text:
Privacy Policy
We appreciate your interest in our website and our company. The protection of the personal data of our customers and users is an important principle of our business; this is specifically true for our e-commerce business. Protecting your personal data when we collect, process and use them during your visit to our website is very important to us. Your data are collected, processed and saved based on the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Telemedia Act (TMG). Below you will find information about the data we collect during your visit to our website and how we use these data:
1. Controller
The controller for the processing of your personal data is:
Fürstlich Fürstenbergische Brauerei GmbH & Co. KG
Postplatz 1-4
D-78166 Donaueschingen
the latter represented by its general partner,
Badische Brau Verwaltungs GmbH
Postplatz 1-4
D-78166 Donaueschingen
the latter represented by the Managing Directors Georg Schwende and Roland Tobias.
2. Data Protection Officer
Please do not hesitate to contact our Data Protection Officer in writing if you have any questions or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy or our handling of data:
Ulrich Kapust
Postplatz 1-4
D-78166 Donaueschingen
3. Collection, storage and processing of personal data
All access to the website and all retrievals of data and files are logged. This merely serves internal system-related and statistical purposes. What is logged: the name of the file accessed, the date and time of access, the data volume transmitted, reports on successful retrieval, the web browser and accessing domain. Additionally, the IP addresses of requesting computers are logged.
Other personal data are recorded only if they have been provided voluntarily by you, e.g. as part of a contact request, when signing up for an event, a subscription to our newsletter or as part of any other registration.
4. Use and disclosure of personal data
We use personal data communicated voluntarily to us only to reply to your inquiries (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), to process contracts concluded with you (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR), to send newsletters (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR) and for technical administration purposes (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
We disclose these data only if it is necessary for performing the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) - e.g. for the provision of requested third-party services - or for billing purposes (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), or if you have previously expressly consented to it (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). The stored personal data are erased if you revoke your consent to their storage, if the data are no longer required to fulfil the purpose of the storage, or if the storage appears to be unlawful.
5. Right to withdraw consent, right to information and right of complaint
You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future. Simply send us your withdrawal of consent by email or in writing to
Fürstlich Fürstenbergische Brauerei GmbH & Co. KG
- ServiceTeam -
Postplatz 1-4
D-78166 Donaueschingen
Your data will be disabled in our stock of data within two business days after receiving your withdrawal of consent.
You have the right to request information about the personal data we have stored about you at any time. Upon a written inquiry, we will inform you accordingly. Please use the above mail address for your inquiries.
You are also entitled to file a complaint about the storage, processing and disclosure of your data with a supervisory authority. The responsible supervisory authority is
The State Commissioner for Data Protection of Baden-Württemberg
Königstraße 10a
70173 Stuttgart
6. Right to rectification, erasure or restriction of processing of data
You have the right to require the controller to rectify inaccurate personal data without undue delay. If the accuracy or inaccuracy of the data cannot be determined, the processing must be restricted rather than rectified.
Furthermore, you are also entitled to require the controller to erase the data relating to you without undue delay if their processing is unlawful, if knowledge of them is no longer required to fulfil the assignment, or if the data must be deleted to comply with a legal obligation.
7. Cookies
This website uses 'cookies', which will be filed on your computer. 'Cookies' are small text files that can be locally stored by a website in the memory of your internet browser on the computer you are using. Cookies allow us to recognise your internet browser. The cookies of our website do not collect personal information about you or your use. You can delete stored cookies at any time yourself by going to the appropriate menu item in your internet browser or by deleting the cookies on your hard drive. For details, see the Help menu of your Internet browser.
Please note our instructions regarding the use of the Google Analytics service, which also uses cookies.
8. Use our website without cookies
Of course, you can also use our website without cookies. You can generally disable the use of cookies at any time via the settings of your Internet browser. Alternatively, you can display the settings of cookies every time and decide whether cookies should be accepted ('cookie warning') in each particular case. If you use Internet Explorer from Microsoft, the necessary settings for this purpose can be found under the menu item 'Tools / Internet Options'. For other browsers, please use the corresponding menu options. For details, see the Help menu of your Internet browser. The decline or display of cookies may affect the functionality of our website.
9. Google Analytics
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. ('Google'). Google Analytics uses so-called 'cookies', text files which are stored on your computer and which allow an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is generally transmitted to a server in the USA and stored there. If IP anonymisation is activated on this website, your IP address will first be truncated by Google within a Member State of the European Union or other Contracting Party of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. The whole IP address will be first transferred to a Google server in the USA and truncated there only in exceptional cases. Google will use this information on behalf of the operator of this website to evaluate your use of the website, compile reports on website activity, and provide other services relating to the website activity and internet usage for the website operator. The IP address transferred by your browser through the use of Google Analytics will not be merged with any other data held by Google. You can prevent cookies from being stored by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser; however, we wish to point out that by doing so, you may not be able to enjoy the full functionality of this website. You can also prevent the collection of the data generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) by Google, and its further processing by Google, by downloading and installing a browser plugin available at the following link: (http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de).
As an alternative to the browser add-on, e.g. for browsers on mobile devices, you can also prevent Google Analytics from collecting data by clicking this link: Google Analytics Opt-out. Status: Opt-in. This sets an opt-out cookie which prevents any future collection of your data when visiting this website. The opt-out cookie applies only in this browser and only for our website and is stored on your device. If you delete the cookies in this browser, you must set the opt-out cookie again. [Note: For instructions on incorporating the opt-out cookie, please visit: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/?hl=de#disable].
We still use Google Analytics to evaluate data from double-click cookies and AdWords for statistical purposes. If you do not want this to be carried out, you can disable the function via the Ads Preferences Manager (http://www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/?hl=de).
10. Social plug-ins
This website uses social plug-ins ('plug-ins') provided by the Facebook social network, operated by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA ('Facebook'). These plug-ins are marked with a Facebook logo or by the additional text 'Social Plug-in by Facebook' or 'Facebook Social Plugin'. Please see here for an overview of Facebook-plug-ins and their look: Overview of Facebook plug-ins.
If you access a page of our website that contains a social plug-in, your browser establishes a direct connection with the Facebook servers. Facebook sends the content of the plug-in directly to your browser, which then integrates it into the website.
By integrating the plug-in, Facebook is given the information that your browser has accessed the corresponding page of our website, even if you do not have a Facebook account or are not currently logged in to Facebook. This information (including your IP address) will be transmitted from your browser directly to a Facebook server in the U.S. and stored there.
If you are logged into Facebook, Facebook can directly attribute your visit to your Facebook account. If you interact using the plug-ins, for example by activating the 'Like' button or entering a comment, the corresponding information will be transmitted from your browser directly to a Facebook server and stored there. The information will also be published on Facebook and shown to your Facebook friends.
Facebook may use this information for advertising, market research, or for the tailored design of the Facebook pages. To this end, Facebook creates usage, interest and relationship profiles, for example, to evaluate your use of our website in relation to the advertising displayed to you on Facebook, to inform other Facebook users about your activities on our website and to provide other services in connection with the use of Facebook.
If you do not want Facebook to attribute the data collected during your visit to our website to your Facebook account, you have to log out of your Facebook account before accessing our website.
For further information about the purpose and scope of data collection and about the processing and use of data by Facebook, your rights in this respect, and the settings options for protecting your privacy, please see the Facebook privacy policy (https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy).
Last updated: 25/05/2018


text:
DWP hides seven secret benefit suicide reviews
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is refusing to publish nine secret reviews into the deaths of benefit claimants, despite finally admitting that seven of them relate to people who took their own lives.
DWP only released the information after Disability News Service (DNS) lodged a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
DWP has also admitted that five of the nine reviews – which all relate to deaths that took place in the 16 months from August 2014 to January 2016 – contain recommendations for improvements in the department's policies or procedures.
Ministers are refusing to publish the nine reviews, even though civil servants prepared them for release on 23 May – more than three months ago – under freedom of information laws.
The information commissioner is now investigating DWP's refusal to release the nine documents.
When they are eventually released, they will be heavily redacted and similar in format to 49 reviews that covered the period from February 2012 to August 2014 and were released by DWP in May, following a 21-month battle with DNS to keep them secret.
The request to see the latest nine peer reviews was submitted by DNS on 15 April.
In an email last month, DWP claimed it did not understand the DNS freedom of information request, even though one of its civil servants had admitted two months previously that the peer reviews had been prepared for release.
Many of the 49 reviews released in May concerned the deaths of disabled people who had applied for employment and support allowance (ESA), through the much-criticised work capability assessment (WCA) process.
And many of the reviews – 40 of which refer to benefit claimants who took their own lives – involved long-term claimants of incapacity benefit (IB) who had been reassessed for ESA.
Although crucial parts of the peer reviews were missing because they were heavily redacted, DNS found 10 key recommendations for DWP to take national action to improve the way it treated benefit claimants who were seen as "vulnerable".
DNS has also submitted a complaint to ICO about DWP's refusal to say if those 10 recommendations were ever carried out.
John McArdle, co-founder of the Scottish-based grassroots group Black Triangle, said: "We anticipate that many of these deaths will have been as a result of the WCA and we await the release of the full details."
Last November, government-funded research concluded that the programme to reassess people claiming IB using the WCA could have caused 590 suicides in just three years.
The nine peer reviews – now renamed internal process reviews – are likely to be scrutinised closely by disabled activists for further evidence of failings in how DWP has dealt with benefit claimants labelled as "vulnerable", many of whom are likely to be mental health service-users or have learning difficulties.
