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Spiral galaxy
A spiral galaxy is a certain kind of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work The Realm of the Nebulae[1] and, as such, forms part of the Hubble sequence. Spiral galaxies consist of a flat, rotating disc containing stars, gas and dust, and a central concentration of stars known as the bulge. These are surrounded by a much fainter halo of stars, many of which reside in globular clusters.
Spiral galaxies are named for the spiral structures that extend from the center into the disk. The spiral arms are sites of ongoing star formation and are brighter than the surrounding disk because of the young, hot OB stars that inhabit them.
Roughly two-thirds of all spirals are observed to have an additional component in the form of a bar-like structure,[2] extending from the central bulge, at the ends of which the spiral arms begin. The proportion of barred spirals relative to their barless cousins has changed over the history of the Universe, with only about 10% containing bars about 8 billion years ago, to roughly a quarter 2.5 billion years ago, until present, where over two-thirds of the galaxies in the visible universe (Hubble volume) have bars.[3]
Our own Milky Way has recently (in the 1990s) been confirmed to be a barred spiral, although the bar itself is difficult to observe from our position within the galactic disk.[4] The most convincing evidence for its existence comes from a recent survey, performed by the Spitzer Space Telescope, of stars in the galactic center.[5]
Together with irregular galaxies, spiral galaxies make up approximately 60% of galaxies in the local Universe.[6] They are mostly found in low-density regions and are rare in the centers of galaxy clusters.[7]
Structure 1
- Spiral arms 1.1
- Galactic bulge 1.2
- Galactic spheroid 1.3
- Oldest spiral galaxy 1.4
Origin of the spiral structure 2
Density wave model 2.1
- Historical theory of Lin and Shu 2.1.1
- Star formation caused by density waves 2.1.2
- More young stars in spiral arms 2.2
- Alignment of spin axis with cosmic voids 2.3
- Gravitationally aligned orbits 2.4
- Density wave model 2.1
- Distribution of stars in spirals 3
- Spiral nebula 4
- Milky Way 5
- Famous examples 6
- See also 7
- References 8
- External links 9
Spiral galaxies consist of five distinct components:
- A flat, rotating disc of (mostly newly created) stars and interstellar matter
- A central stellar bulge of mainly older stars, which resembles an elliptical galaxy
- A near-spherical halo of stars, including many in globular clusters
- A supermassive black hole at the very center of the central bulge
- A near-spherical dark matter halo
The relative importance, in terms of mass, brightness and size, of the different components varies from galaxy to galaxy.
Spiral arms
Spiral arms are regions of stars that extend from the center of spiral and barred spiral galaxies. These long, thin regions resemble a spiral and thus give spiral galaxies their name. Naturally, different classifications of spiral galaxies have distinct arm-structures. Sc and SBc galaxies, for instance, have very "loose" arms, whereas Sa and SBa galaxies have tightly wrapped arms (with reference to the Hubble sequence). Either way, spiral arms contain many young, blue stars (due to the high mass density and the high rate of star formation), which make the arms so bright.
Galactic bulge
A bulge is a huge, tightly packed group of stars. The term commonly refers to the central group of stars found in most spiral galaxies.
Using the Hubble classification, the bulge of Sa galaxies is usually composed of Population II stars, that are old, red stars with low metal content. Further, the bulge of Sa and SBa galaxies tends to be large. In contrast, the bulges of Sc and SBc galaxies are much smaller and are composed of young, blue Population I stars. Some bulges have similar properties to those of elliptical galaxies (scaled down to lower mass and luminosity); others simply appear as higher density centers of disks, with properties similar to disk galaxies.
Many bulges are thought to host a supermassive black hole at their centers. Such black holes have never been directly observed, but many indirect proofs exist. In our own galaxy, for instance, the object called Sagittarius A* is believed to be a supermassive black hole. There is a tight correlation between the mass of the black hole and the velocity dispersion of the stars in the bulge, the M-sigma relation.
Galactic spheroid
The bulk of the stars in a spiral galaxy are located either close to a single plane (the galactic plane) in more or less conventional circular orbits around the center of the galaxy (the Galactic Center), or in a spheroidal galactic bulge around the galactic core.
However, some stars inhabit a spheroidal halo or galactic spheroid, a type of galactic halo. The orbital behaviour of these stars is disputed, but they may describe retrograde and/or highly inclined orbits, or not move in regular orbits at all. Halo stars may be acquired from small galaxies which fall into and merge with the spiral galaxy—for example, the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy is in the process of merging with the Milky Way and observations show that some stars in the halo of the Milky Way have been acquired from it.
Unlike the galactic disc, the halo seems to be free of dust, and in further contrast, stars in the galactic halo are of Population II, much older and with much lower metallicity than their Population I cousins in the galactic disc (but similar to those in the galactic bulge). The galactic halo also contains many globular clusters.
The motion of halo stars does bring them through the disc on occasion, and a number of small red dwarf stars close to the Sun are thought to belong to the galactic halo, for example Kapteyn's Star and Groombridge 1830. Due to their irregular movement around the center of the galaxy—if they do so at all—these stars often display unusually high proper motion.
In 2013 and 2014 papers were published presenting evidence that the spheroid is actually a planar structure in about half of all galaxies.[9]
Oldest spiral galaxy
The oldest spiral galaxy on file is BX442. At eleven billion years old, it is more than two billion years older than any previous discovery. Researchers think the galaxy's shape is caused by the gravitational influence of a companion dwarf galaxy. Computer models based on that assumption indicate that BX442's spiral structure will last about 100 million years.[10][11]
Origin of the spiral structure
The pioneer of studies of the rotation of the Galaxy and the formation of the spiral arms was Bertil Lindblad in 1925. He realized that the idea of stars arranged permanently in a spiral shape was untenable. Since the angular speed of rotation of the galactic disk varies with distance from the centre of the galaxy (via a standard solar system type of gravitational model), a radial arm (like a spoke) would quickly become curved as the galaxy rotates. The arm would, after a few galactic rotations, become increasingly curved and wind around the galaxy ever tighter. This is called the winding problem. Measurements in the late 1960s showed that the orbital velocity of stars in spiral galaxies with respect to their distance from the galactic center is indeed higher than expected from Newtonian dynamics but still cannot explain the stability of the spiral structure.
Since the 1960s, there have been two leading hypotheses or models for the spiral structures of galaxies:
- star formation caused by density waves in the galactic disk of the galaxy.
- the SSPSF model – star formation caused by shock waves in the interstellar medium.
These different hypotheses do not have to be mutually exclusive, as they may explain different types of spiral arms.
Density wave model
Bertil Lindblad proposed that the arms represent regions of enhanced density (density waves) that rotate more slowly than the galaxy's stars and gas. As gas enters a density wave, it gets squeezed and makes new stars, some of which are short-lived blue stars that light the arms.
This idea was developed into density wave theory by C. C. Lin and Frank Shu in 1964.[13]
Historical theory of Lin and Shu
The first acceptable theory for the spiral structure was devised by C. C. Lin and Frank Shu in 1964, attempting to explain the large-scale structure of spirals in terms of a small-amplitude wave propagating with fixed angular velocity, that revolves around the galaxy at a speed different from that of the galaxy's gas and stars. They suggested that the spiral arms were manifestations of spiral density waves - they assumed that the stars travel in slightly elliptical orbits, and that the orientations of their orbits is correlated i.e. the ellipses vary in their orientation (one to another) in a smooth way with increasing distance from the galactic center. This is illustrated in the diagram. It is clear that the elliptical orbits come close together in certain areas to give the effect of arms. Stars therefore do not remain forever in the position that we now see them in, but pass through the arms as they travel in their orbits.[14]
Star formation caused by density waves
The following hypotheses exist for star formation caused by density waves:
- As gas clouds move into the density wave, the local mass density increases. Since the criteria for cloud collapse (the Jeans instability) depends on density, a higher density makes it more likely for clouds to collapse and form stars.
- As the compression wave goes through, it triggers star formation on the leading edge of the spiral arms.
- As clouds get swept up by the spiral arms, they collide with one another and drive shock waves through the gas, which in turn causes the gas to collapse and form stars.
More young stars in spiral arms
The arms appear brighter because there are more young stars (hence more massive, bright stars). These massive, bright stars also die out quickly, which would leave just the darker background stellar distribution behind the waves, hence making the waves visible.
While stars, therefore, do not remain forever in the position that we now see them in, they also do not follow the arms. The arms simply appear to pass through the stars as the stars travel in their orbits.
Alignment of spin axis with cosmic voids
Recent results suggest that the orientation of the spin axis of spiral galaxies is not a chance result, but instead they are preferentially aligned along the surface of cosmic voids.[16] That is, spiral galaxies tend to be oriented at a high angle of inclination relative to the large-scale structure of the surroundings. They have been described as lining up like "beads on a string," with their axis of rotation following the filaments around the edges of the voids.[17]
Gravitationally aligned orbits
Charles Francis and Erik Anderson showed from observations of motions of over 20,000 local stars (within 300 parsecs), that stars do move along spiral arms, and described how mutual gravity between stars causes orbits to align on logarithmic spirals. When the theory is applied to gas, collisions between gas clouds generate the molecular clouds in which new stars form, and evolution towards grand-design bisymmetric spirals is explained.[18]
Distribution of stars in spirals
The stars in spirals are distributed in thin disks with surface luminosity (Freeman, 1970).[19]
- I(r) = I_0 e^{-r/R_D}
with R_D being the disk scale-length; I_0 is the central value; it is useful to define: R_{opt}= 3.2 R_D as the size of the stellar disk, whose luminosity is
L_{tot} = 2\pi I_0 R^2_D .
The spiral's light profiles, in terms of the coordinate r/R_D, do not depend on galaxy luminosity.
Spiral nebula
"Spiral nebula" was a term used to describe galaxies with a visible spiral structure, such as the Whirlpool Galaxy, before it was understood that these objects existed outside our Milky Way galaxy. The question of whether such objects were separate galaxies independent of the Milky Way, or a type of nebula existing within our own galaxy, was the subject of the Great Debate of 1920, between Heber Curtis of Lick Observatory and Harlow Shapley of Mt. Wilson Observatory. Beginning in 1923, Edwin Hubble[20][21] observed Cepheid variables in several spiral nebulae, including the so-called "Andromeda Nebula", proving that they are, in fact, entire galaxies outside our own. The term "spiral nebula" has since fallen into disuse.
Milky Way
The Milky Way was once considered an ordinary spiral galaxy. Astronomers first began to suspect that the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy in the 1990s.[22] Their suspicions were confirmed by the Spitzer Space Telescope observations in 2005[23] which showed the galaxy's central bar to be larger than previously suspected.
Famous examples
See also
- Classification
- Other
- ^ (pp. 124–151)
- ^ D. Mihalas (1968). Galactic Astronomy. W. H. Freeman.
- ^ "Hubble and Galaxy Zoo Find Bars and Baby Galaxies Don't Mix". Science Daily. 16 January 2014.
- ^ Ripples in a Galactic Pond, Scientific American, October 2005
- ^ R. A. Benjamin; E. Churchwell; B. L. Babler; R. Indebetouw; M. R. Meade; B. A. Whitney; C. Watson; M. G. Wolfire; M. J. Wolff; R. Ignace; T. M. Bania; S. Bracker; D. P. Clemens; L. Chomiuk; M. Cohen; J. M. Dickey; J. M. Jackson; H. A. Kobulnicky; E. P. Mercer; J. S. Mathis; S. R. Stolovy; B. Uzpen (September 2005). "First GLIMPSE Results on the Stellar Structure of the Galaxy". The
- ^ Loveday, J. (February 1996). "The APM Bright Galaxy Catalogue".
- ^ Dressler, A. (March 1980). "Galaxy morphology in rich clusters — Implications for the formation and evolution of galaxies". The Astrophysical Journal 236: 351–365.
- ^ "A mess of stars". Retrieved 11 August 2015.
- ^ "Recent work has shown that the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies both possess the unexpected property that their dwarf satellite galaxies are aligned in thin and kinematically coherent planar structures." http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13481.html "The origin of planar dwarf galaxy structures remains unexplained in the standard paradigm of galaxy formation." http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.1799 "This is a big problem that contradicts our standard cosmological models. It challenges our understanding of how the universe works including the nature of dark matter." Pavel Kroupa as quoted in http://phys.org/news/2014-06-universe-dwarf-galaxies-dont-standard.html
- ^ Oldest spiral galaxy is a freak of cosmos http://www.zmescience.com/space/oldest-spiral-galaxy-31321/
- ^ Gonzalez, Robert T. (19 July 2012). "Hubble Has Spotted an Ancient Galaxy That Shouldn't Exist". io9. Retrieved 10 September 2012.
- ^ "A spiral home to exploding stars". ESA / Hubble. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
- ^ Lin, C. C.; Shu, F. H. (August 1964). "On the spiral structure of disk galaxies". The Astrophysical Journal 140: 646–655.
- ^ Henbest, Nigel (1994), The Guide to the Galaxy, Cambridge University Press, p. 74, .
- ^ "Flat as a pancake". ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
- ^ Trujillo, I.; Carretero, C.; Patiri, S.G. (2006). "Detection of the Effect of Cosmological Large-Scale Structure on the Orientation of Galaxies". The Astrophysical Journal 640 (2): L111–L114.
- ^ Alder, Robert (2006). "Galaxies like necklace beads". Astronomy magazine. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
- ^ Francis, C.; Anderson, E. (2009). "Galactic spiral structure". Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 465 (2111): 3425.
- ^ Freeman, K. C. (1970). "On the Disks of Spiral and so Galaxies".
- ^ http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/star-v1.html
- ^
- ^ Chen, W.; Gehrels, N.; Diehl, R.; Hartmann, D. (1996). "On the spiral arm interpretation of COMPTEL 26Al map features". Space Science Reviews 120: 315–316.
- ^ McKee, Maggie (August 16, 2005). "Bar at Milky Way's heart revealed". New Scientist. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
External links
- Giudice, G.F.; Mollerach, S.; Roulet, E. (1994). "Can EROS/MACHO be detecting the galactic spheroid instead of the galactic halo?". Physical Review D 50 (4): 2406–2413.
- Stephens, Tim (March 6, 2007). "AEGIS survey reveals new principle governing galaxy formation and evolution". UC Santa Cruz. Retrieved 24 May 2006.
- Spiral Galaxies @ SEDS Messier pages
- SpiralZoom.com, an educational website about Spiral Galaxies and other spiral formations found in nature. For high school & general audience.
- Spiral Structure explained
- GLIMPSE: the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire
- Merrifield, M. R. "Spiral Galaxies and Pattern Speed". Sixty Symbols.


