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Southern crews dominate cruising divisions at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week
Audi Hamilton Island Race Week News
Southern crews dominate cruising divisions at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week
Pic: Hamilton Island Photography
28 Aug 2011
Tasmanian crews have taken top honours in two of the three cruising divisions contesting Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.
Southern excellence has made a big splash in what is once again the largest division racing at Hamilton Island where the competition wrapped up today with the abandonment of the final Molle Islands Race. Competitors were given an early mark and more time to doll up for tonight's official trophy presentation and celebrations.
Brothers John and Ross Muir and their majority Tasmanian and ex-Tasmanian crew scored well enough over five races with their chartered Jeanneau 49 called Muir to finish strongly on 22 points. Second was Mathew Barlow's sistership Saphira and third was David Molloy's mighty IOR maxi Condor, celebrating its 30th birthday year.
Peter Maitz' modified Beneteau 50 Leonardo is campaigned once at year, at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, by a "bunch of amateurs" confesses the skipper. Given this fact it's perhaps surprising but not unwelcome that a first in Cruising Division 2 has come their way.
Maitz and his crew wore very distinct shirts for the week-long regatta attended by a total boat and shore crew of 14 adults and 13 children with nine on board Leonardo at any one time. On the front is the Vitruvian Man, Leonardo Da Vinci's famous diagram of a man in perfect proportion, something that as a plastic surgeon appeals to Maitz. On the back of their shirts is a picture of three young boys atop a raft with a square rigged tablecloth as a sail, supposedly how sailing began in Austria where Maitz was born.
Now that he's won his division, Maitz is in the running for the major prize at Race Week, the all new Audi A1 which will be announced tonight at the formal presentation of trophies. His result on the water will be combined with his wife's result at the Final Drive Challenge run on the layday. "She hit every single witch's hat," laughed Maitz as he celebrated with his crew.
Leonardo only narrowly triumphed; just one point the difference to second placed Colin Pruden's Queensland based Swarbrick S111 Sandpiper Wutba. Third was Andrew Molnar's Victorian Bavaria design, Jemson.
In Cruising Division 3 Tassie sailors once again demonstrated their flair. Derek Cragg's Jeanneau 36i Knee Deep, representing the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, finished half a point ahead of Steve Clarke's Jeanneau 39i Topaz, sailing for Victoria's Mornington Yacht Club while Peter Skillington's Victorian Jeanneau design Karma collected third.
In the Non Spinnaker Division John Brand's Marchi 39 Star Ferry was the star performer, edging out Mike Walter's Catalina 350 Mim on a countback. Third was Peter McAdam's Bavaria Manly Too.
No final Molle Islands race means yesterday's Melges 32 results stand, Noel Leigh-Smith's Desperado from Southport Yacht Club snatching victory from Stephen Girdis' Funnel Web and Angus Reid's Maxstar.
Principal race office Denis Thompson says it's been another successful regatta without the usual drama of yachts running aground. "Due to a combination of good courses and given we had wind, people weren't trying to cut corners, which I'm pleased about," he says.
"From light winds yesterday to Tuesday's long race day with gusts over 30 knots, there was good variety and there's a lot of happy yachties out there."
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Southern crews dominate cruising divisions at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week


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Chances are, if the world was coming to an end, you already know who you would spend those last moments with. Not everyone is that lucky.
There will be a contingent of people, when an extinction-level event is occurring, as in "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World," where an asteroid is hurtling toward earth, that will crawl into their well-worn cocoons, isolating themselves to ponder their regrets and wait alone for the inevitable.
In writer/director Lorene Scafaria's lovely debut feature, Dodge (Steve Carell, in finest form) and Penny (Keira Knightley, at once frenetic and luminous) are two such messed-up lonely isolationists...two apartment-dwelling neighbors who stumble into helping each other resolve some of each of their regrets.
She wants to get back to England to see her family one last time. He wants to see a long-lost girlfriend who declared in a letter he was "the love of her life." Off they go together, taking an abandoned dog Dodge calls Sorry.
'Dark and Optimistic'
Their road trip makes for two hours that are both strangely dark and optimistic. All around them, there are riots and looting, Dodge's family and friends are having "fun parties" with heroin and 5 year olds swigging wine, people are jumping out of buildings or hiring hit men to preemptively kill them before the meteor does.
There are also people finding more joyful ways to go out, as in the restaurant chain where everything is free and every dinner rush turns into an orgy. In these scenes, a wonderful supporting cast shines in both comedic (Patton Oswalt's character glories in the impending doom that has leveled the sexual playing field for the common man) and cathartic roles (Martin Sheen plays Dodge's long-absent father, grateful for a chance to make amends) and makes the movie all the more memorable.
There isn't much time dedicated in the film to those events; it is more the backdrop for the journey Dodge and Penny take and how it evolves. There are moments when the film drags a bit, even as you are caught up in their interaction, and not all the shared screen time with the supporting cast works, as we only see bits of their stories, and some feel superfluous or wildly incomplete.
Romantic Chemistry
One could also argue there isn't nearly the kind of destructive or chaotic environment likely in this scenario. No matter, the story is about two people, their isolation, and their journey together dealing with mortality, forgiveness, and faith.
If you wonder if the casting makes sense, Keira Knightley being the gorgeous IT girl ingenue to Carell's aging insurance guy next door, you'll be surprised how much the romantic chemistry works. Knightley's character, who starts out a flighty mess, reveals a more complex set of issues, needs, desires, and passions (as exampled by her eclectic LP record collection, her favorites of which for reasons we discover later she drags along on their trip).
I could fault Carell for falling back on his go-to role of a schlubby sad sack ("Dan in Real Life," "Crazy Stupid Love," "Little Miss Sunshine") were it not for the fact that he has done his best work and shown the greatest character arcs in those films. He is the approachable leading man anyone can relate to, and he knows how best to use it in the roles he selects. There is a realism to his characterizations, inclusive of Dodge, that makes the whole audience connect with him.
No one is surprised by Ryan Gosling getting the girl, but heart-on-his-sleeve everyman Steve Carell winding up with Juliette Binoche or Julianne Moore or Keira Knightley—that's something to cheer for.
A Valentine for Failed Idealists
"Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" is like the anti-"Melancholia," the film by Lars Von Trier I called "a valentine to hopelessness." This is more a valentine to failed idealists, the eternal optimist who knows bad stuff happens every day. Yes, an asteroid might take us all out at any time, but that's no reason not to enjoy a tasty burger with a donut bun. This is a romcom for the open-hearted who aren't afraid of the dark.
Be warned. Scafaria sticks to her convictions to the end—you will see both love and pain in equal measure to the last frame—but one scene between the leads is so gentle and irresistibly touching, it puts all the cliched apocalypse action movies in perspective... In those last moments, do you want to be running for the hills or holding the one you love?
I will be seeing it again, and bringing Siren Spouse. To paraphrase an older Pixar film, "It has a friend in me." It will be great if this wonderful bit of indie quirk finds an audience and becomes a sleeper hit, especially as it had the guts to go up against Pixar's "Brave" and, you know, "Abe Lincoln, Superhero!" It is important for us to support indie movies that don't squeeze into the summer movie mold.
As weekends for movie releases go, this one offers a bit of something for everyone. While I'd avoid "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" (in lieu of some better action like "Men in Black 3" or "Avengers"), "Seeking a Friend" is a lovely reason to get out of the heat. Enjoy!
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is showing at the and other area movie theaters. Click here for locations and showtimes.

