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"I was kidnapped at age 4"
Pepper today, near Luffenholtz Beach, not far from her home in California
Once upon a time, I was Rhonda Patricia Christie, a beloved four-year-old princess living with my parents in a tidy garden apartment near the naval base in San Diego. Mom, in her beehive hairdo, would dress me up in frilly purple dresses to meet Dad's ship whenever he came into port, and he would spend his shore leave teaching me to ride a bike with training wheels. "You'll start school soon, like a big girl," Mom would tell me, and I couldn't wait to be in school with lots of other kids my age. It was a happy, sunny time. I had no idea that dark secrets were swirling around my family—secrets that would swallow my childhood.
One afternoon there came a knock at the door, and when Mom opened it, there was a lady I'd never seen before. Next to her stood a tall girl a little older than me. Mom seemed to know the woman—she called her Shirley—and that surprised me because I didn't think Mom would be friends with somebody with missing teeth. They told me that the tall girl, Renée, was my sister. She didn't look like me—her skin was much darker—but I was so happy to have a sister I didn't ask questions. Mom told me I was going to have a fun sleepover. Renée would play with us for a while, and then I'd get to spend the night with them at their motel!
When she saw my bedroom, Renée acted oddly. Later I realized it was because she'd never seen such things as my canopy bed, my closet full of dresses, the toys scattered across my bedroom floor, my fish tank. "This is all yours?" I remember her asking several times. Then Mom dressed me in my favorite red sneakers, packed me an overnight bag and with a kiss on the cheek told me to be good and have fun. "I'll see you tomorrow!" she sang. As we drove off, Mom stood in the street and waved.
I didn't see her again for more than 30 years.
Shirley drove us to an ugly motel, but we didn't stay there. She rushed us up to a room, barking at me to hurry up, and threw a few belongings into the car. We drove off with a squeal of tires and I, suddenly scared, whimpered, "I want my mom!" Shirley turned in her seat and screamed in my face, "Pepper, you shut up!" Nobody had ever yelled at me so viciously, and I didn't know the name Pepper; I started to cry and became hysterical. Shirley snarled at Renée, "You keep that little chink quiet."
And thus began my new life.
Hungry For Love
The next 12 years were a blur of cheap motels where we'd stay a day or two, or maybe weeks, before sneaking out in the middle of the night. "Pepper," Shirley called me—never Rhonda. I had no idea why she renamed me, and I learned quickly not to insist I was Rhonda. All that got me was more nasty scolding. I was hungry and dirty. Shirley never cooked for us. She'd take us to Salvation Army soup kitchens for bowls of mush, and Renée and I scrounged for food and sometimes I begged for handouts. For money, Shirley would drive out to highway rest areas and visit truckers in their cabs for 15 minutes; not until I was older did I figure that out. Some nights, Renée and I slept in rest-stop restrooms. Shirley kept saying that Renée and I were sisters, but I never understood that. She looked nothing like me, and why had I never known about her? I kept waiting for the nightmare to end, for Mom to show up and take me home, but it went on and on. The hunger, discomfort and fear were bad enough, but the terrible mystery of it all was the worst: Who was Shirley? Why was she so horrible to me? And why had my mother let her take me?
I cried for my mother a lot, and Shirley would snarl that she was protecting me from "that f—ker." She would never tell me what my mom had done to make her hate her so. Shirley warned me never to talk to anybody, especially the police, because we'd all go straight to prison. I didn't understand why, but she said it with such vehemence I was afraid to doubt her. More than once, the police pulled us over. Renée often panicked, screaming and crying so much that the officer would ask what was wrong. Shirley had a story: "I'm the grandmother, looking after them now that their parents were killed in a car crash." I wanted to shout, "No, they weren't!" but by then I'd become such a skittish, traumatized puppet that I kept my mouth shut. Through teary eyes, I'd watch him drive off—my salvation, my deliverance.
I still dreamed of going to school like other kids, but we never stayed anywhere long enough. Two nights here, a week there, always in hideous motels full of drunks and addicts who beat one another bloody. Every now and then, we'd drive in Shirley's old car cross-country to New Orleans, where somebody called Titi lived. There were three boys always in and out and around her house, and they hated me and Renée. Renée is black, and they seemed to think I was Asian. They called us the ugliest names and, worse, one of the boys was all over me. We'd never stay at Titi's long before we'd get back on the road, but being molested became a regular feature of my life. I remember one old guy…. I must have been six years old. And every few months, we'd circle back to Titi and those horrible boys.
Becoming Invisible
As the years went by, it got harder and harder for me to remember my mom's face or details of the normal, loving life I used to have. I had snapshot memories and a dim recollection that my parents were known as Bob and Bobbie. Shirley carried a red bag that she said never to go into, but when she was asleep, I'd sometimes sneak a peek. She kept a photograph in there that I knew I'd seen before—me and my mom dressed up to meet my dad's ship, holding hands and smiling at each other. Only Shirley had cut the picture in half, throwing away the image of me. In retrospect, it was a perfect metaphor for my childhood. In more ways than one, I was gone, gone, gone.
What drove Shirley? I never knew, and I still don't. She hated my mother, that much was clear. But enough to drag me around for years and years? I can almost understand kidnapping a child because you love her and want to give her a better life. But a child you obviously hate?
She put me in school a couple of times—a month here, a month there. Then, she told me to call myself Rhonda, but by that time I'd been Pepper for so long I wouldn't answer to Rhonda, and people thought I was stupid—I couldn't read or write and absolutely refused to speak. I'd become a listener, though. Shirley would be talking to her low-life friends in some motel and say, "Don't worry about her—she's asleep, and she don't talk. She won't tell anybody what's going on." She was right that I wouldn't talk; she had me thoroughly terrorized by her demeaning words and her dark warnings never to speak to anyone about our lives. But she was wrong that I wasn't listening. What saved me, through all those years, was that I always knew that what she said and did was wrong, and that what was being done to me was wrong. Walking back to the motel from school, I'd look at houses with clean, happy children playing out front. I'd known love, and while the details were fading, that feeling of having been bathed and fed and hugged never left me. I believed Renée had never known anything like that, so she didn't know that what was happening to us was wrong. Her way of dealing was to sleep all the time. I didn't sleep. I stayed awake. I listened. I remembered things, like Titi's address and the addresses of the motels where we stayed. I can recite them to this day.
But what I still cannot understand is why nobody ever suspected something terrible was going on. Kids show up at a school with no notice and leave a month later the same way—and then suddenly return the following year? That doesn't put up a red flag? And it wasn't just me and Renée who were being mistreated. Every sleazy motel we stayed at was full of what I call motel kids—children dragged around by abusive, addicted adults. When I was in fifth grade, a couple of drunken grown-ups left their three-month-old baby with me. I fed him sugar water because I didn't know any better, and nobody showed me how to care for him. We had a playpen in the motel room, and I slept in it with him. I had that baby a whole year, and then the parents showed up and took him back. Kids like that—like me—are invisible, I guess, because Renée and I spent more than a decade being dragged around, hardly going to school, and nobody ever called the police, child protective services or a social worker—nobody.
I knew very few decent people. One boy was a sweet-natured motel kid my own age, who suddenly disappeared from my life just as we were becoming friends. Another was a prostitute I'd met at a motel in Downey, California, where we lived on and off for a decade. She gave me the first hug I'd had in years; I wanted it to go on and on. And then there was a Gujarati woman who worked at one of the motels. She spoke almost no English but called me Baby Mama because I always had that baby on my hip. She fed and bathed me. She even took me to Indian festivals with her family. But as far as I know, she never called the police on Shirley or tried to intervene. Maybe she was afraid to. I think she just didn't realize—I didn't see her leave the motel; she may never have been to any other part of the country. Perhaps for her that scene at the motel—filthy, neglected children and drunken, abusive parents—was just normal America.
Making My Own Way
I like to say that I ran away at 12, but "ran away" implies someone wanted me to stay. Truthfully, by then, Shirley didn't care what I did. I'd been taking care of another baby, a nine-month-old. Her parents used to tie her to her potty and they'd whip her tiny brother with a belt. When they left the motel, I went with them to protect her and to get away from Shirley, and got through a whole semester of seventh grade. But it was worse with them than at the motel. The drinking and screaming were terrible. The dad even shot up the house with a gun one night.
Finally, I could tell he was getting interested in me sexually, so I took off. That was the start of the third phase of my life—drifting around on my own as a young teenager. I would stay with whoever would take me in, make my way to school in the morning and then after school get any odd job I could find. School was the one constant in my life. Occasionally I'd ask the county for food stamps or welfare, but I could never get help because I couldn't prove who I was. When I tried to explain my circumstances to social workers, counselors or welfare officials, one after another would frown and say, "I can't help you." When I was 16, I got hauled before a judge for driving without a license, and when I told him my whole life story to explain why, he dismissed me with a fine to pay and a curt "I never heard of such a thing. Good luck."
