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Price from
Trek the spectacular Annapurna foothills and Kopra Ridge
The area below Annapurna South provides a stunning wilderness of alpine ridges, holy lakes and sensational mountain views. The Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges, both over the magical 8000-metre height, are the great attraction, along with the beautiful fish-tail peak of Machapuchhare. Part of this trek takes us well of the beaten track, and by staying at Peregrine Community lodges we help provide support for the local economy and local schools. And after the exertions of your trek a day's relaxation at beautiful Pokhara can be the icing on the cake.
- Start
- Kathmandu, Nepal
- Finish
- Kathmandu, Nepal
- Country
- Nepal
- Style
- Peregrine
- Theme
- Trekking
- Code
- Physical rating
- Traveller's rating
- 13 reviews
- Ages
- Min 15
- Group size
- Min 1, Max 16
Why we love this trip
This spectacular adventure treks through the Annapurna foothills to the wild and remote Kopra Ridge - one of the best vantage points in the Himalaya.
The opportunity to stay in lodges built as a joint venture between Peregrine and the local community. Profits benefit local schools and village projects.
Ascending the terraced hillsides to Upper Ghandruk, and enjoying fine views of the Annapurna mountains.
Leaving the popular main trail at Tadapani and heading through remote alpine terrain to Bayeli, before ascending to Kopra.
The spectacular view across the lofty peaks of Nilgiri, Annapurna I, Fang and Annapurna South. With Dhaulagiri dominating the western skyline across the deepest gorge in the world, the Kali Ghandaki.
Descending through open alpine pastures, oak forest and rhododendrons to Swanta before rejoining the main trail and unwinding beside Lake Phewa in lovely Pokhara.
Is this trip right for you?
This is a 10 day strenuous trek with up to 7 hours a day hiking.
A very good level of fitness is required.
Minimum age for this trip is 16 years.
This itinerary is valid for departures from 01 May 2016 to 31 December 2016. View the itinerary for departures between 01 January 2017 - 31 December 2017
After you settle into the hotel there will be a group briefing with your tour leader in the late afternoon. He will discuss the trek details and co-ordinate any last minute arrangements.
The evening is free, but the tour leader will usually organise dinner (optional) at one of Kathmandu's fine Nepali restaurants.
- Shangri La Hotel or similar (1 night)
Included Activities
- Kathmandu - Bodhnath Stupa
- Kathmandu - Guided city tour
- Kathmandu - Pashupatinath Temple
- Nepal Trek Pack including: kitbag, sleeping bag, inner sheet & down jacket
Meals IncludedThere are no meals included on this day.
The rest of the afternoon in Kathmandu is free for further sightseeing and exploration.
In the late afternoon you will be issued with your Trek Pack and departure information for the next morning.
- Shangri La Hotel or similar (1 night)
Meals Included
- Breakfast
In Pokhara you will be transferred by road (private bus) to the starting point of the trek at Nayapul. The porters will be waiting, and after a brief stop to stretch your legs while the porters organise the load, you will set off on the walk.
You will walk through the busy trading post of Nayapul. You will cross a small stream via suspension bridge and continue on a dirt road before crossing the Modi River to reach Birethanti. At Birethanti your trekking permits will be checked at the Annapurna Conservation Check Post. You will continue to hike following the Modi Khola upstream, passing through settlements inhabited by the Chettris and Brahmins. On a clear day looming majestically in the distance, you will see the Machapuchhare (6993m).
Soon you will reach the small hamlet of Shyauli Bazaar where you will stop for the day.
Included Activities
- Nepal Trek - Porter
Meals Included
- Breakfast
Special InformationFlight time: approx 30 min; driving time: approx 1.5 hours; trekking: approx 2.5 hours
From the small village of Chane the trail traverses and then climbs up to the village of Ghandruk, where you will stop for lunch and spend the night. Ghandruk is one of the biggest Gurung villages in the area, the difference in the Gurung's lifestyle here to that of their neighbours in the lower areas is very apparent. Ghandruk is well known for the number of its men folk who have served in the British Gurkha regiments.
From the lodge at Old Ghandruk, you will have spectacular views of Annapurna South (7219m), Hiunchuli (6441m), Machapuchhare (6993m), and Hiunchuli (6434m).
Meals IncludedThere are no meals included on this day.
Special InformationTrekking: approx 7 hours
There are no villages on today's route, but there will be a few teahouses at Baisi Kharkha, providing welcome drinks and a place to rest. There will be fine views of Annapurna II (7937m), Annapurna III (7555m), Annapurna IV (7525m), Annapurna South (7237m), Machapuchhare (6993m) and Lamjung Himal (6931m) along the way.
Your lodge at Tadapani is the perfect setting for sunset and sunrise views.
Meals IncludedThere are no meals included on this day.
Special InformationTrekking: approx 4 hours
You will take lunch by a small stream and then continue to climb gradually though open countryside to reach a small pass, where the trail descends through rhododendron to an open clearing known as Bayli Kharka, and the lodge.
From the lodge there are great views of Dhaulagiri Himal.
Meals IncludedThere are no meals included on this day.
Special InformationTrekking: approx 6 hours
After lunch you will continue to walk through forest, ascending gradually and passing through several buffalo grazing pastures to reach a clearing and temporary herder's settlement at Upper Chistibung, where you will stay in the small community lodge.
For a few days you will stay in lodges run by the local communities. We have contributed to the construction of these lodges, part of a series of projects designed to aid the local community. Being off the beaten track, the villages haven't previously enjoyed the benefits of tourism. Now with the network of our Community Lodges, there are profits to benefit local projects and schools.
Meals IncludedThere are no meals included on this day.
Special InformationTrekking: approx 5 hours
You will reach the lodge on Kopra Ridge in time for lunch and will be greeted by more awe-inspiring views. This extraordinary panorama includes Annapurna South, towering directly above you at only six kilometres away, with Fang and Nilgiri prominent to the north. Across the depths of the Kali Gandakhi Valley, the Dhaulagiri Himal dominates the entire western skyline.
The Kopra Community Lodge is the highlight of our work in the region. Profits from this lodge have contributed to the secondary school at Nangi, which you will visit in a few days' time.
Meals IncludedThere are no meals included on this day.
Special InformationTrekking: approx 3 hours
You will then head to the village of Swanta, where you will stay overnight in the newly constructed lodge. We have supported the local school over the years and there is time to pay a quick visit and perhaps interact with the kids.
Meals IncludedThere are no meals included on this day.
Special InformationTrekking: approx 6 hours
There is a further ascent to reach the village of Ghorepani where you will be met with great views of the Dhaulagiri massif and a well-earned rest.
For the rest of the day it is all downhill. The walk passes through beautiful rhododendron forest and you will have lunch at the village of Nangethanti. In the afternoon you will continue to trek through the forest and for those trekking in late March or April the rhododendron should be in full bloom.
You will arrive at Ulleri in the mid afternoon with plenty of time to explore this picturesque village.
Meals IncludedThere are no meals included on this day.
Special InformationTrekking: approx 6 hours
After giving your knees some time to recover, you will continue a more gentle descent to the village of Birethanti, on the banks of the Modi Khola. Here you will have lunch and then cross the new bridge to the east bank, before following the river back to the pick-up point at Naya Phul.
After saying farewell to your porters, you will be transferred by coach back to Pokhara. You will stay at the Hotel Barahi, which is located close to the lakeside. This hotel has a swimming pool, so you may wish to bring your swimming costume. After a welcomed shower, the rest of the day will be free to relax or do some exploring. It is worth hiring a boat for a row out on the lake (Phewa Tal), which is the second largest in Nepal.
Pokhara has an interesting old area as well as an elaborate Hindu temple and a Buddhist monastery. The lakeside area has great shopping and Internet cafes. In the evening there is the option to dine out at one of the many lakeside restaurants (cost not included).
- Hotel Barahi or similar (1 night)
Optional Activities
- Pokhara - Phewa Lake Boat Trip - NPR700
- Pokhara - International Mountaineering Museum - NPR500
Meals IncludedThere are no meals included on this day.
Special InformationTrekking: approx 5 hours; driving time: approx 2 hours
Your leader can advise you of sightseeing opportunities or you may just wish to relax and laze around the hotel swimming pool.
There are various small museums scattered around town including the International Mountain Museum, which is well worth a visit.
- Hotel Barahi or similar (1 night)
Meals Included
- Breakfast
You will then fly back to Kathmandu and enjoy a free afternoon to shop for souvenirs or see some more sights.
Patan, which is located in the south of the city, is also worth a visit with its own Durbar Square full of historic structures and statues of past kings.
Tonight you will have the opportunity to go out on the town and enjoy a final dinner (optional) with your travelling companions and newfound friends to celebrate your last night in Kathmandu.
- Shangri La Hotel or similar (1 night)
Meals Included
- Breakfast
Special InformationFlight time: approx 30 min
A departure transfer to the airport will not be included. Kathmandu has so much to offer, we recommend that you consider booking pre-tour or post-tour accommodation and a departure transfer before you commence your travels.
At the end of your tour please consider donating your used trekking gear.
As you will have come to realise on your tour, porters play a vital role in the tourism industry enabling tourists to visit Nepal's most picturesque and difficult terrain. The majority are subsistence farmers who travel from lower areas of Nepal to the higher elevated trekking routes to find employment. Contrary to the belief that porters are well-adjusted to the cold and altitude of the Himalayas, every year many porters suffer from a variety of illnesses such as altitude sickness, snow blindness, hypothermia and frostbite and some even die as a result.
Meals Included
- Breakfast
Meals5 breakfasts
TransportOn foot, Plane, Private van
AccommodationComfortable hotel, Trekking lodge
Included Activities
- Kathmandu - Bodhnath Stupa
- Kathmandu - Guided city tour
- Kathmandu - Pashupatinath Temple
- Nepal Trek Pack including: kitbag, sleeping bag, inner sheet & down jacket
- Nepal Trek - Porter
Our Annapurna Dhaulagiri trips score an average of 4.92 out of 5 based on 13 reviews in the last year.
Annapurna Dhaulagiri, October 2016
Jill Hage
This was a trip for trekkers who want to see and experience Nepal, but don't want Everest Base Camp.
Review submitted 22 Nov 2016
Annapurna Dhaulagiri, October 2016
Maria Jury
Would very much recommend this trip for its scenery & trail less traveled. It was a good distance for first time Trekkers and each day was at an easy pace. I felt it was easily achievable for anyone with reasonable fitness and more challenging for first time Trekkers and the altitude was not too great but a good climb with stunning views. Loved those mountain views each morning!!
Review submitted 06 Nov 2016
Dates & availability
Trip search is unavailable.
Jump to a departure month
Important notes
A good level of fitness is required. You will be trekking on hilly terrain, generally on well-defined paths, walking about 3-6 hours per day. Altitude may exceed 3870 metres.


