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GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Shin-Soo Choo has handled every ball in center field routinely so far. So he's hoping for some not-so routine balls to test him.
"I haven't had any really tough plays," he said. "I think everybody makes those plays. I want a challenge. I hope a lot of balls come to me. A lot of challenges. Sun ball. Hard line drive. Sometimes hitters hit it really good, and it comes to you like a knuckleball."
Choo, who is transitioning from right field to center, made a fine play in the first game of the spring season, cutting off a ball in the gap.
"I was nervous, not comfortable," he said. "But everyday I feel better with practice. There's still work to do. But I feel more confident."
Reds manager Dusty Baker is confident Choo can make the move.
"This guy is an athlete," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "He has a lot of pride. He works hard. He'll be fine. We just have to preserve his legs."
Choo was out of the lineup Sunday after starting the first two games.
After Choo was traded to the Reds he wrote a letter to Cleveland general manager Chris Antonetti thanking him. Choo didn't want it to get out that he wrote the letter. He didn't even tell his wife.
"But I really appreciated the experience with the Indians," Choo said. "It changed my life. It was a good opportunity. I played every day. The front office, the coaches, everybody who worked at the stadium, even the parking lot people treated me great.
"I have good memories there."
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Home » News » Politics
Winter just got a little easier for Derry Public Works
On Tuesday night, the Town Council voted, 6-1, to accept a state Department of Transportation grant that will cover 80 percent of the trucks' cost, with Mark Osborne the only councilor voting against the plan.
"Round one funding was approved by the town in January 2010 for the purchase of a five-ton truck with the town of Derry responsible for 20 percent of the cost and the state of New Hampshire reimbursing 80 percent of the cost," said Fowler. "Round two funding was approved by the Town Council in June 2012 for the purchase of two additional five-ton trucks under the same cost share formula."
"The town has greatly modernized its truck fleet through this grant program," said Fowler. "Five trucks that were originally scheduled for replacement in the fiscal years 2012-16 will be replaced sooner, utilizing the financial leverage of the grant funds."
Town Councilor Al Dimmock said he wholeheartedly supported the grant, noting that the current one-ton trucks used by Public Works do not have the features of the proposed new trucks.
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Wonderworld is known for making beautifully designed, eco-friendly toys and furniture that can be cherished for years. Their chairs, benches, stools, toy chests, and tables are made from environmentally-friendly rubber wood, formaldehyde-free glue, non-toxic paints, and solid wood. Known to encourage social skills, their colorful products have been beloved for more than 20 years and include ride-on puffy dragons, rocking caterpillars, and safari-themed furniture.
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Little ones have SO much energy (and a short attention span), so keeping them busy is a full-time job. We chose our favorite toys for munchkins here — stuffed animals, wooden blocks featuring letters and numbers, puzzles, books, and dolls they can tote everywhere. Playtime is about to get a lot more fun!


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I can't understand it: how can anyone with a brain listen to this guy???
21 Comments
lol at _Moderate_
September 14, 2012
Maybe to take your mind off Limbaugh, you could go and create a funny caption for the picture of the murdered U.S. ambassador one of your columnists put up (be sure to work in some anti-Mormon bigotry in your comments, like the others do).
Or you could go and read the article by another one of your columnists calling Republican/conservative blogs "Traitors" for discussing a newspaper article.
I can't understand it. You've got columnists on your own site asking people to write jokes about assassinated American diplomats to attack Mitt Romney and labeling fellow Americans as traitors, but your highest priority as the editor-in-chief is to make sure that the latest Media Matters attack on Limbaugh gets more exposure?
If I were you I'd clean up some of the disgusting, lunatic rhetoric being hosted on your own site before throwing stones elsewhere.
September 14, 2012
What Steve said. Somebody has to monitor this (insert favorite explective here), not because it's deserving in it's own right but because so many people in this country are now incapable of grasping the difference between utter, raving nonsense (Limbaugh) and reasoned discourse. Frankly I won't even watch the clip, I've already heard and seen enough of Limbaugh's foaming at the mouth, hate spewing garbage to last a lifetime. I'm sure whatever is contained in the clip would jar, clang, and raise the blood pressure of my (thus far) quiet and pleasant morning. I'll pass.
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Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
James Michael Rey was passionate about life and about the people who shared his world. He thoroughly enjoyed Maine and spending time along its beautiful shoreline. After living in land-locked Chicago for over 20 years, he moved to Standish, ME upon retiring. With Sebago Lake close by, he took up sailing. James found great joy in solo sailing, but also welcomed friends and family to join him on the "High C's."
James also returned to his love of music, which included the trumpet, cornet and flugelhorn. He joined multiple community bands and in the process formed many close friendships.
Cancer, however, abruptly halted these new pursuits. On July 18, 2013, he died in the comfort of family at Mercy Hospital in Portland.
James was born in Lockport, NY in 1944. James loved people. He very much enjoyed the bantering and discussion that emerges when friends engage in dialogue. This is probably why he was so successful in his sales career.
After graduating college and serving in the Navy, James began his career in sales. He sold everything from toys to wine to biodegradable cleaning products. His numerous jobs took him to New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Illinois. He loved the challenge of selling and the adventure of travel, and when retirement arrived he looked forward to making more connections to others.
He and his wife, Janice, moved from their home in St. Charles, IL to Standish, ME. After many moves to promote his career, he said this move was so Janice could pursue her new career opportunity as a college professor.
Born to Grace and James E. Rey, James is survived by his wife, Janice and daughter, Jamie and son-in-law, Nick Chapman of Glen Ellyn, IL. In addition, he leaves his sister, Susan (Michael) La Graff of Pinehurst, NC; brother, Jeff (Debbie) Rey of Lockport, NY, and sister-in-law, Andele Thomas Novak of Natick, MA. He also is survived by numerous nieces and nephews.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday, July 23, at 2:00 PM at St. Joseph's College, 278 Whites Bridge Road, Standish, ME. Burial will be private. Donations in his memory may be made to Catherine's Cupboard, 175 Northeast Road, Standish, ME 04084. Arrangements by Dolby Funeral Chapel.
Online condolences may be sent to www.dolbyfuneralchapels.com.


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In 1960, rumors spread through Cuba that Fidel Castro was planning to take children from their parents and put them in military schools or send them to the Soviet Union for communist indoctrination.
In response to the perceived threat, the United States began Operation Peter Pan, or Operacion Pedro Pan. The Central Intelligence Agency ran the program between 1960 and 1962. The idea was to fly children of parents who were opposed to Castro's government to the United States and place them in homes here.
The Catholic Church in South Florida was instrumental in helping to place the children in homes. By the time the program had ended, about 14,000 children had been transported to Miami and then placed with friends, relatives and group homes in about 35 states.
Many of the children had to endure traumatic experiences and difficult adjustments. They were separated from their parents and sent to places such as Nebraska or New Jersey that had to resemblance to their tropical island homeland.
The success or wisdom of the program remains a source of controversy. Castro has long argued that the CIA was responsible for creating the rumors of government child abductions to raise fears and undermine his rule. The CIA has denied those charges.
Castro has accused the CIA of fomenting Cold War paranoia and trying to disrupt the stability of his regime in preparation for the Bay of Pigs invasion, another charge the U.S. government denies.
Many in the Cuban exile community in Miami disagree that the program was unwarranted, believing Operation Peter Pan was necessary to remove the children from Castro's totalitarian state and give them lives of freedom. They argue that the children were political refugees who deserved asylum here.
A number of the children went on to achieve success as Americans. Mel Martinez grew up to become a Republican U.S. senator from Florida. Willy Chirino is a celebrated Latin musician. Luis Leon became the an Episcopal priest and rector at historic St. John's Church in Washington, D.C. Leon delivered the benediction at President Obama's second inauguration in January 2013.
According to Associated Press Reports, Martinez had faced threats and harassment as a teenager playing basketball in 1961. The threats convinced his parents that he should go to the United States as part of Operation Peter Pan.
Martinez told the AP that the experience made him stronger. "It's taught me to be self-reliant," he said. "It's taught me to stand up to adversity. And it's taught me that there's a wonderful God. A lot of Pedro Pan people have been very successful, not to say that there's not some tragic stories, but we just learn to make do."
Martinez landed in Miami and soon wound up living in Orlando. He taught himself English and attended Catholic Mass each day. But it was not easy.
"The memories are just of this deep, deep loneliness and feeling of being alone in the world and of just, I guess, despair," he told the AP in a 2004 interview.
Operation Peter Pan helped set the course for U.S. immigration policy toward Cubans and the so-called "wet foot, dry foot" policy that followed.


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The Enterprise Rent-a-Car salesman is up for the cover of EA Sports' latest game. Let's get him there.
The Blues and their owner Tom Stillman were disappointed with their performance these playoffs, and they know that we are too.
The Blues' head coach spoke yesterday after Doug Armstrong, and here's what he had to say about the biggest question mark in the series: the power play.
The Blues' general manager met with local media this afternoon to discuss the team's annual early playoff exit, goaltending, and what everyone can do to be better.
