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Chris Christie-Mitt Romney: Romney reportedly donated max to New Jersey governor's reelection bid.

Romney Donates Max to ... Christie Campaign?

The Slatest
Your News Companion
Feb. 28 2013 10:09 AM

Maybe Mitt Romney Doesn't Blame His Loss on Chris Christie After All

Chris Christie was a constant presence on the stump for Mitt Romney during last year's campaign—until Sandy hit

Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images

Here's something of a surprise given Chris Christie's last-second Sandy-fueled embrace of President Obama during the final days of the 2012 presidential election, via Politico:

Josh Voorhees Josh Voorhees

Josh Voorhees is a Slate senior writer. He lives in Iowa City.

Romney, whose supporters and aides were furious that Christie complimented the president’s response to Hurricane Sandy, has given the maximum contribution possible, $3,800, to the New Jersey governor’s reelection bid, a source familiar with the donation said.

We probably shouldn't make too much of a $3,800 check—Romney didn't exactly have to sit down with his family and rework his budget to carve out the cash, and he's cut plenty of such checks in the past—but it's nonetheless a significant gesture given his campaign staff made no secret that they thought the New Jersey governor played a major role in deciding the election, and not in the way they would have liked. Here's how they explained things to the New York Times in the weeks after their Election Day loss:

Inside the Romney campaign, there is little doubt that Mr. Christie’s expressions of admiration for the president, coupled with ubiquitous news coverage of the hurricane’s aftermath, raised Mr. Obama’s standing at a crucial moment.
During a lengthy autopsy of their campaign, Mr. Romney’s political advisers pored over data showing that an unusually large number of voters who remained undecided until the end of the campaign backed Mr. Obama. Many of them cited the storm as a major factor in their decision, according to a person involved in the discussion. "Christie," a Romney adviser said, "allowed Obama to be president, not a politician."

Despite the ill will among staff and supporters (along with plenty of other GOPers), Romney himself has never come out publicly to blame Christie, and perhaps the donation—along with the fact that two of his sons reportedly attended a Christie fundraiser in Califronia—suggest that he doesn't. News of the donation, meanwhile, comes the same week that Conservative Political Action Conference organizers, citing Christie's "limited future" in the GOP, declined to invite the absurdly popular governor to this year's event.

***Follow @JoshVoorhees and the rest of the @slatest team on Twitter.***

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Aug. 28 2015 12:31 PM What Happened at Slate This Week? International affairs writer Joshua Keating on what to read to understand the apparently permanent slowdown of the Chinese economy.


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from Quantis,Inc., originally released 17th October, 2010

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Slovenia Prints for Sale

Lake Bled and the island Otok, Bled, Slovenia.
Lake Bled, early autumn.

Why not treat yourself, your family or friends to a print of Slovenia. David is a professional stock photographer who markets his images through several agencies and from his own website, Scot-image. Clicking on an image will take you to that same picture on David’s website, where you can place your order.

All photographs are professionally printed on Fuji Archival Photographic paper and are hand checked before dispatch. Prints are posted in either flat cardboard boxes or tubes and is by First Class Recorded Delivery in the UK (for the rest of the world I use a signed-for service). I aim to fulfill all orders within 10 working days and P+P is FREE! Prints can be ordered online with payment accepted via PayPal (you do not need a PayPal account, just a credit card).

Displayed are a selection of images – some of our favourites and the most popular. To select from a wider a choice visit the Slovenia Image Galleries at Scot-image .

Publishers requiring a licence are asked to make contact via this site’s Contact Form or via the Scot-image website.  Thank you.

Lake Bled and Blejski Otok with Bled Castle behind, Slovenia.
Lake Bled.

Jeruzalem vineyards.

Lake Bled and the island Otok with the Church of the Assumption with Bled Castle behind at dawn.
Lake Bled, purple dawn.

Hayrack, Sorica.

Lake Bled and the island Otok, Bled, Slovenia.
Lake Bled, sunrise.

The cliffs of Jalovec from the slopes Sleme, just below Slemenova Spica, near Vrsic and Kranjska Gora, Gorenjska, Slovenia.
Jalovec from Sleme.

St Primož and Storžič.

Images are the copyright of David Robertson at
All rights reserved.


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Pre-booked Tours of Ljubljana: A Walk Through the Baroque Ljubljana

Tourist Information Centre Ljubljana
Adamič Lundrovo nabrežje 2 1000 Ljubljana
++386 1 306 12 30
++386 1 306 12 04
Apart from the 20th century architect Jože Plečnik, it was Baroque masters that left a decisive mark on the architectural appearance of Ljubljana. The old city centre boasts numerous buildings with Baroque facades, arcaded courtyards and arched staircases. Also the majority of churches in Ljubljana were either built or – after the earthquake of 1511 – rebuilt in Baroque style. Some of the jewels in the crown of the Baroque Ljubljana are the works from the oeuvre of the Venetian-born sculptor Francesco Robba, which include the famous Fountain of Three Carniolan Rivers, which was built in front of the Town Hall, one of the most notable examples of Baroque architecture in Ljubljana.
Duration: 2 hours.
Languages: Slovenian, English, Italian, French and German.
Note: For more information and booking, please contact Ms. Alenka Štular, tel. +386 (0)1 306 12 30, e-mail

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GPS Northing (N) : 46,051
GPS Easting (E) : 14,5069
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Info TownsAccommodationAttractionsActivitiesEventsFood & WineMore
in the countryside
Healthy climate
The settlement of Šalovci lies in the valley of the Velika Krka stream 27 kilometres from Murska Sobota and four kilometres from the international road and rail border crossing at Hodoš. Šalovci currently has a population of under 500, although at the start of the 20th century it was one of the largest settlements in the Goričko region. In the 16th century Šalovci was an important centre known by the name of Sal. The land registers describing the Upper Lendava estates in the period from 1541 do 1566 mention Šalovci as a commercially significant market town and the seat of a judicial district. Before 1600 Šalovci was also an independent parish. The church was burnt down in around 1605 – during the Bocskai revolt – by Hungarian rebels rampaging through Prekmurje under the command of Gregor Nemethy. According to a contemporary account, "The rebels burst into the church at Šalovci and tore from the image of the Virgin Mary the many valuable silver gifts that believers had hung upon it. One of the soldiers, standing on the altar, made to jump down but his spurs caught in the altar cloth and he fell heavily. This made him so angry that, with curses and imprecations, he threw the cloths, vestments and wooden items together in a heap and set fire to them." As a result the church burned to the ground and the parish ceased to exist.

GPS Northing (N) : 46,8245
GPS Easting (E) : 16,2947
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« Creamy Cauliflower and Roasted Garlic Soup | Main | Gratitude Friday...Words to live by »

Old friends...the watercolour

Way back when...my Sara had given me the promise of a watercolour painting for my birthday. All I needed to do was tell her what I wanted her to paint for me. Seems simple enough, except I couldn't think of just the right subject for a long time! But then one day I found the perfect scene. I posted the following entry in June called Old friends :

I sent Sara the above photo and said this is the one!! But then I got thinking about the last time I had been reminded of that S&G song. It was during our daytrip to Twillingate last year when we were in Newfoundland with Valerie and her family:

So I asked Sara if she would paint the scene with the draping trees in the Public Gardens, but instead of two men, could she paint me and Valerie sitting on the bench. And so she did, adding her own little touches, like painting us both in our purple jeans (why yes...yes, we do have matching purple jeans...apparently all the other matching things I wrote about here weren't enough! lol)

Isn't it a beautiful work of art? I just love it. How blessed I am to have such a generous and talented daughter to create such amazing gifts for me. ♥

Comments (6)

Barb Cabot:

It's such a lovely painting and made even more special with all the history behind the idea. You are so blessed..thank you for sharing these blessings.

Barb, I am indeed blessed, my friend! The song in my heart these days is one that begins: "Let us sing with joy and thanksgiving". In the midst of all my blessings, I am filled with both!

It is a beautiful watercolor, for sure. Even more importantly is the thoughtfulness and personal remembrance it holds for you. You are blest!

Amen, menehune! :)

It is a beautiful work of art. So simple but yet it says so much. You are so fortunate.

Marta, I love the *secret* language of this painting! :)

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« The Arsenale Lions | Main | PhotoHunt: Creamy »

The walls behind

Sometimes the wall behind the shrine is just as interesting as the shrine itself. This wall is ravaged but beautiful.

Here's another example ~

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Comments (9)

I agree, Annie. These walls are very interesting. I especially like the third shot.

Hi Annie!
I love those walls! The colors and the textures are beautiful.
I shall see them soon... I just booked my trip to Venice for September. I found amazing prices for the plane tickets. I couldn't resist!
When are you going back?
Take care,

Love the theme and the photos of this post! It's interesting to see the state of abandon of these walls and how the shrines have not been subjected to the same degree of decay.

Annie: So very true - a keen eye to see this on first pass too. Venice is so rich for the eyes....menehune

I really like the first photo. There is something very moving about having the shrine in the middle of the ravaged wall. The colors and depth are also great.

Kathy (Trekcapri):

Hi Annie, you are so right. The colors of these walls are really unique and adds something extra to these beautiful shrines in an artistic way! I remember being really drawn to the different coloring of the outside walls on some of the buildings around Venice.

Wonderful Photos and great post Annie!

Gorgeous! In picture no. 3 it looks like light is coming from inside the shrine, really cool.

