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Taylor's Story
PLANO, Tex., Nov. 25 – After recording one save last season, Taylor Hooton expected to join the starting rotation next spring for the baseball team at Plano West Senior High School.
"You could count on the kid to throw strikes," said Billy Ajello, Taylor's best friend and a catcher at Plano West, which is located amid the affluent sprawl north of Dallas.
By all accounts, Taylor was popular and ebullient. He was a cousin of Burt Hooton, the former major league pitcher, and his brother pitched in college. Next spring, he would make his own mark during his senior season. But on July 15, a month past his 17th birthday, Taylor Hooton killed himself. The authorities ruled the death a suicide by hanging.
His parents and a doctor familiar with the case said they believe that Taylor's death was related to depression that he felt upon discontinuing the use of anabolic steroids. The sense of euphoria and aggression that accompany the use of steroids can be replaced by lethargy, loss of confidence, melancholy and hopelessness when a person stops using performance-enhancing drugs, doctors said.
"It's a pretty strong case that he was withdrawing from steroids and his suicide was directly related to that," said Dr. Larry W. Gibbons, president and medical director of the Cooper Aerobics Center, a leading preventive medicine clinic in Dallas. "This is a kid who was well liked, had a lot good friends, no serious emotional problems. He had a bright future."
Taylor Hooton's example is extreme, but the use of steroids by athletes and nonathletes in high school is considered even more troubling than the use of them by elite athletes who are involved in widely publicized scandals in sports like football, baseball and track and field, a number of doctors said.
While there are relatively few professional athletes, some doctors estimate that 500,000 to one million high school students, or more, use steroids. Adolescents are also more susceptible to some physiological dangers, including premature cessation of bone growth, which can limit a person's height, doctors said.
By nature, teenagers are risk takers, and they are less likely to understand the health risks or to be concerned with potential side effects like infertility, atrophied testicles, high blood pressure, liver damage and prostate cancer, some of which may not appear for 20 or 30 years, doctors said.
"I'm worried about kids," said Dr. Donald A. Malone, a psychiatrist at the Cleveland Clinic, who wrote a 1995 study indicating an association between depression and steroid use. "Elite athletes know the side effects, and they can afford to pay for the real stuff. Kids don't have the knowledge, and they're buying it from some clown selling it at school. Who knows what they're getting?"
High school students take muscle-building steroids to enhance athletic performance, improve self-confidence and become more attractive to the opposite sex, athletes and doctors say. Young athletes say they are influenced by their professional role models who use illicit substances. Parents are often clueless about signs of steroid use and some parents even encourage it in a misguided attempt to promote their children's careers, doctors said, while many coaches are also uninformed or seem to turn a blind eye.
Four percent of high school seniors said in 2002 that had used steroids, according to a survey by the University of Michigan. Other surveys indicate that 3 percent to 11 percent of high school students said they had used steroids. A survey by the National Collegiate Athletic Association indicated that nearly half of college athletes who admitted using steroids had begun in high school. As many as 3 percent of eighth graders said they had used steroids, according to the Michigan survey.
"While we focus on the elite athletes that are headline grabbers, the underbelly of all this is a much more serious problem," Dr. Gary I. Wadler, a professor of medicine at New York University, said.
Parents and students are rarely willing to speak about steroid use in high school. But Don Hooton, Taylor's father, and Ajello, Taylor's close friend, have begun holding seminars and granting interviews, believing that parents, administrators and coaches need to become better educated and need to confront the issue more forcefully, so that another tragedy may be prevented.
"Don't tell me it's not a problem," Don Hooton, a director of worldwide marketing for Hewlett-Packard, said. "My kid just died."
Ronald Martinez for The New York Times:
Don Hooton in the room where his son committed suicide.
He is trying to raise awareness about steroid use.
Symptoms Overlooked
Those who knew Taylor Hooton described him as a young man who smiled often, was popular with girls and had many friends from different backgrounds. "He was very popular," Blake Boydston, the baseball coach at Plano West, said. "He always came to the field in good spirits. When he spoke, it was, `Thank you; no, sir; yes, sir."
Ajello said that Taylor was also a teenager who colored his hair and looked twice when he passed a mirror. During a chemistry class in the fall of 2002, Taylor mentioned that he might begin using steroids, Ajello said. When Ajello asked why, he said Taylor replied: "I'm not doing it for baseball. I'm doing it for myself."
After Taylor's death, his parents said they had learned from his psychiatrist that he had low self-esteem, and that to feel as if he measured up, he had to make himself bigger, drive a big pickup truck. A junior varsity coach had also suggested to Taylor that he get bigger, Don Hooton said.
Late last winter and into the spring, Don and Gwen Hooton, who is an elementary school teacher, began to notice changes in Taylor's physique and behavior. Taylor, who was 6 feet 1 1/2 inches, grew to 205 pounds from about 175 pounds. Initially, his parents did not suspect steroid use. Don Hooton said he felt proud that his son seemed to be working hard in the weight room.
"There is a checklist of symptoms, and he was showing almost all of them," Don Hooton said. "We didn't know any better. We should have."
Taylor began to develop acne on his back and to exhibit signs of aggressiveness and irritability that are often associated with steroid use, his parents said. He flew into rages, then became tearfully apologetic. He took several hundred dollars from his parents' bank account without permission. He would pound the floor with his fists in anger. Once, he punched a wall and injured a knuckle on his pitching hand.
After his death, his parents said, they learned that Taylor had hurled a phone through a wall, hiding the damage behind a picture, and had pummeled his girlfriend's former boyfriend, who required nine stitches to close a wound.
Ajello said that he had warned Taylor about the health risks of steroids, but that Taylor "kind of blew it off." Apparently, none of Taylor's friends alerted an adult.
"The last thing you want to do is accuse someone of being on steroids," Ajello said. "You don't want to make their work ethic look bad."
Boydston, the high school's baseball coach, said he had noticed no troubling behavior by Taylor, and that if he seemed to be gaining weight, it appeared natural. "He had room to grow," Boydston said.
Eventually, Taylor's parents became suspicious. He mentioned an interest in steroids, then later confided to his brother, Donald, that he was using them, while still denying it to his parents.
At his parents' urging, Taylor was tested for drugs last April, but his parents said they later discovered that the screening had involved recreational drugs, not steroids. When the test came back clean, Taylor told his parents, "I told you I hadn't been doing anything."
Still, his behavior grew more alarming. During a rage last April, he told his mother, "I'll just take a knife and end it now." His parents sent him to a psychiatrist. Taylor told the doctor that he had been injecting himself with the steroid Deca 300, and taking oral Anadrol, Don Hooton said, but by May 19 Taylor said he had stopped using the drugs. Ajello said he believed that Taylor had halted his usage later and had planned to start again after a family vacation to England in July.
While on the trip, Taylor did something completely out of character, stealing a digital camera and a laptop computer, his father said. When the family returned home on July 14, his parents, brother and sister confronted Taylor and told him that his behavior had become unacceptable. He was grounded.
The next morning, Taylor asked his mother to lift the punishment, but she said no. He went upstairs and, using belts to fashion a noose, hung himself from the door in his bedroom, Don Hooton said. Later, when Taylor's room was inspected by the police and his father, vials of steroids, along with syringes and needles, were found. An autopsy revealed the presence of the metabolized steroids 19-norandrosterone and 19-noretiocholanolone in Taylor's system, a report by the Collin County medical examiner said.
Taylor was not the first athlete whose death was believed to be related to the psychological effects of steroid use. In August 1989, Eric Elofson of Bakersfield, Calif., hung himself from a tree in his front yard. He had stopped using Dianabol about a month before his suicide, his parents wrote in a journal, The Physician and Sports Medicine.
Suicide attempts related to steroid withdrawal are "more common than most people suspect," Dr. Harrison Pope, a Harvard psychiatrist who has done extensive research on steroids, said.
No Drug Testing at School
After Taylor Hooton died, Plano West made counselors available to its baseball players. In September, 600 administrators, coaches, students and parents attended a steroids seminar at the school. Another seminar earlier this month at Plano Senior High School drew a disappointing number of male athletes, Don Hooton said.
He and Ajello said they doubted that the school district was taking the dangers of steroids seriously. Ajello said that Boydston, the baseball coach, had not mentioned Taylor's death to him since shortly after school started, a statement the coach said was inaccurate.
"They don't want to talk about it," Ajello, an 18-year-old senior, said of school officials. "They want to pretend it didn't happen. The administration will probably tell you otherwise, but from a student's perspective, it's done and over with."
Mike Hughes, the athletic director and football coach at Plano West, disputed this. "We're not trying to brush it aside," he said. "We hurt, but we have to move on and continue to educate kids."
Phil Saviano, the principal at Plano West, said Taylor Hooton's death was his first encounter with steroids.
Some of the coaches and athletic officials insist that steroids are not a big problem at Plano West. Hughes said, "I have been in the district 21 years and I have not known of a kid that was on steroids."
Asked about the most urgent challenges the school faced with students, Boydston said, "I think steroids are at the bottom of the list."
Ajello had a more disturbing assessment. He said that he had never used steroids himself, but that use of steroids at Plano West was "extremely widespread" before Taylor's death. Some students had been scammed by dealers selling vials containing water and cooking spray, he said. "Some kids have stopped," Ajello said. "It hit home to some people, but I don't think enough."
Don Hooton said he had no evidence that coaches encouraged his son to use steroids. Hughes and Boydston said they had advised players to get bigger and stronger properly, through better nutrition and weight lifting, and had cautioned against using steroids.
The translation of that message by players is somewhat more complicated, Ajello said. "Coaches don't come out and say, `Take steroids,' " Ajello said. "Freshman, sophomore, junior year, they tell you you're too small. A kid thinks high school sports are everything: `I have to take it to the next level to get bigger and stronger to play.'
"You take every little step, every chance you get to win, to play, to step on that field in front of a couple of thousand people on Friday night. I think the coaches know and almost kind of turn their heads. I think if they knew for sure, certain coaches would pull a kid aside and say, `What are you doing?' I think other coaches would turn their heads, and even if they knew wouldn't say anything to a kid."
The United States Supreme Court has granted schools permission to screen for drug use among students who participate in extracurricular activities. A school district like Plano, which has built a $15 million stadium and indoor practice facilities for its three high school football teams, could surely afford drug testing, Don Hooton said.
But school district officials say they cannot afford to test students for drugs. "We've all said drug testing is good," Cliff Odenwald, athletic director for the Plano district, said. "At this point, with the financial situation we're in, we can't do that."
School officials said that the football facilities were built through bond issues approved by voters and that money for drug testing would have to come out of an annual district budget that is stretched to the limit. This year, the district sent $130 million, or 32 percent of its budget, to the state for use by less affluent school districts, officials said, and next year Plano faces a $15 million budget cut.
So how are students to be discouraged from using steroids? Dr. Tedd Mitchell, associate medical director of the Cooper Aerobics Center, said the most effective approach might be an appeal to their honor.
"If you play football," Mitchell said, "you never say, `We'll let this team have 11 players and you get 8.' That's cheating. If you start cranking up on steroids, that's cheating. Any coach that allows this is allowing cheating. Any parent trying to live vicariously through their kids and who looks the other way is allowing cheating."
Taylor Hooton – A Dangerous Experiment
Presented by: Jere Longman


