text:
Civil Rights, Voting Rights, and Public Interest Law Docket
I. Constitutional Rights
A. Mencias v. Dailey
IPR represents Erlin Mencias in a case brought in federal court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against a police detective who seized Mr. Mencias's work van and tools in an effort to identify a suspect who had been a passenger in Mr. Mencias's van. The detective continued to hold the van and tools to try to coerce cooperation from Mr. Mencias for over a year after the van was searched and the items of evidentiary value removed. We argue that a seizure reasonable at its inception because based on probable cause may become unreasonable as a result of its duration or for other reasons and that the detective violated Mr. Mencias's rights under the Fourth Amendment by continuing the seizure after probable cause had dissipated. We also allege that the detective violated the Fifth Amendment's due process clause by failing to provide Mr. Mencias with information regarding the process for seeking return of his property and by telling Mr. Mencias that his van and tools could be returned only if Mr. Mencias provided information to the police as to the identity and whereabouts of the suspect.
Shortly after we filed suit, the defendant released Mr. Mencias's van and tools, but some items were missing or damaged. We are seeking compensation for the damages suffered by Mr. Mencias as a result of the unconstitutional seizure of his property. The case is currently in discovery, and we anticipate moving for summary judgment after discovery closes.
B. Royer v. United States
Randall Todd Royer is serving a ten-year sentence stemming from his conviction, pursuant to a plea agreement, for aiding and abetting the use of a firearm in relation to a conspiracy to commit a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). In June 2015, the Supreme Court held, in Johnson v. United States, that the residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii), is unconstitutionally vague. Subsequently, in Welch v. United States, the Supreme Court held that Johnson announced a new rule of constitutional law with retroactive effect on collateral review. IPR agreed to represent Mr. Royer to seek application of the rule announced in Johnson to his conviction under § 924(c), because § 924(c) uses language very similar to the unconstitutionally vague language of § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii).
IPR filed a motion in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit seeking an order authorizing the federal district court to entertain a successive motion for habeas relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. On June 3, 2016, the Fourth Circuit granted authorization, and Mr. Royer's motion to vacate his sentence was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia the same day. We argue that the court should vacate Mr. Royer's conviction and sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) as having been imposed in violation of the Constitution because § 924(c)(3)(B), which defines "crime of violence" for § 924(c)(1), is unconstitutionally vague in light of the new constitutional rule announced in Johnson and made retroactive in Welch. Accordingly, we have asked to court to set aside Mr. Royer's § 924(c) conviction and release him from prison. The government's response is due in July, and oral argument on the motion will be set for late summer or early fall.
C. Delaware Riverkeeper Network v. FERC
IPR represents the Delaware Riverkeeper Network in a due process challenge to FERC's funding mechanism. We argue that because FERC receives much of its funding from the companies whose natural gas pipelines it regulates, FERC is biased in favor of the companies when it adjudicates pipeline applications. After we filed our complaint in federal district court, FERC and the United States and industry intervenors filed motions to dismiss. We have filed an opposition, and the motions are currently pending.
D. Heffernan v. City of Paterson
IPR represented the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE) as amicus in this Supreme Court case addressing whether the First Amendment's prohibition of retaliation by the government against a public employee for engaging in constitutionally protected political activity extends to retaliation based on a factual mistake about the employee's behavior. We argued that barring First Amendment retaliation claims where the government was mistaken about the employee's political speech would discourage employees from engaging in protected activities and would promote inefficiency in government service. In April 2016, the Supreme Court reversed the decision below and held that public employees are protected from retaliation based on an employer's mistaken belief that the employee had engaged in protected speech.
E. Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins
IPR represented fifteen information privacy law scholars as amicus in a Supreme Court case addressing whether an individual has standing to maintain an action in federal court under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) against a search engine that gathered and disseminated information about the individual that was incorrect. We argued that the FCRA's consumer transparency requirements and remedial provisions represent a carefully crafted bargain that would unravel if consumers could not hold consumer reporting agencies liable for errors;FCRA violations are injuries in fact;and Congress created a remedy in FCRA that recognizes the injury worked by improper disclosure and handling of information in new technological contexts. In May 2016, the Supreme Court vacated the decision below and remanded the case for further consideration of the injury-in-fact requirement for Article III standing.
F. Beef Products, Inc. v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
IPR agreed to represent the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) after it was subpoenaed to provide documents and third-party deposition testimony in a lawsuit arising out of an ABC News report about one of the plaintiff's products. We defended the deposition of CFA and successfully invoked associational privilege under the First Amendment to prevent disclosure of information relating to the internal, deliberative processes of the organization.
G. Koby v. ARS National Service, Inc.
IPR represents the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) as amicus in this case. Plaintiffs brought a class action alleging that collection agency ARS National Services violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. A settlement between the parties was approved by a magistrate judge over the objections of absent class members. An objecting class member appealed to the Ninth Circuit, arguing that the settlement was substantively unfair and that the notice provided to the class was deficient. We filed an amicus brief for NACA in support of the objector, arguing that the settlement's approval below was unconstitutional because only an Article III judge, and not a magistrate judge, has the constitutional and statutory authority to enter final judgment. The appeal was argued in January 2016. In February 2016, the Court noted that our amicus brief had drawn into question the constitutionality of 28 U.S.C. § 636(c), and certified that fact to the Attorney General. In response, the United States intervened and filed a brief. A decision is pending.
H. Schoenefeld v. New York
A New York statute requires that non-resident members of the New York bar have an office in New York to practice law in the state. Ekaterina Schoenefeld, a member of the New York bar and a resident of New Jersey, challenged the law in district court, arguing that it discriminates in favor of state residents in violation of Article IV's Privileges and Immunities Clause. Ms. Schoenefeld prevailed in the district court, which held that the non-resident office requirement was unconstitutional. New York appealed to the Second Circuit.
In the Second Circuit, IPR filed an amicus brief supporting Ms. Schoenefeld on behalf of twenty-two members of the New York bar who are not residents of New York and whose legal practices suffer because of the office requirement. IPR argued that the statute places significant additional burdens on out-of-state attorneys that cannot be justified by any legitimate New York interest. Because those burdens are only placed on non-residents, IPR argued that that the office requirement violates the Privileges and Immunities Clause.