It's looking like Backes will be in the #stlblues lineup. Confirmation coming later. Story from today http://t.co/fIdgTura7v via @STLtoday— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) April 23, 2014
Rutherford's working on confirmation for tonight, but it looks like the captain is back. I have mixed emotions on this, obviously. But I do think he may be what the Blues need to get over the hump.
A couple of quotes from Ken Hitchcock make it easy to jump to that conclusion.
Three games for Seabrook. Explanation: http://t.co/jh2IIEu6Tm— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) April 20, 2014
This is about what I was expecting for the hit - regular season, maybe a game or two more. Three games in the playoffs is huge, and he's a very important player for the Blackhawks. This could throw a wrench in their gameplan for the rest of this series.
Talk about poking the bear - this kind of behavior - playoffs or not - is going to lead to repercussions.
Sans surprise aucune, Brent Seabrook devra s'expliquer avec Stéphane Quintal (téléphone) pour son geste aux dépens de David Backes #NHL— Francois Gagnon (@GagnonFrancois) April 19, 2014
Here's the English translation from Google Translate: Unsurprisingly, Brent Seabrook will be explained with Stéphane Quintal (phone) for his actions at the expense of David Backes A phone hearing means a five game suspension at the maximum.
Occasional contributor to the St. Louis Game Time paper Jeff Fahrenkrog has crunched the numbers and has been kind enough to contribute his preview and predictions.
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Just about a year ago I was asked if I would be interested in taking part in the construction of a prototype home using a newly developing European "green building specification." The location was to be determined, but would be somewhere in the United States.
See previous article:
I have been involved with building codes and code development, including serving on committees for developing energy and green codes, nearly all of my professional life. So, naturally, I was very interested. I was invited to attend a meeting last May in Charleston, SC, with several key representatives from Active House including the current committee chair of the Active House Network, Mikkel Olsen, who is an engineer for our Active House USA project partner Velux in Copenhagen, Denmark.
After reviewing the Active House specifications and information regarding previous prototypes, I realized the large scope and potential of this project and immediately reached out to an old friend and fellow green builder, Kim Hibbs of Hibbs Homes. I knew his attention to quality and efficient building process, including his attention to outstanding communications, were perfect for this opportunity.
I asked the group at our meeting in Charleston to consider letting us build the prototype in the St. Louis area due to our location in the center of the country. It seems that the larger markets on both coasts tend to end up with these opportunities. However, we are in an area that has an advantageous mixed climate zone, as determined by the International Building Code.
Where climate zones located to the North or South may focus on extended periods of colder and dryer or warmer and more humid conditions respectively, by placing the home in St Louis' mixed climate this prototype will require focus on both extremes, which are inherent to this zone, and necessitate a broader focus for durability, efficient design, construction, development and retrofitting.
Under normal circumstances, when you build a prototype of most anything you are doing so to test and even push new technology or materials, or both.
Active House is a specification for home design and construction that is currently being developed in Europe. It is a "holistic" specification; meaning it takes into account the resources it takes to construct a building, its impact in terms of energy and water consumption, occupant health and comfort and even external effects such as storm water runoff.
There have been several prototype homes built around Europe, one was recently completed in Russia during the development of the current specification which was issued in Brussels, Belgium in April 2011.
The Europeans have a wealth of knowledge in durable construction in harsh climatic conditions and planning for concentrations and density of population. This experience includes dealing with scarcity of materials (the origin of resource efficiency in today's green standards, such as Green Globes, stems from post-war construction and the limited amount of natural resources, such as timber, due to deforestation), along with managing the impact on existing and future resources as a result of those population densities. These issues, combined with the ever increasing demand for energy, created an opportunity to merge knowledge and experience to address resource efficiency while promoting better comfort and health for the building occupants.
Here in the United States a continually growing demand for energy efficient developments, buildings and homes—as well as increased requests for efficiency upgrades and retrofits in the 128 million existing homes, which are responsible for the bulk of the nation's residential energy loss—necessitates that the construction industry is able to use innovative concepts capable of addressing energy efficiency challenges.
There are also many rapidly developing advancements in local and national residential building codes, industry technologies and processes as a result of incorporation of high performance standards such as the American National Standards Institute's (ANSI) ICC-700 "The National Green Building Standard," which is a reference standard for the building code, the Department of Energy's Building America/Builder's Challenge Program and Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star, Indoor Air and Water Sense Programs.
Incorporating this evolving criteria, implementing a systems-based approach to quality and performance testing into site development and design and using quality building design and construction practices gives us the ability to identify components that will provide site and building performance and cost competitive with traditional building counterparts. This will also result in a built environment that outperforms traditional buildings in energy efficiency, CO2 emissions, careful conservation of resources, environmental impact, maintenance costs and occupant, health, comfort and satisfaction.
When the opportunity to be a part of the team to construct an Active House prototype in the United States was presented to us, it was apparent that the goal of the Active House specification and the "National Green Building Standard" were complimentary. Part of our mission with this prototype is to demonstrate how similar they are and create opportunities to expand the market familiarity and impact of both.
For more information on this project and subject visit:


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Mark your calendars now to enjoy a rich day with one of Edgar Cayce's ancient mysteries experts, the popular teacher John Van Auken. Learn about your soul's ancient experiences and how these past lives affect your present talents, relationships, circumstances, and, of course, your karma (good and bad). John brings a wealth of information, insight, and amazing slides that reveal the affects of reincarnation from ancient soul experiences in Atlantis, Lemuria, Egypt—even in starry realms beyond Earth! His storytelling skills are now legendary, as he has been sharing tales of ancient peoples for nearly 40 years. You'll take a journey into your soul's earliest experiences, when we were "the Morning Stars that sang together" as we descended from heavenly realms into this physical world and physical bodies. Learn how to awaken to your deeper, immortal self and once again enjoy heavenly energies in this present, purposeful incarnation. Your soul sought to enter this present life, now take it to see a visual journey through its classical sojourns.
John will show some of the rarest images from Egypt, the Mayan Cosmos, and ancient India. John will present mind-expanding concepts from the amazing Edgar Cayce visions of our celestial nature now living temporarily in this terrestrial world. And from his latest book, Edgar Cayce's Tales of Ancient Egypt (with over 80 illustrations, he'll tell marvelous stories of those times and peoples, and how these tales relate to us and our lives today.
PROGRAM LOCATION : Unity of Livonia
28660 Five Mile Road
Livonia, Michigan 48154
Saturday, May 4, 2013 – 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. At-door registration/bookstore opens at 8:30 a.m. Meal break: 12:00–1:30 p.m. (restaurants within driving distance).


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I wrote about this wine in our summer newsletter. I think Nebbiolo della Martinenga is the epitome of the variety Nebbiolo, showing the elegant, fragrant side of the variety. We have the only stock of this vintage available, having cleaned out the estate cellars. Nebbiolo della Martinenga is produced from the same vines that would make Barbaresco, but is vinified to make this gentler--more attractive to my mind red--than classic Barbaresco. I cannot conjure up a better wine for holiday drinking where a delicacy of fragrance and flavor is wanted rather than power and tannin. This Nebbiolo is red wine for rich dishes with creamy sauces--lasagne, cannelloni, ravioli, fonduta with white truffles, and even with Peking duck. You should experience this Nebbiolo to see that, while the variety can produce austere wines, its nature tends to finesse and pinot-like delicacy. When made that way, it is perfect deliciousness itself. We do not have a lot left, and have a small number of magnums.
Ball Club Wild Rice is hand harvested by two people in a canoe during the months of August and September, the 3-4 week window for harvesting genuine wild rice (Zyzania aquatica) in Minnesota. Ball Club Wild Rice is a pale khaki brown color, the natural color of wild rice. It is very different from the very hard, black wild rice normally seen on the market and whose black color comes from the parching of the seed.
Since Ball Club wild rice has just been harvested, it does not need to be soaked before cooking and will take about ½ hour to cook rather than the hour or more that the black form takes. It is delicate, yet intensely scented. If you have never enjoyed this kind of wild rice, Ball Club is a revelation. It makes a delicious and very North American addition to turkey or with game fowl. Once cooked, it is very handy to keep in the refrigerator, just to be re-steamed, and served with grilled or roasted beef, pork, or lamb as an alternative to potatoes or other starch.
Known as MAH-NO-MEN in the Anishinabe language, wild rice is a cultural staple, medium of exchange, and food delicacy. Traditionally harvested from wild growing plants, this is a far cry from the black, machine harvested, paddy grown "wild rice" normally found in commerce. The black wild rice has a following in Italy. They would be amazed if they had this quality.
In Memorian
Gourmet Magazine December 1940 - November 2009
The unfortunate, precipitous closing of Gourmet Magazine took the food world by surprise. What had been the stalwart in American food publishing disappears in its actual form, leaving us with a virtual structure. I must confess that Gourmet was responsible in great part for my interest and future in food. I dare say that it was also the same for a lot of you who read this newsletter.
How times have changed! If even during the terrible days of World War II, Gourmet continued publishing–and very thick editions at that–why did it just die? On the other hand, a slow, agonizing illness would have made no sense. Are we better off now than say in 1944? Comments have been made it was to too precious and snobbish. For whom? Isn't what we are doing here and now too snobbish? There are those who dote on the term "foodie." In other times, they would have been called "readers of Gourmet."
