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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Injustice by Default

Blackman says: I was forwarded the link to this article on a mailing list that I participate in. All I can say is WOW! Talk about being abused by your government.

Injustice by Default

How the effort to catch "deadbeat dads" ruins innocent men's lives

Matt Welch February 2004 Print Edition

Tony Pierce remembers vividly the exact moment in November 2000 when the state of California began trampling on his life. "There was a loud angry pounding at my door at five o'clock in the morning," he recalls. "Very scary."
It was a female police officer with a complaint accusing him of being the father of an 8-year-old girl in Contra Costa County, east of San Francisco. "I'm like, 'Great! I'm definitely not the father of anybody,'" he says.
There were excellent reasons to think so. He had never met or heard of the mother of the child. He had never lived in Northern California, and at the time of conception (spring 1991) he was attending the University of California at Santa Barbara, beginning a monogamous relationship that would last for two years. What's more, he's a condom fanatic -- only once in his life, Pierce swears, has he failed to use a rubber during intercourse, and that was "many years after." (He's been a friend of mine for 15 years, and I believe him.) And if the summons had included the mother's testimony (it was supposed to, but did not), he would have seen himself described as a "tall" and "dark" black man named "Anthony Pierce." Pierce is a hair over five feet, nine inches; he is so light-skinned that even people who know him sometimes don't realize he's black; and no one calls him Anthony except his mom.
The front page of the court document gave simple but misleading instructions: "You have 30 days to respond to this lawsuit. You may respond in one of two ways: 1. File an Answer to the complaint with the Superior Court of Contra Costa County, not with the District Attorney....2. Settle the case with the District Attorney. You may call us at (925) 313-4200 to discuss your case." Concluding incorrectly (but understandably) that he could settle the matter over the phone, Pierce called -- three times that day -- and tried to weave his way through a labyrinthine phone tree. Finally he found a human being, who instructed him to leave a message with a home phone number. The department called him back the next day and left a message; it took another three calls from Pierce before he reached a caseworker for the first time.
"I said, 'What do I need to do? I'm not the father,'" he remembers. "And they were like, 'OK, well this is what you do: You just call in every day, and then we'll understand that you're not it, because if you're it, you're not gonna call us every day.'"
Pierce did everything he was told over the next three weeks of phone tag, except for comprehending that the 30-day deadline for denying paternity in writing was etched in federal law, regardless of what he discussed with Contra Costa employees -- who he says never once told him the clock was ticking. "All they were doing was delaying me from doing what I needed to do," he says. "It's a huge scam -- huge scam....They're just counting the days. They're like, 'Sucker, sucker, sucker, sucker.'...And this is the government!"
Two months later, after the phone conversations had ended and he assumed he was off the hook, Pierce received notice that a "default judgment" had been entered against him, and that he owed $9,000 in child support. He was between dot-com jobs, and his next unemployment check was 25 percent smaller; the state of California had seized and diverted $100 toward his first payment. Suddenly, he was facing several years of automatic wage garnishment, and the shame of being forced to explain to prospective employers why the government considered him a deadbeat dad. "That's when it hit me," he says. "I mean, it's mostly my fault -- 'Fill out the form, dumb-ass!'...But it's so rigged against you, it's ridiculous."
Dad Blamed
What Pierce didn't realize, and what nearly 10 million American men have discovered to their chagrin since the welfare reform legislation of 1996, is that when the government accuses you of fathering a child, no matter how flimsy the evidence, you are one month away from having your life wrecked. Federal law gives a man just 30 days to file a written challenge; if he doesn't, he is presumed guilty. And once that steamroller of justice starts rolling, dozens of statutory lubricants help make it extremely difficult, and prohibitively expensive, to stop -- even, in most cases, if there's conclusive DNA proof that the man is not the child's father.
This stacked deck against accused dads has provoked a backlash movement, triggering "paternity fraud" legislation and related legal challenges in more than a dozen states. Combined with advances in genetic technology, this conflict may end up changing the way we define parenthood. For now, the system aimed at catching "deadbeat dads" illustrates how a noble-sounding effort to help children and taxpayers can trample the rights of innocent people.
Here's how it works: When an accused "obligor" fails, for whatever reason, to send his response on time, the court automatically issues a "default judgment" declaring him the legal father. It does not matter if he was on vacation, was confused, or (as often happens) didn't even receive the summons, or if he simply treated the complaint's deadlines with the same lack of urgency people routinely exhibit toward jury duty summonses -- he's now the dad. "In California, you don't even have to have proof of service of the summons!" says Rod Wright, a recently retired Democratic state senator from Los Angeles who tried and failed to get several paternity-related reform bills, including a proof-of-service requirement, past former Gov. Gray Davis' veto. "They only are obligated to send it to the last known address."
In fact, a March 2003 Urban Institute study commissioned by the California Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) found that "most noncustodial parents appear to be served by 'substitute' service, rather than personal service, which suggests that noncustodial parents may not know that they have been served." In Los Angeles County, which is notorious for its sloppy summons service and zealous prosecution of alleged fathers it knows to be innocent, nearly 80 percent of paternity establishments come in the form of default judgments. In the state as a whole, which establishes 250,000 paternities a year while collecting $2 billion in child support, a whopping 68 percent of the 158,000 child support orders in 2000 (the last year studied) were default judgments.
Once paternity is "established," even if the government has never communicated with the father, the county court imposes a payment rate and schedule under the statistically mistaken assumption that he makes a full-time salary at minimum wage. (State audits have found that a full 80 percent of default dads don't make even that much.) To collect the money, the county may put a garnish order on the purported father's paycheck or place liens on his assets. If the mother has received welfare assistance after the child was born, the man will be hit with a bill to pay back the state, plus 10 percent annual interest. "That's what they're trying to do, is get some reimbursement to the state," says Carolyn Kelly, public relations officer for the Contra Costa County DCSS. "As you can imagine, [that's] millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars."
If the father falls 30 days behind on his payments, he will be blocked by law from receiving or renewing a driver's license or any "authorization issued by a board that allows a person to engage in a business, occupation, or profession" -- a category that includes teaching credentials, fishing licenses, and state bar memberships. If his credit rating was good, it won't be any more. If his past-due tab exceeds $5,000, the U.S. State Department won't issue him a passport. (An average of 60 Americans discover this each day. Meanwhile, Congress has been pushing to cut the limit to $2,500, while urging the State Department to begin revoking passports, which is allowed under the law.)
"When you tell people about the inequities of the system," Wright says, "they're surprised. They go, 'This is America! You couldn't do that!' And I go, 'Yes, you can.'"
Under the guidelines set forth by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, single mothers can receive welfare only on condition that the state take charge of collecting their child support, including unpaid amounts from the past. If the biological father is not paying support, he will be tracked down and hit with the bill. The admirable goal, which statistics show has partially been achieved, was to encourage more responsible sexual behavior by single women, give two-parent families an incentive to stay together, wean recipients off welfare by forcing them to work, and help them find a little extra cash they didn't have before. At the same time, however, the law gave states an explicit mandate and direct financial incentive to name the maximum number of fathers and extract from them the maximum amount of money.
The bottom-line results have been impressive: Since 1993, according to Senate testimony last March by Marilyn Ray Smith, director of the Child Support Enforcement Division of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, child support collection nationwide jumped from $8.9 billion in 1993 to $19 billion in 2001, while paternity establishments more than doubled, from 659,000 in 1994 to 1.6 million just five years later.
But you can read thousands of pages of laws, reports, and testimonies, and not see a single reference to the importance of naming the right guy, or to the gravity of making a mistake. Since Congress first got into the child support business in 1975, the cornerstone philosophy has been to orient everything toward "the best interest of the child," which in practice has meant ensuring that the kid receives money. Now that the states also have a financial incentive -- they pocket a cut of child support payments, earn performance rewards from the federal government, and enjoy the savings from reduced welfare rolls -- the cash motive is stronger than ever. California, for example, crunches the numbers every which way: total child support dollars collected per dollar of total expenditure, average amount collected per case, and so on. But nowhere does the state bother to count the number of citizens it has wrongfully named as fathers. The bias is overwhelming, and abuses are inevitable.
Paternity Test
Anyone familiar with paternity misestablishment horror stories will tell you that Tony Pierce is a fortunate man. "Oh, he got really lucky," says Taron James, a wrongfully named father who recently founded a group called Veterans Fighting Paternity Fraud. "Mine's going on eight years."
First of all, even at Pierce's current low, entry-level salary, he's rolling in dough compared to most default dads. According to the Urban Institute study, of the 834,000 Californians owing child support in 2001, "over 60 percent of debtors have recent net [annual] incomes below $10,000. Only 1 percent have recent net incomes in excess of $50,000." It's safe to guess that, also unlike Pierce, most don't have good friends who are high-powered lawyers willing to work pro bono. Like obtaining a green card, which is a hellishly complex process navigated disproportionately by the poor, fighting a paternity complaint is nearly inconceivable without legal representation, which Wright says costs a "minimum" of $2,000. "If he can't get the two grand together, you know what?" Wright says. "He's shit out of luck."
Pierce's lawyer, Kim Thigpen, is normally an entertainment attorney, so her crash-course education in family law came as a shock. "I've never seen anything like it," she says. Thigpen was able to get the default judgment set aside -- not canceled -- on grounds of excusable neglect and mistaken identity, thereby blocking the wage garnishment until the mother and child settled the question once and for all by checking their DNA against Pierce's. Nearly three years and $10,000 in legal expenses later, they're still waiting for the mother to comply. (It was far easier for Contra Costa County to declare Pierce the father from 400 miles away than to compel the local-resident mother to show up for a DNA test.) At the hearing, the county attorney admitted that Pierce looked nothing like the mother's description, a fact that a simple Google search would have easily revealed, since Tony publishes a Web site that includes several dozen pictures of himself.
So how was Pierce fingered? How low is the legal threshold for placing men in the cross hairs of default justice? Both Contra Costa County and the California DCSS refused to discuss the specifics of this or any other case, citing privacy regulations (though Contra Costa's Carolyn Kelly did point out that "if you don't contact us, there's nothing we can do"). But a look at how the process works reveals great potential for error.
Counties typically launch paternity investigations for one of two reasons: Either a parent or custodian directly asks for help in locating a biological parent, or a mother applies for welfare, which now is reported to the local child support system. If the mother was unwed, says California DCSS Assistant Director Leora Gerhenzon, "you ask about when you became pregnant, why you believe that date is correct, whether or not the father was named on the birth certificate, has the father seen the child,...does the father provide for support, has he ever lived with the child,...a Social Security number....It's a half-hour [interview], or even an hour and a half to two hours."
What if the only information the mother provides, I ask Gerhenzon, is that it was 10 years ago, with a white guy named Matt Welch, now between 30 and 40 years old, who maybe lives in the Los Angeles area?
