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What is most surprising is not all of Mississippi is poor, or last in every development category. There are regions in Mississippi that rank on par with the richest state in America (Connecticut), and there are regions that rank on par with the least developed countries in the world.
This study illuminates the sharp disparities in opportunity between regions and between races within the state. The report forces us to acknowledge who is thriving, and who is being shut out. It is clear that we cannot forge ahead while leaving so many people behind.
"In Mississippi, where we work with 13 state and local organizations such as the NAACP, this report clearly illustrates the conditions residents were struggling with even prior to the hurricanes of 2005—limited access to education, lower incomes, and shorter lives—and argues for a comprehensive solution for recovery," said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America.
Given the profound economic and social challenges facing Mississippi, and more broadly working families in the US today, this report comes at a crucial time to help policy makers use precious resources to ensure all Mississippians have access to the American Dream.
]]>Velasquez is president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, or FLOC, which is both a social movement and a labor union focusing on migrant farm workers. What he learned during those five and half days in the field is now fueling a campaign to bring justice to farm workers across the South's tobacco farms. Its target is RJ Reynolds, one of the major buyers of the product. Launched by FLOC and funded, in part, by Oxfam America, the campaign's aim is to convince the cigarette giant to come to the negotiating table to work out an agreement that will offer union representation to tobacco workers, providing them with better wages and improved working conditions.
"It ranks up there with the hardest work I've ever done," said Velasquez a few weeks after returning from North Carolina. "It's very hard and it's dirty. Add in the heat and humidity, and it's as bad as anything you get. The stalks grow over your head and block the breeze. It's like an oven."
Farm workers in the United States are among the lowest paid in the nation. The majority earn less than $7,500 a year. For tobacco pickers, the work is not only grueling, it can also be dangerous, especially if their employers fail to take basic safety precautions to protect workers' health. Summer heat in the south combined with poor air circulation among the shoulder-high plants create hazardous working conditions if there are few breaks in the picking pace and not enough drinking water available. Those conditions took a toll during the 2005 and 2006 harvests: Seven farm workers died from heat stroke.
"Those tragedies could have been prevented if there had been adequate scrutiny of conditions and compliance with safety requirements," said Guadalupe Gamboa, an Oxfam America program officer focusing on workers' rights. "RJ Reynolds has the money and buying power to improve those conditions. We see this campaign as a way to begin righting some of the severe inequities that leave marginalized workers with little control over their lives and livelihoods."
Before July, Velasquez, who has an undergraduate degree in sociology and an advanced one in practical theology, had a gap in his education: the tobacco fields. He knew about picking potatoes; it's some of the hardest farm work there is. He has harvested more than his share of tomatoes. He has picked cotton and oranges and berries of all kinds. And as the founder of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, he can speak from experience about the hardships of each task. What he didn't know was tobacco.
"I represent tobacco workers. I've got to know what I'm talking about," Velasquez said. "It's a principle I have: Never ask someone to do something I wouldn't do first."
So, in late July, he joined a crew of hard-working men for a week of "topping and suckering"—a method of lopping flowers from the tops of tobacco plants and snapping off the new shoots before they become flowers to allow the leaves to grow as fat and green as possible.
But it was those lush green leaves that Velasquez worried about the most: Coated with nicotine that easily soaks through clothing and gloves, they are the source of "the green monster,"—a temporary sickness that strikes many workers laboring in the hot sun.
"Like poison ivy, you catch it through the skin. It's like a serious flu. You start vomiting," said Velasquez, adding that pesticides sprayed on the leaves can compound the effects of the illness. Farm workers wear long sleeves and pants to protect themselves as best they can. But when the leaves are wet with rain or dew, the nicotine sinks through quickly. On those days, workers will often don makeshift rain coats fashioned from garbage bags for a bit of extra protection. But there's a personal cost to that, too: They're sweltering.
"Even by 8 in the morning it's hot and humid," said Velasquez. "You're in that black plastic bag and within an hour you're soaked from sweat."
Velasquez was spared the misery of the green monster, but on the third day of work, his hands began to bother him. They felt tingly and numb.
"I asked the workers about it," he said. "They said all our hands are like that. By Saturday, after working all week, I couldn't close one of my hands without a lot of pain." Repetitive stress from the topping and suckering had caused the problem.
The day-and-night camaraderie of companions—with nicknames like Chemo, El Caballo (The Horse), Panza (because of his belly)—helped ease the exhaustion of the long days. But when the week came to an end, Velasquez was left with one overriding thought: "Surely there must be a way to grow our crops in a more just manner."
That's where the collective bargaining agreement comes in.
With tobacco being the number one crop in North Carolina, tens of thousands of workers are employed in harvesting and cultivating it. Many of them are immigrants whose undocumented status leaves them exposed to exploitation, including near servitude to crew leaders. But others have come to the state under the US Department of Labor's H2A guest worker program—and most of those workers are contracted through the North Carolina Growers Association.
However, Velasquez says that many farmers in North Carolina won't hire the H2A workers because of the expenses associated with their employment. Not only are there paperwork costs that can add up to $900 per worker, there is also the obligation to pay the H2A employees the prevailing wage, which can often be $3 or $4 an hour more than federal minimum wage. Instead, farmers opt for the undocumented workers. Changing that scenario—making it affordable for farmers to hire H2A workers—is going to cost money.
"There's an economic reality to all of this, and that is who's going to pay for the improvements? My feeling is RJ Reynolds needs to do that," says Velasquez. "The first challenge is going to be to negotiate with them to offer a subsidy to the growers through a union contract that will cover the cost of bringing these workers in legally."
This will not be the first time FLOC has negotiated contracts between large companies and farm workers at the bottom of the supply chain. With the support of Oxfam America, the organization won an historic collective bargaining agreement with Mt. Olive and the growers association in 2004 that brought about 8,000 guest workers under the protection of a union contract. Prior to that the workers had had few labor rights.
Now, FLOC wants to see the same kinds of benefits—better wages, improved working conditions—extended to migrant tobacco pickers. And the participation of RJ Reynolds, with the tight control it helps to exert on the prices growers can get for their crops, is the key to that plan.
FLOC is employing a number of tactics to achieve its goal—starting with requests to meet with the company. FLOC also secured enough votes at a recent meeting of RJ Reynolds shareholders to keep alive a resolution calling on the company to improve conditions for workers in the field. It has enlisted the support of more than 190 religious leaders around the country to sign a letter to the company's CEO. And, to put some extra pressure on RJ Reynolds, FLOC is planning to launch a country-wide boycott of a product—yet to be decided—owned by company shareholders.
"What's important is fighting the good fight for the rights of people,"" says Velasquez.
]]>Although the force of the storms was an act of nature, what the American people have since witnessed—an uneven and often incompetent recovery effort—is the result of deliberate human acts. If we refuse to address this as a nation, it will go down in history not only as a failure of leadership, but also as a failure to hold our government accountable.
Two fundamental indicators, housing and jobs, provide stark proof of the stalled recovery. Full recovery is possible only when affordable homes are coupled with secure, decent jobs. Without quality jobs and affordable housing, low- and moderate income families are unable to return to their former lives. Decent wages allow people to return home and recreate vibrant communities by providing the necessary workforce to rebuild the region.
The situation grows increasingly critical, but despite challenges, there is a way forward. We face a historic election; the next president of the US must guarantee a just, equitable, and complete recovery. America must take immediate action to ensure that people struggling to rebuild their communities get the support that their hard work and innovation demand.
]]>But with fuel prices rocketing and dock amenities still in short supply, making a living from the ocean has become next to impossible for the couple. They depend on their social security checks and Geneva's schoolteacher's pension.
"I ain't made a profit in three years," said Joseph. "The boat supports itself, but that's it. It's so hard to make a living."
Disaster has compounded that challenge for the Rosses and countless others on the Gulf Coast. But they are not alone. Millions of Americans face similar struggles trying to earn a living, to stay healthy, and to educate their children in a country where the American dream has become more myth than reality for many people.
That truth emerges—sharp and stunning—from the pages of a new report that, for the first time, provides a human development rank for each state, congressional district, and ethnic group in the US. Called "The Measure of America," and supported by Oxfam America, the report takes tools long used to analyze the complexities of developing countries and applies them to one of the richest nations in the world. The report was written by Sarah Burd-Sharps, Kristen Lewis, and Eduardo Borges Martsin. Its goal is to deliver a clear picture of what life is really like for many of the 305 million Americans in a country where the average income among the top fifth of US households in 2006 was almost 15 times that of those in the lowest fifth—or $168,170 versus $11,352.
"The American Dream has drifted beyond the each of many, while fading from view among others," say the authors in their executive summary. "To reinvigorate it, to make it real for millions of middle-class and poor Americans, the stagnation and decline of middle and low incomes must be reversed, and opportunity must once again reach down to the lowest rungs of society."
That mission—to give poor people a fair shot at opportunity; to ensure their basic rights and dignity—lies at the heart of Oxfam America's US regional programs in the southeast. One of them is concentrating on helping the Gulf Coast recover from the devastation caused by back-to-back hurricanes in 2005.The second program seeks to reform the food system so that those who produce the food that feeds our nation—the low-wage farm and meat-processing workers—can secure their rights to decent work and improved conditions in their communities.
When Katrina and Rita barreled into the Gulf Coast, the damage they left was enormous—and indiscriminate. Regardless of their means, everyone in the paths of the storms got slammed. But not everyone has benefitted from the multi-billion-dollar recovery—funded by American taxpayers—that slowly has been restoring what the wind and water swept away.
In Mississippi and Louisiana, many of the region's poorest residents continue to struggle toward recovery. The persistent inattention of state and federal policy makers to meeting the needs of the most vulnerable people has compounded the storms' destruction.
Walk through storm-battered Biloxi, Mississippi, and the disparities in the recovery become clear. Remodeled hotels glimmer and luxury condominiums have sprouted just blocks from narrow streets where many people still live in temporary trailers.
"We need affordable housing: not projects, but homes that people can pay for on a living wage in Mississippi," says Sharon Hanshaw, a lifelong resident of the city who longs for the old neighborhoods to come alive again. She's executive director of Coastal Women for Change, an Oxfam partner organization founded following the disaster. Its goal is to empower local women to participate in the recovery. "New houses mean new life."
After the hurricanes hit, Oxfam's first response was to work with its local partners and provide emergency assistance to people. That response has now grown into a five-year, $12-million program focused on Mississippi and Louisiana. Working through local organizations, the program's goal is two-fold. The first is to ensure that the regio's most vulnerable people have access to safe and affordable housing. And the second objective is to ensure that workers in the hospitality industry—including those employed by restaurants, hotels, and casinos, as well as the construction workers now rebuilding those facilities—can land jobs that will allow them to achieve a decent standard of living.
By working with local communities to understand, demand, and ensure their rights, Oxfam's objective is to influence the outcome of the recovery and to help bring equity to the country's poorest states.
To the authors of "The Measure of America," it's a job that will require an investment of both will and financial resources on the scale of the Marshall Plan—a multi-billion-dollar reconstruction effort that helped to rebuild Western Europe following World War II. According to the report, about 12 million people live in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and together their three states have the lowest human development index scores of any region in the country—and that was before the consequences of the storm were factored in.
"On key measures of human development, the region today is at the level of development the country as a whole experienced 18 years ago. It has the nation's lowest levels of educational attainment, shortest life expectancy, and lowest incomes," say the authors.
"A Gulf Coast Reconstruction Plan, encompassing far-reaching humanitarian, social, political, and economic aims would expand choice and opportunity for the people of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi."
Expanding choice and opportunity for farm and meat processing workers is also going to require some far-reaching change. Oxfam America's program to improve conditions for some of the country's lowest-paid workers in the rural southeast employs a number of tactics including consumer campaigns that pressure employers to offer workers better pay.
"By working at multiple levels, the program addresses the issues of declining wages, low union density, gender and racial discrimination, high rates of occupational injury, and abuse due to the immigration status of workers," said Guadalupe Gamboa, Oxfam's worker rights program officer.
Farm workers, of whom there are an estimated three million, are among the poorest laborers in the country. Half of all individuals earn less than $7,500 a year, and half of farm worker families earn less than $10,000 a year—wages that are well below the US poverty threshold. Most workers get paid on a piece-rate basis, and because of their poverty they often live in overcrowded and substandard housing that routinely violates federal regulations. Food processing workers—there are about 800,000 of them in the US—face similar stressful economic and social conditions.
Besides poverty wages, both groups of laborers face dangerous working environments. Accidents and exposure to toxic pesticides are among the regular risks for farm workers. Meat packers are often forced to work at blinding speeds using razor-sharp knives, risking accidents and cumulative stress injuries.
But momentum for change is building. Oxfam-supported campaigns against some of the biggest names in the food industry—Yum! Brands (owner of Taco Bell), McDonald's, Burger King—have coincided with the public's increasing concern about food safety, motivating people to mobilize in support of farm workers. All three companies have agreed to pay some of the field hands in their supply chain a higher wage.
Building on those successes, Oxfam is now supporting a major campaign to organize 5,000 workers at Smithfield's Tar Heel, North Carolina pork processing plant—the largest of its kind in the country.
"Low-wage workers in the rural southeast, particularly people of color, immigrants, and women working in agriculture and food systems have a right to decent work and improved conditions," said Gamboa. "And we'll know they've secured that right when we see their increased power through collective bargaining, fair compensation, and worker leadership."
]]>Almost a year after the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, or CIW, launched its campaign to get the fast food giant to join McDonald's and Yum! Brands in paying field hands in their supply chain a penny more for every pound of tomatoes they picked, Burger King relented.
On Friday—along with an apology for negative statements its employees made about CIW—the restaurant chain announced its plan to work with the coalition to improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato harvesters.
For Burger King, a multi-billion-dollar corporation, the deal reportedly costs it just $300,000 a year. But for farm workers, who earn an average of 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, that penny represents a near doubling of their wages.
"Today we are one step closer to building a world where we, as farm workers, can enjoy a fair wage and humane working conditions in exchange for the hard and essential work we do every day," said CIW's Lucas Benitez in a press statement. "We are not there yet but we are getting there and this agreement should send a strong message to the rest of the restaurant and supermarket industry: Now is the time to join Yum! Brands, McDonald's, and Burger King in righting the wrongs that have been allowed to linger in Florida's fields for far too long."
For Oxfam America, which has long partnered with CIW and launched an on-line petition on its behalf, the agreement is proof that consumer pressure can bring about positive change. More than 37,000 people signed the petition calling on Burger King to work with CIW to improve the wages of farm laborers and enforce a code of conduct for human rights in the field.
"It once again proves these seemingly almighty corporations have to respond to consumer pressure," said Guadalupe Gamboa, and Oxfam program officer working with CIW. "Consumers want farm workers treated fairly and getting a just wage. And they want global corporations held responsible for acts of injustice in the supply chain."
Burger King got that message loud and clear—not only from fast food fans, but from an array of global activists concerned about the conditions in the hot Florida fields.
"We engaged Burger King at the highest levels," said Gamboa. "Oxfam America's president, Ray Offenheiser, sent a series of letters to the CEO of Burger King. The company also started to get letters from Oxfam affiliates in other countries. And Oxfam partner organizations in Mexico started to get active around the issue, too."
The agreement Burger King has endorsed goes beyond the penny-per-pound increase CIW and consumer activists around the country sought. It also aims to encourage the broad participation of growers by paying them a half cent extra per pound of tomatoes. That money will help them cover the additional payroll taxes and administrative costs associated with the wage hike.
"Today, we turn a new page in our relationship and begin a new chapter of real progress for Florida farm workers," said John Chidsey, Burger King's chief executive officer, in a prepared statement. "We also encourage other purchases and growers of Florida tomatoes to engage in a dialogue."
Whether that will happen is still unclear. In November, the Florida Growers Exchange, which represents producers who grow about 90 percent of the state's tomatoes, announced that its members had chosen not to participate in any pact in which a third party set wages for their employees. Reggie Brown, the executive vice president of the exchange, said he was concerned about the legality of the arrangement and its potential for violating anti-trust and racketeering laws. According to CIW, the exchange even threatened to fine members $100,000 if they participated in the penny-per-pound plan.
Brown was out of the country and not available for comment following Burger King's announcement. But maintaining its earlier position on the wage hike will likely be difficult for the exchange.
"We're sure the Florida tomato growers are decent, hardworking people who want to see the industry prosper," said Gamboa. "I think it's going to be harder for the exchange to hold the growers in line because the extra money they will get—the half cent which averages out to 16 cents for each buck of tomatoes—will allow them to participate in the wage hike without incurring extra costs."
And it's not just the growers—exchange that might find it hard to hold back the rising tide of justice. It could start to improve the conditions for workers at the bottom of every food supply chain.
"We are exuberant about this," said Gamboa. "We're probably at the tipping point. When you get three major fast food companies agreeing to accept responsibility for improving wages and working conditions, it sets a very important precedent that other food buyers and retailers will have to follow. It says that getting decent pay and respect on the job is a basic human right."
]]>"I am 54 and I thought that I was too old to learn anything new," says San Van, a grandmother and farmer in a nearby village. "But I came here and see this movie and it is easy. I will try this new way and save seeds and grow more rice. It is exciting."