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BAFTA Los Angeles was honored to welcome acclaimed British filmmaker and documentarian Michael Apted to the popular Behind Closed Doors series.
Following a screening of the latest installment of his renowned 'Up' series, Michael joined moderator Nick Redman for a lively discussion on his career and the processes of creating one of the UK's longest-running documentary series.
Our cameras captured this fascinating event, and we are pleased to present the interview online in full.

subset: commoncrawl


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Fat Man In Green Superhero Suit Rides On Top Of Roosevelt Island Tram - Impractical Jokers Stunt For Tru TV
Did you see a fat man in a green superhero costume
Image From Impractical Jokers Video
riding on top of the Roosevelt Island Tram Tram
Image From Impractical Jokers Video
recently and wonder what was going on?
The answer is that it was a segment - The Adventures Of Captain Fatbelly - on the Impractical Jokers TV show.
Take a look.


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7 full size beautiful elements that are sure to jazz up your project(s). They're png files saved at 300 dpi. Drop Shadows are for preview purposes only. PU/CU ok!
4 full sized templates, 3600 x 3600 are saved at 300 dpi. Use your brushes, textures, overlays, plugins - whatever you like, as the ideas are endless to get that perfect look you want. Examples in preview are included.


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Google got some serious gold, promotion-wise: US Olympic cyclist and Gold Medalist Kristin Armstrong wrote that Google Earth was "invaluable" in helping her find a training route in Boise, Idaho similar to the Olympic course in Beijing.
Armstrong tipped the hat (helmet?) in a guest post in the Google Lat Long Blog, which covers Google Earth and Maps. In it, she describes how at her husband's urging, she took one of his GPS units on her time trial ride back in December. After exporting the GPS and elevation data and loading it into Google Earth, she "was then able to trace the entire course from the comfort of my home half a world away and find a similar route to train on back in Boise."
Moral of the story? An innovative use of technology can give you the win in everything from business to sports. And tech geek friends (or spouses) are great to have around.
Armstrong finished the post with more praise for Google, this time for Google Calendar. She writes that it's a huge help in coordinating scheduling with her manager and agent. It is a great tool, one I use myself. If you do also, the Google Calendar Gadget (for use with Google Desktop or an iGoogle page) makes it ridiculously quick to add new events or check a day's schedule.


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Abstract and Keywords
Urban water supply and sewage disposal facilities are critical parts of the urban infrastructure. They have enabled cities and their metropolitan areas to function as centers of commerce, industry, entertainment, and human habitation. The evolution of water supply and sewage disposal systems in American cities from 1800 to 2015 is examined, with a focus on major turning points especially in regard to technological decisions, public policy, and environmental and public health issues.
Keywords: infrastructure, water supply, sewers, sewage treatment, storm water, pollution, public health
Access to the complete content on Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription.
Please subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.
For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can''t find the answer there, please contact us.


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- 251 updates
Israel launches ground offensive in Gaza as air strikes continue
Israel has launched a ground offensive in Gaza with residents reporting heavy shelling in the area.
Palestinian health officials say 27 Palestinians, including a baby, two children and a 70-year-old woman, have been killed since Israel sent ground forces into the densely-populated strip of 1.8 million Palestinians.
Live updates
Israeli strikes on central Gaza city 'intensifying'
Israeli strikes in central Gaza city are "intensifying", according to reports.
NBC News' Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel tweeted:
Rockets fired into Gaza as ground offensive begins
Israeli rockets have been fired into Gaza as the Israeli military launched a ground offensive in the region.
Gaza residents reported heavy shelling in areas, while explosions lit the sky as aerial strikes continued.
Palestinian officials say 235 Palestinians have been killed since Israeli forces began their operation 10 days ago.
No truce for peace but rather the ugly reality of war
For a time today we had a truce and for a time today it seemed there was a a real prospect for a lasting ceasefire. An Israeli official even came back from talks in Cairo and said a deal had been done.
Whether that was premature or deliberate misinformation we cannot tell. But tonight, far from peace we have the ugly reality of war. For the first time since 2009, Israeli troops have entered Gaza. Gaza City is tonight illuminated by military flares, even from a distance there is a low rumble of continous explosions.
After ten days of airstrikes, this is the beginning of the land war. Israel confirmed it is intensifying its operations on all fronts. This conflict has already cost more than 200 Palestinian lives. Many more are now at risk. And for the first time Israeli soldiers will be in the direct line of fire.
Israel 'decides to invade Gaza after ceasefire approved'
ITV News Diplomatic Correspondent John Ray reports from Israel:
Israeli military to call up 18,000 reservists to enter Gaza
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) has said it was preparing to send 18,000 reservists into Gaza as the country instructed its military to begin a ground invasion of the area.
Fearful atmosphere as Gaza awaits further bloodshed
It is quite a tense and a fearful atmosphere here in Gaza right now. the nightly bombardment that we have grown used to over the ten day since we arrived here, got significantly more intense this evening. On our side of it, the Israeli Navy began to pound targets to the north and south of us.
We have been staying at a hotel on the coast, in the west of Gaza City. We received a warning from the Israeli armed forces to leave the coastline so we have come inland now. We have since got information locally that the ground operation has indeed begun.
We heard jets flying low overhead since we arrived, and now we await like the nearly two million inhabitants of Gaza with some apprehension about what the rest of the night holds. But there is of course the clear expectation here that the violence and the bloodshed is going to worsen.
Ki-Moon regrets escalation in Israel-Palestinian hostilities
The UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon says he regrets the escalation in Israel-Palestinian hostilities, and has urged Israel to do more to stop civilian deaths.
Sirens, shells and tracer fire light up skies over Gaza
Sirens and loud thuds and flashes of orange light lit the sky in the eastern Gaza strip as Israeli gunboats fired shells and tracer fire, while artillery and helicopters fired over the border, witnesses on both sides of the border said.
Gaza residents and medical officials reported heavy shelling along the eastern borders from the southern town of Rafah up to the north of the enclave.
Shells landed by the al-Wafa rehabilitation hospital east of Shejaia, an eastern suburb of Gaza.
Basman Alashi, head of the hospital, said: "We were not able to evacuate all the patients, the staff can barely evacuate themselves at this point It's a desperate situation.
"The hospital has been hit many times."
Hamas: Israel's invasion will have 'dreadful consequences'
A Hamas spokesman has said that Israel's ground invasion of Gaza is "foolish" and will have "dreadful consequences".
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said: "It does not scare the Hamas leaders or the Palestinian people.
"We warn (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu of the dreadful consequences of such a foolish act."
Israeli push includes infantry, aerial and naval support
One Israeli civilian has been killed by fire from Gaza. A statement from the Israeli military said the operation will include "infantry, armoured corps, engineer corps, artillery and intelligence combined with aerial and naval support."
Palestinian health officials say 233 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air and naval strikes, while Israeli military says Gaza militants have fired more than 1,300 rockets into Israel.
Before dawn about a dozen Palestinian fighters tunnelled under the border, emerging near an Israeli community. At least one was killed when Israeli aircraft bombed the group, the military said.
Latest ITV News reports
Hopes for peace in Israel and Gaza are raised and dashed
It's been an emotionally exhausting day in Israel and Gaza as hopes for peace were raised then dashed then raised then dashed again.
Israel's 'moral high ground' at risk after child deaths
In the court of international opinion, this is how Israel wins a battle and still manages to lose the war.


