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trying to ban guns from law-abiding citizens for decades. it's disa pointing, but not surprising. the american people know gun ban dos not work. a sponsor of the proposed assault weapons ban, connecticut senator richard blumenthal next hour. what are the final battle lines? one has been eliminated. women are no longer banned from combat units. leon panetta issued the order in the last 30 minutes. >> therefore today general dempsey and i are pleased to announce that we are eliminating the direct ground combat exclusion rule for women. we are moving forward with a plan to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to serve. >> eliminating the ban will take time and the assessment phase. each branch will examine all the jobs and units not accepting women and then produce a timeline for integration. every three months, service leaders will have to check on their progress and if it's found they are not suited for a unit, an exemption may be sought. one part of the air force, they have been side by side, fighting on the ground for more than a decade. >> this is tech sergeant andre
school in connecticut, president obama moving to tighten gun control laws, and yesterday he signed 23 executive actions that don't need congressional approval, but he wants congress to ban military is style assault weapons and include background checks on all gun buyers. >> if there is even one thing to do to reduce gun violence, even one life that can be saved, then we've got an obligation to try. >> congress so far appears luke warm on proposals to tighten gun control laws and support among americans has dropped slightly. a new poll shows 56% report a ban on semi auto plattic assault weapons, down from 62% in december. >>> president obama expected to name his close aide, dennis mcdonough as new chief of staff. he will replace jack lew, who was nominated to be new treasury secretary. >>> check your flights. winter storm warnings in effect today from mississippi to washington, d.c. places you don't normally hear. meteorologist jennifer delgado looks at that. >> we're tracking snow out there. most of us dealing with rain we have to wait for cold air catching up. we show you right now,
who believe gun control laws are an attack on their second amendment right to bear arms. >>> a new poll shows a slight drop over the past month in support of new gun control measures. 56% supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons, that's down from 62% in december in a poll taken right after the sandy hook massacre. >>> we said there's a lot to going on today. a major business story going on on top of everything else now. boeing with the jumbo-sized pr problem on its hands today as more airlines move to ground the much-hyped dreamliner. we'll have the latest on that. >>> and kidnapped and held in a basement when she was just 10 years old. katie beers tells her story 20 years later. ♪ if loving you is wrong ♪ i don't wanna be right [ record scratch ] what?! it's not bad for you. it just tastes that way. [ female announcer ] honey nut cheerios cereal -- heart-healthy, whole grain oats. you can't go wrong loving it. sven gets great rewards for his small business! how does this thing work? oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day!
taken law and twisted it into something unimaginable. >> reporter: a flogging in a public square this month. this man's crime, he dared smoke a cigarette. islamist militants setting an example for the hundreds of thousands in mahli still living under their rule. they work as truck drivers when militants overran the town the men were thrown in prison accused of stealing. after three months he says the jailers dragged them from their cells by their feet, tied turbines around their wrists and began to hack off their hands. i prefer dying to being like this he says. my hand hurts. high heart hurts. i only have god to turn to. so the man says the pain was terrible. it was the only thing i could feel. now they say unable to earn a living and they wander from house to house, their lives, they say are over. he was a radio journalist who spoke out against punishment. each time they want to do something barbaric i put out a call to people on the radio and they responded he told us. i denounced them he said. he was brutally beaten by armed militants can and left to die. he escaped to the ca
are wondering what his legacy will be. could it be his new push for tighter gun laws or perhaps something else? we'll talk about that. >>> we've been taking a look -- ronald reagan's second inauguration remain the coldest on record, believe it or not, if you're keeping track. for that reason, they took it indoors. we'll be right back. >> i, ronald reagan, do solemnly swear -- >> i, ronald reagan, do solemnly swear -- >> that i will faithfully execute -- >> that i will faithfully executed -- >> the office of president of the united states. >> the office of president of the united states. >> and will to the best of my ability -- >> and will to the best of my ability -- >> preserve, protect, and defend -- >> preserve, protect, and defend -- >> the constitution of the united states. >> the constitution of the united states. >> so help me god. >> so help me god. wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. britta olsen is my patient. i spend long hours with her checking her heart rate, administering her medication, and just
go to commercial break, let's take a look. there you see the -- the president's mother-in-law. gloria, they will be making their way here to -- to the capitol. as the -- president's aides get ready to get in the various cars. what part of the white house is this? >> i think we are looking right now at the north door. the president has been attending a coffee with congressional leaders, with senate leader mitch mcconnell. speaker boehner and congressman eric cantor. i confirmed that. with each of their offices. a nice bipartisan tradition and good way to kick off a new term. those of you discussing he does not do enough socializing with leaders, here he is doing just that. he's been with -- the wives, vice president biden and his wife has been there as has the first lady. they will then head in the motorcade and make their way up here to the capitol where they will go into a hold for about an hour before the president speaks. >> senator john kerry arriving at the capitol. there's senator kerry. >> confirmation hearings. secretary of state. >> this is the entrance you see usually in the
for the presidential inauguration and you might be asking, why do we do it, other than it is the law. wendy walsh is a human behavioral psychologist, and wendy, you say there is a bit of a fine line here. we americans walk during an inauguration, right? >> reporter: it's true, don. i think that we struggle with the idea of having this kind of inauguration, because it feels a lot like a coronation. and that's what america sort of fought very hard to get away from. we left the monarchy. many, many years ago. but yet we want to have some pump, some circumstance. we want to talk about michelle's dress. we want to know who designed it. i honored her today by cutting my own bangs to match her new haircut, and i'm sure half the women in america -- >> i know about this. >> hey, don, bangs is the new botox, that's all i can say. i think that we want to have some pomp and pageantry, but want to be clear, this is an inauguration, the beginning of a second presidential term. this is not the king and queen. got it? >> yeah. okay. so by the way, the bangs look good. you always look great. this sort of ritual,
Search Results 0 to 6 of about 7


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Obama and Palin
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Barack Obama is running against John McCain, not Sarah Palin. What does it mean when a running mate sparks more interest than the candidate? That the candidate is lackluster and nothing to be excited about. In Obama, we have a candidate who we can all genuinely be excited about, who can bring about real change

Obama needs to rise up out of the mud where Sarah Palin and John McCain would like to drag him and shine. When asked about Palin, he should say: “She and I each bring something historic to our respective tickets. That's all I'm going to say about her because she is not the one I am running against. I'm running against John McCain, who is 90 percent George W. Bush, and the 10 percent of him that isn't is being eclipsed by his running mate. Now, what does that say about him?”

Hammer away at the issues, Sen. Obama. Hammer away at John McCain and soon, instead of being someone no one had ever heard of, Sarah Palin will become someone we never have to hear about again.

Sarah Carlquist

Salt Lake City

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text:
Conservation should be heart of conservatism
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Environmental ethicists have been accused of worshiping nature over God, or of substituting religious precepts or sacred tenets with a devotion to environmental doctrine instead, as though they are dirt-worshipping pagans.

Whether someone believes that the earth was created by God in six days, or over billions of years by a random cosmic event, it is the only earth we have, and it deserves our respect.

Sadly, there is an attitude of indifference among many religious people who balk at the concept of revering nature as God's handiwork, of protecting a fragile planet from the degradations of human habitation, or denying that humanity is to blame for the climate crisis and other environmental carnage.

The politically obtuse on the conservative right tend to distance themselves from the root concept of resource conservation, which should be at the very heart of conservative politics, but instead is reviled as liberal propaganda.

From a doctrinal perspective, Christianity should cite the Bible as the reason for a collaborative stewardship of the earth, not as an excuse to plunder the earth's bounty without regard for the future, a la "Drill, baby, drill."

Recently, the LDS Church urged resource conservation by declaring that humans have a responsibility to be "….stewards – not owners – over this earth and its bounty…." (Mormon church makes new push for environmental stewardship, Nov. 15, 2013).

It was a welcome pronouncement, and a timely one, considering the contentious issues of land management and energy development right here in Utah, and it will be interesting to see if this admonition is embraced by our drill-happy, mostly Mormon legislature.

In an act of collective heresy, our congressional delegation, Mormons all, have already decried the recent removal of parcels in the San Rafael Swell from energy development as a capitulation to "radical environmentalists." These Rush Limbaugh conservatives believe in the immediate consumption of energy resources, and that climate change is a crisis manufactured by Democrats.

As a movement, environmentalism doesn't "worship" nature as a divine entity, although many individuals may feel a deep reverence for the planet that sustains us and makes life possible. Certainly there are those for whom being "green" is an all-encompassing philosophy, which may or may not include a supreme being, be it God or Gaia, and that's OK.

If someone was to exercise their right to deny the existence of a higher power altogether, then worshipping nature would certainly be an acceptable and worthwhile alternative. After all, human beings have a need to make a spiritual investment in something beyond ourselves – something toward which we can direct our time, energy and passion – and in return, nature will always reward her own with dividends that are virtually unattainable anywhere else, except perhaps in a spiritual relationship with their deity of choice.

Humans need the earth but the earth doesn't need us, so it's disappointing to see the hypocrisy that compels otherwise good people to condemn an environmental stewardship on the basis that "the earth was made for man, not man for the earth," which essentially negates any other moral imperative; or the naive abdication of responsibility that dismisses our role as stewards of the earth based on the attitude of some Christians that it doesn't matter what we do to the planet because Christ will come back and fix it. The earth is our home – the only one we have. It does not exist for us to conquer or destroy.

Environmentalism is not a religion – it is an ethical conviction, one that that should be embraced by all of humanity – because neither politics nor religion should advocate abuse of the planet.

