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Records show that a Walnut Creek man arrested after his pickup truck veered onto a sidewalk, killing a woman and seriously injuring another, had previous brushes with the law over his driving.
The Contra Costa County Times reports ( http://bit.ly/S4oosS ) that Hossein Tabrizi was arrested twice in 2005 on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Kim Gibbons says in one of the cases Tabrizi was convicted and sentenced to five days and probation. The other case was dropped.
Department of Motor Vehicle records also show that Tabrizi's license was suspended in 2005 and in 2006. His license was reinstated in October 2009.
The 53-year-old Tabrizi was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter after the Saturday crash in Walnut Creek, which killed 52-year-old Sherry Hicks and injured a second woman.
Walnut Creek have not said whether drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash.
Information from: Contra Costa Times, http://www.contracostatimes.com


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Movie Marketing Madness: Observe and Report
Download as PDF: MMM_249_Observe_and_Report
Blah blah blah blah blah Volcano/Dante's Peak blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah Deep Impact/Armageddon blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah crowded marketplace blah blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah blah.
OK, yeah. Paul Blart: Mall Cop opened just a couple months ago and now another movie about a mall security guard is hitting theaters. So there's a risk, albeit slight, that audiences will have filled their craving for food court action sequences, but I think that's largely been over-stated. In previous cases of one-two punches like this there's no guarantee that the second movie to market is going to suffer. A movie's success is still dependent on the same factors as always: Star power, good marketing and the general societal picture the movie is being released within.
All of which leads us to the release of Observer and Report. Starring Seth Rogen, Observe and Report casts him in the role of the head of security at a shopping mall, someone with an outsized personal vision of just how important his job is. Instead of seeing himself as simply maintaining order for shoppers he pictures his role as part of the thin blue line protecting decent society. One day a flasher goes on a wang-proclaiming rampage through his mall, including traumatizing the department store clerk he pines for. And so he embarks on a quest to find the miscreant, blatantly abusing his limited powers in the process.
The Posters
By way of teasing the movie, the first posters put Rogen in all his misplaced seriousness front and center. Designed like flyers that would be mounted to warn people to keep their eyes open, this series of four posters all had different poses but all just showed Rogen's face against a yellow background. They're kind of fun and certainly made it clear we're dealing with a character suffering from major delusions of grandeur, but their spartan design might keep them from being truly memorable or really popping amidst sees of more dynamic images.
The final theatrical poster also featured the same worn flyer conceit but brought the camera out a bit, showing us not only all of Rogen but also pairing him with co-star Michael Pena, the two of them standing back to back against that same yellow background. Points for consistency but it still, I think, errs too far on the side of presenting the film as dry comedy. It should absolutely make that case – that it's not a prat-fall filled movie but instead something that will make you equally as uncomfortable as make you laugh – but I think it goes just a touch too far in that direction.
The Trailers
Seeking to make an impact right off the bat – and present a strong differentiation between this film and its thematic predecessor – the first trailer released was a red-band version that appeared on the film's official website.
This red-band trailer opens with the flasher on his exposition spree, culminating in him doing even more than just that in front of Anna Farris' Brandy, the clerk Rogen's character is in love with. We then dive into the movie's story, that of Rogen's security guard feeling this is the opportunity he has been searching for to not only prove himself as a man but in doing so prove himself to Brandy. Unfortunately he's not that bright and much of the comedy is obviously going to be derived from the heavy-handed way he treats any violators in his mall and especially anyone he (wrongly) suspects of being the perpetrator. This version is filled with coarse language and even a little sex.
The all-ages version of the trailer is, except for a brief montage of footage toward the end, almost exactly the same only without the offending bits that were in the earlier restricted one. It hits most of the same notes and still comes off as being more than a little violent, something I'm surprised was allowed in this general audience version. It's one thing when "violence" means "big robots fighting each other in L.A." and another when it means "someone pretending to aim a shot gun at another person who's just on the other side of a desk." That's actually quite a big line. I get that it might be an accurate representation of the film but it's still, at least to me, an odd point to include in this trailer.
Perhaps seeking to position itself as more interesting and original than Paul Blart, the movie's official website actually opens with a screen full of positive quotes about it from a handful of critics, including many online writers. All of them describe the movie as unconventional in some way, with words like "unconventional" and "subversive" as well as "funny as hell" being thrown out there. I don't think I've seen a mainstream movie's site put this sort of emphasis on critic feedback before (critics play a bigger role in the marketing of independent films) so this is very interesting.
After digesting those you can Enter the Site. The main focus there is on the restricted content, which you have to enter your age and other information to access. That actually takes you to a full alternative – and very R-rated – site with it's own content.
First and foremost is that red-band trailer which appears on the front page and which is also included, along with a Featurette and a handful of clips, under "Video."
"Downloads" has a few Wallpapers and a Screensaver you can grab for your own usage. "Observe This" lets you hear various audio clips from the film.
"Pound-A-Perv" is a whack-a-mole type game that lets you hit the anonymous pervert with a flashlight as he pops up. Finally, "Ronnie vs. the Police" is probably another game but I can't tell because it's still labeled as "coming soon."
Back to the general-access part of the site, "About the Film" contains a Synopsis, Cast and Crew bios and Notes, which chronicles the production of the movie and more.
"Video" isn't exactly it's own section but just brings up a lightbox video player with the all-ages trailer. "Photos" displays not only about 25 stills from the film but also a couple of the posters, which aren't always included on sites. I wish the stills were downloadable, but that's a constant frustration and not unique to this site. "Downloads" has some Wallpapers, a Screensaver and a handful of Icons, all of which nicely carry over the same look and feel of the one-sheets, which is very cool.
There are also sections for "Promotions" which is where you'll find links to contests and sweepstakes run by other sites and the movie's "Soundtrack."
The site also has along the bottom a row of icons and buttons that let you share it on Facebook, StumbleUpon, Delicious and more social networking or social news sites. You can also become a fan of the site on Facebook at its fan page profile there and even leave a comment on the site by logging in with Facebook Connect. That's pretty cool functionality that I'll probably comment on separately.
Advertising and Cross-Promotion
There don't seem to be a ton of promotional partners outside the contests and such that are listed on the official site but the film has been supported by a decent advertising campaign, with online ads and TV spots appearing around and about. The TV spots definitely speak to the film's slightly darker tone but also contain a bit of broad comedy as it seeks to find a middle ground in how it appeals to the mass audience.
Media and Publicity
The biggest publicity boosts for Observe and Report came first when it was announced it would debut at the SXSW festival in March, just a few weeks before its opening in theaters. After it did so there was an immediate wave of reviews, mostly positive and mostly noting it struck a definitely darker and more cynical tone than the other mall cop movie even flirted with. Some reviews, perhaps going a tad too deeply into the realm of hyperbole, even compared the main character with Travis Bickle , Robert DeNiro's character in Taxi Driver. Whether that perception is accurate or not is still up for debate, but that sort of association certainly couldn't hurt the movie's credibility among a select portion of the audience that might be attracted to something a tad more cynical and downbeat.
The cast has also been making the media rounds, with Rogen playing up the film's non-mainstream appeal in interviews and hitting Saturday Night Live the week before the film's opening.
You all know I'm a big fan of consistency in movie marketing campaigns and this one certainly has that going for it. If you look at the movie's website you'll see the same key art that was used for the posters carried over there, creating a unified experience for the audience. Even in the publicity and press for the film, all the cast and crew hit the same four or five notes in terms of messaging, meaning readers weren't given all sort of scattershot viewpoints as to the film's perceived appeal.
It's good stuff, but the major obstacle is still convincing the audience that it's worth their time. I'm very much in favor, personally, of offbeat comedies but right now I'm probably in the minority. I don't think the stumbling block is going to be that it's the second mall security guard movie to market. Instead I think that it's presenting itself as a movie that might have more squirms than laughs – despite the emphasis on Farris' ditzy drunk act – and I'm not sure that's going to appeal to a large swath of the audience right now. Still, it gets points for going in that direction assuming it's an accurate representation of the film. I don't have a problem with the campaign – it's good – but just think it might be hitting the audience wrong, something that can't really be helped.

subset: commoncrawl


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|Trad, 2 pitches, 80'
|YDS: 5.10c French: 6b Ewbanks: 20 UIAA: VII ZA: 20 British: E2 5b [details]
|Bob Scarpelli
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|George Bell on Mar 21, 2004
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By colin tuck
From: Moab
Jun 23, 2009
|This route is fun climbing, and the two pitches are remarkably different. The first is technical slabbing with tips jamming at the cruxes, while the second is overhung, burly hands. Unfortunately, combined they only add up to eighty feet. Drip Drop is worth doing if you are already at the base and want to spend 4 minutes on a weird slab.