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Posted by Editor on 12/21/06
2006 IMBA Report Card Gives B.C. a 'C'
Courtesy IMBA
The 2006 IMBA Report Card hails Oregon and Scotland, while handing demerits to British Columbia and Montana. The Report Card, now in its eighth edition, gauges the riding opportunities and advocacy strength in the United States, Canadian Provinces and nations with significant IMBA activities.
In 2006, IMBA has stepped away from assigning each state, province and nation individual grades. Instead, we're hoping to focus attention where it's most needed: the top of the class, and the problem students who will need extra attention to succeed in 2007.
Category: Top Dog in USA
State: Oregon
Grade: A
We've always said that there's more to the Top Dog award than offering world-class trails - entries like the North Umpqua and the Mackenzie River trail mean that Oregon stacks up with any place you could visit in that regard. Our reasons for making this selection go beyond outstanding riding. There's also a statewide plan for developing trail recreation that should be inspirational for the rest of the Union. On top of that, Oregon's standout bike clubs - like the Columbia Area Mountain Bike Advocates (CAMBA), Central Oregon Trail Alliance (COTA), Oregon Mountain Bike Alliance (ORMBA), Portland United Mountain Pedalers (PUMP) and others who are working diligently to protect trail access. They've even helped shape a bike-friendly land management plan for Mount Hood - no small trick. Meanwhile, the Black Rock Mountain Bike Association (BRMBA) has established outstanding freeriding resources by collaborating with the Oregon Department of Forestry. All that, plus there's a microbrewery on four out of five street corners. What more could a mountain biker want?
Category: Global Superstar
Nation: Scotland
Grade: A+
"The Scots have gone positively bonkers!" That was the comment that best summed up the way we've seen mountain biking progress in Scotland - the first nation to record back-to-back honors in this hotly contested category. By "bonkers," we mean they're promoting the sport on all fronts, including a nationwide strategic plan that lays the groundwork for a network of fantastic bike parks on Forestry Commission lands. The plan covers every aspect of the sport, from trail construction to management schemes to tourism promotion. Their biggest problem? Deciding how to best transport hoards of enthused riders to the top of popular gravity-fed trails (ski-lift service is a rarity). The "7Stanes" mountain bike centers are frequently cited as a success story for adventure tourism. From cross-country to downhill to bike parks, Scottish riders have access to every kind of knobby-wheel fun, and they're ready for more.
Category: Most Endangered
State: Montana
Grade: C-
It's not easy to "get away from it all" in the Lower 48 these days - unless you're riding in the Big Sky state. In Montana you can bike all day without seeing another person, and bask in magnificent mountain ranges, meadows and alpine lakes. Unfortunately, this kind of two-wheeled bliss will become a thing of the past if a new Forest Service proposal succeeds in banning bikes from many of the state's most beautiful roadless areas. The Forest Service seems to be operating under the misperception that bicycles are tantamount to motor vehicle traffic. Bicycles are quiet and human-powered, but if we get lumped with motorized users, mountain bikers risk losing access to more than 700 miles of amazing singletrack. Montana advocates are determined, but small in number. They need others to step up and help them protect the land in a way that allows bicycles. If mountain bikers don't make a stand for access in Montana, some of the nation's most scenic rides could be lost.
Category: 2007 Alert
Nation/Province: Canada/British Columbia
Grade: C
"It's a catch-22 situation. They say we need insurance, but they can't say where we might be able purchase it." That's how James Brown, an IMBA rep and the president of the South Island Mountain Bike Society views a new plan that could affect the way mountain bike trails on Crown lands in BC are managed. In the fall of 2006, the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts (MTSA) released its first draft of a management plan for mountain biking in British Columbia. If the plan is adopted, it will put the onus on individual trailbuilders and mountain bike clubs to maintain trails to the government's standards - and possibly to provide liability insurance for trails with technical features. In case you've never had the privilege of riding here, nearly all trails in BC are technical (wonderfully so). Many aspects of the MTSA's mountain biking plan are well thought-out. But not this aspect of it. As Grant Lamont, a former president of the Whistler Off-Road Cycling Association, recently told the Pique, "We have to look at the positives, that the province is recognizing mountain biking as a legitimate sport and that when trails are on Crown land they should meet certain standards for quality." That's good news, but if the kinks - including insurance and maintenance responsibilities - aren't worked out, the government might shut down some of the most iconic trails ever built. Stay tuned in 2007, as IMBA Canada works on the resolving this very concerning situation.
|Return to Canadian Cyclist homepage | Back to Top