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At the halfway point of the college football season, we now have a better feel for this year's freshmen class.
With around six performances in the books, we've been able to separate the pretenders from the contenders. We've seen the players who have the potential to grow into the best at their respective positions and also those who may wind up as busts.
Regardless, this is about the time when the talent a freshman truly possesses finally starts to show through.
So without further ado, let's continue grading the performances of some of the nation's top freshmen.
Note: This list consists of the top true freshmen on 247Sports' composite; one player from outside the top six who has most impressed; and one superlative redshirt who couldn't be ignored.

subset: commoncrawl


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Elaine L. Chao
News about Elaine L. Chao, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.
Trump Picks Elaine Chao for Transportation Secretary
Ms. Chao, as a former labor secretary and the wife of the Senate majority leader, has an establishment background at odds with the president-elect's campaign.
November 29, 2016, Tuesday
Today in Politics
The 114th Congress convened on Tuesday, and it was not a particularly auspicious debut.
January 7, 2015, Wednesday
Gone From Office, Bloomberg's Still a Lightning Rod in Ad Wars
Bloomberg center stage in midterm air wars.
September 30, 2014, Tuesday
Girding for a Fight, McConnell Enlists His Wife
The former labor secretary Elaine Chao will be more crucial than ever as Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, turns to face a well-funded female candidate in Kentucky.
May 14, 2014, Wednesday
The Wrong Way to Attack Mitch McConnell
Progress Kentucky, a group working to unseat the senator, sent out an offensive tweet targeting his wife.
February 26, 2013, Tuesday
Departing Secretary of Labor Fends Off Critics
Elaine L. Chao, the only member of President Bush's cabinet to serve a full eight years, asserted that the Bush Labor Department deserved to be praised, citing declines in workplace fatalities and injuries.
January 10, 2009, Saturday
Cabinet Officials Sent to Campaign at Taxpayer Expense, Report Says
The White House directed officials to appear at events to help elect Republican candidates in 2006, according to a draft report.
October 16, 2008, Thursday
No Friend of the Workers
A government report and a Congressional hearing this week painted a disturbing picture of a Labor Department that simply is not standing up for workers.
July 18, 2008, Friday
G.M. and a U.S. Agency See Pensions in Different Lights
The government contends that General Motors' pension fund is $31 billion short of what it owes its work force, according to closely held government data.
October 3, 2005, Monday
Overhaul Plan For Pensions Is Outlined
The Bush administration outlined an ambitious plan on Monday to shore up America's pension funds and the federal agency that insures them.
January 11, 2005, Tuesday
Rss Feeds On Elaine L. Chao
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Get Alerts On Elaine L. Chao
Receive My Alerts e-mails on topics covered on this page.More Alerts >>


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The debut trailer for X-Men: First Class has arrived! After Fox tormented fans all day by coming through quite late with the promise of posting the heavily-anticipated trailer on the film's Facebook page, the clip has finally made its debut. What we've heard so far about the film depicting the beginnings of the X-Men team, set in 1962 has been puzzling considering its cast of characters. The folks behind the film have been quite clear that, despite some pretty gaping anachronistic character appearances, this would still be a direct prequel to the X-Men films of Bryan Singer and Brett Ratner, which were also branched-off in Gavin Hood's X-Men Origins: Wolverine. So, how will this prequel helmed by Kick-Ass director Mathew Vaughn stack-up in a field of comic book movies that's heating-up in 2011 and will only explode in 2012? Let's get a look!
Xavier: "Killing will not bring you peace." Magneto: "Peace was never an option."
What's immediately apparent, is that while the trailer seems to be going out of its way to show how this will be a character study of the relationship between Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, its focus seems to be tremendously larger. The Cuban Missile Crisis is the prominent backdrop as mutantkind's rather untimely coming out party and the terrible ideological divide between Charles and Erik are already quite clear. A role-call of the new mutant characters displaying their effects-heavy powers is coupled with the familiar sight of a group of X-Men huddled in the X-Mansion, preparing themselves for the world's woes. Additionally, we see new faces filling old concepts with Jennifer Lawrence seductively transforming as Mystique, just as we saw with Rebecca Romijn in the previous X-Men movies and January Jones' Emma Frost sitting with legs crossed in a room Basic Instinct-style before we see her diamond-skinning it up, just as we saw when Tahyna Tozzi played her in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. (Albeit as a younger version of her, set at a presumably later point in time. Makes a lot of sense, right?)
Confusion about the canon aside, this is actually pretty epic. X-Men: First Class hits theaters June 3, 2011.
What's your feedback for this film, now? Has it whetted your appetite? Or has it solidified your indifference?


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The AKG K 77 Closed-Back Circumaural Headphones. Good all-round performer with solid bass and clean highs.
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Good enough for an inexpensive solution for recording vocals or instruments - where you need to minimize the noise coming from your headphones.Certainly good enough for your vocalists / instrumentalist to wear whilst recording.
Great sounding headphones, especially at this price point. I eill be using them for tracing sessions and also as occasional 'listening' phones. Lightweight but not too flimsy.
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Join the Conversation
Michelle Bachman and moral issues
Truth Lies in between
It's easy to "white-wash"; just as easy to totally condemn. Maybe the truth lies in between.
Glad we're a democracy
I'm glad we're a democracy where, at the national level, extremism of all kinds is self-marginalizing.
Bachman and Midwestern politics
This is a thoughtful article that offers a perspective on Midwestern small-town politics. The author offers a revealing examination of the roots of Cong. Bachman's political thought as it has developed over the course of her public and private life. It offers an explanation of where she comes from, both physically and intellectually, especially the influence of her evolving faith.
After spending the last thirty years in the heartland in various strong Christian communities similar to those described by the author, I appreciate his ability to capture their distinctive character. I heard Bachman speak a few weeks ago in Northwest Iowa, in one of the most conservative counties in America--both politically and theologically. The congresswomen was well-prepared for her audience and as any of her opponents. As the author notes, she is often inconsistent in her perspective, but her faith-based populism overlayed with a strong moralistic tone roused the crowd of seniors and students, business leaders and farmers, local politicians and local clergy.
I was not surprised that the biggest applause came when she proclaimed her opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Ironic that such an outspoken critic of government, calls upon both states and the federal government to use their power to prevent or ban these increasingly accepted cultural practices among citizens from Iowa to Vermont. Similarly she pledges to maintain our military superiority around the world, and never apologize for any actions taken by our government in the promotion of our national security.
But beyond Bachman, the most important contribution of the author, is his insight into the importance of understanding the role of religion in the communities that are spread across the Midwest, characterized by places like Anoka and Keillor's fictitious Lake Wobegon. Here his insight about the values and attitudes of millions of Americans is right on target. This mix of traditionalism and moralism is motivating a frustration with big-business, big government, big media, and what they perceive to be a culture that has lost its moorings.
Yet, the understanding of the distinctive religious perspective that is widely held in our heartland as described by Dueholm is rarely evident in the analysis of our national political commentators and journalists. The same is true of Romney and Obama, the current leaders of both major political parties and candidates for President. If it were not for Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses (which Romney is largely ignoring) one wonders if the national Republicans or Democrats would even acknowledge the Midwest as they flyover it when traveling between the coasts.
As a long-time student of politics who grew up and was educated in New England, I know I did. But over time, I have come to understand what is astutely described by Mr. Dueholm and believe that it will be at their own peril, if our leaders in Washington fail to appreciate these deeply felt concerns being voiced by growing numbers of citizens--young and old, rich or poor, male or female, white or minorities, rural or urban. There are few political observers who recognize this but we should be thankful for those like Mr. Dueholm who are bringing it to a wider audience.


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a. shells ... radius of rotation is
b. washers ...
I need help with the following problem:
Consider the region T bounded by x=(y^3)+3, x=45-y,y=1, and y=3.
I am allowed to use the shell or washer method, whichever works.
a.) I need help setting up an integral required to find the volume of the solid obtained by revolving the region T about the line y=-1.
b.) I need help setting up an integral required to find the volume of the solid obtained by revolving the region T about the line x=50.
I'm not really sure how to even begin setting up a. I think to set up b you would use:
2PI∫ (50-x)(y^3 +3 -3) using the shell method. Have I set this
integral up right or have I done something wrong?
I only need help figuring out how to set up the integrals. Thanks to anyone who can help.
Hey guys. Been working on a routine to illustrate better, volumes of revolutions. This is what I think the first one looks like to me. The cone shape is the line from to . Note, the equation is clipped by the boundary line at . The red line is the axis of revolution. The inner radius is the other boundary line . Anyway, I think a good way to improve your skills in solving these is to visualize the volume precisely. Also, the very act of writing the code to generate these is also helpful towards visualizing them. Once you got it accurately visualized, then the calculus follows easily.