In April 2014, the Second Circuit issued an opinion reasoning that resolving the constitutional issue depends on a question of state law interpretation, namely what minimum requirements are necessary to satisfy New York's statutory mandate that non-resident attorneys maintain an in-state office. The Second Circuit noted that, under the New York intermediate state courts' interpretations of the office requirement, the mandate appears to discriminate against non-resident attorneys, and therefore implicates the Privileges and Immunities Clause.
Rather than deciding the case based on interpretations by intermediate state courts, the Second Circuit certified the state law question to the New York Court of Appeals—the state's highest court—which had not yet addressed the issue. The Court of Appeals accepted the certified question in May 2014. IPR again represented the amici in front of the Court of Appeals, arguing that the plain meaning of the New York statute was that it required attorneys to maintain a physical office in the state of New York. In March 2015, the Court of Appeals issued an Order agreeing with the amici's interpretation of the statute, and sending the case back to the Second Circuit for final disposition. Oral argument in the Second Circuit was held June 2015. In April 2016, the Second Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, reversed the district court's decision, holding that the New York law does not violate the Privileges and Immunities Clause because it was enacted not for a protectionist purpose to favor New York resident attorneys but, rather, to provide a means of resolving a service concern while allowing nonresidents to practice in the state's courts.
I. Government Worker FBI Investigation
IPR represented a federal government employee who was approached by the FBI and asked to provide information regarding her travel to foreign countries many years prior to the worker's employment with the federal government. The FBI agent insinuated in conversations with the employee that the employee's job with the federal government might be in jeopardy if the employee declined to speak with the FBI. After researching the employee's rights and responsibilities, IPR determined that the employee is under no obligation to speak to the FBI. After IPR began its representation, the FBI abandoned its efforts to interview our client.
II. Discrimination And Workplace Fairness
A. Gonzales v. Marriott Int'l, et al.
IPR represented Mary Gonzales, a gestational surrogate who was denied lactation breaks by her employer because of her employer's belief that, as a surrogate, Ms. Gonzales was not entitled to the protections of state or federal anti-discrimination laws that protect women with pregnancy-related conditions. IPR filed a complaint on Ms. Gonzales's behalf in federal district court in California, alleging that her employer's denial of her request for lactation breaks equal to those provided to other nursing mothers violated California's Fair Employment and Housing Act and the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The defendant filed a motion to dismiss Ms. Gonzales's claims. After briefing and oral argument, the district court issued a decision denying the motion to dismiss and holding that legal protections for lactating women apply regardless of surrogacy status. 142 F. Supp. 3d 961 (C.D. Cal. 2015). In early 2016, the case was resolved to the parties' mutual satisfaction.
B. Quintana v. City of Alexandria
IPR represents Monica Quintana in a case arising under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Ms. Quintana was jointly employed by the City of Alexandria and Randstad, a staffing agency. Ms. Quintana informed her supervisors that she needed to miss work for a family medical emergency, and she was granted permission to go. Upon her return, her employers refused to reinstate her to her prior or an equivalent position.
In November 2015, we sued both the City and Randstad in federal district court for the Eastern District of Virginia under a joint employment theory of liability. The district court granted the City's motion to dismiss, holding that it was only a secondary employer and had not taken any action that would expose it to liability under the FMLA. In May 2016, Randstad made an Offer of Judgment under Rule 68 for $30,000 plus attorney's fees and costs, which Ms. Quintana accepted. Final judgment was entered against Randstad and in favor of the City. We appealed only as to the dismissal of the City. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has set a briefing schedule, and we expect to argue the appeal in the Fall of 2016.
C. Prasad v. George Washington University
IPR represents Ricca Prasad in a federal lawsuit against George Washington University (GW), asserting claims under Title IX and common law tort and contract theories. We allege that during her time as a student at GW, Ms. Prasad was subjected to ongoing and severe harassment from a fellow student, and GW failed to take adequate steps to address the harassment.
In June 2015, we assisted Ms. Prasad in filing a complaint under Title IX with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights. In October 2015, we filed a lawsuit in federal district court under Title IX and five common law theories. GW moved to dismiss the common law claims, and the court stayed further proceedings pending a ruling on the motion. In June 2016, the Court ruled that Ms. Prasad's lawsuit could proceed on the Title IX claim and four of the five common law claims. The case is currently in discovery.
D. Crockett v. Hybano
William Crockett drove non-emergency medical transport vans from 2009 through 2012 for Gadosolo Transportation, a subcontractor of Medical Transportation Management, Inc. (MTM). During the time Mr. Crockett was employed, he was woefully underpaid for his work –averaging just over $4 per hour despite the fact that, as an employee working under a DC government contract, he was entitled to the living wage of $12.50 per hour. During the final months of his employment, Mr. Crockett was paid only sporadically, or not at all.
In November 2014, IPR filed a complaint in DC Superior Court against Gadosolo Transportation, MTM, and Fekadu Hybano—the owner and sole proprietor of Gadosolo Transportation—alleging violations of the Living Wage Act of 2006, the DC Minimum Wage Act, the DC Wage Payment and Collection Law, and DC Municipal Regulation Title 7, § 909.
The parties engaged in extensive discovery and motions practice for most of 2015. In November 2015, the parties resolved the case on mutually satisfactory terms. In January 2016, the parties stipulated to the dismissal of all claims against MTM, and Mr. Crockett moved for entry of final judgment against Hybano and Gadosolo for the amount the Court had ordered them to pay Mr. Crockett as a sanction for failure to cooperate in discovery. The Court entered judgment in March 2016, and we began collection efforts, culminating in the filing of a writ of attachment and a motion for judgment of condemnation, which remain pending.
E. Pineda v. Neighbors' Consejo, Inc.
Katherine Pineda worked for Neighbors' Consejo, Inc., for 19 weeks but was paid for only two weeks of work. IPR agreed to represent Ms. Pineda to recover her unpaid wages and liquidated damages. When Neighbors' Consejo refused to resolve the matter out of court, we filed suit on Ms. Pineda's behalf in DC Superior Court against Neighbors' Consejo and three of its managing agents, asserting claims under the DC Wage Payment and Collection Law, and the DC Minimum Wage Act, and for breach of contract and promissory estoppel.
