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Established in 1956, Lippert Components, Inc is tier 1 supplier serving the Manufactured Housing (MH), Recreational Vehicle (RV) & Cargo/Horse Trailer industries. LCI is an industry leader in a multitude of products including chassis, fabricated steel parts, entry doors, axles, leveling & stabilization equipment, suspension enhancement products, and accessories that enhance the RV lifestyle. LCI has grown to become a multi-state, multi-facility organization, with a reputation as being both an industry leader and an innovator in production and sales trends. Today, as a division of Drew Industries Incorporated (NYSE: DW), LCI works with sister businesses to serve the manufactured housing and RV industries nation-wide. http://www.lci1.com |
Kinro is America's premier manufacturer of aluminum and vinyl windows to the Manufactured Housing and Recreational Vehicle industries. For over 50 years, Kinro has built an unmatched reputation for providing a quality product at a fair price. With warranty backed products and operations coast-to-coast, Kinro is the obvious choice for your window and door needs. http://www.kinro.com |
Kinro Composites is redefining the possibilities of thermoformed plastics in today's Recreational Vehicle and Manufactured Housing industries. From bathtubs & manufactured housing bath enclosures, sinks, facia and doors, Kinro Composites' innovative products and manufacturing procedures are setting the standards for today's product choices, on-time deliveries and exceeding our customer's expectations. http://kinrocomposites.com | |
Makers of the best built boat trailers, PERIOD! Located in Rialto, California, Extreme Custom Trailers uses the best quality parts available and the most innovative designs to manufacture the best boat trailers on the road today. There is no mistaking an Extreme trailer because no one else builds them like Extreme. Click the link below to continue on to their website at http://www.extremetrailers.com | |
Acquired by Lippert Components in 2010, the E-Z Ride and Seller's Corporations specialize in the modification of motorized chassis. Located in Milford, Indiana, the two companies service not only the motorized RV industry, but can enhance the suspension or modify the chassis on buses, ambulances, pickups and much more. Click the link to continue on to their website at http://e-zridecorp.com/ | |
For over 45 years, Happijac has been producing the highest quality products in the RV industry. Today, Happijac is the industry leader in vertical bedlifts, upgradable camper jacks, space efficient room slide mechanisms, and the only camper tiedown system that controls camper movement in all directions. Click the link to continue on to their website at http://www.happijac.com/ | |
Founded in 1965, Home-Style Industries supplies the northwest RV market with a full line of furniture, window treatments, bedding and mattresses. Lippert Components was happy to announce its acquisition of Home-Style in 2011, further expanding its offerings in the RV furniture market. Combined with its Seating Technology division, LCI can now offer RV furniture coast-to-coast. Visit Home-Style's website at http://www.home-style.com | |
Thousands of RVers already know how well the JT's Strong Arm Jack Stabilizers prevent unwanted chassis movement. Along with their oversized Elephant Foot Pads and digital leveling devices, this line of products is sure to provide a stress-free and pleasurable camping experience for all of those who own them. Continue to the website at http://jtrv.com/ | |
M&M Fabricators Corp guarantees you the ultimate in reliability and quality work. Since 1984, our customers have learned to expect prompt delivery, dependable quality workmanship, complete cost, and reliable service. No job is too small or too big. We offer repairs, replacements, modifications, heavy duty units, balancing, and yoke replacements. |
M-Tec offers a wide range of superbly engineered slideout systems for almost any application. Designed for long-term, maintenance free operation, our slides feature ground heavy-duty stainless steel shafts, corrosion resistant zinc-plated steel and mechanisms that never need lubrication. Easy-glide ball bearing rollers, rack and pinion slide movement and fully adjustable stops make operation extremely smooth and predictable every time. Available in flush or standard mount, single or dual arms and low profile designs, each slide system is custom engineered to your exact requirements. Systems are available in both electric and manual (motorless) models with optional rear legs for some models. |
Since 1971, Michiana Mattress has been constructing the highest quality sleep systems to a variety of industries. We can build to customer specification and can build custom RV, medical, hotel or residential mattresses to any desired comfort level. We are constantly innovating and redefining what our customers are sleeping on in their home away from home! See for yourself at http://www.michianamattress.com/ | |
The Mobile Outfitters strive to enhance the mobile lifestyle by creating Recreational Vehicle and trailer components using experience, sensitivity and imagination. The MOBILE Outfitters has been created to organize, package and deliver products in an aftermarket format to the RVing public. |
Hook up, and never look back. The Quickbite dual jaw locking coupler is the safest and easiest to use trailer coupler on the market today. When the ball enters the hitch, an inner set of jaws close and are immediately captured by a torsion spring loaded outer jaw making it virtually impossible for the ball to escape. Interested? Find out more by clicking here. | |
For over 20 years, Seating Technology Inc and its affiliates have been providing quality furniture to a multitude of industries. At Seat Tech, we bring ideas to life. In the ever changing landscape of interior RV design, we pride ourselves on engineering the most difficult solutions and making them easy and affordable. Find out more at Seat Tech Website |
StarQuest has a reputation as "The Experts" in window and door design and supply. Starquest offers a full range of Truck Cap Window and Door Systems allowing the cap manufacturer to design and produce aerodynamic, contemporary caps with glass components that measure up to the function, fit, and appearance of the OEM. Our truck cap window and door solutions will allow your truck cap design to shine through. |
Trailair is quickly becoming the industry standard in trailer suspension enhancement. Trailair's products, like the Equa-Flex Rubberized Equalizer and the Tri Glide Air Ride Pin Box, help absorb road shock and eliminate fore to aft coach movement otherwise known as "chucking." Find out more at http://www.trailair.com/ | |
Zieman Manufacturing has serviced the RV, Manufactured Housing, Marine and Specialized Traier industries on the West Coast for over 50 years. With outstanding service and quality, there is no job that will go unsatisfied. Find out more at http://www.zieman.com/ |


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March 16th, 2011: If you are disconcerted by naked dinosaurs talking about clothes, try adding &butiwouldratherbereading=onewheretrexwearsmore to the address bar; that problem will be solved IMMEDIATELY.
Japan is still recovering from that terrible earthquake and tsunami, please consider a donation to Doctors Without Borders or the Red Cross (American, Canadian, British) to help! To make sure the best gifts ever in time get to you when you want them, here are the HOLIDAY SHIPPING DEADLINES. Orders placed before these dates will get to you in time for Christmas! One year ago today: poor toyota, first that huge recall and now a throwaway reference in dinosaur comics? WHAT'S NEXT?? – Ryan
December 5th: All shipping methods except U.S.P.S. First-Class Package International Service� are safe.
December 6th: International orders made not selecting U.S.P.S. Priority Mail Express International� shipping will likely arrive in January.
December 11th: USPS FIRST CLASS and STANDARD may not make it in time and neither will USPS EXPRESS MAIL INTERNATIONAL.
December 16th: ALMOST NOTHING IS SAFE. USPS EXPRESS is the only safe USPS option.
December 19th: A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE (IF THINGS PLACED ON OR AFTER THIS DATE ARRIVE BY THE 24TH, THAT IS)

