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NORTH COUNTY -- A federal investigative report allegedly blames the Border Patrol for mistakenly releasing an illegal immigrant suspected of later killing an Oceanside police officer.
Adrian George Camacho, 28, a Mexican citizen convicted five times of felonies and deported twice for being an illegal immigrant, is now charged with murdering Officer Tony Zeppetella, 27, on June 13.
Authorities confirmed Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General has written a report about the investigation of Camacho's release two years ago.
However, the report can't be released until after Homeland Security reviews it and takes whatever action the department deems necessary, said Tamara Faulkner, spokeswoman for the Office of Inspector General in Washington, D.C.
"That could be anything," Faulkner said about department action.
Anyone who releases the report without authorization may face criminal prosecution, said Border Patrol Chief Mike Nicley of the San Diego Sector.
"That's an investigative report," Nicley said. "It's subject to misinterpretation, inaccurate reporting."
The San Diego Union-Tribune got a copy of the report, which said Camacho was scheduled to be prosecuted in federal court for illegally crossing the border when he was mistakenly released Feb. 4, 2002.
Despite three deportation orders and drug convictions, Camacho was released with a group of illegal immigrants who were voluntarily returning to Mexico.
A faulty prisoner tracking system caused Border Patrol Border agents to release Camacho, the report said. Camacho then returned to the U.S. and allegedly killed Zeppetella, a family man, during a June traffic stop.
Camacho is being held without bail at San Diego Central Jail while he awaits trial for Zeppetella's death.
Oceanside police Chief Mike Poehlman said Nicley called him Wednesday morning to say he will give Poehlman a copy of the report by next week.
"I'm interested in reviewing the report," Poehlman said. "I'm always interested in looking at and trying to understand what happened."
Oceanside police are concentrating on giving the San Diego County district attorney's office all the evidence and information it needs to prosecute Camacho, said the police chief.
A Border Patrol spokesman said last July that it was an alien detention and removal squad from the former Immigration and Naturalization Service that took Camacho, who had been at a medical facility for heroin detoxification, from the Campo Border Patrol Station to the U.S.-Mexico Border for release .
The San Diego Border Patrol Sector now has additional measures and improved procedures for both illegal immigrants who don't have criminal histories and those who do, said Gloria Chavez, agency spokeswoman in Washington, D.C.
At the Campo station, Chavez said, all cases are being manually logged; immigrants in criminal cases are isolated in a separate building from those being voluntarily returned, and there is a separate filing and logging system for illegal immigrants who are medically unfit.
"There's a new tracking system for aliens being prosecuted," Chavez said.
Illegal immigrants who are being prosecuted wear orange wrist bands, and those being voluntarily returned to Mexico wear green wrist bands, she said.
"To us, this (officer shooting) was a tragic incident that affected all law enforcement," said Chavez. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Officer Tony Zeppetella."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or email@example.com.


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The Lead Sheet Association is at the forefront of training and technical advice in the use of Rolled Lead Sheet to BS EN 12588 in the construction industry.
We have a number of technical experts that can provide guidance and advice for those using rolled lead sheet. We also run a range of courses for contractors and installers, from basic, to more advanced and specialist programmes.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Advertising and business services, namely, providing strategic planning advisory service to profit and non-for-profit organizations and facilitating formulation of strategic plans and consulting on implementation
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|Sidney Crosby gets up close and personal with Edmonton's Fernando Pisani in the first period of the Penguins' 5-4 victory. (Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press)
Rangers roll past Lightning
Drury's hat trick puts cap on win
- |
Chris Drury had two of New York's three rare power-play goals and finished his hat trick with a shorthanded tally for the Rangers, who beat the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning for the third time this season, 5-2, last night.
Ryan Callahan also had a power-play goal for the Rangers, who entered with the NHL's second-worst unit.
Marc Staal pushed the lead to 4-2 in the third period, 29 seconds after Ryan Malone got the Lightning within one for the second time during a power play.
Drury scored his fifth of the season with 27.5 seconds left.
Martin St. Louis had the other goal for the Lightning, who lost for the second straight night after a three-game winning streak. They are 4-2-4 since a pair of 2-1 losses to the Rangers during the season-opening series in the Czech Republic.
Henrik Lundqvist made 36 saves for the Rangers, who snapped their first two-game skid of the season. Mike Smith stopped 30 shots for Tampa Bay.
The Rangers' much-maligned power play had failed on all six chances in the two previous contests. In New York's 2-1 loss to the Islanders on Tuesday, the Rangers allowed both goals while on their power play and have given up an NHL-high five shorthanded goals.
Nearly 90 seconds into their first chance, Nikolai Zherdev raced down right wing and fed a perfect pass into the slot to Callahan, who received it while crouching and fired a one-timer past Smith to make it 1-0 with 3:51 left in the first.
Drury pushed the Rangers' lead to 2-0 with New York's first shorthanded goal of the season. He picked off a pass from Lightning defenseman Paul Ranger in the neutral zone and took off on a breakaway.
Penguins 5, Oilers 4 - Miroslav Satan and Petr Sykora each scored twice and NHL scoring leader Evgeni Malkin set up three goals in the second period as Pittsburgh opened a five-goal lead, then held on for the victory over road-weary Edmonton.
The Oilers, playing on the road for the 10th time in 12 games, couldn't score despite getting the first four power-play opportunities and looked tired while falling behind, 5-0, late in the second period during their second game in two nights.
Pittsburgh scored three times in less than six minutes in the second as Malkin (league-high 21 points) assisted on Sykora's two goals and Satan's second of the game and eighth this season - half as many as he scored with the Islanders last season.
Thrashers 4, Islanders 3 - Slava Kozlov scored twice and Tobias Enstrom had the deciding goal with 8:31 remaining to help host Atlanta beat New York.
Earning consecutive wins for the first time since last Feb. 15 at New Jersey, Atlanta has just 24 points in its last 35 games.
The Thrashers, with only 10 points in 13 games this season, began the night as the worst team in the Eastern Conference, but the victory moved them a point ahead of the Islanders.
New York, coming off consecutive victories, failed to hold a 3-1 lead that Frans Nielsen and Trent Hunter provided with a pair of goals in a 17-second span midway through the second period.
Capitals 3, Hurricanes 2 - Alexander Semin scored twice in the final three minutes, getting the winning goal with 10.9 seconds left, to rally Washington past visiting Carolina.
The Capitals trailed, 2-1, before Semin scored from close range with 2:43 to go. Then, with time running out, he ended a rush toward the net by beating Cam Ward with a wrist shot from inside the right circle.
Semin has 10 goals in 12 games, which has enabled the Capitals to withstand an unusual scoring drought by Alex Ovechkin.
The reigning NHL scoring champion and MVP, Ovechkin was held without a goal for a career-high eighth consecutive game.
Senators 4, Flyers 1 - Dany Heatley scored for the fifth straight game and Jesse Winchester had his first NHL goal to lead host Ottawa over Philadelphia.
Alex Auld stopped 17 shots and Anton Volchenkov and Chris Neil also scored for Ottawa, which won its second straight home game. Auld, making his seventh straight start, improved to 5-2-1 in eight appearances overall.
Flames 7, Predators 6 - Jarome Iginla had two power-play goals and Craig Conroy also scored twice to help host Calgary take a four-goal lead en route to a victory over Nashville.
Cory Sarich, Rene Bourque and Daymond Langkow scored, and Miikka Kiprusoff made 23 saves for the Flames.
Wild 3, Avalanche 1 - Niklas Backstrom made 35 saves and Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Benoit Pouliot, and Andrew Brunette scored in visiting Minnesota's victory over Colorado.
Marek Zidlicky had two assists for the Wild. Darcy Tucker had Colorado's only goal and Peter Budaj made 17 saves. The Avalanche have lost five straight.


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Perry-Lecompton team on 'High Q' broadcast
Students from Perry-Lecompton High School will match wits with students from Wichita in a televised knowledge contest.
The Perry-Lecompton team will battle students from the Independent School in Wichita at 4:30 p.m. today on WIBW-TV, Sunflower Broadband Channel 13. The broadcast of the "High Q" competition will be replayed at noon Sunday on KTWU, Channel 11.
The Perry-Lecompton team members are Aimee Varner, Grantville senior; Jonathon Varner, Grantville sophomore; Ben Bowman, Perry senior; Adam O'Trimble, Perry sophomore; and Allegra Fisher, Perry sophomore.
Independent and Perry-Lecompton are among the top 16 teams that competed in the Super Saturday High Q event in December at Washburn University.
Single-elimination competitions among the 16 schools will air throughout the spring, with a champion named May 14.
Other schools participating in televised head-to-heat contests include Lawrence High School, Free State High School and Leavenworth High School.
KU announces recent ROTC graduates
Kansas University has announced the 14 KU graduates who were commissioned as armed forces officers during ceremonies last month. The students were involved in ROTC programs at KU.
The students, hometowns and military branch are: Troy Gilmore, Arkansas City, Air Force; Eric Holbrooks, Arkansas City, Army; Larry Morgan, Shawnee, Navy; Christopher Myer, Leavenworth, Army; Scott South, Paola, Navy; Jacob Vrbas, Atwood, Navy; Patrick Godinez, Wichita, Air Force; Nevon Burney, Tecumseh, Navy; Brian Konie, Jensen Beach, Fla., Marines; Matthew Berger, Lake Zurich, Ill., Navy; Daniel Bond, Florissant, Mo., Navy; Keith Knoesel, St. Louis, Air Force; Brian Gordon, Palmyra, Pa., Navy; Frank Orsino, Virginia Beach, Va., Navy.
Red Cross offers free CPR training
In celebration of National Red Cross Month in March, the American Red Cross of Douglas County will sponsor free CPR training to help residents prevent and prepare for emergencies.
Douglas County residents can learn CPR techniques at the event from certified Red Cross instructors and upon completion will receive an American Red Cross certification for Adult CPR.
The clinic will be Feb. 28 at Free State High School. Registration begins at 8 a.m., and training is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Call 843-3550 to pre-register.
Copyright 2017 The Lawrence Journal-World. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. We strive to uphold our values for every story published.


