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I'm so sorry for what happened to you. I am sending you love. What happened to you has been a wake up call about the traumas of being multiply marginalized in this world. I hope you get exactly what you need.
So much love,
Dear Sharmeka,
Hey sis. I just wanted to reach out and let you know that I am thinking about you and sending you love and best wishes for a speedy recovery. What's been going on with you, girl? Maybe you felt invisible, maybe you felt like you deserved this particular type of pain? I just don't know. I do know that you are probably on the receiving end of a lot of anger and frustration, some of which has to do with your situation and some of which is connected to you simply because you've become a symbol of our decidedly not post-racial society. I hope you can find support, healing, and empathy as you move forward. And I hope that the rest of us can see your story as an opportunity to move forward in the world with a spirit of support, healing, and empathy.
Yours truly,
I feel like I know you. You represent any number of blackgirls I see every day carrying pain that the world can't see. I wish the hopelessness you felt in a moment of self-demise could be retracted…that I could help heal what was broken…that you could see in yourself the beauty and majesty that was there all along.
Blackgirl to Blackgirl, I wish that self-hate crimes didn't exist, that blackgirls didn't feel the need to be so strong, and that the raced histories and legacies that frame the scenario you initially told were not so prevalent. Truth is, I feel speechless around how to approach my disappointment and confusion in the staging of the incident. Racial politics are complicated and our public dialogue needs to be shrouded in honesty. The untruth you told jeopardizes the credibility of other blackgirls' stories, myself included. I'm struggling with knowing how to hold you accountable and hold you UP at the same time. But one thing I feel full voiced about is my unwavering support of YOUR WELL BEING. I know how it feels to be overwhelmed with hopelessness and pain. I know how it feels to be pushed in on all sides (multiple discriminations happening at once). I know how it feels to hurt so bad that you want to hurt yourself.
My hope for you, moving forward, is that you get the support and help you need to be hopeful, whole, and at peace.
In solidarity & love,
Dear Sharmeka,
I wish everything about this story wasn't true. I wish you were not lying in a hospital bed with scars that you will have to live with for your entire life. I wish we didn't live in a world that makes Black girls feel invisible. I wish the terror you felt on the inside didn't feel like the terror of being ambushed while you walked in a park alone, a terror that so many Black women have felt and do feel everyday. I wish we could tell the truth about racism, so that we would be clear that your singular lie against the KKK in no way equates to the systematic reign of terror that they have perpetrated on Black women. I wish that broken and bruised black bodies weren't the only credible forms of evidence in our fight against racism, since even the broken bodies frequently aren't believed. I wish that sexism did not create a world in which Black girls' bodies are collateral damage in the war on racism. I wish we knew better how to stay well in a world hell-bent on making us unwell. I wish I could say that I didn't feel anger and embarrassment when I found out that some parts of your story are apparently untrue. But then I wish we lived in a world where you could have told us your truths, your pain, and your struggle, and been believed.
I hope you are surrounded in love and support. I hope that healing is forthcoming. I hope you see someday the outpouring of care you received from all races of people. I hope that care is not so swiftly retracted. And I hope that anybody who would wish you harm, any opportunist who would equate your misguided act with a reverse ism of any sort, would think again and then take a seat.
You are not heavy. You are our sister. And we have your back.
Much love,
My Sister Sharmeka,
I have spoken your name with my students at Spelman and in private send you love and affirmations. We recognized that your body was experiencing pain but now it seems there was much more pain than we could have recognized. I will continue to speak your name in love and to encourage others to try to understand and listen in hopes that no other black girl feels so silenced and invisible and alone that she experiences such pains. I wish you peace and recovery but mostly I want you to be surrounded by many experiences of black girl love that crowd out the noise of black girl hate. You have sisters and brothers who are sending you fierce love but wanting you to know that you must be accountable for your choices. In these difficult times please remember to ask for what you need.
With so much love,
Dear Sharmeka,
What can I say but I am sorry. I am sorry that you, your life and your story are being reduced to catchy headlines and two minute news clips. I am sorry that, for many, you will become a symbol and cease to be a real person with needs and concerns. Most of all, I am sorry that you are in pain, in any and every sense. I am sending you love, healing energy and recognition.
With Love,
Wellness is my wish for you: healing for the wounds that festered before the fire and the ones opened by the flame.
- Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker
- The Color Purple (Book) by Alice Walker
- Bailey's Cafe by Gloria Naylor
- Sunset, Break You Down & Run Away by Georgia Anne Muldrow
- Black Girl Pain by Talib Kweli ft. Jean Grae
- Online Counseling College – Self harm
- 30 Day Self Harm Challenge Questions
- Black Women and Self HarmNAMI African American Resources
- The Impact of Racial Trauma on African Americans
- Responding to Traumatic Stress in Communities of Color


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VHB tapes are incredibly strong tapes used to replace rivets, spot welds and other permanent fasteners. They are double-sided, pressure-sensitive tapes that resist moisture, solvents and plasticizers. VHB tapes are made from acrylic foam, which absorbs energy and evenly distributes stress across the tape. This allows for long-term holding and strong bonding to high- and medium/low-energy surfaces. VHB tapes are even stronger below 50 degrees Fahrenheit; however, the tape must be applied to clean, dry surfaces at a temperature between 70 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit.


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First, I would like to thank all who have left me notes of congratulations here on my blog, Facebook, Twitter, and by email. Achieving the Certified Genealogist(sm) status has been a long process for me, involving a lot of work and continued education.
Many would be surprised to learn that I applied for certification once before, and failed, back in 2007. At that time, though I had years of experience researching my own family, I had only been conducting client work for about a year. For several reasons, I did not succeed. After receiving the notice of the disapproval of my portfolio, it took about two years before I could look back on that first application and understand what it had been missing. I would like to share these lessons with you.
1. I had no support structure behind the initial submission. As I stated above, in 2007, when I originally applied, I had only been conducting client research for a little over a year. I was unaware of the APG mailing list, and, though I was a member of several societies as well as the Association of Professional Genealogists, I had never attended a meeting. I had never attended even a local conference. At that point, I was completely self-educated and had relatively little professional experience (even though I had researched my own family for many years).
2. I did not understand the instructions for the kinship determination project (KDP). I had no clear definition of a "compiled, narrative" genealogy in my mind. What I submitted fell far short of what was expected because of this problem. The discussion of sources and evidence was done entirely in the footnotes, rather than in the text body, and much of the KDP included only sparse vital information on each individual. The research clearly did not meet what I now understand of the Genealogical Proof Standard.
3. I rushed through the final processes involved with the submission, because I did not want to file for an extension. As it was, I mailed the portfolio Priority Mail from a Washington, D. C., post office to the BCG's Washington, D. C. post office box address, on the day prior to the due date. Had I simply paid the $50 (at the time) for the extension, I could have done a better job of editing, and could have included much more information in the body of the KDP, to better fit my own vision of what was expected.
4. I did not clearly separate and define the sections, leading at least one of the judges to mistake my case study as the client report.
5. My client report itself was poorly selected. I selected a project that I was personally proud of, as it involved the identification of the next of kin of a Korean War POW for the purposes of DNA testing of the newly-located remains. However, I failed to realize that this report was not much better than a document retrieval. While it did not receive too much negative criticism from any of the judges (other than the notice that it was ultimately a document retrieval), neither did it represent the best of the work that I was doing at the time.
These are not the judge's actual comments and criticisms, of course. These are only my own reflections on why I failed. My continued education and experience, as well as discussions with other CGs has led me to these understandings. I will actually share some of the judge's comments in a future post. This first application, however, was judged under a now-outdated evaluation form, prior to the creation and adoption of the current judging rubrics. The judge's comments, however, will still prove valuable to those seeking certification.
Stay tuned for more…
If you would like to cite this post: Michael Hait, "How Not to Become Certified, part one," Planting the Seeds: Genealogy as a Profession blog, posted 15 Jul 2011 (https://michaelhait.wordpress.com : accessed [access date]).