subset: commoncrawl


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- Appraisals
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All of our appraisals are done on site and performed by certified GIA Appraiser. Your jewelry NEVER leaves our store.
Our appraisal are a GIA document that describes an item, assesses its relative quality and assigns a value to it. Descriptions usually cover the visible, measurable and analyzable facts about the item (weight, materials, markings). Most appraisals also describe subjective features such as gemstone quality, relative rarity and overall quality of manufacture. It will also include a picture of your item.
There a few different types of jewelry appraisals but we have found that 'Insurance' or 'Fair Market Value' appraisals will cover all the needs for having your jewelry documented. We will help you decide which type of appraisal best suits your needs.
Most appraisals done today are for insurance replacement purposes. This is done to asses a Retail cost of replacing an item. Insurance appraisals reflect the cost, that is needed, to replace a piece of jewelry from a retail Jewelry Store.
Reflect an actual selling price between a willing buyer and seller, when neither is compelled by time or need to buy or sell in the item's most common market. Fair market value must represent the item's value in its current (used) condition. Fair market value is generally required for charitable donations and estate appraisals. Fair market values may run lower than retail replacement values, because replacement values often reflect the cost to replace a used item with a new equivalent.Learn More About Diamonds
Childrens Jewelry
For the little ones in your life, we have a variety of jewelry to choose from. From that first Baby ring, ID bracelet, Earrings or Religious Jewelry, to their Birthstone in Gold or Sterling Silver. We also carry Disney, Hello Kitty, "Just Like Mommy" collection and Amore La Vita Charms. Come in and let us help you decide what is the perfect gift for that special child.Learn More About Diamonds
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As owners, Brian & Janie, have over 55 years of combined repair, design and restoration experience. Everything from a simple chain solder to a complex fire damage restoration. We enjoy challenges and are not afraid to say that "We are very good at what we do!".
We repair all types and styles of jewelry from Engagement Rings, Earrings, Bracelets, Necklaces, Gem Stone Replacements, Clasp Repair/Replacement and much more. All of our repairs are done exclusively on premise. We don't send your repair item off to a repair facility, where you can wait weeks to get your jewelry back.Learn More About Diamonds
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Instead of spending hours searching for the right piece of jewelry on the internet or enduring the hassles of the malls, why not save a lot of time and money, by building it yourself? Along with the help of our trained artisans of course.
We have over 56 years of combined experience creating all sorts of unique jewelry pieces. Trust us to work with you to create a one-of-a-kind custom jewelry that has it's own special uniqueness. Walk into our store with an idea and walk out with a unique creation that will be cherished till the Dawn of Time! ( Or something to that effect....)
We enjoy a vast amount of return customers because WE are that GOOD. PROMISE!Learn More About Diamonds
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We offer free engraving for items that are purchased from our store. We also offer affordable engraving services for rings, pendants, charms and most small items. We have different Font styles from which to choose.Learn More About Diamonds
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We offer free ear piercing, with the purchase of our 14K gold piercing earrings. Minimum age for ear piercing is 6mo. Be confident, we use the most up-to-date equipment and materials, that are designed to minimize discomfort, while still maintaining a sterile environment.Learn More About Diamonds
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We strongly encourage our customers to have their jewelry inspected and cleaned on a regular basis. Rule of thumb: Every six months if you casually wear your jewelry or every 3 months if they are worn every day. Allow us to use our knowledge, expertise and equipment, to help identify small issues and prevent them from becoming big $$ problems. In our business, it is never so true, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Our free jewelry cleaning process includes:
- Inspecting each piece of jewelry for common wear and tear and 'not so' common wear and tear.
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We buy gold, platinum, and silver jewelry. With or without gemstones/diamonds, in any condition. Always fair and top payment will be paid to you, or you may decide to use it toward a purchase or repair in our store.Learn More About Diamonds
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There are a lot of companies that claim that they do "Jewelry Restorations". The fact is, most restorations are beyond the scope, skill or knowledge, of most businesses. To perform a true "restoration", requires an intricate knowledge of jewelry manufacturing with solid background in Metallurgy and Mechanics of Materials. We here at Christoff Jewelers have extensive knowledge, experience and the tools necessary to perform a proper Jewelry Restorations. We have tackled some tricky projects, that were passed on by other Jewelers, with wonderful results! We have been doing this for so long, that we have pretty much seen it all and we love a challenge.Learn More About Diamonds
We are an Authorized Seiko Dealer but we service most brands of watches. Our Watch Services consist of watch battery replacements, band adjustment/sizing and case back seal replacements.Learn More About Diamonds
What Our Happy Clients Say
Janie & Brian, thank you for all of your help and patience! You did an outstanding job offering suggestions and the results of this effort produced an absolute gorgeous wedding setting that I will cherish for a lifetime. I get compliments on my ring and I happily recommend Christoff Jewelers to anyone that's looking for a one on one jeweler experience. You and your staff continue to provide great customer service with regular cleanings and service.


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Good Start Genetics Inc., a molecular diagnostics company based in Cambridge, said Wednesday that it has closed a non-dilutive loan facility for up to $28 million of capital from Capital Royalty LP.
Good Start, which launched in 2010, specializes in carrier screenings for genetic mutations that can cause disease. For a woman thinking about getting pregnant, such screenings can provide information about the likelihood of her child having an inherited disease. A big potential market for such screenings is made up of women who are thinking about getting pregnant as a result of in vitro fertilization.
The company calls its menu of screening tests "GoodStart Select." Using its proprietary next-generation sequencing technology, the company says its product can detect such diseases as cystic fibrosis as well as disease-causing mutations that more traditional screening tests sometimes miss.
Good Start Genetics said it will use the proceeds from the loan facility to support its long-term corporate growth initiatives.
In a statement, company president and chief executive Don Hardison said, "We are now in a strong financial position with sufficient capital to take us far beyond our projected 2013 profitability and cash flow operating goals."
Previously, the company raised $32 million in venture capital funding in two rounds of financing.
Chris Reidy can be reached at email@example.com.


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Huskies march past Temple for fourth straight win
PHILADELPHIA >> Shabazz Napier had 17 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists as No. 21 Connecticut denied Temple its second straight upset over a nationally ranked team with a 68-55 victory Thursday night.
Ryan Boatright added 14 points and DeAndre Daniels had 13 for the Huskies (21-5, 9-4 American Athletic Conference), who won their fourth straight despite shooting 2 for 13 from 3-point range.
Quenton DeCosey scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half for Temple (7-18, 2-11), at one point scoring all of his team's points for more than a 13-minute stretch. He grabbed a career-high eight rebounds.
The Owls shot just 33 percent from the field.
Napier, UConn's leading scorer, helped ice the game down the stretch, shooting 11 for 11 from the free throw line for the game. The senior guard had an acrobatic three-point play to give the Huskies a 52-38 lead with 6:47 left.
The Owls went nearly 10 minutes without a field goal before DeCosey made a runner with 5:49 left to bring Temple within 52-40.
Temple is in the middle of a brutal stretch of playing five straight Top 25 opponents a first for the 120-year-old program. The Owls were blown out by No. 11 Louisville last Friday before upsetting then-No. 23 SMU on Sunday. They continue the stretch with road games against No. 22 Memphis on Saturday and Louisville next Thursday.
The Owls looked poised for an upset bid early, taking an 18-12 lead midway through the first half after a three-point play from Mark Williams.
But the Huskies quickly went on an 11-0 run to take the lead for good. Boatright who missed UConn's 90-66 rout of Temple last month when he attended a funeral led the surge, hitting a 3-pointer with Dalton Pepper draped all over him before throwing a behind-the-back pass to Daniels for a big dunk.
Later in the first half, Napier's alley-oop pass to Amida Brimah resulted in an electrifying play to help the Huskies build an eight-point halftime lead.
Pepper broke a 6-minute scoring drought for the Owls with a 3-pointer with 16:50 remaining. A little more than one minute later Will Cummings drained a 3 to pull Temple within 40-35.
But the Owls were never able to get closer than that.
Pepper, Temple's leading scorer, finished with 11 points on 4-for-18 shooting Anthony Lee, who missed Temple's last game with a knee injury, and Cummings added 10 points apiece.
Temple fell into a tie for last place in the American with Central Florida. The 18 losses match the most in one season in Temple coach Fran Dunphy's 25-year head coaching career.


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Giants honor victims, firefighters on 9/11
SAN FRANCISCO -- On the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Giants paid tribute to the victims and first responders from that tragic event Wednesday with a pregame ceremony at AT&T Park.
A video from the 9/11 Memorial played on the park's big screen just moments before the national anthem, which was performed by Michaela Donohue, the daughter of San Rafael firefighter Chris Donohue.
Crispen and O'Leary traveled to New York on the first commercial flight available out of San Francisco after the attacks and assisted in the rescue efforts. They used vacation time and bought their own airline tickets, joining a group of friends and coworkers in the effort.