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July, 1944: St. Lô
A soldier remembers a great battle
June 1974 | Volume 25, Issue 4
There remains a brief epilogue. The 2nd Battalion departed the battle by foot from La Madeleine to the ridge road. While waiting for it I took a last look around the now quiet field. The salvage crews were at work, and much of the wrecked equipment and weapons had been removed. But the deep wounds in the land were undressed and gave the appearance of verdant desolation. Every hedgerow was scalloped with holes, for no man had stopped without digging in. Practically every hedgerow had been fought for, plowed by shells, and gaped with raw passages for tanks. Whole trees were blasted down, and shattered limbs hung from others. The sickening smell of high explosive persisted.
While I looked and wondered at all this the battalion, in column of twos, commander leading, appeared toiling up the slope. The column was pitifully short; at first I thought that it was only one company and the other would follow. Then I realized that this was all there was, and the memory of it still dries the throat and stings the eyes.
I had seen the great, gray ships of the D-day armada stretching to the horizon in every direction, and I had often seen majestic fleets of Flying Fortress bombers returning from Germany. These were scenes awesome in power and portent. But for a sight to grasp and hold the heart forever I give you a decimated infantry battalion lurching out of battle, bowed with a mortal weariness and with all it has endured. This is not a drama of machines but of ordinary men who have achieved an extraordinary triumph over their fears and vulnerable flesh. For me all sights must pale beside it. I joined the commander and told him of arrangements for the bivouac. The column trudged on toward the Couvains road. Behind us the mists of onrushing time and events began to gather over St. Lô .


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America's famous service with a smile has been tested to the limit as fast food workers went on strike in 130 cities over poverty wages.
Servers and cooks staged a day of rallies against minimum wage salaries that are too low to feed a family and are forcing them to depend on aid programmes such as food stamps and Medicaid health benefits.
Their cause has been joined by President Obama. In a major economic speech he highlighted the "dangerous and growing inequality" that he said had left many hard-working Americans battling daily to make ends meet.
As thousands of fast-food


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By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 16, 2010; 7:18 AM
The White House ripped CBS News on Thursday for publishing an online column by a blogger who made assertions about the sexual orientation of Solicitor General Elena Kagan, widely viewed as a leading candidate for the Supreme Court.
Ben Domenech, a former Bush administration aide and Republican Senate staffer, wrote that President Obama would "please" much of his base by picking the "first openly gay justice." An administration official, who asked not to be identified discussing personal matters, said Kagan is not a lesbian.
CBS initially refused to pull the posting, prompting Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director who is working with the administration on the high court vacancy, to say: "The fact that they've chosen to become enablers of people posting lies on their site tells us where the journalistic standards of CBS are in 2010." She said the network was giving a platform to a blogger "with a history of plagiarism" who was "applying old stereotypes to single women with successful careers."
The network deleted the posting Thursday night after Domenech said he was merely repeating a rumor. The flare-up underscores how quickly the battle over a Supreme Court nominee -- or even a potential nominee -- can turn searingly personal. Most major news organizations have policies against "outing" gays or reporting on the sex lives of public officials unless they are related to their public duties.
A White House spokesman, Ben LaBolt, said he complained to CBS because the column "made false charges." Domenech later added an update to the post: "I have to correct my text here to say that Kagan is apparently still closeted -- odd, because her female partner is rather well known in Harvard circles."
CBS executives at first defended the column, noting that it appeared in an opinion section that contains contributions from blogs and publications on the left and right.
Dan Farber, editor in chief of CBSNews.com, said that Domenech's column "just got through our filters" and that if his staff had seen "a controversial statement like that, we'd want to get more evidence of its accuracy" before publishing it. "But once it is out there," Farber said, "the better approach is just to address it head-on rather than trying to sweep it under the rug."
He changed his mind about yanking the column after receiving an e-mail from Domenech, which the blogger also sent to The Washington Post. Farber said in a statement that "after looking at the facts we determined that it was nothing but pure and irresponsible speculation on the blogger's part."
"I offer my sincere apologies to Ms. Kagan if she is offended at all by my repetition of a Harvard rumor in a speculative blog post," Domenech said. CBS initially added that statement to an editor's note that also reported the White House denial.
In his e-mail, Domenech said that the naming of an openly gay justice would show "how far we've come as a society" and that this "will be an issue of political discussion, whether we like it or not."
Domenech is editor of a year-old Web site called the New Ledger, from which the CBS column was reprinted. He is also editor of the City, a religion-oriented publication of Houston Baptist University.
The Post's Web site briefly hired Domenech as a conservative blogger in 2006. He resigned three days after his debut after a flurry of plagiarism allegations that were trumpeted by liberal Web sites. The sites found signs of plagiarism in a movie review he wrote for National Review Online and, earlier, in his writing for the College of William & Mary's student newspaper.
Domenech maintained that he did not knowingly use other people's writing without attribution but said the "firestorm" had "reached the point where there's nothing I can really do to defend myself."
Rumors invariably raise a difficult journalistic choice: whether to report on them and give them credence, or withhold them and fail to acknowledge what insiders are discussing. Marc Ambinder, a blogger for the Atlantic, wrote Monday about what he called "a baffling whisper campaign" about Kagan "among both gay rights activists and social conservatives. . . .
"So pervasive are these rumors that two senior administration officials I spoke with this weekend acknowledged hearing about them and did not know whether they were true. . . . Why is she the subject of these rumors? Who's behind them?"Taking on Wall Street
A complicated bill has been bottled up for months on Capitol Hill. The president says he wants a bipartisan agreement. A Republican leader denounces the bill and Democrats say they may have to push it through on their own.
Sound familiar?
But the politics of the financial regulation bill feel very different than health care. On one hand, there's less sense of urgency about it: as devastating as the financial collapse was, most people aren't thinking about whether it could happen again next week, or next year. But the big banks are a much fatter target, and people aren't as nervous about the bill because it doesn't affect something supremely personal like their visits to the doctor.
As the WSJ reports: "The Obama administration is betting that widespread public resentment of Wall Street will make it harder for Republicans to oppose the bill. Administration officials are trying to splinter Republican opposition by courting individual senators, including Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Olympia Snowe of Maine and Christopher 'Kit' Bond of Missouri."
Politico reports that the administration isn't in compromise mode:
"For weeks, the White House strategy on financial regulatory reform remained an open question: Would President Barack Obama water down his bill just to get something passed -- the way he did on health care?
"A Palinesque 'Hell no!' was the answer coming from the White House on Wednesday as the president, his senior aides and his allies on Capitol Hill issued an ultimatum to Republicans fighting Democrats' plans to overhaul financial oversight. . . .
"Democrats are so emboldened that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is prepared to bring the Banking Committee bill to the floor with no major concessions to Republicans and essentially dare them to vote against the measure, senior leadership aides said."
Christopher Buckley starts off with a shot at Rahm but then describes his own party as potentially suicidal:
"I wonder whether Emanuel felt that the banking system was in crisis and needed reform back in the late 1990s, when, as an investment banker, he managed to make nearly $20 million in less than two years. And having no experience at banking at all. Nice work if you can get it. . . .
"Republicans can at least be unapologetic about stuffing their pockets with Wall Street baksheesh. It's what they do. People expect them to be on the take! (I say this as a lifelong Republican. To us, corruption is just another way of saying, 'We are open for business!') Where Democrats disappoint is when they pretend to be above bribe-taking.
"With certain exceptions, such as Senator Olympia Snowe, one is left with the impression that the Republicans would rather kill the bill than suffer the ignominy of another hideous Obama legislative success between now and the November elections.
"But if the Republicans succeed in blocking the bill, they may end up electing a supermajority of Democrats in November. For if the Republican message in effect amounts to 'No, we must not, we cannot, we dare not regulate the thieving, manipulating swine who caused $9 trillion of your money to vanish! They're too important to American competitiveness!'--well, whatever the nuances in the bill, it's hard to imagine that voters won't punish obstinacy of that order."
The Lexington Herald Leader, the home-state paper of the top GOP senator, runs a stinging editorial:
"Fox Business reported on Monday that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell recently called on about 25 Wall Street executives, many of them hedge fund managers, to hear their complaints about proposals for regulating the financial industry. . . .
"McConnell's statements are perfectly calibrated to inflame the public. He insists the bill would 'allow endless taxpayer-funded bailouts for big Wall Street banks.' Their resemblance to the truth is another matter.
"The provision that McConnell claims would allow endless bailouts emerged from a bipartisan collaboration by Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn. . . .McConnell, unabashedly courting Wall Street bankers for political money, is happy to scratch their backs if they'll scratch his."
Isn't that what lawmakers call constituent service?Hannity Recalled
Sean Hannity has appeared at GOP events to raise money for the party. But now he's apparently gone too far:
"Fox News has pulled Sean Hannity from his starring role in a tea party rally just one week after Rupert Murdoch said the network should not be supporting the tea party movement.
"Hannity was set to broadcast Thursday night from a tea party rally in Cincinnati, but was rushing back to New York Thursday evening after network executives learned of the plan and said it was unacceptable.
" 'Fox News never agreed to allow the Cincinnati Tea Party organizers to use Sean Hannity's television program to profit from broadcasting his show from the event,' Bill Shine, the network's executive vice president of programming, told the Los Angeles Times. 'When senior executives in New York were made aware of this, we changed our plans for tonight's show.' "Wary of Facebook
"First lady Michelle Obama says Facebook and other social media sites are a generational divide in raising her children.
"During her visit to Mexico, Mrs. Obama tells CNN en Espanol that she and President Barack Obama limit the use of computers for their daughters, Sasha and Malia, and ask the girls a lot of questions when they're on line. . . . Mrs. Obama said she and the president talk with their daughters about the dangers of Facebook, and 'that sort of gossip mill.' "Tribune Vindicated
Long after the Blago scandal broke, Columbia Journalism Review reports:
"A just-revealed document, laying out the federal government's evidence against former Governor Rod Blagojevich, has given the Tribune Company a clean bill of health on their response to an alleged extortion attempt from the governor's staff.
"How so? According to the proffer, prepared by the office of United States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, no one from Tribune Company was ever even offered the deal. . . .
"The tapes caught the governor's inner circle conspiring to make a deal that would have greased the skids for about $100 million in state financial assistance to the then-Tribune-owned Chicago Cubs in exchange for personnel changes to the Chicago Tribune's Blago-skeptic editorial board. '[O]ur recommendation is fire all those [bleeping] people, get 'em the [bleep] out of there and get us some editorial support,' Blagojevich told Harris"--his former chief of staff, John Harris.
"The wiretaps also recorded Harris, whom the governor had dispatched to lay on the knuckle, reporting back that he'd had a discussion with a financial advisor to the Tribune Company about toning down the editorials, and that the advisor had agreed to sound out Tribune's owner--Sam Zell--about the possibility. . . .
"Fitzgerald flatly concludes that 'Harris never had any intention of' approaching the Tribune Company about the deal. All those phone calls? Harris was just stringing his boss along, relaying discussions that he'd never had."
I am glad that no one at the Trib played ball. Now the company's only problem is that it's bankrupt.Illegal Leaking?
Did you hear about the former National Security Agency official who was charged with leaking classified information?
"The indictment does not name the reporter, but The Washington Post has learned that she was Siobhan Gorman, a prize-winning intelligence correspondent for the Baltimore Sun at the time and subsequently at the Wall Street Journal. Gorman published a string of articles that spotlighted poor management of NSA facilities and its failure to set priorities."
I spoke with two noted First Amendment lawyers, Floyd Abrams and Bruce Sanford, both of whom were skeptical about the charges.Ombudsman Intervention
Remember the NYT dustup between columnists Paul Krugman and Andrew Ross Sorkin? Now ombudsman Clark Hoyt has taken sides:
"Krugman and Sorkin told me that they talked Thursday. Sorkin said the conversation was 'very cordial.' Krugman called it 'not much fun.' They agreed that they disagree on the definition of nationalization.
"I think the right thing to do is to simply acknowledge that, in trying to quickly summarize Krugman's nuanced position, Sorkin over-simplified and got it wrong. Krugman did not call for the nationalization of the entire banking system."2012 Watch
Lou Dobbs says he's considering running for president. Just thought you should know.A Modest Man
The WP's Gene Weingarten may have won his second Pulitzer this week, but, he says:
"Journalists who have closely followed the Pulitzers (read: all journalists) understand that on some level, it is a bit of a crapshoot. There's a lot of winnowing by committee, and committee work can be imperfect. The majority of winners are deserving, but some works -- objectively measured against others that did not even become finalists -- seem comparatively weak. In short, deep down we all know that in this process, luck matters. So when you DO win, there is lurking suspicion that maybe you did not deserve it; this suspicion is only compounded by the central irony of the situation -- that to others, a Pulitzer is taken as an immutable validation of your talent. As a result, in the center of your being, you harbor the deep suspicion that you are an impostor, a poseur, a craven fraud, a person to be secretly loathed."Tough Job
Ever wonder what NYT food critic Sam Sifton eats? Me neither. But after looking at his intake--crabmeat sautéed in butter with mushrooms, barbecued pork pie, fried rabbit livers, fried pork rinds, 10-inch hero with fried oysters, bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise--I'm amazed he's still walking around.
Howard Kurtz also works for CNN and hosts its weekly media program, "Reliable Sources."