"In that case, now it depends," she says. "We run our search on him; if we come back with one Matt Welch who lives in L.A., whose birthday fits that 10-year range, and we have nobody else, we presume in general we have the person. If we come back with three Matt Welches, all of a sudden we know there's a problem. We have to call her back in, or call her on the phone, and say 'OK, here's what we've pulled up. We need more help from you to identify which is the correct [one].'"
So a name, race, vague location, and a broad age range is sufficient to launch a process that could quickly lead to a default judgment, asset liens, and a blocked passport? "Right. Right," Gerhenzon confirms. "If it's clear that she's given us enough identifying information to come up with one discrete name, we would go ahead." Wouldn't that make people with unusual names easier targets? "Absolutely."
In addition to a low threshold for accusing men of paternity, the system lacks penalties for naming the wrong father. Mothers sign their declarations under penalty of perjury, Gerhenzon says, but neither she nor anyone else I talked to for this article could recall a single case where a mother was charged with a crime for naming the wrong man. In fact, until recently California hasn't had any way to see whether a woman had named different candidates in different counties. Asked how a caseworker might respond after discovering such a disparity, Gerhenzon says, "I think in all likelihood they would confront the custodial parent with both names, and say, 'Who is the appropriate parent?'" For both the mother and the state, the punishment for making a mistake is indirect, in the form of receiving less child support. (The state is much less successful in collecting from default dads, on average, and the wrongly named defaults surely pay the least.)
So how many default judgments catch the wrong guy? Nobody knows. Paternity reform activists point to a 2000 study by the American Association of Blood Banks that found 30 percent of the 300,000 paternity DNA tests conducted at accredited centers nationwide excluded the father. But the actual percentage of wrongfully named default dads is certainly much lower, since these samples come largely from people with doubts about paternity (as opposed to real deadbeat dads, who have considerable reason to avoid a DNA test).
Whatever the number, the state of California recognizes misidentification of fathers as a serious problem. "Some default orders are expected," reported the Urban Institute, "but a default rate of 71 percent statewide indicates that something is terribly wrong." In its study, which addressed the collectibility of California's $17 billion in outstanding support, the Urban Institute's No. 1 recommendation was to "reduce default orders." The DCSS now has a Default Work Group, established at the behest of former Gov. Davis after he vetoed one of the reform bills, that is preparing recommendations for reducing the rate.
"What we have done in the past is sped up many of these defaults," Gerhenzon says. "And they were penny-wise and pound foolish, maybe, to go ahead and get quick orders.... And what we've certainly learned through our collectibility study, and...through general customer service, is that it is far, far better to get the right parent up front....In cases where we actually, because of the default, have the wrong parent, we end up collecting a whole lot less money."
Innocence Is No Defense
The systems for establishing paternity and providing child support are replete with legal deadlines that vary from state to state. Besides having 30 days to respond to a paternity complaint, an accused father in California has 180 days to contest a child support order and two years from birth to challenge paternity using DNA evidence (unless he has signed a voluntary declaration of paternity in the hospital under the federal government's new Paternity Opportunity Program, in which case he has just 60 days). If, for what-ever reasons, any of these deadlines aren't met, no amount of evidence can move the state to review the case; the DCSS has to be sued. Unlike capital murder convictions, which are being overturned around the country because of DNA evidence, family court cases typically hew to the "finality of judgment" principle to prevent disruptions in children's lives. Or, in the words of former California legislator Rod Wright, "It ain't your kid, you can prove it ain't your kid, and they say, 'So what?'"
That's how a man like Taron James could be slapped with a support bill for thousands of dollars from Los Angeles County in 2002, and continue to be barred from using his notary public license, even after producing convincing DNA evidence and notarized testimony from the mother that her 11-year-old son, whom he's seen exactly once and looks nothing like, is not his child and that she no longer seeks his support. James says his name was placed on the child's birth certificate without his consent while he was on a Navy tour of duty; then the mother refused to take blood tests for eight years, and he became aware of a default order against him only when the Department of Motor Vehicles refused to issue him a driver's license in October 1996. By that time, James had missed all the relevant deadlines, the court was unimpressed with his tale of woe, and he has since coughed up $14,000 in child support via liens and garnishments.
"I contact Child Support Services, and their whole thing is, 'Take us to court. You don't like what we're doing, take us to court,'" he says. "Whether or not you're the biological father doesn't matter -- if someone's got your name, and you've...failed to participate in the court date, then you have an obligation to pay child support, period."
Needless to say, taking DCSS to court is expensive (James says he's already run up legal bills of $4,000), and success isn't likely. To add insult to injury, even if you win, you won't get any of your money back.
State bureaucrats say their hearts bleed, but rules are rules. "We are obligated by law to enforce the order," says California DCSS's Gerhenzon. "We have no ability not only to stop enforcement of our own, but not to proceed with doing everything we can to get child support in this case, because we have to enforce the legally established order. The recourse is to get that order set aside, or overturned."
When judicial systems enthusiastically enforce rulings they know to be unjust, it's a surefire formula for creating activists. After writing scores of letters to politicians and conducting endless Internet searches, James and his girlfriend, Raegan Phillips, hooked up with a national group called U.S. Citizens Against Paternity Fraud, founded by a Georgia engineer named Carnell Smith. Smith paid more than $40,000 in support over 11 years to an ex-girlfriend's child he assumed to be his, until she requested more money in 1999. He then took a DNA test and discovered he wasn't the father, but the court ordered him to pay $120,000 anyway. Enraged, he launched Citizens Against Paternity Fraud and began lobbying the Georgia legislature to change laws that limited the admissibility of DNA tests. In May 2002, the effort passed, so now at least some default dads in Dixie -- those who have never adopted their children or officially acknowledged paternity -- can overturn support orders using DNA evidence, regardless of how much time has elapsed. In March of last year, under the new law, Smith's personal support order was finally overturned.
Similar laws have passed in Virginia, Ohio, Iowa, Arkansas, and Alabama; others are working their way through statehouses in Texas, New Jersey, California, Florida, Michigan, Vermont, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, courts across the country are trying to redraw the legal lines of paternity now that genetic testing and welfare reform are colliding with 500 years of common law tradition, which has presumed that all children born in a marriage are the husband's responsibility, whether or not he is the biological father. In May 2003, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that men who have admitted paternity, even if the mother lied to them, are not allowed to introduce DNA evidence to challenge support orders. Carnell Smith has been trying to push the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court, so far without success.
Although paternity fraud activists are beginning to gain traction, they face formidable obstacles. The Welfare Reform Act is largely a popular success. More two-parent families are staying together, more single mothers are entering the work force, and child support collections have doubled. By just about any measure, these trends are in the best interests of the affected children. In Massachusetts 18 years ago, for example, women had a miserable rate of success (around 10 percent) in suing for paternity, according to Marilyn Ray Smith, the state's chief child support enforcer, and genetic tests were inadmissible except to disprove paternity. For single mothers and their children, the legal climate obviously has changed much for the better.
Which helps explain why so many feminist groups and politicians have dug in their heels to block paternity reform bills. Considered in zero sum terms, any change that prevents some unjustly named fathers from supporting kids they didn't sire reduces the amount of money children and single mothers receive while increasing states' welfare payouts. Child support advocates also worry, with some reason, that narrow-sounding legislation aimed at preventing obvious injustices may become a Trojan horse for men who change their minds about the responsibilities of fatherhood. But that's rarely how the issue is presented. Women's groups usually argue that fatherhood cannot be measured by DNA alone -- a disingenuous stance, considering the thousands of men who pay for kids they've never lived with.
"What makes a father?" California state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) said in an August 2002 interview with the Los Angeles Times, explaining why she was voting against Rod Wright's latest reform bill. "This bill says the donation of genetic material makes a father. I don't agree."
Kuehl, a former family law attorney who cosponsored a law that reworked California's child support system in 1999, has been the single biggest opponent of paternity-related reform bills in the state, to the point where activists like James and Phillips refer to her as "Sheila Cruel" and are planning demonstrations outside her office. Kuehl refused repeated requests to comment for this article. "She says it's not her issue," a spokeswoman told me. "She's not interested to talk about it."
Wright, who considers Kuehl a friend, says he tried several times to sway her with individual stories of innocent victims who'd been trampled by the current system. "Sheila said to me one day in a hearing room: 'You know, I understand that, through the convergence of science and thousand-year-old common law, we have to work toward a kind of balance. And I side with the kids; I don't really care about this guy.'" Wright chalks it up to the prevailing poli-tical winds. "If this was a case where women could be charged similarly," he says, "Sheila would be all over this like a cheap suit. It's really a case where it becomes a guy vs. a child. So it's like, 'Well, screw the guy.'"
Paternity activists argue that the best interests of the child should include, among other things, knowing who her real biological father is, so she can have accurate medical information. And every day the wrong man is on the hook, they point out, is a day not spent finding the real father.
"They have failed her," Tony Pierce says of Contra Costa County's effort on behalf of his supposed daughter. "If they're in it to feel good about themselves and to go to heaven because they're fighting for women -- no, they're going to hell, because they have not found this woman's father, and they have tried to fuck me over....What they should have said right away is, 'Hey look, this isn't the guy; let's get the [right] guy.'"
Every child support official I talked to was sensitive to the criticism and eager to discuss many past and future reforms aimed at reducing the number of default judgments, humanizing the system, and even (in the words of Contra Costa County's Kelly) eliminating the word deadbeat from their vocabulary. "This is a tough area," California DCSS's Gerhenzon says. "When you have bad results in these situations, they are tough on everyone involved in the process: the parents, the legal parents, the child, the system. It is to everyone's benefit not to have these cases come up."
But as long as state and federal laws remain as they are -- with low evidentiary thresholds for issuing paternity complaints, no proof of service required, the presumption of guilt in default cases, a series of short legal deadlines beyond which paternity becomes extremely difficult to challenge, and financial incentive for the government to keep naming dads and extracting money -- these cases will continue to come up. "I can see how so many men could be totally screwed right now," Pierce says. "You know, I was educated, I had a good job, I'd never been involved with the cops before, I had nothing to fear, nothing to run from. But still, I got tied into it....I can see where this stuff could create many victims."
Victims like Taron James, who lost at least two jobs while putting his life on hold for eight years so he could fight a judgment that should have never been made. "I'm a veteran -- I fought for and defended my country," James says, sitting in a Torrance, California, park down the street from his great aunt's crowded house, where he lives with his girlfriend and splits his time looking for work and driving to Sacramento to lobby legislators. "To be treated like this is ridiculous....Right now, I'm fully disgusted with California and the United States for allowing this to go on after I put my hind end on the line."

