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50 Best New Bands Of 2010 by Tim Chester NME
London based NME Magazine has put together a SoundCloud playlist of what it thinks 50 recent hot bands sound like. There has to be at least a few gems on here right? I'm listening this morning as I print some spreadsheets for work. So far I haven't got to a song I'd buy but I'm only 4 into it. Let me know if any of these songs bands get your brain going. Here's the original post on the NME website: click here
"Now we're over halfway through the year, we thought it was high time we looked back and rounded up the most exciting new acts to surface in 2010. Here, then, are the 50 bands who've blown our minds over the past few months. Oh, and if you're in a new band yourself, make sure you sign up to NME Breakthrough – it's a great way of sharing your music with others and, just maybe, earning a write-up in the pages of NME." – nme.com
So do you like any of these?
For more info: nme.com


text: Rockefeller, Rahall talk substance abuse By Lori Kersey February 21, 2013 Story Share Lawrence Pierce Rep. Nick Rahall (second from left), Sen. Jay Rockefeller (third from left) and Gil Kerlikowske, director of national drug control policy, (fourth from left) host a roundtable discussion about substance abuse at the Robert C. Byrd Center for Pharmacy Education at the University of Charleston. CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Substance abuse is the biggest problem the United States faces and it has no single solution, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Thursday."It's the kind of problem that will never go away," Rockefeller said. "There's no single solution; it's just doing all kinds of things at once."Rockefeller, along with Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. and Gil Kerlikowske, the White House's director of drug control policy, spoke Tuesday afternoon at a roundtable discussion about the issue at the University of Charleston's pharmacy school.The senator held a similar roundtable discussion in Huntington earlier Thursday.Rockefeller co-sponsors two pieces of substance abuse-related legislation.The Excellence in Mental Health Act would help modernize and build behavioral-health center facilities to provide mental health and substance abuse services. The Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act would, among other things, require quality standards for substance abuse treatment services.Rahall said substance abuse is a challenging issue that affects the economy and people of all walks of life and political party."It's something we all have to be in on together," Rahall said.During the discussion, Rockefeller, Rahall and Kerlikowske met with law enforcement officials, health-care professionals, advocates and community members from around the state, hearing their stories about substance abuse. Crystal Weiss Omregcik of Wheeling said she first knew her son had a substance abuse problem when officials at his middle school called her in for a meeting. His addiction to "anything he got his hands on" affected his education and family life, she said.When he was 18, she finally had him arrested, although besides his drug abuse he was not committing crimes, Omregcik said."That was the only way I could get my son to this point," she said.Omregcik's son eventually went to a dual-diagnosis treatment center for the better part of a year, she said. He now works as a carpenter and is "doing fabulous," she said.Another mother, Nancy Fry, said her son had a substance abuse problem for 12 years. His struggle included threats of suicide and being stabbed because of a drug debt, she said.After treatment, he's clean now, she said. Rockefeller said he wants to hear from those with personal stories of substance abuse about what more officials can do."I want to hear them talk about it -- what was missing for them and what they needed but couldn't get it," Rockefeller said.Reach Lori Kersey at email@example.com or 304-348-1240. Story Share Story Share Trending Now 1 Derek Redd: Marshall thinks outside the cable box for broadcasts 2 DHHR report: No neglect, criminal charges in death of ResCare client 3 Man charged after motorcycle pursuit early Sunday 4 Philanthropist Betty Schoenbaum of Shoney's fortune turns 100 5 Deer in 8 WV counties found dead from EHD Flu shot doing poor job of protecting older people Previous Story Parker to head ethics panel Next Story

subset: commoncrawl


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Media Contact: TPWD News, firstname.lastname@example.com, 512-389-8030
Jan. 4, 2013
Signs Go Up To Protect Endangered Wild-rice in San Marcos River
SAN MARCOS — New signs are popping up along the San Marcos River to educate the public about recent state actions to protect the river.
Earlier this year, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department designated a segment of the river from the Spring Lake Dam to the San Marcos wastewater treatment plant as the San Marcos River State Scientific Area.
The signs and related public education efforts are designed to protect federally endangered Texas wild-rice (Zizania texana), a plant found only in the cool clear waters of the San Marcos River. TPWD regulations prohibit uprooting of Texas wild-rice within the designated segment.
Also, when the flows within the San Marcos River State Scientific Area are 120 cubic feet per second or lower, TPWD may put physical barriers around vulnerable stands of wild-rice to help people avoid the plant while enjoying the river.
"Wading through wild-rice stands is the recreational activity that has the most potential for uprooting the plants," said Cindy Loeffler, TPWD Water Resources Branch Chief. "With low river recreation in winter months, we don't foresee an immediate need to provide physical restrictions. But it's an excellent time to educate people about protecting the San Marcos River and its endangered inhabitants, and we will continue public awareness activities as we approach prime recreational season in spring."
Loeffler said TPWD and its partners believe the public education and awareness gleaned from the new signs is a critical first step in the protection effort.
The Edwards Aquifer Authority, the City of San Marcos, Texas State University, the City of New Braunfels, the San Antonio Water System, Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and TPWD are all partners in the recently adopted Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan aimed at resolving conflicts between protecting endangered species associated with the aquifer and the region's dependence on the aquifer as a primary water resource.
The scientific area signs are the first of several educational signs that will be posted along the river in the coming months to introduce HCP activities to river users. Other signs will describe the bank stabilization project and riparian enhancements that will be undertaken this year.
The City of San Marcos will also begin several major projects in 2013 to stabilize eroding banks and create access points, remove invasive aquatic plants, (elephant ears) and animals (non-native fish and snails), remove sediment, and replant native vegetation along the river.
Funding for the HCP activities along the San Marcos River comes from the City of San Marcos, Texas State University and aquifer management fees collected by the Edwards Aquifer Authority.
Visit the Edwards Aquifer Habitat Conservation Plan website or the City of San Marcos website at for more information.
For information on Texas wild-rice, visit the TPWD Texas wild-rice web page.
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(5.4.16 i)


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Previous Episode | Next Episode
The Golden TempleThe Golden Temple (1966) Episode 06-B- King Kong Cartoon Episode Guide
This page has been viewed 39 times this month, and 737 times total.
- King Kong Cartoon Episode GuideEpisode GuideTelevisionSeriesCartoon
- Traditional Animation
- Rankin Bass Productions, Videocraft International, Tôei Company Ltd.
- Animation Studio: Tôei Company Ltd.
- Distributed by: Videocraft International
- Cartoon Characters: King Kong, Professor Bond, Bobby Bond, Susan Bond, Captain Englehorne, Dr. Who.
- Voice Actors: Bernard Cowan, Susan Conway, Billie Richards, John Drainie, Carl Banas, Alf Scopp, Paul Soles.
- Directed By Hiroshi Ikeda.
- Produced By William J. Keenan, Arthur Rankin Jr, Jules Bass, Larry Roemer.
- Animated By Sakei Kitamasa, Tsutomu Shibayama, Osamu Kobayashi, Midori Kusube, Yasuo Maeda, Norio Fukuda.
- Written By Lew Lewis, Bernard Cowan, Ron Lewis, Noboshiro Ueno.
- Music: Maury Laws, Jules Bass.
- First Aired on October 15, 1966.
- Originally Aired on ABC-TV (USA).
- Running Time: 8 minutes.
- Episode Number: 06-B
- Color
- Japan / U.S.A.
Cartoon Summary:
Bobby and Professor Bond discover a sunken Etruscan temple off the coast of Mondo Island but, when the professor tries to explore further he is sucked into an underwater whirlpool.
Cartoon Production Information:
This series premiered with a special which aired on September 6, 1966, while the series aired from September 10, 1966 to August 31, 1969. Twenty-four thirty-minute episodes were produced, each with two eight-minute... (more)
Cartoon Video:
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Do you have anything to add to this page? Have we made any mistakes... or do you have any additional information about The Golden Temple? If so, we would love to hear from you. Please send us a quick note with your additions or corrections to this page, and we will make the corrections as soon as possible!
Cartoon Comments:
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At the Upper East Side location of Shake Shack, the featured frozen custard topping this month is brown sugar-roasted pineapple. It's as good as it sounds, the sweet and deep flavor of brown sugar completely infused into chopped pineapple. Have it plain and pure with the vanilla custard, or even better, as an added topping to the Coffee Bean Brownie Concrete ($6.50 pictured). Here the vanilla frozen custard gets whipped at high speed with tiny brownie cubes and silky coffee-caramel swirls, all topped off with whipped cream. The addition of the tart pineapple offsets heavier, more intense components of the concrete, and, who would have guessed, coffee and pineapple makes a pretty swell pairing.
Shake Shack UES
154 East 86th Street, New York NY 10128 (map)
About the author: Originally from Honolulu, Kathy YL Chan blogs at Kathy YL Chan, where she chronicles her eats and travel adventures between Hawai'i, New York and beyond. She firmly believes that there is always room for dessert.