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Keeping pace with customers' film requirements is reflected in AMST's product family. An installed base of 100+ tools shows how manufacturers are relying on MVD to enable the ultra-high device performance that makes the IoT possible.


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AUSTIN (AP) - A Travis County jury sentenced a carpenter and small-time cocaine dealer to lethal injection for the slayings of two women and a 9-year-old girl in the women's home last year.
The jury deliberated for six hours Saturday before handing out the death sentence for Louis Castro Perez, 37.
Perez's attorney, Joe James Sawyer, said neither he nor Perez was surprised that jurors voted for execution.
"When one of the victims is a 9-year-old girl, there's no realistic expectation that a jury can do anything else," Sawyer told the Austin American-Statesman. "We understood it was a case where Mr. Perez would have to be found not guilty, or he would receive the death penalty."
Jurors on Thursday found Perez guilty of murdering Michelle Fulwiler, her roommate, Cinda Barz, and Barz's daughter, Staci Mitchell, in their Barton Hills home on Sept. 9, 1998.
Prosecutors said Perez killed Fulwiler first, then Staci when she came home from school and finally Barz when she returned from work.
Both women were employees of the Travis County juvenile probation department.
A bloody palm print on a tile floor and DNA evidence found beneath Barz' and the child's fingernails connected Perez to the crime.
Prosecutors say a motive for the slaying remains unclear but suggested that Perez probably became enraged because Fulwiler declined to have sex with him the night before the murders.
© 2016. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us


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The band Coincidence Maybe will appear in its final central Ohio concert Nov. 9 at the Westerville Church of the Nazarene, 355 Cherrington Road, Westerville.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
The event will feature guest appearances from some of the band's former members.
The group marked its 15th anniversary this year. Since its beginning, the group has performed in 400 concerts, recorded five studio albums and one acoustic EP.
For more information call 614-882-2148.


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Shop the Look
full size
Product Details
The sweater you'll wear with almost everything. It's soft, flattering and layers well—so you can totally justify buying several.
Size & Fit Details
Tippi sweater
Tippi sweater is rated out of 5 by 257.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Susan from Tippi As always a great J.Crew addition to your wardrobe. I recommend it and love the new style
Date published: 2016-12-04
Rated 5 out of 5 by Hill from Classic I have been debating on buying Tippi sweaters for awhile, mainly because they are very basic and was looking for something a little more exciting. I finally bought two and plan on buying a third. These sweaters are very basic but very sophisticated, feminine and versatile. I plan on wearing them with tissue turtlenecks or button down when it is really cold and with just a cami in warmer winter weather. They are on the thin side but it is nearly impossible to find thicker Merino Wool sweaters anywhere. They still provide warmth even though they are thin. I also like how these sweaters are fitted but not clingy so you can layer or wear alone without them seeming over sized. My only improvement for this sweater would be a full length sleeve. To me, the sweater would seem more wintry with a full sleeve and you could wear a long sleeve tee underneath without the sleeves sticking out.
Date published: 2016-12-02
Rated 5 out of 5 by Ruby from Lemon Zest and Ivory Bought these sweaters in lemon zest and ivory with ruffle and they're thinner than I expected. However, I live in Florida so they're the perfect sweater to wear to get you in the mood of Fall-Winter ;-) I've full hips ,size small is a bit "tight" if I wear it untuck. But when tuck in to my jeans, it's just right. I'm petite, 5'3" and I like the 3/4 sleeve cause they make my arms longer and leaner. Lemon zest is my fav' color!,such a bright and cheerful and fun choice to wear on my olive skin.It can instantly change my mood
Date published: 2016-11-04
Rated 5 out of 5 by cjm1203 from rich wonderful colors I love the Tippi sweater and have it in multiple colors. If I plan on wearing a blouse underneath I size up one. Some of the colors or more "shear" than others and personally would not wear as a single layer. I also would suggest if dry cleaning (as recommended) that you have the cleaners turn it inside out for cleaning. I use a high quality cleaner so I consider it more a material issue that the fabric can start to look "worn" after only a few cleanings (thus only 4 stars on the quality).
Date published: 2016-10-30
Rated 5 out of 5 by Kiry from Get this in every color The Tippi is part of my fall/winter uniform. I have it in many colors. I throw it on with a pencil skirt and booties and I'm ready for work. It's simple and classic and I love the neon pink color I just got. I think I need a few more!
Date published: 2016-10-21