Note: The print edition of this article incorrectly stated Raegan Phillips' name and one detail about Taron James.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Hillsborough GOP official rebuked for racial e-mail joke

Blackman says: Sigh! here we go again folks. Yet another Republican official is being called out and forced to apologize for being stupid by distributing what many consider to be a racist joke via email. This time it's right here in Tampa Florida. Although this isn't the first time this group of Republicans has been called out for making stupid racist statements or sending out racist emails.
But you can go to any city in any state and the story is the same. Will this ever end? Right now you hear all this talk coming from Republicans about how they plan to transform their party in the wake of getting whipped in the 2008 elections. There is even a grassroots organization called Rebuild the Party which is attempting to be a driving force in the transformation. While electing Michael Steele is a start, the GOP has a LONG way to go if they even want to be s serious contender for black votes. Republicans need to understand why Black Americans view them they way they do. It's not because the "evil Liberal Media" has distorted their image nor is it due to Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton exercising some sort of mind control nor is because of "Political Correctness" (which they like to blame when ever they get called out on saying inappropriate stuff) The reason black folks view Republican Party (and quite frankly Black Republicans themselves) the way they do is because of BS like this. Now sure we know there are plenty of racist Democrats out there. We saw that during the primaries. But it's always Republicans that are stupid enough to put their racism on display over and over again. I also linked to the story so you can read all the comments from the knuckleheads who are defending this person and the "joke". We can only hope that one day people that think like this will become extinct.

I've said before that a lot of my ideas would probably qualify me as a conservative and maybe
even a Republican. But I can never bring myself to actually make the switch because the Republican party can't seem to dump it's racial baggage. I've even told my Republicans friends
that I would be a Republican if it were not for Republicans.

Before I go check out this Blog entry from Wonkette.

Blackman out..........

TAMPA — Florida Republican chairman Jim Greer said Wednesday that longtime Hillsborough state committeewoman Carol Carter may lose her position because of the racial joke she forwarded in an e-mail.
"Carol Carter has been a hard-working, loyal Republican for many years, but this action I have no tolerance for, regardless of the circumstances or intent," a furious Greer said of Carter's e-mail.
Concerning her future, Greer said, "I am currently considering all options, including my authority to remove her from the office of state committeewoman."
The e-mail read:
From: Carol Carter
Friday, January 30, 9:30 AM
Subject: FW: Amazing!
I'm confused
How can 2,000,000 blacks get into Washington, DC in 1 day in sub zero temps when 200,000 couldn't get out of New Orleans in 85 degree temps with four days notice?
Carol Carter
Later she sent out a second e-mail that read:
From: Carol Carter
January 30, 5:54 PM
Subject: Earlier e-mail
I have been asked to send this apology for my earlier e-mail. I am sorry that it was received in a negative manner. I do hope that we are going to be allowed to keep our sense of humor.
As you can now see, it went to very few people. I did add Todd Marks in this apology, as he is in the mix now. I am also sorry to learn that some of these persons are not real team players. There really was no reason for this to go beyond those that I e-mailed (8 people). This was not an e-mail blast as I do not have that capability.
"I'm pretty much done with those sorts of inappropriate and, and — I am at a loss for words," Greer said. "I just came back from Washington, D.C., working to get our first African-American elected as (Republican National Committee) chairman. It's one thing to have a person express their thoughts and humor. It's another to have a leader of the Republican Party. I'm just done with it."
Carter did not return a telephone message seeking comment.
Hillsborough has been a magnet for racially charged controversies in the Republican Party in recent months. Former county chairman David Storck was roundly criticized for forwarding an e-mail lamenting the many blacks voting early in the presidential election, and former state party finance chairman Al Austin apologized for forwarding an e-mail joke referring to the assassination of Obama.
Storck's successor, Deborah Cox-Roush, said local and state party officials are investigating the actions of Carter, whom she calls a die-hard, hard-working Republican.
She said she has spoken to Carter, and she was very apologetic.
Cox-Roush has called a board meeting but said nothing could be determined Wednesday.
"We are moving forward, and the Republican Party does not tolerate any kind of racist remarks of this kind."
Others in the party sounded just as flummoxed.
"I just saw Carol last Tuesday, and we had a good conversation," said Curtis Stokes, president of the Hillsborough County NAACP and a prominent Republican. "Never in a million years would I think she would forward something like this."
Stokes said he started getting angry phone calls about Carter early Wednesday morning but didn't learn the content of the e-mail until later that night.
"That kind of behavior has no place in the modern day Republican Party," Stokes said.
Hillsborough Democratic Party chairwoman Pat Kemp said she was surprised at the "utterly ugly" commentary.
"I think obviously she really has to look at herself, and people who would say such a thing really need to look deep at their prejudices and racism," Kemp said Wednesday night. "We aware that this exists, but it doesn't usually hit us in the face so hard. It's just so sad."
Times staff writer Janet Zink contributed to this report.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Key Obama officials reveal executive pay limits

Blackman says: While I'm sure the right wing crowd will howl "SOCIALIST!" I agree with this move. To date the banks that have gotten this bailout money have acted totally irresponsible. They still aren't loaning money to anybody. So what are they doing with it other
than buying corporate jets, paying bonuses and sending their executives on $400,000 retreats?

I can't wait to see how the media wing of the Republican Party AKA FOX News spins this one.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Executives of companies receiving federal bailout money will have their pay capped at $500,000 under a financial compensation plan that President Barack Obama is expected to announce Wednesday, two senior administration officials said.

$500,000 will be the limit on executive salaries at companies receiving tax dollars, Obama officials said.