subset: commoncrawl


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Hunting fatality in Tangipahoa Parish
Louisiana wildlife agency officers are investigating a fatal hunting accident in Tangipahoa Parish.
- Dec. 7, 2013
You will be redirected to the page you want to view in seconds.
Louisiana wildlife agency officers are investigating a fatal hunting accident in Tangipahoa Parish.
The second charity auction for the Duck Commander companys 1 millionth duck call of 2013 ended on eBay Saturday, netting $20,110.00 to benefit the Northeast Louisiana Veterans Associations Wounded Warrior hunts.
With red-crusted trees trimming the foggy horizon, fishing on Lake Claiborne offers some dynamic viewing on a December day even if you have to listen to Homer Humphreys' stories dotted with an occasional exaggeration.
A willow tree blew softly in a slight breeze just west of Eli Haydel's gravesite as the crowd moved in closer to the Hill Crest Memorial Park tent.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, in cooperation with the Red River Waterway Commission, recently stocked the Red River with over 28,000 Florida strain largemouth bass fingerlings.
The Waskom, Texas, resident harvested this 3-point with a 6-inch spread on Nov. 23 in Trinity, Texas. It was shot with a 7mm 08 at approximately 85 yards.
Eli Haydel was the ultimate promoter of all things outdoor, especially if they related to the duck hunting industry.
Shreveport attorney S. Lynn Walker and 16-year-old Goghsmokem are at it again winning world titles in riding events that is.
Eli Haydel, founder of Bossier Citys Haydels Game Calls and a lover of all things outdoors, passed away last night in his sleep, according to his son, Rod Haydel.
Tew, 11, of Bossier City and Bolen, 12 of Shreveport, were all smiles after the 5th Annual Joe Callicoatte Memorial Youth Duck Hunt Nov. 9 on Cross Lake. Both bagged an elusive green-footed duck, commonly known as a Puldoo.
Deep frying turkeys at Thanksgiving can get hairy.
The 8-year-old Keithville resident harvested his first deer, a 7-point, with a .270 Browning at 75 yards. It came on family land in Doddridge, Ark..
Registration is currently underway for children ages 8 to 12 to participate in the Caddo Sheriff's Office 'First Gun Course.'
The Bayou Pots' Dutch oven 'Cooking for Kids' event on Saturday at the Lake Bistineau State Park, which featured Bear Hood's trash can turkeys, attracted more than 75 visitors and raised more than $500 for the Ark-La-Tex Learning Center.
Tony Bernard of Lafayette captured first place recently in the 2014 Louisiana Waterfowl Conservation Stamp competition sponsored by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
The Blanchard resident harvested this 12 point on Nov. 3 on private land in Plain Dealing. 'I hunted on Sunday, but the Lord blessed me anyway,' McCutcheon said. The 190-pound deer was shot from about 70 yards with a .270.
Phil Robertsons audience was people instead of ducks Thursday as he assembled the Duck Commanders 1 millionth call of the year at the companys retail store on Kings Lane in West Monroe.
Phil Robertson, the Duck Commander, assembles the 1 millionth duck call for 2013 at his warehouse in West Monroe on Thursday.
Sports personality Tim Fletcher is working with The Times and offers his commentary and videos.
Click here to cast your vote each week and let us know who you think deserves the title of "Player of the Week".
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Remember me
quote bobcat370Type in this cheat: boolprop_testingcheatingcheatsenabled true and that will turn on debug mode. If you press CTRL+N/SHIFT+N while creating your sims you will get alot of clothing, skin colour options and alot more, you can also click and hold on the sim's mood bars/skill bar and move the levels up! you can also click+shift on a sim to give you more options like killing themselves! Its gr8 but My game isn't working...
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Reebok 10K ABS Hockey Blades Sr |
Lowest Price Guarantee
- Heritage: 2k
- Level of Play: Ideal for the entry to intermediate level of play
- Shaft Compatibility: Traditional (NO Tapered shaft)
- Weight: 204 grams (Based on Sr P38)
- Construction:
- Reinforced with fiberglass
- Adds rigidity to the blade for accuracy
- Hosel:
- Hickory hosel
- Core:
- ABS core
Comments: I bought this blade because my previous one had split right down the blade after a couple weeks. It's been a couple months with this blade and I have only had small amounts of wear. Would definitely recommend to a friend.
From: Alex, PA
Comments: This is the best blade on the market for use on asphalt and other outdoor surfaces. This is a long lasting blade that doesn't sacrifice in performance. I used the Reebok 2K blade about 2-4 times a week and it lasted about 3 months, which is all you can ask for with an ABS blade. My ball hockey team just ordered about 12 of the 10K blades about a week ago and they seem to be just as good as the 2K. I will be using this blade until the day I die
From: Alex, MA
Comments: Bought this blade to put on my Bauer supreme one.5 shaft and it was originally a little loose fitting with just the glue; i ended up having to put tape on the blade plug to get a snug fit in the shaft but other than that it has been great. I play 2-3 times a week on asphault and sport court and haven't had a problem after 2 months of use. Square toe is great also.
From: Dylan, MD
Other Items to Consider
Reebok Traditional Hockey Blades Senior
The Reebok 16k Hockey Blade offers great performance at a great price! This replacement blade from Reebok has a Dual Matrix construction that quickens shot release while the AccuBlade technology makes the blade progressively stiffer from heel to toe making this blade as accurate as possible.
Curves: 4 -
The Reebok 10K ABS Blade is perfect for outdoor hockey. The ABS core will last on outside surfaces unlike a traditional wood blade. The fiberglass reinforcement insures durability while helping to increase stiffness for accurate shots. This blade design dates back to the popular Koho Ultimate 2100 with modern improvements in materials and construction.
Curves: 2


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December 9, 2013
AUSTIN, Texas -- A federal appeals court says Texas can cut off state funding for Planned Parenthood pending a trial over a new law that takes away the money.
The court on Tuesday lifted a federal judge's temporary injunction calling for the funding to continue pending an October trial.
Texas officials sought to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood clinics that provide family planning and health services to poor women after the state's Legislature passed a law banning funds to organizations linked to abortion providers. No state money goes to pay for abortions.
Planned Parenthood sued, saying the law violates its free speech rights. The Texas attorney general argued lawmakers may decide which organizations receive state funds.
The judge ruled last month there's sufficient evidence the state's law is unconstitutional.


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TVA and the Environment
The Tennessee Valley Authority is committed to protecting the environment while providing low-cost, reliable electricity to the people of the TVA region. TVA's work to make the Tennessee Valley region a better place to live, work and raise a family includes extensive environmental efforts:
- Working aggressively to improve air quality by cutting emissions from power production.
- Managing 650,000 acres of surface water; 293,000 acres of reservoir land; 11,000 miles of shoreline; and more than 100 public recreation areas.
- Exploring renewable energy sources .
Environmental highlights
- A federal study shows TVA power plants have reduced emissions of two key acid rain components to a fraction of what was being released 30 years ago, and at a rate faster than the national average for the industry. In 2012, TVA sulfur dioxide emissions were 91 percent below peak levels and nitrogen oxide emissions were 88 percent below peak levels.
- In 2012, about 47 percent of TVA's generation was from clean energy sources with low- or zero-carbon emissions. TVA projects that low- and zero-carbon sources will make up 50 percent of its generation portfolio by 2020.
- TVA will reduce its environmental footprint by:
- Improving the efficiency of the existing power system
- Pursuing low-carbon generating technologies, such as nuclear power and cost-effective renewable sources, and reducing its coal-fired generation.
- Promoting consumer energy efficiency and conservation.
- TVA's board of directors authorized the purchase of up to 2,000 megawatts of renewable and clean energy. As of Sept. 30, 2012, contracts have been signed for 1,515 megawatts in wind power from the Midwest.
- In partnership with distributors of TVA power, TVA offers incentives to increase the supply and use of renewable energy. Customers can receive $1,000 toward the start-up costs of qualifying renewable resources such as wind and solar generation.
- In 2012, TVA and its contractors completed their 46,000th In-Home Energy Evaluation in 2012 and helped TVA customers shave more than 560 gigawatt-hours off their peak power demand – enough to power more than 35,000 homes.
- TVA has joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee and others to create the Volunteer State Solar Initiative, a $63 million investment to make solar power technologies more efficient and affordable.
- TVA is keeping its commitments to the Kingston, Tenn., community following an ash spill in December 2008 at Kingston Fossil Plant. The Emory River has reopened after TVA removed more than 3.5 million cubic yards of ash and sediment from the river and adjoining areas. The last train shipment of this material has been sent to an approved landfill in Alabama. TVA is now consolidating spilled ash that did not enter the river and preparing to store it onsite in the dredge cell that is being rebuilt and reinforced to resist earthquakes.
- TVA has played an instrumental role in developing emissions control technologies used by the utility industry and is a leader in supporting reductions of green house gas emissions.
- TVA anticipates spending about $ 2.3 billion through 2018 to add controls to its coal-fired units. This is less than the previous projection of $3.4 billion because of increasing reliance on cleaner energy resources and the idling/retirement of more coal-fired units that otherwise would have had to have been controlled.
- TVA's integrated management of the Tennessee River system helps maintain adequate water supply for drinking, industrial use and agriculture; helps generate hydropower and provide cooling water for coal-fired and nuclear power plants; supports navigation and recreation; and promotes healthy aquatic habitat for plants and animals.
- TVA operates one of the most comprehensive river system monitoring programs in the United States and partners with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect habitats of threatened and endangered species.
- TVA's Clean Marina Initiative has certified more than 80 marinas that comply with water quality standards.
- TVA has installed equipment and changed operations at many of its dams to add oxygen downstream, improvements that have helped aquatic life in more than 300 miles of river.
- TVA regulates land use and development along 11,000 miles of Tennessee River system shoreline. A network of watershed teams respond to questions about the use of TVA-managed land and TVA's Cultural Resources staff helps protect more than 9,000 archaeological sites on TVA-managed land.
- In partnership with public agencies and stakeholders, TVA develops comprehensive plans for the management of the public land around each of its reservoirs to minimize conflicting land uses and guide decisions on requests for use of public land.
- TVA's shoreline management policy improves the stewardship of shoreline and aquatic resources while allowing the public to enjoy those natural resources.
December 2012