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Focus / Spinning Stories, Spinning Wheels
Yesterday's assassination of Raed Karmi is all about the difference between "last" and "final." It was only the last link, and not the final one, in a long chain of events that began with Tul Karm dentist Thabet Thabet's orders more than a year ago to start shooting.
Yesterday's assassination of Raed Karmi is all about the difference between "last" and "final." It was only the last link, and not the final one, in a long chain of events that began with Tul Karm dentist Thabet Thabet's orders more than a year ago to start shooting. It continued with fatal attacks in which Karmi either actually took part in or was involved as a commander - until the killing of Karmi - and on to the next link, the retaliatory attack for his death on the Haruv patrol near the Kuchin junction last night.
The assassination was primarily a matter of exploiting an intelligence and operational opportunity to strike at him (and only him). Only a little less than that it was a political opportunity that appeared when U.S. peace envoy Anthony Zinni postponed his return to the region. This is until after the cabinet conducts its strategic assessment of relations with the Palestinian Authority, and Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz makes his trip to Washington immediately afterward.
If no houses are demolished until then in the territories, it won't be because any order to cease demolishing houses has come out of the meeting between the prime minister and the foreign and defense ministers. In Benjamin Ben-Eliezer's office they deny there was any decision to issue such an order. In IDF general headquarters no such order was received - and in any case no such order went out to the Southern Command and the Gaza division.
One of Ben-Eliezer's aides wondered aloud in a conversation with a senior officer why the IDF insisted on destroying so many buildings in a large-scale operation instead of one by one when nobody was looking. The partial answer is that such an operation, if it is to be done without IDF casualties, requires a large concentration of tanks and engineering equipment.
Another answer is that the army has grown used to such operations not raising any ruckus. This was approximately the 16th such operation in the last six months, in an area of military installations along the Israeli-Egyptian border. Buildings used for hostile activity were already demolished back in October 2000, after a pair of apartment buildings, known locally as the "Twin Towers" (before the September 11 attacks in America) were taken down because they gave Palestinian gunmen a controlling view of the Netzarim junction outpost.
In all previous cases, the residents were evacuated, either weeks and months before or close to the date of the demolition. Only this time did it turn into a scandal, and not because of the weather.
Experts in international law at the defense ministry have been telling the commanders, both political and military, that in this case the talk about "war crimes" is nonsense, because there was no eviction of local residents in order to take their place with Israelis or to change the demography. International law allows a military commander to order buildings demolished if it is for purely military reasons, and in that area, because of all the shooting, there were military reasons. Furthermore, the existence of tunnels used to smuggle arms in the area require a 300 meter strip along the road, to make it difficult to dig such tunnels and easy to discover them.
The approval for the operation went through all the ranks, including the political ranks. Those who gave the order can obviously also rescind it, but the generals got the public message and will refrain, at least in the coming days, from demolitions - unless there's an absolute need to take action. That's a confession only of a clumsy operation, inured to the propaganda advantage it gave the other side, which was desperate to change the subject from Palestinian behavior (Karine A weapons ship) to Israeli behavior (house demolitions).
So while Karim's death was part of a long-spinning wheel from which what comes around goes around, the house demolitions turned into a Palestinian spin on a story that began with Israel's spin on the weapons ship saga.
The IDF was still checking yesterday with all the soldiers who took part in the operation, asking them all if anyone saw any residents fleeing the houses as the bulldozers rolled in. They may not have reached the last of the soldiers, but so far, there's no reason for Southern Command Maj. Gen. Doron Almog and Brig. Gen. Yisrael Ziv to eat their red berets.
While the war against the smuggling along the Philadelphia line in the area adds up to about half the incidents in the area, it's still the side show, the territorial parallel to the naval efforts against ships like the Santori and the Karine A.
The real campaign is characterized by "pinpoint prevention" and in that campaign, GHQ and Ben-Eliezer refuse to count any days of quiet or to confirm that Karmi's killing broke, and was meant to break, the relative quiet. Karmi routinely managed to escape the Shin Bet, the Border Patrol's Anti-Terror units, and the IDF, even when the paratroopers took over a neighborhood in Tul Karm last October. After the siege of the city was lifted, as in other cities in the territories, as a way to ease conditions for the Palestinians and to assist Zinni in his efforts, the risk of new attacks began to rise.
Last night in the defense establishment, without officially admitting they were responsible for Karmi's death, they were saying he was recently working on a new infrastructure for attacks and "the clock was ticking." Karmi was considered unusually adept, both in life and death.
Presumably, those who made the decision to hit him knew that the reaction to his assassination would be quick and costly, since killing a suicide bomber only prevents that single attack, but killing their commander not only encourages the suicide bomber but also others to take revenge. Those of a conspiratorial bent will say that's exactly why he was assassinated. A simpler, more accurate explanation is that lacking any other way to do it - and in recent weeks the security forces have acted quietly, with arrests, not assassinations, to avoid provoking the other side - the noisy way was the only way to prevent Karmi from eluding his captors once again.
Since Arafat's cease-fire speech, a month ago tomorrow, Arafat has demonstrated impressive control over the field, without needing to use massive force against rebellious forces. In the IDF, where they believe he has absolute control in the territories, as opposed to the Shin Bet where they say he does not, they say Arafat has woven webs of agreement with the various elements and they - even if some disagree with him - prefer not to tear the web lest it ends up wrapped around their necks.
Arafat's interpretation of Palestinian national interests nowadays was accepted as requiring a lull, even though, say Israeli security officials, it is nothing more than a thin skin above a boiling lava core. Information about plans and preparations for attacks forces the security services and through them the political leadership to take action to prevent attacks now, even if the future price is expensive.
It's a matter of responsibility, and the criticism swings between two poles, as can be remembered from the case of the death of Madhat Yusuf in Joseph's tomb in Nablus. Presumably one can guess what would have been said about demolishing buildings in that town on the way to rescuing him, and what will be said the next time if an Israeli casualty lies bleeding to death and his rescue is delayed because of the need to bypass local homes.
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Contact: Press Office (202) 226-9440
Committee Reviews State and Local Efforts to Improve Teacher Effectiveness
WASHINGTON, D.C. | July 27, 2011
The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce today held a hearing to examine state and local initiatives to improve teacher effectiveness. During the hearing, entitled "Education Reforms: Exploring Teacher Quality Initiatives," education leaders from Colorado, Tennessee, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. discussed the importance of attracting and maintaining quality teachers in the nation's classrooms.
John Kline
(R-MN) expressed concerns about teacher quality policies under current law. He stated, "Valuing credentials and tenure over student outcomes is completely unacceptable. Every student deserves to be inspired and challenged by an outstanding educator, not one who has lost interest in helping students succeed and is protected by rigid teacher tenure rules. As we work to reform the nation's education system, the committee will support state and local efforts to recruit and maintain more effective teachers in the nation's classrooms."
In prepared remarks, National Council on Teacher Quality president
Kate Walsh
said, "No education improvement strategy states and districts take on – and it is at the state and district level where nearly all teacher policy plays out – is likely to have a greater impact than one which seeks to maximize teacher performance. Improving teacher quality must be the centerpiece of any serious school reform effort… the policy context set by Congress and states is of central importance to ensuring that our nation's students are exposed to the most well-trained, knowledgeable, and effective teachers possible."
Tennessee Commissioner of Education
Kevin Huffman
discussed a new statewide teacher evaluation system scheduled to go into effect in the upcoming school year. Mr. Huffman hopes the system will provide constructive feedback for teachers, while also offering an outlet to identify and share effective teaching methods.
Mr. Huffman also explained Tennessee's efforts to improve teacher tenure practices: "Previously, teachers were granted tenure after three years, and virtually every teacher got it. It was a virtual rubber stamp. Moving forward, teachers are eligible for tenure after a minimum of five years and only if they score a four or a five on the evaluation for their most recent two years of teaching. Additionally, teachers who gain tenure under the new system will lose their tenure if they are rated a one or a two for two consecutive years." Mr. Huffman added, "I believe this legislation will be groundbreaking for Tennessee over the coming decades. If there is any place for tenure in K-12 education, it must be tied to teacher effectiveness, not just initially but in an ongoing way."
Denver Public Schools Superintendent
Thomas Boasberg
offered committee members an overview of Denver's innovative Leading Effective Academic Practice (LEAP) system, which is designed to evaluate and reward the best educators. Mr. Boasberg said, "LEAP is the number one priority of the district because having a great teacher in every classroom is the most important thing driving student achievement and helping close the achievement gap." Encouraging great teachers and engaged students, Mr. Boasberg concluded, will "create a much stronger economic and civic future."
"I am heartened by what we've heard here today. I think you are making fantastic progress," Chairman Kline said in his closing remarks. "We are going to continue to grapple with our role, with Washington's role in what you're doing. I can tell you that as a very minimum, we want you to be able to continue with what you're doing, with the successes that we've seen."
To read witness testimony, opening statements, or watch an archived webcast of the hearing, visit
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text: City Services Working Group * 1. Will you be joining the City Services Working Group? Yes No * 2. Working Group Breakfast Meeting: Our first meeting will be Friday, Nov. 15, from 7:00-8:00am (PST) during NLC's Congress of Cities conference in Seattle. Will you attend? Yes No * 3. Please list any dietary restrictions below. * 4. What is your name? * 5. What is your title? * 6. What is your email address? * 7. What is your phone number? Done


text: Whoa! Interesting! I guess they are trying to clean house and get rid of inactive affiliates. I know a lot of merchants on CJ do this but I've never seen a large standalone network do this. Well at least it's not like Clickbank where you get charged if you don't make sales. At least they used to do that.


