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Roy Exum: What Is Palm Sunday? The question is as old as time. And as we embrace the beginning of “The Holy Week” with both those who believe and those who do not, it is still asked repeatedly and for good reason. According to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Foundation, Christians from all over the world are today celebrating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (which we usually call “Palm Sunday,” because the crowd welcomed Him by spreading palm branches in His path). Those who greeted Him were convinced He was the Messiah (or “anointed one”), sent by God to establish His Kingdom on earth. Dr. Graham begins, “No events in human history were more important than Jesus’ death and resurrection, and yet many people (even Christians) never take time to study them. “It must have been a dramatic sight as Jesus approached Jerusalem on a donkey (which was a sign of His humility),” he told many millions for years who attended his Crusades. “The Bible says that ‘the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices … ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!'” (Luke 19:37-38). Even those who weren’t part of that welcoming crowd listened eagerly to His teaching during the next few days. “But not everyone in Jerusalem welcomed Him; the very next verse says that “the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?'” But soon many turned against Jesus and demanded His death: “‘What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?’ Pilate asked. They all answered, ‘Crucify him!'” (Matthew 27:22). One reason the crowds turned against Jesus was because He refused to be the kind of king they wanted—a political and military leader who would free them from the hated Roman government. Roman soldiers had occupied their land for decades, and they hoped Jesus would lead them in a successful revolt. But Jesus made clear to them that this was not His goal. God had another purpose for Him—and that purpose was far greater than any mere political or military victory. His goal was to establish another kingdom—the Kingdom of God. This, He taught them, wasn’t to be a political kingdom, but the rule of God over our hearts and minds—and ultimately, over the whole universe. To the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, He declared, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight…. My kingdom is from another place” (John 18:36). How could this happen? It could happen only if sin and death and Satan were defeated—for these keep God’s Kingdom from becoming a reality in our lives. And how could they be defeated? Only by Christ’s death and resurrection for us—for by His death and resurrection Jesus Christ conquered sin and death and Satan. Where would you have been during Jesus’ final days? Would you have been in the crowd demanding His death—or would you have been among the minority who remained true to Him? And are you true to Him today? An equally perplexing question: What if you have spent a life worshipping Jesus, adhering to his teachings in the Bible, and supporting the church, but when you finally die, find there is no heaven or hell, that there is no Christ nor any Church? Some say you are going to feel a little silly. But the best answer is also a question: What if you, on the other hand, are an atheist, and have never believed the promise of eternal life, or that Jesus died to forgive your sins? What would you do, upon your death, to find out that every single part of being a Christian, asking to be forgiven by the grace of God, and therefore assured of everlasting life, is absolutely true? If it is, guess who ain’t got a seat on the train? Only in life can you ask and receive the keys to the kingdom. All you have to do is ask and God’s promise is you’ll live with all those you love for an eternity. It is guaranteed.

Rinat Akhmetov (center) in his element. In an underreported turn of events, two Ukrainian oligarchs appear to have taken control of important strongholds in chaotic eastern Ukraine, where the momentum until now has favored pro-Russian forces. The shift is most dramatic in the bastion of steel magnate Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man. Over the last three days, a growing number of steelworkers in Akhmetov’s employ have fanned out in the Donetsk region cities of Mariupol and Makeyevka, and forced out pro-Russian activists who previously held the streets. Faced with the show of force (paywall) by the laborers, the pro-Russians have scattered. The steelworkers are patrolling Mariupol’s streets today. A change is also apparent in Dnipropetrovsk, an industrial city governed by banking oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, who is paying bounties of $1,500 for the confiscation of rifles and $10,000 for “terrorists.” There, it is pro-Ukraine activists in charge. It is not clear whether the shift is spreading, as there is almost no reporting on it. The major US papers have buried the story on their websites, and almost nothing is on Twitter. But to the extent that the momentum takes hold, the development seems important. After the ouster of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in March, the new political leaders in Kyiv sought to calm eastern Ukraine by installing oligarchs as governors. Until now, these business titans—in particular Akhmetov—had largely sat on the fence. But this week Akhmetov spoke out in favor of a unified Ukraine. One possibility is that Akhmetov’s turn pivots off of a softer tone from Moscow. Aides to Russian president Vladimir Putin have stopped pushing for May 25 presidential elections to be cancelled and threatening to cut off Ukraine’s natural gas supply. That raises the question of whether Putin has gotten cold feet at the prospect of an utterly destabilized Ukraine on his doorstep. The news is not all positive for Kyiv, though. Akhmetov was Yanukovych’s chief patron, and one does not become an oligarch by being a nice person. And it makes the central government highly dependent on the oligarchs’ goodwill, which isn’t a recipe for strengthening the country’s institutions. But it is among the first breaks for the Ukrainian leadership since Russia went into Crimea in March.

Still from the Great Hunger move Black 47. This important movie goes a little way towards increasing the understanding of what Ireland's desperate famine times were like. The new Irish-made film Black 47 directed by Lance Daly got a very positive reception when it opened at the Berlin Film Festival. The film played the Dublin Film Festival last week and as you might expect got a great reception. It is a very important film that goes a little way towards increasing the understanding of what those desperate famine times were really like. The film itself is about an Irishman returning from duty in the British Army seeking revenge for what was done to his family in his absence. He is pursued by several members of the law, all seeking to capture or kill him. Amazing as it seems, there has been no other movie ever made which attempted to place the Famine front and center. Obviously it is an horrific subject, but so too was the Holocaust and there has been no shortage of great films set in those times, especially Schindler's List with Irishman Liam Neeson giving a superb performance in the lead role. The reasons are many for Famine amnesia. There are no photographs of the time and survivors left few records because they wanted to forget those horrific times. Thus, a long silence settled over the events of the famine, only coming to an end in recent times thanks in part to some superb books, one by Tim Pat Coogan, The Famine Plot, and the other, The Graves Are Walking by John Kelly. Then, of course, the Irish government at long last began a yearly commemoration of the Famine which meant that every year there was more information percolating through. Now comes this movie, the first attempt to catch the real tenor of the times. The famine is the backdrop rather than the main theme which is just as it should be. The film would be hopelessly dark otherwise. Consider that twice as many Irish starved to death as died in the American Civil War and you get some perspective of the reality. The use of the Irish language in parts of the film is equally daring. There were four million Irish speakers in Ireland at the beginning of the Great Hunger. After the Famine, that number plummeted dramatically to 700,000 by 1891. So much more than the people were killed off. Their language and way of life was too. There is a scene in the movie where the English officer says the Irish do not appreciate the stunning scenery of the West of Ireland. “You can’t eat the scenery” responds Stephen Rea in his role as a local. The movie deserves to be supported by Irish Americans when it comes here. The Famine was the river that became the flood that changed everyone's life down to the present generations. Without the Great Hunger there would hardly be an Irish America, a JFK, a Henry Ford -- all roads lead to it when seeking to understand Irish identity. “The Great Famine of 1845-1852 was the single most important event in Irish history,” says Daly. He is surely right. If often seems like we are only beginning to understand how it changed everything. This new movie will hopefully take us a little further down the road. Read more: Can Irish dance be an Olympic sport?

China's President Xi Jinping speaks at the College of Europe at the Concert Hall in Bruges, northern Belgium April 1, 2014. Six months into China's grand economic makeover, Beijing is playing it safe, choosing gradual progress on many fronts over game-changing, riskier reforms such as removing all controls over bank interest rates. Yet taken together, the incremental steps promise to reach enough critical mass to sustain reform momentum and help the world's second-largest economy shift down fairly smoothly after decades of red-hot investment-fuelled growth. It's a 21st century version of Deng Xiaoping's "crossing the river by touching the stones" strategy of cautious economic experimentation in the 1970s and 1980s. The caution is still there, the difference is today China is crossing that river in many spots at once and the water is probably deeper. Economists say there is no substitute for fundamental changes if China is to succeed in its transformation from bureaucratically-run, pollution-spewing industrial powerhouse to a more balanced, market-driven economy. However, reforms such as freeing up bank interest rates or dismantling state monopolies will cause much short-term pain, and provide gains only in the long-term. With the economy expected to grow by 7.3 percent this year, the slowest in 24 years and close to the level Beijing believes is needed to preserve financial and social stability, those reforms will have to wait. "We are doing easier ones first and leaving the difficult reforms for later," said Xu Hongcai, senior economist at China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, an influential think-tank in Beijing. But Xu and others are encouraged by the progress so far and the consistency President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have shown in pushing for a greater role for markets across the economy. "The leadership is committed to reforms, there is no doubt about that," said Lu Feng, vice dean of National School of Development at Peking University and a government policy advisor. Since November, when Communist Party leaders adopted a reform blueprint for the rest of the decade, no week has passed without new initiatives in areas ranging from the environment, resource pricing to capital flows and financial regulation. "We have indeed seen in the last four or five months a steady accumulation of steps in key areas," said Louis Kuijs, chief China economist at Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong and a former World Bank economist in Beijing. Financial market liberalization is a good example. Freeing up of lending rates last July and the doubling of the yuan trading band in March got most airtime, but they were accompanied by many other steps making it easier to move capital within China and across its borders. Just over the past two months, regulators eased curbs on foreign investments in Chinese stocks, allowed cross-border share investment between China and Hong Kong, eased approvals for overseas acquisitions and domestic mergers and takeovers. However, a deposit insurance scheme expected to pave the way to removal of curbs on deposit rates has been slow in coming and it is clear that a free-floating yuan and opening up of China's capital account are still years away. But changes made so far have already had the effect of allowing more balanced capital flows. The scaling back of central government's administrative approval powers and simplified business registration are also expected to bring not yet easily measurable, but tangible economic benefits. For example, the easing of capital registration rules on March 1 brought a 46 percent surge in that month alone in the number of newly registered firms over a year earlier. Gradual removal of distortions in pricing of resources such as gas, and services like rail transport and healthcare, is another area where Beijing has been making progress, though many of those steps, taken in isolation, would have little impact. While those could be seen as low hanging fruit, the vigour with which many local authorities have been experimenting with mixed ownership of state-firms or new management incentives qualifies as one of positive surprises. Provinces have also shown similar resolve in launching new pilot schemes and special economic zones. It is too early to tell how much impact they may have but the direction is clear: towards more opening up, more competition, more markets, more smart technologies, and cleaner technologies. The thorniest decisions, such as stripping big state firms of an implicit government guarantee or opening sectors such as banking to competition, still lie ahead. Little has also happened with mooted reforms to China's residence registration system and land property rights needed to boost the nation's urban population, among Beijing's strategic priorities. Economists also expect slow progress with the promised revamp of how revenues, spending and responsibilities are split between Beijing and local governments, made tricky by high levels of local debt and the need for new sources of tax revenue. Beijing's top leaders have themselves warned that resistance from those affected by change such as powerful managers of state firms or provincial officials will only get stronger. The say the reforms are entering "deep waters." Yet, the overall verdict six months after the reform blueprint was announced is that so far, despite the economic slowdown and signs of financial strains highlighted by China's first domestic bond defaults, Beijing has not strayed from the course. Royal Bank of Scotland's Kuijs says steps taken by Beijing in the past two months to prop up the economy such as fast-tracking spending on some rail lines and debate whether more stimulus might be needed could leave an impression that reforms have taken a back seat. "But then if you look at the accumulation of steps on the reform side, you realize that the reform process is still going on."

FTA: On June 21, Charles M. Lewis, 41, Hobart Street, Meriden, was charged with two counts of second-degree failure to appear and one count of first-degree failure to appear on a warrant. He was held on bond and was due in court Wednesday. INTERFERING: Dwayne Lewis, 43, of Trolley Crossing was charged June 21 with interfering with an officer after a motor vehicle stop during which he allegedly struggled with police trying to arrest him. He was released on a $10,000 bond and is due in court on July 6. ASSAULT: On June 21, Yvonne J. McCaskill, 50, of Portland Street, Milford, was charged with third-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace. She was released on a promise to appear for a July 7 return date. DUI: Nicole A. Beebe, 27, of Braeburn Lane was charged with driving under the influence, traveling too fast and carrying less than the minimum insurance June 16 after a rear-end crash on South Main Street in which she failed sobriety tests, according to police. She was released on a $1,000 bond for a June 29 court date. DUI: On June 19, Michael Rowe, 52, of no certain address was found intoxicated on Main Street and police allege he admitted to driving and drinking two pints. Rowe’s blood-alcohol level tested at .262 and .254, more than three times the legal limit, according to police. He was released on a $500 bond for a June 29 court date. INTERFERING: On June 22, John J. Conlon III, 63, of Labella Circle was charged with interfering and failure to allow fingerprinting after he was allegedly found lying in the grass at East Main and Chestnut streets while intoxicated. He yelled profanities at officers and was taken to the hospital for detoxification, according to the report. Conlon was released on a $500 bond and was to appear in court Thursday. VIOLATIONS: On July 17, Marques R. Moody, 31, of Fisher Road was charged with having tinted windows and driving with a suspended license. After a traffic violation, authorities used a police dog to search for narcotics in his car but nothing was found, the report indicates. Moody, police say, is “known to detectives as an illicit drug dealer. He was issued a summons for a court date of July 1.

Smoking cannabis has made me “a better mother”, says Karine Cyr. A fire swept through three storage buildings of a rubber-sheet smoking plant in Nakhon Si Thammarat late Monday night. LOS ANGELES, United States - Would-be cigarette smokers in the US state of Hawaii might have to wait a very long time for their first legal drag, after a lawmaker introduced a bill that would bar sales to anyone under the age of 100. WELL, better late than never, as the saying goes. Orchard Road is now smoke-free, as a precinct-wide smoking ban kicked in on January 1 prohibiting smokers from lighting up in public areas except within designated smoking areas (DSAs). KUANTAN: Eatery owners in Pahang are calling for a win-win solution over the proposed total smoking ban at all open air outlets. With the aim of helping three million smokers who would like to quit in three years as a tribute to the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Johnson & Johnson (Thailand) recently launched the “Quit for King Campaign” in support of the lobby initiated by Ministry of Public Health in collaboration with the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (THPF) and Village Health Volunteer. Ayutthaya hotel receptionist Panita “Nat” Kochprapa, who was slapped in the face by a Nakhon Ratchasima businessman for prohibiting him from smoking in the hotel’s restaurant on November 6, said on Tuesday that he no longer wished to talk about the matter after having given the Bt40,000 in compensation money he had received to charitable causes. Ayutthaya police on Saturday issued a second summons for a Nakhon Ratchasima businessman after he allegedly slapped a ladyboy waiter in the face for prohibiting him from smoking in a hotel restaurant.

Restaurant customers have called in a record number of complaints to the city’s 311 hot line for the second year in a row. Records show there were 10,373 complaints to the municipal call center in the most recent fiscal year, which ended June 30 — up from 8,653 the year before. The top complaints were the discovery of rodents, insects or garbage inside an eatery — with 2,832 such calls, up from 2,213. New York diners also complained of spoiled food (997), concerns about a restaurant’s letter grade (804) — such as no grade being posted — and bare hands coming in touch with their food (775). An additional 676 grubsters said they found a foreign object — usually a piece of hair or plastic — in their meal, an 18 percent increase. The surge came even as the city rated 92.7 percent of the city’s 24,000-plus eateries with a grade of “A” in fiscal 2016, according to the Mayor’s Management Report. That was close to the 93 percent that got the top grade in fiscal 2015. Health Department officials didn’t provide data requested by The Post for the number of violations issued to restaurants last year, making it impossible to know whether the complaints spurred a higher number of summonses. But officials said their restaurant-inspection system isn’t complaint-driven, except in the most serious cases. “Restaurant grades are not a function of public complaints. They are based on standardized and objective inspections, so there is no reason to expect that an increase in number of complaints would result in a decreased number of ‘A’ grades,” said Health Department spokeswoman Carolina Rodriguez. Officials also noted that complaints to 311 may have risen in part because of the public’s growing awareness of the hot line. Officials at the New York State Restaurant Association declined to comment. Records do, however, show a decrease in the number of summonses challenged by restaurant owners at hearings, even as 311 complaints about eateries were going up. The city’s Environmental Control Board, which acts as an administrative court, handled 26,569 restaurant summonses in fiscal 2016, down from 34,496 in the prior year. Are fewer suspensions leading to more school violence?

Do you believe in high prices? Do you believe that the cost of every day living is climbing substantially higher? I just don't know. Our government has not warned us yet of a real inflationary problem. So the 5 dollars a gallon I now pay for milk is just an illusion. 4 dollar gas may also be an illusion. We must be guided of course by our government as to whether or not inflation is a real threat. So the government remains telling us that we are merely on the edge of an inflationary problem. I feel better already. I'll be so glad when Obama becomes president. I believe President Obama will do a great job keeping us informed as to the real state of the economy. Pay checks are not rising. Yet the cost of gas and food are going up and not down. So far I still see a lot of nice new cars on the road but I know that none are paid for and probably never will be. What have I said before? Get out of debt. Or if you can't totally get out of debt reduce where you can. Use that saved college money for your kids to take care of debt now. They will find a means to get an education when they are older. Of course China and Asia and their almost 3 billion population aren't helping matters as they also like to eat. The demand for meat is also on the rise in Asia . One third of corn is bought by the US Government for ethanol production. Many believe that global worming will cut world farm output significantly within another ten years. China continues to suffer from higher food prices that have driven inflation higher. Chinas food consumption is 23% of the world total. Just how fast can change occur? How about the automotive industry? The once mighty SUV is dead. Gas price too high to run any more. Car owners are scrambling to purchase smaller cars and whatever provides higher mileage. The bottom has also fallen out of the light truck market. What is surprising is not the fact that SUVs are now dead, but how quickly they died. The sales of gas saving passenger cars has exploded literally overnight. Small car sales are what is keeping the auto industry afloat. Hang on to your Corollas and Civics. It's not too late to invest in gold related equities to take advantage of their wealth generating attributes. We are living in the last days of cheap resources and cheap commodities. Gold Letter, Inc. reviews undervalued gold stocks poised to rise in this time of increasing demand.

Three decades later, the state known for its hunting tradition will vote on whether to tighten restrictions on gun sales and transfers. Maine is one of four states, along with California, Nevada and Washington, where voters will decide Nov. 8 whether to enact tougher firearms laws. In a change from past elections, there are no statewide initiatives seeking to expand gun rights anywhere in the U.S. The presence of so many ballot questions in the same year reflects the strategy, growing power and deep pockets of gun-control supporters, who are outspending opponents in all four states. They hope passage of the proposals shows widening support for more measures designed to keep firearms away from dangerous people. In Maine and Nevada, a group founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spent millions advocating for background checks on nearly all gun sales and transfers. Supporters want to close gaps in the federal system that allow ineligible felons, domestic abusers and the mentally ill to buy firearms from private sellers at gun shows and online without a background check. “I do call it a movement. People are really getting fed up with all the violence,” said Judi Richardson, 57, of South Portland, Maine, who gathered signatures to help place the initiative on the ballot. Her 25-year-old daughter, Darien, was fatally shot in 2010 during a home invasion that remains unsolved. The investigation hit a dead-end because the handgun used to kill her was bought without a background check from a seller who told police he did not know the buyer’s name. Richardson said the Maine initiative would help reduce gun violence by making firearms harder to access and easier to trace. In Washington state, advocates who successfully campaigned for a background check law in 2014 are now seeking passage of a measure that would allow judges to issue orders temporarily seizing guns from people who are deemed a threat. For instance, concerned families could seek the removal of guns from relatives threatening to harm themselves or others. California’s Democratic lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom, is leading the campaign for a first-of-its-kind law that would require anyone buying ammunition to pass a background check and obtain a state permit. Gun-safety groups say a Democratic sweep that includes a White House victory and party gains in Congress would put pressure on federal lawmakers to strengthen the national background-check system. Congress has blocked attempts to create universal background checks, even after the fatal shooting of 20 elementary school students in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. That prompted groups such as Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety to focus on a state-by-state strategy often compared to the strategy used to spread gay marriage. The history of gun-related ballot initiatives shows how the tide of public opinion may be turning. During the last 40 years, states have approved 15 out of 18 ballot initiatives to expand gun rights and six of nine to restrict them, according to Ballotpedia, which tracks the initiatives. Supporters organized the initiatives in Maine and Nevada after the states’ Republican governors in 2013 vetoed background check bills approved by their legislatures. Everytown is the largest spender in those states, assembling coalitions that include concerned parents, families of gun violence victims and law enforcement officials. The movement has also been financed by entrepreneurs such as Nicolas Hanauer of Seattle, who has donated more than $1 million total to the Washington, Maine and Nevada campaigns. “My guess is they will be successful, and you will see voters in different geographies and backgrounds who are willing to stand up for stronger gun laws,” said Zach Silk, a Hanauer aide who is helping lead the Washington campaign. If the Maine and Nevada initiatives pass, half of Americans would live in the 20 states that require universal background check laws on gun sales, Everytown President John Feinblatt said. Opponents say the measures will not stop criminals and go too far by banning the routine sale and transfer of guns between law-abiding citizens, who would have to drive to a firearms dealer and pay for a background check that can cost $30. “It’s a restriction on the freedom of the good guys,” said 75-year-old Charles Rumsey III of Bangor, Maine, secretary of the Penobscot County Conservation Association, which is opposing the initiative in that state. The retired Defense Department employee recently borrowed a rifle from a longtime acquaintance after his malfunctioned so he could compete in a shooting event. He worries that such a transfer would be illegal without a background check. The Maine and Nevada initiatives would require anyone buying or receiving a gun to pass a background check at a federally licensed dealer, with limited exceptions for hunting and transfers of guns between family members. Anyone who has a felony or disqualifying domestic abuse conviction would be denied, as required by federal law. Rumsey said the possible effects are not well understood and that questions are getting drowned out by the safety message of supporters. The National Rifle Association is financing opposition efforts in Nevada and Maine but has spent far less than supporters. NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said the states were carefully selected because they were “electorally advantageous” for gun-control supporters.