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Obese, postmenopausal women are at greater risk for developing breast cancer and their cancers tend to be more aggressive than those in lean counterparts. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the December issue of the journal Cancer Research shows how this risk might be prevented.
"By using nutrient tracers for fat and sugar, we tracked where the body stored excess calories. In lean models, excess fat and glucose were taken up by the liver, mammary and skeletal tissues. In obese models, excess fat and glucose were taken up by tumors, fueling their growth," says Erin Giles, PhD, postdoctoral researcher at the CU Cancer Center and the paper's lead author.
In short, if you are lean, excess calories go to healthy tissue. If you are obese, excess calories feed the tumor.
"This implies that the menopausal window may be an opportunity for women to control their breast cancer risk through weight management," Giles says.
In this study, Giles worked with a team of scientists including postdoctoral fellows Elizabeth Wellberg and Sonali Jindal, as well as faculty members Steve Anderson, Pepper Schedin, Ann Thor and Paul Maclean. Their study also showed that tumors from obese animals had increased levels of the progesterone receptor, and this receptor appears to give tumors a metabolic advantage for growth. To extend their findings to humans, they recruited gene analysis experts David Astling and Aik-Choon Tan who analyzed 585 human breast cancers and found that human tumors expressing the progesterone receptor had the same metabolic advantage.
"Basically, we saw an abnormal metabolic response to fat and sugar in the obese that, in many ways, mirrors the response to fat and sugar in Type II diabetes," Giles says. Noticing this similarity, the group tested the use of the common Type II diabetes drug, Metformin, in their model of postmenopausal breast cancer.
"With treatment, tumor size was dramatically decreased in the obese, and tumors showed reduced expression of the progesterone receptor," Giles says.
Using a pre-clinical model, the investigators found that weight gain during menopause is particularly bad for those who are obese when entering menopause. Together, the results of this study suggest that the combination of obesity and weight gain during menopause can impact breast cancer in two ways. First, tumors that arise in obese women appear to have a metabolic advantage, and second, the inability to store excess calories in healthy tissues may further fuel tumor growth.
"While drugs may be useful in controlling breast cancer risk in obese, postmenopausal women, our results imply that a combination of diet and exercise may be equally if not more beneficial," Giles says.
The group's ongoing studies are testing whether interventions such as diet and exercise, during the period of menopausal weight gain, can improve tumor outcomes.
This work was primarily supported by the Komen Foundation (KG081323), Cancer League of Colorado, American Institute for Cancer Research, and Colorado Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC) pilot award (NIH DK048520).


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At the International Solid State Circuits Conference today, IBM, Sony, and Toshiba took the wraps off their long-awaited Cell processor. Back in 2001, the three companies decided to form an alliance to create the processor that would power the upcoming Sony PlayStation 3. Last year, they let it be known that the Cell would have other uses, such as powering new workstations.
Our CPU Editor Jon "Hannibal" Stokes was on hand for the presentation today and took copious notes. The result is a two-part series on the architecture of the Cell processor. Part I covers the SIMD processing units that handle much of the processor's workload in usual Hannibal style, with plenty of diagrams to illustrate how IBM has addressed the problems of proximity communication with the Cell.
The Cell processor consists of a general-purpose POWERPC processor core connected to eight special-purpose DSP cores. These DSP cores, which IBM calls "synergistic processing elements" (SPE), but I'm going to call "SIMD processing elements" (SPE) because "synergy" is a dumb word, are really the heart of the entire Cell concept. IBM introduced the basic architecture of the SPE today, and they're going to introduce the overall architecture of the complete Cell system in a session tomorrow morning.
The Cell looks impressive: nine processor cores with clock speeds starting at 4GHz. It can process 256 billion calculations per second, and has 234 million transistors fabbed on a 90nm process. Plans call for a switch to a 65nm process by year end. Test production of the processors will begin later in the year, and the final versions will appear not only in the PS3 early next year, but also in high-end graphics and animation workstations. Dig in to Hannibal's coverage!


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20 Awesome #LiteraryTurducken Tweets Mash Together Popular Book Titles
Classic novels and the Thanksgiving dish turducken have inspired a new hashtag — #LiteraryTurducken — which has caught the attention of Twitter's CEO, book lovers and a handful of publishers.
Publishing company Doubleday plopped #LiteraryTurducken into a tweet Tuesday, asking followers to combine "not one, not two, but three classic works into one, in the spirit of the turkey+duck+chicken creole classic."
The hashtag then reached Twitter CEO Dick Costolo hours after #LiteraryTurducken heated up (see tweet below). Other publishing companies joined the fun, too. Flip through the gallery to see their submissions.


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Business SituationDisparate systems and manual processes across almost 30 customer care locations were causing a fragmented view of customer activities. The company desired a global solution that would harmonise customer service and sales operations and, ultimately, improve the customer experience.
"Avanade has proven to be a highly competent and knowledgeable technology partner."
SolutionAvanade evaluated the myriad systems in use at the customer and designed a solution to boost efficiencies for service and sales. Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the Avanade CRM for Contact Centre solution – built on the Dynamics platform – is being deployed to over 1,000 customer care and field sales workers across 28 countries in two regions: Europe & Asia/Pacific.
ResultsNow, with a unified view of customers, service workers can easily identify callers and review history prior to answering calls. The solution has improved information integrity, allows for more efficient management of customer issues, simplifies reporting, and empowers sales leaders to accurately track performance and campaigns. Mobile capabilities enable sales representatives to map out customer visits and plan activities in a time-efficient way.
- Customer care representatives easily review customers' profiles and history so they can proactively greet customers, understand their needs and efficiently handle requests.
- Sales representatives spend more time interacting with customers and building relationships, rather than manually updating customer data via spreadsheets and email.
- Dealers and retailers enjoy a positive customer experience by communicating with well-informed workers.


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Whole life insurance policies have taken the spotlight as investors seek secure investment alternatives to today's rocky equity markets. Not only do these policies provide for tax-deferred growth, but they come with many of the guarantees sought by clients today.
The market for these policies is soaring, as clients see them as vehicles allowing for a return on their investment in the life insurance contract without the risks inherent to investing in the open markets. An advisor's guidance can be critical in determining whether a whole life policy is a smart investment for any given client and can also provide invaluable in navigating the often-complex rules governing the tax treatment of these policies.
See also: Estate Planners: 5 New Taxes to Watch
The resurgence of whole life insurance
The stock market losses sustained by your clients in the past few years have them scrambling for alternative investment avenues. They simply are not willing to continue to risk their savings in what is often perceived as a volatile (and hostile) investing environment. A whole life insurance policy may provide a safe long-term investment because the investment in the contract grows tax-deferred and often at a guaranteed rate regardless of how the stock markets are performing.
At its most basic level, a whole life insurance policy requires that an investor pay a level premium each year and provides for a guaranteed death benefit on the death of the insured. However, these policies also contain an investment component. A portion of the premiums paid is invested by the company issuing the policy, building cash value in the policy that the insured can borrow against.
Further, many of these policies pay an annual dividend, which is sometimes set at a guaranteed rate over the life of the policy and can be as high as 6% per year. These guaranteed dividends make whole life policies attractive for many investors looking for an income stream from their investments.
It is important to note that a whole life policy is a long-term investment — it may be necessary to pay premiums over a period of 15 to 20 years in order to realize a decent return on the investment.
Accessing the cash value of the policy: Tax implications
The advice of a financial advisor is critical in determining if and when withdrawing against the cash value of the policy is a smart choice. In general, the policyholder can borrow against the accumulated cash value without paying taxes or interest on the amount withdrawn. Of course, there are exceptions and consequences that must be considered when making these withdrawals.
Any withdrawals that are not repaid before the insured's death will reduce the death benefit payable on the policy, so if the policy is purchased primarily to provide for the policyholder's beneficiaries, withdrawals may not always be appropriate.
Despite the general rule, withdrawals are sometimes taxable. For example, if the withdrawal is made during the first 15 years of the policy's existence and reduces the death benefit payable, the amount may have to be included in gross income. Any withdrawal that exceeds the taxpayer's basis in the policy will be subject to income taxation.
In some cases, if the withdrawal is for more than the policy's cash surrender value, the insurer can increase the premiums required to maintain the same death benefit under the policy. A substantial increase could cause the policyholder to have trouble meeting premium payments, in which case the policy would lapse and the investment could be lost.
For those clients who continue to shy away from equity investing, a whole life insurance policy can provide a viable alternative by offering guaranteed dividends and tax-deferred growth. It is, of course, important to examine each client's financial position to determine whether the long-term investment required in the way of annual premiums is the best option in any given situation.
For more on uses for life insurance, see:
Adding Values to the Boomer Estate Plan
A Smart Approach to Retirement for Small-Business Owners