They could provide crucial evidence for calls – led by Black Triangle, and backed by many other disabled activists – for former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith to face a criminal investigation, following his refusal to address a coroner's concerns about the safety of the WCA in 2010.
They want to hold Duncan Smith and his former employment minister Chris Grayling to account for their failure to improve the safety of the WCA, despite being warned that it risked causing further deaths.
Black Triangle has provided a dossier of evidence to Police Scotland, which McArdle believes shows that Duncan Smith and Grayling should be investigated for the Scottish criminal offence of wilful neglect of duty by a public official.
Last month, the parents of David Barr, from Glenrothes, Fife, backed these calls for Duncan Smith and Grayling to be prosecuted over these failings, which they believe led to the death of their son, who took his own life in August 2013.
Documents examined by DNS show that the circumstances of David Barr's death mirrored those of Stephen Carré in January 2010.
Duncan Smith and Grayling failed to take steps to improve the WCA after May 2010 despite being warned by coroner Tom Osborne – in what is known as a prevention of future deaths report – that the test's flaws risked causing further deaths of people with mental health conditions.
McArdle said the latest delays in releasing the secret reviews showed DWP were "serial law breakers and enemies of the truth".
He pointed to: the department's failure to respond to Osborne's prevention of future deaths report; DWP having to be taken to tribunal to release the 49 peer reviews; and its continuing refusal to fulfil its promise to the courts to carry out a pilot project to test new ways to make the WCA safer for people with mental health conditions.
He said the failings identified by the court had "led to the tragic deaths of so many disabled people and devastated the lives of tens of thousands more who are chronically ill".
McArdle said: "They are now dragging their feet on releasing these further peer reviews."
He said DWP was also still refusing to reveal whether any of the recommendations made at national and local level in the 49 reviews had been implemented.
He said: "All we know is that outrages and tragedies are continuing to occur, unabated.
"Taken all together, these instances of illegal behaviour and wilful concealment of wrongdoing by the department over these past six years exhibit utter contempt for the rule of law and the fundamental human rights of disabled people – up to and including the very right to life itself.
"It can, and must be remedied urgently before further lives are lost. It is a matter of life and death and the longer our case against them is drawn out the more lives will be lost and the more complicit British society as a whole becomes."
A DWP spokeswoman said in a statement to DNS: "The department is aware of your request.
"However, as you currently have a complaint with the information commissioner we are unable to comment further."
25 August 2016
Government 'has stripped Paralympians of their Motability vehicles'
Paralympians heading to Rio next week have lost their Motability vehicles after being reassessed as part of the government's programme of benefit cuts and reforms, a member of the ParalympicsGB team has revealed.
Some Paralympians have spoken previously of the importance of the support they receive from the benefits system, particularly through disability living allowance (DLA), but this is the first confirmation that any of them have lost that support as a result of the government's austerity programme.
The concerns were raised by wheelchair-racer Ben Rowlings, one of the young track stars of the British team, who is set to compete in the T34 100 metres and 800 metres in Rio, and holds the British record at 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres.
He currently receives the higher rate mobility component of DLA, which has allowed him to use that payment to lease a vehicle through the Motability scheme.
But like hundreds of thousands of other disabled people, he has been told he will be reassessed for the government's new personal independence payment (PIP) – introduced in 2013 in a bid to cut working-age DLA spending by 20 per cent – and that an assessment of his eligibility will take place next year.
The Shropshire resident does much of his training 50 miles away in Coventry, alongside fellow Paralympians Kare Adenegan and Mel Nicholls, and told Disability News Service this week that the PIP reassessment could put his career in jeopardy if it results in him losing his Motability car.
He said: "It is something that's on my mind because without the access to having my Motability car… I wouldn't be able to get to any of the training that I do.
"I need my car, I need the support to get me around to places, and training and work, because racing is my job, and without the support of the Motability [car] and the DLA, I wouldn't be able to get to training."
The 20-year-old said he knew of fellow Paralympians who have already lost their Motability cars after being reassessed for PIP.
He said: "There have been Paralympians who have been told that they are too able to claim Motability and they have had to fight to get the cars back because they have been taken off them.
"I don't know too much about it, I haven't spoken to them about it because that's a personal matter for them, but it's something I'm a little bit concerned about."
He said he was not comfortable providing further details about colleagues, and could not say how many fellow team-members had lost their Motability vehicles, but added: "All I know is anyone with disabilities is getting assessed at the moment, so it's a possibility for any of us."
Last month, another ParalympicsGB star wheelchair-racer, Hannah Cockroft, told DNS she was "scared" that she would lose her independence when she was reassessed for PIP.
Cockroft, who won double gold at London 2012, has also yet to be assessed for PIP, but she said that she was dreading her eventual reassessment, the possibility of having her support cut, and potentially losing the car she leases through the Motability scheme.
Motability has said that it expects 35,000 vehicles will have to be returned by disabled people during 2016 as a result of the PIP reassessment programme.
Of Motability customers reassessed for PIP so far, 44 per cent of them have lost their entitlement to the scheme and have had to hand their vehicles back.
Activists who took part in a national day of action last month – organised by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), WinVisible and the Mental Health Resistance Network – said they believed PIP was "rotten to the core", and pointed to growing evidence of the "shoddy nature" of PIP assessments, which are carried out by the government's contractors, Capita and Atos.
The British Paralympic Association – which manages the ParalympicsGB team – has not responded to a request for a comment.
Asked how removing a Motability vehicle from a Paralympian training for Rio would have helped their medal efforts, a Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: "This question is unfounded.
"Decisions on Motability are made based on claimants' individual needs and after consideration of all the evidence, including an assessment and information provided by the claimant and their GP.
"All claimants have the opportunity to appeal their decision."
Asked how many Paralympians had lost their Motability vehicles after being reassessed, she said: "We do not ask PIP claimants whether they are Paralympians, and they are not required to disclose this information when making a claim.
"Therefore, we are unable to answer this question."
But she said there were now more people on the Motability scheme than before PIP was introduced*, while the "majority of people leaving the Motability scheme will be eligible for a one-off payment of £2,000**, which will help ensure their mobility needs continue to be met".
Asked if DWP accepted that DLA and PIP played a vital part in providing the support that disabled people need to live independently and contribute to society, she said: "Yes. DLA and PIP provide important support for those who have been assessed as meeting the criteria for the benefit(s)."
Meanwhile, research by the MS Society suggests that up to one in 10 of the 100,000 people with multiple sclerosis in the UK could lose the highest rate of mobility support as a result of the PIP reassessment process.
The charity has estimated that more than 1,000 people with MS have already had their benefits cut since PIP was introduced.
Under DLA, 93 per cent of people with MS who received the benefit [not everyone with MS claims DLA or PIP] were awarded the highest rate of the mobility component, and of the 4,349 DLA claimants with MS who have so far been reassessed and awarded any kind of PIP award, only 70 per cent have received the equivalent rate.
The charity is calling on people with MS to share their experiences of the reassessment process with the government's second independent review of PIP.
*The Motability scheme is still growing slowly overall, at about 1.5 per cent a year, because of the number of new members joining, and currently has 651,000 vehicles (636,000 through the car scheme and 15,000 powered wheelchairs and scooters). Motability expects the overall number of customers to start falling at some stage in the reassessment process but does "not expect the number of vehicles to fall below 600,000 over the next few year".
**This payment applies to those customers who joined the scheme before January 2013.
25 August 2016
Paralympian calls for inquiry into 'unacceptable' Rio failures
The failure of the organisers of the Rio Paralympics to treat the event on a par with the Olympic Games is "unacceptable" and has to be challenged, according to a leading figure in the UK Paralympic movement.
David Clarke, who chairs the Athletes' Commission, a group of current and retired Paralympians who advise the British Paralympic Association (BPA), spoke out after the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) warned of a financial crisis facing next month's event.
Clarke, who captained the ParalympicsGB blind football team at London 2012, called for a joint inquiry by the IPC and the International Olympic Committee, once the Paralympics are over.
Among the cuts in Rio announced by the IPC so far are a reduction in staffing, cuts to transport services, and the closure of media centres at some venues, as well as a closure of one of the main Olympic parks.
Clarke told Disability News Service (DNS): "There's certainly a concern that whatever limited resources there have been have been thrown at the Olympics, to the detriment of the Paralympics, and that is the bit that is unacceptable from my point-of-view.
"Some appear to consider it to be a secondary event, but it's not, and it forms a fundamental part of the bidding process and should be delivered with equal professionalism."
He added: "If it transpires that budget assigned to the Paralympic Games has been swallowed up in delivering the Olympics then that is a huge step back; it shows that one event has been favoured over the other."
He said it was crucial that athletes are able to "perform at their best in the very best environment", despite the funding crisis and poor ticket sales.
The IPC said last week that the Rio organisers had sold only 12 per cent of available tickets for Paralympic events.
That situation appears to have eased slightly this week, after three days of strong sales, with organisers reportedly claiming they have now sold 20 per cent of tickets available, after selling a record 133,000 tickets on Tuesday.
But Clarke said there was "a legitimate risk" that Britain's Paralympians would now not be able to "appreciate the experience of taking part in the Paralympic Games, which is the pinnacle for their sport".
He said: "There is an element of the experience that is created by full stadiums… a number of athletes have drawn parallels with the [2015 athletics] world championships in Doha [which was hit by low attendances] and how challenging that was coming off the back of London."
He said: "The fact that we have got to this and we are two weeks away from it being the height of our athletes' competitive lives, it's unacceptable that they will have to operate in [this] environment."