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25 January 2006 18:00
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Sachin S. Pandya
- Employment Law
- Tort Law
Sachin Pandya's scholarship has focused on American employment law, tort law, and the origins of the American liability insurance market. Since joining the Law School in 2008, Professor Pandya has taught Torts, Employment Law, and advanced seminars on related topics.
A graduate of Yale Law School (J.D.), Columbia University (M.A. Sociology), and the University of California, Berkeley (B.A. Social Science), Professor Pandya clerked for the Honorable Jon O. Newman, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, after which he served as an appellate and civil rights attorney in the Office of the New York Attorney General. There, he litigated, and often personally argued, many complex cases in New York State's appellate courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He also helped litigate cases in the US Supreme Court. In 2004, he was a co-recipient of a Best U.S. Supreme Court Brief Award from National Association of Attorneys General. Professor Pandya started his law teaching career as a teaching fellow at Columbia Law School.
Sachin Pandya, "Designing The Tax Treatment of Litigation-Related Costs" (with Stephen Utz), 21 Florida Tax Review 533 (2018)
Sachin S. Pandya, Presuming Damages for Unemployment Distress, 19 Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal 85 (2015)
Sachin S. Pandya and Peter Siegelman, Underclaiming and Overclaiming, 38 Law & Social Inquiry 836 (2013)
Professor Sachin Pandya served as a working-paper discussant at the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools on Jan. 4, 2020, at a panel titled, "New and Emerging Voices in Workplace Law." It was jointly sponsored by the Association of American Law Schools sections on employment discrimination law and on labor relations and employment law.


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Mad Men's Vincent Kartheiser Selling His Tiny Hollywood Home
The actor's pad on Lexington Avenue may only be 603 sq. ft., but it's gorgeously designed
It's mad small, but also adorable – and exquisitely designed.
Mad Men actor Vincent Kartheiser has put his Hollywood home on the market. But it's not the kind of expansive mansion you'd expect a TV star to own.
For one thing, it's only 603 sq. ft.
But Kartheiser, 35, who plays Pete Campbell on the AMC drama, has made the most of the space at 6512 Lexington Ave. since buying the micro-home in 2003. In fact, it's now so beautifully designed that it was featured in Dwell magazine last year.
The actor, who is engaged to Mad Men costar Alexis Bledel, teamed up with designer and builder Funn Roberts to give the house what Kartheiser calls a "Japanese-industrial" style. It features vaulted ceilings and exposed beams, lots of glass and steel, sliding screens and light boxes that glow – and a bed that can be lifted to the ceiling on a pulley system.
The home, built in 1912, sits on a walled and gated lot of 2,325 sq. ft. A coffee table outside even converts to a fireplace.
And at just $808,000, it's a bargain by Hollywood standards.
Tregg Rustad of Rodeo Realty is the listing agent.


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Panic of 1907, Federal Reserve Act and Depression of 1920
History 101
In 1907 the Heinze Brothers thought Investors were Shorting the Stock of their United Copper Company
Buying and selling stocks is one way to get rich. Typically by buying low and selling high. But you can also get rich if the stock price falls. How you ask? By short-selling the stock. You borrow shares of a stock that you think will fall in price. You sell them at the current price. Then when the stock price falls you buy the same number of shares you borrowed at the lower price. And use these to return the shares you borrowed. You subtract the price you pay to buy the cheaper shares from the proceeds of selling the costlier shares for your profit. And if the price difference/number of shares is great enough you can get rich.
In 1907 the Heinze brothers thought investors were shorting the stock of their United Copper Company. So they tried to turn the tables on them and get rich. They already owned a lot of the stock. They then went on a buying spree with the intention of raising the price of the stock. If they successfully cornered the market on United Copper Company stock then the investors shorting the stock would have no choice but to buy from them to repay their borrowed shares. Causing the short sellers to incur a great loss. While reaping a huge profit for themselves.
Well, that was the plan. But it didn't quite go as planned. For they did not control as much of the stock as they thought they did. So when the short-sellers had to buy new shares to replace their borrowed shares they could buy them elsewhere. And did. When other investors saw they weren't going to get rich on the cornering scheme the price of the stock plummeted. For the stock was only worth that inflated price if the short-sellers had to buy it at the price the Heinze brothers dictated. When the cornering scheme failed the stock they paid so much to corner was worth nowhere near what they paid for it. And they took a huge financial loss. But it got worse.
The Panic of 1907 led to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913
After getting rich in the copper business in Montana they moved east to New York City. And entered the world of high finance. And owned part of 6 national banks, 10 state banks, 5 trusts (kind of like a bank) and 4 insurance companies. When the cornering scheme failed the Heinze brothers lost a lot of money. Which spooked people with money in their banks and trusts. As these helped finance their scheme. So the people rushed to their banks and pulled their money out. Causing a panic. First their banks. Then their trusts. Including the Knickerbocker Trust Company. Which collapsed. As the contagion spread to other banks the banking system was in risk of collapsing. Causing a stock market crash. Resulting in the Panic of 1907.
Thankfully, a rich guy, J.P. Morgan, stepped in and saved the banking system. By using his own money. And getting other rich guys to use theirs. To restore liquidity in the banking system. To avoid another liquidity crisis like this Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act (1913). Giving America a central bank. And the progressives the tool to take over the American economy. Monetary policy. By tinkering with interest rates. And breaking away from the classical economic policies of the past that made America the number one economic power in the world. Built on a foundation of thrift, savings, investment, free trade, the gold standard, etc. Where people saved for the future. The greater their savings the more investment capital there was. And the lower interest rates were.
The Federal Reserve (the Fed) changed all of that. By printing money to keep interest rates artificially low. Giving us boom and bust cycles as people over invest and over build because of cheap credit. Leading to bubbles (the boom) in asset prices that painful recessions (the bust) correct. Instead of the genuine growth that we got when our savings determined interest rates. Where there is no over-investing or over-building. Because the limited investment capital did not permit it. Guaranteeing the efficient flows of capital to generate real economic activity.
Warren Harding's Tax Cuts ignited Economic Activity and gave us the Modern World
Thanks to the Fed there was a great monetary expansion to fund World War I. The Fed cut the reserve requirements in half for banks. Meaning they could loan more of their deposits. And they did. Thanks to fractional reserve banking these banks then furthered the monetary expansion. And the Fed kept the discount rate low to let banks borrow even more money to lend. The credit expansion was vast. Creating a huge bubble in asset prices. Creating a lot of bad investments. Or malinvestments. Economist Ludwig von Mises had a nice analogy to explain this. Imagine a builder constructing a house only he doesn't realize he doesn't have enough materials to finish the job. The longer it takes for the builder to realize this the more time and resources he will waste. For it will be less costly to abandon the project before he starts than waiting until he's built as much as he can only to discover he will be unable to sell the house. And without selling the house the builder will be unable to recover any of his expenses. Giving him a loss on his investment.
The bigger those bubbles get the farther those artificially high prices have to fall. And they will fall sooner or later. And fall they did in 1920. Giving us the Depression of 1920. And it was bad. Unemployment rose to 12%. And GDP fell by 17%. Interestingly, though, this depression was not a great depression. Why? Because the progressives were out of power. Instead of the usual Keynesian solution to a recession Warren Harding (and then Calvin Coolidge after Harding died in office) did the opposite. There was no stimulus deficit-spending. There was no playing with interest rates. Instead, Harding cut government spending. Nearly in half. And he cut tax rates. These actions led to a reduction of the national debt (that's DEBT—not deficit) by one third. And ignited economic activity. Ushering in the modern world (automobiles, electric power, radio, telephone, aviation, motion pictures, etc.). Building the modern world generated real economic activity. Not a credit-driven bubble. Giving us one of the greatest economic expansions of all time. The Roaring Twenties. Ending the Depression of 1920 in only 18 months. Without any Fed action or Keynesian stimulus spending.
By contrast FDR used almost every Keynesian tool available to him to end the Great Depression. But his massive New Deal spending simply failed to end it. After a decade or so of trying. Proving that government spending cannot spend an economy out of recession. But cuts in government spending and cuts in tax rates can. Which is why the Great Recession lingers on still. Some 6 years after the collapse of one of the greatest housing bubbles ever. Created by one of the greatest credit expansions ever. For President Obama is a Keynesian. And Keynesian policies only lead to boom-bust cycles. Not real economic growth. The kind we got from classical economic policies. Built on a foundation of thrift, savings, investment, free trade, the gold standard, etc. The economic policies that made America the number economic power in the world.
Tags: banking system, banks, boom, bubbles, bust, capital, credit expansion, Depression of 1920, Fed, Federal Reserve Act, free trade, government spending, Great Depression, Harding, Heinze, interest rates, investment, Keynesian, Knickerbocker Trust Company, liquidity, monetary expansion, monetary policy, Panic of 1907, real economic activity, recession, savings, short-sellers, short-selling, stock, stock price, tax rates, the gold standard, thrift, trusts, United Copper Company, Warren Harding