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The Mike's Auto Body League at Spring Hill Lanes produced a flurry of high scores, including one perfect game, on Dec. 14.
Leading the way was Scott Marques and his 300 game. The Spring Hill regular shot his second career perfect game while totaling a 636 series. Marques, who averaged 199 in 208 games last season, tossed his first perfect game on July 15, 2009.
Kevin Williams, a veteran bowler who is no stranger to success on the lanes, was close to perfection that night as well. He fell one pin shy with his 299 effort. Williams, who owns the pro shop at Spring Hill, finished with a 743 series. His last honor score was on Dec. 22, 2009, when he also rolled a 299.
The owner of three 800 series during the past decade, Williams once held the Hernando County record with his 836 series in 1994.
Chris Polizzi, the 2009-10 Professional Bowlers Association South Region Rookie of the Year, rolled a 289 that same evening. He also had a respectable 697 series. Todd Epler, who owns two of the top 20 series in county history, threw a 288 game that night. His series total was 692.
HOSPICE VALENTINE'S GOLF: Timber Pines Country Club in Spring Hill will host the first Couples Charity Valentine's Golf Tournament on Feb. 13 to benefit HPH Hospice of Hernando and Pasco counties.
The entry fee is $50 per golfer, with a limit of 144 couples. The shotgun starts will be at 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., depending on the group to which golfers are assigned. The tournament is only open to Timber Pines club members.
The tournament will include a hole-in-one contest for a 2011 Buick or a new Polaris Breeze golf cart. There also will be closest-to-the-pin contests, with corporate sponsors at the tees. Tournament director Jay Gettig expects this to be the largest golf event that Timber Pines will host during 2011.
There will be a Valentine's Day Gala at 6 o'clock that evening at the Timber Pines Performing Arts Center, where an official from HPH Hospice will receive a check representing the proceeds from the event.
Call Bernard Hilton at (352) 684-5988 or send e-mail to email@example.com.
MEN'S FLAG FOOTBALL LEAGUE: The Hernando County Department of Parks and Recreation is organizing a Men's 4-on-4 Flag Football League that will begin play Jan. 14 at Delta Woods Park in Spring Hill.
Players have to be 18 or older. Teams need a minimum of six players to join the league and must have their own flag belts. Games will be played on Friday nights.
For information, call Harry Johnson at (352) 540-6356.
HEATHER NIGHT GOLF: Toscana Crossing at the Heather, 7406 St. Andrews Blvd., north of Weeki Wachee, is hosting Night Golf under the full moon Jan. 19.
Registration begins at 6 p.m., with a shotgun start at 6:30 p.m. Greens fees for club members are $9 to walk and $13 for a cart. Nonmembers pay $16 to walk and $20 for a cart. The fees include golf, balls and prizes. Fees must be paid at registration.
Participation is limited to 72 golfers with couples, singles or foursomes all eligible to sign up. Spouses are welcome to attend a party after the golf is completed. All golfers must bring their own flashlight. Everyone is asked to bring an appetizer or dessert to share at the party. The bar will also be open.
For information, call (352) 596-2019 or stop by the course.
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS FREE THROW CONTEST: The St. Frances Cabrini Knights of Columbus is sponsoring its annual Basketball Free Throw Championship at 9 a.m. Saturday at Notre Dame Catholic School.
The event is free for all participants. Everyone who enters will receive a certificate of participation. There will be age divisions, with winners advancing to the regional competition in February.
Registration can be completed on the day of the event; all contestants will need the signature of a parent to confirm eligibility.
The competition will be in the school's gymnasium, 1095 Commercial Way, Spring Hill.
For information, call Brother Paul Agovino at (352) 610-3822.
SPRING HILL DIXIE BASEBALL: Spring Hill Dixie Baseball will have sign-ups for the spring season this month at Anderson Snow Park in Spring Hill.
Officials will be available four weeknights (Jan. 11, 13, 17 and 21) from 5:30 to 8 p.m. and two Saturdays (Jan. 15 and 22) from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Registration is $95 per child. The fee includes a 20-game schedule, practices, uniform shirts, hats and trophies awarded at the end of the season. Discounts are available for siblings. Parents need to bring birth certificates and their children so uniforms can be sized.
For information, send e-mail to Spring Hill Dixie director Joe Abbadessa at firstname.lastname@example.com.
TOFTEGAARD MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT: The Nature Coast Tennis Foundation will host the 2011 Simon Toftegaard Memorial Junior Tennis Tournament on Jan. 29 and 30 at Delta Woods Park in Spring Hill.
The singles tournament is open to players up to 18 years old. The entry fee is $30 per player. Participants do not need to be U.S. Tennis Association members. The entry deadline is Jan. 22. The foundation is also looking for tournament sponsors.
For information, call Phil Zee at (352) 263-9546 or visit nctf.usta.com.
TENNIS SOCIAL: The Nature Coast Tennis Foundation will host its monthly Mixed Doubles Round Robin Social on Saturday at Delta Woods Park in Spring Hill.
The event will begin at 7 p.m. The cost is $5 per player. If you need a partner, officials can help find one.
Participants do not need to be U.S. Tennis Association members. For information, call Phil Zee at (352) 263-9546 or visit nctf.usta.com.
BROOKSVILLE BULLDOGS: The Brooksville Bulldogs 12-and-under and 13-and-under baseball teams are holding tryouts for the coming season.
The Bulldogs are a competitive travel baseball club based in Brooksville. The team plays doubleheaders and tournaments in Central Florida. The season begins in February and runs until December.
For information, call Bruce Price at (813) 714-1054 or send e-mail to email@example.com.
UMPIRING CLINICS: The Hernando-Sumter Umpires Association, one of the largest baseball and softball umpiring associations in the state, will have five umpiring clinics in January and February.
The classes are for men and women, ages 16 and older, who want to become baseball or softball umpires. They are for anyone with a basic knowledge of the game, but no prior experience, or for veteran umpires who want to become better.
The first clinic will be Sunday at the Anderson Snow Sports Complex in Spring Hill. Other clinics will be Jan. 16 at Ernie Wever Youth Park in Brooksville and Jan. 23 at Ridge Manor Park in Ridge Manor.
Two more clinics will follow in Pasco and Sumter counties: Jan. 29 at the Kenny Dixon Sports Complex in Bushnell and Feb. 5 at the Wesley Chapel District Park in Pasco County.
Each of the clinics will begin at noon. To register, call Jerry Theilen at (352) 428-0071 or send e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com.
To notify us of community sports achievements or coming events, contact Derek J. LaRiviere at email@example.com or (352) 584-6337.


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A total of 1,106 farmers and irrigators across Nebraska, as of Friday, had been ordered by the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to stop pumping water from rivers and streams until drought conditions improve, according to numbers in a Lincoln Star Journal newspaper article. The total shut-off number comes from irrigation/river basin districts reports.
"Water administration is occurring everywhere across the state to some degree," Natural Resources Director Brian Dunnigan was quoted as saying. "We're mostly closing for irrigation."
The DNR has jurisdiction over all surface water rights in the state, including those held by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, irrigation districts and individual irrigators, it is noted.
There is definitely concern over the way water is allocated for farming, industry and cities plus maintaining appropriate flow of water across state lines. The oldest water rights holders are not drastically limited while the "junior water rights holders," or more recent water rights holders, are shut off. Senior water rights held by the Nebraska Public Power District for a Spencer, Neb., hydroelectric dam resulted in more than 300 junior irrigator rights holders being shut off.
"David Clabaugh, manager of the Lower Big Blue Natural Resources District in Beatrice, said the shut-off notices do not affect irrigators who pump from the ground. The state's 23 NRDs have jurisdiction over groundwater irrigation, and Clabaugh said his district has not sent out any notices," the newspaper article noted. It is common that those with surface water rights do not have groundwater rights.
Many senior rights farming irrigators are limited to between nine and 18 inches per acre during a growing season, which is quite limited water to grow crops in the type of heat that has been hanging around the state.
It is logical to expect more water rights to be turned off if the drought continues.
Water being pumped from the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska has major impact on the water available to those who rely on the aquifer in other states south of Nebraska. Drop of the water level in the Ogallala Aquifer in the Texas Panhandle was an average of 2.56 feet last year, which was the largest decline in 25 years and the third largest decline in the last 61years. This is ominous news for what might show up at the end of this year's summer drought.


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NewswireToday - /newswire/ -
Valencia, Spain, 2011/12/15 - LITEBI, following its philosophy of continuous improvement, has signed an agreement with Visual Trans, leader of Management software for forwarders, consignors, customs officers and global logistic operators.
With this agreement they will develop a vertical Business Intelligence solution for companies of the industry, fully integrated with Visual Trans, which will enable current and future customers of the company to have the latest technology tools on analysis and management. Provided by LITEBI, without any complex installations.
Javier Gimenez, business development manager of LITEBI tells us the following:
"The agreement, result of a well-established relationship between LITEBI and Visual Trans, allows us to reach, via a first level partner, the very interesting industry of the logistic operators, and for Visual Trans to incorporate LITEBI's analytical power to its solutions. All of this, to benefit customers who will be able to take advantage of a full featured software solution that reaches excellence in both operational and decision making support."
The project, that starts now and will be launched at the beginning of 2012, will provide the full power of Business Intelligence and will become an essential tool in the decision making process, enabling managers analyze the company's evolution from different perspectives, and transforming the enormous amounts of data into useful information, to improve the business' management and decision making.
"The search and improvement of our solution is part of the culture of Visual Trans. This agreement with LITEBI, in which we will develop a standard Business Intelligence solution, will mean, without any doubt, a benefit for our customers. Using all the company's information, they will be able to define the objectives and strategies of their companies", said Jose Antonio Vilan, Key Account Manager at Visual Trans.
About LITEBI
LITEBI (litebi.com) is leading the next generation of Business Intelligence with its Cloud Computing platform. It offers advanced analytics, dashboards, data integration, alarms, and scorecards for companies of any size or industry, through a pay-as-you-go model. LITEBI is an easy, powerful and affordable BI solution.
Written by / Agency / Source: LITEBI
Availability: All Regions (Including Int'l)
Traffic Booster: [/] Quick Newswire Today Visibility Checker
Distribution / Indexing: [+]