Pov Cham shakes her head in agreement. "I am very excited because with the old method of farming I could not have such a surplus like I can with this," Cham says. "I like how easy this was to learn and it was from people like me."
What has excited these women to change the way they will farm?
An instructional movie released today by Oxfam America and the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture, or CEDAC.
The new movie, titled "Do You Speak SRI?" was developed to assist Cambodian farmers to easily and effectively grow more rice to support their families and to teach them new ways to farm. It takes a different approach of the traditional educational movie by using real farmers rather than actors to tell their own story and successes in using the new practices. The movie follows the journey of a young farmer as he learns each of the 12 practices from more experienced farmers.
In a recent viewing in Kampong Chhang, audience members were excited to see real farmers in the movie—most of whom were unscripted. The farmers showed off their natural enthusiasm for the practices.
"I like that I could see someone like me," says Van. "They are so happy and have grown so much rice using less seeds."
The movie is an addition to the other training tools CEDAC uses to assist farmers in implementing the practices.
"We hope that farmers will learn how to implement their choice of 12 practices into their own farming practices and realize that this can improve their yield and thus their quality of life," says Dr. Yang Saing Koma, President of CEDAC.
System of Rice Intensification (SRI), which was first introduced to Cambodia in 2000, has helped more than 80,000 Cambodian families grow more rice by using a selection of up to 12 simple practices. By adopting these steps, Cambodian farmers can increase rice yields from 50 to 150 percent, compared to yields harvested from traditional methods. Many farmers use this surplus of rice to feed their families, generate extra income and make improvements for other agricultural ventures.
"Boosting the farming community's skills so that they can grow more rice is about more than feeding Cambodian families,"" says Brian Lund, Regional Director of Oxfam America's East Asia Office in Phnom Penh. "It also is about boosting the farmer's confidence so that they take control over their life now and in the future."
To better empower farmers and sustain their self-reliance, Oxfam America and CEDAC recently combined the SRI training with a savings-led microfinance program called Saving for Change, which enables farmers and community members to better retain and manage the improved wealth they are achieving from their crops.
CEDAC plans to teach the SRI method to farmers in the 13,000 villages in Cambodia over the next five years.
As for Cham and Van, both said the movie convinced them to try SRI practices on a small part of their rice field to test it and see how it works for them.
"I am going to try it out," says Cham laughing. "Then I will let you know if I will be ready to be in the next movie to show my surplus of rice."
]]>Yum! Brands, Inc., one of the world's largest restaurant companies with 34,000 establishments, recently agreed to pay a penny a pound more for the tomatoes four more of its chains buy from Florida growers. The increase nearly doubles the amount workers can earn for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick and sell to Yum! The going price now is between 40 and 45 cents a bucket. This new agreement will hike that by 32 cents.
Yum! Brands' decision comes two years after one of its chains, Taco Bell, agreed to a similar hike in the face of intense national pressure. Others that will now be included in the deal are Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's, A&W All-American Food Restaurant, and KFC. In April, mega-chain McDonald's also announced an agreement to boost the pay of Florida pickers by a penny a pound.
"If two of the largest restaurant chains are doing this, it's only a matter of time 'til others follow," said Julia Perkins, of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, or CIW , which has spearheaded the drive for better pay and working conditions for tomato pickers. CIW is one of the local partners with which Oxfam America works.
"This is an important precedent that's being set," said Guadalupe Gamboa, a program officer in Oxfam America's US regional office. "And it also furthers CIW's strategy to go after other major buyers of tomatoes and eventually get them all to pay a higher price that will be translated into higher wages for a lot more farm workers."
During the winter months, about 90 percent of the fresh tomatoes consumed in the United States come from Florida, said Perkins. According to the Florida Tomato Committee, the state shipped more than 1.2 billion pounds of tomatoes in interstate commerce during the 2005-2006 growing season. During the peak season, Florida growers hire about 33,000 people.
CIW has been working with many of them since 1993 when it first began organizing in a borrowed room at a church. In 2001, it launched a national boycott of Taco Bell, which had long denied responsibility for the bad working conditions and below-poverty-level wages at the farms that supplied it with tomatoes. Students, religious groups, and labor organizations all got behind the boycott, galvanizing support for CIW's cause.
"It's a good model for other organizations to follow that are trying to improve wages and conditions for workers," said Gamboa. "It shows you can get concrete and positive results for the poorest workers in the country."
And there is no good reason for companies not to embrace the campaign.
"It's doable from a financial perspective, an administrative perspective, and it's good for your company's marketing," said Perkins, who has high hopes that other corporations will follow the lead set by Yum! and McDonald's. Burger King is on her list.
"Consumers have really gotten behind this," said Perkins. "Burger King has promised consumers you get to have it your way. It's just a matter of time before they have to make good on that promise."
]]>The petition urges Burger King to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), an Oxfam America partner, to commit to improving the wages and working conditions in an agreement nearly identical to ones already signed by Yum! Brands and McDonald's.
"It is disappointing that Burger King continues to reject overtures to ensure that the rights of workers in your supply chain are protected," Oxfam America President Raymond C. Offenheiser wrote in a letter accompanying the petition to Chidsey. "CIW's call for fair food, which has been widely supported by the broader public, is eminently reasonable and not cost-prohibitive. Major corporations throughout the world have recognized that corporate social responsibility, instead of being a burden, is in fact good for their business."
Since 2001, CIW has worked with fast food producers to improve working conditions for workers in its supply chains by paying one penny more for each pound of tomatoes a worker picks and agreeing to core labor standards. Yum! Brands reached an agreement with CIW in 2005, followed by McDonald's Corporation in 2007.
CIW has worked with Burger King since 2005 to reach an agreement with CIW, with no success. Burger King officials have cited legal and technical hurdles as reasons for not entering into such an agreement.
"If there were any real legal problems with the agreements Yum! Brands and McDonald's would have refused to sign," said Guadalupe Gamboa, Oxfam America Senior Program Officer. "If Burger King truly has concerns about these agreements, the best way to address them is to engage in a constructive dialogue with the CIW."
On March 13 CIW will launch a campaign in DC calling on its supporters to pressure Burger King to reach an agreement with CIW to increase wages and end forced labor in agriculture.
According to its website, Burger King is "the second largest fast food hamburger chain in the world, recoding $2.23 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2007."
It is estimated the proposed agreement would cost Burger King $300,000 per year.
Florida laborers pick nearly the entire US winter crop of field-grown fresh tomatoes, earning an average of 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick. In order to earn minimum wage, a worker must pick nearly two-and-a-half tons of tomatoes each day.
US farm workers do not have the protection of many US labor laws, including laws protecting the right to organize. This has led to intolerable conditions in the fields, including at least seven documented cases of forced labor and human trafficking mainly in Florida and the Southeast.
A 2004 Oxfam America report, Like Machines in the Fields, found the annual wage for the 3 million US farm workers is between $7,500 or $12,000 per family with no benefits.
]]>"This represents economic relief for farm workers and gives them real participation and a voice," said the coalition's Lucas Benitez.
"The significant thing is that McDonald's is the largest restaurant chain in the world and the second largest employer of workers in the United States," added Guadalupe Gamboa, a program officer in Oxfam's US regional office. "And so, for a little group like CIW to take them on and beat them is pretty significant. It shows the power of consumer pressure."
Starting in the 2007 growing season, McDonald's will pay an extra penny per pound for Florida tomatoes offered through its produce suppliers to its US restaurants. The farm workers will receive the increase directly for the tomatoes McDonald's buys. The agreement also lays out a plan for CIW and McDonald's to develop a new code of conduct for Florida tomato growers and calls for the creation of a third-party mechanism to monitor conditions in the fields and investigate workers complaints about abuses.
Typically, Florida field workers earn between 40 and 45 cents for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick—a wage that has not gone up significantly since 1978, according to CIW. At that rate, working a 12-hour day, laborers would have to pick nearly two and a half tons of tomatoes to earn the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. With the penny-per-pound increase, workers can earn 32 cents a bucket more.
An Oxfam America report released in 2004, Like Machines in the Fields: Workers Without Rights in American Agriculture, documented the harsh conditions farmworkers endure and how big buyers, like institutional food services and fast food companies, are buying increasing volumes of produce at increasingly cheaper prices.
"Like machines, nearly two million workers in America's fields labor without rights, earn sub-living wages, and exist in dehumanizing conditions," said the report. "Already, farmworkers are among the poorest—if not the poorest—laborers in the United States."
Added Gamboa, "In the past 20 to 30 years, farm workers' wages have been stagnant. It may not sound like much, but for poor farmworkers in southwest Florida, McDonald's decision to increase by a penny a pound the amount it pays for tomatoes could translate into nearly a doubling of wages.
They have lost value in real dollars. But the profits earned by the retail industry have gone up tremendously, and it has been profiting from the sweat and labor of the workers."
And that has translated into profound hardship for field workers, whose average annual salary in 2005 was between $10,000 and $12,499, according to the National Agricultural Workers Survey. The federal government considers an individual earning less than $10,210 to be living in poverty. The income guideline for a family of four is $20,650 a year—more than the average farm worker household earns. That figure ranges from $15,000 to $17,499, according to the agricultural survey.
Since 1993, when CIW first began organizing with a small group of workers in a borrowed room at a church, the coalition has worked hard to address the injustices farm laborers face. The message is now getting heard—at the highest levels of corporate America.
"CIW has publicized the terrible conditions of farm workers," said Gamboa. "People who pick the food don't have enough to eat. They endure terrible living conditions with between 10 and 15 people in a single trailer. And in real terms, their wages have gone down in the last 20 years."
That was the reality CIW set out to change when, in 2001, it launched a national boycott of Taco Bell, another fast-food giant that purchases great volumes of tomatoes. The company had long denied responsibility for the bad working conditions and below-poverty-level wages at the farms that supplied it tomatoes. Students, religious groups, and labor organizations all got behind the boycott, galvanizing support for CIW's cause and putting intense national pressure on the company.
Two years ago—in March 2005--CIW and Taco Bell announced an historic agreement guaranteeing Immokalee tomato pickers a penny a pound extra for the produce supplied to the chain.
"We are laying the groundwork for real change," Benitez said at the time, "both in the concrete conditions of farmworkers' everyday lives and in the market itself."
On Monday, with the McDonald's agreement in hand, those farmworkers have marked a another victory in their long, slow struggle toward equity and justice.
"Today, with McDonald's, we have taken another major step toward a world where workers can enjoy a fair wage and humane working conditions in exchange for the hard and essential work we do every day," said Benitez. "We are not there yet, but we are getting there, and today's agreement should send a strong message to the rest of the restaurant and supermarket industry that it is now time to stand behind the food they sell from the field to the table."
]]>And he's just one reason why Oxfam America recently gave the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) a $25,000 grant to hire a community organizer to help make that happen. There are about 5,500 other reasons, too—one for every single employee at the sprawling plant in Bladen County where 32,000 hogs a day are slaughtered and processed.
"In the past 20 years, the meat packing industry has turned from a decent-paying industry with benefits to a dangerous, low-paying one where workers move at almost impossible speeds and injuries are frighteningly frequent," said Guadalupe Gamboa, an Oxfam America program officer who focuses on workers' rights. "The conditions in these plants—Smithfield included—clearly violate the basic human rights of their workers."
Gene Bruskin, a UFCW campaign director who has been helping workers organize at the Smithfield plant, put it in even blunter terms: "You're literally chewed up and spit out."
But in Bladen County, where more than 19 percent of the residents live in poverty and unemployment rates hit nearly 10 percent in 2002, people have been hungry for work, and take jobs at Smithfield, despite the grueling conditions.
"If you're working in that plant, you're killing 1,000 pigs an hour on two lines. That's 16,000 in eight hours," Bruskin said. "If I'm working on the line, I'm doing 1,000 of whatever I do every hour. If I'm the one who stabs the pig in the throat and kills it, or I pull the brains out, I do it 1,000 times an hour. It's one every three to four seconds, so it's extremely dangerous. People work at blinding speeds with very little training."
Part of the problem, said Gamboa, is an absence of regulations that would help protect workers.
"There is no law in the US that governs the speed at which a hog processing plant can run its killing and cutting lines and that's why companies are allowed to get away with horrible conditions," he said. "International human rights laws are broader than US law. We have an obligation to meet that higher standard."
Twice, workers at the plant have tried to unionize to improve their working conditions—once in 1994 and again in 1997 when they lost the election by a small margin amid union-busting activities, including threats, intimidation, and violence against workers. In 2000, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge found Smithfield liable for those actions and ruled the election invalid. In 2006 a federal appeals court upheld that decision.
"Rather than subjecting themselves to the ordeal of another election, the workers are asking the company to recognize their union by an alternative procedure under the NLRB—one in which workers can choose a union by having a majority sign union cards. Smithfield has refused this alternative procedure," said Gamboa.
And there it stands. With no union and no protection, employees like Melvin Grady face a mountain of challenges.
Grady's hardships are detailed in a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released last year called "Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Workers' Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants." Grady started work at Smithfield on the kill floor where he spent 18 months before moving onto a job sharpening knives. One day, returning to his station after a meal break, he slipped on the greasy floor and tumbled to the bottom of some steps where he heard a pop. It was his Achilles tendon, severely torn and requiring surgery and convalescence.
Grady's nightmare had begun.
In the end, said the HRW report, Smithfield told him he wasn't eligible for workmen's compensation and fired him when he couldn't get clearance from his doctor for unrestricted work. The final blow came a few months after the accident when the bank foreclosed on Grady's house: The temporary jobs he was able to pick up for $6 an hour couldn't match the $11-an-hour-plus-overtime he had earned at Smithfield. His income had plummeted by more than half.
Grady's fate could have been the fate of any Smithfield worker. But the tide may be getting ready to turn, if a recent two-day walkout by hundreds of workers is any indication of what the future holds.
In November, the workers—Hispanics and blacks alike—decided to walk off the job to protest the firing of dozens of immigrant employees whose documentation the company questioned.
The step took great courage, said Bruskin.
"It was historic," he said, "for immigrant workers with all they have to risk to walk out of the plant like this—a company of this size."
But as important, the walkout could also be signaling a shift in race relations among workers at the plant—a critical step in building momentum for their collective rights.
"Smithfield has a long history of using race to divide the workers," said Leila McDowell, the communications coordinator for UFCW's "Justice at Smithfield" campaign. "They would tell African-Americans, 'if you stand up for a union we'll replace you with Latino workers.' And they tell Latino workers, 'blacks are getting more than you.' The union organization has been working to overcome that."
And the show of solidarity during the walkout was proof.
"It was very important for immigrant workers to see the African-American workers support them," said Bruskin. "It was also a tremendous opportunity for them to see the power they have."
In the end, following thousands of phone calls from religious organizations, civil rights groups, and immigrants rights agencies urging the company to respect the rights of its workers, Smithfield agreed to hire back the ones it had let go and not to discipline those who had participated in the walkout. Additionally the company agreed to allow employees time to respond to questions about their documentation.
While workers savor that bit of victory, the organizer the UFCW has hired with Oxfam's grant will begin to focus on African-American communities in the area, particularly churches and civil rights groups.
"This outreach will provide crucial community support for workers seeking to organize against a notoriously anti-union and anti-worker employer with a long history of violations of the legal and human rights of these workers," said Gamboa. "About 40 percent of the workers at Smithfield are African-American, and the majority of the others are Latino.
"The Justice at Smithfield campaign has close community and religious ties with the Latino population already. Building strong ties with the African-American community will help the campaign build the alliances between the two groups as well as support the workers in their struggle to protect their human rights through a union contract."
]]>This examination of three communities emblematic of longstanding poverty and exclusion— the urban neighborhoods of East Biloxi, Mississippi, and the rural communities of Vermilion and Plaquemines parishes in Louisiana—reveals that government neglect at all levels extends beyond the well-publicized failures in New Orleans to encompass an entire region in distress.
Access to opportunity remains unequal—and unfair. In Biloxi, government officials acted first to save the city's battered casinos by convincing state lawmakers to allow gaming on land. Not ensuring that the low-income residents of East Biloxi shared in the economic benefits, however, has made them victims of an enormous land squeeze, forcing them out of their neighborhoods and homes.
False assurances undermine future visions—and current optimism. The self-reliant residents of Erath, a mostly Cajun community in rural Vermilion Parish, began rehabilitating their houses the moment they returned after Hurricane Rita's flood waters receded. After confusing signals about new flood elevations, plans for the town's future, and possible homeowner grants, their progress has slowed and in some cases has been reversed by the agencies meant to facilitate it. Institutional neglect leaves communities at risk of losing everything—even their way of life.
Few state or federal funds have assisted the recovery of independent commercial fishers, who for generations have made Plaquemines Parish the center of their trade. Their inability to continue is draining Louisiana's usually robust commercial fisheries, normally second in the nation only to Alaska.
These communities, and many like them, teeter on the brink. They are being rendered invisible.
Left behind. Forgotten.
The pattern of inequity in receiving recovery assistance from the government has been well established by past disasters. Federal disaster assistance tends to favor people who have economic assets at risk—that is, the affluent. Though the pattern may be familiar, it need not be inevitable.
Making sure the billions designated for recovery benefit the region's most vulnerable communities remains a matter of political will. Action can and must be taken immediately.
It is, after all, what the nation promised them. That they would be rendered whole. Get ahead. Thrive.


