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LAS VEGAS, Nev. - The UCSB swimming and diving teams took on UNLV in a closely contested battle on Saturday afternoon at Buchanan Natatorium. In a meet that came down to the final events, the Gaucho men fell 155-143, and the women lost 155-145.
UNLV got off to a quick start by winning the first five events of the day. In the women's 200 freestlye, Emma Hunt almost pulled off the Gauchos first win but was edged out by four hundredths of a second. She would finish second place with a time of 1:55.64.
The first win for UCSB would come in the men's 200 freestyle. Lucas Norman (1:40.95) and Andrew Dossa (1:43.09) finished one-two in the event. Norman also took first-place in the 500 freestyle (4:38.64).
The women's 100 breaststroke featured a one-two-three finish for the Gauchos. Senior Paige Bradley would win her first of two events on the day with a time of 1:05.57. She was followed by Carissa Metcalf (1:05.67) and Charis Hoppe (1:06.12). Bradley would also lead a sweep in the 200 breaststroke. Her time of 2:22.64 led second-place finisher Erica Taylor (2:23.23) and third-place Metcalf (2:23.39).
Andrea Ward won the women's 200 butterfly in a time of 2:04.13. In the men's 200 butterfly Mickey Mowry finished second-place after just being edged out.
Narrow defeats seemed to be the story of the day as the Gauchos would lose a handful of events by just tenths of a second. None more apparent than in the men's and women's 100 butterfly. Ward (55.67) finished second, just five-tenths behind first. Mowry, for the men, finished second as well coming four-tenths behind the leader.
Despite the near victories, there were plenty of wins for UCSB to keep the meet neck-and-neck to the end.
Sophia Yamauchi was a multiple winner as she won the 100 freestyle (51.49) and the 200 IM (2:03.82).
Heren Alanis took first in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:02.36.
Andrew Latimer helped the men's side out with his win in the 100 freestyle (46.80).
Diving provided a boost for the men with Erich Brodbeck sweeping both diving events. He posted a score of 263.03 in the one-meter and an identical score in the three-meter.
Hannah Tomp finished third in the three-meter after a score of 230.70 and took second in the one-meter posting a 238.13.
With the women's team down by five points heading into the final relay, they were once again edged out and fell in a closely battled meet.
The men finished the day with a victory in the 400 relay but it was too little to late. Latimer, Alex Campbell, Norman and Ryan Hanni finished first in a time of 3:04.17.
The UCSB men fall to 3-2, while the women are now 5-2.
The Gauchos are back in the pool when they take on UC Davis in Fresno on Jan. 26.


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Rabbi Elaine Rose Glickman has created more than a few innovative programs at Temple Emanu-El in the past seven years.
Affectionately known simply as "Rabbi Elaine," she and her husband, Rabbi Brenner Glickman, arrived at Temple Emanu-El in 2006; the dynamic couple and their three children, Mo, Leo and Eden, have become a part of the fabric not only of the temple, but also of the community.
Rabbi Elaine's laser focus has been dedicated to interfaith and service; families and mitzvahs or good deeds.
Last May, the Temple sponsored a Mitzvah Day whereby members donated their time to acts of kindness for people and animals in the community.
Rabbi Elaine organized the projects, including knitting caps, booties and blankets for babies, packing food for All Faiths Food Bank, making placemats for Kobernick Anchin Pavilion, making cards for soldiers who are serving overseas, sorting and bundling school supplies, designing cards for elder hospital and nursing home residents and organizing table decorations for a Take Stock in Children mentor appreciation banquet.
The knitted apparel was so popular that Rabbi Elaine and Susan Bernstein organized another group of knitters — possibly an ongoing mitzvah for Temple members and the community at-large.
Dubby Uretsky has been knitting for the past 70 years. She knits, she said, while her husband swims.
Uretsky's specialty is tiny booties and noggin caps for premature babies. She loves, she said, Rabbi Elaine's commitment to mitzvahs.
"She is so wonderful — we made dozens of booties the last time," Uretsky said. "She has brought in so many programs and so many fun things to do."
Bernstein added that she was amazed at the number of participants for the mitzvah knitting group.
"There were so many people who came last time," Bernstein said. "And we have about 20 people here today."
Knitting and crocheting, Bernstein added, are "great traditions passed from generation to generation. We create keepsakes and the work is therapeutic and meditative."
Bernstein also sorts the knitters at Kobernick. "I bring the baby items to Rabbi Elaine so she can coordinate the distribution. She knows where all the needs are," she explained.
Bernstein's specialty is "bags, both market bags and purses," she said.
The rabbi and Bernstein sent emails to Temple members and asked them to invite their friends. They brought extra patterns and skeins of colorful yarn to make the blankets, booties, caps and sweaters.
The splendid hand-made garments and blankets will be donated to Mothers Helping Mothers, SPARCC (Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center of Sarasota), and the Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa, Israel for Ethiopian Jewish immigrants and refugees as well as new Temple families with babies and tots.
Rabbi Elaine, who does not knit, moved quickly and gracefully through the knitters, finding and printing additional patterns from the internet, chatting and encouraging the ladies. Evelyn Osterweil and the rabbi chatted easily about their Texas-girl heritage.
"I like being here for the fellowship," Osterweil said, simply.
Rabbi Elaine fondly shared scripture and wisdom for the Torah; she told the story of Bezazel and the Israelites gifts.
"It is about using your artistic talents to share and bring joy," she said. "To those in need."
Temple knitters' mitzvah
Rabbi Elaine Rose Glickman has created more than a few innovative programs at Temple Emanu-El in the past seven years.

subset: commoncrawl


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Sienna Miller & Tom Sturridge: Sunday Stroll with Baby Marlowe!
Sienna Miller and Tom Sturridge take an afternoon stroll with their baby girl Marlowe on Sunday (November 25) in New York City.
The 30-year-old actress and her 26-year-old fiance made a stop at the rag & bone store to do some shopping in the West Village before heading on their way.
PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Sienna Miller
Sienna recently appeared in a film to celebrate fashion designer Matthew Williamson's extremely successful fifteen year career. Be sure to check it out in case you missed it!
FYI: Sienna is using her Bugaboo stroller.


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As the Chicago Fire first team reconvened to kickoff the 2011 season late last week, there was a sense of new beginning among the players and technical staff.
The 2010 season was not a good one as the side missed out the postseason for just the second time in club history.
The work to right the ship began almost immediately following the team's 4-1 season-ending victory at Chivas USA on October 23. First team regulars and rookie draftees that arrived last Friday were joined by a host of foreign and domestic trialists Monday, putting the number of players currently in training camp above 40.
The high number speaks to the amount of players identified during a season of hard work by the club's technical staff, one that saw six members take in games, training sessions and meet with players in Serbia, Croatia, Germany, Slovenia, England, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay and Ghana since late October.
The club has already signed one player from their offseason travels, inking Croatian defender Josip Mikulic earlier this month. More foreign players that are currently not in camp continue to make their way through the process of gaining an international transfer certificate.
The amount of travel done by technical staff this past offseason is the most the club has done in its 14-year history and something that Frank Klopas and his staff viewed as a necessity as only 15 of the 40-plus currently in camp are returning from the 2010 team. Add in the fact that MLS rosters have expanded from 24 to 28 or 30 players and it makes Klopas' job that much more challenging.
"It's not easy," admitted the club's Technical Director Monday. "We've been doing the hard work and research, watched hundreds of tapes and seen guys up close and talked to them all with the intention of getting the right players to make us successful. We've identified a number of trialists through our trips but there are good players that you just need to see in a different environment. You want to see how they do with the speed of play, how they mesh with the team. You have a good idea going in, but you always want to see them at a higher level."
Some players to keep tabs on during this training camp are two young Colombians: Fabian Burbano and Yoximar Granados. Burbano, 19, is a Colombian U20 international in from Envigado FC and is a striker that can play out wide. Still 18, Granados is a speedy right back that comes in from the Sarmiento Soccer School in Lora, Colombia.
Sure to challenge Granados at the right back spot in camp is Coral Springs, FL native Nate Weiss, 23, who after leaving Stetson University has played with clubs in Spain, Ireland, Sweden and most recently Latvian side FK Jelgava.
Undrafted Scottish striker Ashley McInnes has joined from Tulsa University while the club's Open Tryout winner Pari Pantazopoulos is also among the current roster.
A full list of preseason trialists is to be released by the Chicago Fire on Tuesday.
Though the current roster is large, it won't stay that way as the team transitions to their second preseason home in Ave Maria, FL beginning February 14.
"We're planning on being somewhere around 30-32 players by then," said Klopas. "I think in a week we'll have a pretty good idea, but the first phase here, we're still getting everyone's fitness level up. We'll start playing more soon though because with the trialists here we need to make some decisions."
One decision that Klopas and his team have already made was the release of goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra earlier Monday. Because 2011 MLS roster rules dictate that teams need to carry three goalkeepers, one of which needs to be filled with a developmental spot, Dykstra, who will turn 25 this year is too old to be kept in a developmental role.
The situation is different from most teams around the league. The Fire currently have 21-year-old Sean Johnson as the incumbent starter. Earning that role halfway through last season, Johnson cemented it when he made his debut for the U.S. Men's National Team in a friendly vs. Chile earlier this month.
"We're in a situation where Sean [Johnson] is our starter going into 2011 and we wanted to add someone with the experience needed to push him and also fill in for him in case of injury or national team call ups. We feel we got that player during the draft in Jon Conway."
Coaching and Methods
Players aren't the only new guys coming in as the club has welcomed two coaches into the fold this offseason.
Former Uruguayan international goalkeeper Leo Percovich joins Carlos de los Cobos' staff as first assistant coach while Frenchman Tony Jouaux has been named the club's new Strength and Conditioning coach having served in the same role with the University of Louisville's men's soccer team that ran to the finals of the 2010 NCAA College Cup.
Percovich, who won the prestigious Copa Libertadores while with Nacional in his native Uruguay, brings five years of MLS experience to the fold, working previously as in assistant and goalkeeping coaching roles with the Colorado Rapids, Chivas USA and Toronto FC. He's also bilingual.
Jouaux, a highly technical physical trainer from France, brings experience and new ideas to the fold for a team that had a number of injury issues during 2010.
A highlight of the team's preseason setup during their two-a-day workouts here in Chicago is the transformation of the Toyota Park Stadium Club into a larger player's lounge, where guys will eat and spend their time between training sessions together. The club is setup with gaming tables, foosball, TV screens and lots of couches, where players can recover from training while getting to know their new teammates.
It's a setup that, while foreign to a lot of clubs in the United States, is common place among most big clubs around the world.
"We want these guys to get to know each other, to do things together in order to develop that chemistry on and off the field. When we scout players we look for guys with talent and character, but when they come in here, we obviously want them to develop chemistry with the rest of the team on and off the field. We think this is an effective way of doing it."
Jeff Crandall is the Team Writer for the Chicago Fire. Follow him on Twitter @JefeCrandall.


