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KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Junior Kevin Murphy notched 28 of Tech's 66 total points, but the Golden Eagles couldn't get any closer than five after falling behind by a dozen, and lost a 74-66 road game to the Broncos of Western Michigan in the first round of the College Insider Tournament Wednesday night.
A 21-6 run by the Broncos late in the first half put the home team in control with a 10-point lead at halftime and the Golden Eagles spent the entire second half battling from behind. Demetrius Ward had eight points and Stainbrook six in the run that gave WMU an 11-point lead at 35-24 – their largest of the first half – with 50 seconds to play.
"We're really proud of how our guys played," said Tech head coach Mike Sutton. "They put forth a monumental effort in what proved to be something of an ugly game. I think our layoff had an effect, but our guys definitely competed.
"Kevin (Murphy) was outstanding, as he has been for the past few weeks, and Al (Jones) finished his career with a 5-for-5 performance from the floor – fitting, as he leaves Tech with the highest accuracy in school history," Sutton continued.
Tech battled through six lead changes and four ties in the first half, with neither team leading by more than four points through nearly the first 17 minutes of play.
Murphy scored Tech's first nine points of the game to give TTU a 9-7 lead with 15:23 to play, but WMU tied the game, 9-9, with 15:09 on the clock.
Dennis Ogbe hit a layup with 12:13 left in the half to give TTU an 11-10 lead that the Golden Eagles held for nearly six minutes, allowing the Broncos to knot the score just once within that time frame. During those six minutes, the Golden Eagles reached their largest lead of the half on a three by Zach Bailey with 8:38 to play, setting the score at 17-13.
Western Michigan continued their scoring drive in the second half, recording their largest lead of the night with 18:33 left to play. Back and forth efforts allowed the Golden Eagles to chip away at the lead, cutting it to five with 8:19 left in the game on a jumper by Alfred Jones, but they were unable to come any closer than that.
The physicality of the second half wore on both teams, as the two opponents combined for 38 fouls in the second half alone and both teams shot under 60 percent from the charity stripe.
Jones shot a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor on the night, 4-for-4 in the second half alone, finishing the game with 11 points and five rebounds. Murphy had 17 in the first half and added another 11 in the second half to give him 28 on the night, and chipped in with eight rebounds.
The pair were the only two Golden Eagles to score in double-figures, as they accounted for 39 of Tech's 66 points.
Stainbrook notched five more points in the second half to finish with 11 on the night and crashed the boards for 11 rebounds, notching the only double-double performance in the game.
After scoring just three points in the first half, Juwan Howard added 10 in the second to finish with 13 on the night, while Ward led the Broncos with 15 points and handled eight rebounds en route to a 42-30 rebounding effort that favored WMU. Hutcheson and Whitfield also joined their teammates in double figure scoring with 11 apiece.
"Rebounding was an issue and there were a lot of free throws in the game. We had some opportunities, and if we had gotten maybe one more key play down the stretch, I think we could have pulled it out," Sutton added. "But you have to give Western Michigan credit, they had five players in double figures and are a very balanced team.
"This wasn't the conclusion that we hoped for, but it was the end to a great season. It set the tone for what our basketball program has to look forward to next season," he said.


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The Cortez Special Olympics fundraiser was a blast! We raised enough to send athletes to the Regional bowling tournament in Grand Junction. Special thanks to Patti and Blondies staff for the awesome spaghetti supper and for hosting for us. Also thanks to the band Geophonix Zeke and Diane Isaacs, Dave Bloom, Thom Rader, Bob Carey, Kevin Frazier, Mark Allen, Brock and Keibler the dog. Your time and talents really rock!
Jamey Meier, Community Connections

subset: commoncrawl


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Jarome Iginla the biggest loser in Penguins loss to Bruins
As the Boston Bruins were celebrating their second trip to the Stanley Cup final in three years, Jarome Iginla was stripping off his No. 12 jersey for the last time with the Pittsburgh Penguins team he chose to join before the NHL trade deadline.
Given the right to take Steeltown over Beantown thanks to the no-trade clause in his contract, the veteran winger told the Calgary Flames he felt he had a better chance to win the Cup with the Penguins and left the jilted Bruins at the alter.
In the end, Iginla came out a big-time loser. To make matters worse the winning shot by Adam McQuaid in the third period appeared to bounce off Iginla's stick before it beat goalie Tomas Vokoun in Friday's 1-0 victory for the Bruins.
Iginla tried to put up a brave face.
"I'm very fortunate to get the chance to come to (Pittsburgh) and you want this opportunity," said Iginla, who becomes an unrestricted free agent July 5 and will have to live with his decision to join the ill-fated Penguins for the rest of his career.
"You want an opportunity to be in the conference finals and have a chance to win and we had that chance.
"The Bruins played very well, they're a very good team. I was fortunate to have that choice and when you make it you definitely believe in the guys here and we played some great hockey up until this last series."
Iginla said it hurt more that he didn't perform up expectations in the Eastern Conference final. He was hardly noticeable, looked like he was having a tough time keeping up and certainly didn't give the Penguins what they bargained for when they made the deal. He'll get a job on the free agent market, but his stock certainly didn't go up.
"I don't know what the answer is but I didn't get anything going for the group," he said. "It stings not playing well in this last series. These four games I just didn't play very well.
"That's when you want to play your best for the team and you want to find ways to contribute and be part of those close games and help go the other way."
Boston winger Milan Lucic felt Iginla's decision gave his club additional motivation to beat the Penguins.
"First off, he's a great player. He's a legend," said Lucic. "He's a future Hall of Famer and I think looking back at that day he earned the right to make the decision he made. You can never blame a guy for going with his heart and making that type of decision. I'm not going to insult him in any way.
"He's a guy that I always looked up to as a teenager and seeing the way he played. As a Canadian, seeing what he did in the Olympics and all that type of stuff, he's definitely an idol of mine. I'm sure if he could go back he would make a different decision, but in saying that he's still a great player."
Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said Iginla wasn't alone in his struggles. In fact, he had plenty of company.
"I don't think there's a player in there that's going to feel that they didn't struggle at a certain part of our game, with the looks at the net, scoring opportunities," said Bylsma.
"Evgeni Malkin shot the puck over and over and over again, had great scoring chances. He's going to have felt he missed an opportunity and didn't get the goals we needed, five-on-five or the power play. You can say that about Jarome, you can say that about a lot of guys on our team, the missed opportunity that we left out there."
If Iginla watches the Stanley Cup final, he'll only be able to wonder what could have been.
Twitter: @sungarrioch


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1. Bill Belichick, Patriots
This is the year Belichick either cements himself in this spot, or he starts to slide down the list. No one can deny his brilliance over the last 12 seasons. He's won at least 10 games for nine consecutive seasons, which is just remarkable. He makes rational decisions, not emotional ones, and he's basically immune to criticism. He took a sixth round draft pick and molded him into one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. He's not afraid to adapt his schemes depending on what personnel he has, and every time an assistant goes somewhere else and fails, it only makes him look more brilliant. But a few cracks in the armor have become noticeable in recent years, and even though it's a ridiculous standard to hold him to, we have to judge Belichick for the coach he is right now, not on his body of work. (He clearly has the best resume on this list, and it's not even close.) The Patriots haven't won a playoff game since 2007, and even that season ended with Tom Coughlin outfoxing Belichick in the Super Bowl. (I still contend that loss was primarily on Josh McDaniels' shoulders, since he didn't figure out until late in the game that his play calling was getting Tom Brady killed.) The Spygate scandal has also raised a few questions about just how easy it was to call plays on defense if you knew what was coming. Rex Ryan clearly out-coached him in the playoffs last year as well. Does Brady deserve a lot of credit for Belichick's success? After all, how can a defensive guru field one of the worst defenses in football this year? Those are two questions that don't have easy answers. Belichick's legacy certainly isn't at stake in these playoffs -- it's already secure -- but the Patriots set such a high standard for themselves, the last few seasons have finished in pretty disappointing fashion. One more Super Bowl run would only reaffirm what was once considered NFL gospel: No one in football is a better coach than Bill Bellchick.
JEFF HAYNES, Baltimore Sun
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We published a story recently in these pages stating that total U.S. agricultural production expenses in 2005 are projected to be up by 4 percent from this past year. Much of this increase, of course, is coming from rising fuel costs, which were up by more than 24 percent (from 2004) during the first half of this year.
Shortly after the story ran, a Southeastern farmer called to take issue with the USDA numbers. This particular grower's personal fuel expenses were up by more than 33 percent over last year, he said, and he had exhausted his annual fuel budget by this past August, before he had completed the expensive practice of turning the land in the fall.
This farmer is certainly not alone in his misery, and the USDA numbers are just that — numbers. They're cold, hard statistics that don't begin to adequately explain the current farm crisis being caused by rapidly escalating fuel costs.
Considering they've had a decent growing season, harvest should be a time for farmers to exhale, to enjoy the fruits of their hard labor. But this year's harvest, regardless of the yields, will be made difficult by fuel costs, with the price of diesel almost doubling in some cases. If a cotton producer penciled in about $12,000 for running his picker this year, that cost was closer to $20,000 to $24,000 by the time he cranked up the machine.
Rising fuel costs already had boosted expenses on everything from fertilizer to the cost of shipping crops to market. Then, skyrocketing diesel costs after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit just as farmers were beginning to harvest cotton and peanuts.
And what's even more distressing than the rising fuel costs are the feeble attempts by politicians to fix the problem. Federal government bureaucrats are considering temporarily lifting environmental regulations and other rules for farmers to help ease costs, but fuel costs have risen so sharply and affected so many aspects of farming that the changes will provide little help.
Senate staffers admit that they, along with USDA, are trying to find what, if any, regulations can be eased that might provide some help, but no one has found any substantial ways to offset rising fuel costs.
The long-term answer, of course, is a bold U.S. energy policy that would work to decrease this country's ever-increasing dependence on foreign oil. But none of our current elected officials have the courage to take such a bold step.
As a new farm bill takes shape, federal subsidies to growers already are under attack. But current farm programs aren't enough to make up for rising fuel costs, and it's difficult to imagine subsidies becoming even less in the near future. Farm programs are designed to offset losses from a drop in commodity prices, but they don't take into account rises in the costs of inputs.
Many of a farmer's inputs are tied, directly or indirectly, to fuel, says Danny Klinefelter, a professor and economist at Texas A&M University who specializes in agricultural finance. Fertilizer, much of it derived from petroleum, had gone up dramatically even before this year's hurricanes, he says, and the recent spike in fuel costs have hit hard in other areas. The costs of harvesting, fertilization and irrigation have gone up, as have the costs of drying crops like peanuts and tobacco.
"What I don't think most people realize is how pervasive fuel prices are in all the farm costs," says Klinefelter. "It's just going to hit so many areas."
And most economists agree that fuel prices aren't likely to drop anytime soon. A long, mild fall could help ease oil prices back from current post-Katrina/Rita levels. But odds are that little can be done to return U.S. gasoline, diesel and natural gas prices to the ranges farmers and ranchers were paying a year ago, says Matt Roberts, an energy economist with The Ohio State University.
With all the attention that hurricanes have brought to the energy markets, they are the effects, not the causes of tighter energy supplies, he says. Even before the storms, world energy markets were in a fundamentally very tight, demand-driven scenario, says Roberts.
e-mail: [email protected]


