text:
30 Busted at “Yes We Can” Club on Prostitution, Drug and Alcohol Charges

30 people were arrested this week at the “Yes We Can” social club in St. Louis.
KMOV has video:

KSDK reported:

St. Louis County police will release more information this afternoon about 30 people were taken into custody from a home in Bel-Ridge last week.

They were taken into custody shortly before midnight on August 11.

Police said they went to a home in the 8800 block of Snowhill Court to execute a search warrant for prostitution, drugs and alcohol.

According to the Missouri Secretary of State’s website, the business, Yes We Can Social Club, is run out of that home.

Police have not yet presented their case to prosecutors for possible charges to be filed.

St. Louis Today reported:

There was a 15 year-old girl at the house at the time of the arrest.
The house, in the 8800 block of Snowhill Court, was raided early Friday morning by the county’s tactical operations, K-9, and special investigating units.

The address is listed as the location of the “Yes We Can Social Club” on the Missouri Secretary of State’s website. It was incorporated in January for the purposes of “recreation” and says that assets from the corporation would be given “to another charitable organization,” according to paperwork for the club on the site. Latroy L. Simmons is listed as the club’s registered agent.

A police spokesman said he didn’t know if the social club had anything to do with what police found last week at the home.

Some weapons were recovered and there was a 15-year-old teenage girl unrelated to anyone in the house at the time, police said.

Charges are pending.

Get news like this in your Facebook News Feed,
Gateway Pundit

Facebook Comments

Disqus Comments

  • Valerie

    Gee, I wonder what alerted the neighbors.

  • http://israelsurvivalupdates.wordpress.com Kenny Solomon

    Tick…… tock…… tick…… tock…… tick………………

    Kenny Solomon
    Typical bitter clinging terrorist Hobbit

    Reaganhu Akhbar !

  • rbosque

    Figures. I bet they have ties to the Obama campaign and/or DNC.

    any guess as to their race?????

  • MrGoodWench

    When Obama talks about “jobs”
    y’all do know that he is talking about jobs like –blow, hand, oral etc . , right ??
    What better name than
    ” Yes we can “… he needs every penny he can get to f%^& our country and his devotees are using the only trick they know to make a contribution to his coffers.
    Obama is a geeeeneeeeyus 😀

  • CharlesT

    Ah! The St. Louis division of ACORN!

  • MrGoodWench

    #1AMERICAN commented:
    any guess as to their race?????
    Can’t be latinos because then it would have been:
    ” si se puede” cantina

  • Conservative Ken

    Is it a Government funded Brothel? ya know like ACORN.

  • No Man

    What do the lying sacs of human extrement that call productive, American patriots “teabaggers” say about this? Crickets?

  • patman

  • Conservative Ken

    This is just perfect! Just the thing to throw in the face of Lib attackers one week after Peter Kinder was dragged through the mud.

  • donh

    Sounds like the sewer pipe Travis capped in the movie Taxi Driver. Sure this wasn’t Anthony Weiner’s rehabilitation clinic ? What a mad mad world…. http://youtu.be/Z1R9oZN2wZk

  • Joe Camel

    And this surprises who? I mean, this is St. Louis. No need to say more…Love the “jobs” comment above, very entertaining..8-)

  • Mannie

    It was the Zerobama Administration’s latest fundraiser.

  • Redwine

    Did they receive taxpayer money?
    Everything, every association with the regime is corrupt.

  • Fuquay Steve

    In hot air parlance : too good to check.

  • KOW

    OT, but a good one…….

    OBAMA’S GREEN PET GOES BANKRUPT: Got stimulus money, promised 800 jobs

    From the WH website touting the Masters Hand as he healed the economy.

    Thanks to the Obama Administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, real impact is already being felt across the state.

    Because of the Stimulus Bill and New Contracts, Green Energy Companies Are Looking to Hire Many New Employees. “The clean-tech and green industries in Massachusetts are hiring. Companies looking to add employees include Aeronautica Windpower in Plymouth, lithium-ion battery maker Boston-Power Inc. in Westborough, and Conservation Services Group, also in Westborough… The workforce expansions are being partly spurred by the federal economic stimulus package, which includes billions for home energy-efficiency upgrades and an extension of a tax credit for renewable energy technologies such as wind power… Because of the stimulus bill as well as several new contracts, Cowell plans to add 200 more jobs this year. The company currently employs about 400 and does business in 22 states. At least 30 to 40 of the new jobs will be in Massachusetts, he said. ‘We’re sort of the tip of the iceberg,’ Cowell said. ‘A couple of hundred people will be hired here, but that means that 2,000 people will be hired at the local level to do the work that we spec out and help facilitate.’ … At Boston-Power, which makes the Sonata battery used in Hewlett-Packard’s notebook computers, vice president of marketing Sally Bament said she is looking to hire about two dozen people in marketing, sales, and other areas. Evergreen Solar, the Marlborough-based maker of solar panels, also is hoping to hire 90 to 100 people at a manufacturing plant in Devens, said Gary Pollard, vice president of human resources. Aeronautica Windpower, meanwhile, hopes to bring on between 50 and 100 employees to begin producing midscale wind turbines at a facility that the company hopes to open somewhere in the state this spring.” [The Boston Globe, 3/6/09]

  • KOW

    More Evergreen fun. Evergreen’s stock hit an all-time high of $113.10 in late 2007, today it fell from $0.42 to $0.18 (57.14%), that is right, $0.18.

  • MrGoodWench

    So we have another Solyndra
    darn those corporate jet owners not paying their fair share of taxes
    and Bush and Cheney and Halliburton too …

  • Bunni

    Hookers, crackheads, & drunks!

    Barry’s best supporters for his Tragical Misery Tour!


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Truncated: length

WARC-Type: response

text:
Go to the Globe and Mail homepage

Jump to main navigationJump to main content

Get Adobe Flash player

Anger grows over beef recall Add to ...

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says he's confident in the handling of the recent beef recall, following five confirmed cases of E. coli in Alberta. Meanwhile, a lawsuit has been launched against XL Foods Inc.

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2015-35
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for August 2015
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


text:
Go to the Globe and Mail homepage

Jump to main navigationJump to main content

Transit generated a fierce political storm this year. (Peter Power/The Globe and Mail)
Transit generated a fierce political storm this year. (Peter Power/The Globe and Mail)

2012: Toronto’s year of public transit Add to ...

From the burly crowd-control crews at the Yonge-Bloor subway station to the floor of city council and even the provincial cabinet table, the hobbled state of Toronto’s transit system transfixed the city’s attention in 2012, dominating the public agenda to an extent not seen for more than a decade.

Tangible changes, both good and bad, became impossible to ignore: new subway trains, super-packed vehicles, and the disruptive presence of an unprecedented wave of construction projects, from the Union Station platform expansion downtown to the suburban traffic snarls around the construction of the Spadina subway extension and the Air Rail Link.

Meanwhile, the transit file generated a fierce political storm that saw Mayor Rob Ford lose control of a central plank in his 2010 election platform.

“This was the year of public transit for all sorts of reasons,” observed Matthew Siemiatycki, a professor of geography and planning at the University of Toronto. “We did hit a moment where people are saying, ‘we need action.’”

Indeed, Prof. Siemiatycki predicted the tumultuous events of 2012 will set the stage for a historic debate in 2013 about the future of transit in a region whose residents are weary of being squeezed between gridlock on the streets and crowding on the TTC.

“It’s the year when we tackle how we pay for transit.”

The death and life of Transit City

Despite Mayor Rob Ford’s early gambit to shelve Transit City in favour of subways, former mayor David Miller’s $8.4-billion light-rail plan came roaring back from the dead during a gripping spring showdown led by TTC chair Karen Stintz.

After she revealed to The Globe and Mail in late January that she couldn’t support Mr. Ford’s costly pledge to bury the entire Eglinton Crosstown LRT line – a plan that would have left virtually no funding for proposed lines on Sheppard and Finch – the mayor’s supporters on the Commission blocked Ms. Stintz’s bid to get the agency’s staff to scrutinize the viability of the $2-billion proposal.

But during an intense council session in February, Ms. Stintz and 26 supporters struck back with a dramatic vote in support of the original LRT plan. That move effectively slammed the door on Mr. Ford’s pledge to build a privately funded subway on Sheppard and keep the Eglinton LRT off the surface. A few weeks later, the same coalition ousted the mayor’s supporters on the TTC. Finally, in March, an expert panel confirmed that an LRT on Sheppard would be the most cost-effective option. Metrolinx and the city signed the deal to build the LRT lines in the fall.

By mid-2013, said Ms. Stintz, Metrolinx will be in a position to award the multimillion-dollar private-sector contracts to build and maintain the Eglinton line.

Paying the piper

While money is the eternal question with transit, many observers expect that 2013 will be a make-or-break moment in the debate about how the GTA pays to relieve worsening congestion problems. “It will be a profoundly important year as we set our course for the next decade,” predicted Metrolinx chair Rob Prichard.,

The looming battle over how to pay for the agency’s 25-year, $50-billion, GTA-wide transportation strategy, known as The Big Move, will dominate the regional agenda. In May, Metrolinx will release its long-awaited “investment strategy” to Queen’s Park and the GTA municipalities. That report is expected to propose various “revenue tools” – parking levies, sales taxes, road tolls, etc. – for raising billions for LRTs, subways and two-way GO service.

In the interim, Toronto council has launched a broad public consultation, asking residents how the city should pay for new transit projects such as an LRT on Queen’s Quay East. And the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the federal NDP have been lobbying for earmarked transit dollars in Ottawa’s new national infrastructure program, expected to be unveiled this spring.

The funding fight, however, could by side tracked by possible provincial and municipal elections. “Until the political instability gets resolved,” said Ms. Stintz, “we won’t get advances with transit because there’s no one there to lead the discussion.”