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0:00 Introductions, Review AgendaSaturday (a three-hour session with each group)
0:15 Overview of the Internet
0:30 Small group discussions and preparation of public postings on:
- What are the problems to be solved and the improvements to be made in mathematics teacher education?
- How might the Internet address these?
0:50 Configure the web browsers. Introduce workshop web page. Explain URL.
1:10 Introduce mailing lists, newsgroups, and using the browser to read, reply, and post.
1:25 Post group reflections on opening questions (see above) to NCTM-L and read math discussion groups.
1:50 Introduce the Web and browser functions. Explain use of bookmarks. Present starting points for exploration:
2:45 Finish explorations and building of bookmark lists. Check mail and discussion groups for replies to postings. Prepare for tomorrow's posting of the first exploration results.
- Math Forum Teachers' Place (selected links)
- Math Forum Internet Mathematics Resource Collection (full database)
- Forum's Math Education section (selected links)
- Math Education section of Forum's Internet Resource Collection (full list)
0:00 Read and reply to mail and newsgroup postings
0:30 Post findings and comments from the previous day's search. Steve collected some bookmarks to items not yet in our collection.
1:00 Discuss strategies for finding resources and return to explorations.
2:00 Group discussion of where we go from here.
2:30 Post final reflections on the usefulness of what was found and plans for use of the Internet. Fill out feedback form.
[Privacy Policy] [Terms of Use]
Home || The Math Library || Quick Reference || Search || Help


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Vargas looks to rebound, Baker, build, in opener
By Alden Gonzalez / MLB.com
After being rained out in Boston on Tuesday, and taking part in a doubleheader Wednesday, Seattle is headed to the friendly confines of a retractable-roof stadium for the start of a 10-game homestand on Friday -- one that begins with a three-game weekend series against the American League Central's first-place Twins.
After losing two of three in Boston before Thursday's day off, the Mariners will start the tilt with Jason Vargas on the hill. Vargas will look to recover from his worst outing of the year, in which he yielded a season-high seven runs in 6 1/3 innings against the Yankees.
The Mariners are 3-4 against Minnesota this season, but their series-opening starter has had better results. In his only career start against the Twins on June 1, the 27-year-old lefty gave up just one run in seven innings to earn the win.
With the Mariners coming off their longest road trip since 2004 -- four cities and 12 games -- they'll need Vargas to revert to the June 1 performance, not the one who took the hill against the Yankees on Saturday.
"I thought it was a bit of a rough start, but after the first inning, he was really good," Mariners interim manager Daren Brown said after that game. "Between the first and seventh innings, he was throwing as well as I've seen him throw."
The Twins beat Texas on Thursday night to avoid a four-game series sweep in Arlington.
Now they'll hand the ball to Scott Baker, who was lights out against the Angels last Sunday, hurling seven shutout innings while giving up five hits, walking two and striking out four.
Since the All-Star break, Baker has shined, going 4-1 with a 4.01 ERA in seven starts.
"In his last outing, he was in command, was ahead in the count," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Pitched effectively out of the zone too. That's where he pitches the best -- when he's able to get ahead and get guys to chase with that fastball up and breaking ball out. That's what he does best."
Twins: Looking for Emerald City revenge
In late May and early June, the last time the Twins were in Seattle, Minnesota dropped three of four to the Mariners and only scored three runs in the final three games -- all losses. ... For his career, Baker is 2-3 with a 4.66 ERA in eight starts against Seattle.
Mariners: Branyan finally goes deep at Fenway
Scratch another one off Russell Branyan's list. With a seventh-inning homer off Josh Beckett in the Mariners' 5-3 loss to the Red Sox on Wednesday afternoon, Branyan has now gone deep in 36 of the 39 ballparks he's played in. The 34-year-old lefty hitter had gone 16 games (15 starts) without going deep in Boston before the long ball. The home run was the 20th of the season for Branyan.
Worth noting
The Twins claimed left-hander Randy Flores off waivers from the Rockies on Wednesday. They still have to make a corresponding move to make room on the 25-man roster. ... Mariners utility man Matt Tuiasosopo's three hits in Wednesday's nightcap were a career high.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Tron Legacy Gem Costume
For this Tron Legacy Gem costume, you'll need a couple of essential things in order to pull off the look. If you plan on putting this costume together yourself, then you'll need to wear a white full body suit and decorate it accordingly. Notice how on Gem's costume, there are some areas that are grey, so keep those in mind as you decorate. Also, if you don't already have long blonde hair, then you'll need to get a long blonde wig and tie it up into a double bun on the top of your head. Make sure that it stands upright on your head and not too far back. You can wear any white boots that you might have lying around–flat or heeled.


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Around 2:30 AM Saturday, 24 year old Jonathan Ferrell approached the nearest house and started knocking on the door "viciously". Ferrell had wrecked approximately .5 miles down the road and stopped at the nearest house to ask for help. The woman at home approached the door, expecting her husband to be returning home from work. When she saw Ferrell, the woman panicked and called police.
When the police arrived on the scene, Ferrell ran toward them, presumably to tell them what had happened. The police officers told Ferrell to stop, and when he did not, one officer fired a taser toward Ferrell and missed. Cue Randall Kerrick. Upon his fellow officer's failure to bring down the suspect, police officer Randall Kerrick decided now would be a good time to become a hero and fire 12 bullets at Ferrell - 10 of which struck home. Ferrell was pronounced dead at the scene.
It took a total of 19 hours for police to investigate and hand down a sentence. Kerrick has been charged with voluntary manslaughter. Lance LaRusso, a current attorney and former police officer, says that the quick turnaround for the sentencing of a police officer is unusual: "There are a couple of reasons why police take their time. First of all, it takes time to develop things like the toxicology report to determine what happened. You have to wait until daylight to reconstruct the crime scene. You have to interview all the people involved. And the officer is given the opportunity to decompress before making a statement."
However, Charlotte police say that there is good reason for the quick sentencing: "The fact that Officer Kerrick discharged his weapon and that Mr. Ferrell was unarmed were some of the factors included in the decision to charge Officer Kerrick with voluntary manslaughter." The Charlotte-Mecklenberg Police Department also released a statement in which they stated "The shooting of Mr. Ferrell was excessive. Our investigation has shown that Officer Kerrick did not have a lawful right to discharge his weapon during this encounter."
Despite their apparent cooperation and expediency in regards to giving Kerrick his just due, the NAACP and Ferrell's attorney, Chris Chestnut, believe that the only reason for such diligence is due to the recent events surrounding Trayvon Martin: "Trayvon Martin was a recipe for what not to do," stated Chestnut.
Chestnut and the NAACP also believe that the events transpired because of the inherent racism which still exists in the United States."Any day in this country, an African-American man can be killed for no reason by the people who are supposed to be protecting him. That's not an anomaly in this country. They're never given the benefit of the doubt, and that has to change," stated the Charlotte chapter of the NAACP. Chestnut also released his own statement concerning the issue of race in this case: "The officer is white, Mr. Ferrell is black. This might be more of a reflection of where we are as a country."
Racism has seemed to be a hot-button issue this year, which is ironic considering this is the 50th anniversary of MLK Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. First, we had the issue concerning Trayvon Martin. We then had the issue in which Riley Cooper made some racist statements at a concert. This weekend, we had the controversy surrounding Miss America being of Indian descent. And now this atrocity. Now seems to be the time for us to all sit down and have a national discussion concerning race, but America still seems to believe that race isn't an issue. However, we all know that the only colorblind person is Stephen Colbert.
Image via YouTube


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Machine Safety: Has China caught the machine safety bug?
Rising costs of labor are fueling an increase in adopting automation in manufacturing to lessen the hiring of permanent employees, according to Control Engineering China. Does this focus on machine automation include safety automation?
According to Control Engineering China, rising costs of labor are fueling an increase in adopting automation in manufacturing to lessen the hiring of permanent employees. Does this focus on machine automation include safety automation?
In 2011 I spent a week in China conducting machine safety seminars and visiting several machinery manufacturers. The majority of their interest was to understand the scalable solutions for machine guarding and safety automation along with the compliance requirements for exporting machinery to the USA. The days were long. Everyone had lots of questions. Their interest was hard to anticipate in Microsoft Powerpoint presentations, so meetings frequently included standing at a white board and drawing pictures and flow diagrams. These tools, given the language barrier, helped significantly with audience comprehension.
Even with such strong thirst for knowledge there did not appear to be much interest in domestic machine safety applications. When we toured the manufacturing floor, we saw very high tech machinery and control systems on the machines being built for sale but the factory itself lacked similar automation.
In the June issue of Control Engineering Henry Qiao, editor, Control Engineering China, has an article titled, Labor supply, demand bring changes to China manufacturing industries.
Mr. Qiao discusses and provides examples where factories are investing in machine automation and installations of robotics for repetitive and high-strength work.
Does this mean that China has also caught the Machine Safety bug? I know of examples where China has recently developed domestic standards in metal forming machinery. Additionally, a working group committee updating IEC 60204-1, Safety of machinery – Electrical equipment of machines currently includes 4 to 7 attendees at committee meetings from China. Perhaps this points to an emerging paradigm shift in machine safety in China, and we're about to witness its expansion and growth?
Your comments or suggestion are always welcome so please let us know your thoughts. Submit your ideas, experiences, and challenges on this subject in the comments section below.
Related articles:
Labor supply, demand bring changes to China manufacturing industries
Contact: www.jbtitus.com for "Solutions for Machine Safety".
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Annual Salary Survey
Before the calendar turned, 2016 already had the makings of a pivotal year for manufacturing, and for the world.
There were the big events for the year, including the United States as Partner Country at Hannover Messe in April and the 2016 International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago in September. There's also the matter of the U.S. presidential elections in November, which promise to shape policy in manufacturing for years to come.
But the year started with global economic turmoil, as a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing triggered a worldwide stock hiccup that sent values plummeting. The continued plunge in world oil prices has resulted in a slowdown in exploration and, by extension, the manufacture of exploration equipment.
Read more: 2015 Salary Survey


