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Letter dated - 10/16/2012 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
October 16, 2012
The Honorable Richard Cordray
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
1700 G Street NW
Washington, DC 20006-4702
Re: 2012 Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z) Loan Originator Compensation (Docket No. CFPB-2012-0037, RIN3170-AA13)
Dear Mr. Cordray:
The Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (Advocacy) submits this comment on the proposed rules on 2012 Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z) Loan Originator Compensation.1
Advocacy Background
Advocacy was established pursuant to Pub. L. 94-305 to represent the views of small entities before federal agencies and Congress. Advocacy is an independent office within the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), so the views expressed by Advocacy do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA or the Administration. The RFA,2 as amended by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA),3 gives small entities a voice in the rulemaking process. For all rules that are expected to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities, federal agencies are required by the RFA to assess the impact of the proposed rule on small business and to consider less burdensome alternatives.
The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 requires agencies to give every appropriate consideration to comments provided by Advocacy.4 The agency must include, in any explanation or discussion accompanying the final rule's publication in the Federal Register, the agency's response to these written comments submitted by Advocacy on the proposed rule, unless the agency certifies that the public interest is not served by doing so.5
In July 2010, the United States Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act (Act).6 Section 1011 of the Act establishes the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (CFPB) to supervise certain activities of financial institutions. Section 1100G,
entitled "Small Business Fairness and Regulatory Transparency," amends 5 U.S.C. § 609(d), to
require the CFPB to comply with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act
(SBREFA) panel process, making it the third agency with this responsibility, joining EPA and
The SBREFA panel process requires the CFPB to conduct special outreach efforts to ensure that small entity views are carefully considered prior to the issuance of a proposed rule, if the rule is expected to have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. This outreach is accomplished through the work of small business advocacy review panels, often referred to as SBREFA panels, consisting of a representative or representatives from the
rulemaking agency, the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and the Chief Counsel for the Office of Advocacy. The panel solicits
information and advice from small entity representatives (SERs), who are individuals who
represent small entities affected by the proposal. SERs help the panel better understand the
ramifications of the proposed rule. The product of a SBREFA panel's work is its panel report on
the regulatory proposal under review. The CFPB convened a SBREFA panel for this
The Office of Advocacy performs outreach through roundtables, conference calls and other
means to develop its position on important issues such as this one. Advocacy held a roundtable
on this issue on September 26, 2012.
The Proposed Rule
On September 7, 2012, the CFPB published in the Federal Register a proposed rule amending
Regulation Z (TILA) to implement amendments to TILA made by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). The proposal would implement
statutory changes to Regulation Z's current loan originator compensation provisions, including a
new additional restriction on the imposition of any upfront discount points, origination points, or
fees on consumers under certain circumstances. In addition, the proposal implements additional
requirements imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act concerning proper qualification and registration or
licensing for loan originators. The proposal also implements Dodd-Frank Act restrictions on
mandatory arbitration and the financing of certain credit insurance premiums. Finally, the
proposal provides additional guidance and clarification under the existing regulation's provisions
restricting loan originator compensation practices, including guidance on the application of those provisions to certain profit-sharing plans and the appropriate analysis of payments to loan originators based on factors that are not terms but that may act as proxies for a transaction's terms.
Flat Fee
Advocacy commends the CFPB's decision not to include the flat fee requirement in the proposed rulemaking. As noted in the proposed rule, during the SBREFA process, the SERs were presented with a provision that would ban origination points and prevent origination fees from varying based on loan size. The SERs strongly opposed this flat fee requirement at the meeting and during a subsequent conference to discuss the topic. After hearing their concerns, the CFPB did not include the flat fee requirement in the proposed rule.7
The proposed rule would require creditors to create and maintain records to demonstrate their compliance with provisions that apply to the compensation paid to or received by a loan originator for three years rather than two years. The CFPB is soliciting comment on extending the period to five years.8
The participants at Advocacy's roundtable were concerned about the definition of compensation. They asserted that the definition was too broad. As such, it will be difficult to determine what is and is not compensation. They were also unclear about the requirements for maintaining records. They were also concerned that if a mistake was made on the compensation structure, all loans could be returned from secondary market. This could result in a massive buyback. The participants suggested a safe harbor to prevent one violation from poisoning an entire pool of loans.
Advocacy encourages the CFPB to clarify what is considered compensation. Advocacy also encourages the CFPB to consider a safe harbor for this provision of the rulemaking.
Upfront Points and Fees
The Dodd-Frank Act prohibits consumer payment of upfront points and fees in all residential mortgage loan transactions except those where no one other than the consumer pays a loan originator compensation tied to the transaction. The CFPB is proposing to require that before a creditor or loan originator may impose discount points and origination points or fees on a consumer, the creditor must make available to the consumer a comparable, alternative loan that does not include such points or fees. If the consumer is unlikely to qualify for such a loan, making available the comparable, alternative loan would not be necessary.9
The CFPB is proposing two safe harbors for how a creditor may comply with the requirement to make available a comparable, alternative loan. In transactions that do not involve a mortgage broker, a creditor will be deemed to have made available a comparable, alternative loan to a consumer if, any time prior to application that the creditor provides to the consumer an individualized quote for a loan that includes discount points and origination points or fees, the creditor also provides a quote for the comparable, alternative loan. In transactions that involve mortgage brokers, a creditor will be deemed to have made a comparable, alternative loan available to consumers if it provides to mortgage brokers the pricing for all of its comparable, alternative loans that do not include discount points and origination points or fees. Mortgage brokers then will provide quotes to consumers for loans that do not include discount points and origination points or fees when presenting different loan options to consumers. The requirement would not apply where the consumer is unlikely to qualify for the comparable, alternative loan.10
The CFPB is also seeking comment including whether the CFPB should adopt a ``bona fide'' requirement to ensure that consumers receive value in return for paying discount points and origination points or fees, and different options for structuring such a requirement; whether additional adjustments to the proposal concerning the treatment of affiliate fees would make it easier for consumers to compare offers between two or more creditors; whether to take a different approach concerning situations in which a consumer does not qualify for a comparable, alternative loan that does not include discount points and origination points or fees; and whether to require that information about a comparable, alternative loan be provided not just in connection with informal quotes, but also in advertising and at the time that consumers are provided disclosures three days after application.11
As noted in the panel report, the SERs strongly supported CFPB using its exemption authority to allow consumers to pay upfront discount points. However, they were concerned about the specific details of requirements to make these discount points bona fide. Many SERs pointed out difficulties in mandating a discount equal to a fixed percent of the interest rate for each discount point given the non-linearity of the value for each point, and some SERs recommended exploring other options for ensuring that discount points are bona fide, including basing the discount on market rates or a lender's rate sheet. SERs expressed different opinions on the requirement that lenders offer a no-discount point loan, with a sizable number stating that they already offer such a loan.12
At Advocacy's roundtable, the industry representatives stated that the zero point zero fee alternative was a bad choice that may be unrealistic for small players. They also stated putting all points and fees into interest rates may create a riskier loan. The loan could possibly conflict with the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act requirements and, depending on the provisions, the CFPB's rulemaking for qualified mortgages. Also, the riskier the loan, the more difficult it is to sell it to the secondary market.
Furthermore, originators that also service the loans may have to impose prepayment penalties because prepayment penalties would be the only way for financial institutions to recoup upfront costs on a loan and break even on the expenditures required to originate the transaction. This is particularly problematic for credit unions because they are not allowed to charge prepayment penalties. As such, they would incur a loss. In addition, some things will not be able to be to be included in a zero-zero loan. As such, the originator will have to absorb the costs.
The roundtable participants were also concerned about the bona fide aspect of the proposal. The small lenders are worried that the may not have the ability to comply with that part of the proposal.
Advocacy encourages the CFPB to give full consideration to the concerns of small entities and not impose the zero points-zero fees alternative. In addition, Advocacy understands that the small entities may be working on their own alternative to reduce the economic burden of this proposal. Advocacy urges the CFPB to carefully consider the alternatives that are set forth by the industry.
Compensation Based on Transaction Terms
The proposed rule also clarifies and restricts pooled compensation, profit sharing and bonus plans for loan originators, depending on certain incentives to steer consumers to different transaction terms. It would permit employers to make contributions from general profits derived from mortgage activity to 401(k) plans, employee stock option plans and other "qualified plans." It also permits employers to pay bonuses or make contributions to non-qualified profit-sharing and retirement from general profits derived from mortgage activity, if the loan originator affected has originated five or fewer mortgage transactions in the last 12 months or if the company's mortgage business revenues are limited. The CFPB is seeking comment on whether 25 percent or 50 percent would be the proper test for such limitation.13
During the SBREFA panel SERs outreach meeting, the SERs urged the CFPB to analyze the incentive issues arising from qualified and non-qualified plans carefully before issuing clarifications on existing regulations or proposing new regulations. SERs stated that mortgage-related revenue limits, even if set at 50 percent of company revenue, may not provide relief for many small businesses because their revenues are often derived predominately from mortgage originations. Moreover, SERs suggested that the CFPB consider relaxing the revenue test to exclude revenue derived from existing loans held in portfolio.14 At the roundtable, the participants were also concerned about the definition of "revenue."
Advocacy encourages the CFPB to provide some clarification as to the definition of revenue. Advocacy also encourages the CFPB develop a mortgage related revenue limit that reflects the unique business structure of smaller industry members and provides relief to small entities.
Mandatory Arbitration and Credit Insurance
The proposed rule would prohibit agreements requiring consumers to submit any disputes that may arise to mandatory arbitration. The roundtable participants were uncertain as to why this was included in the loan originator compensation proposal. Advocacy recommends that the CFPB consider this proposal at a later date.
Advocacy encourages the CFPB to give full consideration to the concerns of small loan originators regarding the proposed rule. There are provisions of the proposal that are potentially costly to small loan originators. Advocacy encourages the CFPB to work with small loan originators to develop a solution that reaches the agency's goals without being unduly burdensome on small entities. Advocacy is available to assist the CFPB in this task.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this important proposal and for your consideration of Advocacy's comments. If you have any questions regarding these comments or if Advocacy can be of any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Jennifer Smith at (202) 205-6943.
Winslow Sargeant, Ph.D.
Chief Counsel for Advocacy
Jennifer A. Smith
Assistant Chief Counsel
For Economic Regulation & Banking
Cc: Boris Bershteyn, Acting Administrator, OIRA
- 77 Fed. Reg. 55272, September 7, 2012.
- 5 U.S.C. § 601 et seq.
- Pub. L. 104-121, Title II, 110 Stat. 857 (1996) (codified in various sections of 5 U.S.C. § 601 et seq.).
- Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (PL 111-240) § 1601.
- Id.
- Public Law 111-203.
- 77 Fed. Reg. 55311.
- 77 Fed. Reg. 55345.
- 77 Fed. Reg. 55345.
- 77 Fed. Reg. 55346.
- 77 Fed. Reg. 55346.
- Final Report of the Small Business Review Panel on CFPB's Proposals Under Consideration for Residential Mortgage Loan Origination Standards Rulemaking, July 11, 2012, page 30.
- 77 Fed. Reg. 55347.
- Final Report of the Small Business Review Panel on CFPB's Proposals Under Consideration for Residential Mortgage Loan Origination Standards Rulemaking, July 11, 2012, page 31.