Clarke has been involved in the "meticulous planning" for the games by ParalympicsGB – with BPA officials already in Rio, two weeks ahead of the opening ceremony – that has made sure that "no stone is unturned".
He said: "The professionalism is remarkable to witness and the sheer level of planning that goes into it all to make sure that we deliver the success that we have agreed with UK Sport and everyone else, but of course fundamentally you have to rely upon the… committee responsible for delivering the games to deliver what they said they were going to deliver."
Clarke said he believe that the quality of the sport will ensure that Rio turns out to be "a very good games", despite the financial and ticketing problems.
But he added: "The Paralympic movement has consistently built, probably since Seoul [in 1988] but definitely since Atlanta [in 1996], year on year on year, on becoming an equivalent, parallel event of elite sport and anything that detracts from that movement moving forward is unacceptable.
"If that has happened as a result of money being diverted to the Olympics from the Paralympics, some very serious questions need to be asked at a very high level because that is equally unacceptable.
"Afterwards, I do think the IOC and the IPC have to understand how it got to this and what can be done in future to prevent it [happening again]."
The IPC's British president, Sir Philip Craven, has described the financial situation facing the Rio games as unique in the 56-year history of the Paralympics.
Sir Philip said this week that some state-run Brazilian companies had signed contracts to sponsor the games, following an IPC meeting on 18 September with Brazil's interim president, Michel Temer.
But he said the extra revenue this produced would not "fully plug the Rio 2016 deficit" and so the organising committee and IPC would need to make cuts that were "likely to impact nearly every stakeholder attending the games".
The Conservative peer Lord [Chris] Holmes told the BBC this week that the Rio organising committee was guilty of "cannibalisation" of funding set aside for the Paralympics in order to fill gaps in the Olympics budget.
Lord Holmes, who won nine Paralympic swimming gold medals and later became director of Paralympic integration at London 2012, told BBC's Newsnight: "More than a step backwards, this is a leap into Paralympic pre-history.
"There's been a disrespect, a misunderstanding, a lack of understanding for the Paralympic Games, for the potential and for the impact they could have made for the people of Brazil."
IPC did confirm this week that all 165 countries that had planned to attend the games would be able to do so.
IPC had feared that some countries would have to pull out of the games because the Rio organising committee had failed to pay their travel grants by the end of last month, as previously agreed.
One of the stars of the ParalympicsGB team, wheelchair-racer Ben Rowlings, told DNS this week that he saw the poor ticket sales as an opportunity "to open it up to schools and get a fresh audience in".
He added: "It's a Paralympic games, the biggest competition a lot of us athletes will ever race at and I think it will be a real step forward for the Paralympic movement if we can get schools and younger spectators [to attend] and show this is what Paralympic sport is, just [as] they did in London."
Sir Philip said in a statement: "At this point it is difficult for us to expect the full venues that we saw in Beijing or London, or expect to see in Tokyo in four years' time.
"However, we hope the passion of the Brazilian people and their desire to support and see Brazilian athletes win medals will see them turn out en-masse.
"People power could really determine the outcome of these games."
Meanwhile, the Court of Arbitration for Sport has dismissed an appeal by the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) against the IPC's decision to ban all Russian athletes from the games, following revelations of state-sponsored doping.
In delivering its ruling, the court ruled that the decision to ban the RPC was "made in accordance with the IPC Rules and was proportionate in the circumstances".
And it noted that the Russian Paralympic Committee "did not file any evidence contradicting the facts on which the IPC decision was based".
25 August 2016
DPAC's 1,000-name letter backs Corbyn, disabled people's champion
More than 1,000 Deaf and disabled people and their allies have backed Jeremy Corbyn's bid to be re-elected as Labour leader, after signing a letter recognising his years of support for key disability rights campaigns.
The letter was written by the grassroots campaigning network Disabled People Against Cuts, which said it wanted to repay Corbyn – and his deputy John McDonnell – for their past support.
The letter says: "You have supported deaf and disabled people's causes for many, many years.
"You have spoken in Parliament. You have voted against vicious welfare reforms that have blighted our lives, often having to rebel against the Whip to do so.
"You have campaigned with us during court vigils, at street protests and you spoke at the '10,000 cuts and counting' memorial for people who had died as a result of welfare reform."
The letter adds: "During our campaign to save the [Independent Living Fund] when we asked the then Labour Leadership for help and got none, you publicly supported our campaign."
And it tells Corbyn: "You have supported deaf and disabled people in so many ways over so many years and now it is time for us to have a chance to rally in support of you and John."
Many of those who signed the letter have added comments of their own.
Disability rights activist David Gillon said: "A return to New Labour is a return to ignoring disabled people."
Another to sign the letter was the veteran inclusive education campaigner Micheline Mason, who said: "You have also both supported our fight for inclusion, which, as you know, is another word for socialism in practice.
"We will win this struggle together, but thank you so much for keeping the flame of hope burning in dark times."
Ian Jones, co-founder of the WOW campaign, praised Corbyn's support, which helped secure a parliamentary debate for the WOW petition, and said: "Most Labour MPs 'talk the talk' about disabled people getting true equality of opportunity in our society. Jeremy 'walks the walk'."
Another to sign the letter, Katy Marchant, said: "While the media and parliament has largely ignored the brutal attacks by Tory Austerity on disabled people and the enormous suffering and deaths this has caused, both Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have steadfastly spoken out and supported us."
Cornelia Roesskamp said: "You have supported inclusive education when in and out of 'fashion' because you understand that it is [a] human rights issue fundamentally."
Janine Booth, a member of the TUC disabled workers' committee, said: "As well as the comments in the letter, I'd like to add that Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell's support for autistic and other neurodivergent people fighting for our rights has been nothing short of outstanding.
"Only a Labour government under their leadership will deliver the radical policy changes that we need after years of Tory austerity and bigotry."
Mandy Bell said: "As the mother of a disabled child, I believe that Jeremy Corbyn is the ONLY candidate of choice, the only person I would trust my daughter's future to."
And Geraldine O'Connor said: "I thank you for defending people with disabilities, democracy, the rule of law and human rights.
"You have fought for us, now we will fight for you."
Meanwhile, Corbyn's opponent, former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith, claimed in an interview with the Guardian that – if he became prime minister – he would rewrite the eligibility rules for personal independence payment (PIP), scrap the work capability assessment, and move from outsourcing benefits assessments to private firms, such as Atos, Capita and Maximus, to using the NHS and social services to carry out the tests.
But his claims to support disabled people were undermined when a video emerged on the Independent website the following day of him using disablist language to describe Corbyn at a campaign rally.
Smith told the rally: "We've got to get two million people who actually voted Tory 12 months ago to vote Labour, in 106 seats.
"And what you won't have from me is some lunatic at the top of the Labour party, you'll have someone who tries to form a coherent narrative about what's wrong with Britain."
25 August 2016
Justice project will help DPOs tackle discrimination through the courts
A new user-led project will help disabled people in London use the law to fight for their independent living rights, and combat the discrimination they face from providers of goods and services.
Inclusion London's Disability Justice Project will support disabled people's organisations (DPOs) across the capital to make better use of the Social Care Act, the Equality Act and the Human Rights Act, through information, training sessions and ongoing support.
The project will also build "better, stronger" relationships between DPOs and lawyers with expertise in those areas, and encourage them to look at cases from an equality and human rights perspective and understand the social model of disability and the history of the disabled people's movement.
Svetlana Kotova, the disabled lawyer who has been appointed project coordinator, said Inclusion London hopes the project will help to launch important "strategic" discrimination and human rights cases that will "tackle the most pressing issues that disabled people are facing".
She said the project came about because DPOs were telling Inclusion London that disabled people were facing discrimination "in all aspects of their lives".
She said: "We thought it was time to build the capacity of DPOs to ensure they can use the law effectively to advocate for the rights of disabled people."
The Disability Justice Project will build on the success of Inclusion London's Deaf and Disabled People's Organisations Legal Network, which looks at how DPOs can use case law and legislation in their advice, advocacy, policy and campaigns work, and builds partnerships between lawyers and DPOs.
A key focus of the new project will be the Care Act, which only became law two years ago and "has a lot of good things in there but doesn't necessarily take a rights-based approach to care", she said.
Kotova said Inclusion London wanted to both ensure the Care Act was implemented properly – there are concerns that local authorities are "not always fulfilling their duties as they should" – and influence that implementation by emphasising the importance of taking account of disabled people's rights.
It comes at a time when local authorities are making further cuts to their social care budgets, which will make it even harder for disabled people to secure the support they need and are entitled to, she said.
The project aims to build the capacity of advocacy workers employed by DPOs in London to provide advice and information, so they can use "strong legal arguments" in their casework when fighting for the rights of disabled people.
Kotova also hopes that DPOs will be able to use the relevant legislation in their campaigns and discussions with local authorities.
She said: "In social care, we definitely know people are finding it much harder to get the right levels of support.
"They increasingly have to battle with local authorities who want to cut their packages.
"We do hear that people are really concerned that their packages are going to be cut. They are expecting this or it is happening."
The project will also focus on the Equality Act, and its legal protection against providers of goods and services who discriminate against disabled people.
One of the problems in enforcing the Equality Act, she said, is that it is much harder for disabled people to secure legal assistance than for cases taken under the Care Act.
Kotova said the difficulty of enforcing the provisions of the Equality Act was a "huge weakness" of the legislation.
