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The night of the beating, the beach bar pulsed with drunken euphoria. It was well past midnight on that cool December evening last year, a moment for celebration for two Canadians who ambled inside Dirty Blondes. One of the men, Erik Kormos, a yacht captain, had just gotten engaged to marry, so he and his friend Ernesto Palij, a chef, barhopped through this throbbing row of bars along A1A near its intersection with Las Olas Boulevard. Now, nestled into chairs around the bar, they ordered what would be the first of many drinks.
One hour melted into the next. Then, around 4 a.m., the two friends heard screaming and stepped outside to investigate. There, in an alley, two women — short skirts, messy hair, bloodied — thrashed at each other with nails and knuckled fists.
"Yo, man, do your job!" the 42-year-old Palij remembers yelling at a nearby bouncer standing at the melee's edge. "They're going to kill each other! Do something!"
The bouncer's fist struck Palij like an atomic bomb. Palij collapsed on the pavement, he says, his head narrowly missing a nearby railing. Several Dirty Blondes bouncers swarmed his crumpled form.
"No!" Kormos says he screamed, rushing forward to push one of the security men, who turned his glare upon Kormos' five-foot-nine frame. The yacht captain sprinted away. The bouncers abandoned Palij and took off after Kormos.
He didn't make it far, a police report shows. Just 20 yards north of the bar, near Las Olas Boulevard's end, Kormos tripped. Then, for the next 30 seconds to several minutes, the five bouncers worked him over, claims Kormos, 36. "The guy knocked me in the back of the head, and I went down unconscious. Then I woke up, and they were kicking me in the stomach, in the ribs, in the balls, in my head. Five guys on one. They just wanted to kill someone that night."
"Stay down!" one of the bouncers yelled, Kormos recalls. "The cops are coming for you!" But when Fort Lauderdale Police arrived 15 minutes later, the bouncers had scattered and Dirty Blondes was shuttered. Wanting to forget it ever happened, Kormos declined to press charges or file suit, and police investigation into the incident ended right there and then. "The cops," he says, "just brushed it off like this happens all the time."
Dirty Blondes, a Spartan beachfront bar populated by bikini-clad tourists and pool tables, has long been one of the most popular beach spots in South Florida. But in July, a countervailing narrative emerged after a violent video shot outside Dirty Blondes ignited outrage from Miami to London. In that 15-second clip, three bouncers attacked two men in a scene as animalistic as it was short. While a bouncer thrust one of the men, David Parker, into a headlock, another bouncer sucker-punched the second patron, Alex Coelho. He crashed to the beer-splattered pavement, where that same bouncer stomped on his head. The beaten men fled but returned soon to the bar, only to be cuffed. Arresting officer Mark DeCarlo, who works off-duty at nearby Exit 66, dispatched a report bereft of details involving the violence.
Dirty Blondes, hammered on social and local media, immediately went into crisis control. The bar deposited a hasty apology calling the assault an "isolated incident." And Fort Lauderdale Police spokesperson DeAnna Greenlaw called the video "disturbing" and urged Coelho to volunteer a statement.
But a New Times investigation has found that this altercation was anything but isolated and that when such assaults occur, local police have every incentive to protect the bouncers because of an undefined — and lucrative — off-duty policy. Taxpapers provide the cars, gasoline, uniforms, training, and guns that enable cops to take off-duty but uniformed freelance work at bars. But unlike some other local agencies, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department doesn't track how much money or what gifts cops haul in during this work. On the beach, some cops can make as much as $600 per week, one source estimates, and such cash can perhaps sway a cop's allegiances. Nine people who experienced or witnessed bouncers pummel patrons say responding cops either didn't reprimand the bar or filed a report that misrepresented events.
And all nine of those people saw it happen at bars owned by two Israeli-born men named AJ Yaari and Lior Avidor, who, in terms of sheer sweep, are perhaps the two most important men on Fort Lauderdale Beach. They own a king's swath of the beachfront: Dirty Blondes, Exit 66, Rock Bar, Sangria's Cafe, Spazio, St. Bart's Coffee, and the forthcoming Tsukuro. Since March 2009, according to police reports, county civil records, and dozens of interviews, security personnel at these establishments have beaten at least 21 patrons in 16 separate incidents. Excluding the now-infamous July incident, which slapped bouncer Arnald Thomas-Darrah with one count of felony assault, only one bouncer has faced charges, court records show.
"The bars own these cops, and that is all there is to it," explains a former high-ranking city official who requested anonymity. "Money talks. These bars buy protection like a Mafia operation. And if any violations come, they have their sentinel out there who's protecting them from the government."
The sometimes-shocking stories of violence, not to mention their number, lay bare a little-recognized problem in one of the nation's most iconic beach spots.
"What you saw in that video happens every day," one current Dirty Blondes bouncer remarked. "That one was just caught on video."
On February 25 this year, a slight, somewhat taciturn New Yorker named Joe Viscomi had just landed in Fort Lauderdale for a wedding when he took a walk down A1A. On that cloudless night, he'd expected to find a bunch of college kids having a good time. Instead, in front of Dirty Blondes, he spotted a bouncer, whom he later described as an "enraged animal," deliver a devastating punch to a scrawny 21-year-old.
Another witness recalled that the bouncer kicked the young man in the side of the head, according to a police report. The youth, David Harris (who couldn't be reached for comment for this article) stood and stumbled away. The bouncer, a 250-pound redheaded juggernaut named Albert Wareham, lumbered after him.
"Then all of a sudden," Viscomi remembers now, "the kid's getting four more blows to the head and his face is getting all distorted and he's screaming." During the scrum, a police report says, the young man's phone fell out of his pocket, and the bouncer stomped on it.
Just then, Viscomi says, a cop approached the scene to confront Wareham. The officer analyzed the youth's battered face, then swiveled his gaze to look at the bouncer. "This time," Viscomi heard the cop admonishing Wareham, "you've gone too far."
Wareham, who was charged with simple battery, initially denied striking Harris to police, claiming he saw the younger man try to use drugs in the restroom. He later admitted he punched Harris because he felt "threatened" and then chased after him because "he didn't know if he had a weapon," the incident report says.
Viscomi, 63 and a resident of upstate New York, expressed bewilderment last month that cops charged Wareham with only one offense. "One charge?" he gasped. "This was first-degree assault in my opinion. There were two witnesses who saw the whole thing, and no one has contacted me from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department since. They acted like they wanted to protect the bouncers. I mean, this kid was defenseless. He was beat up for sport."
A similar refrain often emerged among the 16 incidents of bouncer-inflicted violence that New Times discovered in part through an analysis of 37 assault or battery police reports at the establishments since 2009. (Neighboring Elbo Room, meanwhile, was the site of 13 batteries, two aggravated assaults, and one attempted murder during that time, though a delay in obtaining police records made it impossible to determine how many of those incidents involved bouncers.) Indeed, perhaps the most striking aspect of these examples is their similarity. According to 11 police reports, three civil suits, and two additional altercations corroborated by multiple witnesses, it goes down like this: A patron does something to vex a bouncer, like flashing a pocket light, flirting with a bartender, clandestinely filling a glass from a soda gun. In other cases, the patron claims to have done nothing at all. Then, without warning, bouncers attack the reveler. Sometimes, the victim is left with a few bruises. Sometimes, substantially more.
On August 28, 2010, a raven-haired Joshua Wright was about to leave Exit 66, a cavernous nightclub that has a capacity of 1,200, when his friend went to use the bathroom. When the friend emerged, Wright cast a key-chain laser light on his friend when a bouncer referred to only as "Josh" in a pending lawsuit Wright filed in Broward County slammed Wright with a fist. Court documents show the bouncer "mistook" the flashlight for a gun. After Wright fell to the ground, another bouncer kicked him, Wright says. The medical fallout was immense: four broken ribs, a fractured eye orbital, eight stitches, and two back surgeries to mend a herniated and ruptured disc in his lower back. (Exit 66 disputes Wright's allegations.)
"My friend was standing a few feet away and witnessed all of it, but the police on private duty seemed to know the bouncers," Wright tells New Times. "He didn't mention anything about pressing criminal charges against 'Josh' or the bouncer who kicked me."
Next door and more than a year later at Rock Bar, barrel-chested 38-year-old boat salesman Brian Hoynowski sauntered inside wearing slacks and a button-down he'd bought at Tommy Bahama. It was near 11 p.m. on October 25, 2011, and Hoynowski had arrived that afternoon for the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show the next day. If he played it right, he'd fly home to Orange Beach, Alabama, with tens of thousands of dollars. He was thinking about the potential money at stake when he went hunting for the bathroom at Rock Bar.
"If you want to piss here, you have to order a drink," Hoynowski remembers a bouncer telling him.
"What the fuck are you talking about, man?" Hoynowski replied, laughing.
"So I turned my head to walk out, and the next thing I knew I was clocked," Hoynowski remembers. "Freaking clocked. One of the bouncers grabbed my arms, and another one got three punches in on me. I fell to the ground, and three of them started kicking me in the head, the ribs. They broke my ribs. I needed six stitches above my eye, and I have permanent scarring."
After he got out of the hospital the next morning, he filed a statement with police. The report says he "admitted that he was very intoxicated" and had "refused to leave the bar." Police didn't pursue an investigation and miswrote his last name as "Bartow." Hoynowski, who never made it to the boat show, denies he told police he was drunk. That misstatement, he charges, ruined his chance to file a civil lawsuit.
A similar thing happened to Paul Karpowicz just a few weeks later at Dirty Blondes, on November 21. The 47-year-old with a ponytail said he and a buddy were sitting at the bar, and Karpowicz had to drive home, so he was swilling water. After a few cups, the bartender became distracted with someone else, so Karpowicz grabbed the water gun himself.
"A bouncer choked me from behind, and I went unconscious," says Karpowicz, who today lives in Atlanta. "He broke my larynx. Two millimeters lower, he would have crushed my throat and I would have died. Then two guys came up and were kicking and punching me and left me outside, bloody and unconscious."
Moments later, two cops pulled up, lights flashing, according to both Karpowicz and his friend Rick Bodiford, who was present that night. The men wanted to press charges. "Then another cop showed up," recalls Bodiford, 41. "He walked straight up to the bouncers and then told us if we didn't leave right away, we were arrested. It was the most bizarre thing that ever happened to me."
The police report from the incident says Karpowicz was "highly intoxicated" and "argumentative" and had threatened to "kick ass." Both he and Bodiford vociferously deny that.
"That's absolutely not true!" Bodiford now exclaims. Karpowicz says he sought legal counsel, but the description of him in the police report thwarted any opportunity to file a civil lawsuit.
Similarities teem among further tales of bouncer-inflicted violence. According to allegations made in police reports and court records:
• On March 16, 2009, a Dirty Blondes bouncer suddenly "walked over and punched Charles Dunham in the eye" while he was talking to a girl, sober. Dunham said he "told several officers, but nothing was done."
• On November 28, 2009, Dirty Blondes bouncer Brandon Gilbert thrust Ryan McGlynn into a full nelson, and McGlynn "began to turn purple and lose consciousness." McGlynn, who was accused of confronting another customer, hit his jaw on the ground, and patrons surrounded the fallen man, "trying to clean up the blood," the bouncer said in a deposition. (A civil lawsuit was settled late last month, attorney Robert Gluck said, for an astounding $280,000.)
• On October 25, 2010, an "unknown male employee" at Rock Bar "choked" Valdevir Camargo, "dragged him outside, dislocated his shoulders, and kicked him" after Camargo questioned the charges on his bill. (A civil lawsuit was settled for $14,000.)
• On April 17, 2011, an "unknown [Dirty Blondes] bouncer came up to Heather Benson and for no reason grabbed her by the neck, picked her up, and threw her on the ground."
• On August 15, 2011, John Guerrero "was grabbed from behind by an [Exit 66] bouncer and put in a choke hold. The bouncer hit him in the face with an object, possibly a flashlight, breaking his right front tooth." Guerrero told police he didn't know why the bouncer attacked him.
• On June 11, 2012, Charles Palmer saw three Dirty Blondes bouncers "beating on a subject in the street, who was not fighting back and trying to get away..." All three bouncers then began punching and kicking Palmer while he was on the ground. Palmer's nose was broken.
• On February 12, 2012, Dirty Blondes bouncers "attacked" Richard Nar "as he left to return to his vehicle... Several individuals punched Nar multiple times as well as kicked him."
• On April 16 of this year, a "suspect, possibly a bouncer" at Dirty Blondes, "pushed Kenneth O'Brien to the ground and struck him in the face... He was unable to sign [the police report] because he was covered in blood."
On a recent Sunday evening, Arturo Suarez bristled with disgust at the violence. The manager of Cafe del Mar, a yawning chasm of an eatery wedged between folkloric Elbo Room and Dirty Blondes, said it didn't used to be this way. "How does this affect the entire beach?" he wondered. "The fights, the ugliness, the kicking, the punching — I don't want that garbage overflowing into my place. People get the impression it's not safe here anymore. And that's my business."
He paused for a moment. "All I have to say [to the owners] is keep your shit contained... When the fish is bad, it smells from the head."
But Cafe del Mar isn't just a random neighbor. There's a history between the businesses.
"Things got ugly," Suarez says.
On January 5, 2009, a restaurateur with wavy brown hair and a deep tan named Leone Padula strode into Cafe del Mar. Soon, he spotted one of his two business partners, Lior Avidor, a bald man built like a stonemason. This would not be a pleasant gathering.
