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Talk about a ringing endorsement. When one of the most famous people on the planet wears your pants not once but several times, you've got to know that business will be brisk.
Looking chic and sporty, Oprah Winfrey has graced two covers (October 2013 and March 2014) as well as several inside pages of O, The Oprah Magazine, rocking pants designed by Lisette Limoges and her husband Neil Small.
The Montreal-based company known as Lisette L is operated by Limoges, her husband, son David and daughter Kathryne (based in Toronto), and a team of about 55 employees. Their tag lines: fit to flatter and Lisette L pants are great for anytime and anywhere, is certainly catching on with celebs and those who follow them.
Lisette L has become a media darling with top fashion magazine editor's picks in Good Housekeeping, More, Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar and Glamour. The pants hit the big time when NBC's The Today Show co-hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hota Kotb held a pair up saying that the pants "fit like a dream."
For 30 years, Lisette and Neil worked as sales agents representing other fashion companies. After repeatedly being told by consumers and store owners that they wanted a pant with a perfect fit, they decided to design their own. In 2003, they started their own company with the intent of making a pant that would appeal to female baby boomers.
"Well, now that Taylor Swift is said to love our pants, we are serving many generations from mothers to daughters and granddaughters. The tummy control waistline is a hit as it doesn't cut off your waist when you sit down. The pants wash and pack well, too," Lisette says.
Three years ago, they decided to try their luck in the U.S. Neil drove to Florida, opened an account and went door to door selling the pants to various boutiques. Their son went to California and did the same thing.
"We didn't know that Kathie Lee Gifford was going to talk about our pants. She pulled them out and put them on her desk and said they were the best pants she'd worn. She bought them at a boutique in Key Largo — we didn't gift them to her. There was so much traffic to our website right afterward that it crashed."
This was the tipping point for the brand. Stores in Florida and California that had them in stock sold out immediately. NBC had so many calls that the TV hosts talked about the pants again the next day on their show.
"It was such a chain reaction," says Lisette. "For a family-run business, we're really so fortunate. We were in 300 store three years ago and now we're up to 5,000 in the U.S."
The pants, which retail for $100 and go up to size 16, come in numerous styles (capri, boot cuts, skinnies, flairs and straight), colours and prints, including polka dots, gingham, medallions and leopard.
"We are being very careful with our brand. We've been offered to be in multiple stores but we have a great relationship with boutiques. This is the culture of our brand. We want to stay true to who we are," Lisette says.
While the past few years have been a whirlwind, one of the highlights was having lunch with Oprah in November.
"After we were introduced she remarked upon how much she loved our pants. She said that at her age she does what she wants and wears what she likes. I think she's got about 10 pairs now."
The pants can be found at various retailers across Canada and online at Lisettel.com.


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Great Schism
The Great Schism is the historic sundering of eucharistic relations between the See of Rome (now the Roman Catholic Church) and the Eastern Orthodox Christian patriarchates. This division is the subject of many talks between Western and Eastern Christians.
In Western circles, the term Great Schism is often used to refer to the 14th century schism involving the Avignon Papacy (an event also sometimes called the "Western Schism" or "Papal Schism" or "Babylonian Captivity").
To distinguish from that event, some historians prefer the term Great Ecumenical Schism to explain succinctly what happened and to capture the complexity of the event itself.
Other more recent historians prefer the term "East-West Schism", because 'Ecumenical' properly means of Constantinople or of the Eastern Roman Empire. The schism involved more than just Constantinople, or the Byzantine Empire. It included both East and West, and was between East and West.
Doctrinal issues: the Filioque
- Main article: Filioque
While there were many other factors at work in the split, the conventional view has been that the central cause of the separation was dogmatic. It is asserted by many Orthodox that as soon as Rome endorsed the idea of the Filioque, there was a split between the true faith and a schismatic faith. Further, as long as Rome continues to make this its official dogma, there is still a schism.
Filioque is a word that changes the Latin version of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed to include the wording [Spiritus Sanctus] qui ex Patre Filioque procedit or "[Holy Spirit] who proceeds from the Father and the Son."
The first appearance of this insertion into the Creed happened in Toledo, Spain, where Latin theologians were trying to refute a brand of the Arian heresy. Those theologians had better access to the writings of Latin theologians, particularly of St. Augustine of Hippo, than to Greek theologians. Augustine used the teaching from John 16:7 to emphasize that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and that neither is subordinate to the other.
So the Creed was changed by the local synod of bishops at Toledo with the justification that it asserts the divinity of Christ (refuting Arianism), and asserts the unity of the Trinity and the equality of each hypostasis of the Trinity.
It should also be noted that St.Leo the Great, and many of the Orthodox Pre-Schism Popes disagreed with the decision of the Toledo Council, one even going so far as to engraving the Creed without the Filioque on the doors of St. Peter's Basilica.
Ecclesiological issues: The Papacy
Additionally offensive to the Orthodox was that the Creed was changed without agreement of the whole Christian Church. The Creed had been agreed upon at an Ecumenical Council and revised at another, bearing universal authority within the Church.
For the Pope of Rome to change the Creed unilaterally without reference to an Ecumenical Council was highly offensive to the other four patriarchates and to all the Eastern bishops, as it undermined the collegiality of the episcopacy. It demeaned all the other bishops.
Events in AD 1054
AD 1054 is the date wrongly given in some publications for the split between East and West.
The trouble had started earlier with Normans forcing the Greek Churches in Northern Italy, to conform to Latin practices, which in turn caused the Greeks to do the same to Latin Churches in Constantinople.
In 1053, Patriarch Michael Celarius sent a letter to Pope Leo IX, offering to restore his name to the Diptychs, and suggesting that he send legates so that differences could be resolved between them. Unfortunately, the Pope chose to send Cardinal Humbert, a German who was not known for his tact, as one of the legates. Upon receiving an audience with the Patriarch, they acted rudely, giving him a letter from the Pope, which in fact had been drafted by Humbert himself. The letter demanded conformity from the Greeks, and so offended the Patriarch, that he refused to negotiate with them further.
On Palm Sunday, Cardinal Humbert entered the Church of the Holy Wisdom, (Hagia Sophia) and placed a Bull of Excommunication on the Altar. This Bull excommunicated Patriarch Michael Celarius. He then left the city immediately, before the angry crowds that were gathering could seize him.
Patriarch Michael Celarius then called a meeting of the Holy Synod, and excommunicated Humbert, though not the Latin Church.
Dating the schism
The Great Schism was a gradual estrangement to which no specific date can be assigned although it has been conventionally dated to the year 1054. This date is misleading since it seems to imply that there was peace and unity before 1054, animosity and division afterward.
The schism actually took centuries to crystalize. Some place the split in the time of Saint Photios, for example—or even earlier—or 1204, with the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade, or even 1453, the fall of Constantinople, when the Latins gave no help to prevent it.
An alternate view
'If one wishes to find a villain on the Orthodox side for the development of the schism, [Absentee Greek Patriarch of Antioch] Balsamon is a far stronger candidate than either [Patriarchs of Constantinople] Photius or Cerularius. Hitherto the chief asset of the Orthodox in the controversy had been their doctrine of Economy, the charity that enabled them to overlook and even to condone divergences in the interest of peace and goodwill. But Balsamon was a lawyer; and lawyers like things to be cut and dried. Charity is not one of their characteristics.'
Steven Runciman, The Eastern Schism, Wipf & Stock, Oregon, 3/3/2005, p138
See also
- Laurent Cleenewerck, His Broken Body: Understanding and Healing the Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches (Lulu.com, 2008 ISBN 978-0615183619)
- Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (SVS Press, 1997 ISBN 978-0913836316)
- John Meyendorff, Living Tradition: Orthodox Witness in the Contemporary World esp. pp. 64-71 (SVS Press, 1997 ISBN 978-0913836484)
- Aristeides Papadakis The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy (SVS Press, 1994 ISBN 978-0881410570)
- Philip Sherrard, Church, Papacy and Schism: A Theological Inquiry (Harvey & Co., 1978 ISBN 978-9607120113)
- Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, 2nd ed. (Penguin, 1993 ISBN 0140146563)

subset: commoncrawl


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New study: debt limit deadline likely extended
WASHINGTON -- The likely deadline for Congress to prevent the government's first default will be later than earlier thought, a Washington think tank has found.
The Bipartisan Policy Center said Friday that the government probably won't reach the brink of default until early September or early October. It had previously said default would come in July or August.
Congress acted to suspend the government's borrowing cap in February, and it will be reset next month. The Treasury Department then can resort to accounting steps to prevent the government from defaulting on bondholders or other obligations such as Social Security.
A 2011 battle between President Barack Obama and Republicans controlling the House over raising the so-called debt ceiling brought the nation close to default and resulted in a hard-fought budget deal. Obama says he won't be bullied on the debt limit again, but many in Washington believe the need to increase the borrowing cap later this year will prompt some kind of budget bargain.
The think tank said higher tax revenues and lower spending -- in part because of across-the-board spending cuts that kicked in after Congress couldn't agree on a follow-up budget pact -- are responsible for the additional leeway. It added that if the government can get through a cash crunch in early September, it will be able to make it until early October before default.
Treasury is declining to reveal its estimate of when the default date would come, saying there's too much uncertainty.