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Chris Raschka brings the spirit of modern art to to American picture books, but is that good?
A Ball for Daisy. By Chris Raschka. Schwartz & Wade/Random House, 32 pp., $16.99, Ages 2–4.
By Janice Harayda
A vacancy has existed at the summit of American picture book illustration since the death of Maurice Sendak, who shared that spot with Chris Van Allsburg and Nancy Ekholm Burkert. Some critics might usher in Chris Raschka, who won his first Caldecott Medal for The Hello, Goodbye Window and his second for A Ball for Daisy. And it's easy to see why reviewers like the more than 40 books for children that he has produced alone or with authors such as Norman Juster and Jack Prelutsky.
More aggressively than any recent illustrator, Raschka has brought to American picture books the spirit and techniques of modern art: Fauvism's symbolic use of color, Cubism's fragmented geometric forms, Expressionism's bold lines and emotional drama. That pattern holds in A Ball for Daisy, a wordless tale of a shaggy dog who suffers acute but fleeting heartbreak when a poodle punctures her adored red ball during a romp in the park. Raschka works with familiar materials – ink, watercolor and gouache – but uses them inventively enough to refresh an ageless theme: A new love eases the pain of losing an old one. His debt to the modernists shows up clearly in the destroyed ball, which in its shape and intensity of color resembles one of Matisse's six-bladed leaf cutouts.
Raschka certainly deserves credit for originality in the conservative field of picture books – a realm that, as Sendak said, "is becoming a creatively exhausted genre." But whether he should have won the latest Caldecott Medal is debatable. Novelty isn't the same as greatness. And all the modernist influences on display in his book don't lift it above some of the animal tales that the 2012 Caldecott judges rejected, including Ekholm Burkert's Mouse & Lion. Like the 2011 winner, A Sick Day for Amos McGee, A Ball for Daisy is a sweet book unlikely to offend anyone.
Then there is the issue of the wordlessness of the story. The presence or absence of a written text is neutral in picture books, which can work with or without one. But words can add layers of meaning to a story. When they don't exist, those layers must come from the art in order for a picture book to stand up to multiple rereadings. And A Ball for Daisy doesn't really have them. What you see is what you get.
Three of the past six Caldecott winners have had no words, and that fact has led to speculation and some anger online. Have the judges bypassed worthy books because of fonts or stories when the medal is an award for illustration? Are they dumbing down America's most prestigious picture book prize? The deliberations of the Caldecott judges are confidential, so it's unclear why wordless books are winning a disproportionate number of medals. Whatever the reason, for the second year in a row they have played it safe. Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are still inspires spirited arguments more than a half-century after it won the 1964 Caldecott Medal. Gift-shoppers may see it as a strength — while others can only see it as a weakness — that A Ball for Daisy gives you so little to debate.
Best line/picture: A wordless spread in that has eight roughly square pictures showing Daisy's stages of grief for her destroyed ball, which include confusion, sorrow, anger, and finally a pained resignation. The spread makes the most sense when "read" horizontally across the two pages, which gives you a background that darkens with each image to show the dog's growing despair. But it also works if you read the images on the left-hand page first (as some children will do) in an up-and-down, clockwise, or counterclockwise direction.
Worst line/picture: The young girl who owns Daisy remains headless until she and her beloved pet return home, more than halfway through the book, after the ball deflates. Raschka clearly did this to keep the focus on the dog's emotions. But it distracts you from the story by adding a subplot: Who is Daisy's owner?
Furthermore: A Ball for Daisy won the 2012 Caldecott Medal from the American Library Association, which also honored him for The Hello, Goodbye Window. Meghan Cox Gurdon reviewed A Ball for Daisy for the Wall Street Journal. One-Minute Book Reviews reviewed Jack Prelutsky's Good Sports, which Raschka illustrated.
Janice Harayda is an award-winning journalist who has been the book editor of the Plain Dealer in Cleveland and a vice-president for awards of the National Book Critics Circle. You can follow can follow Jan on Twitter by clicking on the "Follow" button in the right sidebar.
© 2012 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.


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'Special' Citizenship Path Creates Knot On Immigration Bill
WASHINGTON — As Congress wrestles with immigration legislation, a central question is whether the 11 million immigrants already in the United States illegally should get a path to citizenship.
The answer from a small but growing number of House Republicans is "yes," just as long as it's not the "special" path advocated by Democrats and passed by the Senate.
"There should be a pathway to citizenship — not a special pathway and not no pathway," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told ABC 4 Utah after speaking at a recent town hall meeting in his district. "But there has to be a legal, lawful way to go through this process that works, and right now it doesn't."
Many House Republicans say people who illegally crossed the border or overstayed their visas should not be rewarded with a special, tailor-made solution that awards them a prize of American citizenship, especially when millions are waiting in line to attempt the process through current legal channels.
It's far from clear, however, what a path to citizenship that's not a special path to citizenship might look like, or how many people it might help.
The phrase means different things to different people, and a large number of House Republicans oppose any approach that results in citizenship for people now are in the country illegally. Some lawmakers say such immigrants should be permitted to attain legal worker status, but stop there and never progress to citizenship. That's a solution Democrats reject.
Nonetheless, advocates searching for a way ahead on one of President Barack Obama's second-term priorities see in the "no special path to citizenship" formulation the potential for compromise.
"I think there's a lot of space there," said Clarissa Martinez, director of civic engagement and immigration at the National Council of La Raza. "And that's why I'm optimistic that once they start grappling more with details, that's when things start getting more real."
Once Congress returns from its summer break the week of Sept. 9, the focus will be on the GOP-led House. The Democratic-controlled Senate in June passed a far-reaching bill that includes a big, new investment in border security and remakes the system for legal immigration system, in addition to creating a 13-year path to citizenship for those already here illegally.
House Republicans have rejected the Senate approach, promising to proceed instead with narrowly focused bills, starting with border security. No action is expected on the House floor until late fall, at earliest, because of pressing fiscal deadlines that must be dealt with first.
The timing crunch, along with the significant policy and process disagreements, has left some supporters pessimistic about the future of immigration legislation. They find hope, however, in some recent comments from House Republicans around the country suggesting they could support a solution that ends in citizenship at least for some who now lack legal status.
Democrats, some Republicans and most outside immigration advocates are pushing for a relatively straightforward path to citizenship like the one in the Senate.
It imposes certain restrictions, seeks payment of fees, fines and taxes, and requires that prospective immigrants attempting the process legally are dealt with first. Once those criteria are met, most people here illegally could get permanent resident green cards in 10 years, and citizenship in three more. Agriculture workers and immigrants brought to this country as children would have a quicker path.
That approach is rejected by most House Republicans as a "special" path to citizenship.
"It's not a bill I can support," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said at a Verona, Va., town hall meeting recently. "We think a legal status in the United States, but not a special pathway to citizenship, might be appropriate."
Goodlatte has said that after attaining legal status, immigrants could potentially use the existing avenues toward naturalization, such as family or employment ties.
He and others also argue that many immigrants would be satisfied with legalization alone, without getting citizenship. That's something many advocates dispute, though studies show that a significant number of immigrants who are eligible for citizenship haven't taken that step — about 40 percent in a Pew Hispanic Center study in February.
Goodlatte has not provided much detail on how he foresees immigrants moving through existing channels from legalization to citizenship. Depending on its design, such an approach could touch anywhere from hundreds of thousands to many millions of the 11 million people here illegally. So if House Republicans end up taking that approach, how they craft it would help determine whether Democrats and the advocacy groups could go along.
For now, advocates say that making immigrants here illegally go through the existing system would help relatively few of them.
Current law says that if you've been in the country illegally for more than a year, you have to return to your home country for 10 years before you can re-enter legally, which would likely dissuade many people.
Moreover, existing family sponsorship channels are badly backlogged, and many are capped. People applying for citizenship through their siblings face waits of more than 20 years in some cases, for example. On the employment side, existing visa programs are difficult to use and inadequate to meet demand, and also face long backlogs.
Waiving the requirement for people to exit the country and adding visas to reduce backlogs could take in a substantial number of the 11 million here illegally, arguably without being a "special" pathway, advocates say.
It's a long shot, but the result could be an immigration deal between the House and the Senate, and a bill for Obama to sign.
"If the House wants to dis the Senate bill and come up with their own approach to the 11 million that has no special pathway to citizenship, we would be happy to work with them on a way that would meet with our bottom line, which is an inclusive, immediate path to legal status for the 11 million, and an achievable and clear path to eventual citizenship," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a pro-immigrant group. "They can preserve the sound bite and we can have the policies that we want."