The British are coming

In one of the most emotionally charged episodes of the year, Mr. Ford’s supporters on the TTC engineered the ouster of the agency’s chief general manager Gary Webster, accusing him of failing to support the mayor’s subway agenda. Mr. Webster’s replacement was the TTC’s chief operating officer Andy Byford, an English-born rail veteran recruited in early 2011 as Mr. Webster’s eventual successor.

With an impressive international résumé and a no-nonsense manner, Mr. Byford wasted little time in pressing ahead with what Ms. Stintz describes as the TTC’s “modernization” strategy, focusing on customer service, performance improvements and long-promised upgrades to the TTC’s fare system, including debit-card readers at ticket booths. He won plaudits for stick-handling the TTC’s emergency response to a flood at Union Station.

But he was forced to do damage control after news broke that passengers were kicked off a TTC bus that was commandeered to pick up Mr. Ford’s football team after a fall playoff game. Reacting to reports that the mayor had left messages on his cellphone asking about the whereabouts of the bus, Mr. Byford stated that he would not respond to such requests.

Presto comes to the TTC

After years of stops and starts, Metrolinx and the TTC this year finally agreed to make the reloadable Presto fare card system widely available to Toronto transit users. It was a landmark move: provincial authorities have been angling for almost a decade to create an integrated system for the GTA so commuters wouldn’t have to pay multiple fares when they transferred from GO or 905 vehicles to the TTC.

Metrolinx began rolling out the Presto fare card for GO routes and 905 transit agencies in 2010. But the TTC, which accounts for 80 per cent of all rides in the GTA, remained a hold-out as it pursued a separate technological solution known as “open fare,” which allows riders to tap a debit or credit card on a contactless reader as they board transit vehicles. Under Ms. Stintz, the TTC abandoned its go-it-alone strategy, and the two agencies struck a deal this year.

Presto card readers will begin to appear across the subway network in 2013, but the full deployment of Presto’s own open fare system won’t be available on all TTC vehicles until at least 2016.

The story isn’t all good news, however. Ontario’s auditor-general this month slammed Metrolinx for dragging its heels with the rollout of Presto, and criticized the agency for signing a hefty sole-source deal with Accenture, the consulting firm building the system, that will bring the total implementation cost to $700-million.

Downtown relief?

Responding to pressure from Toronto council, the Metrolinx board this fall sent a signal that local transit advocates have been anticipating for years: the agency announced it would accelerate the development of the so-called “Downtown Relief Line,” a long-discussed subway loop designed to relieve steadily mounting rush-hour crowding on the Yonge-University-Spadina line.

The DRL – which would run south from Danforth, cut across the core and then head back up to the Bloor line – has appeared on municipal transit planning maps for more than three decades. But the project, which will cost at least $6-billion, has had to take a back seat to other subway expansions, on Sheppard East, in the early 2000s, and then the Spadina extension up to Vaughan, now under construction.

Metrolinx wants to build the DRL within the next 15 years, as opposed to the next 25, as originally planned, although funding sources have yet to be identified. But the project will still compete for funds with other GTA transit requests, including York Region’s desire to extend the Yonge line up to Richmond Hill.

In the know

Most popular videos »

More from The Globe and Mail

Most popular


text:
Go to the Globe and Mail homepage

Jump to main navigationJump to main content

Rising to the challenge of Canada’s skills shortage Add to ...

Canadian employment in the professional, scientific and services sector hit a record high in December, while factory jobs continued to decline. And the new jobs pay better than the old jobs being lost, noted Globe and Mail reporter Tavia Grant in assessing the data compiled by Statistics Canada for the newspaper. This trend presents a crucial opportunity to build national prosperity. But it’s only an opportunity if there are enough workers with in-demand skills, a fact that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has clearly understood for some time.

Producing more skilled workers is “the biggest challenge our country faces,” Mr. Harper told a Canada-U.S. business audience in November, 2012. “For whatever reason, we know that peoples’ choices, in terms of the education system, tend to lead us to … a chronic shortage of certain skills. They are skilled trades, scientists and engineers,” he noted.

A report last year by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce estimated that by 2016, the country would face 1.5 million vacancies for skilled jobs. A recent survey by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which represents 150 of the country’s largest employers, provided more insight. Two-thirds of respondents said the shortage of skilled workers would have a medium to high impact on their major projects and/or investments. Engineers topped the list of workers “most difficult to find and retain,” followed by information technology professionals.

Solving skills shortages isn’t simply a matter of replacing retiring veterans. The structural shift from lower-skilled manufacturing to higher-skilled professional, scientific and services requires substantial growth in the number of trained workers. That begins with changing what Mr. Harper called “people’s choices.” And those people are students. The foundation for learning specialized skills requires an understanding of basic math and science. This shouldn’t be too difficult since most children are naturally curious about the world, how things work and the wonders of nature. All too often their nascent scientific curiosity diminishes around the time they get to middle school, mainly because their teachers fail to make science fun by bringing its wonders alive (many teachers may be unqualified to teach science in the first place). Students who have high potential in math and science may thus make course choices that will prevent them from entering STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, math) later on. They won’t grow up to be engineers, IT experts, doctors, pharmacists or qualify for many skilled trades.

Worse, many high school graduates who manage to gain the qualifications needed to enter STEM programs are turned away when they apply to university, even with good marks, because universities won’t reallocate money to open more slots for students in those programs. A CIBC World Markets report last year confirmed that huge sums are being wasted churning out graduates in out-of-demand fields, such as arts and humanities, while turning away thousands of qualified STEM applicants. This is a travesty, both for the students who are blocked from realizing their potential and for the country. But governance of universities, where tenured faculty members hold sway, won’t change unless provinces with jurisdiction over those ivory towers force it to happen.

The ability of any country’s workforce to produce value-creating goods and services determines the living standards of its population. As the proportion of skilled workers increases, so does national prosperity. And when that proportion falls, growth investment is stymied, incomes drop, tax revenues to support social programs collapse, and the country falls into economic decline. Because the reversal of that decline starts with educational choices made in middle school, the downward spiral may require generations to reverse.

The skills shortage is the biggest challenge facing Canada. Meeting that challenge will require the determined and united commitment of every level of government, our educational institutions and business leaders across the country. A daunting challenge indeed.

In the know

Most popular videos »

More from The Globe and Mail

Most popular


text:
Go to the Globe and Mail homepage

Jump to main navigationJump to main content

Unconditional support from family, especially spouses and children, is a start-up requirement seldom mentioned in textbooks (Ryan McVay/Getty Images)
Unconditional support from family, especially spouses and children, is a start-up requirement seldom mentioned in textbooks (Ryan McVay/Getty Images)

Behind every great business is a strong network of family and friends Add to ...

I’ve been blessed to have owned or worked with a variety of businesses, big and small. No matter how different a business is on the surface, all entrepreneurs can benefit greatly from the support from family and friends.

Unconditional support from family, especially spouses and children, is a start-up requirement seldom mentioned in text books. But let me assure you: it’s frightfully important and without it, the already-difficult journey of small business development becomes even more so.

When I was younger, my parents taught me that financial success was a side effect of doing something you were truly passionate about. Passion alone won’t guarantee success, but life is tough enough without hating what you do for a living. They were so right. When I first told my parents that, in spite of having graduated within the top of my class in high school, I was forgoing university to build a small business, their first question was: “How can we help?”

When I began renovating my first location, friends chipped in by plastering, painting and moving equipment. When I had to sell my car to keep the cash flowing in that first year, my parents lent me their vehicle so that I could attend meetings and run errands. (Not great for my ego, but a necessary survival mechanism). When I needed someone to cover the shop while I attended those meetings – prior to hiring my first employee – one of my brothers or my Dad would watch the shop for me.

All of that physical support in the early years really did help, but it was overshadowed by the emotional support and empathy I received during that time, and since.

You see: what was worse than needing a hand moving equipment or covering a shift was missing family get-togethers and time spent with friends. Spring break didn’t apply to me. Neither did most weekends for that matter, so I was absent from the circle of family and friends on whom I most relied.

Furthermore, when we did finally get together, I was often exhausted and stressed. Conversations at the odd Sunday family dinner were weighed down by my own self doubt as to how payroll would be met the following week and when I’d hit the glorious target of cash flow break even. Those were the days when the support of family and friends meant the most.

Later on, I was blessed to meet and marry another entrepreneur who worked her own share of long hours on her startup. She understood the sacrifices necessary to do something extraordinary in a business. Without her support, I could not reach for the remarkable.

My kids grew up with me as an entrepreneur so, on one hand, they don’t know any different. But that’s not quite true. As I continue to travel the world for my business, they notice each and every playoff game, recital, birthday and holiday that I miss. Luckily, I can keep these to a minimum in my current roles, but I still need them to look me in the eye and show me they understand the purpose behind my work.

Behind every great business is a support system of family and friends. If you’re starting business, build that network strong and communicate in advance the trade-offs that always come with the responsibilities of your own business. If you already have a business, thank those who have held you up when you are down and contributed in ways that will never show up directly on your income statement.

The assets that you have on your balance sheet can be valued and replaced. The assets you have in your friends and family are one of a kind and deeply committed to you. Don’t take them for granted.

Chris Griffiths is the Toronto-based director of fine tune consulting, a boutique management consulting practice. Over the past 20 years, he has started or acquired and exited seven businesses.

Follow us @GlobeSmallBiz and on Pinterest
Join our Small Business LinkedIn group
Add us to your circles
Sign up for our weekly newsletter

In the know

Most popular videos »

More from The Globe and Mail

Most popular


text:
Gallery: All Eight Of Love Magazine’s August Covers, Plus Reasons Why Each Model Is Crying

After building up anticipation by releasing a couple of cover shots early, Love Magazine has finally unveiled all eight of its spooky August covers. They feature such heavy hitters as Lara Stone (above), Nyasha Matonhodze, and Hailee Steinfeld. Each of the eight cover models is made to look like she is crying. It’s almost too much girly emotion to handle. Are they all on their periods or something? Which tear-streaked beauty do you like the most?