Obama alluded to a change in executive salary in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.
"Tomorrow I'm going to be talking about executive compensation and changes we're going to be making there," he said. "We've now learned that people are still getting huge bonuses despite the fact that they're getting taxpayer money, which, I think, infuriates the public."
Under the president's plan, companies that want to pay their executives more than $500,000 will have to do so through stocks that cannot be sold until the companies pay back the money they borrow from the government, according to administration officials.
The restrictions will most affect large companies that receive "exceptional assistance," such as Citigroup. The struggling banking giant has taken about $45 billion from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program. Watch Obama talk about limiting executive salaries »
In January, the bank reversed plans to accept delivery of a new $42 million corporate jet, after Treasury Department prodding.
Don't Miss
Commentary: Put strict conditions on bailout money
States to Congress: Stop squabbling and send help
The new rules will also mandate that shareholders of banks have a greater say about the salaries paid to company heads. The measures will put in place greater transparency for costs such as holiday parties and office renovations.
Institutions that are financially healthy -- and receive more generally available government funds -- can waive these requirements if their shareholders vote to do so, according to the plan.
Obama ripped Wall Street executives in January for their "shameful" decision to hand out $18 billion in bonuses in 2008. The president said it was the "height of irresponsibility" for executives to pay bonuses when their companies were asking for help from Washington.
"The American people understand we've got a big hole that we've got to dig ourselves out of, but they don't like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole even as they're being asked to fill it up," he added.
Congress also was furious, with Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, introducing legislation to cap compensation at bailed-out companies to no more than the salary of the U.S. president.
Obama's annual salary is $400,000.
"We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer," an enraged McCaskill said on the floor of the Senate on Friday. "They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out $18 billion in bonuses."


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A Journey to the Center of the Earth

Chapter XXXVI

What Is It?

For a long and weary hour we tramped over this great bed of bones. We advanced regardless of everything, drawn on by ardent curiosity. What other marvels did this great cavern contain—what other wondrous treasures for the scientific man? My eyes were quite prepared for any number of surprises, my imagination lived in expectation of something new and wonderful.

The borders of the great Central Ocean had for some time disappeared behind the hills that were scattered over the ground occupied by the plain of bones. The imprudent and enthusiastic Professor, who did not care whether he lost himself or not, hurried me forward. We advanced silently, bathed in waves of electric fluid.

By reason of a phenomenon which I cannot explain, and thanks to its extreme diffusion, now complete, the light illumined equally the sides of every hill and rock. Its seat appeared to be nowhere, in no determined force, and produced no shade whatever.

The appearance presented was that of a tropical country at midday in summer—in the midst of the equatorial regions and under the vertical rays of the sun.

All signs of vapor had disappeared. The rocks, the distant mountains, some confused masses of far-off forests, assumed a weird and mysterious aspect under this equal distribution of the luminous fluid!

We resembled, to a certain extent, the mysterious personage in one of Hoffmann's fantastic tales-the man who lost his shadow.

After we had walked about a mile farther, we came to the edge of a vast forest not, however, one of the vast mushroom forests we had discovered near Port Gretchen.

It was the glorious and wild vegetation of the Tertiary period, in all its superb magnificence. Huge palms, of a species now unknown, superb palmacites—a genus of fossil palms from the coal formation—pines, yews, cypress, and conifers or cone-bearing trees, the whole bound together by an inextricable and complicated mass of creeping plants.

A beautiful carpet of mosses and ferns grew beneath the trees. Pleasant brooks murmured beneath umbrageous boughs, little worthy of this name, for no shade did they give. Upon their borders grew small treelike shrubs, such as are seen in the hot countries on our own inhabited globe.

The one thing wanting in these plants, these shrubs, these trees—was color! Forever deprived of the vivifying warmth of the sun, they were vapid and colorless. All shade was lost in one uniform tint, of a brown and faded character. The leaves were wholly devoid of verdure, and the flowers, so numerous during the Tertiary period which gave them birth, were without color and without perfume, something like paper discolored by long exposure to the atmosphere.

My uncle ventured beneath the gigantic groves. I followed him, though not without a certain amount of apprehension. Since nature had shown herself capable of producing such stupendous vegetable supplies, why might we not meet with mammals just as large, and therefore dangerous?

I particularly remarked, in the clearings left by trees that had fallen and been partially consumed by time, many leguminous (beanlike) shrubs, such as the maple and other eatable trees, dear to ruminating animals. Then there appeared confounded together and intermixed, the trees of such varied lands, specimens of the vegetation of every part of the globe; there was the oak near the palm tree, the Australian eucalyptus, an interesting class of the order Myrtaceæ—leaning against the tall Norwegian pine, the poplar of the north, mixing its branches with those of the New Zealand kauris. It was enough to drive the most ingenious classifier of the upper regions out of his mind, and to upset all his received ideas about botany.

Suddenly I stopped short and restrained my uncle.

The extreme diffuseness of the light enabled me to see the smallest objects in the distant copses. I thought I saw—no, I really did see with my own eyes—immense, gigantic animals moving about under the mighty trees. Yes, they were truly gigantic animals, a whole herd of mastodons, not fossils, but living, and exactly like those discovered in 1801, on the marshy banks of the great Ohio, in North America.

Yes, I could see these enormous elephants, whose trunks were tearing down large boughs, and working in and out the trees like a legion of serpents. I could hear the sounds of the mighty tusks uprooting huge trees!

The boughs crackled, and the whole masses of leaves and green branches went down the capacious throats of these terrible monsters!

That wondrous dream, when I saw the antehistorical times revivified, when the Tertiary and Quaternary periods passed before me, was now realized!

And there we were alone, far down in the bowels of the earth, at the mercy of its ferocious inhabitants!

My uncle paused, full of wonder and astonishment.

“Come!” he said at last, when his first surprise was over, “Come along, my boy, and let us see them nearer.”

“No,” replied I, restraining his efforts to drag me forward, “we are wholly without arms. What should we do in the midst of that flock of gigantic quadrupeds? Come away, Uncle, I implore you. No human creature can with impunity brave the ferocious anger of these monsters.”

“No human creature,” said my uncle, suddenly lowering his voice to a mysterious whisper, “you are mistaken, my dear Henry. Look! look yonder! It seems to me that I behold a human being—a being like ourselves—a man!”

I looked, shrugging my shoulders, decided to push incredulity to its very last limits. But whatever might have been my wish, I was compelled to yield to the weight of ocular demonstration.

Yes—not more than a quarter of a mile off, leaning against the trunk of an enormous tree, was a human being—a Proteus of these subterranean regions, a new son of Neptune keeping this innumerable herd of mastodons.

Immanis pecoris custos, immanior ipse!1

Yes—it was no longer a fossil whose corpse we had raised from the ground in the great cemetery, but a giant capable of guiding and driving these prodigious monsters. His height was above twelve feet. His head, as big as the head of a buffalo, was lost in a mane of matted hair. It was indeed a huge mane, like those which belonged to the elephants of the earlier ages of the world.

In his hand was a branch of a tree, which served as a crook for this antediluvian shepherd.

We remained profoundly still, speechless with surprise.

But we might at any moment be seen by him. Nothing remained for us but instant flight.

“Come, come!” I cried, dragging my uncle along; and, for the first time, he made no resistance to my wishes.

A quarter of an hour later we were far away from that terrible monster!

Now that I think of the matter calmly, and that I reflect upon it dispassionately; now that months, years, have passed since this strange and unnatural adventure befell us—what am I to think, what am I to believe?

No, it is utterly impossible! Our ears must have deceived us, and our eyes have cheated us! we have not seen what we believed we had seen. No human being could by any possibility have existed in that subterranean world! No generation of men could inhabit the lower caverns of the globe without taking note of those who peopled the surface, without communication with them. It was folly, folly, folly! nothing else!

I am rather inclined to admit the existence of some animal resembling in structure the human race—of some monkey of the first geological epochs, like that discovered by M. Lartet in the ossiferous deposit of Sansan.

But this animal, or being, whichsoever it was, surpassed in height all things known to modern science. Never mind. However unlikely it may be, it might have been a monkey—but a man, a living man, and with him a whole generation of gigantic animals, buried in the entrails of the earth—it was too monstrous to be believed!

  1. The keeper of gigantic cattle, himself still more gigantic!

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• Graphics
  • Sound
  • Gameplay
  • Story
  • Replay Value

Sniper Elite 3 is the carnage driven methodical approach to the modern military shooter. Unlike its predecessor Sniper Elite v2, this third installment of the franchise takes a much more open world approach, giving you the freedom to choose how you want to reach your objective, whether it be a slower, panned out approach or to go in sniping and running. This change makes the game different with each play through, allowing you to take one point of approach the first time and then go an entirely different way another time. This adds additional challenges each time you play. This also allows you to revise your plan and method in how you want to approach an objective. If you find one way is not working the way you want it to, you can run the opposite way and possibly have more luck.

The game’s main staple is the bullet cam. Each time you achieve a long-range sniper kill, the camera follows the path of the bullet from the barrel of the gun all the way to the enemy you hit. Once that bullet reaches the enemy, carnage ensues, showing the devastation of the bullet on the Nazi. This ranges from scrambling his intestinal track to the most brutal form of castration I have seen in any medium. Not only are these kills rewarding to watch and pull off, but you also gain experience from it. There is almost nothing more satisfying than seeing “Testicle Shot” appear on-screen and the game rewarding you points for it. There are occasions where the AI and the bullet trajectory do not necessarily match up, such as the soldier shooting forward and down after landing a head shot, but these kills are still rewarding to execute and watch. If watching these kill cams is not something you are into, you can always just switch it off to happen less frequently.