David E. Jensen is a freelance writer, environmental advocate and political agitator. He lives in Holladay.


text:
City administrator orders revamp of section heads

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Thursday, January 16, 2014

CITY administrator Melchor Quitain said Thursday he will order for a revamp among all the section heads within the Office of the City Building Official (Ocbo) on Friday.

"I just want to be sure that the instructions that we have been given will be implemented not only according to the letter but according to the spirit," Quitain said Thursday.

Although Quitain refused to elaborate on the real issue behind the revamp, he assured that the 72-hour transaction policy set by Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has been followed and implemented.

He said the engineers would only request for longer period when the project involves a very big construction.

When Duterte assumed post in July last year, he immediately imposed the 72-hour transaction policy in all the offices of the City Government of Davao, especially those seeking permits.

Duterte said the policy was aimed at curbing corruption in different departments.

"Pag-abot sa 72 hours, dili gani nimo i-release sa taong aplikante, you forward the permit to me in this table. Mangutana ko ug ngano niabot ka ug tulo ka adlaw. Sa kadtong mga tao nga nadugay, ayaw namo pag hatag ug kwarta tutal diri man ninyo kuhaon sa akong opisina (When it reaches 72 hours and the permit hasn't been released, give the permit to me and I'll ask you why this reached three days. For businessmen, don't give money anymore as you will get your permit from my office anyway)," Duterte said.

The mayor even singled out the City Building Office, where a lot of application permits are still pending.

"One of the most corrupt at maraming reklamo ang City Building (Office)," he said, adding that he has been receiving a lot of complaints on unprocessed permits.

Aside from the revamp, Quitain will also recommend lawyer Joseph Dominic Felizarta as the acting assistant city building official "to see what is exactly going on inside" the office.

Felizarta is currently assigned at the City Legal Office.

Quitain said Felizarta is a "better equipped" and "worthy" of the position since he is also a civil engineer.

"Before he became a lawyer, he works at the City Engineer's Office. As a lawyer, he knows the dynamics in that office. He will be in the best position to tell me what should be done in that office. Kasi in all projects, you also have to take into consideration the legal aspects of the project," he said.

He said Felizarta will be involved in both engineering and legal aspects.

Quitain is expected to release the memorandum ordering the revamp and appointment of Felizarta today, Friday.

He said he is also set to meet the employees affected by the revamp.

"I want to talk to them and explain why I am taking this step," he said.

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on January 17, 2014.

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text:
Pulaski County Youth Service set to host Fun Fest

    8:02 PM, Sep 24, 2013   |    comments
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    LITTLE ROCK, Ark (KTHV) - The Pulaski County Youth Service is set to host "Fun Day" this Saturday, September 28th at 1:00 p.m. The event will feature free food, face painting, and live music among other activities.

    Program Director Chris James and Former Razorback Elston Forte are leading the charge for PCYS. "It's a great youth event that will benefit the community," says James. "It's a really great way to showcase what we've been doing all summer long".

    Since 1994, Pulaski County Youth Services has been an organization dedicated to providing quality enrichment and educational programs for the youth of Pulaski County. Through a wide array of programs, Pulaski County Youth Services strives to provide quality activities for all youth in an effort to expand their minds, strengthen their bodies, and encourage their spirit.

    Fun Fest will be from 1:00-3:30 at Trinity Village Apartment Complex located on 1600 John Barrow Road in Little Rock.

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text:
Pro-Russian activists and Crimean Tatar protesters and supporters of Maydan stand opposite each other near the Parliament building in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2014. / Artur Shvarts, Epa

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (AP) - Dozens of heavily armed pro-Russia gunmen seized control of local government buildings in Ukraine's Crimea region early Thursday, escalating tensions in a peninsula that's become a flashpoint in the east-west divide that threatens to rip apart a country engulfed in political and economic turmoil.

Ukraine put its domestic security forces on high alert and urged Russian forces not to leave their base in southern Crimea. Failing to do so "will be considered a military aggression," Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, said in the national parliament in Kiev.

The identity of the gunmen wasn't immediately clear and they had not put forth any demands Thursday morning, but witnesses said they were pro-Russian, and carried rocket-propelled grenades, sniper rifles and other weapons. They raised the Russian flag over the local parliament building in Simferopol, the regional capital.

The renewed tension in this strategic peninsula that houses Russia's Black Sea fleet came as lawmakers in Kiev were expected to approve the new government and a day after clashes between pro- and anti-Russian demonstrators in Simferopol.

Meanwhile, Russian news agencies quoted the Defense Ministry saying that as part of the military exercises in central and western Russia, fighter jets were put on combat alert. "Fighter jets are patrolling the air space in the border areas," the news agencies said quoting the military.

The ministry said 150,000 troops and 90 jets are involved in the maneuvers.

Russia has questioned the legitimacy of the new Ukrainian authorities after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych fled last week, and it has accused them of failing to control radicals who threaten the Russia-speaking population in Ukraine's east and south, which includes the Crimean Peninsula.

The men occupying the local parliament building in Crimea did not immediately voice any demands but threw a flash grenade in response to a journalist's questions. They wore black and orange ribbons, a Russian symbol of the victory in World War II, and put up a sign saying "Crimea is Russia."

Maxim, a pro-Russian activist who refused to give his last name, said he and other activists who had camped out overnight outside the local parliament in Simferopol when heavily armed men wearing flak jackets and carrying rocket-propelled grenade launchers and sniper rifles took over the building.

"Our activists were sitting there all night calmly, building the barricades," he said. "At 5 o'clock unknown men turned up and went to the building. They got into the courtyard and put everyone on the ground.

"They were asking who we were. When we said we stand for the Russian language and Russia, they said: don't be afraid, we're with you. Then they began to storm the building bringing down the doors," he said.

"They didn't look like volunteers or amateurs, they were professionals. This was clearly a well-organized operation. They did not allow anyone to come near. They seized the building, drove out the police, there were about six police officers inside," he said.

"Who are they? Nobody knows. It's about 50-60 people, fully armed," he said.

The events unfolding in Crimea highlighted the divided allegiances between Russia and the West that have deepened amid the political turmoil that has gripped Ukraine in recent months.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday put the military on alert for massive exercises involving most of the military units in western Russia, and the military announced measures to tighten security at the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet on the peninsula.

The maneuvers will involve some 150,000 troops, 880 tanks, 90 aircraft and 80 navy ships, and are intended to "check the troops' readiness for action in crisis situations that threaten the nation's military security," Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.

The move prompted a sharp rebuke from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who warned Russia against any military intervention in Ukraine.

Russia denied the military maneuvers were connected to the situation in Ukraine, but the massive show of force appeared intended to show both the new Ukrainian authorities and the West that the Kremlin was ready to use all means to protect its interests.

Ukraine's acting interior minister Arsen Avakov said on his Facebook page on Thursday that areas around the occupied buildings were being sealed off by police.

"Measures have been taken to counter extremist actions and not allow the situation to escalate into an armed confrontation in the center of the city," he said.

Phone calls to the Crimean legislature rang unanswered, and its website was down. Refat Chubarov, a local leader of the Tatar community that support the new authorities in Kiev, wrote on his Facebook page early Thursday that the two buildings were taken overnight by uniformed men.

The events in Crimea came as Ukraine's parliament was to form a new government after three months of street protests and violent clashes resulted in Yanukovych fleeing the capital.

Protesters took to the streets after his decision in November to reject an agreement that would strengthen ties with the EU and instead seek closer cooperation with Moscow. The protests expanded to include grievances against corruption and human rights abuses.

Copyright 2015Associated Press

Read the original story: Government buildings seized in Ukraine's Crimea

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Fat god foot from platter tied to concepts of territory and gluttony. / Kaxil Kiuic

Here's one more reason to be glad those 2012 Maya doomsday worries didn't pan out - Maya scholarship, thankfully, just kept on going.

An international archaeology team, for example, reports that a well-known Maya ruin site had its origins further back in time than anyone first supposed. Nestled in the hilly interior of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the ruin of Kiuic turns out to boast a pyramid of surprising antiquity, dating back to 700 B.C., as shown by carbon dating. Long seen as a transitional corridor between the ancient Maya cities of Central America and the later ones of the Yucatan coast, the hilly "Puuc" region that is home to Kiuic and other sites, instead, looks like a longtime home of the vanished culture.

"They were living here going way back," says archaeologist George Bey of Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. The pyramid was discovered long ago, with writer John Lloyd Stephens visiting Kiuic's ruins in the 1840s, and dates to after 800 A.D., when the site was thriving. But now excavation to the foot of a four-story pyramid in the center of the ruin has helped pin down its birth date, showing it started out as a ceremonial platform, as was typical of ancient Maya towns and cities.

In 2010, Bey and Mexican archaeologist Tomás Gallareta Negrón of INAH reported that artifacts left at Kiuic indicated the site had undergone rapid abandonment around 880 A.D., part of the famed collapse of ancient Maya cities at the time. More than 6 million Maya still live in Central America today, but the rulers and the pyramid cities of the era were abandoned in a diaspora that modern-day scholars have tied to long-term drought, over-farming and other factors.

At one of the houses showing signs of rapid abandonment on a hilltop overlooking Kiuic, the team reports they have found inscriptions on a keystone block as well as the remains of a large feasting bowl left behind, more evidence of rapid flight. Earlier discoveries at the site included grinding stones left tilted against doorways, kitchen implements left stacked in rooms and remains of ancestors left behind that Maya traditions would have typically seen as needing removal if a place faced permanent abandonment. Instead, it looks like the residents just left, expecting to shortly return. But they never did. "These were the Maya middle class, and they were doing well," Bey says.