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The Twin Cities housing market posted more signs of health in January.
Completed home sales jumped 11 percent from the same month a year ago and the median home price hit $160,000, up 14 percent over the year.
Low-priced foreclosures and short sales continue to play an oversize role but their role is diminishing. They accounted for a third of all new listings last month, down from just under half a year before. That is helping to boost the median sales price.
In January 2012, those distressed properties accounted for 55 percent of completed home sales. Last month, they made up about 43 percent of sales. Augsburg economist Jeanne Boeh said that's too much.
"It's still around 40 percent and it should be around 5 to 10," Boeh said. "We have a long way to go. We need more traditional sales."
Boeh said too many potential sellers of traditional, non-distressed properties are sitting on the sidelines. She said they want prices to climb higher before they list their homes.
The supply of homes for sale is at a 10 year low, suggesting a seller's market.


text: DANK HONOURED AT ECLIPSE AWARDS DANSILI's daughter Dank was awarded Champion Turf Female at the Eclipse Awards on Saturday (18th January). All three horses in the shortlist for the title were by Juddmonte stallions - the other two being Mizdirection (MIZZEN MAST) and the sadly ill-fated Laughing (DANSILI).Taken from European Bloodstock News, 20th January 2014:The Sir Michael Stoute-trained Dank, excellently handled by him for owner James Wigan, scooped the award for Champion Turf Female at the 43rd annual Eclipse Awards, which were held at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida, on Saturday evening.The daughter of DANSILI, now just turned five, travelled to Arlington Park in August and ran away with the Gr.1 Beverly D Stakes, landing the $436,500 first prize by four and a quarter lengths, and returned Stateside two and a half months later to contest the Gr.1 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf, which she won by a cosy half length and took her earnings to more than £1m. They were among the filly's four wins from five outings in 2013 and she is likely to reappear soon in Dubai.She earned 229 of the votes in her category, with eight each for Mizdirection (MIZZEN MAST) and Laughing, also a daughter of DANSILI, who died on 6th January.Dank was bred under Wigan's London Thoroughbred Services banner and is the third top-flight winner for her dam, the winning Darshaan mare Masskana, following the Selkirk filly Sulk and Rock Of Gibraltar's son Eagle Mountain. Date: 20 January 2014


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Real estate agents and brokers have a lot going on: They're juggling listings, potential buyers, sellers and transactions.
Agbox, a new iPad app, promises to give real estate professionals one place to organize all of that.
The $40 tool, released on June 10, lets you manage a database of properties, compile professional contacts and track negotiations. It also integrates the iPad's built-in calendar and features a way to show your listings prospective buyers and renters.
Likes: You can add pictures to a listing, tag it on a map and input a lot of information about a property, such as price, amenities and location. Having all of the data relating to a listing's progress and your clients in one place seems like a boon, too.
Dislikes: Some minor issues prevent it from being an agent's killer app, especially with its big pricetag. While Agbox works in the vertical portrait mode, it's clearly designed to be displayed horizontally — some text fields appear squished and you can't see the settings menu when the display isn't in landscape mode.
Also, in my experience: It took about eight hours to process and send a listing I emailed from the app. Add in some random freezing (Agbox hung up three times within the first 15 minutes I used it) and it becomes hard to justify the app's steep price.
Another weakness: All listings must be hand-inputted, which is time-consuming and tedious. Agbox does let you import listings from a service called "MapIt." But if you don't use that particular tool, you're stuck using pull-down menus and typing in property descriptions for places you already have listed somewhere else.
In the end, it's a shiny, good-looking app built for a shiny, good-looking device. It's more of a showpiece than a functional tool. However, if the app's developers fix the bugs and add some features, such as allowing you to import listings, it could be worth the purchase.
But Agbox is far from a must-buy right now.
Reach reporter Nick Myers at email@example.com or 619-293-1244. You can also follow him on Twitter @nicholasdmyersCopyright © 2017, The San Diego Union-Tribune


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Tyler military veterans will remember their brothers and sisters who are either a prisoner of war or are missing in action on National POW/MIA Recognition Day on Friday.
From 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday at Broadway Square Mall in Tyler, there will be a Missing Man Table, as it is known in the U.S. military, set up near the Sears store entrance, said Bob Perry of the Korean War Veterans Association.
On Friday, ceremonies will be held across the country to commemorate the sacrifices of the missing servicemen and their families. National POW/MIA Recognition Day is held on the third Friday in September.
Set for four, the missing personnel from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force are represented at the table, according to information from the Department of Defense website. The round table shows everlasting concern and the table cloth is white, symbolizing the purity of the servicemen's motives when answering the call for duty.
A single red rose is displayed in a vase as a reminder of the life of each of the missing, their loved ones and friends who keep the faith while searching for answers, according to the website. The vase is tied with a red ribbon symbolizing the continued determination to account for them. A slice of lemon is reminder of the bitter fate of those captured and missing in a foreign land and the salt symbolizes the tears shed by those missing and their families who long for answers to end years of uncertainty, the website stated.
The lighted candle reflects hope for their return to their families and our nation, the inverted glass symbolizes the servicemen's inability to share a toast, and the chairs are empty because they are missing.


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Check out Carnac-Style RFID Prognosticator Robot by mydigitalhome a short 6 second film for the Adafruit #adafruit6secs electronic film festival (Youtube playlist here for all the entries on YouTube).
Featured Adafruit Products
PN532 NFC/RFID controller breakout board – v1.3 – The PN532 is the most popular NFC chip, and is what is embedded in pretty much every phone or device that does NFC. It can pretty much do it all, such as read and write to tags and cards, communicate with phones (say for payment processing), and 'act' like a NFC tag. If you want to do any sort of embedded NFC work, this is the chip you'll want to use! (read more)
Check out all the Circuit Playground Episodes! Our new kid's show and subscribe!
Have an amazing project to share? Join the SHOW-AND-TELL every Wednesday night at 7:30pm ET on Google+ Hangouts.
Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!
Learn resistor values with Mho's Resistance or get the best electronics calculator for engineers "Circuit Playground" – Adafruit's Apps!
Maker Business — TechShop is closed, files bankruptcy
Wearables — Don't shy away from intricacy
Electronics — Are you grounded?
Biohacking — Learning to See with Sound
1 Comment
Other details are posted at http://21stdigitalhome.blogspot.com/2013/04/carnac-style-robot-for-adafruit-6.html
And the project was also on Show and Tell at http://21stdigitalhome.blogspot.com/2013/05/adafruit-show-tell-demo-on-may-4th.html
Thanks for letting me show the project!
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.


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Don't miss a story. Like us on Facebook. Like Dallas News' Facebook Page
From the Denton Record-Chronicle:
Tessa Butler, 27, was killed during a head-on collision late Sunday on Sherman Drive in northeast Denton.
According to Denton police spokesman Ryan Grelle, a pickup driven by 21-year-old Hector Soto of Garland headed south on Sherman Drive and collided head-on with a four-door Mazda just north of Long Road north of Loop 288. The first call came in at 11 p.m., Grelle said.
According to police, the driver of the pickup crossed the center line to pass other vehicles going south when it collided with the Mazda head-on. The female passenger of the Mazda was killed instantly, police said.
Both CareFlite and PHI were used last night to transport Soto and the driver of the Mazda, 49-year-old Roger Bryant of Denton, to the Medical Center of Plano. As of 9:30 a.m. Monday, both men were said to have non-life threatening injuries.
Firefighters reported one of the vehicles -- the pickup -- flew several yards following the collision, landing on a fence and catching on fire.
At some point during the collision, fire officials said the driver of the pickup was ejected from his vehicle before it erupted into flames.
Grelle said Denton police plan to file charges by the end of the week for intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault.