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Q: My 16-year-old son and I have had our US Airways miles taken away from us. He had 27,893 miles and I had 829 miles. They expired a few days ago.
I'm a single mom and recently lost my job. I've been overwhelmed and did not notice the email that warned me about the expiration of the miles.
I called US Airways, but a representative said I was too late. I've been a loyal US Airways customer for years, but didn't sign up for US Airways' loyalty program until recently.
My son almost had enough miles for an award ticket. I don't want him to lose his miles, which he was planning to use when he graduated from high school. I don't want to lose my miles, either.
US Airways says it will reinstate my miles for $150, but I can't afford it. And honestly, we've earned those miles. Can you help? - Marianne MacKenzie, Lakewood, Colo.
A: I'm sorry to hear about your circumstances. When you called US Airways, it should have shown more compassion toward your situation and considered extending the life of your award miles.
But it didn't have to. The terms and conditions of your US Airways miles are clear: use 'em or lose 'em. You squirreled away your points as if they were acorns, which unfortunately, they are not. Miles depreciate over time, and often expire when they aren't put to good use.
Not that they are of any use. For many leisure travelers, frequent flier miles have a negative value. What do I mean by that? Well, say your son books an award seat, and you decide to fly with him. If US Airways' flights are more expensive than those of a competitor, and if your son previously chose US Airways over another cheaper airline when he earned the miles - which is what happens often - then the miles effectively have a negative value. In other words, they cost more than they were worth.
By now, you already know that you could have easily avoided this by not allowing your miles to expire. All it takes is a little activity on your account, and you get to keep the points.
I think US Airways' offer to reinstate your miles for $150 was a little high - you could probably buy the ticket you wanted for about that much. What's more, it didn't really take into account your own situation. Every decision to apply an airline's rules should factor in a passenger's personal circumstances. Unfortunately, this one didn't.
I contacted US Airways on your behalf, and it reinstated your miles.
Christopher Elliott is the author of "Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals" (Wiley). He's also the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the co-founder of the Consumer Travel Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advocates for travelers. Read more tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Dec. 6, 2004
New Landowner Brochure Offers Advice
AUSTIN, Texas — The Private Lands and Public Hunting Program at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has a new brochure available — primarily for new owners of rural land.
"A Place in the Country – Guidance for New Landowners" offers advice and recommendations for the growing number of people purchasing land for recreational use.
Topics include what to consider when purchasing recreation land, understanding the habitats and wildlife found on your land, wildlife management as an agricultural tax option, being a good neighbor, and technical/financial assistance available from TPWD and other agencies. The new brochure is being distributed to Wildlife Regional and District offices, urban biologists, and wildlife field staff assisting landowners.
For more information or to obtain copies, please contact Marla Bays at (512) 389-4959.
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(5.4.16 i)


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CENTRE for POLICY ANALYSIS
The Assembly elections are over, the results out, and the introspection and analysis on. The first message from the polls in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh is that the Congress party is over and out. The anger and resentment of the people against the Congress is overwhelming, and expressed itself in a vote that decimated the party completely. The second message is that the people are looking for a credible alternative, and if given one as in Delhi, will reject the old hat for the new without hesitation. In other words, the Indian voter has recognised honesty, integrity and sincerity as a virtue and has embraced the AamAadmi Party as a result in Delhi. The third message is that despite the efforts by industry and its media to establish a NarendraModi wave in these state elections, the voters have shown no such desperation and have voted for what they felt was closest to their respective aspirations.
The wave in Delhi was actually for AAP, and became very visible the day before polling when the entire city was buzzing with stated preferences for the new party. The media, obsessed with manufactured exit polls, chose to ignore this and instead of relying on convention street reportage preferred to go with the supplied—and dare one say created—statistics. Arvind Kejriwal and his team won 28 seats in a first debut that made it very clear that it was not AAP that had emerged as the spoiler but the Congress. In fact, if those who voted for the Congress had been a little more confident and a little less suspicious of the new party, AAP would have bridged the gap and crossed the half way mark to form the government.
It must be remembered, although of course media memory is regrettably short, that Modi had targeted Delhi through huge public meetings through the run up to the polls. In what could be described as an attempt at carpet bombing he addressed mega rallies through Delhi in the last days of the campaign to help the BJP sweep the opposition, and come to power with a good majority. This has not happened, and the BJP march forward has been halted at 32 seats, four less than required to form the government. Clearly Delhi, a city that the BJP has always really regarded its own, was not mesmerised by Modi and decided not to give him a state government despite his fervent pleas for the same. In other words, Modi and his party were unable to create a wave, and Delhi with its urban middle class and poor voted AAP in what the BJP no doubt construes as alarming proportions.
In fact Modi was unable to change the outcome of any state really. BJPs Vasundhara Raje had turned the tide in her favour in Rajasthan long before Modi began his campaign there. Complete disillusionment with the Congress government united the people behind the only other available option, Scindia and the BJP. It was clear from several months that the party was facing a rout in the state, and Modi might have added to the numbers but certainly had little to do with the electorate's decision. Similarly in Madhya Pradesh, the reputation of BJP chief minister Shivraj Chouhan was further enhanced by the incompetence of the Congress party that remained bitterly divided through the campaign. Modi might have helped increase the statistics of victory, but certainly did not influence a foregone conclusion.
Chhatisgarh remains a state where both Modi and Sonia Gandhi can insist that they helped contain the other. But again the voting pattern really does not bear this out, as neither was Modi able to help decimate the Congress and nor was Sonia Gandhi able to wrest the state from the BJP. Again no signs of a wave, with Chhatisgarh witnessing a hard political battle for the seats. It must be remembered that here too, like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the contest was between the BJP and the Congress with no other alternative in the picture. It is thus, totally wrong to interpret the results as a victory for Narendra Modi. It is a victory, no doubt, for the BJP and its leaders in the state, aided by a totally ineffectual Congress and the absence of a third alternative.
Therefore and rather ironically, it is Delhi that provides some very interesting political indicators that can be loosely translated as political messages for the national elections:
One, in a straight contest between the BJP and the Congress, the former would have swept the polls. As is visible in the other states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Two, the Congress is history for not just now, but for a longer while given the beating it has got from an electorate that does not forgive easily. There is a pan India anger against the party that is no longer seen by the voters as an answer to their aspirations.
Three, a credible alternative for change makes sense to the frustrated, angry, hapless and hopeless voter who is fed up with price rise, corruption, divisiveness and is no longer shy of alternatives. This is reflected in the excellent performance of AAP in a city like Delhi that had always rejected other alternatives in the past.
In other words, there is space for emerging alternatives that carry levels of credibility. In Delhi the voters without prior consultation rushed to vote AAP, without bothering to check out its candidates, without any surety that the party would actually do so well and without any assurances about AAP's future course of action. This does indicate a level of desperation translated by the Delhi voter into a strong desire for change that, clearly Narendra Modi's campaign was unable to address. The BJP has taken serious stock of this, the first sign being its reluctance to indulge in horse trading to get the three to four seats required to form the government in Delhi. Despite being so close to power, the BJP is perforce having to relinquish its ambitions and actually support President's rule until fresh elections can be held with the Lok Sabha elections in all probability, for a clearer mandate. Interestingly, the Delhi voters seem to be quite satisfied with their verdict with no murmurings from any quarter about having to poll again. The same Delhi that does not like to vote once, let alone twice.


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Perhaps nothing is more telling about one's intellect and character than changing one's mind.
After all, changing your mind about something suggests you have given it thought and that maybe, just maybe, your first thoughts were incorrect.
Mark Lynas has given a lot of thought to genetically modified (GMO) corn. And he's changed his mind.
Lynas, author of three books, including Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, is generally recognized as one of the founders of the anti-GMO movement in the mid-1990s and a vocal critic of GM technology. He now says he was wrong.
Last week at the Oxford Farming Conference in the United Kingdom, Lynas delivered remarks that began with an astonishing apology.
"For the record, here and upfront, I apologise for having spent several years ripping up GM crops. I am also sorry that I helped to start the anti-GM movement back in the mid-1990s, and that I thereby assisted in demonizing an important technological option which can be used to benefit the environment," Lynas said.
"As an environmentalist, and someone who believes that everyone in this world has a right to a healthy and nutritious diet of their choosing, I could not have chosen a more counter-productive path. I now regret it completely.
"So, I guess you'll all be wondering – what happened between 1995 and now that made me not only change my mind but come here and admit it? Well, the answer is fairly simple: I discovered science, and in the process I hope I became a better environmentalist."
That's a startling admission from one who is at least partially responsible for many countries either banning or squelching GMO production and research. Unfortunately, the backlash against Lynas has been predictable. His website was crashed with comments from around the globe, mostly from critics. In short, he went from a founding father of the anti-GMO movement to a Benedict Arnold.
But that's just a knee-jerk reaction from those who fail to read beyond the headlines of Lynas' apology. Certainly no one with Lynas' credentials and commitment to a cause as important as environmental activism would make such a reversal in ideology without careful consideration. Indeed, Lynas' mind was changed by studying the facts about GMO and accepting the science. Here's what he said:
"So I did some reading. And I discovered that one by one my cherished beliefs about GM turned out to be little more than green urban myths.
"I'd assumed that it would increase the use of chemicals. It turned out that pest-resistant cotton and maize needed less insecticide.
"I'd assumed that GM benefited only the big companies. It turned out that billions of dollars of benefits were accruing to farmers needing fewer inputs.
"I'd assumed that Terminator Technology was robbing farmers of the right to save seed. It turned out that hybrids did that long ago, and that Terminator never happened.
"I'd assumed that no-one wanted GM. Actually what happened was that Bt cotton was pirated into India and roundup ready soya into Brazil because farmers were so eager to use them.
"I'd assumed that GM was dangerous. It turned out that it was safer and more precise than conventional breeding using mutagenesis for example; GM just moves a couple of genes, whereas conventional breeding mucks about with the entire genome in a trial and error way."
Lynas' embrace of peer-reviewed science is heartening for those of us hoping for a more logical and less emotional debate about agriculture on this side of the Atlantic.
"The GM debate is over," Lynas said. "It is finished. We no longer need to discuss whether or not it is safe…You are more likely to get hit by an asteroid than to get hurt by GM food."