Newcastle continue to push for a Champions League place after Papiss Demba Cisse scores twice against West Brom. Papiss Demba Cisse scored twice as Newcastle delivered a first-half masterclass in a 3-1 win over West Bromwich Albion on Sunday that maintained their unlikely push for a finish in the Champions League places. The Senegal striker finished off well-worked moves either side of a solo effort by French playmaker Hatem Ben Arfa, virtually securing victory for Newcastle by the 34th minute at The Hawthorns. West Brom improved after the break, with substitute Shane Long reducing the deficit in the 52nd after a defensive mix-up, but Newcastle held on to move level on points with fifth-place Chelsea. Tottenham are five points ahead in fourth but haven't won any of their last five matches, giving Newcastle belief they can qualify for either of the European competitions next season. "We have to take every game as it comes but if we can keep this momentum up, we can do it,'' said Newcastle defender Mike Williamson. Cisse has made an impressive start to his Newcastle career since joining from German side Freiburg in January, scoring five goals in six league matches and striking up a good partnership with Senegal teammate Demba Ba. Ben Arfa is also showing glimpses of his best form after being given a run in the team behind the strikers, producing an individual display that proved too much for West Brom. The former Lyon and Marseille forward provided the cross from which Cisse opened the scoring from close range in the sixth minute. "To be on the same points as Chelsea is phenomenal really" The roles were reversed for the second, Cisse slipping in Ben Arfa on a counterattack before the Frenchman cut inside, beat his marker and rifled in a low shot into the corner. Cisse then guided home powerful, left-footed finish from Ben Arfa's cut-back for 3-0. Long's goal came after Williamson dallied as he attempted to deal with a long ball over the top, the center back ending up crumpled on the ground after colliding with goalkeeper Tim Krul to allow the Ireland striker to stroke home into an empty net. Cisse ended up being carried off on a stretcher in the 79th, with Pardew revealing the striker had cramp. Pardew's diagnosis was worse for Argentina defender Fabio Coloccini, who was substituted because of injury at halftime and could miss Newcastle's next three games. "We had a good control of our passing today and our movement was terrific,'' Pardew said.

Oregon seniors Ashton Eaton and Andrew Wheating were chosen to the final top-10 men�s watch list for The Bowerman in 2010, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced on Tuesday. Eaton, out of Mountain View High School in Bend, won his second straight NCAA indoor heptathlon title with a world-record performance last March. He became the first collegian to win three consecutive NCAA decathlon titles at Hayward Field two weeks ago. Wheating, of Norwich, Vt., became the first collegian since 1984 to win titles at both the 800 and 1,500 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships. He also anchored the Ducks� distance medley relay to the NCAA indoor crown. Also on the watch list were Sam Chelanga (Liberty), Jeff Demps (Florida), Johnny Dutch (South Carolina), Walter Henning (LSU), Kirani James (Alabama), David McNeill (Northern Arizona), Christian Taylor (Florida) and Ryan Whiting (Arizona State). The list will be narrowed down to three finalists in the upcoming weeks. Oregon javelin throwers Cyrus Hostetler and Alex Wolff have been named as academic all-Americans by ESPN the Magazine, the College Sports Information Directors of America announced Tuesday. Hostetler, a senior with a 3.62 grade-point average in art, was a first-team selection. He claimed his second straight Pac-10 javelin title this year with a throw of 253 feet, 4 inches. He led the nation among collegians at 256-6. The Newberg native also earned his second straight all-American award for his 10th-place finish at the NCAA outdoor championships at Hayward Field. He joins Galen Rupp (2006, �07, �09), Matt Scherer (2005, �06), Santiago Lorenzo (2001), John Stiegeler (2001, �03), Steve Fein (1999, �00) and Ryan Andrus (2004) as the seventh Duck to claim all-America honors in the classroom and on the field. Wolff, a junior from Newberg with a 3.76 GPA in human physiology, was a second-team selection. He was an NCAA qualifier for the third straight year and finished fourth at the Pac-10 meet. His PR of 240-8 ranked fifth in the nation this year. The OTC All-Comers track and field meets at Hayward Field have been moved back one week this summer because of scheduling conflicts with this year�s Prefontaine Classic and the Nike High School Team Championships. The age-group meets feature competition for children 12-and-under on Wednesdays and those 13-and-up on Thursdays. Start times are 5 p.m. The new dates are July 7-8, July 14-15, July 21-22, July 28-29 and August 4-5. For more details, contact Rob Vermillion at 541-343-7247.

Fueled by economic anxiety and unhappiness with Democratic stewardship of the country, an older and much more conservative electorate than in 2006 and 2008 propelled the Republican Party to a broad victory in yesterday’s elections. As pre-election surveys had predicted, the Republican Party enjoyed a wide enthusiasm gap. Conservatives and older voters made up a much greater share of the electorate than they did in 2006; and more voters opposed activist government than did so two years ago. These groups all voted for Republicans by wide margins, according to exit polls by the National Election Pool, as reported by CNN. The proportion of self-described conservative voters increased by nearly a third from 2006 — from 32% to 42% — and is the highest percentage of conservative voters in the past two decades. However, the single biggest factor in the GOP’s victories was its striking gain among political independents. By 56% to 37%, more independents voted for the Republican candidate this year; four years ago, independents favored the Democrat by nearly an identical margin (57% to 39%). And just two years ago, Barack Obama won the votes of independents (by 52% to 44%) on his way to the White House. Despite the Republicans’ sizable gains among virtually all demographic groups — with the exceptions of African Americans and young people — voters express a negative view of the party. The outcome of this year’s election represented a repudiation of the political status quo, rather than a vote of confidence in the GOP or a statement of support for its policies. By 53% to 41%, more voters expressed an unfavorable opinion than a favorable opinion of the GOP. Indeed, views of Republican Party are no more positive than those of the Democratic Party (52% unfavorable vs. 44% favorable), which was roundly defeated. Voters expressed great unhappiness with national conditions and with the performance of the federal government. Half (49%) said they were very worried about economic conditions and another 37% were somewhat worried; most (61%) said the country was on the wrong track. Fully 73% said they were either angry or dissatisfied with the federal government, and 73% disapproved of the job Congress is doing. As was the case in 2006, an overwhelming percentage of those who said the country was on the wrong track voted for the party out of power — 76% supported Republican candidates in Tuesday’s elections. But there is greater dissatisfaction now than there was four years ago. Similarly, views of national economic conditions are far more negative — with nearly triple the percentage rating conditions as poor than did so in 2006; those voters voted Republican this year, by 68% to 28%. Voters registered their opposition to a more activist federal government: fully 56% said government is doing too much better left to businesses and individuals, while 38% said the government should do more to solve problems. In June, opinion on this issue among the general public was more narrowly divided — 47% said the government was doing too much while 43% said it should do more. And two years ago, when Obama was elected, more said the government should do more to solve problems than disagreed (by 51% to 43%). Yet while a majority of voters favor a smaller government, there was far less agreement about congressional priorities or the policy proposals before Congress. Four-in-ten (40%) said that reducing the deficit should be the highest priority for the next Congress while nearly as many said spending to create jobs (37%). And while fewer voters (18%) rated cutting taxes as the highest priority, more Republican voters viewed tax cuts as the top priority than cited reducing the deficit (71% vs. 65%). Similarly, voters were divided over whether to repeal health care reform (48%) or maintain or even expand it (16% leave as is, 31% expand). And there was no agreement on what to do about the Bush-era tax cuts. About as many favored extending them only for families with incomes under $250,000 (36%) as favored extending them for all Americans (40%); 15% said they should not be extended for anyone. A sizeable number of voters (41%) said that they support the Tea Party political movement (including 21% who strongly support it). Fewer (30%) said they oppose the movement (23% strongly); another 24% said they neither support nor oppose it. Agreement with the Tea Party was considerably higher than in most pre-election polling, reflecting the greater enthusiasm of conservative voters to turn out. Tea Party supporters overwhelmingly supported Republican candidates for the House nationally, and in key Senate races such as Nevada. Those who support the Tea Party voted 86% to 11% for Republican House candidates, while those who oppose the movement voted 86% to 12% for Democratic candidates. Those who are neutral about the Tea Party divided their votes about evenly (50% Republican, 47% Democratic). But fewer voters (22%) said their vote for the House was meant to send a message in favor of the Tea Party; nearly as many (17%) said they were casting a vote against the Tea Party, while a majority (57%) said the Tea Party was not a factor in their vote. Opinion of President Obama was negative factor for Democratic candidates yesterday. By a 55%-to-44% margin, voters expressed disapproval of his job performance, and 52% said they thought the president’s policies would hurt the country in the long run. On balance more voters said they were casting a ballot to express opposition to him (38%), than to voice support for him (23%), while 38% said Obama was not a factor in their vote. An exit poll analysis of the Latino vote from the Pew Hispanic Center. An exit poll analysis of the vote by religious groups from Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. *The vote share results shown in this report reflect a revised weighting of the National Election Pool’s national exit poll on Nov. 9, 2010 . The reweighting resulted in small changes in the Republican vs. Democratic share of the U.S. House vote.

Arizona flu cases are up by 938 percent this season compared with last year. Cases of the flu in Arizona have continued to rise through the first week of January, as there were 11,515 confirmed cases from mid-October through Jan. 6, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services. ADHS reported that this is a 938 percent increase from the 1,109 reported cases in 2016-17 for the same period. ADHS also reported there were 2,455 confirmed cases for the week ending Jan. 6, which is nearly 2,200 more cases compared with last season for the same week. The last time the flu was this widespread was in 2015, but those numbers were recorded in the peak season of February, according to ADHS. Outbreaks of the flu got out to an early start this season, as reported cases were on the rise in December. There were 36 states that declared widespread flu outbreaks in December, and deaths have been reported in some states. The flu is a contagious illness that spreads through contact or when someone with the virus coughs, sneezes and talks. Young children, older people, and people with prior health conditions may be at a higher risk for serious flu complications. According to the Health Services Department, the best way to prevent the flu is to receive a vaccination each year. The Health Services Department recommends that everyone take precautions when they are sick by washing their hands, covering their mouths when coughing, staying home when sick and drinking non-caffeinated fluids. Local vaccination clinics are listed on vaccinefinder.org.

Thursday morning's Oscar nominations honored buzzed-about favorites like Boyhood and Birdman. But the morning's announcement had a little bit of joy missing, because somebody forgot to nominate The Lego Movie. The critically beloved blockbuster was widely expected to win Best Animated Feature, but didn't even get nominated. Instead, Big Hero 6, The Boxtrolls, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Song of the Sea, and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya will vie for the trophy. As a consolation prize, the earworm "Everything Is Awesome" from the movie did get nominated for Best Original Song, and we're sorry for getting it stuck in your head again. Songwriter Shawn Patterson received the nomination, though the song was performed by Tegan and Sara and The Lonely Island. Phil Lord, who co-directed The Lego Movie, took it all in stride with his own Lego statuette. "This is not a tragedy," he said. His movie was nominated for a Golden Globe, but lost to How to Train Your Dragon 2, which also racked up an Oscar nomination. This is not a tragedy. Congrats to incredible crew and cast of The Lego Movie, who made a classic. Though it did get nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Song, Selma was also snubbed in several major categories, including Best Actor for David Oyelowo and Best Director for Ava DuVernay. Jake Gyllenhaal and Jennifer Aniston were also predicted to get nominations for their performances in Nightcrawler and Cake, respectively, but came up short. Fans of The Lego Movie can at least take consolation that they'll have another chance; a sequel is set to hit theaters in 2017. And if How to Train Your Dragon can get trophies with a sequel, so can The Lego Movie.

JODHPUR: A special SC/ST court on Wednesday directed the police here to register an FIR against Indian cricketer Hardik Pandya for his alleged comment on Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar. According to petitioner D R Meghwal, Pandya, on December 26, 2017, posted a comment on his twitter account, which insulted Ambedkar and hurt the sentiments of the people of his community. “Which Ambedkar ??? The one who drafted a cross law and constitution or the one who spread the disease called reservation in the country,” Pandya purportedly posted on his twitter timeline. Offended by this, Meghwal, who claims to be a member of Rashtriya Bhim Sena in Rajasthan’s Jalore district, moved an application against the cricketer on Tuesday. Meghwal stated in his complaint that by making this comment, a popular cricketer like Pandya has not only attempted to insult and disregard the constitution and the architect of the constitution deliberately but has also hurt the sentiments of the community he belongs to. “I learnt about Pandya’s comment through social media in January. It appeared quite derogatory for a figure like Ambedkar and was an attempt to spread hatred and create division in the society,” said Meghwal, an advocate by profession. “By doing so, he has committed a serious crime and hurt the sentiments of my entire community,” Meghwal said, adding that Pandya should be given adequate and suitable punishment for his “crass act”.

Get Out of My Emergency Room! San Diego — On June 19 at 220 Broadway, just outside room 30, the courtroom of Judge Timothy Walsh, an unlikely group gathered in the narrow hallway to "represent," as it were, at the sentencing of Alissa Valencia. Valencia, 42, had attacked David "the Water Man" Ross on the street, carving much of his defensive right arm into useless meat, requiring emergency surgery. The unlikely group consisted of some 30 or so of the city's displaced and disenfranchised, people residing in shelters or lodging "illegally" on the streets, where Ross's rounds provide the only source of water in a multiacre area of urban desert known as skid row. The men and women, some in wheelchairs or shuffling with colostomy bags, were dressed in clean shirts, and many had shaved, washed, and combed their hair, likely at the Neil Good Day Center. Beneath the toothpaste and aftershave and deodorant, one could sense morning-maintenance doses of alcohol quickly dissipating in the heat amid courtroom delays. This group was at the hearing, which was that afternoon postponed, to "represent" outrage at the injury of this street Samaritan. They were outraged as well at something almost every one of them had suffered at one time or another during their tenure on the streets and suffered at the hands of those in the very business of care and mercy: the attempted dumping of Ross by Scripps Mercy Hospital in the early hours of May 5, 2007. Ross was found at the scene of his stabbing, near 17th and Imperial, covered with his own blood and clutching a penknife. Ross had picked up the weapon while in shock, some inner sentinel of reason telling him it might do yet more damage in the wrong hands. Almost anyone's hands at the scene were the wrong hands. So that is how Ross was found: a white man in his early 70s with a crude tourniquet applied by those who knew him on the streets, rapidly losing blood, and clutching a knife. His ID and wallet locked in his car, Ross looked much like any other deranged derelict who had snapped. That was exactly how he was received and treated at Scripps Mercy. His treatment (reported here on May 24, "Water Man: Down, Then Out") was hardly unique. In response to that May 24 account, several other victims of hospital mistreatment called, e-mailed, or approached me, either personally or through David Ross. Ross's attorney in the matter of his treatment at Mercy is Nancy Sussman. The amount of time it took Mercy to surrender Ross's medical records to her was in violation of the evidence code, says Sussman. "Ross was pronounced fit by surgeon Randal Vecchione to go home that night or early the next morning after four hours of surgery, without rechecking the patient. You never do that," she says. Barely conscious, Ross was urged to get up and leave by hospital staff, although he had fallen in the bathroom, unable to stand. At no time was Ross visited by a doctor postsurgery, much less asked how he might be feeling. Nor did any other hospital employee inquire as to his state at any point during his brief stay. He was offered a token for the trolley, which runs nowhere near the hospital, and a pair of pants (his were bloody, ruined, and held by the police). "The case comes three months after the city attorney's office filed its first indictment alleging homeless dumping, against Kaiser Permanente Hospital." The differences in San Diego and at Scripps Mercy might be that the transportation back is less reliable. One of Sussman's previous clients was placed naked, except for a sheet, into a taxicab to return to his apartment after an incomplete and minimal evaluation in the emergency room. Several hours after his neighbors carried him upstairs, he suffered cardiac arrest. Ross was simply expected to leave Mercy without so much as a wheelchair to the door -- and he did the next evening with the aid of Suzanne Afflalo, his doctor from Kaiser. Sussman tells of a woman she represented who lost her baby. "A black patient on Medi-Cal who had excessive bleeding at 25 weeks of pregnancy, she was given a minimal evaluation at Sharp Hospital and discharged, only to lose her baby a few hours later in the bathtub." In a second incident involving a pregnancy in December 2002, "I took my housekeeper into Scripps Mercy to have her baby, but she didn't have insurance, just Medi-Cal (you don't really call that insurance, right?), and they wouldn't give her an epidural," Sussman says. "I mean, she's screaming in pain, and we couldn't get them to give her an epidural. You have to call the anesthesiologist in, you have to inject it in the spine, you have to go to all this trouble for someone who doesn't have insurance, and you only get, like, ten cents on the dollar. We were literally begging them for an anesthetic, and they wouldn't do it, so she ended up giving birth without it. The baby now is four years old. It was literally ripped out of her. The doctor didn't even show up for the birth." A Dean Russo-Metavia wrote to me from Carlsbad on May 30 saying, "I was prematurely discharged from a hospital (Scripps Green) before my medical condition was stabilized. My Medicare insurance (Secure Horizons) entitled me to visiting 'Home Nursing care,' it was denied, in spite of my repeated requests. "After four days of near unconsciousness at home, my Primary Physician discovered that my medical condition (pneumonia) had worsened. I was headed for death! With his intervention, I eventually recovered. "This is in violation of both Federal and California 'Patients Bill of Rights.' The California Dept. of Health Services is mandating the enforcement of that regulation but unfortunately ignores the systemic problem. "I have recovered my medical records that substantiate my charges." On May 15, 2007, Shawna Davis, at the time residing at St. Vincent de Paul's women's center, experienced severe back pain, "Excruciating to where I couldn't move at all," she told me. Paramedics were called, and she was taken to Scripps Mercy, where she had been treated previously for sciatica. "On this occasion the pain was far worse than ever before." Davis, with minimal insurance (Medi-Cal), was never examined and was released within a few short hours. "It was because of my insurance and where they had picked me up," she concludes. A spokesperson at Scripps Mercy told me, "Many of these patients are simply drug seeking." I have cardiomyopathy and a pacemaker and defibrillator, installed after quadruple bypass surgery. I've been forced to call 911 repeatedly in the past three years while experiencing severe chest pains that I unwisely treated with alcohol. On more than one occasion, I have been released in the middle of the night with only a hospital gown and a token, and I've been repeatedly accused of abusing 911 services. On several of these emergency room visits, I was given an EKG that proved negative. While one sympathetic female doctor in 2006 advised that I be kept overnight for observation -- "Absolutely necessary considering your cardiac history" -- hospital staff told me, "We can't simply hold you here because you're drunk," and the doctor's orders were overturned. (I was no longer covered by employer insurance after changing employment status from staff to freelance.) In the small hours, I wandered the streets of Hillcrest, where I was eventually arrested for public intoxication. I have not returned to Mercy emergency since July 24 of last year. Cardiologist Richard Friedman diagnosed the chest pains as symptoms of anxiety aggravated by temporary homelessness, familial problems, and alcohol use and has since prescribed medication for anxiety rendering further visits and humiliation unnecessary. My alcoholism has been in successful treatment as well for the past year. On August 1, Judge Timothy Walsh will again consider the sentencing of Alissa Valencia. She had made a plea bargain before new facts came to light, and Walsh had postponed the sentencing. Cloud 9 Shuttle has been engaged to transport the disenfranchised, the displaced from outside St. Vincent de Paul and the Neil Good Day Center to the courthouse. This item you are reading should appear on the day or day after this courtroom proceeding. Following Channel 10's interest in covering the hearing, both Channels 8 and 39 have indicated similar interest. Juliette Vara of News 10 has championed this issue from the beginning: Ross's unlawful and dismissed ticketing in August of 2006, his May victimization, and the no less inhuman treatment at the hands of Scripps Mercy Hospital.

When is Animals With Cameras on BBC One tonight, what's the series about and who is cameraman Gordon Buchanan? When is Animals With Cameras on BBC One tonight, what’s the series about and who is cameraman Gordon Buchanan? GORDON Buchanan and his team have taken nature documentaries to new levels with their show, Animals with Cameras. What is Animals with Cameras about? In this groundbreaking new series, cameras are put onto animals to explore their world from their perspective. Hosted by Gordon Buchanan, the team make extraordinary discoveries about the lives of some of the planet's most fascinating species. They travel across the world placing state of the art cameras on animals including cheetahs, monkeys and seals. In each episode, the team speaks to conservationists and scientists who work with the animals and are monitoring how they live in the wild. Gordon Buchanan is a 45-year-old wildlife filmmaker from Dumbarton, Scotland. He began working as a wildlife photographer which yielded a number of critically acclaimed documentaries, shot variously in Asia (especially the Indian Subcontinent), Latin America, Europe and Africa. His previous series' have included the 'Families and Me' series, which saw him work with predators, Elephants and Bears among other wildlife. Exploring the world and capturing it on film, the filmmaker has also completed work for Springwatch and Autumnwatch. When is Animals with Cameras airing? Animals with Cameras concludes tonight (Thursday, February 15) at 8.00 pm on BBC1 with episode three. If you miss it, you will be able to catch up with the episodes on the channel's streaming service, BBC iPlayer.

AMD has now officially released its newest Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.1.1 update which fixes issues seen in some DirectX 9 API games, as well as a couple of other minor fixes. AMD has released the first beta update for the Radeon Software Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition drivers, addressing several issues that were seen in the earlier version. AMD has released its latest Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.11.3 Hotfix drivers, which fixes "an intermittent crash issue" on some Radeon RX Vega series graphics cards. AMD said it has brought forth Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.11.2 drivers which bring optimization for Star Wars: Battlefront II game as well a few bug fixes. Nvidia has released its new Geforce 388.31 WHQL Game Ready drivers which bring all optimizations for Star Wars Battlefront II and Injustice 2 games as well as an increased performance in the Destiny 2 game. Nvidia has released its newest Geforce 387.92 Game Ready WHQL driver which includes some additional features, optimizations and performance improvements for several games, including Forza Motorsport 7, where AMD gained a significant lead with the recent driver update. AMD has released its latest Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.9.3 drivers which bring optimizations for Total War: Warhammer II and Forza Motorsport 7 as well as a couple of bug fixes. AMD has released its latest Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.9.2 drivers which bring optimizations for upcoming Project Cars 2 games but, more importantly, enable multi-GPU support for Radeon RX Vega series graphics cards. Nvidia has released its newest Geforce 385.69 WHQL Game Ready drivers which bring support for plenty of upcoming games, including Project Cars 2, Total War: Warhammer II and more, as well as brings lots of bug fixes, SLI, 3D Vision and VR profiles.