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From Openmoko
|Wishes warning! This article or section documents one or more OpenMoko Wish List items, the features described here may or may not be implemented in the future.
The Advanced Notification And Ringtone Manager is an application for handling all event-based audible notifications from an OpenMoko device. Would determine whether or not it is an appropriate time to audibly notify a user of various events, by checking the current notification mode. The overall operation is analagous to a firewall. It would also provide the interface for any application to create notifications through inter-process communication(using dbus?).
Notification Modes
Notifications are allowed or denied(silenced) based on the current Notification Mode, which is set by the user on the fly. A mode consists of an set of "firewall rules". Each rule can either ALLOW or DENY notifications for a single event, or class of events. Each notification mode and its rules are independent from other modes. The current notification mode could be selected manually, or automatically depending on time of day or possibly even the GPS location. Notification modes are like DEFCON levels for an OpenMoko device.
Examples of possible modes:
- Completely free
- Hard at work
- Asleep
- On-call
- Device currently in use
- Do not disturb
- etc.
An event is anything that could possibly trigger a notification. Each event can be assigned it's own unique sound file. In addition to standard phone events(incoming calls, text messaging), events can come from any number of applications that communicate with Notification Manager. Examples of possible events:
- Incoming call (could define specific events per caller)
- New email
- Instant Messaging
- Calendar alarm
- Updated RSS feed
- Stock price change
Event classes
Event classes can optionally be defined for the purpose of simplify Notification Mode rulesets. Instead of making a separate rule for every event, rules can be defined for an entire class of events. An event can belong to a number of classes, similar to a *nix user belonging to permission groups. Examples of possible event classes:
- Calls from family
- Calls from friends
- Unknown caller
- New email
- Vital to survival
- etc
Morse code or synthesized speech ringtone
For ringtones, SMS, emails, and calendar alerts, a special ringtone mode could generate beeps according to the Morse code or use speech synthesis. For a know phone number or known email the caller or sender name (and indication mobile, private or work) could be used in as a ringtone. Implementing this will be handy if you cannot see your phone because of the work you are doing and you only want to answer the call or read the message if a certain person is calling because e.g. a lot of effort is involved in making a small pause in your work. As a marine geek feature even a steam whistle could be used in stead of the standard Morse bleeps.
Also individual ringtones per caller/sender and mobile/private/work could be stored in the address book which override any ring tone scheme which has been selected.


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On Wednesday, the South African Broadcasting Corporation's (SABC) acting chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng said that as the public broadcaster, the SABC had to ensure that when an issue was discussed, the people involved should have an opportunity to respond.
"The issue was a discussion about the ANC. Our view is simple – you need the ANC to be part of that discussion. We are not banning anyone, as people are saying. We are being fair … and we stick to that decision," he said.
Motsoeneng was speaking at a press conference held at the SABC's headquarters in Auckland Park.
According to SABC editorial policy guidelines, when an event of national importance is of a party political nature, SABC staff must ensure that objectives of fair and unbiased coverage, impartiality and balance are adhered to.
On Tuesday, three journalists, Sam Mkokeli, political editor from Business Day, the Sunday Times's political editor S'thembiso Msomi and Financial Times bureau editor Andrew England, were scheduled to take part in Sakina Kamwendo's Metro FM talk show to discuss how the media would cover the ANC's elective conference in Manguang. The show was cancelled at the last minute, and the SABC said this was due to the ANC not being invited to take part.
Motsoeneng said the discussion should have involved ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu because it would not only have dealt with media reporting on the conference, but also focused on the people involved in, and events leading to, the Mangaung conference.
"Jackson was supposed to be invited. He was not invited," he said.
Asked whether from now on the public could expect that whenever there was a discussion on Mangaung, the ANC must be represented to ensure the balance and fairness he spoke of, Motsoeneg said: "The answer is yes, they must be part [of it]."
"We mean business here at the SABC. This is leadership at it's best that we can ever find. We are taking decisions in the interest of the public and we are also guided by our own editorial policy," he said.
'Fishy', 'nonsense' and 'bizarre'
But media experts were left perplexed by the broadcaster's reasoning.
Herman Wasserman, journalism professor at Rhodes University, said that the broadcaster's explanation sounded "fishy".
"It's important for political coverage to have balance but one assumes that refers to fair coverage of different parties, not between political parties and journalists," he said.
"I struggle to see how representation from the ANC or any political party is important in a discussion about media coverage," he added.
Wasserman said that if the journalists were there to make accusations and allegations against the party, it should have the opportunity to respond but in this instance they appeared to have been there for pure political analysis.
Former City Press editor Mathatha Tsedu said that the idea that journalists could not speak about issues that affect a political organisation, without a representative of that organisation being present, was "nonsense"
"It is not a political debate between political parties, saying things from a political perspective," he said. "These are media professionals talking about what media [reports] are likely to be like going forward. What would an ANC representative add to that discussion?" he asked.
Tsedu said that had an ANC representative been involved, the discussion would have shifted to how the ANC views media coverage, which is not the same thing as asking journalists to do a self-critique.
Franz Kruger, director of the Wits Radio Academy, said the reasoning provided by the broadcaster was a "misunderstanding of what fairness is".
"Fairness is something that is achieved over time. It doesn't mean every single show should be completely balanced," he said "One expects there to be different voices at different times," he said, as one could not practically expect every voice to be heard on an issue every time it was addressed.
The Democratic Alliance's spokesperson on communication, Marian Shinn – who earlier called for the board of the SABC to remove Motsoeneng from his news oversight role – dismissed the SABC's reasoning as "bizarre".
"They're making it up as they go along. If they want to introduce that kind of guideline or policy, it must be resisted," she said.
'A dangerous precedent'
Shinn said such a policy would have far reaching implications if it was implemented across the board. She questioned how it would impact, for example, the popular Sunday media show hosted by Ashraf Garda on SAfm.
During the show, Garda hosts newspaper editors who discuss news events of public interest. If the same logic were applied, it would mean that a political party representative would have to be there to balance the show each week, Shinn said.
"Does every current affairs programme now have to have representatives of political parties there? They're setting a dangerous precendent," she said.
Efforts to contact ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu were unsuccessful.


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A few weeks back, we told you that it looked like - according to those in the know who in turn told us - that former Flushing assemblyman Barry Grodenchik was the frontrunner to replace Karen Koslowitz, who is replacing Melinda Katz in the City Council, as deputy borough president of Queens, and now it has been made official.
It was announced last week that Grodenchik would be a heartbeat away from becoming the next borough president (we don't actually know if that is true or not, but it sounds good), and would take over all of Koslowitz's duties, whatever those actually were.
Speaking of Koslowitz, where was her big inaugural party? While all of the other new council members from Queens and Brooklyn were busy hosting their constituents and taking their oaths of office in front of well-wishers, admirers, and the paparazzi, we didn't hear anything about a similar event for Koslowitz.
Maybe we just didn't get the invite. Or maybe she is taking the "act like you've been there" approach and not making a big deal about her election to the City Council. (In fact, she has been there before, having held the same post in the 90s until term limits forced her out of office in 2001.)
Speaking of inaugural parties, we're sorry that we missed new Long Island City councilman Jimmy Van Bramer's "groundbreaking" inauguration this past weekend before a packed house at the Frank Sinatra School of the Performing Arts. We assume that the "groundbreaking" refers to the fact that Van Bramer was the first openly gay man to ever be sworn into public office in the history of Queens.
It was a moment so unprecedented and ahead of its time that the people of Queens would have to wait over 18 hours to see it happen again, when Daniel Dromm took his oath of office at a similarly lavish event before a "sold-out" crowd at Queen Theatre in the Park.
We're not really sure if "sold-out" is quite accurate, however, as the event was free and open to the public. We have a feeling that the overwhelming interest in seeing Dromm sworn in would have been a lot less if seats had been selling on Stubhub for $45.
But give them both credit for being eager and energized to take office and connect with their constituents – sure beats being blasé about the whole thing.


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Slack's GDPR Commitment
Our Commitment to You and the Protection of Your Data
We're committed to helping Slack customers and users understand, and where applicable, comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR is the most comprehensive EU data privacy law in decades, and went into effect on May 25, 2018.
Besides strengthening and standardizing user data privacy across the EU nations, it introduces new or additional obligations on all organizations that handle EU citizens' personal data, regardless of where the organizations are located. On this page, we explain how we help our customers comply with the GDPR.
- GDPR Compliance
- Security Infrastructure Standards and Certifications
- International Data Transfers
- Updates
GDPR Compliance
The GDPR's updated requirements are significant and our global team has adapted Slack's product offerings, operations and contractual commitments to help customers comply with the regulation. Measures we have implemented include:
- Investments in our security infrastructure and certifications
- Updates to relevant contractual terms
- Support for international data transfers by maintaining our Privacy Shield self-certifications, and by executing Standard Contractual Clauses through our updated Data Processing Addendum
- Offering data portability and data management tools including:
- Import and export tools. Businesses and organizations may access, import, and export their Customer Data using Slack's tools.
- Profile deletion tool. Help customers respond to user requests to delete personal information, such as names and email addresses, from a Slack account.
- Workspace settings center. See your workspace's plan and settings, or contact an admin who controls the workspace.
We also monitor the guidance around GDPR compliance from privacy-related regulatory bodies, and update our product features and contractual commitments accordingly. We'll provide you with regular updates so that you're always current.
Our Security Infrastructure and Certifications
Protecting our customers' information and their users' privacy is extremely important to us. As a cloud-based company entrusted with some of our customers' most valuable data, we've set high standards for security. We've received several security certifications from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants such as SOC 2 and SOC 3. Slack has received internationally recognized security certifications for ISO 27001 (information security management system), ISO 27017 (security controls for the provision and use of cloud services) and ISO 27018 (for protecting personal data in the cloud).
Slack has invested heavily in building a robust security team, one that can handle a variety of issues — everything from threat detection to building new tools. In accordance with GDPR requirements around security incident notifications, Slack will continue to meet its obligations and offer contractual assurances.
If you'd like to learn more about Slack's security policies and procedures, please see our security page. It provides detailed information on how we approach security, and includes a white paper on how Slack ensures user data security in particular.
International Data Transfers: Privacy Shield and Contractual Terms
To comply with E.U. data protection laws around international data transfer mechanisms, we self-certify under the E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield. These frameworks were developed to establish a way for companies to comply with data protection requirements when transferring personal data from the European Union and Switzerland to the United States.
In addition, we offer European Union Model Clauses, also known as Standard Contractual Clauses, to meet adequacy and security requirements for our customers who operate in the E.U.
Fulfilling our privacy and data security commitments is important to us. So we're glad to comply and help you comply with the GDPR. If you have any questions about your rights under the GDPR as a User or how Slack can help you with compliance as a Customer, we hope you'll reach out to us at firstname.lastname@example.com