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Outdoor enthusiasts who have been wanting to give cross-country skiing a try don't have to wait until substantial snow blankets area ski trails.
Outdoor enthusiasts who have been wanting to give cross-country skiing a try don't have to wait until substantial snow blankets area ski trails.
Stark County Park District will hold an "Introduction to Cross-Country Skiing" workshop from 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at First Christian Church, 1141 Beech St., in Alliance. The workshop will be repeated at 10 a.m. Dec. 7 at Exploration Gateway at Sippo Lake Park, 5712 12th St. NW, for people who can't participate in the weekday session.
The free seminar is open to adults. Topics discussed will include the health benefits of the sport, equipment and cost, places in the area to ski, an introduction to skiing technique, and advice on how to get started cross-country skiing.
Classes will be indoors and taught by local ski enthusiast and Stark Parks volunteer Dave Puterbaugh.
Registration is required. To register or obtain information, visit www.StarkParks.com or call 330-409-8096.
The introductory classes will be followed by Skiing Basics outdoor sessions from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturdays in January and February at Quail Hollow State Park, where two-hour rentals will be provided by Quail Hollow for $12. Registration for the outdoor classes also is required the Stark Parks website.
Enjoy your own nature talk in a weekly podcast held by The Wilderness Center.
Participants can join general naturalist Gordon Maupin, science educator Joann Ballbach, and conservation biologist Gary Popotnik for a science-based nature chat, notes information at www.wildernesscenter.org, the center's website.
Other nature specialists will join the podcast each week.
"Wild Ideas ... the Podcast," held weekly on Thursdays — all day — can be downloaded from the center's website, or from iTunes, Zune, Stitcher or a participant's favored podcatcher. For information, call 330-359-5235 or 1-877-359-5235.
Canton Audubon Society will combine its December meeting with its holiday dinner. The meeting will be 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Trinity United Church of Christ at 3909 Blackburn Road NW, Canton.
The program will be "Pursuing the Natural High: The Chase for Dragons & Damsels in Ohio," presented by Larry Rosche and Judy Semroc.
Reservations are required. Call 330-832-2491.
The Winter Sports Center at Kendall Lake in Cuyahoga Valley National Park soon will be bustling with activities.
The center on Truxell/Kendall Park Road, two miles west of Akron-Cleveland Road, is open 10 am. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 23. It will be open the same hours daily Dec. 26 through Dec. 31, then be open just Saturdays and Sundays in January and February. It also will be open Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents' Day and additional days during heavy snowfall.
There must be four inches of snow on the ground for the center to be open and renting snowshoes and cross country skis. Call 330-657-2752 for snowfall depth.
Quail Hollow State Park has 12 miles of trails that are open each winter for cross country skiing.
Reach Gary at 330-580-8303
On Twitter: @gbrownREPꎠ


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Rolling like the Thunder with these random thoughts for a Tuesday:
Rolling like the Thunder with these random thoughts for a Tuesday:
� The Thunder, 8-1 in one-goal games in these playoffs, are heading to the Kelly Cup Finals for the first time and will play the Reading Royals beginning Saturday in Reading, Pa. For owner Brad Rowbotham, team president Dan Chapman and coach Matt Thomas, the postseason run, as exciting as it's been, won't be complete without that Kelly Cup. Stockton is a hot team with a hot goalie, Olivier Roy.
� Former Lincoln High and Oregon football standout DeWitt Stuckey started a scholarship fund in honor of his late friend and high school teammate Andrew Cox, who died after a motorcycle accident in 2010. On Monday, the first scholarship was awarded to Trojans senior Theron Palmer at a ceremony at The Reserve at Spanos Park. A classy and touching tribute.
� Franklin graduate and former Delta softball coach Pete Turner will take San Jose State to its first NCAA softball tournament appearance since 1992. The Spartans, champs of the Western Athletic Conference regular-season and postseason tournament titles, play Friday at No. 5 Arizona State.
� No votes for any Warriors player on the NBA All-Defensive Team, Mark Jackson was seventh in Coach of the Year voting, Bob Myers was seventh in Executive of the Year voting and Harrison Barnes received zero votes for Rookie of the Year. That's OK. The Warriors are earning respect where it matters: on the court. Their Western Conference semifinal with San Antonio is tied 2-2 with Game 5 today in San Antonio.
� Yoenis Cespedes and Brandon Moss hit back-to-back homers Monday against Texas. Moss' was the 7,000th in Oakland history. The Rangers are in Oakland this week for the first time since October, when the A's swept their three-game series to win the division and advance to the playoffs.
� 49ers wide receiver Quinton Patton missed his flight from Nashville to the Bay Area and arrived four hours late to rookie minicamp last week. Patton was tardy because he couldn't find his driver's license in time to make the flight. Ironically, two days after he was drafted, Patton was so anxious to get in uniform, he paid for his own plane ticket and rental car in hopes of reporting for duty with the 49ers. Per league rules, Patton was told he had to return home, as rookies weren't allowed at team facilities prior to last Thursday.
� Sergio Garcia got all worked up when the gallery reacted as Tiger Woods pulled a club from his bag early in the second round of The Players Championship on Saturday. Garcia was distracted and intimated Woods' actions were deliberate and unsportsmanlike. Could you imagine if NFL quarterbacks or Major League Baseball players acted in similar fashion? The cultures of the sports are completely different, but still, come on.
Contact sports editor Bob Highfill at (209) 546-8282 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Raymond Ibrahim continues his indispensable, if depressing, catalog of Muslim oppression of Christians during the month of December 2012:
As usual, the month of Christmas saw an uptick in Christian persecution under Islam, in a variety of forms, from insults to murders.
Mass murder figures prominently in these accounts, but the Christmas season reminds us that Islamic supremacism is mainstream, and is by no means limited to Pakistan, Iran, etc.:
[I]n "moderate" Indonesia, the nation's top Muslim clerical body said that Muslims should not offer Christians greetings such as "Merry Christmas," and that Muslims are forbidden from attending any Christmas celebrations; in Egypt, the Committee for Rights and Reform issued a similar fatwa, forbidding Muslims to congratulate Christians during Christmas; even in the West, in Australia, the Lakemba Mosque issued a fatwa warning Muslims that it is a "sin" to wish people a Merry Christmas, because Christmas Day is among the "falsehoods that a Muslim should avoid…and therefore, a Muslim is neither allowed to celebrate the Christmas Day nor is he allowed to congratulate them [Christians]."
Indonesia: More than 200 Muslims threw rotten eggs at Christians for trying to hold a Christmas Mass in empty land outside Jakarta, after their church, the Philadelphia Batak Protestant Church, was illegally closed. According to a photographer, furious Muslims—men and women wearing the Islamic veil, and with small children in tow—physically blocked the road and hurled rotten eggs at the worshippers as they gathered. According to a pastor, "intolerant people" threw not only rotten eggs, but plastic bags filled with urine and cow dung: "Everything…happened while police were there. They were just watching without doing anything to stop them from harming us." Separately, after a suspicious package found on the premises of a Catholic church in North Sumatra stirred panic among the congregation during Christmas mass, a police bomb-squad neutralized what turned out to be an amateur homemade bomb containing 500 grams of nails.
Saudi Arabia: Religious police stormed a house in the province of al-Jouf, detaining more than 41 guests for, in the words of the police statement, "plotting to celebrate Christmas."
Isn't it great to have such a close ally in Saudi Arabia? Now back to the usual violence:
Nigeria: Christmas was another occasion for Muslims to slaughter church-attending Christians. First, in two separate attacks, Islamic gunmen shot and killed 12 Christian worshippers, including the pastor, who had gathered for Christmas-Eve church services. In the words of a resident: "A group of gunmen came into the village at midnight and went straight to the church … they opened fire on them, killing the pastor and five worshippers. They then set fire to the church." Six days later, on Sunday December 30, Muslims attacked another church during service, slaughtering 15 more worshippers; several had their throats slit. At least four more churches were torched and 10 Christians murdered when, according to the report, "the Islamic group members went on rampage [sic] and burned 20 houses and a church in the area," as well as three more churches, all to cries of "Allahu Akbar!" ["Allah is Greater!"]. After the Islamic invaders torched the churches, they used guns and machetes to slaughter their victims.
Somalia: 55-year-old Mursal Isse Siad, a convert to Christianity in 2000, who was receiving death threats for leaving Islam, was finally gunned down by two Islamic gunmen in front of his house. His wife and children subsequently fled the region. "Siad deserved to die because he was not committed to the Islamic religion," said one resident.
Sweden: A Muslim convert to Christianity from Iran who is seeking asylum in Sweden is facing deportation. According to his pastor, "If he is sent back to Iran, the convert, Reza Jebbari, could be imprisoned or even put to death for leaving Islam." Jebbari's lawyers are filing another appeal, but "are puzzled" at the government's apparent determination to deport the Christian convert: "It would seem that we are in a tight spot again and, quite frankly, we're at a loss as to why the Migration services are so determined to deport [him]. People with weaker cases get permission to stay in Sweden, but not him." A few months earlier it was reported that Swedish officials were searching for "Maryam"—the Saudi woman who converted to Christianity and fled, eventually to Sweden—to return her to Saudi Arabia to face apostasy charges.
Sudan: Christians in the Nuba Mountains said they felt abandoned by the world, after Sudanese air forces killed at least another 11 of them in bombings before and after Christmas: "We are surprised why the international community is so silent about the killing in South Kordofan [region of repeated raids]" said one church leader, who requested anonymity.
Christians are murdered by Muslims, and their friends are "surprised why the international community is so silent"? How naive. To my knowledge, American Christians have done nothing whatsoever to express disapproval of their fellow Christians' persecution, let alone try to do anything about it.