She said: "Even if you are prepared to [take a case to court], it's often really difficult to get legal advice and representation with these cases, so sometimes disabled people are left alone to go to court ourselves and take all the risks."
She said that Inclusion London was hearing of cases of discrimination in transport, access to buildings and shops, and in securing information in an accessible format, "even from government departments", and particularly in obtaining information in an easy-read format, which she said was "almost never possible".
She was particularly surprised to learn, after Inclusion London issued a call for disabled people's experiences of banking services, that there were significant problems in that sector.
She said: "We got a lot of people coming back to us saying how difficult they find it, even though I personally thought banks were a long way ahead with how they try and make their services more accessible for disabled people.
"It tells us that even in areas where we thought things are not that bad, things are actually bad."
There will be a launch event for the Disability Justice Project in November. Any lawyers or London-based Deaf and disabled people's organisations who would like to attend can email Svetlana Kotova at firstname.lastname@example.com
25 August 2016
Countdown to Rio: Rowlings ready to 'smash it' after years of 'selfish' preparation
When Ben Rowlings lines up on the start-line in Rio, he will know that he could not have done anything more to prepare himself for his bid to win a medal.
The wheelchair racer, who is taking part in his first Paralympic Games at the age of 20 – only five years after being spotted at a British Athletics talent identification day – describes himself as stubborn, single-minded and "quite selfish".
"I think a lot of athletes have to be quite selfish, and just kind of look after themselves and make sure nothing impacts on their training or the bubble that they are in," he says.
"But I'm hard-working and I make sure that I put the hours in in training, and the results are showing on the track."
He has been doing "long, hard sessions" in the gym, two or three times a day, six days a week, and believes there are "very few" of his competitors who will have been able to match that.
But he has also benefited from the peer support he has received as part of the training group set up by ParalympicsGB team-mate Mel Nicholls and her coach, which is based at their athletics club, Coventry Godiva Harriers.
A mixture of disabled children, professional athletes – including fellow Paralympian Kare Adenegan – and enthusiastic amateurs come together in the group.
Nicholls has previously told Disability News Service (DNS) that Paralympic athletes train within the group alongside everyone else. "It's a social thing, it's a confidence thing, a health thing and a competitive thing as well," she said.
Rowlings told DNS this week: "We have got people aged six or seven up to guys that are mid-to-late 40s.
"It's good to have a varied group of people because if you're having a bad day in training, one of the little kids will make you laugh… it just kind of takes your mind off the serious side of training a little bit, [and allows you to] enjoy it and take it for what it is."
The importance of support for Paralympic athletes – a long way from the Channel 4-inspired "superhuman" image – is one he is only too willing to accept.
He says: "I've got the easy job. I have to go round in circles, I get the fun bit of it, but without the support of coaches, sponsors, family, friends; without those people behind me I wouldn't be anywhere close to where I am today.
"I wouldn't have gone to the world championships, I wouldn't have medalled at European championships. Without them, I wouldn't be anywhere.
"I'm very fortunate that I've got a good support network around me."
It's not only the support of the higher-profile organisations – sponsors BT and Top End, which makes his wheelchairs, and his National Lottery funding – which has been "fundamental" to his success, but smaller organisations, such as The Wrekin Housing Trust, that he says has helped with £100 towards his costs.
"A hundred quid is a set of tyres or it's a set of gloves or it's a week training in Loughborough with a really good group [of other athletes]."
Rowlings is competing in Rio in the T34 100 metres and 800 metres, but it is in the two-lap event that he has the strongest chance of medalling.
Ranked in the top four or five in the world at 800 metres, and holder of the British record at 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres, he believes he has a genuine chance of a medal.
"I'm in really good shape, the best shape of my life. Everything has been going really well since I found out about selection.
"It'll be a close race, there are four or five guys that will be really competitive going into it, so it will be a good race to be part of."
Although he is competing first in the 100 metres – where he is ranked in the world's top eight – he is treating that "as a kind of warm-up for the 800".
Ideally, he would be racing in a 400 metres as well but there is only a 100 metres and 800 metres in his impairment category in Rio.
"I prefer 400 to 800 just because there's less to think about," he says, "you just go as hard as you can for one lap and whoever's the quickest will get it.
"With the 800 you have to think a little bit more. You have to react so quickly if there's a break off the front, you have to cover it immediately.
"If there's a guy coming off the back you have to make sure you're in the right position to follow him."
He has known there will be no 400 metres in Rio for the last couple of years, so he's been able to work on his strategy for the longer race.
"It's something I've been able to plan for," he says. "I know how to race in every single scenario that could possibly come up in Rio, so I'm going to make sure I'm in the best position when that bell goes for the final lap."
Despite his strong chance of a medal, his target is just to reach the final of the two events.
"I think once I'm in the final anything could happen," he says. "Guys could false start, it could be raining, the race could just pan out perfectly for me, or it could pan out horribly.
"I know I'm working harder than most of the other guys on the start line, I know I'm in the best shape possible, I know I've [taken care of] every little detail I could possibly do going into Rio."
Like many of the ParalympicsGB team, he is careful in his responses to some of the more controversial questions put to him by DNS.
On the International Paralympic Committee's failure to store urine and blood samples from medallists at the Beijing and London Paralympics, so they can be retested in the future, he says: "I have no idea. My job is to go round in circles.
"I know I get drug tested, I know that UK Anti-Doping have been really hot on making sure that everyone at Paralympic standard is a clean athlete and I know I'm 100 per cent clean.
"As far as what the IPC does with their samples, I have no idea."
On the low number of Paralympic tickets sold by the Brazilian organisers – just 12 per cent, when we spoke at the start of this week – he says that he sees that as an opportunity "to open it up to schools and get a fresh audience in".
He adds: "It's a Paralympic Games, the biggest competition a lot of us athletes will ever race at, and I think it will be a real step forward for the Paralympic movement if we can get schools and younger spectators [to attend] and show this is what Paralympic sport is, just [as] they did in London."
But he does speak out on one highly controversial topic, the government's reassessment of working-age disabled people claiming disability living allowance (DLA) for the new personal independence payment.
He has been told he will be reassessed next year, and it is something that concerns him, particularly as he uses his DLA mobility support to lease a Motability vehicle.
He says: "It is something that's on my mind because without the access to having my Motability car… I wouldn't be able to get to any of the training that I do.
"I need my car, I need the support to get me around to places, and training and work, because racing is my job, and without the support of the Motability [car] and the DLA, I wouldn't be able to get to training."
And he says he knows fellow Paralympians have already had their Motability vehicles taken away after being reassessed for PIP.
Putting such controversies aside, what he looks forward to most of all in Rio is the racing.
"I worked my backside off for four years," he says. "I'm going to make sure I race it well, being able to show myself on a world stage.
"It's a 400 metre track that I have to go around twice, and I've raced the guys all year round, I know them inside and out, I've done everything I can in training to make sure I'm ready for that race at Rio, and I'm just going to smash it."
25 August 2016
Countdown to Rio: Baker and JP are ready for anything as they head to Brazil
It's nearly four years since Natasha Baker claimed two gold medals at London 2012, but the "fantastic" memories she has of her home Paralympic Games means it feels to her as if it was only last year.
And she says her preparations for next month's dressage competition in Rio – she is competing again in three events, with her "special boy" Cabral, known as JP – could not have gone better.
She told Disability News Service: "It's been a really fantastic year. I have won every one of the selection competitions. It couldn't have gone better."
And despite helping her win three golds in London, JP's performance has even improved.
"He's going better now than he was in London, which is fantastic," she says. "He seems softer, more connected."
She places much of the credit for this down to a change of trainer since London.
She says: "Everything seems to kind of slot into place; we are in a really good place at the moment and I'm feeling really excited about it."
JP has flown before, when Baker visited the Middle East last year for a competition, and she also believes they are ready for any weather conditions that Rio might throw at them.
She says: "He's used to the heat, he actually goes far better in the heat than in the cold. So I feel pretty prepared.
"We only ride outdoors at home, so if it pours down with rain I think we will be used to that as well."
As for her hopes from the games, she says: "Obviously, three medals would make me have a grin from ear to ear like a Cheshire cat, but with horses you just never know what can happen, especially when we are travelling halfway around the world.
"To come home with some medals would just be amazing, [but] as long as I go out and do my best and he does his best I will be a happy girl."
But she warns that other countries are "catching us up. They are chasing us at quite a rapid pace so to go out there and contend for a gold medal would be amazing, and hopefully we can do enough to bring it home."
She is due to compete on 13, 15 and 16 September.
Baker was one of the Paralympians who spoke out to DNS before London 2012 about the importance of disability living allowance (DLA) to her and other athletes, and who spoke of their fears that government spending cuts could jeopardise their independence and that of other disabled people.
Since then, the hugely controversial process to reassess working-age DLA claimants for the new personal independence payment has begun, with tens of thousands of disabled people already having their support cut or removed completely.
Four years on from London 2012, Baker has decided not to speak about the reassessment process.
Asked how she had been affected, she says only: "Yes, I'm all sorted. No change." She declines to comment further.
Speaking before the revelations of the Rio 2016 organising committee's funding crisis, she says London 2012 "really propelled Paralympic sport forward", and hopes that the Rio games will "do that even more so".
And she says she was not put off by health concerns about the Zika virus. "I'm not planning on having children any time soon.
"Obviously it can be a concern but we have been given the best possible advice by the BPA [the British Paralympic Association], and they are updating it constantly on what's going on and the latest medical advice, so I know we are in safe hands."