Thanks everyone.

Chiocciola, there was a little electric light bulb inside that shrine. It makes it hard to photograph the saint inside but looks kinda cool.

AnnaLivia, congratulations! There have been some amazing airfare deals lately. I don't know when I'm returning to Venice; if I go this year, it will probably be in December again. But I'm thinking about going somewhere else (I have such a long list of places I want to go) and maybe going to Venice next spring.

The first time I went to Venice was in September; it was very crowded but the weather was great (and the days are so much longer than they are in winter). Hope you have a wonderful time!

These walls have character, time has etched it on their faces. Wonderful shots! Mine is up here.

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« 2004 Trip - Barcelona - Park Guell | Main | 2004 Trip - Cruise - Marseille, France »

2004 Trip - Cruise - Port Vendres & Ceret, France

After bidding a fond farewell to our Barcelona "home", we were transported to our cruise ship port. Yes, we were finally on the cruise ship! After filling out the required paperwork and turning over our passports, we were shown to our stateroom. I remember how small our staterooms have been in the past on other cruises, and I was pleasantly surprised by the size of this one. Not that it was large - it wasn't. But, it was a very nicely laid out space with two portholes next to the bed. The bathroom (again pretty small) had a round shower that you could actually move around in, so it seemed larger. It had a nice flat screen TV and a DVD/CD player. You could check out DVD's or CD's in the ship's library. They also had four movies on the TV each day, all fairly recent, that played continuously the entire day.

Below, the dark door to the left is the bathroom, and the light-colored door to the right is the closet. It was very cozy!

The Wind Spirit is part of the Windstar fleet - they are all very small ships. Ours held only 148 passengers. It had four sails which were used for partial power while we were at sea. Windstar also has another identical ship and a "larger" ship called the Wind Surf, which holds 300 passengers. We might try that someday, but I think I can say that I will never go on the mega-liners again. They are just too big! I get lost on them!

After unpacking, we had the mandatory lifeboat drill and rested a little bit before dressing for dinner. No specific seating on this ship - you can come to dinner when you wish and eat with whom you choose.

Oh! I guess I should tell you that the reason we were on this particular cruise was that it was sponsored by the Eberle Winery in Paso Robles, CA. There were about 50 Eberle people aboard - we could identify each other by the very nice shirts that we were each given.

We got to know several members of the ship's crew pretty well. They were all Indonesian. Bill made friends with the bartenders on the pool deck, so you know they took good care of him! I made friends with the wine steward - we brought wine to dinner nearly every night, and he only charged us the corkage fee the first night. His name was Erwin, and he was a real character. We always saved him a little of our wine to taste, so he was happy.

For all of you "Foodies", I will show the dinner menu for each day. In case you think this is a bit of overkill, just skip that part! Breakfast and lunch each day was a nice buffet plus a couple of additional made to order items. Always plenty of food, of course! Appetizers were also served each evening in the Lounge, and the head chef was usually there to serve them. I thought that was a nice touch.

Saturday Night Dinner Menu:

Appetizers: Crispy Filo Cup with Field Mushrooms, Glazed Pearly Onions and Wilted Spinach Stuffed Roma Tomato with Bay Shrimp and Corn

Soups: Celery Soup with Curried Apple and Celery Salad, Chilled Red Beet Soup with Creme Fraiche

Salads: Asparagus and Shitaki Salad with Crispy Parmesan Chips, Wind Spirit House Salad with Chablis Dressing

Entrees: Seared Tuna served on Asian Vegetables with Peppercorn and Ponzu Sauce, Oven Roasted Rack of Lamb served with Provencal, Vegetable Tart and Herb Jus, New York Sirloin Steak with Duo of Potatoes and Three Mustard Sauce, Champagne Risotto with Scallops and Lobster Nage

One of our favorite waiters saved all of the nightly menus for me - gosh, you don't really think I could remember all of them, do you???

Wind Spirit Day #1 - Port Vendres, France

We docked in Port Vendres, France, and the shore excursion we chose was to Ceret, France, where they have a lovely modern art museum called Musee d'Art Moderne. It was one of the highlight days of our trip! For such a small town, this museum was excellent! It was having a special Picasso exhibit of all kinds artwork he had done, not only paintings, but ceramic bowls, jugs, silver items, etc. etc. etc. We liked this museum much better than the Picasso Museum that we had just seen in Barcelona. It showed a much broader perspective of the artist.

This was a special exhibit, so I don't know what the regular exhibit is like - they had only a few pieces of it displayed. But, I would highly recommend checking it out to anyone who is going to be in that area.

The village of Ceret is quite picturesque, with Sycamore-lined streets. We had a British guide, and she told us that the water running down the streets ran from the mountains all year long. It was particularly clear and cool (Bill went to check it out). We would definitely like to go back there some day and spend more time!

Unfortunately, my camera batteries decided to run out of juice, so I did not get any pictures of Ceret. Bummer! I had to "borrow" the ones I am showing from the internet.

Sunday Night Dinner Menu:

Appetizers: Mango and Scotch Bonnet Glazed Scallops with Black Bean and Corn Salsa, Roasted Beets, Arugula and Prosciutto with Orange Olive Oil

Soups: Carrot and Lemongrass Soup with Coriander, Creme Fraiche Chilled Tomato and Fennel Soup with Pickled Fennel and Shrimp

Salads: Chinese Chicken Salad with Crispy Wontons, Wind Spirit House Salad with a Champagne Vinaigrette

Entrees: Grilled Fish of the Day with Mashed Potatoes and a Garlic Chive Sauce, Osso Bucco, Braised Slices of Veal Shank with Sauteed Onions on a Bed of Al Dente Noodles, Moroccan Chicken Breast with Toasted Almond Couscous and Date Jus, Gratin of Gnocchi, Oven Dried Tomatoes, Pancetta and Asparagus

Comments (3)

I rather like the idea of small ship cruising and I remain totally impressed by your detailed memory.

The idea of being on a small boat is nice. I bet the Eberle folks were a fun lot.

I have never been on a cruise but if I ever do go on one, I would definitely choose a smaller boat.

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Home » News

February resort bookings rose with snow's arrival

Published March 19, 2012 5:44 pm

Lodging • Higher average daily room rates helped offset more vacancies.
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

At long last, winter's belated arrival helped lift bookings out of the doldrums at mountain resorts in Utah and other Western states.

The Denver-based Rocky Mountain Lodging Report said Monday that lodging establishments it monitors in Park City and other Utah ski destinations filled almost 71 percent of their rooms in February. That was up from 67 percent a year earlier and 59 percent in February 2010.

Long-awaited snowfall boosted those numbers, said another group out of Denver, the Mountain Travel Research Program, based on data from 265 property-management companies overseeing 24,000 rooms in 15 resort communities in Utah, Colorado, California and Oregon.

"Reservations taken in February for arrival in February were up 6.2 percent compared to the same month last year," said Research Program Director Ralf Garrison.

"Despite uncooperative weather patterns and the third warmest winter in the U.S.'s recorded history, skiers and riders still tracked the snow, and lodging rates and showed up when the snow flew," he added. "Although overnight lodging occupancy was down slightly for the month, it was better than we feared, in some cases offset by surprising strength in rate."

Garrison's research showed that occupancy last month in those four Western states ended up 2 percent below the level for February 2011. Hoteliers and property managers made up for some of that deficit, bumping up the average daily rate 2.7 percent.

In Utah, February's average daily rate climbed to $249, up about $4 from the previous year. The figure most important to the lodging industry, Revpar, or revenue available per room, climbed to $176 per day from $158 daily in February 2011, according to the monthly Rocky Mountain Lodging Report.

Although conditions improved considerably in February, Garrison's report found that bookings for March remained almost 4 percent behind the same month a year earlier, with daily rates up only 1.1 percent.

Rising gas prices are a concern, Garrison said, but he found some comfort in the fact that for the first time since the Great Recession began in late 2007, weather was more important than the economy in influencing the resort industry's health.

"Decent weather returned mid-season to help generate some additional late-season demand, but not enough for a full recovery in most cases," he said. "Despite the challenges, many mountain destinations seem to have done a good job managing 'the hand they were dealt' by controlling the elements they could — slope maintenance and attention to guest services."

Whether they did that well enough to maintain customer loyalty, Garrison said, will be determined in coming months when people begin making reservations for next winter.

Elsewhere in Utah, the Rocky Mountain Lodging Report said occupancy statewide during February was 65 percent, up from 63 percent a year earlier, with the cost of a room climbing $5 nightly to $111.

In Salt Lake County, hoteliers filled 74 percent of their rooms nightly last month, a 4 percent jump from the previous February. On average, rooms went for $99 a night, up from $92 a year earlier.

Twitter: @sltribmikeg


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Home » News

Utah Medicaid cop survives to fight another day

Published March 11, 2013 3:29 pm

Health reform • Compromise bill urges discretion in pursuing honest mistakes, but extends new fraud-fighting tools.
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Utah's Medicaid Inspector General survived legislative attempts to weaken his policing powers with passage of a bill to extend his appointment by two years.

Two opposing bills — one to insulate Medicaid's top cop from politics, and another that some say limits his powers — are now rolled into one. The substituted version of HB106 passed the Senate on Monday and needs only the governor's signature to become law.