text:
Santorini Timeshares
Greece, Europe
Browse Santorini timeshare resorts. If you're a vacationer, find Santorini timeshare rentals and resales posted by owners. If you're an owner, find your Santorini timeshare resort.
- r =Timeshare Rentals
- s =Timeshare Resales
- x =N/A
Can't find your timeshare resort? Let us know »


text:
PRZOOM - /newswire/ -
Chestnut Ridge, NY, United States, 2009/10/07 - Millennium Visual Systems - Pascack Hills High School joined forces with Millennium Visual Systems to create a real-time information display positioned at the entrance to Pascack Hills High Schools recently renovated campus.
Pascack Hills High School, one of the top 15 public schools in New Jersey, joined forces with Millennium Visual Systems, one of the top LED sign designers and producers in the United States, to create a real-time information display positioned at the entrance to Pascack Hills High Schools recently renovated campus.
This LED electronic display creates an attention-grabbing, energy efficient and worry-free way to keep current messages front and center for students, parents, teachers and community members. This sign will be used to display time-sensitive information about school events and the schools athletic program. When necessary, it will also be used to display amber alerts and other emergency messages. The weather will no longer inhibit the school from posting up-to-date information, as it did with the old letter display that was replaced. Around the clock, their highly visible and vibrant messages can be spotted from one of the busiest intersections in Montvale, NJ.
Sarah Van Gunten, Pascack Hills High School Principal, expressed her enthusiasm for the newly installed sign saying, We are happy to have such a visible means of communicating with parents, students, and the community at large While, Jeff Schneider, the President of the Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) which donated the display to the school, adds, We have had great feedback from the community and we are so pleased with the results.
Millennium Visual Systems (millenniumvisuals.com), headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, NJ with Business Operations in Chestnut Ridge, NY, designs, produces, sells, and services electronic signs and programmable displays that are widely used in restaurants, convenience stores, retail businesses, schools, hospitals, offices, factories and government facilities. Millennium Visual Systems is a 12 year-young company with expert staff that assists clients in all aspects of a project. From concept development, to installation, to follow-up, Millennium Visual Systems ensures customer satisfaction with ongoing hardware and software support and service.
Agency / Source: Millennium Visual Systems (MVS)
Availability: All Regions (Including Int'l)
Traffic Booster: [/] Quick PRZOOM - Press & Newswire Visibility Checker
Distribution / Indexing: [+]


text:
Call us:
Benton Civic Center
About Us
Slide Title
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Slide title
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The Benton Civic Center
is a multi-purpose facility located in the heart of Southern Illinois. Rend Lake, voted one of the Seven Wonders of Illinois, lies just to the north with Interstate 57 only several hundred yards to the east providing easy access to all of mid-america.
The Center features a unique capability to host a variety of events with seating up to 1,200 for meetings and theatrical events in a flexible seating environment. Dinner and banquet seating can range from 100 to 800 guests seated comfortably at tables throughout the main floor area.
Call us at (618) 435-5700 for more details. Our main office is open daily from 9AM - 1PM.
Call Us
414 W. Hudelson St. in Benton, Illinois 62812
Office Business Hours
Mon - Fri
9:00 am
1:00 pm
Sat - Sun
Appointment Only
Follow us
We make events happen!
We're excited about all the new directions the Center can now take. Of course we're still one of the largest banquet facilities in all of Southern Illinois capable of hosting a sit down dinner for 800+ guests, but now we're also a performance facility or even a combination of both. In fact we're many things and can now serve as host to many different types of events Here's an idea list of possible events.
Meetings/conferences (business, civic, organizational)
Small trade shows
Stage shows
Musical productions
Dance recitals
Over 15,000 sq. ft. of space available at very affordable prices
Yep, we can do all that! If you're interested in hosting your next event here at the all new Benton Civic Center give us a call at 618.435.5700. Who knew we could be so flexible!
It's that time of the year. For vendors interested in our annual Christmas Craft & Gift show here is the information package. Click the image above or
this link to download the PDF file.
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text:
"I think
gold is obviously overbought, and I do expect a correction at some point," Lundin says. "But one thing about gold is that it has repeatedly made prognosticators look foolish." In the short term, Lundin says that large short positions -- or bets that the price of gold would fall -- have been punished since the start of the year, which should guarantee further upside for the price of bullion. As gold prices refuse to drop significantly, the owners of those positions (most likely hedge funds) are increasingly forced to buy gold to cover their bets, creating a self-reinforcing mechanism called a "short squeeze." But before or shortly after $600 is reached, the "smart money" may start anticipating a seasonal pullback in gold prices, which typically occurs between March and May, Lundin says. That's all in the short term, of course. Lundin's conservative estimate for this year is that the $650 will easily be reached. But he doesn't bar the idea that speculative fever may push it to test its historic highs around $850, which were last touched in January 1980. Adjusted for inflation, this would equate to more than $2,000 in current dollar terms. "Should the nominal high of $850 be touched, then the next target would be $2,200," Lundin says. That's also the call of French bank Credit Agricole Cheuvreux, which sees the possibility of a spike to $2,000, without providing a time frame, because of an upcoming short squeeze. In making the call, Cheuvreux analyst Paul Mylchreest revisits a conspiracy theory -- favored by hardcore gold bugs -- that central banks have roughly 10,000-15,000 fewer tons of gold than their officially reported reserves of 31,000 tons. Much of that disappeared gold was loaned secretly over the years to bring down the price of gold in times of crises, Mylchreest says. The banks' counterparties meanwhile have to replace the gold they had borrowed and this is causing a giant short squeeze, the theory goes. Whether the theory is true or not, the $2,000-per-ounce call brings to mind Goldman Sachs' famous call that crude oil might experience a "super-spike" that would take it to $100 per barrel. It wasn't long after the call before crude oil prices experienced a correction.
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text:
Escape Your Bank
May 22, 2013
Facing the challenge of one of the nation's most crowded financial markets, CommunityAmerica Credit Union achieved phenomenal success. Based on a keen market assessment and prognostication of cultural unrest, "ESCAPE Your Bank" was conceived as "A Movement," introduced the conceptual twist of "Free-ing Checking."
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You may already be a member. Find out if your company is already an ANA member.


text:
PLEASE NOTE: Vancleave may be a smaller town so be sure to check all locations and airports. Contact us if you have any questions.
The nearest major airport is Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport (GPT / KGPT). This airport has domestic flights from Gulfport, Mississippi and is 33 miles from the center of Vancleave, MS.
Another major airport is Mobile Regional Airport (MOB / KMOB), which has domestic flights from Mobile, Alabama and is 38 miles from Vancleave, MS.
Search for direct flights from your hometown and find hotels near Vancleave, MS, or scroll down for more international airports or domestic airports. You can also browse local airports if you're a pilot.
115 miles: New Orleans, LA (MSY / KMSY) Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
314 miles: Birmingham, AL (BHM / KBHM) Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport
33 miles: Gulfport, MS (GPT / KGPT) Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport
38 miles: Mobile, AL (MOB / KMOB) Mobile Regional Airport
103 miles: Hattiesburg, MS (PIB / KPIB) Hattiesburg-Laurel Regional Airport
109 miles: Pensacola, FL (PNS / KPNS) Pensacola International Airport
18 miles: Pascagoula, MS (PGL / KPQL / PQL) Trent Lott International Airport
24 miles: Biloxi, MS (BIX / KBIX) Keesler Air Force Base
47 miles: Bay Saint Louis, MS (KHSA / HSA) Stennis International Airport
51 miles: Mobile, AL (BFM / KBFM) Mobile Downtown Airport
Note: Some distances are straight-line estimates, click on the link to calculate actual driving distance.
Travelmath helps you find the closest airport to any city, as well as a list of smaller local airports. You can use these pages to plan your trip and figure out the easiest way to get to your destination. Many times there are multiple airports near the city you want to visit, so you can often find a cheaper flight into a different airport. This is especially useful if you are getting a rental car, since it might be better to drive a bit farther in order to save money on airfare. If you're booking an international flight, you probably want the closest major airport, otherwise if you're a pilot you may be looking for a local airport. Use this tool along with the flight distance pages to plan your travel.


