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Editor's note: Are you there? Share your story with CNN iReport, and view some of the photos of the situation in Tunisia we've received so far.
Tunis, Tunisia (CNN) -- Tunisian opposition leaders joined the current ruling party Monday in a new government to replace the country's ousted president, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a return to stability "as soon as possible."
The government will be led by current Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, who took charge of the North African country when longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled last week. Ghannouchi's 19-member Cabinet will include three opposition leaders and 10 independents, he announced Monday.
The new government will be tasked with leading Tunisia toward new elections, he said.
Street clashes continued in Tunis on Monday, three days after Ben Ali's departure, with police firing tear gas into crowds of demonstrators in Tunis. Ban called on the new government to restore stability and the rule of law "as soon as possible."
Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday after ruling the country for 23 years. His ouster followed weeks of protest over what Tunisians said were poor living conditions, high unemployment, government corruption and repression.
Fouad Mebazaa, a former parliament speaker, was named acting president Saturday. He promised to restore stability and respect the constitution of the North African country.
Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Ban told reporters the new government should protect human rights and guarantee freedom of speech and association. But he said he remained "extremely concerned" about the ongoing clashes in the streets.
"This is a moment for the Tunisian people to strengthen the country's longstanding culture of political moderation and its attachment to peace," he said. "I call on the government and all stakeholders to ensure a prompt restoration of the rule of law, and to respect and accommodate the aspirations of the people. Tunisia must regain its stability as soon as possible, to pursue the path of development and prosperity."
The new government includes opposition leaders Mustafa Ben Jaafar, who will serve as health minister; Ahmad Ibrahim, education minister; and Ahmad Najib Al Shabi, minister of local development. Among the holdovers is Ahmad Friaa, the interior minister.
Friaa, speaking later on state TV, said 78 people have died in the clashes across several weeks and 94 have been injured, among them many police officers. He urged people to stop riots and to work with police. He vowed that those who should be held responsible for mistakes of the past will be punished. And Friaa ended his speech saying, "Yes for democracy, yes freedom, no for chaos."
Friaa also said the cost of the turmoil of recent weeks is 3 billion Tunisian dinars (about 1.6 billion euros, about $2 billion U.S.).
The announcements came a day after the country's army clashed with armed gangs and remnants of Ben Ali's personal guard. Police have arrested looters and as many as two dozen of the ousted president's relatives since Friday.
Public protests continued Monday, as about two thousand people packed into a major road in Tunis. As the demonstrators tried to work their way toward the headquarters of the ruling party, police opened fire with tear gas.
Opposition officials told CNN there were other peaceful demonstrations in towns in central and southern Tunisia.
Tunisia's unrest was triggered by the December suicide of an unemployed college graduate, who set himself ablaze after police confiscated the fruit cart that was his source of income. Recent diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia, disclosed by the WikiLeaks website, revealed growing discontent with what Tunisians believed was widespread corruption and nepotism within Ben Ali's government.
Experts say the kinds of protests seen in Tunisia could inspire similar actions, particularly by unemployed young people, in other Arab nations.
In the weekend's chaos, a group of Swedish hunters visiting Tunisia said Monday they were stopped on the streets near Kasserine and beaten. Some of the men's eyes were swollen and blood-filled. One man had apparently been beaten on the back. Another man had a head injury.
"To be fair, when we look back, we can understand that our guns scared them," said one of the men, Ove Oberg, who met with CNN Monday morning.
The men said by the time the army came and understood the hunters were tourists, they had been badly beaten.
"If the army didn't find us, we would have been dead," Magnus Josefsson said.
Mohamed Guiga, a witness to Sunday's clash between government troops and Ben Ali's loyalists, said most Tunisians have rallied to each other's aid since the uprising.
"We are proud of those people -- simple people, young people, normal people -- who take care of each other," Guiga said.
CNN's Rima Maktabi, Ben Wedeman, Per Nyberg, Matt Smith and Neil Curry contributed to this report.