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As I sit here to type this post, I can see that it's just started snowing again.
I know this might sound weird, but I keep wishing that snow would smell of something, just a faint smell. Like of lemons, or cinnamon, or even pine. How lovely would that be? Like rain, we'd be able to smell the snow coming.
I can't believe it's already the end of the year - what a year it's been and I have so much to be grateful for. Having said that, I already know that next year is going to be just as full on. It starts with *my birthday* on the 1st of January (which I still haven't planned anything for), followed by deadline after deadline for the book.
Back to Christmas, and this year, I thought I'd try something slightly different - raspberry swirl marshmallow. I had no idea how much fun and how easy it is to make until I did a test run the other day. Since then, I've made a few variations, and this one is by far the best. It's as light as a cloud on your tongue, not quite as sweet as candy floss, and with a tart kick from the raspberries, I can't wait to serve it at my party.
Whatever you're doing this holiday, I wish you happiness, health and lots of love.
Recipe after the jump:


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Handango InHand for Sony Ericsson P800/P900/P910 - NEW VERSION!!! Handango InHand is an on-device software catalog that simplifies the process of finding, installing and purchasing software applications and games for the Sony Ericsson P900 and P910 smartphones. InHand provides a new avenue - the device itself - for accessing mobile software downloads. The catalog is an easy-to-use system that allows all Sony Ericsson P900 and P910 smartphone users to access available software.
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Department of Public Health Sciences
Andrew Lawson
Medical Universty of South Carolina
135 Cannon St Suite 303 MSC835
Charleston SC, 29401-8350
email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Biographical Information:
1973 MA University of Aberdeen, UK
1975 MSc Queen's University, Kingston, Canada
1987 MPhil University of Leeds, UK
1991 PhD University of St Andrews, UK
epidemiology; spatial statistics
My research interests lie in the area of spatial and environmental statistics, and in particular, spatio-environmental epidemiology. This area includes disease mapping, ecological analysis, and the analysis of clustering of disease. I also have interests in other areas of epidemiology, directional data analysis, and object recognition from imaging and geostatistical estimation of random fields with applications in geology, geosciences and medical science.
I am a WHO advisor in Disease Mapping and Risk Assessment, and have a wide range of publications in this area.


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By WGBH News
June 22, 2011
1956: Whitey Bulger is sentenced to federal prison for bank robbery. Suspected of plotting an escape from prison in Atlanta, he's transferred to Alcatraz.
1960: Bulger's younger brother, William, is elected to the state House of Representatives. John Connolly, a childhood friend from South Boston who would become an FBI agent in the 1970s, works on the campaign.
1965: Whitey Bulger is released from prison and comes home to live with his mother at the Old Harbor housing project in Southie. He works as a custodian at Suffolk County Courthouse. But within a year he is hanging around Marshall Motors in Somerville, a sort of headquarters for the Winter Hill Gang, and soon becomes a top lieutenant to its boss, Howie Winter.
As a result of his imprisonment for half of the decade, Whitey missed some of the worst violence of the Irish gang wars going on around Boston. But he soon became a much-feared member of the Killeen gang, and was likely involved in a number of South Boston murders in the late 1960s and early 70s.
"From gangsters to God": story from the Somerville News about the run-down Marshall Street garage being turned into a Pentecostal church.
From WGBH's "Greater Boston": A story about Lindsey Cyr of Weymouth, who says she and Bulger had a child together in 1967. Cyr says she gave birth to Bulger's only known child, Douglas Glenn Cyr, in, 1967. Douglas died of Reye's Syndrome, a severe reaction to aspirin, in 1973.
Mid-1960s: Gangster Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, an Italian from Roxbury, develops a relationship with FBI agent H. Paul Rico. Flemmi, using the code name "Jack from South Boston" informs on members of the Providence-based New England Mafia. One of Flemmi's brothers is a Boston police officer.
1970: William Bulger is elected to the state Senate.
1970s: The highly contentious desgregation busing plans in South Boston help Bulger consolidate his influence there. He prevents his gang from getting involved in the protests, which he expects would attract more police and federal attention, and tries to tone down the outrage in the neighborhood.
The same is true for William Bulger: although not wanting to appear racist to statewide voters, he stands up for his constituents and forcefully opposes busing plans. In doing so, he cements his position in Dorchester and South Boston politics, while trying to stop the unrest from escalating.
September 1975: Acting partly on Flemmi's recommendation, Bulger cuts a deal with Connolly to provide information on the Italian Mafia in exchange for protection from the FBI.
1978: William Bulger becomes president of the state Senate and goes on to serve in the post longer than anyone in its history.
At this time, John E. Powers, himself a former Senate president, is clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court at Suffolk County Courthouse. He finds that Whitey Bulger is still on the Courthouse payroll, though he had left his job there in 1971.
Powers, apparently resentful of the younger Bulger's fast rise to the presidency, cuts Whitey's salary. William Bulger retaliates four years later by having any increase in pay for Powers' job frozen.
June 1978: Four known gangsters and a former Boston Channel 7 investigative reporter and anchorman, John A. Kelly, are killed by unknown shooters at the Blackfriars Pub in downtown Boston. Kelly had for some time been building relationships in the local underworld — probably initially to pursue a story, but he soon got in over his head.
By this time, Kelly had been fired from his job for other reasons and was managing Blackfriars, where he had hired Flemmi's mistress, Marilyn DiSilva, as a waitress. Drugs and guns found at the bar, combined with the known victims who had associations with the Winter Hill Gang, have suggested that Bulger and Flemmi were involved.
"Dangerous liaison": In the Boston Globe Magazine, DiSilva talks about hanging around the Marshall Street garage in those days, and all the violence from which she was just a step or two removed. She says Flemmi told her not to go in to work the night of the massacre.
1979: After a former business associate implicates Bulger and Flemmi in a horse race-fixing scheme, FBI agents Connolly and his supervisor, John Morris, persuade federal prosecutors to leave the two out of the indictment. Twenty-one people are charged, including Howie Winter, whose conviction paves the way for Bulger and Flemmi to assume control of the Winter Hill Gang.
Late 1970s, Early 1980s: Cocaine and crack cocaine hit American streets and Bulger gets involved. Southie folklore has long held that Bulger kept drugs out of the neighborhood. But as this story from the Globe shows, quite the opposite was true: Bulger charged massive amounts of money from drug dealers in exchange for operation in the areas he controlled.
1981: Flemmi allegedly strangles Bulger's girlfriend, Debra Davis, because she is seen as a threat to reveal what she knows to law enforcement. Her family later files suit against the federal government for protecting Bulger as an FBI informant.
January 1995: Bulger disappears on the eve of his indictment on racketeering charges.
1997: The FBI, under court order, acknowledges that Bulger and Flemmi were "top echelon" informants, as a federal probe into the agency's corrupt ties to its mob informants begins.
2000: Testimony by Bulger's friend and associate Kevin Weeks leads to the discovery of five bodies, spread around Dorchester and Quincy. Some were rivals of Bulger, some were personal acquaintances or girlfriends, not involved in criminal activities. Debra Davis was among those found.
May 2002: Connolly is convicted of racketeering for warning Bulger, Salemme and Flemmi that they were about to be indicted in January 1995.
From WGBH's "Greater Boston": This 2001 episode tells the story of Bulger and Agent Connolly, recorded before his trial.
June 2003: William Bulger testifies before a congressional committee investigating the FBI's ties to mobster informants such as his brother. After receiving immunity, he acknowledges receiving a call from Whitey shortly after he fled, but says he has not heard from him since and has no idea where he is. Amid growing pressure, he resigns as president of the University of Massachusetts system shortly thereafter.
2005-2010: During this time, Bulger and his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, are spotted in London. Then they are thought to have been caught on tape in a small Italian town, but those people are later identified as a tourist couple from Germany.
2008: Connolly is convicted of second-degree murder in relation to the 1982 killing of a former henchman by Bulger and Flemmi, as prosecutors argue he provided critical information to the mobsters. He also produced an FBI report on the murder at the time that implicated rival gangsters in place of Bulger and Flemmi.
Sign-up for WGBH News updates, WGBH promotions, and previews of what's coming up on WGBH TV.