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BREAKING NEWS: Mandatory evacuation for communities within 3/4-mile of water
Delaware Gov. Jack Markell has declared a mandatory evacuation for much of the Coastal Point readership area. Everyone in towns including Fenwick Island, Bethany Beach, North Bethany, Dewey Beach, Rehoboth Beach, Lewes, Long Neck, Oak Orchard, and Broadkill, Primehook and Slaughter beaches is being required to evacuate prior to 9 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 27.
Markell said that, due to the increasing certainty and severity of the storm's projected path, he was mandating evacuation of coastal areas of all three of Delaware's counties, as well as areas on major bodies of water. Hurricane Irene is expected to bring to the area fierce winds, catastrophic tidal flooding and torrential rains throughout much of the weekend.
Those living within ¾-mile of the Atlantic Ocean, Delaware Bay, Indian River Bay, Little Assawoman Bay, Rehoboth Bay and Pepper Creek were to start their evacuations at noon on Friday, Aug. 26, and be out of the evacuation zone by 9 a.m. on Saturday.
Also subject to the mandatory evacuation order are areas of Kent and New Castle counties, including Woodland Beach, Bower's Beach, Delaware City, New Castle and low-lying areas south of the C&D Canal.
The governor's order also applies to businesses in the evacuation zone. All of those businesses are being ordered to close on Saturday and into Sunday. Businesses in other areas are being encouraged to balance the need to serve customers against the safety of their employees. Once the storm's fury has passed, provisions will be made to allow vital services, such as grocery stores and gas stations, to reopen to provide food, fuel and other supplies to the public, officials said.
Maps of the evacuation zone will be provided on County and State Web sites, at www.sussexcountyde.gov and dema.delaware.gov.
"Do not take this lightly. Today is the day to act," Markell said in his Friday morning news conference.
Shelters open now, some welcome pets
Sussex County and state emergency planners have designated three shelters for those evacuating coastal communities and flood-prone areas in advance of Hurricane Irene. The shelters were set to open to the public at noon on Friday, Aug. 26.
As capacity will be limited, these shelters should be used as a means of last resort, officials said. Residents and visitors evacuating from at-risk areas are being encouraged to seek refuge with family or friends elsewhere, if possible.
The nearest local shelter is Indian River High School, 29772 Armory Road in Dagsboro, where pets will be accepted. Other shelters include Beacon Middle School, 19482 John J. Williams Highway, Lewes, (no pets-friendly designation); and Milford High School, 1019 N. Walnut St., Milford, where pets are also being accepted. If shelter capacity is reached, additional shelters may be announced.
Those visiting a shelter are being advised to take adequate clothing, medications, sleeping materials and food for themselves, their families and/or their pets (where accepted). Shelters will be staffed by the American Red Cross of the Delmarva Peninsula (www.redcrossdelmarva.org).
Public urged to prepare, responders go on duty
Regardless of whether they are visiting a shelter or relocating elsewhere, the public is being reminded to have supply kits on hand and know the evacuation routes.
"There is a point on Saturday when winds will require us to shot down the C&D Canal and concerns about flooding are likely to require the Indian River Inlet Bridget to be shut down," Markell said, telling the public that they need to complete their travel before the State needs to shut down those bridges and possibly other roadways.
"Every state trooper is on call," he added, noting that 1,500 members of the Delaware National Guard have been called to duty in helping to implement the evacuation plan. National Guard members were already being seen traveling area roads mid-morning, in both Humvees and high-clearance transport trucks that could potentially be used to evacuate those who become stranded by high waters.
But officials emphasized that conditions during the storm will likely become severe enough that first-responders may not be able to respond to calls for aid. Those living in any low-lying areas, flood prone areas and manufactured homes are being advised to evacuate now, so as not to risk their lives or those of the people who would be asked to rescue them.
Nonessential state employees were being sent home at noon on Friday, including school employees. The few area schools that were already open as of Friday were expected to dismiss school early.
The University of Delaware has postponed move-in day for students until further notice. Students who were already on campus are being advised to drop off their belongings and return home. The university will provide services to students who remain, but, again, students are encouraged to return home if possible. All UD activities are canceled. Classes will not being on Tuesday, Aug. 30, as originally scheduled.
All DNREC facilities, including state parks, are closed. The Cape May-Lewes Ferry is closed, as is Tanger Outlets.
Markell said the state's roadways were not being subjected to restrictions at this time.
"The point is to travel away from potential areas of danger. … They should do so sooner, rather than later. There may come a point when driving becomes unsafe and restrictions are instituted."
The governor said he would discourage those wishing to travel into the evacuation zone to secure second homes from doing so unless it is absolutely necessary.
"If it is necessary, they should do so today, not Saturday," he said Friday.
"Today is the day to prepare for a few days of being in your home without being able to travel and without power," Markell emphasized. "You need to be ready to evacuate quickly, with all you need should it come to that."
"This will be unlike anything that has been seen in this state for more than 50 years," he emphasized. "Do not take this lightly. Today is the day to act."
State officials encouraged boat owners to make their preparations today, securing any loose objects before pulling their boats into a protected area, well-secured, or out of the water. Environmental officials said they are traveling around the state, making sure floodgates are open where needed.
Emergency management officials acknowledged that they had concerns that services might not be able to reach certain areas of the state for certain periods of time during the storm, making it all the more important that those in at-risk areas prepare their homes now and evacuate prior to 9 a.m. Saturday.
They also urged the public to call 911 only when lives are in immediate danger, so as not to overtax the system with calls about non-life-threatening situations.
"They need to stay aware, use the media, Web sites, to make sure they are aware of the situation around them. This is a time to watch out for your neighbors to see if they need any additional help, especially the elderly or those with special needs."
State transportation officials noted that they would be suspending transit services on Sunday and possibly on Saturday, as well.
'Most significant threat … in at least a generation'
Sussex County Council President Michael H. Vincent concurred with Markell's assessment of the threat posed by the storm and urged the public to heed the warnings.
"This is the most significant threat Sussex County and Delaware has faced in at least a generation, maybe even longer," Vincent said. "We cannot stress how important it is for people to follow the advice of our emergency planners and use this time now to get out of harm's way."
Emergency responders are using the Delaware Emergency Notification System and going door-to-door today to urge residents in at-risk areas to leave immediately. A state-of-emergency remains in effect, and tolls on Route 1 have been waived to keep traffic flowing on the evacuation route.
A hurricane warning is in effect for Sussex County. Forecasters as of mid-day Friday did not expect Sussex County to sustain a direct hit from the eye of the storm, with the center expected to pass just to the east, perhaps by about 40 miles. However, winds of at least 75 mph or more are expected across the county throughout the event, with gusts to100 mph possible. The storm is expected to be at its peak between midnight Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday.
The storm is forecast to create a surge of 3 to 6 feet of water along the oceanfront, Delaware Bay and Inland Bays, with lesser surge amounts along Chesapeake Bay tributaries, including the Nanticoke River. The storm is also expected to kick up waves of 12 to 15 feet in the surf zone and dump as much as 7 to 10 inches of rain.
The Sussex County EOC is encouraging residents and visitors to continue monitoring the tropics and conditions as they deteriorate. For updates, stay tuned to local media, the Sussex County EOC Web site at www.sussexcountyde.gov/services/storm, and the County's Twitter feeds at www.twitter.com/sussex_pio and www.twitter.com/sussexctyde_eoc.
The Coastal Point is making regular updates on its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/coastalpoint and via Twitter at @coastalpoint (www.twitter.com/coastalpoint). These will offer the most current information we have at any point in time.
The public should also monitor the National Weather Service, at www.nws.noaa.gov/er/phi, for the latest forecast, and www.deldot.gov for the latest traffic updates.
For helpful tips on what to do in preparation for a hurricane, including the County evacuation map and other preparedness materials, visit www.sussexcountyde.gov/services/storm.
For more information, members of the public can call the Sussex County EOC's storm line at (302) 856-7366.
Beebe prepares for Hurricane Irene
Beebe Medical Center has implemented emergency operations for the safety of patients and staff. Beebe leadership is monitoring the weather emergency and is in close communication with State, County and local government emergency services. Beebe also has implemented the Hospital Incident Command System (HICS), with a command center operating at the Lewes campus.
Beebe Medical Center has resources in place to allow the hospital to remain open to care for emergency patients and hospitalized patients. Back-up systems are in place, including utilities, medical supplies, food and water, linens, medication and computer systems.
The Emergency Department, Operating Rooms, and Labor and Delivery at the hospital on Savannah Road in Lewes are staffed and ready for traumas and other emergency situations.
The medical center has canceled elective procedures and outpatient services at the hospital and at all satellite locations from Saturday through Monday.
Note: The Millville Emergency Center will close at 7 a.m. Saturday and remain closed until 7 a.m. Tuesday (conditions permitting).
Beebe Medical Center outpatient facilities will be closed from Saturday through Monday. That includes all satellite facilities in Georgetown, Long Neck, Milton, Millsboro, Millville and Beebe Health Campus on Route 24 in Rehoboth Beach, including Tunnell Cancer Center, Beebe Outpatient Surgery Center, Beebe Imaging, Beebe Lab Express, Beebe Rehab Services, Gull House and the Wound Care and Diabetes Management in Long Neck.
Beebe Medical Center is not designated as an emergency shelter. American Red Cross Emergency Shelters are located at Beacon Middle, Indian River High and Milford High schools. For more information about the shelters, call the Sussex County Emergency Operation Center at (302) 855-7801.
UPDATED: Pet, horse owners offered shelter for animals, instructions
Hurricane Irene is going to necessitate voluntary, and in some cases, mandatory evacuation in parts of Delaware. Shelter provisions are in place for pets and horses. Please refer to the evacuation maps on the Delaware Emergency Management Web site at http://dema.delaware.gov/.
Delaware Animal Response (DAR) strongly urges pet owners who are planning to evacuate to seek shelter with family and friends or in hotels that allow pets. If this is not possible, DAR, the Department of Health and Social Services, and the Red Cross have designated the following shelters as pet accessible shelters:
Indian River High School, 29772 Armory Rd., Dagsboro, DE 19939
Milford High School, 1019 Walnut Street, Milford, DE 19963
Lake Forest High School, 5407 Killens Pond Road, Felton, DE 19943
Middletown High School, 120 silver Lake Road, Middletown, DE 19709
When pets are brought to the above shelters, the owners should provide the following:
· Medical records, vaccination history, and medications
· Current photographs
· Veterinarian phone number
· Documentation of any behavior problems
· Alternate contact information
· First aid kit
· Leashes, collars, or harnesses, and muzzle (if necessary) with identification tags
· A labeled pet carrier for each animal
· Food and water bowls, litter pan for cats
· Food and water for at least 5 days, can opener
· Toys, blanket
For more information on emergency preparedness for companion animals and pets, contact:
Elainea Goldthwaite, DAR Coordinator, Delaware Department of Agriculture
Phone – (302) 698-4500 (Department of Agriculture)
(800) 282-8685 (DE only)
(302) 698-4622 (DAR Office)
E-mail – firstname.lastname@example.com
Horse owners with low-lying pastures or barns or who expect flooding may consider moving horses off their property. If flooding of the animal area is not expected, or if there is high ground to which horses can be moved, owners are urged to please consider sheltering the horses in place (where they normally live).
The Delaware State Fairgrounds is accepting horses for sheltering during the hurricane.
If horses are housed near coastal waters, and you are thinking about evacuating your home, you must call the fairgrounds BEFORE loading your horses.
There are a limited number of stalls; so again, owners must call ahead prior to taking their horse(s).
The fairgrounds will be providing only stalls for the horses that are sheltered there.
If you call the fairgrounds and they have room for your horse, you must bring your own bedding and feed for your horses. There will not be any feed or bedding at the fairgrounds for you to use.
You will need to arrange your own care for your horses, as there will not be anyone at the fairgrounds to provide this service. You will need to take care of your own horses by giving them feed, bedding, and water every day. If you do not have anyone to care for your horses at the fairgrounds, DO NOT take them to the fairgrounds.
If you wish to stay at the fairgrounds with your horse during the emergency period, that will be allowed.
FAIRGROUNDS PHONE NUMBER (302) 398-3269, ext. 203.