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on 22-05-2012 12:57 PM
on 22-05-2012 03:17 PM
22-05-2012 03:21 PM - edited 22-05-2012 03:27 PM
Lame23 wrote:
I'm up for the clan photo if thats okay?
And I'll be doing the clan ops both nights.
One of the benefits of being single.
Yes of course, im glad to see you joining in.
The map choice is going to be limited because some members haven't got Elite/map packs.
Looks like a good turn out.
@Rob - Lol.
@ZAMO - Yeah, they reset themselves with a token because they were bored. Pyro and the rest of the VI's have aswell.
on 22-05-2012 07:12 PM
on 22-05-2012 07:58 PM
Seribal_Assassin wrote:i see we have an action packed weekend of clan ops again coming up ,As for the photo ill be on & around so just send me a message Nick just before it starts & ill come join (lets hope it goes alot better than the last organised clan photo )
Yes we have Lee. My saturday night starts of with watching the eurovision song contest with my lovely other half but things start to get better when I get to play Clan Ops with the lads.
As for the photo, yes lets be more professional, no throwing flash bangs or cooking frags. Ta.
on 22-05-2012 09:01 PM
on 22-05-2012 09:10 PM
23-05-2012 03:18 PM - edited 23-05-2012 03:36 PM
on 23-05-2012 05:15 PM
on 23-05-2012 05:28 PM
Alright lads? Wont be on tonight Im knackered and cant/wont play cod when im knackered as I just turn into the very angry man. Will be about tomorrow for photo and weekend for clan ops though.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Last week's same-sex arguments in the Supreme Court featured several veteran stars of the high court bar at the lectern. But a first-timer achieved star status in the eyes of many observers.
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Harvard professor makes a high-pressure, high-profile Court debut
The National Law Journal
April 1, 2013
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View the most popular tags overall?
Youngsters across the Southland and beyond banded together April 17 to participate in J-Serve 2005, the first-ever national day of service for Jewish teens. J-Serve, designed to correspond with Youth Service America's National Youth Service Day, offers Jewish teens a way to get involved in tikkun olam projects in their local communities.