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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Veteran TV newswoman Barbara Walters paid a visit Tuesday to the New Jersey Statehouse to talk with a man she finds "pleasant, smart, funny" and even "good-natured."
Gov. Chris Christie is on her list this year of the "10 Most Fascinating People." Her 90-minute special will air Dec. 12 on ABC.
Walters tells The Associated Press the Republican governor made the list because of his handling of Superstorm Sandy and because "he's probably now the best-known governor in America."
She and her crew shot about an hour of tape with the governor and his wife, Mary Pat.
Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and "50 Shades of Grey" author E.L. James are also on the list.


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NEW YORK (AP) Four players will be available during the NFL's supplemental draft Thursday.
League spokesman Michael Signora said in an email that New Mexico receiver Chase Clayton, North Carolina linebacker Darius Lipford, Virginia-Lynchburg defensive tackle Lakendrick Ross and SMU running back Traylon Shead were eligible for the draft.
The supplemental draft allows qualified underclassmen who did not request early entry into the regular draft to have a chance at entering the NFL. Teams submit picks and are awarded players if their bid - for which round they would take that player - is highest. Teams then lose the corresponding pick in next year's draft.
Players that are not picked become free agents.
AP NFL websites: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL


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Town under siege by river seeks buyout
ST. LOUIS (AP) — For 40 years, Shirley Moss has lived in the same home in a tiny southeast Missouri town, but as the sandbags piled up yet again, she didn't hesitate when asked if she would take a government buyout.
"In a New York minute," Moss said from her double-wide mobile home in Dutchtown, which sits in a Mississippi River bottom. "I'm 75 years old — I can't fight this."
Flooding has become a fact of life for many quiet towns like Dutchtown, where 100 or so residents live unprotected against the worst the water has to offer. Fed by days of drenching downpours, the Mississippi is again chugging at high levels, raising new fears that days of sandbagging won't suffice against the rush.
Residents of Missouri, Indiana and Michigan are trying to stem the tide of murky river water, and towns along the Illinois River — Peoria, Beardstown and LaGrange — are setting new high-water records. By Wednesday, problems remained plentiful if not catastrophic.
Floodwaters had begun an inch-by-inch retreat in inundated Peoria, Ill., after the Illinois River crested Tuesday at 29.35 feet, eclipsing a 70-year record. In central Indiana, more heavy rain through Wednesday morning prompted a request for voluntary evacuation along the Tippecanoe River near Lafayette. The Grand River at Grand Rapids, Mich., which reached record levels, was expected to fall below flood stage Thursday and some of the hundreds of people evacuated were starting to return home.
Along the Mississippi, the biggest concern was that the flood is expected to linger into May, potentially straining longstanding earthen levees and hastily-built sandbag walls. No towns were in imminent danger.
Dutchtown was dry, but thousands of sandbags were at the ready in anticipation of a crest Thursday 10 feet above flood stage.
Doyle Parmer, who doubles as town clerk and emergency management chief and called "Dutchtown Doyle" in these parts, figured that if the predicted crest holds, the town about 120 miles southeast of St. Louis will be spared.
As far as he's concerned, the town shouldn't even exist.
Parmer said Dutchtown has been "jumping through hoops" for three years seeking a buyout from the Federal Emergency Management Agency — property owners sell to the local city or county, which uses money from FEMA for most of the purchase; grants often fund the rest. Bought-out land cannot be developed — in most cases it is set aside for green space or a park.
He's hopeful the latest round of flooding will speed the process.
But in order for that money to arrive, towns must prove that flooding is frequent and devastating enough for a buyout to be cost-effective, and Dutchtown hasn't filed a suitable one yet, said Melissa Janssen, mitigation branch chief for the FEMA region that includes Missouri.
Parmer said they'll try again. Though he, like Moss, is ready to get out.
"Sell the house, cut the grass and get the hell out of Dodge," he said.
It isn't yet clear how many places will seek buyouts from the 2013 floods, but FEMA said the program has been a huge success. More than $2 billion has been spent to buy out nearly 40,000 properties since the devastating Mississippi River floods of 1993, but FEMA said money is saved in the long run: When the next flood comes, taxpayers aren't on the hook for sandbagging, emergency operations and cleanup.
According to a 2005 study conducted for Congress, every dollar spent on disaster mitigation saves $4 in future costs.
A Dutchtown buyout would dissolve the town. Farther down river in southeast Missouri, the village of Pinhook wants to relocate as a community, just to higher ground.
Pinhook has a rich history, founded by black farmers nearly 100 years ago. It was essentially wiped away when the Army Corps of Engineers intentionally exploded the Birds Point levee near New Madrid in 2011, flooding 130,000 acres to relieve what was then record flooding on the Mississippi.
Today, only the shells of a few homes remain. Vandals have stolen metal for scrap and even set fire to the Union Baptist Church, where most of the community met every Sunday.
Village chairwoman Debra Tarver said Pinhook residents have dispersed, waiting to see if FEMA will approve the buyout of 17 residential properties and two public buildings.
"They (corps officials) have control to blow us out any time they want," said Tarver, a lifelong resident. "We just can't keep doing that."
Another southeast Missouri town, Morehouse, also considered a buyout after the 2011 flood but opted against it, even though 75 homes were so badly damaged they had to be demolished.
Mayor Pete Leija said city officials were put off by FEMA's prohibition of rebuilding on bought-out land.
"We don't need property all over town just sitting idle," Leija said.
Watch The Associated Press' video here: http://bit.ly/ZlESoK