"I'll cut you to pieces," Avidor told Padula, according to a restraining order Padula filed against the larger man. "I'll break you. I'll tear out your kidneys. I'll put you in the same condition as your [terminally ill] father."
Padula melted into rage. According to a competing restraining order Avidor filed, Padula grabbed a nearby glass and warned, "I'm going to cut your throat." The incensed Italian pressed the glass against Avidor's nose, until witnesses wrenched him free. "I'm going to kill you," he told Avidor. Minutes later, Padula, screaming, again thrust the glass into Avidor's face.
The next day, Avidor claimed he thought Padula might attack him with a gun, and he feared for his life. "I did not do anything to provoke" Padula, he said.
This climactic confrontation had seeds deep in the past. Avidor, 45, who speaks in a low guttural growl still flecked with his Israeli upbringing, grew up in Haifa, northern Israel's largest city. There, he told New Times in a brief chat, he met his future business partner A.J. Yaari "when we were boys." The men, who declined formal interviews, landed in Fort Lauderdale with an adroit sense of what it takes to conquer a beachside, tourist-driven economy: sex, alcohol, and aggression. They opened their first shops in the mid-1990s, each carrying a name that's almost a caricature of ocean-side existence. First came L&A on the Beach in 1993. Next was See the Sun. Finally, in 1995, they opened Sex Appeal Swimwear.
In 2001, Avidor met Padula, who had come to local prominence through his stewardship of Il Tartufo and Café Europa, successful Las Olas spots. Padula knew Avidor and Yaari only as two guys "selling T-shirts and screwing tourists," he recalls, when they hatched an ambitious plan that would enact a near-monopoly of the hottest strip of real estate in Broward County.
In 2004, after the businessmen opened Cafe del Mar, they inked another contract to open Spazio. Padula sank $350,000 into that restaurant and became a 50 percent shareholder, with Yaari and Avidor splitting the rest. Then, over the next three years, the men widened their sprawl: Rock Bar, Sangrias Café, Dirty Blondes, Exit 66 — all under the agreement that Padula act as "operating manager," according to a 2008 lawsuit Padula filed against his partners.
"Padula was a restaurateur," explains a person familiar with the agreement, who requested anonymity. "And [Yaari and Avidor] were not. As long as they had the agreement of Padula managing, they were fine."
But on November 12, 2008, Yaari and Avidor changed the locks on all of the restaurants, banned Padula from the establishments he once managed, and froze his pay, according to Padula's lawsuit, which alleged, among other claims, minority oppression and freeze-out.
One week later, on November 19, the men and their attorneys huddled in a conference room at a mirrored office building on Corporate Drive in Fort Lauderdale. During that conversation, like something out of a Rocky movie, Avidor stood up and, in an outburst of anger, announced he planned to "break [Padula] in two," according to a deposition of Avidor's attorney, Craig Sherman. Avidor, who was "animated, angry, loud," then said, "We're leaving," and he and Yaari stormed out. Afterward, in a civil lawsuit Avidor filed against Padula, he claimed the smaller man had attacked and threatened to kill him during that meeting.
The next day at Cafe del Mar, Padula alleged in a restraining order that Yaari "jumped on me and punched me in the face, saying [he wanted] to take my liver out."
Soon after, the partners split. They eventually signed a nondisclosure agreement and dismissed the lawsuits. Padula, who declined in a brief interview to specify what spurred the sudden fallout, got Cafe del Mar, and the Israelis netted the rest. In the chaotic aftermath, some staff were swept out under the new managers in what one former employee described as a "coup."
One afternoon in 2009 during those chaotic weeks, staff members filed into a conference room at Exit 66 and found a seat, according to two separate managers who were present. Seated before the confused employees were Yaari and Avidor. "They had time sheets for what everyone was owed," one manager remembers. "And they said, 'We're not paying you this.' One by one, we all had to negotiate what we were rightfully owed. It had been weeks since any of us had been paid."
John Guerrero, a floor manager at Exit 66 at the time, recalls that meeting vividly. "I said, 'Where's my check?' And they gave me this whole story. And it was pretty much, 'Either you take what we give you and still work for us. Or if not, goodbye.' When I came on, it was actually a functioning situation, but everything turned. It became a bunch of jacked-up dudes getting into fights, other guys getting sucker-punched for talking back to bouncers, and slutty girls getting wasted and doing drugs."
Also around this time, there was one more change. Avidor and Yaari began hiring off-duty cops to work security.
That Fort Lauderdale Police once again face criticism over their undefined off-duty detail policy shouldn't come as a surprise — least of all to the cops themselves.
They've known it poses problems since at least July 15, 2005. On that day, a New York-based investigative firm called Safir Rosetti castigated the policy in a report obtained by New Times.
Calling it an "integrity soft spot," Safir Rosetti had this to say: The "off-duty employment allows individual officers to negotiate any price above $25/hr they can with individual private business and use department resources (vehicles, boats, etc.) with no financial benefit to the city."
"Then Rothstein happened," remarked one former high-ranking city official, "and our worst nightmare happened."
It was late 2009, and Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein, the fraud pharoah himself, had just been indicted for commanding a $1.2 billion Ponzi largesse. In quite possibly its most embarrassing episode to date, the Fort Lauderdale Police had been providing him with nearly 'round-the-clock protection with off-duty officers, endowing him with exactly what he wanted: an air of legitimacy. At $45 an hour, police guarded his tony Bova Prime restaurant, his law firm, and his gated, waterfront Fort Lauderdale mansion, where mystified neighbors espied cops "just hanging out not doing anything" and "sleeping," internal police memos show.
According to a federal criminal complaint against Rothstein, he dispensed "gratuities to high-ranking members of police agencies to curry favor and deflect law enforcement scrutiny." Rothstein took Police Chief Frank Adderley on his private jet to a football game and said he gave Sgt. Steven Greenlaw funds to purchase a diamond engagement ring at Daoud's Fine Jewelry. (Greenlaw, who later married current police spokesperson DeAnna Greenlaw, denied this.)
"It was beyond strange," Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein now tells New Times. "They were basically acting as a private security force. In return, they got money, watches, hookers, and breast implants. They protected a criminal conspiracy... Outrageous, even for Broward."
Incredibly, everyone kept his job. Steven Greenlaw was suspended without pay for three days.
In November 2010, in response to the Rothstein scandal, the bewildered department squeaked through a few changes to the policy. From then on, high-ranking officers couldn't take off-duty work, shifts were limited to ten hours, and cops couldn't guard private residences for 24 hours straight.
But to this day, the police department's off-duty policy still contains some of the same "soft spots" Safir Rosetti warned of.
At just six pages, the protocol requires cops to seek the police chief's approval before working at establishments that serve alcohol and forbids officers to take assignments while on sick leave. It allows them to work up to 80 total hours per week, or a mind-boggling 20 hours per day. "The employment must be dignified," the policy states. "And there can be no CONFLICT OF INTEREST."
But here's where it gets sticky. The policy lets individual cops bargain for their own pay. Once approved, it sets only a maximum hourly pay at "two and one half times the normal top pay step" of a patrol officer, which is $37.39. The duty of allocating the shifts falls to an informally chosen "detail coordinator" who one source says takes a 5.5 percent cut of all earnings. It's unclear from police documentation how, exactly, an officer procures the post of "detail coordinator."
"It's corruption," charges one former city official. "There's no doubt about it."
In contrast, the Broward County Sheriff's Office sets the rates and handles the payments for its off-duty deputies, and the Miami Police Department taxes $3 from every hour one of its officers works and tracks every dime.
If the Fort Lauderdale Police Department had such a regulation, it would be able to quantify, to the dollar, how much money police make at beachfront establishments owned by Yaari and Avidor. But as things stand now, it can't.
One company called Indemnity Insurance, which insures the Israeli-owned operation, also perceived potential problems in employing off-duty cops at bars. On January 14, 2011, company President Jeffrey Cohen sent A.J. Yaari a letter dropping his beachfront establishments from its insurance policy, alleging it had discovered "misrepresentations," "omissions," and "incorrect statements" in Yaari's insurance application.
Later, after Yaari's business sued the insurance company in Broward County federal court, Cohen lambasted him for claiming he didn't employ off-duty cops — when in fact he did. Cohen said an off-duty cop serves two masters: "the insured... and also the municipality he serves." (The trial court sided against Indemnity Insurance, ordering it to pay Yaari's company $35,000.)
Former managers at the Israeli beachfront establishments say cops are paid $35 an hour, in cash, at 4 a.m. "And they expect to get paid by 4:15," explained one former Exit 66 manager, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "It's very Mafia-style. When it's that much money, the cops do what we want. They're not going to start arresting employees or causing problems for a business that's paying them $600 per week."
Another manager recalls a frequent occurrence at bars owned by Yaari and Avidor. "If some kid walks into Dirty Blondes and bouncers sic on him and punch him in the face, the cop yells [at the patron], 'You need to leave!' And if he says, 'Wait a second, the bouncer just beat me up in there,' the cops aren't interested. It's in their interest to side to side with the bar in every altercation."
"Alex, if you love me, will you please stop?" the blond woman pleaded with the battered man. Her features twisted in alarm. He was just bleeding so much. She reached for his bare chest and sought his azure eyes hiding somewhere amid the crimson splashed across his face. "If you love me," Stephanie Parker murmured again, clutching his arm, "will you please stop?"
It was July 28, shortly after several Dirty Blondes bouncers had thrown Alex Coelho and David Parker to the ground and stomped on Coelho's face, slashing open his forehead. Now, as Mark DeCarlo, who's worked off-duty at Dirty Blondes, appeared, Coelho pushed past his girlfriend. Newly surfaced video shows Coelho pointing a blood-slicked hand at the bouncers and cop standing together.
A crowd swelled around the confrontation, murmuring with anticipation. Coelho approached the cop, a bald man with a stomach like a potbelly stove, and spoke urgently while friends held him back. Then the cop shoved Coelho, and the crowd, creeping closer to the ballooning conflict, bellowed.
Parker shrieked at the officer. "Are you serious? We were sitting here — and are you fucking kidding me? You don't mind us getting beat up by them?"
After Coelho again walked toward the bouncers, another officer appeared in the video, and the cops arrested Coelho for disorderly conduct and battery. One hour later, Parker was cited for disorderly conduct for "fighting with security" and resisting arrest. In the police report, DeCarlo claimed he "was trying to get information [from Coelho] as to what happened but he was so angry, he would not listen." He then alleged Coelho had "unprovoked... with both hands, pushed this officer in the chest." (The video appears to refute the latter allegation, and charges against Coelho have since been dismissed.)
The drama hit the beach like a flash squall. Midafternoon, the Tuesday after that Sunday brawl, the phone at Dirty Blondes wouldn't stop ringing. One man, who identified himself only as "a cousin" of Alex Coelho named "Laurence," dialed the bar more than ten times, vowing that he and some friends would soon "flip shit upside down," according to a police report.
But amid a cacophony of local and social media, several things quietly occurred. The Fort Lauderdale Police Department canceled its off-duty detail at Dirty Blondes. A.J. Yaari met with his beleaguered staff soon after city police arrested 29-year-old bouncer Arnald Thomas-Darrah on charges of felony assault. (Thomas-Darrah couldn't be reached for comment for this article.)
Yaari urged greater empathy for customers and ordered every staff member present not to speak to the media, according to two attendants. Then he dropped the news: He had fired the three bouncers involved in the grisly confrontation. Few thought the bouncers deserved to be fired. Not for that. The bouncers feel as though they're on the front line against hordes of unruly and often aggressive customers — and deserve a modicum of leniency.
One former manager agreed, saying, "You have to respect just how terrible the people on the Fort Lauderdale Beach are."
"They got persecuted for things that weren't out of line," said one bouncer who nonetheless expressed profound disdain for the violence of his job. "For two seconds of misjudgment, they look like bad people. Just because you lose a fight doesn't make you a victim."
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Indeed, everyone interviewed for this article wants more cops, who are better-resourced and better-trained than bouncers. "No one cares what a bouncer has to say, so thank God the cops are down here and get paid or else we'd be dead," one current Dirty Blondes doorman says. "These people down here, they are out of control, going day and night and don't even sleep."
Mayor Jack Seiler maintains that privately funded cops do tremendous good. "I'd like to see more off-duty details," he said when New Times questioned whether off-duty cops have done enough to hold aggressive bouncers accountable. "I haven't seen a single case where an officer has done a single thing improper."
At midnight on a Saturday late last month, as tourists mobbed most beach spots like Elbo Room and Rock Bar, Dirty Blondes, normally crazed at this point in the night, was dead. Bouncer Albert Wareham sighed at the front of the bar, a black security shirt stretched across his broad back. Months have passed since the auburn-haired man was charged with simple battery for allegedly following a 21-year-old patron out of the bar and delivering four crushing blows to his face. Though it was witnessed by two people and his trial is only weeks away, Wareham wasn't fired.
So for now, he quietly waits through his shift near the entrance, pale arms crossed, eyes swiveling across the bar.