People who might have helped either didn't believe my story or didn't want to. At 17, I fell off the back of a motorcycle, breaking most of the bones in my face and tearing my lips and cheeks almost completely off. The nearby private hospital where I was taken wouldn't treat me because I was a minor without a guardian. I had no idea who Bob and Bobbie were or how to find them. The hospital staff literally put me out on the street, bleeding and broken. I hitchhiked to a county hospital, holding my face together with my hands. Without a birth certificate and a Social Security number, you are literally nobody.
During this entire time, as odd as it sounds, I kept returning to visit Shirley at the motel. I even cared for her when she was dying of pancreatic cancer. Renée was still in her clutches. She hadn't had the strength to get away, and by then we had very little in common. One of the reasons I can offer for why I went back was that Shirley was my only hope of finding my parents and regaining my identity. "Please tell me who I am!" I begged her, but she took her secrets to the grave. "I don't know nothing," she'd mumble, turning her face to the wall. Maybe by then she was ashamed of what she'd done to me.
But I managed to make a life for myself. I graduated high school, even though—unlike every other kid that day—I had no family there to watch me receive my diploma, to tell me how proud they were that I had made it. I bounced from one low-wage job to another and stayed out of trouble. For a while, I tried to check out with drugs and alcohol, but I found that true healing doesn't work until you really feel the pain. There are no shortcuts. You can't go around pain; you have to go through it.
When I was 24, I got pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, Milan. Her father knew all about my past—he'd been a motel kid too—and we tried to stay together but couldn't make it work. Still, Milan saved my life; she helped me find a new focus. I wanted to make her life as full of love and protection as my childhood was not. I wrapped her in a blanket and with $30 in my pocket boarded a bus from Los Angeles to South Lake Tahoe, California. Someone had told me it was beautiful there and that there were jobs because of all the casinos. I settled into steady work as a checker at a supermarket, and made as normal and loving a home for Milan as an underpaid single mother can.
Renée and I stayed in touch. She found herself a nice husband and moved to Southern California, but she still struggles. I think that she carries a lot of guilt. I worry she believes Shirley used her as bait to convince my mother to hand me over. She frets constantly over the other motel kids we knew. I tell her over and over: Forgive yourself.
Shocking Answers
For years, life continued to be a challenge; money was always a problem. Then, in 2009, a woman at my church offered me what sounded like a crazy solution to the legal limbo that had held me back for so long: She'd adopt me. As an adult! With my own child! But it was no joke: If she legally adopted me, I'd get a birth certificate. I could go to college. Get a good job. We filed the paperwork using the only name I knew—Rhonda Pepper Smith—and miraculously, a judge approved it. But then the county hall of records put a stop to the process, because in the boxes for the names of my natural parents and place of my birth, we'd had to write "unknown." The woman at the hall of records who called me—I wish I knew her name—was heartbroken that she couldn't help. The department sent back my paperwork.
When I opened the envelope, I found among my papers a photocopy of a California birth certificate: Rhonda Patricia Christie. The birth date was my own. Parents: Robert Christie and Barbara Jo Blackwelder. Bob and Bobbie. I almost passed out.
With that information, I was able to track them down in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. When I reached for the phone to dial their number, my hand was shaking so badly I could barely hit the buttons. "Hello?" an old man's Southern-twanged voice said.
"Are you married to Barbara Jo Blackwelder?" I asked.
"I am."
I swallowed and asked, "Do you know anything about Rhonda Patricia Christie?"
There was a long pause. I could hear the rasp of his breathing. Unable to wait, I said, "I think I'm her."
"Barbara!" he yelled. "Pick up the phone! It's Rhonda!"
There was a clatter of a receiver being picked up, and the first words I remember my mother saying in three decades were, "You were stolen. Shirley stole you." I burst into tears. I hadn't dreamed it. I wasn't crazy. I'd been right all along—I had been loved.
Milan and I flew to see them within days. Waiting at baggage claim, I saw my parents holding a sign with my name on it before they saw me. Mom looked very frail, her head wrapped in a scarf. I tapped her on the shoulder, she turned and we both began bawling. "My God!" she sobbed as we squeezed each other. "I'd have never known you!" It seems I found her in the nick of time; she is very ill with lung cancer. She asked me to be baptized at her church, and I agreed. In her mind, that means we'll be together in heaven.
I'm still putting together the pieces of my identity. I finally learned, to my shock, that Bob and Bobbie are my adoptive parents; they told me I'd actually been born to a New Orleans couple who gave me up for adoption. Mom took me in when I was three months old, but it was not my birth mother who arrived to deliver me to her. It was Shirley—the same Shirley. My adoption was finalized when I was four; some time after that, Shirley showed up again, with Renée—who, I'm told, really is my half sister. (I'd actually first met Renée when I was a toddler, but I have no memory of her until the day I was kidnapped.) "When Shirley took you off, I had a feeling," Mom told me. "The next day we drove to where you were supposed to be, but the motel room was vacant, and we knew you were gone. My heart died from that point on." She told me that they called the police in California repeatedly, but nobody took them seriously because they'd willingly given me to Shirley. It turns out my parents knew that horrible Titi in New Orleans as well, and they drove all night to her house, stopping at rest areas to kneel and pray. Titi told them nothing. But lying there on her porch were my little red sneakers. My father went so ballistic that a cop on the scene had to restrain him. But the police still couldn't help them get the answers they needed, couldn't help them find me.
It's infuriating to me that the police didn't take my kidnapping more seriously. My parents weren't rich or sophisticated, and their relationship to Shirley muddied the situation. I imagine the case was easy to ignore, but a maddening list of much bigger questions remains. How did my parents know Shirley and Titi? Why was Shirley able to deliver me as an infant to my mom? Why did Shirley hate my mother so much? And why, oh why, did my mother hand me over to Shirley that day? When I ask these questions, my parents become vague and evasive. I can see the agony in their faces, and I don't press them too hard. They are old. Mom is sick. The secrets they are keeping are incredibly painful. I may never get all the answers.
I can live with it. I have survived by refusing to let Shirley's memory keep me as her prisoner. What's important is the present: Milan, the family I've built around me, my dear and everlasting friends.
I still struggle. Holidays are hard: Everybody brings up their rosy childhood memories, and I sit mute. Even meeting people and starting romantic relationships are difficult. One of the first questions is always "Where are you from?" That's a question I can't answer.
Mom and Dad would love it if Milan and I moved to Upper Sandusky, but we're staying put. I've been able to get financial aid and am now a student at Humboldt State University in California. Milan and I talk to Mom and Dad often, and we've visited several times. Culturally, we are very different, but all that love is still there. Much as I want them to clear up all the dark mysteries of my childhood, I draw every day on the four years of love and decency they gave me at the start of my life. It protected me through the horrors of what came later, and protects me still.
I'm free now. Shirley, it turns out, didn't win after all.
Pepper Smith is now searching for her birth mother with the help of her attorney, Gloria Allred. Dan Baum, who has written for The New Yorker*, is the author of *Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death and Life in New Orleans.


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Cellulosic fibre producer The Lenzing Group has reaffirmed its full-year guidance but says it expects to come in at the lower end of expectations because of a continuing decline in average fibre prices.
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Person of Vision Celebration - 5/4/10
American Idol contestant Scott MacIntyre headlined the Annual Blind & Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh's Person of Vision Celebration: The singer himself is visually impaired, and his performance at the event helped the nonprofit raise $160,000. "We believe that our agency is one that provides visions of wellness, dignity, and respect," says Director of Development Connie Schwartz. More than 250 people attended the celebration, which took place at the Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh and honored President and CEO of UPMC Health Insurance Division, Diane Holder.Read More
Photography by Megan Wylie
Photography by Megan Wylie
28 / 29


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Brooke Martin and Cody Wittlinger have strengthened their relationship by acting like they're involved in an abusive one.
Brooke Martin and Cody Wittlinger have strengthened their relationship by acting like they're involved in an abusive one.
"It's the first time I've ever gotten to work with my girlfriend on a play," Wittlinger said. "We joke around a lot. If anything, it's made our relationships better. We see each other all the time now. More than usual."
"It's really nice," Martin said. "We dated long-distance for two years. Now we're like an old married couple. Car-pooling. Sharing a parking permit each day. Planning dinner. Cody's a really nice guy. He's not like his character. It's cool to see his angry, bad-boy side."
