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Finding homes for animals with special needs can be a daunting task, but as one recent owner of a special needs animal can attest, a little time, effort, love, and affection can go a long way in improving an animal's life.
ESCANABA, Mich. (AP) ? Finding homes for animals with special needs can be a daunting task, but as one recent owner of a special needs animal can attest, a little time, effort, love, and affection can go a long way in improving an animal's life.
The story of Dakini, an approximately one-and-a-half year old black lab, began when she was brought into the Delta Animal Shelter as a stray a few months back. Right from the start, Dakini's adoptability prospects looked uncertain, according to shelter manager Sue Gartland.
"When she actually came in, she was so nervous and freaked out that we were so cautious with her as a potential rabies case because she would alligator roll," Gartland the Daily Press of Escanaba . "As we were trying to get her into the building, she would lay down and just roll on the leash and if you'd get anywhere near her she would snap at you."
After getting her into a cage to settle down, Dakini began thrashing around and continued to exhibit some unusual behavior.
It soon became evident that Dakini was actually blind following an unknown blunt force head injury that caused spontaneous blindness and left a depression on her head.
"From a shelter point of view, we really were faced with the dilemma of what to do with her because the shelter is a very stressful environment for a dog with such an injury...," said Gartland, noting Dakini was fearful of her surroundings. "It really took a lot of time with the volunteers to sit with her in her bed and comfort her and talk with her. We honestly didn't know how adoptable she would be, but she was so sweet that there had to be somebody out there that would be willing to work with a special needs dog."
That's where Dakini's new owners Greg and Linda Corsten of Little Lake entered the picture.
According to Greg, Dakini seemed like a dog that would demand more from him, which attracted him to her during a visit to the shelter in May.
"She also seemed like she would be a dog that would do well with other dogs and we have those," he said.
Ultimately, Greg and his wife decided to adopt Dakini and welcome her into their pet-friendly home, which also includes dogs and parrots.
However, adjusting to her new surroundings proved difficult for Dakini at first.
"The first couple of weeks she wouldn't even sit down," said Greg. "She wouldn't lie down. She'd be on the porch pacing the whole time. At the end of the day, we'd bring her in the house, put her in the kennel and then she'd lie down and sleep until she got up the next day."
This behavior occurred for about a week, until Dakini grew accustomed to lying on the porch, outside pen area, and outdoor dog bed.
Dakini has been further acquainted with her new surroundings, though creating the mentality of having a blind animal at home required some work on the Corsten's part; they had to be careful about rearranging furniture and needed to get Dakini a new food and water dish with a wider base as she kept stepping on the edge of the bowl.
They even used scented oils in the house at first to help her navigate through rooms and recognize where her bed was located.
Greg is currently trying to enforce several safety measures with Dakini, particularly by use of sound.
"I've got a triangle sitting up above her food bowl," said Greg. "Each time before I feed her, I ring the triangle, hoping that she'll associate that with food so some day if she does escape, maybe I can ring that and she'll hear it."
Dakini has also grown accustomed to the Corstens walk routes in the woods, but Greg is now working with her on the trails in anticipation of the winter season, noticing some positive reactions.
"I'm working with that trying to get her to slow down a little bit and relax on the walks, because the ice is coming and I've got a deadline here before the ice hits the ground. I don't want her pulling like she does now," he said.
Greg also noted how well Dakini gets along with the Corstens other dogs, especially the family's smallest who enjoys playing with Dakini the most.
When the Corstens initially came to the shelter, Dakini's reaction to their other dogs was very positive, according to Gartland.
"It was fascinating with Dakini when we first had her out in the yard as a potential adoptable dog, her posturing was so nervous, her shoulders tense, her tail tucked," she said. "When Greg brought his other dogs, she perked right up and acted like a happy lab, her tail wagging."
Greg said the whole experience with Dakini has been wonderful.
"I really love adopting dogs," he said. "My ideal job would be having a hospice for dogs. I'd love to do that for the ones that have no other place ? they're unadoptable ? to give them a safe place to live."
Seeing how well Dakini has been doing and the progress she has made is great, added Gartland.
"It's so nice for us here at the shelter, all the volunteers, to see a dog that would otherwise have been unadoptable find that second chance and to see how wonderful this is working out," she said.


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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will press senior Chinese officials this week for action on longstanding trade problems, and may face a rebuke from Beijing over the haphazard way it is managing its finances.
A Chinese delegation led by Vice Premier Wang Qishan will be in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday for talks with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
"I don't think we should be expecting sweeping changes, but I do think we will see tangible progress on some specific issues," said John Frisbie, president of the U.S.-China Business Council. "China is definitely prioritizing its U.S. relations and they are also discussing economic reforms back at home that could impact some of the issues that matter to U.S. companies."
Kirk and his colleagues have said they are pushing China to drop restrictions on U.S. livestock and farm products, to take stronger action to stop counterfeiting and piracy of U.S. goods and to reduce pressure on U.S. companies to transfer valuable technology to do business in China.
Wang in turn is expected to convey Beijing's strong interest in a deal in Washington to avoid the $600 billion in spending cuts and tax hikes set to take hold at the start of the year, widely known as the "fiscal cliff.
Economists warn that failure to avert that outcome could send the United States back in recession, which would threaten growth in China and around the world. President Barack Obama and Republican leaders have so far made little visible progress toward a deal.
Given that China is the United States' largest creditor, it has a deep interest in Washington's management of its budget.
Chinese officials are also expected to press on a range of other issues - from concerns about U.S. anti-dumping measures on their exports, to restrictions on China's ability to import U.S. high-technology products and the often strong political resistance to Chinese investment in the United States.
The annual U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meeting comes during a transition for both governments.
Obama is expected to bring in a new economic team for his second term. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping took helm of the Chinese Communist party in November and will take over as head of state in March at the annual parliament meeting.
"We're either going to get nothing, meaning just details, or we might get a change," said Derek Scissors, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
One reason to be optimistic that concrete progress could be made is a trip Xi made last week to southern Guangdong, where he echoed calls for market reforms and strengthening the rule of law that reformist senior Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping made 20 years ago in the same province.
Outgoing Chinese President Hu Jintao's ten-year tenure is generally associated with a retreat from market liberalization and the rise of Chinese "state capitalism" that favored domestic national champions over foreign firms.
In that sense, this week's JCCT meeting could mark the start of the Xi era in U.S-China relations, but there remains a lot of uncertainty about how much reform the new Chinese administration will pursue, Frisbie said.
Wang is seen as a reform advocate and has been promoted to a new senior Communist party position, but he also will be giving up his responsibility for economic policies to head up an anti-corruption campaign.
Wang's sensitive new party position means he won't say much that is bold, so "what I'm hoping is that he brings his successor" even though one hasn't been named, Scissors said.
One U.S. business official, speaking on condition he not be identified, said he was hoping for progress on troublesome "indigenous innovation" policies that put pressure on U.S. companies that want to do business in China to transfer technology to Chinese partners.
U.S. companies are also increasingly concerned about Chinese cyberattacks and other attempts to steal trade secrets, he said.
Reporting by Doug Palmer; additional reporting by Paul Eckert; editing by Todd Eastham

subset: commoncrawl


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Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky asked a judge Thursday to throw out the child sex abuse charges against him, arguing some counts are not specific enough, evidence is lacking in others and the statute of limitations may have run out regarding eight of the 10 alleged victims.
Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky asked a judge Thursday to throw out the child sex abuse charges against him, arguing some counts are not specific enough, evidence is lacking in others and the statute of limitations may have run out regarding eight of the 10 alleged victims.
The catch-all pretrial motion also sought to delay the May 14 start of Sandusky's trial, saying more time was needed to prepare a defense.
"We raised a number of issues that we thought were pertinent for various reasons," said his lawyer, Joe Amendola. "But the judge will have to decide that. We'll see what happens."
The omnibus pretrial motion, as it is called, is standard in Pennsylvania criminal cases.
Nils Frederiksen, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office, said the document was under review, and prosecutors planned to respond in writing within a week. An April 5 court proceeding in Bellefonte has been scheduled to hash out any remaining disputes.
Sandusky, 68, is confined to his home in State College while awaiting trial, and has denied the allegations against him. He is accused of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period.
The case against Sandusky led to the firing of head football coach Joe Paterno, who administrators said did not do enough once he learned about part of the allegations, and spawned criminal charges against two school officials.
Amendola asked Judge John Cleland to compel prosecutors to disclose the nature, times and locations of "any criminal offenses or acts of misconduct," beyond those for which he's been charged, if they plan to introduce them at trial.
Amendola wants to be able to question prospective jurors individually and said jurors should be sequestered at trial because the case has received extensive publicity. He said it could take up to two weeks to pick a jury.
The filing argues that a June search of Sandusky's home was illegal and seeks to prevent prosecutors from using the material at trial. That search yielded computers, records, CDs, DVDs, photos and other items.
A similar suppression motion was filed regarding conversations between Sandusky and two alleged victims, identified as Victim 1 and Victim 9 in court records. Amendola said prosecutors have said they plan to use at trial a seven-minute conversation with Victim 1 in June 2009, as well as a conversation with Victim 9 about four days after Sandusky was arrested in early November.
The motion said Sandusky was not read his Miranda rights when he was questioned once or twice by a Penn State police detective in 1998, so the record of those interviews should not be allowed as evidence.
The 1998 investigation, begun after a mother complained to authorities that her son showered with Sandusky, did not result in any charges being filed at the time.
Amendola said the charges related to the young man called Victim 2 should be thrown out because prosecutors have said his identity is not known, and are basing their case on the testimony of Mike McQueary, who said he witnessed the boy being attacked by Sandusky in a football team shower in 2002.
McQueary's testimony at the December preliminary hearing, Amendola wrote, "did not establish sufficient evidence to support these charges."
The defense said the trial should be delayed because new potential witnesses have surfaced from the materials that prosecutors have already turned over, and that the discovery process continues.
The motion also said that without a delay, Sandusky might not be able to put on the stand athletic director Tim Curley and retired vice president Gary Schultz, both awaiting their own trial on charges they lied to a grand jury and did not properly report suspected child abuse.
Amendola wrote that if that trial occurs in May, Curley and Schultz may invoke their constitutional right against self-incrimination, which would compromise Sandusky's constitutional right to due process of law.
Amendola said Sandusky may have an alibi defense, but so far has not been provided enough specifics about the allegations to know for sure. He asked Cleland to force disclosure of any juvenile adjudication records of all potential witnesses.