All four defendants defaulted by failing to answer the complaint, thereby waiving their opportunity to contest issues of liability. The defendants appeared in the action to preserve their ability to contest the amount of unpaid wages and damages owed to Ms. Pineda, and each defendant ultimately stipulated to the amount owed. In June 2015, the Court entered judgment against the defendants for the full amount of Ms. Pineda's unpaid wages, an additional three times that amount in statutory liquidated damages, plus attorneys' fees and costs.
IPR initiated collection efforts by recording a lien on the real property owned by Neighbors' Consejo, and IPR served post-judgment discovery to identify other assets that might be used to satisfy the judgment. In July 2015, Neighbors' Consejo filed for bankruptcy. We filed a claim in the bankruptcy proceedings on Ms. Pineda's behalf. With the approval of the Bankruptcy Court, property owned by Neighbors' Consejo was sold in March 2016, and Ms. Pineda's judgment was satisfied in full from the proceeds of the sale.
F. Savage v. FedEx Corp.
IPR represents Kenneth Savage on appeal to the Sixth Circuit, challenging the Western District of Tennessee's grant of summary judgment to Defendant FedEx Corp. on Mr. Savage's claims of discrimination and retaliation under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). Mr. Savage was terminated from his job at FedEx approximately one month after returning from military duty in the US Navy and lodging complaints that FedEx had failed to correctly fund service members' retirement accounts. We argue that the district court failed to apply the correct standard for summary judgment when it decided disputed issues of material fact in favor of FedEx instead of leaving such issues for resolution by the jury. We filed our opening brief in June 2016, and we expect the case to be argued in the Fall of 2016.
G. Student v. University
IPR represents a graduate student in her claims against a public university under Title IX. During her time at the university, the student was subjected to persistent sexual harassment by other students and faculty, sexual assault by a faculty member, and retaliation for complaining of the harassment. The university also failed to provide the student with accommodations to which she was entitled as a student with a disability. In May 2016, we filed an administrative complaint with the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, and we are engaged in efforts to resolve the matter without litigation.
H. Worker v. Former Employer
IPR represented a client who was not paid on time following her discharge from employment. IPR investigated the client's claims, researched potential causes of action and administrative remedies, and calculated the amount of damages owed. Before initiating formal proceedings, IPR sent a letter to the client's former employer demanding that it pay the client liquidated damages under the DC Wage Payment Act for its delay in issuing our client her final paycheck. In October 2015, the former employer paid the amount demanded, the client was satisfied, and litigation was avoided.
III. Open Government
A. Tushnet v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
IPR represents Georgetown Law Professor Rebecca Tushnet in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After an ICE official was reported to have stated at a press conference that critical use of a trademark—such as the profane debasing of a mascot—constitutes trademark infringement that would allow ICE to seize the merchandise as counterfeit, Professor Tushnet sought to determine whether ICE's official policies are based on a misunderstanding of intellectual property law. When ICE refused to cooperate with Professor Tushnet's informal requests for information, IPR drafted and submitted a FOIA request on her behalf in March 2015.
ICE responded in March 2015 by denying Professor Tushnet's request for a public interest fee waiver. We prepared an administrative appeal of the denial of the fee waiver request. In June 2015,ICE's Office of the Principal Legal Advisor determined that the fee waiver request should be granted.
ICE failed provide a substantive response to Professor Tushnet's FOIA request within the required time limits. On June 12, 2015, we filed a complaint in U.S. District Court seeking an injunction ordering ICE to make the requested records available without delay. After we filed suit, ICE made five rolling productions of responsive material, and the Court entered a briefing schedule for cross-motions for summary judgment. We have filed our motion for summary judgment alleging that ICE failed to conduct an adequate search for responsive records and improperly withheld information under FOIA Exemption 7(E). Summary judgment briefing will be completed in July 2016.
B. New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
IPR is representing a community organization and eleven individuals seeking government records related to the Criminal Alien Removal Initiative (CARI). CARI is an immigration enforcement program under which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) coordinates with local police departments to plan and carry out raids in immigrant communities. The raids appear to be based on racial profiling. In an attempt to gather information about the program, our clients submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Despite granting our clients' request for expedited processing, ICE failed to produce any document for over sixteen months.
We filed suit in March 2015, seeking production of the requested records and a waiver of fees. Since we filed suit, ICE has produced some responsive records. The parties have filed cross-motions for summary judgment regarding the adequacy of ICE's search and the propriety of ICE's withholding of certain documents pursuant to several FOIA exemptions. The cross-motions remain pending.
C. Bowles v. Department of Veterans Affairs
In December 2015, IPR filed a complaint in federal district court on behalf of four veterans, alleging that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) had violated the Administrative Procedure Act and Privacy Act when it failed to process the plaintiffs' requests for their claims files in a timely manner. The plaintiffs sought access to these records in order to enable them to file for military disability benefits. We sought a declaration that the VA had unreasonably delayed responding to Plaintiffs' requests for access to their records and an order requiring the VA to produce the requested records. After we filed suit, the VA released the plaintiffs' claims files and moved to dismiss the case as moot. In February 2016, the parties stipulated to voluntary dismissal.
D. Public Interest Organization Claw Back Matter
IPR represented a public interest organization in resisting an attempt by a federal government agency to demand the return of records that the agency claimed had been inadvertently disclosed and which contained information that the agency claimed to be protected by the deliberative process privilege. The agency requested return of the records and a list of all disclosures the organization had made as to the information. On behalf of our client, IPR responded to the government's demand by explaining that our client has no legal obligation to return the records or refrain from using the information, and that any attempt to compel our client to produce a list of disclosures would violate our client's rights under the First Amendment. The agency confirmed that it does not intend to initiate legal action with respect to the disclosure, and the agency has ceased its efforts to recover the records.
E. Bloche v. Department of Defense
IPR represents two prominent bioethics experts, M. Gregg Bloche, M.D., a Georgetown law professor, and Jonathan Marks, a bioethics professor at Penn State, in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case against various agencies of the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency. The plaintiffs seek information concerning the participation of government and civilian medical personnel in the design and implementation of torture techniques.