Martin and Wittlinger, both 22, aren't married, but did mark the third year of their relationship on Wednesday. Along with director Harvey Jordan, they're tightly wedded to just how "volatile," "explosive" and "heavy" American playwright Sam Shepard can be.
"It's like Shakespeare," Jordan said. "If you can square off with Sam Shepard as a young actor, you can do anything."
In this case, it's Shepard's "A Lie of the Mind." When the play starts, Martin's character (Beth) is hospitalized with a brain injury after being beaten by husband Jake (Wittlinger).
Jordan's trimmed-down, three-hour version of Shepard's 1985 drama opens Friday at Delta College's Studio Theatre. He directs a cast and crew of 16.
"It's pretty heavy stuff," said Martin, a graduate of Lodi High School and Delta College who's back home to play her "dream role. When I was younger (13 to 16), I was in a stupid-but-similar situation. I'm pulling from my past life. It's horrible and I'm glad this play features domestic violence."
"A Lie of the Mind" is one of five Shepard plays - including the Pulitzer Prize winner's "family trilogy" - that bluntly confront the harrowing dynamics of familial life, love, alienation and dysfunction.
"It's very actor-friendly and actor-challenging," said Jordan, a serious Shepard admirer who's directing his first Shepard play at Delta. "The characters are eccentric, volatile, emotionally charged. You can really sink your teeth into them. This is high-level acting."
Jordan still uses Shepard's "True West" - a 1983 production by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company he taped from PBS - as a teaching aid.
"It blew my mind," said Jordan, who directed "A Lie of the Mind" in 1988 at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. "I've been showing it to acting students ever since. My mode of actor-teaching has been formed by that production."
So, Martin and Wittlinger know Shepard's style.
Wittlinger, a Lincoln High School graduate, did recall a few childhood confrontations with brother Brian, 24, but said, "I feel like I'm a pretty nice person playing the opposite from me. I get into character and stretch my limbs out. It's the most difficult role I've had.
"I look around and see people who resemble who I think the character is and put it together into a collage of a person. We all have that inside us. As an actor, I have to find where it is and channel it out."
"It's pretty heavy," Martin said. "It's really cathartic. You go through everyday stress. Then you go to rehearsal and sort of unleash it all in a completely different form.
"Beth is brain-damaged. So I'm definitely different in that way. I'm similar in manner because she just wants to be loved. She's looking for love. A fresh start. I just want to be loved, too. I'm a really loving person."
"A Lie of the Mind" isn't all angst all the time.
"There's quite a bit of humor," Jordan said. "One moment, the audience is laughing. The next moment, they're recoiling from what they're seeing."
As usual, Jordan adds his own touch: "Rural country-blues music" with "real American backbone" by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Charlie Musselwhite and Marion "Little" Walter.
"That guitar-harmonica combination has a heart-felt feeling," Jordan said. "It also deals with a lot of pain."
"A Lie of the Mind" is acted out on adjoining sets - in California and Montana - squeezed into the Studio Theatre, where 86 people can watch.
"This is what's described in Chicago as in-your-face theater," said Jordan, who once taught at Chicago's Barat College. "Powerful, explosive, dynamic. The audience is very close to you."
Martin and Wittlinger share a closely related goal: becoming professional actors. Martin has completed her two-year course at Santa Maria's Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. Wittlinger is in the "call-back" phase of applying.
"I'm the awkward, quirky girl next door," said Martin, who wants to create her own TV sitcom patterned after "Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23" and "New Girl."
"I want to be a working actor," said Wittlinger, who helps out with parents John and Denise's J&D Spas & Stoves in Stockton. "As long as I can survive off it. I enjoy acting. I enjoy working with other people."
Shepard prefers that people absorb his work the way they listen to music.
"His language is rhythmic, very charged, very emotionally eruptive," Jordan said. "Volatile, explosive. Very deep. This play is like 'Hamlet' or 'King Lear.' It's so deep with so many layers of emotionality."
Contact reporter Tony Sauro at (209) 546-8267 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Will Hassan gamble? Has Lynch no influence now?
November 25. 2012 6:24PM
With Gov.-elect Maggie Hassan expected to outline her state budget goals as early as today, it would be nice to have her start with some straight talk about the need to keep spending down, rather than coming up with more revenue with which to grow government.
What will her biggest supporter, Gov. John Lynch, do if his protege pulls out of her hat the one big-money item that isn't a tax but to which Lynch has been unalterably opposed? That would be casino gambling.
Both Hassan and her election opponent voiced support for casinos during the campaign (even though neither of them has ever set foot in one). This gave Lynch cover to back Hassan as he did, as the issue was moot.
But it is likely to be moot no longer. There are several special interests that want more money, and Hassan promised it to all of them, while still shutting the door to tax increases. That leaves big gambling as the big pot of gold.
Some foes say that it won't pass because the spending groups will fight over who gets the gold. Fat chance.
No, the way to stop casino gambling is for Gov. Lynch to call in his own big marker with the woman he has helped succeed him, and for Republicans in the House and Senate to concentrate on saving, not spending.
Casino gambling is a bad idea for New Hampshire for two big reasons. First, big gambling will throw big money at Concord and will want to call the shots. Second, New Hampshire should not try to compete against big states that can support the big, Las Vegas-style palaces.
New Hampshire should go against the grain on this one. And wouldn't it be nice to see our new governor change her view and just say no?


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The Las Vegas Arts Council would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Janet Remenyik, this year's project director for the People's Faire on Aug. 11. Janet has worked tirelessly for several months, recruiting and vetting vendors, mostly local, and making the necessary arrangements for this event.
We also appreciate the professional expertise of Carlos Ortiz, as well as other City of Las Vegas staff. The talented musicians and dancers provided a celebratory ambience.
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Instaburb: Softcover
50 Images of Australian Suburbia
by Misho Baranovic and Oliver Lang
This is the price your customers see. Edit list price
About the Book
Neon-green lawns, concrete cul-de-sacs, and a rotary clothesline spinning in the breeze are some of the images of suburban life explored in the photography book Instaburb: 50 Images of Australian Suburbia. One of the first curated books of Australian mobile photography, the publication is the result of a nation-wide competition seeking photographs of Australian suburbs shot and processed on mobile phones. Held during October last year, the Instaburb competition was facilitated by the photography-sharing social media application Instagram. The images included in the book were selected from over 2,200 submissions across Australia. Instaburb is sponsored by Blurb Australia, Dumbo Feather and Carter Digital.
Features & Details
- Category Arts & Photography Books
Small Square, 7×7 in, 18×18 cm
62 Pages
- Publish Date Apr 12, 2012
- Tags Mobile Photography, Instaburb, Suburbia, Australia, Instagram
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CAIRO (AP) — The retrial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resumed Saturday, with prosecutors requesting to present new evidence from a fact-finding commission's report that claims the ex-leader had full knowledge of the extent of the violence used against protesters.
The new evidence could weigh heavily in the case, which saw one of the Middle East's most powerful autocrats and his longtime interior minister in charge of police tried and sent to prison, only to have their sentences overturned.
The former president, who ruled over Egypt for nearly 30 years, is being accused of collusion in the killing of nearly 900 protesters in the first days of the January 2011 revolt that unseated him. He is the first Arab leader to be tried by his own people.
At the hearing, Mubarak wore a white jumpsuit and a pair of brown-tinted sunglasses. He sat upright on a hospital gurney in the defendants' courtroom cage as he listened to a list of charges levied against him.
The case may hinge on the report by the fact-finding commission, which worked for six months collecting hundreds of hours of video and testimony. The commission was created by Mubarak's successor, Mohammed Morsi, who made a campaign promise to bring former officials to justice.
It was not immediately clear what new evidence from the fact-finding report the prosecution wants to present at the retrial. Additionally, the judge has discretion to decide what evidence to accept.
Mubarak and his interior minister, Habib el-Adly, had been convicted and sentenced to life in prison for failing to prevent the killings of protesters. The verdict sparked mass protests because it did not stipulate who was responsible for the killing of protesters, and the sentencing was seen as largely politically motivated to calm public outcry at the time.
An appeals court in January then overturned their sentencing and ruled that the prosecution's case — led by a longtime Mubarak appointee— lacked concrete evidence.
This time around a new prosecutor is in place and lawyers say they have new evidence from the fact-finding commission's report.
Excerpts of the report have been leaked to The Associated Press. It found that police were behind nearly all the killings, using snipers on rooftops to shoot into huge crowds. The inquiry also determined that such deadly force could only have been authorized by security chief el-Adly with Mubarak's full knowledge. Another part showed that Mubarak watched the uprising against him unfold through a live TV feed at his palace, despite his assertion that he did not know the extent of the protests and crackdown against them.