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The federal Liberal party is pondering its future, and with few exceptions, like the New Democrats before them, its leading lights have declared cooperation with other opposition parties utterly unthinkable. That's "loser talk," no-hope Liberal leadership candidate George Takach sniffed in these pages earlier this week. "[Stephen] Harper holds the social views of the 1950s. [Tom] Mulcair's economics failed in 1975," he wrote. Evidently, the Liberals are Canada's only way forward.
So stale is the stalemate that some, like National Post columnist Andrew Coyne, propose dizzyingly radical action: A one-off agreement whereby the New Democrats, Liberals and Greens run a single candidate in each riding, on a single issue, namely, electoral reform. The ensuing coalition government would swiftly consign first-past-the-post to history's dustbin, dissolve itself and hold elections under a new system that would no longer allow a majority government to be elected with 38% of the popular vote.
Mr. Coyne argues that an outright merger "asks too much of the parties and their supporters, presuming a commonality of purpose that isn't there." And he says "a formal coalition would run into many of the same objections. The parties' interests, loyalties and ideologies are too divergent."
Divergent loyalties, certainly. Divergent ideologies, too: Liberals delight in claiming to have none, whereas Mr. Mulcair has enough different ones to manage within his own caucus. But divergent interests? It seems to me they have one very important interest in common: gaining power. As such, I think Mr. Coyne is far too quick to dismiss the idea of a formal coalition, presumably with the Liberals as junior partner, as unworkable.
The top-line items in the Liberals' 2011 platform were as follows: $1-billion each for home care and post-secondary students; a $400-million green renovation tax credit; expand the Canada Pension Plan; quick deficit reduction; roll back corporate tax cuts; a tax incentive to hire young people; more renewable energy, action on climate change and a "cleaner oil sands"; a national "affordable housing framework"; universal broadband for rural communities, and student debt forgiveness for rural medical professionals; a tax credit for volunteer firefighters; stable funding for the CBC and more for the Canada Council for the Arts; open government, restoring the mandatory long-form census and limits on prorogation; three cheers for official bilingualism; a more dynamic relationship with India and China; leadership in the Arctic; re-embracing Africa; and committing the military primarily to "peace operations."
Almost every single one of these items, right down to the volunteer firefighters' tax credit, also appeared in the New Democrats' platform in a form similar enough to make the idea of total incompatibility — at least from a Liberal standpoint — laughably absurd.
But never mind all that. The best evidence that a Liberal-New Democrat coalition is possible is that they just formed one four years ago. What has changed since then? Well, the Conservatives are stronger than ever. The Liberals are gasping for relevance. And the New Democrats replaced a lifelong New Democrat in Jack Layton with a recent Quebec Liberal. Mr. Mulcair did say he would never cooperate with the Liberals, but Stéphane Dion said the same thing. There's no rule against changing your mind in politics as long as you don't do it (as Mr. Dion did) 25 minutes after an election.
This week at least one Liberal commentator pointed to Mr. Mulcair's willingness to tinker with the Clarity Act as further proof of the inherent madness of cooperation. Can you imagine? People who think the threshold to trigger secession negotiations should be 50%-plus-one, sitting at the same Cabinet table as people who think it should be some unspecified, but somewhat larger, figure? It's madness, surely!
Readers may also recall that the 2008 coalition agreement was consummated with three signatures, not two: That of Mr. Dion, the arch-federalist and father of the Clarity Act; that of Mr. Layton; and that of Gilles Duceppe, whose views on federalism diverged from the other two's rather more violently than Mr. Mulcair's will diverge from the next Liberal leader's.
It's not that a coalition is likely — though it's far more likely than the plan Mr. Coyne proposes — or desirable. But why make this so complicated? We know from recent experience that when power is either offered or threatened, any party in the House of Commons will cooperate with just about any other. If any of their leaders denies that, he's a liar or a fool. This is the way parliamentary democracies are supposed to work. I'm sticking with my own crazy plan: The Liberals, New Democrats try to win their own majorities, do not rule out cooperation should this not occur, and forge off bravely into the future.
National Post


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"We're missing buttons, Jim!" That was my first thought when looking at this otherwise stylish mobile phone. The phone itself looks just about killer, but will the lack of buttons (physical ones anyway) take some getting used to?
Siemens Communications presents the Siemens SL75, a new slider mobile in the luxury class. Its round case makes this prime example of high-quality workmanship an intriguing eye-catcher. Fitting exceedingly snugly into the hand, this mobile telephone can be operated comfortably in every situation because of its particularly smooth slider mechanism. Besides this, the exquisite design masterpiece boasts every feature that is necessary for modern multimedia communication: a 1.3 megapixel camera with integrated LED photolight and video function, a vibrant color display, MMS, an email c lient as well as a media player for MP3 and other music formats. The Siemens SL75 can be supplemented by the Headset Bluetooth ® HHB- 700, which harmonizes perfectly with it in both design and functions, as well as by a comprehensive range of Siemens Original Accessories.
Modern mobile communications technology packaged in a unique design: With beautiful, timeless elegance, classy appearance and practical functions, the Siemens SL75 stands out from its peers among the top-of-the-range mobile phones. Measuring 92 x 48 x 23 mm, the high-quality case's round shape makes this unusual design masterpiece a luxurious accessory to flatter every hand. Interesting gloss effects and metal elements accentuate striking visual aspects. Particular ease of operation is ensured by the ProSLIDE®, an extremely smooth slider mechanism. A light touch of the thumb is all it takes to make the large TFT display (262,144 colors, 1.8 inch, 132 x 176 pixel) glide upwards to reveal the keyboard underneath. This allows the Siemens SL75 to also be used comfortably with one hand at any time. The 3D graphic is just as beautiful and rich in contrasts as it is user-friendly, while the clearly laid-out menu icons are self-explanatory and the vibrant transflective screen is even easily readable in bright sunlight. [Read the rest]


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While you're shopping this coming month, you're probably (and hopefully) not thinking about AIDS.
But the folks over at the Immunity Project (IP) are — and they want to take advantage of your friends, family, loved ones, and other targets of your holiday spending. According to a release the group "aims to adopt the unique targeting capability inherent in HIV controllers to give everyone that same immunity to HIV."
You're probably wondering what are HIV controllers? But the better question to ask "is who they are:"
HIV controllers are miraculous: are people who have a natural immunity to HIV. Although controllers carry low levels of HIV, the virus is in a dormant state and they do not contract AIDS.
IP plans on taking whatever it is that makes controllers controllers and giving it "to the world for free."
But first come baby steps. IP teamed up with Gyft, a popular gift card app consolidator that stores all of your gift card info (and sells you gift cards). Gyft launched a points program that allows users to earn up to 3 percent back for all gift card purchases while supporting a great cause of their choice (one of those choices is IP, of course). One hundred percent of these donations to IP in December will go toward their work.
"We are thrilled to harness the power of our 21st-century approach to buying and managing gift cards to support a similarly revolutionary approach to ending AIDS," said CJ MacDonald, co-founder and chief operating officer of Gyft. "In the spirit of World AIDS Day and the holiday season, our message to customers is simple – if you are a planning on buying gift cards in December, you have no excuse not to do it through Gyft and support an effort that could solve one of society's most vexing problems – ending AIDS."
SFGN got in touch with Dr. Reid Rubsamen, founder and chief executive officer of Immunity Project, to get the nitty gritty about IP and what it can do for the world.
How long until IP is able to emulate the physiological processes of a controller into a vaccine?
If the vaccine works it will do precisely that when it is first tested (in Phase I testing) next year. We won't be able to show evidence that we have actually "created" a controller until we do Phase II testing in 2015.
How is IP going to supply vaccines for free? Won't there be a cost involved?
This is the first vaccine designed from the start to be available for free on the back end. Each phase of development will be funded to allow this to happen. You are seeing the first phase of funding strategy happening now. As the project moves along we will be adding in other funding sources including large corporations, NGOs and government funding - all of whom have a steak in the fight against HIV. The other aspect of a "free" vaccine is to make the cost distribution and administration of the dose as low cost as possible. For this reason we are pursuing a nasal dosage form allowing a single squeeze from a nasal spray bottle stored at room temperature with no doctor or nurse intervention required for dosing.
Can would-be parents do anything to promote "control" in potential offspring?
This a great question and we don't know the answer (a tough one because there is currently no vaccine administered for fetal protection during pregnancy)!
IP's goal is $1 million.
For more information, go to immunityproject.orgSasha Razumikhin


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Fort Drum soldier accused of killing woman in Delaware
Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:21:20 GMT —
Police have charged a Fort Drum soldier on leave for the holidays in the abduction and murder of a 65-year-old Delaware woman who disappeared after taking her dog for a walk.
According to NBC News, 24-year-old Army Staff Sergeant Dwight L. Smith, Jr. of Wilmington, Delaware is accused of murdering Marsha Lee. Police say she was out walking her dog Monday morning in her Wilmington neighborhood when she disappeared. After the dog returned home without her, her husband found some of her clothes in a nearby street. Just before that, two people called police, reporting seeing a man stuff something into a red Hummer and speed off from the same location.
Police say Smith, a Purple Heart recipient, hit Lee with his SUV and then dumped her naked body in a parking lot near railroad tracks along Interstate 95.
My heart is breaking for her husband and two daughters. I know the whole neighborhood will be heartbroken said Lee TMs neighbor Judy Goldsmith.
Police pulled Smith over in his red Hummer Monday night. Court papers say Smith told police he wanted to kill someone, and that Lee was alive when he put her in his Hummer. Records say Smith told Lee he'd take her to the hospital, but instead smashed her head in then dumped her body.
Smith's father says that's not what he told him.
"He does not remember doing this, he just doesn't remember doing it" said Dwight Smith, Sr.
Smith's family says his brain was injured in a bomb blast in April, in his second tour in Afghanistan.
"I lost my son, he flatlined twice in that helicopter. God seen forth to bring him back to me said Smith Sr. And then this happened. Am I hurt for that family, yes, I grieve for that family, I TMm praying for that family."
Smith Jr. has been charged with kidnapping and first degree murder.
(Information from NBC News was used in this report)