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
UPDATE: A search dog located the remains of Dr. Thomas Babson about 3:20 p.m. Friday in the debris of his burned-out Fox Island home, firefighters said.
Medical examiners were being called to the scene to retrieve his body, said Division Chief Eric Waters of the Gig Harbor Fire Department.
A procession of emergency vehicles will escort Babson's body to the Medical Examiner's Office in Tacoma later Friday afternoon, Waters said.
PREVIOUS STORY: Firefighters have begun sifting through the upstairs bedrooms of a waterfront Fox Island home that burned late Wednesday and killed a beloved doctor and his youngest daughter.
They're hoping to find the body of Thomas Babson, 62, who likely died trying to save his daughter from the blaze. The remains of Alice "Ali" Babson, 8, were recovered near the stairwell Thursday and escorted to the Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office by a line of sheriff's deputies who worked with her father.
Babson was a reserve sheriff's deputy attached to a lab team that investigated suspected methamphetamine houses and an emergency room physician at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma and St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor.
Fire crews worked through the night to put out hot spots at the blaze in the 400 block of Sixth Avenue Northwest. Firefighters resumed their search for Babson's remains about 8 a.m. An excavator is slowly removing pieces of the fallen structure while two teams of fire investigators inspect the wreckage.
"It's too unsafe for us to be inside so we're working from the outside in," Gig Harbor Fire Division Chief Eric Waters said. "We are making some pretty good progress."
With morning temperatures in the 20s, firefighters had to battle the elements as their hose lines froze and de-icers were again brought in to melt the ice forming on the house. Crews have searched about 1,200 square feet of the 6,800-square-foot house, including the garage and entryway.
Alice's body was found near the stairwell, about 15 feet inside the home.
Investigators believe they'll find Babson's body in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Firefighters are using ladders to crawl through the burnt out windows and look for his remains.
"Our focus now is all about recovering Tom's body," Battalion Chief Jason Black said.
New details emerged today about the fire and the family's attempt to escape.
Black said the Babson family ran toward safety together but got outside and realized the twins – Alice and Tobey, both 8 – were no longer with them. The mother, June, stayed outside with their older daughter, Katie, 12, while Babson ran back inside.
A neighbor who saw flames from across the street was able to scoop up a soot-covered Tobey from inside the front door and bring him outside. Babson and Alice never came back out.
"We believe he thought the children were still upstairs," Black said.
June Babson, Tobey and Katie were treated for smoke inhalation and released from the hospital.
Although investigators are still trying to figure out what started the fire, they do think it started near the kitchen and dining room area at the southwest corner of the house because that's where the most extensive damage is.
Black said the fire moved faster than the average house fire but it's unclear what caused the blaze to intensify so quickly. There was propane on the property but it's unknown if that contributed to the fire.
About 20 firefighters continue to work the scene today, with a handful of sheriff's deputies standing by to escort Babson's body when it is pulled from the wreckage. The deputies stayed overnight so Babson's body would not be alone.
"He trained and worked beside our people and always stood ready to risk himself to look after us," sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer wrote in a memo to the department. "He was truly a part of this agency family."


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Me and my chick Riley took a road trip, and I was horny as fuck. She gave me some head in a public bathroom, but we had to bail when we almost got busted. But once we got to the room we had our first anal sex ever and I blew my load all over her!
Dude has an ace radar for the amateur sluts who are gonna respond to his public pickups. He met Iva on the street and had her jacking off his cock within 5 min. After that quick handie, he picked up another biddy who raced back home to wet his dick. ...
Some dude sent us this video of his ex Skylar, an amateur slut that isn't afraid to use her body to get what she wants, even if that means blowing him in a public parking lot! After that, he took her home to fuck her and give her a nice big facial!
95 %
50421 views - 8 months ago
Rainia Belle's ex sent us this video of him fucking her in her tight amateur asshole, and even though it was her first anal, her thick juicy butt took that cock like a champ! He fucked her nice and hard, and then busted a nut all over her big tits!
This biddy Danika Dash was new in town, and needed a big dick to help her get over the guy who fucked her over. Lucky thing her friend was there to help her forget her ex by taking her right to bed and pounding her sweet pussy until she came over and...
95 %
127576 views - 8 months ago
Martin spotted Jana down by the water waiting for her bf. She didn't want to cheat at first, but some cash changed her tune quick. She pulled off her sexy little bikini, sucked his dick, and then they had some public sex right there in the bushes!
With the AC busted, Keisha and her bf were too hot. They took their clothes off to get cool, but Keisha pulled out that sweet Latina ass, and they started working up a sweat all over again. Dude fucked that Latina pussy and gave her a sweet facial!
95 %
70788 views - 10 months ago
I went on a trip with one of my buds and our gfs Hayley and Sadie. Sadie and my bud are always having really loud sex, so we grabbed the camera and started filming some sweet voyeur porn. They spotted us after a while, but then we just joined in too!
95 %
63402 views - 9 months ago
I'd been living with Cammie Fox for 2 years and we had never hooked up. But when I caught her rubbing her pussy, I made my move, and she went for it. I fucked her mouth and pussy, then busted a nut right in her eye, and she loved every second of it!
95 %
61272 views - 9 months ago
Carter Cruise's ex bf sent us this tape of some kinky rope play they got into. She came back from a workout horny and looking fine as hell, so dude tied her up, made her cum nice and hard, then fucked her amateur pussy and gave her a huge facial!
95 %
104805 views - 8 months ago
I was walking down the boardwalk when my gurl Lia called me and started flashing me her perky tits from up on the hotel balcony. She teased me at first, but pretty soon she was sucking my big dick, and I was balls deep in that tight amateur pussy!
95 %
70567 views - 9 months ago
Sammi's ex sent us a tape of them chilling on the beach. She was feeling frisky and showing off her body when it started to rain and they had to head in. She was still good to go, so dude fucked that tight amateur pussy and busted a nut all over her!
95 %
78088 views - 8 months ago


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Upcoming events and programming at Venue of Merging Arts (VOMA), located at 305 Chestnut St. in the Cambria City section of Johnstown, are:
Open Mic Night: 8 p.m. Thursdays. Admission is $3 and BYOB permitted for patrons older than age 21 with identification. Sign-up is at 7 until full. Performances start at 7:15 and continue until 10.
Various rotating monthly co-hosts include:
Week 1: Hip-hop with Fifty Six and Running
Week 2: Acoustic with Adam Milkovich
Week 3: Experimental with Mike Miller
Week 4: Acoustic with Ray Flores
Blues Gathering: 8 p.m. the last Saturday of each month, $5 cover and hosted by Scott Jeffreys.
The players change, but the theme remains the same: Avant garde improvisational blues based on the classics.
Jazz Series: 7:30 p.m. first Saturday of each month, starting in April. Cover is $10.
Teen Night at VOMA (Open Mic and Live Bands): 7:30 p.m. first Friday of each month, with a $5 cover charge.
VOMA Gallery featuring original art and entertainment.
Club VOMA: Destination for local talent, national touring groups and entertainers.
Click here to subscribe to The Tribune-Democrat print edition.
Click here to subscribe to The Tribune-Democrat e-edition.


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From the department of catching up with the news of two weeks ago, we offer the following item on excessive celebration penalties in the NFL.
Exactly what rule did Bills receiver Stevie Johnson violate when he flashed his Happy New Year message on his undershirt in New England? We asked the NFL office, and got this response: He violated Rule 5, Section 4, Article 8 of the 2011 Official Playing Rules of the National Football League, which states that players are prohibited from wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages either in writing or illustration.
What exactly is the penalty for that? Normally a player gets fined. For instance, Titans receiver Kenny Britt was fined $5,000 in 2010 for wearing a towel tucked into his pants that had the message "#10 VY" in support of injured quarterback Vince Young. There are lots of other examples.
The Bills' Johnson received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in New England. Reports an NFL spokesman: He was flagged on the field for unsportsmanlike conduct. Rule 12, Section 3, Article 1 states that there shall be no unsportsmanlike conduct. This applies to any act which is contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship.
So by that standard, Johnson should have been penalized when he flashed a message in Cincinnati in 2010.
(UPDATE) I agree with the commenter below. Was it really unsportsmanlike? No. The NFL probably would say that once you start letting players display messages, every other TD celebration might include something like that. Of course, that's the reason a fine is in place.
---Mark Gaughan