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Taj Gray scores 23 in win
Accuser's Lawyer Blasts Investigation
Watch Now »
Aaron Rodgers Remains Out
Three Men Stabbed After Broncos' Loss
Will Shanahan Return Next Season?
Independent Investigation Highly Unlikely
Kobe Bryant Fires Back At Jim Brown
Pouncey Not Distracted By Grand Jury
Broncos Stunned By Chargers
Source: JPP's Season Could Be Over
Nets Top Clippers For Third Straight Win
Aldridge's Double-Double Leads Blazers To Win
Cano: 'Didn't Get Any Respect From Yankees'
Did Broncos Cost Themselves The No. 1 Seed?
Nothing Has Changed For Mack Brown
Augustin Excited To Be A Bull
Formula To Stop Manning, Broncos


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Very sorry Buck. I'm gonna contract a "hot nurse" to take care of you. About the 511 points... Yesterday I had a storm of 480pt. Today 384pt.
Oh My Goodness OK, send here over. I'm making a list of things i want her to look at. Can you imagine joining a folding team and seeing this stuff in the team forum? TPU rocks!!!!!!!
Same here Up 84 places in 3 days. Currently at 101. Yeah my 4850 is doing ANOTHER 511pt WU. Weird that they would give that small a unit to a gpu while giving a 1760 and a 2140pt WU to my cpus... And BUCK NASTY: how many ppd should the q6600 be getting? right now it's barely pulling 1600 could it be because there are four processes running on 3 cores?
My E8400 does 1250ppd with all 4 processes on one core. Something is not right. What are you CPU clocks?
3.05ghz right now. I lowered them a little because it was going to be at 100% full time. And I also raised their priority level to high.
Ah, those 50xx jobs yesterday were nice, my 8800gs actually got to fold 2 jobs! I'm still struggling to produce as I'm trying to catch up on my games. Wish my gtx280 wasn't such a good folder....
Another n00b question Is there a way to install another core for my nvidia client.Now i'm using fahcore11.exe,I know i need to delete fahcore.11 and the queue.dat files but it won't work,keep downloading fahcore11.exe again and again. thanks
Just delete the entire folder and build a new one. Before you start it however, make a backup of it somewhere. Now if you hoop it, just delete folder, and copy backup over and start! Also, just use the console client, it's easier to deal with.
The 511pt & 384pt work units will require Fahcore 11 v1.19. This is the only core you can get from Stanford. Some of us still have copies of v1.15, which carries optimizations only for the 480pt WU's. I personally choose to copy it over v1.19 whenever I have 480pt WU's. The last 5 days have been good folding for my rigs, but today was horrible. I have been tormented by these 511pt WU's all day. I can't get a break from them. Is anyone else getting these constantly one after another? For the record, what do the GTX260's produce with the 511 pt WU's?
I'm back to being hit hard by the 384 pointers today. Haven't had 511 pointers in a while, but think I only got like 6.5-6.7k on the darn things.... if I ever get another one I'll post it.
They just realeased a new client for the ATI cards HD4XXX. 1.22 and it imprevoes performance, and there is another one scheduled for january that will finally use the rest of the core on newer 3000-4000 series ATI cards. The Nvidia client is currently faster due to simple shaders, the new cores however will use the sahders inthe ATI cards the way they were designed to be used and allow for a 3-5X improvement in performance.
GPU plus SMP, and with the new core the GPU client is using 9-15% of one core for setup and only 50-60% of the GPU and it folds 10-20% faster. 29C currenly on the GPU.
Wasn't that released on the 16th? And any ideas what could be slowing down my q6600 BUCK NASTY? *EDIT* Seems that it could be related to the new core 1.22.
the Nvidia cards are falling back into line with what is reasonable for PPD. People were pumping units out to get high point units too. Unless you are using this for a stability test, please stop kicking units out to get high point units only. You are ruining everything good about this a competition. You basicly are f***ing up good science for your personal goals.
Just a heads up, I'll be gone for 3-5 days around xmas, during which time my cards will be pumping 24/7. I want top 10! Edit: I'll also be adding my brother to team tpu over xmas, only a 8800gt, but it'll add points...
I'm sorry, I did't realize you were trying 1.1, no don't use that, just use 1.19 now. Too much hassle to try to inject ect. Just delete whole install, and install newest one. I even gave up on 1.15, as I don't get enough older jobs to make it worthwhile.
I think Santa should be getting Buck one of these to make his life alot easier http://www.magma.com/products/pciexpress/expressbox7/index.html
For $2800.00 I think I'll stick with the K9A2 Platinum.... On another note, I woke up to a silent home this morning. My power went out last night around 2am and I lost 4 hours of the farm folding:shadedshu. I did notice TPU had it's first 250K point day yesterday. Way to go guys!!!!!!!
i didn't look at the price GTA 4 is getting boring now that i have finished it so i will be folding again as of tomorow
Darn, wonder how long the results server was down last night, my cards were idle for awhile there.....