25 August 2016
Countdown to Rio: Skelhon ready to medal after winning battle with motivation
Matt Skelhon admits that he has struggled with his motivation in the lead-up to his third Paralympic games.
Having competed in Beijing – where he won shooting gold – and in London, where he won silver and bronze, and becoming world champion in 2014 with a new world record, he confesses that there was a spell "quite a few months back" when it was "a bit of a challenge to get motivated".
Look back at his social media posts from earlier this year, he talked about how "training hasn't been great" (January) and how he had been "struggling a little bit during training" (May).
But the closer Rio came, he tells Disability News Service, the less that has become a problem.
Motivation can be "tricky", he says. "I just get on with it. If I am having a couple of weeks when I am thinking it's not going very well, and I don't know where I'm going, I just think, 'Well, it's only a phase.'
"I just keep training, because I know the work I am putting in is not going to waste, it's being stored somewhere.
"I know that when I get motivated again it's going to come out, and I'm going to shoot better for it."
Although he describes himself as "laid back", he is also fiercely confident in his abilities, and his target is simple: two gold medals.
"I always go anywhere to win," he says.
But he also goes to Rio knowing that nothing is guaranteed, because shooting is a sport where the margins between success and failure can be tiny.
He says: "The margins that win finals in shooting now are so small, that sometimes it's not down to an athlete's performance, it might be down to not spotting a wind flag, or the wind changing direction as you took a shot; maybe the ammunition is not quite right.
"With equipment and ammunition, there's always a little bit of something that's not in your control.
"The margins are so small, so you have got to make sure that everything you have got control over is perfect."
He will occasionally feel nerves before a competition, he says, but he accepts this and admits it to himself and his coaches.
Skelhon says: "Nothing is going to stop me competing unless I keel over and die on the line.
"At the end of the day, nobody is shooting at me, we are all shooting at the same distance. I just get on and do it."
25 August 2016
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
MANGALuru: AUG. 25, 2016: Indian Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) Shoor and fishing boat Matsya Dweepa were involved in a joint rescue mission of 05 fishermen on Wednesday, 24 Aug 2016 off Netrani Island near Bhatkal.
Fishing boat 'Amma' belonging to Shri Nagesh Naik of Murudeshwar had sailed for fishing with 05 crew onboard from Honnavar Port on the night of 23 Aug 2016. The boat had a leakage and was sinking. The crew of the boat made several attempts to save the boat from sinking, but could not succeed. Finally, they took the help of other fishing boat Matsya Dweepa and ICGS Shoor for saving their lives.
All the 05 fishermen were rescued. The fishermen of the sinking boat 'Amma' could bring along fishing net with them. A case has been registered at Honnavar Police Station.
In another operation ICGS Shoor successfully towed a stranded fishing boat 'Sowmya' (Reg No. KA 03 MM 3587) with 08 crew to Malpe. The boat had ventured for fishing on 19 Aug 16 and was stranded for 02 days at a distance of 54 Kms from Malpe due to machinery failure. ICGS Shoor towed the boat safely to Malpe despite rough sea conditions.
Deputy Inspector General KR Suresh, TM, the Commander Coast Guard Karnataka stated that life of every fisherman as well as mariner is precious and ICG Ships and Aircraft will undertake search and rescue missions despite challenges from inclement weather conditions and rough seas. The Commander also urged the fishing community to keep the aspects of safety and security in mind. All the fishing boats should have life saving, communication equipment, ration and emergency repair kits.
|Comments on this Article
|Asraf K, Thokottu
|Fri, August-26-2016, 12:22
|Fishing is very risky activity so there have to be provided safety first ,never be careless and risk your life. Luckily the coast guards on noticing have rescued but never give Chance.
|Anusha D Sharma, Mumbai
|Thu, August-25-2016, 11:46
|Thanks to the Coast Guard, for saving the lives of the fishermen.


text:
Posts Tagged 'youth soccer'
Parents search for dislike button after coach's Facebook rants
Fellow coaches: I know we all have complaints from time to time about the parents of the children we lead. Complaints like, they're fucking asshole making our lives hellish and shorter, and filling us with existential dread as we watch their poor offspring take their first steps toward a future appearance on Dr. Phil.
But, shit, most of us are smart enough to limit our complaints to ourselves, our spouses, or our little-read blogs. Most of us are smart enough not to jump onto whatever social media site is handing to broadcast our pain.
Jason Windsor, recently resigned soccer coach at Royal Oak (Mich.), is not most of us. From the Royal Oak Tribune:
Just a few weeks into the season, Jason Windsor suddenly resigned his position as varsity soccer coach at Royal Oak High School following complaints by parents about his Facebook postings.
Windsor resigned Monday [Oct. 4] because of schedule conflicts [he coaches other travel teams], according to Superintendent Thomas Moline. However, a copy of the coach's Facebook page indicates there was a conflict between him and some parents, too.
Last week parents confronted school officials about the coach using the social networking site to threaten to penalize players if parents crossed him. Windsor contends his account was hacked and he didn't make the comments in question.
One Facebook posting said: "3 words my varsity soccer parents will get used to this week. BENCH, JV, CUT. You will all be taught a lesson you sh– stirring pri—!!!!!!!"
In other posts, he is accused of dropping F-bombs and wrote "(certain) Parents are the worst part of kid's sports" and "great set of results on the field today! shame certain soccer moms make soccer so negative."
I presume WIndsor, or that mysterious band of hackers, didn't type hyphens to play what Sports Illustrated's Steve Rushin once referred to as "obscene hangman."
Australia has crazy sports parents, too
A brief note in the continuing series noting that while the United States appears to have the most crazy sports parents, it has no lock on them. Earlier, I gave you South Korea. Now, I give you Australia.
[youtubevid id="681zVPfnKN8″]
From the Sydney Morning Herald, in a story titled "Kids given everything for a leg-up on the field":
Luke Fuller started playing soccer two years ago and he can already juggle the ball 161 times but that's nothing compared with the daily juggle of his father, Brett, to keep his eight-year-old son training and playing the game.
Brett Fuller makes the hour-long trip each way from Bondi to Bexley four afternoons a week; the weekend run can much be further.
It may eat a large chunk out of the Fuller family life but Fuller says his son is so committed it's only right to support his passion.
"As soon as he was to say 'I'm not enjoying it, I want days off', I'd question it but while he's keen and going fairly, well, I'll back him all the way," he says.
"He's enjoying it now but he's always thinking of the future and what he wants to get out of it – playing for Australia – they see all the stars in A-League and English soccer."
"You've got parents willing to shop their kid around to any club that's willing to take them – and in some cases willing to pay any price," says Greg O'Rourke, the president of Australia's largest soccer community, the Sutherland Shire Football Association.
Some clubs poach junior players from the age of 10, but O'Rourke believes most of the pressure comes from parents who feel their child needs the opportunity to play at the top level.
The dream, fuelled by the tinsel and wrapping of modern celebrity status, is all-consuming. One soccer mum – whose nine-year-old son is well outside the elite ranks – had her boy tell her recently he was "really, really worried".
Not about school or bullying or having no friends.
"I'm really worried that I might grow up and just be a normal person when I really want to be a soccer star," he said.
As much as parents might be living out their own frustrated dreams, children have dreams of their own. It's a potent mix, with O'Rourke offering a timely anecdote.
"There's plenty of parents who will happily pay $2500 for private training during the holidays and you ask them why and it's because they're going to be the lucky parent of the next Harry Kewell," he says.
The winner of craziest sports parent in the story is one Mic Parish, who has the combination of dashed dreams of his own youth and egotism that should make him sound familiar to many American sports parents.
Mic Parish reckoned he was spending so much on his two sons – for so little return in terms of the quality of coaching they received – he sold his business, and moved them to England.
"If you're interested in football, really there is nowhere else to be but over here. Australia is starting but it's really a football backwater," he says.
Australian parents have few options but to pay for private academies if they're serious about success, says Parish, whose sons, Cameron, 17, and Nathan, 15, play with Preston North End.
"You've got no choice because the coaching you get is poor. If you're serious about it and you want your kids to have any chance, you've got to do it. Unfortunately, that's just the way it is," he says.
And Parish is clearly serious about it, believing his own career as a goalkeeper came to an end at 18 because no one was managing his advancement. He's determined his children will have every chance and, if their English sojourn ends in failure, so be it.
"At least we can say we lived in in another country, made some friends, we had a go but it didn't work out; we'll move home and go again."
It's probably encouraging to Parish that a similar philosophy worked out for the Bee Gees.
Youth soccer's banned list
While reading this story out of Arizona about two girls' soccer coaches' illegal use of hands, I found out about something I hadn't realized existed. It's U.S. Youth Soccer's Disciplinary and Risk Action Report. That's an official way of referring to the organization's equivalent to — well, I'd say your local sex offender registry, except I don't believe that everyone on youth soccer's banned list committed a sex offense.
The list is not exactly clear in stating why someone is on it, but you must have done something pretty bad in someone's eyes to make it there. The list is comprised of state-level associations' reports of anyone suspended or otherwise facing a punishment that is three months or greater, whether it be a player, coach, administrator, referee, or whether you're banned from being any of those. There also is a category called "adult," which would presumably keep you from merely attending a game.
The list is updated monthly, with the latest additions bolded. Just in case you're doing a little background checking.
Criminal charges dropped in ex-Congressman/youth soccer coach punchout
January 19th was a very big, happy, victorious day for a Republican. Yeah, Scott Brown, too.