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A changing of the guard brought a sense of excitement and optimism to many of the fans gathered outside Wrigley Field on Tuesday morning, as Theo Epstein was officially introduced as the new president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs.
But those who spoke to NBC Chicago conceded that a turnaround for the team won't come overnight.
"I'm glad to hear the news about Theo coming over here. It's exciting. It's good for baseball. It's interesting -- to see if the guy can do it in two cities that haven't been able to do it in so long," said baseball fan Ed Schramm.
The Cubs haven't won a world series in more than a century. But as the youngest GM in Major League Baseball history, he restored one of the most storied franchises -- the Boston Red Sox -- to glory twice, in 2004 and in 2007, and lifting the Curse of the Bambino.
"It's going to take time, of course. You can't expect miracles. We just have to wait and see," said fan Patrick Hozjan.
Among the fans outside the Friendly Confines with hopes of meeting Epstein as he arrived for Tuesday's press conference was longtime Cubs fan and local celebrity Ronnie "Woo Woo" Wickers, who pierced the air with his signature song.
Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts said he hopes to host a fan forum, where fans can meet and share their thoughts with Epstein on changes that need to made to the organization.
|One-on-One With Epstein
|Ronnie "Woo Woo" Wickers Welcomes Epstein


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County emergency operations center is nerve center during blizzard
If you have no reason to be out, stay in.
That's the message from Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz who was hunkered down Tuesday afternoon in the Emergency Operations Center at the Erie County Fire Training Academy off Broadway in Cheektowaga.
"We're telling folks: if you don't need to be outside, don't go outside," he said.
"First off, the state of emergency still exists in Erie County. It is not a county-wide driving ban. Just a recommendation for no unnecessary travel county-wide," he added.
However many municipalities including Buffalo and Cheektowaga have issued driving bans.
They are being enforced.
Whiteout conditions were apparent in downtown Buffalo and throughout the length of Broadway midday today. Few cars were observed on the roads this morning. Those that were traveled at a snail's pace to cope with the near whiteout conditions.
The emergency operations center serves as the nerve center for the county during emergency situations. It's here where the county's officials, ranging from sheriff's deputies, State Police, members of the Department of Transportation and others coordinate their efforts. They reach out to emergency managers of municipalities and figure out how to get critical resources where they need to go.
Poloncarz called the blizzard "a serious situation and we're trying to address it as best we can. But when you're dealing with Mother Nature you've got to take your punches. This was not just a one-two punch, but a one-two-three punch."
email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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The annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha is just a week away, and tens of thousands of stockholders will soon flock to the city to bask in Warren Buffett's presence.
The "Woodstock of Capitalism" is a virtual circus, complete with an exhibition fair, multiple steak dinners, and a daylong jewelry sale featuring a magician and two-time U.S. chess champion.
If you're in Omaha for the weekend and need a break from the hoopla, check out our guide to Omaha's best restaurants, hotels, and activities, including some of Buffett's personal favorites.


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Soldier–Brazilian model Francisco Lachowski appears before Michelle Du Xuan posing for additional photos outside their recent L'Officiel Hommes China story. Styled by Benjamin Armand, Francisco puts on a stern face with pieces from the likes of Julius and Givenchy informing a dark outlook. / Makeup by Aya Fujita.
Hair by Miha Oshima.


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Karl Rove flip-flops on Nate Silver
Last year, Karl Rove sent out a blast email trumpeting Nate Silver's prediction that Republicans had a tossup chance of taking the Senate majority. "Even the Obama campaign's favorite number-cruncher, Nate Silver, admits this moves a GOP majority within reach," he wrote.
Since then, Silver's number-crunching has only further favored Rove's side. In March, he projected that Republicans "are now slight favorites to win at least six seats and capture the chamber."
And yet just when the news is getting good, Rove is calling Silver's whole methodology into doubt. On Wednesday, he tweeted a link to a National Journal column titled "Why I Don't Agree With Nate Silver: Number-crunching Senate prediction models are fun to follow but are not very useful."
Smart piece: may disagree w/ some specifics, but major point is correct. http://t.co/QnhshKLDpF
— Karl Rove (@KarlRove)
April 30, 2014
"Smart piece: may disagree w/ some specifics, but major point is correct," Rove wrote.
The major point is that the methodology behind Silver's projections is flawed: "Unlike baseball, where the sample size runs in the thousands of at-bats or innings pitched, these models overemphasize a handful of early polls at the expense of on-the-ground intelligence on candidate quality," National Journal's Josh Kraushaar writes. "As Silver might put it, there's a lot of noise to the signal."
That's something to keep in mind the next time Karl Rove sends you an email touting Nate Silver's Senate predictions. Then again, Rove was the guy who refused to call Ohio for Obama in 2012, even after Obama had won Ohio. So maybe you weren't reading the emails, anyway.


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Photographer's Note
تپه - کنار راه آهن - منطقه باغچه - بین مشهد و تربت حیدریه
Hello all ,
Thanks alot for watching ,
This is another foto from Nature with vegetables and
flowers in Spring season.
In returnig to our town I and family , spend about one
hour in this beautiful region .
Beside here , a Train was passing on the railway.
The Red Flowers are Tulips which grow every spring
after Rainfalls in this Region of Iran.
Nobody has marked this note useful
Critiques | Translate
No_One (4) 2014-02-06 9:05
Hi Omid,
This is a beautiful expansive place, and as I look at this, I get the urge to climb inside and go exploring on this hill. The red flowers are a very delicate color against the red earth. A fine spring shot, and a nice use of thirds in the composition too.
All the best
Miguel82 (27752) 2014-02-06 9:18
I think the rain falls recently in the sub desertic area Omid and no goats, sheeps or grazing animals came yet to eat that fresh green vegetation. So charming little red flowers, an argile red soil, the rock on the hill reminds me a dolmen. Bright hues, good sharpness, have a nice evening
pajaran (71598) 2014-02-06 9:38
Dobro vece.
Lep pogled na brdo sa zelenom travom i crvenim cvetovima ...
Dobar snimak i perspektiva, lepo pokazano mesto, lepe boje.
Prijatno vece i mirna noc, sve najbolje.
Good evening.
Nice view on hill with green grass and red flowers ...
Good shot and perspective, nice place indicated, beautiful colors.
Good evening and peaceful night, all the best.
jmdias (73433) 2014-02-10 15:43
despite the sharpness isn't perfect, I liked the composition with a big contrast between the greens and the ochre hues., nice vertical framing.
Photo Information
- Copyright: Omid Kamrani (omid266) (6760)
- Genre: Places
- Medium: Color
- Date Taken: 2012-02-22
- Categories: Nature
- Exposure: f/4, 1/640 seconds
- More Photo Info: view
- Photo Version: Original Version
- Date Submitted: 2014-02-06 7:25


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Using Scarcity to Find Value in 2013 Drafts
In some ways, I believe advanced fantasy football owners understand drafts better than NFL GMs. Yes, I said it. The primary reason is that pretty much every established fantasy owner has a keen sense of position scarcity; while NFL teams proclaim the value of continually (and blindly) selecting the highest-rated player, fantasy owners understand their board isn't the only factor in choosing the perfect team. In addition to sticking to their rankings and drafting for need (yes, need. . .gasp!), owners also weigh position depth - or scarcity - into their draft decisions.
There are a number of complex draft strategies that incorporate scarcity, most of them centered around how a player compares to a "typical" player at his position. The greater the difference and the fewer comparable players at the position, the greater the scarcity. And just like gold or any other tangible commodity, scarce things are valuable.
Using the 2012 "VBD" rankings at Pro Football Reference, I decided to compare how certain positions actually perform to how they're currently getting drafted. "VBD" is simply a comparison of actual fantasy points to a "baseline" player - the No. 12 quarterback, No. 24 running back, No. 30 wide receiver, and No. 12 tight end.
Adrian Peterson's 2012 VBD was 191 - by far the highest in the league - because he scored 191 more points than the No. 24-ranked running back, for example. Simple.
By studying 2012 results in this way, we can get a sense of how a draft "should" look. Had fantasy owners had perfect knowledge of how the 2012 season would unfold, draft results would have closely resembled the 2012 VBD rankings.
It's important to note that while the specific players in the rankings obviously change from year to year, the actual positions usually aren't that different. By studying 2012 VBD results by round and position, we can get a general sense of how 2013 will unfold.
• First Round: 7 RB, 3 QB, 2 WR, 0 TE
• Second Round: 6 WR, 4 RB, 2 QB, 0 TE (11 RB, 8 WR, 5 QB, 0 TE)
• Third Round: 5 WR, 4 RB, 2 QB, 1 TE (15 RB, 13 WR, 7 QB, 1 TE)
• Fourth Round: 5 WR, 4 RB, 3 TE, 0 QB (19 RB, 18 WR, 7 QB, 4 TE)
• Fifth Round: 4 QB, 4 WR, 3 RB, 1 TE (22 RB, 22 WR, 11 QB, 5 TE)
Of the 12 most valuable players in 2012, seven were running backs, three were quarterbacks, and two were wide receivers. That's pretty standard.
Now, if we compare those value-based rankings to current ADP, we should be able to see which positions are over and undervalued thus far in 2013. Below, I posted current draft results by round. The ADP results are simply an aggregate I compiled from a few different mock draft sites.
2013 Aggregate ADP
• First Round: 10 RB, 2 WR, 0 QB, 0 TE
Analysis: Based on current ADP, running backs are being over-drafted in the first round. We see names like Alfred Morris sneaking into the back of the round when perhaps they shouldn't. Meanwhile, not a single quarterback has a first-round ADP despite the fact that eight total quarterbacks finished in the top 12 in VBD over the past two seasons (five in 2011 and three in 2012).
When you factor in the incredible consistency of top-tier passers, it's really amazing Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees aren't getting drafted in the top 12 picks. You shouldn't bypass a truly elite running back in the top of the first round, but you might want to consider bypassing a running back in the back portion of the first round in favor of a signal-caller. That's made easier because you can come back with a runner to start the second.
• Second Round: 5 WR, 4 RB, 2 TE, 1 QB (14 RB, 7 WR, 2 TE, 1 QB)
Analysis: At this point, you can see the run on running backs has slowed down, with owners shifting their attention to wide receiver. The biggest gap between VBD and ADP is still at quarterback, however, so you should strongly consider one if you missed out in the first round. Drew Brees in the back of the second - where he's still getting selected in many leagues - would pair quite nicely with Arian Foster or Doug Martin.
• Third Round: 6 RB, 5 WR, 1 QB, 0 TE (20 RB, 12 WR, 2 TE, 2 QB)
Analysis: With owners desperate for running backs, the position is currently the most popular in the third round. We're hearing names like DeMarco Murray, Steven Jackson and David Wilson come off of the board before Victor Cruz, Roddy White, Andre Johnson and Michael Crabtree.
It's in this range that the ideal number of wide receivers based on VBD - 15 - surpasses the number being drafted. That equates to value for fantasy owners. You still have to snag at least one running back in one of the first three rounds, but the value relative to what is being selected is superior at quarterback and receiver. It's okay to come out of the first three rounds with just one running back, particularly if you pick early and can grab an elite player at the position.
• Fourth Round: 5 WR, 3 QB, 3 RB, 1 TE (23 RB, 17 WR, 5 QB, 3 TE)
Analysis: With the second-tier running backs off of the board, most fantasy owners are turning their attention to wide receiver in the fourth and fifth rounds. That might be the time to fade receivers and look to stockpile running backs. If you ended up finding value on backs in the first few rounds, you should consider jumping on a receiver in the fourth before an inevitable run in the fifth drains value.
Fifth Round: 8 WR, 2 QB, 1 RB, 1 TE (25 WR, 24 RB, 7 QB, 4 TE)
Analysis: With only four total running backs getting selected in the fourth and fifth rounds, VBD has nearly caught up with ADP. That means it could be smart to stockpile running backs if you went a different direction early on. If you landed an elite runner in the first, a quarterback in the second, and a wide receiver in the third, you could go running back-heavy in the fourth and fifth rounds to maximize your chances of hitting, giving you a lineup that looks something like Arian Foster, Demaryius Thomas, Drew Brees, Reggie Bush and Ryan Mathews. Money.
Jonathan Bales is the author of Fantasy Football for Smart People: How to Dominate Your Draft. He also runs the "Running the Numbers" blog at DallasCowboys.com and writes for the New York Times.