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Andy Dirksfree agent
Outfielder | Ht: | Wt: 195
Access our Fantasy Baseball coverage for more!
|Blue Jays | Toronto left field job wide open
Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:14:36 -0800
Toronto Blue Jays OFs Ezequiel Carrera, Chris Dickerson and Andy Dirks (back), 1B Chris Colabello and 3B Danny Valencia are expected to compete for the vacant left field job during spring training. Driks will continue to rehab a back injury and is not expected to resume baseball activity for the next seven to 10 days, according to general manager Alex Anthopoulos, and manager John Gibbons does not expect Dirks to be able to adequately compete for the position due to his injury.
Fantasy Tip: This is a position battle to monitor, but the winner won't be a viable option in the majority of mixed leagues. In the long term, Dirks projects as the best fantasy option, but he'll have to prove his health and earn playing time first. Continue to check back for updates on who is the front-runner for the left field job.
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|| Source: National Post - John Lott
|Blue Jays | Andy Dirks rehabbing back
Sun, 15 Feb 2015 19:59:26 -0800
Toronto Blue Jays OF Andy Dirks (back) will report to the team's minor-league camp instead of big league spring training as he continues to rehab his back.
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|| Source: Sportsnet.ca
|Blue Jays | Andy Dirks signs
Thu, 15 Jan 2015 11:26:30 -0800
Free-agent OF Andy Dirks (Tigers) signed a minor league deal with an invite to spring training with the Toronto Blue Jays Thursday, Jan. 15, according to a source.
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|| Source: FOXSports.com - Ken Rosenthal
|Tigers | Detroit could bring back Andy Dirks
Sun, 11 Jan 2015 12:01:55 -0800
Free-agent OF Andy Dirks (Blue Jays) could rejoin the Detroit Tigers as a non-roster invitee in spring training camp. However, he is still exploring his options before he makes a final decision, according to general manager Dave Dombrowski.
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|| Source: The Detroit News - Tom Gage
|Marlins | Miami interested in several outfielders
Sun, 11 Jan 2015 10:38:19 -0800
The Miami Marlins have reportedly expressed interest in San Diego Padres OF Will Venable and free-agent OF Andy Dirks (Blue Jays).
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|| Source: MLB.com - Joe Frisaro
|Blue Jays | Three non-tendered
Wed, 03 Dec 2014 09:04:03 -0800
Toronto Blue Jays 1B Justin Smoak and OFs Andy Dirks and John Mayberry Jr. were not tendered contracts, making them free agents.
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|| Source: CBSSports.com
|Blue Jays | Four players reinstated
Sun, 02 Nov 2014 10:05:09 -0800
The Toronto Blue Jays have reinstated 3B Brett Lawrie (oblique), INF Maicer Izturis (knee), OF Andy Dirks (hamstring) and RP Chad Jenkins (hand) from the 60-day disabled list.
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|| Source: Sportsnet.ca - Shi Davidi
|Blue Jays | Claim Andy Dirks
Fri, 31 Oct 2014 11:27:54 -0700
The Toronto Blue Jays claimed OF Andy Dirks off waivers from the Detroit Tigers Friday, Oct. 31.
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|| Source: MLB.com - Jason Beck
|Tigers | Not counting on Andy Dirks
Fri, 22 Aug 2014 19:39:36 -0700
The Detroit Tigers are not counting on OF Andy Dirks (hamstring) to return from his hamstring injury this season, according to general manager Dave Dombrowski.
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|| Source: MLB.com - Jason Beck
|Tigers | Andy Dirks rehab assignment update
Fri, 15 Aug 2014 14:23:37 -0700
Detroit Tigers OF Andy Dirks (hamstring) will resume his rehab assignment with Triple-A Toledo Saturday, Aug. 16.
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|| Source: MLive.com - James Schmehl


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February 28. 2013 11:21PM
Atkinson officials say chief's retirement announcement led to disclosure he was fired
By JAMES A. KIMBLE and JASON SCHREIBER
Union Leader Correspondents
Atkinson police chief fired after he retires
ATKINSON - On Feb. 5, selectmen convened a closed-door meeting about a complaint they received that day concerning Police Chief Phil Consentino and directed the town's attorney to hire a consultant to investigate the claim.
The results of a report delivered to selectmen on Wednesday led the board to terminating Consentino with cause. Selectmen voted to seal the nonpublic minutes of the two meetings that led to firing Consentino, who served as a part-time chief for 35 years, Town Administrator William Innes said.
But it was Consentino's own claim in a letter addressed to selectmen that he was "retiring" as police chief and director of elderly affairs that prompted the town to disclose that he was fired, according to Innes.
"We needed to set the record straight that he wasn't retiring," Innes said in an interview on Thursday at Town Hall.
Innes said Consentino, 72, never notified selectmen about his retirement letter, which cited recent health concerns and an intention to step down on April 2.
Town officials and lawyers involved in the matter have refused to comment about the complaint against Consentino, but Innes acknowledged on Thursday that Consentino's alleged actions could open the town to a possible lawsuit.
"There's always that kind of concern," he said.
Innes said he had no knowledge of the town being put on notice that a lawsuit was being considered against the town, or its former chief.
Consentino has worked as a police officer for 45 years, with 35 years as Atkinson's chief.
Consentino did not return a phone call seeking comment on Thursday.
"It is with sincere regret that due to some past and present health issues and this weekend's stay in the hospital I am retiring from both the police chief's position and as the town's director of elderly affairs," Consentino said in his letter addressed to selectmen.
Consentino's lawyer, Mark Giarrusso, said he hasn't seen the report from the independent consultant but was surprised to learn that selectmen chose to fire him Wednesday night.
"I don't know what the town is doing here. He's been talking about retiring for some time and over the past week he made it clear to them that he was going to retire," Giarrusso said, adding that Consentino is a "good guy" and that it was "time for him to move on."
Giarrusso said Consentino has had some health issues. He said the chief's job sometimes brought him headaches with some people "constantly harassing him."
"He's done a great job, especially in elderly affairs. People love him," Giarrusso said.
Giarrusso said he didn't know whether Consentino planned to appeal the firing.
Selectmen Fred Childs and William Friel didn't return phone calls seeking additional comment on Consentino's firing.
Selectman Todd Barbera said he wasn't able to comment because it's a personnel matter.
While some have praised Consentino for his dedication to the town, he has drawn controversy and been the target of lawsuits over the years.
He grabbed national headlines in 2003 when he tried to crack down on Massachusetts residents traveling over the border to trick-or-treat in his town on Halloween.
His dual role as police chief and elderly affairs director came under attack with some pushing to have elderly affairs removed from the police department.
A 2009 lawsuit by a taxpayers group accused him of bullying residents to defend his "turf" and running the town like a "stereotypical southern sheriff of the 1920s."
The lawsuit claimed Consentino harassed people who signed a petition in support of a warrant article that would establish a full-time, fully certified chief. It was a job that Consentino would not have been eligible for, the lawsuit said.
A judge ultimately threw out the harassment complaint against Consentino, and the remaining issues filed against the town were settled in 2011. Consentino was admonished and found in contempt by a superior court judge in September 2005 for continuing to participate in conversations about the police and elderly affairs departments while serving as a town selectman.
"Philip Consentino has lived in the town of Atkinson for over 50 years," Judge Kenneth McHugh said in a September 2005 decision. "Apparently, he concludes that that entitles him to consider Atkinson 'his town.' While no doubt over the years Mr. Consentino has done a lot of unpaid work for the betterment of the town, he has to recognize that because he has chosen to serve in more than one capacity, there are certain rules that he must follow."
In his letter, Consentino said he has been pleased with the support he and his family have received from the town and its residents.
He said the greatest part of his job was developing what he believes is one of the best senior citizen programs in southern New Hampshire.
With retirement approaching, Consentino wrote, "I look forward to working on my health problems, working around my farm and spending more time with my family."
Selectmen named police Sgt. Pat Caggiano as the town's acting police chief.
Caggiano, a longtime veteran of the Plaistow police department, joined Atkinson's police force within the last year.
Innes was appointed by selectmen as the acting director of elderly affairs.