Personally, I owe a great debt to Gourmet Magazine. I think all of us interested in food do. AVE ATQUE VALE
The Ultimate Italian Cookbook: Scappi's Opera
Here is a book I would like to tell you about since it is available from major book stores. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570), translated with commentary by Terence Scully, University of Toronto Press, 2008, 787 pages. ISBN 978-0-8020-9624-1
This is the first English translation of one of the most important Italian cookbooks of the Renaissance, if not the most important Italian cookbook ever. Written by the personal cook to several cardinals and two popes, Pius IV and Pius V, with 1,000 recipes and 27 copper plate engravings showing a typical Renaissance kitchen and equipment, it is a work not to miss.
Printed in Venice in 1570, at the end of Scappi's career, this work led to others and is our vision of dining in the Renaissance. Scappi's work is a mine of treasures; the recipes for sturgeon alone are amazing. What he has to say about olive oil is priceless. The recipes are pretty much doable today. One just has to be sensitive to the taste of the finished dish.
Another work to bring to your attention is Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong kitchen in America. I'll bet you have never had Hmong cooking. Amazingly, this work created by two ladies--Sheng Yang from Sacramento and Sami Scripter from Portland, Oregon--is the only cookbook of this southeast Asian people, who, first had a written script devised for them only fifty years ago.
The Hmong come from the highlands of Laos and were helpful to American forces in Vietnam. A great number were re-settled in the U.S. and this book is an active record of their culture. That the recipes are delicious is an added plus. Food is culture!
Cooking from the Heart, Sami Scripter & Sheng Yang, University of Minnesota Press, 2009, 277 pp.
I enjoyed this dish prepared by Alex Ong, chef/partner at San Francisco's BETELNUT restaurant, at a party for noted San Francisco restaurateur Cecilia Chang's 90th birthday. While not exactly a "kimchi," the fermented Korean condiment, it is extremely good. The recipe is as follows:
Asian Pears (nashi) peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes. This amount can vary depending on the number to be served. You might calculate half a pear per person.
Mix all marinade ingredients and let sit overnight in refrigerator. Toss the pears with the marinade and add sea salt to taste and 6 minced mint leaves. You can mix freshly peeled and diced Granny Smith apples or julienned green mango with the marinade also. Wonderful to accompany pork, turkey, or lamb. We had it with suckling pig.
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Is engineering in HE "really not good enough"?
27 March 2012
Ele Cooper attends the Global Engineering Education Conference and finds a crowd frustrated with the status quo and hungry for change.
Image: an EWB placement volunteer working with community members in the Philippines.
An impatient yet optimistic tone was struck at yesterday's Global Engineering Education Conference, which was organised by Engineers Without Borders (EWB) UK and Engineers Against Poverty and attended by practising engineers, academics and students.
Professor Anthony Finkelstein, Executive Dean of UCL Engineering (which hosted the event), opened proceedings on a poignant note, describing how his father – a former political prisoner of Kazakhstan and subsequent refugee – was driven to become an engineer as a direct result of his experiences of poverty.
"UCL Engineering's strapline is 'Change the world'," said Finkelstein. "It's not about change through research, it's about change through practice in industry."
This pressing need to change the world through real-life practice was the key theme of the day, with a range of eminent engineers and fired-up students all speaking of the importance of scenario-based, change-effecting coursework in a modernised curriculum.
No one made this point more eloquently than second-year student Alexa Bruce, head of EWB UCL, who said, "The one-dimensional interpretation of engineering which focuses solely on technical aspects needs to be challenged in education at every level."
At UCL, this is being achieved through 'scenarios', regular week-long projects in which students work in groups to solve real-life problems, taking into account a wide range of considerations. This type of work allows the development of key skills including teamwork, leadership and critical analysis.
In his presentation, Dr Michael Ramage told the conference about two similarly ambitious initiatives organised by the Departments of Engineering and Architecture at the University of Cambridge. In the Ecohouse Research Cluster, which students from all years can get involved in, a flat-pack home is erected in two days and then studied to see how it would fare for sanitation and insulation in developing countries.
4D13, a fourth-year Cambridge project, requires students to work in groups to come up with ways to solve a genuine problem in Zambia whereby pupils are frequently unable to go to school due to flooding (a floating school was just one of the ideas to emerge from this year's cohort).
Experience has shown that these types of practical projects are hugely successful in engaging students. However, the general consensus at the conference was that there is not enough of this type of work going on in higher education. Petter Matthews, Executive Director of Engineers Against Poverty, said that this is partly due to fears that focusing on international concerns such as sustainability could "dilute" engineering as a subject.
Matthews talked about a project he is working on called 'A Global Dimension for Engineering Education', which has been created to try and address this problem. The project group is working with five universities (Liverpool, Plymouth, Queen's, Derby and Northumbria) to produce case studies on how engineering departments can operate in a global dimension, as well as compiling an online database of resources and case studies and eventually publishing a toolkit, workshop guide and a book. Matthews was keen to emphasise that we don't need to create new curricula, merely teach existing curricula in different ways.
While many universities say that they are willing to work towards this, Matthews reported that a gap exists between rhetoric and reality. However, the future looks bright for the inclusion of a global dimension in HE courses: according to small-scale research conducted by the project group, "students want it, employers want it and a growing cadre of academic staff also want it".
But we're a long way from achieving this – in fact Professor Paul Ivey, Dean of Engineering at Coventry University, bluntly entitled his presentation 'Engineering Education UK: it is really not good enough', unequivocally summarising his opinion of the current state of play.
According to Ivey, the prevailing method of assessment – written examinations in which students have exactly the right amount of information to answer the question – is a huge problem. As Ivey pointed out, it's a wholly unrealistic scenario: in working life, engineers constantly have to make judgment calls without knowing all the ins and outs of the situation; in other words, they rarely have the 'right amount' of information. Therefore we need to move away from traditional assessment methods and look for alternatives that allow students to showcase the skills and expertise that really matter.
Employers want graduates to have the ability to think laterally and work effectively in teams. Ivey argued that 18 year olds arrive at university already equipped with these 'soft skills', but by the time they leave, they have lost them. "We aren't teaching students the fundamental mechanisms by which problems are solved," he said.
In an attempt to investigate this further, Ivey set first-year students problem-solving tasks which they did not have the technical knowledge to be able to answer. However, with a bit of lateral thinking and teamwork, some students were able to explain why the Farnborough air crash happened. Ivey's experiment resulted in a 10% increase in the course's pass rate, a 26% increase in student satisfaction, and the drop out rate falling from 3% to 0.9%.
Modifying courses to include exercises like this, argued Ivey, will produce "graduates with character – that is, the awkward squad who are not prepared to put up with the status quo". And the consensus at the Global Engineering Education Conference was that this is precisely what we need, now more than ever.
Ivey closed his speech by describing the situation in the Bangladeshi city of Chittagong, where thousands of people are killed in floods every few years. "Engineers have known how to keep the water out for the past 300 years yet still nothing has been done to put this knowledge into practice," he said. "Where's the anger? I'm getting too old to wait."
Indeed, the entire room seemed desperate for students to become consumed by this anger – and it would seem that the key to igniting it lies in exactly the kind of reality-laced, globally informed engineering education that the day's speakers were so keen for practitioners throughout HE to bring about.
Page last modified on 27 mar 12 15:02
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Air Force Base carwash gets facelift
July 11, 2013
EDWARDS AFB, CA — The Edwards Automatic Car Wash has been upgraded with new equipment, the base website reports.
The carwash, which had been closed while undergoing renovations, reopened yesterday.
How to start a carwash: Choosing your carwash equipment
To read the full story click here.
To read the rest of today's eNews stories, click here.


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Olympia Snowe Braces for an Avalanche of Puns
Look at the headlines this morning: "Snowe day," "Snowe job," "Snowe storm," "Snowe patrol" — man, it's a good thing the senior senator from Maine isn't named Olympia Publicoption.
As the lone Republican to vote for Max Baucus's mostly-neutered health care bill, Sen. Snowe bravely risked having a say as this process crawls forward, and sure enough…
Democrats readily acknowledge that Snowe's yes vote gives her tremendous leverage as the Senate bill moves forward, meaning they'll have to continue to address her concerns about affordability and excessive government intrusion into health care.
But will her GOP colleagues punish her for this treason, having her "concerns addressed"?
"The conference certainly wouldn't entertain retribution for an irrelevant vote on an irrelevant proposal," said a Senate GOP aide.
Oh! Okay. My mistake.
Well, that certainly explains why it was so important for all the other Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee to vote no yesterday.
Tags: Health Care, Olympia Snowe, Republicans, Senate
About Us
Comedy Central's Indecision is the network's digital hub for news, politics and other jokes: we're here, we're everywhere. We're not affiliated with any television show. We're affiliated with ourselves.


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Girls Aloud have been away for THREE whole years, and so it's fair to say they're probably a bit daunted about all the dance routines they're going to have to learn for their reunion tour in a couple of months.
Nadine Coyle tweeted this picture of herself. Copyright [Nadine Coyle]
Kimberley Walsh had a bit of a head start, what with her blimmin amazing stint on Strictly Come Dancing. However, now bandmate Nadine Coyle has got in on the dance practice, too.