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The Large Hadron Collider
What is at the heart of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments? It should not surprise you that open-source software is one of the things that powers the most complex scientific human endeavor ever attempted. I hope to give you a glimpse into how scientific computing embraces open-source software and the open-source philosophy in one of the LHC experiments.
The LHC near Geneva, Switzerland, is nearly 100 meters underground and provides the highest-energy subatomic particle beams ever produced. The goal of the LHC is to give physicists a window into the universe immediately after the big bang. However, when physicists calculated the level of computing power needed to peer through that window, it became clear that it would not be possible to do it with only the computers that could fit under one roof.
Even with the promise of Moore's Law, it was apparent that the experiments would have to include a grid technology and decentralize the computing. Part of the decentralization plans included adoption of a tiered model of computing that creates large data storage and analysis centers around the world.
The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment is one of the large collider experiments located at the LHC. The primary computing resource for CMS is located at the LHC laboratory and is called the Tier-0. The function of Tier-0 is to record data as it comes off the detector, archive it and transfer it to the Tier-1 facilities around the globe. Ideally, every participating CMS nation has one Tier-1 facility. In the United States, the Tier-1 is located at Fermi National Laboratory (FNAL) in Batavia, Illinois. Each Tier-1 facility is charged with additional archival storage, as well as physics reconstruction and analysis and transferring data to the Tier-2 centers. The Tier-2 centers serve as an analysis resource funded by CMS for physicists. Individuals and universities are free to construct Tier-3 sites, which are not paid for through CMS.
Currently, there are eight CMS Tier-2 centers in the US. Their locations at universities allow CMS to utilize the computing expertise at those institutions and contribute to the educational opportunities for their students. I work as a system administrator at the CMS Tier-2 facility at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
By most standards, the Tier-2 centers are large computing resources. Currently, the capabilities of the Tier-2 at Nebraska include approximately 300 servers with 1,500 CPU cores dedicated to computing along with more than 800 terabytes of disk storage. We have network connectivity to the Tier-1 at FNAL of 10 gigabits per second.
LHC? CMS? ATLAS? I'm Confused.
It is easy to lose track of the entities in the high-energy physics world. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the accelerator that provides the beams of high-energy particles, which are protons. It is located at CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire). CERN is the laboratory, and the LHC is the machine. The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is a large particle detector designed to record what particles are created by the collision of the beams of protons (a muon is an elementary particle similar to the electron). CMS is only one of the experiments at CERN. CMS also is used to refer to the large collaboration of scientists that analyze the data recorded from the CMS detector. Most American physicists participating in CMS are in an organization called USCMS. Other experiments at the LHC include ATLAS, ALICE, LHCb, TOTEM and LHCf. These experiments use their own analysis software but share some grid infrastructures with CMS.
One of the technically more difficult obstacles for CMS computing is managing the data. Data movement is managed using a custom framework called PhEDEx (Physics Experiment Data Export). PhEDEx does not actually move data but serves as a mechanism to initiate transfers between sites. PhEDEx agents running at each site interface with database servers located at CERN to determine what data are needed at that site. X509 proxy certificates are used to authenticate transfers between gridftp doors at the source and destination sites. The Tier-2 at Nebraska has 12 gridftp doors and has sustained transfer rates up to 800 megabytes per second.
It should be noted that the word data can mean a few different things to a physicist. It can refer to the digitized readouts of a detector, Monte Carlo simulation of outputs, or the bits and bytes stored on hard drives and tapes.
The network demands made by the Nebraska Tier-2 site have generated interesting research in computer network engineering. Nebraska was the first university to demonstrate large data movement over a dynamically allocated IP path. When Nebraska's Tier-2 is pulling a large amount of data from the Tier-1 at FNAL, a separate IP path automatically is constructed to prevent traffic from adversely affecting the university's general Internet usage.
Since data transfer and management is such a crucial element for the success of CMS, developing the underlying system has been ongoing for years. The transfer volume of Monte Carlo samples and real physics data already has surpassed 54 petabytes worldwide. Nebraska alone has downloaded 900 terabytes during the past calendar year. All this data movement has been done via commodity servers running open-source software.
Linux has become a key foundation for supporting today's rapidly growing IT environments. Linux is being used to deploy business applications and databases, trading on its reputation as a low-cost operating environment. For many IT organizations, Linux is a mainstay for deploying Web servers and has evolved from handling basic file, print, and utility workloads to running mission-critical applications and databases, physically, virtually, and in the cloud. As Linux grows in importance in terms of value to the business, managing Linux environments to high standards of service quality — availability, security, and performance — becomes an essential requirement for business success.
Sponsored by Red Hat
If you already use virtualized infrastructure, you are well on your way to leveraging the power of the cloud. Virtualization offers the promise of limitless resources, but how do you manage that scalability when your DevOps team doesn't scale? In today's hypercompetitive markets, fast results can make a difference between leading the pack vs. obsolescence. Organizations need more benefits from cloud computing than just raw resources. They need agility, flexibility, convenience, ROI, and control.
Stackato private Platform-as-a-Service technology from ActiveState extends your private cloud infrastructure by creating a private PaaS to provide on-demand availability, flexibility, control, and ultimately, faster time-to-market for your enterprise.
Sponsored by ActiveState
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Salem — Joanna (Salvo) Scalfani, 51, loving mother of Samatha Scalfani, died peacefully Sunday morning at the Kaplan Family Hospice House following a courageous battle with leukemia.
Born June 14, 1962, she was the daughter of Joseph and Anne (Pelletier) Salvo and was a lifelong resident of Salem, and graduated from Salem High School, Class of 1980. She then went on to earn her nursing degree. Joanna was dedicated to her career as an Oncology Nurse with Partners Health care. She started her career at Salem Hospital, then the North Shore Cancer Center at Centennial Park, and ultimately at Mass General where she worked until the time of her illness.
For 22 years, Joanna followed her passion and was dedicated to helping cancer patients and their families. In addition to her parents and daughter, Joanna leaves two sisters, Christina Thomas and her husband, Wayne of Beverly and Linda Wilson and her husband, Ken of Salem. She also leaves her nieces and nephews, Tanya, Steven and Alex Thomas, Matthew Wilson; and great-niece, Christa Stewart. She also leaves her beloved dog, Oliver Wendall.
Joanna enjoyed her family and friends, going to new restaurants, reading and shopping. Joanna wanted to acknowledge the staff at the Mass General Bone Marrow Transplant clinic; she was so appreciative of the compassion and respect they gave her.
ARRANGEMENTS: Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, December 28, at 3 p.m. at the Murphy Funeral Home, 85 Federal St. (corner of North Street), Salem. Visitation will be prior to the Memorial Service from 1 to 3 p.m. Those who wish may make memorial contributions to the Bone Marrow Transplant Fund, c/o MGH Development Office, Suite 1310 Boston, MA 02114 or Hospice of the North Shore and Greater Boston, 75 Sylvan St, Suite B-102, Danvers, MA 01923. For online guestbook or additional information, please call 978-744-0497 or visit www.MurphyFuneralHome.com.


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City of Kansas City, Mo.
CONTACT: Mary Charles, city communications officer, (816) 513-1356
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Dec. 30, 2009
Phases I and II of City Snow Ordinance implemented
The City of Kansas City, Mo., implemented Phase I and II of the City Snow Ordinance on Dec. 30 at 6 a.m.
Phase I of a winter storm watch is issued when the streets are slick. During this time, drivers who do not have snow tires on their cars will be ticketed if they get stuck on a major thoroughfare.
In Phase II of a winter storm, cars parked on designated snow routes will be ticketed two hours after the phase is implemented.
City of Kansas City, Mo., crews assigned to arterial, primary and residential streets are running snow routes as outlined in the City's Snow Plan. Crews assigned to primary and arterial streets will work around the clock to remove snow and apply salt on City streets if necessary. Crews assigned to residential streets apply salt on hills, intersections, curves and slick areas and work to maintain a passable lane on residential streets.
The City's Public Works, Parks and Recreation and Water Services departments collaborate in the City's effort to remove snow and ice from approximately 900 miles of primary and arterial routes and maintain a passable driving lane on more than 1,500 miles of residential routes.
Residents can call the following numbers for assistance: City of Kansas City, Mo., 3-1-1 Action Center (a division of the City Manager's Office), 311 or 513-1313; and the Missouri Department of Transportation, (816) 622-6500. Requests for removal of tree limbs from the rights-of-way should be directed to the 3-1-1 Action Center. Requests for service also can be submitted to the 3-1-1 Action Center online at http://www.kcmo.org.
Media inquiries about ice and snow removal should be directed to Dennis Gagnon, public information officer for the Public Works Department, (816) 513-2659.


text:
Chef Brian P. McCarthy
Makes 4 servings
1 pound prepared vegan gnocchi, homemade or store bought
15 peeled cloves of garlic (1 head)
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 2-oz package basil, stemmed and chopped (1 bunch)
2 tbsp + 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
Salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp)
Preheat oven to 375°F
1) In a small baking dish, toss garlic with 2 tablespoons olive oil.
2) Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes.
3) In a food processor, combine roasted garlic, pine nuts, basil and remaining olive oil, processing until smooth. Add salt to taste.
4) Place gnocchi in boiling water and boil just until gnocchi floats to the top.
5) Strain gnocchi and toss with prepared pesto sauce.
Copyright © 2006 Brian P. McCarthy