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Smash 2.0's 10 Big Changes: Upgrade or Downgrade?
A new showrunner! New cast members! No more Ellis! There has been hoopla surrounding the many changes made to Smashfor months and on Tuesday, the lovers, and hate-watchers, finally got a peek behind the curtain at just what Smash 2.0 really is. So is it really a better show? Or is this tune still slightly off key? We weigh in on the musical drama's 10 biggest changes (so far):
1. New musicals: While we absolutely love "Let Me Be Your Star," the idea of listening to it - or any of Bombshell's songs -- for another 13 episodes makes our heads hurt. Thankfully, Smash has a new musical that is way more iPod-worthy, Jimmy (Jeremy Jordan) and Kyle's musical-in-the-making Hit List. And there are not enough adjectives in the world for us to properly praise Broadway's leading lady Ronnie Moore. Any excuse for Jennifer Hudson to caress our eardrums with her velvet pipes is fine by us!
Verdict: Upgrade
Smash'snew boss tries to turn hate-watchers into hope-watchers
2. Eileen straightens out: Now that she's facing serious legal issues because of the money she borrowed from Mr. Hunky Bartender Whose Name We Can't Remember, Bombshell's feisty producer (Anjelica Huston) is playing nice... for now. Since partnering up with her ex-husband, she has thus far resisted the urge to throw a drink in his face. We're kind of on board with her working with the enemy, as long as it doesn't lead to any funny business.
Verdict: Too early to call
3. The new Ivy: Karen (Katharine McPhee) didn't wait long before using her newfound power to oust Ivy (Megan Hilty) from Bombshell. But instead of fighting it like the peroxided puma we once knew, Ivy gracefully bowed out, Heck, she even said she agreed! Is this really the same woman who was so cold and calculating last season that it made us hot under the collar? We love that without Bombshell, Ivy's now free to pursue other leading lady roles (in Jimmy's musical, perhaps?), but we wish our bad girl still had some edge. With squeaky-clean Karen getting so much attention, we need someone to provide our weekly dose of bitchery.
Verdict: Too early to call
4. Drug free is the way to be... or is it? After nearly downing a handful of pills in the season finale, it was revealed that Ivy resisted the urge and kicked her pill-popping for good. Although it feels a bit abrupt - how do we explain Charlie Sheen if it's this easy to quit? - it's nice to know that our girl won't be running around Times Square with angel wings anytime soon. But don't kiss those crazy hallucination-driven musical sequences goodbye just yet, thanks to an increasingly alcohol-dependent Derek. Sure, the Robert Palmer number was a bit laughable, but at least this time Smash seemed to be in on the joke.
Verdict: Upgrade
TV musicals: The highs and lows
5. Karen's got a new roomie: And she's the worst. Well, maybe not the worst. This is Smash, after all, the show that taught us it's OK to hate a child (Peace out, Leo! You won't be missed). But Karen's generically not-generic roommate just rubs us the wrong way. From her "edgy" haircut to her "free-spirit" pushiness, everything about Ana begs you to call her things like "spunky" and "hip," but instead has us doing a classic Smash-induced eyeroll.
Verdict: Downgrade
6. Sayonara, Dev: Karen moves in with her new roommate, Ana (Krysta Rodriguez), after she gives her longtime boyfriend the heave-ho and it couldn't happen soon enough. Fans will no longer have to suffer through their chemistry-free love scenes or the incredibly dull goings-on at Dev's workplace. This is a musical show - who cares about the mayor's office? Now if only someone could send Nashville that memo.
Verdict: Upgrade
7. RIP, scarves: Last season, the only thing more hated than Ellis was Julia's (Debra Messing) affront to accessorizing. The self-proclaimed scarf aficionada (at least according to a parody Twitter account) was so often engulfed in patterned shawls that they became nearly as famous as the actress wearing them. But now, thanks to a helpful suggestion by Tom (not to mention becoming the target of much Internet fodder), Julia's shutting down her scarf addiction.
Verdict: Upgrade
8. Julia is a single lady: Julia's wardrobe isn't the only notable difference between Seasons 1 and 2. After fans had to suffer through Julia's failed adoption, her affair with Michael Swift, the revealing of her affair to her husband and her clingy son's newfound teenage delinquency, all three of her leading men are now out of the picture. Now there's plenty of time to focus on, you know, the show. And Julia gets to live with the much wiser Tom, who will hopefully steer her in the right direction. Plus: Bonus points to the writers for getting the Will & Grace reference out of the way in the first episode.
Verdict: Upgrade
9. Karilyn Monroe: Who will be Marilyn? That was the question that dominated most of Smash's first season. Now that drama is dunzo and to be honest, we're a little disappointed. We knew they couldn't keep the back-and-forth going much longer, but now that Karen's been crowned, we're finding ourselves hoping for another shake-up. Not only did Ivy make a perfect Marilyn, but we can't stand all the attention Leading Lady Karen is getting from everyone, especially Derek (Jack Davenport). She's already too big for her britches. Shut it down!
Verdict: Downgrade
10. No more Ellis: Anyone who thinks that this isn't the best Season 2 change, we would like to offer you a delicious kale smoothie.
Verdict: Upgrade
Final Call for Smash Season 2: Upgrade
What did you think about Smash's season premiere? Did you like the changes? Weigh in below!
View original Smash 2.0's 10 Big Changes: Upgrade or Downgrade? at TVGuide.com
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text: Remind Me Add to My Calendar Print Share Add This Event To Calendar Don't forget about this event. Add it to your calendar. Add to Google Calendar Add to iCal Share This Event Let your friends know about this event! Share it on social media. facebook twitter email Setup Reminder Want to be reminded about this event? Complete the form below to have an email notification sent to you 24 hours prior to the event. Email * Program Type: Arts & Crafts Age: Teen, Adult Attention crafty teens and adults! Pick up a Craft Takeout kit and then join us in the Myrtlewood Room from 11:00am - 12:00pm for some crafting company or hands-on help with your kit.