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Palo Duro can claim it has the best three-man cross country team in Texas. The Amarillo High Lady Sandies, for now, want to be the best in District 2-5A.
Unable to field a complete team, Palo Duro shined Friday by taking first, second and sixth in the boys division of the Amarillo ISD City Meet at Thompson Park.
Junior David Mogi ran away from the field to win his first gold medal by a whopping one minute, one second over teammate Emmanuelle Dragule. Kiyya Godana, who qualified for the Region I-4A meet last fall, was sixth.
"I wish I had two more," Dons coach Russell Camp said.
Five runners are needed to qualify a team for a championship, which Friday was won by Tascosa over Amarillo High in the boys division.
In the girls race, Amarillo High was even more dominant than PD, with Alex Allison winning the individual title and the Lady Sandies taking the team championship. Knowing that at the district meet it will face No. 9 Coronado, the Lady Sandies have been working on running together. On Friday, AHS took the first four places and also seventh and eighth.
"That is our goal and today, we finally accomplished that. We have nine or 10 girls who could run on the varsity," said Allison, who was breaking in a new running shoes. "They are amazing but they're not broken in and I feel some blisters coming on."
Allison blistered the field with a 12:52.49, nine seconds ahead of teammate Sterling Schaeffer, who beat Allison at last weekend's Amarillo Invitational.
"I had to get my spot back," said Allison, who's the defending 2-5A individual champion.
Mogi ran a 17:18.17 on a course of thick grass that's just over three miles. Thompson Park times generally are slower than other area races.
Mogi's time was five seconds slower than what he ran last weekend but he had no one pushing him Friday.
"It feels good to win," Mogi said.
He outran Dragule (18:19.74), who won the junior varisty division at the Invitational.
Adam Crawford was Tascosa's first runner in with an 18:22.39. The Rebels had six of the top 10 runners.
Amarillo ISD City Meet
at Thompson Park
Team standings: 1. Amarillo High 17. Caprock 57. 3. Tascosa 60.
Top 10 individuals: 1. Alex Allison, Amarillo High, 12:52.49. 2. Sterling Schaeffer, Amarillo High, 13:01.77. 3. Lindsey Taylor, Amarillo High, 13:04.36. 4. Caroline Boyd, Amarillo High, 13:20.40. 5. Angelica Palleres, Caprock, 13:22.49. 6. Jennifer Fuentes, Caprock, 13:27.08. 7. Audrey Haas, Amarillo High, 13:37.88. 8. Leslie White, Amarillo High, 13:48.72. 9. Siarra Quintana, Tascosa, 13:59.51. 10. Kristen Coffman, Tascosa, 14:03.12.
Top JV team: Amarillo High Black 17.
Top JV runner: Sally Polk, Amarillo High, 14:05.04
Team standings: 1. Tascosa 18. 2. Amarillo High 44.
Top 10 individuals: 1. David Mogi, Palo Duro, 17:18.17. 2. Emmanuelle Dragule, 18:19.74. 3. Adam Crawford, Tascosa, 18:22.39. 4. Kolin Pelton, Tascosa, 18:31.00. 5. Kevin Miller, Amarillo High, 18:34.40. 6. Kiyya Godana, Palo Duro, 18:52.96. 7. Brett Villarreal, Tascosa, 18:55.10. 8. Jacob Campos, Tascosa, 18:56.01. 9. Braydon Villarreal, Tascosa, 19:02.45. 10. Michael Huber, Tascosa, 19:03.24.
Top JV team: Tascosa 29
Top JV individual: Daniel Prieto, Amarillo High, 20:04.27
© 2016. All Rights Reserved. | Contact Us


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With the 2013 NFL draft now less than two weeks away, we wanted to call attention to the handful of teams that are being viewed as potential wheelers and dealers at Radio City Music Hall.
Some of these teams you could classify as the usual suspects, while others will be more of a surprise due to unique circumstances.
Due to the new CBA deal that the NFL and the NFLPA agreed to, draft picks are extremely valuable as a way for teams to keep costs down on younger players. Franchises can also control drafted players for five years, which is another reason for teams in rebuilding mode to stockpile draft picks.
In a review of the trades that were consummated in the 2012 NFL draft, NFL.com discusses a total of 29 separate deals.
Of the 32 NFL teams, 28 were involved in at least one trade during the draft. The four teams that never pulled the trigger were the New York Giants, Arizona Cardinals, Kansas City Chiefs and New Orleans Saints. None of those four teams made the playoffs.
There were three teams that executed the most trades during the draft (four each), the Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers and New England Patriots. Each of those three teams made the playoffs last year.
Coincidence? Perhaps, but we will leave it up to the readers to weigh in on the topic.
The 2013 draft will undoubtedly hold a surprise or two. There will undoubtedly be at least one team that was thought to have no major trade plans pulling off a major deal that will send shock waves throughout their own fanbase.


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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Like many other movie stars, Sandra Bullock has been endlessly sliced into tidbits by the celebrity media. • Vanity Fair calls the Oscar-winning actress "friendly and direct and so unpretentious." (True.)
• Dozens of color-by-number profiles describe her as "America's sweetheart," as a gifted physical comedian who has suffered the occasional flop. (Fair enough.)
After her 2010 divorce, she briefly got the tabloid treatment, with one article accompanied by the headline "Sandra Bullock Finally Leaves the House — Looking Like the Witch From She-Ra." (Doubtful.)
Yet one of her most noteworthy attributes is rarely mentioned, perhaps because it isn't readily noticed on camera.
A look behind her performances, though, reveals that Bullock — who will return to theaters on Oct. 4 in the space thriller Gravity — is arguably Hollywood's gutsiest A-list actress.
The 2002 romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice might not scream "fearless," but, shortly after, Bullock abruptly steered away from what was working, instead fighting for smaller dramatic roles that were, at times, unflattering. (Her role as a well-off racist in Crash comes to mind.)
The perilous professional shift led her to The Blind Side (2009), a difficult film that could have easily turned into a Lifetime melodrama. Instead, it won her an Academy Award.
Last year, Bullock, 49, appeared naked in a long, raunchy skit on Chelsea Lately.
And, she almost drowned when she took a daring leap into the North Atlantic in 2009 to film a scene for The Proposal. After bobbing in the water for take after take, she began suffering from hypothermia.
"I'd put her toughness against any tough-guy actor out there," said Todd Lieberman, a Proposal producer.
Still not convinced? Gravity should change that.
The film — directed and co-written by Alfonso Cuaron, the meticulous filmmaker behind Children of Men and Y Tu Mama Tambien, both critical darlings — stars Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts adrift in space after surviving a shuttle accident. But it is largely a solo performance by Bullock in the way that Cast Away rested squarely on Tom Hanks, securing him an Oscar nomination in the process. Clooney appears in only about a third of the film.
"I actually never thought about being alone on screen for such a long time until I started doing press, and everyone asked me if that made me nervous, and then I started panicking," Bullock said last month.
Cuaron created a cinematic torture device for the filming — a 10-foot-by-14-foot box equipped with special lights and placed on a darkened soundstage. Bullock was "clamped" into a "gruesome" harness, Cuaron said, and placed inside, where she remained isolated for hours at a stretch. A camera mounted on a robotic arm pivoted and circled around her. The newly developed technology made it look as if Bullock were floating through the darkness of space.
"I was literally acting off nothing for up to 10 hours a day, with headphones my only connection to Alfonso," she said. "We made a catalog of music clips — whale sounds, Radiohead, weird screeching of metal — and I memorized them. I would say, 'OK, give me No. 4. That's not working. Try No. 2. That's better, that's getting me to the emotion I need.' "
To film one sequence, Bullock had to stay perfectly still and in character while a camera rushed toward her at 25 mph, stopping only about an inch from her face.
Other scenes required her to be strung up horizontally by 12 wires while puppeteers maneuvered her through choreographed movements.
"I got into it and didn't last 20 seconds," Cuaron said of the contraption.
Gravity, with its edge-of-your-seat intensity and simultaneous sense of claustrophobia and expansiveness, knocked out critics on the opening night late last month of the Venice Film Festival.
"Bullock is aces in by far the best film she's ever been in," Todd McCarthy wrote in The Hollywood Reporter.
The 3-D film is also notable for its originality — dispensing with a male lead is no small decision — and short running time of 90 minutes.
"It's about rebirth," Bullock said. "How do you let go in the worst possible situation so you can have some kind of release and peace?"
There is a sense that Bullock might feel as if she has something to prove with Gravity. The moviegoing masses still seem to have a flicker of doubt that she earned her Oscar, perhaps because her first big movie after winning it was The Heat.
"It's hard not to feel that this brand of deeply forgettable fare is beneath Bullock," Texas Monthly wrote of The Heat.
"What roles that are available will always be a factor," said Octavia Spencer, an Oscar winner for The Help and a friend of Bullock's since 1996, when they met on the set of A Time To Kill.
"But Sandy has been very successful at not letting anyone put her in a box, and that will continue."


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Online Resources Collection
These reliable, accurate information sources are free with your library card number and PIN.
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Primary sources including speeches and eyewitness accounts of important historical events organized by timeline.
Student version of the encyclopedia, with supplemental materials and research guides.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica enhanced with research tools, history highlights, and current news.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica enhanced with research tools, history highlights, and current news.
Articles, maps, and special features from the Chicago History Museum, Newberry Library, and Northwestern University.
- The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed 18,000 structures in the city. However, within one year most visible evidence of the disaster was gone.
Quick reference resources, including Research Starters, timelines, and quizzes and games, designed for middle school students
You can learn about notable birthdays, holidays, and other days of note using the Event Planner feature.
Student-focused encyclopedia with news, science projects, games, and more.
- Get to know more about Egypt with a word search in the Lands and Peoples Game Zone.
Provides easy to understand articles on continents, countries, regions, states/provinces, cultures and current events for young students. Use Culture Cross to can compare the land, people, economy, history, or facts and figures of any two continents, countries, or states/provinces. It includes hundreds of interactive maps and games.
Use "Passport to Fun" to explore the lighter but sometimes more challenging side of countries, cultures, and current events. Passport to Fun is divided into three sections: Picture This; Game Zone; and Quiz Master.
Multimedia resources and tools for all ages, including a Biography Center, an Interactive Earth feature, science project resources, research guides, and citation help.
- World Book Info Finder research tools include Citation Builder, How to Do Research guides, and a personalized My Research account.
The World Book Encyclopedia enhanced with learning resources designed for elementary school students.
- Learning activities and worksheets can be printed out for further practice.
The World Book Encyclopedia, plus current news articles, primary source material, and a Spanish language encyclopedia.
- World Book has research guides that help you compile the data and information you need for your project.