The three feet of the platter depicted the Maya "fat god," a patron of feasting, appropriately enough, next to tools for applying stucco to homes. Apparently, the heavy feasting platter was too big to take when the homeowner left (sort of like leaving the family silver behind when going on a vacation now), Bey says, but such a valuable object would have been taken if a permanent move were planned.

The team hopes that analysis of the site, slowly being unearthed by archaeologists, provides a time capsule of the time when abandonment took place at Kiuic, and might offer insight into its occurrence elsewhere. Scholars generally divide ancient Maya eras into a Classic one that started after 200 A.D. and a "Pre-Classic" one that dates back to perhaps 900 B.C., but the latest finds point to more continuity between the two eras instead, Bey suggests.

Copyright 2015 USATODAY.com

Read the original story: Maya 'fat god' platter found in ruins

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text:
Magic Online Community Cup: Wednesday

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The Magic Online Community Cup has rested in the hands of the Community for the first two years of its existence. Who will hoist the the Erik "Hamtastic" Friborg Memorial Trophy this year?

With three rounds of Scars of Mirrodin draft completed on Wednesday, the Community Team took a 20-point lead but saw that advantage disappear in after-hours play. The Wizards Team completed a 6-0 sweep in Archenemy on Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 as the Community Team crumpled before the awesome might and fiendish schemes of Zac Hill, Dave Guskin, and Mike Mikaelian

If the Community Team manages to defeat the Wizards Team, all players who log on to Magic Online anytime on Wednesday, June 15; Thursday, June 16; or Friday, June 17, will be invited to a no-entry-requirement Planeswalker-format Constructed tournament on July 3! All players who play in this four-round, Swiss-pairings event will receive one Magic 2011 booster pack. All players who earn 12 match points by going undefeated will also receive any three Magic Online booster packs of their choice—yes, any three!

If the Wizards Team wins, however, players will not go empty handed; all players who logged in between June 13 and June 17 will receive a Darksteel Relic promotional card with a June 17, 2011 date stamp!

  • by Event Coverage Staff
    Deck Lists:
    Scars of Mirrodin Booster Draft

  • by Nate Price
    Scars of Mirrodin Draft:
    First Blood Struck by Community Team

  • by Nate Price
    Photo Essay:
    Riding the Duck Around Seattle

  • by Nate Price

  • by Event Coverage Staff
    Draft Viewer:
    Blue Pod

  • by Event Coverage Staff
    Draft Viewer:
    Red Pod

  • by Event Coverage Staff
    Wizards Participants

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    2011 Community Cup Event Details

Team Points
Community Team 89
Wizards Team 91

Scars of Mirrodin Draft

Modern Unified

Standard Unified

  • Deck Lists: Scars of Mirrodin Booster Draft

    by Event Coverage Staff

  • First Blood Struck in Scars of Mirrodin Draft

    by Nate Price
  • One thing that I have really enjoyed seeing at the Community Cup is how much people enjoy watching it, even here within the halls of Wizards of the Coast. Members of the Wizards staff from all departments always seem to make an appearance during the various rounds, dropping in to watch the draft, bird a game of Standard or two, and often simply to meet (and heckle) the players who showed up to represent the Community team. Due to the team nature of the event, both teams do an insane amount of communication during the draft, often leaving their computers to comment on picks by their teammates. When you factor in that some of the players on each team ended up directly passing to teammates, there was a definite bustle going throughout the room.

    Feeding the railbirds.

    As the draft ended, both teams felt pretty solid about their decks. Both Aaron Forsythe and Chris Kuehl looked to have absolute monsters. Forsythe had a blue/red control deck featuring Treasure Mage, Slagstorm, and a slew of other good cards. ChrisKool's deck was on the other side of the spectrum. His red/white aggro deck featured a number of fast, aggressive creatures with a reasonable amount of removal to back them up.

    With the first round under way, things went bad for the Wizards team off the bat. Virtually around the board, the Wizards team dropped their first game. Aaron Forsythe proved to be their bastion, winning his first game and the entire match soon thereafter. Elsewhere, the Community team clamped down and started winning left and right.

    LSV and Enigma take down the first two matches.

    One match of particular note was between Marshall Sutcliffe and Ryan Spain. The duo behind the LimitedResources podcast, this matchup became possible thanks to Spain's recent hiring by a little entity known as Wizards of the Coast. Now playing for the "enemy," it seemed only fitting that these two Limited minds would face off not only the same draft pod, but the first round of the tournament. Their match was a marathon, completely living up to the hype surrounding it. Their match was easily the first to hit the viewer cap, and those lucky enough to make it in were treated to a show. The second game of their match came down to a great series of plays for Spain. Sutcliffe had a pair of 2/2 fliers and a Barbed Battlegear, ready to smash Spain to smithereens. When he equipped on the first one, Spain had a Leeching Bite to save a ton of damage. When he tried to equip again, Spain was able to block a 3/3 attacker with his Treasure Mage and use a second Leeching Bite to absolutely swing the game. After that, his deck took over and he took the game to a third game. In that final game, the endgame came down to haymaker after haymaker, with Sutcliffe finally landing the knockout punch with a Mortis Dogs carrying a Barbed Battlegear.

    The second round gave us the marquee match we were looking for after checking decks. Aaron Forsythe and his red/blue monstrosity squared off with Chris Kuehl's red/white aggro deck. Ultimately, despite all of the power between both decks, the match came down squarely to one card. I think Forsythe put it best on Twitter. "True Conviction +39 other cards defeated me :(" Thanks to the power of True Conviction, ChrisKool was able to win despite Forsythe's ability to kill virtually every creature he added to the table. All it took was a couple survivors to put Forsythe down. Another highlight of the second round was Mike Turian's utter trouncing of Marshall Sutcliffe. As Turian Tweeted, "When infect works, it works quickly!"

    Which one's the real Soliton?

    The final round had some truly memorable moments. Luis Scott-Vargas and Aaron Forsythe were paired up in an epic battle which went all the way to a third game. Ultimately, LSV proved to be a bit overmatched, and Forsythe took home his match for the WotC team. At one point in the second game, Forsythe had a trio of Solitons, one a Cryptoplasm pretending to be a Soliton and the other a Phyrexian Metamorph pretending to be a Cryptoplasm pretending to be a Soliton. Bing Luke had an awesome turn of events in which he had gotten his opponent, Gordon Culp, to eight poison counters until he appeared to take the advantage with a Precursor Golem...until Luke used a Spread the Sickness on one of them to just flat out win the game on the spot. Proliferate three times? Thank you! In Turian's match against Graham Stark, both players traded Whispering Specter stories. Stark used his and a Strata Scythe to finish Turian off in two swings. Turian didn't use his to actually kill Stark, but when he sacrificed it to strip him of his whole hand, it effectively ended the game.

    Things don't look good for the home team.

    After the dust settled and all of the intricate "math" was done, it was the Community team that had struck the first blow. Winning 14 out of 24 matches, the Community team ended the day with a 20-point lead. The lead would be important going into the Unified Constructed events, where it has felt like the Wizards team has held an advantage. Two players—one from each squad—managed to go undefeated. Gordon Culp and Chris Kuehl both managed perfect 3-0 records with their red/white decks. Check out the draft viewers out to see how they did it!

    Congratulations to Chris Kuehl and Gordon Culp on their undefeated performances!

  • Photo Essay: Riding the Duck Around Seattle

    by Nate Price
  • Before the Magic drafting began on Wednesday, the Community Team took a tour of Seattle on a unique amphibious vehicle, well-known around town as "The Duck."

    Austrian Josef Kronbichler gives Mountain Dew a try for the first time. He admitted it wasn't Red Bull, which he said 'tastes like gummy bears!'

    The Community Crew in front of the Space Needle in downtown Seattle. Not pictured: Whatever Luis Scott-Vargas was looking at.

    Everyone with cameras out in front of the Experience Music Project, making like tourists. Or podcasters. Or webcasters. Or all of the above.

    What have we gotten ourselves into...

    The Magic Online store's new mascot...or not.

    Oh that's just Alex Steacy from LoadingReadyRun...planking the bus stop.

    Perhaps I should have been more specific when I asked for no duck lips in photos...

    And thus began our journey on the duck...

    Still blissfully unaware of what lies ahead.

    Jeremy Petter from LoadingReadyRun has the best seat on the Duck: right behind the captain, with a chair in his crotch. Comfortable.

    Mike Robles snapping a quick photo before we take off. I get points for this, right?

    There is no chance that Bing Luke is going to drown on this trip. He's an adult.

    Meet Captain Bob La Bla, Seattle Duck-guide master by day, construction worker...also by day.

    Graham Stark: 'Can we stop at a Starbucks?' Cpt. Bob: 'Didn't get your coffee fix?' GS: 'No, but they might have a bathroom!'

    Within thirty seconds, Stark has sprinted off the Duck!

    Sweet relief!

    Welcome to the Elephant Super Car Wash, the first automated car wash in the country!

    Our final destination: Lake Union.

    Look, man, you can by shoes anywhere. Here, you can buy feet too!

    Captain Bob is a man of many hats.

    The last time I drove a truck off a boat ramp, it didn't go so well...

    Apparently, Captain Bob has a fairly large eyewear collection as well.

    Not pictured: T-Pain, though I'm pretty sure someone in the back is wearing a nautical-themed pashmina afghan.

    Chris Kiritz,left, Vincent Price (no relation), center, and Mike Robles: the men behind our expedition. If we drown, send complaints to them.

    It was pretty sweet to see the Space Needle in the background as seaplanes took off before us. Cool moment.

    Do you live on the right or the left?

    You think Patrick Chapin is inside?

    They moved too fast to get shots of the M-C-A, but you get the idea.

    Planking Black Lightning.