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Movie Finder
All Is Lost
During a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean, a veteran mariner (Robert Redford) awakes to find his vessel taking on water after a collision with a stray shipping container. With his radio and navigation equipment disabled, he sails unknowingly into a violent storm and barely escapes with his life. With any luck, the ocean currents may carry him into a shipping lane -- but, with supplies dwindling and the sharks circling, the sailor is forced to face his own mortality.
Genre: | Adventure, Drama, Thriller |
Length: | 105 min. |
Rating: | PG-13 |
Watch Trailer |
Cast: | Robert Redford |
Directed by: | J.C. Chandor |
Produced by: | Neal Dodson, Anna Gerb, Justin Nappi, Teddy Schwarzman |
Official Site: | http://allislostfilm.com/ |
By Tribune Newspapers Critics, Tribune Content Agency Film Clips
By Michael Phillips
Tribune Newspapers Critic
3 stars
Imagine an alternate-universe version of the lean, relentlessly taciturn survival tale "All Is Lost," featuring a different actor than the film's one and only performer, Robert Redford.
Had, for example, the drama starred Woody Allen (at 77, the same age as Redford) as the sailor undergoing the trials and tribulations of the unnamed character's Indian Ocean shipwreck, we'd no doubt have gotten a full quotient of realistic muttered asides and "Aahhhh, jeezes" and "Oh, terrific, now I got sharks to deal with." Or put Morgan Freeman, a year younger than Redford or Allen, in the role, and you can picture the man attempting to voice-over his way to safety -- vocally impressing the elements and Nature Herself into submission.
But Redford it is. And "All Is Lost" and its near-speechlessness, as conceived by writer-director J.C. Chandor, suit the hardy movie star's tight-lipped charisma to a T.
Like "Gravity," this less obviously commercial film breathes the cinematic oxygen of pure visual peril. Straight off, Redford's character is heard on the soundtrack, for the first and last time, writing what sounds like a farewell letter. It is a note of contrition, apologizing to what we assume to be his family ("I'm sorry. ... I fought to the end").
Chandor then rewinds to eight days earlier, when this man, sailing his 39-foot craft called the Virginia Jean, runs afoul of a massive stray shipping container holding hundreds of sneakers. His boat takes a gash to the hull, water starts rushing in, and "our man" (as he's listed in the credits) quietly, nearly wordlessly slips into rescue mission mode. About halfway through "All Is Lost," Redford abandons ship after a wild storm and ends up in a life raft with some emergency supplies, including a sextant for navigation and some flares. The mission, he determines, is to head toward the shipping lanes where he has a chance of being spotted before it's too late.
Chandor's previous and first feature, the financial-meltdown drama "Margin Call," was all talk. "All Is Lost" has its sliver of voice-over at the top, plus a single, choice cry from a heavily burdened heart delivered by Redford. But mainly we hear only the sounds of forces beyond human control: wind, rain, the slap of water against watercraft. The director's experience with "Margin Call," which took place largely around boardroom tables in confined urban spaces, serves him well for "All Is Lost." Here, his camera captures one crisis and threat and resolution after another in tight quarters, backed by a forbidding horizon. Watching Redford's character in a rough physical environment, taking care of business, is neither the background nor the foreground of "All Is Lost." It is the entire story.
Redford isn't precisely stretching his range as an actor here or revealing a new side to us. Rather, he's finding the cleanest, clearest way to express a quiet man's wiles and resources. We don't know who he is, or where he's been, or what he's done. We only know what he's doing in the threatening here and now, one day at a time. Chandor, Redford and company filmed in Mexico's Rosarito Beach Baja Studios, in a huge water tank built for the filming of "Titanic." The film has a quietly relentless quality. Redford is fully engaged and vital.
I'll leave it to others to read greatness into "All Is Lost." It's enough that it's good.
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for brief strong language).
Running time: 1:46.
Cast: Robert Redford (Our Man).
Credits: Written and directed by J.C. Chandor; produced by Anna Gerb, Justin Nappi, Neal Dodson and Teddy Schwarzman. A Lionsgate release.
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Demi Lovato: X Factor in Texas!
Posted in Demi Lovato: X Factor in Texas!
Demi Lovato is beaming and bright as she arrives at the first round of X Factor auditions held at the Erwin Center in Austin, Texas on Thursday afternoon (May 24).… Read More Here
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Demi Lovato


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Enter the world of Viewpoint, this stunning 3D diagonal-scrolling shooter, a visual masterpiece which allows you to play from a three-quarter perspective. Unimaginable enemies and inventive traps lurk around every corner and the intense action will rattle your senses! Enough gameplay to please even the most advanced gamer. Begin the fight with the rapid-fire gun and along the way collect the three shot device of destruction. Also, store energy to use The Wave in 4 levels of power. Or, choose from one of three different bombs to shoot your way through 6 stages of the most spectacular warzones of all time!
FAQs, Guides, Cheats, and Secrets
If you're stuck and need help getting through the game, our FAQs and Guides page is sure to help. We have 1 complete FAQ for this game, and 1 total.
We don't have any cheats posted for this game yet.
The Viewpoint message board has 4 topics and 1854 messages. GameFAQs Answers currently has 0 open questions and 0 answered questions.
And More...
For this game, we also have a page with release details and information, 1 box shot. You can track this game and add it to your collection using My Games, and you can find out how to contribute to GameFAQs at Contributor Central.


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"Today's shocks are tomorrow's conventions."
Author details
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Other Carolyn Heilbrun Quotes
Odd, the years it took to learn one simple fact: that the prize just ahead, the next job, publication, love affair, marriage always seemed to hold the key to satisfaction but never, in the longer run, sufficed.
Carolyn Heilbrun
60% of people like this quote
Quoting, like smoking, is a dirty habit to which I am devoted.
Carolyn Heilbrun
55% of people like this quote
You can flush my ashes down the toilet, for all I care.
Carolyn Heilbrun
49% of people like this quote


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Audtions for One Act Plays
Try out your acting skills with Peak Productions. NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!
When |
Nov 08, 2012 from 06:00 pm to 07:00 pm |
Where | Studio Theater, Taylor Hall |
Contact Name | Peak Productions |
Contact Phone | 970-943-3013 |
Add event to calendar |
vCal iCal |
Please come prepared with a memorized 1 minute monologue. However, cold readings will be available if needed. To sign up, please fill out your name and email on the audition sheet on the CALL Board (Across from rm 120 in Taylor Hall). Each slot is 5 minutes long. Also, please sign up for the next available slot if possible.
Callbacks will take place on Thursday November 8th from 7:30pm-9pm. Please be prepared to stay for the entire callback time if called back.
NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! This is a great way to get involved with theatre here at Western.


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(KCEN) -- Due to the possibility of inclement weather, the following have announced delays or closures for Friday morning, Dec. 6. SCHOOL DISTRICTS Mullin ISD - 2 hour delay. School will start at 10:00 More>>
It can happen in an instant. You hit an icy patch on the road and your car spins out of control. As the temperature drops, Ursula Bumpass is canceling her weekend plans, so she can avoid driving. "If you More>>
(KCEN) -- A family of four in Temple is without a home after it burned to the ground Thursday morning. It happened around 9:15 in the 4900 block of Hernandez Drive. The four people were inside the home More>>
Drug and alcohol-related incidents are down by about half this year for Fort Hood soldiers, and some credit that to training events, like the "Save a Life Tour," making a stop on post this week. Speaker More>>
(NBC) -- Nelson Mandela, the revered South African anti-apartheid icon who spent 27 years in prison, led his country to democracy and became its first black president, died Thursday at home. He was 95. Though More>>
(NBC) -- Demonstrators gathered outside fast-food restaurants in 100 cities Thursday, campaigning for a $15 an hour wage and the right to unionize. The series of daylong mini-strikes were coordinated More>>
(KCEN) -- A suspect is charged with fleeing police after dodging a warrant and racing through Nolanville. As Temple police tried to stop a man regarding a warrant, the suspect fled in his SUV toward Killeen More>>
It's that time of year: Lights are quickly going up, and central Texas is starting to look a lot like Christmas. But if you don't have your decorations up just yet, you still have time to get a little More>>
(KCEN) -- If you like metal, coffee, and have extra money to spend, Starbucks has a deal for you. Starbucks is making 1000 luxury metal cards. They will run about $450. But they come preloaded with More>>
(KCEN) -- The 2024 Olympics could be coming to the Lone Star State. Dallas is one of a handful of US cities in the running to host the games. City leaders say Dallas is a serious contender in the selection More>>
(KCEN) -- Warming stations are open in the city of Temple are opening up due to the cold weather. The Temple Office of Emergency Management activated the Emergency Warming Center Plan to provide a temporary More>>
People in West will see a very special and familiar Christmas decoration on Main Street starting Wednesday night. Jimmy Matus was killed in the fertilizer plant explosion in April, but he lives on through More>>
It was the call of a lifetime, a call that local Army Veteran Scott Rowe still cannot believe. On Wednesday he was given an oversized check for $1million dollars by Old Navy to use as he wishes. More>>
(KCEN) Bryce Reed, a former West EMS worker was sentenced this afternoon to 21 months in prison, 3 years of supervised release, and a $2,000 fine. Reed plead guilty in federal court to having bomb making More>>
A tragic death that cops say could have been prevented: A woman crossing railroad tracks in Killeen is hit and killed by a train. It's the second time in just over a year someone has died on tracks in More>>
A woman is dead after being hit by a train late Tuesday night. It happened on Tenth Street in Killeen. More>>
(KCEN) -- One word for travelers on I-35... patience. Both the northbound and southbound lanes of I-35 in Lorena will be closed beginning 7 p.m. Tuesday and ending no later than 7 a.m. Wednesday. The More>>
(KCEN) -- A four hour standoff with a suicidal man ended peacefully Tuesday night in Woodway. More>>
The engineer at the controls of the Metro-North train that derailed as it sped around a sharp curve in the Bronx nodded at the controls just before the crash that killed four people and injured more than 60 others, a union official said. More>>
- A new communications satellite that has both public and government applications has been launched into space aboard a private rocket. More>>
On Monday night at 917 Colcord three black males robbed the Quick Stop getting away with an unknown amount of cash. The men in "hoodies" showed handguns and put the clerk on the floor, took cash from More>>
(KCEN) -- Have you decked your halls for the holidays yet? We want to see your homes all lit up for the season. Send us pictures of your Christmas lights, inflatables, ornaments and other creative ways More>>
(CNN) -- After losing a close friend to liver failure, Candy Chang spent a lot of time thinking about how she wanted to live out her days. Contemplating death brought clarity to her life, but she struggled More>>
(NBC) NEW YORK — The Metro-North train that derailed in the Bronx — killing four people and injuring dozens — was traveling 82 mph as it hit a curve where the limit was 30 mph, officials said Monday. The More>>
(KCEN) -- A press conference at the Bell County Sheriff's Department provided more details on the rollover accident that landed Deputy Adam Davis in critical condition Sunday night. Bell County Sheriff's More>>
(KCEN) -- A three car accident in Belton kills one person and sends others to the hospital. It happened yesterday evening just after 6 p.m. Two cars and one pick up truck were totaled on FM 1670 near More>>
A Bell County Sheriff's deputy remained in critical condition Monday morning after a one-vehicle rollover crash Sunday night.According to a news release from the Bell County Sheriff's Department, Deputy More>>
(NBC) -- The must-have item at Wal-Mart on "Black Friday" wasn't a mega TV, sleek tablet or the latest giggling Elmo. It was towels. It's a sign of the times that consumers battered by a recovery that More>>
Dense fog cut visibility almost to zero during Monday morning's commute. The patchy fog was around all morning. A dense fog advisory stayed in effect until 10 a.m. In Waco, visibility was down to a quarter More>>
(CNN) -- The small plane had crashed in an extremely remote part of Alaska, miles from the tiny village of St. Mary's. It was an especially dark and foggy Friday night, and rescuers were having a hard More>>
In the not-too-distant future, Amazon deliveries could come by air directly to your doorstep. More>>
P.O. Box 6103
Temple, TX 76503
(254) 859-5481