Former U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering of Mississippi on Jan. 19 learned he will not be facing criminal charges relating to a scuffle in which he allegedly punched a neckbrace-wearing youth soccer coach. On the other hand, the coach, Chris Hester, also will not face criminal charges for his part in the fight.
Each independently decided to drop pursuing a criminal case against the other regarding the bout, which occurred after a 10- and 11-year-old match in Madison, Miss., that featured Pickering's son on one side and Hester coaching the other. The fight started because Pickering claimed Hester was verbally abusive to his son. By the way, both men are in their 40s, not that you would ever know. At least they were mature enough to decide that it would be better not to make 10- and 11-year-olds go to court for the grind and pain of testifying as to where on the doll Pickering punched Hester.
The judge, and I translate from legalese, called both men douchebags, and everyone went on their way. "I regret very much the entire episode, Pickering said after the court hearing. "I was trying to protect my son. I believe Mr. Hester was trying to protect one of his players. What we've learned is there's a better way to do this, and there's a better way we could have handled everything that night." And with that, it was over.
Well, not quite.
Reporters at the scene noted two major signs that to Hester, this wasn't over. One is that he refused to shake Pickering's hand when he extended it. The other was him and his lawyer holding a press conference to announce they would be suing Pickering to cover Hester's medical bills, perhaps not including the neckbrace he was wearing at the time he got punched.
Sadly for Pickering, he's pretty familiar with the inside of a courtroom. Not only is did Pickering get divorced, but his ex-wife followed with a so-called alien-of-affection lawsuit against Pickering's mistress. So Pickering might have to go through the pain and grind of testifying where on the doll his mistress touched him.
Youth soccer facility, eliminating the middleman, starts its own pro team
The National Sports Center in Blaine, Minn., is the model everyone wants to follow when they want to built a big honkin' facility to host big honkin' youth sports tournaments. But the National Sports Center stays one step ahead. Not only does it provide the means for parents who dream of their children going pro, but it also now provides its own pro team.
The center decided to own its own Division II-level pro team (one level below Major League Soccer) to replace the Minnesota Thunder, a National Sports Center tenant that died as the United Soccer League converted into an old name playing a lower-level game, the North American Soccer League. Pele will not be in this league.
Inside Minnesota Soccer gets the word from Paul Erickson, the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission's executive director, on why the National Sports Center is expanding into the professional sports business:
The one advantage we have, we are the only owner in the entire division II system that owns all of its own facilities. We also have the largest soccer complex on earth with 4 million annual visitors. Now that we are owners of this team we have the ability to program all the youth soccer tournaments and other facilities and incorporate a professional soccer experience. Now that the owner of the team is the owner of the events, we can do a lot more creative things in building ticket packages into the events to make it a comprehensive soccer event.
Plus, the National Sports Center has a beer garden.
The facility is having a name-the-team contest through Jan. 26. Your choices are: the Minnesota Voyageurs, NSC Minnesota, FC Minnesota, Minnesota United, Minnesota Northern Lights, Northstar FC, or that ever-popular choice, Other. Everything but Other sucks. How about the Fats?
[youtubevid id="JNY6R3X25fI"]
You can laugh at the idea of a Minnesota Fats record album, but Etta James is allegedly his daughter, and she had to get the talent from somewhere, right?
Former Congressman accused of punching youth soccer coach
One day you're a rising star in national politics, the next you've fallen from grace to the point you're punching a kids' soccer coach who wears a neck brace.
Chip Pickering, once a shoo-in to replace his old boss Trent Lott as the U.S. Senator from Mississippi, instead is begging coach and nurse Chris Hester to drop simple assault charges against him after the two got in a scuffle following a 10- and 11-year-olds' soccer game in Madison, Miss.
Hester's team was playing a team featuring Pickering's son. Hester said Pickering attacked him in his truck, while Pickering said that after he went to upbraid Hester about being what he called verbally abusive to his son, Hester attacked him. For what it's worth, Hester also has a simple assault charge against him related to the incident. He might have a neck brace, but apparently his fists still work.
Each side's lawyers are talking to see whether charges might be dropped before a scheduled Jan. 19 court date. Pickering already is on the record saying he wants to settle this "man to man." Um, Chip, you already tried settling one conflict with Hester man-to-man, and it's safe to say that didn't work out too well.
[youtubevid id="Lo-pRp5ryh0″]
I'm sure the coach hurts, but I haven't seen such a hilarious neck brace since the cancellation of whatever the last sitcom was that featured a fake auto accident injury as a major plot device.
If this were just a lesson in how even the most august among us are prone to going goofy at youth sports events, the story would end here. Unfortunately for the Chipster, the incident appears to be part of a precipitous decline from future U.S. Senator to someone going to the courthouse enough to get a punchcard that would make his 10th appearance free.
When Lott resigned as Senator in November 2007, Pickering, his former aide and the son of a judge (Charles Pickering) famously appointed by President George W. Bush and famously not confirmed because of Democratic objections (and a judge who is a longtime power-broker in the Mississippi Republican party and a Tea Partier), was rumored to be the top choice to replace him. Pickering not only refused to take Lott's seat, but he also announced he would resign from the House of Representatives in 2008 after 12 years, saying he wanted to spend more time with his wife and five sons.
At least with his wife, Chip Pickering's pledge to "spend more time" meant "spend more time with her before a judge." In June 2008, Pickering announced he and his wife Leisha would divorce. A little more than a year later, Leisha Pickering sued Chip's alleged mistress, Elizabeth Creekmore Byrd, in what's called an alienation-of-affection lawsuit. (Mississippi is one of four states that allow those, which gives aggrieved ex-spouses-to-be the right to sue homewreckers on the grounds they sabotaged a legally binding contract. I guess that sounds easier to rationalize to yourself than "she was my husband's reverse cowboy.")
As part of the court cases, apparently Republican bigwigs are trying to make sure a diary Pickering kept of his shenanigans, a missive that includes the names of his boys who covered his tracks for him. This is a bit of an issue because Pickering is the third member of the s0-called, allegedly highly religious C Street Fellowship, following Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (a former House member) to be caught walking the Appalachain Trail.
So I can imagine that the lawyer(s) for Chip Pickering are trying to impress upon the soccer coach with the neck brace to be a little understanding. After all, Chipper's having a bit of a rough go. C'mon, man, be a pal!
If Pickering is being made to look a fool for the youth soccer incident, well, it's hardly the first time. You might remember Pickering for his co-starring role as a Congressman appearing a church to preach against evolution and for Christian government in a little movie called Borat.
The greatest youth sports commercial ever, damn it
Don't you hate when you see a really good ad that you know is trying to manipulate you, and you're powerless to resist? One that makes you hate yourself, the company, the advertising agency and anyone who's in the room seeing you weep? Well, the folks at the Florida-based supermarket chain Publix — well, probably its ad agency — have come up with such a spot.
It's called "First Game," and it's designed to tie in with Publix's sponsorship of youth soccer. Judging by the YouTube posting date, the ad has been around for nearly a year, but I just caught it the other day thanks to a post by Fatpickled.
Yes, the gender roles seems retrograde, with Mom handling all the groceries. Yes, it is a grocery chain handling the ad, so the family has bought enough postgame food to feed every soccer team from Pensacola to Plantation. Yes, the light piano music is incredibly manipulative.
But damn if the ad agency (I'm still looking to see which one it was) didn't capture the essence of a child's first organized game. The nervous parents, the kid who may or may not be adept or paying attention, the dad who isn't sure what to think when it's clear his kid isn't getting the game right away, the parent who's not sure how the child is going to react when the game is over, the relief when it appears the kid has had a good time. It's a lot of emotion squeezed into one minute and a shitload of grocery shots, but the ad does it right.
Prepare to be moved, and to hate yourself for being moved.
[youtubevid id="HtAwOpQBYPI"]
Learning to get over how your kid's sports prowess (or lack thereof) reflects on you
As a follow to my Field Guide to Youth Sports Parents, a scary look at parental excesses that has already struck many young couples sterile, I highlight a column from Alex Podlogar, the sports editor for the Herald in Sanford, N.C, in which he reflects on the evolution of his own dreams of youth sports parenting as his daughter announces her retirement from the sport of soccer. At age 6.
The lesson the column teaches is that good or bad sports parenting isn't about dreaming of your in utero child becoming World Series MVP — it's about what you do with those dreams when it becomes abundantly clear that day will never come.
Podlogar calls himelf an "idiot" for what he thought before his daughter was born about what his (he and his wife didn't find out the sex before birth, but he was thinking boy all the way) athletic career would be like, and all the reflected glory if it went well and reflected failure if it didn't. (And if you don't think the parent gets reflected glory and and/or failure, watch the other parents watch that kid's parents in an extreme case of talent or lack of it. I remember my first kindergarten soccer game, when one girl started tearing up the field, and after everyone's mouth gaped open looking at her, they looked slack-jawed at her mother, apparently to see if they could spot any magic loins.)
The following passage is reflective of what a lot of men think, even those who aren't sports editor of the local paper.
Allow me to be clear — I, like everyone else who's ever been so lucky to have a child, wanted only for our child to be healthy. Nothing else was important.
But that doesn't mean there are never extenuating worries, most of them insignificant, but worries nonetheless. And, I'm ashamed to say, I was a little concerned that if we had a son and he wasn't a 12-sport letterman by the time he was 10, he would unduly draw the sneers of a public that wondered why the sports editor's son wasn't a great athlete.