The campaign mission maps are sniper elite 3 huge with varying uses of cover in the missions. You can see that the levels are designed with sniping in mind, with lots of rooftops and high cliffs next to big camps. Throughout the levels there are also generators you can sabotage to create noise in order to mask your shots, allowing you to take full advantage of the sniper positions available to you. If timed correctly with the noises, you can slowly and methodically pick off each Nazi like they were fish in a minuscule barrel, making you feel like a god amongst snipers. The game also has the mechanic where if your shots are heard by the enemies around you, they will have a general idea of where it came from and begin to slowly head up that way. If you continue to take shots without moving, they will narrow in on where you are at and, given enough time, they will know exactly where you are. Then they will storm your position and get into close quarters, a sniper’s nightmare. This forces you to shoot and move in order to stay undetected and more importantly, alive. These mechanics allow for a robust playing experiences, making you think about every move you take and how you will execute it.

When it comes to the campaign story itself, there is not much to write home about. In regards to World War 2 stories, there’s not much new in the play book and the main character is generally just a vessel for the player. You play as Karl, an American Sniper in the African Front who is trying to find out about the secret Nazi weapon being made. There are no real twists here, even though you can see the attempt made by the developers try to create a sense of drama close to the end. This attempt was too little too late and feels generally forced and wedged in. The voice acting is not the best to be seen in recent years either, but does enough to move the story along. You know the basics of what you are supposed to be doing, and the level intros serve as a good indicator of where good sniper spots are and the general area of where your objectives will be located. Paying attention to the map cut scene will greatly aid you in your planning and execution stage in the level, which is where this game shines.

Graphically, this game does “ok” by next generation console standard. It never suffered major clipping and texture fades. While the art style is drab and very tan, there isn’t much else you can do when your game is set on the African front. The gun models are very well done and, based on real guns, very realistic. The game a good job of making sure you can spot weak points on vehicles as well, making them bright red if tagged with your binoculars. This helps in pulling off the quick shot chain reaction kills to take out 5 soldiers pouring out a truck.

While Sniper Elite 3 is not the most graphically intensive game, nor one that is narrative heavy, the game provides a highly satisfying experience that should not be missed. The Bullet camera is always fun to watch. I mean, to see a Nazi’s brain splatter out of the back of his head or a testicle exploding upon impact is great fun in my book. The open world aspect of this game also makes the levels much more varied and interesting to sneak around in. I enjoyed being able to play how I wanted to play, straying from a linear path like the series’ previous installments. Sniper Elite 3 is a breath of fresh air in the military shooter genre. By not forcing twitch controllers on you in order to be successful, it made you form a well-planned form of attack in order to achieve victory. Sniping Nazi’s has never been more satisfying.


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A woman's born to weep and fret

Such a great word. I expect most of you are already familiar with the term, but because every time I think that someone proves me wrong, and because I think it's fantastic, I elaborate.

Mansplaining isn't just the act of explaining while male, of course; many men manage to explain things every day without in the least insulting their listeners.

Mansplaining is when a dude tells you, a woman, how to do something you already know how to do, or how you are wrong about something you are actually right about, or miscellaneous and inaccurate "facts" about something you know a hell of a lot more about than he does.

Bonus points if he is explaining how you are wrong about something being sexist!

Think about the men you know. Do any of them display that delightful mixture of privilege and ignorance that leads to condescending, inaccurate explanations, delivered with the rock-solid conviction of rightness and that slimy certainty that of course he is right, because he is the man in this conversation?

That dude is a mansplainer.

Sadly, many of these dudes are our bosses or supervisors or other authority figures to whom we cannot give much crap. But if it's someone you know in a social setting, etiquette experts agree that the appropriate thing to do is to roll your eyes and say, "Oh, please, mansplain to me some more."

You are doing him a favour. Friends don't let friends foster mansplaining.

ETA: Follow-up talking about why I don't think a gender-neutral term accurately describes the privilege behind this behaviour.

No one seems to know who came up with this term - I myself saw it in several places prior to writing this post - but the most likely antecedent is this article by Rebecca Solnit.

Feb. 2nd, 2010 01:16 pm (UTC)
Absolutely. But I still think that's where 'splainin' came from, although in it's original usage it's the self-assured male forcing the ditzy housewife to explain her behavior (she starts and then just bursts out wailing, generally, followed by a comforting hug from her husband). Even though I generally thought Lucy had some good ideas, but they were sabotaged through the male complete lack of support for any of them.

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Small businesses, big ideas

Spring/Summer 2012 (Green Living Magazine)

Curbside recycling doesn’t cut it for these four small business owners. By building sustainability into their business models, entrepreneurs are finding unique ways to reduce their footprints and grow their businesses.

VeeV Acai Spirit

Back in 2007, brothers Carter and Courtney Reum were feeling restless. Both

Columbia University graduates and employees of Goldman Sachs, they were hitting the bar scene in New York City and getting sick of the lack of beverage variety.

“Mixology was just becoming a new trend, so we started thinking about how to create a better drink,” Carter says.

They took the acai berry, an antioxidant-rich fruit native to Brazil, and used it to flavor a new concoction. The result: a fruity spirit with similar properties to vodka. The brothers formed a company, named it VeeV Acai Spirit and moved out to Los Angeles.

Carter Reum says sustainability was integral to the company’s mission from the first day. “Social responsibility was just coming to the forefront then,” he says. “We’d spent time working in companies that didn’t really weave those principles into their DNA—they were just too big. We wanted to start a company that was built on those principles.”

VeeV Acai tries to recycle nearly everything, transforming vinyl advertising banners into shipping bags and glass bottles into shot glasses and cheese trays.

Even pits from acai berries take on new lives. “A few years ago, Courtney went down to a processing facility and saw tons of acai berry pits just lying around,” Carter says. “He came up with the idea to turn those pits into bracelets. We now give those bracelets to bartenders and put them in gift bags for celebrities.”

The company donates $1 to rainforest replantation for every bottle sold and takes environmentally friendly measures at tasting events.

“Rather than use plastic tumblers, we use 12-ounce mason jars at events,” Reum says. “People love them; they will come to future events with the same jar.”

Dear L.C.

Lynn Caputo loved studying art in school, so using her wedding invitation company’s eco-friendly policies to benefit school art programs just made sense.

During a studio cleaning session last summer, Caputo had a thought. “I looked around my workspace and realized that I had tons of scraps, paper, and supplies, all of it high quality,” she says. “I wasn’t sure what to do with them, so I talked with my mom.”

Caputo’s mother, Mary, is a sixth grade teacher at Chandler Magnet School in Worcester, Mass. She spoke with the school’s art teacher, who was “over-the-moon excited” to use the supplies for class projects. Caputo says she plans to take a box of supplies to the classroom every few months.

“When you work in an industry that uses a lot of paper, like I do, not all of the items are recyclable, so it is important to find other ways to reuse supplies,” she says. “I love doing something that has a positive impact on the world.”

Chehalem Ridge Bed & Breakfast

In 2007, Kristin Fintel was thrilled to realize her dream of opening a bed and breakfast, but something didn’t feel quite right. At Chehalem Ridge Bed & Breakfast in Newberg, Ore., Fintel’s lodgers were going through soap quickly, often not finishing a bar during a visit and leaving Fintel with hundreds of bards unsuitable for reuse. The native Oregonian and avid recycler turned to the Web, seeing ways to avoid wasting soap.

“I hate throwing away things unless they are completely and utterly useless,” she says. “I found Clean the World and I thought ‘perfect!’”

Clean the World partners with hospitality companies and hotels to recycle partially used bar and liquid soap and distributes it to children in third world countries.

“We keep a box in our supply cabinet and when we clean rooms, we throw partially used soap in there,” she says. “We only have four rooms, so it takes us about a year to fill up the box, but it makes me feel great to give back in that way. Last year we sent 19 pounds of soap.”

Appalachian Kitchens & Winery

Craft shows are wildly popular in northern Georgia, and Janice Walters-Taylor is a regular merchant, promoting her jam and jelly company. Wine is a main ingredient in her creations; she uses hundreds of wine bottles each year.

In 2002, she began taking empty bottles to Bottle Benders, a company that transforms them into colorful wind chimes. “It makes me happy to know that the glass is not going to waste,” she says.

Every few months, Walters-Taylor drops off a load of bottles at Bottle Benders. She often comes back with a wind chime, purchased at cost. “I always get excited to take my bottles to Bottle Benders,” she says.

Return to Portfolio

Courtney and Carter Reum of VeeV Acai Spirit.

Katie Morell specializes in feature writing, breaking news and corporate communications.


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Configure the 'Custom MX records template' activation parameter in the corresponding POA Service Template (or resource type):

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- KCII Radio - http://kciiradio.com -

Washington Chamber Collecting DVDs for “Kain’s Wish Box”

Posted By News On @ 5:54 am In Today's Local News | Comments Disabled

The Washington Chamber of Commerce is taking donations for a project called Kain’s Wish Box. Kain Schilling is an Iowa soldier who was severely injured while serving in Afghanistan. He’s had to undergo several surgeries and will need several more. One of his wishes is that wounded men and women at Walter Reed Medical Center had more to do to keep their minds occupied during their stay. Schilling’s mother is returning to Walter Reed in May and she’s bringing as many DVD movies and local restaurant gift certificates as she can. DVDs and monetary donations can be dropped off at the Washington Chamber Office on the west side of the square.