text:
HOUSTON—Despite a lawsuit from the Texas Attorney General, consumer complaints continue to pour in against TaxMasters, the popular Houston-based tax relief firm.
The ads are everywhere.
TaxMasters spends an estimated $14 million a year on advertising, making Uncle Sam sound scary and touting its expertise in tax relief.
"The IRS can and will garnish your wages … we'll get between you and the IRS," one commercial proclaims.
That's exactly what Zain Naboulsi needed. After a business venture went bad, the computer programmer owed the government $50,000. But Naboulsi said TaxMasters assured him everything would be all right.
"No problem, we'll do an offer of compromise, we'll get to work on this, we'll take care of you," Naboulsi said of his initial phone conversation.
TaxMasters even allowed him pay its $4,000 fee over four payments. Months went by without a word, so he thought everything was OK.
That is, until a notice came in the mail.
"Wait a minute, what's going on here?" he said.
It was a garnishment letter from the IRS. So he called TaxMasters right away, and got a surprise.
"'Oh, we don't get to work on your case until you're paid in full," Naboulsi said he was told.
His reaction?
"What? This is the first I heard of this," he said.
Soon after that, Uncle Sam stripped his paycheck down to 600 bucks a month.
I-Team: "How rough did things get?"
Naboulsi: "It was pretty rough."
At this point in our interview, Naboulsi became emotional and stopped.
"You know, it was, uh, give me a minute," he said, wiping his eyes.
After hundreds of stories like his, the state of Texas sued the company in May 2011. As part of that legal action, TaxMasters agreed to clearly disclose all terms, conditions and restrictions to consumers. The company also agreed to stop making specific tax relief promises in initial phone consultations.
But even after the heat from the state, the I-Team discovered consumers continued to file formal complaints about the very same things TaxMasters promised not to do.
"They offered pennies on the dollar to me—50,75 percent in the taxes that I owe," said Shayne Highfield.
Considering he owed $22,000, Highfield signed right up.
"I was just like wow, you know, they're really going to help me," he said.
But he said after paying more than $3,000 in fees to TaxMasters, the company sent him a letter with three settlement options, none of which he qualified.
"It was all a fabrication, it was all just a big lie," Highfield said.
But the pitch sure sounded good. That's likely because TaxMasters uses salesmen, not accountants on the front lines. A job ad the I-Team obtained said the company looks for "talented closers" and promises the "leads come to you ... ready to bite."
"They should have some kind of standards," said Certified Public Accountant Ted Feher, who sits on the ethics committee for the Houston CPA Society.
"They do make it sound like it's very easy and it's a slam dunk," said Feher.
But he said the reality is very few Offer in Compromise cases work out in the consumer's favor.
"There's not an awful lot that they can really get you," he said.
That over-promising has landed others in trouble, such as JK Harris and Company.
Nineteen states sued the tax-relief firm and won $6.8 million in consumer refunds.
As for TaxMasters, the I-Team tracked down its founder and president Patrick Cox.
I-Team: "Why do so many consumer complaints continue to pour in against TaxMasters?"
Cox: "You know I told you we'd be glad to talk to you when we can, but I can't right now."
Cox claimed he can't because of that state lawsuit against him. But what about all those complaints that poured in after TaxMasters agreed to change its ways?
I-Team: "Are you being fair to consumers?"
Cox: "Yes, we are."
I-Team: "Then why have so many complaints come in?"
Cox: "You'd have to ask the consumer about that."
Ultimately, TaxMasters denied that many consumer complaints were about issues or problems previously cited by the Attorney General.
We asked for comment about the claims of former customers Zain Naboulsi and Shayne Highfield. TaxMasters said it could do so but only if both men signed a release form. However, Naboulsi and Highfield refused to do so, saying that, given past experience, they no longer trusted the firm.
Finally, as of press time, TaxMasters website does disclose that it doesn't have to work on a customer's account until the firm has received its entire fee. It also states that that work may not necessarily be done by a "tax expert" or "professional."
Thanks to Dan Parsons and the Houston Better Business Bureau for their help in researching this story.


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MSIR is in need of a pickup in Oklahoma City, OK for 1 male shiba. The dog will be returning to Kansas City, MO.
Transport date: Friday December 4, 2009
Dawn and Miko, MSIR transport coordinators
P.S. Sam Taylor will be filling this one.
Return to "DONE" Transports Complete
Registered users: Ahrefs [Bot], Brandwatch [Bot], CommonCrawl [Bot], Coolride, Google [Bot], Mail.ru [Bot], SEOprofiler [Bot]


text:
Local early childhood education advocates welcomed President Barack Obama's proposal to expand public preschool programs, but some senior citizens were not supportive of a change in Social Security cost-of-living adjustment criteria.
In his budget announcement Wednesday, Obama included a plan to offer preschool to all 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families. The expansion would be financed by a higher tax on tobacco.
"This is a good thing," said Julie Ankrum, associate professor of early childhood education and literacy at Pitt-Johnstown.
"There is a lot of research that shows all students benefit from quality preschool education."
On the Social Security issue, the president proposed a switch in the way the government calculates the annual cost-of-living adjustments to a method that takes into account changes that occur when people substitute goods rising in price with less expensive products. It results in a slightly lower annual reading for inflation.
"That is a mess," Joel McKeon said while playing cards at Johnstown Senior Activity Center, 550 Main St.
"It's terrible. Let's start at the top before we get down to the senior citizens. Let's make cuts at the top."
Cost-of-living adjustments have never kept up with true inflation, fellow card-player Curt Sanders said.
"As soon as they give it to you, everything goes up," Sanders said. "This year my health insurance went up $15 (a month). My (cost-of-living) went up $9. Plus food went up, gas went up."
A quality universal preschool program will pay for itself in the long run, Johnstown Schools Superintendent Gerald Zahorchak said.
"This is not a political issue," Zahorchak said. "Everyone understands that it is clear, if you invest a dollar in high quality preschool, you get from $7 to $17 in return over the long term."
Children provided with quality preschool go on to have better test performance, higher high school graduation rates and are more likely to complete college, Zahorchak said. As a result, they ultimately earn more money and pay more taxes.
"Kids who take part in quality pre-kindergarten are less likely to be involved in the juvenile justice system," Executive Director Leah Spangler said from The Learning Lamp, 2025 Bedford St.
"There is a lot of research supporting the need for a quality pre-K," she continued. "If they are involved in a quality pre-K, they are less likely to do drugs."
Improved preschool education helps address the gap that exists between
lower socioeconomic groups and the more affluent, Ankrum said, noting that the disparity can be seen in standardized test scores.
"Children from lower socioeconomic families don't score as well on standardized tests," she said. "They haven't been given the benefits that other students have been given."
Although federally funded Head Start programs are available to help low-income families, there are few affordable programs for those who don't meet the income guidelines, Spangler said.
"There are kids who are stuck in the middle," Spangler said. "Their families are not low-income for Head Start, but they can't afford tuition to private preschool."
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Click here to subscribe to The Tribune-Democrat e-edition.


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Favorite Peanut Butter Cookies380 Reviews 29 Pics
Prep30 m
Cook30 m
Ready In1 h
"Simple peanut butter cookies with the traditional crisscross on the top. "
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Adjust Servings
Original recipe yields 4 1/2 dozen
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- In a large bowl, cream together the peanut butter, margarine, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda; stir into the peanut butter mixture. Form dough into walnut sized balls and place them 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Dip a fork into flour and criss cross each cookie to flatten slightly.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until just lightly browned. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Reviews (380)Rate This Recipe
Very good cookies. I added peanut butter chips. My only suggestion would be to bake at 375 for 10 minutes (instead of 12-15 as suggested in the recipe) to ensure a chewy cookie -- after being in the oven for 10 minutes, my cookies had a slightly crunchy edge with a chewy center. All in all, very good!!
THIS IS THE PERFECT PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE! I've tried ALOT of recipes, and this is the very best! I followed the recipe exactly and they came out perfect. I did divide the dough and added milk chocolate chips with peanut butter chips to some of it and butterscotch chips to some. Those were great too as well as the cookies without chips. You don't have to refrigerate this dough at all, it's ready to use as soon as you make it. Good job!! I would give this 10 or more stars if possible!
moonlight sonata
Delicious cookies. I couldn't stop eating them, even as soon as they came out of the oven. I found that baking them for ONLY 10 minutes at 375 was sufficient enough, too.
Similar Recipes
Mrs. Sigg's Peanut Butter Cookies
Soft Peanut Butter Cookies
Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
Dad's Favorite Peanut Butter Cookies
Robin's Peanut Butter Cookies
Yummy Peanut Butter Cookies
Amount Per Serving (54 total)
- Calories
- 109 cal
- 5%
- Fat
- 6.6 g
- 10%
- Carbs
- 11 g
- 4%
- Protein
- 2.3 g
- 5%
- Cholesterol
- 8 mg
- 3%
- Sodium
- 100 mg
- 4%
Based on a 2,000 calorie diet
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Mrs. Sigg's Peanut Butter Cookies
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Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies


text:
Since the Great Recession, most supervisors have become familiar with the call to "do more with less."
But that doesn't work when your job is providing health care to a suddenly increasing number of veterans at the same time you're experiencing shortages of key personnel.
Add to that the demands by elected officials and bosses for the Department of Veterans Affairs to reduce claims backlogs and provide treatment more quickly, and it probably should come as no surprise that the VA system is in crisis.
Nationwide, a VA audit published Monday found that more than 57,000 veterans have had to wait more than 90 days for their first VA appointment. The limit is supposed to be 14 days. And the audit found that about 13 percent of VA schedulers nationwide had been told by supervisors to manipulate data to hide how long it was really taking to schedule patient appointments. As they say, it's not the crime, it's the coverup. On Wednesday the FBI announced it has launched an investigation.
Now slightly different bills that passed both houses of Congress almost unanimously this week promise to provide at least some temporary relief for veterans.
The legislation would allow vets to seek help elsewhere, at government expense, if they can't be seen at a VA facility within 30 days. That safety valve could take some of the pressure off VA hospitals, many of which have taken the shady way around their inability to promptly schedule appointments.
Although the VA Puget Sound hospitals in Lakewood and Seattle weren't found to be falsifying records, they too have longer-than-desired average wait times for appointments: 59 days. Other problems cited by auditors: high nurse turnover, poor patient survival rates following acute care, urinary tract infections linked to catheters and too many hospitalizations of patients with pneumonia. VA Northwest also has among the worst call center performance in the system.
On the plus side, VA Puget Sound hospitals were among the best in linking patients to mental health resources and to preventing infections caused by antibiotic-resistant MRSA staph bacteria – a growing problem in health care settings.
The two bills in Congress have slight differences that need to be ironed out in conference. The most important provision – letting vets seek care outside the VA system if necessary – would only be in effect two years. But if that approach seems to be working well, Congress should consider making it a permanent part of the VA's health care delivery.