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(LOS ANGELES) — A 92-year-old man was brutally attacked by a woman with a brick while walking down a Los Angeles street on July 4, police said.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said that a suspect in the attack, Laquisha Jones, 30, was arrested Tuesday in the incident.
The victim was identified by police as Rodolfo Rodriguez. ABC-owned station KABC-TV reported that a witness saw a woman "[push] him and dropped him. She took a block of concrete and hit him in his head many times."
Jones, 30, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail.
The sheriff's department said that the motive for the assault remains unknown.
An eyewitness told KABC-TV that the attack started after Rodriguez passed the woman while walking down the sidewalk.
Rodriguez was taken to a local hospital for treatment but has since been released to recover from his injuries at home, according to police.
"He is doing really bad, has a lot of bruises on his face and a broken cheekbone," a man who says he is Rodriguez's grandson wrote on a GoFundMe page created to collect funds for his medical expenses. The fundraiser had reached more than $250,000 by Wednesday.
A court date has not yet been set for Jones, according to the Los Angeles County Sherriff's Department database.
Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.


text:
Read Description please:
This a little series I have decided to make. I will compile what I believe to be the greatest quotes of animated cartoon characters proceeded by a clip show set to a song I feel embodies the Character,this time being The Ghost. If you have any recommendation put them in the comments below. Thank You
The great quotes of: The Ghost
Read Description please:


text:
Hello, My Dears. So thrilled you are here.
Since you clicked "About," you may want to know a few things about me. I shall list 10, maybe more, maybe not…
1. I love poetry. In many ways- it has saved me. Plath, Li-Young Lee, Sexton, Gluck, Oliver, Kafka…and on and on and on….
2. I've watched these movies more than 5 times. I know, it's weird, but when I
love, I love forever—- The Family
Stone, The American President, Working Girl, The Way We Were, The Mirror Has
Two Faces, Erin
Brockovich, Out of Africa, Philadelphia, 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club, All the President's Men, The
China Syndrome, Mask, Network, & Spartacus.
3. I started blogging as a way to mourn, scream,
& lament about my sister, Kay's murder.
4. I am absolutely IN LOVE with
Helen Mirren, Dove chocolate, Cupcake Red Velvet Wine, Elizabeth Berg, ballet, Project Runway, Indie movies, Vladimir
Nabokov, blogging, words, Sylvia Plath, all women's stories, liver sausage, my earth angels, my family, grilled chicken, Sex and the City, Parenthood, Call The Midwife, Orange is The New Black, Downton Abbey, poetry, stories about redemption and transformation,
sushi, dates with Mr. Liverpool, Adele, Nora Jones, Prince, the 80s, & God.
5. My soul mate &
best friend (was) is my sister, Kay.
6. I love my own company. Sometimes too much. Is that really weird?
7. Lisbeth
Salander, the character from Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is one of my Heroes…along
with my Daddy, Nelson Mandela, Mercy Adhiambo, Malala, Saint Shirley, Mother Theresa, Miep Gies, Oskar Schindler, Anne Frank, & my
sister, Kay.
8. When I'm
not writing, I'm thinking about writing.
9. I identify with the so-called bad girls: Gaga, Madonna, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, & Erica
10. I am
Sisters, Girl Gone, Sharp Objects, Dark Places, Language of Flowers, Her Husband's Secret, The Fault in the Stars, What Alice Forgot, The Tenth Circle, The Lovely Bones, While I'm Falling, The Rosie Project, The Story Teller, Lone Wolf, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Home Safe, Big Little Lies, Tapestry of Fortunes, The Year of Pleasures, The Art of Mending, Such is Life (Short Stories), My Other Ex (Short Essays),Wild, Wonder, Rare Bird, Love Life, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, Lolita, The Bell Jar, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Eat Pray Love, Girl on a Train, Once Upon a Time There Was You, The Beginners Goodbye, Say When, Left Neglected, Small Victories, Life After Life, End of Your Life Book-Club, The Year of Magical Thinking, Night, Anne Frank (diary of a young girl), Lets Pretend This Never Happened, The Gifts of Imperfection, I Am Malala, The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Love Wins, Night Circus, The Kitchen House, Uganda Be Kidding Me, Inside the O'Brien's, Your Own, Sylvia, Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things, The Good Girl, Me Talk Pretty One Day, When I Found You, Rising Strong, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part time Indian, Water For Elephants, Orphan Train, Before Amen, Joyce Myers/Armed & Dangerous, Me Before You, Frosted Cowboy, Nightingale, Little Children, Have a Little Faith, All the Light We Cannot See, Set a Watchman, The Art of Running in the Rain, Patty Jane's House of Curl, The View From Mount Joy, O, My Stars, Incendiary, Purpose Driven Life, Where They Found Her,The Light Between Oceans, Truly, Madly, Guilty, My Name is Lucy Barton, Big Magic,The Burgess Boys, O's little book of happiness, O' s little book on purpose, Best Friends, Catherine Called Birdy, On Writing by Stephen King, The Vegetarian, A Man Called Ov, Small Great Things, The Life We Bury, The Year of Magical Thinking, Love Warrior, The Book of Ruth, Fear of Dying, Lilac Girls, All Elizabeth Berg, Lean In, In My Hands, The Handmaiden's Tale, Paris For One, On The Road, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, Pull of the Moon, Talk Before Sleep, The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted, Scared Selfless, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, Just Kids, Flight, War Dances, Devotion, Plan B, I feel bad about my neck, Every Note Was Played, The Knitting Circle, The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian, Brene Brown, The Book That Matters Most, Comfort (A Journey Into Grief), Arthur Truluv, Braving The Wilderness, Morning Star, Spool of Blue Thread, The Couple Next Door, Pull Of The Moon, O' Joy Stories, The Great Alone, Dear Sugar, Sunrise at Sundown, Super Soul Sundays, The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck, Home Safe, On Cats, Things I Never Told You, Homegoing, Firefly Lane, It was me all along, Fly Away, Educated, Big Magic, Forward, Dark Dark Wood, I'll Be Gone In The Dark, Oprahs Little Book of Big Questions, Etched in Sand, 9 Perfect Strangers, You Are A Badass, Five Chimneys, The 5 Second Rule, I don't know anything NORA Ephron, Night of Miracles, Girl Wash Your Face, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, A Path Made Clear, Where The Crawdads Sing, Daisy Jones and the Six, Marrow, Bear Town, Patty Jane's House of Curl, The Friend , The Bluest Eye, Call Me By Your Name, All the Ugly and Beautiful Things, Our Own Sylvia, Girl, Stop Apologizing, Her Mistake, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Olive Again, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Rules for Visiting,
This blog is dedicated to my dear sister, Kay, who was
murdered by Mike Peterson on May 26, 2010.
I shall mourn and scream and weep and lament until the day we meet
My Soul Mate, Kay, whom I love love love love…Forever Always for All Eternity.
~~**Every morning, I wake up
and forget just for a second that it happened. But once my eyes open, it buries
me like a landslide of sharp, sad rocks. Once my eyes open, I'm heavy, like
there's too much gravity on my heart.** ––Sarah Ockler, Sisters
Subscribe to MY INNER CHICK, which is on my side bar on this blog.