Article printed from KCII Radio: http://kciiradio.com

URL to article: http://kciiradio.com/2010/03/washington-chamber-collecting-dvds-for-kains-wish-box/

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• January 21, 2017

Military’s day care probe raises more questions about hiring

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Posted: Wednesday, January 16, 2013 4:30 am

WASHINGTON — A worldwide review of personnel screening at military day care centers — an inquiry sparked by alleged misconduct by caregivers at a facility near the Pentagon — has led the Army to bar seven employees at other bases from unsupervised contact with children, officials said Thursday.

The new cases came to light a day after a staff member at the Cody Child Development Center at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall was suspended for slapping a child. The Army has suspended 38 employees at the Arlington County, Va., base, known as Fort Myer, while it reviews unspecified “derogatory” information found during background checks last fall.

Army officials were unable to explain Thursday why so many employees with red flags in their records were hired to take care of children at the largest military day care center in the world.

Army spokesman George Wright, who confirmed the suspensions elsewhere, could not say whether Cody employees underwent background checks or whether red flags that should have barred applicants from child care jobs went unheeded.

“The investigation will answer those questions,” he said.

Review personnel

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta instructed all services to review personnel screening practices at day care facilities worldwide after learning in December about the alleged assault cases at Fort Myer. He has asked for a report, which is due Jan. 21.

In a statement last month, Panetta said he was “deeply disappointed and angry” about the lapses. President Barack Obama took the unusual step of calling the secretary of the Army when he was briefed about the situation in December and called for a swift and thorough probe.

Parents with children at the center — including some currently deployed in Afghanistan — have been pleading for additional details about the suspended employees, but the Army, citing privacy concerns, has disclosed little.

Several parents said they are dismayed that no one has been held accountable for the lapses so far. Some have sought alternative child care arrangements, even though Cody is heavily subsidized and private facilities in the region have waiting lists.

“It is unbelievable to me that the people running this center still have their jobs,” said a mother who removed her daughter from the center this week. She spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying that she feared adverse career repercussions for her husband. “We are not getting a straight answer from anyone.”

The base commander, Army Col. Fern Sumpter, told parents in a letter last month that she was working “diligently and with your children’s safety in mind.”

At recent town-hall meetings, Sumpter and Army Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington, the commander of Washington area bases, fielded questions from parents. There have been heated exchanges at those meetings, and in rare instances, military parents of lower rank angrily challenged the two commanders, parents said.

A Navy captain reacted angrily when Linnington cracked a joke during a meeting last week, said retired Air Force Maj. Rock Rockenbach, one of three parents in attendance who described the incident.

Linnington “seemed more concerned with covering his tail than giving real responses to the very real and legitimate concerns of the parents that addressed him,” Rockenbach said. “The fact that he cracked a joke when a parent asked him for vital information we need to protect our children is inconceivable.”

The general told parents at the meeting that investigators had found lapses in background checks at other facilities and that the problems at Cody were part of a broader pattern.

Linnington did not respond to a request for an interview. Wright, the Army spokesman, said he had no information about the meeting.

Parents said their confidence in the center’s staff was further shaken by an incident Tuesday night involving an altercation between two caregivers who were watching children while parents attended a town-hall meeting about the probe. One caregiver called military police after a spat with a colleague over removing a piece of paper from a bulletin board led to a paper cut, said Cara Marshall, president of the day care’s parent association.

Marshall said she was worried about the toll the center’s problems are taking on the staff, which she said includes several competent, caring employees.

“The caregivers are pretty stressed out,” she said. “More than one parent is concerned that if you push them to the breaking point, something worse is going to happen.”

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Day 1: On the ground in South Korea with Ironhorse soldiers
Posted: February 25, 2016

After 20 hours of travel, by plane and bus, I finally made it to Camp Casey, South Korea with the remainder of Fort Hood’s 1st Brigade Combat Team soldiers. For the next several days, I will be following the mission and daily lives of Ironhorse troopers as they begin a nine-month rotation in the land of the morning calm.

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Day 2 in South Korea: Snowflakes and readiness
Posted: February 25, 2016

Our second day in South Korea began early. But it was not as early as for some.

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Military Videos


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Remote Voyages

From November 7th to 23rd, 2013, the video installation "Remote Voyages" was on view at the 111 Front Street Galleries in Dumbo, Brooklyn.  Remote Voyages was an exhibit created from video shot during The Newtown Creek Armada, a 2012 public art installation that was created in a collaboration between Nathan Kensinger, Laura Chipley and Sarah Nelson Wright.  The Armada invited the public to a engage in a remote-control boat pond built on the Newtown Creek, one of the most polluted bodies of water in the United States.  Remote Voyages presented immersive voyages created during that boat pond, projected onto the gallery walls from boats floating in water.

For more information on Remote Voyages, please visit

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CISD finance addressed during public meeting

Commerce – The first of two town hall meetings by the Commerce ISD to address its upcoming tax ratification election is in the books.

Monday night at the Norris Community Center, Superintendent Blake Cooper broke down the district's financial situation. He focused largely on the lack of funding from the state, combined with increased expenditures.

"There are two ways we can get money for schools: More students, and tax revenue," said Cooper.

CISD is asking voters to approve a 13 cent tax rate hike to cover a nearly $700,000 budget shortfall. According to Cooper, if the election fails, the district will be forced to reduce staff by 15 people, therefore reducing the quality of education.

City Councilman Tony Henry says that by voting in favor of the increased tax rate, residents will in turn make the district more appealing to families shopping for a school.

"To get the enrollment up, if they have kids they're going to look at quality of education first," Henry said. "So as we look at this as citizens, we need to take that into consideration."

Some citizens in attendance expressed their displeasure with the appraisal district, indicating their cost of living continues to increase. However, citizens seemed to be appreciative of the presentation and left with a better understanding of CISD finance.

"It's enlightened us as to where our money is going and what's taking place," said Commerce citizen Billy Reed. "I've already been sold on the fact that, yes, we do need this [13 cent tax rate increase]. Quality education is something we need everyplace."

If approved on August 14, it would mean a $130 annual tax increase on a $100,000 home or $10.83 per month. Homeowners 65 years or older will not be affected.

Tuesday's final town hall meeting will be held at 7 p.m., at the Commerce High School cafetorium. Early voting begins tomorrow at the CISD Administration Building.

A power point presentation of Superintendent Cooper's financial breakdown is availalbe at


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Bayside Bike & Ped Safety

Cliff Berkowitz / Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014 @ 9:27 a.m. / Trails

Cliff and Emily talk with Greta Montagne about community efforts to improve transportation safety in Bayside and safe routes to schools efforts at Jacoby Creek school. Greta is a parent at Jacoby Creek and has spear headed Walk & Roll Wednesdays at Jacoby Creek school for several years. Emily also touches on where we stand on the Bay Trail.

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Wizard of Oz – image Downloads

If You Like Wizard of Oz Image

Wizard of Oz Image can be a lot of fun! Wizard101 also has a lot of exciting Image features. Wizard of Oz has interesting Image features that have been extremely successful. This game gives you a unique experience with Image excitement. Wizard of Oz Image lets you experience Wizard of Oz in a whole new way. If you like Wizard of Oz Image, we know you'll also like Wizard101.

Wizard101 has the following features:

  • An Online, Magical Adventure Game
  • Wizard School MMO Game
  • Seven Types of Magic
  • Collectible Card Magic
  • 2D and 3D Game Play

See how Wizard101 compares to these other popular destinations.

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Glasses and Contact Lenses

Glasses and Contact Lenses

Please Note: By clicking a link to any resource listed on this page, you will be leaving this site.

Web SiteEyeCare America
EyeCare America is a public service foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology that works to raise awareness about eye disease and care, provide free eye health educational materials, and facilitate access to medical eye care.

Web SiteBrainPop
This is a great site for kids with informational movies about science, anatomy, weather, and more.

Web SitePrevent Blindness America
This website offers information, resources, vision tests, volunteer opportunities, and more.


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    Chameleo Arm (Ghameleo Arm in Kirby Super Star) is a boss in the Kirby series. His name comes...

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Using Routing Jigs to Cut Timber Worktops

To assist with the installation of our superb range of timber worktops, we also stock a fantastic range of accessories that make it even easier to fit your own hardwood kitchen worktops.

If you are plan on fitting our Rustic Oak worktops (or any of the other worktops in our collection) yourself, we would recommend you also order one of our great-value worktop routing jigs.

We have many great quality jigs that have been specifically designed to help customise and install wooden worktops, which are available in different sizes to suit worktops ranging from 620mm to 900mm in width.

Each jig features a special cut-out to accommodate mitre joins, as well as cut-outs for worktop connector bolt recesses, that make it easy to join multiple worktops. Whatever your level of usage, we offer a variety of jigs to suit your needs; If you are installing our worktops yourself, our Value range is ideal, and starts at just £17.50 for a 700mm Value Worktop Jig. For professional kitchen fitters our laminated jigs are more suitable: these are more hard-wearing, and start at £25 for a 650mm Solid Laminate Worktop Jig.

To complement our range of worktop jigs, we also supply jigs for other kitchen and home fitting needs. Consider purchasing our drainer jig, aperture jig and hotrod jig to complete any kitchen worktop customisation with the upmost precision.