    What's better than celebrating a trip on the Duck with a hot dog? Two hot dogs!

    by Nate Price
  • With echoes of Erik "Hamtastic" Friborg's voice ringing throughout the room, the final event of Wednesday came to a head. Three members of the Wizards team came strolling into the War Room. Dave Guskin, Zac Hill, and Mike Mikaelian entered the room to a chorus of boos and took their places behind their computers. The format for this Multiball challenge?

    Archenemy, on the PC version of Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012.

    Behold, the archenemies! Tremble before their might and awesome fedoras!

    This year, Multiball was run a little different. Rather than a full-on multiplier, the two teams played two rounds of play, each match worth five points. At the end of Multiball, the points earned would be added directly to the winning team's score. That meant that thirty points were up for grabs, thirty points that could change the texture of the tournament.

    The Community team broke into three-man cells. Luis Scott-Vargas, Bing Luke, and Enigma squared off against Zac Hill. Marshall Sutcliffe, Sunie, and JoeKewwl faced Mike Mikaelian. ChrisKool, Whiffy, and Graham Stark rounded out the last match against my eternal archnemesis: Dave Guskin. With the teams and matchups set, the players selected their decks and set about their matches.

    The Community team has quite the Mountain to climb!

    The first player to draw blood was the archenemy Zac Hill. His Mono-Blue deck churned out advantage after advantage thanks to his scheme cards. The trio of Mono-red aggro decks played by Luke, LSV, and Enigma couldn't overcome the power of the scheme cards. As LSV put it, "When you're playing 2/2s and your opponent is playing free cards that are more powerful than three of your cards put together, it's hard to win, even if there are three of you." Enigma dropped first, with LSV right behind. Still sitting pretty at over 20 life, it was mere child's play for Hill to crush Luke's opposition and give the Wizards team their first five points.

    The resemblance is uncanny. Zac Hill is the dreamiest. This is the face of pure evil.

    Only a man as thoroughly evil as my personal archenemy Dave Guskin could make beings as powerful as the Eldrazi his thralls. Thanks to his scheming ways, he introduced the trio of ChrisKool, Whiffy, and Graham Stark to his good buddies Kozilek and Ulamog. When the Elven armies of the Community rose up to fight them, Guskin used a Rite of Replication to manufacture an Elven army to match them. When the dust settled, the Community had put up a good fight, but even one as powerful am I am unable to stop the beast that is Dave Guskin.

    While the third match was still underway, with the Community's Lorthos, the Tidemaker (not to be confused with Lorthos Thompson) trying to give Mike Mikaelian a sloppy hug, the first Community trio has swapped up their decks and decided to make a second run at the nefarious, yet dreamy, Mr. Hill. Unfortunately, Hill's Diabolical Vision involved forcing the Community to effectively mulligan to four, shuffling their hands back into the deck and drawing new hands of four cards. As Hill put it immediately thereafter, "Skill game." With his sick skills, Zac Hill put the "All-Ringer" Community team of LSV, Bing Luke, and Enigma to rest.

    Despite starting out waaay behind, the Community team still had smiles on their faces. Being a part of this experience will do that.

    With one match in the books, the WotC team had pulled to within five points of the Community team. Soon after Hill won his match, Mikaelian managed to squirm out of the Freshmaker's grasp, wriggling his way to his first match win. Guskin managed to raise a clone army of Wampires to take his second match as well. That put WotC ahead by five points with the last match still to play. It came down to the team of Marshall Sutcliffe, Sunie, and JoeKewwl and their final tangle with Mikaelian.

    When Wampires attack!

    Unfortunately, the Community was not destined to win. Sunie, Joe, and Marshall put up a good fight, but in the end, the overwhelming force of Mikaelian's Esper deck and his filthy, filthy schemes proved far more than they could handle. As the final points of damage were done, the Community team appeared crestfallen. After a few moments of shock, the smiles crept back onto their faces as they started to complain about the results of Multiball. They were actually enjoying trolling WotC about their loss! With Multiball over, but the fiery discussion about Archenemy still raging on, the WotC team had edged out a 10-point lead, crawling out of their 20-point hole. Two events remain for the Community to regain the lead. Their first opportunity is the new kid on the block: Unified Modern. The lists are in, but are they better than Max McCall's WotC creations? The scoreboard will tell the tale soon enough.

    Scoreboard, guys. Oh, and Hamtastic Cup, too.

    • Planeswalker Points
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text:
Apple sells 3M iPads after Mini launch

12:07 PM, Nov 5, 2012   |    comments
Photo courtesy of Apple.
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NEW YORK -- Apple says it sold 3 million iPads of all kinds in the first three days it sold the new Mini model.

Apple started selling the Mini on Friday, starting at $329. It's a third smaller than the full-size iPad.

The sales figure compares with 1.5 million iPads sold in the first three days after Apple launched the third-generation iPad in March and cut the price of the iPad 2.

The full-size iPad got an update on Friday as well, with a faster processor and a better front-facing camera.

The launch encompassed 34 countries, including the U.S., Japan, Germany and Britain. According to analyst Brian White at Topeka Capital Markets, the Mini model sold out at 60 percent of U.S. Apple stores.

Associated Press

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text:
Statue of man in underwear raises eyebrows on college campus

9:54 AM, Feb 6, 2014   |    comments
(Photo: Steven Senne, AP)
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( - A life-like statue of a man wearing only underwear on the Wellesley College campus has sparked a petition calling for its removal.

The statue, called "Sleepwalker," is part of an exhibit by artist Tony Matelli at the Massachusetts college's Davis Museum.

The petition says the statue is an "inappropriate and potentially harmful addition to our community." It was posted by its writer, Lauren Walsh, on Tuesday. It was addressed to Wellesley president H. Kim Bottomly. Walsh identifies herself on the post as a member of Wellesley's class of 2014.

The statue has "become a source of apprehension, fear, and triggering thoughts regarding sexual assault for many members of our campus community," according to the petition, which had been signed by more than 360 people as of Wednesday afternoon.

Davis Museum director Lisa Fischman explained the exhibit in a statement on the museum's website: "As the best art does, Tony Matelli's work provokes dialogue, and discourse is at the core of education."

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text:
Latinos Take On Bigger Role In Obama Inauguration

5:59 PM, Jan 20, 2013   |    comments
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Latinos are taking a more prominent role in President Barack Obama's second inauguration, from the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice swearing in the vice president to a star-studded celebration of Latino culture.

Eva Longoria, a co-chairwoman for Obama's campaign, is hosting a salute to the president Sunday evening. Antonio Banderas, Rosario Dawson, Marc Anthony and other entertainers are scheduled to appear at the event, called the "Latino Inaugural 2013: In Performance at the Kennedy Center." San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro will address the audience.

Meanwhile, Justice Sonia Sotomayor administered the oath of office Sunday morning to Vice President Joe Biden.

Longoria says this is her first time attending an inauguration. She told ABC's "This Week" she will advocate on public policy and that everyone should be civically engaged.

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text:
Doyle's Deals: Salon L'eau, iRig and AmpliTube, Starbucks

9:52 AM, Nov 21, 2013   |    comments
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WASHINGTON (WUSA9) --  Time to do some beauty maintanence ahead of the holidays for up to 48 percent off.
Salon L'eau in Georgetown is offering this deal with Gilt City: $13 for an eyebrow wax,  $55 for a hair cut and blowout, $150 for full highlights and a blow out. This offer is valid for new clients only.

Turn your iPhone, your iPod Touch or your iPad into an amp and effects rig for your guitar with this deal on Pay just $19.99 for the "IK Multimedia - iRig and AmpliTube" set.
That saves you 50 percent off.

And Starbucks has a coupon with Amazon Local. Get one free Kids' Hot Chocolate with the purchase of any espresso drink --such as a latte.  The coupon is good until the 27th and it is free.

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text:
Does UDC Have A Future?

11:15 PM, Jan 28, 2013   |    comments
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WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- At first glance the University of the District of Columbia looks like an urban university on the move but which way?

President Allen Sessoms was recently fired and nearly a hundred positions abolished to save money. The Board of Trustees says the cuts won't affect student services but students told us today many services and classroom instruction were already suffering.

"There are a lot of teachers here that probably should be updated or retired because they are just not in current knowledge, some don't even use the internet."

UDC seems to know better than ask DC's elected leaders for a bigger subsidy, even though the City government is realizing a three to four hundred million dollar surplus from the last fiscal year.

Does UDC even have a future? Half of its five thousand students were peeled off by a new two year Community college.

"We are going to want to hear from the board to what their decision is moving forward with the existing resources and growing their resources by attracting more students," said Muriel Bowser, DC Council.

Mayor Gray's spokesman says he is willing to give the board of trustees -- most of which he appointed -- more time to come up with a right size plan for the four-year school.  But he will not say how much time.

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text:
Water pressure, extreme cold made ballpark fire difficult

10:36 PM, Jan 3, 2014   |    comments
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COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. (WZZM) -- When you have multiple fire trucks getting water from the same source, water pressure becomes a concern. That's what happened Friday as crews battled the massive blaze at Fifth Third Ballpark.

There were only two hydrants in the in the immediate area of the ballpark, each served by a 16-inch water main beneath White Pine Trail.

Eight-inch feeder lines serve the two fire hydrants, which provide up to 4,000 gallons per minute. The pressure is increased as the water flows through pumper trucks and into the hoses used by firefighters.

"Part of the problem is that when you use more than one hydrant at the same time, coming from the same place, they had a lot of trucks there and they were all fighting for the same faucet," said Plainfield Fire Chief Dave Peterson.

Early on in the fire, a hose was disconnected when a vehicle ran over the charged line. Changing out equipment is also more difficult when ice covers valves and nozzles.