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Romeo Crennel is ready to go as the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Crennel's agent, Joe Linta, confirmed to Adam Caplan of Sirius/XM that Crennel has agreed to a three-year deal with the team.
"The Chiefs were very fair with Romeo and he's excited to become head coach," Linta said. "He's looking forward to building on the resurgence from late last season."
That resurgence was a 2-1 record as interim head coach after Todd Haley was fired 13 games into a disappointing season. Now Crennel will get a chance to build on that record — and to show that he's a better head coach than his disappointing tenure in Cleveland would suggest.


text: As I noted in my prior comments, I think the writes need to be moved out of the listener thread. The easiest way to do that would be to the worker thread just block. This, of course, can lead to all workers getting blocked, preventing work on other operations. Another approach would to have the listener spin off a writer worker when needed. Kurt At 08:50 PM 10/13/2005, Howard Chu wrote: >This solution will deadlock if all worker threads are stuck in a write wait. Since the semaphore completely blocks the listener thread, there will be no way to wake up the waiting writers and free up more threads. Also, blocking the listener thread like this prevents the idletimeout checker from working. I.e., you have managed to disable two key mechanisms for returning server resources to the pool, precisely when they are needed the most. > >The listener thread must never block, period. > >It would be better to simply have ldap_pvt_thread_pool_submit return a result code (e.g. LDAP_BUSY if the submitted op will be queued because there are no available workers, LDAP_SUCCESS otherwise) that is passed back to the listener thread. When the listener thread gets this result it should drop all read descriptors from the event set, but keep monitoring the wake_sds and the write events. > >Alternatively we should stop monitoring write events and just let the writers unblock themselves. Is there a particular reason why we monitor write events? I don't see any benefit. Eliminating one set of event sources would reduce our kernel load by half. > >Aside from this issue there is definitely a bug in the current implementation; I see the same event being submitted multiple times in rapid succession. The CPU usage goes to 100% and there does not appear to be any end condition that disables the event. This occurs most often in test033, but should occur in any test that uses syncrepl (or listener-managed client tasks like syncrepl). After the syncrepl task has sent a search request to the provider and the first reply arrives, marking the socket readable. It appears this readable state is not getting reset. > >-- > -- Howard Chu > Chief Architect, Symas Corp. http://www.symas.com > Director, Highland Sun http://highlandsun.com/hyc > OpenLDAP Core Team http://www.openldap.org/project/


text:
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Ganassi Issues Warnings About The Future
By Mike Harris | Senior Writer
Chip Ganassi's passion for auto racing started early.
When he was 5 years old, Ganassi's father went to Indianapolis to take part in an equipment auction and took in the 1963 Indy 500 while he was there. The elder Ganassi came home with an 8 millimeter film of the race.
"I watched it on the living room wall almost every night,'' Chip Ganassi said. "If there's anything you want to know about the `63 race, I've watched it about 6,000 times.''
That grainy film was the catalyst for Ganassi's career in racing that eventually took him to Indianapolis as the fastest rookie qualifier in 1982. He drove in the big event five times with a best finish of eighth in 1983. His racing career was effectively cut short by a head injury in an Indycar crash at Michigan in 1984. But Ganassi wasn't ready to give up his love affair with the sport.
He bought into Pat Patrick's CART team in 1988, took control and renamed the team Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of the 1989 season and has become one of the most successful team owners in American racing over the ensuing years.
Among the accomplishments that his team's have enjoyed are three Indy 500 wins, four consecutive CART championships, three IndyCar Series championships and two championships in the Rolex Grand-Am Sports Car Series.
In 2010, he will field two cars in the IZOD IndyCar Series, two cars in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series and two cars in Grand-Am, beginning with this weekend's Rolex 24-Hour race, which he won three straight times, from 2006-2008.
"I've always been fascinated by the artistry of racing,'' Ganassi said during a speech earlier this month at the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters awards dinner in Indianapolis. "Drivers take it to outside the edge of performance.''
But Ganassi, honored as a Pioneer in Racing by the AARWBA, is a businessman first and a racing fan second. He can clearly see that the sport must make some changes in these difficult economic times, not only to prosper but to survive.
He said technological innovation is a must if sponsors, manufacturers and fans are to remain involved and interested in all forms of auto racing.
"We in the racing industry need to be bold in meeting and demonstrating tomorrow's technology and innovations, showcasing what can be achieved as we embark on a new era of efficiency," Ganassi said. "In order to keep the sport of auto racing healthy, it's going to take our collective efforts.
"We need to stay relevant in the sports landscape. We need to stay relevant to sponsors and to Detroit so that racing stays a platform for them. Racing needs to take the leadership role by being on the leading edge of technology. Innovation must once again become the core of motor sports.''
To illustrate what he was referring to, Ganassi noted that Target Chip Ganassi Racing IndyCar Series engineer Ben Bowlby is heading up the design and development of a radically new Indy car design known at this point as the Delta Wing car.
The new car will not be exclusive to the Ganassi organization, but Ganassi said the official announcement of the new car will take place sometime next month, probably at the Chicago Auto Show.
"It's a big step forward in meeting the modern-day challenge of achieving the same performance with far greater efficiency,'' Ganassi said. "And, if we're going to survive in this industry, that's what we need to have, greater efficiency with the same performance and the same speed. And that same feeling when you're sitting and watching in Turn One at Indianapolis."
But Ganassi said the Delta Wing design is only one small step in keeping the sport heading in the right direction.
"We need to keep moving forward on new technology in all areas of the sport,'' he said. "And, even in this economy, innovation is what does that.''
– Mike Harris can be reached at email@example.com Comments


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The man suspected in the killing of a beloved Northern California priest was arraigned Monday, just hours after parishioners mourned the cleric's passing at a funeral Mass.
Gary Lee Bullock, 43, was charged with first-degree murder, auto theft and attempted arson in a Eureka courthouse late Monday afternoon, according to the Humboldt County district attorney's office.
Bullock also faces special allegations of burglary and intentional infliction of torture in the murder of the Rev. Eric Freed, who was found dead in a Eureka church rectory New Year's Day.
Bullock pleaded not guilty to all counts and remained in custody in lieu of $1.2-million bail, prosecutors said.
Parishioners discovered Freed's body inside the St. Bernard Church rectory after he failed to show up for a morning Mass.
The murder shocked the small Northern California community where he taught college courses on religion and often advocated on behalf of the homeless.
An autopsy showed the priest died of blunt force injuries to a "substantial part of his body," the county coroner said Monday.
Bullock was arrested Thursday afternoon about an hour away from the town. Eureka police said he was en route with a relative to turn himself in, and was cooperative and lucid at the time of his arrest. The priest's Nissan Altima was found nearby.
The day before, Eureka police said, Bullock had been arrested for public intoxication by Humboldt County sheriff's deputies and booked into the county jail, just a couple blocks from the church.
Sheriff's officials released him after midnight on New Year's Day, and Eureka police found Bullock near the church a couple hours later, authorities say.
Mills said Bullock was not intoxicated at that time and didn't qualify for an emergency psychological hold. Police instead referred him to an emergency shelter.
Parishioners found Freed's badly beaten body later that morning.


text:
Watch CBSN Live
Credit: Robert Galbraith/Reuters
A SmartOne infant sleep monitor is shown on a doll at the Sensible Baby booth during International CES in Las Vegas, Jan. 8, 2014.
The wearable device, fits into a chest pocket, and sends information and active alerts on temperature, baby orientation and breathing to a parent's mobile device.
Credit: Steve Marcus/Reuters
A Zepp sensor is shown on a golf glove during "CES Unveiled," a media preview event to the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan. 5, 2014.
The sensors, available for golf, baseball and tennis, analyze 1,000 data points per second to create 3D representations of a player's swing, a representative said.
Rosario Iannella, Qardio's Chief Information Officer, models a Quardiocore heart monitor during Pepcom's "Digital Experience," in Las Vegas, Jan. 6, 2014.
The device can send the electrocardiogram to a smartphone and the EKG can be forwarded to a physician for remote heart monitoring.
YEI Technology's Chris George plays a computer game with PrioVR, a virtual reality gaming accessory, during "CES Unveiled," a media preview event to the annual Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, Jan. 5, 2014.
Sensors on the player translate movement into the game.
Kunimasa Suzuki, president and CEO of Sony Mobile Communications, holds a Sony Core during a Sony news conference at International CES, in Las Vegas, Jan. 6, 2014.
The wearable device will be able to record data about your activities and movement and display the information in a LifeLog app.
A Liquid Image wearable camera is paired with a 4G LTE module (R) during "CES Unveiled," a media preview event to International CES, in Las Vegas, Jan. 5, 2014.
The camera and module combination make it the first wearable camera that can stream over LTE, a representative said.
FitBark pet activity trackers are displayed during International CES in Las Vegas, Jan. 8, 2014.
The device uses a 3D accelerometer sensor to track your pet's activity. The device retails for $99.00 and is expected in stores in the first quarter of 2014.


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Movies We Like
Encounters at the End of the World
It's an uncontestable fact that Werner Herzog is the greatest living director. His latest documentary Encounters at the End of the World may not be as cathartic or controversial as his dramatic features, but it validates Herzog's ability to personalize every film that he directs with the creation of hypnotic, surreal images, images that despite their otherworldliness symbolize a litany of urgent, undeniable truths. The most famous of these are the 360-ton steamship being pulled over a hill in the Amazon rainforest in Fitzcarraldo, as well as the dancing chicken and interminable ski-lift ride in the finale of Stroszek. People who have seen multiple Herzog films walk away with images they hold personally to them, like amulets; for me it's Kaspar Hauser standing immobile in the village square clutching a letter that he can't read. Only a director like Herzog could go to edge of the planet and make a film that is idiosyncratic.
Herzog and his cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger (his DP for the majority of his films since Gesualdo) received a grant from the National Science Foundation's Antarctic Artists and Writers Program to travel to Antarctica for several months to shoot footage for a documentary. The director seems to express ambivalence at the beginning of the film about his suitability for the subject, saying that he's not interested in making a movie about "fluffy penguins." Ironically, he ends up shooting some of the cutest baby and mommy seal footage I've ever seen. It eventually becomes apparent that Herzog's focus is not so much the landscape as it is the modern day explorers who have come to study the frozen continent. The bleak landmass has become a magnet to a millenarian mixture of scientists, engineers, cooks, survival experts, and ice terrain vehicle drivers who believe that the secret of the earth's future, and perhaps demise, is hidden in the landscape and wildlife of this frozen desert. Herzog compares these people driven to the end of the map by their dreams to adventurers like Ernest Shackleton and Roald Admundsen, forsaking comfort and civilization to be near the Unnameable.
Basing themselves at the homely McMurdo Station, Herzog and Zeitlinger venture out to meet zoologists studying Weddell seals for clues to human weight loss and geologists studying melted icebergs heading towards the civilized north with unknown consequences. But that's not why we watch Herzog movies. We watch them for his deadpan hyperbolic narration, the seal calls that sound like Kraftwerk, and the images that constitute his sensibility of pathetic black humor: survival experts training a hopeless group wearing buckets painted with cartoon faces to simulate a no-visibility scenario, and the disoriented penguin compelled to run to the barren interior and certain starvation, his knees locked, his arms flung out in desperation. Although Encounters isn't a groundbreaking documentary, nor is it Herzog's best film, to watch a movie about ice and seals and know that it could only have been made by one man, makes it wholly worth watching.
Encounters at the End of the World was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary.