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John Ambrosia
At the midpoint of 2013, its still unclear what kind of year it will be for the steel industry. Every positive signal seems to be counterbalanced by a negative one: Low-priced natural gas will help keep costs down, but U.S. trade policy may not keep foreign steel at bay; the overall economy continues to recover at a moderate pace, but tax and employment issues threaten to dull that edge; and automotive production and sales are holding firm, but raw material costs remain volatile and possibly harmful.
The enforcement of trade laws also remains an issue. Many charge that China, Brazil, Egypt and India have imposed trade restrictions on a number of imports and exports, affecting trade in raw materials and in finished products. Some sectors, such as tube and pipe, face competition from cheaper products from Asia, especially South Korea. And there are other--potentially major--challenges. Possible tax increases, high unemployment rates and slowing growth in the manufacturing sector could become problems. Recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations have hurt, rather than helped, steelmakers, industry advocates say. And while the United States remains one of the strongest economies globally, lackluster growth and a large fiscal deficit may cause downward pressure in the near term.
All comments are subject to editorial review.
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Every month American Metal Market takes a statistical look inside the marketplace.
We actually don't know who his investors are. At the point when we are ready, we will investigate further. There are just so many things to handle and there are a lot of items to be considered with the project."
-- Charles C. Mitchell, Barstow city manager


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What's Cookin' at Callie's Cabin: Stuffed superfoods in the summertime
Shellfish, potatoes, and sorbet are three of my favorite foods in the summertime. I could have slaved in a hot kitchen and created fried jumbo shrimp, scalloped potatoes and home-made sorbet, but a shortcut seemed more sensible. My mom used to make stuffed tuna tomatoes and twice-baked and stuffed potatoes, and ice cream sandwiches. This week my dishes are a spin-off of these '50s foods with a fresh 21st century update.
I moved to the South Shore on July 12, 1999. It was a "Grapes of Wrath"-like journey. My former senior companions, Dylan, a 9-year-old Brittany, and Alex, a 12-year-old orange-and-white cat, weathered the 105-degree heat traveling through Sacramento. Shakespeare, my 2-year-old beloved blue betta, did not make the journey. There was no air-conditioning in the Ford Bronco that died in Strawberry. But, before dark, the movers made it to Tahoe and we were saved by AAA. I opened the door to the cabin I never had seen inside and was pleasantly surprised, like indulging in stuffed foods. Dead tired from the move and heat, my first meal the next day was a shrimp salad with cherry tomatoes, bottled Thousand Island dressing, a microwaved baked potato and an ice cream. Sitting in the living room with my devoted dog and cat, and a panoramic view of pine trees, I felt at home. These foods I ate as a kid made my life in the Sierra feel safe.
Today, in 2012, while I'm getting ready to input another book, "Secrets of Soul Mates," awaiting the release of two books in July, and busy booking a book tour for late summer/fall, cooking isn't in my vocabulary. But the cool taste of shrimp, hot taters and a frozen dessert were calling out my name. So, I went on a fun, stuffed foodfest. I stuffed my fridge with this trio for an early dinner. It was like my mother's dishes, sort of. I opted for shrimp instead of tuna; organic milk rather than whole; and sorbet, not ice cream, made me feel like a natural woman living in the mountains.
Shrimp Salad Stuffed Tomatoes
1/3 pound peeled cooked shrimp, tails removed, chopped
1/2 stalk celery, finely diced
2 tablespoons red onion, chopped
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 tablespoons fresh basil
Pinch of freshly ground pepper
2 large fresh tomatoes, cored
Fresh grated parmesan cheese
Romaine lettuce (garnish)
In a bowl combine shrimp, celery, onion, mayonnaise, herbs. Chill in fridge. Hollow out each tomato, fill will shrimp. Top with cheese. Place on a bed of lettuce (optional). Serves 2.
Wash and bake two large russet potatoes (leave skins on) in microwave. Cool. Scoop out potato and place in bowl. Add organic reduced-fat milk and sour cream (1/4 cup each), and 1 tablespoon European style butter. Place mixture into potatoes. Top with a slice of premium cheddar cheese. Nuke again for about 2-3 minutes. Top with fresh chives. Serves 2.
Cut off tops of two lemons. Hollow out each lemon. Use an ice cream scoop (1/4 cup) and place two scoops of all natural premium lemon sorbet into each lemon. Put in ramekin dishes. Sprinkle with sweetened shredded coconut. Garnish with mint. Keep in freezer. Serves 2.
I applaud my mom for raising three kids, working full-time, and cooking dinner seven nights a week. This pre-summer meal was a heads up that I forgot to have babies – I nurture fur kids and deliver books – all my children. It wasn't in the stars for me to be a traditional mom or cook. The fishy tomatoes, stuffed, cheesy potatoes, and lemony dessert showed me that I can make a wholesome dinner and break the rules with a touch of class. When you follow your passion, and use your creativity, the end result is a surprise, like stuffed superfoods: tomatoes, potatoes, and lemons a la sorbet. Sweet.
Motto: Tune into your gut instincts and follow your heart. Nature's foods offer a variety of ways to nourish your body and spirit to fit the seasonal change, especially if you have fun like a child doing it.
– Cal Orey, M.A. is an author and journalist. Her books include "The Healing Powers" series (Vinegar, Olive Oil, Chocolate, Honey, and Coffee) published by Kensington. "The Healing Powers of Coffee" and "Animal Attraction: A Collection of Tales & Tails" will be released this summer. Her website is http://www.calorey.com.
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In today's edition of Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter Arok_Lazarus wonders what music transports us back to the games we used to play.
So I've been listening to a lot of Queen lately again. It has also been bringing up lots of gaming memories for me.
Back when Star Wars: Battlefront II came out my best friend and I would play it for hours on end almost all the time. While playing the game we were on a big Queen kick at the time and would listen to a lot of their songs while playing Battlefront. Now whenever I listen to Queen I always, always, always remember the hours of fun I had playing Battlefront. In fact some songs from other bands always spark memories of KoTOR in the final area from when I first beat the game. Wild Horses is one of those songs.
Anyone willing to share any songs that are totally unrelated to games, that make them think of a specific and equally unrelated game?
About Speak-Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That's why we have a forum on Kotaku called Speak-Up. That's the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Every weekday we'll pull one of the best Speak-Up posts we can find and highlight it here.


