other changes to the back story. So really it’s a bit of a standalone.
*. Given how long-running a franchise it’s been this may have been necessary. For movies like this there are two audiences, the hardcore fans and the newbies, and I think the former is the most important. The really hardcore fans, however, are, like Laurie and Michael, getting on in years. Even Michael’s iconic mask is now lined with leathery creases. Hence both the need to stay the same (all the old, familiar faces) and reboot.
*. Judging from the film’s initial reception I think it satisfied both camps. Primarily it works as homage: There are lots of little nods to the earlier films and Michael remains the reliably non-verbal, superhuman Shape. My own response was less enthusiastic though.
*. To start with what I liked. Jamie Lee Curtis is re-energized playing Laurie as a survivalist who has been waiting to kill Michael for forty years. There’s a generational angle that isn’t developed enough but which had promise. The idea of Laurie trying to protect her family in the panic room in the basement plays on the bunker-horror theme that was so prevalent in the 2010s. And finally some of the kills are surprisingly modest but effective.
*. Now on to all I didn’t like, which is a slightly longer list.
*. It was apparently a much longer film in its rough cut and I felt like a few of the characters had been entirely abandoned on the editing room floor. What happened to Allyson’s boyfriend Cameron? He seemed like he was being set up for a messy end. Why bother with the character of Sheriff Barker? He has no role to play at all.
*. According to producer Jason Blum, he liked the idea of David Gordon Green directing because “if you’re a great director you can make a great horror movie even if you’ve never made a horror movie before.” True in theory, but I didn’t have any sense here that Green was comfortable working in the genre. There really aren’t any scary or suspenseful scenes, despite the potential being there. A good example comes when the babysitter finds Michael hiding in the closet. The timing of this entire sequence is off so it doesn’t even work as a jump scare. We know he’s in the closet, which should come as a surprise. Or take the gas station episode. What was scary about any of that?
*. I thought the script was mostly trash. A new psychiatrist character is introduced, a successor to Dr. Loomis, and he isn’t credible for a moment. His motivation is a joke. Then the rest of the story is advanced through the usual idiot-plot behaviour and coincidence. The panic room was actually a trap? Then Laurie’s plan all along was to get Michael to go down there? How does that make sense?
*. When the film isn’t paying tribute to its predecessors it’s raiding horror clichés. Rooms full of mannequins. Hiding in a bathroom stall. A hand grabbing an ankle on the basement stairs. Some commentators found the plot a new wrinkle on the final girl theme (Josephine Livingstone, writing in The New Republic, thought Laurie a Trump voter), but I thought the ending was standard fare. We’ve had kick-ass heroines enough by now not to see them as making any kind of #MeToo statement.
*. In short, once it gets going this Halloween settles down into a predictable routine, not far removed from the other films in the series. In its favour, it may be the second-best Halloween movie yet (there will, of course, be more). On the other hand, that’s not saying much.
This entry was posted in 2010s on October 31, 2020 by Alex Good.
← Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998) The Invisible Man (1933) →
4 thoughts on “Halloween (2018)”
tensecondsfromnow October 31, 2020 at 6:13 am
I’m going to extract your line ‘There really aren’t any scary or suspenseful scenes…’ as pretty damning. While it’s great to see Curtis, and this film evokes the original with some skill, it feels like it short-changes us on scares…
Alex Good Post author October 31, 2020 at 7:50 am
Yeah, I have to sort of think that Green is a big part of the problem. You’re either a horror director or you’re not.
It’s not the mad take on the material that Rob Zombie has, but there’s a lack of patience with the material by Green that’s frustrating…
I think he’s doing the next one too so we’ll get to see if he’s learned anything.
Follow Alex on Film on WordPress.com
Alex Good
Alex on SF
Good Reports