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The next time you pull the family barge in for a fill-up, check it out: The gas pumps read "Unleaded." You might reasonably suppose this is because naturally occurring lead has been thoughtfully removed from the gasoline. But you would be wrong. There is no lead in gasoline unless somebody puts it there. And, a little more than seventy-five years ago, some of America's leading corporations–General Motors, Du Pont and Standard Oil of New Jersey (known nowadays as Exxon)–were that somebody. They got together and put lead, a known poison, into gasoline, for profit.
Lead was outlawed as an automotive gasoline additive in this country in 1986–more than sixty years after its introduction–to enable the use of emissions-reducing catalytic converters in cars (which are contaminated and rendered useless by lead) and to address the myriad health and safety concerns that have shadowed the toxic additive from its first, tentative appearance on US roads in the twenties, through a period of international ubiquity only recently ending. Since the virtual disappearance of leaded gas in the United States (it's still sold for use in propeller airplanes), the mean blood-lead level of the American population has declined more than 75 percent. A 1985 EPA study estimated that as many as 5,000 Americans died annually from lead-related heart disease prior to the country's lead phaseout. According to a 1988 report to Congress on childhood lead poisoning in America by the government's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, one can estimate that the blood-lead levels of up to 2 million children were reduced every year to below toxic levels between 1970 and 1987 as leaded gasoline use was reduced. From that report and elsewhere, one can conservatively estimate that a total of about 68 million young children had toxic exposures to lead from gasoline from 1927 to 1987.
How did lead get into gasoline in the first place? And why is leaded gas still being sold in the Third World, Eastern Europe and elsewhere? Recently uncovered documents from the archives of the aforementioned industrial behemoths and the US government, a new skein of academic research and a careful reading of that long-ago period's historical record, as well as dozens of interviews conducted by The Nation, tell the true story of leaded gasoline, a sad and sordid commercial venture that would tiptoe its way quietly into the black hole of history if the captains of industry were to have their way. But the story must be recounted now. The leaded gas adventurers have profitably polluted the world on a grand scale and, in the process, have provided a model for the asbestos, tobacco, pesticide and nuclear power industries, and other twentieth-century corporate bad actors, for evading clear evidence that their products are harmful by hiding behind the mantle of scientific uncertainty.
This is not just a textbook example of unnecessary environmental degradation, however. Nor is this history important solely as a cautionary retort to those who would doubt the need for aggressive regulation of industry, when commercial interests ask us to sanction genetically modified food on the basis of their own scientific assurances, just as the merchants of lead once did. The leaded gasoline story must also be read as a call to action, for the lead menace lives.


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Nervous system, artwork
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Keywords: anatomy, artwork, biology, brain, central nervous system, female, female anatomy, front view, health, healthcare, healthy, human anatomy, human biology, human body part, human health, human representation, illustration, medical illustration, medicine, nerve, nervous system, neuron, normal, signal, spinal cord, top section, transmitter, white background
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text:
Justin Tuck called it a funny year. He and his New York Giants teammates weren't laughing.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.— Justin Tuck called it a funny year. He and his New York Giants teammates weren't laughing.
There will be no repeat championship for the Giants, not even a playoff berth. A 9-7 season wasn't good enough this time around.
The Giants saw their playoff hopes end Sunday, minutes after a 42-7 win over the Philadelphia Eagles when Chicago beat Detroit, 26-24.
"It happens that way," Tuck said after the Giants rebounded from two bad losses and routed the Eagles in what might have been Andy Reid's final game at coach. "I've been 10-6 and not made the playoffs. You've got to win the ones you're supposed to. That's why the division games mean so much. If we'd won the division games, we'd still be in the driver's seat."
Instead, they are headed home early.
"We are certainly disappointed we are not in the playoffs," coach Tom Coughlin said after New York missed the postseason for the third time in four years. "Our goal was certainly to be there. Our goal was to win the division. We didn't do that either. We won nine games and there is no way anyone can talk us out of that. We do have the nine wins, but it's not good enough."
A year ago it was. The Giants won their last two games in 2011 to get into the playoffs, and finished the season with six straight wins in earning their second NFL title in five seasons.
This marks the seventh straight season the Super Bowl champion has failed to win a playoff game the following year.
Moments after finishing his worst season with the Eagles (4-12), Reid said he would like to return for the final year of a contract that will pay him $6 million next year. Reid expects to meet with owner Jeffrey Lurie on Monday.
"I've been doing it a long time. I have respect for Jeff Lurie. I go in eyes wide open," Reid said. "Either way, I understand. Whatever he chooses will be the right thing. He always does things for the best interests of the Eagles."
Eli Manning did his part to keep the Giants in the chase with a career-best five touchdown passes. Fans who stuck around were chanting "Let's Go Lions" as the final moments ticked off in the Chicago-Detroit game.
"It hurts," said Manning, who finished 13 of 21 for 208 yards and no interceptions. "Each year you want to make the playoffs to give yourself an opportunity to win a championship; 9-7 last year was good enough. It wasn't good enough this year and we knew it wouldn't be."
After going 6-2, they lost five of eight, including two games by a combined 67-14 to playoff-bound Atlanta and Baltimore.
"The first thing is you don't ever rely on anybody else in this business," said Coughlin. "You've got to take care of your own business. We certainly had our chances. That will be the No. 1 thing I'll talk to the team about."
Manning woke up the offense with touchdown passes of 3 and 38 yards to rookie Rueben Randle, a 15-yarder to David Wilson and a 24-yarder to Victor Cruz just before halftime for a 35-7 lead. He's the first Giant to throw five TD passes in a game since Phil Simms in 1980. His fifth score was a 1-yard pass to fullback Henry Hynoski in the fourth quarter.
Ahmad Bradshaw, who rushed for 107 yards and passed the 1,000-yard mark for the second time in his career, also scored on a 1-yard run.
Starting for the first time since a concussion against Dallas in early November, Michael Vick threw a 7-yard touchdown to Jeremy Maclin. Vick finished 19 of 35 for 197 yards and one interception before being replaced by Trent Edwards.
The Eagles had hoped to send Reid out on a positive note, but they played poorly.
"We came, we stunk it up and we lost," defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins said. "It was terrible. No heart."
Vick, replacing injured rookie Nick Foles, was also reluctant to discuss his future, but he felt for Reid, who gave him a second chance after he got out of prison.
"He's a great man and I love him to death," Vick said. "I wish I could've done more. A lot of players wish they could've done more. Coaches can't play the games."
The Eagles surprised the Giants on a cold and windy day with an onside kick to open the game. However, turnovers have hurt the Eagles all season, and it happened again when Stevie Brown came up with his eighth interception.
Manning needed four plays, finding Randle over the middle for his second touchdown of his rookie season. His third came on the following series when New York went 74 yards in five plays.
The third touchdown was another pass to a rookie, with Wilson catching a 15-yarder, then doing his usual back flip to celebrate.
NOTES: About 400 residents of Newtown, Conn., attended the New York Giants-Philadelphia Eagles game Sunday. Among them were a few families who lost children in the massacre this month, the Giants said. One was the family of Jack Pinto, the 6-year-old boy buried in a No. 80 jersey of Giants receiver Victor Cruz. ... Bradshaw finished with 1,015 yards rushing. ...Manning fell 52 yards shy of his fourth straight 4,000 yard passing season. ...Brown's 48-yard return gave him 307 yards in interception returns this season, extending his Giants' single-season record. ... Eagles safety Colt Anderson led them with 10 tackles.


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The Brianna Bed Crown Cornice is the epitome of chic elegance and sophistication. This beautiful cornice is upholstered on all sides with deep purple fabric and finished with a gorgeous green floral ruffle trim. Cornice features an upholstered wooden frame with polyester batting. Mounting instructions and L-brackets are included.
Add drapery panels to the cornice to complete the look and create the ultimate boudoir for your little princess. The whimsical pair of curtain panels adds sleek sophistication to the room, with solid grey and pink floral pleats that add just a touch of color and can be pulls back to reveal a vibrant green floral motif. Each curtain panel measures 20"W and 96"L. The gorgeous panels easily mount inside the cornice with hook and loop tape which is attached to the panels and cornice. Dry clean only. Made in the USA with imported fabrics.
Would you like us to help you find a similar item? Talk with our Design Consultants toll-free at1-800-927-5164.
*Shipping transit time varies based on destination. Free shipping offers are limited to the 48 contiguous states of the USA.
International Customers (including Alaska and Hawaii) please contact a Customer Service Representative if you have any questions about placing an order with PoshTots.
This item is custom made especially for you upon order.Click here for our policy on custom made items.
Promotion codes cannot be used for sale item purchases.
*Free shipping offers are limited to the 48 contiguous states of the USA.