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quote:Originally posted by Faith_at_LargeMatthew 16:18 in the existing Aramaic texts show Kepha not Shua.The text is available for all to see what a bald faced liar you are.I won't ask you to admit the truth because you are not capable of that, I would not wish to put your soul in further peril.You could not even admit the truth in the one place we agreed. You would rather contradict yourself than admit that a Catholic had anything right.
quote:Originally posted by ftbondLook... Nobody knows what Jesus said in Aramaic in Matt 16:18... That's the big problem. There are no "original Aramaic" copies that say "...you are Kepha, and upon this kepha..." - AND - there's none that say "...you are Kepha, and upon this shua..". The Catholics are DESPERATE to have Petros and petra mean the same thing, because their whole eccliastical structure depends on it. So, they'll manufacture all kinds of "assertions", but that's just the deal. They're only ASSERTIONS. You need to check out http://www.freetowne.com/pppk for some good, serious, factual linguistic info on all this. It's not "protestant", it's not "anti-Catholic". It's just linguistic stuff. You guys are going back and forth on stuff that you don't know about...
quote:Originally posted by Faith_at_LargeG4, why do you lie so much. The Aramaic text is available for anyone to read. You can't just translate back from the English to what you think should be there.The fact is that the text that the Aramaic speaking Christians have been using for nearly two thousand years has kepha not shua for what Christ built His church on.Rewriting your own version of the Bible does not change this FACT.
quote:Originally posted by Faith_at_LargeI wish that we could copy and paste text in Biblical languages with their original characters intact. I would love to copy and paste the Aramaic text and then bold kepha and have him try find "shua" to bold.But alas, there is no point. He would learn nothing from it, and even the lurkers by now have figured him out.
quote:Originally posted by Faith_at_LargeI was looking at the Aramaic text for the New Testament. In Matthew 16:18 the word "shua" is not used. It is not there in the text.It does not matter what "shua" means because it isn't there.What is there is "kepha", twice. So if kepha only means stone, then Jesus built His church on a stone. Because that is the word that is used. Kepha.Let me repeat that for you. The Aramaic text for Matthew 16:18 does not have the word "shua" in it. It just is not there. Only "kepha" is used. Both for Peter and for what Jesus built His church on.