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I've written about VAT a number of times on this blog, and with good reason – it's a topic that causes a lot of confusion for online sellers and if you get it wrong it can really destroy your business. In my opinion, registering for VAT when you don't need to is the biggest tax mistake an eBay or Amazon seller can make!
But all that has been covered before on my blog, numerous times in fact, so what's the point of today's article?
Well today's post is really a warning about Amazon's Pan-European fulfilment service – which is a HUGE tax trap under new EU law.
As you all know, when you sell on Amazon you get access to all 5 European marketplaces:
- Amazon UK
- Amazon Germany
- Amazon France
- Amazon Italy
- Amazon Spain
And you can sell to all of these marketplaces with your one seller subscription, which is great! In fact you don't even need to create multiple listings – you simply create your listings on your home marketplace (Amazon.co.uk for example) and if they're eligible, they'll "automatically be re-created in the remaining four marketplaces via Amazon's 'build international listings tool'."
But Amazon have gone one step further and recently a very exciting addition to the Fulfiled by Amazon fulfilment service was introduced, called Pan-European FBA.
The idea behind it is very simple – it allows you to offer your products to all 5 European marketplaces but rather than your stock being stored and shipped from one fulfilment center (as is normally the case) – Amazon will distribute them across ALL 5 countries.
This of course provides a number of important advantages to us as sellers:
It's FREE!
Amazon don't charge you to distribute your stock and you don't even have to do it yourself. You simple send your FBA items to your local Amazon fulfilment center and Amazon then spreads it around all 5 countries (plus two more) based on expected demand.
Your products become Prime-eligible!
Having your stock stored in the home country makes it eligible for Amazon's sales boosting Prime delivery service in all 5 European marketplaces, meaning you'll see a big boost in international sales.
Quicker delivery!
It obviously goes without saying that shipping domestically is going to be faster than having all orders sent out internationally from one Amazon fulfilment center. Faster deliveries means happier customers and more repeat orders.
Less FEES!
Yep, you read that right! Even with all the added benefits, Amazon's Pan-European fulfilment actually saves you money! How? Well because you only pay the local fulfilment fee for that particular marketplace when one of your items is sold and you save the usual cross border fee charged when you sell via Amazon's European Fulfilment Network (EFN).
Let's take a quick look so you can see what difference this makes:
So as you can see, you save between 13-38% in Amazon fulfilment fees, depending on which country you sell to, which is a significant amount and nothing to be sniffed at.
I'm guessing you're now wondering what the problem with Pan-European FBA is? After all, it's free, it will increase your sales, and it actually saves you money in fees…!
But there is a huge downside to it that, judging by the emails and questions I receive, a lot of people are seemingly unaware of:
It means you have to become VAT registered in every country that your stock is stored in!
This is due to the EU law introduced last year to try and tackle overseas sellers who store stock in Europe, allowing them to undercut local sellers WITHOUT having to pay the same taxes.
Following this new rule, you now have to register for VAT as soon as you have inventory stored in a country. So if you have stock stored in Amazon's fulfilment center in Germany, you need to register for VAT in Germany. If you have stock stored in Amazon's fulfilment center in Italy, you need to register for VAT in Italy, etc. etc.
What this basically means is that you'll have to register for VAT in every single country that Amazon stores your stock in, which also includes Poland and the Czech Republic (as well as the 4 European marketplaces).
And no – it doesn't matter how much you're selling. This is different to local VAT registration, where you only have to register once you reach the sales threshold (this is currently £83,000 in the UK but it's generally increased every year).
As soon as you have stock stored in a European country, you need to register for VAT in that country (even if your sales are £0).
In comparison, when you store and ship products from a sole Amazon fulfilment center, we'll use the UK for this example, then you only need to register for VAT in the European countries that you sell to once you reach their distance selling thresholds. Now these differ from country to country but generally it's €35,000 (roughly £30,000) with the exception of a few countries (Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourg) where it's €100,000 (roughly £85,000).
Just so there's no confusion – using Amazon's Pan-European fulfilment service means registering for VAT in 6 different countries. You'll have to charge the correct VAT rates to the correct customers, keep records and file VAT tax returns for all of them as well.
People find it too much cost and work to do this for one country, never mind 6! I shudder just thinking of all that paperwork – and the cost is going to be huge as well as you'll most likely need to hire a local accountant to take care of all the country specific details.
Realising how this is going to put off the majority of sellers, Amazon have teamed up with KPMG (one of the "big four" auditors with a revenue of $25 billion a year) to offer a special, discounted rate VAT service for Amazon marketplace sellers.
KPMG are offering Amazon sellers VAT registrations and filings in up to 7 EU countries at special bundle and discounted rates.
The cost is £700 per country per year OR £3600 per year for all 6 countries (which works out at £600 per country per year):
Now this may seem like a lot of money, and well… IT IS! But that's because you're registering and filing VAT returns in 6 different countries – so it's actually not an unreasonable fee to charge. And to me it's a perfect measuring point – unless you're happy to pay £3600 for the privilege, then you should simply continue selling to Europe from Amazon's UK fulfilment center.
After all, how much do you need to be selling to make that worthwhile? We discussed earlier how you save 13-38% in Amazon fees by using this service, so let's call that 25%. That means to save the £3600 yearly fee you need to be paying £15,000 in Amazon seller fees per year (and that's just talking about your fees for sales to European countries).
I know that's a very simplified way of looking at this and it ignores the other benefits, but I just wanted to illustrate how this should only be considered if you've got the sales numbers to back it up.
All in all, I can't see how this is beneficial at all and I hope you see why I called this a VAT trap – really nightmare is a more accurate term.
If you've fallen for the Amazon sales talk and signed up for this Pan-European fulfilment, then I'd love to hear from you in the comments section below. Has it made a huge difference to your sales and how are you handling all the tax requirements?
Until next time!
All the best,


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Luke Elwes
Bridgeman Gallery
Luke Elwes
0% Finance
Passage, 2010
Limited Edition of 40, signed and numbered by the artist.
About the Print
Each print is from an edition of 40, using 3 colour plates on 300gsm Somerset paper by the Curwen Studio. Printed by the Curwen Press, London.
Each print is signed and numbered by the artist.
Image size 22x12cm, total print size 29.5x21cm
Luke Elwes has worked with the Curwen Press over the last decade, producing small scale lithographic prints which reflect some of the recurring themes in his paintings.
About Luke Elwes
Luke Elwes lives and works in London. Before studying at Bristol University and Camberwell College of Art, Elwes spent his childhood years in Iran, a fact which influences his work to this day. Travel and exploration is an important theme in Elwes' work as evidenced by substantial periods spend travelling through Australia, India and North Africa.
Elwes has exhibited at numerous British and international locations including the Royal Academy, London, Grand Palais, Paris, The Barbican, London, Kettles Yard, Cambridge and Galleria Ceribelli, Milan. Elwes writes extensively on the subject of art for publications including Modern Painters, The Royal Academy Magazine and AbstractCritical.com.
This series of lithographs have been printed by the Curwen Press, London.