text:
Happy family of three, with a baby, blue-eyed girl. Beautiful parents mom and dad, have fun at a picnic in the park.
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text:
DIRECTV is available in your area
Television allows us to stay connected, to keep up with our favorite teams or shows, and to be entertained. The best way to take advantage of all that television has to offer is DIRECTV. Now, you can have the best deal ever when you have a qualifying home service like AT&T Internet or home phone service. We can help you lock in a two-year deal for DIRECTV. Bundle your services or find local internet available for you!
DIRECTV now offers the most advanced HD DVR system ever with the Genie. Everyone in your family can watch their favorite shows—either live or recorded, and they can watch those programs in any room in the house with a television, or, with the Wireless Genie Mini, you can watch outside. The Genie system lets you record up to five shows at once.
If you want instant access to the best movies, DIRECTV CINEMA allows you instant access to the most popular movies that have been released. There are new movies every week, and they're on DIRECTV CINEMA before they're on Netflix or Redbox. You'll be able to watch these great movies anywhere—on your television, laptop, tablet, or even cell phone.
When your television is connected to the internet, you can use your DIRECTV HD DVR to gain instant access to thousands of movies, and you can watch them anytime. You can stream these movies anywhere—it makes waiting for your kids to finish their practice or their orthodontist appointment less tedious than ever before.
On Demand
DIRECTV On Demand allows you to watch the top television programs any time. One of the best features lets you go back to the beginning of a Show if you tuned in late. If you get busy and forget to set your DVR for a program, you have 72 hours to go back and watch that program.
DIRECTV also makes it simple to binge-watch your favorite programs. After you watch episode one of your show, DIRECTV will put episode two up next for your viewing enjoyment. Even if you forgot to record episode two, or if it has been more than 72 hours since episode two has aired, the next episode in line will be ready to enjoy.
Advanced Features
DIRECTV has some of the best apps in entertainment. You can use these free HD TV apps to allow you to check the weather in up to five different cities, to check the scores and schedules of your teams, to see what is trending, and even to check out your Fantasy Football league.
Another awesome advanced feature is Mix Channels which allows you to watch up to eight different sports programs on your screen at one time. Want to watch your favorite baseball team NBA Finals? With Mix Channels you can have them both on your screen at the same time.
Speaking of sports, the Sports feature with the Genie allows you to select your favorite teams and/or sporting events and have scheduling information appear on your screen. Never miss your team's big game again.
DIRECTV offers you cutting edge entertainment, news, and sports enjoyment. Call now to learn more!


text:
Part time/Full time home based typing jobs available. No experience needed. No Selling Required. Paid for the work you do. Get paid every 15th day according to your work. The more you work, the more you earn. For more details Call: 9239635553 or Visit our Website: www.gsrinfosolutions.co.in Posted By: GSR00017S.
Posted On :
February 14, 2010
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Contact Name : Subhasis Ghosh
Location : Kolkata, India
Mobile / Phone No: 9239635553
Posted Date : February 14, 2010
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text:
Mel Corren was probably one of the few people who clipped the article in Thursday's edition of The Record about developers interested in creating lofts in downtown Stockton.
Mel Corren was probably one of the few people who clipped the article in Thursday's edition of The Record about developers interested in creating lofts in downtown Stockton.
The story made the 89-year-old native smile, not because he's ready to move out of his north Stockton home, which is conveniently located within walking distance of Lincoln Center, but because he dreams of downtown Stockton someday restoring the amenities available in shopping centers.
Corren remembers working at his grandfather's furniture store, M. Corren and Sons, in the 1940s, and his aunt calling his Uncle Harry just before closing time and telling him to pick up bread and hard rolls for dinner.
The carload of Correns would wait while Harry ran across Market Street to Muzio's Bakery.
Downtown Stockton was the center of commerce, with clothing shops, grocers, specialty shops, movie houses, drugstores. There were gambling halls and houses of prostitution.
"The prostitution was fabulous," Corren said, although he claims his knowledge is not firsthand.
It served a segment of the community, he said, just as all the other businesses did.
"We had bakeries, the Crystal Palace candy shop, fabulous restaurants, a great Basque restaurant, a kosher butcher, everything you needed," Corren said of the last days of what historian Alice van Ommeren refers to as Stockton's Golden Age.
The city spread north, and businesses moved too, leaving behind vacant but in some cases architecturally interesting buildings.
Corren sees old buildings with intricate exteriors and envisions the insides being refurbished as housing units. His photographs of vacations show other cities turning such relics into livable space in San Diego, Denver and Branson, Mo., to name a few.
What prospective residents need, though, is a good grocery store, and that's one of Corren's current causes. Developers tell him there can't be a grocery store until there are more residents. He counters that without a grocery store, nobody will live downtown. It's the chicken-or-egg scenario with a literal chicken and egg in dispute.
Corren looks at abandoned buildings and sees possibility.
He's even picked out a couple that he sees as ideal for a downtown market, one that would have a deli counter, bakery, fresh produce stand and other niche areas along with a frozen foods counter and canned-goods and staples area. Tables and chairs would invite folks to sit and meet, have a sandwich or a cup of coffee along the lines of space available at Whole Foods markets and lesser-known stores.
"It could be a hub downtown with different counters," Corren said. "People who work downtown would go to a place like that."
Or, kids who go to school would go there, the presence of those kids downtown already delighting Corren.
Giving life to an area that Corren believes was doomed by northern flight and the construction of the crosstown freeway that gutted Chinatown and Little Manila, among other communities, is something that occupies Corren's thoughts.
All of those changes left Stockton without a heart, Corren said, but he didn't lose hope.
He's an admitted fan of his hometown, and has shared his dream of a renewed downtown, complete with a slide show, to local community organizations. He hopes to rally support for his grocery store idea by sharing images of how Stockton once looked and how other cities have succeeded in their makeovers.
"How do you get people involved?" he wondered. "We've got to get people to come together, create an esprit de corps."
Now more than ever.
"I think sometimes when people are talking to one another or talking about Stockton or even if you're out of town, I think people cringe a little when they say they're from Stockton," Corren said. "We should be proud of Stockton. We've got so many things in Stockton we can be proud of. We can't necessarily be proud of the bankruptcy, but we can look at the positive side of the bankruptcy. We can see we've got beautiful things on the water, which are first class for any city.
"There's no reason to be ashamed of being from Stockton. Detroit is bankrupt, too. Other cities have problems, but that doesn't mean we should forsake them."
Instead, he proposes service clubs and organizations pulling together to support Stockton as they supported the Asparagus Festival with their volunteerism. Instead of selling beer to raise money for their club, he suggests club members gathering in small groups for lunch, followed by an afternoon making downtown better, maybe helping to clean up streets or paint old buildings.
"It wouldn't be for remuneration, but for the pride of Stockton," Corren said.
If Corren's ideas are pipe dreams, then they're the best kind of pipe dreams. They come from the heart, and come from someone willing to lead a grassroots movement to return downtown Stockton to its former glory. And more importantly, its days of commerce.
Contact columnist Lori Gilbert at (209) 546-8284 or email@example.com.


text:
NEW YORK (AP) — A man stabbed his mother to death and cut up her body, which was found in pieces in a series of trash bags on city streets, authorities said Wednesday.
Police added a murder charge against Bashid McLean, 23, hours after he and an acquaintance, William Harris, 26, were first arrested on charges of unlawfully dissecting a human body and hindering prosecution. Each man initially implicated the other in Tanya Byrd's killing, according to accounts they gave authorities.
It was unclear whether McLean, whose family described him as a troubled man who had long harbored anger toward his mother, or Harris had a lawyer. No phone numbers could be found for their homes.
Meanwhile, the medical examiners determined Wednesday that Byrd died from being stabbed in the neck. The medical examiner's office officially ruled her death a homicide in the chilling case, which came to light when a resident's dog sniffed out one of the bags early Tuesday on a Bronx street.
Byrd, a 45-year-old home health aide, was last seen alive Monday. Her remains were stuffed in four bags and scattered along four blocks, police said.
The resident's dog found the first bag — a heavy-duty plastic garbage bag stuffed in a duffel bag, with the woman's bloodied leg inside — in a trash pile in the Melrose neighborhood.
Police then found the three other bags and their macabre contents, including the victim's head, part of her torso and other limbs.
Witnesses told police an SUV dropped the bags off Monday night or early Tuesday.
Friends described Byrd as upbeat and generous.
"Anything you would have needed, she would have given it to you," friend Elizabeth Cruz told WCBS-TV.
McLean had a history of psychiatric problems and animus toward his mother, relatives told local media.
"He did destructive things," his father, James McLean, told the Daily News. "He set fires. Nobody could control him."
While the case and its discovery were particularly gruesome, there have been similar episodes in the city in recent years.
In one bizarre case, a passer-by found a woman's body in a suitcase while rummaging through trash in East Harlem in December 2010. Police, after releasing surveillance video of a man wheeling the suitcase down a sidewalk in the area, arrested Hassan Malik.
He ultimately told detectives he got into an argument with the woman, Betty Williams, choked her with an electric cord, packed her in the luggage and abandoned it in a street, according to a court document.
Malik, 57, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
In another case, a teenage girl's body was found wrapped in garbage bags in a Bronx alley in September 2009. The girl, Jamia Hazel, had been stabbed to death.
A man, Darrell Spencer, is awaiting trial on murder and other charges in her death. He has pleaded not guilty.
Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz


text:
Goralion Admin Friday 26/07/2013, 11:58
Hey everybody,
First, thank you for your feedback on the first version of the new site project. Our goal is to rejuvenate the current website, make it clearer and easier to use, and above all make you enjoy it. This is why we need your feedback, positive or negative, so don't hesitate to tell us what you think.
We just released a new version of the website containing modifications developed according to your feedback and the survey.
You can check it directly here : beta.urban-rivals.com
Here follows what we modified on this version :
Homepage :
- you didn't like the new home page, and that the game was located on the home page as you felt like we forced you to play
-> the home page is now more like the current website's, with news, staff events, rankings, missions and friend infos
- you didn't like the menu's colors as it looked too childish
-> we put the same colors than the current website's menu
Game page :
- you didn't like to see the game on the homepage
-> the game has now its own page. You can access the game by clicking on the PLAY button
Design and pictures :
- you didn't like the background and its black gradient, as well as several design elements
-> we created a new background, brought color to stick with UR's style
Collection :
- you didn't like that both collections (pro and normal) didn't work the same way
-> both views of the collection, list and cards, are homogeneous. The selection zone is the same, and can be used to sell on the Market, create auctions and create a deck. We are optimizing it so that it will display a lot faster.
- you like the album and having the missing cards' verso displayed
-> we are pleased to see you like it
- you thought the album was missing some informations about missing characters
-> we added their Market price and a "purchase" link to access directly to its sales on the Market. A "details" link is also present to go to the corresponding character page
We also corrected (and we still are) bugs you found.
Thank you again to help us improve Urban Rivals' website !
edited by Espectroscuro friday 26/07/2013, 11:58
Sakamaki Hero Saturday 28/09/2013, 16:19
Oh, I see it now... hidden.