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It has been found that bone-devouring worms have the ability to release bone-melting acid. (Photo: Greg Rouse)
Worms can drill through bones in the sea bottom: study
Friday, July 06, 2012, 01:20 (GMT + 9)
Tiny 'bone-devouring worms', known to both eat and inhabit dead whale skeletons and other bones on the sea floor, have a unique ability to release bone-melting acid, scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego have recently discovered. The work is being presented at the Society for Experimental Biology's 2012 meeting in Salzburg, Austria.
Dr Sigrid Katz, a postdoctoral researcher working with Greg Rouse and Martin Tresguerres, said: "These worms are unique in using bone as a habitat and nutrient source. We have learned a lot about these worms in the past 10 years, but one of the most intriguing questions has been how they penetrate bone and take up nutrients."
The worms, whose official genus name is Osedax, are up to 3-4 cm long and were discovered on a whale carcass in 2002. They come from a family of worms living in unexpected locations, with their relatives inhabiting the extremely hot and acidic hydrothermal vents in the sea.
Like all worms in their family, Osedax have no mouth, anus, or gut. Their digestion of the nutritious bone is made possible by their partnership with bacteria.
While it had been clear that the worms and their bacteria rely on nutrients such as collagen or fat from the bones they inhabit, until now it was a mystery how the worms penetrated the bones and access their nutrients. Their bodies consist of a worm-like portion and 'roots' that house the bacteria and penetrate the bones, but they have no body parts mechanically able to drill through bone.
The researchers looked instead for signs of a chemical drilling strategy, testing for the presence of acid-secreting enzymes in different tissues of the worm. One of the enzymes, a proton pump, was abundant in the roots, the part of the worm that penetrates the bone. The results indicate that the worm secretes acid to demineralize the bones.
As Katz explained, "The discovery of Osedax shows that nutrition is even more diverse than we imagined, and our results are a step further in understanding the special relationship between the worm and its bacteria."
The findings of this study pertain to the females only. The males never grow beyond their larval size (about 1 mm) and they live inside the gelatinous tube that surrounds each female. Each female will have hundreds of males living in its tube.
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Elements of the personalized RV camping flag:
- Personalized
- Saying "Husband and Wife Camping Partners For Life"
- Color scheme teal and black
- Add one line of text
- Stand not Included, but can be purchased here.
Call us today if you have a question! 803 604-6165
Pick one of eight RV styles and add a line of text to this cute saying "Husband and Wife Camping Partners For Life".
Add style to any park or campsite, our campsite flags will treat you and your neighbors to bold, vibrant colors for many seasons to come.
If you are an Etsy shopper feel free to visit our Campsiteflags.com Etsy Store here.
|1.4 oz
|18 × 12 in
|Pick Your RV Style Husband and Wife Camping Partners For Life
5th Wheel, Class C, Motorhome, Pop Up, Tear Drop, Tent, Toy Hauler, Travel Trailer
The garden flags are 12″ x 18″. They fit on standard garden flag stands.
The material is called Sunshade Fabric. It is 100% polyester and is treated to withstand the elements better than ordinary cloth.
All of our flags are double sided. That means you can read the flag from both sides, there is no backwards printing.
We print flags every business day. We ship the same day we print. All of our printing is done in-house at CampsiteFlags.com. After you place an order, we print it the next business day. It is then at the post office later in the morning. Most of our customers get their flags in 1 or 2 days.
Yes, yes we do! You can find our three piece stands here. Or if you see us in person, we carry one piece or three piece stands.
Yes, we offer customization on a large number of our flag designs. This means you can choose your RV style and then usually add one line of text for the names and a second line of text for the city/ state combo.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about personalized flags.
Tired of playing flag pickup after the wind blows?
A set includes a rubber flag stop and wind clip, put them on and you will never have to worry about losing your flag again!
Proper care for your Campsite Flags garden flag.
We ship the flags right after printing and during the shipping process the flags may develop fold lines while being transported. These are easily fixed by watching our video below and following the instructions. If you have any questions please let us know. Remember to use a pressing cloth.
Personalized products are final sale items and cannot be returned or refunded. Since they are made to order and customized to your RV, pets and/or wording choices, we cannot resell them and therefore do not accept returns.
Our cart system allows for you to view the text and version of your design in the cart. Please check this to make certain everything is correct before checking out.
Please make certain you proof read your design and wording before you add to cart and purchase the item. We print these products the next morning so we can get them in the mail and to you quickly so there is very little time to change an order.
The cost to ship a single flag with a tracking number is just under $4.00 (Continental US only). Flag stand shipping is around $8.00 (Continental US only). We ship USPS first class for the majority of shipments. Our customers usually receive their flags in 1-3 days after placing the order.
A rough estimate for Canadian flag orders is around $8.00-$14.00 US. This is an estimate and you can fill out the shipping address to see real time prices.
© 2018 - 2020 — CampsiteFlags.com


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Refinancing your mortgage may not be impossible right now, but it sure will require a lot of work.
A confluence of factors has come together to make mortgage lending particularly difficult in the slumping market, and the problem is particularly troubling for refinancers who are looking to get out from under their adjustable-rate or interest-only loans.
Plunging housing prices, tightening credit requirements and ever-rising interest rates are all combining to make the process far more difficult than it was even a year ago.
The problem is especially acute for borrowers of jumbo loans—mortgages that exceed $417,000—that are not insured by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and are thus less attractive to investors on the secondary market.
Mortgage experts, though, say there is hope, but it requires perseverance to work through the array of obstacles in the process.
"This takes time," cautions Ellen Bitton, CEO of Park Avenue Mortgage Group in New York City, a broker that works with a variety of lenders to find the right package for borrowers. "There's no magic bullet right now. There is just diligence and working through each case individually with the client."
Keys to Success
There are four main tenets to successful refinancing applications, Bitton says: Good credit, high loan-to-value ratio for the property in question, liquidity from the borrower, and the ability to document income.
In the free-wheeling lending practices of the earlier part of the decade, loans with low or no down payments to borrowers who often didn't even have to prove their income were common. No more.
"The pendulum has swing from being overly aggressive with mortgage lending to overly conservative with mortgage lending," Bitton says. "I don't consider prudent lending (giving) 105 percent mortgages to people with bad credit scores."
Mortgage brokers will work with clients who have been rejected by their primary lenders to try to shore up any deficiencies in the key areas. But they're not always successful, with most of the failures coming when a property has just depreciated too much to be considered for a refinancing loan.
"If it's a loan-to-value issue, if they were approved under a 90 percent loan and their property has devalued, then there really is no recourse," Bitton says.
Other problems, though, can be addressed more readily.
Bad Credit? It Can Be Fixed
Michael Riemer, senior vice president at Guard Hill Financial in New York, says his company works closely with clients who have credit issues and is often successful at rehabilitating low scores and getting loans.
"It's much harder to get financing for people with low credit scores. But the answer is not to put somebody into a lender who will refinance at a high rate and they'll be right back where they started from," Riemer says. "The answer is to help somebody improve their credit score so we can help them get the lower rate today that they actually need in order to make the payments on that house."
One of the keys Riemer cites for his brokerage's success is the differing array of lenders with which they do business. Some lenders, he says, will look past basic credit score numbers and into why the scores are so low. Others will apply different criteria for loans or be more assiduous in determining an accurate appraisal.
Choice, Riemer says, is imperative.
"Very often a person will be financeable, just not to the bank they would normally go," he says. "We have so many loans under our umbrella that we can determine what lender will do that for them even though two out of three won't. There will be certain situations where we will not be able to refinance someone, but it's pretty unusual."
One of the areas where mortgage brokers will focus in difficult cases is on determining an accurate appraisal to establish an adequate loan-to-value ratio.
"The values are what the values are," Riemer says, but points out that "it's more a question of making sure the appraiser was comparing the home against comparable homes. For that you need a strong appraiser, someone who knows the area, knows the value, knows the nuances."
For Bitton, she deals with high-end properties in Manhattan and has seen wildly disparaging numbers come from appraisers.
It's a part of the process where she would rather not get involved, but if something jumps out she will act.
"If it has to do with loan-to-value, you can show perhaps that the appraiser was wrong. If you have documentation that will disprove an appraisal, I must say it's not rocket science," Bitton says. "We're not in the business of disputing appraisals when they don't work out, but if we have first-hand knowledge or we can show that an appraiser looked at a property and did a really poor appraisal ... that can easily be disputed."
Other factors, though, are beyond the control of borrowers.
Fannie, Freddie Try to Help
In the current lending climate, with foreclosure rates soaring and banks struggling to maintain stable balance sheets, it's extremely difficult to get a loan of any kind.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy mortgages on the secondary market that are backed by the government, have tried to help the higher-end market even though the two entities are usually restricted from high-end, or jumbo loans. Congress earlier this year raised the limits that Fannie can guarantee to $625,000, but only in certain markets where the median housing cost exceeds jumbo limits for Fannie and Freddie.
Diana Olick discusses whether Freddie Mac can stay afloat in video at left.
For the year, Fannie and Freddie will back about $10 billion of jumbo and super-jumbo loans--amounting to a sliver of the business the two government-sponsored entities do each year.
"It's fairly small," says Brad German, a Freddie spokesman. "How this has expanded the jumbo segment overall in these high-end markets, I don't have the data at that level. Most of it is going to be anecdotal at this point."
To be sure, the intervention of Fannie and Freddie in the jumbo markets has indeed lowered interest rates for the mortgage class, though a 30-year fixed mortgage is still at 7.42 percent, a full point above a conforming loan.
But until the other issues get worked out in the mortgage market, particularly the reluctance to lend at any rate and the slumping home prices, refinancing will be a tough go for borrowers in any class.
"I think it's a longer-term cycle because the tightening of credit has been driven by loan quality," says Greg McBride, senior analyst at Bankrate.com. "Regardless of how much capital lenders have at their disposal, they will remain squeamish about risk for some time to come."
Even if rates come down, McBride says prospective borrowers could "win the battle but lose the war" because property values will fall below refinancing guidelines.
"A year ago this looked like something that would clear up quickly," McBride says, "and at this point you can assume it won't clear up soon."


text: The Duinostamp is a convenient breakout board allowing you to easily embed an Arduino compatible environment into your project. The same size as a 34-pin 0.600" DIP, it's easy to incorporate into bread-boards, perf-board, or PCBs. It contains all the components and connections you need, without including costly and large extras.