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Housestaff List
The Residency Supervision Area is designed to assist hospitals and clinics with the protocols outlined for specific duties residents and fellows can perform. These guidelines are determined by the faculty of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Any questions about certain procedures not listed should be addressed to the faculty and not decided by the resident or fellow.


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Charles Poland died protecting students from a gunman who boarded his Alabama school bus. His son Aaron Poland talks for the first time exclusively to AC360°.
Aaron says his dad was proud of the students on his bus. He often told stories about them at home and encouraged the kids as if they were his own.
Poland reacts to the news of the 5-year-old's rescue. He tells Anderson "The thing that got me the most was knowing that my dad's last thought was final because Ethan was home with his mom so he was safe...My dad's key job was to make sure every child was delivered safely to their parents"
Aaron tells Anderson a story about when his father helped feed a man begging for food on the side of the road, "He would rather make sure somebody else was taken care of do without to make sure somebody else was taken care of." He says Charles "didn't have a selfish bone in his body."
Post by: Anderson Cooper
Filed under: Crime
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


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Texas prepares to execute 500th inmate
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Jim Willett remembers the night of Dec. 6, 1982, when he was assigned to guard a mortuary van that had arrived at the death house at the Huntsville prison.
"I remember thinking: We're really going to do this. This is really going to happen," says Willett, who was a captain for the Texas Department of Corrections.
When the van pulled away early the next morning, it carried to a nearby funeral home the body of convicted killer Charlie Brooks, who had just become the first Texas prisoner executed since a Supreme Court ruling six years earlier allowed the death penalty to resume in the United States.
What was unusual then has become rote. On Wednesday, barring a reprieve, Kimberly McCarthy will become the 500th convicted killer in Texas to receive a lethal injection.
The number far outpaces the execution total in any other state. It also reflects the reality of capital punishment in the United States today: While some states have halted the practice in recent years because of concern about wrongful convictions, executions continue at a steady pace in many others.
The death penalty is on the books in 32 states. On average, Texas executes an inmate about every three weeks.
Still, even as McCarthy prepares to die at the Huntsville Unit, it's clear that Texas, too, has been affected by the debate over capital punishment. In recent years, state lawmakers have provided more sentencing options for juries and courts have narrowed the cases in which the death penalty can be applied. In guaranteeing DNA testing for inmates and providing for sentences of life without parole, Texas could well be on a slower track to execute its next 500 inmates.
"It's a very fragile system" as attitudes change, said Mark White, who was Texas attorney general when Brooks was executed and then presided over 19 executions as governor from 1983 to 1987.
"There's a big difference between fair and harsh. ... I think you have (Texas) getting a reputation for being bloodthirsty, and that's not good."
Texas has accounted for nearly 40 percent of the more than 1,300 executions carried out since murderer Gary Gilmore went before a Utah firing squad in 1977 and became the first U.S. inmate executed following the Supreme Court's clarification of death penalty laws. (Texas had more than 300 executions before the pause.) Virginia is a distant second, nearly 400 executions behind. Texas' standing stems both from its size, with the nation's second-largest population, and its tradition of tough justice for killers.
Still awaiting punishment in Texas are 282 convicted murderers.
Some may be spared. Supreme Court rulings have now excluded mentally impaired people or those who were under 18 at the time of their crime. Legal battles continue over the lethal drugs used in the process, mental competence of inmates, professional competence of defense lawyers and sufficiency of evidence in light of DNA forensics technology.
Gov. Rick Perry, who has presided over more than half of Texas' executions, said the recent changes have helped make the state's system fairer. In addition to the new sentencing options, he signed bills to allow post-conviction DNA testing for inmates and establish minimum qualifications for court-appointed defense attorneys.
"I think our process works just fine," Perry said last year during his unsuccessful presidential campaign. "You may not agree with them, but we believe in our form of justice. ... We think it is clearly appropriate."
So do most Texans.
A 2012 poll from the Texas Tribune and the University of Texas showed only 21 percent opposed capital punishment.
Still, re-examinations of convictions have raised questions about whether some of those executed may have been innocent. The suspect cases included the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the arson deaths of his three young children. Arson experts consulted by a state panel determined evidence used to gain the conviction did not meet scientific standards. But Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott later barred the panel from further review of the trial evidence.
Over the years, the Texas execution list has provided a portrait of violent crime in a state where many people are armed, both good and bad, and juries have little tolerance for murderers.
Those executed have ranged from relatively common cases - robbers who killed store clerks, drug users who killed other drug users, spouses killing each other - to the bizarre and sensational. Ronald Clark O'Bryan, nicknamed the "Candy Man," poisoned his son's Halloween candy to collect on an insurance policy. Angel Resendez, a serial killer, rode the rails, stopping along the way to murder strangers. Lawrence Russell Brewer dragged a black man behind a pickup truck in a racist killing.
In the prison town of Huntsville, executions have become a well-worn ritual.
For more than 20 years, Dennis Longmire has been a fixture outside the fortress-like prison on execution evenings, holding a lit candle on a street corner. Hundreds of demonstrators once gathered there, but interest has long since subsided.
"Texas continues to march to a different beat," as other states drop the death penalty, says Longmire, a criminal justice professor at nearby Sam Houston State University. He calls the execution total "staggering."
McCarthy, convicted of killing a 71-year-old neighbor during a 1997 robbery, is among eight inmates scheduled for execution over the next four months. She would be the first woman put to death in the U.S. in three years and the 13th since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume.
McCarthy, 52, was condemned for using a butcher knife and candelabra to beat and fatally stab retired college professor Dorothy Booth at the victim's Lancaster home. Evidence showed the former nursing home therapist used the knife to sever Booth's finger to steal her wedding ring.
McCarthy, who is linked to two other slayings, has had her execution date pushed back twice this year. Her attorney, Maurie Levin, has been trying to halt her execution again, contending black jurors improperly were excluded from her trial by Dallas County prosecutors. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals this week rejected the latest appeal, saying the claims should have been raised previously.
Levin said there has been a "pervasive influence of race in administration of the death penalty and the inadequacy of counsel - a longstanding issue here."
Even remarkable incidents in the death ritual can become mundane in the steady procession.
In 2000, Ponchai Wilkerson stunned officials when he spit out a small handcuff key he had kept hidden in his mouth as he prepared to die.
"In another state you live with that for a long time," said Willett, who became warden at the Huntsville Unit in 1998 and oversaw 89 executions. Here in Texas, another one is coming a few days later and you've forgotten that one before."