text:
The city of Chillicothe will receive higher farm ground lease payments this year compared to years past.
Boon Farms, of Chula, submitted the highest bids for farm ground at the airport and industrial park. The bid came in at $23,552 for the airport ground, and $35,072 for the industrial park ground for a one-year lease.
The airport ground consists of 92 tillable acres, and will be rented at a rate of $256 per acre. The industrial park farm ground contains 137 tillable acres and will be rented at the same rate.
Four bids were submitted to the city for consideration. The other airport ground bids ranged from $226 per acre to $242.75 per acre, while the industrial park ground bids ranged from $226 per acre to $248.75 per acre.
While the industrial park farm ground lease is similar to last year's rate, the overall amount for the airport ground lease increased by $8,280. Last year, the airport's farm ground was $15,272. Crops on the farm ground are limited to soybeans.
Council members considered the bids during last week's meeting and unanimously approved the bids.
Also during the council's meeting, city officials approved an ordinance regarding an airport aid agreement for the purchase of a new ceilometer for the AWOS (automated weather observation station) unit, to replace an inoperable one at the airport. Airport manager Bill Kieffer explained that the instrument shoots a laser at clouds to determine the height of a cloud base. The $23,304 unit will be paid for through an entitlement grant, which will provide 90 percent funding. The city will pay the remaining 10 percent.
The council also reviewed park items to be listed as surplus. They include a metal platform with slide (toddler toy), an A-frame swing set (single bay), and a rubber tire climber (toddler toy). The city's insurance carrier recommended removal of these items. Also to be added to surplus items was a seven-tire Rosco rolle that had been at the airport, and is now stored at the fairgrounds.
City accepts farm ground lease
The city of Chillicothe will receive higher farm ground lease payments this year compared to years past.


text:
This product will remain fresh and tasty for 12 days. You may specify future ship dates when you order.
Unbleached unbromated wheat flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), chocolate (sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, soy lecethin (an emulsifier), vanilla extract), brown sugar, cane sugar, expeller pressed canola oil, butter (milk), cage-free eggs, tapioca syrup, pink sea salt, vanilla bean extract ( water, alcohol and natural glycerine), baking soda, baking powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium bicarbonate, corn starch, monocalcium phosphate)
Produced in a bakery that processes peanuts and tree nuts.
Certified Kosher by Star-K


text:
Hi Diane!
I couldn't find how to follow you on your blog, but I did LIKE your FB page!
Please check out my FB page Couponlicious and the blog is www.couponlcious.blogspot.com
Thanks for adding me as a friend!!!
Hi Diane,
Hi! Just stopping by. I 'liked' you on facebook. Would love a visit and a 'like' back from your personal profile (it counts visibly) on my page: www.facebook.com/flightlessgoose. Thanks! Nice to meet you!


text:
Step Into The Douglas House, a Richard Meier Renowned Home in Harbor Springs
Credit the intractable architectural guidelines of one residential community for provoking architect Richard Meier into the daring, liberating engineering and design feat that resulted in the internationally acclaimed Douglas House.
Built for Jim and Jean Douglas in 1973, the home clings to a dizzyingly steep slope above Lake Michigan near Harbor Springs instead of being set on a lovely, if less dramatic, lot in the resort community of L'Arbre Croche, where the Douglases had originally intended it. As history has it, when the Douglases and Meier presented their idea to the L'Arbre Croche developers for a Modernist structure featuring a glass-and-white exterior, they were told only earth-toned exteriors were permitted in the subdivision. "They said it's all fine but it couldn't be white," Meier recalls with a soft laugh.
By the 1970's Richard Meier, who would go on to design some of the 20th century's most famous buildings, including the Getty Center in Los Angeles, was already making his reputation as a master of international Modernist structures sculpted with the absence of any color but white. The white and glass exterior on Meier's Smith House, built in Darien, Connecticut, in 1967, had helped elevate his reputation as a gifted disciple of Le Corbusier, the Swiss architect considered a father of Modernist architecture. The Douglas House would further cement that reputation—and go on to earn the architect lasting international acclaim for his ability to push the limits of Modernism in previously unimagined directions.
Buy the December 2009 of Traverse, Northern Michigan's Magazine and get the entire photo feature of the Richard Meier Douglas House in Harbor Springs
The Douglases, owners of a trucking company who lived in a Midwest Victorian home in Grand Rapids with their three children, seemed unlikely candidates for a Meier-style adventure in architecture. But the couple had been enamored enough of pictures they'd seen of the Smith House to contact Meier requesting that he build another "Smith House," in Northern Michigan. And in the face of the L'Arbre Croche rejection, they stood by their choice of architect.
Months of property hunting later, the Douglases asked Meier to fly back to Northern Michigan again—this time to see a piece of property that local opinion considered unbuildable. The steep site would prove fortuitous as it forced the original design Meier had planned for the Douglas Home to new brilliance.
Meier recalls standing on the precipice of the cedar, birch and spruce covered slope that winds down to aquamarine shallows of Lake Michigan and thinking, Wow, this is great. "It seemed to me that we could build on it if, instead of entering at the bottom we entered from the top," the architect recalls with exquisite understatement.
When the home was finished in 1973, Meier's genius, manifested in glass and white-lacquered wood, spilled four stories down the slope from its deceivingly low one-story entrance at the bluff's precipice. Floor-to-ceiling views of lake, sky and trees commandeered the interior.
"It's a great spatial feeling that relates to the landscape and allows you to appreciate the changes of color during the day and the seasons," says Meier, who recalls a visit to the site in the autumn that was "just gorgeous."
The effortless grace of the structure belied a major, three-year construction project whose complications were compounded by the rural location. The Douglases hired a construction company from Grand Rapids, and logistics included transporting a pile-driver rig, driven at a crawl the 200 miles north to the building site. Garon Gopigian, who has summered across the street from the home since it was built, remembers the summer of 1971 when the 40-foot piles that the home would sit on were being driven deep into the clay slope. "It was relentless pounding all summer long," he says.
Meier is still proud of the fact that so few trees were removed in construction. "The house was built almost like we dropped it from a helicopter," he says. "We left a tree on the lake side that was actually only a foot from the house."
Buy the December 2009 of Traverse, Northern Michigan's Magazine and get the entire photo feature of the Richard Meier Douglas House in Harbor Springs
The architect outfitted the home with furnishings that included Le Corbusier chairs in the living room and Mies van der Rohe dining room chairs. Meier designed the built-in desks and beds in the children's efficient ship cabin-like bedrooms, as well as the burled maple dining table and a matching white wood lacquered coffee table and couch in the living room. He went on to think through every detail, right down to the stainless steel paper towel holder built into the kitchen wall near the sink. When the home was finished, it needed almost no adornment—the all-encompassing view with its infinite permutations of the interaction of sun, clouds and water was all the decoration it needed.
Renown for the Douglas House came quickly. In 1974, the architecture critic Paul Goldberger wrote in The New York Times: "The recently completed James Douglas House in Harbor Springs, Mich., is the best example yet of Meier's evolving style—and it is perhaps one of the most skillfully wrought pieces of American housing in years … In his reinterpretation of Le Corbusier's forms, Richard Meier has done far more than createa house which echoes now-classic modern designs. He has made a building which stands strongly on its own."
That same year, the magazine Global Architecture devoted an entire issue to the home, including 40 stunning photographs by Japanese photographer and the founder and editor of Global Architecture, Yukio Futagawa. Goldberger wrote the text. In 1976 the Douglas House was given one of six Honor Awards by the American Institute of Architects—the only single family residence to win that year.
Even as the house gathered fame, it was, as Meier had very much intended it to be, a fabulous year-round home to the Douglas family. Gopigian, who was friends with the Douglas children, has wonderful memories of playing in and around the house—scaling the white metal climbers Meier designed into the home's exterior and playing Monopoly on the Meier-designed burl oak table.
At the end of the 1970's the Douglases sold the home and moved from Harbor Springs. By the time the third owners—J. Paul Beitler and his wife, Penny Powers Beitler—purchased the Douglas House in 1983, a full restoration was required. The home's second owners had added carpeting, foil wallpapers, heavy drapes, and early American furniture. The Meier-designed coffee table was gone, and the Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe furniture was in need of repair or in some cases replacement, and the house, closed during winters, had substantially deteriorated due to thermal and water intrusion.
At the time, Beitler was just beginning his career as a commercial real estate developer in Chicago. Eventually, his firm Miglin-Beitler would become one of the most prestigious real estate development companies in Chicago. Over the course of his career, Beitler says he received the equivalent of an architectural degree working with the world's greatest architects. Beitler understood Modernism, knew Meier's reputation, and he knew the importance of the Douglas House.
The Beitlers launched their restoration by contacting Richard Meier for the original drawings, then went on to have the Le Corbusier chairs reupholstered, the Mies van der Rohe dining table chairs re-caned and commissioning an exact replica of the missing Meier coffee table. The glass walls needed repairing, so the Beitlers hired a specialist who'd worked on Chicago's Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building.
In fact, the only change the Beitlers made to Meier's original design was the addition of a custom rug for the living room seating area where Meier had placed a gray shag rug, designed to replicate a tapestry done by Le Corbusier for a Japanese theater. Beyond its Le Corbusier design, the rug is also important, Beitler explains, because as you descend into the living room your gaze is directed downward, not to the walls. "So the art is on the floor" he says.
Buy the December 2009 of Traverse, Northern Michigan's Magazine and get the entire photo feature of the Richard Meier Douglas House in Harbor Springs
The Beitlers' efforts were rewarded with a 1988 article in Architectural Digest with foreward by Richard Meier recounting the return of the Douglas house as an iconic masterpiece. The home's fame made it a mecca for architecture aficionados, occasionally creating privacy issues, such as the time a group of students simply walked in the front door. The Beitlers politely toured them around—then had a security system installed.
Beitler says the payoffs of living in the Douglas House were worth the drawbacks. "It is a sculpture," he says. "You are living in a piece of architecture that is perfectly matched to nature—there were times when you could literally reach out and touch the face of God. No one who has ever been in this home has walked away untouched."
In 2007, the same year the American Institute of Architects named the Douglas House as one of 150 buildings on their America's Favorite Architecture List, the Beitlers passed their stewardship of Meier's masterpiece to Michael McCarthy and his wife, Marcia Myers. Retired executives of Procter & Gamble, the couple had worked their way up through the company over the course of their 30-year careers—one day hoping to have a home on Lake Michigan.
When Myers, an Art History major at the University of Michigan in the 1970's, discovered the real estate listing for the Douglas Home on the Internet, she knew she'd found both their dream home and a work of art. The couple has stepped into the role of stewards of the 40-yearold house where the Beitlers left off. We are building on his "mission to engage with architects and master builders to ensure the living breathing Meier creation is kept technically and artistically as originally designed," says McCarthy.
Restoration projects in the past two years, overseen by McCarthy, an engineer, include installing redwood framing on the signature curtain wall on the lakeside, a new, high-efficiency heating system, repointing the brick chimneys, re-roofing the upper deck, and rebuilding the awning windows with argon filled panels. Petoskey architect Nicholas White helped with a historically correct restoration of the home's signature entry bridge.
Famous as it is, the Douglas House is still very much a home. McCarthy and Myers spend their days in it much as Meier must have imagined people would, moving from spot to spot with a cup of coffee, a glass of wine, a book, following the sun to the home's myriad niches. Myers says their friends don't understand why they stay home so much until they visit. Then they say, "Got it," she says.
From Meier's ethereal interplay of space and structure, man and nature, the couple watches thunderstorms roll over the lake, snowstorms white-out their view, and ice caves form, cold wave by cold wave. A family of bald eagles flies past the home at least once a day. Circling and migrating hawks are a constant. The couple sees fish schooling or fanning their beds down in the shallows of Lake Michigan from their house.
"It's spiritual," Myers says.
Richard Meier on the Douglas House
Did you realize at the time that your design would become an architectural icon?
No. I just designed it for the Douglases.
What are some of the aspects of the design that you were most passionate about?
There's not one part of it. Everything is part of the whole. From the moment you approach the house on the bridge and you look over the lake it's a surprise. Outside to outside it's a surprise. The house is unique in many ways to traditionally modern architecture. There is a transparency and openness, which is something that you don't see in a lot of modern architecture. There is not any one influence in terms of this house. It goes beyond the things that happened in the past.
Almost 40 years later, would you change anything about the design?
I might have thought about an elevator … but exercise is good for you.
Care to expound on the state of residential design in this country four decades after your work on the Douglas House?
There is not a lot to talk about residential architecture right now. There are a lot of good young architects in the country who could do wonderful things if given the chance to do private houses. I teach and I see wonderful things, but I don't see it on the landscape of America. It's very rare.
More Renown for the Douglas House
• In 2009 Thames and Hudson published The Iconic House, Architectural Masterworks, 100 of the most important and influential architectdesigned houses in the world.
• Also in 2009, Global Architecture produced a major article in its periodical revisiting Richard Meier's Smith and Douglas houses with new pictures showing them in "as new" condition.
• Planned for 2010, GA is producing a new series, Residential Masterpieces, which will include the home.
• The Douglas House will be minted "Michigan Modern" by the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office.
• Garon Gopigian, who credits the Douglas House with fostering his lifelong passion for historic preservation and architectural design, is preparing documents for nominating the Douglas House to the National Register when it turns 50.