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NEW YORK — U.S. stocks slid on Monday, giving the S&P 500 its worst day since November, as renewed worries about the euro zone crisis caused the market to pull back from recent gains.
Shares of McGraw-Hill shed 13.8% to US$50.30, their worst daily percentage decline since the October 1987 market crash, after news the U.S. Justice Department plans to sue Standard & Poor's, a unit of McGraw-Hill, over its ratings in 2007 of some mortgage bond deals. Moody's Corp shares were down 10.7% at US$49.45, their worst one-day drop since August 2011.
The market is extended and due for a pullback. I think people are looking for an excuse to make sales
Chevron and Wal-Mart were among the biggest drags on the Dow after analyst downgrades, and all 10 S&P 500 sectors were lower. The losses follow Friday's market climb that left the S&P 500 at a five-year high and the Dow above 14,000.
"The market is extended and due for a pullback. I think people are looking for an excuse to make sales, and there (is) the concern coming from Europe," said Michael James, senior trader at Wedbush Morgan in Los Angeles.
Spanish and Italian bond yields rose, renewing worries about the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis. Spain's prime minister faced calls to resign over a corruption scandal, while a probe of alleged misconduct involving an Italian bank was expected to widen three weeks before a national election.
Adding to market pressure, data from the U.S. Commerce Department showed overall factory orders for December were below economists' expectations.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 129.71 points, or 0.93%, at 13,880.08. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 17.46 points, or 1.15%, at 1,495.71. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 47.93 points, or 1.51%, at 3,131.17.
The benchmark S&P 500 rose on Friday, leaving it roughly 60 points away from its all-time intraday high of 1,576.09, while the Dow's march above 14,000 was the highest for the index since October 2007.
The S&P index remains up about 5% for the year, with nearly half of the gains coming after U.S. legislators temporarily sidestepped the "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts.
The CBOE Volatility index VIX, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, jumped 13.7%.
Chevron dipped 1.1% to US$115.20 after UBS cut its rating to neutral, while Wal-Mart Stores Inc shed 1.2% to US$69.63 after JP Morgan lowered its rating on the world's largest retailer and reduced its price target.
Shares of household products company Clorox rose 0.7% to US$79.72 after quarterly profit beat analysts' estimates as a severe flu season boosted sales of disinfecting wipes.
According to Thomson Reuters data, of the 256 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings through Monday morning, 68.4% have reported earnings above analyst expectations, compared with the 62% average since 1994 and the 65% average over the past four quarters.
S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are expected to rise 4.4%, according to the data. That estimate is above the 1.9% forecast at the start of earnings season, but well below the 9.9% forecast on Oct. 1.
Herbalife Ltd ended up 1.3% at US$35.54, recovering its losses ahead of the close. The New York Post reported the seller of weight loss products is facing a probe by the Federal Trade Commission.
Volume was roughly 6.3 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion.
Decliners outpaced advancers on the NYSE by nearly 4 to 1 and on the Nasdaq also by about 4 to 1.
© Thomson Reuters 2013

subset: commoncrawl


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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Officials at luxury-home builder Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL.N) have agreed to pay $16.2 million to settle claims that they misled shareholders about the company's future prospects while reaping $615 million from sales of the company's stock.
The settlement was filed Thursday in Delaware Chancery Court. If approved, it would resolve claims that several Toll Brothers directors — including co-founders Robert and Bruce Toll — went to great lengths to convince investors that the company was uniquely positioned to weather a downturn in the housing market, according to a 2008 lawsuit filed by Toll Brother shareholder Milton Pfeiffer.
The complaint accused the defendants of profiting from their rosy predictions, earning proceeds of more than $615 million from selling off millions of company shares between late 2004 and 2005. Even as concerns were raised about a potential housing bubble, the defendants went to great lengths to convince investors otherwise, it said.
From late 2004 until late 2005, Toll Brothers executives stuck by projections of 20 percent net income growth in 2006 and 2007, the complaint said.
But in December 2005, management abruptly lowered its annual growth projections for 2006 to just 0.5 percent, which received a negative reaction from analysts and shareholders, according to the complaint.
As part of the settlement, the defendants denied they traded on any non-public insider information about the company, breached their fiduciary duties or made misleading statements about the company. Representatives for Toll Brothers could not be immediately reached for comment Thursday evening.
Toll Brothers' insurers will pay $9.8 million of the settlement amount, while the executive defendants will pay the remaining $6.45 million, according to settlement papers.
The settlement would resolve the 2008 Delaware lawsuit, as well as two other investor lawsuits filed in a Pennsylvania federal court, settlement papers showed.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said in the filing that the settlement "is in the best interest of the parties and Toll Brothers' current stockholders."
The case is Pfeiffer v. Toll et al., in the Delaware Chancery Court, no. 4140-VCL.
Reporting by Jessica Dye; Editing by Richard Pullin


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BooBeauty Blue Gold Plaid Bikini
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Size(inch) Bust Waist Hips S 26.4 27.2-28.8 28.8-29.6 M 28 28.8-30.4 30.4-31.2 L 29.6 30.4-32 32-32.8 XL 31.2 32-33.6 33.6-34.4
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If you wish to return an item for an exchange or refund, please contact us within 30 days of receiving your order. Returns must be in their original packaging, unworn and undamaged. Please see our Returns Page for more information.


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9 states announce deal to lower greenhouse gas emissions 45 percent in 2014
BOSTON (AP) � A multi-state agreement calls for a 45 percent reduction next year in allowable greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative announced Thursday would lower the cap on carbon dioxide emissions from 165 million tons to 91 million tons in 2014.
The states agreed to further reduce the cap by 2.5 percent per year from 2015-2020.
The nine Northeast and mid-Atlantic states that participate in the cap-and-trade agreement are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The initiative is the nation's first market-based greenhouse gas regulatory program. Backers say it has cut emissions by 30 percent in past several years and reduced average electricity prices by 10 percent.