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Contributed by Jean-Christophe Eloy, President & CEO, and Jérôme Mouly, Market Analyst, Yole Développement
This year's ranking of the Top 20 MEMS foundries starts to shift East, as TSMC makes the ranking for the first time.
TOP 20 MEMS Foundries – 2009 revenues
Double digit growth at Taiwan's Asia Pacific Microsystems (APM) and Touch Microsystems (TMT) also help push the combined share of these companies in Taiwan to close to 9% of total Top 20 foundry revenues, which represent the vast majority about 96% of global MEMS foundry revenues of the total MEMS foundry market. That's still a small part of the total, but it's almost double the share last year.
Foundries continued to gradually take on a larger portion of total MEMS production, with total foundry revenues at the Top 20 total declining about 3%, slightly less than the roughly 5% drop in MEMS sector revenues overall.
Dalsa Corp. significantly outpaced the industry with 19% growth to become the largest independent MEMS foundry, and moved into third place in the rankings with $31 million in foundry revenues. It closed in a bit on number two Texas Instruments Inc., who saw a 24% drop to $45 million.
STMicroelectronics continues to dominate the foundry business, and increased its share in 2009 by about a point despite a 1% slip in foundry revenues, as many of the other major producers saw sales drop more sharply in the general downturn in consumer electronics and automotive applications. …
Like the MEMS market overall, the foundry/fabless business is dominated by several big companies making established volume products— particularly STMicroelectronics producing the heater parts of fixed inkjet heads for Hewlett-Packard Co., while HP keeps its key polymer patterning process for the nozzles in house. ST's revenues held up better than most because sales of printers with the fixed heads it makes for HP held relatively steady compared to those with disposable heads, and because of its healthy balance of customers.
HP and InvenSense are top foundry customers
On the customer side, the Top 10 users of foundries generated slightly over $500 million in revenues, something over half of that from inkjet head production outsourced by HP and Lexmark with their fab-light strategy. But more interesting on this first-ever ranking of fabless and fablight companies from Yole Developpement are the two purely fabless MEMS companies InvenSense Inc. and Knowles Electronics now successfully pushing the $100 million range without internal production. Equally notable: five of the ten leading fabless companies are using very CMOS-fab friendly production, for a range of new device technologies. InvenSense has CMOS fabs add a MEMS module to make its gyros. And MEMSIC, Akustica, SiTime and WiSpry have designed MEMS structures for thermal accelerometers, microphones, oscillators and RF switches that integrate MEMS with CMOS.
InvenSense's nearly fivefold growth was largely due to demand from the gaming market –and from its success in bringing down the cost of more sophisticated motion sensing. "The gaming market was a very pleasant surprise," says CEO Steve Nasiri. "We didn't think that games would be our first big market." Demand for the company's gyroscopes was driven by low cost, a company focus from the beginning, with its technology for capping the MEMS wafer with the ASIC, enabling a 3-axis gyroscope for less than $1 /axis. "A $.10 drop in cost can mean a two-fold increase in volume," notes Nasiri. "At $10 there is very little consumer market for a 3-axis gyro."
InvenSense is now moving towards integrating smarter motion processing functions in a single unit, to enable devices that not only sense motion, but that can quickly and accurately recognize specific and complex gestures. It recently announced a module with a 3-axis gyro, processing unit and software that takes input from a 3-axis accelerometer and outputs a 6-axis solution. Coming next is integration of a 3-axis accelerometer in the unit, and then integration of input from 3-axes of magnetometers to tell which direction the movement is in.
The company expects demand from smart phone makers anxious to differentiate their products from the rest with new features—and to generate more revenues with more engaging applications from their app stores—enabling things like scrolling through screens with a flick of the wrist, and turning off the phone with a shake.
Dalsa and APM see double digit growth
Dalsa's added some $5 million in additional MEMS foundry revenues to lead the independent foundries, pushing last year's leader Micralyne Inc. back to second place. With the growth of the foundry business, both these companies are now large enough to rank among the Top 30 MEMS companies in Yole's annual overall ranking. Silex Microsystems and Asia Pacific Microsystems follow closely with revenues in the $20 million range.
Dalsa saw healthy growth in the consumer markets for inertial sensors, which made up for the downturn in the auto industry, as it ramped production of new generation of smaller, lower cost products on an existing customer-specific platform. "We saw the benefits of hard work from the last several years as we ramped up programs started a couple of years ago," says Donald Robert, Dalsa Semiconductor VP of marketing and sales, who notes that the company also expects double digit growth to continue this year, from programs now in the pipeline.
Asia Pacific Microsystems (APM) and Touch Microsystems (TMT) rode the Asian growth wave, with a 10% and 29% increases in sales, respectively. APM ramped production of MEMS pressure sensor elements for a leading automotive electronics company. Jazz Semiconductor also saw 25% growth, as its customers like SiTime started production. Many of the rest of the top foundries saw double digit declines in revenues, mostly because small declines in business at these very small suppliers translate into large percentages.
Micralyne reports its revenue dropped significantly for the fiscal year ended March 2009, but it has seen a pick up in activity since before Christmas. "We see opening of the purse strings for R&D at big multinationals trying to add MEMS solutions in a wide variety of applications," says CFO and interim CEO Derek Hudson. Silex also saw sales slip in 2009 as a key customer stopped production because of inventory buildup, but their 3D packaging technology remains a very appealing platform for new players for efficient wafer level packaging technology and a shorter time to market.
Innovative Micro Technology Inc. sales declined as well, but the company reports it is seeing growing demand from optics and biomedical applications. "The optic companies are coming back, " says CEO John Foster, noting a surge particularly in mirrors for reconfiguring optical add and drop, driven by the need to make more efficient use of the available bandwidth as network traffic increases. Also strong are optical to electrical interconnect applications for things like high bandwidth computer to computer connections. On the biomedical side, key areas are cell therapy and drug delivery systems, from skin patches to various implantable systems. Foster says MEMS drug delivery systems are now shipping for implant in animals.
Tronics Microsystems reports some new contracts in a so-so year, mostly from Asia, on the inertial side, and more recently also in microfludics. The company continues to get most of its revenues from inertial MEMS, and 70%-75% from manufacturing, the rest from development of prototypes for production. Vincent Gaff, manager of marketing and business development, notes that Tronics is moving into integrating sensors into medical products with its acquisition of a California medical engineering company, and into larger volume production with its shared facility agreement with the fab in Dallas. Among developments in the pipeline are implantable pressure sensors in biocompatible titanium packaging.
Yole Developpement defines a MEMS foundry as a company who does MEMS device production for another company, whether the whole device or only selected steps, and whether only for some select customers or on the open market. We do not include those companies who do only non-MEMS processes like wafer preparation, ASIC production or through-silicon via production, even for MEMS devices. We count as foundry customers both the fabless companies who do not own their own MEMS fabs, and the fab-light companies who own MEMS fabs, but also outsource some significant part of MEMS production to others. Currencies are converted at average exchange rates; per cent change is figured in US dollars.


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You can find a few videos of The Continent in its heyday on YouTube, showing a thriving commercial development well into the '90s.
"Truly good and unique stuff," one
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"I had an apartment there in 91/92? It was really fantastic," wrote another user . "All the young people you can imagine, all the bars and restaurants you could want, party after party, live music, the Gathering on Thursdays, etc. the movies were great, tons of people would congregate outside by the water fountain."
But other shopping and entertainment venues began chipping away at The Continent's popularity. Beach says that its popularity began to wane in the 1990s.
"We don't know if there's one specific reason for that," Beach says. "It could be a combination of things. One, there was a lot of increased competition from other retail shopping areas: City Center opened up in the late '80s, that kind of pulled crowds away. We see Polaris, Tuttle Crossing and even Easton popping up and really people are visiting those areas more."
The Continent's own layout may have contributed to its decline.
"That North Columbus area where the Continent was located was becoming more isolated as people were flocking to these newer, suburban areas for entertainment and dining opportunities, and because The Continent was set up like more of a European-style market the streets were more narrow," Beach says. "It was a more compact shopping space so there wasn't a lot of room for change and growth."
Easton Town Center, which opened in 1999, stood in contrast. It took a similar concept—open-air retail dining and shopping—but made it larger, more navigable.
"While The Continent was a destination on its own, Easton seems to have refined that idea a little bit more," Beach says. "And they've had more space to experiment."
On the other side of town, within The Continent, sidewalks once filled with customers are empty now. Most retail establishments have shut down or left, and there are an abundant number of business spaces for rent. Only the movie theater, indoor sports complex and a smattering of restaurants remain in the area.
The day after the election, the bare-bones transition team that had been set up during the campaign hurriedly shifted from Washington to Trump Tower. The building — now the headquarters of a populist revolution — suddenly seemed like an alien spaceship on Fifth Avenue. But its otherworldly air helped obscure the fact that few in Trump's inner circle, with their overnight responsibility for assembling a government, had any relevant experience.
Ailes, a veteran of the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush 41 administrations, tried to impress on Trump the need to create a White House structure that could serve and protect him. "You need a son of a bitch as your chief of staff," he told Trump. "And you need a son of a bitch who knows Washington. You'll want to be your own son of a bitch, but you don't know Washington." Ailes had a suggestion: John Boehner , who had stepped down as Speaker of the House only a year earlier.
"Who's that?" asked Trump.
As much as the president himself, the chief of staff determines how the Executive branch — which employs 4 million people — will run. The job has been construed as deputy president, or even prime minister. But Trump had no interest in appointing a strong chief of staff with a deep knowledge of Washington. Among his early choices for the job was Kushner — a man with no political experience beyond his role as a calm and flattering body man to Trump during the campaign.
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who finally took the president-elect aside. "Nobody is apparently telling you this," she told him. "But you can't. You just can't hire your children."
Bowing to pressure, Trump floated the idea of giving the job to Steve Bannon, only to have the notion soundly ridiculed. Murdoch told Trump that Bannon would be a dangerous choice.
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, the former congressman and co-host of MSNBC's Morning Joe , told the president-elect that "Washington will go up in flames" if Bannon became chief of staff.
So Trump turned to Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman, who had become the subject of intense lobbying by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. If congressional leaders were going to have to deal with an alien like Donald Trump, then best they do it with the help of one of their own kind.
Jim Baker, chief of staff for both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and almost everybody's model for managing the West Wing, advised Priebus not to take the job. Priebus had his own reservations: He had come out of his first long meeting with Trump thinking it had been a disconcertingly weird experience. Trump talked nonstop and constantly repeated himself.
"Here's the deal," a close Trump associate told Priebus. "In an hour meeting with him, you're going to hear 54 minutes of stories, and they're going to be the same stories over and over again. So you have to have one point to make, and you pepper it in whenever you can."
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There are commercials on television right now that make fun of the overload of information available on the Internet; it's so true that most of that "information" is less than valuable. More often than not, the first few search results you get back on any subject lead you to fluff and not quality information.
That said, here are some important and very useful automotive links that you or someone you know will be able to use.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/ – this site shows the fuel economy of cars, side by side; a feature article now lists the 2011 most efficient vehicles
http://www.semasan.com/main/main.aspx?id=62843#tag-title-toolbox-2011 – The Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association Action Network works with local and state legislators to promote the automotive hobby. At this part of their site, they have gathered the information you need by state to buy, sell, title or register a specialty car, including antiques, classics and muscle cars. Very convenient, go try to find this information on your state's division of motor vehicles site and you'll understand.
http://www.iihs.org/ – The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety provides specific crash test data for every make and model tested. This site has much other interesting and useful highway safety information and news.
Similar is http://www.safercar.gov/ which lists vehicles with a 5 star safety rankings based on crash test results, a roll-up of the more specific information found at the IIHS site. Also included is information on child safety seats and other safety-related pre-purchase decision information.
http://www.autosafety.org/ – Provide comprehensive information on auto defects, ongoing legislation, lemon laws for each state, information for consumers who have auto safety, defect or manufacturing issues.
http://www.autorecalls.org/ – Just like the name says, this site lists automobile recalls by year starting with the year 1965 to present.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm Consumer Reports rates all types of products throughout the year; right now they are featuring their best cars for 2011 based on their criteria. Good info but it's always good to use more than one source for making a car purchase decision.
Hope these links are helpful and will lead you directly to information you need.