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Schoolhouse rocked: Debate rumbles on Montessori's mountain
Silhouetted figures of children cartwheel across the campus, but what's going on inside a local school high atop Pantops Mountain has some parents flipping out– and pulling their children out.
In an open letter signed by 11 families that began circulating by email in mid-February, the former chair of the Montessori Community School board enumerates "reduced emphasis on basic academics," "overcrowded, chaotic, and unsafe classrooms not conducive to learning," as well as "false, deceptive, and/or incomplete communications to parents on critical issues."
The former chair, Jon Rintels, who recently withdrew his child from the school, portrays one class as so large that students are split into separate rooms with only one teacher available to shuttle between them. Besides describing an administration out of touch with the realities of the classroom, Rintels also suggests a board too preoccupied with personal projects to properly search for the institution's new leader last fall.
Within hours of this reporter contacting the school, the Hook received nearly a dozen heartfelt letters from parents in support of the Montessori Community School. Many of these parents downplay the exodus, portray Rintels as "vindictive," and claim the school has actually improved this year under its new leadership.
"I observed a magical, wonderful, warm community of people genuinely interested in helping the students there develop into the best people they could be," writes Alyssa Hart, whose daughter is in her second year in the school's Primary class.
Are the concerned parents' allegations founded, or is this heated situation– as more than one pro-administration parent suggests– a case where a few people can't tolerate change?
At the heart of the conflict is the so-called Montessori method, a century-old teaching technique based on some unusual– even controversial– measures.
A school on a hill
Perched on the peak of Pantops Mountain, Montessori Community School occupies six acres and offers 360-degree views of the Blue Ridge, Brown's Mountain, and Charlottesville. The large brick house, visible from Route 250, fronts a bucolic, almost farm-like setting nestled on the slope behind the house.
Several low-slung modular buildings frame a courtyard festooned with swings, gardens, and birdfeeders. (Montessori Community School is one of a handful of schools nationwide that have achieved status as a National Audubon Bird Sanctuary.) A low fence with several gates completes the enclosure.
On a recent sunny afternoon at the school, children participate in a variety of Montessori-approved activities. In a large green aluminum-sided building housing a spacious gymnasium, at least 20 children ages 6-to-9– the Lower Elementary class– sit on mats, their eyes focused on an instructor teaching them a chanting song through call and response.
In another classroom, students in the Upper Elementary class sprawl on the floor, listening quietly as a teacher reads a story. These activities could be happening at any school, but on closer inspection there are clues that these rooms are different from more traditional educational settings.
For starters, there's just one class for every three years' of conventional schools. Children are encouraged to teach each other, and they call their adult teachers by their first names. Even the 3-to-6 year olds in the Primary class can enter and leave their classroom at will.
These traditions, say school officials, were developed by Maria Montessori, one of Italy's first female physicians, who developed the unique approach called "follow the child."
Montessori's method
Maria Montessori's educational theories were born of her clinical observation that children learn best when they're actively engaged in the learning process rather than passively listening to an instructor, according to the website of the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI).
In 1906, Montessori founded Casa dei Bambini, or "Children's House," for approximately 60 children of poor families living in the San Lorenzo district of Rome. By 1909, according to AMI (the organization Montessori founded in 1929), Montessori offered her first seminar based on her success with her students. Teachers from around the world attended, and over the next several decades, her teaching methods– and materials– sprang up in schools around the world.
Today, in addition to Montessori Community– which opened in 1982– Charlottesville is home to four Montessori schools with a total enrollment of several hundred children, most of them pre-school age.
Starting at the youngest age– 18 months at Montessori Community– children are allowed to choose their own activities and to remain engaged in them until their attention naturally wanes. Teachers are thought of as "guides," helping as the children teach themselves– and each other.
In an ideal setting, this tradition of "freedom with responsibility" creates calm children who are independent, caring, respectful, and who have been taught a deep love of learning, says the new head of the Montessori Community School, Wendy Fisher.
But to Rintels and others whose comments populate the "Concerned Parents" website, what the school delivered following Fisher's hiring this year was anything but calm and responsible.
Chaos in the classroom
How many kids are too many? That's a question Rintels asks in his letter and on the website http://concernedmcsparents.blogspot.com. He and others say they were surprised to learn at the beginning of the school year that a new teacher had been put in charge of the Upper Elementary classroom– with no assistant.
That meant one teacher had to deal with 32 students spread over two classrooms– and that meant that 9-to-12-year-olds were often on their own.
While some parents were asked to come in and help teach "specials" such as music and foreign language, Rintels and others say that children in one of the two rooms were often left unattended. A so-called "quiet room," Rintels writes, became more like a "riot room."
Rintels reported that the situation became so chaotic that some children did not want to get out of the car in the morning.
In a letter sent to the board and linked to the website, one mother reported that her son in the Upper Elementary class cried in the car on the way to school and pleaded to go to a different school.
Rintels alleges that the Upper Elementary class– with 32 students generating up to $8,000 each in tuition– is a huge profit center for the school and as such warranted a full-time assistant.
Fisher says she listened to parents' concerns, and that she did respond to their requests. She placed an assistant in that class each morning, she says. But she insists that the original structure of the classwith one lead teacher– was and is in keeping with official Montessori methods.
While the City of Charlottesville proudly notes that its K-4 classrooms average just 17 students each, the Montessori method allows much larger groupings.
The American Montessori Society recommends a maximum of 30 students per lead teacher, but the other governing body, the Association Montessori Internationale, confirms that class sizes of up to 45 students with a single guide are acceptable, even desirable, for Upper Elementary classes.
"That should not be a complaint," says Virginia McHugh, executive director of AMI. "The children have learned responsibility and independence if they have come up through the system." Too many "guides" can be meddlesome, she says, and can interfere with the natural learning process.
UVA professor and Montessori expert Angeline Lillard, author of Montessori: the Science behind the Genius, agrees that class sizes of between 30 and 45 are ideal for authentic Montessori schools. Montessori children, Lillard says, "are so responsible on their own, and they just behave well."
Another complaint about the Upper Elementary class concerned its teacher's training. Rintels and others say Fisher misrepresented the new instructor's qualifications by claiming she was Montessori-certified. In fact, the teacher had completed her Montessori coursework, but her "practicum" year as lead teacher in the class at Montessori Community was the final step before receiving AMS certification.
In a letter sent to parents on September 27, 2005, Fisher responded to the allegations that she had misrepresented the truth about the teacher's credentials. The confusion, she said, stemmed from differences in the certification procedures between AMS– which offers certification following the practicum year– and AMI, which offers certification before the practicum year.
Rintels was dissatisfied with Fisher's explanation.
It takes at least one year for certification from either organization, he wrote, and the new teacher had not begun her training until June 2005.
"Remember the old adage that 'Lies are like cockroaches; uncover one and others are bound to show up'?" wrote Rintels. "I think another cockroach just showed up."
Fisher stands by her letter, and declines comment on Rintels' accusations, saying only, "Originally, when I introduced her, I said she was trained." She reiterates the standard Montessori practice of someone in their practicum year serving as a supervised lead teacher. Fisher says she provided regular supervision.
"I expected people to be fine with that," she says.
Hiring practices
Fisher is not the only one bearing the brunt of the Concerned Parents' ire. Rintels says the school's board of directors, now composed of 11 members, abdicated its responsibility by, among other things, appointing Fisher head of school in January without conducting a search.
Fisher, who'd served as the school's director of education during the 2004-05 school year, was appointed interim head last fall. No search was conducted, and two months ago her appointment was made permanent.
"It may be an exaggeration to say that the Board's cancellation of the promised search is the nonprofit world's equivalent of an anti-democratic coup d'etat, but not much," wrote Rintels, suggesting Board members may have had other things on their minds such as building their dream house or traveling to Europe.
Board chair David Cathcart calls such accusations unfounded. "Quotes were taken out of context," he says.
Cathcart says the board's decision to hire Fisher was based on one thing: "She has the expertise." Moreover, he notes, Fisher "has very many supporters."
Among them are Montessori Community School parents Michael and Jennifer Clark, who write that Fisher has improved the school in numerous ways.
"Wendy is an intelligent, well-educated woman with a deep understanding of the Montessori method and a commitment to assisting our school in moving successfully into the future," the parents of two claim in an email sent to the Hook.
Fisher also bristles at questions of her qualifications– and questions of the process by which she was hired.
The Concerned Parents, she says, "aren't familiar with how difficult it was to get me in the first place."
The Board originally brought Fisher to the school two years ago as a consultant, and then hired her– after a national search– as the director of education for the 2004-2005 school year.
"I'm triple trained," says Fisher, explaining she is certified by AMI for ages 3-6, 6-12, and middle school.
Furthermore, say Fisher and Cathcart, nothing in the bylaws requires the board to do a broad search– as is the case in public schools, which must advertise every position before hiring.
Follow the childout the door?
In addition to concerns about the Upper Elementary classroom, some parents have questioned the school's policy of allowing children particularly the very young– to go outside alone.
Allison Bell's daughter, Schuyler, attended Montessori Community school last year– until her babysitter, who was picking the girl up one afternoon, reported finding the four-year-old alone on the playground with a gate open.
When Bell called to complain, she says, Fisher told her that Montessori allows children to "earn the right" to be alone on the playground and that "We've never had a child go missing."
Another mother, who asks that her name not be used, says she too decided to remove her child from the school after finding him alone and unsupervised on the playground.
"That was pretty much the last straw for me," says the mother.
AMI's McHugh says the notion of an indoor/outdoor classroom where children can explore freely is essential to an authentic Montessori experience, as long as the children are within sight and sound of a teacher. "We put safety first," she says.
Fisher says a teacher is always within sight and sound of the children at Montessori Community.
In addition, she says, "They are gated in. And if they misuse the privilege, they lose it."
That answer didn't calm Bell's fears. A gate might keep a child in, she says, but it won't keep a stranger out.
"There are some things that might have been appropriate for 19th century Italy that are not appropriate for 21st century Charlottesville," she says.
Painful policy
For several parents, the decision to remove a child from the school was greeted by a painful surprise: their other children would not be invited back. For the parents, the policy meant finding another school. For the children, it meant a change of venue and uprooting friendships.
"Could anything be less 'follow the child' than this policy?" asks one person writing on the Concerned Parents blog.
Despite a six-year history with the school– including stints on the board and chairing school fundraisers– outspoken parent Barret Stump and her husband questioned the policy.
"What if one of my children needs something different from what MCS has to offer, but the other is doing well in that learning environment?" she asks in a letter to the Montessori board and linked on the blog.
Stump claims she knows of as many as 22 children who won't be coming back and that the school could be hurting itself with its three-year policy.
The Stumps pulled their two children out in February after learning they would not be offered re-enrollment contracts for next year– because of their questioning, she believes.
Fisher says the three-year policy has always existed, though she agrees that the school may not have enforced it in the past. And while it may seem unfair, both Fisher and McHugh say it is standard Montessori procedure.
Because the Montessori method relies heavily on three-year cycles, the schools want families who understand and take the multi-year commitment seriously, says McHugh.
Fisher says the policy applies only to families who remove their children before they've completed a three-year cycle.
"It's not in the child's best interest to move to another school after one year," she says.
That might explain the experience of Hunter and Andrea Davidson, who write on the website that their first-grade daughter is having trouble transferring to her grade level in another school because of her "non-existent" reading ability.
"She's two grade levels below her grade," the Davidsons allege.
Another parent who pulled her child out says her son, in the Lower Elementary school class, was "severely below in math and writing, particularly." Since moving to a different school, she says, "He's gotten 100 on his tests. It wasn't an aptitude issue."
But other parents say they are thrilled with the progress their children are making at Montessori Community School.
"My four-year-old son is practically reading as a direct result of attending this school," writes Celina Mills. "We are thrilled with his progress both socially and academically... MCS is empowering him to learn!"
Because children learn at different paces, Fisher says, the school doesn't guarantee that they will have learned everything that corresponds to a grade until the three-year cycle is done. For instance, one six-year-old might spend a year focused heavily on math and spend less time reading. Fisher says the Montessori teacher will make sure he catches up on all skills by the end of the cycle, but if he leaves before the cycle ends, he may test below grade level in a traditional education setting.
Fisher declines comment on any particular student, but says she believes the majority of children at Montessori Community end up ahead of their public school peers– if they stay with Montessori.
Looking forward
For the parents who have already left the Montessori Community School, there may be no going back. Andrea Davidson resigned her seat on the board in October and withdrew her daughter.
"I would love to bring my youngest son to MCS in the near future," Davidson laments. "However, I do not have faith in the administration or the board to make good decisions about MCS, the future of the school, or the education of my children. The current head of school and board leadership lack integrity to follow the proper course."
The litany of accusations from the Concerned Parents has fed an allegation among some parents loyal to the school that the continued complaints– even by parents who have sent their children elsewhere– are "vindictive."
But that's not how Kurt and Ilsa Illig say they feel. "We are private people," they write on the website. "We did not want to post our concerns in a public forum. Our motivation in coming forward is to do the right thing, in the hope that the community that we loved but were forced to leave can come together to honestly and openly resolve these problems."
And Rintels, who declined comment beyond his online statements, expresses hope that the school will address his concerns, despite the fact that his children will no longer attend.
"Our hope," Rintels writes, "is that by openly bringing these serious concerns to the attention of the entire [Montessori] Community, it can then openly discuss them, and reverse the School's downward spiral before it's too late."
Both Cathcart and Fisher say they have encouraged families to come forward with concerns or complaints and are disappointed that they have been unable to satisfy the Concerned Parents.
"One of the hallmarks of Montessori is grace and courtesy," says Fisher. "That makes this situation somewhat more heartbreaking. Our children do live by this grace and courtesy; I wish the adults could also."
An Upper Elementary school teacher reads to her class at the Montessori Community School.
Children swing in a fenced courtyard.
Montessori Community School's new head of school, Wendy Fisher, with several students.
A counting device called an abacus is used for teaching some Montessori math.