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Nursing as a Calling
In a fallen world in which pain and suffering are an everyday reality for many people, the healing professions provide an avenue of faithful service to the Healer and Redeemer of all things. Covenant equips students called to nursing with essential foundations in the heart and mind.
We believe that God calls each of His children to specific areas of service in his Kingdom and we have seen God faithfully use Covenant to bring together gifts, desires and opportunities in students' lives to call them to the nursing profession. Contemporary nursing is a demanding multifaceted calling that utilizes a wide variety of personal characteristics and technical skills such as: compassion, discernment in understanding complex human physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs, knowledge of disease processes and healing countermeasures, wisdom in approaching ethical issues in modern healthcare, ability to connect quickly and meaningfully with others, perseverance, attention to detail, the ability to quickly learn new methods and new technologies, flexibility in the face of changing health care delivery models, and the ability to responsibly exercise authority and to work under authority.
Why Start Your Nursing Program at Covenant?
To help students meet the demands of this challenging profession, we have developed programs which include the formative and foundational components of a Covenant education that challenges students to develop an integrated framework for thought and life, for faithfully understanding and pursuing God's callings in every aspect of their lives. Students and faculty work together to explore of the implications of Christ's preeminence over all creation in terms of specific academic disciplines as well as in more the more general terms of theology, philosophy, worldviews and the significance of individual human identity in Christ.
The work of the faculty involved in the program includes both a general mentoring role in helping students to be discerning concerning their calling to be nurses and the responsibility to equip students for such a calling through specific course work. The specific course of study at Covenant includes the college's core curriculum and concentrated work in biological and social sciences.
Pre-Nursing Program Options
For program options and degree requirements, consult the Pre-Nursing Studies section of the academic catalog.