The bill would move Inspector General Lee Wyckoff an arm's length from the governor to the Department of Administrative Services. The position would not report to the agency's director, but would be independent — appointed by the governor with consent from the Senate to a four-year term.

It adds elements of HB315, clarifying the Legislature's intent in creating the inspector to crack down on the waste and abuse of Medicaid funds, after a string of legislative probes that found widespread "upcoding," or overcharging, by doctors and hospitals.

The bill directs the inspector general's office to pursue its watchdog role without alienating the declining number of doctors willing to treat Medicaid patients and to differentiate "between honest mistakes and intentional errors, or fraud" if negotiating a settlement.

A prior version of HB315 would have required whistle-blowing health care workers to first report billing errors to their employer. Now the bill would give employees the option of alerting the inspector.

It would also give Wyckoff's team of auditors access to Utah's Controlled Substance Database, empowering them to pursue patient fraud, or doctor-shopping.

Doing so would set Utah apart from most other states which, according to a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts, focus primarily on "pay and chase" efforts to remedy billing errors.

Fraud and abuse in Medicaid waste money and can subject patients to unnecessary or ineffective tests and treatments, the report says. In 2012, an estimated $19 billion — or 7 percent — of federal Medicaid funds was absorbed by improper payments, which include fraud and abuse as well as unintentional mistakes such as paperwork errors.


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Youth Lagoon, in Utah Thursday, streaming new album

Published February 26, 2013 11:18 am
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Youth Lagoon is performing at Kilby Court on Thursday, Feb. 28, and you can stream his new album "Wondrous Bughouse" now at http://tinyurl.com/acrtll3 thanks to NPR Music.

NPR's Robin Hilton says: "Youth Lagoon's second album, 'Wondrous Bughouse,' is one of the most arresting headphone records you'll hear this year. Trevor Powers, the band's sole member, layers strange but alluring synth textures under quirky melodies and simple pop beats, in the process creating an expansive and endlessly engrossing world of sonic curiosities." Trevor Powers, whose stage name is Youth Lagoon, began writing his debut album "The Year of Hibernation" in 2010.

By the way, the show is SOLD OUT. Looks like people like bughouses.

Reader comments on sltrib.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Salt Lake Tribune. We will delete comments containing obscenities, personal attacks and inappropriate or offensive remarks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. If you see an objectionable comment, please alert us by clicking the arrow on the upper right side of the comment and selecting "Flag comment as inappropriate". If you've recently registered with Disqus or aren't seeing your comments immediately, you may need to verify your email address. To do so, visit disqus.com/account.
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Pyle: The myths of Santa and the NRA

Published December 21, 2012 4:30 pm
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

In the next day or two, this newspaper and newspapers all over America will participate in the annual Christmas tradition of reprinting Francis Pharcellus Church's editorial of 1897, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

Bah, humbug. Editorial writers, practitioners of a craft dedicated to the search for truth, have been sawing away in this country for a long time. And the only product of ours that most people remember is a piece arguing for a continued belief in a mythical being.

Which brings us to the National Rifle Association and its front man, Wayne LaPierre.

He held a press conference Friday in which he blamed every part of American society except the gun culture for the deaths of 20 children and six teachers the week before in Newtown, Conn.

It's the media's fault, he said. Video games. Violent movies. Gun-free school zones. Lax tracking of mentally ill people. And particularly the void of gun-toting guards in every school in the country.

Fantasy. Every word. And a lot more dangerous than any story about a toy-giving fat man.

Comparing us to other modern nations, the U.S. is a clear outlier in murder committed with guns, particularly the murder of several people at once. And the only thing that is also different about us is we have, not just different laws, but a whole different attitude, toward firearms.

Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Norway, etc., etc., all have violent movies and TV shows, not all of them imported from the U.S. Bloody video games exist everywhere, even, especially, in Japan, where murder is rare and gun crimes unheard of.

So when folks such as Utah's Vichy Democrat Congressman Jim Matheson wonders if it isn't really Hollywood that's to blame, he is touting a theory that we already know belongs in the same category as, well, Santa Claus.

The NRA claims that there is a statistical correlation between permissive gun laws and low crime rates. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg claims there is a correlation between lax gun laws and high crimes rates. Politifact, the Pulitzer-winning fact-checking website, drilled down into the numbers and came up with a rating of mostly true for Bloomberg's statement and a rating of false for the NRA's.

We might know more about all of this but, for the past several years, Congress has inserted language in budget bills that specifically bans the masters of public health data, the Centers for Disease Control, from researching any cause-and-effect relationship between guns and violent death.

Meanwhile, conservative blowhards like Mike Huckabee and James Dobson are out with their predictable claims that it is the lack of religion in schools that has allowed so much violence to enter them. They ignore the clear fact that places with the largest numbers of believers (the American South) are among the most violent and places with the fewest faithful (Western Europe) are the least.

Nate Silver, the statistical guru who called the last election most accurately, minimizes the influence of religion on gun attitudes, comparing church attendance habits with gun ownership rates and finding little correlation one way or the other. But his chart does note that half of Protestant and evangelical households own guns, while only 32 percent of non-religious homes do.

Suggested conclusion: People who think that people cannot be good without the fear of eternal damnation hanging over them also think people won't be good unless there is a real possibility that you might shoot them. People who think you should just be good rely on neither guns nor God.

More research, as they say, is called for.

George Pyle, a Tribune editorial writer, never received a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. Poor soul. Email: gpyle@sltrib.com

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Kragthorpe: RSL's disastrous week ends in another defeat

Published June 23, 2012 10:48 pm
Defensive breakdowns have coach furious, team discouraged.
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

All of his teammates summoned enough energy to trudge toward the showers, but Real Salt Lake veteran Nat Borchers remained seated in front of his locker, half-dressed. Borchers willingly answered a few questions, blaming himself for one of the goals in RSL's latest loss, then ducked his head in defeat.

There could be no better illustration of what Borchers described as "a week we'd rather forget" — unless it was coach Jason Kreis standing in the interview room and declaring himself "discouraged and mad at the world" like no other time in his life, or midfielder Will Johnson's saying evenly, "We're just leaking goals, coming from mistakes all over the field."

Saturday night's 2-1 loss to San Jose was frustrating enough, by itself. Mix in Wednesday's meltdown against Los Angeles in a 3-2 defeat, and this becomes RSL's worst week ever at Rio Tinto Stadium. Considering the standards that now apply, you could label this the most disastrous two-game sequence in RSL's eight-year history.

What are we supposed to think of this team now?

Everything that Real established in compiling Major League Soccer's best record this season collapsed in 180 minutes. After all of the buildup to these two games, RSL delivered performances resembling those of the bad, old days at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

If anything, this week was worse. Before Wednesday, RSL never had lost after leading by two goals, in the 233-game franchise history. Then came Saturday's showdown, with the winner guaranteed first place in the Western Conference.

The three words on the whiteboard in the locker room said it all: "What's our response?" Turns out, Saturday's answer was as unsatisfying as the questions left by Wednesday's effort.

Even a draw would have preserved Real's lead in the standings, but the Earthquakes answered Javier Morales' tying goal with Chris Wondolowski's header off a set piece in the 84th minute. That's just the kind of late strike San Jose is known for, and the circumstances could not have been more devastating to RSL.

"Honest to God," Kreis said, "we didn't lose the game. We gave the game away — twice."

It's true that none of these unsavory sound bites would have been uttered and the latest defensive lapses could have been overlooked if RSL had finished any of several other scoring chances. A flurry of missed opportunities in the first half, mostly involving the hard-working Fabian Espindola, were followed by all varieties of near-misses in the second half of a scoreless game.

San Jose defender Jason Hernandez turned away shots from Johnson and Johnny Steele with his goalkeeper out of position, while Morales, Steele and Alvaro Saborio sent balls sailing barely over the crossbar.

That's how RSL (10-5-2) remains stuck at 32 points in the MLS standings to 33 for San Jose (10-3-3). No wonder Kreis was left to observe, "Soccer can be a really cruel game." His allotment of credit to San Jose's defensive work, preventing those would-be goals? "None," Kreis said, bitterly.

So the real damage of the week is what RSL did to itself. "We're giving teams goals," Johnson said. "The best teams in the world win games 1-0, with good team defense. Right now, we're not close to good team defense."

Where is this team, exactly? All anybody knows for sure is it's a long way from its position of this time last week. RSL no longer is even the West's best team, after a two-game effort that can be summarized only as pointless — on the field, and in the standings.

kkragthorpe@sltrib.comTwitter: @tribkurt

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In Israel, media stars are turning to politics

Published November 3, 2012 6:49 pm
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Jerusalem • They spent their journalistic careers analyzing, covering and skewering Israel's politicians. Now, a striking number are vying to join their ranks.

Four prominent Israeli TV anchors and news pundits are leaving their jobs and running for parliament in Israel's upcoming elections, reflecting the rising star power of media personalities for an electorate that has long had a penchant for retired army generals.

The recent surge of journalists-turned-politicians reflects in part a desire for new blood in a political scene long dominated by the same faces. Frequent corruption cases against figures in power in recent years only increase the appeal of those coming from outside the ranks of Israel's career politicians. The media stars seen nightly on TV or read daily in newspapers have the advantage of being both new and familiar.

For the first time, two significant political parties are entering the fray with well-known TV news celebrities at the helm. Elections are scheduled for Jan. 22.