If you have any queries about any of the jigs in our range, do not hesitate to contact us via telephone, email or social media.

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The One to Count On...

Pella Girls Golfers Begin District Meet Today

Posted: Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 5:59 am
Author: KNIA/KRLS Sports-Eric Gotschall

The Pella girls golf team will return to Moravia today for the Class 3-A Region 3 District meet. The Lady Dutch were able to play a scrimmage round at The Preserve Golf Course at Honey Creek this past Thursday and are hoping the experience will be to their benefit against the field today.

Other teams in the Region 3, District B field include Centerville, Chariton, Mount Pleasant and Washington, among others. Following today’s tournament, the Region 3 Substate tournament will be held at Bos Landen in Pella on May 24th.


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Koei Wiki

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Southern Lanta Resort Map

Southern Lanta Resort

Address of Southern Lanta Resort

105 Moo 3, Klong Dao Beach, Saladan, Koh Lanta, Krabi 81150 Thailand

Location Map of Southern Lanta Resort

View surrounding areas, hotels and attractions with the interactive map.
Hotels Close By    |    All Hotels in Klong Dao Beach    |    Panoramio Photos    |    Location Description

View map in Google Maps or Live Maps     |     View location map in Google Maps or Live Maps     |     GPS Coordinates for this hotel

Location of Southern Lanta Resort

Southern Lanta Resort, is situated on Khlong Dao beach near the town of Saladan on the picturesque northwest coast of Koh Lanta in the Andaman Sea, off the Southern coast of Thailand.

Krabi Airport, 65 minutes. Phuket Airport, 2 hour minutes, Trang Airport 90 minutes. Saladan village and nightlife 20 minutes. Blenchamp Waterfalls 55 minutes. Wat Tham Seua 55 minutes. Ferry pier to Phi Phi Island and Krabi 15 minutes. Transfer on to Ao Nang plus 45 minutes.Diving ferry pier, 15 minutes. Diving, kayaking, snorkelling and island hopping to the National parks can be arranged from reception. Motorbikes and hire cars allow you to explore Koh Krabi Province at your own leisure.

Photos of Southern Lanta Resort


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Dog of the Week – LEO (AAWL)

What happens when you mix a Chinese Shar-Pei with “sneaky neighbor” dog?  You get LEO.  LEO is over-do for his fur-ever home.  He needs your help to find his permanent home.

leo3 Dog of the Week   LEO (AAWL)

Hi, my name is Leo! I love to play and I love people! I would love a family who only wants one animal in the house, because I want all the attention. I love my toys and I love treats. My family and I could learn together on my training. I already know some cool tricks and really want to master some more! Come down to AAWL and we can play fetch!

DOTW-Leo 8-13-13 (1)
Click Here to see more photos of Leo!

For more information about adoptions, please contact the AAWL & SPCA at 602-273-6852 Ext. 116.

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Aussie Total Miracle Collection Conditioner – LOWEST PRICE!

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Amazon pricing can change on a dime, so please act quickly and confirm prices before you check-out.

Right now Amazon has Aussie Total Miracle Collection 7N1 Conditioner for the lowest we’ve seen it offered after you clip the $1 off e-coupon. Check the widget* below for the current price before e-coupon. If you’re seeing something around $2.60, that means you’ll get this for just $1.60 after e-coupon.

  • Easily achieve miraculously beautiful hair with Aussie Total Miracle Collection 7N1 Conditioner – Hydrate; strengthen; and protect
  • Get 7 benefits in 1 conditioner! Strength against damage silky softness split end protection nourishing moisture humidity control brilliant shine and lasting smoothness
  • Controls frizz and protects against breakage and split ends

Note that this is an Add-On item, which means it ships for free when you have a total of $25 worth of items in your cart. This item does count toward that total.

*If you have an Ad Blocker installed on your web browser, you will need to pause it in order to see the widgets. Wondering what’s up with the new Amazon widget, check out this post!

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Akiba's Trip 2 is about two things: stripping vampires (and thus exposing them to lethal amounts of sunlight) and the mecca for otaku worldwide: Akihabara. And as the game sports over 130 stores from the real world Akihabara, I went out and took a few pictures to see just how well the game captured real life.

And what a great job it does. If you can’t hit up the real Akihabara, this is the next best thing. Check out the gallery below to see for yourself.

Akiba’s Trip 2 was released on November 7, 2013, for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in Japan. There is currently no word on a Western release.


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MMOs and the NFL aren't exactly peanut butter and chocolate, but tomorrow they combine tomorrow afternoon to give you the first look at cinematic footage from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Blizzard sent word that they'll be debuting a commercial during the broadcast of tomorrow's Dallas at Minnesota game (4 p.m. EDT/ 1 p.m. PDT, on Fox) showing off the first in-game footage from the highly anticipated expansion.

The expansion will cost $40 and work with Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Mac. The collector's edition will cost $80. It's expected to ship Dec. 7.


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Dicks, why does it always have to be dicks? Before the Wii U's user forum, dubbed the Miiverse, launched, I said that it would be a dick drawing inferno. Little did I know that Japanese Xbox users would launch their own Miiverse clone.

But, I'll tell you what, I sure saw the dick drawings coming. Isn't that always the case? These aren't just dicks for the sake of dicks. Okay, well, maybe they are.

The Miiverse clone is called "Xboxverse". In Japanese, it's called "Hakoverse" (箱バース), with "hako" (箱) meaning "box" and being one of the console's nicknames in Japan. To be clear, this isn't a Microsoft Japan joint, but rather, the work of Japan's fledgling Xbox 360 owners. In Japan, the Xbox 360 hasn't exactly lit the country on fire.

The Xboxverse is browser-based and obviously not part of Xbox Live. Community members, however, are uploading Miiverse-style drawings—as well as drawings that would most likely be clamped down on pretty quick in the Miiverse.

So far, all the dick drawings seem to be confined to the board on the Tintin game. There's a clever reason for this! Did I say clever? Ha, I meant juvenile. SORRY.

In Japanese, Tintin (yes, Tintin) isn't called TinTin. Instead, the comic (and its titular hero) is known as "Tantan" (タンタン). The reason for this is that in Japanese, "ti" is a tricky sound. In traditional Japanese, the sound for "ti" was pronounced as "chi" (in today's Japanese, "ti" can be written out—more here). Thus, the name "Tintin" was changed, because it could be pronounced and written as "Chinchin". "Chinchin" (ちんちん) means "penis". The Adventures of Penis sounds like a very difference experience.

Hence, the Xboxverse thread on the Tintin game is covered with cocks and "chinchin" jokes. So, for once, dick doodles are fitting, no?

箱バース [Official Site]

Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.


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As dramatic and exciting as that new Man of Steel trailer was, it could always stand to be tweaked a little. Youtuber Jawiin has gone ahead and recut the trailer using footage from Superman: The Animated Series.

It reminds me of that amazing Batman recut that recreated the Dark Knight with footage (and audio!) from Batman: The Animated Series. This one isn't quite as impressive, but it's still fun.

Okay, okay, my cold heart has melted a bit; this trailer (the actual trailer) has me thinking that maybe Man of Steel will be okay. My Zack Snyder alarms are still going off like crazy, and I've got more than my share of reservations, but maybe… if this trailer is any indication… ugh, I just don't know. I guess I'll se it regardless.

Everyone doing well? Having a good week? Do you think Man of Steel is gonna be good, or terrible? (No middle ground!) (Just kidding!) Feel free to chat here, or over at TAY.

(Via Boing Boing)


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Man stabbed

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – Police is investigating a stabbing near Pennsylvania and Central Avenue.

According to APD they responded to a report of a man who had been stabbed in his upper torso.

The victim has been transported to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where he is in critical condition.

Albuquerque Police is investigating, and are still processing scene.

No one has been arrested yet, police say it appears the people involved may have been drinking. provides commenting to allow for constructive discussion on the stories we cover. In order to comment here, you acknowledge you have read and agreed to our Terms of Service. Users who violate these terms, including use of vulgar language or racial slurs, will be banned. Please be respectful of the opinions of others. If you see an inappropriate comment, please flag it for our moderators to review.

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Searching over 5,500,000 cases.

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Meyer v. Unum Life Insurance Company of America

United States District Court, D. Kansas

February 27, 2014

JOHN MEYER, Plaintiff,

KENNETH G. GALE, Magistrate Judge.

Now before the Court is Defendant's "Motion to Enforce ECF Administrative Procedures and Protective Order." (Doc. 55.) Having reviewed the submissions of the parties, the Court DENIES Defendant's motion.

Plaintiff filed his federal court Complaint seeking benefits under a long-term disability plan governed by the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. § 1001, et seq. ("ERISA"). ( See Doc. 1.) Plaintiff's claim was denied by Defendant on the basis that a preexisting condition caused his disability.

The Scheduling Order entered in this case makes specific reference to the potential need for a Protective Order.

Discovery in this case may be governed by a protective order. If the parties agree concerning the need for and scope and form of such a protective order, their counsel shall confer and then submit a jointly proposed protective order by June 14, 2013. Such jointly proposed protective orders should be drafted in compliance with the written guidelines that are available on the court's Internet website.... At a minimum, such proposed orders shall include, in the first paragraph, a concise but sufficiently specific recitation of the particular facts in this case that would provide the court with an adequate basis upon which to make the required finding of good cause pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(c).