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Torrey Pines freshman Brandon Cyrus is leading the Falcons in scoring.
With Cheikh N'Diaye of Army-Navy and Kameron Rooks of Mission Hills, the focus this high school boys basketball season in San Diego County is on the 7-footer.
But as Foothills Christian coach Brad Leaf said, "This is a crazy freshman class."
There are no fewer than 10 freshmen in San Diego County who are starting or playing significant minutes, and most are at the better programs.
Most of them are on ESPN's list of top players in California for the 2016 graduating class.
"It's going to be really interesting to see who develops," Leaf said. "There are a ton of freshmen this season who have a chance to become stars down the road. It will be fun to see who emerges."
With Leaf's comments in mind here is a peek — in alphabetical order — at what are considered the Fab Five of the class of 2016:
Brandon Cyrus
6-3, shooting guard, Torrey Pines
Scouting report: The family moved from Canada in the summer and Cyrus became an instant starter. Through the team's first five games, Cyrus is leading the team, averaging 10.5 points a game. He's very athletic, jumps extremely well and defends.
Upcoming tournaments: Kiwanis Tournament, Torrey Pines Holiday Classic.
Coach John Olive's comment: "Brandon is the most-gifted athlete I've had here. He's fast. He's quick. He has great hands. He has a great feel for the game. The most-amazing thing, though, is that he fit in well with an experienced group. He has a great personality, and that has allowed him to make friends with the seniors who he's taking playing time from."
T.J. Leaf
6-8, forward, Foothills Christian
Scouting report: He may be the best prospect in this class. T.J. is the brother of former Foothills great Troy Leaf, the San Diego Section's all-time leading scorer. T.J. has grown five inches over the past 12 months without losing his guard skills. Through five games, he's averaging 24.6 points and 12.0 rebounds a game.
Upcoming tournament: Aztec Holiday Classic at Montgomery High.
Coach Brad Leaf's comment: T.J. can play every position on the floor, and that freaks me out as his coach and dad. He has deep range as a shooter (making 10 of 29 3-point attempts) and he has a high, college-type release on his shot. He's athletic. He's not Chase Budinger athletic, but he can dunk on you, too."
Reid Johnson
6-5, power forward, Cathedral Catholic
Scouting report: He has a high basketball IQ. On a team that is 8-1 and ranked No. 2 in San Diego and returned all five starters, he has carved out a lot of playing time. He's averaging 6.0 points and 3.4 rebounds a game.
Upcoming tournament: Cathedral Catholic's eight-team event.
Coach Will Cunningham's comments: "Reid is a really fast learner. He picks things up quickly. He has good hands and is a good finisher. More importantly, he's coachable. He not only listens to the coaches, but he listens and learns from the older guys. He's in our rotation as a freshman. That says a lot because we have 10 seniors. He's just a solid young man."
Johnny McWilliams
6-3, forward, San Marcos
Scouting report: Long and lean, he runs the floor well and can shoot. On a team that is 9-2 and averaging 72 points a game, he's averaging 14.7 points a game (second on the team) and 2.5 rebounds.
Upcoming tournament: Lahaina Christmas Classic in Maui before Christmas.
Coach Dante Carey's comments: "Johnny has a chance to be good, real good. He's so smooth, so skilled. If you don't know him, it's hard to tell how hard he's playing because he's so smooth. We have a good team, a veteran team, and he has found a niche. He's the future of our program as we move back on campus and into our new gym."
Eric Monroe
6-0, point guard, St. Augustine
Scouting report: He could develop into the top point guard in the county in the next couple of years. A great passer, he's a very heady player. He's starting for the No. 3 team in the county.
Upcoming tournament: Torrey Pines Holiday Classic.
Coach Mike Haupt's comments: "He has an unreal feel for the game, and you want your point guard to have that feel. He does what he's told, does what he's asked to do. He goes against good, older players every day in practice, and you can see him getting better. He grew up playing in the parochial leagues, so he has played a lot of competitive basketball."
Honorable mention
Perry Davis, 6-0, G, Madison
Justin Moore, 6-2, G, Mission Bay
Tommy Rutherford, 6-4, F, Grossmont
Jerome Sherman, 6-0, G, Foothills Christian
Omajae Smith, 6-3, G/F, Serra
Martin Tombe, 6-5, C, St. Augustine"


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Blood donations needed over the holidays
During the busy holiday season between now and January 7, the Lee Memorial Blood Center is taking donations at eight special blood drives at its hospital locations in Lee County.
The blood drive theme is donating blood is the greatest gift of all.
"It only takes 30 minutes to donate one unit that can help save several people," said Nancy Hendrick, community relations coordinator with the Lee Memorial Blood Center. "We need 800 units of blood per week to sustain the health care needs at all of our hospitals. We are always looking for the more rare negative blood types O, A, B, AB. Not many people have it and are willing to share it."
Two of those eight holiday blood drives are at Cape Coral Hospital in the Auxiliary Meeting Room. Donations will be taken from 9:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 19, and from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 29.
"It's an annual event," said Hendrick. "A lot of people are on vacation, out of town, and businesses are shorthanded. It's hard to get people to donate during the holidays, but we encourage people to remember to help support our blood system. We always need blood donations."
It's not so much that the need for blood spikes to a higher level around the holidays, Hendrick added, but that fewer people think about donating because of other activities and responsibilities associated with the holidays.
Donors receive a long sleeve T-shirt, a hospital cafeteria meal ticket, coupons and snacks, and are entered into drawings for prizes, including a mystery resort weekend getaway and various gift cards.
"People like to get things," said Hendrick. "We encourage area businesses to provide giveaway items and gifts, and we also have gift drawings."
Blood donations with Lee Memorial Blood Center remain within the system at Cape Coral Hospital, Gulf Coast Medical Center, HealthPark Medical Center and Lee Memorial Hospital where the only Trauma Center in a five-county region is located.
Blood also sustains patients at the system's specialty facilities at Golisano Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida and The Rehabilitation Hospital as well as those receiving treatment at the Regional Cancer Center.
Holiday blood drives also are scheduled at the Lee Memorial Hospital auditorium on Friday, Dec. 13 (9 a.m.-4 p.m.) and Monday, Dec. 16 (8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.); at Gulf Coast Medical Center community room on Thursday, Jan. 2 (9 a.m.-6:30 p.m.) and Friday, Jan. 3 (7 a.m.-4 p.m.); as well as HealthPark Medical Center atrium on Monday, Jan. 6 (9:30 a.m.-7 p.m.) or Tuesday, Jan. 7 (7 a.m.-4 p.m.).
One benefit of donating blood is not well known to the community. Donors get a mini-physical at no cost. Blood centers check the donor for pulse rate, blood pressure, body temp, hemoglobin level, blood type and cholesterol level.
Donated blood can be separated into its components – platelets, plasma, red blood cells – thereby expanding the number of patients that one unit can benefit.
For more information about the holiday blood drives or donation in general call the Lee Memorial Blood Center at (239) 343-2333, or visit the website www.leememorial.org/bloodcenter.


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Burnett's strong effort leads Bucs to sweep in Texas
Barmes homers, drives in two as Pittsburgh keeps pace in NL Central
ARLINGTON -- Like Rocky getting off the mat after being totaled by Ivan Drago, the Pirates completed a remarkable turnaround in Texas on Wednesday.
Left comatose after a brutal weekend beating in Busch Stadium, the Bucs finished off a sweep of the Rangers, 7-5, with the second line of the bullpen help pooling their resolve to preserve A.J. Burnett's eighth win.
Stepping in to quiet things down after two hairy innings, and with closers Mark Melancon and Jason Grilli both unavailable due to workloads, Plan C, Kyle Farnsworth, worked a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.
"It feels real good," Farnsworth said after nailing his first save since Sept. 27, 2011, for the Rays against the Yankees. "Just trying to help this team win any possible way I can."
Farnsworth fit right into Wednesday's co-op, with his fourth appearance since joining the Bucs making him the team's sixth different reliever with a save this season.
That road trip to ruin through St. Louis? The Pirates finished it with a 5-4 record, and then flew back to Pittsburgh for the final homestand of the regular season without the aid of an airplane.
This was the Pirates' eighth series sweep of the season, and the third on the road -- all three have come on American League turf, sweeps in Seattle (a two-gamer) and Anaheim preceding this one.
"To go on the road and be able to beat [Yu] Darvish, [Martin] Perez and [Matt] Garza ... that's a tall order, and we pulled it off," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said after the Pirates finished Interleague Play with a 15-5 record. "That's a big-time record. It was a collective effort."
Burnett made good use of a varied offense, which even included two run-scoring hits. Other Pittsburgh runs scored on a walk, an infield grounder, a double-play grounder, a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch.
But the biggest run of the game was legit: After the Rangers rallied from a 6-2 deficit to make it a one-run game in the seventh, Clint Barmes homered in the eighth off Tanner Scheppers, clanging his fifth home run of the season off the left-field foul pole for some breathing room.
"It was definitely exciting to see that ball stay fair," Barmes said. "Anytime you can add to a lead, it's big. But especially in games likes this -- they got a chance to come back and take it from us, at any point, especially with that lineup."
After flashing the kind of stuff that can carry no-hit bids into the late innings, Burnett, who had six strikeouts the first time through the order, had to withstand some challenging moments.
As Hurdle said , "He's perfect for four-and-a-third, and after that we pitched out of the stretch a lot."
Five batters into the game, Burnett matched his 2012 strikeout total of 180 -- in 37 2/3 fewer innings. By batter No. 6, he'd topped it -- getting Mitch Moreland swinging to strike out the side.
With one out in the fifth, Pierzynski won the battle of the A.J.s -- his double to left-center interrupted Burnett's hold after he had retired the first 13 men he faced.
There was a more significant interruption the next inning, as Burnett protected a 4-0 lead. The Rangers loaded the bases with nobody out on walks to David Murphy and Leonys Martin -- Burnett's only ones of the game -- and Ian Kinsler's sharp single to left. Two runs came in when Elvis Andrus' hard grounder slithered through a diving Barmes' glove at short for a single -- but Burnett managed to pull the plug on the Rangers by getting Alex Rios to ground into a double play and Adrian Beltre on a deep fly.
After Andrus' hit through Barmes, and before making another pitch, Burnett kept his eyes glued to the right-field video board, checking out where his shortstop had been stationed. To Burnett, Andrus' ball off the bat felt like a double-play maker, and after that inning the pitcher vented his disappointment to Barmes in the dugout.
"I would've liked to have been a step over and gotten to that ball as well," said Barmes, who, Hurdle later confirmed, had been positioned where he'd been told, per the club's complex shifting schemes. "I can tell you I was just as mad, or more mad, that I wasn't in that spot."
"Barmes loves me and I love Barmes," Burnett said later. "It's just two guys who want to win really bad. He's where they tell him to play. I've just never been a big fan of [shifting]."
Acknowledging "guys can get emotional" for any reason, Hurdle calmly defended the strategies behind all the shifting and said "so many plays have been made" possible by the defensive shifts.
After the Pirates got those two runs back in the seventh -- on Pedro Alvarez's sacrifice fly and a run-scoring wild pitch by reliever Neal Cotts -- Burnett returned to the mound to try and gut his way through another inning to pick up the slack for the overworked bullpen.
He only made it one-third through: Three hits, the last Murphy's RBI single, chased him. Jeanmar Gomez relieved and let both inherited runners score, on singles by Kinsler and Andrus, to narrow the Bucs' lead to 6-5.
Bryan Morris had to come on to end the inning by getting Rios to fly out on a full-count fastball. Vin Mazzaro then got two outs to set up Farnsworth.
Felix Pie walked after a 10-pitch third-inning battle with Garza, and he stole second to get in position to score on Neil Walker's single. Pie's first stolen base since Aug. 12, 2011, enabled the Bucs to get the first score for the third straight game -- always a positive development for a team playing .722 ball when scoring first.
Ensuring a short stay for Garza by making him go through 36 pitches in the fourth inning, the Pirates stretched their lead to 3-0 on a bases-loaded walk by Barmes and a fielder's choice grounder by Jose Tabata with the bases loaded.
Garza was indeed done after that inning, having thrown 89 pitches while allowing three runs and five hits and four walks, with six strikeouts.
The Bucs added another "funny" run in the fifth against reliever Joseph Ortiz, making it 4-0 as Justin Morneau, who had four hits, scored after Alvarez bounced into a double play with runners at the corners.