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Sales of PCs have been sagging a bit lately. Neither the Ultrabook initiative nor Windows 8 have done much to boost sales, which is really too bad because the PC OEMs have been trying harder in the last year or two than in quite a while. What we're seeing from this year's IFA are laptops in the same vein as those we saw at Computex: a shift away from Ivy Bridge to Haswell and a shift away from sub-1080p resolutions to 1080p-and-up resolutions. Yes, the resolution war that has been raging in smartphones and tablets for the last two years or so has metastasized and spread to laptops.
These aren't the only PCs that were announced at IFA, but if you're in the market for a high-end convertible or Ultrabook, these are the cream of the crop (and the ones that show the general direction that the industry is heading in, even as it begins to wane). We don't have pricing and availability for all of them, but we expect most of them to be available to buy sometime this fall.
The IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro
Lenovo is one of the only PC makers whose share of the PC market is growing at the moment, perhaps in part because it has eschewed the corporate drama engulfing HP and Dell of late (the company is also headquartered in Beijing, and China's consumer technology market is currently growing a bit faster than that of the US). Lenovo announced a few different refreshes this year, but the most impressive is probably the Yoga 2 Pro convertible.
The laptop is a fairly straightforward follow-up to last year's IdeaPad Yoga. The hinge still flips all the way back to convert the laptop into tablet mode, but it's also rigid enough to be used as a stand for the laptop that makes it into a mini touch-enabled all-in-one of sorts. The difference is that (almost) all of the specifications have been upgraded from last year's model: Haswell CPUs and new integrated GPUs are part of the package, and the new Yoga is slightly thinner and lighter than the old one at 0.61 inches thick and 3.06 pounds (at 0.68 inches and 3.4 pounds, the old Yoga was a shade heavier than most other Ultrabooks in its class). The biggest draw, however, just might be the 13.3-inch 3200×1800 touchscreen, which at 276 PPI is one of the densest you can buy in any laptop anywhere.
While that spec is impressive, we do have some misgivings that we've outlined in our post about the Yoga 2 announcement (and which were backed up by some hands-on impressions from Tested's Norman Chan). Windows 8 and 8.1 handle high-PPI displays just fine on the Start screen and in apps from the Windows Store, but third-party applications (even high-profile ones like Google Chrome) still look pretty bad when scaled on the Windows desktop, where the majority of Windows computing is still taking place. The high-density display may also be holding the laptop's battery life back—Lenovo says it gets just six hours under a very specific set of conditions (streaming video with the screen brightness set at a low 150 nits). Even that possibly-too-optimistic number is on the low side for a Haswell Ultrabook.
Finally, Lenovo's promotional spec sheet for the Yoga 2 Pro says it includes an 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi adapter, and the absence of 802.11a from that list means that we're looking at a 2.4GHz-only Wi-Fi adapter à la the first Yoga. There is, simply put, no excuse for not shipping a 5GHz 802.11n adapter in a high-end laptop, tablet, or smartphone these days.
Despite these misgivings, we liked the original Yoga enough that we're still excited to give this one the full review treatment when it launches in October for an eminently reasonable $1,099. ThinkPad fans looking for a Yoga will also be able to get their hands on the ThinkPad Yoga for $949 in November, and people who don't care for convertible PCs may find something to like about the other, more traditional ThinkPads that the company announced earlier this week.
The Asus ZenBook UX301
We won't lie—we liked the name better at Computex when it was called the ZenBook Infinity. Whatever it's called, it still looks like a promising follow-up to last year's already-good ZenBook Prime. The UX301 takes the attractive all-metal design of the Prime and coats the lid in a layer of Gorilla Glass 3. A 13.3-inch 2560×1440 touchscreen is also available as an option, though the base model comes with a 1920×1080 touchscreen identical in resolution and density to last year's model.
The internals also get the Haswell bump. AnandTech reports that the base CPUs on offer are a 1.6GHz Core i5-4200U or 1.8GHz Core i7-4500U, the same as we've seen in Ultrabooks like Acer's new Aspire S7. The more interesting option is the Core i7-4558U, which requires more power (28W TDP vs. 15W TDP in the 4200U and 4500U) but provides a substantial boost to CPU and GPU performance.
The i7-4558U is clocked at 2.8GHz, while the integrated HD 4400 GPU of the base models is replaced by Intel's Iris 5100, the second-fastest integrated GPU in the Haswell lineup. The HD 4400 isn't much of an upgrade over last year's HD 4000, but an increased number of Intel's "execution units" plus a larger power envelope should make the Iris 5100 a nice step up (faster even than the HD 5000 in the 2013 MacBook Air).
The rest of the laptop is sufficiently high-end: you've got 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 3.0, either 4GB or 8GB of RAM, up to 512GB SSDs, and both a mini-DisplayPort and mini-HDMI port. All of this is in a laptop that's 0.61 inches thick and weighs 3.04 pounds, which makes it neither the thinnest nor lightest laptop with a 13.3-inch screen but still plenty competitive. If Asus can bring the great build quality and keyboard from the ZenBook Prime into this upgraded model, it may just end up being the Ultrabook to beat (though the price and release date will be important, and we don't know either yet).
Asus also announced the UX302, a lower-end relative to this laptop. It includes a dedicated graphics option, but you can't get the 2560×1440 screen, you get a hybrid hard drive instead of a pure SSD, you can only buy it with 4GB of RAM, and at 0.68 inches thick and 3.3 pounds it outweighs the UX301 by a bit.
The Sony Vaio Flip and Vaio Tap 11
After some hands-on time with these laptops that become tablets and this tablet that becomes a Surface-style laptop, we came to the conclusion that Sony had really learned from the mistakes it made in its first convertible laptop. The Flip's touchscreen, um, flips to cover the keyboard in a way similar to but distinct from Dell's excellent XPS 12. The Tap 11 also uses ultra-low-voltage Y-series Haswell CPUs to bring Ultrabook-level performance to something not much bigger than the Retina iPad or Nexus 10.
The build quality on both systems is good, and while the key travel in both the Flip laptops and the Tap 11's keyboard cover could be better, it certainly isn't the worst we've encountered. The Flip lineup is also fairly diverse—you can choose from 13-, 14-, and 15-inch screen sizes, and the 14- and 15-inch models include dedicated GPUs. 1080p displays are standard in all three Flip laptops and the Tap 11 tablet, but the 15-inch Flip also comes with a 2560×1620 display option. SSDs are standard in the 13-inch Flip and Tap 11 and are optional in the 14- and 15-inch Flips.
Neither pricing nor availability has been announced for the Flip or the Tap systems just yet, though we expect that we'll hear more in the fall.
Listing image by Asus