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Last week, I had the opportunity to speak with Jeanne Nolan, founder of Glencoe-based The Organic Gardener about the Organic Garden at Westfield Old Orchard shopping center in Skokie, Illinois. Read on to see what she had to say about her company and the work that they do, Westfield Old Orchard's Organic Garden, the importance of connecting with nature, the benefits of growing your own food and eating organically-grown produce and much more.
Andrew DeCanniere (AD): I actually hadn't heard of "The Organic Gardener" until recently. When & how did the company start? I was just looking at the website, and noticed that you really provide quite the range of services.
Jeanne Nolan (JN): Yeah, we do. My husband and I run the company together. We have about 20 people on our team, and we are in our 10th growing season. We started the company in 2005. It's been a special year for us. We published a book with Random House. It's all about the 'grow your own food' movement and about our company and my personal story. Yesterday we had a big review of the book in The New York Times. We have built over 700 food gardens in and around Chicago. We work with residential gardens, with families, both in the suburbs and in the city. We work in backyards, front yards, on rooftops, containers. We have a large teaching garden in Lincoln Park Zoo that we've had for 10 years that we do on behalf of Green City Market. Some of the work that we do is more focused on food deserts in the inner city. We work with a homeless boys shelter, boys & girls clubs that have after-school programs. We have all kinds of projects going.
AD: Yeah. I noticed there's really everything from individuals to non-profits to restaurants and schools and beyond.
JN: That's right, and you know, it's especially remarkable to us that the great people at Old Orchard called us and said that they had done a survey of their shoppers. One of the questions that they had asked is whether the shoppers would like to have a community garden at the mall, and the mall got an overwhelming response that they would. Then they called us and said 'Well, what is a community garden? How do we do that?' So we figured that out together.
We live in a fast-paced, technology-driven world, I think it's really important on so many levels to connect with nature. To connect with where our food comes from. So, growing food is something that can be done just about anywhere, obviously. We're doing it in the center of a shopping mall [Westfield Old Orchard in Skokie, Illinois], and we're getting an amazing response there. Really any time of day, on a nice day, if you stand and watch the garden, there's a constant flow of children and adults marveling at it and interacting with the plants. I think that we're all hungry for more basic, real connection to each other, to our food and to our planet, and growing food is a wonderful gateway to that.
AD: Especially now, when most of us — or many of us — here in the U.S. are so used to living in these sort of urban environments or suburban environments, as the case may be, whether that's in Chicago or in Skokie or Glencoe, or really anywhere else on the North Shore. Normally we're pretty far removed from where our food comes from. You walk or drive from your home to this grocery store — this big-box environment — you buy what you need or want to buy there and then you take it back home with you. There's really no interaction with nature, no interaction with the environment. It's totally removed from the process itself. So, I think that it's wonderful to have these kinds of opportunities to reconnect, to think about and learn more about where our food actually comes from.
JN: Right. And there are so many positive benefits to be connecting. Children who grow vegetables eat more vegetables. That's been proven in numerous university studies. Gardening has a very positive effect on our mood, on our attitude. So there are just so many positives that are so easily available when you dig in.
AD: And hopefully it also will make people feel more responsible toward the environment, more inclined to take care of the planet, to do the right thing by the planet upon which we depend.
JN: I completely agree. There's this perspective that we are the stewards of the Earth. We are responsible for the planet. Only when we take care of it will it continue to take care of and sustain us. It's this reciprocal relationship, and when we engage in growing food, it really makes that connection obvious.
AD: It certainly makes the fact that our own health and the environment's health are related — are inextricably linked, as it were. There is no separating the two.
JN: That's right. You know, we are a small planet within a big system, and it's our air and our water and our soil. It's all connected, no matter where we live.
AD: You said you're working with a pretty diverse array of people, companies and organizations. What kinds of services do you provide?
JN: Well, we basically cover the full gamut of what is needed to succeed at growing vegetables. So, we design. We have a landscape architect on our team. We build. We build fences and raised beds and irrigation systems and composting systems. We plant. We work with families and groups to plant together. Then we come on a regular basis — every week or every other week or several times a week — to teach at and maintain these gardens. So, we're really involved from seed to table, the whole process of helping to create successful edible gardening programs.
AD: Also, as far as the organic garden at Westfield Old Orchard, you have a pretty wide range of events planned this year. For readers who are interested but who may not be familiar — I tried to look over some of it — what are some of the highlights of some of the events that are coming up?
JN: We have a lot of different, fun activities that we do with the kids where they create garden journals or they release ladybugs or they make seed necklaces. There's a harvesting of all the food that's grown in the garden. It's then donated to a local food pantry. So once the garden is full of food, the kids are able to help us harvest and get that ready to be donated.
AD: And I don't know if there is, but is there a specific age range that you have in mind for these activities?
JN: I'd say ages 3 to 11, but we have a lot of adults who come by and learn at the garden.
AD: Which is great. I was just about to say that there probably are a lot of topics that are covered that would be of interest to adults as well. There's something that they can learn by stopping by.
JN: Yeah. I think that with them we tend to do a little more question and answer. What people are interested in. They get to ask us questions and we talk gardening. That works real well.
AD: And it's also great that it highlights the benefits of growing your own produce and the benefits of eating organically grown produce, versus what is termed 'conventionally grown.'
JN: Right, and part of what we wanted to demonstrate is that you can grow just about any vegetable you like, even in a container. You know, our garden in Old Orchard is not in the ground, but in a series of containers that grow food very well.
AD: Which is also a wonderful lesson for people who perhaps don't have as much of their own outdoor space in which to grow things. For example, I'm in a condo, so my outdoor space is a balcony, and container gardening works well for that kind of a setting. People can learn what they can do at home.
JN: Definitely. And there's such a wide range of vegetables, herbs and edible flowers that you can grow. It's pretty amazing, and one of our goals is to demonstrate that and inspire people.
I think there are more and more people realizing that the footprint of how we human beings are walking on the planet is a detrimental one, and that the fabric of these things that we do that are woven into our daily lives are really having a negative effect. On the flip side of it, there are so many ways in which we can make a difference, and growing our own food and eating food that's been produced locally is a very significant way we can walk lighter on the planet.
AD: And the local movement certainly seems to be catching on as well. You certainly are seeing more farmers markets cropping up, and even grocery stores are beginning to promote locally-grown produce.
JN: Definitely. And the food tastes so much better, too. You know?
AD: Yeah, in large part because it's not shipped from who-knows-where and handled who-knows-how. Often grocery stores don't necessarily handle, transport and store every item the way it should ideally be handled, transported and stored, and so by the time it's out on the shelf at your local big-box type supermarket, it's really past it's prime. It either is very, very evident that it has just been picked way too early in an effort to get it to the supermarket in time, or it's just super obvious that it has already started to go bad. Often they'll have no taste to it whatsoever.
JN: Yeah, it's more like cardboard than food.
AD: When you have local, when you have these farmers markets, it just seems like the quality is so much better. Things actually taste as they should. An apple tastes like an apple, for example. It's food as it should be. Is there anything else you would like to add?
JN: Well, I think that we welcome families to come. Our garden is just adjacent to the relatively new PlaySpace at the Old Orchard mall, and I think it's a great place where families can hang out and their kids can play and wander over to our garden and learn about where their food comes from, right in the middle of our suburban lives in the mall, and I think that that's very exciting. There's a garden on the White House lawn. Just so many places in and around cities and suburbs where people are making a difference growing food and it's fun that we've got a program like that right here. Our staff loves to interact with children and adults, and help them learn hands-on about all of this.
AD: And I think it's great that you're just getting out in the community. Not to say people wouldn't seek that sort of information out, but I guess a lot of people don't. So this may get their wheels turning. After visiting the garden, having sort of stumbled upon it, maybe they will start to think about what they can do.
JN: I think so and that's certainly one of the goals of it. Especially with young people. When kids get exposed to this, it's really exciting and wondrous to them. Part of our children being the future of a sustainable world is them understanding our relationship with the planet and our food and how that works, and it's a great chance for them to do that. I would encourage anybody who wants to start their own garden and who wants some form of help with it — we're here to help people succeed and I look to share my book with people as well. My book is a personal memoir about my own journey, but it's also a lot about how to grow food, why it's important to grow food, and also the back of it is an appendix, 10 lists of 10 — a fairly simple sort of how-to lists to help you get started on this journey.
Jeanne Nolan is the founder of The Organic Gardener, Ltd, as well as a well-known educator, consultant and the author of From the Ground Up (Random House, 2013). For more information regarding The Organic Gardener, visit their website, and follow them on Twitter. For a complete listing of events at Westfield Old Orchard's organic garden, visit Westfield Old Orchard's News & Events page, look for the information on the Organic Garden and then click on the "More Information" link under the Organic Garden section of the page.
Westfield Old Orchard is located at the intersection of Skokie Boulevard & Old Orchard Road in Skokie, Illinois. For additional information regarding Westfield Old Orchard, visit their website or call 847-673-6800. Westfield Old Orchard's Organic Garden is located on the northeast end of the shopping center, near the mall's new PlaySpace, just outside of Anthropologie. You can also follow Westfield Old Orchard on Twitter.


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Culture clash
Exploring Indonesia, Mexico or France can take years. If you're strapped for time why not try a cultural theme park instead?
Island hopping
At the Taman Mini park near Jakarta, you'll find Indonesia's over 17 500 islands in miniature format plus architecture, dances, crafts and culinary specialties from across the archipelago.
Mexico Express
Enjoy dance and music shows, watch traditional potters and smiths at work, stroll the ruins of a real Maya settlement – all at Xcaret, the Mexican culture park near Cancún.
Puy du Fou in Vendée, France, has been named the world's best theme park multiple times. Its spectacular shows spotlight French historical and mythological heroes.


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capybara-accessible is an automated accessibility testing tool that has been recently released by Case Commons, with Pivotal Labs contributions. Here's a description of capybara-accessible, how it works, and an explanation of some of the technical decisions we've made.
What does it do?
capybara-accessible automatically runs web accessibility audits within Rails application integration test suites. It will fail on accessibility errors when set as the Capybara webdriver. The failure messages have helpful details and links to documentation on how to fix errors.
How does it work?
capybara-accessible defines a Selenium-based webdriver that acts as a drop in replacement for Selenium or Webkit in your Capybara integration tests. Every time the driver visits a page, it automatically runs assertions from the Google Accessibility Developer Tools javascript library, and raises exceptions with detailed error messages.
Why automation?
capybara-accessible began as a component of a Case Commons project that has explicit accessibility requirements. We created capybara-accessible to automate what would otherwise be an impossibly onerous QA task. It doesn't replace usability testing, but it has made it easy to quickly catch existing accessibility errors, while also guarding against future regressions.
Why Google Accessibility Developer Tools?
Google Accessibility Developer tools has a comprehensive, open source set of javascript assertions, along with a convenient API for running audits and generating reports. For example, the failure messages you'll see in Rspec are composed by Google's javascript library.
Why not add explicit accessibility assertions?
At first, we tried defining an Rspec matcher that ran the accessibility audits on a page when invoked. This was laborious and redundant. All pages should be accessible, so the audit should run on every page load by default. capybara-accessible supports configuring exclusion of individual rules from every audit, if necessary.
Why integration tests? Why not a site crawler?
For applications with complex workflows, resources, and associations, it's impractical to use a crawler. Even running a crawler against your generated routes would leave major gaps in coverage. A comprehensive integration test suite should already cover at least the workflows that are most important to you, set up in a state that is plausible in the real world.
Why Capybara? Why Selenium?
The application already has an existing and extensive integration test suite that uses Capybara, so it was the most convenient option. Similarly, there are project specific requirements around using Firefox, so Selenium was the obvious choice.
Why open source?
There is a scarcity of existing open source tools for automated Rails accessibility testing. Case Commons has chosen to open source the project to help fill this gap.
capybara-accessible's audits are not exhaustive. For instance, they do not test an applications support for keyboard navigation, a feature that is critical for web accessibility. Also capybara-accessible's audits are limited to your test coverage. Finally, the accessibility failures you see initially may be just the tip of the iceberg. Integration tests often visit multiple pages in a single example, but an audit failure will interrupt the driver before it can visit those pages. Expect to see new failures surface as you uncover new content to the driver.
Problem Solved?
Not entirely. capybara-accessible may help you fix low hanging accessibility failures. However, comprehensive web accessibility requires empathy and consideration that defy simple heuristics. Hopefully, seeing accessibility failures in CI will help foster a conversation about accessibility, build empathy, and guide you and your team to make your application more useful to more people.
About the Author


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Pick a Good Topic
Lily's assignment is broad enough to give her some choices when picking a topic. So, what makes a good topic?
- It interests you! You'll enjoy it and do a better job.
- It meets the requirements of your assignment.
- It's broad enough to give you several search options.
- It's focused enough that you're not overwhelmed with information.