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Boeing, Airbus Receive Massive Orders at Air Show
The Paris Air Show is ending with Boeing and Airbus clocking up orders of nearly $140 billion, suggesting that the commercial aircraft industry is in good health. Matthew Curtin says that the only real loser at the show was Canada's Bombardier.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
I ... the the ... she has ... won ... him since ... all is well ... in fact ... in the commercial airlines ... Matthew ... is gains tells why ... Matthew I gather that was a pretty amazing numbers coming out of the show ... maker that was a really good or the platform but putting an app that this ... Asher ... and remember these two ... and playing making companies already have massive backlog for me several years ... that was so concerned about that we might see ... you in a low of ... four way ... but in fact they have racked up a ... levy on to fourteen billion dollars worth of new orders ... I'm at list prices that is ... the show and from which will be before ... that I pretty pretty good day full for the company's content to companies is causing the complexion of the two companies to assist each other ... if you're good at numbers from the Shoah as does seem to be a little ahead of a budding ... that given that bad ... with remarkable when an individual was actually find installment of for for some airlines can be a little old and new ones ... on ... the bed of launching the is the fact that advice ... as going what are the seven hundred orders so far ... this year ... and Boeing is just shy of seven hundred ... buses ahead ... and put the boat building well um I gather that the ECB companies have also been pretty active in case the hooligans and he ... is Ahold's pots of this trend the commission outlined in Tuesday's did well ... this I think it is the view those big OTAs Roma at Danone's profit but rather the companies ... were in the in action at the press there sure enough nor the onus on the web ... come to think of industry and for best is the mystery is that the bread ... all of those orders but ... the Joker fee ... the resort leasing companies from the whole of Europe from Hong Kong United States ordering planes ... and for the school claims of ... address to the firm before the court intrigue AP from one of the leasing company it's been rather short notice for its double deck is covered yet ... but we saw leasing companies or the ... seventy sevens at the new jet for Boeing ... single aisle across might be a treat for key from both the new cover proclaims ... that pretty good indication of ... how will dislike of the school ... looking for the sector since it added that it has the class of double what the real news is coming out of this ... while it has one new bitumen into it ... the homebody the Canadian company ... I'm it's called the new jet which is going to get market priest in the C Series ... and there was ... very little impressed compared with all the other with this or that the show ... in fact it was our own bodies rival than the market small jetliners via ... the Brazilian company which looked up to ... a boil on gold is that the show ... they seem to be getting let's welcome the arrival ... the last awesome love of the defense actually off to new highs this Tuesday's is willing to to stillness dealers is well what was it like to see ... been admitted to cutting off a good they have we know why the shrinking market in Europe the U S defense spending is stagnating ... that is much less because of the ... sector ... we know who moisten the skylight that the Russians are showing off banditry kit that came down to actual business with its two run into the third of the ground as the new one is ... a bit much but if I think ... that the actions taken place ... Massey Valentine's day


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If you look at Chapter 6 of NAS, you'll see heavy reliance on Thompson's tropical ice cores. There's much to consider here and this is a very first look. Here's an interesting statement:
"A quantitative assessment of temperature change from north Tibetan cores [Dunde and Guliya], using typical [whatver that is in tropical ice cores] isotopic sensitivity, is preliminary, but both suggest warming over the last 150 years of at least 1 deg C."
Since Dunde was only drilled in 1987, it is no wonder that the quantitative assessment is only "preliminary". We at climateaudit have also done a "preliminary assessment" using temperature data rather than "typical isotopic sensitivty" and got different results.
Look at Figure 6-1 showing the plots of 6 Thompson cores (Kilimanjaro is not illustrated – anyone want to bet that it doesn't have an elevated modern dO18 graph? Didn't think so. I've plotted Kilimanjaro last fall,) In the Andes, 2 of the 3 series have higher MWp than modern, but one series, Huascaran, has very elevated values with the rise occurring in the 18th century and continuing to the present. In the Tibetan cores, the only series with a marked modern increase is Dasuopu, but again, the increase seems to occur throughout the millennium. In the original publication, Dasuopu was said to be a precipitation proxy, but is nonetheless averaged with the other series (dare one say because it has HS), yielding an HS Himalyan composite in Figure 6-2 and tropical composite in Figure 6-3. (Also, by the way, the digital versions of the series in Figure 6-1 are archived as a result of my efforts at Climatic Change. Prior to that, nothing had been archived from Dunde in over 17 years and the file is still limited to decadal dO18).
But that's not the topic here. The NAS panel says that they used the "four available ice cores from Tibet". OK, but there's an ice core from Mt Everest; yeah, it's in Nepal but maybe it would be interesting to compare it to Dasuopu, the most southerly Tibetan site. I think that the following plot is interesting on a number of levels. The bottom panel reproduces the archived data from 1000-1997, which is archived only in 10-year steps, showing that the series has HS.
The top panel zooms in on the 1800-2000 period (with a bigger vertical range) and shows the Dasuopu series in black (with a more compressed look due to the change in scale.) The red series is the archived Everest series from Mayewski, only going back to the mid-19th century, but bringing much information for that period.
First, one notices just how much dO18 information is removed by only reporting decadal information. Mayewski has archived annual (and even sub-annual data). Why should Thompson be permitted to archive only 10-year averages. Second, the scale of variation in Thompson's decadal series is obviously much smaller than the annual ranges, which are very noisy. Third, the series have different appearances on any scale. I haven't done a correlation, but I'll bet that the two series, apples and apples, have negligible correlation. The Everest data seems to have maxed in the 1930s (at about the same time as Greenland temperatures, or for that matter, an earlier U.S. temperature peak – to this day, the record USHCN annual temperature is 1934, not 1998).
What does it mean? It sure doesn't seem very consistent.


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The Second Session of the 112th Congress, which begins work later this month (the House of Representatives on January 17, Senate on January 23), is expected to open much as it closed in December: in a word, contentiously. By the time Members return to Washington, less than five weeks will remain in the two-month extension of the payroll tax holiday and unemployment benefits package which narrowly passed last session. This is precious little time to negotiate a new extension that will secure the measures through the end of 2012, and a number of volatile issues that prevented agreement on a year-long extension this past December - most related to paying for it - remain unresolved. Democrats are expected to renew calls for a surtax on income over $1 million to offset the cost of the extension while Republicans will likely continue to seek a freeze on government salaries as well as changes to public employees' retirement programs. Neither of these proposals has been able to gain very much across-the-aisle traction in previous negotiations and little movement is anticipated ahead of this next round.
One piece of legislation which has been highlighted as a priority this coming session is a new transportation bill. House leadership, including Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-FL), had planned to produce a long-term replacement for SAFETEA-LU during the last session; the House Republicans have now been joined in their efforts by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who has vowed to make a new highway/transit bill one of the Senate's highest priorities in 2012. Reid specifically singled out the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee's MAP-21 as "a very, very good bill" – unfortunately, the legislation as drafted by the EPW committee would eliminate the 10 percent set-aside for Transportation Enhancements currently in SAFETEA-LU in addition to giving states the ability to 'opt-out' of funding TE projects entirely. Several senators, including Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) who serve on EPW and withdrew amendments during markup that would have reinstated the program, have expressed hope that more recreation-friendly language can be inserted into MAP-21 prior to the bill's introduction on the Senate floor. Make your voice heard in supporting these lawmakers' efforts to maintain funding for vital TE and parks resources.
And last but not least: a recent Time magazine online piece by Anthony DeBenedet and Lawrence Cohen provided a nice boost to NRPA efforts. Entitled "Funding Public Parks Could Save Lives," the article cites several academic studies which posit that parks and recreational areas are not only great places to exercise and commune with nature; they may also actively contribute to lower rates of cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, and other health-related issues. The Time article's authors summed it up well, so to borrow from them and propose a 2012 Resolution: "It's time to get involved, go to parks, and vote for funding them as if your life depended on it. Because it just might."
Learn more about federal policy and legislative issues impacting parks and recreation.
Written by: Leslie Mozingo, The Ferguson Group


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autopano-sift-C can be used to find control points in overlapping image pairs and is a C port of the C# software autopano-sift. It is somewhat faster and doesn't require a C# runtime - Installing the mono C# runtime on OS X has proved to be problematic on some systems.
Additionally, autopano-sift-C has experimental modifications to perform feature identification in conformal image space, this helps with wide angle or fisheye Projection photographs.
autopano-sift-C is available from the hugin project and can only be used within hugin as an optional installation due to patent issues: the use of the Scale-invariant feature transform algorithm is restricted by US Patent 6,711,293, awarded March 23, 2004 to the University of British Columbia.
The current version 2.5.1 (autopano-sift-C-2.5.1) is available since the release of hugin 0.7 in October 2008.
Installation on Mac OS X
On Mac OS X, autopano-sift-c can be installed via MacPorts:
$ sudo port install autopano-sift-c
This may take some minutes to fetch and compile the required software. Once complete, the autopano-sift-c binary will be installed in /opt/local/bin.
To get Hugin to use it, you may need to add this full path into the preferences:
Now you're ready to use the control point alignment assistant in Hugin. Load up your images, then hit the 'Align' button:
At this point you'll either see a big fat error dialog, or if everything's working you'll see a dialog like this while autopano-sift-c does its thing. This may take a few minutes...
When it's done, Hugin's panorama preview should show you something decent now!
You'll probably still want to nudge some things or run the exposure optimizer, but this'll have saved a lot of time manually setting control points.