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Ekko De Brasil
Online Reservations
Food was variable. From decent-amazing. Drinks were the same. Service was also good-great.
We were a party of 7. Great Service from our server Andre. Actually the complete staff was very good, efficient and friendly. Salad and dessert bar was fresh and delicious and meats were hot and tasty. Would go with family, friends and/or Clients. Ray
I've been to Ekko De Brasil 3 time in the last few months and it has been a great experience. You definitely have to pace yourself if you want to have enough room to try all of their selection of meets. Great buffet , lots of variety. Check this place out, you wont be sorry.
It was a great experience dining at Ekko De Brazil. Food was exceptional, as well as the service. I would definitely recommend this place to my friends and family and anyone else. Great place for any occasion. I will definitely come back.
If you are undecided on what kind of meat to eat or if you're in the mood of sampling, this is the place you should go. I have appreciated all the various meat cooked to everyone's preference one slice at a time accompanied with a choice of fresh veggies or cooked meals. I would recommend having olive oil and vinegars available along side the salad dressings.
Really great evening and staff. Your dessert selection should be improved
Our family of 7 really enjoyed our dinner at Ekko de Brazil. The food and the service were very good and the servers brought plenty of meat to the table. The only complaint was that there was not as many choices at the buffet as some of us have enjoyed at Brazilian restaurants in other cities.
Relaxed but also refined feel to the dining room. The salad buffet was fabulous with smoked salmon and a cheese selection that was excellent, lots of options for sides to make a meal if meat is not your destination! But the meat... ohh... the meat! the service was excellent and the staff very friendly.
Fantastic selection of cuts of meat that makes dinner with friends fun. Service was outstanding and we felt well attended to. The dancers were a nice touch. Friends raved about the entire experience.
I have visited Ekko de Brasil on three occasions and have enjoyed each experience. The wait staff is very friendly and the gauchos will remember if you prefer certain meats. A very nice personal touch when dining.
Thank you so much for great food relaxed atmosphere great service. Beautiful experience
Very delicious....Different kinds and cuts of meat. Good selection at the salad bar. Good service. I will definitely recommend this restaurant to my friends and family. I will be coming back soon with my mother for her birthday for sure. Even my children enjoyed it so much , my daughter loved the cinnamon pineapple. Bravo to the staff and chefs at Ekko de Brasil.
When I first heard of the restaurant I did not think it was that great. But it is was really amazing and worth every Dollar. The buffet was very delicious. The meat that was served was good. The only thing that I didn't like was when I wanted it to be medium it tasted well done and when my friend wanted a medium rare, it came out as rare. Overall it was one of the best buffets I ever tried and I will sure comeback again.
service was exceptional and a variety of tasty meat options
A nice surprise. The cost is less than other swimilar Brazil restuarants. Less choice salad & meat variety but what's available is better quality & BBQ temp [most med-med rare]. Grilled pineapple dessert offered free . Nice staff.
Entertaining Brazilian dancers, excellent meats cooked Brazilian style, great service. Reasonable wine list.
Absolutely loved the place, the food is delicious, there is a lot of choices in the buffet, the different meats served on a stick are succulent, the service is really good and the show of brazilian dancing was amazing! It has been my third visit and I was never dissapointed! Thank you Ekko De Brasil for this great experience !!!!
Excellent endroit pour un long souper en famille ou entre amis.
I went to this restaurant for a special occasion. It was chosen for the unique atmosphere and way the food is presented. I found the staff to be outstanding. The servers were always smiling and happy to serve you. The service was timely, and we were never without something delicious on our plate to nibble. The salad bar was fresh with lots of variety. The cheese rolls were yummy.
Very busy night and we were waiting a lot between services
This restaurant is not suitable for vegetarians, and you must be comfortable looking at medium rare to rare meat. Very Good!
I would recommend this restaurant to a friend if they love salty meat. We went with another couple on a recent Friday night for the first time. It was beautiful and comfortable. Dancers entertained guests to the beat of vibrant music. The staff were extremely polite and competent. The buffet had a nice selection of cold and hot dishes. The only downfall was the extremely salty meat served at the table. (Inside cuts were better.) Even our dinner companions, who normally add salt, found it too salty. I would return if this issue was different.
My cousin is coming from abroad and i will definitely bring her to Ekko de Brasil.
We were a group of 4 and it was our first time at Ekko De Brasil. We went on a Friday evening and the place was almost filled up. The dining room is very nice and well decorated. The food at the buffet was really good and there was plenty of variety. The meats were really tasty but we found that the service could have been a little quicker. Overall, it was a great experience and we will definitely go back.
The food was good. Meat was fresh and salad bar had some variety. However the waiters were not really reading the tag. My wife got asked if she wanted meat when her red tag was on and I got no meat when mine is green, even though the waiters were walking in front of our table. I went to a similar restaurant in Florida and their waiters were way more experienced. Overall it's a good spot for dining out, but maybe only once a year for us.
I am a Canadian who has visited Brazil a few times and am considering relocating there. So I love my churrasco. The salad bar was a good starting point and the meats were very good. Two of us took our PhD supervisor (who lived in Brazil for many years) and his wife (Brazilian) as a "thank-you" dinner. Everyone walked away full and satisfied. I think the carnival girl coming to the table is a little over the top, as it breaks up the meal a bit. Instead, I might recommend having, say, a trio playing Samba and one or two dancers starting off. Guests can join in. Am interested to go on a Sunday when Floquestra Brasil is playing, for precisely this reason.
Although all the meat was delicious, we found that the Parmesan pork was too salty. And the chicken with beer was extremely salty. The lamb stew from the buffet was great.
Our experience was very nice! We'll go back for sure :)
Our experience at Ekko De Brazil was excellent. Several compliments were exchanged about the choice of venue. Service and food were courteous and amenable.
service was good, just friendly enough. The food was of good quality and plentiful.
The meats were great and very tasty! The service was very friendly and the Brazilian dancing was a great addition to the supper!
Fantastic place to go to. Food is fantastic and the service is bar none.....thanks for the night out
Les viandes étaient excellentes. Les serveurs très gentils et agréable avec qui nous pouvions parler et poser des questions. Les danseuse ont été charmantes.En résumé une belle soirée.Merci
This was our third visit and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Food was fresh and all the meat was juicy. We did have to wait a long time for the dessert pinaple even after requesting it 3 times and we had a show that we were on a schedule to get too. But when it did come it was very tasty. Overall the experience was very enjoyable.
We were able to tuck our baby's car seat beside the table and enjoy a unique dining experience at this well decorated restaurant. Busy, even on a Thursday night but noise level was fine for kids. I'd guess I wouldn't bring children when the live entertainment is on unless the kids are ok with noise. The food was prepared well and it is fun to chose cuts as you dine; would be a great group or party restaurant for sure!
Plan to spend a few hours. This is not a place where you dine and dash. Very pleasant experience. We will return!
The food selection was great, some were a little salty but meat needs a little salt! Buffet side dishes was very good! Service was fantastic.
First time diners @ Ekko De Brasil. We didn't know what to expect but were pleasantly surprised. Meat selections were fabulous (especially the Brazilian Beef!) and buffet offered a nice selection of salads and sides. Dancing girls were fun to watch and very entertaining. Felt like we had a mini-vacation to an exotic place. Was a lovely treat.
As always, Ekko de Brasil did not disappoint. The service was a bit slower than we've experienced in the past (the Gauchos who served the meat did not always come by -- in fact, it's difficult to tell if the Gauchos served specific tables, or if they roam around free-style). Patience pays off. The Rib-Eye and the Brazillian beef were top-notch. The chicken-leg was tender and cooked to perfection. The Lamb was STELLAR! Buffet bar was adequate (although I would not recommend spending too much time there). ROASTED PINEAPPLE DESSERT IS DIVINE! I wish the Gaucho would leave me the entire thing! Service is good. Band was playing the background -- music was good. Not too loud. Highly recommend!
J'ai adoré, j'y retournerai sûrement avec plus de gens et plus longtemps! Acceuil chaleureux, choix diversifiés, beau local propre.
Everything was excellent. I definitely plan to go back.
Didn't know what to expect- staff very friendly- food was excellent - the different meats were to die for- entertainment was excellent- all in all very impressed with Ekko- too bad I did not discover this little gem before- I highly recommend it
Another great meal of perfectly seasoned cooked meats. Salads tasted summer fresh-best pickled cauli,tastey beets.Perfectly ripe innamon pineapple dessert tops off a lovely experience. Polite & friendly staff.Only negative-it seems that not all meats available all nights. Next time I'll call ahead to make sure they have lamb chops.
My friends and I enjoyed ourselves. Food, dancers, music and the ambiance was just awesome.
It was are first time and I already recommended to a lot of people. THe food was great and the ambiance was fantastic especially the dancers. Would definately good back
Absolutely savoring! The service was Devine, the ambience just right, food was superb and amazed by the live dance shows they have during meal! Overall awesome restaurant.
I've been to Ekko de Brasil twice now, and the most noteable thing was that the food on a Saturday night was MUCH MUCH better than on a weeknight. They bring out nicer cuts of meat, different products that aren't offered on the weeknights, and their buffet/salad bar has a lot more options and the food seems fresher. After my first time going - on a weeknight - it was so bad that I vowed never to go back. I received a gift card, and decided to try it again on a weekend. What a difference!
We had a wonderful time at Ekko de Brasil. We found the service incredible and the entertainment excellent. The dancers even had my husband up dancing...very friendly. The only negative I would say would be that there wasn't enough selection on the buffet and that it was very expensive for what you get. Granted you can literally eat all the meat you want, I still felt that for 2 people have 1 cocktail each, no wine or extras, it still cost $104.00 plus tip. Ok for a special occasion, but just felt it was a little much considering the options for dinning in the Ottawa area.
The service was exceptional fast and the staff was pleasant. It was my second time there and I will absolutely go again.


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Traditional Hungarian Dish: Egg Barley with Chicken Stew
Posted by whilehewasout on June 11, 2012 · Leave a Comment
I have to admit I was a big enemy of egg barley for long long years. Looking back this was most probably a result of the egg barley 'overload' I received in the elementary school, where at least once a week I remember having this 'signature' dish for lunch at the canteen. My mother also prepared … Read more
Filed under Food, Recipes · Tagged with canteen food, chicken stew, egg barley, menza, tarhonyáshús, traditional hungarian food


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Roshna WunderlichAssociate Professor of Biology B.A. - University of Virginia E-mail - email@example.com |
Courses: Human Anatomy (BIO 290), Forensic Anatomy (BIO 325), Advanced Human Anatomy (BIO 410), Clinical Anatomy for Physician Assistants (BIO 413/513), Biomechanics (BIO 490)
I am interested in the functional morphology and biomechanics of the primate hindlimb and the processes by which animals use and adapt to different locomotor regimes and substrates. I am investigate the evolution of bipedalism, by studying the relationship between form and function in modern primate feet in order to reconstruct behavior in fossil specimens. I also have clinical interests in diabetic foot problems and athletic footwear, particularly in understanding the etiology of plantar ulceration and overuse injuries and developing strategies for early detection and prevention.
Wunderlich, R.E., Lawler, R.R. and Williams, A*. (2011) Field and experimental approaches to the study of locoomotor ontogeny in Propithecus verreauxi. Primate Locomotion: Linking In Situ and Ex Situ Research, editors: K D'Août & EE Vereecke, pp. 135-153. Brazen, D.M.*, M.K. Todd, R.E. Wunderlich, C. Peterson, J.P. Ambegaokar. (2010) The effect of lower body fatigue on knee joint stability in collegiate athletes: A gender comparison. Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine 20(4):286-292. Kivell, T.L., Schmitt, D., Wunderlich, R.E. (2010) Hand and foot pressures in the aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) reveal novel solutions to the problem of walking on gracile hands. Journal of Experimental Biology 213(9):1549-57. Patel, B.A. and Wunderlich, R.E. (2010) Dynamic pressure patterns in the hands of olive baboons (Papio anubis) during terrestrial locomotion: Implications for cercopithecoid primate hand morphology. Journal of Anatomy 293(4): 710-718 Jungers, W.L., W. E. H. Harcourt-Smith, R. E. Wunderlich, M. W. Tocheri, S. G. Larson, T. Sutikna, Rhokus Awe Due & M. J. Morwood. (2009) The foot ofHomo floriesiensis. Nature 459(7243): Pages 81-84. Wunderlich, R.E. and W.L. Jungers (2009) Manual pressures during knuckle-walking in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 139(3): 394-403. Jungers, W.L., W.E.H. Harcourt-Smith, R.E. Wunderlich, M.W. Tocheri, S.G. Larson, T. Sutikna, Rhokus Awe Due, and M.J. Morwood. (2009) The foot of Homo floresiensis. Nature 459: 81-84. Wunderlich, R.E. and J.C. Schaum. (2007) Kinematics of bipedalism in Propithecus verreauxi. Journal of Zoology 272 (2): 165-175. Jungers, W. L., P. Lemelin, L. R. Godfrey, R. E. Wunderlich, D. A. Burney, E. L. Simons, P. S. Chatrath, H. F. James and G. F. N. Randria (2005). The hands and feet of Archaeolemur: metrical affinities and their functional significance. Journal of Human Evolution 49(1): 36-55. |