BAYBORO �Since Rod and Dr. Sue Lee founded the HeartWorks learning center in 2002, it has been a lifeline for hundreds of Pamlico County youngsters �many with disabilities ranging from physical and mental to emotional. �Many have developmental issues, many come from broken homes and really have no one to care for them,� said board member Bob Applegate of Oriental. The nonprofit facility offers a variety of programming, ranging from a top-ranked day care to after-school and summer learning, along with professional counseling for about 80 children and families. The facility celebrated Christmas this past Saturday, with a visit from Santa in the front classrooms, while in the rear of the building, food bags were given out to needy families. HeartWorks is located in a former auto dealership, which has been renovated over the years to fit the educational and physical needs of the children. HeartWorks is in the midst of a fundraising campaign to raise more than $25,000 for safety improvements and to create a spacious classroom area in what was the dealership garage. Since the fundraising started last month, Applegate said $8,000 has come in solely from individual contributions. �We have not yet tapped the business community,� he said. The money raised so far has allowed for renovations to the 5,000-square-foot area that will be known as �the big classroom,� with partitioned areas. �Painting of the interior will be finished by Sunday in the classroom building, ready for when the children return,� Applegate said. The painting is being done professionally, since the space has 40-foot ceiling and requires scaffolding by professionals. HeartWorks has an annual budget of about $900,000, Applegate said, which includes $400,000 in state 21st Century grant money. There is a day care program for 20 youngsters, ages 1 to 5, which has a five-star rating, the state�s highest. Applegate said that the ratio was about one teacher per three children. There is also an after-school learning program for 95 students ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade. Another service is family and child counseling service �Stillwaters �which attracts about 80 youth and their families annually. A summer learning program serves about 65 children each day. Applegate, who has been on the board for several months, said the magnitude of the work done by HeartWorks is impressive. He praised the Lees for their vision and continued support. �They have put their hearts and hundreds of thousands of dollars into this,� he said. * $6,200 to replace the 12-by-14-foot garage door in the �big classroom� with two state-of-the-art glass doors and a transom window for lighting. Mail donations to HeartWorks, PO Box 365, Bayboro NC 28515. The facility is located at 709 Main St. in Bayboro.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific announced on Wednesday that it will buy budget airline HK Express for US$628.15 million, as it moves to counter competition from the increasing number of low-cost carriers in the region. The HK$4.93 billion acquisition leaves Cathay Pacific in control of three of the four airlines in Hong Kong, adding to its namesake carrier and regional subsidiary Cathay Dragon. Cathay will pay HK$2.25 billion in cash for HK Express, and issued HK$2.68 billion promissory loan notes, the company said in a filing. “The Transaction is expected to generate synergies as the businesses and business models of Cathay Pacific and HKE are largely complementary,” Cathay said in the filing. The carrier also said the purchase is an “attractive and practical way” to support long-term development and enhance competitiveness. Cathay shares rose 2.78 per cent to HK$14.06 in Hong Kong trading shortly after the market opened. Hong Kong Express is the city's sole budget carrier — a sector of the industry that a marquee brand like Cathay has struggled to compete against. Hong Kong Express is owned by HNA Group, a struggling Chinese conglomerate that has been looking to lower its debt pile. The group also owns Hong Kong Airlines, another Cathay competitor that has found itself in financial difficulties in recent months. Cathay has been overhauling its business after posting its first losses for eight years in 2016, firing more than 600 workers and paring overseas offices and crew stations as it faces stiff competition from budget rivals in China. It has also added international routes and better on-board services in a bid to compete with well-heeled Middle Eastern long-distance carriers. The overhaul appears to have paid off. Earlier this month Cathay Pacific announced a net profit of HK$2.35 billion ($299 million) last year, ending two successive annual losses. A Hong Kong court on Tuesday found nine leaders of the 2014 pro-democracy “Occupy” movement guilty of public nuisance during the mass protests, in a landmark verdict as freedoms in the city ruled by mainland China come under strain.

NATIONAL DEMOCRAT -- One of the men who took part in the serial killing of Ghanaian women between 1999-2001 says the main reason why Kufuor resorted to the killings was because by 2000, he had become very desperate for power. "After his failed attempt in 1992 and 1996 to be President of Ghana, he knew 2000 was his last chance and he believed that it was Ghanaian women who were mostly voting for the NDC. So, he saw the killing of women and blaming it on the NDC as a way to turn women against the then ruling party. He succeeded in doing that eventually as many women voted against the party," the man said. Yesterday's Democrat, came out with the confession of one of the members of the serial killing gang who is hiding in Europe. The man revealed that the killings were carried out on the orders of Kufuor for the reasons stated above. He was assisted by one of the men who eventually became one of his key Ministers of State. The man who led the operation itself is one Wiafe Ababio. The serial killing gang member said another member, who is also hiding in Europe is also ready to expose Kufuor but like him, he is scared of his life. Yesterday, in a telephone conversation with the gang member, he said Kufuor's main source of juju are two Malian Mallams as well as a shrine in a village near Koforidua. He said, those who see Kufuor as a gentle giant don't know him well. "I am sure when they call him gentle giant, he secretly laughs at them", he said. This journalist is on his way back to Europe for a tete a tete with the gang member making these revelations to explore the possibility of he speaking directly to any of the radio stations and the police. Stay tuned. FOOD FOR THOUGHT ON THE WOMEN SERIAL KILLINGS Why didn't the serial killers change their method of disposing the body when it was obvious that the bodies were being found and the public was being thrown into a state of panic? If the women were being raped as the condoms deposited by the bodies wanted people to believe, why wasn't the trace of sperms found in any of them? Is it not true that a search of the bodies indicated that there was a tiny needle mark on each of them? Have all the bodies of the women been identified and collected by their relatives? If no, why? a) The NPP were masterminding the serial killings. b) The NPP knew who the serial killers were. Why did the killings stop suddenly when the NPP came to power? How did the NPP govt stop the killings? If Charles Quansah killed 8 of the women for which he has been jailed, who killed the rest of the women? Why has the NPP govt stopped looking for the killers?

More big economic news for one of the fastest-growing counties in Missouri. The St. Charles Association of Realtors says the St. Charles County real estate market set new records in 2016. The group says homes are selling in record numbers and for record amounts. The Association says that in 2016, the median home in St. Charles County sold for a record $200,000. State Rep. Bryan Spencer (R-Wentzville) tells Missourinet that 27 new subdivisions are being built in that fast-growing community, which is located on I-70. Wentzville is also home to a large General Motors plant.

Take stock of your assets and liabilities, review your finances. Understand how money works. For instance, controlled credit card spending means lesser debt; less spending on unnecessary purchases (like impulsive buying) means more savings. Think about what you would like to save for (children’s education, new home, car, a dream holiday, etc.) and consider how long you would need to save up to achieve that particular goal. 2019 has just started and now it’s the perfect time to prepare a budget for the coming year. However, as it often happens, while you manage to successfully plan a budget, you fail to stick to it. Staying within the budget will not only ensure that your expenses are planned but also ensure you achieve your financial goals. Temptations lead to debts and problems in the cash flow. Keep you bank passbook updated. Find out your credit score to determine your financial status. Try improving upon it. Update your budget regularly. Teach your children about saving money and cutting down on unnecessary expenditure; educating them about these basic financial concepts will provide clarity on the family’s financial goals. Plan household budgets collectively, so that everyone may participate in saving and spending, and the responsibility is equally divided. To ensure good health, you need to start planning early. Investing on a comprehensive health insurance plan. With the spiralling cost of medical treatment, a good health insurance comes in really handy during a medical emergency. Safeguarding the family against such financial crisis is good planning. As per a nation-wide survey conducted by Aviva, planning for children’s education is the topmost priority for most Indian parents. However, proper planning is still far away for most parents and thus they end up in debt while arranging money for the children’s higher education. By taking the benefit of services like the Aviva Kid-O-Scope, parents will not only be able to recognise their child’s inherent talent but also be able to achieve their child’s dream with the education cost calculator that helps to calculate the expected cost of higher education and provides ways of investment to ensure availability of funds at the time of need. Life insurance is fundamental to financial planning. Ensure you are optimally insured and that the financial future of your family is secured. Assess the amount that your family would require to retain the same standard of living in the absence of the earning member and plan accordingly. A term insurance plan is extremely affordable, yet provides comprehensive security to the insured and his family*. The biggest roadblock of your financial plans is debt. Pay your bills on time, clear all your outstanding debts. Credit card dues attract a high rate of interest and hence, it is better cleared on time. Try paying off your creditors in cash and save money on interest. Before making investment plans, get into the habit of saving. Cut down on unnecessary expenditure. You can also open a separate savings account for this purpose and use it as your piggy bank, or invest in an insurance plan that returns double the premium on maturity because money saved is money earned. You should start planning for your retirement by your late 20s. But if you haven’t done that as yet, you can start from the beginning of 2019. Saving for your retirement will help you ensure financial stability when you are beyond the reasonable age of working. Invest in retirement plans like public provided fund, annuity plans, National Pension Scheme or insurance policies, like Aviva Next Innings, that guarantees return on the maturity of the policy*. Offers at shopping malls, restaurants, and online portals are lucrative and you end up buying things that you do not need, and that is a great depletion to your savings. Cut down on impulsive shopping and save it in the savings account you have created or invest it. A Contingency Reserve is the amount you should keep aside in your savings bank account and/or liquid funds for an emergency. Exigencies such as loss of job, medical emergencies, etc can easily impact your personal finances. It is best to maintain a minimum 6-24 months of regular monthly expenses, including EMIs as a contingency reserve. This will enable you to be prepared and cover expenses during hard times.

The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl for the first time in the franchise’s history on Sunday, but several players have already indicated that they will not participate in the traditional White House visit, citing their opposition to President Donald Trump. Wide receiver Torrey Smith, who also raised his fist on the field to express solidarity with the “Black Lives Matter” movement, expressed his disapproval of Trump’s war against players who take a knee during the national anthem to protest racism. Trump, who released a statement on Super Bowl Sunday urging players to “proudly stand for the anthem,” congratulated the Eagles for their historic win. “Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles on a great Super Bowl victory!” he tweeted. Smith and some of his teammates were some of Trump’s most outspoken critics. Eagles defensive end Chris Long, who skipped the White House visit last year when he played for last year’s champs, the New England Patriots, also won’t attend. “No, I’m not going to the White House. Are you kidding me?” he said during an interview on Pardon My Take Podcast last Sunday.

I long ago stopped making New Year's resolutions. Instead, I have one desire for myself that never changes, even as one year glides almost unnoticeably into the next. My daily and lifelong commitment is to be where I should be, doing what I should be doing, when I should be doing it. That's it. This pledge works for me both in my personal and professional lives. What I've learned is, if I pay attention to those three simple but difficult directives, I'll accomplish much more than by making a hollow resolution that I'd likely break in a matter of days. As my thoughts turned to the idea of New Year resolutions, I couldn't help but imagine the resolutions being made by teachers and principals as they look toward the rapidly looming end of the school year. Particularly, I can guess that the members of the Learning School Alliance are probably re-visiting their professional learning plans. No doubt, many are making vows to focus on those plans and get serious about accomplishing what they promised to do. What I hope the LSA teams will do, though, is keep it simple. I hope they will resolve to avoid making grandiose plans and promises that they can't or won't deliver. I hope they are seriously considering where they should be, what they should be doing, and when they should be doing it as it relates to creating and sustaining professional learning teams that put student learning first. Maybe that's a commitment we all should be making in 2012.

Curt Schilling isn’t getting into the Hall of Fame this year, even though he should be a cinch. He seems OK with that, which is too bad. Sometimes people say things or send signals because they care, not because they have bad intentions. “I know for a fact writers don’t vote for people they don’t like, no matter what the award is,” Schilling said during a lengthy discussion about his legacy. His 3,116 career strikeouts make him one of only 16 players with 3,000 Ks. With the exception of Roger Clemens, every player who’s fanned more batters than Schilling is in Cooperstown. Among the members of the 3,000-strikeout club, Schilling has the best strikeout-to-walk ratio at 4.38. Only Pedro Martinez comes close at 4.15. Other than Schilling and Martinez, the only 3,000-strikeout pitchers with a K-BB ratio better than 3 are Greg Maddux (3.37), Randy Johnson (3.26), Ferguson Jenkins (3.20) and John Smoltz (3.05). To Schilling, it was all about preparation. “I had books and video on everybody,” he said. “… I never wanted to be unprepared for a situation. I knew on Tuesday I was pitching Sunday, and on Sunday’s the day game. And a day game after a night game, does the other team play their backup catcher on Saturday night or Sunday? Am I going to face their starting catcher or their backup catcher? I knew the umpires … They all had tendencies. Aside from a slightly high career ERA, Schilling has this gap on his Hall of Fame resume: He never won a Cy Young Award. “I lost three Cy Young Awards to three historic seasons,” he said, referencing second-place finishes in 2001, 2002 and 2004. In 2001, he led the National League in wins, starts, complete games, innings pitched and strikeout-to-walk ratio. In 2002, he was as good or better in each of those categories. His 9.6 K-BB ratio was so strong it looks like a misprint. Plus, he led the NL in advanced metrics such as WHIP and fielding-independent pitching. “I felt like I was as consistent as anybody who ever played the game for those two years,” he said. Each season, Schilling was runner-up to Arizona teammate Johnson. Johnson, through a team spokesman, acknowledged the rivalry. Schilling said he’s OK without a Cy Young. “Not to be flippant about it, but the writers vote on that,” he said. Schilling was recognized as the Players’ Choice Outstanding Pitcher of the Year in each of those two seasons. Matt Williams, in a statement, backed up Schilling’s production. “For the time that I played with him in Arizona, I don’t know if there was a pitcher that came through here, including the big fella, that could actually execute a pitch as well as he could on an 'every-time' basis. It’s the reputation Schilling said he wanted. He also wants to be remembered for winning the 2001 Roberto Clemente award for humanitarian work. That’s far less likely, at this point. Ryan Thibodaux, who’s been tracking Hall of Fame voting for five years, doesn’t think Schilling will be among those enshrined when the votes are announced Jan. 24. “It was specifically about the ‘journalist lynching’ tweet that he sent out,” Thibodaux said. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press. It’s essential to democracy that the government doesn’t control information. Schilling, who considers himself a proud conservative and has increasingly commented on social and political issues, trampled on this Bill of Rights guarantee and showed horrifying insensitivity to blacks, whose history includes a decades-long legacy of attacks by lynch mobs. “If you were offended by that, then you didn’t understand what I was doing,” he said. Schilling went for several minutes without pause. “I don’t have a history of affiliation with the Klan,” he said. “I don’t have a history of advocating lynching. He should have known it wouldn’t be received that way. He doesn’t seem to care how ineffectively he’s communicating. “I’m not going to say things to make people that don’t know me, like me,” he said. It’s not that. But he hasn’t made the connection that others feel stomped on and insulted after trying to engage and share ideas with him. It’s costing him more than the Hall of Fame. Based on his career, he should be in, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen, at least not this year.

Vanessa has a beef with meat, again. P.S. I keep getting asked, so, for the record, I eat meat. I also smoked for years (many years), and supported smoking bans while sucking down a pack-and-a-half (or three) a day. I eat meat and I advocate that we limit, or halt, our meat consumption. I think I am serving the planet and my family better by occasionally eating elk that I killed, or a pastured pig from a local sustainable farm, than indulging in nutrient-deficient, irradiated, pesticide and herbicide-sprayed heads of lettuce cultivated by underpaid laborers in dangerous conditions and shipped 2000 refrigerated miles. Location, method and quantity are my main guides in navigating the contentious realms of food. But that’s just me.

A former White House cyber security expert has warned that Bermuda is a plum target for computer criminals. And she said that Government and the private sector would need to work together on the massive and expensive job of making the Island’s networks as safe as possible. Theresa Payton, chief information officer at the White House between 2006-08, said: “It’s one of those things. Bermuda’s economy continues to grow and attracts large global corporations which are attractive to cyber criminals. Ms Payton was speaking after she delivered the keynote speech at the three-day Bermuda Captive Conference at the Fairmont Southampton. Ms Payton, who now runs her own computer security company, Fortalice, in North Carolina, said when Government’s thought of infrastructure, they tended to think of areas like roads, airports and buildings. Earlier, she told delegates that companies that were the subject of high-profile cyber raids stood not only to lose money, but their reputations. And she said that businesses and governments needed to work together because of the high cost of cutting edge cyber security. Earlier, Ms Paton told delegates at the conference that any operating system which could be updated could be hacked. She added that an annual US military exercise pitted opposing sides, with one attacking a system and the other attempting to defend it — and the hackers always won. Ms Payton urged companies to think about the assets they needed to protect and work from there. She told delegates that hacking was a major source of funding for terrorism, while computers and networks could be hijacked for hacking in a bid to deflect attention away from the real culprits. And she pointed out that, in a survey, 24 per cent of people said they had already ditched a service provider because of security breaches. Ms Payton told delegates that in 60 per cent of cyber breaches last year, the hackers “owned the network within minutes”, while 28 per cent of companies “very strenuously require” partners, vendors and suppliers to match their own levels of risk control. Ms Payton said she had seen a bicycle wheel still locked to a post in Washington — although a thief had escaped with the frame and other wheel — with the frame being the most valuable part of the bike.

Los Angeles, Sept. 3, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioCorRx, Inc. (BICX), developer of the Start Fresh Program, a Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) program, announces distribution agreements to bring the Start Fresh Program into two additional wellness centers. The agreement is part of the company's continued focus to distribute its addiction treatment program to wellness centers nationally through a partnership with Myriad Medical Marketing (MMM). The new centers are Escalon Physical Medicine and Scott Medical Health Center PC. "The upcoming availability of our program at two new centers is exciting as they will be continuing our mission of greater accessibility of the Start Fresh Program throughout the country," stated COO & interim CEO, Brady Granier. Escalon Physical Medicine is located at 1631 4th Street, Escalon, California. The center is situated in San Joaquin County, and will be the first location to offer the program in this part of California. Scott Medical Health Center is located at 2275 Swallow Hill Rd, Building 2600, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15220. The Pittsburgh metropolitan area boasts a population of over 2.5M people, many of which can benefit from the Start Fresh Program.

It seems ironic a strong polar vortex keeps us milder, and it’s a weaker polar vortex which allows the coldest polar air to drop down into the Great Lakes and Midwest. Many in the press gave the public the impression the polar vortex was something new, some term meteorologists recently conjured up. But the polar vortex has always been there, and the term was first introduced in scientific literature in 1853. It is a mainly permanent area of low pressure which girdles the globe in polar regions, with a belt of counterclockwise winds aloft (clockwise in the southern polar region). The colder polar air lies to the north of this belt of westerly winds. The phrase “strong polar vortex” sounds as though it’s more likely to bring colder weather to places like WNY. The truth is quite the opposite: A strong polar vortex tends to be more compact and closer to the North Pole. Those winds act as a barrier to the transport of polar air southward and keep the frigid air covering a smaller part of the northern hemisphere. A weaker polar vortex tends to buckle in multiple places, sagging southward in some global regions and bulging northward in others. When the polar vortex slows, weakens, and destabilizes, that can allow polar air to take the plunge southward. In this diagram, the strong polar vortex and its effects are seen on the left. The weaker vortex is on the right. So it’s actually because the strong polar vortex which kept polar air bottled up in polar regions from Dec. 13 to Jan. 8 has weakened and buckled, as forecast weeks in advance, we will have an extraordinarily cold piece of the vortex entering near our neighborhood next week. Here, courtesy of Dr. Michael Ventrice of IBM’s the Weather Company, is the European upper air projection for around Wednesday, Jan. 30. The innermost circle shows the number 486. I’ll just say that is an extraordinarily low upper air pressure number. It signifies the coldest air in the entire northern hemisphere will be over the Great Lakes, not Siberia. That does not happen very often. The oranges and reds over the west coast are the very warm ridge of high pressure stacked up in the atmosphere, helping to force this piece of the vortex to bomb our region. This is a high – make that very high – amplitude setup. Back to our coming cold: this is a map of expected temperature anomalies, departures from normal, for a four-day period. Some meteorologists are naming this depiction “Barney." It does have that look, don’t you think? Actual surface temperatures from this kind of pattern are extreme, although I believe this Wednesday morning experimental GFS output is TOO extreme. Even so, the slightly more conservative "regular" GFS is mighty, mighty cold by the dinner hour next Wednesday. The Canadian GEM holds those coldest temps until early Thursday. The European ECMWF, despite that brutal upper air ensemble, has a bit more mercy next Wednesday, but really lowers the hammer by the following Saturday. As for snowfall, while Lake Erie is at 32 and icing has begun, it’s going to take quite a while before ice cover becomes sufficient to really cut down lake-effect. While I’m not a fan of snow total model output over, say, 10 days, the European has some hefty totals in Western New York with heaviest amounts in the so-called snow belt to the south of the metro area. That implies most snow will be lake-effect and increased by higher terrain. The GFS, experimental GFS and Canadian GEM have less snowfall in total. “But I wanna tell ya,” as Bob Hope used to say, lake-effect snow is simply not something meteorologists want to tackle for totals many days in advance, no matter what global models put out. Lake snow is not a global scale event. However, there is good model agreement a vigorous low pressure storm system will be crossing near the Great Lakes by Tuesday. This storm may bring some widespread moderate snow (and even a few hours of warming) on Tuesday in advance of the polar blast. In the wake of this low, though, will come stronger, bitter cold winds with some potential to bring some big time lake snow and blowing snow, along with especially harsh wind chill. So as not to end this article with an “Abandon hope all ye who enter here” flavor, there are signs of at least a temporary respite in the pattern after the first few days of February. By that time there is no longer a resemblance to Barney.