subset: commoncrawl


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A woman displayes her inked finger after voting in Senegal's run-off election (Photo: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images)
Yesterday's presidential election made many follow the news from Dakar with concern – and eventually with great relief. It was the run-off in a tense campaign that pitted incumbent president Abdoulaye Wade against Macky Sall, a former prime minister who worked with Wade for years but nonetheless offered an awaited opportunity for change after more than a decade of Wade's rule.
The run-off made observers nervous given the unrest that followed the controversial ruling in January that allowed the president to run for the third term despite the constitutional two-term limit. The high court's argument was that the Constitution changed during Wade's first term in office and therefore that term did not count toward the allowed total. But many Senegalese were not satisfied with that explanation and violent protests followed, leaving several people dead and over 100 injured.
Aside from the constitutional question, the reasons for popular discontent were many. Wade, 85, was becoming increasingly out of touch with the needs of the country where 60 percent of the population are under 25. Crucially, he failed to deliver when it comes to providing economic opportunity for the country's youth. In the capital Dakar more than 43.9 percent of young people aged 15–24 work in the informal sector, with many trying to illegally immigrate to Europe or forced into the life of crime. In this context, the president's decision to spend $26 million on the African Renaissance Monument – a gigantic 164-feet-high bronze statue unveiled on the outskirts of Dakar in 2010 – felt like a vanity project draining funds that would have been better spent on pressing social issues. The image of this venture was further tarnished when Wade casually remarked that that 35% of all tourism revenue from the Monument should go to him.
His popularity also suffered after an incident involving the president handing an IMF official a suitcase with $200,000 as a "parting gift," which he later claimed to be a mistake by an over-zealous aide. And he was widely perceived to be grooming his son, Karim, already in charge of powerful government posts, as his successor.
All this baggage did not bode well for the Sunday elections, with many fearing that Mr. Wade had embarked on the path of "imperial presidency" – a well-known pattern in Africa – and would contest the results in order to stay in power even if it meant throwing Senegal into civil unrest. Yet, to the widespread relief both domestically and internationally, he promptly acknowledged his electoral defeat, calling to congratulate Sall a few hours after the polls closed.
In the end, Wade acted like a statesman mindful of his legacy, turning what many feared would be the day of chaos into a triumph of democracy. Senegal's democratic traditions stretch back 900 years to the Waalo kings who held elections in contrast with most other African chiefdoms where the power was passed from father to son. And while most other countries on the continent only began experimenting with democracy in the post-colonial era, Senegal had already held regular elections since the mid-1800s when it began to elect a deputy to the French parliament. Since the independence in 1960, Senegal has been one of the most democratic and stable countries in West Africa – the only one in the region that has never experienced a military coup.
The Sunday vote reaffirmed the country's democratic credentials, and a peaceful presidential election certainly is welcome news, especially coming just days after the coup in neighboring Mali overthrew its democratic government. As sociologist Hadiya Tandian put it, "It shows that the Senegalese believe in their voter IDs, that a voter card can change something, can make a difference. It shows that our long democratic heritage continues to live in us day by day."


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This exam was given to 8th grade students in Bullitt County, Kentucky.
A rural community, it was a big deal to make it as far as 8th grade and some students who scored well were granted scholarships to high school.
This would be a fun exam to pass out to students in any grade as a beginning of the year assignment, either individually or in small groups to see collectively how many they might be able to answer. Obviously some of the questions are no longer relevant nor will they be able to answer all of them, but this can be a great springboard for class discussions and as an ice breaker.
Here is the exam in a format ready for your classroom use.
For a link to the answers head here: Bullitt County exam answers


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George Osborne was left embarrassed by a seven-year-old today when he was unable to answer a basic maths question.
The Chancellor was being interviewed by a panel of children on Sky News about the economy.
But he was left flummoxed when seven-year-old Sam Raddings asked him what seven times eight is.
Flustered, Mr Osborne eventually replied: "I've made it a rule in life not to answer a whole load of maths questions."
Many were quick to ridicule the Chancellor for dodging the question.
"It's a little worrying that the Chancellor George Osborne doesn't seem to know simple maths," wrote one.
It is isn't the first time Osborne has been lampooned on social media recently.
He also found himself at the figure of fun after trying to take credit for the next Star Wars movie being filmed in UK.
Earlier, Mr Osborne admitted he wishes he had done more to help Britain's economy when the coalition first came to power.
Mr Osborne told the panel of youngsters he regretted that his attempts to reform the economy had not gone far enough.
Asked about his greatest regret since coming to office in 2010, he said: "When you get into office that's your opportunity to take some really big decisions. And we did take some big decisions because then you've got a few years to see them played out.
"But actually I look back and think there's even more we could have done to fix some of the economic problems and I want to go on therefore taking decisions that will help create jobs. If anything, it's like I wish we'd done even more."
Mr Osborne defended the arguments that occur during Prime Minister's Questions as "passion".