[Related article: Kimberley Walsh beaten in Strictly Come Dancing final]
[Related article: Girls Aloud announce reunion tour]
Nadine Coyle's rehearsals were, however, a bit more informal than Kimberley Walsh's Strictly training.
Kimberley Walsh put on an amazing show on Strictly. Copyright [BBC]Nadine decided to go all Dirty Dancing on us whilst on a skiing holiday with friends.
The Girls Aloud stunner was messing around with one of Girls Aloud's dancers, Stephen Walker, when the pair decided to recreate the famous lift from the show.
If the girls ACTUALLY do this on tour we might just pass out from excitement.
Girls Aloud are set to embark on their tour later this year. Copyright [BBC]Nadine tweeted the photo alongside the caption: "Just hanging around!"
The ladies now only have a matter of months before their reunion tour, Ten, kicks off.
And it seems that the rehearsals were already pretty intense just before Christmas, with poor Kimberley Walsh combining it with her Strictly commitments.
We can't wait to see them all back on stage and strutting their stuff.


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Safari Books Online is a digital library providing on-demand subscription access to thousands of learning resources.
Are you looking for a deeper understanding of the Java™ programming language so that you can write code that is clearer, more correct, more robust, and more reusable? Look no further! Effective Java™, Second Edition, brings together seventy-eight indispensable programmer's rules of thumb: working, best-practice solutions for the programming challenges you encounter every day.
This highly anticipated new edition of the classic, Jolt Award-winning work has been thoroughly updated to cover Java SE 5 and Java SE 6 features introduced since the first edition. Bloch explores new design patterns and language idioms, showing you how to make the most of features ranging from generics to enums, annotations to autoboxing.
Each chapter in the book consists of several "items" presented in the form of a short, standalone essay that provides specific advice, insight into Java platform subtleties, and outstanding code examples. The comprehensive descriptions and explanations for each item illuminate what to do, what not to do, and why.
Highlights include:
New coverage of generics, enums, annotations, autoboxing, the for-each loop, varargs, concurrency utilities, and much more
Updated techniques and best practices on classic topics, including objects, classes, libraries, methods, and serialization
How to avoid the traps and pitfalls of commonly misunderstood subtleties of the language
Focus on the language and its most fundamental libraries: java.lang, java.util, and, to a lesser extent, java.util.concurrent and java.io
Simply put, Effective Java™, Second Edition, presents the most practical, authoritative guidelines available for writing efficient, well-designed programs.
Average Rating: Based on 86 Ratings
"Must read !!" - by Anonymous on 02-JAN-2014
Reviewer Rating:
Have nothing else to say except that this is a must read book for every Java developer.
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"1 star due to viewer readability" - by Hay on 27-JUL-2013
Reviewer Rating:
I cannot read any of example code snippets, 'view full size image' link doesn't work.
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"It's a good book, and thorough." - by Anonymous on 12-JUL-2012
Reviewer Rating:
This is a very useful collection of techniques and strategies for designing classes, methods, and APIs in Java. I'm sure I will be referring to this on an ongoing basis, and I look forward to future editions.
My complaints:
- The ordering of the Items can be frustrating when in the middle of one item we are referred to another in a completely different part of the book, and the discussion assumes that other item has already been read and digested. I would hope that the material could be ordered a bit more logically.
- The style, while it has enjoyable humorous moments, is very, very dense and can be at times off-putting to the reader. It can almost seem like the reader is being lectured *at*.
In conclusion, this volume is an immense resource and I am grateful to have been able to read it. Thanks, Josh!
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"My all time favorite book" - by Anonymous on 03-FEB-2012
Reviewer Rating:
It goes over many different areas in Java, and captures some of the most elegant solutions to common day to day problems most developers encounter. Highly Recommended..
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" Good Book" - by Shamal Jayakody on 12-OCT-2011
Reviewer Rating:
One of the best Books on good programming practices. Joshua Bloch was a good PhD Student at Carnegie Mellon. He developed Collections framework for Java at Sun. It may be over-designed.
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Top Level Categories:
Information Technology & Software Development
Information Technology & Software Development > Programming
Programming > Java
Item 58: Use checked exceptions for recoverable conditions and runtime exceptions for programming errors


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GUEST BLOG: Free Solanae Tribble Available
Hello Captains, To celebrate the release of Star Trek Online's Season 8: The Sphere, this furry critter is now free to claim from the in-game C-Store ('Personnel' tab) for all players of any faction for a limit...
November 19, 2013
Guest Blog: Unidentified Object in Scan Sola-Alpha-Six
From: Captain Vaughn Alexander, Starfleet Communications Research CenterTo: Admiral Jorel Quinn Picked up something I think we might want to take a closer look at, sir. We've been directing the MIDAS arr...
October 04, 2013
STO's Crystalline Entity Event Returns!
Our special Crystalline Entity event is now live! For the next three weeks, from now until Thursday, October 17, 2013, around 10AM PDT*, max-level Federation, Klingon, and Romulan Republic players can queue up for ou...
September 27, 2013
The Dhelan Retrofit and Dhael
The Dhelan Warbird was designed in the 23rd century in response to the Romulan Star Empire's conflicts with the Federation. The ship was larger than the T'liss Warbird, and carried a heavier payload of weapons to give...
August 30, 2013
The Elachi Lock Box
The Elachi Lock Box Although reports of similar alien encounters have been recorded as far back as the 22nd Century, it wasn't until their ships first appeared in Romulan space that the Elachi finally came to be know...
August 16, 2013
The Romulan Temporal Ships
Star Trek Online is excited to announce that, as of today's maintenance, we have added the brand-new Romulan Temporal Ships to the game. The R'Mor Temporal Science Vessel is available for Romulan Republic ...
August 09, 2013
Viva Star Trek Las Vegas! A Preview
STO Guest Blog: Viva Star Trek Las Vegas! A PreviewStar Trek Online will be out in full force next week at Creation Entertainment's 2013 Official Star Trek Las Vegas (STLV) convention in Las Vegas, Nevada! From next T...
August 02, 2013
Romulan Veteran Rewards
Since Star Trek Online launched in February 2010, we have thanked our loyal subscribers and lifetime members through the Veteran's Rewards program. We know you have many options in choosing where to spend your t...
July 26, 2013
STO Guest Blog: Feature Episodes Rerun
From now until around 10AM PDT on June 21st, 2013, the Feature Episodes are once again offering their special, unique rewards* for completion! Don't miss your chance to (re)play the Feature Episodes and earn limited-t...
June 14, 2013
STO Guest Blog: Legacy Of Romulus Expansion Launches
Perfect World Entertainment Inc. and Cryptic Studios are proud to announce that the first expansion for the award-winning, free-to-play MMORPG Star Trek Online is now live and free-to-play. In Legacy of Romulus, fans ...
May 21, 2013
Instagram @StarTrek
From the Blogosphere
Tue, Jul 29, 2014
Siddig To Join Game Of Thrones
Tue, Jul 29, 2014
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Mon, Jul 28, 2014
Star Trek into Darkness Soundtrack
Mon, Jul 28, 2014
Star Trek/Planet of the Apes Crossover
Mon, Jul 28, 2014


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Coast Guard officials said last night that a tug towing a barge has become the focus of the investigation into the sinking a week ago this morning of the recently outfitted, steel-hulled commercial fishing boat Patriot that went to the bottom killing both crew members.
Coast Guard Capt. Gail Kulisch, commander of Sector Boston, declined to identify the tug or provide any details about its role in the investigation into the mysterious incident that occurred in relatively calm seas about 15 miles from the Gloucester home port of the Patriot and its crew, Capt. Matteo Russo, 36, and his father-in-law, John Orlando, 59.
Kulisch said the 2,000-foot-long, 21�Ñ2-inch thick steel cable the tug was using to the barge has been taken into "evidence," using her investigative "subpoena power." She said the cable would be studied inch by inch for signs of whether it rubbed on the black-hulled Patriot.
Ocean-towing tugs connected to giant barges by thick cables that can be more than a quarter-mile long pose lethal risk to small boats such as the 54-foot Patriot — or the Heather Lynn II. A slightly smaller fishing boat, the Heather Lynne II was run down by a towed barge about 10 miles east of Thacher Island in 1996. The three crew members were trapped inside their overturned fishing boat, and died slowly in an incident memorialized in the book "Dead Men Tapping."
Last Saturday, the Coast Guard found the bodies of Russo and Orlando in a debris field about 15 miles southeast of Gloucester, and about a mile from a liquefied natural gas terminal constructed last year. Both men were considered first-rate seamen and fishermen; the boat Russo and his wife Josie co-owned was considered a model for the modern trawler.


text: The number of degrees in a circle, the number 360 carries strong connotations of holism and well-roundedness. Similarly, Queens newcomer 360 (not to be confused with the Melbourne repper of the same name) considers himself a complete artists in a game full of half-steppers. On newly-released promo single Talk to 'Em, the … Read More


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Submitted by Readers
What do you get for being a loyal customer?