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Review Group Week 209 - CHOKER #1/TAILS OF THE PET AVENGERS
Hey you! Reader! Want to be a part of the GREATEST COMIC BOOK AND GEEK COMMUNITY on the web?! Well, they're not accepting new members, but we'll take anyone here, so why not sign up for a free acount? It's fast and it's easy, like your mom! Sign up today! Membership spots are limited!*
*Membership spots not really limited!
Hey you! Reader! Want to be a part of the GREATEST COMIC BOOK AND GEEK COMMUNITY on the web?! Well, they're not accepting new members, but we'll take anyone here, so why not sign up for a free acount? It's fast and it's easy, like your mom! Sign up today! Membership spots are limited!*
*Membership spots not really limited!
by MrBlack » Mon Feb 15, 2010 10:05 am
How is that even remotely obvious? Nothing in the story requires any knowledge of continuity, and none of the stories are too adult for even fairly young children.
I think that this comic, like the last Pet Avengers mini, is aimed both at kids and adults who want a straightforward, and yes, fun comic.
by MrBlack » Mon Feb 15, 2010 10:08 amLessee, this team is made up of:
-A giant alien bulldog who doesn't speak (even to other animals) and has the power to teleport
-A frog with all of the powers of a Norse god
-A sabertooth tiger from a hidden land where dinosaurs still live
-An interdimensional superintelligent alien dragon
-A bad tempered cat with superpowers
-A bird who is the partner of one of the pre-eminent black superheroes in the world
-A transvestite dog
Jubes, if Grant Morrison wrote this you'd be all over it!
by Starlord » Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:13 pm
I agree with you. Children have no business reading this. I'm pretty sure it is aimed at the same people who read Walking Dead, Preacher, and most Anime Gay Porn.
Yep, that's the kind of fun my 8 year old and I both got out of the book.
by ****** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 11:22 am
by S.F. Jude Terror » Tue Feb 16, 2010 11:24 amat Twigglet's guide to hooking up.
by Mr_Batman » Tue Feb 16, 2010 2:41 pmNo LCS this week, but definitely next week, I'm getting Supergirl
by guitarsmashley » Tue Feb 16, 2010 6:11 pmI was unable to get to a comic shop this week. Sorry.
by thefourthman » Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:38 pmI have this and will review. My dad had some heart trouble and spent a couple of days in the hospital, that coupled with being a good dad on Valentine's day and Sunday being what it is for me as well as being ill Monday and Tuesday prevented me from getting this done. Will do tonite! Have Supergirl too.
by thefourthman » Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:42 pm
He seems to be. The VA admitted him over some beaurocratic crap about how long it would take him to get a stress test as an outpatient. He passed it with flying colors and seems to be okay. There was also some confusion as to whether or not he may have MRSA which I completely don't understand at all.
by ****** » Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:35 pmSo Ben Templesmith is on the new episode of Word Balloon and he explained the WTF with Choker's shipping woes last week.
The book was originally supposed to ship 2/24 but then it ended up going to the printers early so then it got moved up to 2/10. When Image got the books though the printers had fucked up and done them on the wrong paper, thus the funky wavy copies that J and I were talking about, so Image ordered the print run pulped at Diamond before the books shipped. Some of the copies slipped through and went out to shops and Diamond ordered those be pulled off the shelves, but obviously the LCS I got mine at didn't do that.
I guess now the book will be out when it's out, but at least when it is out it won't be on that funked up paper anymore.
by Garofani Spruzzo » Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:44 pm
Really? I am glad to hear they didn't mean to do that. The shop I saw them at gets their books early, yours too prob'ly.
by Garofani Spruzzo » Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:46 pm
I really hope your dad doesn't have MRSA. That's bad news.
by thefourthman » Thu Feb 18, 2010 8:58 pm
He does. Evidently he is just a carrier though. Means he gets his own set of towels!
by Garofani Spruzzo » Thu Feb 18, 2010 9:24 pm
How did they figure he was a carrier?
That stinks, doctors are basically clueless when it comes to that stuff. My business partner's mom nearly died or lost an arm from a routine outpatient procedure. I know a doctor who told me flat out not to undergo any unnecessary operations here in town because the situation in the larger hospitals is worse than they let on.
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Still writing three years later
As difficult as it is to believe, dear readers, we are celebrating the end of yet a third year of "You can't beat a system you can't understand" in the Jamestown Press. After 156 issues, it's still fun to write. 2007 was interesting. We talked a bit about how to lose fat, invaders from outer space, and the differences between the sexes.
A few columns were devoted to my formative years and my erstwhile gang of ne'er-do-well friends who managed to grow up and survive despite the challenges of a complex world.
A few of those kids did more in their childhood than many people do in a lifetime. They lived their lives to the fullest. Every day was an adventure and an opportunity, and they enjoyed each moment as if it were their last. I will never forget any of them or their memorable antics.
Stories about the short-lived career of the Hornsickle Stubfester Soggy Mountain Band, the great circus adventure, Frightenstein and Count Laughula, and visits from Santa managed to resurrect fond memories. For the most part, those were good times.
This year is shaping up to be even better. 2008 promises to be well worth remembering. A few more tall tales need to be told about the good old days that are rattling around in fading memory banks. And, I do believe we have some current issues, events, and developing situations that should be addressed. The Googlamaniacs are poised at their computers to research all that sparks our interest, and the space guys will observe the goofy side of life on planet Earth from afar.
I imagine a good portion of the year will be devoted to political developments as the frantic race for elected office heats up. Yup - there is no doubt about it, the oval office is gonna have a new occupant.
The armies of candidates and their supporters are on the march, moving across the country shaking hands, hurling mud, kissing babies, and making non-specific promises. Don'tcha just love it?
"Desperate Housewives" and the soap operas will have to take a back seat to the greatest show on earth. Nothing offers more drama than election time in America. The issues are many, the platforms are shaky, and the candidates are grasping for solutions to age-old problems that can no longer be ignored.
The most frightening moment for the candidates, however, will be experienced by the winner. Whoever wins this tight race for the presidency is going to have a rude awakening at the end of the victory trail. That unfortunate person is going to be in charge of cleaning up the mess left by the last administration and its predecessors. I do not wish that job on anybody.
Some of the country's problems have been passed down from one administration to the next for generations. That's a long time to be passing the buck. Just putting the country back on track so it can function properly will be a formidable task.
Nonetheless, we shouldn't beat up on our administration too much. Trying to please everyone in the nation must be frustrating at best, and the people in office do that for a living. We should be grateful for those who are willing to dedicate their lives to public service.
Instead, we'll continue to look at "problems light" and try to laugh at ourselves a little. That's kinda like laughing at the system anyway. Lest we forget, we made it. And we elected the people who run it. When things sometimes go awry, maybe the administration should be laughing at us. We chose them - it was not the other way around.
Whoever is elected to the presidency and the many other offices that need to be filled, let's show them some support. Let them know how we feel and what we want, in a civilized fashion, and try to help find solutions instead of just complaining. They need and deserve all the help they can get. Try to remember, we live pretty well when we compare life in America to the rest of the world. The alternatives are not that attractive. Enough said.
So, Jamestown - thank you for another wonderful year. I appreciate your kind letters and words. We'll do our best to continue to elicit a laugh or two as we observe life in a system we can't understand.