His former interior minister, who oversaw the country's widely-feared police force for years, and six top police generals — found not guilty in the first trial — were also in the courtroom Saturday. They are charged with the pre-mediated murder of protesters.
Mubarak is also facing corruption charges in the same case. He and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, are accused of squandering public funds and abusing their power to sell land in a Red Sea resort area to business associate Hussein Salem at below market price in exchange for five villas there. Mubarak and Salem are also charged with conspiring to export gas to Israel at below market price at a loss to Egypt.
Morsi's cash-strapped government is eyeing a $1 billion reconciliation deal with Salem, who is in Spain and being tried in absentia.
All present pleaded not guilty to the various charges.
Out of the ten accused in the courtroom, el-Adly was the only to wear the dark blue prison suit of convicted criminals. He is serving sentences for guilty verdicts in separate corruption cases.
The 84 year-old Mubarak and his two sons are currently being held in Cairo's Tora prison pending investigations into other corruption allegations.
At the Saturday session, presiding judge Mahmoud Kamel el-Rachidi repeatedly pleaded with participants to refrain from heated outbursts. At one point, lawyers of victims' families shouted: "The people want the execution of the butcher!"
Mubarak's two sons appeared to ignore the taunts, and instead grinned and chatted with one another from behind the defendants' cage.
The former president raised his hand once to show he was present when the judge read out names. He spoke only once during the session, when the judge asked him if he accepted a request by two Kuwaiti lawyers to join his defense team. Mubarak deferred to his chief defense lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, who declined the offer.
Judge el-Rachidi takes over the case from a previous judge who recused himself after overseeing a controversial verdict that handed down acquittals to 25 Mubarak loyalists. They had been accused of organizing a deadly attack by thugs on horseback and camels against protesters during the uprising.
El-Rachidi spoke from the bench for several minutes during the session to describe the value he puts on impartiality, saying that he is 61 years old and wants to ensure he dies a just man. "None of you will be of any use to me when I am lowered into my grave," he said.
He also said that the case file started with around 9,000 pages and has mushroomed to more than 55,000. He set June 8 as the date for the resumption of the trial.
Relatives of those killed in the uprising stood outside the courtroom, as did a small group of pro-Mubarak supporters.
Ramadan Ahmed, whose only son Mohammed was killed with a single bullet that cracked his skull during the crackdown on protesters, stood outside the courtroom carrying a picture of his 16 year-old.
Ahmed, who also serves on the fact-finding committee that wrote the report, said he has little faith justice will be served.
"What we have is patience. It's the only thing getting us through this; that and God's help," he said. "We hope the judge really does feel he will face God one day."


text:
Some 600 African women gathered under a white tent in Tangier, Morocco, earlier this month. They traveled from all over the continent to celebrate the 100th Annual International Women's Day, but also to talk about governance and government.
The meeting was the first forum of locally elected African women organized by the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa, it took place as the winds of change were sweeping North Africa. Both Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak had been toppled, and unrest raged in Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, Saudi Arabia — and host nation Morocco.
Monia Ammar Feki, a Tunisian magistrate, served several years under Ben Ali. Now a judge in charge of human rights in the Justice and Human Rights ministry of her country, Feki explained to an attentive audience why Ben Ali's Jan. 14 departure was seen as a liberation. "Huge progress was made in terms of women's and detainees' rights or education, but this positive dynamic was stopped because there was no real democracy," she said. "There were a lot of problems concerning freedom of expression, opinion and party membership. There was no right to have a different stance from that of the government."
How was she able to work under the 23-year regime? "When people asked me, I would answer that it was difficult, that it was a daily battle! I have been pushed aside several times because I was speaking against human rights violations."
Opinions about Muammar Qaddafi varied considerably. The African Union has refused to support the no-fly zone imposed by the U.N. Security Council. Woraye Sarr, mayor of Medina Gounas, a suburb of Dakar, said she did not know "what lies behind the [present] situation in Libya."
The member of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade's party in attendance declared, "Qaddafi does not deserve what is happening to him because he has set Libya upright." She said Qaddafi had done a lot for his people: "Before him, there was no electricity, no work … Now, even the Libyans who cannot find work get a monthly aid, thanks to oil resources.
Sy Kadiatou Sow, the director of a community development project in Bamako, Mali, disagreed. She said that she thought Qaddafi should leave. "Even if he stays, he reached the point of no return, and history showed that the harsher the repression, the harder people think they have nothing left to lose. This is what happened in Mali during the 1991 revolution that forced Moussa Traoré out of power."
But Sow, a former minister of foreign affairs, conceded that her president, Amadou Toumani Touré, is in a difficult situation. To turn against Qaddafi, he would have to publicly condemn the man who partly financed new government buildings in Mali — named for the Libyan leader. "Mali is not the only country to keep quiet, and we know why … But if they cannot condemn his attitude, at least they should reason with Qaddafi and save people's lives," she said. "Libyans are dying, along with Malian migrants mistaken for mercenaries."
Najoua, 19, a smiling tourism student, was more talkative but sounded as if she were reciting something she had memorized. "Our king is not a dictator, so the same revolution cannot happen. Every Moroccan loves our king, and we do not want to reduce his powers. We want to keep the monarchy. We do not want to be like Spain or Great Britain. We do not want the prime minister to hold every power because he will not be able to do more than the king already does."
The truth is that not everyone is happy with Morocco's royalty. Thousands of Moroccans have taken to the streets, asking for political, civil and judiciary reforms and the end of the "absolute power" held by Mohammed VI. The king announced a series of constitutional changes on March 9, with proposed new laws to be voted on in a national referendum.
Josephine Fizumugha Abeki, mayor of Patani, in southern Nigeria, was hopeful that the "Arab spring" would reach sub-Saharan Africa. "When the majority says, 'We don't want you!' you cannot impose yourself on them because you will not have peace. You will not enjoy your stay, you will not enjoy your money and you will not enjoy your life!"
Sy Kadiatou Sow was even more optimistic: "Some [black African] leaders already consider that what happened in Tunisia and Egypt could happen to them if they go beyond their legal terms," she said. Obviously, the "Arab spring" seems contagious.
Habibou Bangré is a freelance journalist living in France.


text:
You will need a card reader to put the rest of the files on your device. They can be found fairly cheap these days, i got my USB sd card reader for about $14 canadian
the process is explained in more detail in section 1 of the above Readme/FAQ
hope this helps
never heard of those. ill try and search for one anyway.
Just to provide an example (products available in your area may differ)I use this card reader available fron "the Source by Circut City"(formerly radio shack) generally card readers like these are easy to find in any electronics department as memory cards are used for so many different things like cameras, PDA's, phones, etc. Some audio stores carry them as well.
I originally bought my card reader to run scummvm on my palm as well Now i use it so much for so many things i cant believe i didnt have one before
Very cool, apperently palmz.in user kiot has translated the ReadME/FAQ to Russian.
Great work! Check it out here
Actually you may have another few alternatives to a card reader. (If you are lucky to own the right model)
1- You may have a bluetooth enabled device. With bluetooth you can use a software like softick Bluefiles to connect to a PC and manage the files as needed. This also requires having a PC bluetooth adapter and may be kind of tricky depending on the level of experience of the user.
2- You may have a drive mode enabled device. Some tungesten models have the Drive Mode app. You connect to a PC using the bundled data cable and turn drive mode on... turning your palm into a usb drive and allowing you to manage your files using windows explorer quite easily. This probably works in any system with support for pen drives like devices. This one don't requires any experience, and it's easy and fast.
For users of the TX model there is also the possibility of installing Drive Mode using FileZ and a T5 model (to copy the app from). This may get kind of tricky and may require some "google search" and "research it by yourself" habilities)
I'm going to look around some more but I think I can't figure out how to install ScummVM on my Palm Pre. The folders are different than what it says in the PalmOS.readme file, as I think the readme is written for an older type of phone, the ones that took SD cards. This has an 8.5 GB USB hard drive, but has no option for a SD card (i can goto the icon that says ScummVM but only run stuff that uses .dat files which is only these 2 games that are legal. I know where to get lots of old games .dat files but i don't want to mess around with it until the keymapping and stuff is ported right).
Hotsync util I think does not exist for Palm Pre yet, so this "- Install ScummVM-Frontend.prc and skin.pdb via hotsync" part that is the main thing you have to do, is something I can't figure out how to do.
I did show hidden files & folders, and they have some hidden stuff there but it isn't anything like the folder names listed in the PalmOS.readme
Also I can't do anything but look at things in Kyrandia (so I can't get out of the jail cell since I can't set the hay on fire!) and all I can do in Drascula is move and talk to people (can't grab items). I hope this helps you more figure out what bugs there is. I can guarantee you I am keeping this app on my phone.