RELATEDDangerously cold day to fight a fire

McDonald's in Comstock Park gave firefighters some relief from the cold, bringing over hot coffee, hot water and 100 hamburgers.

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text:
APG-L Archives

Archiver > APG > 2008-02 > 1203736344

From: "Richard A. Pence" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Sources Used by Professional Genealogists
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:12:24 -0500
References: <c25.2d41872e.34f03754@aol.com><003e01c87561$d9981780$8cc84680$@com>

Christine Sweet-Hart <> wrote in response
to Phil's comment regarding the use of the Internet by professional

>I did not receive the original post that is clipped out below, but my
> immediate thought is that most people cannot afford Ancestry's prices and
> in
> some cases it may be cheaper to hire someone to do the research for them.

The above caught my eye. The U.S. "deluxe" membership is available ror as
little as $99 if you watch for specials (that's what I paid last year; the
regular about $155).

That's about 3 hours of a professional's time. I would say that "most
people" CAN afford Ancestryt. As a matter of fact, for many they can't
afford to be without it.

Some examples of why this is so:

In the "old days," if I wanted to do census work, I had to drive to
Washington and spend $15 to park (much more today). I can take 10 trips town
and get limited work done - or I can sit at home and do census work every
day for less than the cost of one trip to town each month.

Or suppose I am searching for someone and I have to send away for a dozen
death certificates before finding the right one. In some cames I can save
the cost of 11 of those death certificates by finding out on line which one
I actually need. I save engough in that one search to pay for a

Or suppose you need pension files. They're not cheap if you order them from
NARA - Ancestry has the images on line.

I am not an employee or a stckhoulder of Ancestry.com, but I sincerely
believe that for even the occasional researcher an Ancestry subscription can
actually save you money.

The real problem is not the cost of services such as Ancestry but the fact
that most people simply have failed to learn how to use them effectively.

Richard P.
Fairfax, Virginia

This thread:


text:
Archiver > ENG-WILTSHIRE > 2001-05 > 0989726000

From: (norma fairbairn)
Subject: [ENG-WIL] francis/frances bloomfield
Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 20:53:20 -0700 (PDT)

francis bloomfield is my great-grandfather -i am seeking information on
either he or his wife mary fulford they married 1883, in whiteparish
both were also born in whiteparish,wilts. anything about the bloomfield
family francis' parents, G-parents ,siblings and children also mary
fulford family.i'd be most grateful...norma.

This thread:


text:
Calendar  |  Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County

Reminder: Watch Night/First Day celebrates 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation

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[December 29, 2012]  SPRINGFIELD -- The Abraham Lincoln Association is hosting two events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. On Monday at 8 p.m. there will be a watch night service at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Springfield to celebrate the coming of emancipation. On Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Old State Capitol State Historic Site, a portrayer of President Abraham Lincoln will sign the Emancipation Proclamation and have a public news conference to answer questions. A Frederick Douglass portrayer and others will join the president for comments.

Westminster Presbyterian Church and the Old State Capitol State Historic Site are co-sponsoring these events with the Abraham Lincoln Association.

On Dec. 31, 1862, 150 years ago, American slaves, freemen, abolitionists and common folk sat in churches, meeting houses and fields all over the nation, watching and waiting for the first day of freedom to roll in. Freedom was to occur the next day, on Jan. 1, 1863, when President Lincoln was to issue a proclamation emancipating, or freeing, the slaves in states or parts of states that were in rebellion against the Union. It was a very emotional time.

As they watched and waited, people sang songs and testified to the glory and the goodness of the Lord. They gave thanks to President Lincoln, whom many called Father Abraham, and famous abolitionists like Horace Greeley, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison and others who strongly and relentlessly urged Lincoln to emancipate the slaves. They also gave thanks for the sacrifices of slaves themselves who had boldly risked all in a desperate push to crack open the door to freedom and to the death of slavery.

[to top of second column]

The Watch Night/First Day events will recreate the excitement and joy of 150 years ago. The words and songs of the participants will come to life.

In addition to the primary sponsors, the following groups also have contributed to the program: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition, Lincoln Home National Historic Site, and Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum.

[Text from file received from the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition]

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text:
sponsored by

Illinois Community College Board begins search for new executive director

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[February 22, 2013]  SPRINGFIELD -- Since Geoffrey Obrzut announced his plans to retire from the position of president and chief executive officer of the Illinois Community College Board, effective June 30, the board has begun a nationwide search for a new executive director.

The executive director reports directly to the board and serves as the chief community college system representative working with the governor's office, the Illinois General Assembly and its various legislative committees, the Illinois Board of Higher Education, and other state agencies.

Qualified applicants can find more information, including an online application form, on the ICCB's website: www.iccb.org. To ensure a full consideration, individuals should submit a complete application package prior to March 8.

Alexi Giannoulias, chairman of the ICCB, leads the search committee, which also includes six other board members.

[to top of second column]

The ICCB is the state coordinating board for community colleges. Illinois is home to 48 community colleges in 39 districts and has the third-largest community college system enrollment in the nation.

[Text from Illinois Community College Board file received from the Illinois Office of Communication and Information]

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text:
Thursday, February 20, 2003

House OKs bill
to cut fireworks
permit cost

A Senate panel will discuss
the measure that reduces
the price to $10 from $25

By Pat Omandam

The cost of a state fireworks permit would drop to $10 from $25 under a proposal that has passed the state House and awaits debate in the Senate.

Proponents of the bill said the fee for a fireworks permit is too high and only serves to punish fireworks users.

Legislature 2003

Legislature Directory

Legislature Bills & Hawaii Revised Statutes

Reducing the fee would bring it down to a more reasonable level, said House Judiciary Chairman Eric Hamakawa (D, South Hilo-Kurtistown) in his committee report on House Bill 899.

Opponents, however, fear lowering the fee will increase fireworks usage and hinder the state's efforts to curb fireworks smoke, which is seen as a health and safety hazard.

"When you lower the cost of a permit fee, the obvious result is going to be that more and more people will be shooting off fireworks," said state Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua-Kaneohe), one of four Republicans who opposed the measure.

"Last New Year's Eve was great, and I think it was a direct result of having a meaningful cost placed on the permit."

Nevertheless, a majority of the 51-member House voted in favor of the bill, which will likely be sent for consideration to the Senate Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations Committee, headed by Sen. Cal Kawamoto (D, Waipahu).

Kawamoto did not hear a Senate companion bill this session that reduces the fireworks permit to $10. A few years ago, he pushed for a total ban on fireworks and stiffer penalties, while the state House wanted the counties to decide whether it should implement its own permit system.

As a result, a compromise bill was reached in 2000 that sets up the current state fireworks permit system. Under the law, an individual can purchase a $25 permit for 5,000 firecrackers. Multiple permits can be purchased.

Hawaii's four counties implement the state law, and the money from the fireworks permit sales goes to each county's general fund.

For New Year's Eve, the City and County of Honolulu issued 6,156 permits but ran into a problem where many fireworks vendors ran out of fireworks, especially the popular 10,000- and 5,000-bundle firecrackers.

While the city did not issue any refunds for those with permits unable to buy fireworks, Hawaii County had a refund offer that was good through Jan. 10.

Honolulu Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi said yesterday the intent of the $25 fee was to cut down on the use of fireworks. All indications are that the bill was working and had been a deterrent, he said.

For example, Leonardi said, the dollar loss from fireworks-related fires dropped to $200 in 2002 from $569,000 in 2001. The law also has lowered the use of illegal aerial fireworks, he said.

"There's less fireworks on the market. The vendors have brought in way less than in previous years," Leonardi said.

"Now, if you lowered it from $25 to $10, that would increase the sale of fireworks, and of course, I think it would proportionally increase the amount of brush fires and things of that nature," he said.

Leonardi said the city will continue to oppose the bill if it is heard in the Senate.

Fireworks permits, issued through satellite city halls, are not only available for New Year's Eve, but also for Chinese New Year and the Fourth of July. A record 6,427 fireworks permits were issued for Honolulu for the Jan. 1, 2000, millennium celebration.

"I am not in favor of banning fireworks. I think they should be allowed," said House Minority Leader Galen Fox (R, Waikiki), "but I think it's perfectly all right to have a fairly stiff hurdle for getting them."

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text:
Monday, May 15, 2006

Gregory Djanikian: I Ask My Grandmother If We Can Make Lahmajoun

Sure, she says, why not,
we buy the ground lamb from the market
we buy parsley, fresh tomatoes, garlic
we cut, press, dice, mix

make the yeasty dough
the night before, kneading it
until our knuckles feel the hardness
of river beds or rocks in the desert

we tell Tante Lola to come
with her rolling pins we tell
Zaven and Maroush, Hagop and Arpiné
to bring their baking sheets

we sprinkle the flour on the kitchen table
and it is snowing on Ararat
we sprinkle the flour and the memory
of winter is in our eyes

we roll the dough out
into small circles
pale moons over
every empty village

Kevork is standing on a chair
and singing
O my Armenian girl
my spirit longs to be nearer

Nevrig is warming the oven
and a dry desert breeze
is skimming over the rooftops
toward the sea

we are spreading the lahma
on the ajoun with our fingers
whispering into it the histories
of those who have none

we are baking them
under the heat of the sun
the dough crispening
so thin and delicate

you would swear
it is valuable parchment
we are taking out
and rolling up in our hands

and eating and tasting again
everything that has already
been written
into the body.

This poem has appeared in POETRY magazine (May 2002) and Ararat Quarterly (Winter 2004). It appears also in the upcoming So I Will Till the Ground volume, published by Carnegie Mellon, in January 2007.