Share This Post:


text:
10 HowAboutWe Dates With Some French Flair

Happy Bastille Day!

Even if you’re not French, it doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate the storming of the Bastille with French wine and a new friend. No matter where you live you can always find someone who embraces other cultures and are willing to try something that just might be somewhat un-American in nature — the horrors!

Our partner, HowAboutWe, has a bunch of fellas who want to impress you with their international knowledge. Whether it means cooking you something exotic you’ve never had before, introducing you to a band from Eastern Europe or simply speaking French to you while you try to figure out what he’s saying, there’s a man for you.

Do yourself a favor and either click on the fellas below or head to TheGloss dating page to check out even more suitable suitors.

You know the drill, so hop to it. À bientôt!

Share This Post:


text:
Mission Trails Golf Course

49 Reviews

18 total holes at facility
Green fees - $35 to $51 (estimate)
Designed by William F. Bell
Built in 1955
Driving Range: Yes
Public golf course

Mission Trails Golf Course is an 18-hole regulation length golf course in San Diego, California. This short layout has 3 sets of teeboxes for a fun, but challenging golfing experience. Online tee times may be available at Mission Trails Golf Course or at nearby golf courses, usually offered at a discount from the normal rate.

TeesParYardageCourse RatingSlope
Back Tees 71600468.6114

Golf Pro: Gary KilgoreCourse Superintendent: George H. Winters, IIManager: Luis Ituarte

Note: The information is typically right, however, sometimes there may be inaccuracies. Should you stumble upon anything that needs updating, please send us an update.

Tee Times for Mission Trails Golf Course (and other courses)

For online tee time questions, call (800) 594-9280

3 Stars (35 Reviews) - Last updated on July 15, 2014

There is a page for "Mission Trails Golf Course - San Carlos - San Diego, CA"

The score on Yelp is 3 out of 5. That score is an average of 35 ratings, and it is rounded to the nearest 0.5. Also note that sometimes Yelp excludes from that score any reviews that that it classifies as "not recommended."

Read reviews on

3.5 Stars (14 Reviews) - Last updated on July 15, 2014

On the Google+ page for "Mission Trails Golf Course", they have an average rating of 3.5/5, and they have a total of 14

Read the full reviews on Google+

Add Your Review

Please login to add your review.

Golf courses in San DiegoOther California golf courses Home
Copyright ©2001 - 2014 TheGolfCourses.Net


text:
Southridge Golf Course

18 total holes at facility
Green fees - $32 to $42 (estimate)
Designed by Cal Olson
Built in 1991
Rye Grass
Driving Range: Yes
Public golf course

Southridge Golf Course is an 18-hole regulation length golf course in Sutter, California. This championship layout features 4 sets of teeboxes for the enjoyment of golfers of all skill levels. Online tee times may be available at Southridge Golf Course or at nearby golf courses, usually offered at a discount from the normal rate.

TeesParYardageCourse RatingSlope
Back Tees 72704772.7130

Course Superintendent: Neil KumarManager: Ron Anderson

Disclaimer: occasionally there may be mistakes, even though the information is (in most cases) accurate. Should you come upon any issues with any courses, please let us know.

Add Your Review

Please login to add your review.

Golf courses in SutterOther California golf courses Home
Copyright ©2001 - 2014 TheGolfCourses.Net


text:
Green Hills Golf Course

Green Hills Golf Course

18 total holes at facility
Green fees - $19 to $34 (estimate)
Built in 1993
Driving Range: Yes
Municipal golf course

Green Hills Golf Course is an 18-hole regulation length golf course in Chillicothe, Missouri. This medium-length layout has 3 sets of teeboxes for a fun, but challenging golfing experience. Online tee times may be available at Green Hills Golf Course or at nearby golf courses, usually offered at a discount from the normal rate.

TeesParYardageCourse RatingSlope
Back 72679671.3115

Course Superintendent: Gerry GabelManager: Joe Gilliland

Note: The data is most often accurate, but in some cases there may be inaccuracies. Should you stumble upon something that needs updating, please fill out this page.

Tee Times for Green Hills Golf Course (and other golf courses)

Add Your Review

Please login to add your review.

Golf courses in ChillicotheOther Missouri golf courses Home
Copyright ©2001 - 2014 TheGolfCourses.Net


text:
There is a lot of (necessary) talk these days about preaching the gospel to yourself. This is truly a great need for every Christian. We all found ourselves slouching back to the self-promoting, self-worshiping default position of our hearts. That is, we forget the gospel.

But let’s be very clear about what it means to forget. We are not simply talking about forgetting facts or Bible verses. It is not like we somehow can’t remember the definition of substitutionary atonement or that Jesus came to save sinners. No, no, it is much bigger than this.

The Issue is Our Satisfied Delight
When we talk about forgetting the gospel we are talking about forgetting to see the glory of Christ in the gospel. That is, we forget to see the infinite value of Jesus as the redeemer. In this we see our infinite sinfulness, hopelessness, idolatry, and separation from God. The only thing we have to do with God apart from Jesus is to be on the wrong side of his barrel of divine wrath. So in seeing the beautiful sufficiency in Jesus, both his person and his work, we begin to delight in him as our Savior.

In other words, what we don’t just forget facts, but rather to delight in the glorious God behind the facts! Christ and his work is both historical and personal. That is, it happened in time and it happened for sinners like me and you! And the fact that it is successful and available for a rebel like me causes me to be amazed, humbled, refreshed and happy as I bask in the illuminating beams of the glory of Christ through the gospel.

More than an Upload of Data
Preaching the gospel to yourself is not just a mind exercise. You are not to be just reciting facts without the engagement of your heart. The gospel is to stir our minds with theological truth but that stirring also is like a divine oar in the water of our hearts, as it stirs us with rich gospel happiness.

In the gospel we are seeing the glory of Christ in his condescension for us; we see his infinite stooping to rescue infinite sinners and provide eternal righteousness. And then, one day, we’ll see his perfect righteousness and preserving power and unfailing love on full display as we, his bride, the church is wonderfully presented to him as holy, blameless, and beyond reproach. This is all done through his work as the husband par excellence washing us, his bride with his word (Eph. 5.25-27)

So yes, preach the gospel to yourself everyday, even multiple times a day. But do not treat it like you just need an upload of data. Because, in reality, you need much more than that. You need divine help through the Spirit to happily see the glory of Christ in the gospel that you might be transformed into his own image (2 Cor. 3.18)

View Comments

4 thoughts on “Preaching the Gospel to Your Self is More than Just a Data Transfer”

  1. donsands says:

    Good post Erik. Amazing grace saves even a wretch like me. I thought of Jerry Bridges as I read this.

    “You don’t realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.”

    And it truly is the Holy Spirit in us, with the Word, that brings the joy of the Gospel, and this joy gives us a strength that is unique.

    Have a great day, and terrific weekend my brother.

  2. Heath says:

    Hi Pastor Erik,

    Thank you for your recent posts on the gospel. It never gets old. For a long time, I tried to live by just transfering data. Now I apply the gospel to specific sin by confessing it and then thinking about how Christ was righteous in that particular area. Therefore, I have been seeing the God of the gospel and not just blindly waving the flag of forgiveness. It also motivates me to love and serve him.

    1. Erik says:

      Great stuff Heath: Now I apply the gospel to specific sin by confessing it and then thinking about how Christ was righteous in that particular area.

      That is key. I think your conclusion here encapsulates so much. Excellent. Tell some friends about this! ;)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:   <acronym title="">
      <q cite="">

Erik Raymond photo

Erik Raymond

Erik Raymond is the senior pastor of Emmaus Bible Church in Omaha, Ne. He and his wife Christie have six children. You can follow him on Twitter.

Erik Raymond's Books


text:
Tesco bans sweets from checkouts in all stores

Move by retailer welcomed by health and parenting groups and backed, according to survey, by two-thirds of customers
Tesco checkout
Tesco was the first British supermarket to remove sweets and chocolates from checkouts at larger stores, in 1994. Photograph: Robert Convery/Alamy

The UK's largest retailer, Tesco, is to ban sweets and chocolates from its checkouts after a survey of customers showed overwhelming support for the move.

Research for Tesco found that 65% of shoppers wanted confectionery removed from checkouts to help them make healthier choices when shopping. Even more (67%) said it would help them choose healthier options for their children.

Tesco removed sweets and chocolates from checkouts at its 740 larger Tesco stores 20 years ago, but they will now be removed from checkouts at all stores, including 1,800 Tesco Metro and Express convenience stores in Britain and Ireland. The retailer committed to removing them by the end of December 2014, but has brought forward the move after surveying its customers.

Its chief executive, Philip Clarke, said the decision followed a commitment to make soft drinks, sandwiches and ready meals healthier by changing the recipes to reduce their sugar, salt and fat content. "We all know how easy it is to be tempted by sugary snacks at the checkout, and we want to help our customers lead healthier lives," Clarke said.

Tesco was the first British supermarket to remove sweets and chocolates from checkouts at larger stores, in 1994. The retailer will now test a variety of healthier products at checkouts before implementing the full change across all stores.

In January, Lidl banned confectionery from the checkout at all 600 of its British stores after surveying parents. It replaced racks of sweets with dried and fresh fruit, oatcakes and juices.

Health campaigners and parents' groups welcomed Tesco's move. Katie O'Donovan of Mumsnet said: "Popping into a shop with a small child in tow can sometimes feel like navigating an assault course. If you've made it to the checkout in one piece it can be really frustrating to then be faced with an unhealthy array of sweets designed to tempt your child. It's really positive to see a supermarket responding to the views of their customers and trying to make life that little bit easier."