I had a satellite TV provider for more than three years. I paid my bill before I got it. I sent a check Dec. 31. I received a bill on Jan. 3. On Jan. 8, I got a message on my TV to pay my bill within 48 hours or my service would be disconnected. On Jan. 9, I called and a company representative said my check had not been received, so I paid it again. My check was received later that day.
I continued to have that message on my TV. I called the company. A technician told me how to remove it. It didn't work. I called again. Another tech told me to do something else. It didn't work. I called five times and was told five different things. On Jan. 18, the message was still there.
I called another satellite TV provider, which assured me it would not put any message on my TV. I get more channels with a smaller package than I had previously.
Also, why don't clerks in stores and people in doctors' offices realize that we are the reason they have jobs. Clerks who are rude and on cellphones upset me. I quit one doctor because of how rude the staff treated me.
I have also seen bosses who don't realize they have good, loyal employees and don't treat them right.
You would think with the economy so bad, people would put their best foot forward to keep their jobs.
Kay Carpenter
Rights were denied by majority rule
Our Founding Fathers declared that the pursuit of happiness shall be guaranteed and protected. Not so for the citizen who wants to own guns to protect self and family from the numerous dangers in a sick society.
Peace and happiness are the pursuits of gun owners, but majority rule prevails, denying them their minority rights.
In a similar manner, some senior citizens who choose to live in an assisted-living environment are being denied their minority rights by majority rule.
The aggravating and disruptive situation that prompted a majority rule vote was to continue to play a local radio station's program loudly during all meals in the dining room.
When I turned the radio off, the administration called a meeting of the residents to hold a kangaroo court without my wife or me present. We, of course, were found guilty of not agreeing to be disturbed by loud noise coming from a local station during meal times.
Majority rules. Pursuit of happiness denied.
Think about the more than 50 million fetuses in pro-choice mothers' wombs who were butchered as a result of majority rule.
Those human beings were denied a chance to pursue happiness.
What's next? Euthanasia? Is now the time the few majority rule remove the elderly because they are a burden to a debt-ridden, socialistic society?
Edward F. Podrasky
Our latest civil war is Obama vs. Americans
Thomas Paine said, "We fight not to enslave, but to set a country free, and to make room upon the earth for honest men to live in." To find peace fight for justice.
The works of Abraham Lincoln and the Founding Fathers of the USA are being ignored. The things that were fought for in the past don't count in the present.
We have no president, because we have not elected one yet. Barack Obama is the new Jim Jones.
In Newtown, Conn., Obama was more concerned about being politically correct then being compassionate.
Charlton Heston said, "Politically correctness is tyranny with manners."
False gods always fail, but the true God will always prevail. The Obama administration constricts the rights of those it feels are a threat to the president, such as people of faith and conservatives.
In the next four years, protect your guns, your religion, your children and your rights.
I agree that there is civil war going on, but it is not Democrat versus Republican, it's Obama versus the American people.
Ron Marol
Coverage has taken a biased direction
Over the past year, it has become apparent to me, as well as to many others, that The Tribune-Democrat is undergoing some changes in regard to the kinds of content it is publishing.
I don't know if this is a conscious decision, the result of different leadership, or something else entirely, but the writing has definitely taken a somewhat slanted, biased direction.
Reporter objectivity is hard to find, especially with some of the hot-button issues of our area (murder cases, molestation claims, etc.).
Also, some of the readers' letters published as of late have taken on a more specific approach, and sometimes border on personal defamation, either directly or indirectly.
I don't know what to think about these changes, either. On one hand, I applaud the transparency. I like the edgy feeling of it, and I think, on occasion, it helps the reader relate. It always feels good to know that there is a heartbeat behind the scenes. I also like the fact that, as I am writing this, I have a certain surety that it will be published.
On the other hand, however, I do believe misplaced bias can add to the negativity of an already struggling region, especially in a day and age when a person can snap at any time, even over the most trivial of claims.
I'm sure we can all agree that it is hard enough just living in this city, let alone being personally attacked in the town newspaper.
Matt Martinek
Full-time pay for part-time work Our representatives and senators are probably laughing all the way to the bank. The representatives in Harrisburg worked about 57 days last year, while our senators put in a whopping 63 days. According to their pay and per diems, that comes to about $4,000 a day for each day worked.
Why not be as Vermont and some other states and have only part-time legislators and give them part-time pay? They meet several times a year and seem to have no trouble running their states.
Why not demand part-time pay since they only work part time? We wouldn't be paying the enormous bills for their pensions if they were only part time.
It's time we wake up and demand from anyone running for office that he or she initiate and push bills to cut the Legislature and make term limits of eight years maximum. Also, work on making our representatives and senators part-time employees. After all, aren't they supposed to be working for us?
William H. Flook
East Conemaugh
Unscrupulous lowlife took hunter's trophy
On the first day of last year's rifled deer season, I was hunting near Babcock Park near Windber.
I had just walked to my spot I had picked earlier that month. As soon as I got there, I kicked up three does and one huge, nice buck.
I pulled up my rifle, had the buck in the scope and pulled the trigger. Boom, my dream buck just came true, or so I thought.
I found the blood trail and started to follow it, a smile ear to ear. The buck led me down to the bottom of the handicap road where it opens into a small field. I found where the big buck laid down to die, but he was not there.
There was one set of tracks and a big drag mark that led to the road. My friend's dad was hunting the top of the handicap road. He told me a maroon SUV came flying up the road, and on the back rack was a huge buck. This so-called hunter did not gut this deer, just grabbed it and took off.
I am writing so people who know this guy know he did not earn this deer or shoot it.
In my eyes, a hunter puts time in the woods, does his homework and tags his own kill.
Tim Brewer
Sitting at computer a better alternative?
It is with a sad heart that I write this letter. I am sitting with my 6-year-old grandson, who is crying because his pet turtle was taken from his family.
His family was fishing over four years ago when they spotted Franklin in the water, caught him and placed him in a 55-gallon aquarium, where he has been taken care of ever since.
My grandson's future stepfather had a permit to do some hunting in 2012 and forgot to turn it in to the state. As a result, a Pennsylvania fish commission officer came to their home two weeks ago and spotted the turtle. He told them it was illegal to have the turtle.
He came back recently, took the turtle and issued the family a $100 fine.
When the officer was at the home for the first visit, he even asked if there were more turtles and threatened to search the home.
He also stated, as my daughter had told him they liked to catch frogs, there is a limit on bullfrogs and she had to watch how many of those the family caught.
I guess you should make sure before you take your family outdoors to know all the laws of Pennsylvania regarding how many of our God-given creatures you can capture, touch or look at.
Then again, the safest route to take would be to just stay inside, be on the computer or Nintendo and stay safe.
Merry Smith
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Local brides and grooms who are in the beginning stages or middle of their planning frenzy can gest a boost on Thursday, 6 to 9pm by attending the American Bridal Show in the Main Concourse on Level One, adjacent to Bloomingdale's.
The free event is presented in cooperation with the Registry at Bloomingdale's and brings together professionals from hotels, caterers, decor, flowers, photography, invitations, cake designs, wedding gowns, tuxedos, makeup artistry, bridal registries, travel destinations, gift ideas and more. Models will also give quests a close-up look at the latest designs in wedding attire as well.
Among the businesses that will be attending the Show are: Bloomingdale's, Pottery Barn, William Sonoma, Coach, Hermes, Lee Perla, Papyrus, Omega Boutique, Tiffany & Co., Godiva Chocolatier, Papyrus, Ann Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Victoria's Secret, Wolford Boutique, The Fountain Spa, Maggiano's Little Italy, and Morton's The Steakhouse.
"We are pleased to host The American Bridal Show at The Shops at Riverside," said Lisa Polino, director of marketing and business development for The Shops at Riverside, said in a press release. "With this event, we are bringing the wedding industry into the retail shopping environment to give soon-to-be brides and grooms lots of great ideas to make their special day an elegant and memorable affair."
For more information, visit American Bridal Show's website, stop by Simon Guest Services at The Shops at Riverside, or call the center's shopping line at 201-489-2212.


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The 318 volunteers working for the Knox County Charter Amendment petition drive are showing no overt signs of panic, but they're aware they can't see the finish line yet. They need around 40,000 verifiable registered voters to sign each of two petitions. So far they have about 35,000. Which sounds impressive enough—it is, by far, the most successful petition drive in Knox County history—except that they have to get the balance of them by the deadline, Tuesday, September 2, in order to get their proposals before the public on the November ballot.
Some are suspicious of the motives of the drive, directed by a motley assortment of high-profile professionals who are, for the most part, not currently in elected office. The most common criticism is that both the petitions are "bundled," almost Congressional-bill-style, attaching obviously popular sentiments opposing nepotism and conflict of interest to some more surprising and controversial proposals. Skeptics of the effort aren't too hard to find, though many don't want to speak on the record, given the multitude and prominence of the movement's leaders. "I think it's pretty insidious, bundling them together like that," says a prominent attorney with a progressive reputation. He admits he signed it anyway. Good or bad, the charter amendments the petitioneers propose to put on the ballot amount to nothing less than major political surgery to Knox County.