Popular prime-time TV man Yair Lapid quit his job this year as weekend newsmagazine anchor on Channel 2 TV and formed his own political party, Yesh Atid, or "There is a Future."

And the center-left Labor Party is headed by former TV and radio commentator Shelly Yachimovich, who joined the media-to-politics wave several years ago and was elected party leader late last year.

More journalists are following the path in this election. This week, another high-profile commentator, Ofer Shelah, announced he was joining Lapid's party, and two other media figures said they would run for parliament on the Labor Party list.

Surveys are predicting that Labor and Yesh Atid, both appealing to centrist, middle-class voters, will have strong showings in the vote, albeit behind the leading, right-wing ticket of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Under Israel's system of proportional representation, the number of votes a party receives determines how many seats it controls in the 120-member parliament.

The newcomers join 11 former media figures in the outgoing parliament in parties spanning the spectrum from the liberal Meretz and centrist Kadima parties to the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu and Netanyahu's ruling Likud.

Notably, the number of former journalists in the outgoing parliament is the same as the number of former top security officials, a sign of how the media is beginning to rival a traditional main wellspring of Israel's political elite. Facing frequent wars, Israelis historically have liked having former military chiefs lead the country, and that sentiment still largely remains. But media personalities are loosening the generals' grip on the political helm, in part because they're even more well-known.

"They are known in every home. People like them," said Israeli media expert Yoram Peri. "Recognition has become very important."

The ex-journalists say they've jumped ship for politics for the same reason they went into the media world: a desire to have an impact on society.

"My entire adult life I have been a social activist and feminist, along with my journalistic work...I worked to right wrongs," Haaretz commentator Merav Michaeli, who hopes to represent Labor, wrote on her Facebook page. "Now I want to do that in the political domain, where things are decided and budgets are divided."

"I want to have an impact," said Nachman Shai, former Army Radio chief editor and television executive who served as a lawmaker in the Kadima party. "You can only have an impact where decisions are made." With Kadima sinking in the polls, Shai recently moved to the Labor Party in hopes of being re-elected.

But some are concerned about skewed news coverage when a journalist is mulling a political plunge.

One lawmaker petitioned the Israel Press Council this week to draft regulations to ensure that working journalists disclose their deliberations about running for office. "The conduct we are witnessing at this time seems to cross red lines," said Likud politician Yariv Levin.

In a televised debate on the issue, blogger and journalist Tal Schneider said the phenomenon shamed the profession by compromising its ethical bedrock, impartiality. "If journalists say they want to go into politics, what does it say about the years they worked (in the field) and how they worked?" she said.

Senior Israeli commentator Dan Margalit accused his colleagues of hypocrisy.

"Day after day, journalists and tycoons have prattled on and on about how Israel's best citizens stay away from entering politics," Margalit wrote in Israel Hayom, a free daily loyal to Netanyahu. "Many of those same jabberers now want to join the politicians they demonized daily."

Media and politics have been closely connected since the days of Israel's founding fathers, notes media expert Peri, director of the Gildenhorn Institute for Israeli Studies at the University of Maryland.

Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, came to champion the quest for a Jewish homeland after covering for a Viennese newspaper the 19th-century trial of French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus, sentenced for treason in a trial Herzl saw as anti-Semitic. Herzl's successor as head of the World Zionist Organization, Nahum Sokolov, was a journalist. Two of Israel's first political party leaders were newspapermen.

But for years, Israeli politics was heavily driven by parties, not the personalities who led them. Voters voted for parties with clear ideologies and long-time members. That changed in the 1990s: political parties weakened as voters began to favor individual candidates, many of whom had no political experience.

The phenomenon dovetailed with the introduction of commercial television in Israel in 1993, after a single state-run channel monopolized coverage for nearly three decades, Peri said. More programming on television meant more TV celebrities, and those celebrities began to be considered as attractive candidates for office.

Gadi Wolfsfeld, a professor of political communication at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, said Israeli journalists may have spent their careers covering politics, but it doesn't prepare them any better than a general or lawyer who enters politics.

"The best training for a politician is being a politician," Wolfsfeld said.

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Saint Louis University

Father John Vowells, S.J. is the campus minister (chaplain) assigned in service to the students, staff and faculty of the School of Law. Those who wish to meet with Fr. Vowells for such matters as personal/pastoral counseling, spiritual development, marriage preparation or any other topic arising from relationships, life transitions, and life challenges are invited to drop by the law school campus ministry office (Room 742) or call for an appointment (977-1507). Also, campus ministry in the law school offers a variety of prayer opportunities throughout the year, including periodic interfaith prayer services and the weekly celebration of Mass. Campus Ministry services are available to everyone, regardless of religious affiliation. For a more in-depth description of the programs and events offered by Campus Ministry throughout the University, please visit

Or follow this link to view a detailed list of Campus Ministry services.


text:
Friday, February 24, 2012

Sweet Violet

"Mom, I'm tired of going to the vet. When is Violet going to get better?"

"She's not going to get better, Honey."

"Why not?"

"She has a thing called chronic renal failure and it's not going to go away. We just have to keep bringing her in twice a week to get fluids to make her feel more comfortable."

"I hope we get to keep taking her for a long time."

"Me too... Can I carry her?"

  1. That's so sweet, and so very sad. I hope you get to take her for a long time too.

  2. He has such a loving heart. I love that boy.

  3. Violet got very lucky when she came to live with the Rosenbergs. So did the Rosenbergs.

  4. Oh my gosh. What a beautiful lesson. . . .I need you to help me in the hospital.

  5. That boy just gets it. What a honey.

  6. I'm catching up on my daily dose of Bob here and ouchy. :( Poor Violet. She's lucky to have such a loving family to see her through.

  7. A simple reason, when they then re-sell the house they feel the least quantity of taxable gain, for their taking
    the house in on the mortgage amount increases their basis
    to that amount uk payday loans they expect to be
    held accountable for the money they owe and purchases.


text:
About Istanbul

by SmarterTravel Staff
Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, Turkey (Photo: Peter Adams/Index Open)

For those trying to decide between a vacation to Europe or Asia, Istanbul may be the perfect solution. The only city in the world that sits astride two continents, Istanbul is an ideal destination for those intrigued by ancient civilizations, European and Asian culture, art and architecture, and world religions (particularly Greek Orthodox and Islam).

With a plethora of ancient monuments, museums, and palaces, visitors won't run out of things to do in Istanbul. Dolmabahce Palace, the newest and most Western of the city's palaces, was built in the 19th century, and offers guests the chance to marvel at the Muayede Saloon's 56 columns and a 4.5 ton chandelier. And Istanbul sightseeing wouldn't be complete without a visit to one of the area's Turkish baths for purification and relaxation.

Flights to Istanbul land at Ataturk International Airport.

Read comments or add your own insight!


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No conversational marketing on
June 24th, 2007

I found out about the matter of “conversational marketing” via Jeff Jarvis, and then saw that Federated Media, which handles advertising on this site, has communicated with me that they will soon have some material to read about conversational marketing. I like Federated Media. We make enough money on ads here to pay for the server and to buy our bloggers a gift certificate every few months. But nobody is going to chat up our sponsors here. As Jarvis said, it’s up to us bloggers to set the limits. So I am sticking with FM, which is a smart outfit that I am proud to be associated with, but no conversational marketing will take place on this site.

So ultimately, this is a cautionary tale for all bloggers who take ads: You must set your own boundaries and not let them be pushed. When you do — whatever those boundaries are — that is the very definition of selling out.

Fatal error: Call to undefined function sociable_html() in /home/permutype/ on line 36


text:
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text:
Sydney Morning Herald Online

  film     tv & radio     arts     books     fashion     good living

Home   >   Entertainment   >   Music   >   Article

Can't stop the mergers

December 28, 2003
The Sun-Herald

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Globalisation of the popular music business poses serious questions for the Australian industry, writes entertainment reporter Christine Sams.

It's a game of musical chairs which is likely to involve Australia's biggest recording artists, Delta Goodrem and John Farnham.

Goodrem is signed to Sony Music Australia while Farnham is BMG Australia's biggest star. But both could come under one label if a proposed global merger between Sony and Bertelsmann Music Group takes place.

For Australian music listeners, a massive corporate merger seems irrelevant to what they're playing on their stereos. But the agreement between Sony and BMG could signal a new era in music, where huge conglomerations control the global music business.

It will undoubtedly rekindle the debate raging in the movie industry over how much hope there is that Australian culture can survive the world consolidation of the entertainment business.

Some may write this off as an esoteric argument about the arts versus popular culture. But Brand Australia, taken to the world's stage by major celebrities such as Kylie Minogue and Elle Macpherson, is worth hundreds of millions of dollars to our $17 billion tourism industry.

So much so that the Government is launching a $550 million campaign leveraging popular Australian brands and icons such as Ian Thorpe and Steve Waugh.

Success for Goodrem, already charting in the UK and planning an assault on the US once she recovers from cancer, means more awareness for Australia and translates into business dollars.

But the question is whether Australian artists such as Goodrem will get the same access to American and British markets under the proposed Sony BMG deal.

Of course, mergers and large corporations running the music business are not new.

It's a situation which already exists to a degree in Australia, with five major players - Sony, BMG, EMI, Warner Music (already under Time Warner) and Universal Music Group.