High court orders Swan Telecom’s promoter Shahid Balwa, the director of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables, Rajeev Agarwal, and three firms, namely Dynamic Realty, DB Realty, and Nihar Constructions to plant 3,000 trees each in the Delhi’s South Ridge forest area. In a unique ‘cost’ imposed for seeking more time to file response to the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED’s) plea challenging their acquittal in the 2G case, the Delhi high court (HC) on Thursday asked Swan Telecom’s promoter Shahid Balwa, the director of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables, Rajeev Agarwal, and three firms, namely Dynamic Realty, DB Realty, and Nihar Constructions, to plant 3,000 trees each in the Delhi’s South Ridge forest area. The said plantation has to be done before the next date of hearing. All the accused persons and companies have been directed by the court to appear before the Deputy Conservator of Forests on February 15 to get the land allocated for the planting of these trees. The people and the companies also have to ensure the upkeep of these plants until the monsoons, the court said. A single judge Bench of Justice Nazmi Waziri also granted them one final opportunity to file their responses by February 15. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and ED had moved the Delhi HC in March 2018 challenging the acquittal of all the accused by a lower court in Delhi. A special CBI court had in December 2017 acquitted all the accused in the case, stating that the blame for the “scam” could not be placed on any of the individuals or the companies due to “lack of clarity” in the telecom policy. The CBI had, in its plea before the CBI court, alleged that telecom companies were given 2G spectrum and licences at throwaway prices during A Raja’s second term as telecom minister in 2008. All the telecom licences granted in 2008 were quashed by the Supreme Court in 2008. The Comptroller and Auditor General had pegged at Rs 1.76 trillion loss to the exchequer due to the giving away of telecom spectrum and licences at throwaway prices.

Five years and four months ago, the Rev. Larry Townsend met condemned murderer William Sallie in a visiting room at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson. Sallie’s mother, who lives in Indiana, had asked Townsend to visit and counsel her son as he waited to be executed for killing his father-in-law in 1990, a murder committed during a bitter divorce and child custody fight. Townsend agreed to meet with the death row inmate even though the pastor and his church — the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod — support the death penalty. “I believe that capital punishment is biblical,” said Townsend, a retired Army colonel and dentist who went on to become a minister. On Dec. 6, Sallie became the ninth prisoner executed in Georgia in 2016. Townsend sat with Sallie just hours before his lethal injection, and he was in the execution chamber as a witness. Townsend, 67, had never been inside a prison or jail until his first meeting with Sallie in 2011. From then on, once a month for two hours, the preacher and death penalty supporter sat knee-to-knee with a condemned murderer free of leg or waist chains. The pastor completed his “journey” with Sallie by traveling to Indiana to preside over his funeral and burial. But, Townsend said, the death penalty was misapplied in Sallie’s case. The family of Sallie’s father-in-law has not responded to telephone calls seeking comment. Sallie’s mother also has not publicly commented, preferring to keep her son’s past a family secret, according to Townsend. With the marriage ending, Sallie struck his wife, Robin, during an argument in December 1989. Robin Sallie then filed for divorce and took their 2-year-old son to live with her family in Bacon County. A few weeks after Robin Sallie moved in with her parents and younger sister and brother, William Sallie picked up the boy under the pretense of having a visit. Instead, Sallie took his son to Indiana, where Sallie had grown up. A judge in Indiana eventually ruled that the child had to be returned to his mother in Georgia. Sallie had a friend buy him a gun, followed his son to South Georgia, and used a fake name to rent a mobile home in nearby Liberty County. Shortly after midnight on March 29, 1990, Sallie broke into the Alma home of John and Linda Moore. He shot John Moore six times as he slept, then fired four shots to wound his mother-in-law, Linda Moore. Sallie handcuffed Linda Moore to her 9-year-old son, Justin, leaving them and his toddler son in the bedroom with John Moore’s body. Sallie then took his estranged wife and her 17-year-old sister to his rented trailer and sexually assaulted them. He released the sisters hours later after begging them not to seek criminal charges. In 1991 Sallie was convicted and sentenced to die. But a new trial was ordered on appeal because of a conflict of interest — Sallie’s defense attorney in the first trial was also a full-time law clerk in the Waycross Judicial Circuit, which includes Bacon County, where the murder occurred. In 2001 Sallie was again convicted and sentenced to die by a jury in Houston County, where the trial was moved because of pre-trial publicity. It later came out that a juror in that second trial would likely have been disqualified had she not misled attorneys and the judge during jury selection. No one knew there was a potential appeal on the basis of juror bias until after a crucial filing deadline had passed. That juror — who had experienced domestic abuse, four bitter divorces, and child custody fights similar to those in the Sallie marriage — told an investigator for Sallie’s lawyers that she’d pressured six other jurors to vote for death. That juror issue confounds Townsend. “I really think the Georgia judicial system blew it, and I will go to my grave with that same feeling,” he said. The pastor also referenced the case of Brian Nichols, who in 2005 murdered a judge, a court stenographer and a deputy at the Fulton County Courthouse, then killed a federal agent several hours later. Because a Fulton jury could not agree unanimously on a death sentence, Nichols is serving several back-to-back sentences of life without parole. Townsend’s son-in-law, coincidentally, was a deputy assigned to the Fulton County Courthouse at the time of the Nichols killing spree. After Sallie’s execution warrant was signed in mid-November, Townsend’s and Sallie’s conversations about faith and forgiveness became more urgent. Hours before the scheduled time of the execution, Townsend performed the Lutheran commendation of the dying, using grape juice instead of wine. The next morning, Townsend drove the 700 miles to Indiana with Sallie’s parents.

An eight-metre monolithic sculpture of reddish steel stands before me in the middle of a hilly field. Solid and grounded, the structure’s 22 tons contrast with the upward-reaching movement of its lines. As it soars towards the sky, the whole thing speaks of time and space in epic proportions. I am in Hernani, a small town on the outskirts of San Sebastián, admiring an artwork by the late Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida, an artist revered in this part of Spain much like Gaudí is in Barcelona. The piece, Buscando La Luz (Looking for the Light, 1997), sits among 42 others like it, in a leafy open-air sculpture park. When the artist bought this land with his wife, Pilar Belzunce, in the early 1980s, he fulfilled his long-held dream of finding a permanent, natural environment for his works. It eventually opened as Chillida Leku, a museum that would allow the public to wander among his sculptures as they would trees in a forest. But Chillida died in 2002, and by 2011 his family found they could no longer afford to keep the museum open. “It was the hardest moment of my life,” his son Luis tells me, as we look across the undulating 11-hectare (27-acre) site. After that point, visits could only be made via private appointment with the family; an unsustainable model that did no justice to what the artist had envisaged for the place. “I refused to accept that all the effort and dedication of my parents would be for nothing. There had to be a solution,” says Luis. A further eight years on – and with the backing of the international contemporary art gallery Hauser & Wirth – a reincarnated Chillida Leku opens to the public on 17 April. Although only a 15-minute drive from the city centre, Chillida Leku (place in Basque) is silent and secluded. At the top of the hill is the caserío, a 16th-century Basque farmhouse (known as Zabalaga country house) built from stone and timber. Inside it, a retrospective on the artist entitled Ecos (Echoes) has been curated by another of his sons, Ignacio, after which a rotating programme of exhibitions will follow. I meet the museum’s director, Mireia Massagué, at its restaurant-cafe (serving a range of pintxos, from pork brochettes to cheese eclairs), which along with many other elements on the site has been designed by Paris-based architect Luis Laplace. Massagué says one of her most important strategies has been to improve ways to access and experience the space. She has introduced smartphone-scannable QR codes to enable visitors to learn more about the sculptures as they encounter them, and buses from the city centre (departing every half hour) now stop at the entrance of the museum. Massagué is also in talks with local authorities to improve pedestrian and bicycle access. Chillida’s love affair with Hernani began in 1951, when he moved here to learn to work with iron, a material entrenched in the Basque craft tradition. Here he developed his profound respect for raw materials, always recognising their inalterable natural will. His sculptures suggest that it is by patiently accepting the gradual impacts of time – the rusting effect of air, the erosion of stone, the flow of water – that one might find something timeless. And it is this kind of patience that the artist’s eight children and 27 grandchildren have had to show while waiting for the reopening. In acquiring this land, Chillida found a home not just for his sculptures but for himself. It remains his home in more ways than one: both he and Pilar are buried on the grounds. As the title of the exhibition suggests, his message of timelessness echoes across the terrain. “My father thought of himself as a tree,” says Luis. “Roots firmly in one place, with branches spread out to the world.” And the artist’s sculptures can indeed be found across the globe, from Berlin and Helsinki to Dallas and Doha. But in the end, all roads lead back here, to Chillida Leku. This museum is the place to learn about Basque history, culture and identity. Its permanent collection spans prehistoric civilisation to the modern day, presenting artefacts that tell the story of the land and its people. Part of the building is a former 16th-century convent, while the other part was built in 2011 by Spanish architect Nieto Sobejano. This former tobacco factory opened as a contemporary arts centre in 2015, housing a gallery space, cinema, restaurants, shops and workspaces. An exhibition by San Sebastián-born performance artist Esther Ferrer runs until 26 May. Also on site is one of two spaces in town owned by the Kutxa art foundation, which is currently exhibiting three Dutch contemporary photographers. Those with an eye for the art market might visit Cibrián, a new arrival on San Sebastián’s small-but-flourishing commercial gallery scene. Gallerist Gregorio Cibrián has previously promoted a general range of arts and antiques but decided to relaunch last November exclusively as a contemporary art dealer. Other commercial galleries in town include Arteko and Ekain. With this free public monument at the western tip of La Concha beach, Chillida truly made his imprint on San Sebastián. Three 11-ton steel sculptures are built into rocks jutting out of the coastline, with waves crashing against them on windy days. The work epitomises Chillida’s belief in nature’s ability to connect everyone and everything and, fittingly, a stream of water is said to flow from this part of the coast all the way inland to Chillida Leku. A half-hour drive along the coast, and also served by bus, this museum is a must for fashion lovers. Founded in 2011 in Balenciaga’s hometown, it houses one of the world’s biggest collections of items related to the designer, including clothing, accessories and work documents.

Claims against the collapsed SAirGroup are not likely to be settled until 2004, the company's administrator told a creditors meeting on Wednesday. Creditors, including former Swissair employees, banks, suppliers and foreign partners, were demanding SFr72 billion from the three companies built around Swissair - SAirGroup, SAirLines, and Flightlease. SAirGroup alone is facing claims of around SFr38 billion. Although the meeting had been expected to be stormy, creditors present reacted calmly to the announcement by the court-appointed administrator, Karl Wüthrich, that in all probability no payments would be made before 2004. Wüthrich added that the process of working through claims could drag on for between five and ten years. He also said that documents relating to the aviation group obtained from the accountancy firms PriceWaterhouseCoopers and KPMG were incomplete. Creditors voted by an overwhelming 97 per cent majority to elect Wüthrich as the official SAirGroup liquidator and elected the seven members for the creditor's committee. On Thursday, creditors of the SAirGroup subsidiary, Flightlease, also elected Wüthrich as their administrator. In the case of Flightlease the administration process is expected to take less time than for SAirGroup and creditors should see their money sooner. Analysts believe most creditors will end up with little in their pockets, since Swissair's former holding company has assets worth SFr1.65 billion, an amount which represents only a fraction of the total claims. So-called "third-class" creditors - a category which includes Swissair's former partner airlines, Sabena and Air Littoral - can expect to be paid around four to twelve per cent of their outstanding claims, Wüthrich said. First-class creditors, including some former Swissair employees, are in a much better position since administrators have previously agreed to recognise SFr92 million of claims totalling around SFr148 million. Belgium's defunct national carrier, Sabena, is making a single claim for SFr8.2 billion, while the Belgian government - Sabena's former main shareholder before the airline collapsed under massive debt last November - is requesting a further SFr800 million. French creditors, which include groups representing the country's regional airlines Air Lib and Air Littoral, are demanding about SFr500 million as compensation for both broken contracts and a loss in income. Walter Stoffel, a professor of law at the University of Fribourg, said the airlines' large claims made them "important creditors". "The more money one gets, the less money there is available for everyone else," Stoffel told swissinfo. "There will surely be clashes between the various creditors," he adds. But creditors are not only seeking financial compensation: they also want to find out if Swissair managers, board members and auditing companies are to blame for SAirGroup's demise. The consulting firm Ernst & Young is currently investigating who is responsible for the company's collapse and is due to publish its findings in the autumn. "It is possible that claims will be made against the former Swissair management, but this depends on the results of the Ernst & Young investigation," said Filippo Beck, a partner at Wenger Plattner, the legal firm which is representing SAirGroup. However, so far their findings have shown that the SAirGroup has failed in three areas. Wüthrich said that one shortcoming was the fact that earnings from affiliated companies abroad, such as the French airlines AOM and Air Lib or the German airline LTU, were not fully consolidated. Another blunder was the de-facto share of 100 per cent in Air Littoral, which was illegal under EU law and should also have been consolidated. In trying to get around the problem the management employed trustees, through which the company bought 95.3 per cent of the French airline in two tranches. Wüthrich also mentioned the SAirGroup's risky equity swaps as a possible factor for the collapse of the airline. The company sold their own shares at market value to banks and bought them back at the current market value after a certain period of time. However, as the share price did not rise but drop, the company had to pay back millions of francs to the banks. SAirGroup collapsed in October 2001, grounding the country's national airline and forcing the company into receivership. In April of this year, the Swiss regional carrier, Crossair, took over the bulk of Swissair's profitable long-haul routes when it re-launched as the new national carrier, "swiss".

The Bucks and Hawks combined to shoot an NBA record 109 three-pointers in regulation, and with 1.1 seconds left in overtime, Hawks rookie Trae Young played the hero giving the Hawks a 136-135 victory. ATLANTA - Giannis Antetokounmpo was a no-go with a right ankle sprain. Then Khris Middleton became a late scratch due to left groin soreness. Eric Bledsoe, while healthy, never got off the bench. That was just the tip of the iceberg, though. That trio joined a group of five other Bucks who all missed their third straight game due to injuries, leaving Milwaukee with just eight bodies available for the duration of Sunday's matinee against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena. With the Hawks trotting out a depleted lineup of their own — Atlanta had five players out due to injury, too — the stage was set for an interesting combination of players to take the court. For their part, the Bucks started Sterling Brown, D.J. Wilson, Bonzie Colson, Tim Frazier and Brook Lopez, meaning their starting lineup consisted of three players who have spent time in the G League this season including a two-way player, one player who signed less than two weeks ago and one regular starter. The result was one of the wildest games the Bucks have been part of the season, one that included a record-setting performance. The Bucks and Hawks combined to shoot an NBA record 109 three-pointers in regulation alone and 116 in the game, which went to overtime thanks to an Alex Len triple with 19.5 seconds left. Brown, who missed a game-winner in regulation, gave the Bucks a one-point lead on a clutch layup with 1.1 seconds left in overtime before Hawks rookie Trae Young played the hero, giving the Hawks a 136-135 victory with a tough, buzzer-beating flip at the rim. Young's game-winning bucket came on a broken play. Hawks rookie Kevin Huerter lofted an inbound pass toward the hoop intended for John Collins. Lopez broke it up by tipping the ball away with his right hand, seemingly clinching the game. However, Young had other plans. He had followed the flight of the ball toward the hoop and found himself in the perfect position to corral the loose ball. In half a second he changed the ball from his left to his right hand mid-air and pushed up a shot that hit the rim, then the backboard, then bounced around the rim before finding its way through the net. Young, a Rookie of the Year hopeful, finished with 12 points on 5 of 19 shooting along with 16 assists, with his final two baskets — he also put the Hawks ahead by one with a tough baseline floater with 6.8 seconds left in overtime — making the difference. Early on, it didn't look like the game would be as close as it eventually was. Led by Brown, who scored 14 of his career-high 27 points in the first quarter alone, the Bucks came out blazing. They knocked down 10 of 18 three-point attempts over the opening 12 minutes, pushing their lead as high as 23 points when Brown connected on his fourth three-pointer of the quarter with 1 minute, 46 seconds on the clock. Colson, a two-way forward playing the first extended minutes of his career, got off to a solid start, too, collecting five points and six rebounds in the first quarter. He had a double-double by halftime and finished with 15 points on 5 of 18 shooting along with 16 rebounds over 41 minutes, acquitting himself well. Milwaukee's great three-point shooting didn't last, though. The Bucks went 7 of 37 the rest of the way (18.9 percent) while the Hawks caught fire to turn the game around. Buoyed by three-point shooting — the Hawks went 14 of 33 over the second and third quarters — Atlanta took a one-point lead into the fourth. Justin Anderson led the Hawks with 24 points including four three-pointers while Collins and Len added 23 apiece. The Bucks, which spent most of the game in a 2-3 zone aimed at conserving energy, got eight fourth-quarter points each from Lopez and Brown and led by as many as 10 points with just under seven minutes. That when the Hawks made one final push to force overtime when Brown's last-second midrange attempt fell short. Milwaukee led by as many as five points with 1 minute, 16 seconds left in overtime when Frazier hit a cutting Ersan Ilyasova for a layup. Two Hawks dunks followed by another missed midrange shot by Brown, though, set Young up to give Atlanta a one-point lead with a baseline floater with 6.8 seconds left. Budenholzer again put the ball in Brown's hands out of the timeout with the 6-foot-6 guard using his strength to drive the lane for a finish. That go-ahead layup was overshadowed by Young's game-winner, but it was still a meaningful moment for Brown. Seven of the eight Bucks who played finished in double figures, including Frazier who chalked up 20 points and 15 assists while playing all 53 minutes. Budenholzer told him before the game to expect to play every second, an opportunity Frazier relished after playing sparingly since joining the Bucks on March 19. The eight-man bench wasn't something the Bucks were planning when they arrived at State Farm Arena. Middleton went out for his normal pregame warmup routine, but felt something wrong with his left groin while shooting. He discussed it with assistant coach Charles Lee, put up a few free throws then walked off the court. Middleton then stretched and tried to work out the tightness in his leg, but couldn't get it to feel right, leading to a consensus that he shouldn't play. With him out and Antetokounmpo already ruled out due to a right ankle sprain, Budenholzer decided Bledsoe should sit out the front end of the back-to-back as well. Who will be available at 6:30 p.m. Monday night against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center remains to be seen, though Budenholzer expects Antetokounmpo to play at some point during the Bucks' current three-game road trip that has remaining stops in Brooklyn and Philadelphia.

Satyajit Biswas, a young Trinamul Congress MLA representing Krishnaganj of Nadia, was shot dead on Saturday evening while watching a Saraswati Puja programme he had inaugurated less than 35 minutes ago. The first sitting lawmaker in Bengal to be murdered in recent memory, Biswas, 38, was at the cultural event with his wife and seven-and-a-half-month-old son when the MLA was gunned down. Ratna Ghosh, minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises and the Haringhata MLA, was also at the venue. Biswas had seen off the guests after the inauguration and returned to watch the cultural festival. A member of the influential Matua community, Biswas had been trying to prevent the BJP’s foray into the segment, sources said. The murder took place around 7.45pm in Phulbari village of Hanshkhali. The site — a ground where a local club Biswas patronised had organised a fair for Saraswati Puja — is less than 100 metres from his home. Police said at night that two people have been held for questioning. A firearm has been found at the spot. The ruling party was quick to accuse the BJP of having orchestrated the murder. The BJP alleged that it was the fallout of a Trinamul feud and demanded a CBI probe. The attack on the MLA unfolded in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls when political tension is already running high and two months after Trinamul’s Joynagar MLA Biswanath Das alleged an attempt on his life in an incident that claimed three lives. At Nadia District Hospital in Krishnagar, 20km away, Biswas was declared dead. In 1994, Ramjan Ali, a sitting MLA of the Forward Bloc, was murdered in the MLAs’ hostel in Calcutta. It was not a political murder.

My mailbox is filling up again with questions, so it's time to get busy answering them. In the last reader Q&A I covered Internet Explorer, PC parts, and customizing Windows icons. This week I answer questions about Firefox 4, Microsoft Word, and Windows LIve Mail. I continue to receive a lot of reader questions about Mozilla's Firefox 4. Today I heard from Philip, who asked this: "I was just noticing that you can only go back or forth in the paging controller (top left). You used to be able to click on a down arrow and see a list of previous pages. Is there a way to get that back?" For more help with the new browser, read "Firefox 4 Tips: Bend the New Browser to Your Will." You wouldn't believe how often I get the same few questions about Microsoft Word. Perhaps the most common: "How do I change the line spacing?" I can understand the confusion. In Word 2003 and earlier, the line-spacing settings were tucked away inside a formatting menu. But if you use Word 2007 or 2010, you'll be pleasantly surprised to find a line-spacing control right on the Ribbon. You know what they say: a tuturial video is worth a thousand words. Or something like that. But da6151 has a problem: the default font for reading messages is too small. "My senior eyes have a hard time reading it," he says,"unless I copy [the text] to Word where I can select the Font size." This is a known issue, one that many others have encountered. There's even some evidence that it was caused by Internet Explorer 9, which is the kind of thing that makes me smack my forehead and consider, however briefly, ditching my Windows PC for a Mac. n2cou says: "I use FireFox 4 and use the - and + Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons. It works great." batchado says: "In IE9 go to Tools, Internet Options, Accessibility. The only box that should be checked off is Ignore font sizes specified on web pages. To adjust the font size, go to IE9 View and Text Size, which changes the font in Windows Live Mail."