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WQ428, New May 1995
Biosolids is the term for an organic fertilizer or soil amendment produced by the treatment of domestic wastewater. Domestic wastewater treatment and disposal are evident in archaeological digs, but the practice of community-wide treatment did not evolve until the late 19th century.
Since then, wastewater treatment technology has advanced. Many new publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) were built with federal help.
As communities face stricter regulations against polluting land and streams, more industries will remove their contaminants before passing the waste on to the community. The resulting biosolids and effluents can be applied to land as nutrient and water sources.
Wastewater coming into the treatment plant is screened (primary treatment). The solids are broken down biologically (secondary treatment). If this process includes air (aerobic), the solids produce carbon dioxide and microbial bodies (biosolids). If treated without air (anaerobic), the waste is reduced to ammonia, methane and microbial bodies. Lime, alum or other material is added to stabilize the product. The microbial bodies and most of the phosphorus drop out, producing biosolids. The remaining effluent then enters the streams, nearly free of contaminants.
Applying biosolids to land is a popular disposal method. In 1942, Rudolfs and Gehm documented the agronomic attributes of sludge. They also identified copper, zinc, lead and chromium in the waste.
The environmental movement of the 1970s made us more concerned about waste disposal methods and use of biosolids. In the past 20 years, scientific knowledge about treatment processes and waste has expanded.
Soil application and leaching, food chain effects and human health effects were major issues identified at a 1973 workshop, sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Association of Land Grant Colleges. Long-term research projects began to assess the impact of heavy metals on soils, plants and the human food chain. Many of these studies continue today.
Researchers identified arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead, selenium and zinc as a concern of the human food chain. Boron, cadmium, copper, nickel and zinc were targeted for phytotoxicity.
Laboratory and field studies demonstrate that most trace elements are relatively immobile in soils. Once added to the soil, they remain where they are put, except under certain pH conditions. Groundwater contamination is not likely, except in very sandy soils.
Field studies show that greenhouse studies grossly overstated the availability and phytotoxicity of metals in biosolids.
A field study report shows movement of cadmium from soil to plant to grain (Table 1). The untreated control demonstrates cadmium uptake from the natural geochemical levels that exist in soils. During a 1982 MU project, researchers identified cadmium at 0.0114 pounds per dry ton (5.7 ppm), chromium at 0.08 pounds per dry ton (40 ppm), nickel at 0.36 pounds per dry ton (18 ppm) and zinc at 0.38 pounds per dry ton (190 ppm) in untreated soils (Table 2).
Table 1
Cadmium transfer from soil to corn plant to seed in soils treated with biosolids (Reference 1)
Table 2
Summary analysis of Missouri wastewater biosolids.2
While questions remain, there is adequate information to let us take advantage of the plant nutrients in biosolids. As a safeguard, federal and state regulations define the pollutant loading limits for application.
In 1982, Missouri wastewater treatment plants were screened to identify the presence of various elements in the waste.
The units used in Table 2 are pounds per dry ton. This removes the confusion of dilution effects from water present in the material applied to the land. Expressing terms in dry weight makes it easier to compare materials from different sources. Much like fertilizer applied by a dealer is expressed in pounds of dry material applied, so are biosolids.
The 72 treatment plants produced biosolids that provided an average of 78 pounds of calcium, 54 pounds of nitrogen and 32 pounds of phosphorus in each dry ton. Most potassium compounds are soluble and leave the POTW in the effluent.
For example, to fertilize a corn crop, you need about 3 dry tons per acre, but other elements are applied, as well.
The 0.02 pounds of cadmium applied per ton results in 0.06 pounds applied to the soil, which is far less than that detected in the fodder as shown in Table 1.
You might ask, "How much would be transferred to an animal eating the fodder?" One ten-millionth of that in the soil found its way to a goat's liver.
A test conducted by Brams, Anthony and Weatherspoon shows that if a human eats 8 ounces of fresh liver from an animal with the highest level of cadmium, only 0.03 percent of the daily tolerable intake of cadmium in the human diet is consumed (Reference 3). This proves to be a reasonable risk, even for those who eat more liver than the average consumer.
Reactions in the soil explain what happens to the elements listed in Table 2 when biosolids are applied to the land. There are many — to discuss each would require a book. However, a few reactions will explain what happens to most.
The biosolids are mostly made of microbial bodies that contain carbon (C), oxygen (O), hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N), sulfur (S) and phosphorus (P).
Soil organisms attack the dead microbial bodies through decomposition. This produces carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O) and humus (organic matter).
The release, or mineralization, of N as ammonium (NH4N), P as phosphate and S as sulfate occurs, also. The ammonium nitrogen may also be oxidized to produce nitrate (NO3). These can be taken up by plants and reused.
Cation exchange
The process allows the negative charges of the soil clay and humus to hold positively charged elements (cations). The cation exchange capacity measures the soil's ability to hold cations. The following are or become cations upon release (mineralization) from biosolids:
Cadmium (Cd), calcium (Ca), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), magnesium (Mg), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), potassium (K), sodium (Na) and zinc (Zn).
All will be held by cation exchange and tend not to leach.
Anion exchange and retention
This accounts for the way that anions (negatively charged ions) are sorbed or attached to the soil. Upon biosolids mineralization, arsenate (AsO4-3), borate (BO3), nitrate (NO3), phosphate (PO4-3) and selenate (SeO4-3) are the most anionic forms of Arsenic (As), boron (B), N, P and selenium (Se).
As a group, AsO4-3, PO4-3 and SeO4-3 behave similarly. They may be sorbed on the surface of the soil by several different mechanisms, making these anions quite immobile. The three anions are held where they are placed.
In contrast, borate and nitrate are very mobile and will move readily through the soil in the direction the soil moisture moves.
Soil acidity
Soil pH also effects the elements in Table 2. Regulations require soil pH be greater than 6.0 (salt-based test) before applying biosolids. If the soil pH is below 6.0, many metals, such as Cd, Cr, Cu and Zn become more plant available. As pH rises, almost all of the elements listed in Table 2 revert to forms unavailable to plants. In spite of this, you should not raise the soil pH above 7.5 because it may cause plant nutrient deficiencies, such as iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn).
In summary, mineralization, cation exchange, anion exchange, retention and soil pH adjustment may affect the availability of elements in the biosolids. The minimum availability of most metals in Table 2 occurs at a soil pH of 6.0 to 7.5.
Remember, soils are natural bodies that develop from rocks, containing all the elements in Table 2. There is no such thing as a natural soil free of metals.
Applying biosolids at the proper application rate that satisfies crop yield goals reduces the risk of excessive non-essential elements.
Agronomic rates are tied to the nitrogen needs of the crop. As with nitrogen fertilizer, the farmer sets a yield goal. The goal determines the nitrogen rate. Formulas convert the biosolids analysis into the quantity of available N per dry ton. The factors change for different biosolids.
For example, assume you wish to grow 4 tons of grass hay per acre. Forty pounds of N is needed per ton of hay or 160 pounds N per acre (4 x 40).
If the biosolids have 3 percent N per dry ton, then they have 60 pounds N per ton. If 40 percent of the N is available the first year, then the application rate in dry tons of biosolids will be as follows:
160 pounds N ÷ (0.4 x 60 pounds N per ton) = 6.6 tons per acre
If you use the medium potassium concentration of Table 2, the 6.6 tons of dry biosolids will supply 35 pounds K per acre (42 pounds K2O per acre). This is less than is needed for 4 tons of grass hay, so you must apply more K.
The biosolids supplier can provide laboratory analysis of the material produced by the treatment plant. Apply this application rate to other elements in the material.
Table 3
Summary analysis of biosolids in national survey
Table 4
Average total concentrations of elements in Missouri soils
Order publications online at http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/shop/ or call toll-free 800-292-0969.


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About Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkáčová
Since 2000, Anetta Mona Chisa and Lucia Tkáčová have been collaborating to produce intellectual, acerbically humorous works that challenge gender stereotypes, the processes of making and marketing art, and the repressive insider-outsider dichotomies of political and cultural systems. Everything and everyone is fair game for their provocative, irreverent videos, installations, performances, and text-based works. In their Dialectics of Subjection videos (2004-06), for example, Chisa and Tkáčová treat male politicians, artists, curators, and critics as sex objects, discussing their erotic appeal and whether or not they would sleep with them. For their ongoing Private Collection project (2005-), they steal various mundane objects from prestigious contemporary art galleries and display them like valuable works of art, attempting, as they write, "to undermine the orthodoxies of a capitalist market within the art system."
1975 and 1977, Romania and Slovakia, based in Berlin and Prague


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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) DeMario Mayfield scored 17 points to lead Charlotte to a 72-58 victory over Oral Roberts in the semifinals of the Great Alaska Shootout on Friday night.
Chris Braswell added 11 points and point guard Pierria Henry had seven points, seven assists and five steals for the 49ers (5-0), who will play Northeastern in the championship game Saturday at Sullivan Arena.
Guard Shawn Glover led Oral Roberts (3-2) with 18 points and center Damen Bell-Holter added 13 rebounds. The Golden Eagles will play for third place against Belmont.