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Coachella Game Board Competition
Terms and Conditions relating to WIN A money can't buy experience to our LAUNCH Competition
Promotion name: Launch Game Board Competition
Eligible Countries: Worldwide
US Entries: Must be "legal resident" of U.S
AU Entries: Must be "legal resident" of Australia. Residents of South Australia are not eligible to enter in this competition.
Promotion period: Start: 14 Mar 2019 9:00 AM AEDT End: 7 Apr 2019 11:00 PM AEDT No entries will be accepted outside this time.
Website address: www.bondisands.com/game
Promoter: Bondi Sands ABN/ACN: 98 613 297 813 Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC, Australia 3207
Eligible entrants: Entry to the Promotion is open worldwide (except for residents of South Australia) to entrants who fulfil the method of entry requirements and are 16 years or over. Winners under 18 must travel with a parent or guardian present for the Grand Prize. Winners under the age of 21 will forfeit the 2 x Neon Tickets (as this is an age restricted 21 and over event only) as part of the Grand Prize. Winner for Grand Prize must be available for travel on the 11th April 2019.
Details of prizes: The best entry/entries as determined by the judges will be deemed the prize winner(s) of all minor prizes and will win:
Minor Prizes (8 minor prizes):
- Airpods = AUD$230
- Macbook Air = AUD$1200
- Flight Centre Voucher = AUD$500
- Retailer voucher = AUD$500 (Favourite Bondi Sands retailer in your country)
- Uber voucher = AUD$500 (1 month worth of travel to the value of AUD$500)
- Visa Giftcard = AU$1,000
- A years supply of Bondi Sands AUD$1,000.00
- Designer Bag AUD$1,500.00
- Total Value of minor prizes: AUD$5,930
GRAND PRIZE (1 prize):
Winner for Grand Prize must be available for travel on the 11th April 2019.
- Flights = AUD$3,000.00 (Economy class flights up to the value of AUD$3,000 for 2 people)
- Accom 5 nights AUD$3,000.00 (2 x nights in LA + 3 night in Palm Springs to the value of AUD$3,000. Twin share accommodation with a minimum of 3 stars)
- Transfers to Palm Springs = AUD$500
- 2 Neon tickets (Not available to winners under 21 years old as this is an age restricted 21 and over event only)
- 2 tickets to our Launch Party
- Spending money AUD$1,000.00
Total Value of Grand Prize: AUD$9,500
Total number of prizes: 9
Total prize value: Total prize pool (inc GST): $15,430
Method of entry
To enter the Prize Draw entrants must enter via our website application and follow these instructions:
- Sign Up to our website www.bondisands.com/game
- Find the given question on our Instagram account
- Follow us on Instagram
- Visit our website www.bondisands.com/game to answer the multiple choice question
- Come back every 48 hours to answer the latest question
- The more questions you answer, the more chances you will have to win
- The more times you share the competition, the more chances you will have to win
- Entrants will have the chance to win 8 minor prizes throughout the competition plus the chance to WIN the grand prize
- A winner will be chosen every 48 hours for a minor prize and will be based on a game of skill of selecting the right answer.
Draw 1: 18th March at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 2: 21st March at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 3: 24th March at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 4: 27th March at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 5: 30tht March at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 6: 2nd April at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 7: 5th April at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 8: 8th April at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
The first entrant with the most correct answers will be the winner.
A Grand Prize winner will be chosen at random and must have entered a minimum of once. Entries must be made between 9AM AEDT on 14.03.19 and 11.59pm AEDT on 07.04.18 ("Competition or Competition Period") to be valid.
Winner will be announced every 48 hours for the question prizes and the grand prize winner will be announced on 09.04.2019 via email and on @bondisands Instagram page.
Entries received after the end of the Prize Draw Period will not be valid.
No third party or automated entries are permitted.
All entrants (including the winner(s)) must comply with any reasonable directions given to him or her by the Promoter in connection with the Prize Draw.
Failure to comply with such directions may result in an invalid Entry and/or withdrawal of the Prize.
Standard data rates apply
Maximum number of entries
Unlimited Prize draw
This is a game of skill and chance plays no part in determining the winner.
The judging will be performed by a judge/panel of judges appointed by the Promoter.
Draw 1: 18th March at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 2: 21st March at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 3: 24th March at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 4: 27th March at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 5: 30tht March at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 6: 2nd April at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 7: 5th April at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Draw 8: 8th April at 9.00AM AEDT at Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
The Grand prize draw will begin 10:00 AM AEDT on 08 Apr 2019
Location of Grand Prize draw: Bondi Sands Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC, Australia 3207
Notification of winners
Winners will be announced via email within 48 hours after the judging of the question prizes.
Winner of the grand prize will be notified via Email no later than 09 Apr 2019.
Public announcement of winners
MINOR PRIZES Will be announced via email & promoters website from the 18th March 2019 or within 24 hours after winner is selected for each draw.
GRAND PRIZE The winners will be published here: The Promoter will announce the winner by naming the winner on Instagram at @bondisands on 9th April 2019.
The grand prize winner will only be announced on Instagram after the Competition Period and contact by email has confirmed entry.
Unclaimed prize draw
If the prize(s) are unclaimed by the unclaimed prize draw date, the Promoter will award the minor prize(s) to the Eligible Entrant(s) who came runner-up when the entries were judged, subject to any directions from any regulatory authority.
If the prizes are unclaimed within 3 months, then the minor prizes will be awarded to the runner-up on the 8th July 2019.
For the Grand Prize if the prize is not claimed by 9.30AM on 10th April 2019 an unclaimed prize draw will occur at 10AM AEDT on 10th April 2019.
Location of unclaimed prize draw
Bondi Sands Suite 11, 574 Plummer Street Port Melbourne VIC Australia 3207
Notification of unclaimed prize winners
Unclaimed minor prize winner will be notified via email within 24 hours. Unclaimed grand prize winners will be notified via Email no later than 10 Apr 2019. Public announcement of winners from unclaimed prize draw All unclaimed prizes will be published here: www.bondisands.com on 13 Apr 2019. And 8th July 2019 for minor prizes.
- Information on how to enter and prize details form part of these terms & conditions (Terms of entry). The Terms must be read in conjunction with the Schedule. The Schedule defines the terminology used in these Terms of entry. Where there is any inconsistency between these Terms and the Schedule, the Schedule prevails. Participation in this Promotion is deemed acceptance of these Terms of entry.
- Entry is open worldwide only to entrants who satisfy the Method of entry. Directors, officers, management, employees, suppliers (including prize suppliers) and contractors (and the immediate families of directors, officers, management, employees, suppliers and contractors) of the Promoter and of its related bodies corporate, and of the agencies and companies associated with this Promotion, including the terms and conditions providers TPAL (Trade Promotions and Lotteries Pty Ltd) are ineligible to enter. Immediate family means any of the following: spouse, ex-spouse, child or step-child (whether natural or by adoption), parent, step-parent, grandparent, step-grandparent, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew, brother, sister, step- brother, step-sister or first cousin.
- The Promotion will be conducted during the Promotion period.
- The Prize/s are specified in the Details of prizes section of the Schedule.
- The total prize pool is specified in the Total prize value section of the Schedule.
- Any prize is valued in Australian dollars unless expressly stated to the contrary.
- If the prize winner of the Event prize has not confirmed their availability to take the prize on the specified dates by the specified time and date, the prize winner's entry will be deemed invalid. The Promoter reserves the right to conduct a further draw to award the prize, subject to any directions given by any relevant authority.
- Neither the Promoter nor any company or agency associated with the Event accepts responsibility for the cancellation or delay of the Event for any reason beyond their control or any inability of the winner to attend the Event when scheduled.
- If any part of the Event is abandoned, varied, called off or postponed for any reason, the winner and, if applicable, their companion(s), at the Promoter's discretion, forfeits all rights to attend the event and no cash or alternative tickets will be substituted for that element of the prize.
- Entrants agree to comply with any conditions which accompany the Event.
- All vouchers are valid until the expiry date stated on the voucher or by the provider of the voucher.
- Entrants agree to comply with any conditions which accompany the Voucher.
- Neither the Promoter nor the voucher provider is liable for any voucher that has been stolen, forged, lost, damaged or tampered with in any way.
- Entrants are advised that tax implications may arise from their prize winnings and they should seek independent financial advice prior to acceptance of their prize(s). The Promoter accepts no responsibility for any tax implications that may arise from accepting a prize. Entrants are responsible for any and all expenses that they incur in entering the competition and they will not be reimbursed regardless of whether or not they win the competition.
- The entrants must follow the Method of entry during the Promotion period to enter the Promotion. Failure to do so will result in an invalid entry. The Promoter will not advise an Entrant if their entry is deemed invalid.
- The time of entry will be deemed to be the time the entry is received by the Promoter.
- Entrants may submit up to the Maximum number of entries (if applicable).
- The Promoter accepts no responsibility for any late, lost, delayed, incomplete, incorrectly submitted, corrupted, illegible or misdirected entries, claims or correspondence whether due to omission, error, alteration, tampering, deletion, theft, destruction, disruption to any communication network or medium, or otherwise including those entries not received by the Promoter for any reason. The Promoter is not liable for any consequences of user error including (without limitation) costs incurred. No correspondence will be entered into.
- The prize(s) will be awarded to the best entry/entries as judged in accordance with the Prize draw details. Entries must not have been published previously and/or have been used to win prizes in any other competitions. The judges reserve the right to disqualify any entrant submitting an entry which, in the opinion of the judges, includes objectionable content or does not meet the criteria relating to the method of entry. The judges' decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- The winner does not need to be present at the draw unless expressly stated to the contrary.
- The winner(s) will be notified in accordance with the Notification of winners and Notification of unclaimed prize winners (if applicable) sections of the Schedule. Notification to winners will be deemed to have occurred on the later of the time the winner receives actual notification from the Promoter or two business days thereafter. The notification will include details about how the prize(s) can be claimed.
- The Promoter takes no responsibility where it is unable to contact prize winners who have not provided correct or complete contact details. If an entrant's contact details change during the promotional period, it is the entrant's responsibility to notify the Promoter. A request to modify any entry information should be directed to Promoter.
- It is a condition of accepting any prize that the winner must comply with all the conditions of use of the prize and the prize supplier's requirements. Each prize must be taken as stated and no compensation will be payable if a winner is unable to use the prize as stated.
- The winner(s) name and country of residence will be published in accordance with the Public announcement of winners section of the Schedule (if applicable).
- The promoter may conduct an Unclaimed prize draw in accordance with the Unclaimed prize draw section of the Schedule (if applicable). In the event the Unclaimed prize draw takes place, the Promoter will attempt to contact the winner(s) of the Unclaimed prize draw in accordance with the Notification of unclaimed prize draw section of the Schedule, and if applicable, the name and State/Territory of residency of any winner(s) of the Unclaimed prize draw will be published in accordance with the section of the Schedule entitled Public announcement of winners from unclaimed prize draw. If a prize is no longer capable of being redeemed, the new winner will receive a prize, as determined by the Promoter, of equivalent value (as if the original prize had been awarded to that person, less any administrative expenses incurred by the Promoter).
- To the greatest extent permitted by law, the Promoter excludes all warranties, representations or guarantees (Warranties) regarding the Promotion and any prizes, including any Warranties which may have been made in the course of advertising or promoting the Promotion. The conduct of the Promotion or the supply of prizes may involve third parties, and the Promoter makes no Warranties and disclaims all liability in connection with any such third parties, their acts or omissions. By entering the Promotion, an entrant releases and indemnifies the Promoter and its related bodies corporate (including the officers, employees and agents of each) from and against all actions, penalties, liabilities, claims or demands the entrant may have against the Promoter or that the Promoter may incur for any loss or damage which is or may be suffered or sustained as a direct or indirect result of an entrant entering or participating in the Promotion or winning or failing to win a prize, or using or permitting any other person to use the prize, except for any liability which cannot be excluded by law or which would cause any part of this clause to be void or unenforceable.
- If despite the foregoing clause, the Promoter incurs a liability to an entrant under any law which implies a Warranty into these Terms of entry which cannot legally be excluded, the Promoter's liability in respect of the Promotion is limited, in the Promoter's discretion, to either resupplying such goods or services as form part of the Promotion, or paying the cost of resupplying those goods or services.
- Without limiting any of the foregoing, in no circumstances will an entrant or the Promoter have any liability to the other for any loss or damage suffered which is indirect or consequential in nature, including without limitation any loss of profit, loss of reputation, loss of goodwill, or loss of business opportunity.
- The Promoter and its associated agencies and companies will not be liable for any damage in transit to or delay in transit of prizes.
- The Promoter may in its absolute discretion not accept a particular entry, may disqualify an entry, or cancel the entire Promotion at any time without giving reasons and without liability to any entrants. Without limiting this the Promoter reserves the right to verify the validity of entries, prize claims and entrants and to disqualify any entrant who submits an entry or prize claim that is misleading or not in accordance with these Terms of entry or who manipulates or tampers with the entry process. In the event that a winner breaches these Terms of entry, the winner will forfeit the prize in whole and no substitute will be offered. Verification is at the discretion of the Promoter, whose decision is final. Failure by the Promoter to enforce any of its rights at any stage does not constitute a waiver of those rights.
- Prizes, or any unused portion of a prize, are not transferable or exchangeable and cannot be taken as cash. Where a prize is unavailable for any reason, the Promoter may substitute the prize for another item of equal or higher value. The Promoter accepts no responsibility for any variation in prize value (including between advertising of the Promotion and receipt of the prize).
- In the case of the intervention of any outside act, agent or event which prevents or significantly hinders the Promoter's ability (or that of a third party involved with the Promotion) to proceed with the Promotion on the dates and in the manner described in these Terms of entry, including but not limited to vandalism, natural disasters, acts of God, civil unrest, strike, war, act of terrorism, the Promoter's obligations in respect of the Promotion will be suspended for the duration of the event and, in addition, the Promoter may in its absolute discretion cancel the promotion and recommence it from the start on the same conditions, subject to approval of the relevant authorities.
- All entries become the property of the Promoter. As a condition of entering into this Promotion, entrants agree to assign all their rights in and to their entry and any related content to the Promoter, including any copyright or other intellectual property rights in the entry and related content. Without limiting this, the Promoter may use entry content for any and all purposes including commercial purposes. You warrant that entry content is original, lawful and not misleading and that the Promoter's use of such content will not infringe the rights of any third parties. The entrant agrees to indemnify the promoter against all claims and costs by third parties arising from a breach of the warranty set out in this condition. The Promoter has no obligation to credit you as the author of any content submitted and may otherwise do any acts or omissions which would otherwise constitute an infringement of any moral rights you may have as an author of content.
- Entrants consent to the Promoter using the personal information provided in connection with this promotion for the purposes of facilitating the conduct of the promotion and awarding any prizes, including to third parties involved in the promotion and any relevant authorities. In addition to any use that may be outlined in the Promoter's Privacy Policy, the Promoter including third parties may, for an indefinite period, unless otherwise advised, use the private information for promotional, marketing, publicity, research and profiling purposes, including sending electronic messages or telephoning the entrant.
- The collection and disclosure of personal information provided in connection with this promotion will be handled in accordance with the Promoter's Privacy statement which adheres to the Privacy Act 1988 (cth) and Australian Privacy Principles.
- Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or Snapchat may be used to advertise or promote the Promotion. By entering the Promotion, entrants agree that the Promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or Snapchat; and to release Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or Snapchat from all liability in relation to this Promotion. Any questions, comments or complaints regarding the Promotion should be directed to the Promoter and not Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or Snapchat.
Authorised under NSW Permit No. LTPS/19/32275 and ACT Permit No. TP 19/02800
WINNER: Gabrielle Beer - Australia
WINNER: Jessica Cukier - USA
WINNER: Ashley Crosthwaite - UK
WINNER: Samantha Lynne - Australia
WINNER: Adriana Bassi - Canada
WINNER: Britney Cradock - New Zealand
WINNER: Becca Ranson – UK
WINNER: Caitlin Bennett – Australia