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Butt Glue? 20 Secrets and Tips From Miss America Contestants
Beauty, fitness and eating tips from some of those vying for the 2013 tiara.
Jan. 11, 2013 -- intro: What do Miss America contestants do to look beautiful and fit? More important, what do they do about wedgies? Below are some tricks several of this year's contestants swear by.
Watch "Pageant Confidential: The Road to Miss America" Saturday at 8 p.m. ET
quicklist: category: Beauty title: Concealer text: "Well, I've learned that less is more, and my number-one favorite thing is concealer, because sometimes I get little acne marks on my face ... and concealer helps cover that. So I don't know what I would do without my concealer, because I could put that on and a little bit of foundation and then a tiny bit of powder to just smooth it out." --Miss California Leah Cecil
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quicklist: category: Beauty title: Airbrushing text: "I would say airbrushing is a makeup artist's secret weapon … because it goes on evenly, lasts all day, waterproof for Florida. Makes you look like you have flawless skin even if you don't." --(Makeup Artist of) Miss Florida Laura McKeeman
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quicklist: category: Beauty title: Highlighter/Brow Pencil text: "This is one thing I cannot live without. It's double-ended, [and] it's got a highlighter on one end and brow pencil on the other." --Miss Kentucky Jessica Casebolt
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quicklist: category: Beauty title: Light-Up Lip Gloss text: "Light-up lip gloss -- it's awesome. You can use it in the dark, it has a mirror, really convenient." --Miss Iowa Mariah Cary
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quicklist: category: Wedgies title: Butt Glue text: (Interviewed backstage at the Miss South Carolina pageant) "We use butt glue. This is my first time in swimsuit. So I thought it was like an Elmer's glue stick. It's not. It's called Firm Grip. You use baby wipes to get it off. And we have evening gown later, so we don't want our evening gowns sticking to our underwear." --Miss South Carolina Ali Rogers
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quicklist: category: Beauty title: Reuse Fake Eyelashes text: "One thing you need to remember is, fake eyelashes can be used more than once. For such small things, they can be pretty expensive." --Miss South Carolina Ali Rogers
quicklist: category: Beauty title: Scotch Tape to Remove Eye Shadow text: "This is my best trick. I use Scotch tape to get off any eye shadow that may come off of your eyelid, and it's just sticky enough to take off the eye shadow, but not too sticky to take off your powder or blush or anything else." --Miss South Carolina Ali Rogers
quicklist: category: Beauty title: Aveeno and Baby Lips text: "Moisturizer. I love moisturizer. I use Aveeno. And I also really love Baby Lips chapstick. It's really moisturizing, and it tastes like Fruity Pebbles. I think sticking to the basics, those are my favorite." --Miss Wyoming Lexie Madden
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quicklist: category: Beauty title: "Bombshell" Bra text: Miss Kentucky Jessica Casebolt said her "secret weapon" is wearing a "bombshell" bra (a push-up bra from Victoria's Secret) under her Miss America swimsuit.
quicklist: category: Beauty title: Smile Applying Makeup text: "I smile when I do my makeup, because I want to see how it will look when I'm happy." --Miss Kentucky Jessica Casebolt
quicklist: category: Wedgies title: Butt Glue, or De-Wedgie With a Smile text: "Some girls need to get butt-glued up here [on their breasts] so that their bathing-suit top stays in place. You can't pull out your wedgies on stage, so you either spray some butt glue on your bottom or deal with it on stage. You got to do it with a smile." --A Miss South Carolina State Pageant Contestant
quicklist: category: Beauty title: Natural Light text: "I like doing my makeup in the mirror in front of natural light, because it comes out better than if I do it in fluorescent light." --Miss California Leah Cecil
quicklist: category: Hair title: Velcro Rollers text: "I use Velcro rollers to make my hair look bigger, and then fix it up with a curling iron after I take the rollers out." --Miss Wyoming Lexie Madden
quicklist: category: Hair title: Hair Gel text: "Hair gel is a girl's best friend, especially when you have short hair. It's easier than using hairspray, because with gel you can pinpoint the location you need to fix." --Miss Alaska Debbie Jo Ebben
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quicklist: category: Fitness title: Pilates and Yoga text: Miss Iowa and Miss California said Pilates and yoga are great to flatten the tummy and work core muscles.
quicklist: category: Diet title: Keep Veggies at Hand text: "I keep a drawer full of greens and vegetables in my refrigerator so I can grab something healthy when I'm hungry." --Miss Maine Molly Bouchard
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quicklist: category: Body Sculpting title: Glute Exercises for Flat Butt text: "I have a very flat butt, and it's been a bit of a problem. We were discussing what we needed to do with physical fitness and, of course, I needed to tone everything up, and I needed to shed some pounds. But one of the main projects is my butt, because it's very hard to make a butt not be flat unless you're doing a ton of glute exercises. So my trainer has just been wonderful where we just do a ton of glute things." --Miss Florida Laura McKeeman
quicklist: category: Diet title: Peanut Butter text: "Peanut butter is always good to have a little bit, because you still need fat in your diet, especially when you're trying to get your muscles going." --Miss Florida Laura McKeeman
quicklist: category: Diet title: Oatmeal text: "Oatmeal is a trusty-rusty thing to eat every day, because if you eat it in the morning, you can have a lot of energy all day." --Miss Florida Laura McKeeman
quicklist: category: Diet title: Balanced, Not Crash, Diet text: "You can't crash diet. Some girls eat nothing but egg whites and grilled chicken leading up to the pageant, and when they get to pageant week, they end up getting sick. It's all about a healthy lifestyle. Everything in moderation." --Miss Kentucky Jessica Casebolt


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HARTFORD, Conn. — Gymnasts from Level Five representing Atlantic Gymnastics Training Center (AGTC) of Portsmouth recently returned home with second-place honors from the DGS Northeast Invitational held at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. Hundreds of gymnasts from facilities across Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire joined together for the weekend competition.
The 12-member team was specially recognized by event organizers as the most supportive of their teammates, earning the coveted Spirit of the Sport award. The award came with $200 of equipment from Deary's Gymnastics Supply.
In the 7-8 year-old division, Jennifer Ross performed a dazzling floor routine, scoring a 9.350 to earn first place on the event. Ross earned accolades on vault (4th place), beam and bars (3rd place in each event); all round scoring placed Ross second in the division.
Also in the 7-8 division, Dover teammate Katherine Carter executed a brilliant beam routine taking first on the event. In addition, Carter earned merit with 3rd place on floor, 2nd place on vault and 5th place on uneven bars. Carter was awarded third in the all around for her division. From Portsmouth, Grace Jenkins executed her goals with her uneven bars performance, taking 4th on the event. Jenkins worked equally hard on balance beam earning 6th place and was given 8th place merit on vault and floor securing 8th in the all around.
In the 9 division, Dover's Alysia Tellez came out on top with beautiful first place performances on uneven bars and floor (9.30 and 9.60 respectively). Tellez continued good work taking second place on vault and beam and first in the all around. Teammates Arianna Degenaars and Maddie Demmons were contenders as well—Degenaars with consistent fourth place finishes on uneven bars, balance beam, and floor; she secured fifth place on vault and earned a third place overall finish in her division. Demmons worked similarly hard earning fifth place on floor, sixth on uneven bars and beam and seventh overall.
In the 10 division, AGTC's Lucy Ferrini performed personal bests on balance beam with an 8.75 and uneven bars with a 8.25. Ferrini was awarded 15th in the all around.
In the 11 group, hailing from Wells, Maine, Cailey Brickett performed with poise earning third place all around supported by a 3rd place finishes on floor, vault and uneven bars. Close behind were the Toshach Sisters. Grace Toshach bedazzled the judges with her balance beam performance scoring a high of 9.30 and taking second on the event. She also earned fourth on floor and fifth on vault and uneven bars. Teammates and sisters Sara and Elizabeth Toshach were not to be out done. Elizabeth earned fourth on vault and sixth on uneven bars which landed her sixth in the division. Sara took seventh on uneven bars and ninth in the all around. Concurrently, AGTC fellow tumbler, Cali McDonald was recognized for her graceful work on floor, earning second place on the event followed by sixth place on balance beam, seventh place on uneven bars, and eighth place on vault. McDonald finished seventh in the all around.