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Cleaning Has Never Looked So Chic: 10 Pretty Products That Get The Job Done
It's believed in feng shui that good fortune will come if you display fresh flowers in your home — but don't include any thorny stems, as they the stop the flow of chi.
The color of your door is thought to determine good luck. According to feng shui, south-facing doors should be painted red or orange, north-facing doors should be blue or black, west-facing doors are best with gray or white, and east-facing doors will be lucky with brown or green.
11 Chic Holiday Gifts for Your Pets


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Children were treated to a musical extravaganza as seven local schools came together for a music partnership day.
Hampton Academy, Tolworth Girls' School, Hollyfield School, Teddington School and Orleans Park School joined students from Hampton and the Lady Eleanor Holles School, to enjoy a day of creative music-making that culminated in a spectacular concert.
The pupils were split into groups in the morning with vocalists taking over Mills recital room at the Lady Eleanor Holles School and the strings and wind instruments based at Hampton School.
The evening's concert included impressive solo vocal performances from Lady Eleanor Holles and Hampton Academy pupils, an accomplished string trio from Orleans Park School and intimate saxophone sonata performance from Tolworth Girls' School.
The finale was a performance of Les Miserables by the orchestra and choir, with a medley of British pop music, past and present.
Director of music at Hampton School, Iain Donald, said it was a momentous occasion: "This is an intense day. The pupils did a wonderful job and our thanks go to all for making the day such a huge success."


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The Soniat House Hotel in New Orleans is one of those hotels that you did not really believed still existed in our all mod-cons world, writes Steve Zacharanda.
The building is on the US National Register of Historic Places and as soon as you step into the carriageway where horses used to enter it is like stepping back in time.
The court yard is a vision of green as century old trees reach into the sky and the smell of coffee wafts around you.
A feeling of tranquility quickly made me into one of the most relaxed Brummies on the planet.
The feeling of an era long gone continues in the drawing room where Clare the cat seemed continuously asleep, the manager said she never left the hotel and I can't blame her.
Staff like Michele, Randolph and Irving all have accents to die for and manners that would not be out of place in Buckingham Palace.
In the corner is an honour bar, on an antique dresser naturally, where you can have champagne by the glass amongst other wee drams.
The hotel is handily placed, two blocks from the world famous Bourbon Street and one from French Market.
As this little corner of the French Quarter is mostly residential the bedlam of Bourbon Street is far enough away not to disturb the peace of the hotel.
Opened in 1984 by Frances and Rodney Smith the Soniat House reflects their passion for French antiques. Part of the hotel is even a quaint antiques shop. Every one of the 30 rooms is different and all have antique furniture in, hence the sensible ban on children under 10. The tvs are delightfully discreet, after all a 42 inch plasma wouldn't really add anything to these splendid rooms.
This was a boutique hotel before the over used term boutique hotel was even dreamt up.
Mr and Mrs Smith are on good terms with that other Mr and Mrs Smith - Brangelina, who often place visiting guests in the Soniat.
Robert De Niro stayed here last month, in the $675 suite probably, as it he probably wanted to feel the master of the house.
The great thing about this little gem is honeymooning couples or tourists can afford to stay without breaking the bank. And there are not many places that regularly host A-listers can do that.
All the rooms in the old slave quarters are both quaint and delightful and at under $200 worth every penny.
Breakfast is served in the court yard and includes chicoree coffee and buttered scones along with mouthwatering jams, or preserves as the locals call them.
Guests also get to use the New Orleans Athletic Club a few blocks away which is worth a visit alone, as it is the second oldest gym in America.
And this being new Orleans it has an oak paneled bar in the middle of it.
However, I doubt guests spend too much time there because like Clare the cat they probably never want to leave the faded grandeur of the Soniat House Hotel.