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The mission of the CIC Forums is to focus on "tailoring the LexisNexis Practice Management applications to individual needs and developing specialized solutions." You can find this in the General Information and Protocols (GIP), which has been reprinted below for your convenience.
The CIC Solutions Forums *ARE NOT* the official support forums for LNPM products. See the FAQ below for ways to officially contact LexisNexis for Practice Management application support.
These forums were created and are run by the LNPM Certified Independent Consultants (CICs).
LexisNexis provides the infrastructure to host the forums, but does not participate in the management or moderation of the forums.
The forums are fully run and maintained by VOLUNTEER CICs who freely give their time and effort to create a positive, constructive environment in which Time Matters, Billing Matters, World Server, PCLaw and HotDocs solutions can be discussed and made available as a searchable archive.
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If one of your posts is rejected, please do not take it personally. We are simply doing our best to carry out our mission. Simply make the suggested changes and re-post.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONSQ: If this isn't an official LexisNexis Support Forum, how do I communicate with the LexisNexis about their Practice Management applications?A: Depending on your need:
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TOP 10 LISTAs CICs who moderate this forum, our role is to help you excel in your use of the LNPM applications and thereby maximize the benefits for your practice. We VOLUNTEER to moderate this positive, problem solving forum because we recognize the value of the goodwill that we may create, as we apply our extensive Time Matters, Billing Matters, World Server, PCLaw and HotDocs experience, when we help solve a problem in your office. It is important that you understand where CICs on these forums (and the other forum members) can help and where to go for assistance when we can not properly assist you through this forum.The following Top Ten List may be used as a guide as you post to the forum.The CIC Solutions Forum CAN HELP you if your post:
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Thomas L. Rowe, Esq. (Tom)CIC/Forum Administrator For Time Matters information, Utilities and Practice Area Templates, visit us at: OTB Consulting
2009, 2010, 2012 LexisNexis Platinum Achievement Circle


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The Santa Clara County Superior Court issued a Writ of Mandate Thursday (May 31) to the Los Altos School District concerning the 2009-2010 case over facilities provided to Bullis Charter School. The document was a formalization of the court's earlier rulings from March. The mandate includes eight action items the district is required to "immediately" meet.
The Writ of Mandate can be read in its entirety here.
"The Court has provided Los Altos School District additional clarity as to their Prop 39 obligations," said Ken Moore, Bullis Charter School board chairman. "You can be assured that the BCS Board is working tirelessly to ensure students have appropriate facilities for next year and beyond."
There is no word yet on how this affects the proposed agreement officials from Bullis Charter School and the Los Altos School District recently made on a long-term facilities deal. Officials on both sides said they will make a decision regarding the agreement at their respective board meetings June 4.
"The district continues to negotiate with BCS regarding a voluntary mutually beneficial agreement that is independent of Proposition 39 obligations with hopes we can, at long last, reach some peace in our community," said Mark Goines, district board president.
If the parties choose not to accept the terms of the agreement, the original facilities offer would take effect, splitting Bullis Charter School between LASD's Egan Junior High School and Blach Intermediate School campuses.
Goines said the district has been working to offer the charter school several facilities offers other than the original facilties offer, but the options have been rejected.
"Every alternative we have presented has been met with yet more requirements that are difficult for the Los Altos School District to accept in that they compromise our program significantly and restrict community access to the facilities," Goines said.
Check back here for updates and pick up the June 6 edition of the Town Crier to read more about this latest action.


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Food Fight! Strawberries vs. Blueberries20 Oct 2010
As a health-savvy runner, you try to toss nutrient-packed foods into your shopping basket. But when you're deciding between similar-seeming nutritious items, you may not know the superior choice.
So we're here to give you the facts… if you can bare to pick between the two!
Strawberries vs. Blueberries
Both are health all-stars, but a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reported that blueberries showed the most antioxidant activity of all the fruits tested.
These antioxidants help keep your immune system strong, and reduce muscle damage from running and strength training.
Mix blueberries into lean beef mince for burgers. The lack of fat in the meat tends to make the patties dry. Adding these juicy little fruit will help keep the meat moist.
Back to Food Fight!


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Occasionally, I go through periods where all interpersonal interaction feels like hard work.
I don't mean anyone is vicious or mean; there are–usually–no great dramas or power struggles. It mostly feels like an accumulation of moments where a comment isn't 'landing', the subject changes abruptly and somehow I'm swept into a few hours of internal rumination at the expense of whatever new moment is occurring right now.
A few days ago I picked up a book that I've been slowly digesting over the past couple of years titled, Insight Dialogue: The Interpersonal Path to Freedom by Gregory Kramer. He is a long-time Buddhist practitioner whose own path has been to work with the relational realms of mindfulness.
Much of the meditative and contemplative practices through the ages have been solitary. This may be key to cultivating a balanced and clear awareness, but as Kramer writes: "We meditate alone, but live our lives with other people; a gap is inevitable…..Meditating alone reinforces an unreflected assumption: that the deep work of awakening is a private affair."
It is quite easy to feel deep peace and joy alone in the middle of a forest, but another thing altogether to be in that same elevated state among your co-workers. It is quite normal, if not a bit humbling, to be in a transcendent and blissful state on the meditation cushion, only to contract into an armoured state of tension the nanosecond one enters into the realm of the relational.
This book acknowledges, normalizes and describes not only the rich texture of interpersonal suffering, but applies the meditative practices normally practiced alone, to the context of dialogue and group interaction. Called Insight Dialogue, this contemporary practice integrates both the the inner and the outer realms of the human experience.
He writes,"Our relationships are full of such small discomforts: we don't feel like talking to the cashier; we put off returning that phone call. I recall a time when my teenage son closed me right out of his moment with a dismissive grunt. No great drama: but right then, I was sucked away from the world around me into a little cage of dissatisfaction."
This touched a resonant chord with me. At the time I'd been feeling confused about a conversation I'd had with someone earlier in the day who suddenly zoned out while I was sharing something important, which reactivated a story I have that I don't get enough support and appreciation.
Often as meditators, we suffer because of the story, and then we suffer because we think we shouldn't suffer. We tell ourselves that we are too sensitive, that we should grow up. We tell ourselves that other people don't make such a big deal out of little things. We pierce ourselves with the second arrow of suffering.
For me to read that we don't need big dramas to be 'sucked away from the world around [us] into a little cage of satisfaction' felt like he was speaking right to me. In other words, if an established practitioner and writer of a book on interpersonal suffering can have these experiences, I have a choice about that second arrow.
Instead, I can nurse the wound of the first arrow, and appreciate how the mirror reflects anew the parts of myself that need some loving and integrating. Relating to others gives us this opportunity to do this over and over again. In these complex times, meditating in a cave may no longer be the path to liberation. As Kramer suggests, it might instead "blossom from this fleshy, fecund human experience."
Like elephant journal on Facebook.
Assistant Editor: Brian Bruce Casteel Logan/Ed: Bryonie Wise


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January 21 2011
Weekley tumbles out of lead
Through the first rounds, Boo Weekley made just two bogeys. Here in the third round, he's already equaled that mark in just his first nine holes on Siler Rock. As a result, Weekley, the overnight co-leader, has fallen into a tie for eighth after making the turn in 37.
The problem for Weekley? Putting. After rolling it extremely well through his first two rounds, when he averaged just over 1.5 putts per green in regulation, he's averaging two putts through the first nine holes today.
Weekley is also the only player in the top 25 currently over par on the round.
Meanwhile, Kris Blanks and Dean Wilson are moving in the opposite direction -- they're both 5 under in the third round (12 under for the week) and have climbed 22 spots on the leaderboard as a result.


text: william ratcliff wrote: > I work under windows xp and recently was using tortoise svn to try to > check out scipy with the hopes of building it from source. I was > prompted for a user name and password. Is this supposed to happen? No. This may happen because you are behind a proxy (you should tell that to tortoiseSVN, I guess). > Also, do I need to do anything special to get files from the sandbox? No, they are in the same repository. The only difference is that the packages in the sandbox are not built by default. David


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Boston marathon cancelled, Newton shelters stranded runners
Runners were rerouted in Newton on Monday afternoon as the Boston Marathon was shut down in the wake of the deadly explosion at the finish line.
Shelters were set up at Boston College and Newton City Hall to help runners reconnect with their friends and families.
In the hours after the explosion, there were reports of suspicious packages in Newton. The state police bomb squad responded and all three sites checked out OK.
Newton resident Fabio Schiantarelli also shared his close call with the TAB. The Mill Street resident was running in the marathon and was at Kenmore Square when he heard a rumble "like a truck going over a bridge."
UPDATE: The shelters opened by the City were closed early this evening. Many people responded to our request to house stranded runners, but it sounds as if the need has been met.
Debbie Theobald permalinkApril 15, 2013, 6:58 PM
Shelter open at LDS church at 65 Binney Street, Cambridge.
Food, facilities, showers, private sleeping accommodations, and entertainment.
If you need a ride, please call: 617-959-3894
Ellen permalinkApril 15, 2013, 7:21 PM
I can house runners. Can pick up at Riverside station or anywhere.
Carol Gould permalinkApril 15, 2013, 7:22 PM
I live in Jamaica Plain. I can help a runner at my condo. 617-959-7980.
Let me know.
Jerry Reilly permalinkApril 15, 2013, 8:04 PM
We could house runners and pick them up 617-999-5300
Rebecca permalinkApril 15, 2013, 8:29 PM
We can house several runnersor give rides. 6513389221
gene thompson-grove permalinkApril 15, 2013, 8:50 PM
we are in coolidge corner – can pick up anywhere – 508-566-6664
Comments are closed.