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Experian QAS
Research Report: Rethink Your Next Generation Business Intelligence Strategy
By R "Ray" Wang on June 28, 2010
BI Solutions Must Address The Information Management Matrix A confluence of changing business requirements and on-going vendor consolidation leads many organizations to rethink their business intelligence (BI) strategies. Many buyers face decisions to move beyond departmental solutions or to stay with an integrated apps based BI solution. Meanwhile, some buyers must decide whether or not […]
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Today's News: Our Take - Randy Travis Charged with DUI
Randy Travis has been formally charged with drunken driving stemming from an August arrest, E! News reports.
Travis, 53, crashed his car in Sherman, Texas on Aug. 7 and was arrested and jailed after being found by the side of the road naked. Toxicology tests later found the country music singer to have a blood-alcohol content greater than .15, nearly twice the legal limit.
Photos: Everybody's posing nude! Check out Rihanna and other stars who've bared all
Travis faces a maximum two-year sentence and a $4,000 fine. He's also currently under investigation for felony retaliation.
"Randy has a lot of respect for law enforcement in Grayson [County]," Travis' attorney told E! "He's cooperating fully. He recognizes his situation and he is tending to his personal matters. And we will decide between now and the end of the month whether he pleads not guilty or agrees to another plea that involves rehabilitation."
Check out child stars gone bad
Last month, Travis pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault from an incident that occurred just weeks after his drunken driving arrest.
View original Randy Travis Charged with DUI at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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Truss uplift is a common phenomenon in homes built with roof truss systems. A truss is a prefabricated roof structure, which holds up the roof decking wood, shingles, and top floor ceiling. They are assembled, usually from 2x4 lumber, in a building material factory. The 2x4's are held together with either metal or plywood "gusset plates".
Trusses tend to be stronger, lighter, and less expensive than rafters. Trusses are strong because they make use of the most efficient geometric shape, the triangle. The outside members of a truss are called chords while the inner pieces are known as webs. Each component is important because they apply pressure onto the other two sides of the triangle, establishing support balance between each other. They are less expensive than rafters because the lumber thickness and lengths are smaller.
If a house experiences truss uplift, the top floor ceiling literally lifts off the interior walls, usually in the winter, then drops again in the summer. It may appear that the floors or walls have settled, but actually the ceiling has moved up, then down. Sometimes the gap can be as much as an inch where interior walls meet the ceiling.
Modern construction places the bottom chord of the truss below a deep blanket of insulation. Even on the coldest days the bottom chord is nice and warm. The top chords however, are above the insulation and get very cold in the well ventilated attic. The bottom chords are warm and dry. As the warm air from the home travels through the top chords they begin to condensate with the cold air of the winter season. It's kind of like the condensation that occurs on the outside of a ice cold glass of water on a hot summer day, only in reverse. As the top chords begin to absorb some moisture from the air, it causes them to elongate, or swell.
With the top chords growing and the bottom chords shrinking, the truss arches up in the middle to account for the pressure differences, thus lifting the truss off the interior walls.
From a structural standpoint, it is not a major problem. But cosmetically, it may cause cracks and separations in the drywall. A common question clients ask us during the inspection is, "What about those small cracks along the ceiling, aren't those a problem?" Many homeowners "repair" the cracks with drywall compound, only to have them reappear next year.
Some contractors have helped disguise truss uplift by securing the ceiling drywall to the top of the interior walls and not the trusses for 18 inches away from the interior walls. The drywall flexes and stays fastened to the walls while the trusses lift above it. Others use a decorative molding where the walls meet the ceilings. They fasten the moldings to the ceiling but not to the walls. As the ceilings move up, the molding go with the ceiling and cover any gap that may develop. If this molding plan is used in your home, try to decorate with this in mind.


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Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre knew what opponents would be on the 2013 schedule and where he would face them when he was hired last month, but now he has specific dates for each.
The Pac-12 Conference released its full 2013 football schedule today with several interesting notes for Colorado fans.
The Buffs will play five games in November for just the fifth time in history and they won't play a weekday game for the first time in 17 seasons. CU has played either Nebraska or Utah on the Friday after Thanksgiving every year since 1996. Next season, the Buffs will play at Utah in the regular season finale on Saturday, Nov. 30.
After three non-conference games against Colorado State (Denver), Central Arkansas and Fresno State both in Boulder, CU will open Pac-12 Conference play on the road Sept. 28 against Oregon State. The Beavers are the only team in the conference the Buffs still haven't played because of the schedule rotation between north and south teams every two years.
The Buffs will host Oregon on Oct. 5, Arizona Oct. 26, California Nov. 16 and USC Nov. 23. CU also travels to Arizona State Oct. 12, UCLA Nov. 2 and Washington Nov. 9.
MacIntyre's first season certainly won't be easy but it won't be as difficult as former coach Jon Embree's debut season in 2010 because MacIntyre's first CU team will have two bye weeks Sept. 21 and Oct. 19. Embree's first team played 13 consecutive weeks without a bye.
The Pac-12 championship game moves from Friday night to Saturday for the first time and will be televised by ESPN or ABC instead of Fox.
Former CU safety Ray Polk is scheduled to play in the Raycom College Football All-Star Classic in Montgomery, Ala., on Jan. 19. Defensive lineman Will Pericak previously announced he would play in the East West Shrine game. …None of Colorado's returning players have informed MacIntyre the intend to transfer.
CU Buffs 2013 schedule
Aug. 31 vs. Colorado State*
Sept. 7 vs. Central Arkansas
Sept. 14 vs. Fresno State
Sept. 21 Bye
Sept. 28 at Oregon State
Oct. 5 vs. Oregon
Oct. 12 at Arizona State
Oct. 19 Bye
Oct. 26 Arizona (homecoming)
Nov. 2 at UCLA
Nov. 9 at Washington
Nov. 16 vs. Cal
Nov. 23 vs. Southern Cal
Nov. 30 at Utah
*-at Sports Authority Field; CSU is the home team
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Do you believe Content is really the King Pin of Marketing endeavors today? Or have other methods usurped the once empowered Content King? Blogging has been the vehicle to which content has been published over the 20 years and using Keywords and some "Black Hat Methods" may found success with Search Engine effectiveness. I remember spending hours being sure the appropriate words were chosen to satisfy the SEO robots and direct all that...
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Making Money from a Blog
Is your Blog making money? Are you enjoying Making Money from Your Company's Blogging efforts Studies are proving that consistent and well planned Blogging efforts are making money for individuals and companies, globally. Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner surveyed 3300 marketers with the goal of understanding how marketers are using social media to grow and promote their businesses. Much of the findings indicate that well designed Social...
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Is your Blog/Website Elegantly Presented?
Does an Elegant Themed Website/Blog really make a difference? How important is the presentation in attracting visitors? Does it need to be "Elegant"? Well, in reality Content is King and there many very successful sites that follow a plain format… but when you combine a well designed, easily managed and attractive Elegant Theme to quality Content YOU are assured a winning combination. As most of you know I am NOT a techie and have...
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By Janice Harayda
"Society never made the preposterous demand that a man should think as much about his own qualifications for making a charming girl happy as he thinks of hers for making himself happy," George Eliot writes in Middlemarch. And that line suggests one of many reasons to love her masterpiece: its sharp commentary on relations between the sexes.
Middlemarch tells the wonderful story of an intelligent young woman, Dorothea Brooke, whose desire to be useful leads her to wed to a repressed clergyman who lacks her passion for life. But the novel is far more than a portrait of mismatch. The action in Middlemarch unfolds against the backdrop of two great social upheavals: the coming of the Industrial Revolution to England and enactment of Reform Bill of 1832 that made Parliament more representative of ordinary people.
Eliot sets Dorothea's private dramas against these cataclysms and shows, as she writes, "that there is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined by what lies outside it." The external forces include a society treats women as an underclass. And part of Eliot's genius is that she hasn't written a broadside against injustice but a book often called the first great multiplot novel in English. Middlemarch is a brilliant portrait of both sexes, never more so than in famous coda: " … the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to those who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."
Jan is a novelist and award-winning critic who has been the book editor of the Plain Dealer in Cleveland and a vice-president of the National Book Critics Circle. The full text of Middlemarch is available for free on Project Gutenberg . A good, six-part Masterpiece Theatre miniseries, available on video and DVD, starred Juliet Aubrey as Dorothea Brooke.
© 2009 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.