Ben Reynolds of the food and health charity Sustain agreed. "Parents will be delighted to hear that they will no longer be pestered for fatty, salty and sugary snacks while queuing at the checkout in their local Tesco. We hope that other supermarkets will now follow Lidl and Tesco's lead, and realise that taking action to improve children's health is not something to fear."

Tesco self-service checkout
A self-service checkout in a branch of Tesco on Goodge Street, London. Photograph: Alamy

Tesco was among those criticised in research published in January which found that convenience stores run by big supermarket chains involved in the government's responsibility deal on nutrition were exposing children to displays of sweets and snack food at the checkout.

Researchers from Sheffield University visited the smaller stores of Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco in the city and discovered what harassed parents often complain of – that the queue for the checkout often passes shelves laden with chocolate bars, drinks and sweet snacks at children's eye level.


text:
Fan stabbed at Carling Cup tie

West Ham and Millwall supporters erupt in 'planned' violence, with three people in hospital and 10 arrested
Riot police outside Upton Park last night
Riot police outside Upton Park last night. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

A man was stabbed in the chest at last night's Carling Cup match when brawling broke out between rival fans.

There were running fights involving hundreds of people before and after the match between West Ham and Millwall at Upton Park. The game was held up when home supporters invaded the pitch after West Ham took the lead in extra time.

The stabbed man and two others were taken to hospital. At least 10 people were arrested. Police and football club officials are scanning CCTV footage to identify others involved.

The 44-year-old man was stabbed in Priory Road, a few yards from West Ham's ground, before the game. He was said by police to be in a stable condition last night. The other two were last night being treated in hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening. One of them was found in Rancliffe Road with head injuries, while another was taken to hospital after an alleged assault at a pub in Green Street.

Onlookers described how bricks and bottles were lobbed as hundreds of supporters rioted.

Inside the ground fans fought with police and stewards and play was suspended when scores of supporters invaded the pitch.

A Metropolitan police spokeswoman said: "We will be reviewing all the events, looking at CCTV both inside and outside the ground to identify offences and offenders."

The Football Association said it would investigate and anyone involved would be banned from football for life.

A spokesman said: "We absolutely condemn all of the disorder that has occurred at Upton Park both inside and outside of the ground.

"We will be working with all parties, including the police and clubs, to establish the facts surrounding (last night's) events.

"We strongly expect all culprits to be banned from football for life. They have no place in our game."

The West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola said the scenes were unlike anything he had seen. "I've been involved in difficult games and things happened. Here, I've played seven years and I've never seen it like this.

"It's certainly not good for football. I was completely shocked. Totally.

"I knew it was a game that meant a lot for the two sets of supporters, but I didn't imagine it like this."

The Millwall boss Kenny Jackett said: "I wasn't aware of the stabbing outside the ground. I'm very sad to hear that.

"We've got a passionate game in this country, but when it oversteps the mark then things have to be done."

The fighting started shortly after 6pm as thousands of fans made their way to the ground. One West Ham fan who went to the match said the District Line underground train from Barking stopped just before Upton Park at 7.20pm and did not move for about 15 minutes. "Tempers flared on board as kick-off approached, people tried breaking open the doors," he said. "The atmosphere was tense in surrounding streets, the police helicopter was up and riot police were everywhere."

The fan said he saw about 30 police with shields and batons "storm" towards the nearby Boleyn pub.

A 29-year-old man who runs a kebab shop in Green Street said: "All hell broke loose, it was very frightening. It's not every day you see stuff like that."


text:
Serie A's 'Year Zero' may not be as dire as the doom-mongers suggest

Marquee names might have jumped ship, but Italian football still has enough talent and intrigue to give birth to a healthy new era
New Juventus signing, Diego, is a genuine talent who can help lessen the negative impact on Serie A of the losses of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Kaká. Photograph: Claudio Villa/Getty Images

First came denial, then anger, bargaining and depression. Now, at last, acceptance: Serie A has reached the end of an era. No Italian sides reached the quarter-finals of last year's Champions League, and there is a strong possibility that one of the country's four places in that competition will soon be lost to Germany. More troubling still, Serie A's 20 teams now boast a collective debt of close to €2bn. More painful still, two of the league's most gifted players – Ricky Kakà and Zlatan Ibrahimovic – have left for Spain's La Liga. Three of its most iconic – Paolo Maldini, Pavel Nedved and Luis Figo – have retired.

"The Year Zero Championship", is how one Gazzetta dello Sport headline described the forthcoming season. The good news is Serie A has not simply had the sugar removed and been rebranded to target particularly suggestible young males. The bad news? Well, that has mostly been reserved for Milan fans.

In 11 pre-season games, Milan have won just twice. One of those victories was on penalties; the other was against Varese, a Lega Pro team, in July. There are lies, damned lies and pre-season friendlies, of course, but there is no disguising the fact that all is not well at the Milanello. Of the €65m received from the sale of Kakà, close to €50m has been retained to service the club's debts. The only signing of note has been Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, a talented player but not one who addresses Milan's greatest areas of need.

No direct replacement for Kakà has arrived, and it is clear that Milan's owner Silvio Berlusconi expects Ronaldinho to become the new focal point of the team. Early in pre-season Berlusconi, intent, as always, on addressing the speck in others' eyes before the log in his own, ordered the Brazilian to stand on a table in front of all his team-mates and promise to act more professionally. Little more than a month later Ronaldinho was mobbed and instructed in no uncertain terms to go home and go to bed by Milan fans who found him out at 1.30am during a festival.

Plenty of footballers go out, of course, especially, during the pre-season, but Ronaldinho has shown little on the training ground to suggest he has regained the athleticism and change of pace that once made him such a threat for Barcelona. By insisting on his inclusion, Berlusconi only exacerbates the team's existing problems with an ageing and heavy-legged midfield. The concern is that Leonardo, as a rookie coach, will lack the tactical nous required to work around such a problem.

The attack will be improved by the arrival of Huntelaar and the defence by the eligibility at last of the talented Thiago Silva, as well as the return to fitness of Alessandro Nesta, but how Leonardo plans to best captalise on those strengths remains to be seen. David Beckham has said he plans to return on loan at the end of the Major League season, but the fact he looks like such a crucial piece of the puzzle right now is troubling. The fans are voting with their feet, Milan have sold 15,000 fewer season tickets than at the corresponding point last year.

For Serie A as a whole the new era doesn't look too bleak. Samuel Eto'o and Diego have arrived to fill the void left by departing stars, and Wesley Sneijder may soon follow. Inter, winners of the past four Scudettos, finally have a squad capable of making an impact in the Champions League. Juventus, for the first time since the Calciopoli scandal, appear ready to challenge Inter's domestic hegemony.

Besides Eto'o and Sneijder, who has agreed in principle to a move, Inter have added the Brazil centre-back Lucio and Genoa's two leading lights from last season, Diego Milito and Thiago Motta. Ibrahimovic will, at times, be missed, but there is no doubting that Inter are far better balanced than in the past, with an embarrassment of riches in defence, two prolific goalscorers and a significant injection of creativity in the middle. Defeat to Lazio in the SuperCup, held this year in Peking, was an anomaly – Inter were the better side and will not often be so profligate.

Jose Mourinho declared himself pleased with that performance, though you might not have known it from his post-match press conference. "After the first two questions, I know why Chinese football is so rubbish," he hissed after one reporter asked why Lazio had dealt better with the heat. He was similarly chippy this week when told the Italy manager Marcello Lippi had predicted Juventus would win the league.

But Mourinho, as we know, revels in the role of pantomime villain, and it remains to be seen whether Juventus truly have the depth to overcome Inter over the course of a 38-game season. As well as Diego, the Bianconeri have added the exceptional combative midfielder Felipe Melo, who demonstrated his talents amply during Brazil's Confederations Cup win this summer, and Fabio Cannavaro. Momo Sissoko, however, has still not recovered from his foot injury, and his absence would be a major blow.

The title will eventually fall to one of those two sides but that has not stopped others from talking up their own prospects. Walter Zenga, whose move from Catania to Palermo almost sparked a Sicilian civil war back in June, has declared outright that he intends to win the title with the Rosanero. He won't succeed, but the alliance of the always outspoken Zenga with the Palermo president Maurizio "manager-eater" Zamparini will be entertaining. His team, and especially 20-year-old Argentinian newboy Javier Pastore, signed from Huracán despite reported interest from Manchester United and Arsenal, won't be bad either.

Napoli, too, have high expectations. Fabio Quagliarella, star of a million YouTube videos and a childhood fan of the Partenopei, was the marquee signing in a busy summer, but the capture of Luca Cigarini from Atalanta may prove more significant. A superb passer of the ball, Cigarini was one of the stars of an Italy side that reached the semi-finals of the Under-21 European Championships this summer, and if he can stay healthy will soon be under consideration for a full Italy call-up.

A number of pundits have tipped Napoli for a top-four finish, but their prospects should not be overstated. They finished 11th last year, and though a number of other new signings – most notably Morgan De Sanctis, Juan Zuniga and Hugo Campagnaro – will be inserted straight into the starting line-up, the manager Roberto Donadoni has much to prove.

That said, the chase for the Champions League places could be a wide open one. Last year's fourth-place finishers, Fiorentina, have so far only re-invested a fraction of the £17.6m they received from Juventus for Melo, and were unconvincing during a 2-2 draw away to Sporting in Tuesday's qualifier. Genoa, who finished fifth, have brought in a number of players with the funds they received for Milito and Motta, but it is never easy to replace two such influential players.