Market Square on a Wednesday is full of bankers and lawyers on their way to lunch, as it has always been, but lately many other sorts of people once rare here: rich-looking couples, young hipsters, dog-walkers, teenagers. Today, amid the squeals of children dancing in the fountains and the growl of drills at the Four Market Square construction project, the farmers' market is in full swing in the center of the square. The weather's nice. Hundreds are out. A man with long hair and a beard sits on a bench and plugs his guitar into an amplifier. Pumping on a wah-wah pedal, he plays some electric blues in an apparently benign violation of the no-amplification law. Two bicycle cops near the old Market House bell ignore him. He's playing softly, by electric-guitar standards, and doesn't seem to be bothering anybody.
Seven or eight are on the square with orange and white petitions; two or three sit or stand at a table near Four Market Square, while the others circulate among the crowd.
Jay Cobble, a young real-estate man, approaches passersby. "Sir, are you a registered voter in Knox County?" A surprising number, perhaps fewer than half who answer the question today, are not, at least in the appropriate county. "I can't believe how many people from Anderson County are here today," Cobble says. A young couple says they live in Asheville. Several others are also from "Carolina," just visiting.
"That's great for Knoxville," he says, "to have so many people from out of town spending money here," It's just not helping the petition drive much. Cobble says he used to live in Memphis, where he was appalled at corruption and inefficiency in government. "It was pretty terrible," he says. "But I got back in town, and realized it was just as bad or worse in Knoxville. I decided we need to do something about it."
Over two hours, they engage with hundreds of passersby. Many say they've already signed it. "Market Square is pretty saturated," Cobble admits. "Most have already signed it, or they're not a Knox County voter." But it's one of few places they can appeal to strangers without special permission. Petitioneers are banned outright in both the big shopping malls, and Wal-Marts are particularly inhospitable. Only certain other retail centers allow them. Police have been called on petitioneers more than once, though once they arrive, merchants have generally declined to file charges.
Many, walking in groups on the way to lunch, ignore them. The solitary pedestrian, or the couple walking slowly, seem the ones most likely to stop and listen. A middleaged man stops, juggling a vanilla ice-cream cone and a drink, to listen, and then to sign.
A middleaged woman in a motorized wheelchair pauses, but only briefly. No, she declares, she's not registered to vote. "If you register to vote, I hear you've got to do jury duty!" she says. "That's what I hear. I don't want to do jury duty!" She'll hear no more of it, and zips off, as if escaping.
"I think I've signed it," one woman says, a little uncertainly before she decides for certain that she has. A man says, "Yeah, I'll sign it," as he signs it. "Nepotism and all that whatever," he says.
In the two hours here, no one offers criticism of the effort, or raises an argument about it. But it's obvious that many, perhaps most of the quarries sign the petition, or ignore it, without learning the full scope of the petitions' proposals. The things the volunteers mention to prospective signers in their opening salvos—nepotism, conflicts of interest, saving money—are shorthand highlights of a sweeping proposal that would restructure Knox County government as we know it. One of the items on the orange petition would shrink County Commission in size from 19 to 11 members, including two that are elected at large. Another, on the white petition, would put all the county's "fee offices"—the mostly bureaucratic positions like county clerk, trustee, and register of deeds, under the county mayor, abolishing them as independent, elected offices. Most passersby make the decision to sign or not to sign quickly, and move on, without taking the time to read the full petition or listen to the rationale behind it.
According to its boosters, the charter amendments would not only insist on new safeguards against nepotism and corruption, but streamline elective government by reducing the number of offices voted for directly; they believe their changes will make Knox County government both more efficient and more responsive to the people, via the county mayor and commission.
The seven or eight volunteers today are mostly young to very young, with the possible exception of Mary Lou Kanipe, human resources supervisor for Knox County Schools. She was involved in the effort from the early days, early last year when Knox County-One Question was formed merely to raise the question of how to proceed after the term-limit fiasco. "We want some changes in the way things operate at the courthouse," she says in that soft, old-fashioned Knoxville-Southern accent that seems scarce among those under 50. "I think we need to do it because it's the right thing to do. Fiscally, it's the right thing to do."
She's not as aggressive as some of the younger volunteers, but she seems to have a higher closing rate. "It's just to get it on the ballot," she tells them, accurately. That's usually the clincher. Nobody wants to seem like they're against putting something to a vote.
On the table are two signs that say "Knox Accountability: SIGN UP!" The breeze keeps knocking them over. The volunteers keep propping them back up. They're here for two hours on a busy day, and glean about 28 new signatures, maybe two for every volunteer man-hour.
Window of Opportunity
It all started with an accidental meeting, early last year. John Schmid is the high-school history teacher and outgoing Knox County Commissioner who was one of the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit that resulted in a state supreme-court ruling in January, 2007, which affirmed that Knox County's government did have to abide by term limits—but also that the home-rule county had a right to change the structure of its own government. After the back-room power-grabbing orgy that became embarrassingly famous nationally as Black Wednesday, Schmid wasn't the only one wondering whether there might be some way to improve county government permanently.
To Schmid, the ruling offered a window of opportunity. His first idea was relatively modest: county government would work more efficiently, he thought, if certain fee offices were eliminated from the ballot, to become appointive mayoral departments. "Those are not policy-making offices, and shouldn't be," Schmid says. "In my experience, it's just a lot of chiefs trying to direct things. On the county side, all these independent executives, the sheriff, the property assessor, the clerk—all these fiefdoms, that's what makes government so difficult on the county side."
"I call them fiefdoms, because that's what they are," adds Schmid, who teaches medieval history at the high-school level, and has some perspective on fiefdoms. The progressive Republican thinks they should be departments, working in accord with an elected administration. "In a metropolitan county like ours, you need a more businesslike model to work at things in an efficient manner. If you don't have the proper structure in place, you're going to suffer economically."
On Market Square last year, Schmid ran into Laurens Tullock, former city director of community development, now head of the charitable Cornerstone Foundation, who had similar perspectives. Over coffee, the two began talking things over. The result, after discussions with several others involved in county government, was an organization called Knox County-One Question—a takeoff on the hypercommunity effort Nine Counties One Vision of a few years ago, which involved several of the same people, especially Tullock. The One Question was simple, and suggested by the Supreme Court's ruling: "What changes, if any, are appropriate to meet the needs of Knox County in the 21st century?"
In short time, they'd made a lot of prominent friends. Among the first who signed on as a volunteer was former Knox County Finance Director Kathy Hamilton, who during her years in the Republican Dwight Kessell and Democratic Tommy Schumpert administrations had been frustrated at what she saw as built-in inefficiencies in county government. The trustee, the clerk, and the register of deeds work independently of County Commission; if each office can collect the pertinent fees, they can spend them as they see fit. She saw waste and unneccessary inequities. About 10 years ago, she attempted to open a discussion with the object of rolling all the elected officials' budgets into the county's general fund. "I thought it was at least a conversation worth pursuing," she says. "But they did not."
More recently, she notes, the collections for those three offices, combined, increased from $8.9 million to $9.9 million, in one year, from 2006 to 2007. "You didn't find that kind of increase in other parts of the budget," she says, and County Commission or the county mayor have nothing to say about it. Regardless of any other financial crisis in the county, what the fee officers collect is their own money to spend on their own offices.
Jim McClain, retired former principal of West High and former head of the school board, says he had never considered the specific measures the petitions call for, like shrinking County Commission. But he'd been frustrated by backroom politicking on County Commission many years before Black Wednesday. He noticed that alignments often changed after a recess, implying secretive dealmaking. "I had to warm up to it," he says of the petition drive. He's now an active volunteer at petition tables. "If you can't get good individuals over time, you really need to change the system of government."
Other prominent locals who got involved early on include former Metropolitan Planning Commission chair Don Parnell (now vice-president of Realty Trust), former County Executive Tommy Schumpert, entertainment tycoon Ashley Capps, maverick downtown developer David Dewhirst, ex-Commissioner Bee DeSelm, and former UT President Joe Johnson, who served as the early chairman of Knox County-One Question. In spring of 2007, the group hit the road, holding five public meetings at urban and rural locations around the county, asking attendees how they'd like to change government. Predictably, the responses varied widely, some calling for tax reduction, some for metro government. At each of the meetings, someone stood up and said they thought County Commission was just too big.
KCOQ also took their eponymous question to the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy, the academic research institution founded by its namesake, the former Republican senator. Just now completing its grand new headquarters at Cumberland and Melrose, it presently consists of several political-science researchers operating in the old Hoskins Library. About one year ago, a team of researchers, led by political science Professor Michael Fitzgerald, presented Knox County-One Question with a 146-page comprehensive report. It didn't examine the particular crises in Knox County government, the back-room dealing that became known as Black Wednesday, or the notorious golf vacations and lobster dinners—nor did it expressly recommend solutions. What it did, mostly, was describe some basics of how successful counties around America operate in the 21st century, especially in counties within Knox County's population bracket, with similar rates of growth.
In their comparative assessment, one thing stands out sharply. Knox County voters have an extraordinarily "long ballot." Knox Countians vote for a total of 55 elective offices—not counting city, state, or federal offices. Compared to 160 American counties in a population bracket of 250,000-800,000, the size of Knox County's main governing body, 19-member County Commission, is more than twice as large as the average. The report avoids use of the word "freakish," but it's clear that there aren't many county governments like it in America.