But with the proposed merger between Sony and BMG, and rumours of a similar agreement between EMI and Warner Music (although a similar deal between the companies was rejected by the European Union in 2000), the control of the world's music content might come down to just three companies.

What this means for Australian artists is anybody's guess. There will undoubtedly be job losses, both here and overseas, as the companies combine their strengths - and reduce their weaknesses. Some artists are also likely to be dropped from the record company rosters, as they reassess their assets.

"This industry used to be run by creatives, now it's run by accountants," Sydney music industry analyst Phil Tripp said.

"The only reason Sony and BMG want to merge their interests is economy of scale. There are people who will go to restaurants to eat, and there are other people who think McDonald's is great.

"A lot of people call the current phase we're going through the McDonald-isation of the music industry."

At the moment, the merger between Sony and BMG is only being talked about.

BMG Australia managing director Ed St John declined to talk about the corporate merger. But Sony chairman Denis Handlin told reporters it was a move which would ultimately protect the interests of Australian artists.

He said in a statement: "The proposed joint venture would definitely be a positive step. However, it is very early days and it is not possible to comment in any detail just yet as there are many steps to go through."

Before it happens, the merger of two of the world's biggest music companies would have to be approved by industry regulators in the US and Europe, before being scrutinised by the ACCC in Australia.

Competition watchdogs in the US and EU are expected to embark on lengthy investigations into the deal.

When Sony and BMG emerge from the extended process of joining their businesses, the company will be known as Sony-BMG. The music company would be the second largest in the world (behind Universal Music) with a 25 per cent share of the global music market.

The company's key artists are likely to be selected in the US and Britain, leaving a question mark over artists in smaller territories, including Australia.

Industry observers, including Tripp, believe there is a positive side to the corporate squeeze: increased opportunities for independent music artists to make their mark globally.

But it isn't a given. As with the movie industry, the music industry might find itself consumed by American and British content.

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Australia's sporting bodies have been warned to begin their 2018 Commonwealth Games preparations now or risk falling behind their overseas rivals.

Representatives of several sports attended a forum on the Gold Coast on Friday to be delivered the blunt message from the Australian Commonwealth Games Association (ACGA).

After failing to reach the goals set by ACGA in Delhi in 2010 and following Australia's underwhelming display at this year's London Olympics, officials felt the time was right to give sporting bodies a wake-up call.

"Sports must prepare now for 2018 if we are to top the medal tally again," ACGA president Sam Coffa told reporters.

"We've been pretty successful over the years, in 12 of the 19 Games we've topped the medal tally, but that doesn't mean anything.

"We still have to work very hard."

Coffa said the Commonwealth Games movement had taken "a hit" in the wake of the controversial Delhi Games, which were marred by security fears, allegations of corruption and unpaid bills.

But ACGA chief executive Perry Crosswhite said the biggest concern had been the decision by leading athletes such as Usain Bolt not to compete in Delhi.

As the Commonwealth Games Federation aims to restore its reputation over the next six years with the 2014 Glasgow Games and then the 2018 event on the Gold Coast, Crosswhite said maintaining the event's elite status would be crucial.

He said the Gold Coast event will largely be used to show how a Games can be run on a smaller scale, hopefully encouraging other members of the Commonwealth to put their hand up to host future Games.

But mainly he believed it would be the quality of competition which would sustain the event into the future.

"If you're just saying `OK, we'll put a team together, show up and whether they're high-performance related in the world or this country it doesn't make a difference', if you do that the Games are finished," he said.

"This is a high-performance event, it has to remain a high-performance event and the rest of the nations have to see it as that as well."


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Winner of the 2014 Archibald Prize, Fiona Lowry with her subject, Penelope Seidler, at the NSW Art Gallery in Sydney.

Winner of the 2014 Archibald Prize, Fiona Lowry with her subject, Penelope Seidler, at the NSW Art Gallery in Sydney. Photo: Janie Barrett

Picking the Archibald winner was almost too easy this year. As soon as one walks into the central gallery of the exhibition, Fiona Lowry’s striking portrait of Penelope Seidler virtually announces: “Here I am!”

If further confirmation were required, it’s worth remembering that she was pronounced the unofficial runner-up last year, with a bilious green portrait of Shaun Gladwell. If the Trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW liked that picture, they must have been ecstatic about this year’s entry in tasteful shades of grey.

Fiona Lowry, 'Penelope Seidler'. Click for more photos

2014 Archibald Prize finalists

Fiona Lowry, 'Penelope Seidler'. Photo: Supplied

Lowry has enjoyed a run of success in local art prizes during the past few years and the Archibald is the jewel in her tiara. Ben Quilty was on the panel that gave her the Doug Moran Prize in 2008 and is now a Trustee at the AGNSW. We may assume he is a fan.

The award continues the trend for giving the prize to artists who might be characterised as young and fashionable, if no longer “emerging”. Del Kathryn Barton, Guy Maestri and Quilty himself have played this role in the past.

The Seidler portrait is arguably Lowry’s most assured and skilful painting to date. It captures an excellent likeness, which is no mean feat when you are painting with an airbrush. Although the image owes a debt to photography, it is not so intrusive as to spoil the overall effect.

Lowry’s growing popularity with private and public collectors is partly due to the edginess of her subject matter. Her work is full of suggestions of sex and violence in the great outdoors.

She won the Doug Moran with a nude self-portrait set in Belanglo State Forest, scene of Ivan Milat’s backpacker killings. With most of Lowry’s works it seems that people are being molested or murdered. Despite the Gothic overtones of these paintings, the tonality is as bright as an overexposed photograph.

In her prize-winning portrait, Lowry has allowed Penelope Seidler to stand around without threat of personal violence, although there is still a slightly sinister feeling about the grey, misty backdrop. Perhaps the ghosts of old Archibald favourites such as W.B. McInnes and William Dargie are lurking in the bushes, appalled by the decadence into which the prize has fallen.

John McDonald is the SMH’s art critic


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MaineHealth logo
SMHC logo

SMMC Sleep Lab Moves to Kennebunk

The Southern Maine Medical Center (SMMC) Sleep Lab has moved to the Goodall Health Center located at 2 Livewell Drive in Kennebunk, into the suite previously occupied by Goodall Hospital’s Sleep Institute. Beginning on June 11, all sleep studies for Goodall and SMHC patients will be performed at our new location. Chris Hughes, MD, PhD, Robert McArdle, DO and Usha Nalamalapu, MD, FAASM will continue to read studies performed through the SMHC Sleep Lab.

“The Sleep Lab’s highly trained team of specialists will continue to provide patients with the same high quality services at our new location,” said Steve Keegan, VP of Ancillary Services for SMHC. “Combining the resources of the Sleep Lab and Goodall’s Sleep Institute will maximize the efficiency of sleep study operations previously conducted at these separate locations, and allow us to provide all patients with excellence care at state-of-the-art facilities centrally located between the two hospitals.”

One in four Americans do not enjoy the benefits of good sleep because they suffer from sleep disorders. Common sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, insomnia or narcolepsy, affect a person's health and quality of life, including job performance and family relationships.

SMMC’s specialty trained physicians and staff of registered respiratory therapists and polysomnographic technologists offer a full spectrum of care from initial evaluation to sleep study review to diagnosis and long-term management. The Sleep Lab facilities include private bedrooms for sleep studies, supported by state-of-the art sleep equipment.

Patients undergoing a sleep study will spend a night in the Sleep Lab, while brain waves, muscle activity, leg and arm movements, heart rhythms, and other body functions are monitored during sleep. With this information, physicians Chris Hughes, MD, PhD, Robert McArdle, DO and Usha Nalamalapu, MD, FAASM can prescribe a treatment plan that suits the patient's individual needs.

To learn more about the Sleep Lab, please call us at 283-6888.

About Southern Maine Medical Center
Southern Maine Medical Center (SMMC) is a national award-winning healthcare system, including an acute care medical center licensed for 150 beds in Biddeford, Maine, offering excellent clinical care and a multi-specialty physician services group with medical offices providing outpatient care located in Biddeford, Kennebunk, Old Orchard Beach and Saco. Non-emergency care is available without an appointment seven days a week at SMHC’s Walk-In Care center in Saco. SMHC is Joint Commission accredited, Pathway to Excellence designated, state-licensed, and is a member of Southern Maine Medical Center and the MaineHealth system. To learn more visit or @smmcHealth.

© Southern Maine Health Care     1 Medical Center Drive     Biddeford, Maine 04005 USA     Tel: (207) 283-7000

SMHC is a member of the MaineHealth System and a participant in the HealthInfoNet Health Information Exchange

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Post tip Now | Share your favourite places

Malaysia embassy in New Delhi, India

How to apply Malaysia visa in New Delhi, India:
Most of people are obliged to obtain a Visa before visiting Malaysia. They can apply directly from embassy of Malaysia in New Delhi or apply online to get Visa.

Malaysia embassy in New Delhi, India Contact
Represented: Malaysia
Country Located in:India
City:New Delhi
Address:High Commission of Malaysia, 50-M, Satya Marg, Chanakyapuri 110 021 - New Delhi
Phone:91-11-261 11 291/92/93/97
Fax:91-11-268 81 538
Email:[email protected]
Office hours:Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m

Check all requirements of malaysia visa:
  Destination Country:
Malaysian tourist visa requirements for India (Indian): required

Malaysian business visa requirements for India (Indian): required

Requirement for Malaysia visa application:
– Original passport
– Two (2) photocopies of passport
– Two (2) photocopies of visa application form (Form IMM.47)
– Two (2) passport size photograph of applicant
– Original air ticket and two (2) photocopies (confirmed and returned ticket)
– Bank statement / traveller’s cheques
– Invitation letter (if any)
– Payment of visa fee

Cost of Malaysia visa:
Social: single- and multiple-entry visa prices are flat-rate fees of £10, except for Indian passports, in which case the multiple-entry fee is £20.
How to visit new delhi, India from malaysia ?