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Inbred royals show traces of natural selection – "Study suggests the Spanish Habsburgs evolved to mute the effects of inbreeding, but other geneticists are unconvinced."
Time to get tough on the physiological causes of crime – "[V]iolent criminals are biologically different from the rest of us." – review of The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime.
Scientists find ethnicity linked to antibodies – "'[I]t's early days,' emphasizes Watson, 'but these findings could mean that past environmental exposures to certain pathogens caused DNA insertions or deletions in different ethnic groups, which could impact disease risk. Our results demonstrate that antibody studies need to take into account the ethnicity of DNA samples used.'"
Those resistant to 'love hormone' may also be easier to hypnotize – "Gene variants linked to social detachment may increase suggestibility."
One Blessing Of Outbreeding – i didn't write this, i swear! (you'll never guess who did…)
The gay germ hypothesis – from peter frost. see also Not Final! from greg cochran.
Another reminder… – "[A] prod to certain of my smart liberal friends to start having children." – from jayman. see also: The end of paternal investment or, more cads, fewer dads from mr. mangan.
The Strange Case of Dr. Robert Trivers – "[Trivers] has been driven off the campus of Rutgers University! He has been involved in a controversy lately over his accusation that one of his graduate students committed fraud in a scientific paper. Apparently he was banned from campus because a colleague who supports the alleged fraudster claimed Trivers had 'frightened him in his office'." – from helian unbound.
Women graduates of elite colleges 1/3rd more likely to be stay-at-home moms – from steve sailer.
Scent of a Man: Women Can Sniff Out a Hot Guy – "Women at their peak fertility prefer the smell of men oozing with testosterone, a new study finds." – and speaking of testosterone: Testosterone pumps up threats for tough guys – "The higher a man's testosterone level, the more macho he's likely to act when his masculinity is threatened, a new study finds."
The Real 'Hobbit' Had Larger Brain Than Thought
Egyptian mummies yield genetic secrets – "The ancient Egyptians could soon be getting their genomes sequenced as a matter of routine."
Stonehenge occupied 5,000 years earlier than thought
The Pattern of Female Nuptiality in Oman – "[M]ore than half (52%) of the total marriages in Oman are consanguineous. First cousin unions are the most common type of consanguineous unions, constituting 39% of all marriages and 75% of all consanguineous marriages. About 11% of the marriages are polygynous…. [P]aternal first-cousin marriages constituted 27.7% of all marriages and 72% (565/786) of all first-cousin marriages, while maternal first-cousin marriages constituted 10.8% of all marriages and 28% (221/786) of all first-cousin marriages."
The Ancient Greeks & Romans, Beauty and Human Biodiversity – @occam's razor.
Could Life Be Older Than Earth Itself? – "[T]wo geneticists have applied Moore's Law to the rate at which life on Earth grows in complexity — and the results suggest organic life first came into existence long before Earth itself."
Chimps Communicate Like Passionate Italians – my favorite headline of the week. (^_^)
Live fast, die younger: Actors, singers and sportsman 'die seven and a half years before other high achievers'
Historic human remains yield epigenetic tags – see also: Epigenetic Inheritance: Fact or Fiction?
Icelandic anti-incest app keeps residents from becoming kissin' cousins – previously íslendingabók.
'Real men wear kilts': The anecdotal evidence that wearing a Scottish kilt has influence on reproductive potential: how much is true? – keep wearin' yer kilt!
Did this magical little crystal help the Vikings rape and pillage across the world? – "Research suggests crystal salvaged from a shipwreck may be a sunstone"
bonus: What rights should Dzhokhar Tsarnaev get and why does it matter? – "The Obama DOJ says it intends to question the Boston bombing suspect 'extensively' without first Mirandizing him"
bonus bonus: Applicants wanted for a one-way ticket to Mars – let's go! (^_^)
bonus bonus bonus: 'Living fossil' genome unlocked – "The genes of an ancient fish, the coelacanth, have much to reveal about our distant past."
bonus bonus bonus bonus: Chlamydia Is Killing Koalas — Will Genetics Find a Cure?
(note: comments do not require an email. ugly fish!)


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Syndicates: 'Ted' Looks Familiar to Fans of 'Imagine This' Comic Strip
By: Rob Tornoe
Amid the rise and success of hit TV shows such as "Family Guy" and "American Dad," animator-turned Hollywood powerhouse Seth MacFarlane has been dogged with accusations of joke-stealing and lack of originality in his work.
Now, cartoonists are pointing out the similarities between his new motion picture "Ted" and popular comic strip "Imagine This." The strip, created in 2008 by cartoonist Lucas Turnbloom and syndicated by Universal Uclick, centers around a slacker and his foul-mouthed teddy bear sidekick who drinks beer and has anger issues.
"Certainly, the idea of someone talking to a stuffed animal isn't new," said Tom Racine, host of Tall Tale Radio, a popular podcast about comics, animation, and movies. "But 'Ted' feels like it was just taken directly from 'Imagine This' with little or no attempt to change it."
Racine created a shot-by-shot graphic pairing panels from "Imagine This" and screenshots from "Ted." In one, both Ted and Turnbloom's bear character Clovis are leaning back while drinking a beer. In another, both sets of characters sit lazily on the couch eating cereal.
Turnbloom, who has devoted the last five years developing "Imagine This," said he was devastated when he found out about MacFarlane's movie.
"Many cartoonists, myself included, hope that their strips might someday be developed into a movie or a TV show," he said. "I guess 'Ted' proves I was right to believe that my strip had cinematic potential."
There is no evidence that MacFarlane was influenced by "Imagine This," and the cartoon world (and Hollywood, for that matter) is replete with stories about stolen jokes, reworked gags, and outright theft of ideas, all of which are extremely difficult to prove. Turnbloom himself isn't pressing the issue or accusing MacFarlane of stealing his work.
But John Glynn, vice president of rights and acquisitions at Universal Uclick and gocomics.com, where "Imagine This" runs, said the similarities between the two are too striking to simply shrug off.
"I see lots of similar jokes, concepts, and premises that come through our submissions and editing processes, so I know people can arrive at the same place totally separate of each other," Glynn said. "In those cases, I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I'd give that benefit to Mr. MacFarlane here, but the similarities are hard to deny."
This isn't the first time MacFarlane has been called out for similarities between his creations and comic characters.
When "Family Guy" first aired, comic book fans were angered over the striking similarities between Stewie and Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, a character from Chris Ware's popular comic "Acme Novelty Library." Corrigan, created by Ware in 1991, is an infant with a football-shaped head who fears his mother and invents things to try to escape.
Ware told Entertainment Weekly that the similarities between the two characters were "a little too coincidental to be simply, well, coincidental," but added, "If I let it get the better of me, I wouldn't get any work done. I'd just sit around and stew about it."
"I'm not sure how artists can protect themselves against huge media conglomerates," Racine said. "I think it's important for creators to point this sort of thing out, but usually, not much can be done about it."
Neither Seth MacFarlane nor anyone at his production company, Fuzzy Door Productions, could be reached for comment.
Rob Tornoe is a cartoonist and columnist for Editor & Publisher and can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Are Miley Cyrus' Tweeting days over? After months of sharing her state of mind with fans, from her food cravings to her love-hate relationship with the press, Miley's Twitter page was taken down early Thursday.
And the reason might be a boy.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Top Ten Brightest Teen Stars
"FYI Liam [Hemsworth] doesn't have a twitter and he wants ME to delete mine with good reason," she Tweeted on Wednesday night.
Liam, her romantic lead in the upcoming movie "The Last Song," have been spotted getting cozy with the tween star off the set as well. The pair was spotted kissing at the Nashville airport in August.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: She's Just Bein' Miley!
Earlier on Wednesday, she'd used her Twitter page to lash out against the media once more over rumors.
"I'm the happiest I've ever been & for that my family's SO grateful. SO for LAME bloggers that don't know what they're talking about SHUT UP!" she Tweeted.
And at least one member of Miley's family is off Twitter as well – mom Tish Cyrus, whose "MommyTish" account was also apparently closed on Thursday morning.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Miley Cyrus Brings 'Hannah' To Access!
PLAY IT NOW: Inside Miley Cyrus' Tour (September 9, 2009)
PLAY IT NOW: Miley Cyrus On Teen Choice, Clothing Line & Twitter (September 9, 2009)
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Miley Cyrus - Twitter - Couples - Young Hollywood - Music


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Roll/Sheet-Fed Laser Diecutting Machine
Spartanics (www.spartanics.com) introduces its Finecut Combination Web and Sheet-Fed Laser Diecutting Machine, designed to overcome the limitations of traditional diecutting operations. Sheet-fed or coil-fed jobs can be interchanged, and Spartanics says any combination of cutting and marking details can be made in one cycle, including kiss-cutting, through-cutting, consecutive numbering, personalizing, perforating, creasing, and more. The company also says that single-source laser design, combined with the sophisticated software behind Finecut technology, delivers defect-free cutting and ability to stitch images together seamlessly for unlimited X-direction part dimensions. The diecutting machine offers web speeds up to 410 ft/min (125 m/min) with single-source lasers, automatic optimization of cutting sequences, and other features for tool-free cutting.