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You're watching...
Hospitals face drug shortage crisis
Shortages surge due to manufacturing, discontinuations
Apr 12, 2012
You're watching...
Shortages surge due to manufacturing, discontinuations
Apr 12, 2012
Also in this playlist...
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It's yeah.
Ask anybody who's -- the pharmacy they may have already had tough time getting drugs they want because there seems to be a major shortage.
Of every day prescription totally and reported under reported story everything from blood -- is to cancer medication.
And what is causing it what is the solution here to explain doctor Marc Siegel from the -- medical eighteen doctor -- or what -- the start becoming an issue.
Well this has been an issue since 2005.
But it is now five times more of a problem Brian and it was back then we're talking.
Drugs that are short we're talking blood -- -- heart medication to become a with a heart attack.
Cancer drugs steroids antibiotics all of the emergency medications that I need to use on a daily basis some people are gonna be looking at this -- -- gonna be on we knew there is going to be rationing.
With obamacare is this a result of but it legislation that was passed by congress Steve it's not a result of but I'm definitely concerned that -- the -- that's gonna make it worse because the more regulations you have.
And the more insurance companies don't want to cover expensive drugs.
The more pressure there is on the drug companies not to produce them and if they don't make a profit they're not gonna wanna make -- -- more and more these drugs are going generic.
And you have to have so much sterilization.
On top of it to make sure that you can actually put him into someone's very.
They're finding glass particles they're finding fungal -- so.
It cost a lot of money for the drug -- -- and make sure these drugs are safe understandable but where's the profit and I saw a lot of them went overseas for the war effort so -- Iraq and Afghanistan right off the top understandably the antibiotics in the steroids went right to the war through -- Over this a little bit but -- Cisco over some of the the drugs are really concerned you -- been depleted fighting for cancer.
Cancer drugs infections for treating cardiovascular disease that's going to be one of them.
For managing psychiatric conditions.
Pain medications in anesthesia to relatives to run incentives so what you're -- it is.
That the drugs are out there they're just not getting here correct.
They're out there except that there's also production problems the drug companies are not making them the way they were before because you're gonna.
These are running out -- -- -- -- -- and because the drug companies.
They look at the bottom line -- we're not gonna make that much money on that drugs or not gonna make it -- Steve as you mentioned it looked towards the future and they say wait a -- you know we see Avastin is being cut we see all kinds of drugs that are not gonna be covered.
We see more more regulation now.
What is the solution to that is that's -- that's the biggest question and the solution is the FDA is saying.
We're gonna march in and we're gonna we wanna know in advance so we can get emergency supplies from overseas we can.
That's the drug companies to make more but that's like.
A finger in the -- when the holes are coming everywhere but can't solve the problem that we don't need more drugs coming from overseas -- overarching thing is Biotech companies -- -- all -- -- money to come up the next cancer -- makes them a lot of money and saves a lot of people.
No longer and have that incentive to do so.
-- that is a great point and they are definitely looking down the pike and they're -- that they're saying wait a minute.
If I'm not gonna make a profit why should I put a billion dollars into developing the stroke but on the front and riots and they're not gonna risk -- All on the front lines in the trenches I'm worried because -- patient comes in with an asthma attack I don't have the story to give -- someone comes in with a life threatening infection out of the antibiotic -- -- -- -- -- patients calling me every -- -- saying.
I'm one of those super responders with the chemo works but I can't get the chemo anymore are going through our.
They already are the American Hospital Association says that 82% of hospitals believe that these delays.
Our life threatening 82% doctor -- thank you very much for coming and now you back your other job.
And seeing patients trying to work with the shortages and -- all right our thanks cars right straight ahead.
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text: Lisa Nicole Bell is a social change agent, author, award winning filmmaker, and entrepreneur. She and her team at Inspired Life Media Group create media projects that inspire new conversations and ignite positive action. Her projects have earned various nominations and awards including the NAACP Image Award, the Cable Positive Award, and the Los Angeles Business Journal Women Making A Difference Award.