Coming soon

How long to make Malaysia visa :
Same day – morning submission of the application (0900-1200) and afternoon collection (1530).

Require time valid of Malaysia visa:
Normally 1 to 3 months from date of issue. Extensions are possible.

How to fly directly from malaysia to new delhi, India?

There is not any direct flight from new delhi to malaysia

Map of embassy of malaysia in new delhi, India (where is malaysia embassy in new delhi, India located?)

Maybe This is no exact imformation for embassy of malaysia in new delhi, If you know about information, Please contact us for this update. Thank for your help.

List of Embassy or Consulate at new delhi


text:
Keeping you current

The Longest Running Streak on Record Is 16,447 Days

Jogging junkies give exercise records a run for their money

No day is a day without running for streakers (Corbis)

Yesterday was National Running Day, and the Atlantic profiled the community of people for whom pounding the pavement is an everyday, necessary occurrence. Known as streakers, these people run daily, for at least one continuous mile, as long as their limbs will hold them.

The United States Running Streak Association (USRSA) keeps an official list, and Jon Sutherland holds the record for running the longest: 16,447 days. That's more than 45 years worth of daily runs.

To keep up a streak means running through illness and injury. Of course there are health complications. As the Atlantic explains:

Although researchers haven’t examined streak running’s effects on the body, some experts say it’s not healthy. The body needs a day off to recover, says Dr. Lewis G. Maharam, chairman of the International Marathon Medical Directors Association.  “When God created the heaven and earth, he gave a day of rest,” Maharam says. “Anybody that runs every day without any rest is not smart.”

But there is a surprising number of those not-smart people out there. More than 430 people are registered streakers on the USRSA’s website, with records from five to 15 to 45 years of daily running, the Atlantic reports. Some clinicians suggest that streak running might be a type of addiction. No matter what's motivating these runners, it's hard not to admire these incredible feats of endurance.

About Alexa C. Kurzius

Alexa C. Kurzius is a Buffalo-bred, freelance science writer based in New York City.

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  2. Welcome to Smogon Forums! Please take a minute to read the rules.
Last Activity:
Aug 25, 2013
Sep 13, 2007
Trophy Points:
    1. religiousjedi
      'Tis Dark Side. Just waiting for the right opportunity to pounce. :3
    2. religiousjedi
      The power to ban you. :)
    3. jones115
      i have a DW poliwag or politoad,please tell me you have a DW bagon :)
    4. ChildDaemon
      The parents all belonged to me. I got the mothers straight from the DW and used other random pokemon with the appropriate nature in the same egg group as the fathers. Nature passing didn't work out though... and IVs are probably pretty bad.
    5. ChildDaemon
      Thanks so much! Perhaps we'll trade again sometime :)
    6. ChildDaemon
      I'm available now if that works for you.
    7. ChildDaemon
      I have them ready, it's just an issue of finding a time we're both available to trade. And I didn't manage to get the right natures despite everstoning... blargh. Both female w/ DW ability though of course.
    8. ChildDaemon
      Yeah I generally end up breeding a male using the ditto then taking that and breeding it with the DW female... it's kind of silly and convoluted tho XP
    9. ChildDaemon
      Okay, I'll see what I can do about natures. I know I have an Adamant Ditto, so I should be able to breed a male adamant dratini, then breed that w/ the DW female. I'll have to check on the timid option... I would bet I have something in Vulpix's egg group that would work though. I'll let you know when I'm ready as well.
    10. ChildDaemon
      Sure, I can get you female Vulpix and Dratini. If you want actual decent IVs it may take me a little while (I have a few other projects I need to take care of first), but if you don't care about that I can have them ready by tomorrow at the latest.
    11. ChildDaemon
      The Shinx interests me. Possibly the Lickitung too depending on what you are asking in exchange. What were you thinking you wanted?
    12. Windsong
      izzy of course ;D
    13. Windsong
      woah, flame, i had no idea that you had an acc here. =o
    14. BZW Golem
      BZW Golem
      hey, you wanted to get the Skarmory form the giveaway, right?
      I can give It to you.. but I have lessons and I will be back 4 hours from now. Message me here or on marriland and come get It xD
    15. flash
      If you're still online. If not then Wednesday. I will check every 15 mins on smogon for the next hour to see if you are still online.
    16. flash
      Sure, let me know when you can trade. The ditto is still on a gen 4 game though.
    17. flash
      Oh ok. Anyway, we'll trade when we're both online.
    18. flash
      Oh ok I see. Well, it's pretty nice that you got a job offering though. :)
    19. flash
      Are you done ev training yet? (since it has been 3 weeks now)
    20. flash

      Both Mews- hexflawless
      Entei- 30/31/30/31/31/31
      Jirachi- Not sure, but the ivs were either 30 or 31 in the useful stats
    21. flash
      k, so you can take as much time as you need to finish ev training.
    22. flash
      k, add my platinum fc.
    23. flash
      Jolly Mew- 252 HP / 36 Sp def / 220 Speed
      Bold Mew - 252 HP / 216 def / 40 sp def
      Entei - 184 HP / 148 Sp atk / 176 Speed
      Jirachi - 252 HP / 224 Def / 32 Speed

      You can pick up when I see you online.
    24. flash
      I found some stuff you can ev. My credit rate is 2 ev trains for 1 credit so lmk if you're interested.
    25. Apollo89
      GG man,
      yeah that was rough! haha.
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    White FC = 0303 9135 1503 / Diamond FC = 3093 5434 4362 / Platinum FC = 5284 9291 1878 / HeartGold FC = 2278 8850 5018
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  2. Welcome to Smogon Forums! Please take a minute to read the rules.

Rock! Paper... Scissors?

Discussion in 'Smogon's Greatest Hits' started by az, Oct 19, 2008.

  1. alive

    is a Past WCoP Winner

    Mar 24, 2008
    #space was pretty boring but i saw gorm so i decided to stay, it got better.
  2. Vineon

    Vineon Fleurdelysé
    is a Battle Server Admin Alumnusis a Smogon IRC SOp Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnus

    Dec 19, 2004
    oh come on with air eroding rocks over time, thats just lame.

    and my important papers don't like water! I would say water wins everytime!

    way too farfetched

    and I thought paper beating rock was stupid.
  3. Darth Meanie

    Darth Meanie

    Jan 22, 2008
    This is an awesome thread.

    Now to destroy my friends and family with my undeniable skill.
  4. Itchni

    Jun 11, 2008
  5. gorm

    is a Team Rater Alumnusis a Battle Server Moderator Alumnus

    Oct 4, 2006
    you can tell the good users (alive) from the bad users (shiv) itt really easily for some reason

    im just gettin a spidey sense XD
  6. Not Scicky

    Not Scicky

    Jun 30, 2007
    Is it wrong I actually like this idea (doh)
  7. Stallion

    Stallion Kang-nam style
    is a Battle Server Moderator Alumnusis a Past WCoP Winner

    Jun 11, 2006
    heh i enjoyed this thread :)
  8. dak

    May 29, 2007
  9. CaptKirby

    Nov 4, 2006
    hahahahaha Dak I am laughing so hard (at work nonetheless)

    So that was how the Nazis propaganda campaign worked so successfully...
  10. havoc

    havoc pottlepalooza
    is a Smogon IRC AOp Alumnusis a Super Moderator Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Server Moderator Alumnus

    Dec 19, 2004
    rpsi sample

    <Aeolus> ok, round one
    <Aeolus> Justin vs goof
    <Aeolus> couterdown
    <Aeolus> 3
    <Aeolus> 2
    <Aeolus> 1
    <Aeolus> GO
    <khoa> Vineon fleshlight
    <Justin8649> scissors made of paper...

    <meddle> lol
    <cloud> ok
    <Steelicks> lol
    <cloud> that was so dumb
    <SirChris> the scissors made of paper get bicurious and are forever emtombed into the fleshlight. winner: fleshlight
    <Aeolus> The scissors made of paper were clearly overwhelmed by the fleshlight. winner: fleshlight
    <havoc> khoa cannot operate the vineon fleshlight; unfortunately for him, the directions are in french. the scissors made of paper then proceed to cut....the cord (HEh) of the fleshlight. winner: scissors made of paper

    <Aeolus> 3
    <Anduril> oh fine
    <Aeolus> 2
    <Aeolus> 1
    <Aeolus> GO
    <Anduril> UFO
    <rikku> glass of wine
    <Aeolus> Despite the immensity of the UFO...the extraterrestrials were discombobulated by the glass of wine...and crashed. Glass of wine wins
    <SirChris> The Glass of wine spills itself onto the outside of the UFO, but to no avail as the force field blocks the attack. The wine, sucked in by the gravity of the earth, falls untasted onto the dusty ground.