text: Quote:I totally agree. A great report and especially so as it's backed by some months of use. One thing I'm curious about is the noise level. If anyone knows how does it compare with the AP1200? To my ears the AP1200 noise levels are perfectly acceptable and quite pleasant to my ears. Gavin


text:
Buffalo Bills general manager Buddy Nix said today he and the team's football department will conduct internal evaluations all week and he will address the fans - through the media - in a week.
"We're meeting with the players right now one at a time," Nix said, a day after the Bills closed the season 6-10. "Tomorrow it'll be with the coaches. Coach (Chan) Gailey and I will meet. Then we're gonna have personnel meetings that will last probably two days. I'll hear from the pro department, the college scouts. We'll cover every phase of things and then end up with my annual meeting with Mr. (Ralph) Wilson. We meet every day just about (via the telephone), but kind of a season-ending thing with him, which we always do. I'd rather not answer anything specific right now. But Monday I know you've got things you've got to answer and you've got to talk about, and I'll do the best I can to help you on Monday."
Asked to sum up his thoughts on the season, Nix said: "It was a two-part season. We were excited the first seven games. I knew we weren't quite as far along as everybody thought we were. But it was fun. It was fun to see the fans and this city get as excited as they did. Our players were excited. There's no excuse for losing seven games in a row. That was a complete downer and a complete surprise. I think we did get it back a little bit. You can make all kinds of excuses, you know, injuries, and that kind of thing. But even at that, we should have done better. I think we got a good nucleus. I'm excited. Talking to the players, I'm excited about how they feel, and I'm excited about a new year. It's time. We need to make sure we step up and get it done, and I think we will."
---Mark Gaughan


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iPhone - iPod
Swordigo Answers for iPhone - iPodHome / iPhone - iPod /
Game Questions & Answers (Q&A) service lets you ask questions about video games for game consoles or PC games. So ask your Swordigo question for iPhone - iPod and get answers from real gamers or answer questions and share your insights and experience with the rest of the gaming community. Note: This apple iPhone game app may also be compatible with the game app for apple iPad.
- Developer: Touch Foo
- Publisher: Touch Foo
- Genre: Adventure General
- Release Date: Mar 22, 2012
- ESRB: Not Set
Question & Answers
Where do I get the dragon grip for the purple blob? (Closed)
I don't know where to find the dragon grip so I can use the purple blobs
Answer from: Chaka's Mum
It's in the Fiery Depths. You need to get to a part of the cave where the lava starts rising. Get to the top without being sizzled or pronged by fire blobs and you'll meet the Master who'll give you the spell.
Unanswered Questions
Chamber of Mageblade
From: Ampopones
From: Ampopones
Total 0 Answers
Posted on: 07-04-2014
Posted on: 07-04-2014
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text:
2015 Lexus RX 350
The 2015 Lexus RX 350 remains a comfortable, easy-driving SUV with a great amount of space, but its features, especially in the driver-assistance category, fall behind those of the competition.
2015 Acura RDX
The Acura RDX becomes a simpler, more refined SUV for the 2015 model year with a new engine and AWD system, but terrible dashboard tech hurts the bottom line.
2014 Lexus RX 450h AWD
The 2014 Lexus RX 450h isn't a sexy choice, but it is a strong performer and a comfortable luxury cruiser with one of the quietest power trains in its class.
2015 Chevrolet Suburban
Adherents of old-school truck design will favor the 2015 Suburban for its strong bones, and Chevrolet fits the cabin out with modern electronics to keep the techie generation satisfied, but the era of 6,000 pound passenger vehicles seems over.
2015 Kia K900
The 2015 Kia K900 comes in at a cut-rate price for a big sedan, and offers a few very nice amenities, but ride quality doesn't come up to the class for which this sedan strives.
2015 Subaru Legacy
The 2015 Subaru Legacy makes for a comfortable and capable midsize sedan, handling day-to-day driving with ease, then adding unique features such as all-wheel-drive that set it a cut above the competition.
Pricing not available
2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid
The 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid struggles to justify its bigger price tag, as it doesn't have significant power or efficiency gains over even its non-hybrid base model and pales in comparison to other hybrid wagons.
2014 Ford Fusion Energi
The 2014 Ford Fusion Energi drives very comfortably and easily, and proves extremely economical for people who can plug it in and drive a reasonable daily commute.
2014 Volkswagen Jetta TDI
The 2014 Volkswagen Jetta TDI offers basic transportation at a bargain and an excellent engine, but techies will want to hold off for the improved 2015 model.
2015 Audi A3 sedan
The 2015 Audi A3 2.0T Quattro hits a sweet spot, balancing comfort with a bit of sportiness, connected tech with a great low-distraction interface, and a small-car feel with luxury appointment.


text:
By Jay Skurski
Kiko Alonso
Position: Linebacker
School: Oregon
Measurements: 6-foot-3, 238 pounds
40-yard dash: 4.74 seconds. Vertical: 30.5 inches. Broad jump: 9 feet, 9 inches.
2012 stats: 81 tackles (14 for loss), four interceptions, seven passes defensed, two forced fumbles
Draft projection: Third-fourth round
Lowdown: Alonso is a versatile, three-down linebacker who can play in the middle or outside. Plays with an aggressive, attacking style that would likely appeal to new Bills defensive coordinator Mike Pettine. Will run around, through or even jump over blockers to get to the ball carrier. Has impressive closing speed when finding the ball, which suggests he'd fit best on the weak side. Is athletic enough to match up with running backs or tight ends in the passing game.
Has a solid, muscular build, but was not frequently asked to take on blockers head-on in the Ducks' scheme. Has only one season of starting experience. Willing to push the limits on "playing to the whistle." Does not change direction real well, so will likely be limited to blitzing up the middle of the field, the "A" Gap.
Has both durability and off-the-field concerns. Alonso missed all of the 2010 season because of a suspension for a DUI arrest. He would have missed the season, anyway, as he was rehabbing a torn ACL in his right knee. He was also suspended for the 2011 season opener after he broke into someone's apartment and passed out from intoxication. Has kept his nose clean since then. Alonso did miss one game in 2012 because of a wrist injury. He skipped the Senior Bowl and doing drills at the combine to let that injury fully heal.
He said it: "I think I can play any spot in the 4-3 or the 3-4 defense. I think that's what sets me apart from some other guys -- my versatility."
The Buffalo News is profiling 50 prospects in 50 days leading up to this month's NFL Draft.
tagged2013 draft | Kiko Alonso | Road to the Draft


text:
I Like Big Butts and I Cannot Lie…
Its to bad these are ruined by photoshop….i would like to see the originals…
grotesque in every form of the word.
this should help my english compostion – in the study of the saliva secretions corraspond with web images.
Copyright © 2011 - Funnyzela. All rights reserved.
Funnyzela.comBack to Top


text:
ike's out on vacation, so I'm taking over Legends & Lore this week to talk about monsters. As a producer in D&D R&D, I'm less involved in the design and development of the game, and more in charge of planning and developing product ideas. As a result, I'm hoping to use this opportunity to gather feedback on what people would like to see in the way of monsters for the next iteration of the game—whether it comes in the form of a Monster Manual®, or something else entirely.
The original 1974 "white box" included around fifty different types of monsters (not including mundane animals), many of which had a few variations. Most of the monsters didn't have illustrations, nor did they need them. Nearly all of the monsters were recognizable, inspired either by classic myth or fantasy literature. Some of the most outlandish monsters that appeared in the white box are now staples of D&D—oozes and slimes, purple worms, and, of course, kobolds.
The basic set in 1977 provided a much more robust creature selection, adding to the core of the game many creatures that had appeared in supplements, including such iconic specimens as the mind flayer, the umber hulk, the beholder, and the rust monster. The AD&D Monster Manual consolidated hundreds of monsters into a single book, delivering to Dungeon Masters a seemingly endless supply of threats.
If you're a Dungeon Master, and you're like me, then you can never have enough monsters. I must have the Monster Manual and its sequels. In fact (and at the risk of showing my youth), the Monstrous Manual from 2nd Edition was the first D&D book I ever bought, even before I knew how to play D&D. I simply wanted the book because I was fascinated by the monster lore. Even though I had no idea what the statistics meant—I still hadn't figured out THAC0—I could tell from reading about the tarrasque that it was a badass.
So why the trip down monster memory lane? For me, the playtesting process is as much about figuring out the best D&D product offerings as it is about getting feedback on the rules and mechanics of the game. We aim to meet the desires of the D&D community. Although it's still too early in the design and playtesting process to discuss product X or Y, we'd like to start collecting some general sentiments, such as what monsters are essential to D&D, how many monsters you need if you're a beginning or advanced Dungeon Master, and so forth.
Please help us out by taking this survey. Please note that we refer to the Monster Manual throughout the survey, as it is a known and easy reference point for most players. However, the final product mix for D&D Next has yet to be determined so no specific formats or titles have been determined at this early date.
Finally, if you're missing your dose of Mearls, check out the video from last week's "The Future of D&D" panel at PAX East.