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RoadsideAmerica.comYour Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist Attractions
The editors at RoadsideAmerica.com assign a rating to each attraction. Users can filter places based on ratings. Ratings,
categorized from "Mildly Interesting" to "The Best," were determined using a variety of factors and criteria. Ratings are subject to the mood swings of the editors and may change.
More about RoadsideAmerica.com's Ratings
Low online rates for motels, hotels, inns:
Kansas City, Branson, Saint Louis, Springfield, Columbia, Joplin, Osage Beach, Saint Robert, Jefferson City, Eureka, Hannibal, Independence
... reserve a room now!


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Welcome to In Stitches on The Quilt Trail
Free shipping over $150.00 United States
Half priced International shipping over $150.00. Shipping charged will be actual and not necessarily what comes up on the shipping page. I will adjust. Canada isn't international - that will be adjusted too.
Money back guarantee on any of our fabrics that you aren't satisfied with, color or feel. Send uncut piece back for refund - no questions asked.
Usually same day shipping - orders placed by 12:00pm, Central Time
(to help expedite this, please put the 3 digit code from the back of your card in the notes on the order form)
I send out swatches or will match yours.


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Sirius Disorder was one of the best format free stations of all time, and I'm so disappointed and disgusted that they canceled/merged it into the Loft.
Someone started a Facebook group to work to bring it back. You can check it out at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=33348129081
The problem with the narrow channels is there is no room for discovery of new music or things outside the narrow format. With Disorder, you never knew what you would run into next.
It is a real loss for the music and I think for the business at Sirius. While Disorder fans may have been smaller in number than for the hits stations, I'm sure that its listeners had a lot of impact on subscribers. Disorder fans know a lot of genres and could pitch their knowledge of the whole line up to friends and relatives.


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Spec Ops Lead Hits Out At "Tacked On" Multiplayer
Polygon's interview with Yager about their 2K-published shooter Spec Ops is worth a read, and not just because the lead, Corey Davis, attacks the practice of tacking on mandatory multiplayer to an ostensible single player project. He reportedly describes it as "bullshit", and delivers this descriptive ankle-bite:
"The multiplayer game's tone is entirely different, the game mechanics were raped to make it happen, and it was a waste of money. No one is playing it, and I don't even feel like it's part of the overall package — it's another game rammed onto the disk like a cancerous growth, threatening to destroy the best things about the experience that the team at Yager put their heart and souls into creating."
Blimey, er… Discuss?


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Someone recently asked me a question that I think a lot of parents and spouses of people with ADHD struggle with. The question is, "When you know ADHD is severely disrupting a loved one's life, how do you convince them to medicate?"
It is always difficult to know how to talk to someone who is in denial of a problem that may be disruptive in their life and the lives around them.
Of course, it is always best to attempt to have an individual define what about his or her life that they like or would possibly change. Sometimes what we like about who we are is what is disruptive. For example, a person who has ADHD may really like his or her spontaneity and ability to multitask even if nothing gets done to others' satisfaction. A person who is hyperactive can often be fun-loving and exciting to be around. Therefore, they may become fearful that others will not like the person they are when medicated who is quieter or more controlled.
But it is important to help the ADHD patient understand that treating ADHD really just evens the playing field. It can normalize one's personality and allow goal achievement. Most of the time, a person who has been dysfunctional in their school environment, workplace or home relationship wants to have more control over those parts of their lives. I spend a lot of time helping people develop their goals and showing them that medication can help them achieve those goals.
Any thoughts?
Important: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not Everyday Health.


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What you missed while filling your pants with delicious shrimp ... • World Series: Less cowbell, more Lidge ... Phillies take 1-0 series lead. [NBCSports] • NFL: Is Mike Holmgren headed to the 49ers? Well, he is this weekend, anyway. [USA Today] • NHL: Flyers fans thrilled with Roenick's return; Flyers, not so much. [CBS Sportsline]For your Morning Wakeup Image we present Austin, Texas TV correspondent and Colt McCoy main squeeze Rachel Glandorf (above right), posing with an unknown friend at a Longhorns game. Thanks to Mr. Anonymous, who also sent the image below of Glandorf with Mr. Mike Tyson (not shown: The pepper spray keychain balled up in Ms. Glandorf's left fist).
More from Deadspin


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Tysabri (natalizumab) has become the third biologic medication approved for the treatment of Crohn's disease. Unlike the other two approved biologics, Remicade (infliximab) and Humira (adalimumab), Tysabri does not work by inhibiting tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Because of this it offers an alternative biologic treatment for those patients who either cannot tolerate or who do not respond well enough to the TNF inhibitors. Instead, it binds to a protein on the surface of certain types of white blood cells and prevents them from leaving the blood stream to enter the tissues where they would otherwise cause inflammation. Tysabri has already been approved for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
Tysabri is approved for use in adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease with evidence of inflammation who have had an inadequate response to, or are intolerant of, conventional Crohn's therapies and TNF-inhibitors. Tysabri is given by intravenous infusion once every four weeks and is available only through a restricted distribution system called the TOUCH program.
The TOUCH program was developed in conjunction with the FDA in order to ensure appropriate use of Tysabri and to monitor on an ongoing basis the risk factors for and incidence of the rare, but serious, complication known as progressive multifocal encephalopathy (PML). PML is a rare but extremely serious infection of the brain. To date only three cases have been reported, all around the time of the initial marketing of Tysabri for MS. At that time Tysabri was temporarily taken off the market, but it was subsequently reintroduced in conjunction with the TOUCH program. No further cases of PML have been reported in spite of every patient receiving Tysabri being carefully monitored under the TOUCH program.
In clinical trials, about 60 percent of Crohn's patients responded to Tysabri. Among those patients who had previously had an inadequate response to a TNF inhibitor, the response rate was 38 percent. Response to Tysabri was maintained by 61 percent of patients at six months and 54 percent of patients at 12 months. Among patients who had been on steroids and who responded to Tysabri, about two thirds of them were able to discontinue the steroids over a 10 week period.
The most common adverse events in Tysabri-treated patients with Crohn's disease were headache and fatigue.
Tysabri is not for everyone, but it offers a powerful new therapeutic option with a novel mechanism of action. Despite the advances made in the treatment of Crohn's disease with the introduction of the TNF inhibitors, there is still a significant unmet need for those patients who either can't tolerate or don't respond to them. Talk to your doctor about whether this new treatment might be right for you.
More in depth information about the treatment of Crohn's disease can be found on our Crohn's community page.
Important: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not Everyday Health.