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Portion Distortion
Dec. 8 -- SUNDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) -- All-you-can-eat buffets, super-sized meals and cavernous drinks may help keep your wallet full, but they're also helping to expand your waistline.
Nutrition experts say portion control is one of the biggest factors in successfully losing weight. But Americans aren't very good at recognizing reasonable portion sizes anymore.
"If people could cut down on their portion sizes, this would be the single greatest way to combat the creeping obesity epidemic," said Madelyn Fernstrom, founding director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center. "It's such a simple concept, but it's hard to do. There's so much hidden fat in food, it's hard to know what a serving size is."
And, if you think consuming more food than you should at one meal isn't a big concern, consider that just "100 calories a day more than you need adds up to 10 pounds in one year," said Miriam Pappo, clinical nutrition manager at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. "That's only one or two tablespoons of salad dressing," she added.
A recent study of 120 healthy adults found that when people were given the right size portions, their weight loss efforts were much more successful. Men in the study were told to eat about 1,700 calories daily, while the women were advised to eat 1,365 calories. Both groups were also told that their diet should consist of 55 percent carbohydrates, 25 percent protein and 20 percent fat.
In addition, 30 men and 30 women were given prepackaged entrees of meat and rice and were told to add two large salads, fruit and two glasses of skim milk a day. The remaining men and women were coached on making healthy choices but were allowed to select their own portions.
In two months, the women given prepackaged portions lost 12 pounds, while those who selected their own portions only lost eight pounds. The men eating prepackaged portions lost 16 pounds, versus 11 pounds for those who controlled their own portions.
Fernstrom said she thinks prepackaged frozen meals can be a good option, especially when people are trying to re-learn proper portions. But if you don't want to eat a lot of frozen food, she suggests saving the containers from those meals, so you have a guide as to what a serving size should be.
Fernstrom also said that today's dinner plates are simply too big. She recommends eating from salad plates all the time. You can always go back for more food if you're still hungry, she said.
Pappo said using the "plate method" can also be helpful. Half of your plate should be vegetables, one-quarter should be protein, and the remaining quarter set aside for a starchy food.
"People don't like to measure their food, but you need to do it every three or four months to see if you're on target," said Pappo, who periodically measures her food to make sure she's not overeating.
When it comes to eating out, both Pappo and Fernstrom said challenges abound.
"Always assume it's more than one serving," said Fernstrom, who recommends sharing an entree with a friend or ordering an appetizer for dinner.
"People don't want to waste food. If it's on your plate, you'll probably eat it. If you went by your appetite, you'd probably only eat half of your entree," she said. "You have to change your mindset, eat slower, and get some tools to help you with portion control, like smaller plates."
If you need any more motivation to cut back on your portion sizes, Pappo pointed out that if you're a 130-pound woman who eats an extra 500 calories -- something that's easy to do at a restaurant -- you'd need to bicycle for an hour and a half to burn off those extra calories.
More information
To learn more about portion sizes, visit the U.S. government's Weight-control Information Network.
SOURCES: Miriam Pappo, M.S., R.D., clinical nutrition manager, Montefiore Medical Center, New York City; Madelyn Fernstrom, Ph.D., founding director, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center


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United States Capitol Building
The United States Capitol Building, in Washington, D.C., is where the United States Congress meets.
L'Enfant's proposed and partially executed plan (1791) for the layout of the entire city combined a gridiron design with coordinates varying in frequency and a system of radiocentric avenues derived from the two main foci of the President's House (White House) and the Capitol. His scheme derived from his concept of a strong nationally elected executive balancing a locally elected house of legislators. His emphasis on broad vistas was better suited for the capital of an empire rather than for a republic, while his awareness of scenic backdrops for his projected public buildings indicated the influence of the English cult of the picturesque.
A competition for the best design was held in 1792-93. French architect Etienne (or Stephen) Sulpice Hallet (1755-1825) refined designs by William Thornton, a physician and amateur architect, adapting baroque and neoclassical traditions to American themes. Hallet's four designs employed domes, statues, and other architectural details to invoke Roman civic ideals. Difficulties in planning the capitol building were not only structural, but also tied to the uncertainty of the operation and function of the federal government and its branches. Many of Hallet's design ideas from the early 1790s were incorporated into the final capitol design.
The Capitol was built from the original plans of William Thornton and Hallet; after the British burned it in 1814 it was rebuilt in 1815 under Benjamin Henry LaTrobe; there were later modifications by Charles Bulfinch and Thomas Ustick Walter.
Dome and art
Thomas Crawford's 19.5-foot 'Statue of Freedom,' stood on the Capitol dome from December 1863 to May 1993, when it was briefly removed for restoration and repairs. The statue has also been known as the Goddess of Freedom, the Goddess of Liberty, and the Indian Goddess.
Emanuel Leutze, a German-born artist, was commissioned by the U.S. Government to paint a mural on the western wall of the Capitol. Leutze, well known for his "Washington Crossing the Delaware" and some 60 other historic paintings, painted the mural entitled "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way." He wanted to present the grand peaceful conquest of the great west and in doing so he reflected his love of adventure, hero worship, and fondness of wild lethal fun
Security has become a major issue since the Sept. 11, 2001, where the fourth plane may have been headed to the White House or the Capitol. The serenity and repose formerly offered by Frederick Law Olmsted's original capitol grounds landscape have been replaced with concrete barriers and machine-gun-wielding police who greet visitors and passersby with suspicion, in stark contrast to the air of friendliness and openness that used to prevail.
The landscaping around the Capitol grounds, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, was partly sacrificed during 1999-2003 to construct the new Capitol Visitor Center and security points.
See also
Further reading
- Allen, William C. History of the United States Capitol: A Chronicle of Design, Construction, and Politics (Washington: Government Printing Office, 2001). 461 pp.
- Carrier, Thomas J. The White House, the Capitol, and the Supreme Court: Historic Self-Guided Tours (Chicago: Arcadia, 2000). 128 pp. online review
- Kennon, Donald R., ed. A Republic for the Ages: The United States Capitol and the Political Culture of the Early Republic (1999). 583 pp.
- Maroon, Suzy. The United States Capitol (1993), photographic history


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The data is based information reported to Workers' Compensation Board by March 31 for employers who are required to have WCB accounts. The dataset contain employer-specific information on occupational fatality, lost-time and disabling injury claims and presented as counts and rates. This...