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The four-song album was fine-tuned from hours and hours - 7 1/2 to be exact - of recorded improvisation between Daniell, a well-respected avant garde guitarist in his own right, and McCombs, who is best known as the bassist for Tortoise, but has worked with many artists.
Despite the potential pretense of distilling that much material down to about 40 minutes worth of music, the effort is seamless. The album begins much like you would expect, the slow build-up of layer upon layer of music on opener "F# Song." But from there the album becomes much more rhythmic with "Bursera," and continues to improve through to the end.
Editing that much material together is as impressive a skill as playing the actual music, but Daniell and McCombs obviously shared a common vision on Sycamore, managing to create an organic and adventurous album that could have been a patchwork train wreck.
Sycamore was released last August on Thrill Jockey, but New York audiences will get a chance to see it live when Daniell and McCombs play Union Pool, 484 Union Avenue in Brooklyn, on March 14. For more ticket information, visit their website.


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Compiled by Kate Bennett, KF16, Peru
Last week's stories from the field elucidate readers on a number of Kiva-questions, and pose a few questions of their own: what is a Wandering Kiva Fellow, and is a Kiva Fellowship right for you? How can microloans support a green or agriculturally sustainable economy? In a country bouncing back from a civil war, how can international aid and microfinance help (or hurt)? What social programs are our partners supporting across the world, and how can microfinance support HIV-postive microborrowers? And finally, a question we put to you lenders: How do You Lend?
To Kiva Fellow or not to Kiva Fellow. Eso e' la pregunta.
By Robert Gradoville, KF16, Peru
Should I become a Kiva Fellow? How does it stack up against the Peace Corps, overseas research grants, overseas workshops on topics in development, Fulbright Fellowships, Rotary Scholarships, and service-learning trips? This post compares and contrasts "what it's like" to be a Kiva Fellow to the myriad other programs out there.
Village Banks BY Farmers FOR Farmers: A Microcredit Labor of Love
By Julie Kerr, KF16, Costa Rica
In Costa Rica, a country with a strong commitment to ecological conservation, Julie introduces us to yet another innovation ensuring agriculture's sustainability. Not only are FUDECOSUR village banks run by village farmers, as detailed in Bank-O-Mat Under a Hot Tin Roof, but they are also trained and managed by loan officers who are farmers themselves. To learn more about FUDECOSUR village banks, keep reading!
Multi-faceted Borrowers Part 1
By Abhinab Basnyat, KF16, Nepal
Abhinab introduces us to Nepalese Kiva borrowers Narayan Devi and Binu- their stories may seem like those of textbook microcredit borrowers, but their stories jump off of the page nonetheless.
The Wandering Fellow
By Eric Rindal, KF16, Bolivia
Eric wakes up under new sheets on a small bed in a small room amid warm and verdant Santa Cruz, Bolivia. After 30 frantic seconds he pieces together where he is, which brings us to the topic at hand: the varying freedoms and the challenges of that rare breed of Kiva Fellows: the Wandering Fellow.
The Double-Edged Sword: Sierra Leone's Battle Against Poverty
By Tejal Desai, KF16, Sierra Leone
Aid: What does it mean for a country recovering from a devastating decade-long civil war that killed over 50,000 of its people? And what does it mean for microfinance organizations that aim to loosen the leash from dependency and push for sustainability? Tejal brings on on an okada ride through Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, and discusses the multifaceted role that international aid plays in the fight against poverty.
How do You Lend?
By Kate Bennett, KF16, Peru
The most challenging part of trainings for we Kiva Fellows is not instructing loan officers to obtain signed consent forms from borrowers, or explaining how money moves from lender, to Kiva, to Caja Rural, to the client. The most difficult explanation is often how and why. Kate takes on this challenges, and then poses this question to you- the lenders.
Visiting an HIV-Clinic in Guayaquil (Part II)
By Emmanuel M. von Arx, KF16, Ecuador
Emmanuel again heads out of Banco D-MIRO's headquarters on Guayaquil's Isla Trinitaria to the HIV-clinic at Hospital Abel Gilbert. He meets inspiring workers on the HIV-front, learns about organizations dedicated to serving this community in need and raising HIV-awareness, and discusses the future of HIV-positive potential microborrowers in Ecuador.
Going Green? Overcoming Cultural Barriers to Promote Green Loans (Part 2)
By Claire Markham, KF16, Kenya
In part two of this series, Claire attempts to answer the question of how an MFI can break through the obstacles identified in Part 1 to implement a successful green and water loan program. She may not have all the answers, but she gives us some insight into valuable strategies being used worldwide.
* * *
Updates from the past month:
New Products in Microfinance, Over-Indebtedness + Transparency
Starting Capital, Development Levels + Adventurous Borrower Visits
Going Pilot to Active, Meeting Borrowers + Technology and Social Performance
Costs of Kiva, Donkey Shares + the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns
Loan Sharks, Snapshots + "the Country with a Smile"
* * *
Plus more pictures from the past week:


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Professor Manfred Wright was the president of the New South Wales Board of Australian Legal professionals. Wright was a world-renowned speaker -- a celebrity of sorts. His wit, charisma, practical wisdom and powerful oratory skills would hold his audience spellbound.
Professor Wright was invited by Columbia University to address a large assembly of students. Columbia offered him $15,000 for the event. He scheduled his speaking tour in New York City for the week of Jan 16th, booking a couple of side engagements at community colleges for $1000 apiece.
En route to Melbourne Airport for his flight to New York, Professor Wright received the following email on his Blackberry from Columbia University:
We apologize for any inconvenience on your part. However we regret to inform you that there are insufficient resources available to cover your appearance. At this point, we must cancel your engagement until further notice.
Ripley Offerman
Assistant Comptroller
Columbia University
The professor's stomach sank as he realized that the time and expenses he would incur to just deliver the two minor addresses would be a losing business proposition. His airfare alone would cost more than the remuneration he'd receive from the community college addresses.
According to Jewish law, does Columbia University have any financial responsibility towards Professor Wright?
The Answer
An employer who cancels on an employee can incur the following financial responsibilities:
- If the employee turned down alternative work and can no longer attain them, the employer must compensate for employee's losses [Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 333:2].
- If the employee subsequently finds another job at a lower rate, the initial employer pays the difference between the employee's expected wages and actual wages received [ibid].
- If the employee already began working, even if they did not forfeit alternative work, the employer must fulfill his side of the deal and "provide work and its compensation for the employee". Even setting out to the job site can be considered the beginning of work. [Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 333:1]
We can establish the exact amount of liability by determining how much the employee would honestly be willing to take for not having to actually work [ibid; Radva"z Vol. II, Responsa 793]. This is subjective to the nature of the job, the worker, and the worker's financial situation. For example, some workers would agree to take less money if it meant not having to work, while others would rather work hard and receive their full pay. [Babylonian Talmud Bava Metzia 77a]
The employer must cover any expenses the employee responsibly incurred because of relying on his employer, even those incurred before actually beginning the job [Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 14:5, Ram"a].
Application to our case:
Professor Wright incurred losses by relying on Columbia University's commitment. Thus, Columbia is responsible to pay Wright for any financial loss incurred due to the booking and cancellation of his ticket and travel arrangements.
If Wright can find an alternative appearance for $15,000, Columbia need not pay him. If he turned down an offer as a result of Columbia's commitment and now cannot find another engagement, Columbia must reimburse him for the losses they caused to him. Additionally, even if he did not turn down another offer, he technically had already begun working for Columbia. His traveling to the airport for his appearance is considered the "beginning of the job." [Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 333:1]
Columbia in turn accepts responsibility to compensate him as promised (provided he does not cancel and an unforeseen occurrence does not transpire) [Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 333:5].
There is valid reason to assume that, as a celebrity, Professor Wright would have preferred to work than to remain idle. Celebrities enjoy the stage and each appearance is an advertisement for them. Hence, in a case when Columbia would be liable, they would have to pay Wright close to the full $15,000 if not the entire amount.
[Question Submitted by Rabbi Menachem Nissel: Member, Fellow-Yesharim Research Center - Jerusalem, Israel
Answered by: The Fellow Yesharim Research Center- Jerusalem, Israel
Written by: Rabbi Yosef Y. Ettlinger Executive Director: Fellow-Yesharim Foundation for Ethical Law, Jerusalem, Israel]


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It's not uncommon to see lots of tractors at Turkey Beach - in front yards, parked on the street and in abundance at the boat ramp. These tractors don't belong to the farm; they belong to the sea and are busy ferrying boats to the water.
Born out of beach shack beginnings, this quintessential sleepy fishing village is famous for its crabbing and fishing spots - you'll find some locals lurking around by the shore who you can get some hot tips from.
Mangrove Jack is the most prized species sought after by anglers, but the area is renowned for regular catches of bream, flathead and the occasional cod.
Turkey Beach is close to 1770 and Agnes Water, the Danube track branches off a few kilometres out of town and for Four Wheel Drive enthusiasts is a rough track which winds its way through Eurimbula National Park and reaches Agnes at the other side.
This is a relatively undeveloped coastal town (one of the very few remaining) so unwind and relax and let the good time vibes of this town take over.
If exploring the great outdoors is for you, then make Turkey Beach your launch pad.
Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).