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FROM: 9-4-12 – The September issue of the Kentucky Trial Court Review
Commonwealth of Kentucky Vs. William Frey iii Police Interview: http://www.juryverdicts.net/FreyZehnderPoliceInterviews.pdf
Commonwealth of Kentucky Vs. Austen Zehnder Police Interview: Starting page 12: http://www.juryverdicts.net/FreyZehnderPoliceInterviews.pdf
***9-4-12 – These are the original transcriptions of the police interviews conducted by Detective Chris Horn of Austin Zehnder and Will Frey in March of 2012. Zehnder had counsel and waived his rights. Frey was arrested at school and waived his rights without speaking to his parents or an attorney.
Will Frey and Austin Zehnder Police Interviews (PDF) http://www.juryverdicts.net/FreyZehnderPoliceInterviews.pdf
***9-1-12 – Part three in collection of documents from the Savannah Dietrich case. Includes the contempt motion and the plea recommendation, among other motions. http://www.juryverdicts.net/SavannahDietrichJuvenileFilesPartThree.pdf
Savannah Dietrich Court Record – Part Three http://www.juryverdicts.net/SavannahDietrichJuvenileFilesPartThree.pdf
***8-31-12 – Our second group of documents in the Savannah Dietrich case.
Savannah Dietrich Court Record – Part Two http://www.juryverdicts.net/SavannahDietrichJuvenileFilesPartTwo.pdf
Savannah Dietrich Court Record – Part One http://www.juryverdicts.net/SavannahDietrichJuvenileFilesPartOne.pdf
***8-31-12 – The full copy of the infamous contempt motion made by the boys in the Savannah Dietrich case that made this a matter of a public concern.
The Contempt Motion http://www.juryverdicts.net/TheContemptMotion.pdf
***8-31-12 – The juvenile records in the prosecution of Austin Zehnder and Will Frey involving Savannah Dietrich were released. We received them yesterday from the Clerk's Office. They are now posted here. More to come this weekend. http://www.juryverdicts.net/ZehnderFreyJuvenile.pdf
Savannah Dietrich Court Record – Part One http://www.juryverdicts.net/SavannahDietrichJuvenileFilesPartOne.pdf
***8-28-12 – Judge Bisig entered her order today opening the file in the Austin Zehnder and Will Frey prosecution involving the sexual assault of Savannah Dietrich. It is a disturbing. We've got it. Read it. http://www.juryverdicts.net/ZehnderFreyJuvenile.pdf
Judge Bisig's Order Opening the Juvenile Records http://www.juryverdicts.net/ZehnderFreyJuvenile.pdf
August 31, 2012: Shocking and Disturbing information in the UNSEALED records come to light:
August 28, 2012
As the title of this blog stated in July 2012, I had a belief that there was favoritism… Today another Judge seems to agree that at the very least the manner in which this case was handled and the terms of the "PLEA BARGAIN" were abhorrent….
See the Article from the Courier Journal Newspaper:
Contempt charges against Savannah have been dropped . Still no reason known why the 2 were not charged as adults as most people without rich parents would have been? Why the Prosecutor did not recuse himself from the case? Will The District Attorney Assign the case to a new Prosecutor who will charge them as adults? If the Department of justice will Investigate this matter? If the Judge will be disciplined by the State Judicial Committee? Why they will not be on the sex offenders registry as most others would be? Or why the schools did not expel the boys? You can read the comments for more information submitted by outside interested people. Here is the news paper link concerning the dismissal of the Contempt Charges:
UPDATE: (at the bottom is the photo of the prosecutor and his name as I have been told by several people who know much more than I do)
ALSO: Here is the Contact information for the Judge responsible for this mess.. she has been involved in the courts for over 30 years according to her own postings:
|Deana "Dee" McDonald
|District Judge
Louis D. Brandeis Hall Of Justice
600 W. Jefferson St.
Louisville, KY 40202
|(502) 595-4960 (Phone)
(502) 595-3270 (Fax)
|Dist. 30, Div. 13
This story stinks of what has become typical in Kentucky… collusion.. and the Judge appears to be part of it by doing what she did. I would guess that is a political or personal favor to one or both of the parents of these sexual predators … The prosecutors office should be ashamed they let this happen and the judge should be forced off the bench for abuse of power under the Judicial Code of Conduct and for knowingly and willfully violating this girls first amendment rights. And Judges wonder why people have so little respect for them anymore…. THIS is why!!!
And Where is the Justice Department in this matter… THEY should be investigating as well… I SMELL POLITICS at its worst!
I HAVE BEEN GIVEN THIS NEW UPDATE ON THE ATTACKERS: Alleged attackers are Will Frey III and Austin Zehnder as reported by http://rantsthoughtsmerde.com !
A Kentucky girl who was sexually assaulted could face contempt of court charges after she tweeted the names of her juvenile attackers.
Savannah Dietrich, the 17-year-old victim, was frustrated by a plea deal reached late last month by the two boys who assaulted her, and took to Twitter to expose them–violating a court order to keep their names confidential.
"There you go, lock me up," Dietrich tweeted after naming the perpetrators. "I'm not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell." Her Twitter account has since been closed.
Attorneys for the attackers asked a Jefferson District Court judge to hold Dietrich in contempt for lashing out on Twitter. She could face up to 180 days in jail and a $500 fine if convicted. The boys have yet to be sentenced for the August 2011 attack.
"So many of my rights have been taken away by these boys," Dietrich told Louisville's Courier-Journal. "I'm at the point, that if I have to go to jail for my rights, I will do it. If they really feel it's necessary to throw me in jail for talking about what happened to me as opposed to throwing these boys in jail for what they did to me, then I don't understand justice."
Dietrich was assaulted by the pair after passing out at a party. They later shared photos of the assault with friends.
"For months, I cried myself to sleep," Dietrich said. "I couldn't go out in public places."
On June 26, the boys pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual abuse and misdemeanor voyeurism. Terms of their plea agreement were not released.
"They got off very easy," Dietrich, who says she was unaware of the plea agreement before it was announced in court, said in her interview with the newspaper.
"They said I can't talk about it or I'll be locked up," Dietrich tweeted after hearing, according to the paper. "So I'm waiting for them to read this and lock me up."
"[Protecting rapists] is more important than getting justice for the victim in Louisville," she added.
A hearing for the contempt of court charge is scheduled for July 30. Attorneys for Dietrich want it open to the media, while the boys lawyers want it closed.
Both the Gannett-owned Courier-Journal and Dietrich's attorneys "have filed motions to open the proceedings, arguing she has a First Amendment right to speak about what happened in her case," the newspaper said.
An online petition asking the judge to throw out the charges against Dietrich, launched Saturday, has already accumulated hundreds of signatures.
"[She] should not be legally barred from talking about what happened to her," Gregg Leslie, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the Associated Press. "That's a wide-ranging restraint on speech."
OHH How Sweet… Someone sent me the link to the Blue Grass bats Team Photos with the following information in it… THESE are the actual photos of these two confessed rapists
Apparently the two males whose pictures were supposed to be here as well as on the Blue Grass Bats Web page are now gone from existence….I REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHY THEY WERE NOT KICKED OFF THE TEAM WHEN THEY PLEAD GUILTY OR EVEN WHEN THEY WERE ARRESTED… from the TEAM Site their pictures are gone as well as their names… an on this site their pictures have mysteriously disappeared…. HOWEVER if you read some the Last few comments or so a person or two has indicated she has them on her Facebook as others have also copied and downloaded the photos of these "people" I am not positive but if they convicted as juveniles then it should have gone to Juvi Court.. but this was in fill District Court meaning they are convicted now as ADULTS???? So why are they not on the sex offender registry in Kentucky.. and why are their faces allowed to be used???
Here is a link to another place to view pictures as well:
I have posted pictures of these scumbags on my FB page, I'm letting more and more people know about this.
.. Gee I wonder Mitch McConnell that had that info taken down… well the fight for justice is not over yet!!!
#22 Will Frey. Trinity Midfield. Will is a 2nd year Bat and scored a hat trick at the 2010 Gait Cup. He is a strong athlete that loves challenges. He does not intimidate easily. His signature move the French Frey is a combination of face dodge and split dodge. He can score in any position. Will believes he resembles a Wildabeast, because he is a Wildabeast. Will is a Junior and would like to attend Centre, Denver, or Jacksonville to play lacrosse. When he is on the field he whispers in his opponent's ear "Fear the BAT." The last book he read was "Catcher in the Rye." Will is known as "KING FRY" on the field.
#1 Austin Zehnder "the Zen master". He is 6'1 and considers himself a "groundball vacuum cleaner." A Trinity Attack, Austin hopes to attend college outside of Kentucky. Austin enjoys meditating, eating pizza, and waxing his lax stick in his free time. Hoping to become a doctor he feels he surgically debilitates his opponents, as they feel he has removed certain organs without anesthesia.2nd year BAT.
OH I FORGOT this is Mitch McConnell's State of Kentucky.. NOW I UNDERSTAND THE CORRUPTION
Jefferson District Court
Hon. Deana "Dee" McDonald
Division 13
Undergraduate: Western Kentucky University, B.S., 1974
Graduate and/or Law School: University of Louisville, School of Law, 1994, Night Division
Legal Experience: I have over thirty (30) years of Jefferson County courtroom experience. I began as a social worker, working with abused/neglected and troubled youth and was in court almost daily advocating for their needs. I put myself through law school at night and began my legal career as a criminal defense attorney. I served as Assistant Counsel for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services providing legal support for the workers and litigating Termination of Parental Rights cases to free committed children for adoption. I served as a prosecutor in the Jefferson County Attorney's Office in the Domestic Violence Unit, the Felony/Misdemeanor, Warrant, Juvenile and Non-Support dockets, as well as all ten (10) of the Family Courts.
Candidate Statement:
With over 30 years of courtroom experience I have the expertise and demonstrated ability to serve as District Judge. The quality and depth of my experience has been evidenced by the fact that I have received every single endorsement made in this race, including that of Citizens For Better Judges. In addition, the local attorney's responding to the LBA's Judicial Poll, rated me 3 to 1 over my opponent in the "Highly Qualified" category.
A career of public service in the court system has given me a wealth of experience. As a prosecutor, I took an oath to seek the truth and administer justice fairly and that required me to prosecute some cases and recommend the dismissal of others. My experience enabled me to know the difference. I bring over thirty years of experience with which to serve the people of this community.
I this really was the man who was the prosecutor of these boys then you should know him ….. Paul Richwalsky, chief prosecutor in the juvenile court division of the county attorney's office, felt one officer was blowing us off in two serious cases. and was against a cop who did not show up to court on his day off ….
Seems to be that kids who are not white and are from poor families are dangerous, but those that rape our daughters are just boys being boys …
I Have been told he has affiliations with TRINITY … but I have not confirmed that .. if there was any connection no matter how remote I believe there was a conflict of interest in the PLEA agreement and the prosecution as a JUVENILE offender status these boys received. IN most any other case this offence from 16 years and up would be considered by most courts in the country to be ADULT Crimes… from what I have heard OTHER similar crimes in this jurisdiction were tried as adults… so why the special favor for these 2 boys… what made them so special… and are they still eligible to be tried by the United States Federal Court for Distribution of Child Pornography… If I were the lawyers for Savannah I would be pushing for Adults trials and if not then federal prosecution as there is no parole with the federal government convictions.


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Looking for a late spring break location in the Northern Rockies? Big Sky Resort is running its winter season later than most other resorts in Montana and Wyoming, and Bridger Bowl has extended their season by a week.
Big Sky Resort has added two weeks more to the ski season this year. The resort plans to run its lifts for skiing and snowboarding through April 24, longer than nearby Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Grand Targhee Resort, Moonlight Basin, and other Montana resorts.
The snow pack at Big Sky is up this winter, which should bode well for spring skiers and riders. "Our snow pack this year has been tremendous," spokesperson Chad Jones told OnTheSnow. "We are up about 12 percent over our average snow pack for this time of the season and nearly 30 percent over last year. The La Nina weather pattern has been very good to us and continues to bring us fresh snow.
The resort runs a full agenda of events through the end of the season. "Then we finish off the season with a bang," added Jones. Free live music hits the plaza in the village on select days while Sunset Saturdays extend the skiing on Ramcharger Lift until 5 p.m. The season closes out April 23-24 with the annual costumed pond skimming contest followed by outdoor music before celebrating the last runs of the season on Sunday.
Bridger Bowl is also benefiting from a healthy snow pack, so much so that the resort announced an extension to the ski season. An additional nine days of skiing will keep the lifts running through April 12. Full day adult lift tickets will drop to the half-day rate of $39 April 4-12.
Services at Saddle Peak Lodge, Virginia City Lift, Alpine Lift, Playcare, and regular ski school lessons will wrap up April 3. All other services including private lessons, rentals, retail, restaurants, and bars will continue to operate through April 12.
More information: Big Sky, Bridger Bowl.
Check out Big Sky's pond skimming laughs from last spring via YouTube:


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More than 400 guests attended The Voice-Tribune's Third Thursday After-Work Party on June 21 at Napa River Grill in Westport Village.
The evening was sponsored by Heaven Hill, which provided several specialty cocktails, and Buschemeyer's, which showcased some of the unique gold and diamond jewelry for which the business is known.
As always, Jay "DJ Jaybird†Campbell – The Voice-Tribune's official deejay – kept the dance floor hopping. Several attendees walked away the winners of giveaways provided by Heaven Hill, Buschemeyer's, Boutique Serendipity and A Therapeutic Touch.
The Voice-Tribune's next Third Thursday is July 19 at BBC Theater Square, 660 S. Fourth St., in downtown Louisville.
Photos by CHRIS HUMPHREYS | The Voice-Tribune and
BILL WINE | Contributing Photographer