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HONOLULU — President Barack Obama said Saturday that he and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev intend to "shape a common response" to new allegations Iran has been covertly trying to build a nuclear bomb.
The president spoke to reporters as he and Medvedev met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. He also met separately with the leaders of China and Japan.
Hosting the APEC summit in his native Hawaii, Obama said earlier the "broad outlines" of a deal had been reached on the Transpacific Partnership, a regional free trade pact being negotiated by the United States and eight other countries.
It was hailed by U.S. officials as Obama's signature achievement of the summit and a possible template for an eventual APEC-wide free trade zone. APEC's 21 members make up the world's most dynamic region and account for more than half of global economic output.
Obama sought Saturday to position the United States as a Pacific power determined to get more American jobs by tapping the explosive potential of the Asia-Pacific.
For businesses, he said, "this is where the action's going to be."
"There is no region in the world that we consider more vital than the Asia-Pacific region," he told chief executives gathered for a regional economic summit.
The president went so far as to say the United States had grown "a little bit lazy" in trying to attract business to the United States.
Russia trade
Speaking to reporters at the end of his meeting with Medvedev, Obama said the two "reaffirmed our intention to work and shape a common response so we can move Iran to follow its international obligations when it comes to its nuclear program.''
The two also discussed Afghanistan and Syria, Obama said.
Their meeting was their first chance to discuss Friday's report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which raised new questions about Iran's nuclear program.
Other political news of note
Animated Boehner: 'There's nothing complex about the Keystone Pipeline!'
House Speaker John Boehner became animated Tuesday over the proposed Keystone Pipeline, castigating the Obama administration for not having approved the project yet.
- Budget deficits shrinking but set to grow after 2015
- Senate readies another volley on unemployment aid
- Obama faces Syria standstill
- Fluke files to run in California
- Animated Boehner: 'There's nothing complex about the Keystone Pipeline!'
The watchdog agency provided evidence Tehran has conducted research, testing and procurement which could help it develop nuclear weapons. Tehran has rejected the material as a fabrication by the United States and its allies, maintaining its nuclear program is purely for energy and research.
Obama also said Russia's expected entrance into the World Trade Organization is a testament to Medvedev's hard work and will be good for the United States, Russia and the world.
Russia is expected to join the WTO next year. If Russia joins the trade organization, Congress will have to vote on approving permanent normal trade relations.
The U.S. currently denies this status to Russia under Jackson-Vanik, a 1974 law intended to pressure the Soviet Union to allow emigration, primarily of Jews.
Obama says it's a good time to consult with Congress about ending the application of the law to Russia.
Medvedev thanked Obama for his support on the WTO and said Russia had never received similar support from any previous U.S. administration.
China cooperation
Obama also met Saturday with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Speaking to reporters during a picture-taking session at the beginning of the meeting, said cooperation between the two countries was vital.
Hu also talked of the need for China and the United States to work together, saying it was important in a time of complex changes.
The White House later said Obama pressed Hu to allow China's currency to rise and on the need for a rebalancing in the global economy.
Obama also cautioned Hu that Americans were becoming impatient over U.S.-China economic policies, officials said.
Earlier, Hu sought to reassure executives at APEC that China is open for business and will advance reforms but expects more say in setting the agenda for the global economy.
Economic governance should reflect changes in the global landscape to boost the "voice of emerging markets and developing countries," Hu said in a speech.
"China will work to reform the international economic system and make a more just and equitable international economic order," he said, adding that China would "play a bigger role in international economic and financial organizations."
Japan in talks
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda told Obama Saturday that Tokyo would put all goods and services on the negotiating table in talks to join a U.S.-led effort to create a Pacific free trade area, the White House said.
Noda also told Obama, in a meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Hawaii, that he was beginning steps to "review Japan's beef import restrictions and expand market access for U.S. beef,'' the White House said in a statement.
It cited Obama as saying members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership must meet "high standards,'' and said the president had asked his trade representative to begin consultations with Congress and others about any concerns in the agricultural, services and manufacturing sectors over Japan's admission to the talks.
NBC News, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Learn more about our history, winemaking philosophy, unique terroir and the people who bring Klein Constantia to life today.
Find out more about our elegant Estate wines, KC range of easy-drinking wines, and icon wine "Vin de Constance".
Search for a local trade contact or an international distributor as well as select restaurants and stockists selling our wines worldwide.
For Mandela Day, Chico got the team at Klein Constantia to donate food and blankets to the animals less fortunate at DARG (Domestic Animal Rescue Group) in Hout Bay.
Monday to Friday
10h00 – 17h00
10h00 – 17h00
10h00 – 16h00
Please note, wine tastings end 30 minutes prior to closing.
Our tasting room will be open over the festive period and only closed on Christmas Day.
PO Box 375
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NEA President: Long-term benefits of affirmative action have 'profound impact on the way society functions.'
WASHINGTON - June 24, 2013 -
In a move that came as a surprise to many observers, the Supreme Court today sent Fisher v. University of Texas—a case that would have decided the future of affirmative action programs—back to the lower courts. National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel issued the following statement:
"This decision leaves intact the legal framework that protects affirmative action, so we are pleased. And while we are disappointed that the Court did not completely affirm the University of Texas' modest affirmative action program we are also heartened by the Court's recognition that obtaining racially diverse classrooms can be a compelling government interest.
"This decision allows the conversation to continue, and our hope is that the benefits that come from racial diversity in education will become evident as institutions of higher education continue to pursue these critical programs.
"NEA partnered with People for the American Way and a coalition of unions (including the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, American Federation of Teachers, and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees) to submit an amicus brief that highlighted the impressive body of research showing that affirmative action programs in education not only help address existing discrimination, but also plant the seed for a better, more just society.
"We will continue to vigorously defend the use of affirmative action to produce truly diverse classrooms, ones in which all students are provided an equal educational opportunity to learn how to succeed in our increasingly diverse society. It's important because the long-term benefits set in motion by programs like the one at the University of Texas at Austin have such a real and profound impact on the way society functions.
"Additionally, this case reminds us how important our role is as educators and education advocates. We must fight for the investments that will drive change, value diversity, and acheive equity. Together, we need to ensure that all our students have what they need to succeed."
Follow us on twitter at twitter.com/NEAMedia
# # #
The National Education Association (www.nea.org) is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing more than 3 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.
CONTACT: Staci Maiers (202) 822-7150, email@example.com


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Cal WR Keenan Allen to declare for draft
California wide receiver Keenan Allen will skip his senior season to enter the NFL draft.
Allen said in an announcement through the school on Wednesday that he is grateful for his time at Cal and feels ready to take the next step to the NFL.
Allen finishes his career as the school's all-time leader with 205 receptions. He ranks third with 2,570 yards receiving and seventh with 17 touchdown catches.
Allen's best season came as a sophomore when he had 98 receptions for 1,343 yards and six touchdowns. He had 61 catches for 737 yards and six TDs this season before missing the final three games with a left knee injury.
Allen is expected to be one of the top receivers in April's draft.


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Professional credentials are important in many professions. In some professions it is even a prerequisite for practising the profession in Germany. It depends on the profession:
In the regulated professions you must obtain recognition of your professional qualifications in order to practice the profession or use the job title. Without recognition you cannot work in Germany in these professions with a vocational qualification that you obtained in another country. Regulated professions in Germany include, for example, doctor, nurse, lawyer, teacher, child-care worker and engineer. A list of all the professions that are regulated in Germany can be found at the website "Regulated Professions Database".
In non-regulated professions recognition is not required to practice the profession. In these professions you can directly enter the labor market and work. But an evaluation of your qualification can however be helpful in making it easier for employers and companies to understand your foreign qualifications. In addition, an equivalent recognized qualification can open the door for professional training opportunities. Not regulated in Germany are all of the so-called training professions, i.e. the professions in which training follows the dual system. A list of all training professions in Germany is found here (PDF).
All of the professions are alike in that a certificate of recognition of professional qualifications obtained abroad will make it easier to work in Bavaria. Here it is essential that you begin by clarifying which German reference profession that you are going to choose. The starting point for the recognition process is always the German profession and not the profession in the home country. The training paths and professions in Bavaria can be very different from those in the home country. You can call the hotline +49 301815 1111 for assistance.
You can also contact one of the counseling services. They provide extensive counseling on matters related to the recognition process:
More information about this subject:
Informationsportal zur Anerkennung ausländischer Bildungsabschlüsse
Informationsportal der Bundesregierung zur Anerkennung ausländischer Berufsqualifikationen
Informationsportal für ausländische Berufsqualifikationen
Information concerning the recognition of foreign professional qualifications
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Tigers receive mixed news on Coke, Rondon
MIAMI -- The news was mixed for the Tigers on their two injured relievers and their chances to be ready for the postseason. While Phil Coke will miss this weekend's series against the Marlins after being diagnosed with more inflammation in the flexor area of his forearm, the Tigers are taking a wait-and-see approach with Bruce Rondon.
"I'm going to wait and see how he's doing, and then we'll go from there," manager Jim Leyland said Friday afternoon.
Coke returned to Detroit for an MRI exam and a visit with Dr. Stephen Lemos, who found inflammation. Rondon, who felt a second bout of tenderness in his elbow Wednesday after a dominant return Tuesday in Minnesota, was in the Tigers clubhouse without special treatment Friday.
How both come out of the weekend will have a huge impact on Detroit's bullpen for the AL Division Series. Coke was expected to be the second left-hander in the bullpen alongside Drew Smyly. If he can't go, Leyland and team officials have to decide whether it's worth carrying Jose Alvarez or Darin Downs as a second lefty, or whether they'd prefer another righty.
Rondon has the potential to be an X-factor for the Tigers, capable of notching a strikeout in clutch situations, like Al Alburquerque two years ago. If Rondon is sidelined, Alburquerque's role likely would increase tremendously.