In choosing peer counties to compare with Knox County in some more in-depth profiles, the Baker Center stuck to the Southeast to assure a comparable "political culture"—perhaps to point out that the small-commission form wasn't some arrogant Yankee conspiracy.
Madison County, Ala., for example, another county of very similar size to Knoxville, home to the similar-sized Tennessee River city of Huntsville, is governed by a seven-member county commission. In Cobb County, Ga., pop. 680,000, five elected commissioners make the decisions. Richland County, South Carolina, slightly smaller than Knox County but home of the state capitol, Columbia, has a bigger-than-average county commission—with 11 members.
"Knox County has a very long ballot compared to its peers," the Baker Center's report concludes. "Long ballots impose an additional responsibility on voters to track and evaluate the performance of a large number of diverse county officials...." It goes on. "In order to hold public officials accountable for the conduct of their office and the performance of government... the public must be able to assign responsibility.... The goal of assigning clear responsibility and the coordination of corrective action is made more difficult when administrative responsibility is divided among many directly elected, and thus politically independent, executives."
While acknowledging that it's possible for almost any elective government to work effectively, the report implies that Knox County's is particularly vulnerable to dysfunction. "[I]f voters are discontented with the direction and performance of county government, numerous and relatively small constituencies make it difficult to change majorities on the commission.... The larger any group of independent decisionmakers becomes, the more likely it is that difficult-to-bridge divisions of opinion and interest will emerge. The situation can produce factions which stymie majority rule and is especially troublesome when factions harden around rival leaders...."
McClain and others recognized Knox County Commission in those lines, and were persuaded to spend their Saturdays collecting signatures to change it.
The report only touches on a motive to abolish elective fee offices, but does note that a 1996 study of county governments found that the "fragmentation of the executive branch due to a large number of constitutional officers" can impede effective government. It also remarks on ethical considerations, noting rather politely that compared to other counties' statutes and codes of conduct, "Knox County government is in the early stages of development in this area of concern."
Against the Stream
Some of the ideas expressed in the petitions had come up before. Asked when it first occurred to him that County Commission was too populous, Schmid says, "I think it was my first day on Commission." But Tullock says reducing the size of Commission was not a motive of KCOQ until the steering committee combined the results of the public meeting with the Baker Center report. "The Baker report shaped Knox County - One Question," he says.
Tullock says the Baker Center's report emboldened the group to go forward. With the report and its implied recommendations in hand, the growing KCOQ group set out to propose to the voters a new, stripped-down county government, with most of the fee offices—the trustee, the county clerk, the register of deeds, and the law director—under control of the county mayor, and reducing the number of county commissioners, from 19 to 11—one from each district, plus two who are elected by all the county voters at large.
They realize they're running against the stream. Many voters like the idea of maximizing elected officials, even if they can't name more than a few of them. Where the commission reduction is concerned, the petitioneers have an answer that at least sounds good.
Currently, most county voters get to vote for only two commissioners. (The exception is the far-west fifth district, which due to a quirk in the charter, and a larger population than other districts, has three.) By the proposed revamping, each Knox County voter would have the opportunity to vote for three commission seats: one for his or her district, and two at-large. Tullock says the district lines would need to be redrawn to assure equilibrium, and he would expect that they would be identical to the school-board districts, which also number nine. The alignment with school-board districts isn't mentioned in the charter wording, but Tullock says, "That's the only logical result."
Also appealing to fiscally conservative voters is the matter that all those extra commissioners are paid for their work. One signer, a young man with a baby stroller, is especially pleased to hear about the reduction in size of commission. "We're paying all those people to sit there and argue," he says. The extra expense of paying a dysfunctionally large number of county commissioners is another motive of the petition drive. Hamilton says the immediate total savings accruing from a pared-back commission, in salary, benefits, and expenses, would top $220,000 per year.
Volunteers' estimates of the savings vary widely; the one closest to credible figures is the former finance director, Kathy Hamilton. She says they haven't specifically estimated the salary of one new staffer, the Inspector General, but she expects the person who holds that post to pay at least for his or her own salary in savings from increased efficiencies. She adds that the consolidations implied in combining the fee offices should reduce the staff of each by about two employees, saving a total of about $200,000 more. In addition, she expects county government would have access to the fee-office budgets, which have lately been increasing, in combined revenues, by about a million a year. "I think we're very easily looking at a million and a half in savings," she says.
If Knox Countians haven't noticed its size XXL commission before, it may be because the urban county we often compare ourselves with is even bigger. Nashville—Davidson's Metro Council has 40 members. But, of course, Nashville's government is a city-county-combined metropolitan government. Consolidated metropolitan government often comes up as a solution to the chaos in Knox County government, and skeptics of the petition drive suspect that 50-year-old spectre is the real, long-term goal of this new effort, noting that making county government more similar to city government, as seems likely. Tullock and others deny that metro government is an ulterior motive for the petition drive.
"It would change the county structure in a way that it could cooperate with the city structure more easily," says Tullock. "Would it make it easier [to consolidate]? Absolutely. But consolidation's up to the citizens of Knox County." Consolidation is not suggested in the petition, and seems unlikely to come up for another vote any time soon.
Athanasios Bayiates—his allies, admitting failure with his name, call him "A.B."—is a teacher and president of the Knox County Educational Association. A young man who wears his hair wild, he's one of the more adventurous and aggressive of the volunteers today, diving into the crowd like Michael Phelps. Streamlining, he's convinced, will save millions—"and that's more money for the public schools."
Short of United Way campaigns, rarely do so many big shots come together over any issue, which is likely the beginning of the perception that it was an "elitist" effort. Some of the talent came in handy; among the early leaders was lawyer Tom McAdams, a well-respected attorney specializing in corporate law who has taken leadership roles in several community-development efforts in recent years. He assembled the wording of the proposed law, comparing it to the state constitution.
A few, especially county commissioners like Elaine Davis who opposed putting the amendments on the ballot, have raised questions about whether the amendments are legal. "Obviously, they haven't read the amendments, and compared them with the Constitution," says Schmid, who says he has no doubts about McAdams' work. He adds that the critics he knows about have personal reasons for favoring the status quo.
As for the elitism charge, it's true that all the leadership are mostly affluent and influential. ("I'm just an old football coach," protests McClain.) The result would indeed be that Knox County would have a smaller cadre of elective officials at the top, and to some that fact might well smack of elitism, broadly defined—even if such an arrangement would make Knox County similar to most counties in America.
The Ragsdale Problem
The petition effort may have been star-crossed by unprecedented accusations of the last year or so. The year 2008 is likely the worst year in Knox County history to propose concentrating more power in the office of the county's chief executive. The problem is separating the idea of the chief executive, men and women unknown to be elected in 2010 or thereafter, with the current chief executive, scandal-mired County Mayor Mike Ragsdale.
"The biggest problem we've encountered has been the backlash over the Ragsdale administration," says Schmid. "They've poisoned the well for us—even though they'll be gone before this goes into effect. We weren't expecting the Ragsdale administration to be such a freaking disaster, and it's undermined us a lot."
However, the charter-petition's goal may have a result of raising the bar for accountability.
Besides the petitions' overt appeals toward accountability and fairness, some volunteers hope that concentrating more power in the office of county mayor may also lead to more oversight from the voting public, in part by making the office more conspicuous on the ballot, and perhaps more appealing to competitive candidates.
Presently, the county mayor has little real power in county government, and that fact may explain some astonishing apathy regarding that office from both voters and prospective candidates. When Ragsdale, then one of many former county commissioners in town, first ran for the county's highest office in 2002, he had no opposition at all, either in the Republican primary or the general election. When he ran for re-election in 2006, he had one opponent, but only in the Republican primary. Ragsdale has campaigned for the county's highest office in four elections, and has had to fight for it only once. And in all four cases, he was nominated or elected by a voting total equivalent to less than 10 percent of Knox County's population—or about a third of the number who voted in the last presidential primary. Would voters care more about an office that had much more responsibility associated with it?
Go Get 'Em
If there's not an organized opposition to the charter amendment proposals, it's taking a wait-and-see attitude. The Knox County Republican Party, in a meeting this past Saturday, condemned the charter amendments. Individual opponents seem concentrated in current county government; there's no question these changes would be disruptive to some careers. (A couple of known opponents in county government hadn't returned calls for comment by our deadline; city officeholders steer clear of the issue. City Mayor Bill Haslam and others in his administration decline comment.)
Some critics suspect the anti-nepotism and ethical-government aspects of the petition are a candy coating for some strong medicine which most voters might find unpalatable.
Few of the volunteers' appeals to passersby on Market Square, for "more accountability" and "no nepotism" mention the reduction in size of County Commission, or the removal of direct voter choice on the fee offices. The summation at the top of the white petition describes it thus: "STREAMLINING THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH TO BECOME MORE COST EFFECTIVE BY MAKING THE NEXT COUNTY MAYOR RESPONSIBLE FOR APPOINTING DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS TO PERFORM THE DUTIES OF THE NON-POLICY-MAKING FEE OFFICERS AND LAW DIRECTOR SUBJECT TO APPROVAL AND REMOVAL FOR MISCONDUCT BY COUNTY COMMISSION."