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Gluten Free Banana Cake With Peanut Butter Glaze
You would think I'd learn not to buy so many bananas, because I inevitably have 2-3 a week that go brown. One banana freckle sends my kids running.
So, I'll either put them in my freezer, peel and all, until I'm ready to use them.
Or, I'll peel them, break them up, and put them directly on my freezer rack for smoothies. We go through them so quickly, I never have to worry about freezer burn. (although the one in the back is looking a little iffy…)
Today, with a sick boy at home and three brown bananas on hand, it was a good day to make a healthy (ish) cake.
I've made this Oh She Glow's inspired cake a few times and the kids L-O-V-E it! It is so moist because you actually use THREE bananas: two mashed up in the mixture and one diced an incorporated with the chocolate chips at the end.
Seriously, I think it is all about the peanut butter glaze for me. When it comes down to it, peanut butter makes everything taste good, doesn't it? I have probably eaten the equivalent of a jar of peanut butter from licking my kid's sandwich knives. I purposely get too much peanut butter on the knife just so there is residual goodness for me to clean off when I'm done.
Oh, look at that yummy peanut butter meltiness…
Thanks to the use of gluten-free oat four, Truvia (a stevia brand), and fruit, this cake is relatively harmless.
The key to making this gluten-free is grinding your own gluten-free oats!
Bob's Red Mill gluten-free oats are super easy to find.
Place 2 1/2 cups of gluten-free oats in your high-speed blender and blend until a flour consistency. Don't fret if there are some chunks left behind, it will still work!
You will have approximately 2 1/3 cups of oat flour. You can also substitute already ground oat flour (although it will likely have a small amount of gluten – not a big deal if you are not allergic)
Don't let the oat grinding intimidate you! It is really satisfying to make your own flour, trust me. Feels authentic.
Alright, enough already. This recipe is super easy and I know you will love it. Enjoy!
Gluten Free Banana Cake With Peanut Butter Glaze
- 2½ cups regular oats, processed into a flour
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed firmly
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛th tsp ground nutmeg
- 3 packages of Truvia (or 2 tbsp cane sugar)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 2 Tbsp oil (I used coconut)
- 2 medium very ripe bananas, mashed
- ⅓ cup applesauce
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Add Ins: ⅓ to ½ cup chocolate chips and 1 rape banana cut into chunks
- Peanut Butter Glaze:
- 2 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
- 2 Tbsp milk (regular or any non-dairy)
- 2 packages Truvia (or 2 Tbsp powdered sugar)
- ⅛ tsp vanilla extract
- Grind the oats in a blender until flour consistency
- Place oat flour (self-made or 2⅓ cups packaged) in bowl and mix with all other dry ingredients (sugar through salt)
- Place mashed bananas and all other wet ingredients in another bowls and mix (oil through vanilla extract)
- Gently incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a spoon or spatula
- Fold in the chocolate chips and banana chunk add-ins
- Put in greased 8×8 pan
- Place in pre-heated 350 degree oven for 36-38 minutes
- While cooking:
- Mix the peanut butter glaze ingredients until smooth
- Drizzle over the banana cake while it is still warm so it is easy to spread
- Enjoy!


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Big Cats - Photo Safari- Fully Booked
Date: 18th April 10
Time: 10:30AM - 6:00PM
Location: Headcorn, Kent
Contact: Lynette Benton
Phone: 01323 768252
Cost: £82.00
Type: Other
Region: South East
This is a fantastic day with the opportunity to get very near the Big Cats. The Cost includes the services of a dedicated guide all day. A buffet lunch, tea, coffee, soft drinks, afternoon tea and cakes. Group size is limited to 12 . Deposit of £32 required on booking - balance of £50 due by 15th March 2010. For more information about what you can see go to http://www.whf.org.uk/
This event is now full


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EncodeFormats.WMA.GetEncodingVBRQualitiesCountEx method |
Remarks Retrieves the number of encoding qualities (for Variable Bit Rate support) supported by Windows Media components for a given frequency and number of channels. Each of the supported qualities can be obtained at a later time using the EncodeFormats.WMA.GetEncodingVBRQualityEx method. For further details about encoding in WMA format refer to the WMA object section. For further information about available encoding formats see the EncodeFormats object. Syntax
Return value


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MAN'S WORLD'S LONGEST TONGUE KEEPS GROWING!! A man with the world's longest tongue is set to retain his record after it kept growing. Stephen Taylor's tongue has grown .2 inches since it last made it into the record books in 2009 and is expected to keep growing. It's currently 3.8 inches. Guinness officials take their measurement from the middle of the top lip to the tip of the tongue. The average length of a tongue measured from lips is .78 inches and Taylor's extra long one gives him a lisp.
How long is your tongue?


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I was looking around for some good ninja movies on DVD, but everything seems to be in cantonese or mandarin(sp?). I want some of those good old badly dubbed Saturday afternoon bloodbath theater style movies on DVD. When I watch a movie, I don't want to have to read what people are saying. Does anyone know of anything that is available?
-So I sez to him, getch yer own monkey.


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1953 Belair Master Cylinder Removal...
Hello Folks,
My son just bought me an old Belair that needs some work. Brakes first, we are trying to pull the master cylinder to rebuild, and can't get it out. Our shop manual claims you remove the assembly (it's frame mounted...buried under the pedal floor) by poking a 'stiff wire' into an unplugged hole on the pedal linkage pivot housing. We guess this should push out a pin of some kind which will free the pivot shaft??? Any better suggestions or insight into the 'stiff wire poking' phenomena? Mucho Gracias. -
My thinking after looking in my shop manual is that the shaft has a spring loaded ball or locking pin of sorts that you will be dis-lodging so that you can remove the clutch and brake pedal pivot shafts. Then you should be able to take the master off. So, a stiff wire would be something like a coat-hanger? While pushing the wire into the hole are you trying to slide the shaft out?
I'll ask around, but maybe Mike being the Chevy Guru might know.
Keep us posted at any rate.
Ron -
Thanks Ron, yes we are trying to slide the shaft out - freeing the linkage assembly to be removed. Since the stiff wire will prevent the shaft from coming out, I hope the spring loaded thing isn't true...otherwise you will relock the shaft everytime you pull back the wire? This may be an obscure operation, as (thank God!) the master cylinders moved up into the engine compartment for easier service soon(?) after the 50's.
Well, I was thinking that it was like the old ignition switches, where you had to push a wire into the hole and wiggle the switch so it would remove from the body.
I'm still asking around
Ron -
Oldcar_Mechanic wrote:Well, I was thinking that it was like the old ignition switches, where you had to push a wire into the hole and wiggle the switch so it would remove from the body.
I'm still asking around
Yup........My 63 Chev II's Key Switch is like that. Use a PAPER CLIP though.....coat hanger's to thick. But seriously.......would'nt know on that cylinder. -
I looked at that page with the illustration using a wire to release the pedal assembly (Off frame repair!). But in the parts book blowup only shows the bushings, shafts, and lube fitting.
I just removed the master cylinder in my 54 and I just unbolted it from the frame (2 bolts), removed the clutch and brake pedal higher up on the fire wall (not fun), removed the tension spring and then removed the brake lines. Then I pulled the master cylinder out of the car. Unless the 2 years are completely different, this should not be that difficult to remove, but not fun either.
Hello, I know you posted this over 2 years ago, but I am curious on how you removed the pedal shaft lock pin from the brake booster? I am experiencing the same problem. Thanks.
Well, I figured it out..... I got a portable saw, cut the master cylinder, and then a quick hit with a hammer and what do you know.. the pedals came off.
I feel affection for, standard, stable, and good-looking! That is cool!! I don't have any work practice with this company before, do you just heard about it or have their services, what is your skill with them.
dupon registry -
Thanks for this. I was looking for a site like this that compared of the same item at different it . I wonder how accurate it is.
dupon registry -


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Mountrek® Ellie Lodge Mid Insulated Winter Boots for Ladies - Cranberry
Sale price: Clearance price: Starting at: Sale starting at: Clearance starting at: Reg. price:
- Water-resistant suede leather upper
- Mid-height boot
- 200 gram PrimaLoft® insulation
- Injection EVA outsole
- Anti-slip toe and heel pods
Manufacturer style #: H7302.
Rated 5 out of 5 by 1
Rated 5 out of 5 by SissyK Super comfy
So furry and warm on the inside. Good traction for walking around. Love the color and look.
October 30, 2012
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Trainers Near You Ashburn VA change location
Karen Amanna Ashburn, Virginia
Sarah Buckheit Reston, VA
ACE Fit Share
Tighten your abdominal muscles and protect your spine with the most effective ab exercises from the American Council on Exercise (ACE). Learn proper techniques and step-by-step instruction from America's Authority on Fitness. This large collection of exercises is also featured in complete workout routines that include full-body and at-home workouts. Whether you're looking for beginner level training or advanced fitness programs, we have something here for everyone to target core muscle groups. Choose from a wide variety of lower ab exercises, standing trunk rotations, reverse crunches and more. If you have any questions or want to hear what leaders in the industry are saying, please see our Ask the Expert section.
Fit Life Articles
Looking for a new and more effective way to achieve a strong, sculpted physique? Instead of working each muscle on its own—as you would using typical gym machines—try a...
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The TRX® Suspension Trainer is an incredibly versatile and useful piece of exercise equipment. Fitness pro Shana Martin demonstrates how to work the muscles of the upper body...