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Alzheimer's disease may hit women harder than men in the coming decades, according to the latest report from the Alzheimer's Association. The organization's figures show a woman's lifetime risk of developing the condition is 1 in 6, compared with 1 in 11 for men.
More than 5 million Americans in total are now living with the neurodegenerative disease, per the report.
Women are also shouldering the responsibility for caring for parents affected by Alzheimer's. More than twice as many women as men provide 24-hour care for a loved one with the disease, and twice as many women as men gave up working full time in order to do so.
(MORE: New Research on Understanding Alzheimer's)
Such unpaid care totals about $220 billion in lost wages and other care. Much of that cost is for helping patients to bathe, eat, dress and use the bathroom, rather than for treating the symptoms of dementia and memory loss, for which there are no effective therapies.
"We have to change that balance," says Maria Carrillo, vice president for medical-and-scientific relations at the Alzheimer's Association.
Here are some of the highlights from the group's report:
- By 2050, 16 million people will be living with Alzheimer's disease.
- African Americans are twice as likely as whites to develop Alzheimer's.
- About one-third of seniors who die each year in the U.S. have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's or dementia.
- Women in their 60s are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's as they are to develop breast cancer over their lifetime.
- In 2013, Americans, mostly women, provided 17.7 billion hours of unpaid care to patients with Alzheimer's.
- In 2014, Americans will spend $214 billion to care for patients with Alzheimer's. In 2050, that amount will reach $1.2 trillion.
The full 2014 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report can be read here.


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SAN JOSE — The Santa Clara County Democratic Party, which is backing labor leader Cindy Chavez for county supervisor, has filed a complaint with the state's political watchdog commission alleging Chavez opponent Teresa Alvarado's campaign illegally coordinated with two political groups.
Chavez and Alvarado are competing in a July 30 runoff for the seat vacated by former Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr.
Under state campaign law, it is illegal for a candidate to coordinate with independent campaign committees.
The June 26 complaint signed by Steve Preminger, chair of the county's Democratic Central Committee, accuses Alvarado and her new political consultant Jim Gonzalez of meeting June 19 with members of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee to discuss campaign strategy.
Members of the PAC have also donated to another group, an independent expenditure committee called the Community for Accountability, Opposing Cindy Chavez for Supervisor 2013, which is also named in the complaint.
Among other details Preminger said were brought up with the chamber PAC were Alvarado's campaign's plans to target reliable voters, absentee voters and Vietnamese voters in the district through campaign mail, and the timing of the direct mail plan.
The complaint sent to the state's Fair Political Practices Commission asks the agency to "stop the illegally coordinated expenditures before they are made," and investigate whether similar actions with the two groups occurred leading up to the June 4 primary.
Gonzalez called the complaint a "cynical attempt … to subvert and chill my First Amendment right to discuss the candidacy of Teresa Alvarado with an endorsing organization," in this case the Chamber PAC.
"There was no agreement, no consultation and no discussion, so therefore there is no coordination," he said. "I gave a speech with generally known facts and statements. Period."
Gary Winuk, chief of the FPPC's enforcement division, said his agency has 14 days to decide whether or not it will investigate the matter.
The complaint follows one filed by Alvarado's campaign in May with the FPPC, which the commission ultimately dismissed. That complaint alleged Chavez's campaign mailers matched mailers paid for by political committees of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council (which Chavez led until this year) and the county's Democratic Central Committee.
Alvarado's campaign said that showed collusion between Chavez's campaign and independent political committees. But Chavez's camp insisted the Labor Council and Democratic Party pieces were "member communications" sent only to their members, which is allowed. The FPPC agreed.
Contact Tracy Seipel at 408 275-0140.


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Greece said that participation in its bondholder swap stood at 95.7% after it pressured private bondholders to participate by saying it would trigger collective action clauses. It also extended, until March 23, sweeteners for holdouts in possession of bonds not written to conform to Greek law.
Bloomberg reported Friday that Germany and other eurozone governments called the swap a success, and that they would decide on a conference call whether to proceed with the second bailout. An hour and a half after the decision is made, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association plans to meet to consider a "potential credit event" relative to Greece.
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos was quoted saying, "The debt-swap results show that international markets see the prospects the Greek economy has to regain a sustainable fiscal situation."
Josef Ackermann, chairman of the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, which represented private bondholders in negotiations with the Greek government, was quoted saying that the result was "very strong and positive. These are important steps towards resolving the Greek debt crisis, addressing the overall fiscal and sovereign debt problems in the euro area, and restoring financial stability."
Steffen Seibert, chief spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said that Merkel was "pleased" by the "high level participation of private creditors," and added that it was "an encouraging result that will help put Greece on a path to stability. What's important now is for Greece to seize the opportunity offered by this debt swap, meaning it implements the agreed programs." France also expressed approval of the swap.
Pawan Malik, managing director of Navigant Capital, was quoted saying, "There was a small possibility that for whatever reason, the participation would be so high that the CACs may not need to get triggered. For the markets this may be a mild negative today."


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They own me, they can do whatever they want with me,...
Drip, drip, blood drops51455865
- by Niallerxxx
- Rating:
- Published: 3 Apr 2014
- Updated: 14 Apr 2014
- Status: Complete
Drip, drip, blood drops! I thought vampires belonged to the imagination. I thought the movies just wanted us to be afraid. I thought Dracula was a former idiot. I thought as much, until I met Louis Tomlinson. He wasn't the person he pretended to be and he wasn't human
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text:
- Published in Money Matters
The Anatomy of the French Income Tax Return. Part TWO
I know, I know, thinking about taxes gives us all heartburn. In fact, you're probably having palpitations just thinking about filing them (the way I felt while researching, writing this guide and when I received my recent tax notice). In a foreign country. In another language. Still, it must be done, and now that you're here and you've delved into the fun stuff in Paris, it's time to learn how to pay your taxes.


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MOSCOW — The Group of 20's finance ministers said yesterday their countries consider strengthening economic growth and creating jobs to be top priorities.
In a communique at the end of their meeting in Moscow, the ministers noted that although there are signs of stronger economies in the United States and Japan, the group of 17 European Union countries that use the euro continues to suffer from recession and that economic growth in emerging markets is comparatively slow.
The ministers also said they were "mindful of the risks and unintended negative side effects of extended periods of monetary easing." They did not directly address the situation in the US, where speculation that the Federal Reserve may soon wind down its bond-buying program has roiled markets around the world — especially in developing economies.
In a separate statement, IMF head Christine Lagarde said the meeting saw constructive discussions on "the spillover effects of monetary policies, the implications of recent market volatility, and the need for balanced and credible fiscal strategies."
"''The global economy remains too weak and unemployment is too high in many countries," she said. "There has also been an increase in financial market volatility and tightening of financial conditions."
The G-20 communique called on members "to ensure that international and our own tax rules do not allow or encourage multinational enterprises to reduce overall taxes paid by artificially shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions."
On Friday the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development unveiled a 15-point plan for a united front to fight tax avoidance by multinational companies. If adopted, the measures would close loopholes and allow countries to tax profits held in offshore subsidiaries. It would also target such practices as deducting the same expense more than once, in more than one country.
At a summit last month in Northern Ireland, leaders of the G-8 countries published sweeping goals for tightening the tax rules on globe-trotting corporations that long have exploited loopholes to shift profits into foreign shelters that charge little tax or none. But that initiative, aimed at forcing the Googles and Apples of the world to pay higher taxes, contained only aspirations, not binding commitments.
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- Trending


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A new shell
Since Apple introduced the titanium PowerBook in 2001, the company has always maintained a very clear difference in appearance between its professional- and consumer-oriented laptops, even as the latter gained more of the features and speed previously found only in the former. With the new MacBook, this trend of feature parity continues for the most part, and it has now moved from the inside out. With its new aluminum shell, the MacBook is a smaller version of the MacBook Pro in every respect. So much so, that most of what Clint and Jacqui wrote in their review of the new MacBook Pro also applies to the new MacBook. So in this review, we'll mostly focus on what sets the MacBook apart from its higher-end counterpart.
The unibody
Apple has a talent for releasing new products that immediately make the old versions seem, well, old. After a week or so of using the new MacBook, the old MacBooks and MacBook Pros look like tired, Soviet-era wannabes. Either opened or closed, the new models look both modern and classic; they probably wouldn't seem out of place in a 1970s interior.
In its previous white and black plastic incarnation, the MacBook had already become much sturdier than older versions and the iBook before it. But the new aluminum unibody is still a significant improvement: there doesn't seem to be any flexibility anywhere in the body or the keyboard, and very little in the lid. The lid closes in a very satisfying way, and a thin, rubbery rim along the edge makes contact with the unibody over the entire width of the computer. A magnet keeps the lid closed in perfect alignment, without the need for a latch mechanism. It's even better than the delicate, high-precision click with which the old MacBook Pro latch closes. If only we could be as happy with the cover on the bottom of the unit that provides access to the battery and the hard drive.
On one of our MacBooks, this bottom cover is already a little warped, with more to come by the flimsy looks of things. Hopefully, the fact that the battery cover lock mechanism keeps the battery in place even without the cover is just a nice touch on Apple's part, and not something that MacBook users will have to depend on after some years of use. But the battery cover is trivially easy to replace, so if something has to be flimsy, it might as well be this.
Specs and ports
The chart below shows how the two new MacBook models stack up against the low-end MacBook Pro:
|MacBook, $1299
|MacBook, $1599
|MacBook Pro, $1999
|2GHz Core 2 Duo
|2.4GHz Core 2 Duo
|2.4GHz Core 2 Duo
|2GB 1066MHz DDR3
|2GB 1066MHz DDR3
|2GB 1066MHz DDR3
|NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
|NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
|NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 256MB
|13.3", 1280x800
|13.3", 1280x800
|15.4", 1440x900
|Hard/optical drives
|160GB, 8xDVD±RW
|250GB, 8xDVD±RW
|250GB, 8xDVD±RW
|2 x USB2
|2 x USB2
|2 x USB2, FireWire 800, ExpressCard/34
|12.8x8.9x0.95 in
32.5x22.7x2.4 cm
|12.8x8.9x0.95 in
32.5x22.7x2.4 cm
|14.4x9.8x0.95 in
36.4x24.9x2.4 cm
|4.5 pounds, 2.05kg
|4.5 pounds, 2.05kg
|5.5 pounds, 2.49kg
Under the hood, the most significant difference between the two models is in the graphics card. The MacBook Pro adds a discrete GPU, the 9600M GT, to the 9400M integrated graphics processor that's now standard across Apple's entire portable line.
Networking is the same on all models: 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet with support for 9000 byte jumboframes, (draft) 802.11n (as well as a, b and g) Wi-Fi, and enhanced data rate Bluetooth.
The MacBook lacks the MacBook Pro's speaker grille; stereo speakers seem to be hidden under the keyboard. A cluster of tiny holes in the aluminum "unibody" north of the escape key guides sound to the internal microphone. But, why use the built-in microphone? One of the little joys of the new MacBook is that it supports the microphone and clicker in the iPhone headphones.