All that's apparently accurate; Hamilton emphasizes that there's currently not a way for commission to discipline or remove fee officers, once they've been elected, and several argue that the fee officers would actually be more responsible to the public as mayoral departments, subject to review by both the mayor and County Commission. But the summation doesn't mention that citizens wouldn't get to vote for them anymore. The full story can be found in the full text on each petition signed, of course, and it does take a longer time to explain than most people have on their lunch hour.
Tullock, who's been dismayed by assumptions that there's anything deceitful about the effort, says the bundling was purely practical. He says he and his allies tried to get County Commission to put the measures on the ballot separately, merely by resolution, the usual way. "They could have done that, and we wanted them to," he says. "But they didn't."
They presented the idea of putting the charter amendments on the ballot before County Commission in January, 2008. They needed a two-thirds majority of 13 members to approve it. After three months of discussion in early 2008, 12 commissioners had agreed to put the seven amendments on the ballot separately. But seven commissioners declined it: Then-chairman Scott Moore, Greg "Lumpy" Lambert, Paul Pinkston, Ivan Harmon, Craig Leuthold, Elaine Davis, and Victoria DeFreese.
Tullock remembers Scotty Moore's parting shot: "If you think you can get that many signatures, get your tenny shoes on and go get 'em." Ever since then, the petitioneers have convened for what they call "tenny-shoe Saturdays."
At some point, member Tom McAdams noted they were going to need many more signatures than the they originally assumed—the 18,000 that would have represented 15 percent of the voters in the last gubernatorial election. Thanks to a resolution passed quietly in the '90s at the state level concerning Tennessee's two home-rule counties, Knox and Shelby, need 15 percent of all registered voters, a much higher number, nearly 40,000. It's rumored to have been an Ashe-administration ploy to prevent growing public opposition to the Turkey Creek proposal from scotching the city- and county-subidized project. A resolution approved in the August primary will restore the older rule which makes it easier for petitioneers to get measures on a ballot—but not until September, 2010. Tullock remarks that that amendment, the only KCOQ proposal County Commission accepted, and approved by an overwhelming majority of voters, is the only established legacy of their effort so far.
The state attorney general told them the individual proposals couldn't appear on a ballot separately unless each had its own petition. Placing them separately on the ballot would have required 40,000 signatures on each of seven different petitions—which would suggest major logistical problems of perhaps as many as 280,000 signatures—each of which has to be verified, at a cost of $1 each to county government. (McClain notes that if the county had approved putting the amendments on the ballot in April, they could have saved $80,000 in petition-verification charges. "But maybe, to the county, that's not much," he says.)
So, Tullock says, they combined them in an orange petition, which deals mainly with commission, and an white petition, which deals mainly with the executive branch. However, as the effort's website shows, the original steering committee's recommendation did "bundle" them differently, with the four less-controversial ethical recommendations under category A, and the three more-specific surgical changes under category B.
Watching any petition table, it's clear that many people sign the petition without realizing the full import of the changes called for. Though some volunteers mention them—Tom Parnell seems especially adept at laying it all out expeditiously and disarmingly—most stick to nepotism, conflict of interest, ending the good-ole-boy network. But then again, the petition is not to make the changes; it's merely to get the proposals on the ballot and let the people decide on Nov. 4. It's safe to say there will be plenty of discussion of the issue before that.
And if County Commission moves rapidly, Tullock says, commission can choose to separate them on the November ballot.
Some suspect the chance of these charter amendments passing in November is even slighter than the chance of the petitions succeeding. It's rare for voters to agree to have fewer choices, even if the choices themselves don't mean much to most voters—who, numbers suggest, avoid county politics except when they align with national elections.
Still, for now, the volunteers try, with the help of another group of paid petitioneers. The Hessians of this effort are about 20 local hirees of a Portland, Ore., group called Citizen Solutions. Tullock says KCOQ, which has raised about $125,000 for the effort, hired Citizen Solutions only when they learned the minimum number of signatures would be twice as high as they had previously assumed. "Our volunteers have jobs, and aren't able to stand all day in front of retail stores." The Citizens Solutions employees, working shopping centers, have generated 20,000 signatures, almost two-thirds of the signatures gleaned so far. A push in the form of an endorsement and free space in the News Sentinel generated about 1,500 signatures.
Another PR group, Target Up Solutions, led by Gary Drinnen, has also been hired. Drinnen got acquainted with the Knox Charter Petition movement when he called to protest some of the candidate-reducing aspects of it. "I had kind of a knee-jerk reaction, and wasn't fond of them," he says. "I showed up for a couple of meetings, and became a believer." He volunteered, and later graduated to hired help.
Several volunteers say they feel more confident now than they did a week or two ago, before they'd approached the 30,000 mark. But they still have about 12 days to gather at least 5,000 signatures. All that's a guess, of course, at a moving target—no one knows what the total number of registered voters will be in a few weeks, during a hot presidential election campaign. And no one knows what percentage of those gleaned will be authenticated as valid—and how many have absent-mindedly signed it twice.
And then, once it's on the ballot, they'd have to start convincing people to vote for it. It may seem like a hail-Mary pass that hasn't yet left the quarterback's hands.
With no home football games before the deadline, Boomsday, on Aug. 31, is said to be the last best hope of the petition drive. Several involved in the effort declare that if they fall short, they'll keep trying to get the amendments on the ballot, first through a County Commission that has a little different makeup than the one that fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority for approval in April. Tullock won't acknowledge any Plan B. "We're going to get 40,000 signatures," he says. "That's our plan."
"I'm done with my political stuff here in Knoxville after this," says John Schmid. "If the voters don't want it on the ballot to vote on, so be it. If they like the form of government we have in Knox County, well, that's the will of the people."
© 2008 MetroPulse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Cimon Art designs Swarovski Studded Perrier-Jouët's Grand Brut for Auction
Famed for his luxurious and one-of-a-kind series of Lego sculptures 'Little Love Stories', which are built with Lego bricks reskinned in various metal finishes and then intricately hand-embellished with a myriad of sparkling Swarovski Crystals, the New York based artist Cimon 'Cimon Art' has now joined forces with renowned champagne house Perrier-Jouët and Status Luxury Group to contribute to Petra Nemcova's Happy Hearts Fund charity for the Celebrate Your Status gala auction on Dec. 17th 2012. Notably, a 3-liter bottle of Perrier-Jouët's Grand Brut and its wooden case has been personalized and intricately decorated by Cimon with crystal Swarovski Elements, with which the artist actually explores the dynamics of color and refracted light. This one-of-a-kind visually stunning bottle will be available for preview on Dec. 13th at the SWAROVSKI CRYSTALLIZED Concept Store in New York City, which is currently hosting the first public showcase of CIMON ART's dazzling "Little Love Stories" Sculptures.
Besides featuring a gorgeous crystallized representation of the famous Perrier-Jouët's anemore, the face of the wooden case also boasts motifs of teddy bear in fire orange crystals and a toy train engine in fire-red crystals, added by Cimon in honor of Happy Hearts Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rebuilding schools and to restoring hope and opportunity in the lives of children after natural disasters around the world.
Further, Cimon has dotted the sides of the case with clear Swarovski Elements of varied sizes and shapes, which impressively gives a sense of celebration and the holiday spirit.
This visually stunning bottle boasts repeated flower motifs in clear petal crystals on the label, which is dotted with pale yellow crystals, while the bottle's back has a clear crystal flower with a golden stem. Notably, Cimon has also etched his signature on the bottle to mark its uniqueness.
Now in its 2nd year, the Celebrate Your Status Gala produced by SLG will gather affluent individuals to raise $20,000 and 2,000 toys for HHF.
Via: Thanks, Jack! CelebrateYourStatus


text:
Obama Agrees: Fox Isn't News
by Josh Orton, Wed Oct 15, 2008 at 01:56:34 PM EDT
Towards the end of Matt Bai's NYT Magazine piece about how Obama courts the "working-class" vote, this quote leaped off the page:
"I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls," Obama told me. "If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn't vote for me, right? Because the way I'm portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?
"I guess the point I'm making," he went on, "is that there is an entire industry now, an entire apparatus, designed to perpetuate this cultural schism, and it's powerful. People want to know that you're fighting for them, that you get them. And I actually think I do. But you know, if people are just seeing me in sound bites, they're not going to discover that. That's why I say that some of that may have to happen after the election, when they get to know you."
But Obama's statement isn't the only sign his campaign understands the reality that Fox News is nothing but pure conservative propaganda.
Remember the clip from last week when Gibbs threw the Ayers accusations right back in Hannity's face? I can't remember a Democratic campaign ever responding so aggressively, live, to a Fox smear.
And just a yesterday, Plouffe asserted that "Fox News Channel is turning themselves into the 24-hour ACORN channel."
Just as conventional wisdom has turned against Republican governing philosophy, it's also turned against that philosophy's attack dog.
Update [2008-10-15 18:57:52 by Josh Orton]: The latte-sipping, Volvo-driving stereotype that Obama describes (see 2004: Kerry, John) is actually quite a bit more benign than the terrorist-coddling communist Fox portrays him as.
Tags: Election 08, Fox News (all tags)