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QALACHWALAN, Iraq — The Sunni vice president wanted for allegedly running a hit squad in Iraq on Friday accused Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of waging a campaign against Sunnis and pushing the country toward sectarian war.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Tariq al-Hashemi said al-Maliki wants to get rid of all political rivals and run Iraq like a "one-man show."
The comments by Iraq's highest-level Sunni political figure reflect the mounting sectarian tensions surrounding the confrontation between him and the prime minister that have raised fears Iraq could be thrown into new violence following the exit of American troops.
The political crisis taps into the resentments that have remained raw in the country despite years of effort to overcome them, with minority Sunnis fearing the Sunni majority is squeezing them out of any political say, and Shiites suspecting Sunnis of links to insurgency and terrorism.
"He's pushing the things to a catastrophe. And I'm not sure what's going to happen after that," al-Hashemi, who denies the accusations, said of the prime minister.
He spoke to the AP at a guesthouse of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in the mountains overlooking the northern Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Al-Hashemi arrived here Sunday with a small suitcase and two suits to discuss the growing conflict with al-Maliki's government.
But what was supposed to be a two-day trip has stretched nearly a week after the Iraqi government Monday issued an arrest order against him on what he says are trumped-up charges. He has refused to go back to Baghdad where he says he cannot get a fair trial. The central government's security forces do no operate in the northern autonomous Kurdish zone, so he's safe from arrest here.
The Iraqi government maintains al-Hashemi orchestrated a campaign of assassinations carried out by his bodyguards. Earlier this week they aired televised confessions of the bodyguards detailing how al-Hashemi gave them money for the hits.
The confessions have aired repeatedly since then, including on state television when al-Hashemi earlier this week held a press conference defending himself.
Fears that the situation could spiral out of control were heightened by devastating bombings that tore through mostly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad on Thursday and killed at least 69 people. Many fear Iraq could eventually fall back into the vicious sectarian bloodshed that reached its height in 2006 and 2007 and nearly threw the country into civil war.
Al-Hashemi is one of the leaders of the Iraqiya party, a Sunni-backed political bloc that has constantly clashed with al-Maliki's Shiite coalition and accused him of hoarding power. Al-Maliki is also seeking a vote of no-confidence against the Sunni deputy prime minister, Saleh al-Mutlaq. Security forces have also launched a wave of arrests against former members of the Sunni-dominated Baath Party, which ruled Iraq under Saddam.
In Sunnis' eyes, the moves are a sign that al-Maliki is out to get them.
"Definitely, he is going to concentrate on the Sunni community because they are the society, the community of Tariq al-Hashemi so they are going to suffer," the vice president said. He said other sectors of Iraqi society could also be targeted in the future, but for now, it's the Sunnis.
"He is trying to escalate the tension, making life very, very difficult for our provinces, to our people," he said.
Al-Hashemi warned that after Thursday's violence, the prime minister may crack down even more. He called on "sensible people" in al-Maliki's alliance of Shiite parties to stop his policies.
"He doesn't believe in compromises. He doesn't believe in peaceful solutions to the problems. He's going to use the Iraqi army and the security for more repression," he said.
Iraqiya has long warned that al-Maliki is trying to hoard power. For example, it's more than a year after the government was formed and al-Maliki has still not appointed permanent ministers of defense or interior.
The government is now made up of an unwieldy collection of all the Iraqi political factions, including Iraqiya. The power-sharing agreement created last year to give the Kurds, the Shiites and the Sunnis various roles in the government is not the easiest mechanism for running a country but supporters say it's better than having one or more factions shut out completely and angry.
But al-Maliki is known to dislike the arrangement intensely. He said during a news conference Wednesday that he would consider creating a majority government, meaning shutting out Iraqiya. Iraqiya has boycotted parliament sessions, and at least some of its ministers have not been attending cabinet sessions.
Al-Hashemi said a power-sharing arrangement such as the one in place now is the only way to run Iraq at this time, and criticized al-Maliki for appearing to want to abandon it.
"This gentleman has no sympathy, no belief in democracy at all. He would like to run Iraq in the style of a one-man-show," he said. "Simple as that."
On the first Friday after the political crisis began, hundreds of Sunnis marched after weekly Muslim prayers in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, demanding the charges against al-Hashemi be dropped. A smaller crowd also marched in the city of Beiji.
The preacher of Abu Hanifa, the main Sunni mosque in Baghdad, also criticized the Iraqi leaders who "preoccupy themselves with side issues and conflicts and ignore essential issues. ... You (politicians) have to give up hatred, killing and intimidation," Sheik Ahmed al-Taha told worshippers in his sermon.
"Do not let our defeated enemy (the Americans) say that we are unable to continue without them," he added.
But Iraq's most prominent Shiite cleric implicitly urged Sunnis to not raise an uproar over the warrant.
In a sermon in the Shiite holy city of Karbala south of Baghdad, the representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said, if someone is "dealing with terrorism, what should we do?"
The aide, Ahmed al-Safi, did not specifically mention the conflict or any of the players in it. But he said, "The prestige of the government must be preserved ... part of its prestige is punishing abusers."


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Taurus Steakhouse
3 Stars for Tamarac's Taurus
The bull's head in the window signals that carnivores are king at Taurus, a prime destination for beef lovers. The Peruvian steakhouse in a Tamarac storefront serves superbly charred meat, from skewered anticuchos (beef hearts) to ultra tender filet mignon. Taurus is reminiscent of an Argentine steakhouse, but the flavors, like the owners, are rooted in Lima. Dina, Carlos, Mario and Roberto Habaue learned a thing or two about grilling from their father, Eduardo, who owned five restaurants in Peru. Of Japanese heritage, Eduardo tweaked his dishes with Asian ingredients like ginger, soy sauce and miso. Armed with family recipes and fatherly advice, the four siblings opened their own place 18 months ago. Dina is at the restaurant full-time, but the others have kept their day jobs in fields including finance and marketing.
Ambience: Business is slow, but the Habaues are so friendly and eager to please that the restaurant feels warm and lively. The 40-seat dining room is decorated simply with dark woods, earth tones and art work playing on the bull theme. There's a flat-screen TV, but the sound is off so it's easy to ignore.
What Works
- Warm rolls served with a fragrant chimichurri a spicy concoction of yellow peppers, scallions and queso fresco
- Brochettes of grilled mushrooms
- Flavorful, smoky shrimp (the only seafood here)
- Delicious chorizo – tender & juicy sausage under a crisp, charred shell
- Tasty, well-seasoned kidney slices smoky from the grill
- Rotisserie chicken with delicious, crackly skin
- Five small grilled lamb chops seasoned with ginger, garlic, rosemary, cilantro and soy sauce
- Deft seasoning, well-crafted marinades and skillful cooking
- Tender, super-juicy, garlic-scented churrasco
- Parrillada platter piled with chorizo, blood sausage, kidneys, beef heart brochettes, beef, pork, lamb and rotisserie chicken
- House salads with a light, lemony vinaigrette
- Large canary beans with rice
- Rich triple-chocolate cake from an outside bakery
More Information
Taurus Steakhouse
6965 W. Commercial Blvd, Tamarac
Hours: 11am-10pm. Sunday-Thursday, 11am-11pm Friday-Saturday
Prices: Appetizers $6.50-$9, entrees $7-$37, sides $3, desserts $5
FYI: Beer and wine. AX, MC, VS.
Broward Bites
- The Atlantic Hotel opens two new restaurants in Ft. Lauderdale Beach on April 4
- Weston's D'Angelo Pizza launches 12 for $12 lunch special
- Tsukuro launches "Lucky You" happy hour
- BC Cafe hosts beer pairing dinner March 29
- Grille 401 debuts sushi & sake bar on Las Olas
- Paula DaSilva hosts a three-month "Spring Awakening" brunch series at 3030 Ocean
- SAIA celebrates National Noodle Month with 25% off pad Thai shrimp
- Bite into something new this Feb: Restaurant openings in Wynwood, Fort Lauderdale & Aventura
- Toast National Margarita Day Feb 22
- SAIA woos AIA marathoners with a Feb 16 feast


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Tags: Climate Change
The National Climate Assessment was released earlier this week and it is a sobering reminder that climate change is happening and it is impacting communities all across our country. This report is a wakeup call for us to stand up and take action to combat the challenge of our generation, dangerous climate disruption. President Obama has already made clear this issue is a top priority by releasing his Climate Action Plan last June. That plan focused on reducing the pollution fueling climate change, preparing for impacts already set in motion, and leading on internal efforts to solve this global challenge. At the center of the Climate Action Plan is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) setting the first-ever standards reducing carbon pollution from our nation's top polluters: power plants.
This report delves into the details of how each region is being affected by climate disruption. These impacts include climate-fueled extreme weather like record-breaking heat waves, longer droughts, more intense wildfires, stronger storms, increased flooding and rising sea levels. Climate change is also affecting the air we breathe and the water we drink, and putting our health, economy, agriculture and transportation in peril. Check out the different impacts by region here.
According to the White House, "The findings in this National Climate Assessment underscore the need for urgent action to combat the threats from climate change, protect American citizens and communities today, and build a sustainable future for our kids and grandkids."
(John Holdren, President Obama's science advisor)
It's our moral obligation to protect our planet for future generations, and this report, along with the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, confirms that it's time to tackle the climate crisis head on. NASA and 97 percent of scientists agree that our climate is changing due to human activities, and we can see the proof right outside our windows.
We can no longer afford inaction. President Obama understands this, which is why he is pursuing bold action under his Climate Action Plan, including placing the first-ever limits on the amount of carbon pollution that power plants can spew into our atmosphere. This is a huge step to combat climate change as power plants are the largest source of global warming pollution, accounting for 40 percent of our nation's annual carbon emissions. Click here to show your support for the President's plan to combat the challenge of our generation.
(The Photographs were taken by CraneStation, dsleeter_2000, wavian, thewrongglass)