Why are your headshot and resume two of the most important tools for being a working actor? When you audition for Digital Dogs Casting, we request all performers bring their headshot and resume every time. Why the resume? It tells me everything I need to know about you as a professional performer. I look at your resume for your successes, where you are from, where you have been, what you have done, characters you’ve played, director and producers you’ve worked with, teachers you’ve had, where you went to school, etc. Everything is on your resume. I use it to find a direct connection to you—the performer! It’s a simple list of your successes. Maybe there is a director or teacher we both know. Or maybe we share a special skill like gymnastics, collecting glass blown figurines, or weapons training. Some say you should never list credits that are not professional like community theater or high school plays. However, in my experience, if a performer portrayed Nurse Ratched or Randall P. McMurphy in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in high school, there might be a similar actor transition in my project or maybe the character has similar traits to the character I’m currently casting. This is a direct connection that we can immediately use to enhance your performance and get you closer to the clients’ concept. See how it works? It’s that simple and straightforward. Now, let’s talk about the headshot. This is not glamour shots, but every major photographer in Hollywood treats it like it is. Your picture is not called a three-quarter shot; it’s called a headshot—a shot of your head. It should never be about the location or how “cool” the shot is or about standing out. The shot should not be the focus, you should be the focus. You are paying for the shoot. You are the boss—not the photographer. You know the product you are selling. Don’t let them make you out to be what you are not. Why do you think most celebrities are so hands on when it comes to photo shoots and controlling their image? It’s the same situation here, just on a different level. Don’t you think you are a million dollar actor/product? Then act like it. You have the right to request to look at their books. What do their shots tell you? Can they clearly capture what you are selling as a performer? Would they capture your diversity? Would you call you into a showcase/audition if you were a casting director looking at thousands of headshots submitted for one role? I have been very lucky and fortunate enough to have seen millions of headshots and resumes over the past 35 years. I have experienced every headshot fad from three-quarter shots, pictures with pets, women in wedding gowns, kids with frogs, pictures in front of colored walls, etc. I have seen photography style that could rival Vogue, but through all of these transitions—even from black-and-white to color and back again—the best headshots have always been about one thing, a true headshot. That could also be defined as a loose close-up or a head and shoulders shot. Shoulders should be squared off to camera, not turned away. The camera should be level with your eyes. Don’t put your hands on your face, and connect to the camera. It’s simple and straightforward. Always think very small, very film, and very real. Your expressions should be subtle. This vibe works for all genres, meaning you can end up with one shot that works perfect for commercials, film, and TV. All that said, if you are shooting a publicity shot then anything goes! Because it’s a publicity shot, not a headshot, and it’s probably to publicize a specific project. In that case, listen to the powers that be, especially if they are paying for it! My picture above is a great example of a publicity shot, not a headshot. If I were famous then I could use whatever picture I wanted as a performer to sell my product, but until then, follow the simple rules above and you will always have a great working actor’s headshot and resume. Robert Jr began his career casting feature films primarily for Oliver Stone, Steven Spielberg, and Ron Howard, but after crossing paths with Steve Jobs,Robert Jr began extensively casting Apple’s high profile World Wide product launches including the first iMac, iBook, Power Mac G4, Mac OS X, and iPod campaigns and has gone on to cast 1000’s of commercials, film, and TV projects. His casting company Digital Dogs Casting is best known for their unique, award-winning campaigns and a flair for blending improv and witty dialogue with performance-driven spots. Robert Jr recently released, "The Concept of Acting" an audiobook that delves into the complexities of performing for Film, TV, and commericals and is based on his award winning acting theory, TheConceptOfActing.com. Robert B. Martin Jr. began his career casting feature films. Today, his casting company Digital Dogs Casting is best known for its unique, award-winning campaigns and a flair for blending improv and witty dialogue with performance-driven spots.

March 16, 2018 • The conductor has sued New York's storied opera house after being fired earlier this week following the Met's internal investigation into allegations of sexual abusive conduct towards young artists. March 12, 2018 • "The house that Jimmy built" has terminated its association with the conductor after an investigation found evidence of "sexually abusive and harassing conduct." December 4, 2017 • Following published accusations of sexual abuse and molestation against conductor James Levine, the Metropolitan Opera has suspended him after a four-decade relationship. November 25, 2014 • After decades of performing, the celebrated soprano's enthusiasm for music is irresistible. She chooses some of her favorite recordings for an informal session of listening and conversation. May 4, 2011 • Conductor James Levine is known for bringing out the best in musicians and ensembles. Here, he reflects on his 40-year tenure with the Metropolitan Opera, his life in music and the back troubles that recently led him to step down as the musical director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. October 1, 2009 • For 40 years, harpist Ann Hobson Pilot has given the Boston Symphony an angelic sound. To mark the occasion of her retirement, she introduces a new concerto written for her by composer John Williams. August 19, 2009 • For more than 30 years, the soprano sang many of opera's most difficult, loud and lengthy roles. Hear Behrens perform her signature roles in Strauss' Salome and Wagner's Ring Cycle. May 29, 2008 • Feeling left out when the conversation turns to Richard Wagner? Get to know the controversial composer's stunning music with help from William Berger, author of Wagner Without Fear. December 24, 2005 • The music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra may be the finest American conductor since Leonard Bernstein. After conducting the Metropolitan Opera for 34 years, James Levine took over the BSO from Seiji Ozawa last year. July 2, 2012 • See a treasure trove of archival photos from the beloved festival in the Berkshires. April 11, 2012 • Hear why these three composers are still superstars in opera houses worldwide. December 9, 2011 • Levine withdraws from the Met through 2013, instruments made of ice and a fiery response to a frosty first date: all the news that's fit to link. November 9, 2011 • From stratospheric coloraturas to jet-powered Wagnerians, learn to love our highest-flying singers. September 9, 2011 • A new era at the Met, a death in Italy and Chinese lessons in Beijing: all the news that's fit to link.

Joel Achenbach writes about science and politics for The Washington Post's National desk. He has been a staff writer for The Post since 1990. He started the newsroom’s first online column, Rough Draft, in 1999, and started washingtonpost.com’s first blog, Achenblog, in 2005. He has been a regular contributor to National Geographic since 1998, writing on such topics as dinosaurs, particle physics, earthquakes, extraterrestrial life, megafauna extinction and the electrical grid. A 1982 graduate of Princeton University, he has taught journalism at Princeton and at Georgetown University. "Huge breakthrough" could lead to clinical treatments of brain damage but also raises ethical concerns and creepy scenarios. Scott Kelly says he didn’t feel normal until 8 months after he returned from the International Space Station. The black hole is at the center of Messier 87, a galaxy about 54 million light-years away. Theorized but never imaged directly, black holes may finally be ready for their close-up. Amid wreckage and downed trees, residents worry about fires and congressional gridlock. Mulvaney said it would take “something dramatic” to persuade President Trump to keep the border open. Survivors of mass shootings remain vulnerable to “emotional shock waves,” experts say. Agency head dismayed by new delay, but “Senate Launch System” has strong political support. A study suggests scientists need to up their game on experimental design and statistical analysis.

The city of Chattanooga is moving forward with plans to repair its aging sewer system. City leaders will use a $33 million state loan to address sewer and water runoff problems. The projects include an overhaul of the East Brainerd sewer basin, which will receive a new pump station as well as a new lining throughout the area's sewer system. Longstanding problems led to a lawsuit from the state's clean water network.

Over the past few months, Facebook has been prioritizing user posts and sending less and less traffic to publisher’s sites - add that to the fact that audiences coming from social sites are less likely to engage with publishr content because they’re already busy, and you see publishers needing to get increasingly savvy on working to diversify their sources of traffic. Firstly Mobile has been a key partner for UPI in helping them reach their KPIs in terms of both audience development and digital revenue, and found that device-based mobile content discovery creates superior engagement for UPI’s readers. Firstly Mobile creates native device experiences that are driving the next era of mobile content discovery. By engaging consumers in user-friendly ways, device-based mobile content discovery creates engagement superior to that of social or web-based traffic. The platform enables a user’s phone to conveniently deliver the content a user loves when transitioning between mobile activities -- such as when the user opens a new browser tab to start a new search, swipes to find recent apps or at times when the phone is unlocked to fill idle moments. Mobile Posse's Firstly Mobile™ platform uses native-device content discovery to turn telecom companies into mobile media leaders. Firstly Mobile is a suite of services carriers and OEMs build into their smartphones to create engaging experiences--without users having to open...load...search...or wait for content. With billions of frictionless content experiences delivered each month, Firstly Mobile drives greater consumer engagement and boosts advertising revenues for carriers and OEMs - all while presenting a proven and brand-safe mobile media opportunity for advertisers. Mobile Posse, the pioneer of frictionless mobile media solutions, is based in Arlington, VA. The company’s posse of trailblazers is passionate about making the smartphone even smarter. Every day. UPI is a digital news and photo provider with a legacy of over 100 years of objective global reporting. UPI photos are made available to digital and print publications all over the world through our participation in various press pools, including the White House and U.S. Capitol, and through relationships with partner distribution networks. Our news feeds are carried by a variety of publishers, research databases, mobile providers and more. UPI.com reaches millions of readers a month, with continuously updated coverage of the most important news of the day, as well as in-depth reporting, and developments in entertainment, science, health, sports and key industries like defense. The company is based in Boca Raton, Fla., and Washington, D.C. Founded in 1907 by E.W. Scripps as the United Press news agency, it became known as UPI after a merger with the International News Service in 1958, which was founded in 1909 by William Randolph Hearst.

The message is clear: When your children get to primary school, ladies, it's back to work with you. The stay-at-home mum had quite the heyday for a while, but Tony Abbott has turned his back on the band of women his party once championed, writes Annabel Crabb. The federal budget is haunted by the ghost of a woman. Over the past 10 years, her image - once proudly prominent in the Howard government's budgetary priorities - has faded from the pages of the national fiscal document. How fascinating it is that the man most widely thought to be John Howard's ideological successor, Tony Abbott, should be the one to give her that final push towards the door. She is the Australian stay-at-home mum. She has captured the imaginations of male leaders, off and on, for years. Paul Keating soliloquized about her in his maiden speech in 1970. "In the past couple of years the Government has boasted about the increasing number of women in the workforce," the young backbencher told Parliament. "Rather than something to be proud of, I feel it is something of which we should be ashamed." It was 14 years ago, in 2000, that Mr Howard first introduced the Family Tax Benefit (B) payment, which was designed to assist households where one parent went out to work and the other stayed home to look after children. The then prime minister's view was that stay-at-home mums were the forgotten women; ineligible for paid maternity leave, immune to tax breaks because of their historically unpaid status, yet providing a valuable service to the nation. These days, 60 per cent of families with children under the age of 16 receive Family Tax Benefit B. It costs the nation $5 billion a year. But last night's budget changed things. Only families on less than $100,000 will be eligible for it now, rather than $150,000. And once a family's youngest child hits six years of age, it cuts out altogether. These two measures alone save the budget more than $3 billion over four years, and isolate further a woman - the stay-at-home mum - who has been going out of fiscal favour for some years now. "Staying at home should be a parent's choice, but there are limits on how much support the taxpayer can give," was the Treasurer's comment last night. The message was clear: When your children get to primary school, ladies, it's back to work with you. The stay-at-home mum had quite the hey-day for a while there. Four years after Family Tax Benefit B, when John Howard's nervous system was crackling with the fissile combination of booming company tax receipts and an existential terror, he announced a lump sum payment to all new mothers, regardless of whether they worked or not. The Baby Bonus was not means tested. It went to mothers who worked full-time, and those who did not work at all. But over the years, the Baby Bonus was nipped, tucked, means-tested and in the end, even Tony Abbott cooperated in its abolition. In its place is Mr Abbott's new model - a generous paid parental leave scheme designed to encourage and reward women who work, but take a small amount of time out to have babies. The Paid Parental Leave - should it survive the rigours of the Senate and the dark scowls from the Prime Minister's own colleagues, many of whom privately loathe the measure - will only be claimable by women who have been in paid work before having their babies. The six-month payment covers a generous period of bonding with the newborn, but does not encourage mum to stick around at home indefinitely. It offers nothing at all to stay-at-home mums. And as of last night, the family tax assistance system has stripped away more support from this band of low-profile, largely unrepresented Australian women. Of all the fascinating reinventions Tony Abbott has undergone over the years, nothing is quite so intriguing as the way his legislative taste in women has changed. When he was sworn in, pledging to assist "women struggling to balance work and family", it confirmed what his epiphany on paid parental leave had already suggested; the model Abbott mum is now an employee, not a homemaker. Annabel Crabb is the ABC's chief online political writer. View her full profile here.

The new training workshops at HMP Wandsworth, featuring Facing Masonry with Lignacite, are currently being constructed by Benson's. HM Prison Service Construction Unit and Herbert and Partners, who designed the new 3,250m 2building, chose Weathered Cream Facing Masonry as the external cladding, to create a robust and decorative finish. Lignacite crafted a commemorative plaque from their Polished Masonry range to acknowledge the 150th year of HMP Wandsworth.

SAIC to assess Diebold's e-voting system for Md. Science Applications International Corp. will conduct a risk assessment of Maryland's electronic voting system in the wake of a report by researchers at Johns Hopkins University that found alleged security flaws in the system. Gov. Robert Ehrlich ordered the independent review Aug. 6. He wants San Diego-based SAIC to test the electronic voting system manufactured by Diebold Election Systems Inc. of North Canton, Ohio. SAIC will do the work under an existing contract for security services, and will submit its findings to state officials in four weeks. Diebold announced in July that it had finalized a $55.6 million contract with Maryland to purchase an additional 11,000 touch-screen voting systems. In March 2002, Maryland bought 5,000 electronic voting systems from Diebold for $17 million for use in four counties. The SAIC review will include a test bed using the relevant hardware and software configurations employed by Diebold. The test will be built as dictated by the Maryland State Board of Elections using regulations, standards and procedures developed for polling places. SAIC will review guidelines and procedural documentation from the state board and the local boards of election that used the Diebold system in the 2002 election. It also will conduct interviews with election directors, local information technology offices and election judges. Once adapted to a simulated Maryland election environment, SAIC will evaluate the claims of voting security and integrity vulnerabilities. The company's report will be in the form of an assessment that addresses identified risks and the State Board of Elections mitigation process. The report will contain an analysis of the software and go line by line through the Johns Hopkins University report, said Henry Fawell, a spokesman for Ehrlich. SAIC will not recommend whether or not the state should proceed with the purchase of the system, Fawell said. That decision will be left to state officials, he said. The Maryland Department of Budget and Management has said the state will proceed with the purchase of the machines only if it is confident that it will be installing "the most superior system available" with the Diebold machines, he said. If the state is not satisfied that this is the case, then it will review all options available to it, including possibly canceling the contract, he said. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University touched off a national controversy last month when they released findings of a study that claimed Diebold's electronic voting system did not meet even the most minimal security standards. The company rebutted that the findings were flawed, because the voting software was run on a computer rather than on a voting terminal for which it was intended. Because of that, weaknesses found in the software code do not apply to the Diebold's machines, the company said.

Oversight of the long-haul, cross-border trucking pilot program with Mexico – even with the low participation in the program – was criticized in an interim report issued by the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General. At the time the report was released on Aug. 16, there were only four motor carriers participating in the pilot program – with only one motor carrier venturing past the border states. That threatens the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s goal of a providing a statistically representative sample of Mexico’s motor carrier population. However, even with such minimal participation, the inspector general found five areas where the agency lacked oversight mechanisms – including on drug and alcohol testing – to ensure full compliance with the pilot program. The Aug. 16 report issued by the inspector general stated that agency personnel did not comply with new English language proficiency requirements for testing drivers on road signs during two of the three pre-authority safety audits (PASAs) observed by the inspector general office. The tests are to be given and responded to in English. In the two PASAs in question, the drivers were permitted to answer in Spanish. The testing requires drivers be presented four signs from a list of 21 road signs. In addition to recommending that testers stick with the English response criteria, the inspector general recommended expanding the test to include all 21 of the signs on the list. The agency agreed with the recommendation to expand the testing. Two of three PASA results reviewed as part of the audit showed that quality assurance personnel within FMCSA approved two PASA results before it verifying that driver’s license testing of 18 drivers had been completed. According to the interim audit, the agency also made errors in determining whether one potential carrier complied with the drug and alcohol testing regulations. “FMCSA’s PASA auditor did not follow FMCSA’s procedures for assessing one potential carrier’s compliance with drug and alcohol testing program requirements,” the audit states. The inspector general recommended the agency revise their quality assurance procedures for PASAs to ensure the accuracy of driver testing, drug and alcohol reports as well as the testing pools before approving the safety audits. The agency disagreed with the recommendation to alter its policies, but rather opted to ensure that current procedures are followed. “The FMCSA auditor did not strictly follow the established protocol for the drug and alcohol program,” Deputy Administrator of Enforcement and Compliance William Quade stated in a response letter to the inspector general. While FMCSA is funding the use of electronic on-board recorders to track the pilot program participants, the inspector general found that the agency did not have any plan for periodic reviews of the data. While the inspector general recommended a policy revision on the data review, the agency did not agree with that recommendation as well, opting instead to emphasize current policies and procedures with personnel. “The Agency acknowledges that two operational reports reviewed by OIG staff during this engagement were subsequently updated. The FMCSA discovered the errors, and the reports were revised accordingly. Further, the revisions made to the reports did not have an adverse impact on the Agency’s oversight of the pilot program,” Quade’s letter to the inspector general stated. And, lastly, the audit found that the agency still did not have a mechanism for detecting cabotage violations. The inspector general noted that cabotage enforcement will require an electronic monitoring contract. The agency agreed. Although the agency’s contract with Teletrac includes a clause for the contractor to develop an automated means of detecting cabatoge, FMCSA has not exercised this automated support option because participation in the program remains low and this level of support is not needed at this time, according to the agency’s official response to the audit. “FMCSA is effectively working through its rigorous safety vetting process to ensure that only safe, qualified Mexican carriers are approved for participation in the United States-Mexico cross-border pilot program,” a prepared release from the agency stated.

A MAN reported missing to police has been found deceased at the scene of a motorcycle crash. About 3am on Tuesday, September 12, police from Coffs Clarence Local Area Command were called to a home in Coramba to take a report on a 40-year-old missing man. Officers tried to determine the movements of the man. About 4.30pm on Tuesday, the missing man was located deceased at the scene of a single car crash in East Bank Road at Coramba. Investigators believe the rider failed to negotiate a bend in the road, hit a guide post, ran through a ditch and struck a fence. Police set up a crime scene at the location before the motorcycle was removed for further forensic examination. Police will prepare a report for the Coroner outlining the full circumstances leading up to the man's death.

The arachnid is now being cared for by an exotics specialist. LONDON — After returning from holiday in Mexico, a UK family in Rochdale, Lancashire, discovered an unusual sight in their laundry — a 3in (8cm) long orange scorpion. Perhaps even more extraordinarily, rather than finishing off the highly venomous creature following its ordeal in the washing machine, the kindhearted family contacted the animal charity the RSPCA. The BBC reports RSPCA animal collection officer John Greaves as saying, "They [the family] were really worried about him when they got in touch as the clothes he was inside had just been through the wash. "They said he looked like he was dying. But he's obviously a tough little creature because he's survived his ordeal." A spokeswoman for the RSPCA said the scorpion is alive and well. Because of the family's actions, the scorpion, believed to be from the Mexican desert, is safely recovering at a specialist rescue centre and shop. "If it's an adult, then it's likely to be highly venomous due to its size and the conditions it would hunt in out in the wild," Greaves elaborated, "It would require a very potent venom to immobilise its prey." The family did not realise the scorpion had managed to find its way in their bags. No word yet on whether HRH the Queen will be extending a knighthood to the resilient arachnid, but the scorpion survived a 10-hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean and a cycle through the wash — just to visit our foggy island. If nothing else, this story that has the makings of an epic plotline for A Bug's Life 3.

In politics, the rush is always on to define your opponent. So, there was little surprise Monday as Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin launched her first TV ad of the general election and sought to portray Republican rival Leah Vukmir as a captive of corporate interests. The ad focused on Vukmir's ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council, where she is chairman emeritus of the board of directors. The American Legislative Exchange Council works with corporations and conservatives to write model legislation that can be introduced in state legislatures throughout the country. The ad hits Vukmir for accepting nearly $70,000 from ALEC members and claimed she "pushed their agenda in Wisconsin." The ad zeroed in on her sponsorship or co-sponsorship of several pieces of ALEC-inspired legislation on phone rates, nursing homes and paid family leave. The ad ends with an announcer saying, "Leah Vukmir: She's not for us." The Vukmir campaign immediately responded to the ad, hitting Baldwin hard for her campaign's reliance on out-of-state donations. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, 58% of contributions to Baldwin's campaign have come from out of state, while 31% of out-of-state contributions have funded Vukmir's campaign. Vukmir campaign manager Jess Ward said Baldwin, "can’t run on her own record, which explains why her first general election ad is negative and falsely tears down Wisconsin’s Leah Vukmir. On campaign donations: the vast majority of Two-Faced Tammy’s funds come from out-of-state, while Leah is supported by Wisconsinites who know Leah will fight for them." For her part, Vukmir does not shy away from her connections to ALEC. "People who know me know how independent I am," she told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week. "My special interests are the people of the state of Wisconsin. If they're going to hit me for being a part of an organization that supports free markets, limited government and federalism, returning power back to the states, well that for me is the essence of what it means to be a conservative." "These arguments will get old, they already are, they have been. The left is trying to bring that organization down and it hasn't worked. And I am certainly proud to have been a part of that organization because it embraces our conservative principles." Vukmir added, "I stand for my beliefs and I can't be swayed just because somebody makes a contribution to me. I make it pretty clear that we won't always agree on issues. But one thing is certain. I will always be honest, I will tell you where I stand."

ST. LOUIS – The creator of Jelly Belly is giving his popular treats a buzzy twist. David Klein starting a line of cannabis oil infused jelly beans. Klein says he’s adding the ingredient to a line of his candies after learning about the health benefits of the oil extract. Candy company, Spectrum Confections is selling the CBD Oil infused jelly beans in bulk online. You can get them in 38 flavors including toasted marshmallow, mango, pina colada, and more. Demand has been so great they’ve already sold out.