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HOUSTON, April 8, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lucas Energy, Inc. (NYSE MKT:LEI) ("Lucas Energy" or the "Company"), an independent oil and gas company with main operations in Texas, today announced the appointment of William J. Dale as Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Secretary of the Company. Mr. Dale replaces Anthony C. Schnur in those posts, which Mr. Schnur has held on an interim basis since being named CEO of Lucas Energy in December 2012. Mr. Dale brings over 17 years of oil and gas industry financial experience across corporate finance, treasury, strategic planning, and financial reporting, planning and analysis functions both at large global corporations as well as small, entrepreneurial oil and gas companies. Most recently he served as a financial consultant for several private equity and independent E&P companies, having previously served as Director of Finance, Planning & Analysis for Global Industries Ltd., a $575 Million in revenue, Nasdaq-traded oil & gas service company. Prior posts include CFO and Controller at KD Resources, a private E&P company and CFO, Treasurer and Secretary at Blue Dolphin Energy, a Nasdaq Midstream and E&P company. He also has prior experience working at Rosetta Resources, Huber Energy, El Paso Corporation, Columbia Energy and Tejas Gas (acquired by Shell Oil). Mr. Dale earned dual Bachelor degrees in accounting and finance and has an MBA from the University of Houston. He is also a Texas Certified Public Accountant. Lucas Energy's CEO, Anthony Schnur, commented: "William has been here for the last three months assisting in the reshaping of the Company. He brings the ideal financial and industry skill sets to support both our immediate goals and the longer term creation of value for our shareholders. Further, his experience at large, well-structured organizations as well as smaller, more nimble independent companies, combined with solid public company and capital markets experience, made him ideally suited for the CFO role we envision to drive Lucas' growth."
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The defendant was an immense man, well over 300 pounds, but in the gravity of his sorrow and shame he seemed larger still. He hunched forward in the sturdy wooden armchair that barely contained him, sobbing softly into tissue after tissue, a leg bouncing nervously under the table. In the first pew of spectators sat his wife, looking stricken, absently twisting her wedding band. The room was a sepulcher. Witnesses spoke softly of events so painful that many lost their composure. When a hospital emergency room nurse described how the defendant had behaved after the police first brought him in, she wept. He was virtually catatonic, she remembered, his eyes shut tight, rocking back and forth, locked away in some unfathomable private torment. He would not speak at all for the longest time, not until the nurse sank down beside him and held his hand. It was only then that the patient began to open up, and what he said was that he didn't want any sedation, that he didn't deserve a respite from pain, that he wanted to feel it all, and then to die.
The charge in the courtroom was manslaughter, brought by the Commonwealth of Virginia. No significant facts were in dispute. Miles Harrison, 49, was an amiable person, a diligent businessman and a doting, conscientious father until the day last summer — beset by problems at work, making call after call on his cell phone — he forgot to drop his son, Chase, at day care. The toddler slowly sweltered to death, strapped into a car seat for nearly nine hours in an office parking lot in the blistering heat of July.
It was an inexplicable, inexcusable mistake, but was it a crime? That was the question for a judge to decide.
The trial would last three days. Sitting through it, side by side in the rear of the courtroom, were two women who had traveled hours to get there. Unlike almost everyone else on the spectator benches, they were not relatives or co-workers or close friends of the accused.
As the most excruciating of the evidence came out, from the medical examiner, the women in the back drew closer together, leaning in to each other.
" . . . a green discoloration of the abdomen . . . autolysis of the organs . . . what we call skin slippage . . . the core body temperature reaches 108 degrees when death ensues."
When the trial ended, Lyn Balfour and Mary Parks left quietly, drawing no attention to themselves. They hadn't wanted to be there, but they had felt a duty, both to the defendant and, in a much more complicated way, to themselves.
It was unusual, to say the least: three people together in one place, sharing the same heartbreaking history. All three had accidentally killed their babies in the identical, incomprehensible, modern way.
"Death by hyperthermia" is the official designation. When it happens to young children, the facts are often the same: An otherwise loving and attentive parent one day gets busy, or distracted, or upset, or confused by a change in his or her daily routine, and just . . . forgets a child is in the car. It happens that way somewhere in the United States 15 to 25 times a year, parceled out through the spring, summer and early fall. The season is almost upon us.
Two decades ago, this was relatively rare. But in the early 1990s, car-safety experts declared that passenger-side front airbags could kill children, and they recommended that child seats be moved to the back of the car; then, that the baby seats be pivoted to face the rear. If few foresaw the tragic consequence of the lessened visibility of the child . . . well, who can blame them? What kind of person forgets a baby?
The wealthy do, it turns out. And the poor, and the middle class. Parents of all ages and ethnicities do it. Mothers are just as likely to do it as fathers. It happens to the chronically absent-minded and to the fanatically organized, to the college-educated and to the marginally literate. In the past 10 years, it has happened to a dentist. A postal clerk. A social worker. A police officer. An accountant. A soldier. A paralegal. An electrician. A Protestant clergyman. A rabbinical student. A nurse. A construction worker. An assistant principal. It happened to a mental health counselor, a college professor and a pizza chef. It happened to a pediatrician. It happened to a rocket scientist.
Last year it happened three times in one day, the worst day so far in the worst year so far in a phenomenon that gives no sign of abating.
The facts in each case differ, but always there is the terrible moment when the parent realizes what he or she has done. This is followed by a frantic sprint to the car. What awaits there is the worst thing in the world.
Each instance has its own macabre signature. One man, wanting to end things quickly, tried to wrestle a gun from a police officer at the scene. Several people — including Mary Parks of Blacksburg, Va. — have driven from their workplace to the day care center to pick up the child they thought they had dropped off, never noticing the corpse in the backseat.
Then there is the Chattanooga, Tenn., business executive who must live with this: His motion-detector car alarm went off, three separate times, out there in the broiling sun. But when he looked out, he couldn't see anyone tampering with the car. So he remotely deactivated the alarm and went calmly back to work.
• • •
There may be no act of human failing that more fundamentally challenges our society's views about crime, punishment, justice and mercy. According to statistics compiled by a national children's safety advocacy group, in about 40 percent of cases authorities examine the evidence, determine that the child's death was a terrible accident — a mistake of memory that delivers a lifelong sentence of guilt far greater than any a judge or jury could mete out — and file no charges. In the other 60 percent of the cases, parsing essentially identical facts and applying them to essentially identical laws, authorities decide that the negligence was so great and the injury so grievous that it must be called a felony, and it must be aggressively pursued.
As it happens, just five days before Miles Harrison forgot his toddler son in the parking lot of the Herndon, Va., corporate-relocation business where he worked, a similar event had occurred a few hundred miles southeast. After a long shift at work, a Portsmouth, Va., sanitation department electrician named Andrew Culpepper picked up his toddler son from his parents, drove home, went into the house and fell asleep, forgetting he'd had the boy in the car, leaving him to bake to death outside his home.
Harrison was charged with a crime. Culpepper was not. In each case, the decision fell to one person.
With Harrison, it was Ray Morrogh, the Fairfax commonwealth's attorney. In an interview a few days after he brought the charge of involuntary manslaughter, Morrogh explained.
"There is a lot to be said for reaffirming people's obligations to protect their children," he said. "When you have children, you have responsibilities. I am very strong in the defense of children's safety."
Morrogh has two kids himself, ages 12 and 14. He was asked if he could imagine this ever having happened to him. The question seemed to take him aback. He went on to another subject, and then, 10 minutes later, made up his mind:
"I have to say no, it couldn't have happened to me. I am a watchful father."
In Portsmouth, the decision not to charge Culpepper, 40, was made by Commonwealth's Attorney Earle Mobley. As tragic as the child's death was, Mobley says, a police investigation showed that there was no crime because there was no intent; Culpepper wasn't callously gambling with the child's life — he had forgotten the child was there.
"The easy thing in a case like this is to dump it on a jury, but that is not the right thing to do," Mobley says. A prosecutor's responsibility, he says, is to achieve justice, not to settle some sort of score.
"I'm not pretty sure I made the right decision," he says. "I'm positive I made the right decision."
So, after his son's death, Andrew Culpepper was sent home to try to live the remainder of his life with what he had done. After his son's death, Miles Harrison was charged with a felony. His mug shot was in the newspapers and on TV, with the haunted, hunted, naked-eyed look these parents always have, up against the wall. He hired an expensive lawyer. Over months, both sides developed their cases. Witnesses were assembled and interviewed. Efforts at a plea bargain failed. The trial began.
The court heard how Harrison and his wife had been a late-40s childless couple desperately wanting to become parents, and how they had made three visits to Moscow, setting out each time on a grueling 10-hour railroad trip to the Russian hinterlands to find and adopt their 18-month-old son from an orphanage bed he had seldom been allowed to leave. Harrison's next-door neighbor testified how she had watched the new father giddily frolic on the lawn with his son. Harrison's sister testified how she had worked with her brother and sister-in-law for weeks to find the ideal day care situation for the boy, who would need special attention to recover from the effects of his painfully austere beginnings.