Prof. Djanikian has given his consent to reproduce it here.

Lisa said...

Hello Lola, I wanted to let you know that I'm linking to this page on my food blog. I'm doing a "food poetry" event, asking people to send their favorite poems that involve food. I've loved this poem since I discovered it several years ago. You have a wonderful site; I'm glad I found it, and this poem—thanks!

talar said...

Hello Lola,

I loved Gregory Djanikian's style and poems so much that I am using them as study material in the Armenian Shenorhali Sunday school in Washington DC.
The children love the way they identify with his poems (especially "I ask my grandmother if we can make lahmajoun" ).

Thank you
Talar Kazanjian

Ivy said...

Hi Lola,
I wrote a recipe recently about lahmajoun at my site and Lisa was kind enough to send me a link of this beautiful poem.
Thanks you,


text:
Page Banner

United States Department of Agriculture

Agricultural Research Service

Related Topics

BHNRC Seminar Series
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Please reserve these dates…..

November 15     Dr. Elizabeth Jeffery, University of Illinois, Bioavailability of Broccoli Bioactives

November 19     Dr. Artemis Simopoulos, Center for Human Genetics, n-3 Fatty Acids & Health

November 26     Dr. Peter Scholl, FDA, Protoemics Changes During Pregnancy

December 3       Dr. Maureen Spill, Pew Trusts Foundation, Health Impact Assessment

December 10     Dr. Kathryn Porter, NHANES, Opportunities and Challenges

January 14        Dr. Paul Talalay, Johns Hopkin University, Isothiocyanates and Health

January 28        Dr. Pamela Pehrsson, USDA/BHNRC, Nutrient Contents of Foods

February 11      Dr. Gerald Combs, USDA/Grandforks HNRC, Selenium Requirements

February 25      Dr. Yaguang Lu, USDA/BARC, Phytonutrients in Microgreens

March 11          Dr. Corey Scott, General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition, Broccoli and Health

March 25          Dr. Allen Smith, USDA/BHNRC, Selenium Nutriture

April 8              Dr. William Mindak, FDA, FDA Efforts about Arsenic and Foods

April 15             BHNRC Poster Day

April 22            Dr. Oliver Fiehn, University of California Davis, Metabolomic Approach to Health

May 6               Dr. David Klurfeld – USDA/ARS National Program Staff, Fructose Fallacies And Facts

May 20             Dr. Kevin Hall, National Institutes of Health, Diet Quality and Energy Balance

Special Note:  Most seminars will be held in Building 005 of the USDA Campus (unless otherwise noted) from 10:30 to 11:30am with an additional 30 minutes to meet and greet our speakers. Biographical information will be forthcoming prior to seminars.

Last Modified: 11/12/2013
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Opposable Thumbs / Gaming & Entertainment

Google ads coming to a video game near you as Adscape deal closes

Google has purchased Adscape, a small in-game advertising company that has …

Rumors have been flying for months about a Google buyout of Adscape, a San Francisco-based in-game marketer. The deal is now official, and though no financial details were released, the deal was earlier estimated at $23 million. Whatever the amount, Google has officially entered the in-game ad market, but they're keeping the specific plans under wraps.

One big question about the deal is what such ads will look like. Is Google planning, for instance, to bring its all-text AdSense technology to a virtual billboard near you? All the company will say is that "it is too early to say what the ads will look like."

The list of things Google is not discussing is a long one, and it includes the company's integration plans for the new technology. At some point down the road, though, it looks all but inevitable that Google will provide one-stop shopping for advertisers who want to reach web users, gamers, radio listeners, and even cell phone users. Is there any place Google is not interested in sticking an ad?

Bernie Stolar of Adscape is now known as Google's "Dean of Games," and says that he's excited about the deal. "Our charge at Adscape has always been to honor the game that was developed and find new ways to enable that game to continue so others can enjoy it," Stolar said in a statement. "That's why we are so stoked to join Google—because these guys get it, and are committed to helping us continue our mission."

That altruistic mission—to help gamers play titles that otherwise could not be made—drives Adscape, according to Stolar, though it's unclear whether games are actually failing without the additional ad revenue. In a Q&A last year, CEO Chris Gilbert also trotted out the standard line that gamers like ads, and that studies prove it (hopefully, he's referring to non-industry sponsored research of some kind). As our games editor Ben Kuchera puts it, "I have yet to talk to a gamer who says, 'Man, these ads really make me feel good about having things sold to me after I've bought a $60 game!'"

Now that the company is part of Google, its two-way technology will get far more exposure. Players can interact with ads and submit information through them, but will gamers actually want to step out of their Porsches and walk up to the interactive Pizza Hut billboard just beside the shortcut around the bridge that spans the river? The line between "immersion" and "annoyance" is a fine one, but Google has proved adept at staying on the right side of it so far.

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Opposable Thumbs / Gaming & Entertainment

You want a revolution? Ars reviews The Beatles: Rock Band

The Beatles: Rock Band is more than just a side project designed around one …

You're either going to understand why The Beatles: Rock Band is such a big deal, or you're going to wonder why everyone is so worked up about another game centered around a single band. It's a valid question, and if you're not a fan of the Beatles you'll be able to comfortably sit this one out. But if you are a Beatles fan, then get ready for a great experience. There isn't any music here that's "inspired by" the Fab Four—just 45 tracks by what was arguably the most influential band of all time.

In the minds of music fans, the Beatles have ceased to be a group of four people and have become something of a godlike entity, and if this game has a weakness it's that it suffers from the pedestal the band is put upon. The game treats the songs as something holy, with animations and details that allow the years to slide by, punctuated by milestones in the band's career. The song list is expertly picked—although your favorite song may be missing, it gives you a good sense of the band's beginnings in small clubs with the early, rambunctious pop, takes a literal and figurative trip through the psychedelic years, and ends with the bittersweet rooftop concert at Apple headquarters.

This journey isn't chronicled in any biographical way, but it's shown as a mix of songs, venues, and animations between each set. The story of the Beatles has become more powerful than the truth of the band; watch the game's intro video to see just how masterfully Harmonix juggles the band's looks and sounds, while hitting all the expected iconic moments. It's like taking a roller coaster through history.

This game is a love letter to the legend and music of the Beatles, and if that isn't attractive to you, then the game won't be able to convince you that it's worth your time. But if your interest is piqued, get ready for an experience that captures, encapsulates, and re-contextualizes a huge part of our collective popular culture.

What version should I buy?

That's a good question, and we have yet to spend any kind of significant time with the official Beatles instruments, but there are three of them and they each cost $99.99. That's $300 for the luxury of having plastic guitars shaped like the instruments the Beatles played. The full band set for the game is likewise $250, and that gets you the game, silvery drums with a Beatles logo to attach to the front, the Hofner bass made popular by Paul McCartney, a microphone, and a stand.

Yes, it's nice to have the whole aesthetic experience, but come on. These instruments don't have any special features that go along with the game; they just look nice. If you already have a full set of plastic instruments, they'll work fine. You can pick up an entire Rock Band 2 set with a guitar, drums, microphone, and the game for $100 or so if you find a sale, meaning you can get the same number of accessories, along with the extra game, if you buy that package and the Beatles software.

Title The Beatles: Rock Band
Developer Harmonix
Publisher MTV Games
Price $59.99 to $249.99 Shop.ars
Platform Xbox 360 (reviewed), PS3, PS2, Wii

So if you have the money to get the full set and the extra two guitars—$450 in all—go for it. If you would rather spend less money, getting standard equipment will be much cheaper and you don't lose anything outside of the nifty plastic shell.

What you will need if you plan on playing with friends is two extra microphones and microphone stands. The game supports three-part harmonies on many of the songs, and this feature adds a lot to the enjoyment of the game. If you're only playing with one microphone, you're missing out on a large part of what makes the experience special. The branded microphones at gaming stores are likewise expensive, and the wireless microphone for the Xbox 360 runs $50. Any USB microphone will work, so this is another place you can do some shopping around to save money.

The setup I've been using for the 360 version of the game consists of the Guitar Hero 5 guitar, the Fender Bass, one wireless microphone, the standard Rock Band 2 microphone, and the Guitar Hero microphone. To get the full experience you need two guitars, a drum set, three microphones, and preferably three microphone stands so you can play and sing at the same time. If you have the equipment already, just pick up some USB microphones and stands to round out the set. If you're starting from scratch, take the time to shop around.

Playing the game

The game itself doesn't bring much new to the genre outside of the artwork and the songs of the Beatles. You can't create your own character, and of course your avatar is determined by the instrument you play. Unlike the oddity of seeing Kurt Cobain rapping in Guitar Hero 5, you won't see Lennon drumming here, or Ringo playing the bass.

In fact, in the career mode the first few venues are straight-ahead performances at venues such as the Cavern Club, Ed Sullivan Theater, and Shea Stadium. The animated Beatles are stylized representations of the real people, and the fans scream and carry on appropriately, but after all the buzz leading up the game's release it almost seems anticlimactic. This is exactly what you'd expect: the Beatles playing the songs that made them famous in the locations that made them stars.

The game reaches bright, acid-drenched heights during the 19 songs played inside Abbey Road studios. Each song begins with the band playing in the studio, but as the songs play the background drops away to reveal what Harmonix refers to as "dreamscapes," brilliant animated reproductions of the songs' lyrics and themes. They're extraordinary, and this is the rare rhythm game where it's worth it to put down your instrument every now and again to watch others play and enjoy what's going on in the background.

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Thursday ticker.

Dean Closing Five Wisconsin Plants

January 25, 1996|By Stanley Ziemba.