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Historically, my experiences with the competitive deejaying circuit haven't been the best. I've heard so many incredible stories and seen amazing videos of guys in the Disco Mix Club [DMC] battles, which really generated my interest in creative deejaying. Having seen guys like Rob Swift and Z-Trip on stage together at an event in Pittsburgh where for a moment they shared a turntable set, each scratching on a separate turntable that ran through the same mixer, I was jaw-droppingly impressed. It's hard to imagine the coordination and expertise that made them capable of spontaneously doing such a thing. So, I had high regards for the experts, but my thoughts on the competitive deejaying world could be summed up in one word—stale. I recall being excited for a deejaying battle at the A3C Festival in Atlanta in 2010. But as I stood near the front of the stage as a spectator, I walked away bored and unimpressed. Even if they were doing the same things that I had previously been amazed by in YouTube videos, seeing it live was nothing new. The excitement that comes with witnessing an innovative idea or new expression coming to life was missing.
So why do you care what I think about deejaying or how that fits within the context of Hip Hop? As fans of the music and culture, we've all been subjected to the horrible experience of celebrity deejaying—the worst example being Paris Hilton's short-lived career behind the ones and twos. And with the advent of CDJ technology, Serato, as well as Hip Hop's recent embrace of Electronic Dance Music, the definition and roles of deejays are evolving.
Blending Genres In The Competitive Deejay Circuit
"I came up in the era where there weren't Hip Hop deejays or Reggae deejays, you were just a deejay and you had to play everything," said Jazzy Jeff at the East Coast Regional leg of the Red Bull Thre3Style battle event in Philadelphia. "You can have all the right songs and play them the wrong way. So, it's not just picking the songs—it's how long do you let them play, what parts do you let play, how do they segue. Does it make sense? Does it tell a story…does it create an emotion?"
Jeff has performed on stage with the Fresh Prince, among others, rocked clubs and parties as a solo DJ, and has expressed an appreciation for the technical skills that are studied by most deejays who embrace the art form as a profession.
Hell, I can hardly cut a record nice with my hands. So if somebody can do it with his or her nose or other extremity I'm impressed. What the Thre3Style competition does is continue to incorporate these popular tricks that will make the collective audience say, "Wow," but they also put an emphasis on a deejay's ability to make a crowd dance. So I hit Thre3Style with hopes of seeing that YouTube type of excitement translate into a live action platform. Like competitions in the past, they continue to judge deejays on their technical skills, but they have added criteria that requires the competing deejays to develop a strong ability to engage the audience.
"You know, the deejay battle world got pretty stale about ten years ago," stated A-Trak, who also attended the East Coast Regionals in Philadelphia. "It seems like deejays kind of ran out of things to do for a little while. But in the meantime, the art of the mix itself and record selection progressed. It seems like now there's sort of this new crossroads, where deejays can combine a temporary type of selection with techniques that still evolved over the years, and have a fresh approach to make it all gel together."
A-Trak entered the field of competitive turntablism at just 15 years old. He competed in the DMC World DJ Championships and became the competition's youngest winner in 1997. In recent years, he's garnered recognition as Kanye West's tour deejay and as a founder of the Fool's Gold Records label. It's just another example of the aforementioned evolution of deejaying both within Hip Hop music and culture.
Hip Hop's Reciprocal Link Between Deejays & Emcees
With Hip Hop established as a mainstay atop Billboard charts and in mainstream music, we've seen many artists collaborating with the proven party-rocking deejays—essentially validating each other to their respective audiences. A rapper can give a deejay access to millions of followers and fans, while a deejay can give a rapper's song the extra push it needs to become a successful club or radio single. The recent collaboration between A$AP Rocky and popular Dubstep contributor Skrillex, "Wild For the Night," appears mutually beneficial. Skrillex is largely being introduced to the millions of fans that Rocky has accumulated, while Rocky has crafted another club-friendly single created at the guise of Skrillex.
The accompaniment of a deejay has proven to be a commodity for Hip Hop artists from the ground level to the peak of their success. Some semblance of Wiz Khalifa's progress over the years can be accredited to his teaming up with his official tour deejay, Bonics. Prior to Khalifa's breaking through to international stardom, he faced the challenge of engaging fans in his hometown. Bonics had established himself as Pittsburgh's top urban deejay on radio and in clubs; he was a go-to call for any Hip Hop shows that came through the city. With Bonics' support, a youthful Khalifa earned radio airplay and opening performance slots when many national acts made their way through the city. The relationship has helped both in their careers, as Bonics' reputation in Pittsburgh helped Khalifa early on and Khalifa's on-going success has led to Bonics touring the world and becoming a more widely recognized name. Still, Bonics recognizes his role and the impact he has at tour-stop performances with Khalifa.
"I'm the first person that says anything on the microphone during a Wiz show," Bonics explained. "The truth is that you are on stage and people are watching you. Entertain them…they paid money to get in!"
He continued on his responsibility as a deejay to grab the attention of the audience: "When I say it, I say it with conviction, 'Make some motherfucking noise!' And they listen. You can translate that into body language as well, even just putting your hands up and doing the 'come on' sort of body motion. But you have to believe in that. You can't just get up there and half-ass it and think they're gonna fuck with you."
Reconciling Hip Hop's Foundations With Corporate Tie-Ins
At times, Hip Hop has been very insular about large corporations participating in the culture. We all remember how corny Memphis Bleek looked rhyming about shampoo on that "Garnier Fructis Flow" video. But, when executed properly—like Run-DMC's groundbreaking deal with Adidas—a corporate hand isn't the worst thing in the world. And while some traditionalists still justifiably frown upon Serato, Hip Hop (particularly deejaying) was founded upon technical innovation. So there's always a balance to be struck.
"I had to learn the hard way," offered veteran turntablist and producer Z-Trip. "The technology wasn't there. You know, you've got guys who are up there now deejaying with computers and having the ability to make edits of their own things and craft their sets a little better. For me it was a little harder, because I was dealing with records that I couldn't really move around.
"There's this sway of trying to make sure you can lock into each groove and make another groove out of it," he added about mixing and blending music. "Those are the things that helped me learn and figure it out, but things are much different now. To be honest though, I'm glad I learned that way, because it helped me really fine-tune my ear where I can get out of any situation. You can throw me any song and I can mix my way out of it. Thank God."
As a writer, I got involved with the Red Bull Thre3Style this year, as a spectator and to document their relationship with my hometown of Pittsburgh and the city's deejays via the Pittsburgh City Paper. After covering the qualifier event in Pittsburgh, I was invited by Red Bull to attend the East Coast regional event in Philadelphia, where the winner of the Pittsburgh qualifier advanced. He placed third in Philly and did not advance to the national championship. And before you ask, no Red Bull is not paying me.
Ultimately, I think an event like Thre3Style is good for Hip Hop. There is a bit of a corporate element, and there has been a large, illuminated Red Bull sign behind the deejays on stage. But there's not an overwhelming amount of mentions of the brand or implementation of the brand into the mixes. And if we've learned anything from the campaign to preserve 1520 Sedgwick Avenue—home of the rec room where Hip Hop pioneer DJ Kool Herc helped introduce the concept of deejaying as we know it—it's that a non-intrusive corporate boost can be helpful. Look at what happened to Fat Beats.
An event like Thre3Style isn't going to prevent you from getting bombarded by Ludacris or another emcee throwing David Guetta or Swedish House Mafia on their album. And Serato along with the celebrity deejaying culture it enables is likely here to stay. Believe it or not, Serato is now one of the official sponsors of the DMC competition. But deejaying is one of the original elements of Hip Hop, so a corporation like Red Bull investing in it is in itself creating awareness for the culture by exposing it on a high international scale. They're also taking some of Hip Hop's best—like DJ Jazzy Jeff, A-Trak, and Z-Trip—and putting them on a platform as expert judge for the competition.
Rory D. Webb is a Pittsburgh, PA native who has closely documented his local Hip Hop scene and has been writing with HipHopDX since 2011. Follow him on Twitter @RoryDWebb.


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Oxfam slams PepsiCo, Coke over workers' well-being
Oxfam's 'Behind the Brands' report, written by Beth Hoffman, scores and ranks the world's 10 biggest food and beverage companies upon the basis of corporate policies and commitments to social and environmental justice within agricultural production.
Beverage giants Coke and PepsiCo are ranked third and fourth place respectively, but with unimpressive overall scores of 41% (Coke), 31% (PepsiCo), while Nestlé tops the table with 54%, followed by Lipton Tea brand owner Unilever (49%).
Coke welcomes 'continuous dialogue' with Oxfam
Coca-Cola Great Britain said today that it was aware of the report and its ranking, and was committed to implementing practices throughout its supply chain that advanced a sustainable agriculture strategy and supported commitments to build more sustainable communities.
"We believe in creating economic opportunities for women and smallholder farmers as well as stewarding water and other natural resources within the more than 200 countries in which we operate," the company said.
"As part of The Coca-Cola Company's commitment to transparent, more sustainable and responsible business practices, we welcome a continuous dialogue with Oxfam that enables us to identify and address global challenges collaboratively."
The charity's report ranks the world's 10 leading companies – Mars, Danone, Mondelēz, General Mills, Kellogg's and Associated Foods are also scored (see below) – using the following seven measures: Land (supply chains free of 'land grabs', especially in developing countries), Women (promotion of women's welfare), Farmers (treatment of farmers, including sustainability policies).
Other heads are Workers (fair treatment of agricultural workers), Climate (work to mitigate harmful greenhouse gas emissions), Transparency (disclosure of information about where products and ingredients originate) and Water (respect of human rights to water, disclosure of water use, reduction thereof and water management.
Hoffman said that Coca-Cola products were consumed 1.7bn times per day while 4,000 cups of Nescafé are drunk every second; together the big ten food and drink firms represent roughly 10% of the world economy.
All the 'Big 10' had made commitments to a more just food system, Hoffman said. "Yet the scorecard shows that these very same companies are currently failing to take the necessary steps in their policies to ensure the well-being of those working to produce their products."
Only PepsiCo recognizes water as 'human right'
Notably, Coke was the only 'Big 10' company not to join the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (thus committing to protect local community land rights). But Coke and PepsiCo were the only firms with policies that account for the effect of their operations on local water access.
"Over the past decade, only PepsiCo has taken the crucial first step of publicly recognizing that water is a human right and committing to consult local communities on plans to develop water resources," Hoffman wrote.
Coke was one of five firms (PepsiCo is not on the list) that had taken steps to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (such as electricity usage) from direct operations, Hoffman said, before adding that none of the companies had developed policies to help farmers deal with climate change.
More damningly, although both Pepsi and Coke had signed Women's Empowerment Principles, Hoffman claimed that none of the Big 10 "knows or is attempting to find out how many women farmers are involved in their supply chains or in which type of farming activities they are engaged".
"Without such knowledge, they cannot determine whether women are at risk of exclusion of exploitation, and whether women have equal access to the safer, better-paid and more stable jobs often reserved for men at farm level," she added.
In response to the report, a PepsiCo spokesperson told BeverageDaily.com this afternoon: "PepsiCo strongly believes in the need to respect, support and invest in the communities where we operate through sustainable agriculture practices."
They added: "Guided by our Sustainable Agriculture Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct, we've developed a Sustainable Farming Initiative that builds on that foundation and addresses the three key pillars of sustainable agriculture: environmental, social and economic.
"We continue to work with our partners and stakeholders in sustainable agriculture and use our global capabilities for the benefit of our business and the communities," the PepsiCo spokesperson said.