    <Aeolus> uh, oh...up to havoc
    <Anduril> ohnoes
    <Justin8649> oh i see
    <cloud> im playing
    <meddle> this would be cool with a bot :)
    <Steelicks> ill script one
    <Steelicks> [on command="justin is ghey'} stelicks win!s!
    <cloud> lol
    <Justin8649> <havoc> so yeah the ufo shot a lazar beam at steelix and he fell on the winge and it broke lol steelix also broke thats the good news i think
    <Justin8649> havoc cant chat so he PMd me the result
    <Steelicks> i believe that is a fake log.
    <havoc> the ufo, curious as to human culture, abducts the glass of wine. the aliens on board inspect it, and drink. as they get drunk, they try to attract natalie who is already facing an anal probe. to make it less painful however, the aliens in their drunken stupor disguise themselves as a boy band called LFO and take the world by storm. winner: UFO

    <Aeolus> steelix vs. meddle
    <havoc> a minute
    <cloud> can iplay
    <Aeolus> 3
    <Aeolus> 2
    <Aeolus> 1
    <Aeolus> GO
    <Steelicks> It's a doppelganger!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    <meddle> platypus meatballs

    <Steelicks> please judges
    <Steelicks> i want to win
    <Aeolus> haha
    <Aeolus> Although the meatballs of the monotreme variety are quite delectable...they were simply demolished by the fat that is embodied in the doppelganger. Steelix wins!
    <SirChris> The Doppelganger eats the Platypub Meatballs. Once inside the stomach of it they release deadly Platypus like toxins and kill the Doppelganger. Winner: Meatballs
    <havoc> a classic matchup of an imaginary word and an imaginary animal. doppelganger takes a platypus meatball and eats it, only to get severe heartburn and have to go to bed early. the platypus survives with one testicle and is now the actor known as Tom Green
    <havoc> winner: platypus meatball

    <Aeolus> ok, last match of Round One: clod vs. havoc SUBSTITUTE JUDGE: Justin8649
    <Steelicks> what utkf
    <Aeolus> 3
    <Aeolus> 2
    <Aeolus> 1
    <Aeolus> GO
    <cloud> a large sword, previously wielded by ls at otakucon '05
    <havoc> a cross between a hawk and a bumblebee: THE BUMBLEHAWK

    <Steelicks> lol
    <meddle> lol
    <Aeolus> lol
    <SirChris> The Bumblehawk goes in for a swift kill. However, the sword, powered by the will of its owner (some guy who has a ten-ten blow up doll or whatever) slashes forward just as the bumblehawk goes for the kill. The Bumblehawk is sliced in half. Winner: Sword
    <Aeolus> The flimsy sword of ls was simply overwhelmed by the varied attacks of the bumblehawk...however, upon contact...the hawk was infected with a level of nerdiness hitherto unimagined. It fell over and began playing pokemon. Winner: Sword
    <Justin8649> the bumblehawk is going on a nice stroll in the clouds one day and then all of a sudden he sees the otaku, ls, playing with a plastic sword. the bumblehawk laughs and soars down at super duper speed, basically as fast as steelicks free falling. that is fast because steelicks is really fat. so then the bumblehawk crashes in to ls and the sword is engulfed by the otakus', ls's, butt. it is immediately destroyed by the intense heat of the otaku's gas. winner: bumblehawk
  11. Doomsday

    is a Forum Moderator Alumnus

    Jan 23, 2005
    you haven't played rpsi until you do it DOUBLE BATTLE STYLE

    <Mekkah> players dak & doomsday vs gmax & thunda?
    <thunda> count down fuckers
    <Mekkah> alright
    <Mekkah> 5
    <Mekkah> 4
    <Mekkah> 3
    <Mekkah> 2
    <Mekkah> 1
    <Mekkah> GO
    <daquiri> loss of bowel control
    <Doomsday> Super Cannon-Ball, this cannon-ball was forged in Hell's fires and is very super. Its powers include being very damaging if thrown by a special device.

    the judges think and...

    <Raikage> Loss of Bowel Control EJECTS SUPER CANNON-BALL from dak and doomsday's arseholes, which then blasts SOUL EDGE/CALIBUR NIGHTMARE/SIEGFRIED into smithereens
    <Toothache> since both soul edges are just weakened versions and not the real thing, they are shattered by the super cannon-ball and slams into Nightmare, causing him to lose bowel control. Winner: dak and Doomsday
    <Raikage> WINNER: dak & doomsday
    <Mekkah> Well, loss of bowel control cannot throw a super cannon ball, while the swords are still being weilded...however, in disinterest of these lazy oponents, siegfried decides to kick the super cannon ball, making it very damaging! winner: dak and doomsday

    <thunda> NO

    or even

    <Doomsday> mekkah and raikage versus gmax and ew
    <Doomsday> RPSI PLAYERS; prepare!
    <Doomsday> the countdown will begin in a few seconds.
    <Mekkah> PREPARED!
    <Doomsday> 5
    <Doomsday> 4
    <Doomsday> 3
    <Doomsday> 2
    <Doomsday> 1
    <Doomsday> GO
    <Earthworm> black
    <Gmax> HOLE
    <Mekkah> other power rangers and MEGAZORD

    while the judges type up, raikage and mekkah discuss their possiblities of winning:

    <Mekkah> black hole is kinda strong
    <Raikage> the other power rangers
    <Raikage> they were all included

    shattering conclusion

    <thunda> Alright the black mans arsehole shits onto Megazord, but then the power rangers proceed to fuck the black man up for daring to do this shit. mekkah and raikage
    <Doomsday> Black, the Pearl Jam song, plays on the background. The Power rangers get inside their MEGAZORDS, but ultimately find their demise when they fall into a... HOLE?! winners: gmax and earthworm
    <Toothache> a black is just black, and a hole is just a hole. The power rangers and megazord can easily stomp on something black and holey. Winner: Raikage Mekkah

    edit: just one more i swear (it's mekkah & dak versus raikage & doomsday)

    <Gmax> 5
    <Gmax> 4
    <Gmax> 3
    <Gmax> 2
    <Gmax> 1
    <Gmax> RUMBLE
    <Mekkah> a ghettoblaster. and it's really loud. like, it breaks glass and stuff.
    <Doomsday> The darkest of nightmares, Glzolb'd, a master over people's wills and their bladder control. Can initiate fires, explosions, and nasty pee smell.
    <Raikage> +30 Ring of Jumping

    <daquiri> a puppie's tongue

    <Gmax> Nothing can get past a puppy's tongue, especially when dodind SONIC BLASTS.. WInners:Mekkah/Dak
    <Toothache> The darkest of nightmares cannot affect a ghetto blaster as it does not need to pee, even holding the +30 Ring of Jumping, it was disturbed as it landed on a puppy and its tongue went flying out, pinging off the ghetto blaster as it breaks a nearby window and knocks the Glzobl'd to the ground, in which turn it is affected by its own power and loses bladder control as it sets itself on fire. Winner: dak Mekkah
    <Gouki> i voted for dday and rai gouki is fucking lazy and he offered no explanation

    one last wise quote about rps from: dak

    <Mekkah> rps doesnt make a lotta sense to begin with
    <Mekkah> how does paper beat rock
    <dak> it wraps it
    <dak> look at rps
    <dak> er
    <dak> rby
    <dak> you always win if you wrap something
  12. norulz

    norulz excellent

    Sep 28, 2005
    what's this e4 bullshit all of a sudden

    me and serenity go way back even before you were swimming around your dad's ball sack
  13. X-Act

    X-Act np: Biffy Clyro - Shock Shock
    is a Site Staff Alumnusis a Programmer Alumnusis a Smogon IRC SOp Alumnusis a Researcher Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis an Administrator Alumnus

    Feb 17, 2006
    I could make an OU list for this game if usage statistics are issued.

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Wednesday, 10 July 2013 13:18

Armadillos in the mountains? You betcha

Written by

fr armadilloIt make have taken 50 million years, give or take, but the small, armored animal known as the armadillo is finally making into the hills into Western North Carolina after its humble roots in South America eons ago — and it could be here to stay.

For years, reports of armadillo sightings, mostly of their roadside carcasses, have been cropping up across the region. An unconfirmed report in Macon County, several sightings in Jackson County, another one in southern Haywood County last December and other testimonies have led biologists to conclude that the armadillo is attempting to make its home here in the mountains as it continues its slow northward march.

The N.C. Wildlife Commission is averaging four to six calls per year to report armadillo sightings, and all the ones for past few years have been coming from WNC.

“I would call it the hotspot,” said Colleen Olfenbuttel, a biologist and the de facto armadillo tracker with the wildlife agency. “We don’t know enough to know how many they are, or what western counties. But, yes, there are armadillos in Western North Carolina.”

The milder winters as of late, Olfenbuttel said, have given the historically warm-weather species a toehold in the mountains, filtering in from surrounding states of Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina. The abundance of fresh water, forests and bugs and critters to eat has also made the place an attractive spot for the shelled creatures to bed down.

However, until recently, there has not been a reliable sighting in the state of a young armadillo, a family of armadillos, nor a live one for that matter, questioning the notion of whether there is in fact a breeding population in the region. The only live armadillo sightings in the state were tenuous at best.

The state’s first eyewitness report of an armadillo in 2000 is a classic example. Someone saw an armadillo jump off a truck hauling palm trees with a Florida plate. It had stopped at a rest area along Interstate 95 when the armadillo made a break for it.