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Drug allergies occur when your immune system recognizes a drug as a foreign substance and tries to protect you from it. Overall, drug allergies are uncommon; most people go through life without ever having an allergic reaction to a drug. However, people who have asthma or other allergies, or people whose parents have drug allergies, are more likely to have a drug allergy.
Although any drug can cause an allergic reaction, antibiotics are the most common source of drug-related allergies. The list below includes examples of drugs that have an increased risk of causing allergic reactions.
In some patients, aspirin or other non-steroidal medications can cause allergic reactions, or reactions that look similar to allergic reactions. These reactions re usually not caused by an IgE molecule.
The most common symptoms are itching, redness, swelling of the skin, welts, and a runny nose. Symptoms of a drug allergy can occur fairly quickly, possibly within minutes of taking the first dose, or they can begin several days after taking the drug. About half of all allergic reactions occur one week after starting the drug. Most symptoms should disappear in 3 - 5 days after stopping the drug. Ask your doctor if you can treat the symptoms mentioned above with an allergy medication, such as an antihistamine (Benadryl or Chlortrimeton).
You also should be aware of a rare, but potentially life-threatening reaction to a drug allergy. Anaphylaxis, a severe reaction that usually occurs immediately after taking a drug, can cause difficulty breathing, increased heart rate, and decreased blood pressure. If you think that are developing symptoms of a drug allergy, stop taking the drug. There is an increased chance of anaphylaxis with repeated exposure to the drug (the more doses you take). If you suspect anaphylaxis, seek medical help immediately. An anaphylactic reaction can be fatal.
Like most allergies, a drug allergy is caused by an over-sensitive immune system. People with drug allergies have an immune system that attacks the drug as if it were a harmful substance, leading to hives, itching, and other allergic symptoms.
In contrast, most drug "side effects" are not related to the immune system -- they are caused by a drug's general effect on various organs throughout the body. For example, a nasal decongestant works because it constricts the capillaries in your nose, which reduces nasal swelling and opens the airway. But an unwanted side effect is that it ALSO constricts the capillaries throughout your body, which may lead to an increased heart rate, headaches, and dizziness. A decongestant is not specific enough to one part of the body or one single action -- so just about anyone can experience these side effects. This has nothing to do with whether the person has an immune system that is sensitive to the drug.
If you discover that you have a drug allergy, make sure you remember what it is, and always tell your doctor or pharmacist about it. This will help them determine which medications you should receive in the future. For example, if you are allergic to amoxil, which is a penicillin class drug, you probably are also allergic to ampicillin, another drug in the penicillin class. If you need to take a medicine that you are allergic to, however, an allergist in a medical facility may be able to "de-sensitize" you.


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US stocks slide, following global markets lower
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are falling again, following a global downturn as investors dump risky assets.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 106 points, or 0.7 percent, to 16,090 in the first few minutes of trading Friday. It fell 176 points the day before.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 13 points, or 0.8 percent, at 1,814. The Nasdaq composite fell 38 points, or 0.9 percent, to 4,180.
Investors were worried about sharp drops in the values of currencies in several emerging markets including Turkey, Russia, South Africa and Argentina.
The rout in emerging-market assets began a day earlier following signs that manufacturing was contracting in China, a major driver of global economic growth.
The declines in the U.S. were broad. Six stocks fell for every one that rose.


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Telling is old school, pedantic, and pompous. Telling is transactional; it implies a giver and a taker. When you tell someone something, you shut down true communication. Modern, effective communication is about engagement. It's about achieving resonance. It's about moving beyond sympathy to empathy. Modern, effective communication is about engagement.
Ahhhhh -- words of wisdom from colleague Thaler Pekar about what everyone in business needs to recognize about story dynamics. And how working with these dynamics are so critical in today's new marketing/branding landscape.
I couldn't have said all better myself Thaler! Good job.
Thaler writes for non-profits but the same principles apply to anyone in business -- large or small.
If you've been disenchanted lately with lackluster storytelling results in your business, then these story principles should get you back on track again.
Don't wait -- read this short but powerful article now. Don't get left behind.
This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it
Via Dr. Karen Dietz