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Taddy Porter still loves its 2010 debut album. But after more than two years of playing those songs, the group is more than happy to have fresh material -- namely its sophomore set, "Stay Golden," which is due out Feb. 26.
"When we put out the first album, we had been playing those songs for, like, a year and half already, so it's been a long run with them -- but a good one," explains frontman Andy Brewer, who co-founded the hard-rocking quartet during 2007 in Stillwater, Okla. "So being able to play these news songs is like a breath of fresh air, really. There's so much life in these new ones, and when we do play our old ones we revisit the energy we loved so much in those as well.
"So it's really great. There's a lot that's getting us pumped up right now."
Brewer, 27, says that going into "Stay Golden," the group members were "listening to early British Invasion rock" and the Monkees, as well as soul artists such as Mavis Jackson and Stevie Wonder. Much of that is evident on the album's first single, a fuzzy, psychedelic-flavored tune called "Fever" that Brewer says Taddy Porter had been "kicking around" for a while.
"We felt like it had the potential to be something," Brewer says. "We wanted to paint this idea of an unquenchable thirst for something, this 'Fever' that just drives you. All the guys in the band were talking about a certain girl that may have that kind of attribute, but the roles could be reversed.
"I mean, we're a bunch of guys writing the song, so it's going to be a girl who can go out and get what she wants, no matter what. I'm sure some girls could sing a similar song about a guy, y'know?"
Taddy Porter, Filligar, Read 'Em and Weep and False City perform Tuesday, Feb. 5, at the Pike Room in the Crofoot, 1 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 day of show. Call 248-858-9333 or visit www.thecrofoot.com.


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Tracking Seasonal Change
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change is all around us. Children see it in the length of a day, in
the appearance of a flower, in the flight of a butterfly. Journey
North is a free, Internet-based program that explores the interrelated
aspects of seasonal change. Citizen scientists across North America share their own observations of migrations and other signs of the seasons.
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A day after Andrew Wiggins went elsewhere, John Calipari was feeling good about where he is.
The nation's top-ranked recruit picked Kansas on Tuesday, and by Wednesday, Kentucky's coach had moved on, holding a news conference to discuss the still-stocked squad he'll field next season.
"I mean, (Wiggins is) a great kid and he's going to be a terrific basketball player," Calipari said. "It didn't change me any. I was confident in this team and the group we had before and after (his decision)."
Confident might be an understatement.
Coming off a 21-12 season and a first-round loss in the NIT, Calipari will field a team that figures to be ranked first or second in the preseason, restocked with top talent. Kentucky returns five scholarship players and adds eight freshmen, six of them McDonald's All-Americans.
It's a team deep and talented enough that Calipari didn't back down on Wednesday when asked about the possibility of a 40-0 dream season, the kind he'd called a goal within an hour of winning the 2012 NCAA title.
"Now, I'm not sitting there saying, 'If we lose a game, it's not a successful season,'" Calipari said. "No. But you're chasing greatness. What's wrong with that? 'Well, we want to talk moment to moment and we're not putting that on the kids.' Well, we are."
That doesn't mean Calipari will dangle a perfect season as a motivational carrot, a challenge for a team that will feature five players ranked by Rivals.com in the Top 10 of their respective high school classes.
"I won't, but there'll be things out there that'll be, 'We're chasing perfection. We're chasing greatness. We're chasing things that have never been done in the history of our game,'" Calipari said.
He'll have a team positioned to pursue them.
Even without Wiggins, the Wildcats will boast four of the Top 10 players in the 2013 Rivals150 in forward Julius Randle (No. 2), point guard Andrew Harrison (No. 5), shooting guard Aaron Harrison (No. 5) and center Dakari Johnson (No. 9). Another incoming freshman, swingman James Young, is ranked No. 11. Forward Marcus Lee is No. 19.
They join a nucleus that includes Alex Poythress, the No. 8 player in the 2012 Rivals150, Willie Cauley-Stein, who was No. 40 in 2012 and Kyle Wiltjer, the No. 22 player in the 2011 Rivals150.
That's to say nothing of returning role players Jon Hood and Jarrod Polson and in-state newcomers Derek Willis and Dominique Hawkins.
On paper, it's Calipari's deepest and most versatile team yet.
"But what I like is there's going to be competition," Calipari said. "Some guys are going to play. Some guys are not going to play. Who? No one's been promised anything. That's just how it is. They're going to have to compete with each other."
Kentucky probably will play a rotation of "eight or nine guys," Calipari said, meaning four of five players "aren't playing much." Those roles will be decided in what Calipari expects to be heated, competitive practices.
That will be a stark contrast from last season. His 2012 NCAA champs, Calipari said, "did not have one bad practice." Last season's NIT team, "had about five good practices" all season, he said.
Calipari expects a return to the competitive practices of 2011-12, but that won't be the only change. Players will have to earn their way into single dorm rooms at the Wildcat Coal Lodge and into Kentucky's expansive locker room, he said.
And as usual, Calipari will tweak his team's style of play.
Andrew and Aaron Harrison, he said, "are terrific drivers, which kind of tells you that we're going to go back to a lot more dribble-drive." In bouncing strategy ideas off friends, Calipari said he's discussed "dribble-drive into pick-and-roll, pick-and-roll into dribble-drive, because of the team."
The Cats also might take a page from defending NCAA champ Louisville, using their increased depth to apply more - and more physical - full-court pressure.
"So we're going to press and play more physical and bump and grind, and we'll put our arms up in the air and we'll hip-check guys," Calipari said. "That's how we're going to play. Now we have numbers."
The numbers that matter most are nine (Kentucky will pursue its ninth NCAA title) and 40, the win total it takes to achieve that elusive perfection. Calipari isn't shying away from either. Nor are his players.[rl]
"I don't go into a game expecting to lose, so why not go 40-0 and win the national championship?" Randle said last month at the McDonald's All-American Game. "People say it can't be done; why can't we?"
And that kind of chatter is fine by Calipari.
"What I like about that, people say, 'Pressure!'" Calipari said. "Man, pressure brings out the best. 'You're gonna be fired if you don't get this done! You're not going to make it if you don't get this done!' Wakes you up earlier in the morning. I don't mind a little pressure.
"I've had it my whole career. I've had the gun to my head for 20-something years. And you know what? I'm at my best when the gun is to my head versus, 'OK, I'm good, I can kick back.' I'm not as good. And you know what? Players are the same."


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November 2012, Volume 42 No. 2
Feature Articles
Going Regional: Conference Attendance on a Smaller Scale by Cate Calhoun
No Wallflowers in this Garden: Making Authentic Outreach Connections by Jaime Hammond
Know Thyself and Thy Audience by Anne Larrivee
Book and Website Reviews
Book Review: Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law by Mackenzie Brooks
Book Review: What Do Employers Want?: A Guide for Library Science Students by Megan Hodge
Website Review: Small Demons - Welcome to the Storyverse by Margaret Howard
Regular Features
Presidents Column by Janel Kinlaw
Headliners Compiled by Anthony Prince
Call for Applications: Student Chapter of the Year Award
Shirley Olofson Memorial Award: looking for funds to help pay for your trip to ALA's 2013 Annual Conference?


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Coffee catastophe in "And The Group Head" Episode 4 of Season 3
When Max and Caroline can't figure out how to use the new cappuccino maker they bought for their cupcake business, they take temporary side jobs as baristas at a coffee house to learn the ropes, on 2 BROKE GIRLS, Monday, Oct. 14 on the CBS Television Network. Max Black (Kat Dennings), from left, Caroline Channing (Beth Behrs), shown. Photo: Darren Michaels/Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. © 2013 WBEI. All rights reserved.


text: Home > Software > Development Tools and Software This article was posted on 02/08/2013 A new world at your fingertips • eyeSight launches world's first fingertip gesture control software• Works via a device's standard camera• Software available to manufacturers now, consumer devices likely to emerge before end of the yearIsrael and The US, 7th February 2013 - Israeli company eyeSight Technologies today announces the world's first commercial gesture technology to allow users to control digital devices with a fingertip, even from across a room. With eyeSight's camera-based 'fingertip tracking' users can, for the first time, move a cursor simply by pointing their finger directly at the screen, for the ultimate intuitive user experience.The technology developed by eyeSight's team could revolutionise an almost limitless range of devices, including:• Televisions - Browse complex menus of Smart TVs with no remote to lose• Personal computers - Control films, music and even games on your computer, laptop or ultrabook from the comfort of your bed. eyeSight's technology is even compatible with Windows 8.• Window displays / Digital signs - Enjoy a whole new level of interactive advertising: Browse products and special offers from up to 5m awayThe success of any gesture system will be dictated by how 'natural' it feels," commented Gideon Shmuel, CEO of eyeSight. "Just as Apple made control via touchscreens feel completely natural a few years ago, we're hoping to do the same thing with gesture: Our fingertip tracking makes gesture feel so intuitive that eventually people will use it without even thinking about it. Now we're hoping to make this capability available in consumer devices produced by our customers."eyeSight is the first company to realise the impressive technical feat of fingertip tracking at a range of 70cm-5 meters (2ft-16ft) . The system is designed to be easy to integrate into almost any digital device with a camera, (such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops, televisions, digital signs, etc.). It works with standard cameras, and can recognize which individuals in a crowded room to 'track'.About eyeSight TechnologyeyeSight was established with the vision of revolutionising the way people interact with digital devices, to create an interaction that is both simple and intuitive.eyeSight is a leader in touch-free Interfaces for digital devices. The company is led by a highly experienced team of Image Processing professionals with extensive experience in research, implementation, and optimisation of real time algorithms for embedded platforms. eyeSight's technology is used by Lenovo, Hisense, Pantech, AMD and more.eyeSight is a privately held company headquartered in Israel.eyeSight has photos of its fingertip tracking technology, as well as videos and other media available on an exclusive basis, and is happy to discuss its technology, potential applications, and where gesture might be going in the near future. For a chance to speak to eyeSight contact firstname.lastname@example.com has a number of original use case videos, which demonstrate the broad capabilities of its technologies. Individuals are welcome to embed these videos on their websites, or contact eyesight for the original files.Further details on the company can be viewed at http://www.eyesight-tech.com/You can also follow eyesight Mobile Technologies on Twitter on @eyesightmobile Learn more about Electronic Products Magazine Related Articles Hands-on review: Analyze signals with free, open-source sigrok Puls... AcuEdge dev kit simplifies Amazon Alexa Voice Service integration XMOS and Qualcomm launch voice-processing dev kits for cloud-based ... Why PKI matters for IIoT security Add Comment Text Only 2000 character limit Please login to comment on the article