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Whether it is a snow day, a scheduled absence for a conference or something more serious, it is important to have a plan for enabling continuity of instruction. This resource outlines steps that can be used to identify which course content needs to be replaced and how to create and deliver the material using different tools, including Canvas, Kaltura, and Zoom.
Use Zoom or Kaltura Capture to record and share instructional content videos with students.
Find out what faculty, staff, and students can do with Kaltura media in Canvas and in Penn State's MediaSpace Portal.
During this session, participants will learn about their options for uploading and sharing media, and collaborating on media or media collections within Penn State's Media management and streaming service, Kaltura MediaSpace. Participants will learn about how to share individual items to be worked on collaboratively with others and how to create channels for a variety of audiences.


text: After petitioning to Parliament for aid to establish the manufacture of flint glass in their house, Waterford were successful and begun their company in Ireland, 1783, as an extensive glass manufactory. The following year, production was in full swing and they had a number of the best craftsmen, blowers, cutters and engravers on the team. Renowned for exquisite crystal glassware with installations in Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle and the Kennedy Centre, to name a few, Waterford excel in producing the finest chandeliers, tableware and home décor that's sought after by collectors and connoisseurs around the world.


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Jeffrey Corzine dead, son of former New Jersey governor Jon Corzine was 31
NEWARK - Former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's son has died.
Corzine spokesman Steven Goldberg says 31-year-old Jeffrey Corzine had suffered from severe depression for years and killed himself Tuesday. Goldberg says he'd been receiving treatment for a painful physical and mental ailment and "made the tragic decision to take his own life."
Goldberg says in a statement issued Thursday the former governor is "devastated."
Jeffrey Corzine was the youngest of the former politician's three children with ex-wife Joanne Corzine. He often joined his father during the 2005 gubernatorial race and was by his side following a near-fatal 2009 car accident.
Jon Corzine was a Wall Street CEO before becoming a Democratic U.S. senator and governor.
Republican Gov. Chris Christie has sent condolences on behalf of "all the people of New Jersey." Christie defeated Corzine in 2009.


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And here we thought marital problems would be the least of our worries in a zombie apocalypse.
But that's exactly what Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) are facing as The Walking Dead duo tries to settle down in this season's "safe haven," an overrun and zombie-infested prison that's already nearly claimed one member of their group — with plenty more death on the way. That's because it isn't walkers the group needs to worry about: There are actual live prisoners within those walls.
Walking Dead Postmortem: Did the prison claim its first cictim?
How will the living threats— including the impending introduction of the Governor (David Morrissey) — affect Rick and Lori's ability to reconcile? TVGuide.com sat down with Lincoln to get the scoop on what's in store for Season 3, including the Rick vs. Governor showdown.
Rick and the group need to make the prison safe to live. What are the difficulties in doing that?
Andrew Lincoln: If you had met these characters on the back of Season 2 and there hadn't been the time jump or we didn't have Lori's baby being the time bomb, Rick would certainly have been the general and pushed them on, but I think he realized that they are so desperate. The silence of the [premiere] teaser says it all. They're on the point of eating dog food now. They're so desperate. They have to do this. He sees potential at this place, and he sees that it could essentially be the safe haven that they've been waiting for. It is their only solution and he realizes that. There is a human threat obviously in Episode 2 which he deals with in an incredibly brutal way, but in his mind's eye, a necessary way. You get a real sense of where Rick has gone and the extremities that he's willing to go to in order to keep the family alive.
How is Rick doing as a leader? Is anyone questioning him this season?
Lincoln: I think he's proved himself. No one has died. The problem is the fact that mama and papa don't speak. There's a huge rift. They're dying emotionally. No one's calling into question his leadership. The Ricktatorship thing was a necessary tool to get them to survive. Everybody realizes he's the man for the job and that killing Shane [Jon Bernthal] was a necessary evil to get the right guy leading the group. The thing about Rick is that he will always lead to the weakest link, where Shane was not of that opinion. He said, "We keep the strong, cut away the weak." And that's one of Rick's enduring strengths and his humanity, but it's also his weakness. And then you meet the Governor. Shane's policy is where the Governor's at. It's what would have happened if Shane had been a leader a little bit further down the line.
Between Rick and The Governor, these are two very strong, very opinionated leaders who just want to keep their people alive. What does this war between them look like because it can't all be physical.
Lincoln: A battle of wits as well. I mean, I think it is. It's who they turned into because of this new world. I like the fact that they may be foes, but they're also sharing the same experience. They're the only people who know what it's like to have the burden of leadership and responsibility to people's lives that has been thrust upon you. Certainly the writers have come up with a really smart way of tying in the two worlds. And I think also, having the Governor is a really great way of opening up the world. You've been following the one man and his family and these group of survivors for so long. Season 2 was very much about the ideology within the group. Who's going to be leader? Now it's about outside of the prison and other humans. So it's much more about the threat of humans.
Is there a possibility the group might be split between staying with Rick or joining the Governor?
Lincoln: That's not necessarily where we go initially. But certainly, that's in there. Who is better? I said to the writers that I'm really interested about what is Rick's breaking point? I think we find it this season.
The Walking Dead Scoop: Can the group survive Season 3?
Lori and Rick are broken right now. Is there a chance they could fix their marriage?
Lincoln: They are their first loves. They're almost at a cellular level. They love each other and they can't help that. Even though they're broken, they're the last memory that they have of their life before. In any other circumstances, of course, they'd draw up the papers and leave each other. But they have a child who's turning into a soldier because he has to, otherwise, he dies. He turns into Sophia. The pressure is ridiculous on this couple. I think they do a pretty damn good job of holding it together in this hell.
This is what I realize more and more: This is a family drama set in hell. That's the way I've played it. Last season, I read Lonesome Dove, just because I felt it was right and it was a beautiful book and it just resonated with Season 2. This season, it's The Road. That was the book that I read. I think that that's very much where we're headed.
In addition to facing this new human threat in the prisoners and the Governor, Rick will also have to face his past in two very different ways: Andrea (Laurie Holden), who he left behind thinking she was dead, and Merle (Michael Rooker), who he inadvertently left for dead. What do those reunions look like?
Lincoln: They were fun to play. Having Merle back is a terrific thing for the show. The interesting thing with Andrea is that she doesn't know what happened. So for her to harbor a resentment is odd when how could she know that we didn't go back for her? She left. So how does she know that we left her? We were in the middle of an invasion. That was her POV.
But there is a mutual misunderstanding. Will that weigh on Rick once he finds out she's alive?
Lincoln: No. Because the way Rick saw it, he just killed his best friend, an invasion happened, the barn burned down, chaos reigned, everybody spread, we fortunately found my wife again and child. There were waves of zombies, so it was one of those decisions that was brutal, but necessary in the same way that it was a necessary execution of Shane. I know that I'm defending my character, but that's the deal. We would have died.
I do laugh when Laurie Holden goes, "You left me." And then she says, "I came back to the road side." When? What, midseason break? When did you do that? And it's funny. We play with each other. She'll say, "You know you gave me 32 seconds' worth of consideration." She's going to count it out. And I'm like, "I'm sorry. I had just killed my best friend and we were trying to survive!" It's brilliant. I love it.
The Walking Dead Scoop: Will Rick and Lori's marriage survive?
What will surprise viewers about this season?
Lincoln: I think every episode is crazy. You wait. I think that Rick goes down the rabbit hole this season, and you start him off in a very dark place. The work that I've seen everybody been doing has been fantastic. I do think it's more brutal and severe. Each week the audience gets slapped in the face, but it's also got incredible moments of hope and emotion. There are two episodes in particular that I think are magnificent. It's almost like they're outdoing themselves to try and come up with new and inventive ways to punish us. I've still got the dirt under my fingernails to prove it.
Do you think Rick & Co. will survive the third season? Hit the comments with your thoughts!
The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.