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We asked SAI readers what they wanted to learn from the MySpace conference call announcing their new music service, and we've gotten some good queries. We'll do our best to get some answers, but have a feeling the call will be light on details.
Not suprisingly, MySpace execs didn't go near anything financial. So for the record, here's what's on our minds, and those of our readers':
- Amount of cash and equity given out to participating labels (Universal Music, WMG, Sony-BMG)
- Revenue splits for participating labels
- Assumptions about ad revenue potential for the music site
- Rationale for spinning music business out of MySpace
- Any per-stream minima/"floors" in the majors' deals?
- How will they compensate independent artists?
- What mechanism will they use to stream, download, payment systems etc. Technology -- something they've been horrible with?
- What ad pricing do they see?
- Who will run it?
- What is the profit / loss prediciton on the biz?
- Do they think shared revenue arrangements they have made will be used as precedent in setting up a possible "open catalog"/"collective licensing" for Jim Griffin's music subscription (ISP tax)
Thanks for the queries, folks! Sorry we can't answer them yet, but we'll keep plugging away and pass along whatever we learn.
Uninformative call details below:
On the call:
Chris DeWolfe, Co-Founder and CEO, MySpace
Amit Kapur, COO, MySpace
Chris DeWolfe: Reading from statement. Confirms UMG, WMG, Sony-BMG in JV. "New revenue models for both MySpace and the music companies".
MySpace user engagement "through the roof" in past couple months. Now time for "history and vision" behind venture. World's most popular music community. 30 million unique users in "music community"/110M uniques at MySpace. So we're not starting from scratch. 5 milllion bands on the site. A community site first, and a music site second.
Modern music is about "giving up control". MySpace music "extremely different" than anything currently in the market.
Amit Kapur: "Evolutionary step"! "360 degree" experience! "Frictionless"!
Three main components: Home page, artist profile pages, also include different modules. New features: Ad-supported audio and video streaming. Digital downloads w/non-DRM. Will feature mobile with News Corp.'s Jamba. Ringtone sales.
New monetization models: Goal is to "empower labels and artists to further diversify their business." Not just for majors. Indies and unsigned can join in. Will go from being promtional vehicle to commercial vehicle. Hiring exec management team. Want to create standalone company.
Q&A: What's up with EMI? Chris: We'd like to do business with everyone. You'd have to ask EMI about that.
More color on streaming: Will have "full catalog of tracks" for listeners, who can trade playlists, etc. Everything DRM free on site? Don't know. But think that's the direction we're going.
Timetable? "Fluid" An "iterative process". MySpace Music already up and running. In terms of adding features, will be in an ongoing basis, over three to four months.
Revenue sharing details? Equity and liscensing fees for the labels? We won't discuss financials. [Sorry, everyone looking for helpful information here].
What's to prevent Facebook from offering competitive deal? We have lots of users. Repeat, over and over again: 30 million users, 5 million bands.
Please explain how ad-supported music will work. Hasn't so far: We have core competency in ad sales, and ad sales technology. We have hyper-targeting, which is great. Selling sponsorships with people like State Farm. Hundreds of people is sales force, sales technology.
US only? Yes. But global eventually.
Pricing for downloads? How will it compete against iTunes? No specifics. Very competitive, portable. We recognize that all of users have iPods, so we want to leverage that (hence MP3).
Press release and canned quotes:
New Company to Leverage 30 Million Unique MySpace Music Traffic to Activate Monetization Around Music Content
MySpace Music to Offer Digital Downloads, Ad-supported Audio and Video Streaming, Mobile Storefront and Sponsorship Solutions
LOS ANGELES—April 3, 2008—MySpace, the world's biggest and most popular social network, and three of the world's largest music companies, SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG), today announced the formation of a landmark joint venture, MySpace Music. The new company marries the most popular music community in the world with the most comprehensive catalogue of music content available online, unveiling a host of new music services and monetization models. The financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
The product vision for MySpace Music is to build on the existing traffic, credibility, and popularity of the MySpace Music platform (http://www.music.myspace.com) by creating a fully integrated 360 degree global music solution. MySpace Music will feature the network's first integrated e-commerce solution and evolve the user's ability to discover, share, and socialize by adding commerce and music management tools. The new offering will seamlessly transform the MySpace Music experience into a groundbreaking mix of community, commerce, and discovery. The product will roll iteratively in the coming months.
The MySpace Music product will integrate new content and music capabilities across three primary areas: the MySpace Music home page, the site's more than 5 million artist profile pages, and individual user home pages, providing bands and fans multiple touch points to discover, share, and purchase music and merchandise in one place for the portable device of their choosing. MySpace Music empowers bands and fans with unprecedented digital music service and e-commerce platform within MySpace that will include DRM-free digital downloads, ad-supported audio and video streaming, a mobile storefront (powered by News Corporation's Jamba mobile company), as well as various sponsorship solutions.
For users, MySpace Music will have the richest music experience on the Web by enabling the site's global community to discover music and then download, stream and personalize music content. The personalized music management product will allow users to control their entire MySpace Music experience directly from their user page by creating playlists and having access to enhanced purchase opportunities and search functionality.
For the labels' artists, the formation of MySpace Music will offer them the opportunity to provide their fans with digital downloads as well as mobile ringtones, SMS, and artist wallpapers, all directly from their artist profiles. Additionally, artists will be able to evolve their MySpace experience beyond the promotional by now monetizing their full repository of content with a 360 degree solution including not only the sale of digital content, but also physical goods such as t-shirts and concert tickets.
Already one of the cultural cornerstones of MySpace, the new company is uniquely positioned to quickly launch its new music product with nearly 30 million unique monthly visitors for the Music channel and its more than 5 million artists. As the most popular music community in the world today, MySpace Music has the greatest collection of artist profiles, tour dates, artist blogs, music videos, and artist photos in the world. Additionally, MySpace Music has the participation of millions of major, indie, and unsigned artists via their music profiles and interaction with the MySpace community.
Immediately, the new MySpace Music will be able to tap into the world's largest library of content to offer unique audio and video content for the MySpace community. MySpace's rich history with the music community has already included album exclusives from the biggest major and independent acts in the world. The new library will enhance existing MySpace Music franchises including Secret Shows, MySpaceLIVE!, Transmissions, and The List.
The new company will be based in Los Angeles and will have a dedicated executive management team to oversee the business. In the coming months, MySpace Music will begin to roll new content and product functionality within the existing music channel. The process will be iterative to take full advantage of the popularity and existing traffic to the Music channel already booming within MySpace.
News Corp—Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer:
"We're committed to pioneering innovative and satisfying ways for consumers to experience music and video and MySpace Music will deliver on that promise," said Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation. "The music industry is alive and kicking—we're thrilled to play a leading role in its future."
MySpace—Chris DeWolfe, CEO and Co-Founder:
"Today represents the beginning of a new chapter in the story of modern music—we're proud to announce the marriage of the world's biggest collection of music content to the world's most popular music community," said Chris DeWolfe, CEO and Co-Founder of MySpace." "Millions of die hard music fans and artists already call MySpace Music home—by partnering with these industry leaders, our vision for MySpace Music as the definitive platform for unlimited artistic expression and unrestricted user experience is finally being realized."
SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT —Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, CEO:
"We're delighted to be working with MySpace to create a new global entertainment destination that combines one of the world's most compelling online communities with some of the greatest artists and music in the world," commented Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, CEO, SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT. "We see this innovative new joint venture as a great way to provide music fans around the world with a wide ranging online entertainment experience, while at the same time establishing an expansive commerce and marketing platform that will benefit our company and our artists. We look forward to making MySpace Music a key part of our ongoing efforts to bring our artists, and their music, to fans across every conceivable platform."
Universal Music Group—Doug Morris, Chairman and CEO:
"MySpace Music stands as a dynamic vehicle to explore even more creative ways to harness the power of social networking with our leading music and video content," stated Doug Morris, Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Group, the world's leading music company. "Our partnership with MySpace fits perfectly within our overall digital strategy of driving innovation, while creating new and exciting opportunities to enhance the relationship between our artists and their fans."
Warner Music Group—Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Chairman and CEO:
Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Warner Music Group's Chairman and CEO, said, "Warner Music Group is very pleased to be entering into this groundbreaking joint venture. We believe that one of the greatest growth opportunities for our industry is to develop new partnerships and models focused on unlocking the value of music in the online community space. This venture may provide a defining blueprint for this next important stage in the evolution of social media, benefiting consumers, artists and music companies alike."