Prions, the infamous agents behind mad cow disease and its human variation, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, also have a helpful side. According to new findings from Gerald Zamponi and colleagues, normally functioning prions prevent neurons from working themselves to death. The findings appear in the Journal of Cell Biology. Diseases such as mad cow result when the prion protein adopts an abnormal conformation. This infectious form creates a template that induces normal copies of the protein to misfold as well. Scientists have long assumed that prions must also have a beneficial side but have been unable to pinpoint any such favorable traits. In the new work, the authors found that mice lacking the prion protein had overactive brain cells. Their neurons responded longer and more vigorously to electrical or drug-induced stimulation than did neurons that had normal prion protein. This hyperactivity eventually led to the neurons' death. The results might help explain why misfolded prions cause dementia: in the wrong conformation, the prion can no longer protect brain cells from deadly overexcitement. Boustead, Greg. "The Up Side Of Prions." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 8 May. 2008. Web.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. to call Watkins Glen's NASCAR races from above The Carousel. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will take on a new challenge above Watkins Glen International as part of NBC Sports' television coverage of NASCAR weekend at the road course. Earnhardt, in his first year with NBC Sports, will call the Zippo 200 at The Glen (Xfinity Series) on Saturday and the Go Bowling at The Glen (Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) on Sunday from a tower above The Carousel on the back straight. Saturday will mark the first time Earnhardt calls a race on his own from a single position. Earnhardt, 43, retired as a NASCAR driver after last season. He won 26 races over 19 seasons and became one of the most popular figures in NASCAR history, following in the footsteps of his dad, the late Dale Earnhardt. He made his NBC debut in late June at Chicagoland Speedway. For the second year in a row, NBC will team with MRN and Sirius XM to call both of this weekend's races from multiple vantage points on the track's 2.45-mile short course. Other commentators: Rick Allen and Steve Letarte will be in the booth above the start/finish line; MRN's Mike Bagley will be above the Esses at turns 2 and 3; and Jeff Burton will be above Turn 6. NBC Sports will also use its BatCam camera system, which made its debut in July of 2017 at Daytona International Speedway. The camera, which is suspended on a cable, can reach speeds above 100 miles per hour and helps showcase on-track battles. NBC's coverage includes "NASCAR America" at 1 p.m. Sunday, followed at 2 by "Countdown to Green." Live race coverage starts at 3. The Zippo 200 at The Glen will be televised live on NBC at 3 p.m. Saturday. Watkins Glen International has added a fan attraction that will make its debut during the weekend. In a partnership with Eternal Fan, a statue of the road course's outline will appear near the Pyramid souvenir building on the track's infield. The permanent display will include 300 bricks at its base. Starting Aug. 2, fans can have a brick adorned with their name and/or a message of less than 20 characters. The cost is $500 per brick. "We wanted to put together an infield landmark for the fans," WGI President Michael Printup said in a press release. "This is going to be a meeting place, a photo backdrop, something that is going to be here long after we are. Our new partnership with Eternal Fan is going to allow us to create another meaningful experience for the people that love this great facility." Fans interested in buying a brick can visit www.theglen.com/fanmemories to place an order, or do so at the track during race weekend. Earlier this year, Eternal Fan plaques were launched at Richmond (Virginia) Raceway's new Eternal Fan Pedestrian Tunnel. Watkins Glen will introduce its Zippo Turn 10 hospitality space next to Sir Jackie Stewart Grandstand during the weekend. The platform will include an elevated, partially covered view and multiple seating areas, along with a Jumbotron view. It is built atop new track rental garages and will be open Friday through Sunday. Tickets for the Turn 10 terrace package are available by clicking the "Tickets" tab under the Go Bowling at The Glen information at www.theglen.com. Former Buffalo Bills player Steve Tasker has been named as the honorary pace car driver for the Go Bowling at The Glen. "Steve is a legend here in the upstate New York area with what he has done on and off the field for the Buffalo Bills," Printup said. Tasker, 56, played in the National Football League from 1985 to 1997. He played with the Bills for his final 12 seasons after a November trade in 1986 with the Houston Oilers, earning Pro Bowl selection as a special teams player seven times. Tasker, also a wide receiver, was a five-time All-Pro and played on four consecutive Super Bowl teams with the Bills from the 1990 to 1993 seasons. Since retiring, Tasker has worked as an NFL analyst and sideline reporter for CBS and Westwood One, in addition to other broadcast roles. Watkins Glen track partners Coca-Cola, Weaver Media and VP Fuels have purchased tickets for the Go Bowling at The Glen weekend that will be given to soldiers and their families. "We take a lot of pride in honoring those who protect us, at home and abroad, at Watkins Glen International," Printup said. "As we approach our biggest event of the season, we look forward to welcoming many of these heroes and their families on race weekend. We'd like to thank Coca-Cola, Weaver Media and VP Fuels for helping us in doing so." The schedule will include concerts Friday and Saturday, with the three concerts scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. Friday's concert on the Jack Daniel's Summer Stage will feature Small Town Shade and the Preston James Band. On Saturday, the Devon Franks Band will perform in the Gate 1 camping area while the Pete Frank Band performs at Gate 7, on the general admission viewing berm near Sahlen's Pit Inn. Other track special events include a NASCAR K&N Pro Series East autograph session at 1 p.m. Friday at the Bog hospitality, with free admission wristbands available earlier in the day at the Zippo and NASCAR 101 displays on The Midway. A kids only autograph session with Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers is scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday on The Midway, near the pedestrian bridge. Free wristbands can be picked up there starting at 10. From 7 to 9 a.m. Saturday, there will be free coffee and donut sessions with Printup and Andrew Smith, the track's vice president. The session with Printup will take place at concession stand 5, near the Sir Jackie Stewart Grandstand. The session with Smith will be held at the Gate 1 camping area. A Tweetup hosted by Printup is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Gatorade Victory Lane. There will also be a McDonald's Movie Night showing of "Coco" at 8:30 p.m. Saturday in the McDonald's Kid Zone, near the Pyramid. 11 a.m.-12:25 p.m.: NASCAR K&N Pro Series East practice. 12:35 p.m.-1:25: NASCAR Xfinity Series practice; live coverage on NBCSports.com. 2:05-3:25: Xfinity Series final practice; NBCSports.com. 4:45: K&N Pro Series East race, Great Outdoors RV Superstore 100 at The Glen. 3 p.m.: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, Go Bowling at The Glen (90 laps, 220.5 miles); NBC (pre-race coverage starts at 2).

Learn about the massacre of Czar Nicholas and his family, and delve into the mystery surrounding Princess Anastasia Romanov. 1hr. Learn about the Piltdown forgery, the people who may have been involved, and the potential reasons for the hoax. 1 hr. Forensic scientists search for clues hidden within the chaos of crime scenes to help law enforcement find the Unabomber. 1 hr. Find out what can be learned from the World Trade Center disaster. 1 hr. Go behind the scenes to learn the details of one of the most exhaustive investigations in aviation history -- the inquiry into the crash of Swissair flight 111. 1 hr. Discover what can be learned from the worst aviation accident in history -- the 1977 crash on the Spanish island of Tenerife that killed 583 people. 1 hr. Relive George Mallory's climb and the enduring mystery surrounding his disappearance atop the Mt. Everest. 1 hr. Learn about skeletal evidence that reveals a new story of the Spanish conquest of the Inca and rewrites the history laid down by the Spanish conquistadors. 1 hr. A trial in London's High Court examines evidence from Auschwitz to successfully challenge the claims of Holocaust "deniers." 1 hr. Join fire sleuths as they unravel the mysterious source of a series of 1991 store fires in Los Angeles, California. 1 hr. Carl Sagan and other scientists investigate claims that people have been visited or abducted by aliens. 1 hr. Forensic scientists revisit the infamous Sheppard murder case of the 1950s in search of the true killer. 1 hr. Join forensic scientists who set out to discover what happened to seven American airmen whose plane crashed on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula during World War II. 1 hr. See footage of the discovery of climber George Mallory's body on Mt. Everest and learn clues about his final hours. 1 hr. Follow scientists who seek to reveal the hidden identity of a mummy -- possibly a pharaoh -- that lay neglected for decades in a Niagara Falls museum. 1 hr. Track the investigation of a mysterious jetliner crash in Panama. 1 hr. Follow scientists who seek to learn about the lives and deaths of two ancient bodies discovered in European bogs. 1 hr. Join magician James "The Amazing" Randi as he tests the claims of mind readers, fortune tellers, faith healers, and others with purported paranormal powers. 1 hr. The mysterious 1947 disappearance of an airplane high in the Andes en route from Argentina to Chile is finally resolved. 1 hr. Consider the evidence supporting and refuting the authenticity of the Vinland Map, a document purported to show that the Vikings discovered the New World. 1 hr. Go with forensic sleuth Clyde Snow and other experts to Bolivia in search of the remains of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. 1 hr. Explore the mystery of who killed the Red Baron and learn about innovations in aircraft development during World War I. 1 hr. Forensic engineers investigate the collapse of the World Trade Center. 1 hr.

Wholesale polished diamond traders are seeking the right level for pricing diamonds, with the overall trend being stability, with small adjustments according to demand. After the previous week’s modest declines, asking prices of polished diamonds inched up 0.01% during the past week, according to the GDX index. GDX, Carats.io’s general index, averaged 10,016.61 during the 11th week of the year (March11-17). The index represents the most tradable diamonds in the Israeli diamond market. The GDX index opened the week at 10,021.92 and closed at 10,015.27, dipping on Tuesday and bouncing back on Wednesday. Polished diamond prices rose ahead of the Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem and Pearl Show, held February 26-March 2, and then softened in response to less than expected demand. In the past week, Israeli diamond traders corrected pricing to meet current demand levels, reflecting ongoing strengths – where they exist. Prices of smaller goods, mainly 0.30-0.39 carats, have been in strong demand in recent months, contributing to the rise in GDX-D, an index of smaller size diamonds weighing 0.18-0.99 carats, which rose 0.08% during the week. The index averaged 4,008.8. Conversely, GDX-1+, and index of larger goods, continued to decline for the third consecutive week. The index tracks round diamonds weighing 1.00-2.50 carats. The decline in demand for these diamonds is partially a result of a shift in consumer demand from larger diamonds to smaller diamonds. The GDX-I index, which represents the top color and clarity polished diamonds traded in the market, was again the strongest performer, rising on average 0.17% during the past week. GDX-I opened the week at 2,008.47 and closed at 2,011.60. GDX-J, an index of the most popular diamonds for the US jewelry market, has been on a downward movement since the start of the month.

The revamped Focus represents something of a radical styling departure from its predecessors. Out go the hatchback and wagon body styles of the previous generation, replaced with a more bulbous and curvaceous design that's reminiscent of a squished Ford Mondeo. The 2008 Ford Focus comes with a single choice of power in the shape of a 2.0-liter, Duratec, four-cylinder engine producing 140 horsepower. The Focus SES comes standard with 16-inch six-spoke alloy wheels. Antilock brakes and traction control is available for an extra $385. Chrome fender decorations give the Focus SES some dashing accents. The Focus SES comes standard with a five-speed manual transmission or--as was the case with our tester--a four-speed automatic for an extra $815. Designed by Microsoft, and exclusive to Ford Motor Co. products, Sync represents a quantum leap forward for Ford (and the auto industry in general) in terms of controlling in-car media and communications. The 2008 Ford Focus SES gets Sync as standard. Another advanced feature of Sync is its ability to read and send text messages from compatible cell phones. The feature requires a paired cell to have the correct Bluetooth profile. With an appropriate phone connected, Sync enables drivers to read incoming messages and to send out a list of predetermined list of responses. Sync managed to understand our requests the first time. On the occasion that it did struggle (calling Andrea instead of Andreas), we enunciated more deliberately the second time, and the system dialed the correct contact. For our test of the voice-dialing feature, we decided to enter into our cell phone six names with similar spellings and pronunciations to try to catch the system out. Our test names were: Andrew, Andrea, Andreas, Andre, Andy, and Anthony. For each one, we attempted to call the contact by voice command. In addition to the ability to call out songs by name, Sync has a feature called "play similar music," whereby the system searches metatags of tracks on the connected player to find tracks with similar attributes to the one currently playing. According to Ford's marketing bump, the Focus SES has "Enhanced European-inspired suspension." We're not exactly sure what is so European about the springs and dampers, but the car does manage to dampen out road imperfections well, leading to a comfortable ride.

The 28 three to five year olds were enthralled by the storyteller as he spent an hour combining multi-cultural education and entertainment with a variety of music, action-songs, dance, games and story telling. He told the children tortoise stories from around the world and how the animal triumphs through each experience. Every tale had a moral. Nursery owner Mrs Lesly McHale said: “It’s the first time we have had someone like Winston here. “The children were absolutely entralled by him for an hour, which is a long time to hold their attention at that age,” she said. “The children around here don’t get much of a multi-cultural experience but that is what we have to provide nowadays to make them aware of the world,” said Mrs McHale. In the photograph, cToday, Winston Nzinga is an African-Caribbean percussionist, storyteller, singer and teacher. He now has more than 20 years experience as a performing artist and teacher in schools throughout the UK, Africa and Caribbean, and still offers a range of workshops in early years and primary school settings. He still offers a ‘Tortoise and friends’ session, in which young children can learn with Tortoise as he plays with Hare, Leopard and Hyena. This collection of three stories, songs and music recommended for children aged three to seven years old to support literacy and problem solving. Find out more about his work, including his music and storytelling workshops, at www.winstonnzinga.co.uk.

Peak Technologies has a Web design program entirely in Java for non-technical users. Peak Technologies has built a Web design program entirely in Java that will let non-technical users create sites without getting their hands dirty with HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). The product is one of a slate of recent "user-friendly" Web authoring tools that require little technical knowledge. Peak's WebPage Builder, however, runs on any platform that supports Java, including Macintosh, Windows and Unix. WebPage Builder comes with pre-designed templates, text options and an extensive library of animated objects, including Java applets, plus icons and other clip art that a novice designer can drag-and-drop into a Web site. For those with experience with graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop and CorelDraw, WebPage Builder shows how to add custom graphics to a Web site. It also gauges the expected download and run-time performance of the site as it's being built, helping designers avoid bandwidth-hogging content. The full release is due on August 1 and will cost $49.95. In the meantime, the beta version, which does not yet include the drag-and-drop graphical user interface, is available to more experienced HTML users for downloading and testing.

PETERBOROUGH striker Kyle Vassell wants to follow in Dwight Gayle’s footsteps – all the way to the Premier League. Gayle took less than two full seasons to go from Bishop’s Stortford to the top flight with Crystal Palace via Posh. Now Vassell is aiming to follow the same route as the £6m hitman after arriving from Stortford, where he scored 16 goals in 16 games. “There’s no doubt I’ve come to the right club to progress,” said Vassell, who could make his debut at Walsall on Monday night. “Their record for improving young strikers from non-league is second to none. “I want to improve my touch and my hold-up play, and from what I’ve heard and seen that will happen at Peterborough. “This is a great opportunity for me and I’m determined not to waste it. “It’s a big jump for me, but I don’t see myself finishing here. ZINEDINE ZIDANE is keen to land Paul Pogba this summer - but Real Madrid chiefs are still sceptical about a move.

Allies of Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) say they have the race for Republican Conference chairman against Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) all but locked up. They have not released an official list of support, but an aide familiar with Hensarling’s whipping operation says that he has garnered more than 100 supporters — not guaranteeing a victory but certainly close. Hensarling has announced support from Reps. Ron Paul (Texas), Paul Broun (Ga.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Eric Cantor (Va.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), Mike Pence (Ind.), Jason Chaffetz (Utah) and incoming Reps. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) and Tim Scott (S.C.). The vote will happen Nov. 17. Bachmann’s camp has garnered support from Minnesota Republicans John Kline, Erik Paulsen and Chip Cravaack, who will take Democratic Rep. James Oberstar’s seat. Rep. Louie Gohmert (Texas) and Steve King (Iowa) also say they’ll support Bachmann. Her camp declined to offer any estimate about where it stands in the race.

Snag deep discounts on GoPro Hero5 digital cameras, the Amazon Fire TV Cube, and more. Happy Friday! With the weekend here, it's time to bask in the glow of some really good deals on Amazon that could make your weekend even more relaxing and enjoyable. Amazon has a few deals on its devices, such as save $30 on two Echos, save $25 on Fire TV and Echo Dot combos, and get a $10 Prime Video credit when you buy Amazon's new Fire TV Cube. And since you might be looking to expand your home theater, there are a number of good deals on products you could use, like 30% off on QKK's full HD LED video projector, 54% off on Cambridge Soundworks's Bluetooth speakers, and 62% off a Jurassic Park movie collection on Blu-ray. If you're building a home office, Amazon has some discounts on Halter's adjustable desks and wireless color printers from Xerox. Buy a baby monitor from Arlo and get a Fire HD 8 Tablet for free. Save $150 on GoPro HERO5 and film all the underwater fun this summer. Watch the big game on your very own digital projector. Save on an adjustable desk from Halter. Beard care kits are on sale.

China's currency devaluation came on the heels of its decision to let market forces determine its value. China's decision to devalue its currency has taken international markets by storm, raising concerns over a protracted currency war among the world's leading economies. Reflecting its growing anxieties over the country's economic prospects, Beijing has decided to go for the jugular by making Chinese exports more affordable in international markets. Recent months have been particularly unsettling for the world's second largest economy. Between June and July, China's stock markets fell by more than 30 percent (evaporating $3.4 trillion in financial assets), exports suffered an 8.3 percent year-on-year decline in July, and there are growing indications that China will miss its growth target of 7 percent for this year. Though China still has one of the world's most dynamic economies, recent trends are, to say the least, particularly disconcerting for an authoritarian regime, which stakes its legitimacy on providing unbridled prosperity. Gradually, China is beginning to lose its economic lustre, as investors and policy-makers shift their attention to mitigating and hedging against the vulnerabilities of the Asian economic powerhouse. More fundamentally, China's economic woes could significantly undermine its regional and global soft power bid, which is primarily anchored by Beijing's financial prowess and largely successful growth model in the past three decades. The government's erratic responses to economic fluctuations also underline the ruling Communist Party's ambivalence vis-a-vis fee market principles. As leading economists have noted, one of the factors behind the 2008 Great Recession was the neomercantilist strategyof locomotive economies, which engaged in "manipulative recycling" of their export-earnings into less productive economies. The timing of the [devaluation] decision shows that China is more likely driven by short-term concerns over reflating its flagging economy, as the country tries to recover from slowing exports and a stock market crash. Manufacturing powerhouses like China and Germany constantly propped up their current account balance, discouraging domestic consumption in favour of massive credit lending to consumerist trading partners. This unnatural and large-scale infusion of foreign credit into countries like the United States created a precarious spending spree among less productive economies. The result was staggering debt levels and unsustainable trade deficits going hand in hand with unsafe lending practices and massive financial speculation by Wall Street, which culminated in the crash of the American sub-prime property market in 2007. Eager to redress the imbalances in the global economy, the US, the UK as well as Japan, among other countries, engaged in a sustained campaign to make their currencies more competitive, implementing expansionary monetary policies - quantitative easing - which, by extension, also made their exports more affordable. In the eurozone, Germany ended up subsidising peripheral economies, which suffered from a sovereign debt crisis after years of unsustainable borrowing and weak exports. Interestingly, the post-recession period actually saw a steady appreciation in Chinese currency (renminbi), as Western countries and international financial institutions called on China to revalue its currency, liberalise its capital markets, and shift into a more consumption-driven economy. Over the years, the US trade balance improved as its exports became more competitive, while China saw a steady growth in wages and domestic credit, which allowed for greater consumption and spending at home. To express its commitment to the transformation of China's economy, the Xi Jinping administration went so far as to declare that the market forces will begin to play a more "decisive role" as the state decreases its intervention in economic affairs. Meanwhile, China also stepped up its efforts in creating alternative international financial institutions that provide affordable loans and focus on strategic sectors, such as infrastructure development. It didn't take long, however, before the Chinese economy's vulnerabilities were exposed, as regulators failed to prevent a massive stock market crash that disproportionately affected aspiring middle classes, while growth numbers tanked and raised fears of political backlash. China's days-long decision to devalue its currency, knocking off more than three percent of its value, sent shockwaves across the region, leading to a decline in the currencies of neighbouring countries, such as South Korea (two percent), Australia (1.75 percent), and Japan (0.3 percent), while German car giant, BMW, also suffered a decline in its stock value. The US Federal Reserve is also revisiting its initial plan of raising its interest rates later this year. To be fair, China's currency devaluation came on the heels of its decision to actually let market forces determine its value, a crucial step towards making renminbi a genuine global currency alongside the US dollar, euro, and yen. In fact, for years the International Monetary Fund and Western countries have been calling on China to allow its currency to float along market dynamics. However, the timing of the decision shows that China is more likely driven by short-term concerns over reflating its flagging economy, as the country tries to recover from slowing exports and a stock market crash. Indeed, the draconian response of the Chinese government to the recent stock market crash - large-scale temporary suspension of public offerings, caps on short-selling, and cuts in interest rates - exposes its reluctance to allow market forces dictate economic developments. But as China grapples with domestic economic woes, it will inevitably have to also re-evaluate its massive international spending spree, which is partly aimed at challenging the Western and Japanese-dominated Bretton Woods institutions, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. In the past year or so, China has pledged more than $150bn to various initiatives, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the "One Belt, One Road" strategy, and the New Development Bank, with plans of spending as much as $1.25 trillion globally by 2025. Though China's massive $4 trillion currency reserves provide it with significant room for manoeuvre, there are serious signs that it will have to be more cost-efficient (rather than politically-motivated) in deploying its financial prowess. China is gradually entering a new normal as it descends from the economic heaven.