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Garden Detective: Lucky bets for summer planting
All over the world, in cultures that sometimes seem to share little else in common, the number seven is perceived as lucky. It's also a significant number in the natural world, which makes it even more important to gardeners like us: There are seven colors in a rainbow, seven days in a week, seven wonders of the world and seven musical notes in an octave. The Bible is filled with references to seven signs, seven days, seven angels, seven seals. Southern Italians celebrate Christmas Eve with the feast of the seven fishes, Japanese folklore nods to the seven gods of luck and Buddhists look to the seven factors of enlightenment.
Seven also is an ideal goal in garden design, which favors odd numbers of plantings for visual asymmetry. What's more, in our part of the country, we're gardening in lucky Zone 7.
So I'm pretty confident this will be a great year: It's my seventh year as Newsday's garden columnist. It's been my privilege to write for you, meet with you, answer your questions and weigh your contest tomatoes all these years. And something tells me this is only the beginning of our journey: In Chinese numerology, seven symbolizes togetherness.
As gardeners, we have many decisions to make during spring: Should we expand the garden and shrink the lawn? Start vegetables from seeds or buy starter plants? Splurge on the water feature displayed at the nursery's entrance or put that cash toward a weekend getaway? Without fail, the one decision I struggle with each year is how to balance the ratio of new perennials, which typically bloom for just a few weeks each season and take several years to attain their full potential, and quick-fix annuals, which will grow quickly, provide near-instant gratification and bloom nonstop from spring through frost.
Annuals theoretically are those plants that complete their life cycles -- from seed to death -- in one year. But from a practical standpoint, we've come to include tender perennials -- those that thrive here in summer but die because they cannot survive New York winters -- in the "annual" category as well. These plants are cheaper, typically are sold in multi-plant cellpacks and provide a lot more (albeit, temporary) bang for the buck than perennials.
Impatiens have been the go-to annual for shady beds and planters for as long as I can remember. They asked for little, generously allowing us to forgo deadheading, pinching and staking, and nevertheless rewarded us with brilliant color from Mother's Day straight through frost. All they required in exchange was a little shade and a little water. But as is too often the case, all good things must come to an end: We're now being forced to part ways with our dear, old friend, at least for the foreseeable future.
Last year, a disease called downy mildew declared open season on impatiens, and the results weren't pretty: Leaves turned yellow and fell off, plants were severely stunted and gardeners who looked closely noticed the presence of a white substance under leaves. For some, there was the bizarre "disappearance" of plants altogether -- seemingly there one day and "where did it go?" the next.
The bad news is that we should avoid planting impatiens until a cure is found, and that's not likely to happen for several years. The good news is that, although the pathogen -- Plasmopara obducens -- very well might have survived winter in the soil, it is host-specific, which means it only poses a threat to Impatiens walleriana. Other plants will not be infected if planted in the same soil this year. Even New Guinea impatiens are safe, as they belong to a different species not targeted by the disease. However, because the New Guinea variety requires a bit more sun than ordinary impatiens, they aren't suitable replacements for the shadier spots where their stricken cousins have thrived in the past.
Linda Frohlinger has been planting impatiens in her Massapequa garden for 30 years, tucking pockets of red and white, or violet or pink plants into corners to brighten up beds around her hostas and ferns.
"I love to garden and be in the dirt and feel the worms, and I love my impatiens" she said mournfully. "I'm about to have my first grandchild, and one of the things I am looking forward to is teaching her to plant flowers. One simple thing that can give you a lot of pleasure is putting impatiens in the ground and watching them grow quickly."
This year, Frohlinger knows she'll have to alter her decades-long routine. "I have shady areas where I always have a pot or two of coleus up on a rock," she said. "This year I'm going to get more coleus for the ground instead of impatiens."
So what can you plant this year instead of impatiens? I've spent the long off-season pondering that dilemma. In addition to coleus, I sought flowering annuals with a long bloom cycle that are low-maintenance, can tolerate at least some shade and have the same suitable-for-bed-or-container habit as our beloved standby. It wasn't easy, but I did find seven solid alternatives I think you'll like.
Vinca (Catharanthus roseus): Not to be confused with vinca vine, a perennial ground cover, this annual resembles impatiens more closely than any other substitute and is available with lavender, white, red or pink blossoms. It can handle some shade, but flower size increases dramatically with sunlight exposure. Perfect for hot, dry sites, this plant is drought-tolerant, "self-cleaning" (no deadheading necessary) and can be brought indoors for winter windowsill color. Grows 6-16 inches tall and wide.
Begonia, tuberous (x tuberhybrida), wax (x semperflorens-cultorum) or hiemalis (x hiemalis): Requires ample water and fertilizer; grows 6-18 inches tall, 6-12 inches wide.
Clown flower (Torenia): Doesn't bloom quite as prolifically as impatiens but is very attractive and thrives in light shade while tolerating heat. Flowers are deer-resistant; grows 8-12 inches tall, 6-9 inches wide. Try the 'Summer Wave Blue' variety.
Flowering tobacco: (Nicotiana 'Starmaker'): Requires just six hours of sunlight per day. Deadhead to prevent self-sowing; grows 10-12 inches tall and wide.
Lobelia: Available in cascading and mounding varieties. If plants stop blooming during heat waves, shear plant to encourage another burst of flowers; grows 6 inches tall, 6-9 inches wide.
Petunia: Performs best with 6-8 hours of sun daily. Pinch or cut back by half in midsummer to rejuvenate plants; vines of "Wave" varieties can trail up to 4 feet long.
Amethyst flower (Browallia): Prefers rich soil, so add compost at planting time, then mulch to keep roots cool. Available with purple, blue or white flowers. Grows 12-24 inches tall, 6-12 inches wide.
Plenty of annuals bask in the glory of full sun, with common geraniums, marigolds and New Guinea impatiens among the most popular in the region. But there are so many other, less common choices available.
Debra Cox of Peconic is planting Diascia, commonly called twinspur, in her garden this year. The lushly flowered annuals are ideal for spilling abundantly over container edges and retaining walls. They also fill in nicely between bedding plants, requiring only a sunny site, fertilizer and moist, well-draining soil. And shearing after the first flush of blooms will encourage another.
Although Cox has planted Diascia in pots before, this is the first time she's planting it directly in the garden. She always gives her children, ages 11 and 4, a say in what she plants: "We picked it for the color because it's bold," she said, adding that the variety she purchased is called "red" but is really pink. "The kids pick it out, they just never want to do the planting," she mused, recalling a scene that's all too common in backyards across America.
If you, too, are looking to break with tradition and branch out into new territory, try planting one of my favorite sun lovers this year. Better yet, try to get the kids (or the grandkids, or the neighbor's kids!) to plant them.
Lantana: Suitable for beds, borders, containers and even as ground cover, lantana produces an abundance of solid or multi-toned, deer-resistant, fragrant flowers all season long.
Angelonia: Varieties include those with white, pink or purple flowers. Plant in the garden or in containers, and snip flower stalks for indoor vases.
Moss rose: (Portulaca): Perfect for hot, dry spots, this succulent tolerates drought and poor soil like a champ. Available in many primary and pastel shades. Deer-resistant, very low-maintenance; suitable for containers, beds, borders and as ground cover. May reseed.
Zinnia: Varieties include single daisylike types as well as semidouble- and double-flowered. Available in myriad colors, including various shades of orange, pink, yellow, purple and white. Suitable for containers and/or beds, depending on variety.
Ageratum: Old-fashioned favorite available with lavender, white, rose or nearly-blue (a rarity) flowers. Suitable for containers, beds and borders, with height among varieties ranging from 6 inches to 3 feet tall.
Calibrachoa: Resembling mini-petunias, these adorable cascading annuals are covered with hundreds of flowers all season long. Sprawling habit makes the heat-tolerant plants best suited to containers or the front of a border, where they will gracefully spill over onto a walkway. No deadheading necessary. Look for "superbells" varieties, available in Red, Plum, Yellow, Lavender, Yellow Chiffon or my favorite, Blackberry Punch. Fertilize regularly for best color.
Snapdragon: With little flowers that appear to roar like lions -- or dragons -- when their sides are pinched, these aptly named old-fashioned upright beauties are available in many different colors and even a few bicolor varieties, among them mauve and white, pink and white, purple and white, orange and creamy yellow.