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Continuing through Monday, April 15, there will be various left lane closures of eastbound and westbound I-76 from milepost 84 to milepost 91 between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. for grading, placement of barrier wall and asphalt detour paving.
24-Hour Ramp Closures:
Starting Wednesday, March 27 through Tuesday, April 2, there will be a 24-hour closure for concrete paving of the westbound on/off ramps at I-76 and Dodd Bridge Road.
Starting Wednesday, April 3 through Thursday, April 4, there will be 24-hour closures on the westbound I-76 off-ramp at Dodd Bridge Road and the westbound I-76 on-ramp at Hospital Road for concrete paving.
On Friday and Saturday, April 5-6, the westbound on- and off-ramps at I-76 and Hospital Road will be closed for concrete paving.


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Cheapskate? There's an app for that. Lots and lots of them, actually. There are iPhone apps that will plot a busy day of hitting yard sales, produce coupons for instant discounts at supermarkets, shops, and restaurants, do price comparisons and summon product reviews while you're mulling the options inside a store, and even help you trim your bar tab.
Thirteen of these 20 money-saving apps are free, while the rest cost $3 or less. They should all be available at iTunes. For even more iPhone apps, check out Time.com's Must-Have Apps page, with lists of the best apps for new moms, back-to-school, and beyond.


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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The founder of the CaringBridge Web site says she's running for Congress in Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District.
Sona Mehring announced her bid Tuesday that could pit her against veteran Republican Rep. John Kline in 2014. Mehring is running as a Democrat, but she's not the only candidate from her party expressing interest. Kline's 2012 challenger Mike Obermueller, a former state representative, has been gearing up for another campaign.
Mehring founded CaringBridge in 1997 as a way to let families dealing with a health crisis keep friends and relatives abreast of developments.
Kline has said he won't announce his political intentions until summer. He hasn't ruled out running for a statewide office. Kline has won the district south of the Twin Cities six times, but redistricting made it more competitive turf.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Lesson Plan
Question and Answer Books--From Genre Study to Report Writing
|3 – 5
|Lesson Plan Type
|Estimated Time
|Eight 50-minute sessions
|Lesson Author
Magalia, California
This lesson looks at question and answer books as a genre study. Through read-alouds and independent reading, students explore the content and format of these books, establish how they are different from and similar to other nonfiction texts, and discuss their possible uses for doing and presenting research. After a read-aloud of question and answer books, students use a Venn diagram to compare the genre with other genres they have read. Students then work with a partner to explore several examples of the genre, identifying common characteristics. Next, students compare a question and answer book to a narrative nonfiction book on the same topic. Finally, students brainstorm questions to research, conduct research, and publish their findings using a question and answer format. This lesson is a springboard to research activities that can help students learn to present information in an organized and interesting way.
Flip Book: This online tool allows users to type and illustrate tabbed flip books up to ten pages long.
Suggested Question and Answer Books: This booklist includes question and answer books on a variety of topics.
Chart for Notetaking: Students can use this simple chart to organize information from any nonficton text.
In her 2000 article for School Talk, Stephanie Harvey asserts that "Nonfiction, more than any genre, lets us explore the real world, ask questions, and find out compelling information." A great deal of the reading we do throughout our lives is nonfiction: newspaper articles and editorials, shopping lists, directions, instructions, magazines, e-mails and letters from acquaintances, road signs, billboards, and a variety of other informational sources. Yet, Lucy McCormick Calkins reminds us that "the curriculum in our schools focuses on the texts and skills of reading fiction." As the importance of teaching reading strategies for informational text becomes more widely recognized, we can begin to look at the individual criteria of a variety of nonfiction subgenres.
Question and answer books are a popular format for communicating information on a variety of topics. Taking an analytical look at this genre can give students ideas for research strategies as well as reporting formats as they learn to do research and report on their findings.
Further Reading
Calkins, Lucy McCormick. 2001. The Art of Teaching Reading. Addison Wesley Longman.
Harvey, Stephanie. "Bringing the Outside World In." School Talk 5.2 (January 2000): 1.


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Industry veteran Mas Nakachi Joins as Global COO and CEO, North America, as Company Leverages Significant New Investment to Expand Management Team and Capitalize on Global Momentum
OpenGamma, creators of the first open source analytics and risk management platform for the financial services industry, today announced the appointment of Mas Nakachi as Global COO and CEO of North America. OpenGamma continues to invest in its senior management team, bringing on top industry talent to strengthen service delivery, enhance local client support and capitalize on the growing global demand for the OpenGamma Platform.
Nakachi joins OpenGamma's senior management team from Calypso Technology, where he was most recently director of business development for the rates, fixed-income and credit business. In this position, Nakachi was responsible for ecosystem development, marketing, client support and new product development initiatives, as well as strategic client acquisition for Calypso's largest business solution segment. He previously served as Calypso's director of strategy and corporate development, and began his career developing and growing Calypso's credit derivatives business, establishing it as a number one ranked solution, as acknowledged by numerous industry publications. A recognized expert and industry thought leader on credit derivatives, structured finance and OTC derivatives market structure, Nakachi brings over a decade of proven experience to his role at OpenGamma. Based in New York, he will oversee the company's North American operations and work with the London-based executive team to manage all operational areas of the business.
Nakachi's recruitment follows several recent high-profile OpenGamma appointments, including the addition of Hugh Stewart as global head of sales. Stewart brings more than three decades of global financial services and technology experience to the OpenGamma executive team, including demonstrated success growing start-ups and significantly increasing sales for established enterprise software firms. Prior to joining OpenGamma, Stewart most recently served as sales director at SmartStream Technologies. Throughout his career, he has held senior business development and leadership roles at global firms, including his tenure as Managing Director at Bankers Trust, C*ATS Software, Algorithmics and QuIC Financial. These executive appointments underscore OpenGamma's continued success and maturing business model, as the firm leverages its recent $15 million Series C funding round led by ICAP plc to bring on key personnel, drive continued product innovation and accelerate client and geographic growth.
"OpenGamma continues to invest in our people, our product innovation, and our growing open source community as we work to democratize and radically change the levels of transparency related to risk analytics within capital markets," said Kirk Wylie, Co-founder and CEO of OpenGamma. "Mas and Hugh both offer invaluable industry knowledge and proven experience, and share our vision and enthusiasm to change how firms view their risk infrastructures, navigate today's volatile regulatory environment, and access and deploy the most cost-effective, powerful risk analytics tools available."
2012 has been a landmark year for OpenGamma, beginning with the launch of the OpenGamma Platform 1.0 in April. This was followed quickly by the company's recognition as the winner and "Top Innovator" at the Innotribe Startup Challenge held in Belfast, honoring the company as one of the most promising financial technology and financial services start-ups and earning them a trip to the Innotribe Startup Challenge Finals at Sibos, SWIFT's annual conference, in Osaka, Japan. OpenGamma was also selected as one of Risk Magazine's Firms of the Future, a select group of organizations forecast to have the biggest impact on the OTC derivatives market over the next five years. Building on this success, OpenGamma recently announced their $15 million Series C round of equity financing led by ICAP plc and joined by Euclid Opportunities, with follow-on investments from previous investors Accel Partners and FirstMark Capital.
"The demand we are seeing for the OpenGamma Platform highlights the belief we held from our first vision of OpenGamma: that the industry needs a new standard for risk analytics," said Mark Beeston, Chief Executive Officer for ICAP's post trade and risk mitigation businesses and member of OpenGamma's Board of Directors. "OpenGamma's ability to attract executives of Mas and Hugh's caliber is a testament to the company's truly disruptive business and technology model, recognized innovation, and the collaborative community they've created that will usher in a new era for financial services technology."