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You've already seen the rave reviews of The Avengers. If you live outside the U.S., you might already have seen it. But you still might not have heard the best things about it.
Here are a bunch of reasons why The Avengers is more than just a well-made comic book movie. They're as spoiler-free as we could make them, while still using nouns.
The Avengers is all about payoff, after five Marvel movies worth of setup — but part of the pleasure of this movie is that it never feels like it's trying hard to give us what we want. Or what we're "owed." The Avengers takes for granted that we're going to get what we've been waiting for, and then sets about giving us something more. And different.
Obligatory capsule synopsis time: The Avengers brings together the exoskeleton-clad rich inventor from Iron Man, the scientist-turned-rage-monster from Incredible Hulk, the rash Norse god from Thor and the patriotic ubermensch from Captain America, to fight another Norse god, Loki, plus his alien army. But first, these heroes from very different backgrounds have to learn to work together. As a team. It's a very comic-book setup, and this film plays it pretty much straight-up, with fairly little ironic winking.
That said, it's true that Avengers is not a perfect movie, by any means. In particular, the first hour drags quite a lot. There's one scene where Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow exchange banter for like half an hour, and it's like you've fallen through a gap in the fabric of movie reality, into Iron Man 2. Some of the slowness is necessary, to establish this many main characters in one movie — but there are also some darlings that needed to be killed. Still, compared to the padded first acts in a lot of other movies lately, this isn't so bad.
Plus even that first hour is jammed full of great moments, and everything that comes after is pure hold-onto-yourself awesomeness.
So here are some reasons that The Avengers really is a terrific film — and not just a craftsmanlike comic-book movie — that you haven't already read:
1) Samuel L. Jackson is sad rather than angry.
There's a sort of standard-issue Samuel L. Jackson performance, that Marvel no doubt had in mind when they cast him as S.H.I.E.L.D. leader Nick Fury. (First in the comics, then in the movies.) You know the one — the "get these motherfucking snakes off my motherfucking helicarrier" tough-guy act. Jackson is capable of a lot more than that, but he can do that routine in his sleep.
Luckily, The Avengers gets Jackson to do some real acting. There's a weird mournfulness coming off Jackson throughout the entire movie, as if he's regretting the terrible things he has to do to keep the world safe. Or feeling the burden of responsibility. In any case, given that Nick Fury is the guy bringing the heroes together, the fact that Jackson starts out kind of sad, and only gets sadder throughout the movie, is kind of awesome. Most of the characters are fun and jokey, and then there's the depressed Nick Fury. (It's not overplayed. But check out the clip at left for an example.)
This helps underscore a lot of the movie's themes about power and the use of weapons, as well as the relationship between society and its defenders. (See below.)
2) The action vocabulary of superhero films is utterly revamped, in a beautiful way.
You don't really think of writer/director Joss Whedon as the action guy. You think of him as the "funny banter" guy and maybe the "killing your favorite characters" guy, but not really as a big action director. And yet, The Avengers might make you rethink that. There are some really gloriously filmed action scenes in this movie, and they're different than what you've seen in other superhero movies or action movies.
There's a lovely casualness to the violence in this movie, because at least some of these people are warriors rather than reluctant heroes, and this isn't their first rodeo. And there are a hundred different moments of physical comedy, brawling, death-defying stunts and smackdowns, which flow together really well. Especially the final half hour, which features the kind of destruction that would make Phil Sheldon cry his eye out. The great thrill of superhero movies has always been superstrong people beating the crap out of each other, and this movie understands that.
There are just so many great sight gags, and so many moments where the mechanics of a hero's powers or of a particular fight have been really thought through. This makes movies like X-Men Origins: Wolverine or Green Lantern feel that much more sloppy and lacking in satisfactory violence.
3) Tony Stark becomes the damaged heart of the team
In Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. established Tony Stark as a sort of wounded heart, wrapped in a shell of steel, flashy lights, and overweening ego. And now, in Avengers, Downey Jr. really follows through on the promise of that first movie, as his cockiness and arrogance slowly give way to reveal a compelling vulnerability. And a capacity for self-sacrifice that none of the other heroes in the film quite reach, even Captain America.
I've seen lots of people saying that the Hulk steals the movie — and it's sort of true — but a lot of the emotional moments that get etched into your brain involve Tony Stark. His damaged soul winds up feeling like the axis that the rest of the team sort of revolves around, in a dynamic that caught us by surprise.
4) It's a film that's hopeful about people and society, in the face of huge threats
The plot of The Avengers is necessarily sketchy. But there are some really cool moments of optimism dotted throughout the movie, even as you see all the characters struggling with their dark pasts and the terrible mistakes they've made, yadda yadda. Whedon is often described as a humanist creator, and there are some great expressions of faith in humanity in this film.
Our ability to stand up to bullies and would-be tyrants, our capacity to choose the right thing when the chips are down, our reserves of gratitude when someone helps us — this film finds ways to celebrate all of them. And this is in between approximately 200 times the recommended allowance of "Fuck yeah" moments, where the heroes do something that you wish you could rewind and watch three more times. As crappy and dumb as people can be, we have an innate nobility as well, and it's probably a good thing that a film about heroes in bright jammies takes the time to recognize that. (Contrast that with the lazy cynicism of many, many other superhero films.)
This is also reflected in the differing attitudes towards humanity of Thor and his psycho brother Loki, the film's main villain. (And Tom Hiddleston does a pretty great job with a thankless role, one villain against a mob of goodies. He's full of oily manipulation, covering a deep and boundless store of resentment.)
And on a related note...
5) It takes the classic Marvel themes and turns them sideways a bit
By now, anybody who hasn't been living in a sensory deprivation tank has heard the maxim, "With great power comes great responsibility." Marvel stories often explore related themes, too, of hubris and guilt — people like Bruce Banner and Tony Stark strive to create better ways of killing people, and wind up damaged and atoning. Either way, it's about people who've gotten power, or abused power, and now owe something to the world.
Since these themes have already been established in ten hours of movies, Avengers doesn't spend too much time belaboring them — instead, it takes these familiar themes and pushes them to a new place. The Avengers, as a team, are collectively just a weapon in the hands of Nick Fury, who show he's willing to get his hands dirty. The team-member who struggles the most with old guilt ("red in my ledger") ironically isn't superpowered at all. Captain America's "good soldier" attitude is usefully contrasted with the less gung-ho approaches of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, who've both been military contractors and suffered for it.
The classic Marvel themes of power, guilt and responsibility are spun in enough of a new direction that any movie that tries to rehash them after this had better bring its "A" game.
Which, in turn, brings us to...
6) Avengers provides a template for superhero movies going forward, as opposed to copying what works from past cape epics.
Superhero movies have been proliferating for over a decade, and by now a certain sameness has crept in. Even considering that the genre encompasses spy movies, vigilante movies, cowboy movies, vampire movies and mutant-angst movies. You sort of know what you're going to get from a superhero movie (that isn't made by Christopher Nolan.)
And to be sure, Avengers features a lot of the stuff you expect, including punch-ups and big set pieces. But it also has a lot of neat ideas for how to give these sorts of hero characters a dramatic arc, without resorting to cheap tricks or excessive Burma Shave-style signposting. It leaves you feeling as though a superhero movie could actually say new things about heroism.
7) It's the most comic booky movie ever.
It's funny — Joss Whedon doesn't have the most impressive record in comics, to say the least. On the one hand, there's Fray. On the other hand, his Runaways run is a study in soul-pulping disappointment. Most of the post-television Buffy comics feel like a bad dream sequence, and his Astonishing X-Men was astonishingly dull. Whedon rules in television and movies, but weirdly not comics.
So it's sort of amazing how much he captures everything that's great about classic superhero comics in one movie. He doesn't adapt or reimagine classic superhero storytelling — he just ports it to a new medium, and makes it look almost effortless. It's all here — the "heroes fight and then team up" story, the earnest discussions over whether this is a team, the improbable death traps, angsty soap-operatics and theatrical heroics. It's like he's taken a big stack of those Marvel Essential phone-books, crushed them up, and turned them into a fine powder you can snort like cocaine. If you ever loved Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Bill Mantlo, Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, Mark Gruenwald or countless other great creators, you'll see their fingerprints everywhere in this film.
And that's the coolest thing about this movie — some people have said that Marvel took a heck of a risk, suggesting that all its movies took place in a shared universe, instead of creating a new world every time your butt hit a movie theater seat. But movies about a world with just one superhero are a poor shadow of the rich, interconnected world that comics give us. Superheroes mean more in a world where they are a community, with all the stress and crazy politics that involves.
Ironically, the more we see superheroes interacting with each other instead of just normal humans, the more we see their humanity. With The Avengers, we finally have a movie that approaches the emotional and political complexity of a really good superhero comic book. It's about time, too.


text: You've just won the lottery and you've got a spare £600,000-odd burning a whole in your pocket; what do you spend it on when you've already got a Bugatti Veyron, a penthouse in Kensington, and a yacht bigger than my house? How about an absolutely massive TV? Panasonic's commercial 4k2k, 152-inch monster plasma screen is now on sale to regular consumers in the UK, courtesy of the new technology section of Harrods.