After filing FOIA requests with the relevant agencies in 2006 and 2007, and receiving no documents in response, IPR filed a FOIA lawsuit on behalf of the experts in November 2007. The Court ordered the government defendants to turn over relevant documents in several stages, and the releases concluded in spring 2010. The agencies are still withholding many documents, citing various FOIA exemptions.
In March 2011, the plaintiffs moved for summary judgment against a key defendant, the U.S. Air Force, arguing that the government's exemption claims are unlawful under FOIA. Because the Air Force appears to have played a key role in developing the policies that the plaintiffs are interested in, the plaintiffs are hopeful that this motion will serve as a bellwether for the litigation as a whole. The government filed an opposition to the motion and filed a cross motion for summary judgment. The plaintiffs filed an opposition to the government's motion and a reply on its motion. The motion is fully briefed and awaiting a decision. In the meantime, the government has begun to release some of the Air Force documents that it previously claimed were exempt and has agreed to review informally memoranda prepared by IPR detailing legal concerns about withholdings by defendant agencies other than the Air Force.
The plaintiffs have also filed a motion against three other defendants: the Navy and two subunits of the Department of Defense that establish and implement military health policy. Again, the government filed an opposition and cross motion for summary judgment. The parties completed summary judgment briefing in fall 2012, and the court held a hearing on those motions in December 2012.The court permitted the government to update its explanations for withholding certain Defense subunit records, and IPR supplemented its summary judgment motion based on those updates. In the meantime, the government has begun releasing documents put in issue by IPR's summary judgment motion (particularly some documents held by the Navy). In addition, the U.S. Army has also released documents in response to an informal memorandum the plaintiffs sent to government counsel detailing concerns with the Army's insufficient explanations for its withholdings. More than three and a half years later, the court still has not ruled on the parties' summary judgment motions.
IV. Voting Rights
A. Wright v. Sumter County Board of Elections and Registration
IPR represented the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP and the Campaign Legal Center in an amicus curiae brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, arguing that the district court failed to utilize the proper tests for analyzing the plaintiff's claims under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment to the county and remanded the case to the district court.
B. Figgs v. Quitman County
IPR represented civil rights attorney Ellis Turnage against a claim by Quitman County for attorneys' fees following the voluntary dismissal of a Voting Rights Act case against the county in which Mr. Turnage served as lead counsel for the plaintiffs. In the underlying case, the plaintiffs challenged the county's drawing of its supervisor districts as improperly diluting the voting strength of African Americans. In February 2016, the county filed a motion for attorneys' fees and costs, asserting that plaintiffs were liable for attorneys' fees because their claims were frivolous, and that Mr. Turnage was liable for attorneys' fees because he had engaged in unreasonable and vexatious litigation.
In June 2016, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi ruled for our client and denied the request for attorneys' fees but granted the smaller request for costs.
C. Davidson v. City of Cranston
IPR represented former directors of the U.S. Census Bureau for an amicus curiae brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, arguing that the Census Bureau's decision to count incarcerated persons at the place of incarceration does not answer the question of where those persons should be counted for representational purposes under the one person, one vote analysis. The First Circuit reversed the grant of summary judgment to the plaintiffs and held incarcerated persons may be counted at the place of incarceration for representational purposes.
D. Georgia State Conference of the NAACP v. Kemp
IPR, the Campaign Legal Center, and other co-counsel represented non-profit advocacy groups in a lawsuit challenging Georgia's use of an exact-match system for registering new voters as violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, as well as the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The parties ultimately settled the case after Georgia agreed to no longer automatically cancel voter registration applicants who failed the exact match process, agreed to allow applicants failing the exact match process to be placed on the voter rolls as "pending" with no deadline to correct the mismatch, and other safeguards to prevent the disenfranchisement of eligible voters.
E. Thompson v. State of Alabama
IPR, the Campaign Legal Center, and other co-counsel represent several individual plaintiffs, and a putative class, in challenging Alabama's system of felon disenfranchisement under multiple theories, including as intentionally racially discriminatory under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The case remains pending before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.
F. One Wisconsin Institute v. Thomsen
IPR represents Common Cause in an amicus curiae brief before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the district court rendered the Twenty-Sixth Amendment obsolete by failing to consider the clear targeting of the youth vote by fourteen changes in Wisconsin election law enacted during a narrow window in the state's legislative and political history. The case remains pending.
G. Multiple Section 2 Investigations
IPR, working in partnership with the Campaign Legal Center, has investigated several towns and cities in evaluating potential targets for litigation for compliance with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In particular, clinic students have investigated and analyzed five jurisdictions for potential Section 2 litigation, including through the use of state open public records requests, with one likely target emerging from the investigation, and are currently researching an additional jurisdiction's compliance with Section 2.


text: LS Lowry is famed, of course, for his paintings of mills and stick figures, yet he was also one of the 20th century's greatest landscape painters, and created some of the most haunting seascapes of all time. Here, photographer Jem Southam retraces Lowry's travels up the Cumbrian coastline, through the towns of Maryport, Whitehaven, Workington, Sellafield and Barrow. Southam's large-format camera focuses, in engrossing detail, on landscapes that are un-picturesque, and all the more moodily beautiful for it. The title, from a hymn referring to Christ descending from the heavens in the Second Coming, reflects both Southam's and Lowry's suggestion of a stoical spirit enduring beneath the inclement northern gloom.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
|( 11 upvotes )
|( 33 upvotes )
|I thought she was getting her mouth worked up for me.
|Papa.....bahahaha and a 5L for good measure!
|5L - Too funny, Papa!!
|Hah, I see what you did there…..n-i-c-e, 5L
|( 26 upvotes )
|So that's what "scrubbing your hedgehog" means...lol...I had entirely the wrong idea. 5L
|Would look great at dig my dog if you haven't already done so.
|Rude, you lil' stinker...5L.
|( 23 upvotes )
|( 26 upvotes )
|Lol, i think i have that...
|That on a shirt would go great with my fursona being a canid
|It took me a second, I am old and slow. 5L for a good chuckle
Misc info


text:
June 24th, 2016
October 24th, 2016
It is truly wonderful to hear Finn so well landed in the heart of the tradition on this beautiful recording. He is an excellent fiddle player who has mastered the finest details of Irish fiddle music. This is a fully authentic representation of the tradition that could as easily have come from Co. Clare or Sligo except that it's all the way from Asheville North Carolina. This bodes well for the future of Irish music.