text:
Here's the bottom line on the American drone strike that slaughtered as many as seventeen people in a wedding party in Yemen last week: the CIA, which carried out the attack, had no comment. The State Department didn't say anything. And the White House, ignoring outcries in Yemen, says merely, "We obviously cooperate closely with the government of Yemen on counterterrorism, have in the past and will continue in the future to do that."
Way back in May 2013, President Obama delivered a major speech on counterterrorism policy and drones, in which he said that the use of drones "raises profound questions—about who is targeted, and why; about civilian casualties, and the risk of creating new enemies; about the legality of such strikes under U.S. and international law; about accountability and morality."
But in that same speech, Obama essentially said "too bad" when it comes to civilian casualties caused by drone strikes. "I must weigh these heartbreaking tragedies against the alternatives." So I wonder, now, if Obama is weighing the heartbreaking tragedy that he ordered last week against the "alternative," namely, putting an end to these assassinations by remote control.
What does it say about America's $80 billion-plus intelligence system, including the all-powerful National Security Agency, if it can't distinguish between a terrorist and a wedding party? Who, indeed, was the supposed target of this drone strike, and what exactly was he planning to do, that made it so important to try to assassinate him? Was he some kingpin plotting another 9/11, or just some mid-level bad guy like the dozens upon dozens of others that the United States has blown to pieces after the killing of Osama bin Laden made Al Qaeda a nearly destroyed entity? If US intelligence is so poor, it's way past time to stop these attacks.
In his May speech, Obama said,
Yes, the conflict with al Qaeda, like all armed conflict, invites tragedy. But by narrowly targeting our action against those who want to kill us and not the people they hide among, we are choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life.
And he said that each and every strike would involve extensive review, and that information would be provided to Congress. "Let me repeat that: Not only did Congress authorize the use of force, it is briefed on every strike that America takes. Every strike." And this one?
Some of the people involved may have been members of tribes in Yemen linked to Al Qaeda, according to The New York Times. (According to the Los Angeles Times, which reported that seventeen died, "Five of those killed were suspected of involvement with Al Qaeda, but the remainder were unconnected with the militancy, Yemeni security officials said.") But in Yemen's chaotic, tumultuous tribal politics, there are countless violent actors and many who've identified with Al Qaeda simply because it's the biggest, baddest gang in the area. (It's not unlike the way many youth, in inner cities, become gang members for reasons of status, self-protection or self-respect.) But I don't believe for one second that American intelligence is anywhere good enough to determine whether or not some people thousands of feet below a hovering drone are really worth targeting them for assassination—even leaving aside the constitutional, legal, moral and international-law aspects of the whole drone program.
More than a dozen dead, many more injured, and an unknown number of survivors whose lives have suddenly taken a nightmarish turn the likes of which we cannot imagine, and all for the sake of five people suspected of ties to al-Qaeda. How many actual al-Qaeda terrorists would we have to kill with drones in Yemen to make the benefits of our drone war there outweigh the costs of this single catastrophic strike? If U.S. drone strikes put American wedding parties similarly at risk would we tolerate our targeted-killing program for a single day more? Our policy persists because we put little value on the lives of foreign innocents. Even putting them through the most horrific scene imaginable on their wedding day is but a blip on our media radar, easily eclipsed by a new Beyonce album.
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There's new turmoil in Yemen, which has a fragile, barely functioning government. Yemen's government defends the drone strikes and cooperation with the United States, but Yemen's parliament is in an uproar, and voted to ban future drone attacks. But The Wall Street Journal reminds us that, for Yemen's president and his circle, it's all about the Benjamins:
Yemen's parliament has stepped up pressure on the government to immediately end American drone strikes amid furor over an attack that officials said mistakenly killed 15 people in a wedding convoy.
However, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who has the final say, isn't likely to tell the U.S. to shut down the drone program because his impoverished government needs the American funding attached to it. … Last year, the U.S. provided nearly $350 million to Yemen's government, split between military and civilian aid, U.S. officials said. That was up from $28 million in 2008, before the U.S. drone program resumed after a six-year hiatus.
So the going price for a poor country to allow the United States to blow its citizens to smithereens is, apparently, $350 million.
Read Next: John Nichols on Willy Brandt.
This week marks the 100th anniversary of Willy Brandt's birth.
Born December 18, 1913, on the cusp of World War I, Brandt lived to see the fall of the Berlin Wall before his death in 1992. He left a legacy of seeking to steer his twentieth-century world away from war and division and that still has the potential—as was his ardent hope—to define the twenty-first century as a time of response to global poverty and injustice.
In Germany, Brandt continues to be celebrated as the Social Democratic battler against Nazi totalitarianism, the courageous mayor of a divided Berlin, the chancellor who began a process of East-West reconciliation that anticipated the day when "what belongs together will grow together" and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for dialing down the tensions of the Cold War.
But another lasting legacy of Willy Brandt that must never be forgotten—in Europe or internationally—is that of the Brandt Reports. The product of an Independent Commission on International Development initially chaired by Brandt in the late 1970s and early 1980s, those reports challenged world leaders to think anew about the underdevelopment and neglect of the Global South.
The Brandt Reports considered inequality on a global scale, and argued that it threatened the future stability of the planet. Radical in their analysis and vision, the pair of reports—North-South (1980) and Common Crisis (1983)—sought to address the long-term challenges of what Brandt described as "a world in which poverty and hunger still prevail in many huge regions; in which resources are squandered without consideration of their renewal; in which more armaments are made and sold than ever before; and where a destructive capacity has been accumulated to blow up our planet several times over."
A 2002 report from the Brandt 21 Forum noted, "The Brandt Commission made a set of bold recommendations to change all that. In a sweeping series of measures addressed to the global public, governments, and international agencies, the Brandt Reports called for a full-scale restructuring of the global economy, along with a new approach to the problems of development, including an emergency program to end poverty in developing nations."
The grand vision, celebrated and embraced by some but certainly not all countries, remains unrealized.
The grip of poverty and hunger has not been released. The chasm of inequality is still exceptionally wide. Economic and environmental injustice continue to create crises.
Yet, the understandings that Brandt and his colleagues helped to develop remain influential.
And a new generation of leaders seeks to open a serious discussion about global poverty—and the possible responses to it.
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Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, has for many years urged the United States to embrace the concept of a "Global Marshall Plan"—based on the principles of post–World War II international development programs. Earlier this month, Ellison asked Congress to resolve that
1. The elimination of poverty and hunger should remain key foreign and domestic policy goals for the United States;
2. A Global Marshall Plan holds the potential to transform development assistance in a manner that would significantly reduce poverty; and
3. The President should implement a Global Marshall Plan to increase United States assistance towards the elimination of poverty.
That's a proposal that is equal in its ambition and optimism—especially in a time of divided government that has tended towards austerity economics.
But it is right to aim high. And to recall the ambition and optimism of the Brandt Reports, and of the former German chancellor who declared,
A new century nears, and with it the prospects of a new civilization.
Could we not begin to lay the basis for that new community with reasonable relations among all people and nations, and to build a world in which sharing, justice, freedom and peace might prevail?
Read Next: Mychal Denzel Smith on Santa Claus and white racial panic.
The most important election that the voters don't get to vote on—the selection of New York's next City Council Speaker—is the consuming buzz in New York's political world on Wednesday.
Politicker reported yesterday that Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has been making calls to returning and incoming councilmembers lobbying for Manhattan-Bronx Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, who has the support of the Progressive Caucus—which, according to the same report, claimed to have the 26 votes necessary to elect her head of the fifty-one-member council.
Politicker also quoted unnamed insiders saying that de Blasio's overt advocacy for Mark-Viverito had infuriated some of the county Democratic chairmen, who have traditionally held sway over the picks for Council leadership.
City & State reported today that those county chairman have coalesced around Manhattan Councilmember Daniel Garodnick to be the next speaker—and that they claim to have enough votes.
To most members of my huge national audience, and even among some of my millions or dozens of readers in the city, all this gamesmanship over a legislative post may seem like a distraction (if a welcome one; how else are we to pass the time before we can get to Anchorman 2?).
But it's vital to de Blasio's agenda that he get a speaker he can work with. He saw evidence of this during his own time in the Council. In de Blasio's first term, from 2002 to 2005, Speaker Gifford Miller often resisted Bloomberg, irritating the easily irritated billionaire. In de Blasio's second Council stint, from 2006 to 2009, the more accommodating Quinn made life easier for the mayor—no more so than when Bloomberg asked to overturn the term limits law.
While New York has a strong mayor system, the Council has a huge role to play on the budget and decisions about zoning and other land-use policies. The speaker has the ability to tightly control that role, by naming committee chairs, deciding which bills get hearings and which can come up for votes and apportioning discretionary funding for the members to spend, with favored colleagues getting lots of dough and squeaky wheels getting little. In fact, one of the top items on the Progressive Caucus wish list is to reform the Council rules and reduce the power of the speaker—but that probably won't happen unless one of their own gets the chair.
Because the speaker can dish out goodies and discipline and set the agenda, almost all Council measures pass unanimously. Even notable gadflies vote with the speaker 90 percent of the time, simply because the speaker rarely brings a bill to a vote if passage is not assured. What's more, the last three speakers have run, albeit unsuccessfully, for mayor, so whoever gets the post is by default the person best positioned to succeed or even challenge de Blasio.
Everyone thought de Blasio's big problem was going to be Albany, because the state legislature has to approve changes to the income tax like the one de Blasio wants to use to fund his signature initiative, which couples early childhood education and middle-school after-school programs. Republican control of the state Senate is an obstacle to that idea, and the cagey governor-who-might-run-for-president may not be an ally either.
All that gets much more complicated if the city's own legislature hamstrings the new mayor. Plus, it kinda looks bad if de Blasio loses his first big fight. But be careful about overstating the scope of it.
Mark-Viverito, who represents a district including East Harlem and parts of the South Bronx, is generally well regarded by the left in the city, making headlines last year for clashing with Ray Kelly over aggressive police tactics. Her liberal credentials are such that some observers thought de Blasio would prefer someone more centrist as his partner across City Hall. When I recently asked a room of anti-poverty advocates what they thought of her front-runner status, they were all smiles and thumbs up.
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Garodnick is no right-winger (those are hard to find on the City Council), though he is not a member of the Progressive Caucus. His district includes a long slab of the Upper East Side—the only large section of Manhattan that chose Republican Joe Lhota over de Blasio in November. According to Politicker, he's passed more legislation than his rivals for the council.
Just because the mayor-elect doesn't get his top pick doesn't mean his mayoralty is over. There are battles and there are wars. Eight years ago Christine Quinn famously outmaneuvered Bill de Blasio for the City Council speakership. That seemed to work out alright for him.
Read next: Mychal Denzel Smith on Bill de Blasio's unprogressive choice for police commissioner
This fall, in the first installment of our Prison Profiteers video series with the ACLU and Beyond Bars, Nation readers were introduced to Kenny, a 9-year-old boy and one of 2.7 million children across the country with a parent behind bars. In the video, Kenny's mother explains the difficulty of keeping in touch with her son's father; his prison is a four-hour drive away and phone calls are expensive. Global Tel* Link, the phone company the family must work with if they want to keep in touch, charges up to $1.13 cents per minute—that's $17 for a fifteen minute phone call.
In response to the video, Nation readers joined us to demand action. The Federal Communications Commission had already capped the amount of money prison phone companies could charge for state-to-state calls in August but, since most prisoners serve time in their home state, the decision left many behind. Along with our partners on Prison Profiteers, we created a petition to demand that the FCC finish the job and end this predatory practice for all prison phone calls. Over 28,000 people have joined the campaign so far. We hope to reach at least 30,000 by this Thursday, when we deliver our petition to the FCC.
There's a real chance we could win this fight. When the FCC capped rates for state-to-state phone calls, they asked specifically for comments on whether they should do the same for in-state calls. Plus, we're not the only people passionate about reining in this abuse. The delivery this Thursday follows a similar petition by the Campaign for Prison Phone Justice, a coalition of groups dedicated to fighting the profitable prison phone industry.
If you haven't already, take a minute to watch the video and join our campaign. Together we can put an end to this unjust and exploitative practice.
It is not a question even of the ignorance of white people. It is a question of the fears of white people.
—James Baldwin
Perhaps the most trivial news story, in recent memory, to make the rounds of the twenty-four-hour news cycle is most certainly the "debate" over whether or not Santa Claus is white. It started with a seemingly benign request from Slate's Aisha Harris that Santa be de-racialized. Harris had a modest proposal: rather than a jolly old white man, how about turning our image of Santa into a penguin? No race, they're cute and he'd still live in a snowy place. This deeply offended FOX News's Megyn Kelly, whose unwavering belief that Santa—and Jesus—are white set off Twitter, the blogosphere and would-be pundits everywhere.
I honestly do not care about Santa's racial identity. He's a mythical figure with flying reindeer and elves. To the point of Harris's original article, he can literally be whatever we decide. Growing up, my mother did all the Christmas shopping in my household, so for me Santa has always been a black woman. It's not a big deal.
But what this whole controversy has revealed is another instance of white racial panic. For the entirety of the United States's history, white people have had the advantage of defining themselves—and their mythical gift-giving icons—in a white supremacist state. Politically, culturally, economically, socially, everything has been tailored to privilege whiteness. But things change. Whiteness as the default identity to which everything else is derived or compared gets challenged. And the pushback is fierce.
We are living in an age of paradox. The old system of white racial supremacy is very much still alive and strong, but the advancements of other racial groups are undeniable. That means the government, the culture, the economy and the social order, while not even close to anything equitable, are changing and shifting towards something that's at least more inclusive. Most of these changes are superficial and have no material benefit for the people on the bottom rungs of society. (As I wrote in June, when it was reported that there had been more white deaths than births in 2012, it's not about demographics, it's a matter of resources/wealth/power.) But they can give us hope that we're moving in the right direction.
The result is fear. Fear that too much change coming too fast will change the current system in a way that will no longer privilege whiteness. Being white will no longer be special. It will not allow you to define yourself against the other. There will be no power or privilege. You will just be.
We saw it in immediate aftermath of the election of Barack Obama as the first black president. It animates our debate around immigration reform. It drives our fear of China emerging as a superpower. And yes, it's even in the desire to affirm Santa's white identity. The visual markers of white supremacy appear to be eroding, and for certain segments of the population, that's a frightening prospect.
Of course, white people have nothing to fear. Not in the immediate future, at least. Just as the rich have nothing to fear, men have nothing to fear and heterosexuals have nothing to fear. The system of white supremacist capitalist heterosexist patriarchy isn't going anywhere for a while. It is so entrenched in our way of thinking that even those who don't benefit from it work towards its maintenance. We still have a long way to go.
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Santa Claus is merely a symbol. We project upon him what we wish to see. So don't worry, white people. With the political and economic advantages still heavily weighted in your favor, Santa will still bring you your gifts. He's still on your side. In the foreseeable future, Santa is still a white man.
(But it won't always be that way.)
Read Next: Jessica Valenti on Beyoncé's feminism.
The serial failures of Chicago's new "smart card" public transportation fare collection system isn't really a Chicago story—any more than the dark, satanic mills of nineteenth-century England were a Manchester story, or impoverished temp workers risking life and limb packaging iPads is a story about California's Inland Empire. This is a tale about the world taking shape before us now, everywhere: public provision being turned over to private interests, subverting democracy and all economic good sense in the (terrible) bargain.
RFID fare-collection systems implemented by the San Diego–based defense contractor Cubic have caused public outcry wherever they've been introduced, across all four corners of the globe. London is Cubic's biggest customer, accounting for 33 percent of their transportation business. There, "Oyster" smart cards were introduced in 2003 via what is known in England as a Private Finance Initiative. The parties were a consortium including Cubic and EDS (formerly Electronic Data Systems, a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard), and London's transport agency TfL; the seventeen-year contract, signed in 1998, was worth £1.1 billion. The system began with a modest range of features and slowly expanded; but according to Wikipedia, in "August 2008, TfL decided to exercise a break option in the contract to terminate it in 2010, five years early, this followed a number of technical failures." And yet a subsequent contract with Cubic lasting through 2015 was inked nonetheless.
And the failures went on.
There were 190,0000 complaints about overcharging in 2008 (only 46 percent of complainants had their money refunded)—with the pace accelerating month by month. In 2010, with Londoners still baffled by a confusing system that required them to "tap out" their cards upon leaving a station lest they get hit by the maximum fare, TfL responded by blaming the customers. The next year, the maximum fare was increased; overcharges thus added £61.8 million to the consortium's coffers. This year, a transportation watchdog group reported that of the Oyster machines "almost no one they interviewed understood how they worked." The Guardian reported that authorities knew the system was overcharging some users. The paper continued, "Transport for London (TfL) has been made aware of the glitch but is not going to fix it until September at the earliest—because it only updates the Oyster system three times a year." One of the most embarrassing problems in Chicago—machines charging the wrong customer card—is rampant in London, according to a report in the excellent local Chicago news site Gapers Block. Another system glitch reported by Gapers Block was that vendors were able to receive money from customers, then void the transaction and still keep the cash. Meanwhile customers are owed some £53 million in unclaimed refunds; but there is "no easy way to reclaim the funds."
The system is up for rebid in 2015. Trouble for Cubic stockholders, right? Not so much. Observed a Credit Suisse equity report, "it is a longstanding relationship that is likely to be renewed." Nice work if you can get it.
You could enjoy a nice around-the-world tour just traveling to cities where Cubic has screwed up fare collection. Gapers Block documented them: double-charging in Atlanta. Twenty-fold charging in Brisbane, Australia. Miami-Dade's "Easy Card" system was dubbed "Easy Fraud": this fall, "a 22-year-old man has stood trial over a a glitch allowing him (and members of a WSVN Channel 7 News team) to load money onto Easy Cards for free." In San Francisco, "Cubic disclosed it received 38,000 customer service phone calls in August 2011."
And then Los Angeles: in spite of "nearly consistent one-star reviews on Yelp, Cubic still got a six-year, $545 million contract extension."
None of this bothered the city fathers of Vancouver, British Columbia, apparently. Their Cubic-built system "Compass" comes fully online this January. A large-scale Beta test, though, has already enraged citizens who realized that buying a fare through the traditional system, which will continue on buses, forced you to pay twice when transferring to trains, which only accept the new cards.
And so Cubic continues to thrive and grow, much to Wall Street's delight. Wrote security analysts of Cubic's military subsidiary, "2013 is likely to be a year of flattish revenue and lower earnings owing to tight defense budgets." But "[t]here is no pure-play publicly traded fare-collection competitors," so "[w]e see a solid growth story/existing backlog in Transportation,and believe that CUB's efforts to expand its addressable market…. Scope for smart card penetration in existing U.S. transit systems is another growth lever."
Let's pause and reflect on what's going on here.
"Privatization" isn't new in Chicago's fare-collection system; indeed the two components of the system being replaced, semi-smart preloaded "Chicago Cards" and dumb old magnetic-strip cards, were also devised under contract to Cubic. What we now see in Chicago, however, is an intensification of the logic of privatization. A publicly traded company succeeds—attracts more investors—only if it grows. The equity reports from the investment banks are telling in their ruthless focus on this fact: "flattish" grown is veritable death. It is not enough to "saturate" an old market. It is instead crucial to devise new ones—even if the old products don't need fixing.
That is one of the reasons turning over public municipal services to private interests is so dangerous: the exploitative logic of planned obsolescence. The watchword: If it's not broke—fix it! Or, as we've seen, don't fix it. Just change it, even if what replaces it is worse.
What does it mean when a new product that fails and fails and fails, frustrating customers everywhere, continues to enjoy sales growth? It means that the customer isn't actually the customer. The politicians are the customers. And they're plainly getting something out of the deal whether Joe Public gets double-charged for a ride downtown on the No. 6 route or not. Consider: one of Cubic's biggest institutional owners is Blackrock, the biggest investment fund in the world; and Blackrock's CEO gave $25,000 to Rahm Emanuel's mayoral campaign, then enjoyed a rare half-hour sit-down with him. Was transit fares one of the things they talked about? Wouldn't it be nice to know.
Another danger is that private companies see the Internal Revenue System as a machine to repurpose our cash into their pockets. Reported Cubic to investors after the 2012 transportation bill was signed into law, "of significance to Cubic Transportation Systems in that all of our transit agency customers in the United States currently receive federal funding, and this bill will continue to provide them with the funding that they need to start new projects themselves as well as any prospective clients who may have needed funding." Tellingly, you see no talk here of efficiency, or cost-savings, or market-enforced accountability, all those boons privatization is supposed to deliver to citizens. It's just—here's a new revenue stream. It's just—time to call up "prospective clients."
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There is no market-enforced accountability here. How could there be, when the contracts last ten years and are all-but-automatically renewed, due to (telling language!) "longstanding relationship[s]"? How could there be "competition" when the assets in question are natural monopolies? (What's a competitor supposed to do, build their own subway routes?) And yet, maddeningly, the fallacy of the "efficient" private sector endures—helped along by those who ought to know better. Like when President Obama promised to bring healthcare.gov up to the standard of "private sector velocity and effectiveness."
Somehow, failures in the public sector are always judged as systematic. The private sector thus exists to ride to the rescue—and their failures are only judged anomalies. A pretty nice arrangement for investors. The only people who suffer are the citizens. As Credit Suisse reports, "90%+ off Cubic's cash on the balance sheet is held offshore."
So that's how it works: we shovel them boatloads of money. They stick us with substandard products. We fuss and holler, to no avail. Then they shelter the money they've just Hoovered from our pockets in offshore accounts. Maybe it's time for activists in Chicago, Vancouver, Atlanta, Miami, Brisbane and London to get together, raise their collective voices and demand some of that money back.
Read next: Rick Perlstein on this phenomenon in Chicago
It's been another wild twenty-four hours in the NSA/Snowden epic story-of-the-year.
Just hours after 60 Minutes aired its whitewash of the NSA—Valentine's Day coming early for the snoopers—a federal district judge ruled that the massive (and purportedly harmless) data collection on Americans by the NSA is probably unconstitutional. This inspired another CNN debate last night about what Edward Snowden has wrought between Glenn Greenwald and Jeffrey Toobin, this time on Anderson Cooper's show.
Toobin, the CNN legal analyst, still thinks Snowden should be arrested and should have gone through channels. Toobin contends that the judge's ruling doesn't "vindicate" Snowden, since it's just one judge. And the whistleblower "should have gone through" Congress or something—it was "untenable" to leak to a Greenwald etc. (Senator Ron Wyden backs the judge here.)
This morning, seemingly unrelated to that, Snowden posted an open letter to Brazilians, offering to help them expose wrongful spying within their borders. Some took this to be plea for asylum, which Greenwald denies. When CNN posted a story about the open letter it tweeted the link with this message: "Edward Snowden offers to spy on the US & help Brazil investigate NSA surveillance."
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After criticism from others on Twitter—Greenwald wrote, "Dear CNN: even for you, this is so remarkably reckless and false that it's shocking"—CNN quickly deleted the tweet and changed it to: "#NSA leaker Edward Snowden is offering to help investigate U.S. surveillance of Brazilian citizens."
Naturally, a screen grab of the original was uncovered and posted. So I guess I should close with: watch this space for updates.
Read next: Zoë Carpenter on Internet surveillance and the government.
Thanks to Congress, it's shaping up to be a bleak holiday season for at least one group of Americans. Because the House of Representatives failed to extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program before they left for vacation, 1.3 million long-term unemployed Americans stand to lose their unemployment benefits just three days after Christmas.
Advocates for the unemployed are calling on Congress to extend the EUC when they return from holiday break, and to make the extension retroactive. In the meantime, states have told recipients to continue to file claims after benefits are cut off on December 28, in case Congress does pass the extension.
Join The Nation and Daily Kos in calling on Congress to salvage the benefits of those who need them the most. Contact your representative now and tell them to extend the Emergency Unemployment Compensation program.
The House Ways and Means Committee published an interactive map that breaks down the number of unemployed Americans affected in each state.
At MSNBC, Craig Melvin spoke with LaShean Daniels-Palmer, a mother of four who relies on unemployment benefits.
The National Security Agency (NSA) and its high-tech spying cohorts have been slammed by a federal judge and, if a report in Politico is to be believed, the presidential commission set up earlier this year by President Obama, after the barrage of leaks from Edward Snowden, is going to be a "doozy" that rocks the NSA.
But it remains to be seen if Obama will carry out all, or any, of his own commission's recommendations. The commission delivered its still-secret report to the White House last Friday.
We'll get to the judge's ruling in a second, but first, the report in Politico by intelligence writer Matthew M. Aid, who writes that although the Review Group won't please many civil libertarians since it endorses some of the more controversial parts of the NSA's work, it also won't please the NSA one bit:
The Review Group's preliminary findings and recommendations are anything but cosmetic. The still-classified report of the five-person panel, whose official moniker is the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology, recommends sweeping and far-reaching changes in the way the NSA conducts its electronic surveillance operations, from a greater degree of executive-branch oversight of the agency's operations to the imposition of new limits on what data it can collect, especially inside the United States—a move almost certain to anger the NSA and its supporters inside the U.S. intelligence community.
Politico adds, "U.S. intelligence officials I spoke with were clearly shocked by the Review Group's recommendations, with one official admitting that he felt 'slobbernockered' by some of the things the panel was reportedly recommending."
I'm not sure what "slobbernockered" means, but it doesn't sound good if you're the NSA.
Politico's Aid quotes a Review Group staffer thus:
We had to go this route. If we did not recommend placing some additional controls and checks and balances on the NSA's operations, the high-tech companies were going to kill us and Congress was going to burn the house down.
Now to the judge. As The Washington Post reports it, "A federal judge ruled Monday that the National Security Agency's daily collection of virtually all Americans' phone records is almost certainly unconstitutional."
Although the judge, Richard J. Leon, stayed his decision for six months to give the feds time to appeal, and although this lower court ruling is just the first trip on a path that will ultimately lead to the Supreme Court, it's a major blow to the NSA. Leon's ruling, sixty-eight pages long, contains scathing denunciations of the NSA's spying and data collection overreach.
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In an editorial, The Wall Street Journal expresses frantic alarm over the coming report by Obama's Review Group, saying,
But the word on Capitol Hill is that the scope and radicalism of the recommendations stunned even this White House, not least because the task force was stacked with Obama loyalists. If the details are anything like the leaks, then the panel is advising the government to seriously degrade U.S. counterterror defenses and shut down several valuable surveillance assets in a dangerous world.
And the Journal goes on to link the report with Judge Leon's decision and political opponents of the NSA:
The report lands at a bad political moment, with tea party Republicans and anti-antiterror Democrats smelling opportunity and sociopaths with stolen documents campaigning to harm U.S. national security. Federal Judge Richard Leon ruled Monday that phone metadata collection is unconstitutional, part of a larger post-Snowden legal assault.
We can only hope.
Read Next: Zoë Carpenter on why IT companies oppose government surveillance.
I have received a great deal of thoughtful feedback on my article listing alternatives to Sports Illustrated's coma-inducing choice of Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning as their Sportsperson of the Year. I believe that in Sports Illustrated's best tradition, the Sportsperson of the Year should be someone who personifies the most important, evocative stories of the year. Following some terrific feedback from readers, I now have three more people to add to my list.
1—Neymar. The live-wire Brazilian soccer star spent the past year reviving the "The Beautiful Game," leading many experts to believe that Brazil could be the home favorite when hosting the World Cup this summer. Yet Neymar in 2013 proved he was more than an athletes. Unlike Brazilian soccer legends Pele and Ronaldo, Neymar backed last summer's mass protests against the gross waste and negligence connected to the government's stadium and infrastructure spending for the World Cup. As Neymar wrote, "I've always had faith that it wouldn't be necessary to get to this point, of having to take over the streets, to demand for better transportation, health, education and safety—these are all government's obligations. My parents worked really hard to offer me and my sister a good quality life. Today, thanks to the success that fans have afforded me, it might seem like a lot of demagogy from me—but it isn't—raising the flag of the protests that are happening in Brazil. But I am Brazilian and I love my country. I have family and friends who live in Brazil! That's why I want a Brazil that is fair and safe and healthier and more honest! The only way I have to represent Brazil is on the pitch, playing football and, starting today against Mexico, I'll get on the pitch inspired by this mobilisation."
Sure enough, he then starred in Brazil's Confederations Cup victory over Mexico.
2—Brandon Marshall. In 2013, the Pro Bowl Chicago Bears wide receiver pulled off what may be an unprecedented act in sports history: traveling politically from someone who could be understandably seen as part of the problem in sports, to becoming somone who is unquestionably part of the solution. Early in his career, Marshall was arrested on drunk driving and domestic violence charges. Instead of continuing to spiral downward, Marshall sought counseling and has been open and honest about his own mental health problems. Amidst the NFL's bullying scandal in Miami, Marshall was one of the most cogent and intelligent speakers about the toxicity inherent in the concepts of "manhood" in football.
He said, "Take a little boy and a little girl. A little boy falls down and the first thing we say as parents is 'Get up, shake it off. You'll be OK. Don't cry.' A little girl falls down, what do we say? 'It's going to be OK.' We validate their feelings. So right there from that moment, we're teaching our men to mask their feelings, to not show their emotions. And it's that times 100 with football players. You can't show that your hurt, can't show any pain. So for a guy to come into the locker room and he shows a little vulnerability, that's a problem. That's what I mean by the culture of the NFL. And that's what we have to change. So what's going on in Miami goes on in every locker room. But it's time for us to start talking. Maybe have some group sessions where guys sit down and maybe talk about what's going on off the field or what's going on in the building and not mask everything. Because the (longer) it goes untreated, the worse it gets."
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3—Katie Hnida. One of the most important and disturbing sports stories of 2013 was the ways in which jock culture and rape culture seemed to be inextricably bound. From Steubenville, to Torrington, to Maryville, to Vanderbilt University, to the treatment of Jameis Winston's accuser in Tallahassee, there were a shocking number of stories in the sports pages about rape and the ways in which the reverence for young athletes created a culture of cover-ups. Katie Hnida was uniquely situated to discuss this and did not shirk from the task. Hnida was first woman to play professional arena football with the Ft. Wayne Firehawks in 2010 and also became the first woman to score in an NCAA Division I-A game, with New Mexico. In 2004, Hnida also told Sports Illustrated that as a member of the Colorado Buffaloes, she was raped by members of the football team. She was condemned for coming forward and no charges for filed. One would more than understand if Katie Hnida never wanted to discuss the ways in which jock culture and rape culture intersected. Instead, she was a nuanced and important voice throughout the year. In my own interview with Hnida, she said, "I know that jock culture does not have to produce sexual assault because at New Mexico we were a family so I have seen how sports can be a force for good." She has also said with razor-sharp clarity, "We all have the right to autonomy over our own bodies…I'm happy to be able to say I survived sexual violence."
Thank you, Neymar. Thank you, Brandon Marshall. Thank you, Katie Hnida. You were all a part of turning a very somber 2013 sports year into one with highlights of hope and inspiration
Read next: Dave Zirin's thoughts on Peyton Manning as Sports Illustrated person of the year for 2013.