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So a lot of you remember The Monastic Challenge from February. You know, that crazy month of vegan, sugar-free, caffeine-free, alcohol-free living that I put myself through with the help of my personal board of directors, The Braintrust. The month after that we came up with The Media Fast Challenge where we attempted to wean ourselves from the constant stream of information that is our lives in the digital age. I'll admit I failed a little on that one, but it did help me develop better habits with my Internet use.
April and May we sort of fell off the face of the earth a little with each of us putting our full efforts into our secular lives. Kris finished his first e-book "The Hollywood Acting Guide," Drew and Matt threw themselves into their Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training and I wrapped up an intense job search and began teaching two classes a week for the first time. Now that our lives have returned to a reasonable pace, we are proud to announce our challenge for the month of June. We really hope that you consider joining us for this one.
The challenge for the month of June is very simple:
Do at least one random act of kindness of day.
That's it. Whatever you interpret that to be. Helping an old lady across the street, buying a homeless guy lunch, whatever. For accountability and motivation we will keep a log on our Facebook fan page. The act can be as big or small as you want. If there are multiple acts of kindness then that is even better. It is our intention for this to be a way to bring awareness towards being more other-oriented while making small differences in the lives of those around us.
Best of luck in your efforts.
Mike ^_^
"If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one." – Mother Teresa


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|Hello, friends! I'm taking a break and it might take me a few days to reply to comments and emails. I'll be back! :)
Monday, December 10, 2012
Chocolate Sausage - Wing It, Don't Fling It!
I've also heard people call this a "chocolate salami", but I like chocolate sausage better. Here's how I turned a horrid batch of brownies into a tasty chocolate sausage...
The oily brownies in all their oily glory.
First I cut them into small pieces and ground them in the food processor until they were very crumbly. Then heated (microwaved) two tablespoons of almond butter and four tablespoons of coconut milk in a little bowl, whisked them together and added the mixture to the crumbled brownies. I processed that until smooth (it was like a very thick cream) and transferred the mixture to a mixing bowl. Now I had to decide what sort of chunky bits I wanted to throw in there. The winners were finely chopped cashews, coarsely ground white chocolate chips, and little bits of almond paste. After I mixed the chunky bits into the thick batter, I added enough coconut flour to form a soft dough..
...which I then shaped into two little logs, sprinkled more coconut flour all over, and wrapped them in parchment paper. After a couple of hours in the fridge, my chocolate sausages were ready to be sliced!
That's better! The fine coconut flour absorbed the extra oil and gave the chocolate sausage a smooth texture, kind of like cookie dough. It was fun to find chunky bits of nuts, white chocolate, and almond paste in there, and it was a bit freaky how much it looked like a sausage! This was a fun experiment and I can't wait to actually make a chocolate sausage from scratch, not from a fudged up batch of brownies. I did make mine a bit too firm, and I had to wait about 15 minutes to slice it after I took it out of the fridge because it kept crumbling into little pieces. Next time I'll have to remember to make the dough quite soft.
Mr. Chickadee asks: have you recycled any leftovers into something fabulous lately?
24 comments:
Honestly, that sausage sounds sensational! (Wow, get a load of that alliteration!). It's something I'd probaby snack on a bit too much. But wow, what a yummy looking snack! (And I've done the same thing with oil. . . don't ask how many tester recipes I disposed of because I added the wrong ingredient or too much of one or the other!) ;)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousDecember 10, 2012 at 2:56 PM
This one sounds great, here, in Latvia chocolate sausages are very popular and my mom made those when i was little too, i have never tried a vegan version though!ReplyDeleteReplies
Then Latvia must be a magical and delicious place! I am going to try to make a proper one from scratch some time in the near future.Delete
- AnonymousDecember 11, 2012 at 7:07 AM
Haha, this made me laugh, the magical Latvia :DDelete
It isn't the most popular treat and not traditional, but i think it was popular in Soviet times and people got used to it.
Do you have any tips on recycling leftovers with shards of glass dispersed throughout? I dropped an unbaked babka in its glass loaf pan onto the floor earlier today. (Just kidding, I know I'm not supposed to eat shards of glass, but I felt like sharing my mistake with someone who understands!) Sad, sad day.ReplyDeleteReplies
That sucks, Rebecca! I feel your pain, and I think I would have cried! All that work and all those ingredients going to waste! Not to mention the loss of the loaf pan. That truly is a sad, sad day. Would it make you feel any better if I told you that I blended a silicone spatula into a batch of homemade almond butter a few weeks ago? A big batch of almond butter too. It all went to waste because it had tiny bits of blue silicone spatula also dispersed throughout. It might have been wise to remove the spatula from the blender before turning it on. Oy!Delete
I came close to crying, I'll admit. Ha, it does make me feel a little better. I almost tried to pick out the glass shards and started getting cut (not badly) and then, finally, ceremoniously threw it out. :(Delete
There would have been no shame in crying over the loss of a homemade dessert! I'm glad my airheadedness made you feel better. I also attempted to save the almond butter by removing bits of spatula from it, but there were so many and they were so minuscule. After a few minutes I also conceded defeat. :(Delete
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
I turned a crumbled loaf of gingerbread into some yummy gingerbread white chocolate truffles!ReplyDelete
I think I've ruined multiple baked goods by forgetting to ADD the oil — too bad I wasn't clever enough to make truffles or sausages. I'm thinking the sausage looks a little scarily like real salami, especially with the little white bits. I can see my father putting a few slices in a sandwich with mustard, then getting quite unnerved by the taste and texture. I didn't know that chocolate sausages were a traditional candy treat in Latvia. I have to look the recipe up to see what was in the non-vegan version.ReplyDeleteReplies
(Oops! I messed up your reply! Let's try again...)Delete
Doesn't it? The little white bits look like fatty bits. I had eaten chocolate sausage when I was a child, but if this had been the first time trying it, I think my mind would have been confused. "It looks like sausage but tastes like dessert!"
That would be a disgusting sandwich! It would be quite the April's Fools' Day prank though :P
That is a great photo of the chickadee!ReplyDelete
I tried a Wing It Don't Fling it experiment this past weekend, and it was....unsuccessful. The cookies actually got worse. Each time I tried to do something, they just kept getting worse. It was a freak show, really.Replies
Isn't he a cutie? I love chickadees. They are so tiny and yet so loud!Delete
That sounds like a frustrating experiment! A series of unfortunate events! I hope you didn't have to waste too many expensive ingredients, and most importantly, I hope no chocolate went to waste! :D
Chocolate sausage, whaaat! Once again, I'm blown away by your way of fixing mistakes. I'd totally eat a slice or five of that :)ReplyDelete
Nice save! I recently had a similar issue with some cookies that just melted together in the oven. I went with the truffle ball option. Love the sausage.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousDecember 12, 2012 at 12:40 AM
What a wonderful way to recycle brownies! I think I like the look of the chocolate sausage better that brownies, actually. I may have to make a batch of too-oily brownies specifically for this purpose!ReplyDelete
Ha I am usually the kind of person who forgets to add things. Sugar, oil, even flour. It has been interesting. I love your chocolate sausage suggestion. I think this would be perfect for a kid birthday party!ReplyDelete