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County man loses home to fire
A home in the Whitehorse Bench Fire District was destroyed last weekend after a controlled burn got out of hand early Saturday afternoon. The owner of the home, according to Melvin Hofferer, Joliet Fire Chief, was "burning weeds and grass near his house when the fire jumped to some juniper bushes by the porch." From there the fire went into the attic. "The home had a cathedral ceiling and was difficult to control as it burned along the bottom of the roof. The house is a total loss,' said Hofferer. No one was hurt in the incident but Hofferer confirmed the owner did not get permission to burn and was in a restricted burn area. Laurel Fire Department was also involved and had called Joliet to assist as the two departments share the Whitehorse Bench Fire District, which lies to the extreme north of the county and usually receives its protection from Laurel. Joliet sent two structure engines and one tender. Eight Joliet firemen were on scene.


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A BRIERLEY Hill man has been given a two-and-a-half year jail sentence for his involvement in producing cannabis in a garage at the back of a Worcestershire pub.
Police found the double garage at the back of The Steps House in Gilgal, Stourport on Severn, had been converted into a factory growing cannabis with a potential street value of £91,000, Worcester Crown Court heard.
Mark Flack, aged 32, of Dwellings View, Brierley Hill, was jailed immediately after pleading guilty to being involved in the production of the class B drug.
Kevin Fletcher, aged 54, the landlord of The Steps House, who lives on the premises, also received a 12-month sentence suspended for 18 months after he admitted being involved in the production of cannabis.
Stephen Davies said police raided the garage on April 26 last year and found two tents inside with 145 plants capable of producing 9.1 kilograms with a sophisticated growing system.
Fletcher told them he had rented the garage for a £100 a month in December 2012 to two men who had said they were going to use it for car repairs.
He later revealed he had discovered cannabis two weeks before the raid and had told them to leave but had accepted £1,000 to let them stay a little longer, Mr Davies said.
Flack was present when the factory was set up but had been working under instructions from the other man, who was not in court.
He was paid in cannabis for his own use and police found 4.6 grams worth £446 at his home.
Niall Skinner, defending Flack, said he was a hard-working family man whose partner was expecting their third child next month.
He had no explanation as to why he had got involved apart from "stupidity."
Mr Skinner said: "He did not need to get involved.
"He has never been in trouble before and it is likely he will never be in trouble again."
Abigail Nixon, defending Fletcher, said he had been in the pub trade for 20 years and had bought the lease to The Steps House.
He had put his livelihood and his home at risk because he had been stupid enough to get involved to "make a quick buck" but he had never received the £1,000.
A conviction would not automatically result in him losing his licence but it was due for renewal next year, she said.
Judge Robert Juckes, QC, said Flack had played a more significant role in the production.
He said Fletcher, as a landlord in a position of responsibility and with a degree of influence in the community, had taken the £1,000 offer to "keep his mouth shut."
Fletcher was also ordered to do 250 hours unpaid work - and both men were ordered to pay £600 costs each.