-Martin Hayes
Young Finn has a beautiful sound and touch on the Irish fiddle. He has learned from and now plays with the best in the genre. Both of his new CD's will reward the listener, but on "Branches" you can hear a new musical voice emerging. I'm gonna keep listening for Finn Magill.
-Tim O'Brien
Sweet swinging fiddle playing with a deep understanding of the roots of this music, a very creative imagination and beautiful violin technique
-Mike Marshall
Finn Magill's new album shows a great depth and understanding of traditional Irish music. He has made a timeless album of Irish fiddle music that will keep giving joy in years to come.
Mairéad Ní Mhoanaigh (Altan)
About the time I got to the middle of Track 4, I decided I could not listen to "Branches" on my little car's simple radio anymore... I had to get home to listen to it on the stereo. And why? because "Branches" is wonderful. The tunes Finn's written are melodic and heartfelt, and the arrangements are gorgeous. Every note, chord, and beat captivates and delights. There's a globe of influences whittled down here to one fiddler's vision, and the result is a wonderful perfection of an album.
-Liz Carroll
Very few albums these days command my attention for more than a track or two but this exciting and riveting release from Andrew Finn Magill had me under its spell from the first tune to the last.
-Kevin Crawford (Lúnasa)
Andrew Finn Magill is proud of his Irish roots, obviously, and does them full justice here in a sparkling selection of mainly old tunes with a handful of more recent compositions, all by acknowledged Irish masters. There's no doubting the excitement and drive here.
-Alex Monaghan
The Living Tradition
The African American Blues artist Willie Dixon remarked that "Blues is the roots and everything else is the fruits". I believe that folk process is "the grand old tradition of perpetual transition". Within the canopy of "Branches", Finn Magill has embodied these ideas, with Irish music as the roots, into a beautiful bouquet of elegant and powerful compositions of multi-cultural celebration for the new millennium.
-Joe Craven
Serene and incredibly soulful, North Carolina fiddler Andrew Finn Magill encounters the tradition in a manner reminiscent of Keith Jarrett on
The Melody at Night With You.
-Siobhan Long,
The Irish Times
is full of intriguingly good tunes from a deep and complex well of styles and idioms, closely assimilated and fused through the creative process to make an album of unique and personalised music.
-John Regan,
The Living Tradition
A lovely album of "pure drop" Irish music that leaves listeners with a strong impression of a fantastic young musician's abilities. The arrangements are strong, the tune selection exemplary, and the guest musicians spectacular – definitely one to check out.
-Daniel Neely,
The Irish Echo
Listen out for quiet reflection on Horizons, funk grooves on December, and high energy flight that goes along with what the title evokes in Shooting Stars.
-Kerry Dexter,
Perceptive Travel
Magill takes the jigs, reels and hornpipes at nice brisk tempi, never sacrificing precision (truly gorgeous rolls!) and perfect intonation. If you like fiddle music, don't pass this up. Add it to your iPod favourites right now!
-Irish Music Magazine
IT IS a lovely thought that Irish music is a citizen of the world. The inferiority complex is long gone and its confidence means that it can take on jazz or rock or classical arrangements and still be true to itself.
The fiddler Andrew Finn Magill is a fine example of this phenomenon.
-Robert McMillen,
The Irish News
, the dominant accent is that of Counties Clare and Sligo, in fiddle playing that is fresh, vital, and fleet.
-Michael Quinn,
In his two new albums,
Roots and Branches,
Magill has taken the spirit of traditional music and moved it forward
-Sharon Armstrong,
The Living Tradition
Drawing from such diverse sources as Appalachian, Latin, swing, and jazz, the album moves through offshoots of traditional music into Magill's own compositions and perceptions, with some surprising
and lovely results.
-Desiah Melby,
Fiddler Magazine
The tunes selected not only give an idea of Finn's roots, but they also provide an overview of what is fine and joyful in traditional Irish music. From the temptation to get up and dance a hornpipe to "The Castle Hornpipe and Fountain's Hornpipe" to the moving rendition of "Roisin Dubh," Roots not only reflects Finn's roots, but is a reminder to us of "ours."
-Rick Kelly
WADK's Irish Hour
Magill's long-time collaborators -- notable among them Lúnasa fiddler Colin Farrell, Rising Appalachia's David Brown and Paul McKenna Séan Gray from the Paul McKenna Band -- add thrilling contributions of their own in a superbly recorded set. But
remains Magill's album and, as such, it's something of a triumph.
-Michael Quinn
New York Irish Arts
Magill 's fiddling on Roots is clean, precise, and absolutely traditional, paying homage to his roots and the history of the music.