One team who may capitalise is Roma. Despite Rosella Sensi's failure both to sell the club or to make any significant additions after the sale of Alberto Aquilani, Roma retain more than enough talent within their first XI to secure a top four berth. Much, as always, will rest on injuries. Neighbours Lazio, too may fancy their chances, though first they must work out what to do with "dissidents" Lorenzo De Silvestri, Cristian Ledesma and in particular Goran Pandev, who has now threatened to sue the team for freezing him out.

The relegation battle will be similarly keenly contested, with Chievo and Bologna likely to be involved, along, potentially, with Siena and the Zenga-less Catania. All three newly promoted clubs may also be involved, though Bari's fate may rest heavily on the actions of Timothy Barton, the US magnate currently in the process of buying the club. Barton is not expected to complete his takeover until after the current transfer window closes, but may well be active in January.

Of the other two promoted sides, Parma look to have invested more wisely, bringing in the midfielder Daniele Galloppa, who won his first Italy cap in May, from Siena and arranging for the striker Alberto Paloschi, co-owned with Milan, to stay another year. Paloschi – along with others such as Mario Balotelli and Sebastian Giovinco – is just one of a number of young Italian prospects whose development will help define this new era.

Somewhere in the middle will be the rest – Udinese, Cagliari, Atalanta and Sampdoria, who between them played some of the most entertaining football on display anywhere in Italy last year. Year zero, might, after all, not be as bleak as some had supposed.


text:
Guardian Global Development

'You must find your own roof'

In Chamwino, perceptions of poverty vary a great deal between government officials and the local community
Dr Isaac Khama, patron of Chamwino
Dr Isaac Khama, patron of Chamwino, insists there are no poor people in Tanzania. Photograph: Jonathan Kalan/

"There are no poor people in Tanzania," Dr Isaac Khama states emphatically. "The people of Chamwino are not poor. They have chickens."

Dr Isaac is assistant director of the Morogoro municipal council. He is patron of the ward of Chamwino, one of the most impoverished areas of Morogoro municipality. "It is no use to complain that you have no roof," he says, leaning back on his chair. "That is not good enough."

Asha Abrahim has no roof. "When the rains came, the walls collapsed," she explains. "I cannot rebuild them." Asha is 72 years old. She lives in a single room with four children and they all share the same bed. "I get wet when it rains at night," she continues, pointing up at a thatch of loosely-woven palm. "We have to get up then, and wait for the rain to finish." The rainy season in Morogoro lasts from December to April.

Asha's story is not unusual for Chamwino. Most people in the community live in dilapidated buildings, beneath a makeshift roof of palm or scrapped iron. This is a violation of their right to adequate shelter, as defined by a number of international human rights covenants.

"Your human rights do not apply here," Dr Isaac explains. "This is Tanzania. If you want a roof you must find your own roof."

Dr Isaac's views are less representative of government policy than of a pervasive attitude among Tanzania's political classes that would blame poor people for their poverty. It is an attitude that the Faraja Trust Fund is helping the community in Chamwino to defy. RP

  • International Development Journalism Competition 2012: Barclays

    Barclays is pleased to support the international development journalism competition for the third year
  • Sustainable business courses

    Practical half-day courses from the Guardian on sustainability communications, brand, collaboration and leadership. Book now.

Today in pictures


text:
Media 100 2008 badge

98. Emily Bell

Job: director of digital content, Guardian News & Media
Age: 42
Industry: digital media
Staff: 170
2007 ranking: 97

Responsible for the Guardian's award-winning network of websites, Emily Bell is at the forefront of the newspaper digital revolution.

As the Guardian News & Media director of digital content, Bell is also in charge of developing content across all its platforms and expanding the company's web, audio and video services.

Emily Bell Emily Bell. Photograph: Linda Nylind Three times winner of the Webby award for best newspaper website, - previously Guardian Unlimited - won the inaugural award for website of the year at this year's British Press Awards.

The Guardian's online arm has undergone a major rebuild and redesign over the past 12 months, with increased audio, video and interactivity, as well as the launch of a US website, Guardian America.

"The Guardian's digital operations are still the most influential of any UK newspaper and more resources are going into it," said our panel.

Previously editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited and a former business editor of the Observer, Bell was promoted to her new role in 2006, when she also took a place on the Guardian News & Media board.

The judges at the British Press Awards said the Guardian website had enjoyed a year of "outstanding innovation, creativity and investment across video, photography, audio and writing".

Bell said it was "great to win an award because Guardian News & Media is an organisation which uses digital as an opportunity to invest in more journalism rather than cutbacks".

The next 12 months will see the integration of the newsrooms of the Guardian, Observer and as part of its move to a 24/7 multimedia operation when it moves to new premises in King's Cross by the end of this year.

The two papers and the website will retain their own executive management teams.

· To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".

Today's best video

Today in pictures


text:
Sign up to oppose supercasinos

If Tessa Jowell did want to reduce the problems caused by new-style casinos (Response, April 26), she would instruct Casinos to issue monthly statements to regular clients showing how much they win or lose each month. She would also ban inducements such as free meals, free hotel rooms, free entertainments and free transport to visit supercasinos.

It is the aggressive advertising and marketing of those inducements, that turn regular gamblers into problem gamblers in the US. It is also impossible for suppliers near such casinos to compete with them. Which is why in Atlantic City most small hotels, bars, restaurants and shops were closed down by the impact of the supercasinos. That is the opposite of regeneration and will be the effect if a supercasino is forced on Blackpool. That is why we demand a local referendum on the issue.

The casino-sceptic majority in Blackpool and other victim towns thank Polly Toynbee (Comment, April 18) for highlighting our concerns. Everyone agrees that the percentage of UK residents that visit casinos will increase from 3% to about 30%. The number of problem gamblers is bound to increase dramatically above the current 300,000. I am therefore launching www.thecase.org.uk to enable supercasino sceptics everywhere to sign the national petition.

It is at least reassuring that Tessa Jowell has reaffirmed her commitment that there should be no more than one super-casino in the pilot phase. One in the dome in London will do the least damage. It is also reassuring that the Tories have now indicated their support for no more than one pilot.
Cllr Steven Bate
Lib Dem, Blackpool

Today's best video

Today in pictures


text:
'The UK is leading the global race in science and research'

Sam Myers at BIS on how to secure investment from overseas and encourage more girls to study science
Sam Myers
BIS head of strategic science and innovation communications talks about integrating science into Whitehall. Photograph: Sam Myers

How did you come to be BIS head of strategic science and innovation communications?

My passion for science traces back to TV shows like Johnny Ball Reveals All and Tomorrow's World. But I realised that I wasn't cut out to be a researcher during my masters in biochemistry. Despite achieving early success – including joint authorship of an article in Science – I got frustrated by the volume of failed experiments.

I nonetheless managed to find a way to indulge my love of science and joined the civil service as a science graduate entrant. I've worked in a range of areas, from negotiating EU science funding to helping the science minister. Since 2007, I have represented UK science interests in China and Southeast Asia, heading up the joint Foreign Office-BIS Science and Innovation Network in Asia Pacific.

What does a typical day at work look like? What kind of projects are you working on?

My job is to communicate the value that our world-class science and innovation system brings to the UK economy and society. We use a range of approaches, including the media, speeches and, increasingly, digital channels. The UK is outstanding in science and innovation, so a large part of my job is to choose the most powerful examples. Some of the best stories come from the interfaces between academia and industry. For example, BIS partner organisations, including several research councils and the technology strategy board, have combined their investments in hi-tech salmon breeding technologies. Scotland earns £1bn annually from salmon exports and this technology will help reduce losses of stocks to parasites.

What is your biggest challenge?

It's really easy to get carried away by the science and use technical vocabulary and indecipherable acronyms. This is a sure-fire way to switch off any audience. To avoid that pitfall it's important to repeatedly sense-check my work. When I get stuck, I ask the question: "How would I describe this to my mum?" The ultimate challenge is to actually put that to the test and call her.

And your biggest achievement in your career to date?

A highlight from China was helping to secure £170m in innovation deals for UK companies. These ranged from satellite imaging technology all the way through to baby feeding bottles that change colour when they are too hot. My proudest moment was being labelled the most active overseas diplomat by Singapore's equivalent to our science minister.

How is scientists' research used by civil servants?

Scientific research is used right across the civil service and we all benefit from the impacts. Clinical trials in hospitals determine which medicines are deemed safe and effective for use throughout the NHS. Met office data drives climate change policymaking in the Department for Energy and Climate Change. And data from the Natural Environment Research Council was used to decide when it was safe to resume flights after the volcanic ash cloud in 2010.

The chief scientific officer has previously said that there needs to be a cultural shift to integrate science and engineering into everyday government. Is there a feeling that science skills are undervalued in the civil service?

I think science skills are highly valued in the civil service. For talented scientists wanting to remain in the lab or field, there are exciting options like the British Antarctic Survey, Met office and Food and Environment Research Agency. For people like me who want to work in science policy and communications, there are lots of excellent opportunities in Whitehall, devolved administrations and beyond.

The Government Science and Engineering Network plays an important role in connecting us all together through events, news and information.

UK science spending is to remain flat, though funds going into lab infrastructure will almost double. Are we being overtaken by countries investing more aggressively in their research base?

The facts tell quite a different story – the UK is leading the global race in science and research. With 1% of the world's population, we publish 6% of global research and 14% of the highest quality research. We also have the most efficient research system of all the G8 countries. So for every pound or dollar we invest, we get more high quality research out. If that's not punching above our weight I don't know what is.

That said, we cannot be complacent. Despite enormous economic pressure the £4.6bn annual budget for science and research has been protected. A key part of the government's industrial strategy is supporting technologies where our research strengths and business capabilities combine. Last autumn, the Chancellor highlighted Eight Great Technologies where the UK can lead the world, announcing an additional £600m investment to help support their development.

How can we encourage more girls to take up STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects?