In a move to trim costs and remain competitive, Franklin Park-based Dean Foods Co. is closing five of its Wisconsin vegetable canneries, eliminating 129 full-time jobs and hundreds of seasonal jobs. The plants are located in Ft. Atkinson, Bloomer, Brillion, Hortonville and Cedar Grove.


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Humble inspiration for a homey casserole

September 19, 2007|By Bill Daley, Tribune food and wine critic

The products sitting on my kitchen counter the other night were all items to be tested at home: a can of cream of chicken soup, a jar of curry powder, a tin of tuna packed in water. To that lineup I added a yellow onion and a $9 bottle of sauvignon blanc.

After looking to the back of the soup can for inspiration, I found that these ingredients lent themselves to a very homey casserole. The end product is rather old-fashioned in a 1950s and '60s sort of way. This is how so many moms of my youth used to cook when they were being "creative" and enthusiasm outweighed real ability in the kitchen.

Canned condensed soup is convenient, yes, but do-it-yourselfers can always make a white sauce from scratch.

Cooked, leftover chicken or salmon could be substituted for the tuna.

Mushrooms and English peas could replace the onion.

Beverage pairing

A cool, crisp sauvignon blanc would give snap to the dish. So would iced tea.

- - -

Endive salad

Tuna rice casserole

Apricot tart

Tuna rice casserole

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Yield: 6 servings

1 tablespoon butter

1 onion, diced

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) cream of chicken soup

1 1/3 cups water

1 cup uncooked white rice

2 cans (6 ounces each) tuna, drained

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and curry powder; cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Scrape the curried onions into a 9-by-13 baking dish; stir in the soup, water, rice, tuna and pepper. Cover with foil.

2. Bake until the rice is cooked and the casserole has begun to turn golden, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven; raise the temperature to 450 degrees. Remove foil from casserole. Spread cheese over the top of the casserole; return to the oven. Cook until cheese begins to melt, about 5 minutes.

Nutrition information per serving:

337 calories, 32% of calories from fat, 12 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 46 mg cholesterol, 33 g carbohydrates, 23 g protein, 644 mg sodium, 1 g fiber


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Obama, the mortal, comes back down to Earth

September 07, 2009|By Charles Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist based in Washington: Washington Post Writers Group

WASHINGTON — What happened to President Barack Obama? His wax wings having melted, he is the man who fell to Earth. What happened to bring his popularity down further than that of any new president in polling history save Gerald Ford (post-Richard Nixon pardon)?

The conventional wisdom is that Obama made a tactical mistake by farming out his agenda to Congress and allowing himself to be pulled left by the doctrinaire liberals of the Democratic congressional leadership. But the idea of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi pulling Obama left is quite ridiculous. Where do you think he came from, this friend of Chavista ex-terrorist William Ayers, of Palestine Liberation Organization apologist Rashid Khalidi, of racialist inciter Jeremiah Wright Jr.?

But forget the character witnesses. Just look at Obama's behavior as president, beginning with his first address to Congress. Unbidden, unforced and unpushed by the congressional leadership, Obama gave his most deeply felt vision of America, delivering the boldest social democratic manifesto ever issued by a U.S. president. In American politics, you can't get more left than that speech and still be on the playing field.

In a center-right country, that was problem enough. Obama then compounded it by vastly misreading his mandate. He assumed it was personal. This, after winning by a mere seven points in a year of true economic catastrophe, of an extraordinarily unpopular Republican incumbent, and of a politically weak and unsteady opponent. Nonetheless, Obama imagined that, as Fouad Ajami, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University, so brilliantly observed, he had won the kind of banana-republic plebiscite that grants caudillo-like authority to remake everything in one's own image.

Accordingly, Obama unveiled his plans for a grand makeover of the American system, animating that vision by enacting measure after measure that greatly enlarged state power, government spending and national debt. Not surprisingly, these measures engendered powerful popular skepticism that burst into tea-party town-hall resistance.

Obama's reaction to that resistance made things worse. Obama fancies himself tribune of the people, spokesman for the grass roots, harbinger of a new kind of politics from below that would upset the established lobbyist special-interest order of Washington. Yet faced with protests from a real grass-roots movement, his party and his supporters called it a mob -- misinformed, misled, irrational, angry, unhinged, bordering on racist. All this while the administration was cutting backroom deals with every manner of special interest -- from drug companies to auto unions to doctors -- in which favors worth billions were quietly and opaquely exchanged.

"Get out of the way" and "don't do a lot of talking," the great bipartisan scolded opponents whom he blamed for creating the "mess" from which he is merely trying to save us. If only they could see. So with boundless confidence in his own persuasiveness, Obama undertook a summer campaign to enlighten the masses by addressing substantive objections to his reforms.

Things got worse still. With answers so slippery and implausible and, well, fishy, he began jeopardizing the most fundamental asset of any new president -- trust. You can't say that the system is totally broken and in need of radical reconstruction, but nothing will change for you; that Medicare is bankrupting the country, but $500 billion in cuts will have no effect on care; that you will expand coverage while reducing deficits -- and not inspire incredulity and mistrust. When ordinary citizens understand they are being played for fools, they bristle.

After a disastrous summer -- mistaking his mandate, believing his press, centralizing power, governing left, disdaining citizens for (of all things) organizing -- Obama is in trouble.

Let's be clear: This is a fall, not a collapse. He's not been repudiated or defeated. He will likely regroup and pass some version of health-insurance reform that will restore some popularity.

But what has occurred -- irreversibly -- is this: He has become ordinary. The spell is broken. The charismatic conjurer of 2008 has shed his magic. He has regressed to the mean, tellingly expressed in poll numbers hovering at 50 percent.

For a man who only recently bred a cult, ordinariness is a great burden, and for his acolytes, a crushing disappointment. Obama has become a politician like others. And like other flailing presidents, he will try to salvage a cherished reform -- and his own standing -- with yet another prime-time speech.

But for the first time since Election Night in Grant Park, he will appear in the most unfamiliar of guises -- mere mortal, a treacherous transformation to which a man of Obama's supreme self-regard may never adapt.


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American Honda CEO unsatisfied with Accord sales

April 04, 2012|Nick Zieminski | Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - March sales of the flagship Honda Accord were "not satisfactory," but the company is working through the inventory problems that led to an unexpected slump, executives said at the New York Auto Show on Wednesday.

U.S. consumers bought 26,771 Accords last month, down from 31,533 vehicles a year ago. Total group sales were down 7.7 percent year-over-year to 115,833, American Honda said earlier this week.

"We are not satisfied with that," said American Honda President and Chief Executive Tetsuo Iwamura, noting the Accord was outsold by both the Toyota Camry and the Nissan Altima last month.

The company is still working through problems stemming from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which disrupted production.

"We're still suffering the inventory issues associated with the disaster," marketing executive Mike Accavitti said.

Iwamura said total inventories were improving quite well but distribution of vehicles among dealerships was "kind of a problem at this moment."

He said the Accord sales slump was caused by a shortage of some popular models but that a new model in the fall would help improve Accord sales.

(Reporting By Nick Zieminski in New York, editing by M.D. Golan)


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Houston Astros - TeamReport

April 09, 2012|Reuters

MLB Team Report - Houston Astros - INSIDE PITCH

The Astros' outfield rotation lasted all of three games before general manager Jeff Luhnow saw a way to shake things up. After going a man short and very short on right-handed bats, the Astros claimed outfielder Justin Maxwell off waivers from the New York Yankees.

Adding the big 28-year-old will give them the right-handed bat they've been missing since they traded outfielder Jason Bourgeois to Kansas City. It also allows them to have a backup center fielder who is not also the starting right fielder (Brian Bogusevic).

"I think he (Maxwell) can play all three," Luhnow said. "He's certainly capable of center field because he's got speed and good range and a good arm too."

His arrival comes at an interesting time. Bogusevic, whom manager Brad Mills had been hesitant to play against left-handed pitching, came up with the winning hit Sunday against Rockies lefty Rex Brothers.

If Bogusevic does not need to be platooned as he was last year and can be an everyday player, Maxwell becomes a bat off the bench, complementing left-handed-hitting Travis Buck. Maxwell is a .201 hitter in the majors (all for Washington) with a .379 slugging percentage.

"He's got athleticism, speed, power. You can look at what he did last year in AAA with 16 homers in 48 games," Luhnow said. "Right-handed helps because we've got a lot of left-handed outfielders at upper levels."

The Astros announced they would make the corresponding roster move today. Because they started with an extra pitcher, there's a chance that a reliever could vacate the roster to add the outfielder.

MLB Team Report - Houston Astros - NOTES, QUOTES

--SS Marwin Gonzalez has started each of the first three games at shortstop in the absence of SS Jed Lowrie, who is on the disabled list. The Astros are pleased with what they found in the Rule 5 pick. "When we got him in spring training, he appeared to be a true shortstop, very alert, wants to learn," manager Brad Mills said.

--RHP Rhiner Cruz showed in one at-bat during his Saturday debut why he's so nasty and volatile. He threw three strikes to the only batter he faced, Michael Cuddyer, interrupted only by a 98 mph fastball within inches of Cuddyer's head. Cruz was the No. 1 pick in the Rule 5 draft based on the potential but has always struggled with control.

--RHP Brett Myers picked up his first save Sunday since he was a member of the Phillies in 2007, pitching a scoreless ninth inning against the Rockies. Myers, who was moved to the bullpen this offseason, worked around a double and a walk in his first appearance of the year.

--RHP Bud Norris continued the Astros' run of good starting pitching coming out of the gate, giving up two runs in seven innings to put the starters' ERA at 0.89. He followed Wandy Rodriguez and Lucas Harrell, both of whom were also sharp. "To see them come through like this the first three games, it's great to get them started and get their confidence moving in the right direction," Mills said. "They can pitch, and they're proving it."