From the witness stand, Harrison's mother declared that Miles had been a fine son and a perfect, loving father. Distraught but composed, Harrison's wife, Carol, described the phone call that her husband had made to her right after he discovered what he had done, the phone call she fielded on a bus coming home from work. It was, she said, unintelligible screaming.
In the end, Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge R. Terence Ney found Miles Harrison not guilty. There was no crime, he said, citing the identical legal reasons Earle Mobley had cited for not charging Andrew Culpepper in the first place.
At the verdict, Harrison gasped, sobbed, then tried to stand, but the man had nothing left. His legs buckled, and he crashed pathetically to his knees.
• • •
So, if it's not manslaughter, what is it? An accident?
David Diamond is picking at his breakfast at a Washington hotel, trying to explain.
"Memory is a machine," he says, "and it is not flawless. Our conscious mind prioritizes things by importance, but on a cellular level, our memory does not. If you're capable of forgetting your cell phone, you are potentially capable of forgetting your child."
Diamond is a professor of molecular physiology at the University of South Florida and a consultant to James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa. He is in Washington for a national science conference to give a speech about his research, which involves the intersection of emotion, stress and memory. What he has found is that under some circumstances, the most sophisticated part of our thought-processing center can be held hostage to a competing memory system, a primitive portion of the brain that is — by a design as old as the dinosaur's — inattentive, nonanalytical, stupid.
Diamond is the memory expert with a lousy memory, the one who recently realized, while driving to the mall, that his infant granddaughter was asleep in the back of the car. He remembered only because his wife, sitting beside him, mentioned the baby. He understands what could have happened had he been alone with the child. Almost worse, he understands exactly why.
The human brain, he says, is a magnificent but jury-rigged device in which newer and more sophisticated structures sit atop a junk heap of prototype brains still used by lower species. At the top of the device are the smartest and most nimble parts: the prefrontal cortex, which thinks and analyzes, and the hippocampus, which makes and holds on to our immediate memories. At the bottom is the basal ganglia, nearly identical to the brains of lizards, controlling voluntary but barely conscious actions.
Diamond says that in situations involving familiar, routine motor skills, the human animal presses the basal ganglia into service as a sort of auxiliary autopilot. When our prefrontal cortex and hippocampus are planning our day on the way to work, the ignorant but efficient basal ganglia is operating the car; that's why you'll sometimes find yourself having driven from point A to point B without a clear recollection of the route you took, the turns you made or the scenery you saw.
Ordinarily, says Diamond, this delegation of duty "works beautifully, like a symphony. But sometimes, it turns into the 1812 Overture. The cannons take over and overwhelm."
By experimentally exposing rats to the presence of cats, and then recording electrochemical changes in the rodents' brains, Diamond has found that stress — either sudden or chronic — can weaken the brain's higher-functioning centers, making them susceptible to bullying from the basal ganglia. He has seen the same sort of thing play out in cases involving infant deaths in cars.
"The quality of prior parental care seems to be irrelevant," he said. "The important factors that keep showing up involve a combination of stress, emotion, lack of sleep and change in routine, where the basal ganglia is trying to do what it's supposed to do, and the conscious mind is too weakened to resist. What happens is that the memory circuits in a vulnerable hippocampus literally get overwritten, like with a computer program. Unless the memory circuit is rebooted — such as if the child cries, or, you know, if the wife mentions the child in the back — it can entirely disappear."
Diamond stops.
"There is a case in Virginia where this is exactly what happened, the whole set of stress factors. I was consulted on it a couple of years ago. It was a woman named, ah . . ."
He puts down his fork, searches the ceiling, the wall, the floor, then shakes his head. He has been stressing over his conference speech, he says, and his memory retrieval is shot. He can't summon the name.
Lyn Balfour?
"Yeah, Lyn Balfour! The perfect storm."
• • •
It's mid October. Lyn Balfour is on her cell phone, ordering a replacement strap for a bouncy seat for the new baby and simultaneously trying to arrange for an emergency sitter, because she has to get to the fertility clinic, pronto, because she just got lab results back, and she's ovulating, and her husband's in Iraq, and she wants to get artificially inseminated with his sperm, like right now, but the sitter is busy, so she grabs the kid and the keys and the diaper bag and is out the door and in the car and gone. But now the baby is fussing, so she's reaching back to give him a bottle of juice, one eye on him and the other on a seemingly endless series of hairpin turns that she negotiates adroitly.
"Actually," she laughs, "I'm getting better about not doing too much at once. I've been simplifying my life a lot."
Raelyn Balfour is what is commonly called a type-A personality. She is the first to admit that her temperament contributed to the death of her son, Bryce, two years ago. It happened on March 30, 2007, the day she accidentally left the 9-month-old in the parking lot of the Charlottesville judge advocate general's office, where she worked as a transportation administrator. The high temperature that day was only in the 60s, but the biometrics and thermodynamics of babies and cars combine mercilessly: Young children have lousy thermostats, and heat builds quickly in a closed vehicle in the sun. The temperature in Balfour's car that day topped 110 degrees.
There's a dismayingly cartoonish expression for what happened to Lyn Balfour on March 30, 2007. British psychologist James Reason coined the term the "Swiss Cheese Model" to explain through analogy why catastrophic failures can occur despite multiple layers of defense. Reason likens the layers to slices of Swiss cheese, piled upon each other, five or six deep. The holes represent small, potentially insignificant weaknesses. Things will totally collapse only rarely, he says, but when they do, it is by coincidence — when all the holes happen to align so that there is a breach through the entire system.
On the day Balfour forgot Bryce in the car, she had been up much of the night, first baby- sitting for a friend who had to take her dog to an emergency vet clinic, then caring for Bryce, who was cranky with a cold. Because the baby was also tired, he uncharacteristically dozed in the car, so he made no noise. Because Balfour was planning to bring Bryce's usual car seat to the fire station to be professionally installed, Bryce was positioned in a different car seat that day, not behind the passenger but behind the driver, and was thus not visible in the rear-view mirror. Because the family's second car was on loan to a relative, Balfour drove her husband to work that day, meaning the diaper bag was in the back, not on the passenger seat, as usual, where she could see it. Because of a phone conversation with a young relative in trouble, and another with her boss about a crisis at work, Balfour spent most of the trip on her cell, stressed, solving other people's problems. Because the babysitter had a new phone, it didn't yet contain Balfour's office phone number, only her cell number, meaning that when the sitter phoned to wonder why Balfour hadn't dropped Bryce off that morning, it rang unheard in Balfour's pocketbook.
The holes, all of them, aligned.
There is no consistent character profile of the parent who does this to his or her child. The 13 who were interviewed for this story include the introverted and extroverted; the sweet, the sullen, the stoic and the terribly fragile. None of those descriptions exactly fits Lyn Balfour, a 37-year-old Army reservist who has served in combat zones and who seems to remain — at least on the subject of the death of her son — in battle.
"I don't feel I need to forgive myself," she says plainly, "because what I did was not intentional."
Balfour is tall and stands taller, moving with a purposeful, swinging stride. She's funny and brassy and in your face, the sort of person you either like or don't like, right away.
Balfour joined the Army at 18 and served in Bosnia and twice in Iraq, where she specialized in intelligence analysis and construction management, and where she discovered a skill for juggling a dozen things at once.
She got married, had a son, divorced, met Jarrett Balfour and within a month decided this handsome, younger man would be her husband. Eighteen months later, he was. Bryce was their first child together. Braiden, conceived with Jarrett's sperm when he was in Iraq, is their second. Today, in the same way, they're trying for a third.
It had been Balfour's idea to go to the trial of Miles Harrison, and it was she who walked up to Harrison in the hallway during a break, pushed past a crowd and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him close. For almost a full minute, she whispered in his ear. His eyes grew wider, and then he sobbed into her shoulder like a baby. What she had told him was who she was and that she knows he had been a good, loving father, and he must not be ashamed.
• • •
Cases like Lyn Balfour's, when prosecuted, typically end in some sort of compromise: a plea to a reduced charge, sometimes with probation and a suspended sentence, sometimes with community service. Going all the way to trial is a relative rarity.
What happened to Balfour was even rarer. She was charged not with manslaughter, but with second-degree murder, carrying a possible prison sentence of up to 40 years. And as a condition of remaining free on bond, the court prohibited her from being alone with any minors, including her own teenage son.
So Balfour hired John Zwerling, a top-gun criminal defense lawyer. That meant that Jarrett Balfour, an employee of a civilian military contractor, had no choice but to take an assignment in Iraq. The extra combat pay would be needed for legal expenses. Lyn Balfour would have to face this alone.
That is when she began to move past grief and guilt and paralyzing self-doubt to a very specific, very focused anger.
• • •
Lawyer Zwerling's first task, he says, was to make the case that second-degree murder was a preposterous charge in a case lacking even the faintest whisper of intent. That, he did. After a preliminary hearing, the charge was reduced to involuntary manslaughter. Zwerling's second and more daunting job was to craft a defense for a case that was being prosecuted with what at times seemed like theatrical zeal.