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Blog Archives
November goal review and December goal setting
I can't believe it's already December 1st! I think I say this to myself every time we enter a new month. Mostly, I can't believe that 2011 is coming to an end. It's been an interesting year, but I feel like I'm ending it on a high note and I feel very blessed.
Anyway, a month ago today I posted my November goals. I'm glad I only set a few because it ended up being another busy month, but let's see how I did.
My November 2011 Goals
- Get at least one more room of our house "finished" – Um, sort of? I did put a lot of stuff away when I thought someone was coming to clean our house (remind me not to buy anymore Groupons for cleaning companies) and I've also gotten a good start on Christmas decorating. Nothing is really ever "finished" right?
- Send out some handwritten cards – YES! I sent out the two cards I mentioned last time and I've also been trying to send encouraging messages to people on Facebook and via text. It's been good and people really seem to appreciate it.
- Bake, bake, bake – I have taken this one to a whole new level. I've baked desserts, enchiladas, vegan meatloaf for Thanksgiving, cinnamon rolls from scratch (first time ever), and a lot more that I'm sure I'm leaving out (plus some no bake things too). Very happy with this one and want to continue.
- Homemade Christmas presents – I'm working on this one too. I didn't get started until the week of Thanksgiving but I've already got one gift nearly finished and just a few more to do before December 25th, let's hope I can buckle down!
- Rest – I haven't taken a nap in a few weeks so I definitely need to get on this. I also didn't do enough fun shopping/browsing but hopefully I can find some small local shops to visit this month (no malls or Target for me this time of year, too much stress). But I have been spending more time at home during the week and I'm learning to say no to things from time to time when I just don't have the energy to be somewhere.
So, in review, even though they each required a little explanation, I would say I was fairly successful at meeting my goals for November. I could have done better but at least I made some intentions and followed through on all of them to some extent.
Now, what to do for December? Hmm…
My December 2011 goals
- Stay active during the holidays – The colder it gets outside, the harder it is for me to stay motivated to go out, get in the car and go to the gym. It's easy when I'm at work because the gym is here, but we get a little over a week off after Christmas and being away from work (hence, off my normal "schedule") can make staying active more difficult. But I have plenty of options to use over the break, including a temporary membership to the YMCA and a Groupon for Zumba/Yoga classes, so no excuses. Staying active to me means getting in some sort of movement outside of your normal daily activities at least a few days a week and resting when you need to as well (it's important to recognize resting needs vs. wants, ha ha).
- Keep up with reading/listening – I see a theme here. Keeping up with the things I'm already doing now while I'm off work. In the past few months I have discovered audio books and it helped me reach my goal of reading 12 books in 2011, I'm actually on #13 right now. I buy them at a used bookstore and then sell them back to buy more, but I also live down the street from a public library, so I need to utilize that more. This will be easy to do for most of the month but I think this one will be challenging at home because I won't be at my desk with headphones on able to listen. Perhaps I will be able to read a "real" book that week! Ha ha. Maybe that's the real goal here, read one "paper" book. If you are interested in what I read or want to swap book ideas, find me on Goodreads. I have decided to up my goal to 24 books in 2012, eek!
- Stay happy – This one is not just for me but for all of you as well. It's so easy to get bogged down by this time of year. The changing weather and less sunlight can be depressing, or maybe you are just stressed out by the holidays in general, or by your family and friends. Things can get kind of crazy this time of year. My friend Rob wrote a post around Thanksgiving called GrAttitude where he talked about how we "ramp up into higher gear. Guests coming over, visiting relatives, dinners to cook, houses to clean, games to watch, presents to buy, etc. The purpose of the holiday gets lost, stress increases, relationships strain…" I agree with him that our attitude really determines how things go. We can make a choice to be angry or stressed out for whatever reason or we can choose to put it all aside and give thanks to God for all our blessings. We can choose to be grateful and happy. (Disclaimer: I know this "choice" doesn't apply to everyone, some of you are probably dealing with some very tough emotions right now, maybe you lost a loved one recently or you are just going through a difficult time in life. I just pray you are able to find joy and happiness.)
- Send Christmas cards – This is something I haven't done in years, believe it or not. I just sort of got out of the habit and now that we know so many people I was always afraid that we wouldn't be able to do one for everybody and then someone would get offended and so on. Another one of my goals for 2012 is to care less about what people think or at least don't invent what I think people will think because I'm probably wrong anyway. But I plan to send a few or some, as many as I can and to write thoughtful messages in them and not just sign my name to a stack of cards (not that there's anything wrong with that, ha ha).
- See November's goals – I want to keep up with what I started last month. They were all good goals that I believe can apply all year long.
So what about you? What do you want to accomplish in December and the final month of 2011?
November goals
Can you believe it's already November 1st? That means in two months, it will be 2012! Crazy, right?
Even though yesterday was Halloween, I was still surprised to see the word November showing up everywhere this morning: on my phone, computer, tv, etc. It just seems like the year has flown by, but then again, I think it feels that way every year.
I haven't done this in a while but I couldn't help but remember that the 1st of the month is a great time to set some new goals. Not like "lose 5 lbs this month" or "do x number of yoga sessions" type of goals. I have been looking at things a lot differently lately. My goals this month are more in the realm of mental and spiritual as opposed to physical challenges.
My November 2011 Goals
- Get at least one more room of our house "finished" – We moved into our new place back in July and sadly, the only thing that's really done is the basement, which is because my awesome husband spent a whole day down there putting it all together. I've just been too busy or tired to get started anywhere else. It makes me feel better to have things in order, so I will remember that as I work on some things this month.
- Send out some handwritten cards – I have a couple of cards to send this month and maybe some more if I think about some people I'd like to contact. One is for a family member that is ill and another for a sweet family at my church.
- Bake, bake, bake – I made some oatmeal raisin and pumpkin cookies this past weekend to take to the Hootenanny and even though I didn't have a lot of time to spend on them, they turned out great and it made me want to make some more stuff. We are having a special "Parent Sunday" at the youth cafe this week, so I will get to start on this goal sooner rather than later 😉 I also want to practice some holiday dishes I hope to make.
- Homemade Christmas presents – Since it's November 1st, this means I have about a month and a half to get my Christmas presents ready. I plan to make a lot of stuff this year, I've already started on some knitting projects and I have some ideas for a few other things. Just need to nail these down, get the supplies and get going. Making things makes me happy!
- Rest – Even though the previous things I've mentioned are going to take up some of my time, I do want to mainly focus on relaxing this week. I have been busy nearly every weekend over the Summer and Fall and finally, November is here and I have ZERO plans on my Saturdays for the next several weeks. I want to go out for coffee, maybe browse a store or two, then spend the rest at home taking naps and snuggling with my doggie 🙂
That's about it over here! What are your goals for November?