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Description: There is an animated series called Catscratch, and it airs on Nickelodeon. I received a request by a member, and they asked if I could do a tutorial on one of the main characters. So, this first tutorial for the day is for all you Catscratch fans, "how to draw Katilda", step by step. To be honest, this is the first time that I ever heard of this cartoon, and to tell you the truth, I'm glad I now know about it. As with everything that is new to me, I had to watch a few episodes of the series to educate myself a bit on what I was going to write about. Needless to say I laughed while I watched, and afterwards I kept thinking about the cartoon. Katilda is the neighbor to Mr. Bilk, Gordon, and Waffle who are the three main cats of the series. She is a cat that loves adventures, and if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Bilk has a crush on her. As with a lot of females, she often teases Mr. Bilk because she knows that he's got the hots for her, and she obviously has the hots for him as well. The only problem is, he doesn't know that because she never told him. Katilda also has a doll she calls Alice, and along with her creative imagination, she dreams all day long about the different things she can do with each passing day. I really had fun drawing this pretty feline. She will be an easy feat for you all to tackle, and when you are done you can upload your newly drawn sketch, and show everyone else how you learned "how to draw Katilda" too. I will be back with three more lessons for you all, and seeing how one of the tutorials did pretty good as a linked lesson, I will actually draw my own version. Peace out peeps, and have a happy drawing day!


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Teen Mom 2 star Jenelle Evans has entered into a rehab facility in Malibu.
A source close to Jenelle confirms the news to Us Weekly. "She is clean right now and has been that way for several weeks," the insider states. "She's doing this program to help her cope with all the stress in her life: her family situation, her legal issues, her general anxiety."
Ok Magazine adds that she began a voluntary 45-day stay at the Malibu drug rehab treatment center on May 7.
Patrick Jay Williams, a friend of Jenelle's from her hometown tells OK! Jenelle's past drugs of choice include pot and ecstasy. "She tries to find relief by using pot and Ecstasy. When she takes Ecstasy she gets the feeling that everybody loves her. And in truth, on this island, a lot of people hate her and are jealous of her," said Patrick.
This doesn't come as a major surprise as the 19-year-old MTV star has had plenty of run-ins with the law in recent times. In mid-April, she pled guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia with prosecutors promising to drop the charges if she performs 24 hours of community service. She was also sentenced to 12 months of supervised probation.
Jenelle, mother to son Jace, nearly 2, was originally arrested back in October with her boyfriend, Kieffer Delp, when the two broke into an abandoned home in Oak Island, North Carolina, in order to smoke marijuana. Kieffer also has a past arrest for possession of cocaine.
And in March, she was arrested again for assault after TMZ posted a video of her attacking another girl. She was released shortly after on bond.


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Democrats targeting John Kline
Now that Michele Bachmann is out of the picture for 2014, Democrats are turning their arrows in Minnesota toward GOP Rep. John Kline.
The House Majority PAC, which spent $36 million in the past election to propel Democrats into the lower chamber, has already started running $50,000 worth of Pandora radio ads and Twitter promotions in the south Twin Cities metro-area district.
Those independent expenditure ads mark the first to air in a nonspecial election 2014 House race, evidence that national Democrats have a bull's-eye on the six-term Republican. Kline is among the super PAC's top targets, a list that dropped from 10 to nine GOP names after Bachmann bowed out.
"What I can tell you definitely is this is a targeted race for House Majority PAC and we will be there doing whatever it takes to make sure voters know about John Kline's record," said Andy Stone, the group's spokesman.
Kline has won by double digits in every race since he took the seat in 2002. But redistricting made his district more moderate, thinning his margin of victory last year to 8 percent over former state Democratic Rep. Mike Obermueller.
Voters in the redrawn district tipped slightly in favor of President Barack Obama in both his elections, though the Cook Partisan Voting Index says the area leans red by 2 points.
Democrats have hope that Kline's shrinking victory margin and less safe district will help Obermueller capture the staunch conservative's seat in a 2014 rematch. Kline has voted to sustain the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman and has the endorsement of the National Rifle Association's Political Victory Fund.
Unseating him won't be easy.
Kline is a 25-year U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served as a personal military aide to Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. He also has $750,000 in his campaign coffers and expects that figure to hit $1 million by the end of the month.
The 65-year-old said with the Minnesota state GOP "in shambles" because of debt and other races in the state, he moved aggressively to shore up his own standing.
"So there's a lot of turmoil out there and while we didn't know about Michele's retirement, we saw this other stuff coming, so we've stepped up our fundraising since the beginning of the year, well ahead of where I was in previous cycles of fundraising," he said, adding that he's set a fundraising goal of $3.5 million.
Obermueller raised less than $685,000 in the past election, a relatively paltry total, but said he expects to rake in enough this time to run a competitive race. And national Democrats might help fill the gap.
House Majority PAC spent $65,000 on anti-Kline ads ahead of the 2012 race and is already nearing that mark with a year and a half until the general election.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which dropped $100,000 on a field program last year, has for the past month bought ads blasting Kline in the University of Minnesota's student newspaper and paid Twitter campaigns to rally young voters. It's also running Spanish radio ads against Kline's stance on the DREAM Act.
Obermueller said Kline will need deep pockets to defend his extreme voting record, adding that his own campaign is starting earlier and giving him more time to fundraise than in 2012. The 40-year-old plans to rail on Kline's conservative voting record.
"The image that he's cultivated doesn't reflect his goals," Obermueller said, later adding that "it's really going to come down, I think, to whether or not people pay attention to his voting record."
National Journal rated Kline more conservative than 89.7 percent of lawmakers, and at No. 60 on its conservative ranking — higher than Bachmann, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas). Democrats are specifically criticizing Kline's support for a bill that would tie student loan interest rates to market rates, which they say could increase the burden on students.
The speaker in the super PAC's Pandora ad calls his position "just plain stupid."
Minnesota GOP operative Ben Golnik said while Bachmann was a "boogeywoman" to Democrats, Kline's relatively lower national profile would keep this race lower on the radar.
"You don't see him on cable TV shows like you see other Republicans," Golnik said, adding that Kline's longevity makes it tough for Democrats to "change public perception at its core."
But Democrats are aiming to put Kline's voting record front and center, and starting early.
"Obviously, he's been here a long time and because, partly because folks like Michele Bachmann have been a little louder than him, he's been able to run under the radar a bit," Obermueller said.


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MMAjunkie.com Radio today welcomes to the show UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub and UFC light heavyweight Lyoto Machida.
Cruz will call in to talk to us about his rehab from a second knee injury that has been part of the reason he's been on the shelf since an October 2011 win over Demetrious Johnson. In the meantime, Renan Barao beat Urijah Faber for the interim 135-pound title and defended it earlier this month in London. Schaub, who picked up a unanimous decision win over Lavar Johnson on Saturday at UFC 157, will talk to us about that fight and what might be up next for him. And Machida will discuss his status as the new No. 1 contender at 205 pounds after his UFC 157 win over Dan Henderson.
MMAjunkie.com Radio airs from noon to 2 p.m. ET (9-11 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Listen to and watch a video stream of the two-hour show at www.mmajunkie.com/radio, or watch it live on select television markets as part of Fight Now TV.
MMAjunkie.com Radio listener guide:
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- HOW TO CALL: MMAjunkie.com Radio takes phone calls from listeners throughout the show. Call into the MMAjunkie.com Radio hotline at (702) 736-9461 or (702) 736-9463.
- HOW TO CHAT: To chat with the show's hosts, guests and other MMAjunkie.com Radio listeners, launch the "Combat Chat" feature, which is available on the main radio page. You can discuss the show and even submit a question for the day's guests while there.
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- HOW TO VISIT THE SHOW: You can watch MMAjunkie.com Radio live and in person at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino on the world-famous Las Vegas Strip. The booth is located in the resort's Race & Sports Book next to the Mandalay Bay poker room. To plan a trip to Sin City and MMAjunkie.com Radio, go to www.mandalaybay.com.