“Our Will of Life Is Stronger Than Despair”: Palestinian Ahmed Abu Artema on Israeli Attacks on Gaza | Democracy Now! the Palestinian poet, journalist and peace activist who inspired the Great March of Return and helped organize it as a cry for help. Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, including three teenagers, at a mass demonstration Saturday on the first anniversary of the Great March of Return in Gaza. Israeli soldiers used live ammunition, tear gas and rubber bullets on the protesters. As tens of thousands of Palestinians came out to demand an end to the ongoing siege of Gaza and the right to return to their ancestral land, we speak with Ahmed Abu Artema, the Palestinian poet, journalist and peace activist who inspired the Great March of Return and helped organize it as a cry for help. Artema was frustrated by Israel’s more than decade-long land, sea and air blockade of the Gaza Strip, upon which it has waged three wars in the past 10 years. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. At a mass demonstration Saturday on the first anniversary of the Great March of Return in Gaza, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, including three teenagers. Israeli soldiers used live ammunition, tear gas and rubber bullets on the protesters. Tens of thousands of Palestinians came out to demand an end to the ongoing siege of Gaza and the right to return. Well, for more, we go to Ahmed Abu Artema, the Palestinian poet, journalist, peace activist who inspired the Great March of Return and helped organize it as a cry for help. The former student of nonviolent resistance wanted the movement to follow the examples of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. Artema was frustrated by Israelis’ more than decade-long land, sea and air blockade of the Gaza Strip, upon which it has waged three wars in the past 10 years. I interviewed Artema recently when he came to New York City, after he traveled around the United States talking about the situation in Gaza. I asked him about the Palestinian nonviolent movement and the massive weekly protest marches. AHMED ABU ARTEMA: When I and some of my friends invited to the March of Return, a lot of people answered this call, because it was a scream for life. It expressed the will of life in our hearts, Palestinians’. The Palestinians in Gaza are actually in a real prison. They live in a real prison. And they are without any of the basic conditions of the human life. And before that, 75% of the Palestinians inside Gaza, they are refugees. That means their origin villages and towns are beyond the fence, the Israeli fence. So, when tens of thousands of Palestinians share in the March of Return, they want to say that we never gave up our right to return. This is our normal right, and this right based on the United Nations Resolution 194. And from other side, they wanted to say that we want life and nothing but life. We are actually here inside Gaza prison. We are dying. We are dying because of no medicine, no food, no work, no jobs, no factories. Hundreds of factories were destroyed in the last 10 years by Israeli attacks. So, these people search of hope. They want hope. They want dignified life. The March of Return is a scream of life. It’s a knock on the door. When there is a person inside a prison without food, without medicine, then he hasn’t any choice but to knock the door, to try to escape towards the life. This is exactly what the Palestinians made in Gaza. They said to Israel, our will of life is stronger than despair. So we continue. We want to struggle. And we struggle for life. We struggle for humanity. We struggle for justice. AMY GOODMAN: Explain what the siege is. AHMED ABU ARTEMA: Yeah. Gaza Strip is a very narrow place. There are 2.2 million Palestinians live inside Gaza. Seventy-five percent of them are refugees. This fence separated us from our villages and towns, where Israel expelled us out from there in 1948. So, the Palestinians believe in their right to return to their homes. They never gave up this right since 70 years. Until now, the Palestinian refugees kept their keys, the keys of their homes in their origin cities and towns. And they are waiting for that day that the justice will be achieved and they can return to their homes. When I went there, near the Israeli separation fence, with my friend Hasan, then my friend Hasan pointed to the fence and said to me, “Ahmed, look, this is the fence, separated us from returning to our homes.” And that night I posted on my Facebook that the birds can—I saw the birds can cross freely and can move freely between the two sides of the fence. What if we, as humans, decide to move freely? The why is Israeli soldier will shoot us as if we commit a crime? It’s our normal right, our human right, to move freely. So, we should break this fence. Then, after that, I wrote another post that I suggest 200,000 of Palestinians share in unarmed protest to demand their normal right to return to their homes and to live with dignity like the other peoples. This fence symbolized—this Israeli fence symbolized for the occupation and the prison and for the killing our normal rights to move, to live normally. AMY GOODMAN: Describe the situation on the ground in Gaza, how it’s affected by the siege, by the blockade, which, by the way, Israel insists it’s not engaged in. AMY GOODMAN: This is your—this trip to the United States, this is your first time in the United States? AHMED ABU ARTEMA: Yeah, it’s my first time. AMY GOODMAN: You’ve been trying for years? AHMED ABU ARTEMA: Yeah. I just traveled one time, in 2012, after the Egyptian revolution, from Rafah crossing, for Egypt. But this is my first time to board a flight and come here to United States. And the majority of Palestinians inside Gaza, they never saw a plane in the sky, a plane which carry passengers. Yeah, we see a lot of planes, but it’s the Israeli warplanes. That means to us as a symbol of killing and horror. We don’t see the planes which symbolize to the life and to the human progress. And the people inside Gaza without medicine, without medical services, without jobs, because the Israeli occupation forces destroyed completely hundreds of industrial factories in 2008, 2012, then 2014. The youth inside Gaza, they cannot be able to see the hope, to see the future. So, what can we expect from these people? These people, when they protest, they protest because they want to make their voices heard to the world, that we want life, that it’s our normal life, to live normally. AMY GOODMAN: And so people are protesting. They’re engaging in this weekly mass protest. And you’ve been met by massive response of the Israeli military. AMY GOODMAN: Talk about what happens in these Friday protests around the fence. AHMED ABU ARTEMA: Yeah, yeah. Some people asked me, and some journalists asked me, “Why the Palestinians continue their protesting despite the high—the high price of victims and injured people?” I answer them, the Palestinians are continuing their protesting, because this is their only choice. They haven’t other choices. They try to escape towards the life. So, the people—when the people shared in the March of Return, in this protest, they came near the fence that separated them from their villages and cities, and the people collect peacefully. AMY GOODMAN: That was Ahmed Abu Artema, the Palestinian poet, journalist and peace activist who inspired the Great March of Return. Israeli forces have killed more than 200 Palestinians, and according to the UNHCR, as many as 26,000 Palestinians have been wounded in this year of the march. The U.N. says Israeli forces may have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity by targeting protesters in Gaza with lethal force during this year, including children, journalists and the disabled. That does it for our broadcast. Democracy Now! has an immediate job opening, full-time junior systems administrator here in New York. Details at democracynow.org.

Team Black Knights of the US Military Academy at West Point were the winners of the Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge 2018. The GCSP had the chance to interview them six months after they championed the competition. Grab some advice, learn from their experiences and take a look at what to expect at the 2019 challenge!

The New York Red Bulls and Atlanta United will meet in a two-leg Eastern Conference final, which begins Sunday night before another expected crowd of more than 70,000 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Major League Soccer playoffs re-start on Sunday, with the Portland Timbers hosting Sporting Kansas City and Atlanta United hosting the New York Red Bulls. The two leg conference championships come following a two-week international break. For Atlanta coach Tata Martino, the conference final has added meaning: A shot at the MLS Cup in his final season with the team. Martino, the MLS Coach of the Year, will leave United following the season and could become Mexico's coach. The MLS Cup final is set for Dec. 8. Sporting KC: Sporting finished the season as the top seed in the Western Conference and earned a knockout-round bye before a 5-3 win on aggregate over Real Salt Lake in the conference semifinals. The team led the Western Conference (and was second in the league) with 65 regular-season goals, a club record. Sporting has won a pair of MLS Cups, in 2000 and 2013. The team has lost in the knockout round in each of the last four seasons since winning the league title. Sporting will be without forward Diego Rubio for the opening leg because of yellow card accumulation. Portland Timbers: The Timbers advanced to the conference final on penalty kicks to cap a wild semifinal with rival Seattle. Portland is the only team that played a knockout round match to get to this stage. The Timbers won the MLS title in 2015. Last season Portland was eliminated from the playoffs in the conference semifinal against Houston and afterward coach Caleb Porter and the Timbers parted ways. The Timbers are playing their first season under Giovanni Savarese. Quotable: "Extremely proud that that we continue to go forward and now we are in the final, one of the last four teams surviving still. Credit to the guys, they've been working very hard, they work together. Anybody that steps on the field wants to contribute, and it gives us the chance for us the coaches the chance to continue to work, which is what we love," Savarese said. Atlanta United: Atlanta won a playoff series for the first time by beating New York City 4-1 on aggregate in the semifinals. United was the highest-scoring team in the league during the regular season and was in the race for the Supporters' Shield up to the final day but fell short after losing at Toronto. United's scoring prowess is paced by Josef Martinez, who won the Golden Boot with a league-record 31 goals. New York Red Bulls: The Red Bulls, who have never won an MLS Cup, advanced on a 3-1 aggregate semifinal victory over the Columbus Crew. The Red Bulls captured the Supporters' Shield this season for the third time since 2013. The previous two times the Red Bulls won Supporters' Shield they failed to make MLS Cup. New York was knocked out in the conference semifinals by Houston in 2013 and beaten by Columbus in the Eastern finals in 2015. Quotable: "We're still getting better. I think that we can still play a little bit better. I think Tata continues to push us. It's just an extra motivating factor. I think that we all want to win. We all want to be champions. That would be icing on the cake for him for sure." United defender Michael Parkhurst said.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has said his country was ready to take more steps to improve its relations with Pakistan, a day after India announced it would restore a bus link with its neighbour. Vajpayee said on Tuesday that these steps should eventually lead to a climate for peace talks. "Some steps have been taken. More steps will be taken," Vajpayee told reporters just before he left on a foreign tour. "I believe an atmosphere will be created in which talks can start," he said. His comments came after the Indian Foreign Ministry said on Monday it would resume the bus link with Pakistan on a twice-weekly basis. Some observers attributed the significance of renewing bus services to the bus journey made by Vajpayee to the northern Pakistani city of Lahore in 1999 in a peace initiative that later failed. Vajpayee spoke to reporters just before leaving on a three-nation tour of Germany, France, and Russia. He is expected to discuss the peace gestures he made with world leaders he will be meeting. India has also decided to release 70 Pakistani fishermen and 60 civilians held in its prisons, according to a statement issued on Monday by the foreign ministry. Last week, Pakistan released 20 Indian prisoners. The new Indian decisions are the latest in a series of reciprocal measures aimed at building confidence that began last month in an attempt to restart talks. The last time the nuclear-armed neighbours held formal talks was in July 2001, when a summit between Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf failed to yield results.

But the state’s complex geology offer another less known threat. Three of California’s volcanoes are considered to be a very high threat, along with 15 others nationwide, according to the first update of the federal government’s volcano threat assessment in more than a decade. Mt. Shasta in Siskiyou County, the Lassen Volcanic Center in Shasta County and the Long Valley Caldera that includes the Mammoth Lakes area in Mono County remain in the highest risk category as defined by the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS’ list of the 18 “very high threat volcanoes” remains the same as the last such list updated in 2005. They include two such volcanoes on Hawaii’s Big Island: Kilauea, which underwent a new eruption earlier this year and sent oozing lava to destroy hundreds of homes; and Mauna Loa, considered the largest active volcano on the planet. Four are in Oregon, including such areas as Mt. Hood and Crater Lake, and four in Washington state, including Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens, which underwent a deadly eruption in 1980 and is the most active volcano in the Pacific Northwest. Along the West Coast, explosions and volcanic activity under snow and ice can send hazardous projectiles long distances into populated areas, the USGS said. Five are in Alaska and near populated areas and economic infrastructure, or below busy air traffic corridors, the agency said. There have been 10 eruptions in California over the last 1,000 years, and in any given year the chance of a major volcanic eruption in the state is about the same as the risk of a major earthquake on the San Andreas fault. Some of California’s most scenic wilderness spots are threatened by volcanic activity. More than 190,000 Californians live within a volcano hazard zone; among them are people who live or work in the Long Valley region, home to Mammoth Lakes, a favorite destination of skiers from Southern California, and areas in the shadow of Mt. Shasta, such as the towns of Mount Shasta and Weed. Those cities are close enough to volcanoes that they may be in harm’s way in the next eruption. Volcanoes in the Lassen, Shasta and Long Valley areas are capable of producing pyroclastic flows or surges when they do erupt — fast-moving flows of hot ash, rock and gas sweeping down the sides of mountains, of the type that killed 57 people when Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980. How the Mt. St. Helens eruption unfolded caught scientists by surprise. There were signs that magma was moving underneath Mt. St. Helens in the months before the eruption. But instead of from the top, the eruption occurred from the side of the volcano — sending magma pressurized with gas erupting out horizontally instead of vertically. Because the initial direction of the pyroclastic flow was aimed horizontally, it traveled much farther on land from the summit than had been anticipated, and killed people who were beyond an evacuation zone. Such pyroclastic flows are so hot they will burn flesh and sear lungs; too much ash can also make it hard to breathe. Those who died generally had been within 15 miles of the volcano. Most higher risk volcanoes are far from California’s largest cities and several produce heat that’s used to generate electricity in what are the world’s most productive geothermal power plants, such as the Salton Buttes, 160 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and the Clear Lake Volcanic Field 85 miles north of San Francisco that powers the Geysers steam field. Those areas are considered to be at the second-highest risk category, as is Medicine Lake volcano in Siskiyou and Modoc counties. But volcanic eruptions could have lasting repercussions that affect all of California. Volcanic ash could bring down jetliners and disrupt hundreds of flights daily passing through Northern California or the Mammoth Mountain area. In 2010, the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano forced the cancellation of 100,000 flights in a week. Volcanic ash, when wet, is conductive and can disrupt high-voltage lines that supply electricity to millions of California homes. Ash could disrupt travel on Interstate 5, the main route between California and Oregon, masking windshields and making roads slippery, even impassable. And it could contaminate water supplies to much of the state; California’s largest reservoirs are close to the Shasta and Lassen volcanoes. If there’s any good news, it’s that major volcanic activity is usually accompanied by warning signs, and scientists have become much better at forecasting major events before they happen, enabling authorities to sound warnings to reduce the chance of deaths. California’s volcanoes were more prolific in prehistoric times. About 760,000 years ago, a super eruption occurred at what is now known as the Long Valley Caldera, erupting an astonishing 140 cubic miles of magma, covering much of east-central California in glowing hot ash and blowing ash as far away as present-day Nebraska. There is no sign that there is enough magma underneath Yellowstone or Long Valley to cause another super eruption, USGS scientists say. About a century ago, Lassen Peak underwent years of volcanic activity. In one of the most significant events about 103 years ago, Lassen Peak created a gigantic mushroom cloud that reached an altitude of 30,000 feet. It could be seen as far away as Eureka and Sacramento and sent volcanic ash up to 280 miles away, reaching Elko, Nev. It was the first volcanic eruption in the contiguous 48 states since the founding of the United States, and the last until Mt. St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980. A couple of America’s cities are close to volcanoes. Hilo, Hawaii, is on the flanks of Mauna Loa. In Arizona, Flagstaff is at the edge of an extensive field of more than 600 volcanic vents centered around San Francisco Mountain. Oct. 27, 4:25 a.m.: This article was updated with more context on a prehistoric super eruption at Yellowstone, and to note a couple of U.S. cities that are close to volcanoes. Oct. 26, 9:35 a.m.: This article was updated with more context on how the Mt. St. Helens eruption unfolded. Oct. 25, 2:55 p.m.: This article was updated with information that Salton Buttes, in Imperial County, and Clear Lake Volcanic Field, in Lake County, are considered to be at the second-highest risk category, as is Medicine Lake volcano in Siskiyou and Modoc counties. This article was originally published on Oct. 25 at 12 p.m.

The Lawrence City Commission will not hold its monthly work session on Tuesday, March 13. The work session has been canceled because members of the commission will be attending the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference from March 11 to March 15 in Washington, D.C. The commission will hold its next regularly scheduled meeting on March 20.

Human Rights Watch alleges President Alassane Outtara has not prosecuted culprits of post-election unrest. Since May 2011, when President Alassane Ouattara was elected, the Ivory Coast has been relatively peaceful. A new report by Human Rights Watch, however, says the government has failed to adequately prosecute all of those responsible for post-election violence before Ouattara’s inauguration. The group warns that because justice has so far been one sided, instability may follow.

I am happy to report that the spotted fawn that feeds on my flowers and grass, and had a tomato cage on his head and neck, was back with his sibling and no longer has the cage around him. The “twins” are seen all over the neighborhood eating hostas, petunias and other things. We are planning our planting for next year around them and plan to put in marigolds and snapdragons, which they leave alone. I’ve seen them on both Peninsula Players Road near Edgewood Orchard Galleries and below the hill on Juddville Road. The Egg Harbor Historical Society will host a free program for the public at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. "Early Times in the Egg Harbor Township, Including: Horseshoe Bay, (K)Carlsville, Carmody Prairie, and Egg Harbor's Village" will be presented in the Kress Pavilion by Historical Society member Giz Herbst. The next show in the Sunset Concert Series at the Peg Egan Amphitheater is at 7 p.m. Sunday, July 29, and features the swing music of string trio The Quebe Sisters. Bring a chair or blanket for this free outdoor concert. It is with sadness that I am saying farewell to my readers. Thanks to all who sent news and mentioned the column when I saw you. The Door County Advocate has decided to discontinue the town and village news columns. I will miss writing to you each week and hearing from contributors via email, phone, and mail. I plan to do more art work now, possibly displaying more art. Thanks to Giz and Linda Herbst and Char Mueller, who send historical and church news. Also thanks to the people at Liberty Square, Main Street Market, the village office, Holy Cole at the library for stories and news, the information center, and all who send news. So many people have sent news and I thank you all.

Morning Pointe of Collegedale at Greenbriar Cove resident assistant Taylor Milliard shared her talents with the residents of the assisted living community. A trained cosmetologist, Ms. Milliard volunteered her time to paint the residents’ nails. “Taylor is known to go above and beyond for our residents and is always looking for little ways to brighten their days,” said Naomi Schumacher, the Life Enrichment director at Morning Pointe of Collegedale at Greenbriar Cove.

ARSENAL fans are kissing goodbye to the Europa League after being paired with Napoli at the quarter-final stage. The Gunners will host the Serie A giants at The Emirates Stadium on April 11 with the return leg schedule for a week later at the Stadio San Paulo. Uefa switched the games after Chelsea were drawn to play the home leg of their clash with Slavia Prague on the same night - with the FA Cup winners given preferential treatment due to finishing higher in the Premier League last season. Both London clubs have been kept apart in the draw and cannot meet until the final in Baku on May 29. While Chelsea could face Benfica or Eintracht Franfurt in the last four, Arsenal have been lined up to face the winner of the all-Spanish tie between Villarreal and Valencia. But few followers of the club truly believe they will get that far. Twitter user Sir Isaac Cheruiyot wrote: "Dear Europa thanks for the memories, its time to say goodbye." Another fan Jamie added: "Well, it’s been fun but it has to end eventually." Though victory in Europe's second tier club competition provides a route into next season's Champions League, their best chance of securing passage might now be through the Premier League. Arsenal are currently fourth, two points ahead of fifth place Manchester United. Dear Europa thanks for the memories, its time to say good bye. Some supporters are more positive over Arsenal's prospects and feel a meeting with Napoli is a reflection of the strength of the competition. Coach Udofia Ukpong said: "To be champions, you have to beat the best. "We underrated the last knockout stage and almost did not qualify if not for the second leg of real zeal and fight. "Let's play this like its a final and qualify big." We got the hardest side but going forward it will be easy to reach finals... Spanish teams ain’t non to Arsenal!!! Well Final will be the London derby in Baku!!!! Come on lads. Need another massive performance. We can do this. Headline Squad stated: "We got the hardest side but going forward it will be easy to reach finals. "Spanish teams ain’t non to Arsenal!!! "Well Final will be the London derby in Baku!!!!" Issuing a rallying call ahead of the game, Kris said: "Come on lads. Need another massive performance. We can do this."

Blizzards, record lows and wearing more layers than you thought humanly possible driving you crazy? Read some thoughts from these literary masters and remember why you love this season. "Spring, summer, and fall fill us with hope; winter alone reminds us of the human condition." "'Hear! hear!' screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, 'winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it.'" "Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius."

A quintessential large family residence set on an expansive 1800sqm holding backing onto Crown land reserve, which is never to be built on. So your privacy is secured. The open plan kitchen, dining and family room have stunning hardwood timber floors with sliding doors opening onto a large, covered back deck. This is a beautiful extension of the living area linking the family area with the outdoors in the magnificent alfresco entertainment space. Here you can relax and enjoy a family barbecue or just an afternoon drink overlooking the bush setting. Another living space away from the family area provides peace and quiet for parents to retreat to. This lovely newly built home is four bedrooms with the large main master suite opening onto the back covered deck. The area was designed with space and privacy plus an expansive walk-in robe and ensuite. The remaining three spacious bedrooms, each with built in robes, are serviced by the three-way bathroom which is ideal for families. Also featuring light filled interiors, quality finishes, high ceilings, spacious living and dining areas, large butler’s pantry, timber floors, air conditioning and water tanks. There is a large double garage with internal access through the laundry to the house and a large storage/workshop under the house to keep the clutter out of the garage. A truly unique development with the finest attention to detail in all areas of the build and built by a local master craftsman. Ready for you to move in. Inspect now.

To one generation, Ron Howard is an Oscar-winning director; to another, he's Richie Cunningham from the '70s sitcom Happy Days; but for many, he'll always be little Opie from The Andy Griffith Show. With the sad news that Andy passed away this morning, Ron remembers his good friend and mentor, telling ET, "I think he lived a rich, full life with optimism to the very end." "It was Andy's effort and vision, week in and week out, that kept modifying and defining and redefining what Mayberry was and what it was supposed to represent," says Ron about Andy's influence on the beloved Andy Griffith Show, which ran on TV from 1960-1968. Ron credits not only his work ethic to Andy's influence, but also the way he raised his own family. "There wasn't neurosis around the set, there was a kind of respect for the opportunity, a humility in that, and yet a sense of play," says Ron of the example set by the humble star. "He definitely informed my career, and our family wouldn't be what it is today, we wouldn't be who we are without that show, and that show wouldn't have been what it was without Andy."

The Maurice R. Greenberg Chair was established in 1997 by contributions from his friends and colleagues in recognition of his commitment to developing new ideas for U.S. foreign policy and his outstanding leadership of the Council on Foreign Relations. The vice president and director of Studies holds the Maurice R. Greenberg Chair. The director of Studies is the person directly responsible for the substantive content and management of the David Rockefeller Studies Program, CFR’s think tank. Maurice R. Greenberg has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1977 and currently serves as honorary vice chairman. He is chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of C.V. Starr & Co. Inc. Greenberg retired as chairman and CEO of American International Group (AIG) in March 2005. AIG was created by C.V. Starr & Co., Inc., and under Greenberg’s leadership, AIG became the largest insurance and financial services company in the world. He serves on the President’s Council on International Activities of Yale University and is vice chairman of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. He is a past chairman and director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and is active on the boards of many other civic and charitable organizations working in the United States and Asia. In 1990, Greenberg was appointed by Zhu Rongji, then mayor of Shanghai, to be the first chairman of the International Business Leaders’ Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai. In 1994, Greenberg was appointed senior economic advisor to the Beijing municipal government. He was awarded the title Honorary Citizen of Shanghai in 1997. He serves on the advisory board of the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, the International Advisory Council of the China Development Research Foundation, and the China Development Bank. On June 6, 2014, at the seventieth anniversary celebration of D-Day at the Statue of Liberty in New York, Greenberg was awarded the French Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur for his service during World War II. He is also the recipient of the Bronze Star Medal from the United States. Greenberg received his pre-law certificate from the University of Miami and his LLB from New York Law School in 1950 and has been granted honorary degrees from a number of universities.