I shouldn't say only men have these thoughts. All I know is, I've never heard of a group of women discuss whether their babies will ever grow up to be Cowboys.
[youtubevid id="N_a4BU09GrU"]
Mama, don't let 'em.
It's a parental cliche that whether it's sports or science or stripping, you dream during the first pregnancy of your child become the best, richest and most famous in his or her field. Once the baby arrives, your dreams don't end, but they are put aside as that crying sound after the hours of labor shoves them aside in favor of more mundane things becoming the most spectacular miracles of life. As Podlogar put it:
Looking back, I try to chalk this insane insecurity up to the plagues of youth. No doubt, though, I should've still known better, but when Allison came into the world right at 5 pounds, yet strong and with all her fingers and toes, I immediately stopped worrying so much about my stupid pride.
Not because she was a girl. Because she was Allison. Our Allison. My Allison. My daughter.
However, even those parents who have those more prosaic thoughts can jump right back to my-kid-is-gonna-be-a-star-in-what-I-like. I like basketball, and I made sure my firstborn son had a hoop and ball as soon as possible. The trick to parenting is watching your child develop so you can balance what you would like your child to be with what your child actually wants to be. Podlogar, being a small-town newspaper sports editor, got a pre-parenthood education in wacky youth sports parents enough to know that giving your child a ball and a hoop is one thing, but forcing your child to use it every night from 18 months old onward as you scream instructions is another.
That's why, after a year of soccer, Podlogar took it in stride when his 6-year-old daughter no longer was interested in playing.
But when she decided after a year to back away, we let her mull her decision. We made sure she knew what her decision meant, gave her some more time, and when all of us were certain it was the route she wanted to take for the right reasons, we moved forward.
I don't know if Allison will continue to dip her toe into sports. She has interest in basketball and swimming and may want to stoke her competitive fire again one day. When she does, I believe we'll encourage her to make that happen.
But as she's grown up over the last six years, I feel like I have as well. Kids will do that to you, I guess.
I've learned a lot, but nothing as important as this: when it comes to your kids, who cares what other people think about them? In the end, it matters only what your kids think about themselves.
And it's my job, my wife's job, and all of our jobs as parents to ensure they've got the wherewithal to understand that.
Let the kid define the experience, instead of the sport, or anything for that matter, defining the kid.
Alex Podlogar, if you read the field guide to youth sports parents, I think you'll see yourself as The Role Model.
Mark Abboud paves the road to hell
A Minnesota soccer coach, on his blog, says he was clear from last fall on: if his 12-and-under girls' soccer somehow pulled off the miracle of looking like it would beat an affiliated, elite 13-and-under team in tournament competition, he would, in his words, "probably find a way for the 13s to go through over our team."
And, by god, that's exactly what happened. And now Mark Abboud, a former pro player, is out of a job as technical director of the elite Minnesota Thunder Academy program and is busy working as the latest youth sports morality play.
The academy, which runs recreational and elite programs, tossed out Abboud, fined him $600 (to be paid to charity) and only kept him on as a 12s coach for the rest of the season by the grace of the girls, for an incident May 17.
Abboud slowly and painfully recounts the day in his season blog, giving both the reader and Abboud himself the imagery of seeing a car wreck before it happens, yet not being able to avoid it.
Abboud's team of 12s, as he recounts, was basically in a state cup tournament for the experience. In past years, Abboud had seen a predecessor team to the Thunder, a team he coached, lose to a younger squad, then get smacked in the state tournament. He didn't feel it was valuable to younger girls to get clobbered, nor did he believe it was best for the program for that to happen. No one objected when he put that idea forth — after all, what are the odds?
So game day comes when Abboud's team faces the Thunder's elite 13-year-olds, and he tells his girls to go out and play hard. He even switches up his offensive and defensive set to improve his girls' chances. In a tribute to Abboud's skills, it works — too well. "My thoughts were a-whirl," Abboud wrote May 18. "The 13s are a better team overall than we were. They would do our club proud at Regionals if they got past either the White team or EP (game was to be played after ours). It would be better for the club and for MN to have them represent the state at the Midwest Region Championships. We were here for the experience. I was silently cheering for the 13s to score a goal."
The game is tied at 1 at the end of regulation. And at the end of two overtimes. Time for penalty kicks.
And Abboud makes good on his vow. He instructs his girls to kick slowly to the 13s goalie. Apparently the 12s didn't get the message, because they reportedly were sobbing at the news. (I understand — I worked at a magazine where we were told by the publisher no matter how well we did, the focus always would be on making the sister magazine we spun out thrive, with us left to die. I found a new job not too long after that inspiring pep talk.)
Abboud, in his own words, immediately regretted his presumably well-reasoned, well-thought out decision.
What did I just do? I took the decision out of the girls' hands and dictated a controllable ending to a match against the spirit of competition and of the game itself. Albeit I still stand behind the rationale used in this case, I'm thinking again it was not the right way to deal with the situation. It would have been helpful to have a club coach or director around to bounce this idea off of prior to acting it out.
The look of disappointment and betrayal that some of them held in their eyes was crushing to me. I was so frustrated with the whole thing that I accidentally said "Some of you are going to be poutty and b-i-t-c-h-y to me because of this, but I hope you understand my thought process." I've never used that language with a youth team before, though I'm sure they've heard far worse. The b-word broke the ice, eliciting chuckles from almost every girl, but I still regretted the slip. And regret was already building about other things.
Though many other MTA coaches and directors were supportive later that afternoon to my face, we'll see what the next days bring. I thought it was the right decision to make at the time (and for the entire last year), I take full responsibility for any repercussions, and through this writing that is always insightful and constructive to me, I'm starting to regret the choice.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune did a story on Abboud's Sophie's Choice that didn't shy away from what Abboud did, but was pretty sympathetic, though the 132 reader comments (as of this writing) are, uh, not.
I'll say this first: Abboud must be pretty well-liked for his 12s to accept him after being shafted, so much so that they begged the Thunder to let him stay on as coach. But not to pile on to Abboud's self-flagellation, that was a dumb decision. Especially dumb because he had so much time to think about it. He decided last fall this would happen? Did he run this by his board of directors? Maybe the parents or others didn't object, because they probably didn't think anything of it — until it became reality.
It's funny that while the usual complaints about youth sports is coach's win-at-all-costs attitude, Abboud gets slammed for losing on purpose. But the idea is to try. If the 13s can't beat the 12s, that's their problem. You can't decide they would do better later, that they're having an off day, so you have to game the results for them. Abboud was trying to help, but like my wife says when I throw her delicates in the dryer, you're not helping.
I know, from reading his blog, that Abboud knows all that. However, I would lose my license as a sports pundit if I didn't same something. (And Coach Abboud, feel free to contact me if you wish to speak further about this.)
By the way, the Thunder isn't the only one handing out punishment over this. Inside Minnesota Soccer reported June 1 that the Minnesota Youth Soccer Youth Association not only banned Abboud from coaching in state cup competition through 2010, but they handed the same sanction to the 13s coach, Andy Kassa, as well. (Apparently there was evidence Abboud tipped off Kassa to what he was doing.) The 13s also were booted out of state competition — so much for getting the better team ahead.
Abboud wrote in his blog — not updated since May 21 — that he figured some punishment would be coming down. After all, it doesn't matter if you're shaving points because you're in cahoots with gamblers or shaving points because you think you're helping your club — even in no-score leagues, people don't take kindly to coaches who tell their players to stop trying.


text:
Castaway in a hostile reality. Hunted by telepathic zealots. Trapped within an endless, labyrinthine city…
Michael Bishop has been captured by forces unknown.
Stricken with amnesia and wandering within dank, unused tunnels, Asset 108 might be in a situation he can't snark or seduce his way out of. Accompanied by his terminally gorgeous girlfriend, he finds himself floundering through firefights at the center of an interdimensional web of schemes.
He doesn't even remember how to use a gun.
A firestorm of bullets and an elegant ruse later, Michael stumbles into an alternate dimension, a terrifying plane of existence far from his own. Now, with a few old friends and none of his fancy technology, Bishop has to navigate a city of intrigue and alien horror.
Inhuman machinations loom in the shadows of this place- schemes that threaten the Facility itself…
The Primary Protocol: A Michael Bishop Supernatural Thriller is the second standalone book in the Dossiers of Asset 108 series. If you like wildly sarcastic characters, other-dimensional weirdness, and zany cybertech, then you'll love JM Guillen's action-packed otherworldly adventure!


text:
Delete Cyber Security Scam
About this infection
The reason you are seeing Cyber Security Scam adverts is because an adware has contaminated your computer. These scam adverts will attempt to to make you call Tech support so that scammers can sell you ineffective tools or get access to your PC remotely. If an ad-supported application is indeed to blame, expect pretty invasive adverts. If you negligently install freeware, it's not shocking that an adware is installed. You just need to not fall for these scams, the ads are not dangerous themselves. The con artists on the other side of the phone would request remote access to your computer, and then ensure that they have fixed the issue (which doesn't even exist in the first place), for which they would charge you a lot of money. Keep in mind that you should not authorize some questionable technicians to remotely access your computer, particularly if you get their number via some advertisement that just appeared suddenly in your browser. You can be calm that this infection the advertisement is warning you about it's not real, and that your operating system is safe. When you erase Cyber Security Scam, the warnings should disappear, and your browsing will no longer be interrupted.
Download Removal Toolto remove Cyber Security Scam
* WiperSoft scanner, published on this site, is intended to be used only as a detection tool. More info on WiperSoft. To use the removal functionality, you will need to purchase the full version of WiperSoft. If you wish to uninstall WiperSoft, click here.