Best of luck porting this thing 100% to Palm Pre (because I think this is new and WIP to port)! And thanks
edit after reading post below: ah so i see! i'm hacking around then it would appear :O
i'm using novaterm, which allows me to use the palm pre like a bsd terminal/linux (more like linux i guess but not quite either)
those dirs are actually there when you go into the phone that way. i'll let you know if my messing around works.Last edited by ceaser on Wed Apr 07, 2010 2:37 am; edited 1 time in total
This (sub)forum is about the PalmOS port of ScummVM. The PalmPre, while made by Palm, does not run on PalmOS, but rather WebOS, which is an entirely and radically different operating system. Nothing that applies to PalmOS devices applies to the PalmPre and related devices.
For that matter, there are some unofficial PalmPre ports of ScummVM out there. Maybe one of them will become an official port one day, although right now a lot of people seem to think that WebOS and the PalmPre will soon be only history anyway... We'll see


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Ravens QB understands Denver Flacco flag flap
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Giant banners of Joe Flacco hang from the stadium in Denver, where nobody needed the larger-than-life reminders that his 70-yard touchdown toss in the final minute of regulation ruined the Broncos' Super Bowl hopes and propelled the Ravens to the title.
Peyton Manning has questioned the placement of the Flacco flags alongside his own gigantic image at Sports Authority Field, and Broncos fans have called for the NFL to remove the Baltimore quarterback from the facade of their team's hallowed home.
Flacco gets it.
"I can't imagine that people in our city would be too happy if somebody from another team was hanging on our stadium," he said. "(But) I didn't have anything to do with it."
This is the first time the league has put up a banner of a visiting player on the opposing team's stadium for a season opener.
Flacco was probably Public Enemy No. 1 in Denver to begin with, and "this is another reason to dislike me," he said.
This whole Flacco flag flap could have been avoided had baseball's Orioles accommodated the Ravens and moved their game that night so that the Super Bowl champs could start the season at home, as is custom.
But they wouldn't budge and so the Ravens are hitting the road for the "2013 Kickoff," which the league promotes like an international game, complete with advertising of both teams.
Smaller Flacco flags on downtown Denver lamp posts have been defaced with Sharpie mustaches.
Denver defensive end Derek Wolfe said he prefers everyone leave the banners alone and let the Broncos' defense worry about taking down Flacco.
That task will be a whole lot tougher without suspended All-Pro linebacker Von Miller and perennial Pro Bowl defensive end Elvis Dumervil, who joined the Ravens in the offseason.
Together, they had 29½ of Denver's league-best 52 sacks last season.
"We've seen what Elvis can do firsthand and we know what Von can do just by playing him a couple of times last year," Flacco said. "Anytime you lose guys like that, they'll feel it a little bit, but at the same time they've got a good scheme."
Ravens coach John Harbaugh said he still expects Denver's defense to bring the heat.
"The Broncos are still the Broncos and they're going to put 11 excellent players on the field and they're going to put pass rushers out there who can rush," he said. "Von Miller is one of the premiere players in football certainly, but things happen."
Like the fax foul-up that prevented Dumervil's renegotiated contract from getting to the Broncos in time, which led to them cutting him to save money, making him a free agent.
Of course, neither Miller nor Dumervil could get a hand on Flacco last January when he took several steps before unleashing a dagger of a desperation throw that sailed over cornerback Rahim Moore and into the hands of Jacoby Jones for the stunning score.
Although there was plenty of blame to go around for Denver's 38-35 loss in double overtime that frigid January night, Moore took the brunt of public criticism.
Moore rebounded nicely this summer and Flacco said he won't necessarily target the young safety Thursday night.
"I think he's a pretty good player and we don't need to purposefully try to go over his head or anything like that," Flacco said, adding that if he happens to throw it over him, it will just be based on the Ravens' plans to attack the Broncos' coverage schemes.
Moore vows it will be different next time anyway.
By kickoff, he'll have been looking forward to this rematch for 237 days.
"They're the defending world champs, let's not forget that," Moore said. "There's a reason why they ended on top last year. And they've got a great quarterback, great team, especially some great players on defense. So, it's going to be a tough task for us."
Broncos fans are still haunted by the sight of Moore misjudging the flight of the football on Flacco's desperation heave high into the night sky last Jan. 12 and going for the interception instead of the tackle, flailing as Jones slowed down to haul in the 50-yard pass before trotting the final 20 yards and dancing across the goal line.
The Broncos have used the pain of that moment as motivation ever since, but they've also tried to put it behind them.
Manning didn't want to revisit it Sunday, saying, "I've really moved past that."
Moore has tried to move on, too.
He's drawn praise from coaches and teammates for his work ethic and improvements as he enters his third year in the NFL.
But he's swears he isn't out just for personal redemption this season.
"It's not about me. It's about the team," Moore said. "I'm a team player, so I mean, we all lost together. We all suffered. But the good thing about it is it's a whole new year. Nobody remembers what you did last year."
He can help fans forgive and forget his big blunder if he can help provide memorable moments in 2013.
"I think as a team, this is our year," Moore said. "I think we're going to do some big things. It's not going to be easy. Not at all. We have to remain the hunters. But we do have a chip on our shoulders, too."
AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org
Follow AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton


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|Last 5 Years
|MLB Career Stats
|Avg Exit Velocity (mph)
|Avg HR Distance (feet)
|Avg Launch Angle (deg)
|MLB Avg
|Avg Exit Velocity (mph)
|Avg HR Distance (feet)
|Avg Launch Angle (deg)
|MLB Avg
|Chi White Sox
|Chi White Sox
|Chi White Sox
|Chi White Sox
|Chi White Sox
|2nd in AL
|15th in AL
|25th in AL
|11th in AL
|21st in AL
|3rd in AL
|21st in AL
|4th in AL
|2nd in AL
|19th in AL
|16th in AL
|20th in AL
|24th in AL
|19th in AL
|14th in NL
|2nd in AL
|5th in AL
|2nd in AL
|1st in AL
|1st in NL
|14th in NL
|July 25, 2017
|Acereros del Norte activated RF Carlos Quentin.
|July 11, 2017
|Acereros del Norte signed free agent OF Carlos Quentin.
|April 2, 2017
|Pericos de Puebla released DH Carlos Quentin.
|March 9, 2017
|LF Carlos Quentin assigned to Boston Red Sox.
|August 15, 2016
|Pericos de Puebla placed DH Carlos Quentin on the reserve list.
|July 12, 2016
|Pericos de Puebla signed free agent LF Carlos Quentin.
|March 29, 2016
|Rochester Red Wings released LF Carlos Quentin.
|March 28, 2016
|Minnesota Twins released LF Carlos Quentin.
|February 8, 2016
|LF Carlos Quentin assigned to Rochester Red Wings.
|February 1, 2016
|Minnesota Twins signed free agent LF Carlos Quentin to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
|May 1, 2015
|1B Carlos Quentin retired.
|April 23, 2015
|1B Carlos Quentin assigned to Tacoma Rainiers.
|April 22, 2015
|Seattle Mariners signed free agent LF Carlos Quentin to a minor league contract.
|April 14, 2015
|Atlanta Braves released LF Carlos Quentin.
|April 6, 2015
|Atlanta Braves designated LF Carlos Quentin for assignment.
|April 5, 2015
|Atlanta Braves traded RHP Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton Jr. to San Diego Padres for CF Cameron Maybin, LF Carlos Quentin, LF Jordan Paroubeck and RHP Matt Wisler.
|November 3, 2014
|San Diego Padres activated LF Carlos Quentin from the 60-day disabled list.
|September 1, 2014
|San Diego Padres transferred LF Carlos Quentin from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day disabled list. Sore left knee
|July 28, 2014
|San Diego Padres placed LF Carlos Quentin on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to July 27, 2014. Sore left knee
|May 13, 2014
|San Diego Padres activated LF Carlos Quentin from the 15-day disabled list.
|May 11, 2014
|El Paso Chihuahuas sent OF Carlos Quentin on a rehab assignment to Lake Elsinore Storm.
|May 7, 2014
|San Diego Padres sent OF Carlos Quentin on a rehab assignment to El Paso Chihuahuas.
|May 3, 2014
|San Diego Padres sent OF Carlos Quentin on a rehab assignment to Lake Elsinore Storm.
|March 29, 2014
|San Diego Padres placed LF Carlos Quentin on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 25, 2014. Bone bruise on his left knee
|September 30, 2013
|San Diego Padres activated LF Carlos Quentin from the 15-day disabled list.
|August 9, 2013
|San Diego Padres placed LF Carlos Quentin on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to July 31, 2013. Sore right knee.