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During the Occupy protests, I remember attending a meeting created by and for people of color. Their goals were many, including efforts to de-center white activists who failed (and refused) to address issues like racism, sexism, colonialism, and imperialism. They also sought to change the name to "Decolonize" instead of "Occupy" because the land on which we walk in the United States is already stolen and occupied Indigenous land. As the first meeting began, we recognized that there were white people in attendance seeking to show solidarity and become allies. They were welcomed in the group, but most people of color also demanded that there be time for safe space, i.e. meetings for people of color only. As expected, the reaction from white folks was extremely defensive. I heard some even say that we were resorting to the very discrimination that we were fighting against (we've all heard this before, nothing new). Also not surprising was how there were some people of color in agreement with these white activists. As one could imagine, a lot of exhaustive arguing ensued, especially from people of color who were trying to explain the need for safe space. Ironic was how the white activists who kept complaining and crying "reverse racism" failed to recognize that their defensive reactions were precisely the reason why people of color ask for safe space — a space where our concerns don't get derailed or where we don't need to explain ourselves or worry about being labeled "reverse racists" or "anti-white."
Recently, on my Facebook, a person of color (who I had recently added) accused me of "reverse racism" and "discriminating against white readers" when I shared my previous post on X-Men's appropriation of anti-racist struggles. He also said that the answer to racism is not the "supremacy" of "another race group" just like the "the answer to patriarchy is not matriarchy." After I replied to a private message of his and recommended some readings for him, he de-friended me and wrote a scathing message where he accused me of "playing the victim," "isolating myself" and surrounding myself only with people who "agree with me." It's not important who this person is specifically. What's more important and concerning is that there are far too many people like him who buy into the myths of "reverse racism" and "reverse sexism," as well as the "multicultural" notion that respecting and accepting "all views" is a marker for being "progressive."
I'm not going to address the "playing the victim" comments in-depth here, but I will quickly just say that regardless of how much I disagree with someone, I would never go as far as using victim-blaming attacks against someone, especially a person of color. I don't know how anyone committed to anti-racism, feminism, and anti-oppression can accuse another stigmatized and marginalized individual of "playing the victim." The vocabulary reminds me of "playing the race card" or "playing the gender card," which imply that those who struggle against racism and sexism are "treacherous" and have the "advantage" over those who are more privileged in white supremacist heteropatriarchy. As Ann Anlin Cheng writes in her book, "The Melancholy of Race":
Even in contemporary vernacular culture, we observe the increased frequency with which the 'race card' is displayed… Indeed, it has acquired the peculiar status of a game where what constitutes a winning hand has become identical with the handicap. Reappearing with the vagrancy of a Joker, the race card brings with it a host of haunting questions about the value and perception of race and racial matters in America. What does it mean that the deep wound of race in this country has come to be euphemized as a card, a metaphor that acknowledges the rhetoric as such yet simultaneously materializes race into a finite object that can be dealt out, withheld, or trumped? Why the singularity of a card? Who gets to play? And what would constitute a 'full deck'?
Holding a 'full deck' may imply some idealized version of multisubjectivity (that is, the potential to play the race card, the gender card, the immigrant card, and so forth), but it also implies a state of mental health and completion that renders such playing unnecessary in the first place. One would 'play' a card only because one is already outside the larger game, for to play a card is to exercise the value of one's disadvantage, the liability that is asset … [T]he vocabulary of the card also reveals a conceptualization of health and pathology that underlies our very perceptions of race and its abnormalities. Figuring the minority can be treacherous… [A]s the 'race card' rhetoric makes clear, there is more than a little irony, if not downright counterproductivity, in effort to relabel as healthy a condition that has been diagnosed, and kept, as sickly and aberrant.
Cheng calls attention to the paradox: "the one who plays with a full deck not only need not play at all but indeed has no such 'card' to play. Only those players with less than a full deck need apply." I would go as far as describing such arguments ("playing the race card" or "playing the gender card") as racist and sexist. Similarly, when it comes to people who make "reverse racism" and "reverse sexism" arguments, I believe those assertions should be described as racist and sexist arguments as well, not merely flawed or problematic. Recently, a First Nations band, A Tribe Called Red, heard cries of "reverse racism" after one of their members wore a T-shirt mocking the Cleveland MLB baseball team: the word "Caucasians" instead of "Indians" was written across it. Far too often, claims of "reverse racism," "reverse sexism" and any other type of "reverse" oppression are attempts to derail, vilify, and silence people resisting against these oppressions.
I'm not going to explain why "reverse racism" arguments are oppressive, mostly because so much work has been done on it already (watch Aamer Rahman explain it and read Mia McKenzie and A.D Song's brilliant post). What I want to talk about is the flawed "multicultural" notion that if you don't surround yourself with people who "have different views," you are "close-minded." I'm not talking about "different views" in the sense of having different perspectives that are non-oppressive. None of us think exactly the same, but there is a significant difference between having different perspectives and having views that are racist, sexist, Islamophobic, homophobic, etc. If you're going to trivialize and/or justify drone attacks, rape, racism, racial slurs, gender slurs, Israeli occupation of Palestine, etc., then we are going to have issues. There is a difference between having a disagreement over, say, whether or not we are ready to see complex supervillains of color in western sci-fi/fantasy (I don't think we are, but I know others who feel differently) and having a disagreement over use of the "i" word to describe undocumented immigrants. Use of the "i" word is not "up for debate," as the term is dehumanizing. I'm not talking about people who are unaware of how this word is a racial slur; I'm talking about people who have already made up their mind and insist that this language is "appropriate" and "acceptable." If you set boundaries for yourself and seek to avoid people who are perpetuating racist and sexist ideologies, then how is this "close-minded"?
In my personal life and on my Facebook page, I used to be ok with befriending people whose politics were profoundly different than mine. I spent the time and energy "dialoguing" with them and addressing their misconceptions about Islam, anti-racism, and other issues. However, a lot of times, these conversations would become quite heated and accusations of "reverse racism" were leveled at me and my friends. After a while of going back and forth with these people, I realized how much time and energy I had wasted on people who were never interested in learning in the first place, but rather wanted to argue, insult me, and prove me "wrong." I remember I would go to work on some days and then come home at night only to see ridiculously long comments posted on my wall that labeled Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) a "terrorist" and "Jew-hater," or comments that demanded Muslims to explain the "violent verses" (most of the time, I found that these comments were copied and pasted off of notorious Islamophobic websites). I remember spending hours responding to these people. I recall writing an 11 page e-mail to a friend (who I knew since 6th grade) who believed that the Qur'an didn't permit friendships between Muslims and Christians. I would cite so many books on Islam and Islamic history to assure people who were important to me that my faith didn't preach discrimination or violence against people due to their religion. In some cases, things worked out fine. Sometimes my messages to online non-Muslim friends (i.e. people I never met before) had better results than my conversations with friends who knew me for years. In many cases, no matter how "peaceful," "polite," or "respectful" my tone, the conversation would go nowhere. When some asked ridiculous questions like "Where are all the moderate Muslims?" it was never a sincere question most of the time. It's an attempt to vilify Muslims unless they support racist U.S. policies (NYPD spying of Muslims, racial profiling, etc.) and violent U.S. wars in Muslim-majority countries.
A turning point came for me after I read Mia McKenzie's post, "Read a Book! Or, Why I Don't Talk to Strange White Folks About Race," where she writes about why she refuses to respond to random white people whom she doesn't know well or trust. She argues that, most of the time, when people of color spend the time and energy and exhaust ourselves in explaining racism to random white people, most of the time, nothing good comes out of it. She elaborates:
What happens, most of the time, is nothing good. Why? Because the person who posted the thing that offended us did so because it's what they really think, it's what they actually believe, it's the conclusion that they have somehow come to after 25 or 30 or 40 years of living in this world. The ridiculous position they just laid down isn't something they just came up with. It's their fucking philosophy, and they mean that shit. And now here you come telling them, uh uh, nope, your analysis is flawed and this is why. And you are right. You really are. And guess what? It doesn't matter… Nothing you say is going to change that. But you might spend a lot of time and energy trying.
More importantly, engaging with strange white people about race feels incredibly unsafe. If I do it anyway, because, after all, they just want to "understand" my position, then I am putting their need to "understand" ahead of my own need to protect my psychological and emotional well-being. And why on earth should I do that? Especially when the likelihood of that understanding actually happening is slim to none? And the likelihood that my position will be mocked, dismissed, or attacked is very high?
I found myself relating to much of this and I soon began to remove offensive people from my Facebook. Some of these people were from interfaith groups I had joined and while I don't doubt their intentions were initially good, they often would try to tone police me and other Muslims on my wall when we expressed outrage against Islamophobia and imperialism. Respectful and compassionate conversations with our friends and allies are important, especially when we make mistakes. However, when it comes to people who are insulting, condescending, and/or think they're superior to you, what is to be gained from this "friendship"? What is the point of "friendships" when white people, and those who defend them, are constantly trying to police our thoughts, feelings, and experiences? I found these interactions quite unhealthy for me. I'm sure all of us have dealt with these people. The kind of people who NEVER comment on anything you post EXCEPT the times when they want to argue with you. Or, the people who lurk on your Facebook and click "like" on the comments written by someone else who is insulting you. And of course, there are the passive aggressive people who will just post a link on your wall (or under your post) without leaving a caption or explanation of why they're posting it (and the linked article is often something in response to the views you've expressed on your wall).
Some people have come at me for deleting people with accusations of "censorship" and being "close-minded" or "intolerant." There have been countless times on my blog, for instance, where I've responded to Islamophobic, racist, and sexist comments from random people, yet what seems to outrage certain people the most is when I decide I'm done responding and would rather delete comments. I cannot control who reads my blog, but the main reason I put comment moderation on is because responding to Islamophobic comments became exhausting and a waste of my time. On the same thread where several people were saying "all Muslims" should be "executed" or "evicted," some chose to tone-police me and accuse me of "censorship" instead of addressing the violent, anti-Muslim comments. I have heard countless incidents from women bloggers/writers who have received rape threats, in addition to death threats, from men who disagreed with them. Why is it "censorship" or "close-minded" if someone wants to ban these comments or delete people who think and behave this way?
For people who think maintaining a safe space on Facebook is "close-minded," I ask them to consider this: most people of color are already in spaces that are discriminatory, unsafe, and/or hostile to them in their everyday lives. One of the major problems with "multiculturalism" is that it legitimizes "all views," including views that are racist, sexist, Islamophobic, and so on. If you challenge someone who holds such views, the blame is on you for not being "multiculturally competent." That's how messed up "multiculturalism" is. Whether it's in the workplace, school, or any other public setting, hearing these "different views" are things we hear on a daily basis. How often do people of color have to deal with ignorant remarks, offensive questions, or stereotypical assumptions? Many students of color are verbally attacked in their classrooms for raising anti-racist critiques and disrupting the status quo. How many are attacked, either verbally or physically, just for their mere presence in a classroom or workplace? What about people of color who have to bite their tongues at work 90% of the time for the sake of keeping their jobs? Many do speak up and get suspended, fired, and vilified for standing up for themselves. What about how often women see and hear sexism and misogyny, especially women of color who face both racism and sexism?
"Different views and opinions" that perpetuate racism and sexism not only come from classmates, teachers, co-workers, bosses, lawyers, doctors, but sometimes even from members in our own families. Yes, sometimes they are not intentional, but white supremacy and heteropatriarchy are so normalized that people don't need to be deliberate in order to carry out oppressive acts or behaviors. When there are so many oppressive forces in everyday life, why is one considered "close-minded" or "living in a bubble" if he/she chooses to maintain a safe space on their Facebook, in their circle of friends, at their club meetings, etc.? I know lots of people of color, including myself, who like to use Facebook not only to network with people and stay in touch with friends/family, but to also vent comfortably and safely without worrying about judgment (or accusations of "reverse racism/sexism"). If you are constantly arguing and insisting that people of color can somehow oppress white people institutionally, despite being told and informed over and over again about how these arguments perpetuate racism, re-center white people, and silence and vilify people of color, you're not just being disrespectful. You're making your unwillingness to listen and learn very clear. Telling someone that they should be "more open" by having to listen and accept racist views is oppressive, not a sign of "progress." If we cannot feel comfortable venting to our friends, then who can we speak to?
I have to clarify that I'm not saying everyone should delete people in this way. I know this is more complex than simply saying, "Oh, that person posted something racist on your wall? Just delete them!" It's no one's business to tell you who you should or shouldn't have on your Facebook. I have seen that play out as well and how it perpetuates shaming and victim-blaming. I do believe there are times when it's important to show solidarity on someone else's wall if they're being attacked with racist, sexist, and oppressive comments. A lot of times, these comments are inevitable, no matter how hard we try to filter them out. There are complex reasons why we choose to maintain friendships with certain people, despite them holding views that are quite different than ours. Also, I'm not saying we shouldn't engage in conversations with people. As a friend told me recently, it's important that we don't shut out friends and allies by being arrogant and condescending towards them.
My overall point isn't about how people should use social media, but how we shouldn't label people "close-minded" if they choose to delete people they don't feel comfortable or safe having on their friend's list. I don't believe a safe space means that everyone thinks exactly the same or that people agree on everything. My friends and I disagree on a lot of things, but those disagreements occur in a space of trust, respect, compassion, and humility. When we are constantly surrounded by the images and messages that promote white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, colonialism, imperialism, etc., how can we blame people for seeking a safe space among their friends where they don't have to deal with the headache, stress, and trauma of these oppressions? It is not "close-minded" or "censorship" – it's the need, as McKenzie said, to protect our own psychological and emotional health and well-being.
UPDATE 12/13/14: A friend recently shared a similar article that was posted on Everyday Feminism. Definitely worth reading! Click here: 6 Reasons Why We Need Safe Spaces