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Tiger Woods Spurns Reporters for Social Media Q&A With Fans
The social web just kicked more sand in the face of traditional media, this time courtesy of golfing megastar Tiger Woods.
Woods passed on a traditional question-and-answer session with reporters leading up to his next PGA Tour appearance, which comes this week at the Wells Fargo Championship in North Carolina. Instead, he answered a series of questions submitted by fans via Facebook and Twitter.
The golfer announced the switcheroo late last week. This Monday, he posted a 14-minute video of himself answering 19 fan queries to his personal website. In the video, tagged "press conference" and "2012 season," Woods reads questions from a sheet of paper then gives answers while seated on a couch. He covers topics including his favorite pro golf memories, how many practice rounds he'll play before upcoming tournaments and how he decides which clubs to use when.
"We wanted to have a little bit more direct interaction with fans, and they've been very good to him over the years. We're probably a little bit behind with social media and this is a way to do that," Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, told ESPN.com last Friday.
While the video does give Woods a more direct connection with fans, the larger message-controlling benefits for him are more significant.
Woods doesn't have to answer to reporters who might ask him about topics such as his 40th place finish at the Masters earlier this month, criticism he received after kicking a club during that tournament or his longer term performance slump. Instead, he curates a list of softball questions — identifying the fans who asked them solely by first name — and has as much time as he wants to prepare answers. No surprises, no controversial — or interesting, depending on your perspective — questions.
An athlete of Woods' stature taking to social media in place of, and not just to complement, traditional media interviews is a big step. We'll see if other major sports stars follow suit.
Will more big-name athletes replace press conferences with events like this? Does the public benefit, or not? Let us know in the comments.
Image courtesy TigerWoods.com


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Financial FAQs
How does one stop the bullies? Put simply, find a way to stand up to them. Economic bullies behave no differently than individuals when confronted by a person or organization willing to oppose them. But how are the 80 percent that are wage and salary earners to do so whose incomes has been whittled away since the 1970s by anti-union legislation and outright banning of collective bargaining in many of the right to work states?
Popular culture has enshrined the superhuman heroes who have tamed bullies; from Superman and Wonder Woman, to Batman, and now Captain America taming Nazi bullies. But taming economic bullies doesn't have a popular precedent other than Robin Hood, it seems.
And Robin Hood was an English legend. America can only come up with its opposite, reverse Robin Hoodism, or taking from the poor and giving to the rich. That is how Nobelist Paul Krugman characterizes Republican attempts to cut taxes further and oppose raising the minimum wage.
"In the past, Republicans would justify tax cuts for the rich either by claiming that they would pay for themselves or by claiming that they could make up for lost revenue by cutting wasteful spending. But what we're seeing now is open, explicit reverse Robin Hoodism: taking from ordinary families and giving to the rich. That is, even as Republicans look for a way to sound more sympathetic and less extreme, their actual policies are taking another sharp right turn."
So the cards seem to be politically stacked against those who oppose the economic bullies. "(But) It wasn't always this way," says Marketwatch's Rex Nutting. "In the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s, trade barriers, strong unions and discrimination gave workers (white male workers, that is) more bargaining power to get higher pay. It created the middle class."
The result of such economic bullyism is that American wages haven't grown since the 1970s, except for a brief period in the 1990s, when the Federal Reserve allowed the unemployment rate to fall to 4 percent, before beginning to raise interest rates. Thank you, President Clinton (and then Fed Chairman Greenspan during his easy money phase).
The share of national income that goes to labor (including the CEO's salary and his stock options) has plunged from about 63 percent to 57 percent, says Nutting. The 6 percent of national income that's going to profits instead of wages amounts to nearly $900 billion a year.
"For corporate businesses, after-tax profits are at record levels as a share of national income," says Nutting. "Since the recession ended, profits are up 65 percent to $1.68 trillion last year. Small businesses aren't doing quite so spectacularly, but their income is up 13 percent and their net worth is up 33 percent to $8.7 trillion since the recession ended. And the workers? Even after a big gain in the first quarter, median wages are down 3 percent since the recession ended."
Many commentators and sociologists in particular assert 9/11 brought modern economic bullying to a high point. It's rationale was the US put on a semi-permanent war footing, so that "Allegiance to the old public virtues—respect of the Bill of Rights, the Geneva Conventions and the rule of domestic and international law—was mocked and dismissed as quaint and soft by our new drill sergeants, according to a recent Canadian study. "From then on a state of emergency replaced the rule of law and set itself up as the norm."
On a personal, workplace level, "If we are in a constant war-like mode societally, it sounds trivial, it sounds child-like, it sounds naively utopian to say, 'Can't we all get along?'" says Gary Namie of the Workplace Bullying Institute. "If you call for civility or a suspension of unmitigated, unfettered aggression, they call you a wimp. They think you are a wimp."
There is another term for economic bullies, used by Professor Krugman, among others, in his most recent NYTimes column. They are sadomonetarists, or bankers and economists who want to tighten credit even during such tough economic times, as now: "At some level it has to reflect an instinctive identification with the interests of wealthy creditors as opposed to usually poorer debtors. But it's also driven, I believe, by the desire of many monetary officials to pose as serious, tough-minded people — and to demonstrate how tough they are by inflicting pain."
That, of course, is the most cogent definition of a bully. They want to demonstrate how tough they are, regardless of the consequences. For instance, the NAACP recently posted a report by Devin Burghart, Leonard Zeskind and the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights called "Tea Party Nationalism," exposing what it calls links between various Tea Party organizations and racist hate groups in the United States, such as white-supremacist groups, anti-immigrant organizations and militias, who have by definition, the bully mentality.
The bully mentality manifests in many forms, besides politically. The gun lobby via the NRA, ALEC, and other organizations have succeeded in blocking government study of the causes of gun violence, even though 31,000 gun-related death occur per year, the highest by a factor of 10 of any country in the world. Needless to say that inhibits development of policies and laws that might lower gun violence, whether in the schools or our inner cities.
So it turns out the bully mentality is part of human nature, really, and so part of our culture. It is then up to those employees who want to better themselves to find a way to oppose that culture and mentality. That means pushing back against the fear that such bullying engenders in all of us—against the 'boss' mentality, as well. Remember, such fear has to also be felt by those economists and politicians that allow it.
Harlan Green © 2014
Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen


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The symposium discussed the theory and practice of teaching STEM and science workforce skills in college and high school science teaching. Biotechnology techniques were used to demonstrated as a unifying theme for the integration of biology, chemistry, engineering, math, and physics into the each specific discipline. Dr. Sulatha Dwarakanath (Bio-Link Representative and Co-ordinator for Bioscience Consortium/Adjunct professor at Austin Community College) talked about Workforce readiness for STEM careers and how ACC is preparing there students for the industry needs. She talked about the inerface with industry and aligning our program to adivse from the Advisory Board comprised of the local Biotech industry professionals.
Also, the presentation included the Bio-link information. All the resources available from bio-link was explained. Lot of the attendees did not know about Bio-link. They were very pleased to discover a site with so much information for their class. Surprisingly, the attendees thought that it was paid subscription to Bio-Link. They were very pleased that it is an open and free for all to use it for benefitting the Biotech professionals.
At the end of the talk on of the professors from Columbia University came up and asked dr. Su to give the same talk at Columbia Univresity in NY. They wanted to learn how the program at ACC benefited the industry and incorporating the feedback from the industry.
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Antitrust Case Filings
Antitrust Case Filings
To filter the list of cases, select desired options from the left navigation pane.
View the list of NAICS and SIC industry codes used by the Division. To view all industry codes, visit Census.gov.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1
|Case Open Date
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|U.S. v. Browning-Ferris Industries
|February 15, 1996
|Civil Non-Merger
|District of Columbia, District of
|Refuse Systems, Solid Waste Combustors and Incinerators