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Josh Linn
Josh Linn to present at the Sandy River Spey Clave
|Josh Linn is currently the Director of Sales and Marketing for the G. Loomis Fly Rod Division. He worked for The Fly Fishing Shop in Welches, Oregon for ten years, and has guided at the prestigious Sandy River Lodge in Alaska. Many of the dazzling photos you see on www.FlyFishUSA.com were taken by Josh. A legendary Spey Caster, many friends and customers seek his advise.
The Fly Fishing Shop, Welches, OR
1(800) 266-3971
Back to Spey Clave Agenda
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What is the difference between a projector for the home, and a home theater projector, and what should we call them?
There are two different types of projectors for home consumer use. One is the classic "home theater projector." This is traditionally for very large screen use (as large a screen as you can manage in your viewing room), and it is for viewing in the dark, like a movie theater. People often go to great lengths to optimize the viewing conditions of the room, blocking out all ambient light and darkening the walls, floors, ceilings, and so on. For those of us who like to see video and film at its most pristine, it is simply understood that these viewing room refinements are required and we do it gladly in quest of the perfect picture.
But there are millions of folks who love the idea of a projector and big screen image and yet don't want to go to the trouble and expense to chase visual perfection. They want a multi-purpose big picture for movies, television, sports programming, gaming, and Internet. They want to run with a bit of light in the room, and they are plenty happy with their light colored walls, carpets and white ceilings. They want a fun, bright picture to watch without worrying themselves silly about black levels and dynamic range. And for many of these folks, even the phrase "home theater" sounds like stuffy nonsense for the wacky videophile crowd.
These two different types of consumers represent two completely different markets for home projectors. We've not done enough to distinguish them formally, for different types of projectors are required for each. Classic home theater projectors maximize contrast at the expense of lumen output. These days they are pretty much all 1080p resolution, and none of them have audio on board since the home theater videophile will always have a surround sound system.
Meanwhile, a product like the new Epson Home Cinema 710 HD is targeted entirely at the non-home theater market. It is 2800 lumens, widescreen format 1280x720, and dirt cheap at $600 and change. It is meant to be used as a multi-purpose home projector by people who don't want to spend the time and money to outfit a formal home theater. In Bill's latest review of the Epson 710 HD, he makes the point that this is not a home theater projector by referring to it as a home entertainment projector. And that may be the best description for it, except that it is a mouthful.
Regardless of what we call it, the "non-home theater" home entertainment projector is an emerging market being targeted by several projector manufacturers, and most aggressively by Epson, Panasonic and Optoma. So we need to distinguish them as a separate group of products with their own Top Ten lists and their own editorial focus. We might call them home projectors, or home entertainment projectors, or multi-purpose consumer projectors....or what? If you've got a suggestion as to what we should call projectors built for the mass consumer home market, drop us a note or comment below.
Meanwhile, we will put our minds to creating a separate category on ProjectorCentral so those of you who are specifically interested in this type of projector will be able to find them more easily.
Evan Powell


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Located on a bend by the "River of Kings" with unrivaled views and close to Bangkok's business and prime shopping areas in the heart of the city. All rooms offer panoramic riverview and five-star amenities, a complimentary shuttle boat service to the nearby skytrain station Saphan Taksin, superb restaurants, a luxurious spa and two pools surrounded by a tropical garden.
*On January 15, 2017, Garden Pool is closed for private function. The Terrace Pool will be open as usual.
Find more reasons to love your stays in Bangkok with these great benefits.
Book before 15 January 2017 for stays until 30 June 2017.
Rates start from THB 3,900++ per night for a Deluxe Riverview Room.
Lock in our lowest rates, get free Wi-Fi and earn Starpoints® on your next hotel stay at Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel & Towers. Must be a SPG® Member to qualify. Not a member? Join now!
Celebrate Christmas Eve overlooking Bangkok's River of Kings, then wake up on Christmas morning to indulge in a decadent festive brunch. This special offer, valid only for stays on December 24, 2016 is inclusive of:
Rates start from THB 8,199++ per night for a Premium Deluxe Riverview Room for 2 persons. Book by December 23, 2016.
Say farewell to 2016 with guaranteed views of the New Year celebrations on the Chao Phraya, Bangkok's River of Kings. This special offer, valid only for stays from December 20, 2016 to January 6, 2017 includes:
Rates start from THB 10,600++ per night for a Deluxe Riverview Room for 2 persons.
*In remembrance of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej our festive events will take place with a respectful tribute for both entertainment and displays on the river.
Stay at least 2 nights and get an extra night for FREE. Best deals don't last!
Room only rates start at THB 3,333++ per night for a Deluxe Riverview Room.
Stay 3, Pay 2
Stay 4, Pay 3
Book 5 Nights or longer, Save 25% off
Exclusively for early birds, you can save on your room rate by booking in advance at least 30 days or more.
Room only rates start at THB 3,825++ per night for a Deluxe Riverview Room. Room with breakfast rates start at THB 5,245++ per night for single occupancy and THB 5,745++ per night for double occupancy. 2-night minimum length of stay is required.
Save up to 10% off our best available rate when booking room with breakfast and enjoy an unforgettable stay at our 5-star riverside hotel.
This package includes;
Rates start from THB 5,000++ per night for a Deluxe Riverview Room for single occupancy.
Get the most out of your stay in Bangkok and plan your arrival and departure in advance with our Airport Transfer Service. Avoid the long waiting lines to grab a taxi, your private chauffeur will guide you comfortably and safely from and to the airport.
This package includes;
Rates start from THB 6,850++ per night for a one way transfer and THB 7,400++ per night for a round trip transfer (single occupancy).
Book with 1 way trip
Book with round trip
Feel confident knowing that you are getting the lowest rate available, anywhere.
The Only Place to Earn Starpoints
Our sites are the only place online where you can earn Starpoints®, and elite in-hotel benefits, when you book. Other travel sites can't reward you with Starpoints.
No Online Booking Fees
Many travel sites charge extra fees for online bookings. We don't.
Unique Offers
Only our sites have special offers that you won't find anywhere else.
The Best Rates. Guaranteed.
Our Best Rate Guarantee* ensures that you will always get the best available rate when you book on our sites. If you do find a lower published rate prior to, or within 24 hours of, booking your room, simply submit a Best Rate Guarantee Claim to us and we'll honor the lower rate. It's now easier than ever with our online claim form. We'll also give you an additional 20% discount or 2,000 Starpoints. Guaranteed.
Learn more about our Best Rate Guarantee >
* The Best Rate Guarantee does not apply to taxes, gratuities, or any additional resort or guest charges or fees that may apply at Starwood Hotels.


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Robert "Bob" E. Miller, 77, of Cherry Tree, PA died on Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at UPMC Altoona Hospital in Altoona, PA.
The son of William and Emma (Oaks) Miller, he was born on June 22, 1936 in Cherry Tree, PA.
Bob was the owner of REMCO Radiator Company in Cherry Tree, PA from 1973 until his retirement in 1998.
A Mason, Bob belonged to the Coalport Lodge. He enjoyed being a ham radio operator and going camping with his family.
Bob married his wife, Frances "Kay" (Howe) Miller on June 16, 1956.
He is survived by his wife of fifty-eight years, Kay; his three children: his daughter, Barb Miller and Michael Ackerman; his son, Raymond and Jo Ann Miller and his daughter, Shirley Miller and Paul Smihula; his grandchildren: Mariha and Kevin Shields; Chris and Sam McClure; Raymond Miller and Scott Miller; his great grandchildren: Colton and Kaiden Shields and Payne and Brock McClure and his brother, Dick and Sandy Miller.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his two brothers: William and James Miller.
As per Bob's request, his services will be private.
Arrangements are with the assistance of the Rairigh Funeral Home, Ltd. in Hillsdale, PA.
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Kathleen Smathers


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This celebration of women will be highlighted at The Miss Victorious Pageant™ on March 27, 2015, at the South Carolina State Museum. The museum and its incredible landscape will play backdrop to an evening that will include music, dancing, and artistic expression. The event is hosted by the North Columbia Business Association.
During the event, we will be honoring several organizations that help shape the lives of women in crisis; Proceeds will go to benefit The South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Hannah House, and SisterCare. Each of these organizations provide the necessary help to women who are experiencing unexpected and sometimes critical circumstances.
Your involvement will help shed light on these organizations and recognize the great contributions they make to our community. These charitable organizations need the support so that their mission continues to foster hope for so many women in need.
Donate today and help us hold true to that great philosophy that woman can create significant change in our communities. We admire and respect all who participate in making this event truly special for everyone who attends.
Follow the link to the pageants page: Here.
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Farm to Restaurant Meet and Greet Event
Event Details
Date(s) & Time(s)::
April 29, 2014 at 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM
Location: Walker Instructional Dining Room in the Jules Building, JCC Watertown
Phone: 315-788-8450.
Event Description
In a continued effort to develop the Grow Local, Buy Local initiative, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County will be holding a Farm to Restaurant Meet and Greet Event, the third event of this type aimed at building partnerships between local producers and the business sector.Return to event list.
The event will be held on Tuesday, April 29 at Jefferson Community College, room 4-009 Walker Instructional Dining Room in the Jules Building, from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. and is designed in a 'speed dating' format.
Prior to the event two training sessions will be held in Jefferson and Lewis Counties where producers will work on their marketing plans. The first session will be held at the Jefferson County Extension office, located at 203 N. Hamilton St., Watertown, on Tuesday, April 1 from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. The second session will be held at the Lewis County Extension office, located at 5274 Outer Stowe St., Lowville, on Wednesday, April 2, from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. Producers must sign up for a training session in order to be included in the April 29 event.
The speed dating venue will provide time for local food producers to meet with area restaurant owners and chefs to discuss the many products and goods that each can provide. Each restaurant owner and chef will be provided a list of locally grown produce, poultry, beef, pork, dairy product or other locally produced item which could be made available for purchase. Information will also be provided on local food trends, including healthy menu options, as well as marketing.
Sunday, December 4, 2016, Watertown, NY


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A $925 million casino resort in the planned community of Summerlin, Nev., located in the outskirts of Las Vegas, is due to open this week. The Red Rock development is the most expensive venture ever undertaken off the Strip area, and it is also the largest entertainment venue ever built by Station Casinos Inc., eventually including 850 guest rooms and a large "adventure" spa.
Full Story:GlobeSt.com


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Abramoff: Gingrich wanted CNMI, Guam, A. Samoa be part of Hawaii
At the height of convicted felon and former CNMI lobbyist Jack Abramoff's efforts to stave off attempts to federalize CNMI immigration, he approached then U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich-now vying for the U.S. presidency-but was stunned by the latter's suggestion to make the CNMI, Guam, and American Samoa be part of Hawaii.
"That way, they can all have a congressman and be a real part of the United States," Abramoff quoted Gingrich as saying in a 1995 meeting.
It took more than a decade later or in 2008 for a U.S. law to be signed federalizing CNMI immigration and allowing for the election of the CNMI's first nonvoting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Abramoff, in his new book, Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth about Washington Corruption from America's Most Notorious Lobbyist, said that Gingrich's tendency to wander was a bit unnerving, as he never seemed to be able to sit still or focus for more than a few minutes.