We really want to inspire more girls, minority and disadvantaged groups to study and choose STEM careers. BIS is partnering with industry to showcase passionate young engineers working on exciting hi-tech fashion designs such as robotic dresses, to inspire girls to look at the science behind clothes. We know that young women often care about the environment and the world we live in. This is why we are highlighting young female engineers doing groundbreaking environmental engineering work in Latin America on earthquake prevention and water sanitation. Look out for a programme of exciting activities and competitions as part Tomorrow's Engineers Week, which runs from 4-8 November.

You've just joined Twitter – why would you recommend it to other civil servants? Any tips?

Yes – you can find me @myerscsam. I liken my progress to that of my dad learning to program the first family video recorder – slow but determined. I have found Twitter to be a rich source of information and comment that I wasn't picking up through other channels. Our permanent secretary is already on there @MDonnellyBIS. But it's not for everyone and there are other options to consider, such as LinkedIn. The civil service is actively embracing social media and the Government Communication Network has a helpful "how to" guide.

What is your leadership style?

I'm really drawn to three S's: strategy, staff and stakeholders. Success comes when we set the right direction, motivate the team, and bring the right partners along with us. I would add a fourth: scientific rigour, which drives my decision making.

What three things would you take to a desert island?

My wind-up radio: invented in Britain. My British designed and powered iPad. And some broccoli, which British scientists tell me will ward off arthritis.

Sam Myers is head of strategic science and innovation communications at The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Want your say? Email us at public.leaders@guardian.com.

To get our articles on policy and leadership direct to your inbox, sign up to the Guardian Public Leaders Network now.

Looking for your next role? See our Guardian jobs site for senior executive jobs in government and politics.

For the latest on public services leadership, follow us: @publicleaders


text:
Jack Good

Bletchley codebreaker, he worked closely with Alan Turing

Irving John "Jack" Good, who has died aged 92, was a statistician and mathematical genius who, having shown his talent in childhood, made crucial contributions to the successful assault on German codes and ciphers at Bletchley Park during the second world war. Two decades later the director Stanley Kubrick called on him while making 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

On 27 May 1941, fresh from gaining his doctorate at Cambridge, Good walked into Hut Eight, scene of Bletchley Park's attack on German naval ciphers, for his first shift. This was the day that the Royal Navy caught, and destroyed, the battleship Bismarck after it had sunk HMS Hood, the British fleet flagship. Bletchley's contribution had been tangential but important: the discovery by wireless-traffic analysis that the German flagship was bound for Brest in France rather than Wilhelmshaven, from which she had set out, when signals to her started coming from the French port instead of the German one.

But Hut Eight had not been able to decipher in real time the 22 messages sent to the Bismarck because the Kriegsmarine was better at protecting its wireless traffic than the German army or the Luftwaffe, whose ciphers had been well penetrated the previous year. Naval signals were taking three to seven days to decipher, which usually made them operationally useless for the British. Yet this was about to change.

In his book Enigma: the Battle for the Code, Hugh Sebag-Montefiore describes how Good annoyed Alan Turing, the great mathematician and guiding intelligence of the Bletchley operation, by taking a nap on the floor of Hut Eight during his first night shift. Turing refused to speak to him afterwards - until the new boy used his statistical expertise to demonstrate how an essential trial-and-error method of attacking Enigma traffic could be accelerated .

The two men were thus reconciled. On another night shift, Good made a discovery missed by the old hands at Hut Eight. This helped them to work out which pairs of dummy letters the German encoders were adding to the twice enciphered, three-letter group at the start of each signal, telling the recipient how to set his machine to decipher it (for the British this became the achilles heel of the system). Good worked out that the "padding" was not random but came from a table, just as the setting itself did.

Some sensitive or important Enigma messages were enciphered twice, once in a special variation cipher and again in the normal cipher. Clearly a man who needed his sleep, Good dreamed one night that the process had been reversed: normal cipher first, special cipher second. When he woke up he tried his theory on an unbroken message - and promptly broke it. He also worked closely with Turing and others on the pioneering Colossus computers used to tackle other German ciphers. By now he was principal statistician.

Good was born Isidore Jacob Gudak to Polish-Jewish parents in London. His father was a watchmaker. He was educated at the Haberdashers' Aske's boys' school then in Hampstead, north London, where he effortlessly outpaced the mathematics teaching curriculum.

In 1938 he graduated with first-class honours in mathematics from Jesus College, Cambridge and stayed on to work for his PhD. While still at Cambridge, in 1941, he was approached by Bletchley recruiters. These included Hugh Alexander, twice British national chess champion, with whom he was to work closely, Good had won the 1939 Cambridgeshire chess championship. He reported for work within days. His service with Turing lasted nearly two years until he transferred to a team led by Max Newman, working on Colossus.

In 1947 Newman invited Good to join him and Turing at Manchester University. There for three years he lectured in mathematics and researched computers - including the Manchester Mark 1. Then, in 1948, he was recruited by the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the successor to Bletchley Park, where he stayed until 1959. This did not prevent him from taking up a brief associate professorship at Princeton University and a short consultancy with IBM.

From 1959 until he moved to the US in 1967 he held various government-funded posts and a senior research fellowship at Trinity College, Oxford. He was made a doctor of science at Cambridge in 1963 and at Oxford in 1964. Three years later he was appointed professor of statistics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

As the author of such treatises as Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine and Logic of Man and Machine (both 1965), Good must have seemed the obvious man for Kubrick to consult when making 2001; one of the main characters in the film is the super-computer HAL 9000, which shows intelligence and emotions but goes rogue. Good's published work ran to more than three million words.

Slender and sporting a bushy moustache, Good was not without humour. He published one paper under the names IJ Good and K Caj Doog, his own nickname spelt backwards. In one paper in 1988 he solemnly reviewed other writings on the subject, mainly his own, on the grounds that: "I have read them all carefully." In Virginia, where car owners can invent their own numberplates, he chose 007 IJG in a coy reference to his wartime intelligence role.

• Irving John "Jack" Good, mathematician, born 9 December 1916; died 5 April 2009

Today's best video

Today in pictures


text:
Michael Owen: a career in goals

Owen knocked them in for England, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester United. He even scored a few against a 13-year-old
Owen goals youtube
Michael Owen celebrates one of his 40 goals for England. Photograph: Paul McFegan/Sportsphoto/Allstar Paul McFegan/Sportsphoto/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

Michael Owen will retire from football at the end of the season. Owen, who scored 40 goals in 89 England internationals, remains the only Englishman to have scored in four major tournaments and he is fourth on his country's all-time goalscoring list, behind Sir Bobby Charlton, Gary Lineker and Jimmy Greaves. Here are some of his best career goals, plus a few interviews from through the years.

England v Argentina, World Cup, 1998

Real Madrid v Barcelona, 2005

England Schoolboys v Brazil Schoolboys, 1995

England v Brazil, World Cup, 2002

England v Germany, 2001

Manchester United v Manchester City, 2009

Liverpool v Arsenal, FA Cup final, 2001

A year in the life of Michael Owen

An early interview while at Lilleshall

Owen defeats a 13-year-old


text:
The Unfinished Swan – preview

Trapped in a totally white world, throwing paint to mark your way in a storybook narrative – this is no standard gaming fare
The Unfinished Swan game
The Unfinished Swan ... a world that's not all black and white. PR

The Unfinished Swan began life as a humble tech demo in 2008 called WhiteSpace, created by Ian Dallas. It showed a perfectly white arena, giving the user the opportunity to define it by throwing big globs of black paint everywhere, which spattered convincingly against walls and acted as a sort of acrylic sonar to guide the player through the world.

Four years later, Dallas has formed a studio (Giant Sparrow) with the help of Sony, and they're set to release the game later this year as a downloadable title on the Playstation Network. But working out exactly what the game was proved to be the team's first stumbling block: "It took us several iterations over the course of a year to discover what sort of game we wanted to make with these mechanics," says Dallas. The game has moved on from the eerie horror-themed footage in the tech demo (approaching a black door lead to a scary musical sting and the words "Please wake up" would appear, echoing a much-copied piece of text posted around the internet to freak out unsuspecting readers) to a much calmer storybook world – one involving orphans, mysterious kings, strange doors to other worlds and the titular swan.

"There are still scary parts," says Ben Esposito, level designer on the project, "but not like in the tech demo. It's going to be as scary as you want to make it. There's not a lot of information at the beginning of the game – when we set up, you're in an all-white world – so it's more like you're blind, or you're in a blackout, and you don't know what's around you. There's a sense of tension, like in a lot of children's books where there's an undercurrent of horror. Later on in the game it gets more intense, too."

That reliance on sound to provide cues is vital in such a game, and they've clearly put a lot of effort into the noise of seemingly mundane actions, such as the player's footsteps and the different reverberations of paint hitting surfaces. "It's almost a simulation of what it's like to be blind," says Ian, although presumably he means the sort of blindness where you can spit globs of paint everywhere. "It's a different set of tools to the ones you use in your everyday life."

There's no user interface to speak of, aside from a tiny reticule which shows where your paint is going to land. "When players first start the game and see that white room, a lot of them wait for instructions, and nothing happens," says Ian. "Then they start pushing buttons, and inevitably out of frustration hit the right shoulder button [which launches a blob of paint], and then they work it all out from there. We wanted to make an experience about exploration and actual surprise. A lot of games feel like big 500 page novels – a challenge, almost – and I wanted ours to feel more like a children's book, to create a sense of wonder and awe in a shorter experience."

Players hunt through these entirely white worlds, defining their own spaces, in search of orange swan footprints – these, and the occasional bit of important terrain feature, are all that's visible to guide you through the void until you make your mark. In a wonderful bit about five minutes in, we're watching the player climb a tall building and look at the path he's created, stained black against the white space of the world. "People love this part," Ian remarks, "they really appreciate being able to look back over what they've created."