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Sherrill resident takes hip-hop stage in Syracuse
SHERRILL >> One Sherrill resident is breaking into the music industry on April 5, when he takes the stage as one of the opening acts for Wu Tang Clan's Gza at the Westcott Theatre in Syracuse.
Kyle Partyka, performing under the name Go Go Gadget Pink Packet, doesn't seem like a typical hip-hop artist, but he hopes that could be part of his appeal.
"I'm not from the ghetto, but I have seen a lot of different things and have personal struggles just like everybody else does," he said. "I try to keep my music true to myself."
The 23-year-old said he has experimented with many types of musical genres, but is most influenced by classic punk and hard-core rap while adding some references to '90s pop culture.
Partyka said he began writing his own music while in middle school accompanying it with an acoustic guitar.
In high school, he branched over to punk music joining several band with friends.
It wasn't until he was studying communications at Utica College while working at the school's radio station 90.7 WPNR FM, that he began making promotions and mixing together different beats.
"I would just write lyrics and sing over it and create hooks from the software equipment," he said.
Partyka began sharing that work with close friends, and soon his fan base spread. Now he has release his fourth mix tape entitled "Typical Weekend."
"This newest release is as serious as I've ever been, but I also have a lot of funny metaphors to make people interested and laugh," he explained.
Some of his songs include references to childhood fads, Nickelodeon shows and classic comedies.
On a more serious note Partyka said he shares his struggles of family life growing up with divorced parents and finding a job in his field.
Partyka said his ultimate goal is to make an impact on people while making relatable music.
Tickets range from $20 to $35 the doors open at 7 p.m.
For more information or to download Typical Weekend for free visit: pickpacket.bandcamp.com.


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Change in season means change of leadership at Youth Orchestras
As the 2013-14 musical season is set to begin in the fall, the venerable Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestras is closing one chapter and beginning another. As one executive director retires, another has taken her place.
Monroe resident Barbara Upton, who, as the first paid executive director helped the GBYO become an efficient, nonprofit organization with an active board of directors, has decided to retire and, among other things, spend more time with her two grandchildren in Maryland.
In her place is Anna Kepe-Haas, of Manhattan, a financial consultant to performing arts groups and former chief operating officer of Kettles and Co. of New York (a supplier of classical musical instruments).
Fluent in Russian and Latvian, Kepe-Haas was a classical actor and director for more than a dozen years in the United States and abroad before turning to business management. She received a master of fine arts degree from George Washington University, in Washington, D.C., and a bachelor of science degree from New York University in leadership/management studies.
"The Youth Orchestras is such a great fit for me," Kepe-Haas said in a recent telephone chat. "There is a wonderful sense of being in a close-knit family at the GBYO, which greatly appeals to me. Everyone seems to put their heart and soul into it.
"For my part, I have a passion for educating the next generation and giving back. Being able to enrich the lives of these fabulous young people through music is an important mission" for the GBYO.
She will continue to live in Manhattan and commute to Fairfield, where the orchestras rehearse on weekends throughout the school year.
The GBYO, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2012, has evolved from nine players in one orchestra to about 250 students -- in grades four through 12 from about two dozen towns and cities in the region -- placed in one of five different groups. Tuition ranges from $500 to $710 a year, depending on the ensemble; all participants are auditioned and scholarships are available. Serving as the GBYO's music director is Maestro Christopher James Hisey, a Fairfield native and violist, who performed with the ensemble as a youngster.
More InformationFor additional information on the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestras, visit www.gbyo.org.
Among Kepe-Haas' initial responsibilities will be overseeing auditions for the 2013-14 season: Saturday, Aug. 24, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (violins only); Monday through Thursday, Aug. 26-29, from 4 to 9 p.m. (all instruments). Auditions are by appointment at Roger Ludlowe Middle School in Fairfield. Students must register at www.gbyo.org/auditions.
Concerts are scheduled for Nov. 10, March 2 and May 18, each at 3 p.m. at the Klein Memorial Auditorium, 910 Fairfield Ave., in Bridgeport.
Among the new director's priorities are expanding audiences and increasing fundraising projects and inner-city outreach programs, she said. The group has an annual budget that hovers around $225,000.
Upton's legacy
Upton has spent her entire career working for nonprofits as a volunteer or an employee.
Born in Paxton, Neb., she began studying piano at age 6 and continued to take lessons through high school while also studying voice. She graduated from Regis University in Denver.
After moving to Connecticut from Aurora, Colo., she was soon hired as an organist at St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church in Trumbull, where she was appointed director of music ministries more than a decade ago.
When Upton's oldest child (the late Zachary) joined the GBYO in 1989, she became a volunteer. Later, her two other children (Elizabeth and Zebediah, a professional trumpeter) also joined. She became executive director in July 1999.
In a tribute to Upton, Hisey wrote that "Barb has been a constant force that has helped drive the GBYO organization to where it is today. She is a tireless, dedicated, caring, strong, intelligent and downright kind person, whose dedication to, and love for, the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestras is equaled only by her love and passion for children and their education.
"Barb grew up on a cattle ranch (and) attended a one-room schoolhouse a couple miles from her home. ... When she wasn't in school, she mended fences, drove tractors, birthed cattle, participated in county and state fairs, and all the while studied music and became among the first in her family to attend college. Clearly those experiences are what gave Barb her incredible drive, spirit and work ethic."
Asked why she stayed with the organization for nearly 25 years, Upton said she wanted to provide "administrative continuity as the board changes every couple years.
"(I) love the program, the mission, the kids," she said.
Visit www.gbyo.org.
email@example.com; Twitter: @PhyllisASBoros


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Pro-government activists attack Tunisia union
Hurling stones and wielding clubs and knives, dozens of supporters of Tunisia's Islamist rulers attacked members of the country's main labor union on Tuesday, in the latest sign of unrest in the North African country.
Activists with the General Union of Tunisian Workers were gathering for a march in Tunis to commemorate the 1952 assassination of a historic member when they were set upon by the League for Protection of the Revolution, resulting in pitched battle that injured 10 people before police restored order.
The attackers were shouting "the people want the assassination of the union," according to witnesses.
"These are militias used by the ruling party as their armed wing, " union member Fathi Abaza said.
The league is considered close to the Ennahda Party, a moderate Islamist group that dominates Tunisia's post-revolution government.
The attack follows criticism by members of Ennahda of the union for its support of a general strike in the town of Siliana in the country's interior that resulted in days of clashes and, ultimately, the suspension of the governor, an Ennahda member.
Union head Hocine Abbasi in radio interview said that with these attacks "the door to confrontation is now open. They wanted this and no one will stop the (union) from defending the social, economic and even political situation."
For its part, the Ennahda Party "condemned the violent attack on protesters and expressed its solidarity with all those injured" in a statement. It also called for self-restraint among all actors.
Since overthrowing their dictator in January 2011, Tunisians have elected a new government that has promised to promote democracy. But the country has also been torn by unrest, aggravated by a poor economy.