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|Looked at an apartment on May Drive in Cedar Hill. The landlord ...
|By JulieAnne 2+ weeks old
|Want a 3 bedroom house with a open floor plan that allows pets. ...
|By Jennifer 2+ weeks old
|Internet access in Cedar Hill
|By Jennh 2+ weeks old
Cedar Hill, MO Rental Questions
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Merry Christmas! Instead of a Friday LinkSwarm, enjoy something more in keeping with the festive nature of the holiday: Dave Barry's 2015 year-end roundup:
Read the whole thing.
Merry Christmas! Instead of a Friday LinkSwarm, enjoy something more in keeping with the festive nature of the holiday: Dave Barry's 2015 year-end roundup:
Read the whole thing.
Dave Barry's year-end roundup is out and, as usual, it's well worth reading.
It's time once again for Dave Barry's Year End Roundup. Some highlights:
it turned out that Obamacare, despite all the massive brainpower behind it, had some "glitches," in the same sense that the universe has some "atoms."
Did anything good happen in 2013? Yes! There was one shining ray of hope in the person of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford , who admitted that, while in office, he smoked crack cocaine, but noted, by way of explanation, that this happened "probably in one of my drunken stupors." This was probably the most honest statement emitted by any elected official this year, and we can only hope that more of our leaders follow Mayor Ford's lead in 2014. (We mean being honest, not smoking crack in a drunken stupor.) (Although really, how much worse would that be?)
[January] begins with a crisis in Washington, a city that — despite having no industries and a workforce consisting almost entirely of former student council presidents — manages to produce 93 percent of the nation's crises. This particular crisis is a "fiscal cliff" caused by the fact that for years the government has been spending spectacular quantities of money that it does not have, which has resulted in a mess that nobody could possibly have foreseen unless that person had a higher level of financial awareness than a cucumber. At the last minute, congressional leaders and the White House reach an agreement under which the government will be able to continue spending spectacular quantities of money that it does not have, thus temporarily averting the very real looming danger that somebody might have to make a decision.
Also stepping down is Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, after decades of public service, resigns as secretary of state so she will finally have a chance to spend some personal quality time with her team of campaign advisers.
As the federal budget deadline passes without Congress reaching agreement, the devastating, draconian, historically catastrophic sequester goes into effect, causing a mild reduction in the rate of increase in government spending that for some inexplicable reason goes unnoticed by pretty much everybody outside the federal government.
Iran announces that it is constructing a new uranium enrichment plant, which according to a government spokesman will be used for "youth sports."
In sports, organizers of the Tour de France announce that this year they're going to skip the bicycle-riding part and instead just gather all the competitors into a room and see who can do the most drugs.
the Obama administration decides to once again pivot back to the economy, which continues to falter because — economists agree unanimously on this — not enough presidential speeches have been given about it.
In politics, San Diego Mayor Bob "Bob" Filner resigns as a result of allegations that he is a compulsive serial horn dog who groped pretty much the entire female population of Southern California. He immediately becomes a leading contender in the New York City mayoral race.
The federal government, in an unthinkable development that we cannot even think about, partially shuts down. The result is a catastrophe of near-sequester proportions. Within hours wolves are roaming the streets of major U.S. cities, and bacteria the size of mature salmon are openly cavorting in the nation's water supply. In the Midwest, thousands of cows, no longer supervised by the Department of Agriculture, spontaneously explode. Yellowstone National Park — ALL of it — is stolen. In some areas gravity stops working altogether, forcing people to tie themselves to trees so they won't float away. With the nation virtually defenseless, the Bermudan army invades the East Coast, within hours capturing Delaware and most of New Jersey.
By day 17, the situation has become so dire that Congress, resorting to desperate measures, decides to actually do something. It passes, and the president signs, a law raising the debt ceiling, thereby ensuring that the federal government can continue spending spectacular quantities of money that it does not have until the next major totally unforeseeable government financial crisis, scheduled for February 2014.
Things do not go nearly as smoothly with the rollout of Obamacare , which turns out to have a lot of problems despite being conceived of by super-smart people with extensive experience in the field of being former student council presidents. The federal Web site, Healthcare.gov, is riddled with glitches, resulting in people being unable to log in, people getting cut off, people being electrocuted by their keyboards, people having their sensitive financial information suddenly appear on millions of TV screens during episodes of "Duck Dynasty," etc.
Fortunately, as the initial rush of applicants tapers off, the system starts to work a little better, and by the end of the second week U.S. Secretary of Blame Kathleen Sebelius is able to announce that the program has amassed a total enrollment, nationwide, of nearly two people, one of whom later turns out to be imaginary. But this is not good enough for a visibly angry and frustrated and, of course, surprised President Obama, who promises to get the Web site fixed just as soon as somebody answers the Technical Support hotline, which has had the White House on hold for 73 hours.
public dissatisfaction with Obamacare continues to grow as many Americans discover that their current insurance plans are being canceled. A frustrated and — it goes without saying — surprised President Obama reveals to the nation that "insurance is complicated to buy" and clarifies that when he said "if you like your plan, you can keep your plan," he was using "you" in the sense of "not necessarily you personally."
I hardly need to tell you to read the whole thing, do I?
Just in case you hadn't seen it before, here's Dave Barry's 2012 year-end roundup, to spread some light and cheer in a very dismal year.
In Europe, the economic crisis continues to worsen as the government of Greece, desperate for revenue, is forced to lease the Parthenon to Hooters. Meanwhile Moody's Investors Service officially downgrades the credit rating of Spain to "putrid" after an audit reveals that the national treasury consists entirely of Groupons.
Abroad, a closely watched attempt by North Korea to test a long-range rocket capable of carrying a nuclear warhead ends in an embarrassing failure when, moments before the scheduled launch, the rocket is eaten by North Korean citizens.
In finance, Moody's downgrades Spain's credit rating from "putrid" to "rancid" when the Spanish government, attempting to write a check, is unable to produce a valid photo ID. Meanwhile the Greek parliament, meeting in an emergency session on the worsening economic crisis, votes to give heroin a try.
Voters in the French presidential election, rejecting the austerity program of incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, choose, as their new leader, Charlie Sheen. In other European economic crisis news, Greece, seeing a way out of its financial woes, invests all of its remaining money in the initial public offering of Facebook stock, which immediately drops faster than Snooki's underpants.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, having dealt with all of the city's other concerns – disaster preparation, for example – turns his attention to the lone remaining problem facing New Yorkers: soft drinks. For far too long, these uncontrolled beverages have roamed the city in vicious large-container packs, forcing innocent people to drink them and become obese. Mayor Bloomberg's plan would prohibit the sale of soft drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces, thereby making it impossible to consume larger quantities, unless of course somebody bought two containers, but the mayor is confident that nobody except him would ever be smart enough to think of that.
Tensions continue to rise in the Middle East when Iran unveils a new surface-to-surface ballistic missile named "Conqueror," which, according to an Iranian spokesman, will be used for "agriculture." Elsewhere in the troubled region, an unmanned Predator drone hacks Waziristan's Twitter account and posts pictures of itself naked.
In the European economic crisis, an increasingly desperate Greece offers to have sex with Germany.
In labor news, Chicago teachers go on strike over controversial proposed contract changes that would allow the school board to terminate teachers who have passed away.
I don't even need to tell you to read the whole thing, do I?
With his annual year in review. This year's theme (ever so appropriate for the Obama Administration): "The Festival of Sleaze." Some highlights:
Not that I need to tell you, but read the whole thing.


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However, it also became apparent that a number of significant questions require further research. Our study has determined what exemplary schools do. Now we need to find out how they have been able to do it. We need to research more systematically what resources are required to support exemplary teaching and learning environments, and which instructional strategies are most effective. In general, we need information to help formulate the resource and practice standards that are necessary to enable schools to teach their LEP students as well as they are capable of teaching other students.
In this section, we suggest a number of questions that indicate directions for future research. This list is not exhaustive; it reflects the range of data and issues that will be required if we are to reform schools to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students.
It is important to point out that the essential issue of education reform for these students is how they are taught in the classroom; research must illuminate both student and teacher learning. We need to discover how different strategies affect the quality of student learning--with respect to both school performance and students' ability to function in society later on. We need to find out how teachers translate knowledge gained through professional development into practice in the classroom.
The suggested research topics are organized in a progression from the classroom outward to the teacher, school, and external factors. The touchstone is the classroom. In each instance, further research needs to show how the various elements in exemplary schooling support enhanced learning for diverse students.