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Goffstown's Simoneau has breakthrough season for MLL's Rochester RattlersBy MARISA INGEMI
Special to the Union Leader
August 22. 2017 12:49AM
NCAA Division III athletes don't often get a crack at playing at the top level of pro competition for their sport.
Lacrosse is the outlier, though, as Division III talent has mixed its way into the world of Major League Lacrosse, and a shining example is Goffstown's Drew Simoneau.
Simoneau, a product of Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y., just finished his second season for the Rochester Rattlers of the MLL. The faceoff specialist had a breakout year, helping the Rattlers to the postseason. In 13 games, he posted a faceoff percentage of 58 percent, registering four goals (including a game winner against Boston on July 16), two assists and 124 ground balls.
Not bad for a player who fell through the cracks before getting a pro tryout with the Rattlers.
"I was invited (to camp) and tried my best and hoped for practice squad, and made that, and thought hopefully I get time in a game," said Simoneau. "It goes from there. Being a D3 player in the league, it's an underdog story. There have been a few guys I know of from D3 who are aspiring to play MLL. It makes them try, not harder than D1, but competitive edge comes in. D3 players have tremendous drive to make a practice roster."
With the Golden Flyers of Nazareth, Simoneau put up numbers higher than 70 percent as he converted to a full-time faceoff specialist. He broke the school's record for ground balls in a season, and became the first Empire 8 Conference player to make the all-conference first team for four seasons.
In high school, where Simoneau played for Goffstown for three seasons before transferring to Kimball Union Academy of Meriden, he earned U.S. Lacrosse All-American honors in his senior season. He also played hockey and football at Kimball Union.
"I went to public and private, and New Hampshire has the talent level and it has tremendously increased." he said. "There's been a resurgence of coaches that were college players and that's helped. When I started, only one coach who played in college was around, and he played 30 years ago."
Simoneau is planning to return to the Rattlers next season for his third year as a pro. He runs a clinic in Rochester, and plans to be involved in the sport in that capacity while also working on his career as a physical therapist.
"We finished the season super strong," he said. "Four awesome team wins to get us into the playoffs. Our NLL guys coming back with (Jordan]) McIntosh, (Joel) White and (John) Ranagan from the (Georgia) Swarm bumped us up. Started out rocky but things started to click towards the end."
There has been speculation about the future of the Rattlers, but after a strong turnout at the end of the season, and a late postseason push, Simoneau is expecting a return to upstate New York.
"Preparing to be in Rochester, I'm hopeful we'll stay there," he said. "We had 3,500 fans show up last game. The fans are there; we need them to show up. I'm hopeful we get to stay. Being the team we are, we love each other, would be a shame to see them dissipate. I'm excited to continue my career, staying with Rochester."


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An outdoor mural or nature wallpaper brings the reality of Mother Nature inside your home to create a tranquil setting. Having nature scene wallpaper in your living room, dining room, kitchen, den, or bathroom can help you relax and enjoy nature, in all kinds of weather and at any time of the day.
The universe is your limit for different outdoor images, and Murals Your Way Image Gallery has thousands of ideas to choose from. Outdoor wall decals can be found in the following nature décor themes:
Outdoor murals work in so many different settings. Your children will enjoy the magic of the forest and just imagine how perfect a sky mural would fit overhead on a hallway ceiling in your home. Many of the outdoor wall murals are photographs of real places around the world, but others feature original artwork, and give the mural a hand-painted look.
Murals Your Way can print murals to the size of your choice, so if you're interested in a full wall mural of a cascading waterfall, or a smaller mural of a beautiful garden scene for your living room, we can handle it all. Enjoy browsing the selection of nature and outdoor murals and wallpaper, and don't hesitate to call 888-558-0279 for more information about fabric styles and installation ideas.


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Student Organizations
The Department of Modern Languages offers a variety of extracurricular opportunities that supplement classroom work. Students can hear presentations by guest speakers, attend discussions and colloquia, and avail themselves of a variety of other activities to further their education in language outside the classroom.
Organizations and activities sponsored by the department are:
Alpha Mu Gamma
Advisor: Dr. Robert (Moses) Fritz
Alpha Mu Gamma is the National Honorary Society for Foreign Languages. Alpha Mu Gamma was established at Los Angeles City College on April 29, 1931. The name "Alpha Mu Gamma" is composed of the names of the initial Greek letters found in the phrase "Emf Mouse Glisson", meaning "For the Muse of Languages." Alpha Mu Gamma sponsors many different activities throughout the year including workshops, artists, and the Foreign Language Festival in March. There is one initiation ceremony into AMG which occurs during the Fall Semester. In order to qualify for initiation, a student must have at least Sophomore standing, have completed a minimum of two semesters of college foreign language with at least two grades of "A" in unrepeated courses, and have a minimum overall GPA of 3.00.
ICALA International Cultures and Languages Association (the Foreign Language Club)
Advisors: Dr. Ben Post, Dr. LeRon Harrison
ICALA's mission is to inform students and community about international languages and cultures in order to foster cultural sensitivity within a social environment accessible to all. It is open to all students interested in foreign languages and cultures. ICALA has periodic meetings and social activities during the school year and organizes events such as the Tent City Bratwurst Sale at Homecoming, Mardi Gras, and Cinco de Mayo.


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God's Love We Deliver
166 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10013
Tel: 212.294.8100
Fax: 212.294.8101
When you purchase any of the products from our God's Love catalog, you're benefiting our clients, their families and caregivers in meaningful ways. Every dollar spend helps us continue to provide our meals and nutrition counseling to those too sick to shop or cook for themselves in the NYC metropolitan area.
God's Love can also help you with your holiday cards, check out the Holiday Tribute Cards. God's Love will address, stamp and mail tribute cards to your friends and loved ones with your return address on the envelope. Just send us your mailing list and we'll handle the rest.
Questions about ordering? Call 212.294.8143 or email us at email@example.com.


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EclipseLink/UserGuide/JPA/Basic JPA Development/Configuration/JPA/Annotations
Key API {{{apis}}}
An annotation is a simple, expressive means of decorating Java source code with metadata that is compiled into the corresponding Java class files for interpretation at run time by a JPA persistence provider to manage persistent behavior.
A metadata annotation represents a Java language feature that lets you attach structured and typed metadata to the source code. Annotations alone are sufficient for the metadata specification -- you do not need to use XML. Annotations for object relational mapping are in the javax.persistence package.
For more information, see Chapter 8 "Metadata Annotations" in the JPA Specification.
An object relational mapping XML file is optional. If you choose to provide one, then it should contain mapping information for the classes listed in it. The persistence provider loads an orm.xml file (or other mapping file) as a resource. If you provide a mapping file, the classes and mapping information specified in the mapping file will be used. The XML mapping metadata may combine with and override annotation metadata.
For more information, see Section 10.1 "XML Overriding Rules" in the JPA Specification.
Using Metadata Annotations
Use annotations to configure the persistent behavior of your entities. For example, to designate a Java class as a JPA entity, use the @Entity annotation as shown in this example:
@Entity public class Employee implements Serializable { ... }
For more information, see Chapter 8 "Metadata annotations" and Section 8.1 "Entity" in the JPA Specification.
You can apply annotations at the following levels:
- Class
- Method
- Field
EclipseLink defines a set of proprietary annotations to take advantage of EclipseLink-specific features. You can find them in the org.eclipselink.annotations package. These annotations are not available through the use of JPA metadata.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Annotations
Using annotations provides several advantages:
- They are relatively simple to use and understand.
- They provide in-line metadata within with the code that it describes; you do not need to replicate the source code context of where the metadata applies.
The primary disadvantage of annotations is that the metatdata becomes unnecessarily coupled to the code; changes to metadata require changing the source code.


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An early morning fire caused about $120,000 in damages to the Charlton House of Pizza and Charlton Center Café at 109 Masonic Home Road.
State police received a 911 call about a fire at the pizza shop at 12:47 a.m. The business was severely damaged by smoke, fire and water. The estimated loss of food and contents are $50,000. The nearby Center Café sustained about $20,000 in damages. In addition, damages to the building, owned by The Carpentier Reality Trust, is estimated at $50,000.
Those two businesses remain closed. The other businesses in the strip mall were not affected. Authorities said the fire is under investigation and is continued unintentional at this time.
Mutual aid was provided by Webster, Spencer, Sturbridge, Dudley, Southbridge and Leicester.
— Elaine Thompson