-Desiah Melby,
Fiddler Magazine
Roots - Branches past Tour Dates
For ticket information and a full list of tour dates please visit
6/28 Acadia Trad Workshop - Bar Harbor ME
7/1 The Music Mill - Brunswick ME
7/2 Bangor UU Church - Bangor ME
7/5 The Burren Backroom - Boston MA
7/8 - Grandfather Highland Games - Banner Elk NC
7/16-7/22 - Swannanoa Gathering Celtic Week - Swannanoa NC
8/13-8/18 Séjour de Cléguerec - Cléguerec France
8/19 Black Shelter Pub - Nantes, France
8/19 Fiddle workshop - Nantes, France
8/20 Gigg's Irish Pub - Nantes, France
8/24 Les Anges - Querval, France
9/21 - HundredProof Fountain - Louisville, KY
9/22 - University of Kentucky - Lexington, KY
9/23 - House Concert - Carbondale, IL
9/24 - House Concert - St. Louis, MO
9/25 - McGurk's Pub - St. Louis, MO
9/27 -Homegrown - Nashville, TN
9/28 - Behind the Barn - Maryville, TN
10/20-22 - The LEAF Festival - Black Mountain, NC
11/18 - Sandy Jenkins House Concert - New York, NY
11/20 - Ridgewood UU Church - Ridgewood, NJ
11/21 Tellus360 - Harrisburg PA
11/24 Isis Music Hall & Restaurant - Asheville, NC
11/25 Joe Shannon's Mountain Music Series - Boone, NC
11/26 - UU Church - Greensboro, NC
11/28 - Cincinnati Irish Center - Cincinnati OH
11/29 Natalie's Coal-fired Pizza - Columbus OH
11/30 House Concert - Indianapolis IN
12/1 - Irish American Center - Chicago IL
1/6 House Concert - Augusta GA
1/7 - House Concert - Atlanta GA
3/23 The Rockwood - New York NY
3/24 The GAC - Fairfield CT
4/5 Blue Plate Special - Knoxville TN
4/6 The Next Door - Johnson City TN
4/7 Philadelphia Ceili Group - Philadelphia PA
4/8 The Bottling Works - Romney WV
4/10 House Concert - Blacksburg VA
4/11 The Grey Eagle - Asheville NC
4/13 House Concerts at Brad's - Baltimore MD
4/14 House Concert - Warrenton VA
4/15 Greater Folklore Society of Washington - Washington DC
4/16 House Concert - Bethlehem PA
4/19 Sellersville Theatre - Sellersville PA
4/20 TEDx - Greensboro NC
4/21 Pleasant Green Community Center - Durham NC
4/22 High Strung Violin & Guitar Workshop - Durham NC
4/23 Muddy Creek Music Hall - Winston Salem, NC
4/23 The Evening Muse - Charlotte, NC
5/31 The Leopold Room -Bellingham, WA
6/1 Bellingham Folk School - Bellingham, WA
6/2 Traditions Café - Olympia, OR
6/4-6/9 Montana Fiddle Camp
Listen to Roots
Listen to Branches
Press Release - September 13th, 2016
Andrew Finn Magill grew up immersed in music, spending every summer at the Swannanoa Gathering Folk Arts Workshops learning fiddle from some of the finest folk musicians in the world. By age 16, he was a two- time finalist at the All-Ireland Championships and he is equally proficient in several American folk idioms such as old-time and bluegrass. He has toured France with the popular Celtic music & dance revue, Celtic Dances, under the musical direction of Liz Knowles & Kieran O'Hare, and produced a Fulbright-MtvU- funded concept album,
Mau a Malawi
, about those affected by AIDS with Malawian Afro-vibes artist
Peter Mawanga
. He currently resides in in Rio de Janeiro, where he is a sought-after violinist in Brazilian styles and leads
O Finno
, his own quartet of choro musicians.
which debuted at #47 on the Folk DJ charts is the first disc in a concept album series which charts Magill's musical progression in Irish music, featuring the tunes and players that defined his earliest years playing the fiddle: John Doyle, Cillian Vallely (Lúnasa), Sean Earnest (The Yanks), Duncan Wickel and Vincent Fogarty (The Red Wellies). Recorded in three studios on two continents, the music is 'pure drop' Irish with sparse instrumentation and innovative arrangements.
From the lively set of reels that opens the album, the listener is treated to brilliant and respectful renditions of much-loved jigs, hornpipes & reels, as well as some rarely-heard gems such as a beautiful setting of the set dance, "The Blackbird" the slow air, "Roisin Dubh," and Carolan's "Maurice O'Connor's Third Air." The album ends with a rolling, powerhouse set of reels sure to get any Irish music fan's blood pumping.
(October 24th, 2016) is the second disc in the series. It features ten original compositions which reflect ten years of musical influences and professional partnerships including those with David Brown (Rising Appalachia), Paul McKenna & Seán Gray (Paul McKenna Band), Colin Farrell (Lúnasa), Grant Gordy (The David Grisman Quintet), Duncan Wickel, Dan Iannucci and Micah Thomas.
From the refreshing re-imaginings of the tradition on display in Branches' first cuts, Finn continually uses familar tune forms such as reels, strathspeys and polkas in startling and creative ways, injecting Appalachian and swing flavors to create exciting and original new music. Then, with his traditional bona fides established, Finn ventures
into more jazzy territory with "Relapse," followed by the fiddle funk of "December" and concludes with the hypnotic and atmospheric "Shooting Stars," leaving the listener floating in the firmament, wondering toward which shining frontier Finn will be venturing next.
PUBLICITY: Sean Boyd email@example.com
CONTACT: firstname.lastname@example.com +1-828-545-4614 (US); +55 (21) 98232-1087 (Brazil)
MANAGEMENT: email@example.com
The Musicians - Roots
John Doyle Guitar, Mandola, 5-string tenor guitar,12-string guitar, bouzouki
Ex-Solas guitarist John Doyle is one of the most influential Irish guitarists today. He has toured with Tim O'Brien, Joan Baez and the Trans-Atlantic Sessions. He tours with never-ending configurations of the best musicians in acoustic Irish and American music.
Duncan Wickel Fiddle
Duncan Wickel has a degree in Jazz violin from Berklee School of Music and apart from jazz, is equally sought after for his mastery of Irish, old-time, and bluegrass. His band "The Rondo Rigs" is to release their debut album in 2016.
Sean Earnest DADGAD Guitar
Guitar player for The Yanks, in recent years Sean Earnest has played with many traditional top tier acts in Scottish and Irish music including: Téada, The Paul McKenna Band, the McPeake family, Cathie Ryan, and the popular show, Women of Ireland.
Cillian Vallely Uillean Pipes
Cillian Vallely piper with renowned Irish band Lúnasa, "The hottest Celtic band on the planet" (Irish Voice) has recorded with everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Natalie Merchant and appeared on over 60 albums.
Vincent Fogarty 10 string Bouzouki
Vincent Fogarty from Tipperary has called Asheville home for more than 15 years. His Irish trad band The Red Wellies released their debut album to much critical acclaim and he has toured through out the Southeast.
Andrew Finn Magill Fiddle, arrangements
Magill is a fiddler/violinist who straddles genres. By 16, he was a two-time finalist at the All-Ireland Fiddle Championships, is a Fulbright-MtvU fellow and in 2017 will release an album of Brazilian music inspired by three years living in Rio.
The Musicians - BRANCHES
David Brown Baritone Guitar
Asheville native David Brown cites his two main influences as David Greer and John Doyle. David tours heavily with wildly successful Rising Appalachia throughout the world and is a pioneer in a growing movement of green touring.