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Mark Skipper DL on the Spending Review
Our Chief Executive Mark Skipper DL responds to today's spending review...
Although the arts community has generally welcomed this announcement, one must not forget that this news comes on the back of extensive cuts to public funding for the arts with more planned in the future. The 7% cut agreed with the culture secretary will see a 5% cut to Arts Council England which no doubt in turn will impact on the portfolio of NPOs present and future – how much and to whom is yet to be seen.
We have all accepted that the arts have to feel a share of the pain but isn't enough, enough? A recent review into ballet and opera carried out by Arts Council England found that Northern Ballet was excellent value for money particularly in relation to the breadth of our national tour and we were exemplary in our efficiency and use of resources, so where are we meant to cut from and just how much income in reality can we generate ourselves through private investment and sales initiatives (tickets, space hire etc;)?
Our response to the public spending cuts announced in 2011 was to launch various initiatives including Sponsor a Dancer. This campaign has raised more than £500,000 in private investment (trusts, foundations, corporates and individuals) since its launch in October 2011. However, we feel that there are limitations to how much we can raise through private investment and on this occasion have benefited from many Trusts and Foundations being sympathetic to the situation and prepared to fund core business which is unlikely to be sustainable. Figures recently released by Arts & Business show that although private investment in culture has increased, 90% of this investment is benefitting arts organisations in London with dance receiving the second least amount of private investment overall. As a national dance company based in Yorkshire we would like to see a better balance and a wider distribution of public and private support of the arts which takes into account these regional differences.
In his speech George Osborne said that government spending does not produce sustainable growth, enterprise does. As an artistic company we have to have a vision and it is all about enterprise. On top of our extensive national tour we have introduced a new ballet for children and toured this widely and we are planning to reach even more people by introducing a mid-scale tour to our annual programme from 2015. A 5% cut to Northern Ballet will stifle creativity, significantly reduce our reach and will result in a lack of ability to realise this vision. In effect it will curtail the enterprise George Osborne referred to in his speech.
Culture is excellent value for money and when the arts budget accounts for less than 0.1% of public spending, yet it makes up 0.4% of the nation's GDP, will cutting this area really bring about the change in the economy the government is looking for?


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Maybe Steelers players should just avoid Georgia
Steelers star Ward arrested, charged with DUI
CBSSports.com wire reports
July 9, 2011
DECATUR, Ga. -- Pittsburgh Steelers star wide receiver Hines Ward has been arrested in Georgia on a drunken driving charge.
More on Ward
Freeman: Say it isn't so, Hines Ward
The DeKalb County sheriff's office says the former Super Bowl MVP and Dancing With the Stars champ was arrested early Saturday. He was booked into the DeKalb County jail in suburban Atlanta at 3:41 a.m. and charged with driving under the influence. He was released on $1,300 bond.
The sheriff's office said it had turned over paperwork to the courts and couldn't release any further information about the player's arrest.
A Steelers spokesman did not immediately respond to a message, and it was not immediately clear if Ward had an attorney.
The 35-year-old Ward played football at the University of Georgia


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In a bizarre twist that reminds one of Scrooge rather than Schwarzenegger, the state of California decided last spring to significantly reduce its dependent tax credit. In other words, it just became even more difficult to raise future California tax payers.
California parents can no longer count on their little ones for the $309 per child tax credit they enjoyed in previous years; according to the state, each child is now worth a mere $99 credit. This effectively raises a parent's taxes by about $210 per child, per year, placing a significant burden on the large families that need this credit most. This cut, which was buried in the massive budget package Governor Schwarzenegger signed in February, will be an unwelcome surprise to many parents.
It is no secret that California is in serious financial trouble. Tax increases are inevitable; however, since the funds that California is attempting to raise through this tax increase will come from parents, one wonders why lawmakers continue to subsidize a very profitable organization that aims to prevent parenthood altogether.
Planned Parenthood receives millions of dollars from California taxpayers each year. The organization claims that none of these dollars directly fund abortions; however, money is fungible. The tax dollars Planned Parenthood receives for preventive care services enable it to devote other income to providing abortions, and thanks to the recent cuts in dependent tax credits, California will soon have more of those tax dollars to give out.
In the long term, higher taxes for parents will mean fewer California children. As one blogger pointed out recently,
Economists have a rule: If you want more of something, subsidize it; and if you want less of something, tax it.
If California wants to encourage the growth of the next generation of voters and taxpayers, it's going to have to stop penalizing parenthood – not because families have caused the current deficit, but because they are its best long-term solution.
Surprisingly, most pro-life, pro-family Conservative commentators have been slow to target the tax code's anti-family bias. Ramesh Ponnuru is a notable exception, but the McCain campaign's tax policies indicated that Ponnuru's recommendations have fallen on all-too-deaf ears. It's easy to rally around a perceived injustice, but difficult to do the harder work of real reform; in this case it seems it's even difficult for commentators to suggest we do so.
The Right has an unfortunate tendency to present negative solutions to social problems when positive solutions would be both more effective and more attractive to potential detractors. The current move to defund Planned Parenthood is a prime example of this tendency. While many pro-life organizations are working to defund Planned Parenthood, few are focusing on viable alternative solutions that would help families with children who have already been born. In their zeal for saving future families, pro-life activists have sometimes failed to help existing families thrive and expand.
While Planned Parenthood should certainly lose funding, households struggling to raise children should not; after all, parents raising children will frequently bear and raise more children if they have the economic means to do so. Our social and economic success depends on stable families, and our laws and tax policies ought to reflect this fact. Unfortunately, as California illustrates, they often penalize the parents whose children will be the source of tomorrow's income.
Worse, our tax policies burden stable families while our welfare programs encourage single parenthood. Readily available programs like WIC and Healthy Families do help women and children in one way, but also hurt them by making it easy for husbands and fathers to leave them, secure in the knowledge that the state will provide what they will not. For many women the state is provider, protector, and enabler – all at the expense of the mothers and fathers whose children the state so desperately needs.
A comprehensive, long-term solution to California's budget problems would involve both the removal of tax dollars from economically destructive organizations like Planned Parenthood and positive tax exemptions for those raising children. Unfortunately, the pro-life movement has not always put enough emphasis on the positive side of this equation. If pro-lifers want to win the hearts and minds of the citizens of California, they need to offer positive solutions to the social and economic problems that have usually been addressed through some form of negation. California will have to do the same for its families if it hopes to solve its financial problems – as even Scrooge eventually realized. '


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Hi all,
I was introduced to the Theraveda tradition recently through a retreat in Thailand at Wat Suan Mokkh. I did not really know too much about Buddhism (much less the different traditions prior to that) and was just seeking to learn meditation techniques while on my life/career break. However, the experience opened up a different view of life that makes absolute sense to me.
I have been reading posts on this forum ever since the retreat I found the community here so helpful and supportive in answering past questions. So, I thought it was time to register and say 'hello!' I'm looking forward to continued learning and being a part of this community.
Kindest regards,


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GBMC has a comprehensive program of clinical trials in various medical disciplines throughout the hospital. The GBMC Institutional Review Board (IRB), is an independent ethics committee which meets monthly to evaluate clinical trial proposals by medical staff members. The emphasis of IRB review includes ethical standards, patient safety, patient confidentiality, and scientific merit.
Research sponsors for clinical trials at GBMC include NIH (NIDDK, NCI, etc.), independent investigators, and pharmaceutical trials. Clinical trials involve not only therapeutic interventions but also medical devices, laboratory testing, and other investigations of current medical and surgical practice.
Research emphasis at GBMC includes oncology, endocrinology, speech-language pathology, women's health, ophthalmology, genetics, and surgical subspecialties.
Contact Information
Phone: 443-849-3123


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Email me: firstname.lastname@example.com
Flame me: chevyhiperformance.com
I know how fortunate I am to have a monthly column reserved for any ramblings that may be running through my head. It seems I usually have an uncomfortable amount of thoughts sparking up the ol' gray matterplenty of material to write about. Strangely enough, though, when I sat down to write this month's editorial, I ended up staring at a blank screen for a bit longer than I care to admit. It wasn't until I finally snapped out of my zombie-like state that I realized I had been fixated on the blinking cursor. I guess it's OK to zone out for a while. Let's call it meditation.
I began to realize that I was thinking about a thread I'd read online the night before. It was about a guy who had been struggling with his projects. Nothing out of the norm, right? Like most of us, he had a pile of parts he'd collected throughout the years, including a couple of cars he was trying to get back on the road. It turns out I only caught the end of the thread, where he eventually unloaded everything and managed to get into a new projectone he could actually jump in and drive. You can forget about any remorse, because there was none. Instead, he was happy to regain his garage, and he loves the fact he now has a car he can once again enjoy on the weekends.
Then it hit me: I'm that guy, only I haven't gotten rid of anything. Admittedly, I'm five cars deep with my own issues, and I'm quick to point out that I need each of them. Of course, that's the gearhead addict in me coming out, because surely everyone needs a car to serve each particular function. You know, a daily driver, something to tow or haul things with, the fun performance car that does it all, a dedicated track car, and the really necessary secondary track car of another brand. I know, it's ridiculous, so I think I'll justify it by saying it's my contribution to saving a bit of automotive history.
The truth of the matter is I appreciate anything with wheels and an engine. Combine that with an affinity for both carbureted and fuel-injected combinations and you have a guy like me who wants to put his hands on everything.
Maybe one day I'll grow up and do the responsible thing by letting go of a ride or two. Then there is today's option, which is to check out the smoking deal I found on a running third-gen Camaro off craigslist. I think I'll give in to my inner child and choose the latter.