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Customer Relationship Management solutions allow businesses to provide their customer and/or prospect base with the strongest relationship possible. CRM software stores customer information and customer interactions in one central location, easily accessible by all users and all departments.
Managing Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service/Support in one central location allows for a streamlined business process that will enhance the customer experience and increase customer satisfaction. By finding the best CRM for your business, combined with the correct installation, training, and support, a CRM solution can reduce costs and ultimately increase profitability.
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Implementation of CRM | CRM Comparison Table | Integration SugarCRM | CRM Data Migration | Sugar CRM Training | CRM Consulting |


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The Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office, meanwhile, issued evacuation advisories for Tuolumne and nearby Ponderosa Hill, said InciWeb, a federal website that collects information from agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. It was not clear how many residents were covered by the evacuation advisory.
Evacuations also remained in place for areas south of Highway 120 (including Scotts Ridge), north of Old Yosemite Road and along the Highway 108 corridor between Tuolumne City and Pinecrest.
Authorities say the Rim Fire started on August 17. The cause is under investigation.
"There's a lot of concern, and there's a lot of work to be done," U.S. Forest Service spokesman Lee Bentley said.
Firefighters were able to build fire lines in several locations Tuesday. The forecast is also looking favorable as daytime highs sink into the 70s over the Labor Day weekend, a break from the temperatures in the high 80s firefighters were facing Wednesday.
"Access and difficult terrain remain concerns for crews and equipment," said an incident report. "Rapid fire growth and extreme fire behavior are hampering suppression efforts."
As many as 20 helicopters and air tankers were aiding the efforts.
A top priority is stopping the fire from spreading farther in Yosemite National Park.
The Merced and Tuolumne giant sequoia groves, while not in imminent danger, were closed as firefighters conduct preventative measures to protect the majestic trees.
Yosemite, with hundreds of campground sites and lodging units, had nearly 4 million visitors last year, the National Park Service said. The park typically has 15,000 visitors on a busy summer weekend.
About 4,500 structures, many of them vacation homes, were under threat, InciWeb said. The fire has cost more than $39 million to date.
Thirty-one residences and 80 outbuildings have been destroyed.


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- Wednesday 11 December 2013
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Severn taps into a price-rise boost
The cold, wet summer meant no need for extra watering on farms or gardens, sending Severn Trent's water consumption down nearly 3 per cent in the six months to October.
The utility firm said commercial consumption was lower than expected over summer, and household water use was also down. But a 5.2 per cent price rise left turnover up 3.6 per cent at £917.7m. After it upped investment in its sewers and water-treatment works to £239m, underlying pre-tax profit fell 2.6 per cent to £267.2m.
peopleContenders for Time magazine's Person of the Year are a mixture of the good, the bad and the holy
newsAs the world remembers Mandela the hero, the prison where he spent 27 years seems all the more brutal
tvSteven Moffat reveals the actor was dying to take on the role of the Time Lord and says he is excited to see what he will do with the character
sportBayern Munich 2 Manchester City 3: City come from two down to beat reigning European Champions
arts + ents... and a chance to paint Booker Prize winning author Hilary Mantel
danceUnder Tamara Rojo's inspired direction, it seems possible that it could challenge the dominance of the Royal Ballet. We meet some established names and rising stars
travelDiscover Uruguay's jet-set beach resort, an Atlantic enclave with plenty of art and culture to explore on the side
The ten coldest places on Earth
Sir Ian McKellen hits back at Damian Lewis' 'fruity actor' claims
Kenyan politician Mike Sonko left red-faced after photoshopping himself next to Nelson Mandela
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Nelson Mandela memorial: Cheers, jeers and a masterclass from Barack Obama that stole the show
- 1 It's shameful that our universities have accepted gender segregation under pressure from the most oppressive religious fanatics
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Five things to do for a fiver in London this December
This Christmas, you can park in one of NCP's ten most popular London car parks for just £5 for six hours of parking at selected times during weekdays and the weekend.
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2 Meetup Groups match "iphone-developers" near Charlottesville, VA
There are no upcoming Meetups.
A community of game developers in the Charlottesville, VA area, meeting to share their love of games and development!
There are no upcoming Meetups.
Meet other local iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone and Mobile Web designers and developers. Discuss various programming languages, design patterns, techniques or just plain business strategies in the app market!
Get an alert email when new Meetup Groups like this start near you.
You'll get advice, help finding members, and tools to make running a Meetup Group easier.


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Sun, Dec 8 4:00pm + 2hr after event
107 people recommend parking here 70 left comments
This parking lot is really close and easy to find.
Close to venue but not secured enough.
Was awesome!!!
Good area to park! It got a little crowded and hard to get out but really close to one of the entrances to Toyota Center so I we didn't have to walk far at all.
It was great
The lot was very close to the Toyota Center. This made walking to the car after the concert not so scary.
This lot is a surface lot right across the street from the back of the Toyotra Center off of Jackson.
Managed by LAZ Parking (Houston). This location is a commercial parking lot.
Preferred parking for Toyota Center, House of Blues (Houston), George R Brown Convention Center, Bronze Peacock Room, Engine Room (Houston).
This lot is located on the northeast corner of Bell And Jackson. The entrance is off of Jackson street, directly behind the Toyota Center. This lot has a fence around it, and a booth at the entrance.


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Find a Wimmera, Australia hostel and save money on discount lodging. Hosteling in Wimmera, Australia offers a different travel experience than staying at traditional accommodations. Youth hostels allow you to meet new people and learn from other international and worldly travelers. Most hostels are conveniently located in the center of the action close to public transportation, including buses and rails. Staying at a Wimmera, Australia hostel is a great option whether you are backpacking or traveling on a budget . Browse our hostels and plan your Wimmera, Australia vacation today!
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Phillip Island, Australia Youth Hostels - Being the cheapest accomadation on Phillip Island, this hostel is a great place to relax for a while.


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Peter B's Brewpub
Online Reservations
Food is pretty good, drinks are sort of expensive, but normal in Monterey. NIce location and friendly staff but the waiters are inattentive, never return, and generally give bad service. Several times I saw waiters just walk through and speak to absolutely no one.They walk win, look around grab a used glassed on an vacant table and disappear.We ordered EVERYTHING, even the food from the bartender who seemed to do way more than his job description required.
We got a coupon for $29 for 2 apps, 2 entrees, 2 beers. The selection of food was decent for a brewery, i believe they were in the $14 - $19 range for entrees, $8 - $12 for apps and $5.50 for their locally brewed beers. The beer was excellent, the food was excellent & the service was outstanding. The on shift manager brought our food out to us & our server was very friendly & helpful. We were staying at the Portola Hotel & Spa which is basically in the same building complex as the brewery, a short walk outside & to the left. Loved this location & how close it was to the Warf as well as the boutique shops & downtown areas. Definitely recommend you give this place a shot.
I reconnected with some college friends, and could not be happier about the restaurant selection. It was moderately priced, and the food and drinks were a little more wonderful than I expected. We had a great table. It was just far enough that we had privacy, but not too far that we couldn't hear a little background noise. The server was attentive. The drinks and course we brought out accordingly. I would definitely recommend.
Peter B's has a great bar and good selection of beers brewed on site. Staff recommendations for meals are excellent. Please try the crab cake salad. Very nicely done.
Crab cake was a little mushier texture than I like and it's always pretty noisy but otherwise a good happy hour!
Decent Brew Pub with an excellent selection of in-house Beers. Try the six glass flight - a bargain at $6:50 and some very interesting in- house brews with their seasonal Pumpkin brew especially good. Food nothing special - its a bar not a gourmet restaurant so if you keep that in mind you will not be disappointed. Service was a bit indifferent - took 20 minutes for the waiter to even notice we were there, but once I hunted him down he was quite attentive. We would go again just for the Beers - their dark full body beers (e.g. Resistance Stout) were as good as we have tasted anywhere.
Good food. Good beer. The sweet potato fries was delicious.
We loved the food. the sweet potato fries were burnt. The Jack Daniels beer was fabulous-and I don't like beer. The booths are big enough for the 4 of us to catch up and stay awhile. We love coming here.
Great food, wonderful service, superb beer. Best beer I've had since Henri Fink in Luxembourg back in my Army days of the 1960s. Tasty, mellow, and just plain wonderful. A bit on the noisy side, but we were seated in the far corner away from most of the hubub. Very nice. The great puzzlement is the need to decipher the check. There is a blank line labeled "tip," as is usual these days when one pays by credit card. The implication, of course, is that an amount should be submitted on that line for a tip. But a quick verification of the amounts shows that there is a line already bespeaking of a service charge to the tune of 15% already added to the check! Not cool at all!