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"The Real Housewives of New York City" are a real big hit.
The reality show's season 3 finale earned 2.64 million viewers, Bravo announced, a series high and a 30% improvement over season 2's last episode.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Bravo's 'Real Housewives'
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
The Bravo show reportedly scored an average 2.02 million viewers for the season.
Fans can catch up with the ladies' latest drama on June 10 and June 17, when the stars will return with a two-part reunion special.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Keepin' It Real With TV's Hottest Reality Stars!
"The reunion had heightened crazy moments," star Bethenny Frankel told Access Hollywood's Billy Bush in an interview earlier this week, adding that the finale itself was far wilder than fans were able to see.
"What you saw was probably like a four and what went down was probably a 10. It's not even funny," she said.
Bethenny – whose "Bethenny Getting Married?" spin-off special also airs June 10 – added to Billy that she may be ready to move on after three seasons of the show.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Top 10 Reality Romances Gone Right
"I tend to think it might be the end," she said. "It was really gross shooting it the whole season. It was really hard for me."
Copyright 2010 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Sen. Tester Signals He'd Oppose Larry Summers as Fed Chief
Lawrence Summers's prospects of becoming chairman of the Federal Reserve next year were dealt another blow late Friday when Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.) signaled he would oppose the Harvard economist if President Barack Obama nominated him.
Mr. Tester, considered a political centrist, joins at least three other Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee who are expected to vote against Mr. Summers, if he is nominated. Congressional aides have said Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts also would oppose his nomination.
Democrats hold a 12-10 advantage on the banking panel, and the opposition from Democrats would make it impossible for Mr. Summers to advance without GOP support.
"Sen. Tester believes we need a consensus-builder to lead the Federal Reserve," a spokeswoman for the lawmaker said. "He's concerned about Mr. Summers' history of helping to deregulate financial markets."
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When I think of the term, "silver lining," my mind automatically goes to the movie, "Silver Linings Playbook." This movie is about a teacher named Pat, who is released from a mental health institution to live at his parents' house. This all happens after he flips out on his wife and beats up her lover, and then he loses her and his teaching job. Pat goes through enormous, life-altering changes, while also trying to control his bi-polar disorder without medication. Throughout the movie, he keeps reiterating the word, "excelsior," which is a Latin word that means, "ever upward." During his journey, he meets a woman named Tiffany who has been struggling with depression since the death of her husband, and the two form an unlikely friendship. Pat never gives up on his silver lining, even though the movie ends quite differently from what Pat originally hopes will happen.
I have always wanted to be an optimistic person (like Pat), but sometimes my anxiety gets the better of me. It wasn't until I met my boyfriend, Chris, that I really started to understand that being optimistic does not mean just letting things work out for the best. I believe that Chris would NOT characterize himself as optimist, but rather would call himself a realist. He has a way of intuitively understanding situations and seeing the bigger picture. In my opinion, he has many characteristics of what I call a "realistic optimist," something which I hope to become. I'll outline what these characteristics are further on in the post.
So how can you find your silver linings? The original idiom says that "every cloud has a silver lining." In real life, clouds do appear to have silver linings when the sun is directly behind them. Because the top layer is less dense than the rest of the cloud, it appears lighter and sometimes silver to the human eye. Even if you perceive an experience to be negative, you can find something about it that is positive or helpful to you in the future. This may sound like bizarre, pie-in-the-sky thinking, but I really believe that this is true.
Ways to Discover Your Silver Lining
Re-Evaluate the Situation
First, let yourself feel disappointed, upset, angry, saddened, or whatever emotion that the situation immediately elicits in you. One way that Chris embodies a realistic optimist is that he doesn't dwell at all on his emotions when it comes to negative situations. Why is that? He claims that it's not helpful. I have to agree that this is right, but I am just WAY more emotional than him. Sometimes I need to just let it out before I can move on.
Try to view the situation from a non-judgmental perspective and analyze it objectively. Be determined to find 3 things that are neutral or positive about your situation and write it down! This is called cognitive re-appraisal or cognitive re-evaluation. I'm a big WORST-CASE scenario person sometimes, and I can go down the rabbit's hole quickly with my anxious thinking. Ask yourself: Did the worst really happen? What could the worst have been? Chances are, the worst did NOT happen to you.
Another characteristic that Chris has that I admire is that he is always seeing the opportunity and potential in each experience. Ask yourself, if such and such had not happened, would this opportunity still be present for me? It's a way of seeing the glass half-full rather than half-empty. I also believe that this way of thinking builds faith in yourself and how capable you are. Sometimes it may take time to see the opportunity that is present in otherwise negative circumstances.
Sometimes our brains are at fault for putting negative connotations on situations. You may put a judgment or label on a circumstance, without just letting it be. It helps to really look at the facts of a situation, without creating your own fiction about what it means. Remember to ask yourself if the situation will matter a year from now. Most of the time, it won't matter anymore.
Solve It If You Can
Use the situation as fuel to be a problem-solver. Maybe you don't have control over all aspects of the circumstance, but you do have SOME control. Even if it's simply over your own thoughts on the matter. YOU, you have the power to do something about it. If there's another thing that truly defines Chris, it's the ability to come up with multiple solutions to problems. If a solution doesn't work, he's ready with another one.
Create a problem-solving game plan for yourself that is also realistic. If you need to make Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and so on…go for it! It can only help to settle your mind more by having a distinct plan to follow (if you're like me, at least!). It is so important to be solution-oriented, so that you can come to terms with your current reality, instead of ignoring the situation or just hoping it will get better. Most people don't like change, and especially may not love a whole lotta change at once. Change can be painful or uncomfortable…it's like growing pains. You have to accept it for what it is and understand that what you are experiencing is NOT going to last forever. It's only temporary.
It's helpful to also view the circumstance as a challenge that you can overcome. I always get super worried about getting observed for teacher evaluations, even though I know that I'm a wonderful teacher! I can have difficulty accepting criticism, and often take it to heart. If you have strong self-esteem, you can learn to take criticism in a healthy way and understand that criticism is not an attack on your character. It's helpful to think of evaluations and criticism as advice that can make you even better at what you do!
When you are dealing with a life-altering situation, you have to accept it as it is. Don't put the blame on others, and don't make excuses for why things are the way they are. Why? It's going to prevent you from truly understanding the situation and what you have the power to do. By placing blame and making excuses, you are giving the power to someone else. In order to affect any positive change, you need to come to terms with both your own culpability and your strength.
Change Your Mindset
In many circumstances, you can't change the actual outcome, so you have to change your mindset. This is potentially the hardest challenge of all. By asking yourself lots of questions and reflecting on the situation, you may be able to discover what the silver lining of a situation is. Here is a list of questions that may help you in your reflection.
- What have I learned from this situation?
- How has this situation made me stronger?
- What positive outcomes have come out of the situation?
- How have I grown as a person from experiencing this?
- Are you proud of how you handled the situation? Why?
- What new skills have you developed as a result of this?
Another optimistic characteristic that Chris embodies is that he can decide whether he's going to let something affect him or not. There was once a quote that I read when I was going through a really tough time with depression and anxiety. It meant a lot to me, because I was simultaneously beating myself up over what had happened in the past and also non-stop worrying about what was going to become of me. This quote reads: "Worry is a total waste of time. It doesn't change anything. All it does is steal your joy and keep you very busy doing nothing." Of course, this is easier said than done! The next part of this post is about how to bring yourself back to emotional equilibrium so that you can work on shifting your mindset and being a problem-solver, so that you can find your silver lining. I am a super worrier and can be overly emotional, so if you are too, I'm hoping that this can help you out.
Finding Emotional Equilibrium
Be Grateful
This quote means so much to me. If Anne Frank could experience what she went through, and still find things to be grateful for, then I have no doubt that we can all do the same. My friend Michelle bought me "The Happiness Project: One-Sentence Journal" by Gretchen Rubin. It's a journal that you can use for 5 years. Each page starts with the date and a positive quote. It also has a line for you to write the year and one-sentence. I have been listing 5 things that I am grateful for each day. It's wonderful to also be able to look back and think about all of the things that have brought me happiness within the past year. Part of gratitude may mean feeling grateful for you and who you are as a person. Really consider who and what really makes you feel happy, despite whatever else may be going wrong or right in your life. You can also be grateful to people who have supported you and given you love by sharing your gratitude in person, giving them a call, sending a text, shooting them an email, or giving them a gratitude letter.
Reframing Your Mind for Positivity
If you are having trouble stopping yourself from worrying about the situation, find other ways to bring positivity into your day. Have a sense of humor about it if you can. Being able to not take yourself and bad experiences so seriously can do wonders for you. Here is a blog post that talks about making laughter a priority in your life. I also like to do some things that will make me happy, like walking my dog, watching one of my favorite movies, doing calligraphy, reading a good book, or listening to podcasts. Staying present in the moment and distracting yourself with other things is super helpful. If you are doubting yourself, talk to yourself the way that you would talk to a friend (we tend to be kinder to others than to ourselves). Think of your past achievements and how it may disprove what you are anxious about. In general, surround yourself with positivity, by reading positive quotes or books, listening or watching inspirational podcasts or movies, and being around people you buoy your spirit. Try to begin your day in a positive way and move slowly and mindfully throughout the day.
Find Ways to Snap You Out of It
Back when I felt my worst, I learned several coping methods that helped to calm me down when I felt overwhelmed. To this day, these coping methods still help me when I am having an anxiety attack. I drink some hot tea, read a book, and take a hot shower. If I do all three things, I can usually bounce back to normal. This will vary based on your personality or preferences, of course. Find ways that you can relax and trim a few items off from your to-do list that aren't pressing.
Use Your Mind-Body Connection
Our minds and bodies are inextricably linked for better and for worse. If you are having trouble maintaining emotional equilibrium, make sure that you are still taking care of yourself physically. These days, I exercise more for the mental and emotional benefits than for the physical benefits. I wrote 2 previous posts about finding fitness you love, and why it's important (for reasons beyond losing weight), and why you should ditch the scale (and enjoy exercise in and of itself). In addition to exercise, making sure that you get quality sleep and eat healthily will help you feel much better. In the past few years, I've learned a lot about focusing on breathing to help quiet my mind and calm my body too.
Call in the Reinforcements
I know that when I'm having trouble coping with a situation, that I can always call my mom. I have certain people that I know will either distract me or boost me up with their positivity. These are the people that you want to surround yourself with when you're trying to maintain emotional balance. Good friends and family members will allow you to let it all out, and in return you can help or listen to them too! It's definitely a good trade-off.
Becoming a Realistic Optimist
I hope that this post can help you to find your silver lining in even the most difficult circumstances. I love that the best way to be optimistic like Chris is to also be realististic. Here are the key points to being an optimistic realist! I'd love to hear about how difficult circumstances that you've faced have changed you for the better. Do share!


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LINCOLN, Neb. —
A Nebraska bee supplier says millions of honeybees headed for Nebraska and other states have died during a Wyoming snowstorm.
Jane and Warren Nelson own Valhalla Bee Farm in Lincoln, and she says they were notified about the problem Thursday morning.
Jane Nelson told the Lincoln Journal Star ( https://bit.ly/WO275R ) that a semitrailer was hauling the more than 16 million bees from a Northern California supplier.
The California company hopes to replace the shipment within a few days.
Jane Nelson says many of her customers are hobbyists, describing them as "people who want to have a little bit of honey for themselves or promote good pollination in their gardens."
Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, https://www.journalstar.com


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LONG BEACH — A police academy will be included in the city budget to be released next week, the office of Mayor Bob Foster has confirmed.
The Long Beach Police Department's last academy class of 20 officers graduated in April 2009. Since then, budget pressures have postponed more police recruiting.
Foster is expected to introduce the fiscal year 2013 budget by Wednesday. Long Beach must balance an estimated $17.2 million deficit.
Projected shortfalls in 2014 and 2015 are $10.9 million and $6.4 million, respectively.
Considering that, Foster's chief of staff, Becki Ames, said funding an academy to train more officers is easy in comparison to the ongoing expenses once they are sworn into service.
"There will be tremendous challenges to pay them in the coming years," said Ames.
Police officials have said that a new academy class of 17 officers would cost $1.5 million. It takes about two years from the beginning of the academy process to put an independently operating officer on the street.
The LBPD had a record high 1,020 budgeted officers in 2008.
Attrition has reduced rolls to about 815 now, and Police Chief Jim McDonnell said he expected the number of sworn officers to drop to about 760 by year's end.
Long Beach crime rates have declined steadily over the past decade, with 2010 hitting a 40-year low.
However, in 2011 Part 1 crimes, which include assault, murder and other serious crimes, increased 9.4 percent.
As of Tuesday, following four shootings that resulted in three homicides in a five-day span, the city has seen a 54 percent spike in killings and a 38 percent jump in shootings in 2012 over the same time period last year.
Details of the academy weren't revealed, pending the release of the budget.
email@example.com, 562-714-2104, twitter.com/EricBradleyPT


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|(above) Tyler Bozak's Twitter account mentions that he watched the Final 5 on TV
by Rob Longley
It will be just like old times for Toronto Maple Leafs center Tyler Bozak when the NHL team practices Wednesday at Magness Arena. The Regina native played two seasons at the University of Denver before being signed by the Leafs. The team was scheduled to fly to Denver immediately following Tuesday's game to prepare for a date with the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.
Bozak frequently tweets about the fortunes of the NCAA Pioneers, where he was an all-star player, WCHA academic performer, still takes off-season classes towards his degree and trains with the Avalanche's Paul Stastny in the summer.


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I'm serious about that, folks. You see, that's the kind of thing that's going to end up in news stories: "Neal Boortz said that in times of disaster we should save the rich people first." Well, hell, yes, we should save the rich people first. You know, they're the ones that are responsible for this prosperity. I mean, you go out there and you look at this vast sea of evacuees, OK? You want to get an economy going in some city? Well, who you gonna take back? The people who own businesses? Or the people that sit around waiting to get their minimum wage job, work 'til Friday, get a paycheck and then not show up again until the following Wednesday? Come on. Just put a little logical thought into this, folks.Logic, right. Logic like portraying this as a black and white dichotomy, with rich people being good and hard working, and poor people bad and lazy, and nothing in between. Logic like ignoring the fact that the people who were tipped off in New York were tipped off because they were connected, not because they had made superior civic contributions to society. Logic like creating a hypothetical doomsday scenario to justify the protection of privelege in scenarios which aren't doomsday scenarios. Logic like ignoring the fact that privelege of wealth and power would save a Paris Hilton before it would save a local librarian.
Congratulations, Neil, you're today's worst person in the world.