Here is how Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Elizabeth Killeen would sum it up before the jury: "This little boy's life did not have to end this way, on a hospital gurney. Deceased. Dead. His life squandered, and gone forever."
In the end, Zwerling had one key decision to make. In criminal cases, jurors want to hear from the defendant. Zwerling liked and respected Balfour, but should he put her on the stand?
"Have you met her?" he asks.
"Then you've seen that mental girdle she puts on, the protective armor against the world. It helps her survive, but it can seem off-putting if you're someone who wants to see how crushed she is." Zwerling decided not to risk it.
"I wound up putting her on the stand in a different way," he says, "so people could see the real Lyn — vulnerable, with no guile, no posturing."
What Zwerling did was play two audiotapes for the jury. One was Balfour's interrogation by police in the hospital about an hour after Bryce's death; her answers are immeasurably sad, almost unintelligible, half sob, half whisper: "I killed my baby," she says tremulously. "Oh, God, I'm so sorry."
The second tape was a call to 911 made by a passerby, in those first seconds after Balfour discovered the body.
In his office, Zwerling swivels to his computer, punches up an audio file.
"Want to hear it?"
• • •
Balfour is re-enacting her movements from that day after work. She walks from her cubicle in room 153A of the JAG school, out to the front of the building. By mid afternoon she had finally checked her cell and discovered she had missed an early-morning call from her babysitter. She called back, but got only voice mail. It didn't worry her. She and the babysitter were friends, and they talked often about all sorts of things. Balfour left a message asking for a callback.
It came when she was standing where she is now, on a spacious stone patio in front of the JAG school, heading toward the parking lot.
The babysitter asked Balfour where Bryce was. Balfour said: "What do you mean? He's with you."
It is 60 feet to the end of the patio, then a stairwell with 11 steps down, then two steps across, then a second stairwell, 12 steps down, one more off the curb and then a 30-foot sprint to the car. Balfour estimates the whole thing took half a minute or less. She knew it was too late when, through the window, she saw Bryce's limp hand, and then his face, unmarked but lifeless and shiny, Balfour says, "like a porcelain doll."
It was seconds later that the passerby called 911.
• • •
The tape is unendurable. Mostly, you hear a woman's voice, tense but precise, explaining to a police dispatcher what she is seeing. Initially, there's nothing in the background. Then Balfour howls at the top of her lungs, "OH, MY GOD, NOOOO!"
Then, for a few seconds, nothing.
Then a deafening shriek: "NO, NO, PLEASE, NO!!!"
Three more seconds, then:
What is happening is that Balfour is administering CPR. At that moment, she recalls, she felt like two people occupying one body: Lyn, the crisply efficient certified combat lifesaver, and Lyn, the incompetent mother who would never again know happiness. Breathe, compress, breathe, compress. Each time that she came up for air, she lost it. Then, back to the patient.
After hearing this tape, the jury deliberated for all of 90 minutes, including time for lunch. The not-guilty verdict was unanimous.
• • •
Lyn Balfour's Ruckersville home is fragrant with spice candles and the faintly sweet feel of kitsch. Braiden boings happily in a baby bouncer, the same one Bryce had, and crawls on a patchwork comforter that had been Bryce's, too. As Balfour is text-messaging Jarrett in Iraq, she's checking out Braiden's diaper, multitasking as always.
"People say I'm a strong woman," Balfour says, "but I'm not. It's just that when I grieve, I grieve alone . . ."
The pacifier pops out of Braiden's mouth. Balfour rinses it, pops it back in.
" . . . because deep down I feel I don't have the right to grieve in front of others."
Balfour says she has carefully crafted the face she shows the world.
"I would like to disappear, to move someplace where no one knows who I am and what I did. I would do that in a heartbeat, but I can't. I have to say my name. I'm the lady who killed her child, and I have to be that lady because I promised Bryce."
The promise, she says, came as she held her son's body in the hospital. "I kissed him for the last time, and I told him how sorry I was, and I said I would do everything in my power to make sure this will never happen to another child."
Unlike most parents to whom this has happened, Balfour will talk to the media, anytime. She works with Kids and Cars, a nonprofit organization that lobbies for increased car safety for children, telling her story repeatedly. Her point is always consistent, always resolute, always tinged with a little anger, always a little self-serving, sometimes a bit abrasive: This can happen to anyone. This is a mistake, not a crime, and should not be prosecuted. Cars need safety devices to prevent this. She seldom seems in doubt or in particular anguish. No one sees her cry.
"The truth is," she says, "the pain never gets less. It's never dulled. I just put it away for a while, until I'm in private."
A kindly doctor once told her that her son probably didn't suffer a great deal, and she clings to this resolutely. In her mind, Bryce died unafraid, surrounded by consoling angels. The deity Balfour believes in loves us unconditionally and takes a direct hand in our lives; this delivers comfort, but also doubt.
"When I was 16 in high school," she says, "I was date-raped. I had an abortion. I never told anyone, not my friends and not my mother. As the abortion was happening, I prayed to God and asked him to take the baby back, and give him back to me when I could take care of him."
So . . . ?
"So, I do wonder, sometimes . . .
Balfour wipes a tear.
" . . . It's there in the back of my mind, that what happened to me is punishment from God. I killed a child, and then I had one ripped away from me at the peak of my happiness."
On the floor, Braiden is entranced by an Elmo doll.
"Sometimes," Balfour says, "I wish I had died in childbirth with him . . ."
She's weeping now. For the moment, there's no soldier left.
" . . . that way, Jarrett could have Braiden, and I could be with Bryce."
• • •
Miles Harrison is in a Leesburg Starbucks, seated next to the condiment station, pulling napkin after napkin to dry his eyes.
"I hurt my wife so much," he says, "and by the grace of whatever wonderful quality is within her, she has forgiven me. And that makes me feel even worse. Because I can't forgive me."
In the months after he was acquitted in the death of his son, Harrison's public agony continued. His mug shot was back in the newspapers after the Russian Foreign Ministry officially protested his acquittal and threatened to halt the country's adoption program with Americans. It was something of an international incident.
For months, Harrison declined to speak for this article, but in early February, he said he was ready.
"I pray for forgiveness from the Russian people," he said. "There are good people in this country who deserve children, and there are children in Russia who need parents. Please don't punish everyone for my mistake."
In their home, Carol and Miles Harrison have kept Chase's nursery exactly as it was, and the child's photos are all over. "Sometimes we'll look at a picture together," Harrison says, "and I will see Carol cry. She tries not to let me see, but I see, and I feel such guilt and hurt."
Harrison says he knows it is unlikely he and Carol will be allowed to adopt again.
He leans forward, his voice breaking into a sobbing falsetto, as it did in the courtroom at his worse moment of shame.
"I have cheated her out of being a mother."
In Starbucks, heads turn.
"She would be the best mother in the world."
• • •
As part of her plan to simplify her life, Lyn Balfour has quit her job. It's going to get a little more complicated soon, because she's pregnant again: The insemination she had on that day in October was successful. The baby is due in July.
Balfour's lawyers petitioned the court to get the record of her prosecution expunged. Such a request is usually unopposed after an acquittal, in recognition that a legally innocent person has a right to start again with a legally clean slate. But in this case, Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman challenged it and, unusually, argued the relatively small legal battle himself.
Outside the courthouse, Chapman explained: "It's very rare to oppose expungement. But we are, because of the enormity of this case, because it is the sole public record of the death of a completely defenseless and helpless infant."
After a half-day hearing, the judge ruled for the commonwealth, saying Balfour had failed to prove that she would suffer a "manifest injustice" if the court records remained unsealed.
Afterward, Balfour calmly answered questions from the news media, as always. She was unemotional, unapologetic, on message. She will consider an appeal. She will continue to speak out for greater public awareness of the dangers of leaving children alone in cars. She sounded, as always, just a little bit cold.
Jarrett Balfour finally made it home, after 18 months in Iraq, where his job was to analyze seized explosive devices made by insurgents and try to identify their technology and trace their origin. He extended his tour of duty twice, as the legal bills kept mounting. Jarrett is 30. He's tall, lanky and strikingly handsome, with sandy hair brushed straight back. He looks like a man leaning into a strong wind.
Initially after he got home, Jarrett says, things were awkward, with "hiccups" in communication. He would make an innocuous statement about something Braiden was doing, and Lyn would overreact, as if he were second-guessing her parenting skills. It's getting better, he says.
Braiden is 9 1/2 months old, exactly the age Bryce was when he died. Lyn has been having nightmares again.
Just before the tragedy, she had two dreams that seem to her, in retrospect, like foreboding. In one, she accidentally drowned Bryce; in the other, it was death by fire. Balfour believes these dreams were sent by God to help prepare her for what she was about to endure.
Recently she dreamed she lost c


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Star, Wars, KOTOR, Black, Vulkar, Undercity, Taris, Carth, Mission, Zalbaar, Revan


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Your phone is rooted?
If yes
You need root explorer or other app with root access to your filesystem
mount system r-w
go to /system
change name recovery-from-boot.p to recovery-from-boot.p.backup
go to etc folder in /system
change name install-recovery.sh to install-recovery.sh.backup
If you don't have recovery-from-boot.p and install-recovery.sh. Try to flash other oficial stock rom without brand.
If you have those files and if you change name recovery-from-boot.p and install-recovery.sh reboot your phone to download mode and flash again recovery.
Had both those files. Renamed them. Now CWM installed fine
Any idea why I had so much trouble installing it?