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Also Known As
- cliffski
Game Credits
|Democracy 3 (2013)
|(Game Design)
|Gratuitous Space Battles (2009)
|(Original Idea)
|Kudos 2 (2008)
|(Lead Game Designer)
|Oval Office: Commander in Chief (2008)
|Kudos: Rock Legend (2007)
|Starship Tycoon (2004)
|(Game Design)
|Democracy 3 (2013)
|Gratuitous Space Battles (2009)
|Kudos 2 (2008)
|(All Programming)
|Oval Office: Commander in Chief (2008)
|Democracy 2 (2007)
|(Everything else)
|Kudos: Rock Legend (2007)
|The Movies (Premiere Edition) (2005)
|(Senior Programmer)
|The Movies (2005)
|(Senior Programmers)
|Starship Tycoon (2004)
|(Lead Programmer)
|Kombat Kars (2001)
|(Lead Programmer)
|Rocky Racers (2000)
|(Lead Programmer)
|Starship Tycoon (2004)
|Kombat Kars (2001)
|Rocky Racers (2000)
|Regency Solitaire (2015)
|(Spacial Thanks)
|Depth (2014)
|(Special Thanks)
|Frozen Synapse: Prime (2014)
|(Thanks to)
|Spooky Bonus (2013)
|(Special Thanks)
|Fate of the World (2011)
|(Special Thanks to)
|Frozen Synapse (2011)
|(Thanks to...)
|Oval Office: Commander in Chief (2008)
|(Everything Else)
Developer Biography
Cliff Harris founded Positech Games, based in the United Kingdom, in 1997, while he was working as an IT support guy. In the meantime he used to work for Elixir Studios, but left before they went bust. After that he worked at Lionhead as an AI / Game coder for The Movies. When that game was finished, he left to work for himself full-time with Positech Games because he was fed up with the way companies were run.
At the start of 2006, Cliff worked for Maxis on a gameplay prototype for the Sims franchise. Cliff now develops indie games full time, including Democracy, Kudos, Kudos: Rock legend and recently, Democracy 2 and Gratuitous Space Battles.
Last updated: Jan 18, 2010
Cliff Harris
circa 2010
Related Sites
- Cliffski's Blog -- Personal blog
- Half a Million Seconds with Cliffski -- interview by Dejobaan on Mod DB (8th January 2010)


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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.
LEADERS: Azerane Bam BinkyBunny JerseyGirl LBJ10 LittlePuffyTail LongEaredLions RabbitPam
I tryed bonding Ryo and Alex again.
for those of you who forgot, i spent over 6 months trying to bond these. took about a 6 month break, and tryed again.
as soon as i put Alex down he ran up to Ryo and started fighting. Fur everywhere. by the time i got them broke up Ryo had to go get her neck glued up
so i did what is best for everyone and re homed Alex. it really did work out for the best. his new owners love him. we keep in contact through email. i hated that it had to come to this, but i cannot care for two rabbits that cannot be out together nearly as well as one. it was killing me to have my rabbits in cages rather than having the run of the house because they cannot be together. i live in a stuido apartment, and it wasnt possible to keep the seperated in diffrent rooms, since i only have one big room.
either way, i miss Alex, but he is happier too
I'm glad you were able to find a wonderful home for Alex. I know how rough it is to deal with rabbits that really don't want to bond. After a certain amount of time, it can just become too stressful for them and it's no good for everyone.
I can't remember how Ryo and Alex came together in the first place? I know with my two girls that don't get along, I did not bunny date them first as I was taking in Bailey because she had some major health issues that needed attention.
It took me 8 months for them to get along, but Bailey would always end up picking fights and being extremely bossy with Rucy, and it just started causing health issues with Rucy. After a year, I thought I'd try again, and Rucy was happy to try and bond with Bailey, but Bailey was havin' non of it, and as soon as I would turn my back she would chomp right into Rucy. So I finally just gave up and I am lucky to have the room to keep them separated.
Some bunnies are solo bunnies, while others are just picky about their mates. I don't know which one they were, but it sounds like it's better for everyone, and you made sure that Alex had loving owners. So many people just turn their rabbits into animal care and control where they would be at risk for euthanasia, so I give you big kudos for making sure your bunny was safe and loved!
Though it must be hard because you loved Alex, it must make you feel settled to know he's a great home, and you can get updates.