Ely College students experienced their very own hustings between the three general election candidates for South East Cambridgeshire yesterday afternoon (June 6). Lucy Frazer, Huw Jones and Lucy Nethsingha addressed the secondary students, answered their questions and encouraged them to vote for their respective parties in the college’s mock election. The event, which took place in the college's assembly hall at 12pm, was organised to help combat voter apathy in the young and inspire students to get involved with politics from a younger age. It also mirrored the voting experience as closely as possible, with students voting for their chosen party following the hustings. Each house in the college represented a constituency and students visited different polling booths around the college to place their vote. Lorraine Young, subject leader at Ely College, said: “Once we heard the announcement about the snap general election, we knew we wanted to get our students as involved as possible. "We often hear in the news about the low turnout of young voters and we wanted to try to do something to get our students engaged in politics from a young age. The results of the youngsters' votes will be revealed tomorrow (Thursday June 7).

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that 47 percent of mining employees in Southeast live in Juneau. Only 47 percent of Southeast mining employees live in Southeast as a whole, not just Juneau. The article has been changed to reflect that. In the wake of a prominent British Columbia mine ceasing operations, some in Southeast Alaska have expressed concerns about what it signals for the region’s future. B.C. company Imperial Metals announced earlier this month that the Mount Polley Mine will stop production indefinitely due to declining copper prices. The mine became well known in 2014 after the dam on its tailings pond broke and dumped years of mining waste into nearby Polley Lake and rivers in the watershed. The mine isn’t closing for good, according to the announcement, and that operations will resume “once the economics of mining at Mount Polley improve.” The announcement also stated that the company will continue its economic monitoring and mitigation efforts. Imperial Metals — which also owns the Red Chris and Huckleberry mines and half owns the Ruddock Creek Mine, all in B.C. — has had well publicized financial issues lately, as detailed in a September report from the Empire. Through the end of September 2018, the company reported a net loss of more than $61 million in U.S. currency ($81 million Canadian) during 2018. The company also reported debt of $658.5 million U.S. ($873.8 million Canadian), according to its third-quarter report for 2018. According to a December 2018 report from Reuters, Imperial Metals’ stock has fallen for five consecutive years and the stock was down 63 percent in 2018 alone. The company’s overall financial status has Alaska conservationists and even one of the state’s U.S. senators concerned. Jill Weitz, the director of environmental advocacy group Salmon Beyond Borders, cautioned that outdated B.C. mining regulations could allow for a mining company to declare bankruptcy and walk away without being responsible for cleaning up the mining materials left behind. Imperial Metals’ financial situation could threaten the operations of the Red Chris Mine as well, which sits in the Stikine River’s watershed. The Stikine River supports an average annual run of about 40,000 adult Chinook salmon, according to the Empire’s report in September. U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, has a long history of being vocal on transboundary mining issues. As a former commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources and now a sitting senator, he’s worked for years on trying to find a balance between the economic opportunities mining presents and the environmental challenges mining brings. In a statement to the Empire, Sullivan said the closure of the Mount Polley Mine underscores why the two federal governments must work together. Guy Archibald, the staff scientist for the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (SEACC), said in a recent interview that Imperial Metals’ situation could serve as a cautionary tale for mines everywhere. First of all, he said, it’s extremely difficult for a mine to rebound from a disaster on the scale of the Mount Polley Mine’s dam break, which sent almost 24 million cubic metres of waste into its watershed. The mine did not resume full operations for nearly two years. Secondly, he said, with mines so dependent on factors outside of their control — copper prices, for example — he believes it’s hard to depend on mining for steady economic impact. “I think that shows that not only are metal prices very volatile, and that also means jobs associated with mines are very volatile,” Archibald said. Mike Satre, the manager of government and community relations for the Greens Creek Mine in Juneau, said via email that it’s impossible to compare the Mount Polley Mine’s situation to those in Southeast. He acknowledged that markets can be volatile, but a well run company can survive the low points and continue to adapt. The mining sector is one of a few industries in Southeast that is experiencing economic growth, according to research firm Rain Coast Data. In its annual Southeast by the Numbers report (done for Southeast Conference), Rain Coast Data reported that mining jobs increased by 11 percent in 2017 and the mining sector is expected to continue to see modest growth. Less than half of mining employees in Southeast actually live in Southeast, though, according to Rain Coast Data’s report. Just 47 percent of mine employees are Southeast residents, according to the Alaska Department of Labor (which defines residency as being eligible for a Permanent Fund Dividend). Jan Trigg, public relations and IT manager for Coeur Alaska, explained that many of their departments operate on a two week on/two week off schedule, which sometimes results in people living elsewhere. Trigg said they try to hire local, and that 64 percent of their employees currently live in Alaska. Satre said 65 percent of Greens Creek’s employees live in Alaska.

Microbes that set up home in the gut may have an impact on mental health, according to a major study into wellbeing and the bacteria that live inside us. Researchers in Belgium found that people with depression had consistently low levels of bacteria known as Coprococcus and Dialister whether they took antidepressants or not. If the preliminary finding stands up to further scrutiny, it could pave the way for new treatments for mental health disorders based on probiotics that boost levels of “good” bacteria in the intestines. Jeroen Raes of the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology and the Catholic University of Leuven drew on medical tests and GP records to look for links between depression, quality of life and microbes lurking in the faeces of more than 1,000 people enrolled in the Flemish Gut Flora Project. He found that two kinds of bugs, namely Faecalibacterium and Coprococcus, were both more common in people who claimed to enjoy a high mental quality of life. Meanwhile, those with depression had lower than average levels of Coprococcus and Dialister. The study reported in Nature Microbiology does not prove that gut microbes affect mental health. It is possible that the effect works the other way around, with a person’s mental health having an impact on the bugs that thrive inside them. But in follow-up experiments, Raes and his team found evidence that gut microbes can at least talk to the human nervous system by producing neurotransmitters that are crucial for good mental health. “We studied whether gut bacteria in general would have a means to talk to the nervous system, by analysing their DNA,” he said. “We found that many can produce neurotransmitters or precursors for substances like dopamine and serotonin.” Both dopamine and serotonin have complex roles in the brain and imbalances have long been linked to depression. Microbes that live outside the body, for example those found in soils, are not able to make the same kinds of neurotransmitters, Raes said, perhaps because they did not co-evolve with humans and learned to benefit from tapping into their host’s nervous system. If low levels of the bacteria are to blame for at least some depression, it opens the door to probiotic treatments that boost their populations in the gut. But Raes said the connection has to be proved first. That will involve growing the bugs in the lab to see what substances they make, testing their effects in animals, and treating them with tailored probiotics. Only then could scientists consider human trials. In two separate reports, both published in Nature Biotechnology, scientists in China and a UK-Australian collaboration describe how they sequenced the DNA of more than 100 new species of gut microbes. The work amounts to the most comprehensive list of human gut bacteria to date. The vast catalogue of human gut bugs will help scientists to identify which bacteria are in patients’ bodies and drive research into new treatments for conditions as broad as irritable bowel syndrome, allergies and obesity.

If they meet certain requirements, you may be able to claim parents or parents in laws as dependents. If you do claim your parents as dependents they may have certain TRICARE rights. In order for your parents to be eligible to be your dependents you must be paying more than half of their expenses. However, unlike your children, your parents do not need to live with you for over half the year for you to claim them. They may live in senior citizen’s residences or even in their own home. A few other key notes to consider: your parent must be a U.S. citizen in order for you to claim them, your parents’ gross income also must be less than $4,000 for you to claim them. For more information regarding claiming your parents as dependents visit the IRS website. Your dependent parents are eligible to be seen in Department of Defense (DOD) medical facilities. They are also eligible to have their prescriptions filled at DOD pharmacies. Coast Guard medical facilities do not have the capacity to see dependents. In order to be eligible for this benefit your dependent parents must enroll in TRICARE Plus. TRICARE plus only covers primary care, but allows your dependent parents to access this care with no out-of-pocket costs. If the military treatment facility refers your dependent parent for specialty care you are responsible for the total cost of the care. Enrollment of your dependent parents into the TRICARE Plus program does not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. To ensure that you are in compliance with this requirement, and to enable your dependent parents to access specialty care, visit the Health Insurance Marketplace to enroll them in a plan. You’ll need to enroll your dependent parents in the Defense Eligibility Enrollment System (DEERS) so that they can access TRICARE Plus. Documentation needed to enroll a dependent parent in DEERS includes the member’s birth certificate or spouse’s birth certificate if enrolling a parent-in-law, a copy of the financial dependency determination, and two forms of ID for the new enrollee. Your dependent parents are then eligible for enrollment to TRICARE plus and may also receive a military identification card. For more information about enrolling dependents into DEERS, visit the DEERS website. Enrolling your dependent parents into the TRICARE Plus program allows you to provide convenient primary care for them at DOD treatment facilities. If you or your dependents receive their care at a Military Treatment Facility, you’ll be able to get primary care for your parents at that same location. If you have questions regarding this program you should visit your DOD Military Treatment Facility or call your TRICARE Contractor. As always, for TRICARE questions, please contact the USCG Health Benefits Assistance line at 1-800-9-HBA-HBA or [email protected]. You can also leave us a comment below!

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — For the third straight quarter, Legg Mason Opportunity Trust finished first in The Wall Street Journal’s ranking of diversified U.S.-stock mutual funds with more than $50 million in assets and at least a three-year record. Legg Mason Capital Management's Bill Miller. That’s what seemed to happen with the two best-performing stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index for the first six months of 2013: Best Buy Co. BBY, -1.20% (up 131%) and Netflix Inc. NFLX, -1.58% (with a gain of 128%), both of which Miller and McLemore had added to their portfolio before those stocks began their runs. Gains from these shares and other outperformers left the $1.3 billion Legg Mason fund with a gain of 55.1% for the 12 months through June and a first-half return of 31.6%. The Winners’ Circle contest, based on preliminary numbers from Morningstar Inc., is held quarterly and looks at the 12-month returns of diversified U.S.-stock mutual funds that meet the contest’s asset and age requirements. It excludes index funds, leveraged index funds and inverse leveraged index funds.

Emma C. Curley, 92, of the Passavant Retirement Community, Zelienople, formerly of Kennedy Township, died Thursday, February 21, 2008, in the emergency room of UPMC Passavant Cranberry. Born October 30, 1915, in Menominee, Michigan, a daughter of the late Samuel and Mary Earnhardt Weber, she was a member of the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church of New Brighton. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Richard J. Curley, on October 26, 1976; a daughter, Judy Schmitt, on Sept. 29, 2007, and two brothers, Albert and Robert Weber. Surviving are two daughters and three sons-in-law, Barbara and Pastor Robert Hartman, Patterson Township; Ruth and Paul Kane, Conway, and Raymond Schmitt, Mathias, W.Va.; four grandsons, Paul Kane and Beth Montesano, Patrick and Michelle Kane, R. Richard Schmitt, and Christian Schmitt; two great-grandsons, Austin and Mason Kane; three brothers and their spouses, William and Florence Weber, Samuel and Delores Weber, and John and June Weber, and a sister, Ruth Porter. Friends will be received Sunday from noon to 3 and 6 to 8 p.m. in the CAMPBELL'S NEW BRIGHTON FUNERAL HOME, 1133 Penn Ave., www.campbellfuneralhomes.com. Funeral services will be conducted Monday at 11 a.m. in the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1001 Tenth Ave., New Brighton, with Pastor William B. Henry Jr. and Pastor Wilfred K. Goetze co-officiating. Memorial contributions may be made to the Trinity Lutheran Church, 1001 Tenth Ave., P.O. Box 232, New Brighton, Pa. 15066, or Crossing Creeks Inc., P.O. Box 301, Harrisonburg, Va. 22803, or a charity of the donor's choice.

Okay, some ramping up of the villainy this week. Excellent: I like to see stakes get raised. There was too much treading water last season — now we’re just getting thrown out to sea. Perfect. So, Mr. Petrelli. Funny how this show keeps doing things that seem inevitable in retrospect, but that we never see coming beforehand (like Adam showing up again, too). And of course it had to be Matt’s dad making visions of Linderman dance in everyone’s heads — what else could it have been? Poor Claire: she’s kind of dim, isn’t she, thinking she can take on whomever she wants, thinking she knows who’s evil and who’s good… and then getting slapped in the face — again — by HRG’s badness. Sheesh: even Hitler was a dad, Claire. Well, no, he wasn’t, but I think Claire might see my point. New Heroes? A guy who creates vortexes? Neat. And then he vortexes himself. I did see that coming, cuz that’s what I, as a writer, would have done. It’s too perfect, too poetically just. Assuming he actually was a villain who killed a neighbor over a lawnmower. • why do I keep expecting Sylar to say, “No, Peter, I am your brother”?

Texas and Georgia struggled the most with glitchy electronic voting machines on Election Day, according to an analysis by watchdog Verified Voting. Some machines simply wouldn’t boot up, and others unexpectedly shut down. Faulty touch screens were another issue — some registered a vote for the wrong candidate, while others just went blank. Pamela Smith, the group's president, said poor machine management and outdated equipment is likely responsible for the malfunctions, which were seen nationwide. U.S. electronic voting machines are rapidly aging. Just over a decade ago, an influx of federal funds allowed many states to buy up electronic voting machines. Since then, budgets have dried up and more than half of those states have taken steps back toward paper ballots as electronic fallibilities increase. Given those trends, glitches are expected, Smith said. Verified Voting helps run call centers around the country on Election Day, fielding reports of voting difficulties. The highest percentage of complaints came from precincts that have eschewed even paper-backed electronic voting — like all of Georgia and some districts in Texas, Smith said. Georgia uses electronic voting machines statewide with no paper trail. Verified Voting received reports of machines taking hours to boot up in the morning, and “in one case the voter attempted to use the machine but her voter card was ejected immediately and the screen said ‘invalid,’” Smith said. Poll workers initially turned the voter away, assuming she had already voted. Later, the voter was allowed to return and cast a provisional paper ballot. The group was told about similar issues in districts across Texas. Across Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina, the election watchdog group also heard about instances of “vote-flipping,” where the touchscreen buttons or physical push-buttons record a vote for an unintended candidate. Nothing the group hasn’t seen before, Smith said. The machines in the Carolinas are roughly a decade old. Earlier this year, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration sounded the alarm on deteriorating electronic voting machines, calling it an “impending crisis.” But House Republicans insist the issue is one for the states. With no additional federal funds likely, voting researchers and computer scientists have encouraged states to require a paper trail for all electronic machines. On Election Day, nearly 70 percent of people cast their ballot by hand. In some precincts, voters are even asking for it. In St. Louis, “they said more people asked for paper ballots at the polling place than ever in the past,” Smith said.

Such a prediction begs a question: Does that mean 250 million people will be Web surfing by the millennium, or 125 million? Kim Polese, founder and chief executive of Marimba Inc., is one of the most influential people in the country, according to Time magazine's 1997 list of the 25 most influential Americans. As one of the developers of the Java programming language and one of the few women CEOs in information technology, she is the only high-tech entrepreneur on the list. Polese shares the honor with golf star Tiger Woods, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Scott Adams' cartoon character Dilbert. Polese's company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., pioneered the delivery of computer applications over the Internet or intranets known as push technology or multicasting. It has helped guide tanks in the desert and find sailors lost at sea. And now a global positioning system has aided in tracking runners in the Boston Marathon. Worldwide Notification Systems, Atlanta, installed tracking technology in chase vehicles that followed the lead male and female runners in the 101st Boston Marathon on April 21. Coaches, runners and spectators, plus viewers of cable sports channel ESPN, could watch real-time speeds and locations of front-runners during the race.

NASHVILLE – Although opposition to Common State Standards continues in Tennessee, focus is shifting to a review of standards in place that Gov. Bill Haslam initiated prior to the legislative session. Some opponents of Common Core recently announced that they would seek a review of more subjects rather a complete abandonment of the Common Core standards. The timing of Haslam's review, however, pushes release of the results to the end of this year, which would be after the current legislative session ends. Haslam in October launched a state-operated website to allow the public to review each of the state's Common Core standards and say what they like and don't like. The Southern Regional Education Board, acting as a third party, is to collect data in the spring and have the program reviewed by Tennessee educators. Haslam also announces plans to ask the Tennessee State Board of Education to appoint two eight-member committees of educators and representatives of higher education institutions to review Common Core math and reading standards, which have been phased into Tennessee classrooms since 2010. The state board has already selected members for both of those committees as well as three advisory teams that will work under them. Under the arrangement, the two panels are to propose changes to the state board of education by the end of next year. Typically, standards in Tennessee are reviewed every six years. Common Core is now getting re-examined after four years. "One thing we've all agreed on is the importance of high standards in Tennessee," Haslam said in the statement. "This discussion is about making sure we have the best possible standards as we continue to push ahead on the historic progress we're making in academic achievement." Committee members include principals, instructional coaches, teachers and others from traditional and charter schools as well as college leaders. Among them is Candice McQueen, dean of education at Lipscomb University and an outspoken supporter of Common Core. Common Core has an issue of contention between the governor and conservative legislators who oppose it. Critics contended that in last year's elections, Haslam worked to fund opponents of those conservative opponents. State Rep. Rick Womick, a Common Core critic who represents a Rutherford County district, criticized Haslam for efforts to defeat Common Core opponents.. Womick is sponsoring a bill to repeal Common Core, but that bill remains in committee. Current review of standards include mathematics and English language arts, the subject areas of Common Core, but critics say they now want to expand the review to include science and social studies. Gannett Tennessee contributed to this article.

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The Church of Scientology today is run by a high-school dropout who grew up at the knee of the late L. Ron Hubbard and wields power with the iron-fisted approach of his mentor. At 30, David Miscavige is chairman of the board of an organization that sits atop the bureaucratic labyrinth known as the Church of Scientology. This organization, the Religious Technology Center, owns the trademarks that Scientology churches need to operate, including the words Scientology and Dianetics. The Times today begins a six-part series on the Church of Scientology, the controversial religion founded by the late author L. Ron Hubbard. Since its creation nearly four decades ago, Scientology has grown into a worldwide movement that, in recent months, has spent millions of dollars promoting its founder and his self-help book, "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health." The Mind Behind the Religion : Chapter Two : Creating the Mystique : Hubbard's image was crafted of truth, distorted by myth. To his followers, L. Ron Hubbard was bigger than life. But it was an image largely of his own making. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge put it bluntly while presiding over a Church of Scientology lawsuit in 1984. Scientology's founder, he said, was "virtually a pathological liar" about his past. Hubbard was an intelligent and well-read man, with diverse interests, experience and expertise. But that apparently was not enough to satisfy him. The Mind Behind the Religion : Chapter Four : The Final Days : Deep in hiding, Hubbard kept tight grip on the church. Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard often said that man's most basic drive is that of survival. And when it came to his own, he used whatever was necessary -- false identities, cover stories, deception. There is no better illustration of this than the way he secretly controlled the Church of Scientology while hiding from a world he viewed as increasingly hostile. L. Ron Hubbard enjoyed being pampered. He surrounded himself with teen-age followers, whom he indoctrinated, treated like servants and cherished as though they were his own children. He called them the "Commodore's messengers." " 'Messenger!' " he would boom in the morning. "And we'd pull him out of bed," one recalled. The youngsters, whose parents belonged to Hubbard's Church of Scientology, would lay out his clothes, run his shower and help him dress. As L. Ron Hubbard told it, he was 4 years old when a medicine man named "Old Tom" made him a "blood brother" of the Blackfeet Indians of Montana, providing the inspiration for the Scientology founder's first novel, "Buckskin Brigades." But one expert on the tribe doesn't buy Hubbard's account. Historian Hugh Dempsey is associate director of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Canada. He has extensively researched the tribe, of which his wife is a member. What is Scientology? Not even the vast majority of Scientologists can fully answer the question. In the Church of Scientology, there is no one book that comprehensively sets forth the religion's beliefs in the fashion of, say, the Bible or the Koran. Rather, Scientology's theology is scattered among the voluminous writings and tape-recorded discourses of the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, who founded the religion in the early 1950s. Column One : The Mind Behind the Religon : From a life haunted by emotional and financial troubles, L. Ron Hubbard brought forth Scientology. He achieved godlike status among his followers, and his death has not deterred the church's efforts to reach deeper into society. It was a triumph of galactic proportions: Science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard had discarded the body that bound him to the physical universe and was off to the next phase of his spiritual exploration -- "on a planet a galaxy away." "Hip, hip, hurray!" thousands of Scientologists thundered inside the Hollywood Palladium, where they had just been told of this remarkable feat. "Hip, hip, hurray! Hip, hip, hurray!" they continued to chant, gazing at a large photograph of Hubbard, creator of their religion and author of the best-selling "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health." Who Is the Owner of the Written Word? : Publishing: Recent court rulings make it harder for biographers to quote from a subject's writings. The problem: copyright infringement. Imagine that a biographer is rummaging through an old trunk. He discovers a previously unseen letter from George Washington to Martha. He unfolds the brittle pages. "Martha, I must tell you, I was fibbing when I said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' " When that hypothetical biography is published, will you, the book buyer, get to read the Founding Father's confession? Hard to say. The Supreme Court let stand Tuesday a controversial ruling that biographers and historians may not use unpublished letters, manuscripts, diaries and other works without the permission of the writers or their heirs. Without comment, the high court dismissed an appeal by a company that had published "Bare-Faced Messiah" by Russell Miller, a biography critical of the late L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the church of Scientology (Holt vs. New Era Publications, 89-869).