How does it behave
The frequent way to get an adware is via freeware packages. It arrives adjoined as an optional item which Default settings don't show, and if you don't see it, you can not uncheck it, which is practically like providing the attached offers the permission to install. We encourage choosing Advanced (Custom) mode as otherwise, the added items won't become visible. If Advanced settings reveal something, ensure you deselect all the offers. We advise that you always uncheck everything because if you weren't properly informed about their installation, they do not belong on your OS. Pay close attention to what you install onto the system, and how you do it, as otherwise, you will constantly end up having to remove Cyber Security Scam or similar.
We can assure you that whatever tech-support scam alert you see on your screen, it is trying to make you believe that your device has ran into a problem and needs urgent attention. You are likely seeing a supposed malevolent program, licensing or computer issues, because scammers are not very original when it comes to schemes, and they're all essentially identical. The alert will normally also include some kind of warning about leaked or lost data because these types of tactics are effective with less experienced people. In order to prevent those data loss scenarios, the user is asked to call their tech-support, who are pretending to be real to scam you. If you ever run into very authentic pop-ups, keep in mind that trustworthy software or security companies will not ask you to contact them through some random phone number. So if you see such warnings, alleging to come from Apple or Microsoft, know that it is not legitimate. The crooks behind these scams would ask to access your device remotely, they would then charge you a large amount of money for fixing an issue that does not even exist. While more computer knowledgeable users will right away understand it is a scam, less computer savvy people may believe them, which is why those scams still exist. It isn't hard to imagine why somebody would fall for these scams because if they are popping up regularly, they might look somewhat legitimate. If our reassurances about these warnings being scams are not enough, you could easily find out by using a search engine to check it out. We can assure that the first results will be of users talking about being fooled out of hundreds of dollars. Now that you are sure it is a scam, you may close the alert without worrying about damage to your machine, and can deal with the actual problem. If the alerts are frequently showing up on your screen, you will have to locate and eliminate Cyber Security Scam adware.
Cyber Security Scam elimination
Taking care of Cyber Security Scam removal should not be hard, so it is doubtful you will happen upon trouble. Whether you should terminate Cyber Security Scam manually or automatically really depends on how experienced you are with computers. Below this report, you will see instructions on how to manually fix the issue if you prefer this method. It would be easier if you opted to use anti-spyware software to terminate Cyber Security Scam but the decision is yours. If you no longer come across the pop-ups, that means you successfully got rid of the infection.
Learn how to remove Cyber Security Scam from your computer
- 1. Uninstall Cyber Security Scam from Windows XP
- 2. Uninstall Cyber Security Scam from Windows 7 and Vista
- 3. Uninstall Cyber Security Scam from Windows 8
- 4. Remove Cyber Security Scam and other malicious add-ons from Internet Explorer:
- 5. Remove Cyber Security Scam and malicious Extensions from Mozilla Firefox:
- 6. Remove Cyber Security Scam and all malicious extensions from Google Chrome:
- 7. How to reset your browser?
Step 1. Uninstall Cyber Security Scam from Windows XP
- Click the Start button.
- Select Control Panel.
- Click Add or Remove Programs.
- Select Cyber Security Scam or other the suspicious program and click Remove.
Step 2. Uninstall Cyber Security Scam from Windows 7 and Vista
- Open the Start menu.
- Select Control Panel.
- Click Uninstall a program.
- Right-click on the Cyber Security Scam or other program that you wish to remove.
- Uninstall it.
Step 3. Uninstall Cyber Security Scam from Windows 8
- Access the Metro UI menu.
- Start typing Control Panel. Open it.
- Click Programs and Features.
- Select Cyber Security Scam or other unwanted application.
- Click the Uninstall button.
Step 4. Remove Cyber Security Scam and other malicious add-ons from Internet Explorer:To deal with Cyber Security Scam in Internet Explorer, you will have to follow these steps:
- Run Internet Explorer and press Alt+X simultaneously.
- Afterwards, open Manage add-ons and choose Toolbars and Extensions.
- From the provided list remove all suspicious extensions including Cyber Security Scam.
- Navigate to Search Providers. Erase the current search tool and pick a new one as your default.
- Save the changes you made and leave this window.
- Now press Alt+X one more time and select Internet Options.
- Access the General tab and replace this home page with the one you trust (google.com , yahoo.com , msn.com)
- To finish the procedure, tap OK.
Step 5. Remove Cyber Security Scam and malicious Extensions from Mozilla Firefox:The users who experience Cyber Security Scam in Mozilla Firefox, should follow the instructions presented below, if they want to clean their system:
- Launch Mozilla Firefox and click Ctrl+Shift+A at the same time.
- Move your cursor to Extensions and locate the suspicious and undesirable entries.
- Next to the chosen extensions, tap the Remove button.
- Press Alt+T and select Options. Access the General tab.
- In General tab, remove the unreliable home page and choose another, like Google.com, Yahoo.com
- Choose Search tab.
- Delete the unwanted search provider and choose your new search. Click OK.
Step 6. Remove Cyber Security Scam and all malicious extensions from Google Chrome:If a browser hijacker took over Google Chrome, the last set of instructions are prepared for you. Do not miss a single step and take care of your system:
- Run Google Chrome and tap Alt+F.
- Click More Tools and choose Extensions.
- Eliminate the undesirable extensions from the list.
- Access Settings and navigate to Open a page or a set of pages that you can find under On startup.
- Press Set pages and replace the current home page with another one.
- Click OK and select Manage Search Engines (under search).
- Remove the current search engine and select a new one.
- Click Done and restart Google Chrome.
Step 7. How to reset your browser?
7.1) Reset Internet Explorer
- Launch your browser and tap Alt+T or click Tools > Internet Options icon at the top right corner.
- Click on the Advanced tab and press Reset button.
- Tick a box next to Delete personal Settings and press the Reset button again.
- Restart your browser.
7.2) Reset Mozilla Firefox
- Open your browser and tap Alt+H.
- Click Help > Troubleshooting Information.
- Now Click Refresh Firefox.
- Click the Refresh Firefox button again.
7.3) Reset Google Chrome
- Open your browser and tap Alt+F or click on 3 Stripes icon at the top right corner
- Select Settings and Click Show advanced settings at end of the page.
- Click Reset settings button.
- Click the Reset button.
7.4) Safari Browser
- Launch your Safari browser.
- Select Safari Settings (top-right corner).
- Choose Reset Safari.... from the drop-down menu.
- A warning dialog box containing all items that you wish to delete will appear. These items are checked by default.
- Make sure that the items you want to erase are checked.
- Press the Reset button.
- Your Safari browser will automatically restart.
Download Removal Toolto remove Cyber Security Scam
* WiperSoft scanner, published on this site, is intended to be used only as a detection tool. More info on WiperSoft. To use the removal functionality, you will need to purchase the full version of WiperSoft. If you wish to uninstall WiperSoft, click here.


text:
Our attorneys have represented companies in every capacity from negotiation sessions to complex litigation in federal courts around the country. Cases that we have handled include breach of contract, misuse of intellectual property, and employer/employee disputes. We have also handled a number of partnership disputes and business dissolutions, in addition to serving as general counsel to many different companies. In an area where the law is constantly changing, Dalton & Tomich, PLC is committed to working with you to develop sound and strategic solutions to help your business achieve its goals.
We have represented many clients in a corporate defense capacity and handled a number of partnership disputes and business dissolutions, in addition to serving as general counsel to many different companies.
The attorneys of Dalton & Tomich, PLC have the experience and the knowledge to work with you to develop a legal solution that helps you accomplish your goals.Speak With an Attorney
The business and employment attorneys of Dalton & Tomich take your business just as seriously as you do. Lead attorney Zana Tomich is trusted by closely held family businesses and others across Michigan as an invaluable partner and counselor. We guarantee all your calls and emails will be returned within one business day so you can focus on what you do best: running your business.
We highly recommend Dalton & Tomich! As a start-up firm that has rapidly grown across the country in under 5 years, Dalton & Tomich has been integral to our sound, credible, and excellent in standard infrastructure. As we've scaled, Zana has been right by our […]Read More
Having worked with Zana for 10 years, I can attest to her professionalism, her pragmatism, and most importantly, her integrity. I always get sound, thoughtful advice and guidance. From routine filings & updates to the highly unexpected, Zana's there to help, always responding quickly and […]Read More
Zana's expert guidance has helped us to move forward with clarity and confidence in our business endeavors. She helped us create a new business entity, and a few years later to navigate a tricky buyout—all with a clear path forward for business growth. Her calm […]Read More
Zana's expertise in employee law has helped us refine and build a stronger operations and hiring strategy at my company. As a business owner of a small and fast growing company, I very much appreciate Zana's ability to always step into any situation quickly and […]Read More


text:
When I was asked to create a rainbow cake, I jumped at the chance. It was fun to create this cake, especially as I made this just before Christmas (it made a pleasant change from sugar snowflakes and Christmas tree cupcakes).
The cake has six individually coloured cakes, covered with white fondant, with a rainbow swirl and rainbow candles. My twelve year old daughter has already put in a request for her next birthday…
"Hi CynthiaWe hope you all had a lovely Christmas Day.Thanks again for making such a beautiful cake. Rebekah was thrilled with it.Blessings." –Kev & Sarah
Red and Yellow and Pink and Green
Orange and Purple and Blue
I can sing a rainbow,
Sing a rainbow,