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Message From The Principal: I would like to thank all the dedicated and enthusiastic stakeholders for contributing to the Charter process and for making El Camino Real High School an institution committed to excellence. - D.Fehte


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Are you man (or woman) enough to handle a titanium drinking straw? It takes some compromises. You can't bend it and you have to wash it after every use. But you would look very herculean sipping that frozen margarita.
Besides its metallic good looks, the titanium straw has some decided advantages over a plastic straw. It's non-conductive so its doesn't get too hot or too cold. It's strong enough to pierce an orange so you can drink the juice without firing up an expensive juicer. And those wimpy holes on juice boxes? Forget about it. Just slam your straw through the side of carton.
It's available from our favorite geek outlet ThinkGeek for $15. [ThinkGeek via Technabob]
You can keep up with Kelly Hodgkins, the author of this post, on Twitter or Facebook.


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A lightweight and slim front pocket wallet, the tall minimalist is perfect for those looking who like to travel light and in style. We've designed our tall version with two pockets, one front slot, and a center slot that works great for cash. Used as a card wallet, this can hold about 9 cards without sacrificing comfort or style.
- Hand sewn with genuine full grain leather
- 2 card sleeves, holds Up to 9 cards
- Waxed and burnished edges
- Comes with a muslin bag
- Personalize with your name or initials
- Approx. Dimensions: 4.125" x 0.375" x 2.625" (H x W x L)
How long will it take to receive my order?
Orders ship within 3-5 business days via USPS. Standard shipping to US destinations takes around 3-5 business days depending location. Standard international shipping can take 2-6 weeks. Shipping upgrades are available if you need your order sooner, please contact to make arrangements.
Can you add my initials/name/logo to an item?
Yes we can! We offer custom embroidery for names and initials on most products. Embroidery or embossing options are available for logos and brands. If personalization is available, it will show as a drop down menu on the product page. It is extra to add personalization.
How do I add personalization?
Just add characters to the text area box that appears after selecting "Yes" on personalization options.
Need gift wrapping?
We use a heavy duty kraft paper wrapping, tied up with string, and sealed with a genuine hot wax seal from the 1800's. We are happy to include a gift note! This feature should be available soon on our website. Contact us if you'd like to do this.
Looking for wholesale or large orders?
We offer wholesale and bulk pricing, for wholesale orders, please visit our Wholesale Page. For bulk orders, please call, chat, or email us!
What is the warranty policy?The best part of purchasing from Lifetime Leather Co is that all our products come with a LIFETIME WARRANTY -- you can't beat that!
Since 2011, it's been our goal to provide quality leather goods that last a lifetime. We believe in our craftsmanship, materials and our designs so strongly that we warranty them against defects in materials and workmanship for life.
This warranty applies to product materials and construction under responsible use. Exposure to any harsh chemicals like salt, chlorine or conditioners that result in corrosion, discoloration or a breakdown of integrity of material, or damage caused by dog chewing, prolonged water or pool water exposure, road rash, etc., is considered abuse and will void the lifetime warranty.
If you have a warranty related issue, please contact us here.


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The needle clean out tool included with your unit is taped to the back of your owner's manual. In the event that it is not, please contact our customer service team at 1-866-766-9563 to further assist you.
I just got my pressure washer, and I am missing the needle clean out tool.Follow
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El Paso police seek identity of hero in Walmart attack
Published: Aug. 16, 2019 at 12:15 AM CDT
El Paso police are searching for a man who helped save lives in the Walmart mass shooting.
The El Paso Police Department is calling the man a hero, who helped save several lives including an infant.
Police posted a surveillance photo of the man to Facebook, asking for help to identify him.
The police department told the Associated Press they are not releasing details of what the man did because that information is needed to verify his identity.
Patrick Crusius, 21, confessed, according to police, to driving to El Paso from the Dallas area to target Mexicans in the attack on Aug. 3 that took the lives of nearly two dozen people and injured many more.
Copyright 2019 CNN/Gray Television Stations Inc. All rights reserved.