--2B Jose Altuve already has two walks in his first two games, a good start to the emphasis on patience the team has been drilling this offseason. Altuve walked just five times in 234 plate appearances after being called up last year.

--With their series win over the Rockies, the Astros won an opening series for the first time since 2006 against the Marlins. They also have a winning record for the first time in Brad Mills' managerial tenure. The previous time they ended a game with a winning record was July 29, 2009.

BY THE NUMBERS: 14,195 -- Attendance for the Astros' Easter Sunday game against the Rockies, easily the lowest in the 13 years Minute Maid Park has been open. The previous low was 18,594 on April 8, 2003.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "This team's got to know it doesn't matter which guy goes out there every fifth day. We'll give our team the opportunity to win. I think with the five guys we've got, we've really got the opportunity to do that." -- RHP Bud Norris after the Astros took two of three from Colorado with starters sporting an ERA of 0.89.

MLB Team Report - Houston Astros - ROSTER REPORT

--SS Jed Lowrie (jammed thumb) was hurt March 28. He was placed on the disabled list before the season opener on April 6. He could be back April 13.

--LHP Sergio Escalona (torn left elbow ligament) went on the 15-day disabled list April 4, the same day he was due to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery.

LHP Wandy Rodriguez

RHP Lucas Harrell

RHP Bud Norris

LHP J.A. Happ

RHP Kyle Weiland

RHP Brett Myers (closer)

RHP Brandon Lyon

RHP Wilton Lopez

RHP David Carpenter

RHP Fernando Rodriguez

LHP Wesley Wright

RHP Lucas Harrell

RHP Rhiner Cruz

C Jason Castro

C Chris Snyder

1B Carlos Lee

2B Jose Altuve

3B Chris Johnson

SS Marwin Gonzalez

INF Matt Downs

INF Brian Bixler

CF Jordan Schafer

LF J.D. Martinez

RF Brian Bogusevic

OF Travis Buck

OF Justin Maxwell


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Egypt's Mursi to visit Iran end of August-state agency

August 18, 2012|Reuters

CAIRO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed
Mursi will visit Iran to attend the Non-Aligned Movement
meetings on Aug. 30, Egyptian state news agency MENA said, the
first such visit by an Egyptian head of state to Tehran since
the Islamic revolution.

MENA quoted sources at the Egyptian presidency saying on
Saturday that Mursi "will participate in the summit" on his way
back from China.

A spokesman for Mursi was not immediately available for
comment. Egyptian media reports have suggested Mursi might send
his newly appointed deputy, Mahmoud Mekki, instead.

Since Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular
uprising last year, Egypt and Iran have signalled interest in
renewing ties severed more than 30 years ago after Iran's
Islamic Revolution and Egypt's recognition of Israel.

However, with the West pushing Iran to halt its disputed
nuclear programme and the United States being a major donor to
Egypt's military, any improvement in ties could become a tricky
path to tread.

Mursi said in June he would sue an Iranian news agency after
it quoted him as saying he was interested in restoring relations
with Tehran. Mursi aides said the interview was a fabrication.

Iran hailed the victory of Mursi, who resigned from the
Muslim Brotherhood when he was elected in June, as an "Islamic
Awakening". Mursi, however, is striving to reassure Egypt's
Western allies wary at the prospect of Islamist rule, and Gulf
states that are deeply suspicious of Iranian influence.

Egypt is the current head of the Non Aligned Movement,
founded during the Cold War to advocate the causes of the
developing world, is set to hand over to Iran in the Tehran

Egypt's formal recognition of Israel and Iran's 1979 Islamic
Revolution led in 1980 to the breakdown of diplomatic relations
between the two countries, among the biggest and most
influential in the Middle East. They currently have reciprocal
interest sections, but not at ambassadorial level.

Egypt's former president Anwar Sadat received Iran's late
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi who fled Iran following the
revolution in 1979 while one of Tehran's streets is named after
the man who assassinated Sadat during a military parade in 1981.


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Unions reject plans for pension overhaul

December 06, 2012|By Ray Long, Chicago Tribune reporter

SPRINGFIELD — — A public pension overhaul bill rolled out by rank-and-file House lawmakers Wednesday drew fire from unions as backers started the arduous task of building support to pass it.

The financial impact of the plan still must be calculated to ensure it works, though proponents expect savings to be significant enough to fully fund the heavily indebted pensions in 30 years. In addition, House and Senate lawmakers need to iron out differences on whether they think the bill would pass constitutional muster.

The bipartisan group of 21 House members led by Democratic Reps. Elaine Nekritz of Northbrook and Dan Biss of Evanston is trying to pass the retirement system overhaul before a new Legislature is sworn in Jan. 9. Until then, as many as three dozen lame-duck lawmakers may be persuaded into taking a tough vote.

Biss said the bill is a framework, signaling that they are open to making changes to pick up support.

Standing with several Chicago area colleagues, Nekritz said the bill is backed by a broad coalition that has "more momentum" than any other recent pension proposal to address the state's $96 billion debt.

The proposal would impact teachers, university workers, lawmakers and many state workers.

Among the items in the bill getting attention: employees would kick in 2 percentage points more from their paychecks, cost-of-living pension increases would be limited and public employees would have to work longer before retiring.

The move comes as Gov. Pat Quinn presses legislators to send him legislation to cut pension costs. His spokeswoman welcomed the legislation as a step forward.

House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, gave his support to the plan because it represents a comprehensive pension overhaul — a standard he's used when supporting other pension proposals, said Steve Brown, the speaker's spokesman.

House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego was more cautious, saying he liked some components but was not ready to sign on to the whole package. "It's got the discussion going again," Cross said.

The proposal contains a provision similar to one pushed by Madigan to shift the costs of suburban and downstate teacher pensions from the state to school districts. Some lawmakers are concerned that would lead to higher property taxes. But Rep. David Harris, an Arlington Heights Republican who is a co-sponsor of the bill, said school officials in his legislative district have signaled they may be able to absorb higher costs if stretched over many years.

A coalition of unions for teachers, university workers and rank-and-file state workers chastised the legislative sponsors for developing the new plan without labor input, contending the bill balances itself on the backs of workers and might be constitutionally unsound.

The Senate has taken the position that employees need to be given a choice if benefits are changed, such as choosing between keeping a cost-of-living pension increase or health care in retirement. But Nekritz suggested no one can determine how the Illinois Supreme Court would ultimately rule.

Even so, Democratic Sen. Kwame Raoul of Chicago, a leading voice on pension issues, said any overhaul should be patterned after legal precedents that the Senate is trying to follow. He remained hopeful legislation could be passed in January because the political risk of taking a tough vote is "decreasing because we have to do something."

Twitter @RayLong


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Film reveals prescription drug abuse in Orange County

Documentary chronicling 15 Orange County families debuts Wednesday at Newport Beach Film Festival.

May 01, 2012|By Joanna Clay
  • A movie still from "Behind the Orange Curtain."
A movie still from "Behind the Orange Curtain."

While most parents think to check the liquor cabinet or smell their teen's breath after a party, some are realizing that youths are turning to a much more elusive drug.

Without a thought, you see it everyday when you open the medicine cabinet and brush your teeth: prescription drugs.

"Behind The Orange Curtain," Brent Huff's first documentary to hit the big screen, examines the abuse of prescription drugs by chronicling the stories of 15 Orange County families, and speaks to addicts and parents. It premieres at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday at Triangle Square Cinemas, as part of the Newport Beach Film Festival.

He was first turned to the subject by friend Natalie Costa, of Laguna Woods, whose daughter lost a 17-year-old friend to a prescription drug overdose. Costa researched the topic, he said, and realized that several young adults in Orange County had similar stories, with tragic endings.

The movie was filmed all over O.C. — from Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach to San Clemente and Dana Point.

Last year, Huff drove down from Los Angeles to meet with 12 parents, some of whom lost their children to pills or and others with children who were addicted. Huff said while many might assume the parents might have been hands-off or turned a blind eye, he said the trend was quite the opposite. Most of the parents were incredibly close to their kids, however they had no idea that their children were even trying prescription drugs.

"They were looking out for smoking pot, drinking, Ecstasy," he said.

Instead, teens are trying Oxycodone and Opana, both opiate narcotic analgesics, and others such as Xanex and Valium. Because a doctor prescribes it, many kids don't consider it dangerous, the film points out.

Huff said the parents found out their kids were crushing Opana, a time-released tablet, and snorting it like cocaine, which can produce deadly results on first use.

Oxycodone can cost about a dollar a milligram, Huff said, so making an 80-mg pill costs $80.

In the film, former addicts recount going to "dirty doctors," physicians that would prescribe them highly addictive prescriptions at the drop of the hat for money.

The habit is costly and eventually kids turn to cheaper drugs with same results — like heroin.

While heroin users conjure images of track-marked arms and strung-out expressions, Huff said "a heroin user can now look like your everyday cheerleader."

"It's not like pot where you can smell it, or alcohol where you can see it. It's not cocaine with a runny nose," he said. "You can't tell they're high."

Besides open communication, Huff said, one of the most important factors was for parents to pay attention to a child's friends.

You can tell a kid not to drink or not to do drugs, he said, but really the most preventative measure is that they surround themselves with other kids that don't use.

Experts say to pay attention to their social circles and start a dialogue at as early as 10 years old, Huff said.

"First graders are going to school with fifth and sixth graders and learning from them," he said.

He hopes the film serves as an opportunity for parents to broach the tough subject with their kids.

"I didn't have a clue, most parents don't," he said. "Without trying to overstate it, I think [the film] can save lives."

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