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Wedges opening in doors, the handiest tool you'll own.
TrucknTow Main Warehouse:
14300 Schaefer Hwy
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Dear Marvin,
I'm a Dutch reader of your fine magazine and I'd like to share a good-life cigar experience when I visited London.
It was one of those early summer days when there's still freshness in the air. My wife joined me in London after my business trip. We strolled around Mayfair, past all these beautiful houses, and I was smoking my first Trinidad Reyes that I purchased at Davidoff's. I was halfway smoking it, with some pride and contentment, when we found a nice-looking cigar shop on Mount Street. The ground level of the brick building was richly embellished with red clay tiles and ornaments and there was a balcony on the second floor. It looked very romantic and I fancied myself sitting on the balcony, perhaps again with a Trinidad Reyes. Inside the shop there was a prominent picture of Winston Churchill buying cigars. I wondered if he would have purchased his cigars here as well.
So, I popped into the shop with my wife and asked if Mr. Churchill got his stogies from this place, on account of the picture. The shop attendant smiled and said, "No, back then this wasn't a cigar shop, but he did live for several years in the apartment above the store." That's close enough for me. I immediately spotted the Hoyo de Monterrey Double Corona in the walk-in humidor. To me, this is a real prized cigar because it's not available in Holland. Under the watchful eye of my wife, I restricted myself to a single stick; she knows how fickle contentment is and how easily one gets carried away. My cigar was put into a bag as a souvenir—"Sautter," it said on the bag. We strolled back to Green Park for the tube to Sloan Square and a lazy luncheon.
Lunch was a warm-up for my palate, to prepare my taste buds for the ceremonial burning of the Hoyo de Monterrey. On my left a mother and daughter were having a lazy lunch as well; since they weren't finished, I asked them if they would mind if I smoked my cigar. "Oh, dear, of course not," they replied. "Well, it's a strong smell and it's not unanimously appreciated," I said. "We do like the smell of a good cigar," they said. So one thing led to another and we each chatted about our trip, telling where we went and what we did. Then moving on to who we were and where we came from. With caring pride the daughter mentioned that she and her mom had traveled extensively through mainland Europe. Mom touched my arm as she told her anecdotes and her little confessions: I do like my gin and tonics and like my cigarettes as well. She had a little sparkle in her eye, and started to chat to me alone, playfully taking tiny bites of her crème-brélée. Cigars and oranges reminded her of her father. Then lunch ended and we exchanged addresses before continuing on our way separately. Weren't they very nice people, I said to my wife. She smiled; I think that mom fancied you a bit, she said. I raised my eyebrow, replying, Sweetie, she's 92. Having succeeded at her little tease, she took my arm and pulled me down Kings Road, shopping for shoes until we ran out of daylight.
Erwin Huijsmans
The Netherlands
Dear Marvin,
In your latest issue of Cigar Aficionado (August 2004) your Editors' Note related that golf was "the last frontier" where good friends could get together without the fear of the smoke police rushing in.
Well, there is one other place friends get together. As with golf, they move from hole to hole. They talk about how good or bad the shot at the last hole was. They talk about form, and how to improve. They talk about the latest equipment. And of course, some of them light up their cigars.
The group does not have the numbers that golf has; currently only about 60,000 people are involved. But it is one of the fastest growing sports. This is the sport of cowboy western shooting. The parent group is called Single Action Shooting Society (SASS). Every weekend all around the globe there are groups that get together, dress up in their best cowboy ware and go out to the range to shoot. Our holes are called stages. At each stage we use a combination of two single action pistols, a lever action rifle and a shotgun to hit, with any luck, a number of targets. Each stage is timed and scored. So you know how well you are doing from week to week.
I like to wait for a couple of stages to light up. It is either to reward myself for a good stage or to console myself for a missed shot. And I am not alone. There is a good mix of cigar and gun smoke.
Like a good cigar, this sport of single action shooting brings together a group of like-minded people, sharing a good time and building good memories. I am sure that if you were to stop by any of our shoots you would be most welcome. We could even work up a rig for you to shoot. For that is the Cowboy Way.
So you can say that golf is not the very last frontier. It is close, but not there yet.
Keep up the good work with Cigar Aficionado. I look forward to each issue.
Barry Neely
Cave Creek, Arizona
Dear Marvin,
I was wondering how Cigar Aficionado chooses the people who rate cigars. Also, I was wondering how the process works for the person judging, what characteristics do they judge, and basically how does it all get reported back in some definable way? I am sure this has been asked before, but I am curious.
Stephen Schofield
Niantic, Connecticut
Editor's note: Originally, the panel was chosen from among the existing cigar smokers at M. Shanken Communications Inc.,the company that publishes Cigar Aficionado; all but one was an editor on the magazine. As people have come and gone, we have trained new employees in the art and skill of tasting, in general, and in particular the tasting of cigars. The amount of time any new member spends in "Beta" testing—they rate cigars on their own, but the scores are not factored into the final tasting—varies between six and 12 months. We are constantly evaluating and comparing the taster's scores to be sure he is following the same criteria as we are.
Dear Marvin,
U.S. Marines stationed at Fallujah, Iraq, have set aside time for a regular Cigar Night. Their General Support Company commanding officer, Maj. Brian Ballard, has begun this time for reflection—especially upon the week's more harrowing experiences. To his Marines after a week of near misses from enemy fire, he says, "I tell them, quite seriously, to take some time, a friend if so inclined, and go enjoy a good cigar and ponder how good life is. Take 45 minutes or so, get some perspective, then pick up your helmet and get back to it." The attached photo shows the sign at the entrance of their designated smoking shelter. As a veteran of Southeast Asia and Desert Storm, I know the value of receiving packages and hearing from fellow Americans while on such overseas assignments. Therefore, I encourage readers of Cigar Aficionado to send support—and maybe a few good cigars—care of: Major B. Ballard, BSSG-1, GS Company, UIC 42355, FPO AP 96426-2355.
James R. Snowden
Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (retired)
Houston, Texas
Dear Marvin,
I want to thank you for the excellent magazine and Web site that you have. In my past life, I would read your magazine faithfully, reading the issue many times before passing it on to a friend. But like I said, that was in a past life.
Now I am a Peace Corps volunteer, assigned to a city called Cluj-Napoca, in Romania. Finding your magazine here is even harder then finding a good cigar...nearly impossible. Most of the cigars that I get are sent to me by friends and family from the States. But your online site is a fixture on my computer. Reading the articles helps bring me back to the days back in the States.
It is amazing being here of how much I miss the simple things that I took for granted back home. Sitting with friends enjoying a good cigar, or just sitting by myself reading your magazine.
I just wanted to say thanks...thanks for the little bit of sanity that your magazine brings me in my everyday world of insanity.
Thomas Jernigan
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Dear Marvin,
As always, Michael Kaplan is a superb poker writer. But he has neglected to mention Mike Sexton, who has done more than anyone else for poker's incredible surge of popularity in TV programming in the last couple years. Mike has long preached the concept of turning poker into a viewer-worthy equivalent of PGA golf. Judging by the hugely expanding presence of tournament poker on TV these days, he appears, finally, to have achieved some success.
Mike has put a lot of personal money into making such things happen in poker. A few years ago he played a big part in banking The Tournament of Champions of Poker in Las Vegas in an attempt to make poker a viewer-friendly sport. It never happened. Along with losing his shirt he also lost a good deal of the money he might have won as one of poker's ranking tournament players at the time. For instance, Mike won the prestigious European Finals Of Poker, held in Paris in 2000.
I have no knowledge of how much Mike may be banking the currently running "World Poker Tour." But he appears to be sticking to his earlier goal. And I'll bet he would be a frequent contender if he were allowed to play in the World Series.
William Alan Hafey
Avon, Connecticut
Dear Marvin,
I love your magazine and can hardly wait until the next issue comes out after I have read the last one. But to my disgust I received the newest issue with Greg Raymer [the World Series of Poker champion] on the cover. Why, why, why would you do this before the final table is aired tonight, 9/14/04? I have been trying my hardest to not look this info up on the 'Net so that I could enjoy this great event on television. Now I get to watch my friends enjoy a cigar and not know who wins until the final hand. I have to sit and try not to give my information away. I am very displeased. Your caliber of magazine should have caught this mistake. I'm sure many other people's surprise was ruined, too.
Scott McDonald
Lafayette, Colorado
Editor's note: Mr. McDonald, the thought never even occurred to us that there might be some suspense in this. The World Series of Poker took place in May, and Greg Raymer's victory was widely covered at the time. We're sorry that you didn't get to see the victory for the first time on ESPN. But both Pokerstars.com (one of Raymer's sponsors) and ESPN helped us put the cover together. They thought it was a good idea. And we thought it was good for poker in America. If more people watched the event because of our cover, that's good for the game.
Dear Marvin,
I am an inmate at the federal correctional institution at Fort Dix, New Jersey. I was just getting into cigars prior to my incarceration, so I am very, very thankful for the opportunity to read about the many varied cigars out there just waiting for me to enjoy once again. I can imagine how the smoke of each cigar would dance across my palate, just from the descriptions published in each issue. I have been compiling a list of cigars I want to have at the ready for my return home, including a Diplomatico No. 2 and a Partagas Serie D No. 4.
Sean Miller
Fort Dix, New Jersey


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Bruins fall flat in loss to Panthers
Summary -- The Bruins had that familiar feeling on Thursday as they had trouble finishing chances against the Florida Panthers in a game they lost 1-0 at TD Garden. Tuukka Rask took the loss for Boston on the night with 19 saves while Scott Clemmensen got the shutout for the Panthers in turning away 36 Bruins shots and plethora of opportunities. The Panthers got on the board in the first period when Keith Ballard pinched the slot with space in front of Rask and went underneath the goaltender's pads to give Florida a 1-0 lead at 7:15 in the first period. The goal ended a 121:42 shutout streak by Rask over parts of four games. Boston knocked on the door repeatedly in the second period with 17 shots and two power play opportunities but the Bruins could not beat Clemmensen as every puck that came close was turned away, inches wide or above the net and the game entered the third period with the Panthers still up by the lone goal. Both Milan Lucic and Mark Recchi thought at one point they had scored goals only to see the end result of the puck on the wrong side of the net. One of Boston's best chances to score was on a short-handed opportunity in the third period when Blake Wheeler found himself on a 2-on-1 break with David Krejci following him on the right wing. Wheeler ended up waiting too long to make the decision to shoot or pass and put and ineffective tip on the edge of the crease at 4:40. Rask received the Bruins Seventh Player Award before the game as the player who "went above and beyond the call of duty and exceeded the expectations of Bruins fans during the season." Three Stars Keith Ballard -- The defenseman's first period goal was the only scoring in the game. He also blocked a least a half dozen shots to help his goaltender keep the puck out of the net. Scott Clemmensen -- The former Boston College Eagle was good enough in net to keep the Bruins off the board and out of the win column with (#) saves. Tuukka Rask -- Even in a losing effort the Bruins net minder was solid in turning away the Panthers chances and keeping Boston in the game. Turning Point --Â At 15:40 in the second penalty on a delayed penalty the Bruins Mark Recchi thought he had beat Clemmensen with a redirection. He went so far as to raise his hands and stick thinking that it went in but turned out to go wide right. Later in the period on the power play Milan Lucic did almost the same thing as he deflected a puck that went over the net, causing Clemmensen's water bottle to stir in the process. Lucic raised his hands just as Recchi had but again the puck did not go into the net (though the officials did review Lucic's tip). Key Play -- Keith Ballard pinched the slot in the first period after a Bruins flurry on the other end of the ice and caught the defense sleeping while the Boston forwards were not being aggressive on the back check. Given a few seconds right in front of a goaltender, most NHL players will take advantage of the situation and Ballard was no exception as he used Rask's pads against him as he went up and underneath them for the first (and only) goal of the game.