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What happens when police force turns deadly?By SHAWNE K. WICKHAM
New Hampshire Sunday News
May 03. 2014 11:55PM
Police-involved shootings in New HampshireThe N.H. Attorney General's Office determined all of these shootings to be justified, except where noted in the footnotes.
|Fatal vs. nonfatal
|John L. Kelley, III
|Joseph LaFountain
|Michael Amirault
|Scott Whitlark
|Shawn McManus
|Joseph Collopy
|Douglas Ainsworth
|Donald Bedard
|Det. Richard Oliveri
|Brian Herra
|Michael Paulhus
|nonfatal (1)
|Kip Pepin
|Richard Fowler
|nonfatal (2)
|Sasha Yuksel
|Clyde Gauntt
|fatal (3)
|Derek Soucie
|Hampton Falls
|Anthony Jarvis
|John Leipold
|Jeffrey Richardson
|Charles Turcotte
|Wayne Martin
|Larry Minnasian
|Angel B. Rosario
|James Breton
|Shelly Naroian
|Chris Seksinsky
|Alberto Pagan
|Julio DeJesus
|fatal, April 17
|Jason Lagueux
|fatal, July 9
|Grant Hebert
|nonfatal, Oct. 28
|Steve Amazeen
|nonfatal, Dec. 3
|Geoffrey Bidwell
|Mont Vernon
|nonfatal, Jan. 6
|Larry Bohannon
|fatal, March 29
|Christopher Varagianis
|nonfatal, June 3
|Alex Cora deJesus
|fatal, Aug. 14 (2)
|Wendy Lawrence
|fatal, Sept. 30
|Frank Thompson
|nonfatal, Sept. 30 (4)
|Ben Shannon
|fatal, March 10 (5)
|Craig Riley
|nonfatal, March 22 (5)
|1 - N.H. Attorney General's Office did not issue a report in this case, and no determination was announced because the officers would not speak to the investigators without immunity.
|2 - Not found justified, but no charges were filed.
|3 - N.H. Attorney General's Office withdrew from the case due to a conflict, so the Merrimack County attorney's office handled it. The shooting was ruled justified.
|4. Thompson was wounded during a confrontation with police and later fatally shot himself.
|5. Report pending.
|-- Source: N.H. Attorney General's Office
Twenty people have been shot and killed by police in New Hampshire since 2000; 19 others have been wounded. Eleven of those fatal shootings were in the past three years.
And in nearly all of the cases, investigators found the shootings to have involved justified use of deadly force by the officers involved. That's typical, according to Charles Reynolds, a retired New Hampshire police chief who is a national expert in the use of deadly force by police.
The standard for determining whether the use of deadly force by police is justified is not based on hindsight or the officer's motives, Reynolds said. "It's based upon what he or she was confronted with at that time, and whether another officer would reasonably conclude that that was an appropriate thing to do."
That's why police officers are rarely charged, he said. "That's not a complicated decision to make because it has to be pretty egregious; it has to be pretty outside the realm of acceptance for there to be a prosecution that's going to be sustained against a police officer."
But Reynolds said investigators need to clearly explain how they came to their conclusions in such cases.
"The conduct may be lawful, it may be legal, but in the eyes of the public, it's not legitimate," he said. "And it's not legitimate if it's not explained to them."
He criticized the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office for not being more forthcoming during its investigations of such incidents.
"When one of these events occurs, the public has to be given assurances that it is being thoroughly investigated, and they have to be, from time to time, apprised of the investigation," he said. "This cloak of secrecy just exaggerates their idea that something is amiss here."
No 'cloak of secrecy'
Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin said prosecutors and investigators are limited by the rules of professional conduct in what they can say about any open case.
"Obviously,'' he added, "no agency can effectively conduct a criminal investigation if it divulges the evidence it gathers before the investigation is complete."
Once an investigation into an officer-involved shooting is finished, the Attorney General's Office issues "very detailed" reports that are made public, Strelzin said. The office posts its reports on all officer-involved shootings on its website. Strelzin said he's found that most people who question the findings in such cases have not read those reports.
"Given all that, it is clear there is no 'cloak of secrecy' at play in these cases," he said.
Strelzin, who is chief of homicide, said the public needs to understand that police officers "have the absolute right to protect themselves."
"There's a lot of talk about 'stand your ground,'" he said. "'Stand your ground' applies to law enforcement as well as private citizens."
Increase in numbers
According to a list provided by the Attorney General's Office, there were one or two police-involved shootings a year between 2002 and 2010. Then, in 2011, there were seven shootings, five of them fatal; in 2012, there were four, two of them fatal; and in 2013 six, three fatal.
Strelzin said it's too early to call that a worrisome trend.
"Yes, there's been an uptick, but is it a trend? That's something you can only answer when you look back from the future," he said.
"When I look at that chart, what it says to me is: Law enforcement is a dangerous profession," he said. "A person who's faced with a deadly-force situation has to make these split-second decisions to save themselves or others."
For comparison, since 2000, there have been 35 officer-involved shootings in Vermont, and 83 in Maine, including 16 in which no one was injured.
After decades in law enforcement in New Hampshire, Reynolds spent seven years in Northern Ireland working for an oversight commission on police reforms. He now monitors compliance with federal court orders for police departments that were investigated by the U.S. Justice Department for alleged violations of constitutional rights; most involve the use of force.
Transparency is especially critical, Reynolds said, when the person shot by police was unarmed, as was the case in fatal shootings in Weare and Manchester last year.
"Anytime you have a shooting situation where there's no gun involved, you really need to do that case expeditiously because there is going to be elevated public concern," Reynolds said.
While it's rare for a police officer to face criminal charges, Reynolds said, "it's not uncommon that you find in those situations that officers make tactical mistakes."
That's why it's critical for a police agency to do its own administrative investigation to see whether all policies, procedures and training were followed, he said. Under the so-called "Garrity protection,'' officers involved in such reviews are required to answer all questions, but "those answers are excluded from use in a criminal prosecution," he said.
Weare Police Chief John Vellecca recently told the New Hampshire Union Leader he is conducting an internal review of the fatal shooting of an alleged drug dealer by a Weare officer on Aug. 14, 2013. The Attorney General's Office ruled that the shooting was not justified, but no criminal charges were filed.
Under state law, a police officer is justified in using deadly force when he "reasonably believes" it's necessary to defend himself or others from deadly force.
Deadly force is also justified if the officer is trying to arrest, or prevent the escape of, someone he "reasonably believes" has committed a felony involving force or violence; is using a deadly weapon to try to escape; or is likely to endanger or seriously injure someone unless apprehended quickly, according to RSA 627:5.
Typically, in such cases, Strelzin said, "it's the other person's fault for creating that situation."
"They make the choices to engage in the behavior, and they make the choices to elevate the situation to a deadly-force situation."
Candace McCoy, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, said police need more training in "strategies of not placing themselves in the position to be in danger."
Police agencies also need to review closely any shooting that does occur, she said. "Look at it and say, how can we do better? Even if it's justified, how can we do better?"
Reynolds, too, said there should be ongoing training that emphasizes "the restraints on force as much as the authority to use it."
"A big component of use-of-force training is this whole notion of de-escalation when they're confronted with a situation, making sure the officer does what's necessary to try to lower the temperature instead of raising it," he said.
Strelzin said most officers in New Hampshire will never encounter a deadly-force situation. And when they do, he said, "they're devastated by it."
"They know they'll face criminal investigation by our office, then maybe civil lawsuits. It's not something a police officer wants to be involved in."
Reynolds agreed: "No police officer goes to work any day with the idea they're going out to shoot somebody."
And he said he's found that officers in New Hampshire compare favorably with those in some of the country's biggest departments. But because deadly-force situations are rare here, police may be less prepared to deal with them when they do arise, he said.
Reynolds, a former president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, suggested the state chiefs association could serve as a vehicle for "a frank, critical debriefing" whenever an incident does occur, so other agencies can learn from it.
"There should be some teaching moments and some training derived from each of these shootings," he said.
Crime, law and justice Politics Public Safety Top Section Stories


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Police probe cause of fatal Nashua accident
August 24. 2013 9:22PM
NASHUA - Police on Saturday did not release any further details on an accident in which a woman was killed Friday when her bicycle was hit by a tractor-trailer.
Lt. E. Paulson said detectives did not indicate they had been able to notify family of the victim and were continuing an investigation into how the accident happened.
The woman rode onto Celina Avenue near its intersection with Amherst Street and into the path of a UPS tractor-trailer about 6 p.m. Friday.
Police Sgt. Brian Kenny said Friday that he anticipated a full report to be released Saturday morning, but as of late Saturday afternoon Paulson said no further information was available.


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Nordic combined team readies for 1st World Cup
November 23, 2012
Steamboat Springs — The focus on the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, began in earnest months ago.
But Saturday — when the U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team begins competition in Lillehammer, Norway — makes it real.
The team begins with a normal hill HS 100 and 10-kilometer Gundersen event Saturday and a team event Sunday.
Steamboat's Bryan Fletcher and Todd Lodwick are expected to compete along with Olympic gold medalist Billy Demong. Steamboat's Johnny Spillane will sit out the opener with a back injury.
Fletcher will be looking to build on his King's Cup victory last season in Oslo last.
"Coming off a win like that and entering into a new year, I have been asked a lot how I am preparing for this season," Fletcher said in a U.S. Ski Team news release. "The truth is, I look at it as the first step in a very long staircase. In certain ways, it takes the pressure off because I know if I never win again, I can be happy that I at least got one under my belt. However, I want more, and this summer, I continued to work hard and didn't rest on my laurels."
Recommended Stories For You
The season continues Dec. 1 and 2 in Kuusamo, Finland. The team also visits Sochi in February and competes in the World Championships from Feb. 20 through March 3 in Val di Fiemme, Italy.
To reach Luke Graham, call 970-871-4229 or email email@example.com


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Decibel v1.00 1.0
Decibel v1.00 Decibel app is a program that defines a microphone noise. You should hold your phone upside-down to perform right action. The data is displayed in both digital and analog forms. For your information: 22 dB - complete silence; 50 dB - noise in an office environment; 120 dB - threshold of pain; 150 dB - munitions explosion
Platforms: Symbian OS
Categories: Multimedia & Graphics