text:
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Photo #29713
Last Name: Thompson
First Name: Leroy
Middle Name: Frank
Subject's City: Everton
Subject's State: MO
Subject's County: Dade
Subject's Country: USA
Photographer: unk
Photographer's City: Everton
Photographer's State: MO
Nee: Link
Comments: Leroy Frank Thompson (Nee: Link) | Everton MO USA | | Comments: Leroy Frank Thompson, son of Henry Frank and Margaret ne'Lawson Thompson, b. 30 Nov 1834 TN - d. 10 Aug 1861 Battle of Wilson Creek, MO. Buried on the Battlefield where he fell. He was Union soldier, his brother George was a Confederate soldier. His brother George's history is often confused with LeRoy's because George (a married man) had a romantic relationship with his widow during the war. George was later killed at the battle of Boston Mt Arkansas on 5 Jan 1863. George left a widow, Catherine ne'Link, and 6 children. LeRoy left a widow, Sarah Gertrude ne'Brown, and 2 children; Benjamin Henry and LeRoy Frank. LeRoy Frank died age 12 years and some of the family were convinced he was not the son of LeRoy, but the son of George, and so, his name was not passed down as one of LeRoy's children in the family and the surviving child, Benjamin, always insisted he was the only son of LeRoy Thompson. Benjamin has descendants to the present day in California, Missouri and several other states.
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text:
Reichle v. Howards
|Docket No.
|Op. Below
|10th Cir.
Mar 21, 2012
|Jun 4, 2012
Holding: The petitioners – two Secret Service agents -- are entitled to qualified immunity from suit involving a claim that they arrested the respondent in retaliation for remarks he had made about then-Vice President Cheney because, at the time of the arrest, it was not clearly established that an arrest supported by probable cause could give rise to a First Amendment violation.
Plain English Summary: Police officers (and federal agents, too) cannot be sued for violating someone's rights, if the right that was supposedly violated was not formally recognized to exist at the time the officers acted. If the Court finds that no such right existed at that time (whether or not it might be recognized later), then the claim cannot go to court in a trial. In this case, the private individual who approached Vice President Cheney in 2006 claimed that he could not be arrested for anti-war remarks he made to Cheney. The Court, without deciding whether the man would now have a right to make those remarks without being arrested, found that he would not have a clear right to do so as of 2006. That was enough to reject Howards' lawsuit.
SCOTUSblog Coverage
- The Roberts Court and the First Amendment (Ronald Collins)
- Opinion recap: Narrow ruling on arrests (Lyle Denniston)
- Argument recap: New power for Secret Service (Lyle Denniston)
- Argument preview: A protester's arrest (UPDATED) (Lyle Denniston)
- December grants: In Plain English (Amy Howe)
- Free speech and the Veep (Lyle Denniston)
- Petition of the day (Marissa Miller)
Briefs and Documents
Merits Briefs for the Petitioners
Amicus Briefs in Support of the Petitioners
- Brief for the United States
- Brief for the International City/County Management Association
- Brief for FBI Agents Association and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association
Merits Briefs for the Respondent
Amicus Briefs in Support of the Respondent
Amicus Briefs in Support of Neither Party