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Slashed: Presley's razor wire claims collateral damage
Injured trail-goers speak out
Two months after the City's stunning courtroom defeat in the long-running razor-wire case, the controversy is far from over. City police have undertaken surveillance to nab trespassers. And after months of rumors, evidence has emerged that at least two trail-goers– including one of the four-legged variety– have been slashed by the wire in the yard of widow Shirley Presley.
Is Presley headed for another showdown with the City?
A razor-thin victory
Just how did a septuagenarian described by one friend as a "kind, caring, thoughtful, Christian lady" find herself at the center of a property-rights maelstrom? It all began with a civic project: the Rivanna Trail.
As part of its quest to create a continuous 20-mile trail around the city, the nonprofit Rivanna Trails Foundation obtained easements from waterfront property owners beginning in the early-'90s. But, in what the Foundation has called an "oversight," no one obtained the permission from the homeowners on Bland Circle, a cul-de-sac of compact homes on a high bluff over the Rivanna.
While some Bland Circle residents forgave the lapse and eventually gave permission, Presley grew more frustrated with– and fearful of– the increasing number of hikers crossing her property.
In the summer of 2002, the Foundation, acknowledging Presley's property rights, created a bypass redirecting hikers away from her property and onto the asphalt of River Road and Locust Avenue.
The posted detour, however, wasn't enough to keep interlopers away. In early summer 2002, Presley erected a large brush pile across the trail to deter users, many of whom were frustrated by the blockage of a riverfront route that had allegedly been in casual use for decades.
One outraged biker expressed her discontent to a Hook staffer investigating the situation.
"I'm from California," screamed the woman, dragging Presley's brush off the trail, "and we believe in freedom!"
Such vigilante tactics by angry hikers apparently prompted Presley to beef up the pile, and the mound of trees and brush eventually swelled to at least five feet high and around 10 feet deep. Yet the trespassing continued.
After several more confrontations with interlopers– including one that occurred with police present, according to her lawyer– Presley took protection of her property to a new, more extreme, level, erecting not one– as has been previously reported– but two parallel strings of razor wire approximately 60 feet apart across the trail near each edge of her property.
After the razor wire went up, "the trespassing essentially stopped," says Presley's lawyer, Fred Payne. But in August 2003, a new problem arose.
Alerted to the new barricade, the City cited Presley for a violation of the City Code section regulating barbed wire on residential property which gave her six months to remove it. She refused. In response, City Council rewrote the law to make it more clearly applicable to residential situations, and in April 2004, Presley was cited under the new razor-wire ban.
The case finally went to trial– with 13 witnesses subpoenaed, including this journalist– in Charlottesville District Court on October 29.
After three hours of hearing Payne's and Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ron Huber's version of events, Judge Robert H. Downer announced his verdict: The case against Presley was dismissed.
The decision, rendered long before most witnesses had taken the stand, deprived viewers of certain intriguing testimony. For instance, one of Presley's neighbors was allegedly set to testify that she had seen Craig Nordenson, the "coal tower killer," on Presley's property before he committed his infamous double homicide in April 2001.
City zoning inspector Jerry Tomlin, who conducted much of the City's investigation into the razor wire, was questioned about whether he trespassed to get photographs of the barricade, a point he says is moot.
"I do have the authority under [Virginia Code section] 36-105 to go on the property," says Tomlin. "The thing that I cannot do without a search warrant is to go inside a dwelling."
In the end, however, it was not an issue of trespassing or safety that decided the case, but one of semantics.
"No person shall erect or maintain a fence, wall or other barrier wholly or partially enclosing any lot or premises within the city, where such fence, wall or barrier is made of or includes barbed ends, barbed wire or razor wire, or any similar materials," the code states. The only exception is on commercial property, where such barricades are allowed but must be at a minimum height of six feet.
Judge Downer, while acknowledging that the City's intent is clear, accepted Payne's argument that Presley's wire– which runs in a straight line– neither "encloses" nor "partially encloses" her property. City officials, he said, would have to rewrite that portion of the code if they want to require that the razor wire be removed.
"We were disappointed, to say the least," said Huber, calling the Judge's interpretation an "inexplicably narrow" reading.
Presley 1, City 0
The Hook began following this case on July 4, 2002. With each passing dispatch from the razor-wire war, letters to the editor multiplied. Many correspondents weighed in on the side of property rights.
"There's a word for using someone else's property without asking permission," wrote Libertarian Richard Sincere. "It's called stealing."
Jan Bartlett wrote, "Mrs. Presley deserves to be left alone and remain secure on her own land, which is her Constitutional right. It's a big world; walk somewhere else."
"What have we come to?" asked Al Zappa. "The city rewriting laws to find something to convict her of when she is simply defending her land, and a judge saying they didn't rewrite the law correctly, case dismissed. How poetic!"
Others, however, contended that razor wire anywhere near ground level is unacceptable for any reason.
"I wonder if lovable Shirley 'Razorwire' Presley has considered land mines to interdict the Rivanna River Trail?" wrote a caustic Hamlin Caldwell Jr. "A few 'bouncing Betty's' and 'toe-poppers' might take care of those heinous hikers and their pooches and smaller children."
Payne has shown little sympathy for anyone injured on his client's property. In fact, when recently informed of a possible razor-wire injury, Payne had a simple reply.
"I would very much like to know the name of that person," he said, "because if the person was injured, we would charge them with trespass."
Insult to injury
The name of that person is Peter Dunn. He says that when he read Payne's comments in the November Hook story, he was surprised that Payne would prosecute him– especially since he says he's already paid a heavy price for his missteps.
Dunn's story began last January when he decided take an exploratory run on the Rivanna Trail. Dunn, then a third-year UVA student who had never been on the trail before, started out at Riverview Park at the end of Chesapeake Street, passed by the VFW Lodge on River Road, and continued north beside the winding Rivanna along a narrow, rutted stretch of the trail.
"I wanted to see where it went," he explains.
When he arrived at Presley's barricade, he was surprised. "This," he thought, "is really weird."
He stopped and stretched while considering his options: turn around and head back or go over the barricade and continue his run.
He chose the latter. "I couldn't think of a good reason not to," he says, though today he admits he "should have known better."
Dunn placed his right leg over the razor wire without incident. But as he pulled his left leg over the coil of blades, he says, a razor cut him deeply behind his left knee.
As people who have cut themselves shaving know, razor cuts often cause little initial pain. Dunn's slice was no different– though the size and angle of a Presley blade are a bit different from a Gillette.
Thinking the wound was superficial, Dunn says, he removed his shirt to create a makeshift bandage. He tied it around his leg and finished his run.
But when he arrived home and removed the shirt, he found blood coursing from the wound.
"I bled enough on the kitchen floor," he recalls, "that my roommates insisted I go to the emergency room.
There Dunn learned that he'd severed a small artery. He received four stitches to close the wound and left the ER a sadder but wiser man.
Dunn doesn't ask for sympathy. "In my case, I knew I was asking for trouble," he says. "But animals and kids don't know."
A second victim
Region Ten social worker Buzz Barnett set out for a "really long walk" last spring with Lucy, his two-year-old golden retriever. They entered the Rivanna Trail at the Greenbrier neighborhood and made their way southeast to Pantops, where Barnett's wife planned to pick them up near Free Bridge.
Barnett concedes that he saw a posted warning that the Trail was closed ahead, but "it was getting late," and he didn't want to keep his wife waiting, so he and Lucy continued.
When he reached Presley's property, he says, he also was surprised to see the razor wire and accompanying signs. Rather than backtracking and delaying his trip further, he and Lucy went down the bank toward the river to try to bypass the blockade– an undertaking that proved disastrous.
"The bank is really steep," says Barnett. "We almost fell in."
When they re-climbed the bank, Barnett says, he found himself in an even more perilous situation: he and Lucy were trapped between Presley's two stretches of razor wire. While Barnett tried to figure out their next move, Lucy, he says, "took off and jumped through it."
Like Dunn, Barnett didn't immediately realize that the dog had been cut or the seriousness of the injury. And Lucy didn't seem to realize what had happened. After Barnett made it over the second set of coils unharmed, he threw a ball into the river for Lucy to retrieve as they continued along the trail.
While she was in the water, however, Barnett realized something was wrong.
"She was whimpering," he says, "and she almost didn't make it back to shore."
When she did clamber up the bank, "I saw all the blood," Barnett says. The razors had slashed the dog's back, stomach, and legs– in some places all the way to the muscle.
Lucy spent the night in an emergency clinic where vets stopped the bleeding with stitches and placed drains in the wounds. The bill for her injuries totaled $700.
Lucy has since fully recovered. Like Dunn, Barnett acknowledges he shouldn't have crossed the blockade, and he admits that Presley has a right to keep her property private. But he questions her methods.
"I wish she would use some other means," says Barnett. "A wall, a moat. Razor wire seems excessive."
He also worries about future injuries if the City can't get Presley to remove the wire.
"A dog could get hung up on the razor wire and just die there," he says.
Payne has been unmoved by the subject of suffering animals. "If you let your dog run," he has said, "I don't have much sympathy."
While Presley is taking a hard line against anyone who crosses her property, and her lawyer has accused the City of trivializing her fear of trespassers, the Hook recently learned, rather directly, how the City has begun acting on her concerns.
On Wednesday, December 1, Charlottesville Police Detective Blaine Cosgro arrived unannounced in the Hook office to interrogate Editor Hawes Spencer.
"Is this you?" whispered Cosgro, pointing to a grainy photograph of a camera-toting man allegedly trespassing on Presley's land on November 1. Spencer professed his innocence, and Cosgro left as quietly as he'd arrived.
"I think he thought it was me because a file photo I'd taken of the razor wire had run in the paper that week," says Spencer, who notes he has not been near Presley's property since June.
Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo– one of the city officials subpoenaed by the defense in Presley's trial– confirms that his department has been quietly conducting photographic surveillance on Presley's property this fall.
"We've certainly been helping her with the problem she brought to our attention," says Longo.
Though he declines to detail the methods used, he says any citizen wishing to protect his or her property can obtain police help by signing a "private property trespass enforcement letter," a document that details the conditions under which the police can operate on the private property.
"It's a very limited type of agency," says Longo. "It's only for purpose of enforcing the no-trespass."
Through attorney Payne, Presley declines comment.
But cynics might be forgiven for wondering if the camera-in-the-woods effort may be an attempt to forestall a lawsuit. Payne has repeatedly hinted at such a move, most recently after his courtroom victory in the criminal case against Presley.
The City, he said ominously, "is only going to push this lady so far."
A new tactic?
Despite losing the suit in District court, the City is regrouping and considering its options in dealing with Presley's razor wire. City Attorney Lisa Kelley, who wrote the portion of the code that failed to block the wire, says they have not reached a decision.
But inspector Tomlin says the city won't let the issue die just because Presley won the first battle.
When pressed, he says it's conceivable that Downer didn't realize there were two stretches of razor wire– a fact that could have influenced the judge's interpretation of "partially enclosed."
"The question never came up to me in court," says Tomlin.
Also of note, says Tomlin, is the fact that the 31-foot stretch of razor wire at the southwest corner of Presley's property extends onto a neighbor's land. The listed owner of that River Court property, T. Ryland Moore, says he was not aware of the razor wire's presence until the City contacted him. He has since sold the property, he says, and has no opinion on the razor wire. The new owner could not be reached for comment.
Tomlin slips in one comment that may be a hint at the city's plans.
"When the case comes to court," he says, "we'll also remove it from his property." Hmmmm.
Like Kelley, Tomlin will not reveal any specific actions the City may be planning, perhaps because, Tomlin says, the City is "continually getting threats" from Payne. But there are several obvious possibilities.
The first is that the City could rewrite the code to remove any ambiguity. Once a new code is finalized, Presley would have to be notified once again that her razor wire is in violation.
Another option would be eminent domain; the City has the right to take, or "condemn," land for public purposes such as the planned extension of the asphalt portion of the Trail. Indeed, long-range plans indicate that linking City parks with an accessible trail is one of the city's highest pedestrian priorities.
If there are still other options, no one is revealing them at this time, but Tomlin offers one promise.
"We have not gone away," he says. "We're still obligated to protect the people of this community."
Shirley Presley could have faced at least a $2500 fine.
This photo earned the Hook editor a mild interrogation.
Slashed by razor wire, UVA student Peter Dunn learned a sharp lesson.
Lucy was cut to the muscle by Presley's razor wire.
Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo confirms police surveillance on the Presley property this fall.
The razor-wire controversy sharpened considerably as Hook readers sent in their pointed opinions on the property rights run-in.
The RTF created a detour around Bland Circle properties in 2002.


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Sample Letters to the Editor
To the editor:
Our community is proud of our strong work ethic. We believe in rewarding and supporting hard work and citizens who make contributions to our society. That's why our congressional delegation simply must support legislation to repeal the unfair Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which cut the retirement benefits of public employees who have dedicated their lives to serving their communities and their country.
Bipartisan legislation called the Social Security Fairness Act would repeal GPO-WEP, but the bill has been stuck in committee for years.
Too much is at stake to ignore this common sense legislation any longer. [Insert your personal story about the impact of the GPO and/or WEP on you, your colleagues, your friends, your school, and your community.]
Join me in urging our representatives in Washington, D.C. to support passage of the Social Security Fairness Act.
To the editor:
Between retirements of veteran certified teachers and low numbers of college graduates entering the teaching profession, there is a nationwide shortage of certified teachers. Some reasons are obvious: low salaries compared to the private sector, diminished respect for educators by lawmakers and students, and increasing pressures of paperwork and standardized testing.
But one is not obvious. In our state, teachers who spend a career in the classroom and earn a public pension stand to lose substantial Social Security benefits that they or their spouse earned because of federal laws called the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). These laws were enacted in the late 1970s, and teachers retiring now are discovering their impacts.
Bipartisan legislation called the Social Security Fairness Act would repeal GPO-WEP, but the bill has been stuck in committee for years.
If we want to ensure that our children have qualified, certified teachers in their classrooms, we can begin by telling prospective teachers that their retirement benefits will be there for them, as promised. Congress has a practical obligation to help alleviate our national teacher shortage, and a moral obligation to repeal laws that hurt retirees.
Repeal Social Security Offsets Toolkit
- Talking Points
- Fact Sheet for Congressional Offices
- Sample Postcard Messages
- Sample Letters to the Editor
- Sample Press Release
- Sample Resolution for State Legislatures
Cosponsor List for H.R. 82/S. 206
- House
- Senate
- Lobbying Members of Congress
- Working with the Media
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Tell Your Story Form
- Report Back Form