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Most wine enthusiasts say that the reason they love wine is because there's so much to learn, they can never know it all. Well, with new wine apps launching every week, I'm not so sure that's true anymore. From beverage retailers that help expand your varietal acumen to San Francisco startups specializing in food pairings, the options are endless. Here are five extremely handy (and free) wine apps.
You're at a party or restaurant enjoying a dynamite bottle of wine you don't want to forget. Snap a photo of the label, and up comes everything you need to know about the winery and this particular wine, a list of retailers in your neighborhood who stock it, and a place to record your impressions. You can even share your notes with Facebook friends and get their recommendations. Vivino recognizes more than 1 million wines and has more than 3 million users worldwide. The latest upgrade offers instant push notifications when others like a wine and the average rating and price for each wine. Free for iPhones and Androids.
Hello Vino
Stuck in the wine aisle with hundreds of bottles and no idea what to grab? Plug in the occasion (Easter brunch) or dish (pepperoni pizza) you're trying to pair with the wine and Hello Vino will give you an instant recommendation. It's like having a personal sommelier tag along without having to hear the oak lecture. Recent upgrades include a wine label scanner and photo backup on the cloud so you can access your wines anytime on the iPhone, Android and iPad. Free.
This one-stop app (from a San Francisco startup headquartered in the Mission district) helps you discover, remember, share and buy highly rated wines with simple label photo recognition and a vibrant community that includes Facebook friends as well as wine industry professionals. See what sommeliers at Michelin-starred restaurants and James Beard Award-winning wine writers are drinking and get their ratings on thousands of wines. Search by varietal or region, and build your own cellar. Free for iPhone, Android.
This is like Delectable — but without the massive social network and with a smaller inventory than, say, Vivino. Drync uses the same image recognition technology to scan and decode the bottle you're enjoying at dinner or a friend's house, or that you spot in a magazine. It provides similar analysis, but it also prompts you to buy immediately. They claim the largest selection of wines for sale, along with competitive prices and low shipping costs to most states. They even offer concierge service for out-of-stock wines. If you like flash shopping apps like Zulily, you'll dig Drync. Free for iPhone, Android.
Winery Road
Looking for journalistic savvy and brilliant photography packaged by region? We have to offer a plug for ourselves. The Bay Area News Group's newest addition to the wine mix is pretty sensational. The free Winery Road iPad app uncovers California's buzziest wine regions — from Monterey's Santa Lucia Highlands to Livermore, with reviews on hot new hotels and restaurants plus winemaker interviews, interactive maps, recommended wine trails and itineraries curated by movers and shakers in the industry. Download the new Eat Drink Play app for iPads, Android tablets and Kindles to read the most comprehensive guide to the Bay Bridge Wineries (the 50 wineries from Oakland to Treasure Island and San Francisco) and the upcoming guide to the Central Coast and Paso Robles wineries. Free. iTunes, Google Play, Kindle.
Reach Jessica Yadegaran at email@example.com. Follow her atTwitter.com/swirlgirl_jy.


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News Release - October 23, 2019
Chief is recognized for her leadership on advancing civics education for all California students.
Feature - July 6, 2021
Isaac Farhadian's efforts to engage students in civics in-person and virtually at his former high school earned him a 2021 Champion of Civics award, co-sponsored by Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.
Feature - April 29, 2016
Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye has selected Administrative Presiding Justice Judith D. McConnell for the Chief Justice's Award for Exemplary Service and Leadership for her outstanding work in civics.
Feature - April 15, 2016
Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye recently visited three schools earning a Civic Learning Award of Excellence—the highest honor —this year: Kumeyaay Elementary in San Diego County, Bellflower High School in Los Angeles County, and Natomas Pacific Pathways Prep Charter in Sacramento County.
Feature - September 12, 2018
A group of five recent graduates share how their civic engagement at a young age prepared them for their next steps in life. All have been involved in youth courts, youth government, and other civic education programs.
Feature - August 2, 2018
Juvenile courts in California are uniquely responsible for the treatment and rehabilitation of young offenders. But increasingly, courts and schools are recognizing the value of keeping students in classrooms and out of the court system altogether.
Feature - May 14, 2018
The Constitutional promise of being tried by a "jury of your peers" is taken to the extreme in peer courts, an alternative approach to the traditional juvenile justice system where teens judge other teens.
Feature - May 4, 2017
In this video feature, the Chief Justice explains the judiciary's role in civic education and why her Civic Learning Initiative is so important to her as leader of the state judicial branch.
Feature - February 3, 2017
With an assist from the Chief Justice's initiative on civic learning, the California Department of Education has started rolling out a new history-social science framework that emphasizes civic education.
Feature - July 19, 2016
After more than a dozen years of striving for a more robust civics curriculum in California's public schools, advocates for civic learning are about to get their wish.
Feature - June 2, 2016
Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye and Court of Appeal presiding justices visited nine elementary, middle, and high schools this spring to present...
News Release - February 28, 2019
California Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye announced today the recipients of the 2018-2019 Civic Learning Awards to 92 schools, the most award recipients in the program's history.


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Shipping is automatically calculated at checkout depending on the size and weight of your product. You can also pickup your product in store locally for free!
For specialized products like saddles and other high valued items, we offer custom quotes for shipping.


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Adrian Skirt Set
Adrian Skirt Set
- Cropped boxy fit top with matching skirt
- Skirt has an elastic back
- Brown floral print
Welcome to Gold & Grae!
My name is Amy Baldwin, born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama where I live with my husband and two children. The Grae in Gold & Grae actually comes from a combination of my children's names, Griggs and Mae.
The idea for Gold & Grae came to me when I realized just how much time I was spending visiting various websites and local boutiques trying to find the perfect clothes for going out on weekends, workdays, errands with kids, and just for everyday life, doing all the things.
So I set out to create a one-stop-shop for all your fashion needs that can take you from work to wherever, all without breaking the bank in the process!
I gear towards a southern, traditional style but with a fun and trendy twist! I also enjoy the hunt for those perfect items of clothing that every woman is looking for but might not know it until she sees it!
Another thing that compelled me to create Gold & Grae is that I am a people person and I love interacting with my customers. It makes me so happy to see pictures of my customers enjoying their purchases from Gold & Grae. I love making people happy and a woman is always happiest when she is looking her best!
Driven by my love for women's fashion, Gold & Grae is here to bring women a well-rounded collection of classics, elevated basics and unique finds, so that you can have everything you could possibly need and want.
Come and explore the Gold & Grae collection and create your own well-curated closet today!
Exchanges & Returns
Returns are accepted on non sale items for exchange or store credit only. Please follow the steps on the website to initiate the return process. Online orders that are returned are eligible for store credit if they are postmarked within 14 days of delivery. Any returns that are postmarked past 14 days from the delivery date will no longer be eligible for store credit and will be returned to the customer at the customers expense.
All items must be returned in their original condition and with all tags attached. Gold & Grae will issue a store credit upon receipt of the returned items.
Gold & Grae does not provide return shipping labels. The customer is responsible for all return shipping costs.
If you wish to exchange for a different size please contact me at email@example.com or DM on Instagram @goldandgrae.
All sale items are final sale.