Duncan Wickel 5-string fiddle & cello
Duncan Wickel has a degree in Jazz violin from Berklee School of Music and apart from jazz, is equally sought after for his mastery of Irish, old-time, and bluegrass. His band The Rondo Rigs is to release their debut album in 2016.
Colin Farrell Fiddle
Colin Farrell, who currently plays fiddle in Irish supergroup, Lúnasa, has played and recorded with Flook, Grada, E2K, Karan Casey, and Julie Fowlis. He is a multi All-Ireland winner on fiddle and whistle.
Séan Gray Guitar
Séan moonlights as the flute and whistle player for premiere Scottish band The Paul McKenna Band. The band has toured North America, Australia, and Europe, and at home in Glasgow Séan is one of the most in-demand guitar players on the scene.
Paul McKenna Guitar
Award-winning Glasgow singer Paul McKenna has one of the best voices in Scotland. He is also a virtuosic guitarist and has played with many legends. His award winning group,"The Paul McKenna Band" released their fourth album "Paths that Wind" in 2016.
Grant Gordy Guitar
Grant Gordy held the guitar chair in the legendary David Grisman Quintet for six years, He's worked alongside such musical luminaries such as Darol Anger, Edgar Meyer and Steve Martin. Grant's music has been heard on NPR's Morning Edition, and he's performed all over the world, from Carnegie Hall to Bonnaroo.
Dan Iannucci Acoustic & Electric Bass
With a degree in jazz and a pupil of Paul Winter's Grammy-winning bassist Eliot Wadopian, Daniel is a pillar of the Asheville music scene. Equally skilled in classical music, he plays with the Brevard Symphony and other classical music ensembles.
Micah Thomas Drums
Micah Thomas is one of the best jazz drummers in Asheville, NC. With Dan Iannucci he forms the rhythm section for The Jason Cristofaro Trio featuring vibraphonist Cristofaro.
Andrew Finn Magill Fiddle,mandolin,whistles, compositions
In 2011 he produced a Fulbright-MtvU funded concept album about AIDS with Afro-vibes artist from Malawi Peter Mawanga. He currently leads his own quartet of Brazilian choro, The Andrew Finn Quartet in Rio de Janeiro. In 2017 he will release an album of original Brazilian music inspired by three years living in Rio.
Tech Team
Chris Rosser Recording Engineer
Award-winning songwriter Chris Rosser has 20+ years of audio-engineering experience. His Hollow Reed Studios was a delight to record in.
Danny Littwin Mixing Engineer
Danny Littwin has 40+ years of audio-engineering experience and has recorded and mixed everyone from Frankie Gavin to Bruce Springsteen.
Gene Paul Mastering Engineer
Gene Paul is a Grammy-winning mastering engineer based in New Jersey. He has an award-winning staff and worked with artists from Dr. John to Norah Jones.
Track Listing
June 24th, 2016
1. Miss McDonald's / The Siesta
The classic reel Miss McDonald's followed by a great tune by Dervish fiddler Tom Morrow featured on Dervish's recording
Midsummer's Night.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
Sean Earnest - DADGAD guitar
2. Don't Touch that Green Linnet / Dancing Eyes / The Humors of Cavan
The first jig is composed by one of my all-time favorite fiddle players and fiddle heroes Tommy Peoples. "Dancing Eyes" is a Sean Ryan tune I found in the Traditional Music Archive. "The Humors of Cavan" is a great old jig I uncovered in O'Neill's Book of Irish Music.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
John Doyle - 6-string guitar, mandolin, 12-string guitar
3. The Blackbird / Corney is Coming
This very old setting of the classic set dance The Blackbird can be found in
O'Neill's Music of Ireland: 1,850 Melodies
. "Corney is Coming" I got from the playing of excellent piper Tommy Reck and in the spirit of piping I feature one of my favorite pipers here, Cillian Vallely.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
Vincent Fogarty - 10-string bouzouki
Cillian Vallely- uilleann pipes
4. Maurice O'Connor Third Air
I literally played through the complete collection of O'Carolan compositions before stumbling across this gem and was shocked to find it has virtually gone un-recorded for so many years. John Doyle joins me on this with his custom-made Kevin Muiderman five-string tenor guitar.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
John Doyle - guitar, 5 string tenor guitar
5. Only for Barney / Kissing and Drinking
The first tune is from Josephine Keegan of Co. Down and I learned it from Boston fiddler Brendan Bulger. The second tune I got from the playing of the great piper Peter Browne.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
Vincent Fogarty - 10-string bouzouki
6. Tom of the Red Hills / Tom Ward's Downfall / The Western Lasses
This haunting first tune by Ed Reavy is in one of my favorite keys, G minor. Tom Ward's Downfall I first heard Vinnie Kilduff play on a Gerry O'Connor album and The Western Lasses I am convinced is actually an older three-part version of the classic four-parter The Graf Spee.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
Sean Earnest - DADGAD guitar
7. The Castle Hornpipe / Fountain's Hornpipe
It took ages to track down the origin of this first hornpipe which I came across via Leitrim fiddler Shane Meehan on an unnamed recording with Maryin Wynne. Uilleann piper Kieran O'Hare came to the rescue however: The hornpipe is actually played as a reel in Cape Breton and popularized by the legendary Cape Breton fiddle player Winston Fitzgerald. Fountain's Hornpipe is yet one more taken from the marvelous repertoire of Peter Browne.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
Vincent Fogarty - 10-string bouzouki
Cillian Vallely- uilleann pipes
8. The Green Fields of America / Tommy Coen's
These are two classic session reels that were definitely played quite a bit in my teenage days in Asheville.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
Vincent Fogarty - 10-string bouzouki
9. Roisin Dubh
This classic air which means 'little black rose' in Irish, I got from the singing of Paddy Tunney. There are many versions of this tune but I have always loved the singing of Paddy Tunney from the moment I first heard him in a small pub in Listowel, Co. Kerry in 2001. I wanted to pay a tribute to his wonderful singing on this one.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
10. The Green Fields of Glentown / The Old Dudeen / McFadden's Handsome Daughter
The first reel is another from Tommy People's. "The Old Dudeen" I first heard on the Danú album
Think Before You Think!