“We don’t know how true the story is — we just took the report,” Olfenbuttel said. “But it’s not beyond the realm of imagination that it happened.”

Most sightings are logged as “unconfirmed,” but Jackson County resident Judy Newton knows exactly what she saw in the yard of her home in Cashiers. What first appeared to be a turtle from her kitchen window was in fact a group of armadillos.

Newton said she lived in Florida as a child and saw them down there a good bit. Enough to know what they were, and that’s what they were, she said. They were each about the size of a football and were digging through the mole holes in her lawn, most likely for bugs to eat.

“I kept thinking ‘You can’t be here, what are you dong in my yard?’” Newton said.

Newton was concerned about the damage the armadillos would cause to her property and what other animals, like skunks, their burrows might invite. And having heard that armadillos can be carriers of the rare flesh eating disease leprosy, she had neighbors come and remove two of them. But two escaped and remain at large, Newton said.

While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies the risk of getting leprosy from an armadillo as low, Newton said she is now happier with her property armadillo-free.

“They had made themselves right at home,” Newton said. “I hope that they’re gone.”

She was surprised that no one else saw the pack of armadillos, or others like them in the area. When she called the county’s Cooperative Extension Office, she was asked if they weren’t in fact opossums she had seen.

Robert Hawk, extension agent for Jackson County, said he was doubtful at first of Newton’s report because it was the first he had heard of the creature in Jackson County. But nonetheless, after a bit of research her story became more plausible to him. Newton’s residence is only miles from where armadillos are established in northern Georgia.

While full of useful advice on a whole host mountain critters, from bears to beavers, Hawk found himself short on advice to give to a WNC resident with an armadillo problem. He ended up borrowing species-specific information from the extension service in Alabama and sending it to Newton by mail.

“It’s the first I’ve heard of it,” Hawk said, but didn’t expect it to be the last. “They like protection and cover, water, and loose soil to rummage for food. WNC has all of that.”

Wildlife experts estimate that it will take another 10 to 20 years before the species is seen regularly in the area, though it is suspected that a breeding population already exists.

They could one day become prolific on the North Carolina landscape. The state already has them lumped in with the unprotected “exotic species” status given to coyotes for the purposes of unlimited hunting and trapping, although armadillos are notorious for avoiding man-made traps.

They are also well-equipped for the mountains as versatile scavengers with few real predators. Once balled up, their protective shell make them difficult for any coyote, fox or bobcat to get at. They can also swim by ballooning their bellies with air and are quick to evade capture.

The only real deterrent to armadillos becoming established in WNC will most likely be the weather. The animals can’t endure prolonged cold and frozen soil makes scavenging for grubs nearly impossible.

“A cold winter here may knock them back a bit,” Hawk said. “But that’s one of few things.”

So while Newton may be able to get rid of the first round of armadillos in her backyard, the ones already in WNC may be multiplying and many more are poring across the border headed north.

Besides the oddity of picturing the Appalachians overrun with armored prehistoric-looking creatures, the armadillos may bring new possibilities for local crafters, musicians or cooks. Their shells have used to make hats, lutes and other string instruments and their meat is said to have the texture and taste of fine grain pork.

Undoubtedly, they will be another WNC roadside staple like opossums. They already have the nickname “opossum on the half shell.” (Along with the Texas turkey, armored pig and, as the ancient Aztecs called them, rabbit-turtles.)

Like opossums, and the species’ unfortunate tendency to stare at approaching headlights, armadillos are equally ill-equipped to thwart the threat of oncoming traffic.

Of their three reactions to danger — rolling into a ball, springing into the air and digging into the ground — each one tends to get them killed on the blacktop with cars rushing by.

“The poor armadillos,” said Olfenbuttel. “They didn’t adapt to our cars in their evolution to avoid danger.”

That’s one reason why armadillo road kill is still more common in North Carolina than live sightings. Apart from Swain, Jackson, Macon and Haywood counties, there have also been road kill armadillos confirmed in Henderson, Cherokee, Catawba and Cleveland counties.

But that all could be changing soon.

“Scattered reports have slowly started to increase over the past two to three years,” Olfenbuttel said. “We know once they establish themselves they probably will expand rapidly.”

Have you seen an armadillo? Call the N.C. Wildlife Commission to report it.

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Wednesday, 12 December 2012 13:46

New dental clinic should bring a smile to WNC

Written by

fr dentalCiting a statewide shortage of dentists, East Carolina University is opening 10 clinics across North Carolina with the mission of training upper-class dental students as well as providing services to the underserved public.

One of those clinics is scheduled to open in Sylva this coming summer and will serve the entire WNC region. The location was selected based on a 2005 study and statistics that identified Jackson County, as well as the surrounding region, as lacking in dental care.

According to health officials, there are only about a dozen dentists total in Jackson County. That equates to about three dentists per 10,000 residents — a number consistent with many other rural counties in North Carolina. That ratio is about half the national average.

And placing those numbers into sharper focus is the fact that some of those rural dentists work part-time, or, in the case of those counted in Jackson County, maintain offices near the Qualla Boundary and only serve Eastern Band of Cherokee tribal members.

Furthermore, for low-income residents seeking dental care, some practitioners don’t provide cost assistance or accept Medicaid patients because of the low reimbursements.

“We do have a shortage in dental care,” said Paula Carden, health director with the Jackson County Department of Public Health. “And it’s very difficult for people without means and with Medicaid to find clinics — many dentists don’t accept those patients.”

The future ECU clinic will be staffed with dental hygienists, one part-time and one full-time dentist, in addition to a rotation of upper-level students in their final year of education or seeking a fifth year in advanced dentistry. And the clinic will provide dental care for patients with Medicaid and help low wage earners with a sliding fee scale.

“They’ll be operating very much like a public health clinic in terms of accepting everyone,” Carden said. “It’s good for the working poor and people with some resources but no dental insurance.”

The clinic will be built on land donated by the county, and once completed, the county’s own dental program will partner with ECU and move into the building to provide services. Currently, the county’s dental program operates out of a doublewide trailer retrofitted with three chairs and other dental equipment. The new clinic will have 16 chairs.

The new facility couldn’t come at a better time, said Carden. She recently got word that, because of funding shortages, the N.C. Mission of Mercy dental clinic — a mobile care unit that serves needy patients for free — will most likely not be able to make its regular stop in the county in the near future. Historically, it has come to the Sylva or Cullowhee at least once per year, seeing up to 300 patients at a time.

Carden hopes the new clinic will fill that void in services.

A revolutionary model

If all goes as planned, the new ECU clinics will not only fill a temporary break in services but change the landscape of dentistry around the state. By introducing students to rural areas for their final year of schooling, the hope is they may stick around after graduation to add to the rural dental workforce.

The newly formed dental school at ECU took on its first class of students only two years ago; each class at ECU’s dental school consists of 52 students. When those students reach their final year, they will pass through one of the 10 planned learning centers.

So far, one of the clinics has been completed in Ahoskie, and the next is slated for open in Elizabeth City in early 2013. Sylva’s clinic is scheduled to open in August. The centers are being built with funding from the legislature but are designed to be self-sustaining with the money paid for dental services.

Mike Scholtz, director of community dental practices for ECU, calls the university’s satellite clinic approach revolutionary. Typically, a dental school may have a clinic near its campus, but that may only directly help the urban population where it is located.

“This model has never been done before,” he said. “All the dental community is watching us.”

But getting those dental students into the workforce is a race against the clock.

When compared with other states, North Carolina ranks fifth highest in population growth but 47th in relative number of dentists. Not only is there a shortage, there’s also a poor distribution of dentists, with many concentrated around cities.

As an example of that distribution: four rural counties in the state have no dentists at all and many more have two or less. To compound the problem, the average age of a dentist in North Carolina is 55 years old.

“There’s a real graying of the dental force,” Scholtz said. “And most of those dentist are in urban areas.”

Sen. Jim Davis (R-Franklin), who is an orthodontist himself, applauded the idea of using advanced students to provide dental care in the region. But he wasn’t entirely convinced that there is a shortage of dentists in Western Carolina.

“I have a hard time believing that to be perfectly honest,” Davis said. “For ECU to set up a clinic is a good thing, but we have plenty of dentists in the western part of the state who aren’t as productive as they’d like to be.”

Davis works one to two days per week as an orthodontist now that he is a legislator but isn’t sure there would be anymore work for him if he wanted to go fulltime.

However, he acknowledged comparing his specialty practice to general dentistry may be like comparing apples to oranges.

He said a solution to the perceived dental services shortage might lie in convincing dentists to open up their practices to more people, such as those using Medicaid. He said many dentists avoid the program not because of the payment amount but because of the bureaucratic hoops one needs to go through to serve someone in the program.

But Jackson County isn’t the only health department that sees the need to expand its services.

The construction of the new clinic in Sylva also coincides of the expansion of the Macon County dental services. At a November County Commission meeting, commissioners approved a proposal to lease a new building, to hire an architect to design the renovation of that building and to purchase dental equipment including a state-of-the art X-ray machine.

Macon County’s dental clinic serves Medicaid patients as well as low-income residents at reduced rates. The new facility is planned for a spring opening.

Jim Villiard, personal health section administrator with the Macon County Health Department, said the county had outgrown its current facility.

“We can’t see more people because of limitations of the size of facility we have,” Villiard said. “We’ve just basically outgrown our current facilities.”

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