text:
Ahmad Bradshaw was thinking ahead on Sunday.
The two-time Super Bowl champion and Bluefield native talked about what motivated him to return to the area for a "signing event," and what he sees as his role and those of other running backs on the roster of the world champion New York Giants.
Dozens of people waited in line to pay $20 and up to have Bradshaw sign a memento on a warm Sunday afternoon at the McDonald's on Stafford Drive in Princeton.
The Graham High School and Marshall University alumnus said the event was "to give everybody the opportunity, around this community, to come out and meet me. ... McDonald's gave me this opportunity to come out, and I'm just blessed to have it."
Some of the proceeds will help him conduct football camps for children "hopefully for the rest of my life," he said. "I would like to have a camp here ... just so the kids can come out and be able to learn the game of football, and just to have fun and hang together and be together."
He did not conduct a camp last year because of the NFL lockout, he said, and this year his schedule could not be worked out. "It was just the time," he said.
Those camps could take place in the local area, and a much larger metropolis as well.
Bradshaw said, "The plan is to take it a little bit of everywhere. I would love to do it up in New York; a lot of the guys are doing it up in New York, also.
"But first off, my main focus is to do it here. This is the community that raised me and took care of me, and I just want to give back as much as I can. I haven't been able to do as much as I could around here — like I say, it's all with the timing."
"But I've still got a long life to live, and I've got kids, too, so I've got to take care of my [family] and then take care of everything else."
A small group of Bradshaw's associates was set up in a dining area of the restaurant on Sunday, seeing to it that the money was taken care of.
Why Princeton?
"[I] wanted to put it in a kind of neutral spot, so a lot of people in different areas can come out," he said. "We'll have it, next time, maybe in a different area."
"This is just the start of a lot of different things. I just want to have fun with it, and like I say, to give back."
The personal appearance schedule for a starter on a Super Bowl championship team is "hectic," he said. "You're in demand, everywhere — especially when you win the Super Bowl. But it's a blessing ... ."
"Winning the Super Bowl this year has set back a lot of things ... things I'm just trying to get done in the off-season, to prepare for the next season. [There are] just a lot of things I got to do before the season starts."
The next step will be to report to the Giants' preseason training camp on July 26. He said, "It comes around so quick. And when you're in the Super Bowl, it comes around super-quick."
"We go in next week, on Thursday the 26th, and I don't get a break after that. It's tough. I get one day out of a week during the season, which is Tuesday, and that day I'm just trying to take care of my body and get back healthy for the next week."
This summer, he goes in No. 1 on the depth chart at running back, now that Brandon Jacobs has ended his seven-year tenure with the Giants and moved on to San Francisco.
Bradshaw had nothing but good things to say about his former teammate, who acted as a mentor for the young pro when Bradshaw joined the team as a seventh-round draft pick in 2007.
"It's been a blessing to have Brandon Jacobs with me," Bradshaw said. "As a Giant, he's taught me a lot in the football game. He's taught me a lot in life, outside of football. ... And then last year, I actually took the starting position, but we kind of shared the role."
"This year, being the premier back, it's just something you dream of. I feel like ... I'm able to put the team on my back, at times. It's just that feeling you get as the premier back, man. It's something that you always want to be, when you're younger. And it's something you always want to be when you're a pro."
Now he's the one looking at younger running backs reporting into camp.
"We have a lot of good backs," he said. "We picked up David Wilson, from Virginia Tech. He's going to be a great asset to our team."
With the younger players, Bradshaw said, "They all help. Just like last year, we had Henry Hynoski from Pittsburgh. He came in as a rookie, played all year, and took us to a Super Bowl. You can't complain about that."
"Young guys help out a lot. Even if they're not impact [players] this year, they can be practice guys — you know, just to be able to help."
He said he remembers what it's like "starting from the bottom, and just having to prove yourself. As a seventh-round pick, for me coming in, I just wanted to get in and prove myself, prove I was worth more, and show the coaches how they can depend on me."
"And give 'em a reason to put me on that football field."
He served a sometimes up-and-down apprenticeship under the Giants' intense head coach, Tom Coughlin, who will be 66 when the NFL season starts. Bradshaw placed himself squarely in the crotchety coach's corner.
"I love Tom Coughlin as a coach," Bradshaw said. "He's one of my best guys on the team. He looks after me, and he has ever since I've been a rookie. The way I play, I do it not only for the Giants, but for Tom, because he's a great influence in my life."
He was asked about Coughlin's tough image.
Bradshaw said, "He looks that way. I don't think he's that tough. He comes off to everybody that way, but he's kind of lightened up since my rookie year, since we won the first Super Bowl. So we'll see what he does after this one."
"But I don't want him to lighten up. I want him to stay tough on us. And hopefully, we can keep winning."
When he hangs up the cleats, Bradshaw said he is looking to make his home in the local area.
"I always want to have my place here. I love coming home. I love being back home," he said. "It's just like a lot off my shoulders. It humbles me, man. Shows you where you've come from. Shows you where you started. Shows you what you've worked hard for."
— Contact Tom Bone at
Pro Sports
Bradshaw signs in
Super Bowl RB talks about future
Ahmad Bradshaw was thinking ahead on Sunday.
- Pro Sports
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Hall of Fame adds businesslike Braves, Frank Thomas, managers La Russa and Torre
Atlanta Braves pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, and their manager, Bobby Cox, dominated much of baseball during the 1990s. This weekend they went into the Hall of Fame together.
- Judge rules against Sterling in Clippers ownership suit
- Former Pro Bowler Bailey has lots to prove as a Saints newcomer
- Iraq war vet heads up Washington Redskins' special teams
- On 'Jeff Gordon Day,' driver wins fifth Indy race
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- Colts' Ballard out for season, healthy Bradshaw in running for starting slot
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A message from SAT-7 International CEO Photo: young Palestinian boys It may come as a surprise to most Westerners to know that there are as many as several thousand Christian Palestinians living in G..
Lebanese presidential candidates discuss "Wars and Faith" on SAT-7
Series Airs as Elections Hang in the Balance Marking the occasion of Lebanon's presidential elections, SAT-7 produced and is airing Wars and Faith (in Arabic, Haroob wa Iman). The powerful 10-episode series feature..
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Sonoma County employee union prepares to strike next month
Published: Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 3:39 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, January 28, 2013 at 12:13 p.m.
The largest group of unionized Sonoma County government employees plans to strike next month to protest what it says is county inaction on a union proposal to save taxpayer money and several other issues it says amount to unfair labor practices.
But the planned Feb. 28 walkout also is geared, indirectly at least, to rachet up pressure on now-protracted contract talks with the county, where the employees face a package of unpopular pay and pension cuts.
A proposed labor agreement with those concessions was overwhelmingly rejected last month by members of the Service Employees International Union Local 1021, which represents about half of the county's 3,500 employees.
The workers include frontline staff at most county departments outside of public safety divisions, whose sworn ranks would not be affected by the walkout.
The standoff has developed in the 10th month of negotiations between the county and the union, and after years of job cuts, unpaid furloughs and other reductions aimed to fill large recession-era deficits.
Union members say those budgets were balanced largely on the backs of their workers and that an improved financial forecast for county government should put a halt to the cuts.
"Good faith at the bargaining table means you're actually talking about solutions, give and take," said Lathe Gill, Santa Rosa-based area director for SEIU Local 1021. "The last five years, it's been all about take and not give."
But with county tax revenue only set for marginal growth this year, and with $353 million in long-term unfunded pension promises plus multimillion-dollar annual backlogs in road upkeep and capital improvements, county officials say current compensation levels need to be cut for all employees, including managers and elected officials. The current plan is to have those higher paid workers take sharper pay and benefit cuts if unions agree to concessions for their members.
"We don't have enough money," County Administrator Veronica Ferguson said. "To be sustainable requires us all to tighten our belts."
Strikes by county workers are rare in recent decades. Union representatives say the planned action, which has been endorsed by affiliated labor groups in the region, is needed to air their grievances, including claims of county interference with union bargaining activity.
"It affects the integrity of (the negotiation) process," Gill said.
But county officials have questioned whether the protest is fueled more by dispute over the economic concessions under negotiation, including measures to curb rising pension costs and reduce overall compensation levels by 3 percent. If so, the walkout may violate state labor laws, which prohibit such strikes for public employees during the course of contract talks.
Ferguson said that either way, the planned action was "premature."
"I expect SEIU to comply with the law," she said. If the strike does occur, she said, managers would be tasked with providing key public services for the day. The county also could go to court to prevent other "essential" employees from striking, she said.
"All of the signs we've seen at the table is that they (SEIU) are continuing to negotiate in good faith," she said.
Union leaders said the planned action did not represent a step away from the bargaining table. The two sides have met once this month and are set to meet again Feb. 6.
But the union's movement toward a strike has been building since its December contract vote, when 87 percent of the voting members turned down a tentative agreement reached in late November.
The vote also authorized a future strike, and union leaders on Jan. 10 decided to take that step. They announced the Feb. 28 action on their website last week.
"We're united on this issue," Andre Bercut, a chief steward with Local 1021, was quoted as saying in an online update to members. "If management won't come to the table with real solutions, we'll force their hand and walk out."
Other SEIU materials distributed locally also have touted the potential impact of a strike on contract talks, with one flier calling labor stoppage a "game changer."
Still, labor leaders insisted in interviews last week that the planned walkout was based not on differences at the bargaining table but on the union's complaints of allegedly improper county labor practices.
Their broadest charge is that county officials have refused to address management-to-line staff ratios, a move they contend would cut annual payroll costs by up to $40 million, or about 8 percent of total yearly pay and benefits.
"It has to do with managers doing our bargaining unit work. We can do it for less," Gill said. "Their refusal to talk about an economic issue has an impact on services to the community."
Both sides have marshalled statistics in the public debate. Union members focus on the higher overall loss of rank-and-file jobs versus management posts since 2008, with union data showing more than 90 percent of the cuts in rank-and-file positions. Labor leaders say the trend has resulted in a top-heavy workforce with bloated six-figure salaries.
"There's a general feeling that there's some real inequality in terms of shared sacrifice," said Lisa Maldonado, executive director of the North Bay Labor Council, a coalition of public- and private-sector unions that have backed the strike.
County records show the share of cuts to rank-and-file positions at closer to 80 percent over the same period. Either way, the effect on the line staff-to-management ratio was not glaring, officials said. County data actually shows a slight uptick in the staff-to-management ratio, while union data shows a drop, from 6.1-to-1 to 5.8-to-1. The drop is larger stretching back to 2000, when the ratio of staff to management was 7.4-to-1, according to the union.
SEIU representatives are calling for a ratio closer to 11-to-1, the mandated staffing goal for public agencies in other states, including Oregon and Texas.
County officials say they are studying the issue, with a report due to the Board of Supervisors in March evaluating possible cost savings.
But they also said the subject, which encompasses the entire county workforce and 10 other employee bargaining groups, is not one they are going to negotiate with SEIU or any other group.
"I understand their concern," said Supervisor Shirlee Zane, who has perhaps the strongest ties to organized labor on the current board. "There are departments that do need to improve those ratios . . . At the same time you have to have clear boundaries in terms of what we negotiate. And it has to be in the contract."
The union is also pressing several other charges related to alleged county interference with activity by SEIU bargaining team members. It has made a formal complaint to state labor officials on one of the interference charges, and Gill said it would do the same with the other claims.
County officials said they were addressing the one formal complaint, which concerned a bargaining team member who said he was threatened by his manager with a job transfer because of his union responsibilities.
Ferguson said the union official was not being transferred and would be allowed to continue with his union duties.
She declined to answer questions pertaining to the remaining union charges, which have not yet been filed with state labor officials.
You can reach Staff Writer Brett Wilkison at 521-5295 or email@example.com.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