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A group of couples from my neighborhood in Pacific Palisades, California, men and women Ive known for more than twenty years, got together for dinner a few months ago. Most of these people are non-religious . . . to put it mildly. They think of me as the Crazy Catholic, so we do not spend too much time discussing religion. They made their views on the issue clear many years ago. Nevertheless, at this party, during the dinner conversation, one of the women said to another, Did you hear what the Pope said last week? . . . Continue Reading »
In the immediate aftermath of Mitt Romneys defeat, Marco Rubio was the most popular choice for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Rubio has since fallen behind Chris Christie and Rand Paul and, in some polls, has also fallen behind Ted Cruz. The lesson of the 2012 Republican nomination race is that early polls are volatile, but the rise and fall of the freshman Republican Senator from Florida is more than a story of Rubios foibles and tactical mistakes. It is also a story of how conservative Republican have projected their hopes on him, and how those hopes were not merely dashed, but unrealistic in the first place. . . . Continue Reading »
Late in November, the Womens and Gender Equality Committee of the European Parliament gave its stamp of approval to the Estrela Report on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. (Yes, there are acronyms for all of that.) On Tuesday, December 10th, the Report was (again) put before a plenary session of the Parliament for a vote. To be fair, some changes had been made . . . Continue Reading »
The flurry of instabooks published shortly after the election of Pope Francis didnt shed much light on the formation, character and interests of Jorge Mario Bergoglio or the likely trajectory of his pontificate. Now comes something serious and useful: Pope Francis: Our Brother, Our FriendPersonal Recollections About the Man Who Became Pope, edited by Alejandro Bermúdez and published by Ignatius Press. In twenty interviews, longtime friends and associates of the pope from the ends of the earth give readers real insight into the radical Christian disciple who is leading the Church into the deep of the new evangelization, following the call of John Paul II in 2001. . . . Continue Reading »
The main lines of Rockwells life are well known. He was born in 1894 in New York. By his teens he was well embarked on his career as an illustrator. He married three times, and had three sons (all with his second wife, Mary). He died in 1978, as probably the best-loved American painter ever. In her new biography, however, Deborah Solomon presents a Rockwell we might not be inclined to love so much. . . . Continue Reading »
Come up here, Jesus said to John, and at once John was standing before his throne (Revelation 4:1). Where was Jesus, and where did John go? Christian theology is much better in dealing with time than space. We profess that Jesus will return in the future, and thus we are resigned to the absence of his glorified body in the present, but in the meantime, where is he? . . . Continue Reading »
Tis the season to be jolly. Tis also the season for me to ask for your financial support! Our mission is important. Our need is great. First Things magazine and firstthings.com are published by the Institute on Religion and Public Life, a 503(c)(b) non-profit that depends on people like you for donations. . . . Continue Reading »
When Donna Tartt published The Secret History in 1992, many believed she would become the best American novelist of her generation. That prediction may well have come true, though not in the way most expected. For after the appearance of The Secret Historya riveting tale of murder and betrayal at an elite New England collegeTartt waited ten years before she published The Little Friend. Now, after another decade, Tartt has published her most acclaimed book yet, The Goldfinch. . . . Continue Reading »
Heres a conversation that you will have if you, at any point in your life, read a novel: Youll dislike some aspect of it (lets say the main character is flat and boring), you will voice this criticism of the novel (the main character is flat and boring), and then you will be told, no, thats the point, hes meant to be flat and boring, the book is an examination of the flat and boring. That brings us to Donna Tartts new book, The Goldfinch, which is made up of 771 lovely pages staring unblinking into the void. . . . Continue Reading »
Father Edward T. Oakes, S.J., professor of dogmatic theology at Mundelein Seminary and University of St. Mary of the Lake, has gone to God, dying on December 6, 2013. Readers of First Things know Fr. Oakes well. Over the course of two decades he has been intimately linked with the journal, publishing essay after essay on subjects that extended from Shakespeare to original sin, from the latest movie, to the nature of evolution. . . . Continue Reading »