Making the levels was, of course, tremendously difficult. The Unfinished Swan is Esposito's first job working full-time in a game studio, which makes the fact that the levels work all the more impressive.

"It can be super hard, yeah," he said, "but we play-test all the time. It's interesting: people play at their own pace but, in general, people usually follow similar patterns. Tiny details have big effects – say, a piece of wood will direct every player that sees it in a certain direction.

"We want to guide the player to very specific details. In other games the textures and the lighting can draw you toward points, but we have to put a lot of weight on one silhouette – a wheelbarrow is super-important in our game whereas in other games it isn't, because it teaches you that you're outside, and there was no way you could've known that before."

The unique visuals add elements to play, too, especially when building puzzles. "The moment I realised that this isn't a normal puzzle game was when we just had a white space you walk into, and there's a set of stairs, but the positioning of the stairs means that they're visible from one direction but not from another," explains Esposito. "Depending on where you're standing when you splat, you might never work out that they're there. I realised you could miss something right in front of your face [...] with almost no elements in place, we've made a puzzle already."

I'm assured that the entire game isn't just black on white, though, even if the exact details of what other features the final game will possess are being closely guarded. Tools that use senses other than vision will be involved, I'm told. Seeing as taste, smell and touch are pretty tricky to implement using PS3 hardware, signs point to some sort of audio-based power.

Balloons hovering around each level open up "toys" when that allow you to use your powers in new ways when collected – bigger splatters, more splats per second, that sort of thing, in a nod to encourage replay value. But aside from these scant details, Giant Sparrow is keeping very quiet about any other features. I pushed for information, regardless.

"Can you tell me about one other colour in the game?" I asked Esposito, half-jokingly. He looked a little flustered. "Can you perhaps offer me any details on ... say ... red? Can we expect to see red in the game?"

He laughed. "Maaaaybe, maybe red might be ..."

A man sitting quietly nearby leaned behind me and made a cutting gesture across his throat with a flattened palm. I guess we'll have to wait and see for ourselves.

The Unfinished Swan is set for release in 2012 on PSN


text:
Children's tsar says young are still losing out on pain relief

· Commissioner urges help for all infants who need it
· Too few drugs licensed and parents not consulted

Sick and injured children are still not receiving adequate pain relief, the government's children's tsar warns today.

Al Aynsley-Green, a consultant paediatrician and England's first children's commissioner, is urging greater efforts to ensure all children who need it receive help with pain, whether through "magic cream" - anaesthetic gel - to ease the hurt of injections, rapid access to painkillers in accident and emergency departments or support for severely disabled or very ill children receiving palliative care.

While the UK has made great strides in managing children's pain over the past 30 years - prior to which it was widely believed that babies and infants did not feel pain as adults do - methods of alleviating it are not applied consistently, too few drugs are licensed for children and parents are too often left out of pain management decisions, the commissioner said. "Pain should be at the centre of everybody's thinking about managing a very sick child," he said.

Prof Aynsley-Green's call, made today on a global "day against pain" held annually by the International Association for the Study of Pain and this year focusing on children, is echoed by other medics.

Professor Linda Franck, co-director of the Well Child Pain Research Centre at Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London, said research into children's pain remained "just minuscule compared with the amount of research funding and support for other aspects of medical care.

"We still have so much more to learn both in terms of how to measure the extent of children's pain and what to do about it."

Prof Aynsley-Green, whose own pioneering research on stress levels in sick babies in the 1970s proved that infants feel pain, pointed to A&E as an "adult-centric" environment which did not always understand pain in children. "Their [children's] manifestations of pain may be different from adults', for example they may lie perfectly still." There was a need for better training of those treating children in pain, particularly those who were too young to explain their experience or were unable to do so through disability, he said.


text:
Thatcher went behind cabinet's back with Trident purchase

National Archives files show two-thirds of ministers opposed buying missile system and found out about deal after leak in US
Trident C-4
Trident C-4 nuclear missile system was bought from the US after a secret deal between Margaret Thatcher and Jimmy Carter in July 1980. Photograph: Corbis

The Downing Street papers reveal that two-thirds of Margaret Thatcher's first cabinet opposed buying the US Trident missile system and the chiefs of staff were not unanimous. But this did not stop the "Iron Lady" from going ahead with the deal behind their backs.

The cabinet were only told of the decision to buy the original Trident C-4 system when the details of the secret deal with Jimmy Carter leaked out in the US.

The 1981 cabinet papers show that John Biffen, the trade secretary, privately warned Thatcher in March not to underestimate the electoral damage the anti-nuclear movement could inflict. He correctly predicted that the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was going to be bigger than its 1950s Aldermaston heyday.

The first women's peace camp was set up at Greenham Common that September and in the same month more than 250,000 people joined a national CND rally.

Disclosure of the scale of cabinet opposition is revealed in a note from a 10 February Downing Street meeting at which only John Nott, her defence secretary, and Lord Carrington, her foreign secretary, were present. Nott told Thatcher a full debate on nuclear defence policy was essential "since two-thirds of the party and two-thirds of the cabinet were opposed to the procurement of Trident. Even the chiefs of staff were not unanimous."

Nott, who supported the decision, went on to say he believed Britain would have to buy five rather than the four submarines envisaged and the bill would double to £10bn. Carrington harboured no such doubts: "Failure to acquire Trident would have left the French as the only nuclear power in Europe. This would be intolerable."

If Thatcher had any qualms about not telling the cabinet about her secret deal with Carter in July 1980 to buy Trident, her cabinet secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, was quick to reassure her. In a handwritten "secret and personal" note he told her that when Harold Macmillan negotiated the deal in Nassau with John Kennedy to buy Polaris, the cabinet "ratified the decision and the agreement, but played no part in arriving at the original decision or in laying down the negotiating brief".

In a separate note he reminded her that the Labour prime minister, Harold Wilson, did not consult the cabinet in 1974 when he ordered the Chevaline missile system. Thatcher's biographer Hugo Young said Britain's possession of an independent nuclear deterrent was the aspect of her inheritance about which she countenanced least argument.


text:
President Kennedy Assassinated

New York - President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was shot during a motorcade drive through downtown Dallas at 1p.m. (6p.m. British time) this afternoon. He died in the emergency room of the Parkland Memorial Hospital 32 minutes after the attack. He was 46 years old. He is the third President to be assassinated in office since Abraham Lincoln and the first since President McKinley in 1901.

Police held as chief suspect Lee Oswald, said to be a self-styled Communist who once renounced his US citizenship and unsuccessfully sought to become a Russian citizen. The chairman of a "Fair Play for Cuba" committee, he was arrested in a cinema after a policeman had been killed.

The new President is the Vice-President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, a 55-year-old native Texan, who took the oath of office in Dallas at five minutes to four at the hands of a woman judge and later arrived in Washington with the body of the dead President.

This is being written in the numbed interval between the first shock and the harried attempt to reconstruct a sequence of fact from an hour of tumult. However, this was the first assassination of a world figure that took place in the age of television, and every network and station in the country took up the plotting of the appalling story. It begins to form a grisly pattern, contradicted by a grisly preface: the projection on television screens of a happy crowd and a grinning President only a few seconds before the gunshots.

The President was almost at the end of his two-day tour of Texas. He was to make a luncheon speech in the Dallas Trade Mart building and his motor procession had about another mile to go. He had the warmest welcome of his trip from a great crowd at the airport.

The cries and pleas for a personal touch were so engaging that Mrs Kennedy took the lead and walked from the ramp of the presidential plane to a fence that held the crowd in. She was followed quickly by the President and they both seized hands and forearms and smiled broadly at the people.

Muffled shots

The Secret Service and the police were relieved to get them into their car, where Mrs Kennedy sat between the President and John B. Connally, the Governor of Texas. The Dallas police had instituted the most stringent security precautions in the city's history: they wanted no repetition of the small but disgraceful brawl that humiliated Adlai Stevenson in their city when he attended a United Nations rally on October 24.

The motorcade was going along slowly but smoothly when three muffled shots, which the crowd first mistook for fireworks, cracked through the cheers. One hit the shoulder blade and the wrist of Governor Connally who was taken with the President to the hospital, where his condition is serious.

The other brought blood trickling from the temple of the sitting President. His right arm flopped from a high wave of greeting and he collapsed into the arms of Mrs Kennedy, who fell unharmed. She was heard to cry "Oh no" and sat there all the way cradling his head in her lap.

The President was taken to the emergency room of the Parkland Hospital and Governor Connally was taken into the surgery. Mrs Kennedy went in with the living President and less than hour later came out with the dead man in a bronze coffin, which arrived shortly after two priests had administered the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church.

The body was escorted by Generals Clifton and McHugh, the President's chief military and air force Aides, to the Dallas Airport and flown thence to Washington.

Within an hour of the President's death, the Secret Service had found a sniper's nest inside the building from which the first witnesses swore the bullets had been fired. It is a warehouse for a school text book firm, know as the Texas School Depository, on the corner of Elm and Houston Streets.

In an upper room, whose open window commanded the route of the Presidential motorcade, the Servicemen found the remains of a fried chicken and a British .303 rifle with a telescopic sight. Alongside it lay three empty cartridges. Later, the police said they had also discovered a German Mauser gun.

Plane turns back

The chief White House press secretary, Mr Pierre Salinger, was in a plane with four Cabinet members on a goodwill trip to Japan. The plane turned around in mid-Pacific and headed back to Hawaii and then on to Washington.

In the Senate, it so happened that the President's brother, Edward Kennedy, a freshman Senator from Massachusetts, was presiding when the chief Democratic whip, Senator Mike Mansfield, went to the rostrum and told him the news. The Senator put down his gavel and went from the chamber.