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Bob Wills Jr. cannot come to the phone. He is too sick to speak, his wife Elizabeth explains, the victim of a recent series of strokes that have left him incapacitated and near death. Through her lawyer, Elizabeth insists she will not leave his bedside--not to speak to a reporter, anyway, not to dredge up the painful memories and allegations one more time. Elizabeth Wills, who says she is a minister, does not want her husband to overhear her on the phone explaining one more time that, yes, Bob Wills Jr. is the bastard son of Bob Wills, the man known as the King of Western Swing.
Bob Wills Jr. is dying in California, clinging to the claims he has made since the mid-1970s--not long after Bob Wills died of pneumonia at his Fort Worth home, rendering him unable to dispute the man's claims. Junior has fronted his own western swing band called the Western Playboys, named after Bob Wills' Texas Playboys. To the outrage of the Wills clan, journalists from respectable newspapers have referred to him as the son of Bob Wills. Junior even had a role in the 1988 made-for-HBO film Baja Oklahoma, which starred Peter Coyote and Lesley Ann Warren and featured cameos from Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris as themselves.
Though the two men look nothing alike--Bob Wills Jr. is a hulking 6-foot-6 giant, while Bob Wills was a frail man who stood no taller than 5-foot-10--Junior played Bob Wills in the film. It was a brief part that lasted only a few seconds. It was a dream sequence.
Bob Wills Jr. claims to be the son of Bob Wills and a woman named Edna, which is the name of Wills' first wife. But Junior says he's illegitimate, born to Edna before Wills married her, which is why he's not mentioned in the history books or in Bob Wills' last will and testament. Only James Robert Wills is listed, the sole male child among Bob's six kids.
And those children want nothing to do with the man claiming to be Bob Wills Jr. They maintain he is a phony, an impostor, a fraud. For 20 years the Wills family has tried to disavow itself from Bob Wills Jr., discredit him, and keep him from abusing their father's good name. They thought they had once beaten Wills Jr., only to see his name appear in the Dallas Morning News last month--followed by the words, "whose father rose to international stardom in the '30s and '40s with his Western swing band, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys."
When Diane Malone, one of Wills' five daughters, saw the story, she literally became sick to her stomach. The family does not mind if someone wants to claim Bob Wills as an influence, but they are tired of this man desecrating their father's grave.
"It's kind of like when you know something isn't true, why even dignify this?" Malone says from her home in Alvarado, where she raises Arabian horses. "It's so stupid, and yet when it comes out in these newspapers like this it just drives you crazy. It's so preposterous I don't know how to say to what lengths."
Jeff Storie, the Fort Worth-based attorney for the Bob Wills estate, does not for a second believe that Bob Wills Jr. is the son of the man who wrote such immortal swing classics as "Take Me Back to Tulsa," "Faded Love," and "San Antonio Rose." For more than a decade, as the attorney for Betty Wills--Bob's fifth wife, who died in 1993--Storie has listened patiently to Junior's claim and asked only that he provide some conclusive proof that he's the son of the legendary fiddling bandleader.
Junior can provide none, only dozens of conflicting and confusing stories that serve to throw doubters off his trail. For years he maintained his mother was Edna Posey Wills, Bob Wills' first wife; now, through his lawyer, he says his mother was a different woman named Edna, who never married the legendary bandleader.
"I said, 'Look, verify it for me,'" Storie says. "We don't have a problem with him claiming the estate because he's not. The problem is the family legitimately doesn't feel he's Bob's son. It's not that they don't think Bob's capable of it, they just don't think it's him...
"I don't have conclusive genetic proof he's not the son of Bob Wills, but I also don't have proof you're not the son of Bob Wills."
One thing is certain: Bob Wills Jr. was not always Bob Wills Jr.
His real name, as he will readily admit, is Bobby Joe Thorne. In a Tarrant County domestic relations court in 1977, Thorne had his name changed to Bobby Wills; he explained it was for "professional entertainment reasons," according to court documents.
Two years later, in June 1979, he further changed his name to Bob Wills Jr. because, as his petition reads, Thorne "believes that he would be further advantaged by an additional change." Similarly, Thorne's wife Rafaela and son Bobby Joe also had their names changed, exchanging the "Thorne" for "Wills": Maria Rafaela Thorne became Maria R. Wills, and Bobby Joe Thorne became Bob Wills III. In December 1979, Bobby Joe Thorne/Bob Wills Jr. took two more children before the court and changed their names: Joseph Dewayne Thorne became Johnny Lee Wills, and Paula Kay Thorne turned into Valiza Ann Wills. It has so far been impossible to locate any of these family members in Dallas, Fort Worth, or Arlington--three of the cities in which Thorne has lived.
Bobby Joe Thorne has long maintained he was born in Donie, Texas--between Temple and Houston in Freestone County--in the mid-1920s. A recent article about him in a Los Angeles newspaper said he was 69 years old.
But Freestone County records indicate that the only Bobby Joe Thorne born in the county was birthed on October 6, 1938--to a woman named Edna Merle Cone, and a father named Joe Bailey Thorne. Records also indicate his name was spelled "Bobbie Joe Thorne," and that he was the first child born to Joe and Edna.
State records further reveal that Joe Bailey Thorne died on May 25, 1989, in neighboring Limestone County--in which Bob Wills was born in 1905, in the tiny town of Kosse--though there are no obituaries in Limestone or Freestone newspapers to reveal surviving family members. No death records could be found for Edna, though folks down in Donie say she died before Joe.
Moton Holt, Wills Jr.'s lawyer in California, says Edna Merle Cone is indeed the mother, but that his client was born in 1927 in a "private residence."
"And Edna did not marry Joe Bailey Thorne until January 1930," he says, relating information passed on by Elizabeth Wills.
One current Donie resident, who's 60 years old and asked that his name not be used, recalls knowing a guy named Bobby Joe Thorne who was a couple of years older--which meant he would have been born in the late 1920s. He recalls Bobby Joe as a "big, tall, strong man" who was around 6-foot-6, and bore a striking resemblance to Joe Bailey Thorne.
"I just figured Joe Thorne was his daddy," the man says. "He sho' was big and stout like his old daddy. He lived around here for a few years and he had, oh, I don't know, a little old swing band together and lived 'tween Donie and Buffalo in an old camper of some kind. Seemed like he did a little preachin'. I know that he had that old bus and had some kind of little ol' rag-tag band."
Bobby Joe Thorne was forced to change his name after Betty Wills found out he was billing himself as the son of Bob Wills. Through her lawyer at the time, she contacted Thorne--who was billing himself as Bob Wills Jr.--and told him to quit or else she would sue. On February 11, 1976--two days before he was to perform at the Round Up Inn in Fort Worth (on Friday the 13th, no less)--he signed a document in which he said he would cease making any references to Bob Wills or the Texas Playboys.
In the letter, Thorne told Betty Wills he had booked the engagement by claiming to be the son of Bob Wills, and that he had contacted several former Texas Playboys in hopes of having them perform with him, by informing them he was their old boss' son.
But, he promised Betty to avoid legal action, "I will make no further reference or inference that I am connected with Bob Wills or the Texas Playboys in any manner...and I will make no further reference, statement, or inference that Bob Wills of the Texas Playboys is my father, unless such fact be established by legal action."
Three years later, Thorne changed his name to Bob Wills Jr.
The man who says he is the son of the Father of Western Swing is bedridden in Los Angeles, the victim of a series of strokes that continue to weaken his already frail giant frame. He claims that were it not for his garden--a two-acre parcel of land overgrown with fruits and plants of all varieties--he'd likely be dead already.
At least, that is what he told the Los Angeles Daily News a couple of months ago, in a story written by general assignment writer Veronique de Turenne. The article was subsequently picked up off the wire by newspapers across the country--including the Austin American-Statesman and the Dallas Morning News.
The Statesman ran the story on June 6 on the cover of its Lifestyle section--followed the next day by a 367-word piece by writer Mike Kelley bearing the headline "Man who says he is Bob Wills Jr. may be King Con." In the story, Wills' daughter Rosetta, who lives in Austin, said she has a half-brother named James Robert Wills who goes by James, not Bob Jr.
De Turenne says she can't speak about the story because her newspaper has a policy forbidding employees from speaking to other journalists. But it is safe to say she regrets ever mentioning Bob Wills.
And yet, on June 26 the Morning News ran the Daily News piece verbatim, as did the Fort Worth Star-Telegram a week earlier--both pieces mentioning Wills Jr.'s alleged father, and with no reference to the doubts raised by the second Statesman article. The Wills family considers this a slap in the face because, after all, Bob Wills first recorded in Dallas in the '30s, his Ranch House (which later became the Longhorn Ballroom) is a Dallas music landmark, and he and wife Betty settled in Fort Worth before Bob's death.
His name is inextricably linked to both cities' musical heritage, and yet the newspapers in Dallas and Fort Worth both promulgated--without ever running a correction or clarification--the story told by Bob Wills Jr.
"It's a funny deal," Diane Malone says. "People want to believe this stuff sometimes, and people will listen to it whether it's true or not."
But Los Angeles newspapers have a long history of referring to Bob Wills Jr. as the son of the western swing bandleader: In 1985, the Los Angeles Times mentioned him as the grand marshal of a local parade, and on February 1, 1985, Times staff writer Andrew Revkin wrote a long piece about his getting a bit part in a film about Lyndon Johnson. In that story--headlined "Tall Texan Talk: Actor in LBJ movie casts long shadow over barbecue in Van Nuys"--Revkin listed Wills' resume with a sort of awe, referring to his "dizzying array of lives."
"He has been an auctioneer, a leader of a Texas swing band, a Golden Gloves champion boxer, a financier, an Army lieutenant colonel, a husband to nine wives and 23 children," Revkin wrote. "Wills' father was Bob Wills, the father of Texas Swing, a rollicking brand of Western music that combined the fiddle and twang of country music with the finesse and power of big-band jazz."
Revkin added, "He was raised, though, by the Thorne family, well-to-do bankers." The story then recounted Wills Jr.'s alleged career: He began performing in the Fort Worth Stockyards when he was 8 years old--"That night, he took home $4.75 out of the kitty collected at the door," Revkin wrote--and assembled his first band after World War II.
"I guess I played every cut-and-shoot in America at one time or another," Wills told the Times. Revkin wrote that Wills toured with "an entourage of family members and musicians that, at its peak in the 1950s, filled three buses." Revkin, though, was not alone in buying Thorne's story.
In June 1994, a magazine called Modern Screen's Country Music (based, of course, out of New York City) ran a story about Asleep at the Wheel's all-star tribute to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys; the album, which featured the likes of Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett, resurrected interest in Wills' music, and its release coincided with the release of a postage stamp commemorating the bandleader.
Next to the article on Wills was another on Bob Wills Jr., under the headline: "A Man for All Reasons: The Son of Country Legend Bob Wills Carves out His Own Territory. He's Quite a Character in His Own Right!" In the story, Wills Jr. claims he was raised in Fort Worth and introduced to music by his mother, who he says used to play in a band with Bob Wills in the 1930s. "She started singing and dancing with the famous Stamps Quartet," he says, "and was on radio by the time she was three years old. She did that until she married my father, Bob Wills Sr., at age 17. It was Dad's first marriage."
But when Edna Posey married Bob Wills--on August 21, 1926, in the tiny town of Canadian--she was 21 years old, as was her new husband. Less than three years later, on January 15, 1929, Bob and Edna Wills had their first child--a girl, Robbie Joe Wills. (Incidentally, though he divorced Edna Wills six years after Robbie Joe's birth and was not bound legally to provide child support, Bob continued to support Edna and Robbie Joe and eventually put his daughter through college at SMU.) At the time Robbie Joe was born, the couple was living in Turkey, Texas, now the site of the annual Bob Wills celebration.
There has never been any evidence to suggest that Edna performed with Bob, as Bob Wills Jr. insists; in fact, according to Wills biographer Charles Townsend, when Bob sued Edna for divorce in 1935, he complained that his wife had little interest in his then-successful musical career, which was burgeoning in Tulsa.
Townsend did, however, write in his landmark 1976 Wills bio San Antonio Rose that Bob was quite the womanizer during his rise to fame in the mid-1930s. The bandleader had trouble coping with his new-found success, Townsend wrote, and with the strain came a fondness for drink accompanied by a penchant for the ladies.
"Drinking was his main professional handicap and his worst enemy," Townsend wrote of Wills. "Judging by his own moral standards, however, drinking was not his greatest weakness during the Tulsa years. At least this was the opinion of his first wife. According to Edna Wills, 'there has always been women'; Bob had affairs with other women almost from the beginning of their married life, in West Texas, Fort Worth, Waco, and Tulsa."
But in the last will and testament of Bob Wills, written when he was married to Betty Lou Anderson Wills, the bandleader declared that the couple had four children: James Robert II, Carolyn, Diane, and Cindy. He also mentioned two children from previous marriages, Robbie Joe Wills Calhoun and Rosetta Wills Arnett (who was born in 1940 to Bob and his second wife, Mary Lou).
Then he tacked on the following disclaimer: "I declare that no other children have been born to or adopted by me."
In a two-page biography prepared by his Sepulveda, California-based publicist, Holly Williams, Bob Wills Jr. lays out a fairly exciting life of adventure and intrigue--one spent in the military, on television and in film, on stage in the footsteps of his legendary father. The bio paints him as a giant (referring to his "hulking 6'6" frame...and a 13D boot") and calls him "one of the freshest and most colorful western personalities to hit the television community in years," typical press-release hyperbole. It describes him as "a cross between John Wayne and Gene Autry," with a dash of Andy Devine's "comedic presence."
"The son of the celebrated Swing Era Bandleader, recognized as the Father of Western Swing, BOB WILLS JR.'s larger than life exploits should make rich movie material," reads the biography. "Born in Donie, Texas, a tiny hamlet in Freestone County, like the sons of many celebrated men, BOB JR. felt the need to make his own mark on the world and has pursued many paths to this end."
The bio chronicles a history spent as a professional boxer, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, a bandleader in Fort Worth, a candidate for a seat in the Senate, a bit-part actor in dozens of unknown films (Ben and Genoich and Caldonia DC, to name two). He claims to have been named the Entertainer of the Year in 1982 by something called the Hollywood Appreciation Society; a year earlier, he says he was elected by the National Federation of Music Clubs, another organization of dubious origin, as an Outstanding Composer.
He also claims to be a member of the Texas Music Hall of Fame, though such an entity doesn't exist. There is a tentative opening date for a Hall of Fame in Johnson City set for October, in something called the Feed Mill Complex, but various delays and insurance problems have held up the opening. Furthermore, Charles Trois, who is currently in charge of the items to be placed in the Hall of Fame, says he has never heard of Bob Wills Jr.
"I mean, I've heard of Bob Wills," Trois says.
For her part, publicist Holly Williams dismisses the Wills family's charges as "ridiculous," maintaining her client is the real deal.
"We go through this once every five years," she says. "The reason this comes up is because he's the illegitimate son of Bob Wills and an embarrassment to the family. It's the two sisters that are upset because they're not making money for this, and they want to make trouble. It's ridiculous. It's not like he owes them anything. He's the most generous man. His life is a story everybody wants to do, and for them to do this after family members pass away is ludicrous."
For a lawyer, Moton Holt does not build a convincing case for his client. When asked point-blank whether he believes his client is the son of Bob Wills, he does not say yes or no. He will only say that Wills Jr. believes it, which is good enough for him.
"And I'll tell ya what," Holt says, "he really believes it."
Holt first met Wills Jr. in the early 1980s, around the time Wills Jr. claims he was discharged from the Air Force. They were introduced at a place called the Cauliflower Alley Club in Hollywood, the kind of place that catered to former wrestlers and ex-boxers and anonymous actors who played in B-grade movies. It was, as Holt describes it, a social club for losers and never-weres--"a Damon Runyon kind of thing," he calls it, giving the group a certain kind of pathetic dignity.
Holt says he was introduced to Wills Jr. through Mike Mazurki, a character actor who had bit parts in such films as Some Like It Hot, Four For Texas, and the 1955 John Wayne high-seas epic Blood Alley. At the time, Wills Jr. was trying to tour California with a swing band called the Western Playboys, and attempting to establish his own career as a character actor.
Holt recalls he was skeptical of Wills Jr.'s claims of being the son of Bob Wills, primarily because the two men looked nothing alike. The only thing they have in common when it comes to appearance is the fact both have two eyes, two ears, a nose, and a mouth.
"I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, and Wills and Hank Williams were heroes of ours when I was a kid," Holt says. "I asked [Bob Jr.] about the lack of physical similarities, and he said around the eyes and around the facial features, they're the same. I never took out a magnifying glass to compare, but that was his answer. But if he didn't inherit his father's slimness, he didn't inherit his musical ability, either."
Still, Holt shrugs, he had "no reason to believe Bob one way or the other."
"I didn't think it was important," he says now. "But when I was in Hollywood, I met enough screwballs to be skeptical. I met one who said he was the illegitimate son of John Barrymore. Peter Lorre has one running around there says he's his son. Bob was the one person that really rang true...
"The guy really believes it. In those times I went along with it, not because of any retainer or monetary basis. For all practical purposes I thought Wills was tel-ling the truth, for whatever that mattered. If someone in his past led him through the primrose path, they did a good job of it."
Holt, for his part, has never seen his client's birth certificate be-cause, he says, Thorne told him all the records were destroyed in a Freestone County Court-house fire. (The only fire in the courthouse occurred in 1896.) Holt says Thorne changed his name to Bob Wills Jr. because Wills' legitimate sons--"Wills Jr.'s brothers," as Holt says--told him to. That way, if he was going to go around saying he was the son of Bob Wills, he wouldn't embarrass the family by having a different last name. The family didn't want a "hint of scandal," Holt says, and so Thorne had his name legally changed.
Problem is, Wills only had one son (that is, only one is listed in the will and history books): James Robert, who now lives in Tulsa. When asked if his client actually said his "brothers" told Thorne to change his name, Holt says, "It was definitely plural."
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He considers this for a second. "It might have been Bob Wills' brothers," he says after some hesitation. "Better to have said half-uncles."
It is likely no one will ever turn up proof proving Wills Jr. is or isn't who he claims to be; after all, it's almost impossible to prove a negative, reminds Jeff Storie. But Diane Malone and the rest of the Wills family, not to mention the surviving Texas Playboys, will never embrace Bob Wills Jr. as anything other than a liar.
"My father never wanted any one of us to be musicians," Malone says. "He raised us not to be musicians. He didn't like life on the road. It was hard, and he didn't want us to do it. My father's choice was not really to be a musician. He would have been a barber or a rancher, but he happened to be able to make money and raise a big family playing music."
"Really, I think it's sad for him [Wills Jr.] that he had to make himself feel good by being something he's not.