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Fox devoted eight days to the "American Idol" audition round, but there were only seven cities on this year's cross-country vacation for host Ryan Seacrest and the judges. That gave the show an extra hour to fill, which made Wednesday a clip show that focused mainly on singers who did well enough to make it to Hollywood.
Sixty more minutes of heartwarming tales and nervous-sounding voices … who could ask for anything more?
Fake it 'til you make it
As part of the Hour of Filler, Ryan treated the audience to a montage of "the fake out," the trick that some successful auditioners have of hiding their golden tickets as a joke played on family and friends. In addition to being mean, it's a ploy older that Simon Cowell's T-shirt collection. Season 10 contestants, be more creative next year! Try making origami swans out of the brightly colored paper instead!
U.S. & World
He writes the songs that make the whole world sing
Dreams die hard, even when Simon attempts to crush them, so season nine has already seen its share of repeat contestants. Jessica Furney sang from the Janis Joplin songbook in her successful audition a year ago, but went after bigger game this year: a Simon Cowell tune.
Cowell co-wrote "Footprints in the Sand," and while Furney sang it well enough to earn her return trip to Hollywood, it was most noticeable because Victoria Beckham was shocked and impressed that Simon had written a song. She should have known better. Anyone as gifted at clichés as Simon is a natural songwriter.
Another chance
Another familiar name for those who watched the show a season ago is Lacey Brown. She came as close as humanly possible to making the Top 24 last year, getting caught in the chair of despair and losing the last spot in the field to Megan Joy in Hollywood. She'll hope that this season brings the joy of victory instead of the agony of defeat as she earned a second chance at Hollywood this year.
A very special episode of ...
Texas native Hope Johnson epitomizes what this stage of Idol is all about — a touching backstory suitable for made-for-TV-movies. Talking about the poverty of her youth, she told the cameras, "I didn't know we were poor when I was little. I thought a lot of kids didn't eat dinner. … I used to take food from my lunch tray. … I would give my brother my food from my lunch. I figured there was always tomorrow, and things were going to be better. Music was my escape."
She should call Katy Perry when in Hollywood to discuss her potential for a Lifetime movie deal, or at least a role in the next remake of "Annie."
Stephanie Fisher has auditioned for "American Idol" seven times already at age 23, so assuming she went one time each year, she's five years away from setting the unbreakable record for futility. She got rejected again this year, though at least she got to meet one of her heroes. "I'm so excited for Victoria Beckham. She's my Idol. She's the most beautiful creature I have ever seen," Fisher said, showing the lack of good judgment that has kept her singing dream alive this long.
The next Ruben?
Michael Lynche was a favorite of the women, as Kara DioGuardi and guest judge Kristin Chenoweth were giggling like schoolgirls during his audition. "Kind of like a singing teddy bear," Kara noted afterward. That could be both good and bad news for Lynche. While "The Velvet Teddy Bear" Ruben Studdard did win the competition in season two, he isn't thought of as one of the more successful champs.
Gentle rejection
Adrian Chandichi looks like a basketball player, but the 6-foot-8 high-school student is a swimmer and a wannabe singer who says things like, "I am a beautiful man-flower. I will blossom." He didn't sing very well, but anyone cringing at the expectation that the judges would embarrass him had nothing to fear. They were relatively kind when they shot him down.
Craig Berman is a writer in Washington. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/craigberman.


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Best of
the Twin Cities
Since the 1960s, the Children's Theatre Company has built its reputation on a winning formula: Make high-quality entertainment that can be enjoyed by the youngest and the oldest theatergoers alike. The delights came fast and furious through the past year, as the company finally shook itself completely free of a financial crisis from a few years back to produce a brilliant set of shows that featured the tremendous talents of the resident company and allowed guest artists the opportunity to make great theater. This ranged from an imagination-based version of Pinocchio — in which a small cast used everyday objects to bring the magic of the story to life — to the wild style of Alice in Wonderland and the gorgeous, vibrant, and funny Cinderella. For younger audiences, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie won plenty of accolades — and a pair of Ivey Awards for the work done by director Peter Brosius and actor Dean Holt. And then there was Charlotte's Web, which proved that a story about life and death can be right for any age, especially when it is crafted with such care.


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The highly acclaimed actor recently snapped this risqué photo of himself in front of the mirror and loaded it to Instagram for all of his 1.9 million followers to see. It wasn't until an hour after posting it that he decided to remove the photo.
It seems ol' Franco is enjoying the explicit attention these days with just recently stirring up some controversy after videos and texts were leaked from an underaged girl being pursued by the 35-year-old.
- Reposted by


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David Harris
- Career Highlights
- Associate professor, New England Conservatory
- Trombonist and composer/arranger for the avant-garde big band Jazz Composers' Alliance
- Featured in soundtracks for commercials, as well as Deconstructing Harry, Stranger Among Us, and The Opposite of Sex
- Founding trombonist for the Klezmer Conservatory Band
- Trombonist/arranger for the traditional klezmer ensemble Shirim, noted for their klezmer versions of The Nutcracker and Peter and the Wolf
- Founding trombonist with Naftule's Dream, recording three albums
- Performances around the world, including the Berlin Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Pops, the Smithsonian Institute, and jazz clubs Blue Note, Tonic, and Knitting Factory
- Awards
- Two-time winner of the Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship for music composition
In Their Own Words
"In my first year of college I failed because I was in the wrong place: I was studying science. I went from dean's list in high school to failing or getting Ds in every single course within six months. It was the best thing that ever happened to me, because that was when I realized it wasn't what I wanted to be. From there I went straight into music and I never stopped. In the same way, I want all my students at Berklee to find themselves."
"You need to work very hard to be a successful musician your whole life, but if you really love it, it's hard work that you don't mind doing. And if my students can see that the hard work will help them achieve their goals, that's the beginning of the whole rest of their career. Then they begin to establish the necessary skills and work habits."
"As a working musician, every day I use the same tools that I'm teaching my students, so when I give students information, it's not 'learn this because I say so' but 'here's how you can use it on a gig' and 'here's the craft that you need beyond your art on a daily basis so you can make a lifelong career out of music.'"
"I want my students to understand the necessity to have competent craft beyond their talent. They need to have technical skills beyond just inspiration to be successful, and to have a dogged vision of what it is that they want out of music and pursue it. As a bandleader, who do I hire? Maybe not the most creative person, but someone I know will go out there and aggressively put their mind to what they need to do."


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Membership—It's So Worth It!
5 reasons why you'll be glad you joined the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce:
· Your business will thank you. Want to grow your business? Other businesses have done just that by joining the Chamber. The Chamber's policy is to refer members only. You can even expand your referrals through a Leads Group. As a member, you enjoy a discounted rate to show at the Chamber's events — from the Delray Affair & Wine and Seafood Festival, to educational opportunities, great speakers, and more. Network at the Contacts & Cocktails business card exchange, at Networking Breakfasts and at business grand openings.
· You get to be a name dropper. Your business's name, that is. As a new member, your name will be announced in the Chamber's weekly e-news, the Pineapple Newspaper and through the Chamber's social media (Facebook and Twitter). You'll be listed in the Membership Directory & Resource Guide, a trusted source for many residents. Enjoy special members-only sponsorship and advertising opportunities. And put your business card and brochure in the Chamber lobby—more than 1,000 visitors a month drop by, so plenty of eyes will see them. Plus, being a Chamber member gives you instant credibility within the Delray community.
· You'll get even smarter. Professional development seminars and technology courses will keep you up to speed, while the C-Level Chairman's Club Luncheon/Speaker series will offer different points of view to consider. Marketing refreshers cover email marketing, social media, local media, buyer incentives and more.
· You can get some cool stuff. Many events offer prizes, goody bags and auctions. Another benefit is the Member-to-Member Discounts program. The plaque and decal you receive as a Member in Good Standing will unlock additional perks.
· You'll get to make a difference. You can take part in the amazing civic experience called Leadership Delray. And, come to know the Chamber's board members, city officials and partner organizations, and have a voice in the community that will be heard.
Why Not? Your competition is already a Member.
For more information, contact Christina Morrison, Membership Director (561) 573-7083, firstname.lastname@example.com.
Need More Reasons to Join?
It is in your Best Interest
The Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce has proven itself to be the single most effective volunteer, nonprofit organization committed to helping solve today's complex business and community problems. You have a stake in this community, and you can best safeguard your interests by working with others through the chamber.
It Affects your Bottom Line
The chamber promotes an environment that can maximize your business potential and profitability.
It Affects your Future
At the chamber, we don't just talk about the future... we shape it through our involvement with the community and the Council of 100. We believe you want to help shape Delray's future too.
We're Working for You
A professional staff and a host of volunteers will work with you and for you to see your community dreams become reality. Separate chamber committees and task forces will assist you as your business, industry or practice tackles today's problems and grasps tomorrow's opportunities.
We Invite you to Apply
Let's work together to make our community the best it can be! Membership in your chamber is a blue chip investment in the future of Delray Beach, and one that's sure to grow and pay dividends many times over. Begin enjoying the many benefits your membership offers right away. Fill out the short application and return it today.