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My paternal grandfather was a tall guy who grew up in upstate New York and was an avid hunter and fisherman. He coached me in fishing for trout when I was 6 years old standing in the Oswegatchie River near the outlet of Cranberry Lake in the Adirondacks. We were using his bamboo fly rod and a wet fly that he had tied. He showed me how to read the currents and to spot the places where trout were feeding. I remember his quiet observation and patient manner. I was thrilled to catch a brown trout. That outing with my grandfather led to a lifelong interest in rivers.
Ted Leeson provided wisdom in his 1994 book, "The Habit of Rivers."
"The craft of angling is the catching of fish, but the art of angling is receptiveness to those connections, the art of letting one thing lead to another until, if only locally and momentarily, you realized some small completeness."
Flowing water is mesmerizing. The sparkle of light on the water, the fluid dynamics of currents, the continuous flow and different scales of rivers from tiny brooks to huge rivers like the Mississippi inspire the kind of thoughts that flow through the language of many philosophers and scientists.
Leonardo da Vinci said, "When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come."
Canadian writer and conservationist Roderick Haig-Brown wrote, "I have never seen a river that I could not love. Moving water...has a fascinating vitality. It has power and grace and associations. It has a thousand colors and a thousand shapes, yet it follows laws so definite that the tiniest streamlet is an exact replica of a great river."
Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine, when arguing for passage of the Clean Water Act of 1972, asked, "Can we afford clean water? Can we afford rivers and lakes and streams and oceans which continue to make possible life on this planet? Can we afford life itself? Those questions were never asked as we destroyed the waters of our nation, and they deserve no answers as we finally move to restore and renew them. These questions answer themselves."
Tim Palmer wrote in his book, "The Wild and Scenic Rivers of America," "When we save a river, we save a major part of an ecosystem, and we save ourselves as well because of our dependence-physical, economic, spiritual-on the water and its community of life."
On Thursday, Sept. 21, I attended a field trip with UWRF students of Dr. Eric Sanden's Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration class on the Trimbelle River. Landowner Mike Holst said that he loves the Trimbelle and was pleased to see the restoration project happen there with the partnership of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the DNR and the Kiap-TU- Wish Chapter of Trout Unlimited. A lot of effort went into that project and it turned into a beautifully restored reach of stream. Jeff Kitelinger of the NRCS in Ellsworth explained how the U.S. Department of Agriculture is working with landowners to protect streams and farmland. Nate Anderson of the DNR explained the process of restoring the stream and in-stream habitat features. Kiap-TU-Wish Chapter TU President and Volunteer Coordinator Randy Arnold described TU's
conservation, restoration and education missions.
As I was explaining to the students the importance of cold, clean, well-oxygenated and continuously flowing water to the stream ecosystem, I looked downstream as the morning sun was rising over the bluff. As if on cue, a cloud of tiny Tricorythodes mayflies was swarming above the stream doing their mating flight. The little mayflies sparkled like snowflakes. We all were impressed at the sight. I read Ted Leeson's quote. We appreciated the connections and the value of a restored stream ecosystem.
Please send any comments and suggestions for this column to me at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Boston's Best Pizza and Beer Bargain
Editor's note: The time has come for Serious Eats cheap booze correspondent Will Gordon to explore the chewable universe. He will begin, as an honest man must, with pizza.
Socrates' Newtowne Grille
1945 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140 (map); 617-661-0706
Pizza style: Thin crust, heavy on the cheese
The skinny: Pretty good pizza at a very good price.
Price: $11.95 for a large pizza and a pitcher of Pabst Blue Ribbon
Notes: A suburban spinoff of the 45-year-old original bills itself as "Billerica's Favorite Family Restaurant and Sports Bar."
I'm not a pizza-style pedant, mostly because I lack the necessary education—I'm simply not qualified to yell about regional cheesing distinctions and proprietary tomato strains, and I barely know what a gluten is, let alone why one would fuss over its stretchability. I think of myself as less of a pizza scholar and more of a moderately enlightened advocate for pizzas of all creeds, colors, and nationalities, with the following exceptions: white pizza scares and confuses me, and Greek pizza greases me out (I don't really know what creed means, so let's say I'm good with all of those).
So of course I was not the least bit surprised when Meredith, my old nemesis and new editor, chose a place with "Socrates" in the name for my first Slice assignment. She sent me to Socrates' Newtowne Grille in Cambridge, and I'm sure she was unpleasantly surprised to hear that I'm a long-time fan of Newtowne's cheap, honest, and wholly non-Greek pizza. Nice try, kid.
Newtowne's tucked just outside Porter Square in a kind of grown man's land safely equidistant from the academighetto orbits of both Harvard and Tufts. The slightly subprime location must help keep prices down a bit, but the signature pizza-and-pitcher special is notably underpriced for anywhere in Eastern Massachusetts: $11.95 gets you a (very) large pizza and a 64-ounce pitcher of PBR. The official terms of the deal are that if you buy any pitcher of beer, they'll throw in the pizza for $4, so the sign outside advertises a pitcher of Bud and a large pizza for $13.95, but now you know better.
Newtowne's not much to look at from either inside or out, but there's nothing physically wrong with the place. It's often miscategorized as a dive bar by people who are scandalized by the sight of a perfectly respectable middle-aged man with a mustache and an accent enjoying a beer or three after work. Newtowne's regulars are innocuous and the staff is downright friendly, and a couple Nascar signs tacked to laminated wood paneling never hurt anyone. Remember, we're here for the $11.95 pizza and pitcher deal, not for the thread count of the paper placemats.
The space is divided into three semi-autonomous zones: a bar with a dozen stools and half as many booths; a dining room with seating for 40; and a takeout area. The bar counter's a bit narrow for a large pizza and the bar-side booths aren't well situated for watching baseball, so cheap pizza research coordinator Emily and I usually sit in the dining room.
On our most recent visit, the pitcher arrived as cold and quickly as it always does, and the pizza took a bit longer than would have seemed strictly necessary given the sparse crowd. If I were the suspicious sort, I'd think they were giving us time to work through the first pitcher of beer, because I'd have to imagine any money they make on the $11.95 special comes from the second round of drinks. As is, I just figure the cook was out back having a smoke or yelling at his phone. Either way, I was in no rush. We had the aforementioned beer to drink and baseball to watch, plus the terrifying parlor game of "Crap, that guy looks like he's going to play Steve Miller Band on the jukebox, doesn't he?"
When the pizza did mosey on out, it was hot as hell and cooked just short of medium, and we were plenty satisfied. Newtowne pizza has a light, smooth, dry undercarriage that proves at least one Socrates doesn't subscribe to Greek pizza philosophy. The thin crust is airline-pillowy at the edges, mezza-chewy throughout, and otherwise unobtrusive. There's not a lot to say about the sauce, either. It's double-bright red and blandly sweet. Wait, considering the price, let's say it's "mildly sweet." There, that's fair.
The cheese is the dominant force. The standard industrial mozzarella is laid on thick, and even though high-cheese pizza isn't really my thing, it works here because the high-tensile crust supports it from below and there's nothing complicating it from above: You don't go to the $11.95 pizza-and-pitcher place just to upsell yourself with toppings! I've had the pepperoni and the sausage in other contexts and they're both fine, but this is a pretty gooey specimen, so I don't recommend getting too cute with the add-ons. If you're the sort of person who squeegees the top of her pizza, you might ask for extra napkins. If you're the sort of person who takes what she gets for $11.95, 4-pint pitcher of PBR included, you might just wear an old shirt.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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On Monday January 9th, in response to the release of a report by the US Senate on the activities of Backpage.com, Backpage's adult classified ads section now just directs you to a page with a "censored" label on it:
Clicking on the main "Find out why" link on the 'censored' page, leads you here, where Backpage.com proclaims that they have been censored by the US government and have been forced to shut down their adult classified section. However, is this what actually happened? Continue reading


text: It seems like this Carmelo made every effort to leave Denver in the right way. There is never going to be a perfect way to leave and a team can't force a superstar to stay (at least until the new collective bargaining agreement is finalized). George Karl should stop trying to take cheap shots. He acts like some jealous ex-girlfriend which is weird because he claims (possibly correctly) the trade made his team better.


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Vote set for land near Cerro Wire site next month
A referendum will proceed next month on the Town of Oyster Bay's planned sale of its public works complex to a competitor of the developer trying to build a mall on an adjacent site.
The vote will be held Aug. 20 after a judge late Monday dismissed a lawsuit by residents opposed to a mall on the former Cerro Wire property in Syosset.
State Supreme Court Justice F. Dana Winslow in Mineola ruled in favor of the mall developer, Taubman Centers Inc., which had organized a petition drive to force a referendum on the $32.5 million sale to developers who promised to build a mixed-use facility.
Winslow ruled last week that Taubman, which has said it would pay more for the land, had submitted 4,976 "facially valid" signatures on a petition seeking the referendum after they were reviewed by the Nassau County Board of Elections. Taubman needed 4,599 valid signatures to force the vote.
Monday, the judge dismissed the remaining objection in the lawsuit filed by opponents -- that the wording of the petition itself and the statements made by canvassers to get signatures constituted fraud.
Winslow vacated his temporary restraining order, and the residents who had filed the lawsuit said there were no plans to appeal.
The judge said that while the petition "may have been inartfully drawn, it was not misleading and did not contain latent ambiguities."
Winslow also said the signatures were not obtained fraudulently, "though the questions posed by the witnesses may well have been designed to be more advocacy than informative."
The judge also noted the town clerk is responsible for drafting the wording on the ballot and could make sure it clearly describes the proposed sale of 54 acres.
"The public will now have the opportunity to learn all the facts surrounding the town's noncompetitive land sale," to Oyster Bay Realty LLC, said Kyle Sklerov, spokesman for Long Island Jobs Now, created by Taubman to push for the mall stymied for 18 years. "When budgets are tight, it's imperative that people understand that the town could be missing out on millions of dollars."
Todd Fabricant, head of the Cerro Wire Coalition fighting the mall, said his group has prepared "a full-court press to inspire the residents to vote yes."
Supervisor John Venditto said the referendum would give "our residents a full and fair opportunity to vote yes and once again stop Taubman's misguided efforts."
A separate lawsuit by Taubman seeking to block the sale is proceeding in State Supreme Court in Riverhead.
But if there is a ruling in that case before Aug. 20, whichever side loses is likely to appeal and it's unlikely the appeal could be heard before the referendum, which would likely make the case moot.