text:
4790 W. 16th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46222
(800) 822-4639 (317) 492-6700 Mon-Fri, 9a.m.-5p.m. ET
Jul 5, 2020
July 14, 2012 | By Bruce Martin
The road to the Kroger Super Weekend at the Brickyard has just one more stop before the stars of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series head to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for one of the most anticipated weekends of the year. The final stop before Indianapolis is New Hampshire Motor Speedway at Loudon, N.H., the flat, 1.058-mile oval nestled in picturesque New England, for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301.
After Sunday's race, the Sprint Cup regulars get a rare weekend off next week before hitting the road for Indianapolis.
There are many "Brickyard legends" in Sunday's race, but a newcomer to that list in the Sprint Cup Series is three-time IZOD IndyCar Series champion and 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner Sam Hornish Jr. He takes over the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil/AAA Dodge for Penske Racing after A.J. Allmendinger was suspended for failing a NASCAR drug test. Allmendinger's season remains in limbo, and he has asked that his B sample be tested in hopes he can be cleared to return to the No. 22 car.
Meantime, Hornish will make his third Cup start this season and is 24th on the grid with a lap at 131.556 mph.
"It was not quite as well as I would have liked for it to have been," Hornish said. "We were a little bit too tight in the center of the corner, just couldn't roll the center like we needed to for speed. All in all, I felt like we were really good our second run of practice, and we just never quite got the car right again. We'll see how it shakes out.
"It seems like we're always rushing a little bit, unfortunately. I'm either trying really hard to get down to Daytona or we're a little bit behind in the qualifying line, just not a lot of time to sit in the car and think about it before it's time to go. I'm really proud of all the effort that everybody has put in to be able to make this work. It's been a lot more work for everybody other than me, but at the end of the day, just doing the best that we can right now to make sure that we've got an opportunity for Sunday. This is one of my favorite tracks. I'm glad that we've got some time to practice it this week versus just coming in and doing it on Sunday."
Hornish has two top-10 finishes in six New Hampshire starts, including 10th in his last race here in September 2010 and an eighth place in this race in 2009. If Allmendinger is still suspended when NASCAR hits the Brickyard, Hornish could be in that race for the first time since 2010. But he will compete at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that weekend because he is a full-time Nationwide Series competitor and will be on the grid for the Indiana 250 on Saturday, July 28.
"It would sure mean a lot," Hornish said of winning the Indiana 250 at the Brickyard. "I really like the flat tracks that we run at. I'm looking forward to going to Indianapolis. I haven't been there in almost two years. I always enjoy going to the Speedway just for all the sentimental reasons, mostly the things I remember as a kid going with Dad and my Mom and having a good time. We'd love to be able to add something to that. At the end of the day, we just need to go out there thinking about points. I'd love to win, but I don't think we're going to throw away the points if we're running second on the last lap to try to make something happen, but you never know.
"Compared to Ricky (Stenhouse) and Austin (Dillon) they don't have any time (at the Brickyard), but Elliott (Sadler) sure does as far as that goes. Some of the races that Austin has been to, his first time at a track this year, he's run really well at. I'm not going to take it anything other than we've got to go there and do the same thing that we do every weekend. We've got to be smart about how we use our tires in practice. We're actually at a little bit of a disadvantage going in there to Ricky and Austin. We're going to have to consolidate it and be smart about how we go out there and practice."
Hornish is fourth in Nationwide points and closing in.
"If you looked where we were at a month ago, we were a little more than 70 points out," Hornish said. "The fact that we've closed that door a little bit and just continue to be consistent, that's what we need to do. We knew that the plate races were going to be a little bit difficult for us, so we were happy to get out of last weekend only losing a couple of points to those guys. I feel like the places that we're going to make it up are the road courses, the flat tracks, and we've got a couple of those coming up over the next few weeks. I'm really excited about getting out there and getting the opportunity to run tomorrow. I guess we'd rather be the underdog and be the one that doesn't have to answer all the questions and sneak up on it a little bit."
And Indiana's own Tony Stewart heads into New Hampshire with a burst of momentum. Not only did he score his third victory of the season in the Coke Zero 400 last Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway, but he also won the ESPY as "Best Driver" on the annual ESPN awards show Wednesday night.
"We have been pretty good here both races last year, so I'm pretty excited about coming back here," Stewart said Friday afternoon at NHMS. "We definitely have a good start to the day, for sure."
Two-time Brickyard winner and three-time Cup Series champion Stewart has a pretty good record at the "Magic Mile," with three wins, 14 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes in 26 career starts. But in his three of his last four races at New Hampshire, Stewart had finished no lower than second. He was the runner-up in this race the past two years and drove to victory in the most-recent Loudon contest last September.
With three wins this season, he is tied with Brad Keselowski for most victories this season. Stewart is fifth in the Cup standings.
"It's a big motor deal," Stewart said of the secret to success at New Hampshire. "With the corners being so tight, you've got to put a lot of gear in the car to get it up off the corner. Forward bite is always an issue there, too, so it's hard to get up off the corners. Then you've got long straightaways, where you can kind of relax a little bit. Coming into the corners, you use a lot of brake, and it's hard to not only get the car stopped, but to get it to turn. Then you go through that challenge all over again."
Stewart qualified 10th Friday with a lap at 132.938 mph in his No. 14 Mobil 1 Chevrolet.
Stewart's ability as a race driver is becoming legendary and earlier this week Stewart was honored with the ESPY Award for "Best Driver."
"That was awesome," Stewart said. "The other drivers that were in that category it's just an honor to be nominated let alone to actually win it. I'm really proud of that."
Three-time Brickyard winner and five-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson is another driver to watch Sunday at Loudon and in two weeks at the Speedway. He qualified seventh Friday with a lap at 133.254 mph.
Johnson has three wins, seven top-five and 13 top-10 finishes in 20 starts at New Hampshire. He won this race in 2010, finished fifth in this contest last July and was 18th in September. He is fourth in the standings.
In the past eight season of the Chase era, in four of those seasons the champion has won one of the two races at New Hampshire, including Stewart last year and Johnson in 2010.
"It is a tough track, there's no doubt about that," Johnson said Friday. "What we do here, and the type of race setup and track, doesn't really apply to anywhere else, though. So, maybe it falls into that Indy category. I know there's a cool stat about Indy people that win at Indy, it carries on. And I just think it's a tough track. It falls in that category.
"It's (New Hampshire Motor Speedway) a tricky track with the lack of banking and the tight fast corners. I was able to sweep it there one year, and since we've been OK. It's a tough track. I think for a good day its good fuel mileage and good track position."
Four-time Brickyard winner and four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon starts eighth Sunday after qualifying at 133.198 mph in the No. 24 Chevrolet. He has three wins, 15 top-five and 19 top-10 finishes in 34 starts at New Hampshire.
Gordon has to make it happen soon because without a victory and 17th in the standings it is going to be difficult for him to make the Chase.
"I feel like (crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) and our engineers do an excellent job on flat race tracks - especially tracks like Loudon," Gordon said. "I can't wait (for this weekend's race). (New Hampshire Motor Speedway) is high on my list of tracks that I feel we can capitalize on. I think Loudon is a great opportunity for us. We've been very competitive here recently, and I feel we can be competitive here again this weekend with hopefully a shot at winning. It's a track that I really enjoy, but it's not an easy one to get around because of the long straightaways, flat corners and hard braking. I think the variable banking has made it a little bit easier to run side-by-side and make passes, though.
"We are not afraid of trying things with the setup or during the race. We're not afraid to take some risks. Each race that goes by without a win (means) the more risk we are willing to take, but I feel like we're still a long way from being out of this thing."
Kevin Harvick is the 2003 Brickyard winner and is sixth in the standings heading into the race Sunday, where he will line up 12th after qualifying at 132.868 mph.
Harvick has one win, five top-five and 11 top-10 finishes in 22 starts at Loudon.
"New Hampshire (Motor Speedway) is a track that I enjoy. It's a track where you have to have a good-handling car, you have to have track position, and you have to have everything go right. If you get yourself stuck in the middle of the pack you're not going to have a very good day, unless you have a really good car. Overall New Hampshire (Motor Speedway) is a track that I enjoy, and hopefully we will run well."
It's been quite a week for Harvick as he became a father for the first time when his wife, Delana, gave birth to a boy, Keelan Paul, last Sunday.
"You know it's nice to come to the racetrack now, to be honest with you," Harvick said. "Over the last few weeks, the anxiety of just everything that was going to happen with having a baby and knowing that everything is settled at home and everybody is healthy. That was the part I was worried about the most. Definitely the most relaxed that I've been able to be in weeks coming to the racetrack. I think as we get to the track this week, everybody is excited that we don't have anything to worry about except for the race cars. No back-up drivers or situations that could pop up.
"It's been a crazy week, to tell you the truth. It all started in Daytona, as everybody knows. Yeah, we went in, and she did a great job and had a baby within about two hours. Dad waited a little long to get her to the hospital. I was obviously not her favorite person as they told her they wouldn't give her an epidural. She did good. She had it all natural, no drugs or nothing. We had a healthy baby boy, and that was the most important part. Everybody is good and at home, doing normal things.
"Yeah, the sleeping pattern is different, for sure, but we're fortunate to have a lot of help, obviously. With her mom being right there, we've been able to incorporate her into everything that is going on. It's definitely been a change, but nothing as bad as everybody made it sound like, for sure. It's been great.
"Yeah, it was definitely the most rewarding. That was the best moment I've ever got to experience in my life. So it is pretty neat."
Paul Menard is the most recent winner at the Brickyard when he drove to his first career victory last July. He is 13th in points and qualified 13th Friday at 132.572 mph for the New Hampshire race Sunday. At Loudon, however, Menard's best finish is 20th last September.
"New Hampshire Motor Speedway is tricky because you have to turn the center and then need a lot of drive off, much like the short tracks we visit, like Martinsville (Speedway) or Richmond (International Raceway)," Menard said. "It seems like with all the horsepower these cars pack, it's really easy to burn off the rear tires. It's also easy to worry about that too much and then you can turn in the center (of the turns). Loudon (New Hampshire Motor Speedway) is a big mix of both."
Toyota driver Kyle Busch starts on the pole after running a lap at 133.417 mph on Friday. Busch would love to take a victory at New Hampshire as he attempts to win at the Brickyard for the first time in his career in two weeks.
"I think I won the spring race in 2006, not the last COY (Car of Yesterday) race here, but close to it," Busch said. "I felt like I was just starting to figure out things then, but then coming back here with the COT (Car of Tomorrow) in 2007 and then being with Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, we just haven't really ever hit anything. Felt like last spring we were close -- I was making ground and was able to pass some guys actually, but then blew a bead because I was working the car too hard and blew a tire. It's just a matter of finding the right setup and finding whatever works.
"I think we've come here different every single time, but we haven't found the magic way to get around the 'Magic Mile,' so I think today we did."
A little magic at the "Magic Mile" may help heading to the Brickyard as these drivers prepare for their Indianapolis arrival in two weeks.