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I cannot speak, a constant murmuring,
calling the rain from my dry bones,
and syllables from the marrow…
Twined together, root to root,
sap seeping from flesh,
the Wood Wife plants me in the soil
and give me language once again."
-Terri Windling, The Wood Wife
Very often, we may unconsciously place fairy tales in the in the green rolling hills of Ireland or the dark forests of Germany, but in truth, stories of magic spring from every land. Nowhere is this more true than the deserts and mountains of the enchanted Southwest. The vibrant blend of cultures here can create tales of surprising power and beauty. When I first came to the Southwest over a decade ago, and met the Palo Verde, Ocotillo, and Saguaro of the Sonoran Desert where I was living at the time, I was immediately entranced by the intensity of the plants and land there. Living here in the Saliz mountains of sw New Mexico has only heightened and deepened this experience.
Back in my first days exploring the desert, Terri Windling's novel, The Wood Wife, set in the Rincon Mountains outside of Tucson, acted as a kind of atlas to the mythic and botanical terrain around me. Many years later, this book still delights me, especially the character of the Spine Witch, whose kiss on human eyelids brings a deeper sight of the landscape and the spirits that inhabit it. While we sometimes think of deserts as barren, in reality, they're some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, fostering an incredible variety of plants, animals, stories, and magic.
Artist Rebekah Klitzke of Mulberry Mudd is incredibly gifted at evoking the spirit of the Fae of any landscape, and especially the botanical elements inherent to each place. She created this gorgeous sculpture for me of a creature part plant spirit, part Ringtail Cat, and part storytelling woman. As you can see in the pictures below, she holds an acorn and wears the leaves of our native evergreen Emory Oak, the prickly spines of the Walking Stick Cholla, and the blossoms, thorns and leaves of the Wild Rose. Her skin is made from the colors of our volcanic cliffs, and the bones of tiny animals adorn her Ringtail ears. There's something of Terri Windling's Spine Witch in her, as well as a good deal of myself. I'm altogether in love with her, and presides over our den, looking down over my desk as I write and work. If you listen closely late at night, and somewhere near dawn, you might hear her telling the stories of the wild forests, deserts, and mountains she belongs to.
If you haven't previously seen Rebekah's work, I highly recommend perusing her beautiful Mulberry Mudd shop!
Here she is with the backdrop of the Canyon's sacred cliffs, her skin and hair reflecting the colors of the volcanic rock all around her.
If you look closely you can see the Cholla spines on her lower right side, the Emory Oak leaves on her left side, and the delicate bones dangling from her ears.
This angle shows off the Wild Rose blooming from her body, and the leaves and thorns wrapped around her arm and hands, as well as her gorgeous Ringtail Cat tail.
~~~~All images ©2012 Jesse Wolf Hardin~~~
3 Responses to "A Desert Fairy Tale: The Ringtail Woman"
Ahhh i love this!
Wow, what talent in creating the fairy. Rebekah captures details that others might miss. Thank you for sharing your fairy with us.
A Beautiful Blessing!!!


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We'll be sailing on Carnival Cruise Line's Conquest out of New Orleans with port of calls in Cozumel, Belize and Roatan! A seven day cruise...she was able to reserve this cabin...there's only a couple of them like this on the ship. These pics are from the Valor, Conquest's sister ship, but the cabins are the same!
Very cool cabin...right at the front of the ship, so will be nice and quiet!


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Brief SummaryRead full entry
The Orchidaceae, known as the orchid family, underwent a spectacularly diverse radiation since its late Cretaceous origin 83-75 million years ago to become one of the two most speciose plant families around today (the other being the Asteraceae), and make up more than one third of monocot species (Ramírez et al. 2007; Gustafsson et al. 2010). Taxonomy of the orchid family is difficult and dynamic, because it is so large (now approximately 27,000+ accepted species) and many new species are described annually (see references listed at the Orchid Tree, Florida Museum of Natural History: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/orchidatol/references/orchidATOLrefs.htm; Cameron 1999 and references therein; Williams 2013). Many morphological and molecular studies break down the family into five monophyletic subfamilies: Apostasioideae, Cypripedioideae, Epidendroideae, Orchidoideae, and Vanilloideae, of which Epidendroideae is by far the largest, containing about 3/5 of orchid species (see references listed at the Orchid Tree, Florida Museum of Natural History: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/orchidatol/references/orchidATOLrefs.htm; Cameron 1999 and references therein; Williams 2013; The Plant List 2010).
Orchids live in nearly all ecosystems around the world except glaciers, true desert and open water, although tropical areas especially in Asia, Africa and the Americas are the hot spots of diversity. Most grow as epiphytes on other plants, rocks or static objects for support and derive their nutrients and water from the atmosphere and debris, however many species grow in the ground in forest or grassland areas. Some are parasites of fungi. Some, such as species in the subfamily Vanilloideae grow as lianas (a woody vine) that can reach sizes up to 20 m. (60 feet) or more in length; the tiny Bulbophyllum minutissimum is only 3-4 mm (0.16-0.2 inches) tall. (Kew RBG 2013; Williams 2013; Stephens 2013).
Orchids are monocots, perennial herbs with simple leaves and parallel veins, and are well known for the rich diversity of their flower structures. While some have single flowers, most have inflorescences with multiple flowers arranged around a stalk. The flowers are pollinated by insects, in some cases by birds, and it is common for flowers to have petals modified into perches or guides for their pollinators. Orchids have a dizzying array of pollination syndromes, some fantastically complex. About a third of orchid species mimic an aspect of their pollinator's biology in order to trick the pollinator into visiting the flower without providing nectar or other reward. For example, the bee orchids (genus Ophrys) accurately mimic a female bee, right down to the smell, to entice male visitation. The flower of Darwin's orchid, Angraecum sesquipedale, has an extremely long spur with nectar at the end, which led Charles Darwin to posit that this species was pollinated by a moth with a proboscis of unprecedented length. His theory was validated when the pollinator was discovered, years after Darwin's death. In reference to the amazing pollination biology of genus Catasetum, which propel large, sticky pollen capsules at their pollinators, Darwin wrote in a 1861 letter to then director of Kew Gardens, Joseph Hooker: "I was never more interested in any subject in all my life, than in this of orchids" (Williams 2013; Kew RBG 2013; Stevens 2013).
All orchids have inferior ovaries which develop into a capsule with (usually six) compartments containing up to millions of minute seeds (as small as 150 µm), excellent wind dispersers. One plant typically produces 74 million seeds. In order to germinate, orchid seeds require a symbiotic interaction with species-specific bascidiomycete fungus, which enters the seed. This allows the orchid seed, which has no nutrient reserves, to gain necessary nutrients directly from the fungi and form a protocorm, a unique embryonic structure made up of a mass of cells found in no other flowering plants. After facilitating germination, the colonizing fungal symbiont subsequently nourishes the seedling and especially in the case of epiphytic and parasitic (non-photosynthetic) orchids, the fungal interaction often persists to transfer nutrients and minerals to the fully developed orchid. It is not clear how the fungi benefit from this interaction. The orchid apparently controls and regulates the timing and degree of fungal association, presumably providing sufficient reason for the fungi to colonize and re-associate with the plant, often on a seasonal cycle (eResources Unit, 2004; Kew RBG; Stevens 2013; Williams 2013).
The charisma of orchids and their biology have long excited (obsessed!) botanists and the general public alike, and many varieties and hybrids are widely cultivated; this passion has inspired intrepid collecting expeditions and spawned hundreds of orchid societies and clubs around the world, spawning a global cultivation industry worth nine-billion dollars annually. Each year 3000-4000 new hybrid names enter the International Orchid Register (American Orchid Society 2013). Most cultivars are tropical or sub-tropical. Many orchid species are threatened in the wild, due to over collection and habitat degradation. Cites highly restricts international import/export of orchids; all orchids are on the Appendix II list or higher (Kew RBG 2013; Williams 2013).
As well as providing significant botanical interest, some orchids have food uses. Vanilla, for example, is a commercially important and widely used flavoring extracted from the dried pods of several species of genus Vanilla; commercially grown vanilla requires hand pollination of the flower making this is one of the world's most expensive spices. Some orchids produce edible tubers; Australian desert and forest orchids, for example, are historically eaten by Aboriginals (Stewart and Percival 1997; The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, 2013; Gott 2008). Orchids also have ancient origins in traditional medicine in many cultures, including Chinese medicine (Bulpitt et al. 2007).


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It wouldn't be Washington without unnecessary conflict. Last month Congress passed a budget that did not include a renewal of unemployment benefits, which immediately affects 1.3 million Americans, with another 850,000 who will run out of luck in the first quarter and potentially 4.8 million on the hook if nothing gets done this year.
As always, there are at least two schools of thought. Democrats tend to view these benefits as an act of compassion — with President Obama recently referring to GOP resistance on this score as "just plain cruel" — and as an effective economic stimulus tool. Republicans naturally beg to differ, pointing to the program's cost in an era of unprecedented deficit spending — about $25 billion a year — and philosophically objecting on the belief that it removes the incentive to seek work while also discouraging employers from creating jobs because, they argue, it drives up wages.
To some degree, we can see both sides.
By and large, we tend to agree that unemployment ought not to become a way of life, that getting something for nothing over a long period of time — this goes back to the beginning of the recession in 2008 — is unhealthy for the individual and for the nation. We have long thought adding a reasonable work component to public assistance has some merit — we recall the Depression-era government work programs, and there's no shortage of public infrastructure needs — but that has its detractors, as well, notably the traditional Democratic constituency of labor unions, as well as those on the conservative side of the aisle who believe job creation is the private sector's responsibility, not the government's.
On the other hand, while the economy has rebounded, it has been slow and the jobless rate remains above 7 percent. Uncle Sam's helping hand may curtail the motivation to find a job, but removing that assistance does not necessarily compel employers to fill the vacuum. Just because you want a job does not always equate to one being available to you and your skill set, and the longer you've been without work the less attractive employers often find you. It's the classic rock and a hard place.
House Speaker John Boehner says he's open to an extension of jobless benefits if Democrats offset the cost with cuts elsewhere. Fine. So how about defense? We can hear the squawking already. Republicans have their sacred cows and hypocrisies, too.
It's an election year, and we don't see how this squabble benefits anybody, least of all the jobless who still have a vote.
Extend unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless another three months, as Obama proposes, and spend the time in the interim productively, for a change, by constructing a comprehensive alternative to the status quo that gives employers more reason to hire while simultaneously providing a continued safety net for people who need one but not so much that it becomes too comfortable, along with training for high-demand jobs. Would another Civilian Conservation Corps or Works Progress Administration cover the gaps? Worth exploring.
It would be so nice to have Republicans and Democrats who actually went to Washington to resolve chronic problems. Don't hold your breath, 2014.
Our View: Extend jobless benefits, find better alternative
It wouldn't be Washington without unnecessary conflict. Last month Congress passed a budget that did not include a renewal of unemployment benefits, which immediately affects 1.3 million Americans, with another 850,000 who will run out of luck in the first quarter and potentially 4.8 million on the hook if nothing gets done this year.