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By Mark E. Vogler
---- — LAWRENCE — As a last resort, Pinnacle Financial Consulting LLC advised their clients they needed to file bankruptcy petitions to save their homes.
"When their loan modification efforts fail, sometimes just days before the distressed homeowner's home is scheduled to be sold at foreclosure, defendants pressure distressed homeowners into paying defendants thousands of dollars to file bankruptcy on their behalf in order to delay the foreclosure sale," according to a lawsuit the state Attorney General's Office filed against the downtown business.
But about a quarter of the bankruptcy cases prepared by Pinnacle Financial were defective, according to court records filed in connection with the complaint.
"Defendants' bankruptcy filings on behalf of consumers are often incomplete or consist of erroneous paperwork, ultimately resulting in the dismissal of the bankruptcy proceedings," the lawsuit alleged.
"The U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee of Region I, District of Massachusetts, has identified, and the Commonwealth is aware of, 107 bankruptcy cases initiated by Defendants, at least 27 of which had fundamental defects in the documents Defendants prepared and filed," the complaint noted.
In eight of those cases, the U.S. Trustee has initiated disgorgement proceedings against defendants for illegally-prepared bankruptcy petitions.
A Dracut woman who paid Pinnacle Financial to prepare a loan modification to avoid foreclosure said the company later intended to charge her $850 to prepare a bankruptcy petition – something the company said was needed to avoid losing her home, according to court records.
She said Pinnacle Financial and its owner Robert Burton completed the petition without soliciting any input from her,
"At 1 p.m. on Jan. 31, 2012, the day before the foreclosure auction was scheduled at my home, a Pinnacle staff member brought the completed bankruptcy paperwork to my workplace in Salem, N.H., and told me to sign the entire stack of documents," the woman said in a court affidavit.
"I was not given any opportunity to meaningfully review the documents. Instead, I was told just to sign in several places beside post-it notes," she said.
Less than a week later, she received a call from the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee advising her that the petition prepared by Burton and Pinnacle Financial was "grossly deficient," according to court records.
"After the call, I feared that Burton and Pinnacle had also mismanaged my loan modification and immediately contacted the mortgage lender for my home in Dracut to determine what Burton had done," the woman said.
"My lender's representative advised me that the lender had denied my loan modification request on Jan. 23, 2012, and that it had informed Burton of this fact immediately thereafter," she said.
"The representative also told me that it first received a loan modification application from Pinnacle in November 2011, even though Pinnacle and Burton said that they had submitted my paperwork in August soon after I hired them."
Despite meeting with the woman on several occasions after Jan. 23, Burton never told her that her loan modification had been denied, according to the affidavit.
"Instead, Burton specifically told me that I needed to file bankruptcy and pay him an additional fee in order to buy time to complete my loan modification process a week after my loan modification request had already been denied," she said.
The woman ended up hiring an attorney to "completely redo" her bankruptcy paperwork.
Meanwhile, she struggles with attempts by her lender to foreclose on her Dracut home.
She insisted that she would have been better off financially to use the money she paid Burton and Pinnacle on her loan payments instead of following their advice to allow the mortgage payments to become delinquent in the hopes of obtaining a loan modification.
The Attorney General's Office maintains in its lawsuit that Pinnacle's solicitation and acceptance of advance fees for loan modification and preparation of bankruptcy petitions was illegal.
A Suffolk County Superior Court judge recently issued a preliminary injunction which prohibits Pinnacle from soliciting or receiving any fees for loan modification services, bankruptcy petition preparation services and investment advising services.