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U.S. employers post fewest jobs in 5 months
WASHINGTON - U.S. employers posted fewer job openings in September after advertising more in August than first estimated. The report suggests hiring will likely remain modest in the coming months.
The Labor Department said Tuesday that job openings dropped by 100,000 to 3.56 million, the fewest in five months. August's openings were revised up to 3.66 million.
The number of available jobs has jumped about 63 percent since July 2009, one month after the recession ended. It remains well below the more than 4 million jobs a month advertised before the recession began in December 2007.
The job market remains very competitive. With 12.1 million people unemployed in September, there were 3.4 unemployed people, on average, competing for each open job. In a healthy economy, that ratio is roughly 2 to 1.
Employers filled fewer available positions in September than in August. And the number of people who quit fell to the lowest level in 10 months. That's a bad sign for the job market, because it suggests workers see fewer opportunities to move to a better job. Workers tend to quit when they have other job offers.
One positive sign in the report: Layoffs fell.
Hiring looked a little better in October, according to the Labor Department's employment report released Friday. Employers added 171,000 jobs last month and hiring in August and September was better than first estimated.
The unemployment rate rose to 7.9 percent last month from 7.8 percent in September. But that was because more Americans began searching for work, likely reflecting increasing optimism about their chances.
The employment report measured net hiring and unemployment, while Tuesday's report looked at total hiring, layoffs and quits.
Job openings fell in manufacturing, construction, hotels and restaurants, and in government. There was also a big drop in openings in professional and business services, which includes both high-paying jobs such as architects and engineers, as well as temporary services.


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Home » Electroacoustic/Contemporary » FORBIDDEN PLANETS: Music from the pioneers of Electronic Sound (double CD)
FORBIDDEN PLANETS: Music from the pioneers of Electronic Sound (double CD)
A fascinating collection of hits containing many classics which doesn't stop at the hermetic world of early academic electronics, or the obvious. There are pieces here by Miklos Rozsa, Bernard Herrmann, Pierre Schaeffer, Herbert Eimert /Robert Beyer, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Paul Gredinger, Henri Pousseur, Louis and Bebe Barron, Herman Heiss, Iannis Xenakis, Kid Baltan (inc. the great Evolution Ballet), Daphne Oram, Tom Dissevelt, Edgar Varese, Gyorgi Ligeti (a seldom heard electronic work) and Henk Badings. A great record to listen to, always interesting, offering good choices, well programmed. Even if you know a lot of this material it's a good CD to have. And cheap. Intended as a popular collection, so the documentation is minimal. Double CD with a nicely designed oversize booklet in slipcase.
Code: CDCD5033
Price: £16.60


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Specter of Benghazi drives US-Afghan talks
WASHINGTON (AP) — The attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya last year has become a factor driving the White House decision on how large a force to leave in Afghanistan after 2014 — and a specter hanging over talks between the Afghan president and the U.S.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has publicly called for a near-total drawdown of U.S. forces, with a surge of U.S. and international aid to make up for their exit.
But after losing a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, U.S. officials insist they need enough troops to protect their diplomats, and the legal authority to target those who might come after them, a senior U.S. official said.
The State Department wants five diplomatic posts in Afghanistan, but U.S. planners are weighing every potential post against how many troops would be needed to guard it and, if need be, get personnel out, said one current and one former U.S. official. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the White House deliberations publicly.
The administration does not want to risk another Benghazi situation, the senior official said, where diplomatic posts are only lightly guarded by U.S. contractors and local forces and the host country can deny the U.S. the right to send in troops. The Libyans denied U.S. special operations teams entry to hunt al-Qaida-linked militants suspected in the killings of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans on Sept. 11.
The same security concerns also apply to U.S. drone bases used to launch attacks against al-Qaida targets next door in Pakistan.
"If the mission is to defeat al-Qaida, then you need a base to operate from and Afghanistan is the only place to do that," said former CIA officer Bruce Riedel, who advised the Obama White House on its Afghan war strategy. "Where Benghazi comes in is, Do we want to rely on Afghan security, or a contractor, or on U.S. Marines to protect a drone base?"
Pentagon calculations call for roughly three to five troops to guard each U.S. civilian in a conflict zone like Afghanistan. Without sufficient numbers of troops, the U.S. will have to curtail its diplomatic mission, the senior U.S. official said, which could spell reduced aid and support to Afghanistan without the U.S. manpower to manage the programs.
White House officials say President Barack Obama will explain that quid pro quo when he meets with Karzai at the White House on Friday, the culmination of a series of meetings with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other U.S. officials and lawmakers this week in Washington.
Karzai has publicly called for U.S. troops to return to their bases, saying Afghan troops could take over this year, but he has also asked for the U.S. to help him build his own army and air force.
Only after Obama and Karzai reach a meeting of the minds on what the Afghans will allow the U.S. to do after 2014 can Obama decide whether to leave U.S. personnel in Afghanistan after 2014 — and, if so, how many and what they role they'll play, said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser for the White House.
There are 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Those troops are already turning over territory or handing off many combat missions to Afghan security forces, with a goal of having Afghans leading all combat missions by the end of 2013.
White House officials insist that U.S. troops would not be in combat after 2014, though a recent Pentagon report judged only one Afghan army brigade able to operate independently — and even then, with the help of a NATO military adviser.
Afghanistan war chief Gen. John Allen has proposed a post-2014 troop presence ranging from 3,000 to 20,000, with a sliding scale of what missions those troops could carry out. The lower figure is only enough for a counterterrorist force plus security for a small number of diplomatic and intelligence outposts. The higher end allows U.S. troops to continue to take a leading role in training Afghan forces and provide them some backup like logistics support, as well as protecting a larger U.S. diplomatic and intelligence presence.
"There are ways to avoid this stark choice between 20,000 and 6,000, because that 6,000 number may not include some of the special operations teams that can rotate in and out," said the Brookings Institution's Michael O'Hanlon. "If you had a crisis after 2014, you could rotate in special forces teams at the request of the Afghan president. There'd still be flexibility."
The U.S., Afghanistan and NATO agreed on three major post-2014 missions at their summit in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2010: training Afghan troops, hunting al-Qaida and ramping up diplomatic support to the Afghan government.
The senior U.S. official and one former official said the White House would like NATO to take over training Afghans, by creating its own independent command that the U.S. would contribute troops to, with its own separate security agreement with Afghanistan.
Under this scenario, the counterterrorism mission would remain U.S.-run, staffed by a few thousand U.S. special operators with possible contributions from other NATO nations, the senior official said. Those troops would focus on dismantling al-Qaida, working together with Afghan forces.
Rhodes said the post-2014 numbers, even once announced sometime later this year, could later shift, depending on progress against al-Qaida, or the progress in maturing Afghan security forces.


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Two Forsyth County Tax Administration employees were recent recipients of awards at the 30th Annual North Carolina Property Mappers Association (NCPMA) conference held in Greensboro in October
The "2010 Mapper of the Year" award was presented to Tammy Spencer, a Senior GIS Technician with over thirty-one years experience in property mapping in the Forsyth County Assessor's Office. The Mapper of the Year award recognizes an individual's supreme commitment to the organization and to the advancement of the Mapping Profession. Tammy has held every position of the NCPMA Executive Board, including President. Tammy continues her commitment to the Association through her service on the committee's of Certification, Publication and Education, as well as serving as the primary editor of the NCPMA newsletter "The North Arrow".
The "2010 Academic Achievement" award was presented to Carlo Frate, a GIS Technician with over ten years experience in the GIS profession. Carlo has been a member of the Forsyth County Assessor's Office for over three years. The Academic Achievement award is presented to the member who attains the highest level of academic excellence in the annual advanced Mapping School sponsored by the NCPMA. Along with this award, Carlo also earned the designation of Senior Mapper which recognizes the important qualities of experience and academic aptitude.
Congratulations to Tammy and Carlo!


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