(Doc. 39, at 6.) The Scheduling Order also set a deadline by which the parties could move for a Protective Order if they were unable to agree to the need for, or terms of, such an order. ( Id. )

The Protective Order was entered on June 17, 2013, and stated that

The allegations and defenses in this action may result in the production or disclosure of confidential medical and proprietary documents of the parties. Specifically, Defendants may produce or disclose documents or information containing confidential, proprietary, or trade secret information regarding their business practices and policies, as well as confidential medical information regarding Plaintiff, and Plaintiff may produce or disclose confidential, medical and financial information. The parties desire that discovery proceed without delay occasioned by possible disputes about the confidential nature of the documents and/or information being produced or disclosed.

(Doc. 44, at 1 (emphasis added).) The Protective Order continues with the following procedure for designating documents as "Confidential."

1. All documents, data, interrogatory answers, admissions or discovery materials produced or obtained through the discovery process or by agreement of the parties in this action, containing or comprising the confidential, proprietary, or trade secret information of Defendants as well as the confidential medical or financial information of Plaintiff shall be considered CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION, subject to this Protective Order if designated by any party as "Confidential."
2. In the event, at any stage of the proceedings, any party to this action disagrees with designation of any information as "Confidential, " the parties shall first try to resolve such dispute in good faith on an informal basis. If the dispute cannot be resolved informally, the party claiming the confidentiality designation may apply for appropriate relief to this Court within 14 days of the opposing party's final confirmation, in writing, that an informal resolution is not possible. The Court may conduct an in camera inspection of the challenged materials. The party seeking confidentiality of the information shall have the burden of establishing that the information is entitled to confidential treatment.

( Id., at 2 (emphasis added).)

During Defendant's process of reviewing Plaintiff's claim, Dr. Costas Lambrew, a cardiologist, served as a doctoral representative during one of Defendant's "round table" reviews of Plaintiff's claim. During discovery, Defendant produced Dr. Lambrew's IRS form 1099s, which indicate the compensation Defendant paid to him. Defendant designated the 1099s and information contained therein as "Confidential" pursuant to the Protective Order entered in this case. (Doc. 44.) Plaintiff disputes the confidential nature of the information, leading to Defendant's present motion seeking an Order requiring Plaintiff "to comply with the Protective Order and ...

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Dog interrupts mail service in Kansas neighborhood

VALLEY CENTER, Kan. (KSNW) – A group of Valley Center residents are being forced to pick up their mail at the local post office instead of at their doorsteps and it’s all because of a dog.

“You come up, you’re going into the house, you step up and check the mail and you go on in,” said Tina Payne.

At least that’s how long-time Valley Center resident Tina Payne and her fellow neighbors used to get their mail everyday.

“We received the letter that said there had been enough incidents that there needed to be a change,” Payne said.

The letter from the Valley Center Post Office explained to residents on a three block stretch of North Burns that mail carriers would no longer be delivering mail to mailboxes on the sides of their homes. Instead, the residents need to get a post office box or set up a curbside mailbox to resume delivery.

“It’s the safety of our employees,” said Valley Center Postmaster Dale Johnston.

Johnston said he didn’t have any other choice but to stop mail service to the 100, 200 and 300 blocks of North Burns after a mail carrier was chased a few weeks ago by the same dog for a third time since June.

After the first incident, Johnston said his staff sent out a letter to the people on the block and the dog’s owners to warn them of the situation. However, he said it did not seem to help.

“Then in the last part of July, again, the same instance dog came out chased the carrier,” he said.

Johnston said his staff sent a second warning to the residents. He said they also sent a letter to the dog’s owners telling them they had to get a curbside mailbox. However, Johnston said the problem persisted.

“Here a couple of weeks ago, the dog was out there again, chased the carrier for several houses,” he said. “Anytime people say my dog won’t bite, if they are protective they will, so we have to treat them as being a threat.”

Payne and her neighbors held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the issue. She told KSN on Wednesday that none of her neighbors have ever seen a dog wandering their street, and they are confused as to why the city’s animal control officers haven’t taken action if there is a threat in their neighborhood.

“If there is a threat, then let’s figure it out because first and foremost I have family that are mail carriers. I have friends that are mail carriers. I don’t want anybody in danger,” Payne said.

KSN called the Valley Center mayor on Thursday afternoon for comment, but has not heard back.

“I honestly thought that it would just all resolve. I really did and it didn’t. This is the resolution that we have been told,” Payne said.

Payne admits she and her neighbors are somewhat frustrated with the entire ordeal, however she said there’s not much she can do, but stay positive.

“If the answer today is curbside service, end of story, well, then how do we help each other,” she said.

Johnston said he is holding the people’s mail at the post office free of charge until next week to give everyone enough time to make new delivery plans.

The deadline for the neighbors to install a curbside mailbox, buy a post office mailbox or reroute their mail is Tuesday.


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Marines stand guard at the casket of the John Glenn as he lies in repose, Friday, Dec. 16, 2016, in Columbus, Ohio. Glenn's home state and the nation began saying goodbye to the famed astronaut as he lies in state at Ohio's capitol building. Glenn, 95, the first American to orbit Earth, died last week. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

John Glenn lies in honor at Ohio capitol for public goodbye

John Glenn, the former astronaut and U.S. senator who died at the age of 95, lies in state at the Ohio Statehouse rotunda.


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Art from the GDR. „Sprung“, 1985. Lithograph by Frieder HEINZE

Art from the GDR. „Sprung“, 1985. Large-size lithograph on hand-made paper by Frieder HEINZE (*1950 GER). Hand-signed, numbered ("A 50"), titled and dated.

Paper size: 63 x 75 cm

Image size: 56 x 65 cm

Condition: Very good. Minimal imperfections of sheet margins

Artist and oeuvre: See website of the artist or entry in the "pictorial atlas of art in the GDR". Frieder Heinze was as student of Wolfgang Mattheuer, Werner Tübke and Bernhard Heisig at the "Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst" in Leipzig. In the 1980ies, the artist became the most influential proponent of the small GDR-fraction of the "Neuen Wilden". In 1984, Frieder Heinze co-organized the legendary "1. Leipziger Herbstsalon"

Free shipping worldwide with Deutsche Post DHL (as insured, trackable parcel) in professional, stable packing.

For technical reasons, colors of the images depicted here may differ somewhat from the original.

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Time For Kickoff: World's Attention Focused On World Cup | KUOW News and Information

Time For Kickoff: World's Attention Focused On World Cup

Jun 12, 2014
Originally published on June 12, 2014 1:41 pm

Update at 4:31 p.m. ET

And Brazil does recover, with a goal from star Neymar a few minutes later.

Update at 4:28 p.m. ET

The beautiful game is not so beautiful for Brazil in the early moments of the game: Croatia is ahead 1-0 after an own goal by the home team. It's early, though. Plenty of time for Brazil to recover.

[A tweet from NPR's Russell Lewis in Sao Paulo.]

Update at 10:25 a.m. ET

The world's most popular sporting event kicks off today in Sao Paulo when Brazil, the tournament's host, takes on Croatia in the opening game at 5 p.m. local time.

Much of the attention ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup is focused on whether Brazil can pull off a successful tournament. The run-up has been plagued by strikes, controversies and unrest. Some of that was on display at a protest witnessed today by NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro in Sao Paulo.

"Things got very ugly, very quickly," she tells our Newscast unit.

Police fired tear gas against a few dozen protesters, who were demonstrating against the World Cup.

"Clearly, the police, the security services want these protests to be contained very quickly," she says. "They don't want the narrative of the World Cup to be about these protests and take away from what's happening on the pitch."

Earlier, transit workers in Sao Paulo voted against resuming their strike for higher wages. Those arriving in Rio de Janeiro for the tournament won't be as lucky: Airport workers there have declared a 24-hour strike.

Those opposed to the World Cup are still holding protests across the country. And finishing touches to the stadium in Sao Paulo were underway as recently as Wednesday night.

Lulu reported earlier:

"They waited until the last minute, but the metro workers union has said it will be business as usual on the subway in Brazil's biggest city for the opening game of the World Cup. Most of the fans getting to the World Cup opener are arriving by metro, and Brazil's government had been hoping to avoid a shutdown. A five-day subway strike last week caused traffic chaos and left fans stuck in miles-long traffic jams. Still, while the labor action has been averted, protests are underway across the country. Demonstrators say they are upset over the cost of the tournament, which has been at the expense, they say, of investment in health and education."

But as NPR's Russell Lewis reports from Sao Paulo, many fans are ready for the games to start. He tells our Newscast unit that hundreds of people crowded outside the stadium to celebrate on Wednesday.

"Blowing horns, donning team jerseys and wearing wildly colorful hats, fans from many of the 32 countries playing in the World Cup were everywhere," he says. "Security was tight. Police were milling around as protective barriers were installed along the stadium's roads. Military and police helicopters circled overhead keeping an eye on the final preparations leading up to the opener as Brazil takes on Croatia."

And, as NPR's Tom Goldman tells Morning Edition, "History is on Brazil's side. No host nation has ever lost its first match in a World Cup."

The U.S. plays its first game on Monday. It takes on Ghana.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.