text: To save the euro without losing the presidential election in 2012. Facing an election next year, Mr. Sarkozy is under even more domestic pressure than his German counterpart. There are differences between the two leaders' positions — Sarkozy has been more open to eurobonds than Merkel, for instance — but for now they are both singing from the same songbook. Alongside moves toward fiscal union in terms of budgetary oversight, there are also proposals for the creation of a common corporation tax rate, a very controversial move in Ireland, which is dependent on its low corporate rates, and a Tobin or "Robin Hood" tax on financial transactions.


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It's a picture of bliss. Jim and Sally Smith recently bought their first home. After saving for a few years and living thriftily, they had put aside a nest egg to buy their own home. It is a modest brick home with three bedrooms, a small yard, and the type of charm that befits a young couple in love. Fast forward five years and the Smith's are ready to sell due to their growing family. Their home backs up to a busy street, the yard is too small for most buyer's taste and what was once charming is now just deferred maintenance. The Smith's would have benefitted from the advice of an expert when considering this home to purchase and they definitely need sound advice when selling.
The value of having an expert in real estate is far more than just saving time and money. Potential concerns can be allayed when choosing a Harry Norman, Realtor, such as:
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The national survey, 2012 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, revealed that 88% percent of sellers utilized a real estate agent and 89 percent of buyers purchased their home through a real estate agent - a share that steadily increased from 69 percent in 2001. Peace of mind, security, saving time, and adding value are all driving forces behind hiring a Realtor. In 2013, in the North Fulton area, Harry Norman is #1 in sales volume and units. We aren't the biggest company but our results are clear. If you need a recommendation for an agent or if you would like more information about a home in your area, please call me directly at 770-594-4901.


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The Complete Guide to the BlackBerry Desktop Manager
The BlackBerry Desktop Manager is an application that provides an interface between a BlackBerry smartphone and a PC. It allows you to backup and restore your files and settings, sync contacts, emails, and notes, update a Blackberry's firmware, manage applications and more.
The BlackBerry Desktop Manager has been superseded by the BlackBerry Desktop Software application.
This guide shows you how to setup, configure and use the Blackberry Desktop Manager, and provides some troubleshooting tips to help you resolve any issues you may encounter.
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Complete Guide to BlackBerry Desktop Manager
BlackBerry Desktop Manager synchronizes organizer data and media files, manages and updates device applications, backs up and restores device data, connects to the Internet by using...
Synchronizing a Blackberry with Microsoft Windows
Whether you want to synchronize your address book, connect your MS Outlook account, or transfer files such as multimedia and Word files to your PC you need to know how to attach your...
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Getting iTunes Music onto a BlackBerry Bold
Listening to music on your BlackBerry makes all the difference when you're working out or even doing laundry, as listening to your music makes the time go by faster while you...


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Another "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" couple is headed for divorce. This time, it's the heads of the family.
After months of speculation, Kris and Bruce Jenner officially confirmed their separation Tuesday in a statement to their own E! Network.
"We are living separately and we are much happier this way," the couple said of the decision.
"But we will always have much love and respect for each other. Even though we are separated, we will always remain best friends and, as always, our family will remain our number one priority," they added.
In a statement to US Weekly, Kris added: "We ended a marriage, but that's not the end of our friendship. I will always love him, but we are longer a couple in that way."
The Jenners made it through two decades of marriage and hundreds of episodes of reality TV together. They hinted at their impending split over several "Kardashians" episodes last season, in which the 63-year-old Bruce bought his own getaway house in Malibu.
Bruce's son, Brody, admitted Monday that his father and stepmom had been living separately.
"I stay out of their business, but as far as I'm concerned, they haven't split up," he said.
Kris wished her husband a happy 22nd anniversary last April.
"Happy Anniversary Bruce!!!! Best 22 years I could ever have imagined...hope the next 22 is even more fabulous...I love you!" she wrote on Instagram.