At the United Nations, the General Assembly was called into plenary session and the Secretary-General, U Thant, simply said that it was his solemn duty to express for all of them "the most profound sorrow at this tragic event and to convey our condolences to the family and to the Government and people of the United States."

Mr Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State, and other Cabinet officials were on the way to Japan. Their plane turned back. President Kennedy's brother, the Attorney-General, Mr Robert Kennedy, was in Washington. Within an hour he and his younger brother, Edward, a Massachusetts Senator, were driven to Andrews Air Force base for a flight to Dallas.


text:
Green party in Germany to investigate backing for paedophiles in 80s

Chief whip says inquiry will study 'totally unacceptable demand' in 80s that sex with children should be made legal
Daniel Cohn-Bendit
Green party MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit’s 1975 book in which he wrote of erotic encounters at a kindergarten has caused a furore. Photograph: Gregorio Borgia/AP

Germany's Green party is to launch an investigation into its active promotion in the 80s of paedophile groups who lobbied for the legalisation of sex with children.

The party's leadership has said it will commission an independent researcher to investigate "for how long and to what extent" such groups had an influence. The party's chief whip, Jürgen Trittin, said the initiative aimed to take a close look at the "totally unacceptable demand" in the 80s that sex with children should be made legal. He admitted that the party had made wrong decisions about paedophilia.

The inquiry follows a row over the Green party MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit's apparent endorsement of sex with children in his 1975 book The Great Bazaar, in which he reported on his alleged sexual interactions with children while working at an anti-authoritarian kindergarten in the 70s.

In the book, he wrote: "My constant flirtations with the children took on erotic characteristics. It happened to me several times that a few children undid my flies and started to stroke me."

The damning passage, which the Observer reported on in 2001, and a subsequent TV interview in which he also talked frankly on the topic, came back to haunt Cohn-Bendit recently when the remarks came to light ahead of an awards ceremony. Because of his comments, several high-profile people refused to attend an event at which Cohn-Bendit received the Theodor Heuss prize for bridge-building in Europe.

In an interview in Der Spiegel magazine Cohn-Bendit, 64, who alternately represents the French and German Green parties in the European parliament, said he had made the remarks in order to provoke prudish, bourgeois Germany while insisting he had never been a paedophile.

"It was a type of manifesto against the bourgeois society," he said. He added that discussions about children's sexuality and how to help them discover it were rife at the time in the leftwing revolutionary circles in which he moved.

"One of the problems in the kindergarten was in our opinion that conservatives acknowledged children's sexuality in a shamefaced way, whereas we wanted to support children to develop it without constraint."

He said he had written the descriptions of his time in the kindergarten in an attempt to "appear to be more dangerous than I was", and admitted they had been "irresponsible".

The Greens' investigation, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year, will attempt to throw particular light on the association BAG SchwuP, which the party in its initial days supported both financially and morally. The organisation, whose members were referred to as "Schwuppis", was in favour of legalising sex with children.

The group has been compared to the UK's Paedophile Information Exhange, a group of pro-paedophile activists which was founded in 1974 with similar aims and disbanded a decade later.

The investigation will also seek to discover to what extent the support and publicity for the BAG Schwup made paedophilia more acceptable in the wider society.


text:
'Guru' swindler of French aristocrats gets 8 years

  • AP foreign,

Associated Press= PARIS (AP) — He started with the woman who hired him at the secretarial school, befriending her and winning her confidence. She introduced him to her elderly mother, her children. Her grandchildren, nearing adulthood, were next. Soon, Thierry Tilly was almost a member of the family of aristocrats.

Then he dropped the bombshell: Someone wanted them dead.

Bit by bit, family members saw sinister motives in even ordinary encounters. They retreated to their chateau, where Tilly took away their clocks, their calendars, their sense of time. One by one, they relocated with him to Oxford, England, then returned to their Bordeaux home where, the family lawyer said, they were cut off from friends and relatives.

"There was no day and no night," said the lawyer, Daniel Picotin.

Protection didn't come cheap: They sold their ancestral home, apartments, jewels, wine collection, luxury watches — more than 4.5 million euros in all — handing over the proceeds to Tilly, a man they saw as their protector, even their "guru."

The family was in hiding for nearly a decade before two of the adult children realized Tilly wasn't what he appeared.

"We were a normal family that stumbled into an abnormal story," Christine de Vedrines, who first sounded the alarm when her employer declared she and her family were being brainwashed, said in a radio interview. "Thierry Tilly is not a guru; he's a predator."

Tilly, whose manipulation of the de Vedrines family has led to comparisons to the Russian mystic Rasputin's legendary influence over the tsar, was sentenced to eight years in prison on Tuesday, convicted of arbitrary detention, using violence against vulnerable people and abusing people weakened by "psychological subjection."

Tilly held the family in his sway from 2000, a year after he was hired by Ghislaine de Vedrines to work at her secretarial school, until 2009. During that time, he led 11 people — ages 16 to 89 — to believe there was a secret plot against their lives, according to court testimony.

Skeptics like Ghislaine's husband were shunned, according to Picotin.

The presiding judge, Marie-Elisabeth Bancal, described it as a "Machiavellian plot."

Picotin said the family's money was poured into a fake charity that Tilly, now 48, claimed was set up to pay the Vedrines' "protectors."

"He persuaded them they were surrounded by enemies," Picotin said.

With the trial over, Christine de Vedrines told the Sipa news agency the family would somehow rebuild.

"Eight years is a small price to pay for what he did to our family and children," said Christine de Vedrines, who Picotin said was locked up by the family for nearly two weeks and deprived of sleep and food before managing to get away.

Picotin said he hopes to help the family reacquire their ancestral home. As for the rest, he said, "it's all gone."

A Tilly accomplice, Jacques Gonzalez, was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison.

Tilly's lawyer had argued that the family from the 13th-century village of Monflanquin in southwestern France had acted willingly.

"These 11 family members aren't ill, have their feet on the ground, a level of self-awareness. Eleven people manipulated by mysterious forces by a single man? The legal basis for the case is weak," lawyer Alexandre Novion told The Associated Press.

Novion denounced testimony about the family's mental state, saying a man's freedom should not depend on "an old Freud tome found in a psychoanalyst's attic." He also said Gonzalez — and not Tilly — was the ringleader and absconded with all the money.

According to court statements, in the years after Ghislaine de Vedrines met Tilly in 1999 and introduced him to the rest of the family, he played relatives against each other, creating group paranoia and preying on the family's weaknesses.

"He is a liar, a fantasist," Ghislaine de Vedrines said at the outset of the trial, according to Europe 1. "He kidnapped us, saying anything and everything, and set us against each other."

Tilly was arrested in Switzerland in 2009.

Although Tilly was deemed mentally stable during his trial, French media have reported that he has a history of lies and exaggerations. Tilly claimed before the Bordeaux court that he was a member of the Habsburg dynasty and that he once almost played soccer for Marseille.

Tilly remained defiant Tuesday despite the conviction, saying he is a British citizen and will take his case to the European Court of Justice.

"(The trial) has only just begun," Tilly declared.

His lawyer, meanwhile, said he was not aware that his client was a British citizen.

Picotin said he had hoped Tilly would get a longer sentence. "I'm sure that if he gets out he'll begin again," the lawyer said.

The case raised echoes of another controversial trial involving France's richest woman, 90-year-old L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, who was swindled by a French tax lawyer into handing over to him a private Seychelles island.

Thomas Adamson can be followed at http://Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

Lori Hinnant can be followed at http://twitter.com/lhinnant

Today's best video


text:
We applaud this smoking ban

Letters to the Editor (The Guardian)
Send to a friend

Send this article to a friend.

By Jason Roberts

In response to The Guardian story on Oct. 2012 titled ‘Detox no smoking policy leads to patient drop-offs', the Heart and Stroke Foundation is pleased to voice its support for the recently established Health P.E.I. policy that bans smoking anywhere on the Provincial Addictions Treatment Facility property.

It is unfortunate that some patients have reacted to Health P.E.I.'s September ruling by either leaving treatment or having their names removed from waiting lists. However, studies in other centres with similar smoking bans reveal that the establishment of non-smoking environments does not, in the end, significantly affect admissions or compliance with treatment for other addictions.

In 2002, Addiction Prevention and Treatment Services in Nova Scotia's Capital Health District announced the closure of its smoking room and implementation of a 100-per-cent tobacco-free policy. A follow-up file review showed that rates of self referral and length of stay in the detox unit did not differ significantly in the 12 months post-policy from the same period pre-policy. This finding surprised some, given that at admission to the inpatient addictions program, 75 per cent of patients, on average, were smokers.

Capital Health representatives feel that careful planning, effective nicotine withdrawal maintenance protocols and staff training, as well as raising the awareness of tobacco as an addiction throughout all of their services led to the successful implementation of the 100-per-cent tobacco-free policy.

Tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable illness and premature death and a major cause of heart disease and stroke. According to Statistics Canada, 37,000 Canadians lose their lives every year to smoking-related illnesses. Non-smoking environments help to reduce rates of smoking, encourage people to quit and help to protect against smoking relapses.

Of equal importance is the well-being of non-smoking patients and staff at the facility, who deserve protection from the effects of second-hand smoke. Long-term exposure to second-hand smoke, or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), is a proven and lethal risk factor for heart disease and stroke, cancer and a number of respiratory diseases.

We know that nicotine is a highly addictive substance. By providing patients with support and free nicotine replacement therapy while they are being treated for other serious addictions, facility staff members have an excellent opportunity to help them quit smoking within a safe and nurturing environment.

Jason Roberts is P.E.I. board chair of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Organizations: Heart and Stroke Foundation, Health P.E.I., The Guardian Addiction Prevention and Treatment Services Statistics Canada ETS P.E.I. board

Geographic location: Nova Scotia

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Thanks for voting!

Top of page