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This five-year-old conjoined Central Asian tortoise — which was on display yesterday at the National Museum of Natural History in Kiev, Ukraine — has two heads, six legs, two hearts, one intestine, and one big dilemma.
Its heads are on the opposite sides of its shell, so each cannot see the other. The poor reptile therefore frequently attempts to walk in opposite directions, which leads to some confused ambulation. And you thought your roommates were the worst. [LA Times /WO/Hat tip to Terrence]


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I have a question about a JUnit test case which I am building for a simple RPN calculator.
Here is the test case, I basically want to test what happens when you increment MAX_VALUE
@Test public void testPlusExtreme() throws CalculatorException{ fc.enter(Double.MAX_VALUE); fc.enter(1.0); fc.plus(); Double result = fc.result(); //Some JUnit assertion }
But what do I add to ensure that the Overflow exception is received?
Is it try and catch?
Thanks a lot!


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Marc Gasol scored six of his 20 points down the stretch to help the Memphis Grizzlies defeat the Golden State Warriors 99-93 on Friday night.
Gasol, who also grabbed 11 rebounds, was 9 of 14 from the field to help Memphis end a two-game slide.
Tony Allen had 17 points on 7 of 8 shooting, Zach Randolph had 16 points and 12 rebounds, while Jerryd Bayless finished with 14 points.
Austin Daye had 12 points for Memphis, providing a spark in the first half.
Stephen Curry had 32 points and eight assists for the Warriors, who lost their third straight. David Lee was the only other Golden State player in double figures with 26 points, connecting on 10 of 16 shots.
Memphis took over with nine unanswered points after consecutive 3-pointers from Curry gave the Warriors their last lead of the game with about 8 minutes left.
Memphis had 26 assists, 10 of them by Mike Conley, on 36 field goals.
The game was close with the Warriors hitting 48 percent of their shots compared to 46 percent for Memphis. The Grizzlies held a slight edge in scoring in the paint 40-36. The game featured eight lead changes and seven ties, all but one tie coming in the second half.
The first half had both teams hit above 50 percent from the field as the Grizzlies carried a 63-56 lead. Allen, who hit all five of his shots in the half, had 13 points.
Meanwhile, Daye, acquired from Detroit in the three-team trade that sent Rudy Gay to Toronto, hit 4 of 5 shots, including 3 of 4 outside the arc, for 12 points.
Lee had 20 points to lead the Warriors, while Curry had 18 in the first half.
Memphis' lead was built from the 3-point line where Memphis hit 7 of 15 compared to Golden State missing four of its five shots from long range.
Memphis finished 8 of 20 on 3-pointers, compared to 6 of 17 for the Warriors.
It didn't take long for Golden State to erase Memphis' halftime advantage, scoring six unanswered points to open the third as part of an 11-2 run that put the Warriors up 67-65 near the midway point of the period.
The game was close through the rest of the third with five ties and four lead changes in the period. The final lead change of the period came on an inside basket by Tayshaun Prince as Memphis led 77-76 entering the fourth.
NOTES: The Grizzlies have won all three games this season and eight straight in the series. That includes seven consecutive home wins for Memphis. . The Warriors have not defeated the Grizzlies since Nov. 3, 2010. Their last win in Memphis was April 4, 2008. ...Golden State G Jarrett Jack missed his second straight game with a right shoulder contusion.


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Aspirational network operator LightSquared has promised to replace customers' Push To Talk kit for free as it migrates them from a bankrupt satellite to one owned by the marginally-insane wannabe national network.
LightSquared says it will support the existing Push To Talk kit, which uses the TerreStar 1 satellite, until at least 2014. Before then the company will replace all the customer kit "at no cost", with devices using its new bird, SkyTerra 1, to ensure continuity of service. But the magnanimous offer has more to do with maintaining credibility, while the primary business plan remains as mad as a box of frogs.
Announcing the news, LightSquared makes much of its contribution to public safety, wheeling out Bob Spieldenner, of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, to attest that "LightSquared's investment in Push-to-Talk will literally help save lives in coming years". But those emergency responders are also LightSquared's only customers, and lend the company important credibility as it pursues its plan to change the cellular industry.
LightSquared inherited the customers from TerreStar, which recently went bankrupt and whose flying satellite is the object of an even-madder-than-LightSquared plan to provide broadband to Africa. But LightSquared always intended to get customers off TerreStar 1 and onto its own bird, and down into the 1.6GHz spectrum where it intended to deploy its national LTE network (GPS interference issues permitting).
GPS kit keeps picking up LightSquared's transmissions, and LightSquared hasn't the money to build the network anyway, so serving real customers provides some of the credibility that the company desperately needs. ®
Sponsored: Webcast: Simplify data protection on AWS


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You really shouldn't. You shouldn't care what Sandusky, awaiting sentencing on scores of counts of child sexual abuse, thinks about his old football team not being able to play in bowl games for a few years. The penalties and the way they were handed down are controversial, and there are lots of smart people with smart opinions who'll be happy to share those opinions, but the last person's feelings you should take into account are Jerry Sandusky's, unless Sandusky wants to spill what he knows of how much Spanier and co. knew what he was up to.
He doesn't. According to Lawyerin' Joe Amendola, Sandusky was "beside himself" when he heard about Penn State's punishment. Of course he's beside himself, he's in solitary.
"He said, 'To do what they're doing to Penn State is so unjust,'" Amendola said. "He loves the program and he loves the university."
Sandusky told Amendola it's "ridiculous" to think Penn State higher-ups covered up his deeds. He also says he's innocent, and hopes for another trial to clear his name. So.


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Closing Down
Posted February 15, 2009on:
- In: Uncategorized
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Hey Guys,
I'm sorry to say that I will be closing down When You're Bored – Entertainment News website as of today. I just haven't been able to keep up with this blog since my change in schedule over a year ago. I do still love following other celebrity websites but have decided to just throw myself into my fashion blog which has been taking off. I still do celebrity fashion finds and celebrity fashion related posts over at The Fashion Archives. So follow me there as I continue to blog and create community.
Thank you for all your comments and your loyal support and I'm sorry to disappoint those regular readers.
So in case you are still wanting to read my blog then click here to check it out.
Wish you all the best!
Jennifer Garner is One Busy Mum
Posted February 3, 2009on:
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Now that she's got two little children to take care of Jennifer Garner is getting to be one busy mommy!
Here is Jen along with the help of a friend trying to get her daughter Violet Affleck into school on time. She's looking a bit tired, but still has that signature smile on her face! Gotta love her!
Poor girl. She's been under media scrutiny for the past couple of days due to her unusual gain in weight. And yesterday Jessica Simpson was looking a little down as she braved the paparazzi outside of her hotel in Charlottesville, VA. She was heading to a venue nearby where she'll be performing later that night. A girl can't help but wonder if Jess is feeling extra nervous about this performance especially since that last one brought about such ugly rumors!
Do you think Jess gained any weight? And should the media really be talking about something like this?
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You tell me how this is even fair. Rebecca Romijn gave birth to TWINS two months ago and she already looks this good! It's as if she never WAS pregnant! I have got to know this girl's secret!
Here she is running a few errands around Calabasas, California. Speaking of her twin daughters Rebecca chose the names Dolly and Charlie for her two little girls. Wonder how she came up with them?
"They had twin girls, Dolly and Charlie. Rebecca likes Dolly Parton, so they named the one after Dolly Parton, and Jerry got to name the other one Charlie, but his brother's name is Charlie—and it's a girl Charlie."
I feel bad for Charlie….Poor kid will have an gender crisis when she hits puberty!
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I'm sad to say that Renee Zellweger looks a bit…constipated in these pictures. What's with all the strange and awkward poses Renee? It's like she has something that just won't come out. Okay, that's a picture I definitely DON'T want to be carrying around with me the rest of the night!
Here are some shots of Renee arriving at the Ed Sullivan Theater in NYC to promote her latest flick "New in Town" on the David Letterman Show.
Jessica Biel: Wanted Body
Posted January 29, 2009on:
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I hate to say this but Jessica Biel's hair is looking so very normal in these pictures. Whatever happened to the gorgeous hair that we see when she's out at events? Yeah, I know…professional hair stylist.
Anyways, here is a picture of Jess coming back to a hotel in Santa Monica, California where she is currently staying. Does anyone know why?? I'm too tired to do all that digging. Ha.
Well in other news Jessica has something to be mighty proud of. According to the plastic surgeons in LA Jessica has the third most wanted body on the list!
"Our patients continue to turn to Hollywood to determine their standard of beauty," explained Dr Richard W. Fleming. "Our patients want to look rested, energetic and, most of all, youthful like the celebrities they see on TV and in glossy magazines."
Now that's not something you get to boast about every day!
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Taylor Swift is still just a young teenage girl but she sure is living the life of a super star! Yesterday the young "Love Strong" songstress appeared on Much On Demmand in Toronto to the delight of hundreds of fans.
In other news Taylor has teamed up with label l.e.i. to create an exclusive line of sundresses that will be sold at Wal-Mart for only $14!
"Sundresses are my favorite things to wear. In the summer, I automatically want to look bohemian. I don't look at it like I'm branching out as a designer. It's not the Taylor Swift designer line or whatever. I like people who have worked their entire lives to become designers. I think that they have their place as designers and I have my place as a musician, and I'm going to pretty much stick to that."
Would you buy something that Taylor designed?