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New outdoor summer toys for kids to enjoy
With the summer in full swing, now comes the quest for new summer toys for the kids to enjoy outdoors. I recently got the chance to try out some of the new toys on the market this year, and let my daughter give them a test run.
Here's a breakdown of some of the items available, and what I thought of them:
Fisher Price items
I tried out some Fisher Price items, including the 2-in-1 Slide to Rocker. It's basically what its name implies. On one side it stands as a small (32-inch) slide. On the other side, your child can sit on it and rock back and forth. It's a pretty simple device, but one that kept my daughter's attention quite a bit. It has the versatility of being able to be used both outside or inside, in your back yard or your living room.
The steps are sturdy when a child is climbing the slide, and it's not too high that you have to worry about them falling and getting hurt. In rocker mode, it's still stable even when your child tries to go a little faster.
The intended age group for this toy is 18 months to 3 years old, and the retail price is $70.00.
Another Fisher Price item I tried was the Qwikflip Sit, Rock 'n Climb.
Assembly on this one was pretty simple, other than a few pesky caps that took a while to hammer into place. It transforms into a few shapes, serving as a little picnic table for the kids, a rocker or a climbing toy. Transitioning between them is not difficult.
My daughter enjoyed climbing on this toy, but also took advantage of the table setting when she was having meals outside.
The recommended age is 3 to 5 years for this toy and the price is $80.00. For full details on Fisher Price's lineup of summer toys, visit fisher-price.com.
Step 2 items
Another company that has a full lineup of outdoor toys for use this summer is Step 2. I tested a few of theirs out and found them to be among my daughter's favorites.
The Easy Turn Coupe is your little one's first car. This is another toy that can be used inside or out. (It was my daughter's favorite place to stay many days while watching television inside, but always was one she played with regularly outside).
Assembly was mostly pretty simple, but a little bit of extra hammering was needed on some parts. The car is created with many features like a real car, including a door that opens and closes and a working horn. You can push your child around in the car, and there is a removable floorboard that lets them go the Fred Flintstone route and push themselves around.
She might be years away from driving, but the Easy Turn Coupe (named because the fifth wheel makes it easy to turn) was a big hit with my daughter, who loved to get in and out of the car and turn the wheel like she was driving.
The Easy Turn Coupe is $59.99. Recommended age is 18 months to 5 years old.
Another Step 2 item that is great for summer is the Step 2 Touring Wagon.
This is just what it sounds like: A wagon you can use to pull your little ones around in. Two kids fit comfortably, there are cup holders on the end, you can put a little lunch table in the middle, there is a canopy for blocking the sun from your kids' eyes, and it functions very well.
I took my daughter out for solo rides in the Touring Wagon, and she also got to share it with some other kids, and was a big fan of this form of transportation. Two seat belts are included for safety, so your kid won't jump out and get hurt.
The Step 2 Touring Wagon is $110. Recommended age is 18 months or older.
The last Step 2 item I tested was the Infant to Toddler Swing, which comes in blue or pink. All kids love to swing, this we all know, so having one at your house is a great idea.
It was very easy to set up; you can place it on a tree or another sturdy hanging location. It is aimed at children 9 to 36 months old. Straps hold the child in the seat comfortably, and then you just have to push.
The swing is affordable at $29.99, and can provide your child with lots of fun times swinging in the summertime.
For details on Step 2's full lineup of outdoor toys, including a variety of playground-type setups, visit www.step2.com.
Matt Myftiu can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or 248-745-4617. Follow him on Twitter @MattMyftiu or become a fan of the Facebook page "OPTechTime". Check out his blog at realtechtime.blogspot.com.


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21 June, 2012 | (01 hr)
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Using recent research from The Conference Board and the McKinsey
Global Institute (MGI) this webcast will present new and important insights on
evolving talent shortages in the global and U.S. labor markets.
How the global labor supply develops over the coming decades—the
number of workers who will be added and the skills that they bring—will have a
large impact on the global economy. To address this question, the MGI seeks to
provide a picture of the evolving labor market. MGI finds that, based on
current trends, there are potentially serious gaps in the supply of workers with
the skills that will be needed to drive 21st century industries, and a growing
surplus of workers with more limited skills—both in advanced and developing
economies. Avoiding these imbalances, will require an unprecedented commitment
to education and training.
In the U.S. as the economy continues to grow and the large cohorts
of baby boomers are retiring, talent shortage is becoming an important topic
for many employers in the U.S. In this webcast we will describe the magnitude
of the problem, in what locations and occupations it is more visible, and the
outlook for the next decade.
In viewing, participants will:
- Learn about talent shortages in general
- View the results by geography, skill, and occupation
- Improve their ability to deal with problems in their own company
Audience: Strategic Workforce planning, General HR Recruiters, Economists, and Labor market analysts
Richard Dobbs
Richard Dobbs is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), McKinsey's business and economics research arm, and a director (senior partner) of McKinsey based in Seoul.
From 2004 to 2009, Richard co-led McKinsey's Corporate Finance Practice, where he was also responsible for resear...Full Bio
Gad Levanon, PhD
Gad Levanon is Vice President, Labor Markets for The Conference Board, where he oversees the labor market, US forecasting, and Help Wanted OnLine© programs. His research focuses on trends in US and global labor markets, the US economy, and forecasting using economic ind...Full Bio


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iDLink Systems is a well established international company with focus on Biometric Identification Solutions. Founded in 2002, IDLink Systems have been a manufacturer, distributor and provider of biometric products and services worldwide using state of the art fingerprint, palm vein, iris, facial, voice and other cutting edge biometric technologies.
Our biometric implementations are of extremely high quality, unique and customer focused.
Member of :


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Clarksville TN Online is the voice of the people of Clarksville Tennessee.Clarksville Online takes you beyond the ordinary in local news and gives the Extras: political coverage, opinion pieces and editorial work, local and regional arts and theater, municipal and county news and events, and more.
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Washington, D.C. – BMW is recalling certain model year 2008-2012 1-Series coupes and convertibles manufactured December 2007 through July 2011; and 2007-2011 3-Series coupes and convertibles manufactured March 2007 through July 2011; 2007-2011 3-Series sedans manufactured March 2007 through October 2011; 2007-2011 3-Series sports wagons manufactured March 2007 through June 2011; and 2009-2011 Z4 vehicles manufactured March 2009 through June 2011.
2012 BMW 128I is one of the models being recalled.
«Read the rest of this article»


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A profile of Caribbean artists for the Black Aesthetic exhibition.
Wilfred Daleus, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Typical Haitian Wedding, Petionville
Wilfred was born and raised in Cap Haitien, north Haiti, from a peasant lifestyle. He attended catholic schools and where he perfected his art talent. His work has been displayed at the Haitian Art Institute, Eastern Caribbean and Miami, FL.
Fritzner Alphose, Gonaives, Haiti
Typical Haitian Fruit Market, Gonaives; Waiting for Love; Carnivals in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel
Fritzner Alphonse was born in Port-au-Price, Haiti, July 1938. His parents were from Jacmel, a coastal township in southern Haiti – mother a merchant and father a tanner. After leaving school Fitzner learned his father's trade and worked at it until age 36, then through the influence of a boyhood friend, Calixte Henri, he began painting, which came naturally to him. Alphonse's work has been shown throughout the Caribbean islands, at the Haitian Institute in Wash. D.C., the Organization of American States (OAS), France, Mexico, Japan and Miami, FL.
Phillip Outten, Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) BWI
Village by the sea
Village by the sea, a coastal town, With and accept ional deep sea diving training facility. Phillip was born on the island of Grand Turk, TCI and after art school in Jamaica, Wes Indies (WI) he branched out on his own. He sees life through the oceans of the Caribbean-the view of life view.
Nicholson Simpson, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Banana Harvest in Cap Haitien, Haiti
Nicholson Simpson was born in north Haiti to farmers. His childhood dream was always to be an artist, so between working in the fields and on the streets of Port-au-Price he became an accomplished artist. His works are displayed in Port-au-Price, Jacmel and south Miami, FL.
Jean A. Seide, Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Rice Field below sea level
Once a poor peasant boy selling peanuts on the streets Haiti. Seen as an up and coming young artist, an old village elder encourages to take his talent down to the seaport of Port-au-Prince and use it as a financial tool to help his poor mother raise his younger siblings. Today his art work is viewed as model for young artist to follow. His works and exhibited in Cap Haitien and South Florida.
D.J. Paillant, Gonaives, Haiti
Fish Market
Fish Market represents the north central Highlands of Haiti. D.J. Paillant was born Gonaives, Haiti. He became an accomplished artist while living in Port-du-Paix, Haiti. His art work is seen in various parts of South Florida.
Sylla Llyod, Bottle Creek North Caicos, Turks and Caicos Islands
Super Time
Super Time depicts rural indigenous life Turks and Caicos Islands of people living in Turks and Caicos. Sylla was the son of Haitian immigrants, who grew up in TCI. There, through high school education, he developed a unique likeness for art and learned to portray the realities of life in their local environment and circumstances.
T. Noel, Pont Benoit, Haiti
Co-operative Food Market, north east Haiti
Noel was sugar cane worker during the day and an artist at night. A native of Pont Benoit, he spent most of his adult life in Porta Plata, Dominican Republic. His work is showcased in Santiago and Santo Domingo, DR. He's famous for his image of many faces. His works are exhibited in Santa Domingo, DR, Pont Benoit and Port-au-Prince, Haiti.