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Freuchie is situated near Falkland, in rolling farmland at the foot of the Lomond Hills. Today, this quaint village is perhaps best known for its cricket club. However, Freuchie once served as a place of exile for disgraced courtiers from Falkland Palace.
For Accommodation and information, please call:
0845 859 1006
Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday and Sunday - closed
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The restored 1914 train station is now home to shops, restaurants, Science City interactive science museum, a model railroad exhibit, an IMAX theater, a planetarium, an exhibit on the history of the American railroad and more.
It's fun just to wander the huge Union Station building -- the Grand Hall's 95-foot ceiling is beautifully restored -- imagining the days when tens of thousands of passengers passed through here each year (816/460-2020; unionstation.org).
Union Station
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Finally, some good news about public opinion and climate change!
A new poll conducted by Yale and George Mason University shows that a majority of Americans connect extreme weather events with climate change. Of those surveyed, a 2 to 1 majority agree that our warm winter and record-high summer temperatures were most likely made worse by climate change.
The survey also asked about individual experiences with extreme weather – Midwesterners are most likely to report having experienced extreme high winds, rainstorms, snowstorms, and tornadoes. But the most surprising finding was that 35% of respondents said they'd personally been harmed by extreme weather in the last year.
Overall, the results seem to contrast the drop in concern about climate change over the past few years, but perhaps having direct experience of potential consequences of climate change makes us more likely to connect the dots. What do you think?
For the full report: http://environment.yale.edu/climate/files/Extreme-Weather-Climate-Preparedness.pdf
- Post contributed by Katy Walter, clean energy specialist.