|May 18, 2013
|San Diego Padres activated LF Carlos Quentin from the paternity list.
|May 17, 2013
|San Diego Padres placed LF Carlos Quentin on the paternity list.
|April 23, 2013
|San Diego Padres activated LF Carlos Quentin.
|April 14, 2013
|LF Carlos Quentin roster status changed by San Diego Padres.
|May 28, 2012
|San Diego Padres activated LF Carlos Quentin from the 15-day disabled list.
|May 25, 2012
|sent RF Carlos Quentin on a rehab assignment to Lake Elsinore Storm.
|May 8, 2012
|Tucson Padres sent RF Carlos Quentin on a rehab assignment to Lake Elsinore Storm.
|May 1, 2012
|Carlos Quentin assigned to Tucson Padres.
|April 3, 2012
|San Diego Padres placed RF Carlos Quentin on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 26, 2012. Recovering from March 2012 right knee surgery.
|December 31, 2011
|Chicago White Sox traded RF Carlos Quentin to San Diego Padres for RHP Simon Castro and LHP Pedro Hernandez.
|September 12, 2011
|Carlos Quentin roster status changed by Chicago White Sox.
|August 27, 2011
|Chicago White Sox placed RF Carlos Quentin on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to August 21, 2011. Sprained AC joint in left shoulder
|July 20, 2009
|Chicago White Sox activated RF Carlos Quentin from the 15-day disabled list.
|July 16, 2009
|sent LF Carlos Quentin on a rehab assignment to Charlotte Knights.
|July 13, 2009
|Charlotte Knights sent LF Carlos Quentin on a rehab assignment to Kannapolis Intimidators.
|July 4, 2009
|Carlos Quentin assigned to Charlotte Knights from Chicago White Sox.
|May 29, 2009
|Chicago White Sox placed LF Carlos Quentin on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to May 26, 2009. Plantar fasciitis in his left foot.
Carlos Jose Quentin…he and his wife, Jeane, have one son, Clarke and a daughter, Cosette…graduate of University High School in San Diego, where he set school records in home runs and RBI, was the league Defensive Player of the Year in football and a member of the state champion basketball team…attended Stanford University, where he was one of five finalists for the 2003 Golden Spikes Award…helped the Cardinal advance to the College World Series in 2001-03, including the finals in 2003…earned All-America honors from Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball and USA Today/Baseball Weekly…named the 2001 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year…originally signed by Diamondbacks' scout Fred Costello.2014
Limited to a career-low 50 games after injuries led him to two stints on the disabled list..Missed the first 39 games of the season after suffering a bone bruise in his left knee during Spring Training…missed the final 58 games of the season starting on 7/27 after he was placed on the 60-day disabled list with left knee soreness...Hit .345/.472/.586 (10-for-29) with a double, two home runs, six RBI and six walks in 12 games during the month of May after being reinstated from the disabled list...Each of his first two home runs of the season came as a pinch-hitter: 5/17 at COL and 5/24 vs. CHI…overall, hit .364/.500/.1.000 (4-for-11) with one double, two home runs, seven RBI and two walks in 14 plate appearances in the pinch...Ended the season with five career pinch-hit home runs, tied for the seventh-most among active players…his 20 RBI in the pinch ranks tied for the ninth-most among actives...Collected a season-high three RBI on two occasions, the first coming on 7/1 vs. CIN and the second on 7/11 at LAD...Having been hit by four pitches, has now been plunked 127 times during his nine-year career, the sixth-most among active players.2013
Limited to 82 games due to injuries and hit .275 (76-for-276), his highest season average since batting a career-best .288 (138-for-480) during his first All-Star campaign in 2008 with the White Sox...Ejected on April 11 vs. Los Angeles-NL for charging the mound after being hit-by-pitch (Zack Greinke)…served an eight-game suspension from April 14-22...Missed three games after the birth of his first born child, a baby boy, Clarke, on May 15…placed on paternity leave for just one game (May 18) over that span...Enjoyed his best month of the season in June, hitting .366 (26-for-71) over 20 games…average in the month of June ranked fifth-best in the National League and 10th-best in all of Major League Baseball...Over 24 games in the month of July, recored 19 RBI, tied for the 10th-most RBI in July among all big leaguers and tied for fifth-most among all National Leaguers...Played his last game of the season on July 30, missing the remainder of the year due to a right knee injury…officially placed on the 15-day DL, retroactive to July 31, on August 10 with a right knee sprain...underwent surgery on his right knee on September 3...Over a 50-game stretch from May 24-July 27, hit .328 (59-for-180) with 15 doubles, nine home runs, 29 RBI, 30 runs scored, a .403 on-base percentage and a .561 slugging percentage…his .328 average over that stretch ranked eighth-best among qualifying National Leaguers while his .964 OPS ranked fourth-best...Among all Major Leaguers with 50-or-more games in left field this season, his .855 OPS ranked fourth-best...In 45 games on the road, hit .327 (51-for-156) with a .403 on-base percentage, a .603 slugging percentage and a 1.006 OPS…in 37 games at home, hit .208 (25-for-120) with a .309 on-base, a .350 slugging and a .659 OPS...Hit a pinch-hit, game-tying two-run home run on June 30 at Miami, the third pinch-hit homer of his career and first since June 11, 2010 at Chicago-NL…was the second pinch-hit homer of his career against Chad Qualls (also, July 28, 2006 at Houston).2012 In his first campaign with the Padres played in 86 games, missing time to start the season after undergoing knee surgery during Spring Training. Began the season on the 15-day DL after undergoing surgery on his right knee on 3/19. Played in nine games on a rehab assignment between Triple-A Tucson and Single-A Lake Elsinore, hitting .357 (10-for-28). Reinstated from the 15-day DL on 5/28. In his first six games as a Padre, after coming off the DL, went 12-for-23 (.522) with four doubles, five home runs and nine RBI. His five home runs through his first six games as a Padre made him the only player to ever hit more than three home runs through his first six as a Padre(ELIAS)...Russell Branyan and Ed Sprague Jr. each had three through their first six games for SD. His nine extra-base hits (4 2B, 5 HR) in his first six games with the Padres were the most by any player in their first six games with a new team since 1921 (STATS Inc.). In his first three games for the Padres, had six extra-base hits total, which according to STATS Inc. were tied for the most extra base hits by any player with a new team since 1921 (last: Mark Ellis for COL, 7/1-3/11). Started the season with an eight-game hit streak from 5/28-6/6, hitting .481 (13-for-27) over that stretch. Hit by pitch 17 times in 2012, tied for the most among all Major League players (also, Prince Fielder and Kevin Youkilis)...17 HBP set a new club record, passing previous mark of 15 by Kevin Kouzmanoff in 2008. Started 77 games total in 2012, including 69 in LF, five as DH and three in RF. Hit .329 (27-for-82) off left-handed pitching and .233 (47-for-202) against right-handers. Agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension through 2015 on 7/22. 2011 Named to his second American League All-Star team and reached the 20-home run mark for the fourth consecutive season for the White Sox...Led the American League with a club-record-tying 23 HBP...tied Minnie Minoso's 1956 White Sox record...Made 100 starts in right field and 14 as designated hitter for CWS...Hit .294 (62-for-211) with 17 home runs and 49 RBI on the road compared to .214 (45-for-210) with seven homers and 28 RBI at home...home run total on the road tied for fourth among AL leaders while his road RBI total tied for 10th...Drove in five runs as part of a 3-for-4 Opening Day at CLE, tying Sammy Sosa (1991) for second most by a Sox player on Opening Day (Minoso, six in 1951)...Belted his 100th career home run 4/16 vs. LAA...Connected for three home runs 5/24 at TEX, becoming the 13th player in CWS history to hit three in a game...his first three-homer game...one of four multi-homer games in 2011 (also 8/5 at MIN, 6/8 vs. SEA, 4/22 at DET)...Placed on the DL from 8/27-9/12 with a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder...appeared in just one of the club's final 37 games. 2010 Appeared in a career-high 131 games in his third season with the White Sox, hitting .243 (110-453) with 25 doubles, 26 home runs and 87 RBI ... reached the 25-homer mark for the second time in his career ... his 26 home runs and 87 RBI were up from 21 and 56 in 2009 ... ranked second in the American League in HBP (20) and tied for ninth in home run ratio (17.42) ... hit .274 (71-259) in his final 76 games (.201 in his first 55) ... batted .270 (63-233) with 19 home runs at home and .214 (47-220) with seven homers on the road ... recorded 20 of his 26 home runs off right-handers and 19 prior to the All-Star Break (seven in the second half) ... went 19-59 (.322) with five home runs and 17 RBI in interleague play ... the 17 RBI tied for third-most in baseball with Detroit's Brennan Boesch ... committed a career-high eight errors in his first full season in right field (.959 fielding percentage) ... hit his third grand slam and recorded a career-high six RBI on 4/14 at Toronto ... ended an 0-23 streak on 4/23 vs. Seattle ... hit his second career pinch homer on 6/11 at the Cubs ... notched his seventh career multihomer game on 6/23 vs. Atlanta ... tied for second in the AL with eight home runs in June and tied for fifth with 23 RBI ... hit two homers on 7/5 vs. the Angels and 7/10-11 vs. Kansas City, including his fourth grand slam on 7/11 ... the six home runs in four games from 7/5-11 established a club record (missed 7/6-8 with a sore left knee) ... was named AL Player of the Week for 6/21-27, hitting .389 (7-18) with four home runs and 11 RBI (first weekly honor) ... left game on 9/29 vs. Boston with a sore left ankle and missed the final four contests. 