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Back to homeschool savings— Save 10% and get Free Shipping on your entire order now through August 4! Learn how.
Handwriting 4 emphasizes refining of handwriting skills while using journals, paragraphs, outlines, and hymns for handwriting practice. Mrs. Overly encourages correct letter formation while students learn to use ink pens properly.
This course includes an abridged electronic version of the teacher's edition that can be viewed while logged on to bjupressonline.com.
Lesson Content: five 15-minute lessons a week; 125 lessons per year
>>Click the Resources tab to view technical requirements for Distance Learning Online and information about the course's instructor.
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*Note: Windows Vista and Windows 7 users will need a minimum of 1 Gigabyte of RAM to run Windows Vista or Windows 7, but 2 Gigabytes is recommended for optimum efficiency.
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Mrs. Overly, a mother of three, has experience teaching several elementary grades. "I want to encourage each child to look forward to learning each day and also to provide sufficient practice and review activities to help alleviate mom's workload. Most importantly, I want to present Christ in each subject that I teach. Each child should hear the gospel and then see in a very practical way how it can change a sinner."
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Ron Lieber
Earl Wilson/The New York Times
Ron Lieber is the "Your Money" columnist for The New York Times. "The Opposite of Spoiled," his guide to teaching kids about money and values, will be published by Harper Collins in February, 2015.
Before coming to The Times, Ron helped develop the personal finance Web site FiLife and wrote for The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company and Fortune. He's the author or co-author of three books, including The New York Times bestseller "Taking Time Off," which encouraged young adults to take a year off between high school and college or sometime during their undergraduate years. His first story in The Times was an op-ed about sexual assault and campus judicial systems that appeared during his junior year at Amherst.
Follow Ron at twitter.com/ronlieber.
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Journal Scan: Anticoagulant rodenticide screening may help determine prognosis
Why they did it
What they did
Anticoagulant rodenticide screening included high-performance liquid chromatography analysis for:
What they found
There was no difference in the most common initial clinical signs (lethargy or collapse, decreased appetite, vomiting, dyspnea, and cough) between the groups with positive and negative test results. The median PCV, total solids concentration, platelet count, and aPTT were also similar between the two groups, whereas initial median PT was significantly longer among dogs in the positive group (52 vs. 13 seconds, P < 0.001).
For those dogs that had negative results for the anticoagulant rodenticide testing (n = 48), the most common conditions diagnosed were neoplasia (31.3%), immune-mediated disease (14.6%), and gastrointestinal bleeding (10.4%). More dogs that had positive results survived compared with those with negative test results (98% vs. 63%, P < 0.001).
Take-home message
Waddell LS, Poppenga RH, Drobatz KJ. Anticoagulant rodenticide screening in dogs: 123 cases (1996-2003). J Am Vet Med Assoc 2013;242(4):516-521.
Link to abstract: http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.242.4.516


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Date: 3/28/2000
Colorado couple support AU's first Endowed Chair of Biology
AU recently announced the completion of a trust provision providing more than one million dollars for the support of an Endowed Chair of Biology—the first Endowed Chair in the history of the university. Dr. Jerry and Patricia Stevenson of Estes Park, Colo., established the gift for the ongoing development of students.
"We wanted to do something that would give back to the community of Anderson—particularly the Church of God and Anderson University," said Jerry Stevenson. "This gift provides us with the opportunity to positively influence the lives of young persons at Anderson University who could then turn around and influence others."
At the maturity of the trust, the earnings will be used to support the ongoing salary and benefits of the appointee, faculty and student research, public programs and lectures, professional meetings and publications, as well as equipment and materials.
"We are extremely pleased that the creation of this trust is intended to provide funding for the first Endowed Chair at the university," said Ron Moore, AU Senior Vice President. "Not only are we pleased about the quality and depth of what this gift will bring to the university, this endowment also adds a note of distinction to the professional tenure of Dr. Stevenson at AU."
Dr. Stevenson received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Findlay in 1953, a Master of Arts from Bowling Green State University in 1956, and an M.D. from The Ohio State University in 1960. In addition, Dr. Stevenson served as corporal for the Army and a second lieutenant for the United States Public Health Service.
Patricia Stevenson attended both Anderson University and The Ohio State University, where she pursued an interest in occupational therapy and worked as a technician in the university's Pathology Department.
From 1965-70, Dr. Stevenson served as Chair of the Biology Department at Anderson University. He was instrumental in building the current curriculum for the department and bringing distinction to the university's pre-medical program.
"Dr. Stevenson is known as an innovator who helped develop the foundation for the strong academic program we have today," said Dr. Blake Janutolo, Dean of the AU College of Science and Humanities. "This gift will allow the Biology Department to expand its services to students and engage in scholastic activities that are not possible today. It is a great honor to know that the first Endowed Chair in the history of the university will be established in the sciences."
From approximately 1970 to 1997, Dr. Stevenson worked full-time in the Pathology Department at St. John's Hospital in Anderson.
Dr. Jerry and Patricia Stevenson currently reside in Estes Park, Colo. The couple has two children and four grandchildren.
Anderson University is a private, four-year, Christian liberal arts institution of approximately 2,300 undergraduate and graduate students. Established in 1917 by the Church of God, the university offers more than 60 undergraduate majors and graduate programs of study in business, education, and theology.


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Editor's Note: The story below is a Hennepin County Sheriff's Office press release.
Today, Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek joined Minneapolis residents and law enforcement leaders in a roundtable discussion with President Barack Obama to discuss guns and extreme violence. Among the reasons for President Obama's visit was to highlight why Minneapolis and Hennepin County have sustained overall reductions in violent crime in recent years and to look for solutions to further reduce gun violence.
As a strong supporter of the 2nd amendment, Sheriff Stanek talked about how the problem is one of access.
"Gun ownership isn't a privilege, it's a right guaranteed by the Constitution," said Sheriff Stanek. "We have an access problem; people already prohibited by law from owning or buying a gun should never have access to firearms. We shouldn't impose on the rights of law abiding citizens to try to solve this problem. Gun control alone will not solve the complex problem of guns and extreme violence."
Sheriff Stanek emphasized the need to improve the current background check system to ensure all court records containing information that would prohibit someone from purchasing a gun under current law are actually entered into the system nationwide. This position, along with several other suggested reforms, have been adopted by the Minnesota Sheriffs' Association, Major County Sheriffs' Association and the National Sheriffs' Association.
Another solution that can be pursued is to improve access to appropriate care for the mentally ill.
"We know that the mentally ill are no more likely to become violent than the general population, but when mental illness is untreated there is an increased risk of violence," said Stanek.
In Hennepin County, we book nearly 38,000 people into the jail annually with an estimated one-third suffering from mental illness.
Since 2006, there has been a 37% reduction in violent crime (rape, robbery, murder, aggravated assault) in Hennepin County. The Sheriff attributed this reduction to effective partnerships with police agencies countywide and a partnership with the County Attorney's Office that have focused resources on violent crime. An increased use of technology, enhanced use of forensics, and collaboration with other agencies have been critical to crime reduction.


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Former Gov. Mark Sanford, who officially announced this morning hes running to represent the 1st Congressional District, has something to say about ex-wife Jenny Sanford and fiancee Maria Belen Chapur but not Gov. Nikki Haley whom he helped catapult to the governors office in 2010 by raising money for her and encouraging his supporters to back her.
Im not about to grade other people on their report card, Sanford said, when asked about Haley. Im about to get my own report card.
Haley said she is not surprised Sanford is running for the congressional seat along the Lowcountry coast.
He is someone that is very involved in policy and has always loved policy," she told reporters while previewing her annual State of the State address scheduled for tonight. "This is going back home to him, which would be his old congressional seat.
While Sanford plans to marry Chapur, whom he secretly left the state to visit in Argentina in 2009, he isnt giving up any wedding details. The secret trip not only destroyed Sanfords marriage but ended growing talk of Sanford as a viable presidential contender in 2012.
All Im going to say is I love her, Im engaged to her and Im going to marry her, said Sanford. And while he stopped short of saying his ex-wife is in favor of his run, he said she is not opposing it. Jenny Sanford is credited with helping craft and run his previous successful campaigns. Some had hoped she would run for Congress, but she has said she will not.
Sanford said his first stop was to her home when he was mulling whether to run for the district, which includes Beaufort County.
Its the first visit I made. I said, If you have any interest in doing this, I wont, he said. When she said she wasnt, I continued this process.
And yes, hes preparing for the Appalachian jokes. (Sanfords staff said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail when he was with Chapur in Argentina.)
I failed in that chapter of my life. I spent a year of my life apologizing, he said. At some point, you have to get up and say, I am a flawed human being, but I feel I can make a difference based on a 20-year track record. ... The reality of the human experience is, were all going to fail at something.
Sanford would much rather talk about his track record and bid for Congress than his personal life.
He said hell impose term limits on himself although he has yet to decide how many terms he will serve if elected.
The three-term congressman left Congress in 2001, following a self-prescribed term limit. He then ran for governor and served for two terms, the maximum number allowed.
Sanford said Wednesday he is still not interested in being a career politician who casts votes to benefit himself instead of constituents. He points to several examples in which he said he has done that, including rejecting federal stimulus money in 2009 for the states schools. A majority of state lawmakers disagreed with his stance, and teachers protested. The state Supreme Court overturned Sanfords veto.
It wasnt in my political best interest, but I thought it was what was best in our efforts to limit state government, he said.
He had high praise for the Republican members of the S.C. congressional delegation, especially U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, a York County Republican, who unsuccessfully proposed this week to cut $20.4 billion in federal spending to offset Hurricane Sandy relief.
To me thats a fairly sensible thought, Sanford said. You cant spend more than you take in.
Sanford said he will be a voice for similar common-sense conservative ideas of capping government spending, reducing debt and ensuring Social Security and Medicare will be there for future generations ideas Beaufort County retirees care about.
Our countrys future is at stake if we dont get our hands around runaway government spending in Washington, he said. And given our nations long-term financial problems, we need more who have shown themselves to be leaders in standing up to the big spenders, regardless of party.
Staff writer Andrew Shain contributed