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Community Calendar
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Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Kundalini Yoga NightThis yoga class may use breath, simple movements, sounds/mantra and deep relaxation. Open to all. Tuesdays, Sept. 10-Dec. 3, 7-8:30 p.m. By donation: recommended $10-$20. One Heart Yoga @ Little House, 800 Middle Ave., Menlo Park.
Family and Kids
Mothers TogetherMothers Together is a women's community/religious group that offers Christ-centered support for women in their roles as mothers, wives, daughters and friends. Childcare available. Sept. 10-Dec. 10, Tuesdays, 9:30-11:30 a.m. $10 suggested donation for childcare. Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, Fellowship Hall, 950 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park.
Argentine TangoStudents will learn Argentine tango dance fundamentals and technique tools that will enable students to dance in a "milonga" (social tango dance) while working on balance, posture, changes of weight, pivots, coordination and walking with grace. Tuesdays, Sept. 10-Dec. 10 8-10 p.m. $284/$382. Arrillaga Recreation Center, 701 Laurel St., Menlo Park.
Boomer Exercise Ball BlastThis workout class uses exercise (stability) balls to help improve spinal stability, core strength and balance. Offered as a once-a-week or biweekly class. Tuesdays/Thursdays, Sept. 10-Dec. 12, 10:30-11:30 a.m. $156 (once a week). Portola Valley Town Center, 765 Portola Road, Portola Valley.
Brazilian Dance and Martial ArtsClasses in the Brazilian martial art Capoeira, as well as Brazilian dance for children and adults begin next month through the City of Palo Alto. Instructor Mestre Beicola is a native of Rio de Janeiro. Oct. 1-Dec. 12. Times and cost vary - see website. Lucie Stern Community Center, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.
Art Galleries
The Collage CentennialThis exhibit features collages by 11 artists. The exhibit runs Oct. 1-Dec. 13, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. Menlo College Administration Building, 1000 El Camino Real, Atherton.
Family and Kids
Baby Bounce and Rhyme Time"Baby Bounce and Rhyme" combines singing, dancing, reading, and playing. This program is specifically for babies ages 0-18 months (although older children are welcome too). May 7-December 17, 11:15-11:45 a.m. Free. Atherton Library, 2 Dinkelspiel Station Lane, Atherton.
University Public WorshipWeekly sermons are scheduled at Memorial Church from 10-11 a.m. with music by university organist Robert Huw Morgan and the Memorial Church choir. Dec. 1, 8 and 24: Rev. Joanne Sanders, associate dean for Religious Life; Nov. 17 and 24: Rev. Scotty McLennan, dean for Religious Life. Dec. 22: Rev. Dr. C. George Fitzgerald. Dec. 29: Rev. Susan Scott. 10-11 a.m. Free. Stanford Memorial Church, 450 Serra Mall, Stanford.


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New in the Maker Shed: Bigshot Camera Kit
The Bigshot camera Kit, now available in the Maker Shed, is a complete digital camera that you assemble yourself, learning how it works along the way. Read more »
The Bigshot camera Kit, now available in the Maker Shed, is a complete digital camera that you assemble yourself, learning how it works along the way. Read more »
Two years ago, James Tascione had an idea. He was a lifetime RC airplane builder, and had been a touring cyclist, and he knew he could build a human-powered plane that could be inexpensive, easy to build, and accessible to anyone. Two years later and Pedalusion is almost ready to... Read more »
I spoke with Tarun Pondicherry and Josh Chan, co-founders of LightUp, just two days after their successful Kickstarter campaign. They are both excited about the next stage of their journey, but where did it all begin? Read more »
In Soviet Russia you don't tell time. Time is told to you with a vacuum tube! Relive the Cold War (at least the neat tech part of it) with Adafuit's Ice Tube Clock Kit. It's this week's Deal of the Week in the Maker Shed so don't miss out! Read more »
What's a useless machine you ask? It's a machine that when switched on, switches itself back off. So simple yet promises hours of entertainment and fun for the whole family! From now until Sunday this Maker Shed favorite kit is $10 off. Don't miss out! Read more »
MAKE Asks: is a weekly column where we ask you, our readers, for responses to maker-related questions. We hope the column sparks interesting conversation and is a way for us to get to know more about each other. Read more »
The Raspberry Pi is a multifaceted device that can use a host of skills. While this single board computer was made with education in mind, it is not what I would call "easy to use" and can challenge even the most savvy maker. Fortunately, with a thriving online community and... Read more »
Soldering is one of the the most useful skills in a maker's arsenal. If you're looking to learn to solder or perhaps brush up on your skills, consider checking out our Getting Started with Soldering Kit in the Maker Shed. It has just about everything you need to get soldering... Read more »
Tools that help users extend their capabilities almost always abstract away the true nature of how things work. Read more »
What do you do when you want a CNC machine, but don't have the room or the funds for a massive professional machine to build your custom parts? I found myself in the same dilemma, so I chose to scale down my purchase and invest in a manual mill that... Read more »
If you're a kit connoisseur, this gift guide is for you! Here are 12 awesome craft kits that are sure to knock a few names off your holiday to-buy list! Read more »
How much time and effort do you put in to choosing the perfect Christmas gift? If you're like my wife and I, it's far too much. It is practical? Will they use it? It's a never ending guessing game that typically ends up with a polite "thank you" card. This... Read more »


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An incorrect date was given in Thursday's BCR for the Central Illinois Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Advocates fundraiser at the Princeton Pizza Hut. The fundraiser will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday. Tickets are $9 for adults and $5. The BCR regrets the error.
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Chicago Greater Chicago O'Hare Airport Hotels + Green + EMBASSY SUITES
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"The room was clean and spacious,the staff was friendly and helpful. We would stay aga... Read more"
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Note: The nightly rates shown above do not yet include Tax Recovery Charge & Service Fees or (if applicable) Extra Person Fees, Child Fees, Additional Mandatory Hotel Charges or optional incidentals, such as parking, room service or movies.


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This property was within walking distance to the metro, and also close to the Sagrada Familia. The apartment was well appointed, although sound wise, it could have benefited from better sound proofing - a neighbouring apartment checking out at 5am made enough noise to wake me up through 2 closed doors. The apartment above had kids and they were constantly... More
- Also Known As:
- Eric Vokel Boutique Apartments - Bcn Hotel
- Eric Vokel Boutique Apartments - Bcn Hotel Barcelona
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- Eric Vökel was born in Copenhagen. Architecture and design are his life. He regularly works with major Nordic design studios and during one of his trips stopped off in Barcelona: he was captivated by its architecture, culture and Mediterranean colour. Such was the impact the city had on him that he decided to stay and carry out his latest project: Eric Vökel Boutique Apartments. Each of the apartments has been personally designed and decorated by Eric in a style that is a unique mix of functionality and the beauty of Nordic design with all the creativity and spontaneity of Mediterranean design. ... more less
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- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Booking.com, Expedia, Orbitz, Cheap Tickets, Hotels.com, Priceline, Agoda, Escapio and Asiatravel.com Holdings so you can book your Eric Vokel Boutique Apartments - BCN Suites reservations with confidence. We help millions of travellers each month to find the perfect hotel for both holiday and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.