2009 Appeared in just 99 games with the White Sox after being sidelined with plantar fasciitis in his left foot ... hit .236 (83-351) with 14 doubles, 21 home runs and 56 RBI, down from .288 with 36 home runs and 100 RBI in 2008 ... hit at least 20 home runs for the second consecutive season ... made 87 starts in left field and eight as the designated hitter ... homered in back-to-back games six times (last, 10/2-3 at Detroit), including a careerbest three straight games on two occasions (last, 8/18-22) ... tied a club record with seven homers in his first 12 games (also Jim Thome in 2006) ... notched his sixth career multihomer game on 4/13 at Detroit ... did not play on 5/12 at Cleveland due to a bruised left heel ... missed five games with a sore left foot before going 1-2 with a RBI on 5/20 vs. Minnesota ... left game on 5/25 at Los Angeles-AL with a sore left foot ... was on the disabled list from 5/29-7/19 with plantar fasciitis in his left foot ... went 15-40 (.375) with one home run and 10 RBI in 14 rehabilitation games with Class AAA Charlotte and Class A Kannapolis ... his solo home run on 7/29 at Minnesota ended an 0-16 streak and was his first since 4/29 vs. Seattle (90 at-bats) ... hit his second career grand slam on 9/19 vs. Kansas City and his 20th home run on 10/2 at Detroit ... totaled six homers and 21 RBI in September/October ... batted .241 (53-220) with 13 home runs and 36 RBI in 61 games after returning from the disabled list. 2008 Finished fi fth in the American League Most Valuable Player voting with 160 points after hitting .288 (138-480) with 36 home runs and 100 rBi in his fi rst season with the White Sox ... received his fi rst Silver Slugger Award and was selected to The Sporting News al all-star team ... sustained a season-ending fractured right wrist on 9/1 at cleveland during a ninth-inning at-bat vs. cliff lee ... underwent surgery on 9/8 to insert a screw into the wrist (procedure performed by dr. cohen, dr. fernandez and dr. Bush-Joseph) ... rejoined the white sox on 9/19 in Kansas city to rehab his wrist, but did not play the remainder of the season ... despite missing the White Sox fi nal 26 games, led the al in home run ratio (13.33), ranked second in home runs, slugging percentage (.571) and hit by pitch (20), third in ops (.965) and tied for 11th in rBi ... also tied for the league lead with 15 game-winning rBi and tied for fourth with 28 go-ahead rBi ... was tied for the al lead in home runs as late as 9/27 before detroit's Miguel cabrera hit his 37th homer ... his 36 home runs marked the third-highest total by a player in his fi rst season with the sox, behind Jim thome (42 in 2006) and dick allen (37 in 1972) ... was named to his fi rst AL All-Star Team and went 0-4, the most at-bats by a Sox player in the Midsummer classic since luis aparicio in 1970 (six) ... was one of eight players in the all-star game who switched teams following the 2007 season: nl players - Miguel tejada, Brad lidge, dan Haren, edinson volquez: al players - Josh Hamilton, George Sherrill, Quentin, Milton Bradley ... led the sox in home runs, rBi, on-base and slugging percentage and tied Jermaine dye for the lead with 96 runs scored ... hit .311 (37-111) with runners in scoring position and was 4-8 with one home run and 15 rBi with the bases loaded ... his 22 home runs and 70 RBI in the fi rst half both tied for eighth most by a Sox player since 1974 ... batted .350 (21-60) with four home runs in interleague play, including a .478 (11-23) average vs. the cubs ... made 54 consecutive starts in left from 4/3-5/31... posted his second multihomer game on 4/17 at Baltimore ... went 12-26 (.462) during an eight-game hitting streak ... tied teammate Joe crede for the al lead in home runs in April (seven) ... hit his fi rst career grand slam and matched his career high (second time) with fi ve RBI on 5/14 at the Angels ... homered in back-to-back games for the fi rst time in his career on 5/18-20 ... hit his fi rst career game-ending home run on 5/25 vs. the angels, part of his third career multihomer effort (both off John lackey) ... ranked second in the al with 27 rBi in May and tied for third with seven home runs ... was named Major league Baseball's "clutch performer of the Month" for May after hitting .290 with seven homers and 27 rBi ... ended his seasonlong 37 at-bat homerless drought on 6/18 vs. pittsburgh (off tom gorzelanny) ... matched his career high with four hits on 6/27 vs. cubs (second time) ... hit a go-ahead solo home run in the sox 6-5 win vs. the cubs on 6/28 ... tied for the al lead with nine homers in July ... recorded his fourth career multihomer game on 7/9 at Kansas City and his fi fth on 7/23 vs. Texas ... went 4-7 with a double, home run and two rBi on 8/5 vs. detroit, matching his career high in hits ... hit his 30th home run on 8/7 vs. detroit, becoming the 17th player (39th time) to reach that milestone ... was hit by a pitch in a major-league record six straight games from 8/7-14 ... missed 8/12-13 with soreness in his left forearm ... reached base safely in 11 of 14 plate appearances in oakland from 8/15-17, going 6-9 with two home runs, fi ve RBI and fi ve walks ... drove in his 100th run on 8/26 at Baltimore. 2007 Played in 81 games with Arizona, hitting .214 (49-229) with five home runs and 31 RBI ... began the season on the 15-day disabled list with a tear in his left labrum and rotator cuff ... was sent to Class AAA Tucson on a rehab assignment on 4/14 ... was 2-7 in two games with the Sidewinders before being recalled by Arizona on 4/16 ... made his season debut that night vs. the Dodgers, going 2-4 with two doubles ... hit his first home run on 4/24 vs. San Diego, a two-run shot off David Wells ... recorded his first career multi-homer game on 5/21 vs. Colorado and drove in a career-high five runs ... recorded 17 RBI in May ... was optioned to Tucson on 7/6, where he played in 13 games ... was recalled on 7/27 and played in five games before going on the disabled list on 8/2 with a right hamstring strain ... was sent to Tucson on a rehab assignment on 8/13 and played in the remaining 18 games of the Sidewinders season ... was recalled on 9/1 and finished the season with Arizona ... went 3-4 with eight RBI with the bases loaded and 2-6 with two RBI as a pinch-hitter ... was not on the D-backs postseason roster ... underwent surgery on his left shoulder on 10/9 in Phoenix, Ariz. (surgery performed by Dr. Michael Lee). 2006 The rookie right fielder hit .253 with nine home runs, 32 RBIs and 13 doubles in 166 at-bats ... Quentin homered in his first Major League at-bat on July 20 ... After collecting three more home runs in July, Quentin struggled a bit in August, when he hit only .185 ... He rebounded in September with a .273 clip. 2005 Was rated by Baseball America as the No. 1 Prospect in the Arizona organization entering the season ... spent the season at Tucson, hitting .289 with 28 doubles, 21 home runs, 89 RBI and 98 runs scored in 136 games ... ranked fourth in the PCL in walks (72) and games ... his 21 homers and 89 RBI led the Sidewinders and tied for third and fifth, respectively, in the Diamondacks system ... reached base safely in 115 of 136 games ... was hit by pitch 29 times, second-most in the minor leagues behind Buffalo's Mike Kincade (30) ... walked 72 times, compared to 71 strikeouts ... batted above .300 in each month except June when he hit eight home runs with 23 RBI ... compiled a season-high 14-game hitting streak from 7/4-20 ... went 5-6 with two homers and six RBI on 6/28 vs. Las Vegas ... played in 76 games in right field and 50 in center. 2004 Was named the Diamondbacks organization's Player of the Year after combining to hit .332 (150-452) with 21 home runs, 89 RBI and 103 walks between Class A Lancaster and Class AA El Paso ... led all Arizona farmhands in average, runs scored, hits, RBI and walks and tied for the lead in home runs ... was hit by pitch a minor-league record 43 times, breaking the mark set by Class A Rancho Cucamonga's Mark Campo in 2000 ... reached base safely in 115 of 125 games ... ranked among the California League leaders in runs scored (2nd, 64), home runs (T3rd, 15), on-base percentage (4th, .428), RBI (8th, 51) and slugging percentage (T8th, .562) when he was promoted to El Paso 6/21 ... went 5-5 with four runs scored on 7/17 vs. Midland ... compiled a 14-game hitting streak from 8/14-30 ... played in four games in the Arizona Fall League before sustaining a lower back strain. 2003 Missed the entire season after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.


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OTTAWA (AP) — Teddy Purcell scored twice and Ryan Callahan had a power-play goal midway through the third period to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 5-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.
Valteri Filpulla and Eric Brewer also scored for the Lightning, who have won five in a row. Ben Bishop stopped 27 shots.
Clarke MacArthur, Erik Karlsson, Ales Hemsky and Milan Michalek scored for the Senators. Robin Lehner had 23 saves while losing his sixth straight game. Ottawa is 0-3-2 in its last five.
After Callahan put the Lightning up 5-3, Michalek deflected Karlsson's shot from inside the blue line with 2:53 to go.
Ottawa then had a great chance to tie it as Callahan took a penalty with 55 seconds remaining. However, with Lehner on the bench for an extra skater — giving the Senators a two-man advantage — they were unable to beat Bishop.
Brewer scored his first goal in 95 games to give the Lightning a 4-3 lead at 3:48 of the third with a great shot off his backhand to sneak the puck in under the crossbar.
The Lightning took a 3-2 lead at the five-minute mark of the second period on a power-play goal by Filpulla, who knocked home a rebound just out of Lehner's reach.
Hemsky tied it after displaying some great puck handling before beating Bishop late in the second.
The Senators ended the first period tied 2-2 after getting off to a horrible start. Purcell, who hadn't scored in his last 19 games, ended his drought just 23 seconds into the game.
Ottawa managed to tie it on MacArthur's short-handed goal midway through the period. It was MacArthur's 21st of the season, tying a career high.
The Lightning regained the lead on Purcell's second of the night as he managed to dig the puck out through traffic in the crease and then shoot it in off the post.
Karlsson rounded out the scoring with a power-play goal, beating Bishop with a shot from just inside the blue-line.
NOTES: G Craig Anderson (upper body injury) and G Nathan Lawson (lower body injury) missed the game for Ottawa, and D Patrick Wiercioch and LW Matt Kassian were healthy scratches. ... The Lightning signed free-agent forward Cody Kunyk to a one year, two-way NHL contract. Kunyk, 23, skated in 37 games for University of Alaska-Fairbanks this season, posting 22 goals and 43 points. ... D Keith Aulie, D Mark Barberio, C Tom Pyatt and RW Nikita Kucherov were healthy scratches for Tampa Bay.


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In the vast emptiness of the Pacific Ocean, tectonic movements construct or swallow islands. In the Tongan archipelago, two little-known animals have learned to cope with these ephemeral lands risen from the ocean depths: the sooty tern, a seabird that never dares wet its wings for fear of drowning, and the Alvin shrimp, a blind crustacean that manages to find its way around the abyss. When an underwater volcano becomes an island, the fates of these two extraordinary paradoxes are linked.
"Pioneers of the Deep" on Life on Fire airs on Wednesday, February 6th at 9:00 p.m. on channels 3-1 and 3-2.


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For your pleasure (specially for DiM, who wants more activity on our part), we're happy to announce that, after a short training period we have decided to give the blue color to nolefan5311.
From now he is officially in charge with iancanton to help with the gameplay stage.
We're sure that he is a great gameplay analyzer and his addition to the CAs team is a great choice to have better maps and speed up the foundry process.....so please give him a great welcome!
Welcome aboard mate!


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35 Months x
ex VAT
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[Verse 1]
One out of every two people that see me
In the street ask me about my CD
What style will I create?
And what's the delay on the release date?
I hate to tell y'all the cold, cold truth
I'm a old nigga in the vocal booth
Coulda been a legend like Big and 'Pac
But I caught a bad case of writer's block
Writer's block, for those unaware
Is a condition that's hardly rare
Often compared to a tree that bears no fruit
A bank account with no loot
The inability to produce a thought
Ideas get stale, brain cells rot
Failed attempts at concentration
I'm in a state of psychological stagnation
So whatcha gonna do?
You try to write it but nothing will come to you
Don't try to fight it, tell me, what's it gonna be?
Don't lose your cool, I know it's usually so easy
But now you've been caught up with writer's block
[Verse 2]
Stuck on stupid, thinking bout the new kid
On the block, as the clock keeps ticking
Time is of essence, must maintain presence
Out of sight, out of mind
Still can't find the words to explain
My joy and my pain, I'm going INSANE
Like the nigga from The Shining
Everything on the line when I'm rhymin
The only way I pay rent, I represent
The only way I eat, I rhyme to a beat
The only way I buy clothes, I rock shows
Now you can see why the problem is posed
[Verse 3]
Yo It's kinda crazy when you think about it
I mean niggas get paid just to say what they think about
This that and the other. It sound easy
But, on the real, everybody sound greasy
Talk gangsta when you really ain't one
The last gat you blasted was a paint gun
Paint fictitious pictures to get richer
When you really a bitch, I ain't mad witcha
I wish I could make people believe
That I slang keys and tote D's, but I'm sorta like a fuckin' dweeb
And that don't sell
I never been shot, or been to jail
But I'm beginning to wish I had been
Just to put it down on a pad with a pen
Cause right now all I wanna do is ball with the rest of 'em
Be inducted in the hall with the best of 'em
But for now, it's just a dream
"Writer's Block" features, as the title suggests, a Fatlip with writer's block. In the song he explains what writer's block does to him, how he wants to cope with it, and the problems it brings along with itself.


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Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 171,000 in October. Employment growth has averaged 157,000 per month thus far in 2012, about the same as the average monthly gain of 153,000 in 2011. In October, employment rose in professional and business services, health care, and retail trade.
Professional and business services added 51,000 jobs in October, with gains in services to buildings and dwellings (+13,000) and in computer systems design (+7,000). Temporary help employment changed little in October and has shown little net change over the past 3 months. Employment in professional and business services has grown by 1.6 million since its most recent low point in September 2009.
Health care added 31,000 jobs in October. Job gains continued in ambulatory health care services (+25,000) and hospitals (+6,000). Over the past year, employment in health care has risen by 296,000.
Retail trade added 36,000 jobs in October, with gains in motor vehicles and parts dealers (+7,000), and in furniture and home furnishings stores (+4,000). Retail trade has added 82,000 jobs over the past 3 months, with most of the gain occurring in motor vehicles and parts dealers, clothing and accessories stores, and miscellaneous store retailers.
Employment in leisure and hospitality continued to trend up (+28,000) over the month. This industry has added 811,000 jobs since a recent low point in January 2010, with most of the gain occurring in food services.
Employment in construction edged up in October. The gain was concentrated in specialty trade contractors (+17,000).
Manufacturing employment changed little in October. On net, manufacturing employment has shown little change since April.
Mining lost 9,000 jobs in October, with most of the decline occurring in support activities for mining. Since May of this year, employment in mining has decreased by 17,000.
Employment in other major industries, including wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, and government, showed little change over the month.
In October, the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was 34.4 hours for the fourth consecutive month. The manufacturing workweek edged down by 0.1 hour to 40.5 hours, and factory overtime was unchanged at 3.2 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged down by 0.1 hour to 33.6 hours.
In October, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged down by 1 cent to $23.58. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 1.6 percent. In October, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees edged down by 1 cent to $19.79.
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for August was revised from +142,000 to +192,000, and the change for September was revised from +114,000 to +148,000.
The Employment Situation for November is scheduled to be released on Friday, December 7, 2012, at 8:30 a.m. (EST).


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Joseph O'Connor, sold privately in 1/2004 - Eugene H. Gardner Collection - Heritage 6/2014:30192
Ron Guth: The 1846 Half Dime is the key to the re-Civil War Half Dimes and has the lowest mintage, by far, of any date prior to 1863. As a result, this date is popular in all grades, even down to Good condition, making it difficult and expensive for collectors to own this date. In Mint State, the 1846 Half Dime is extremely rare, with only a handful known to exist, and none better than MS-62. The PCGS Condition Census includes a number of About Uncirculated pieces, some as low as AU-53. Apart from the unique 1870-S, this is the most desirable of all the Seated Liberty Half Dimes.
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