which was an incredibly influential recording for me. McFadden's Handsome Daughter was a reel given to me by New York fiddler Brian Conway as he was coaching me on which reels to play in the All-Ireland Championships.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle (right channel)
Duncan Wickel - fiddle (left channel)
John Doyle - bouzouki
Track Listing
Fall 2016
1. Horizons
This tune was inspired on my nightly runs I used to take around sunset during a brief stint playing at DisneyWorld. The Floridian sunsets truly were amazing and the flat terrain made it so that one could see the horizon in every direction.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
David Brown- baritone guitar
2. Farewell to Vass / Hello Picadilly
The first tune was written for fiddler Mike Vass after his farewell tear with the lads one night. Hello Picadilly was a welcome tune I wrote for the street, Picadilly Circle, where I lived for a short while.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
Colin Farrell - fiddle
Séan Gray- guitar
3. Hilda Harlow
I wrote this tune in Malawi, Africa when I lived there in 2010. For years it didn't have a title and when my grandmother Hilda died it seemed only fitting to name it after her because playing this tune conjures up for me the person who she was.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddles
Duncan Wickel - cello
4. A Beautiful Ending
This tune is written for the gratitude that accompanies the ending of something beautiful (a relationship, film, career, etc). Often we don't want it to end but it must and this is an opportunity to reflect on its legacy rather than dwell on its absence.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
Paul McKenna - guitar
5. Mary & Alice / Dreams of a City
During my stint at DisneyWorld I shared a trailer with Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland (for the record, I was there to play music not impersonate disney characters). "Dreams of a City" was written after a vivid dream I had of New York City, the city I called home for two years before moving to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
Séan Gray- guitar
Micah Thomas- drums
6. Coming Home
I wrote this tune a few days before I returned to Asheville, North Carolina, the city where I was born and raised. It was a Christmas homecoming and was the first time that my entire family had come together under one roof in over a year.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle, mandolin, low whistles
David Brown- baritone guitar
7. What Bloomed in April / The Spud King / This Will Be
I wrote this first tune thinking about the girl I met in April 2014 who went on to become the most important person in my life - Cris. "The Spud King" was written in 2008 for Donegal fiddler Danny Meehan who upon meeting, proudly proclaimed that he grew "the biggest spuds in Ireland." He showed me his garden and by Jove, the man was not lying. "This Will be" is a tune inspired by that anxious feeling that is simulteanously exhilerating because you know something is going to turn out really well.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
Paul McKenna - guitar
Duncan Wickel - cello
8. Relapse
"Relapse" was written at the height of my Brazilian musical saturation on a sweltering night in Rio. It started as a Brazilian tune and ended up as a new acoustic/jazzy number thanks to some handy guitar work by Grant Gordy.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
Grant Gordy - guitar
9. December
I wrote "December" right after I moved back to the States in 2010 from Malawi, Africa. The whole tune just jumped out in about 5 minutes. It was written with a lot of funk intention and an excuse to riff with one of my oldest friends, Duncan Wickel.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle (right channel)
Duncan Wickel - 5-string fiddle (left channel)
Dan Iannucci- acoustic bass
Micah Thomas- drums
10. Shooting Stars
The inspiration for this piece came from staring at a night sky and imagining shooting stars lighting it up one by one. As the music progresses, it is meant to convey the growing excitement of this phenomenon.
Andrew Finn Magill - fiddle
Dan Iannucci- electric bass
*All compositions copyright Andrew Finn Magill (BMI 2016)
Thank You's
The Musicians & Engineers
John Doyle, Sean Earnest, Paul McKenna, Séan Gray, Cillian Vallely, Colin Farrell, Duncan Wickel, Vincent Fogarty, David Brown, Dan Iannucci, Micah Thomas, Grant Gordy, Chris Rosser, Danny Littwin, Joel Kerr
The Kickstarter Backers
David Hamilton, James Cleveland, Chloe Weatherill, William Garneau, Jan Luquire, Sahid Limon, Oísin Mac Diarmada, Holly Martin, Jenna Muiderman, Kay Naito, Cillian King, Lizzy Ross, Samuel Le Henanff, Andy Lever, Doug Plummer, Seth Barden, Liz Calkins, Margaret Santhanam, Daniel Littwin, Jane Rambo DeHart, Katy Luquire, Hannah Harris, Jeff Engel, Terry England, Seth Congdon, Dot Houlditch, Jim Corcoran, Lee Marsh, Jake Meserve Blount, Lynner, Maribeth Oakes, Celia Ramsay, Aaron Salmon, Yuri Broze, Cheri Britton, Melanie Stevens, Lydia Sturgis, Mara Levine, Mavis G, Tom Delany, David LaMotte, Frank Sun, Peggy Bentley, Eric Butter, Keith Berland, Kurt Asplundh, Small Town Therapy, Karl Kersey, Roxanna Whittington, Connor Magill, Benjamin Cobb, Everett Zdrill, Brian Conway, Shayna Quilty, Eliza Rosebrock, Lindsey Morgan, Mark Treiber, David Garcia, Deborah Kinney-Soltis, Becky Luquire, Laura Risk, Anne Kinney-Eittinger, Rae Geoffrey, Rhythm Future Quartet, Darryl Purpose, Roger Horowitz, Chris Hawke, Michael Schmitt, Larry McCloskey, Raquel Zampil, Michelle Purvis, Habib Yazdi, Donna Richardson, Carol Stein, Kate Hanley, Rafael Affonso, Michael Rennie, Matthew Millering, Danny Ellis, Patrick Mangan, Daniel, Doug Orr, Serina Patterson, Manon Manavit, Paul Heumiller, Krista MacPherson, Beanie O'dell, Mignucci, Joshua Smith, Dinah Mellin, Andrew Brown, Tom Stuart, Jason Furman, Brian O'Donovan, Rachel Lambertson, David Jones, Patrick McDougall, Gary Bowden, Joey Marra, Brian Conaty, Daniel Elwell, Mary Sawyer, Jane McAlister Pope, Cristiane Santos, Philip Fryberger, Michael Dugger, Tim Smith, Marie Clemence, Jeff Willner, Beth Magill, Steve Hoffman, Connie Carringer, Barbara Kehler, Jack Barry, Ron Pen, Monji Dolon, Scott M. Manson, Sean Edsall, Janis Bryant, Kathryn Temple
Friends and family
Mom, Dad, Connor, Hannah, and my wonderful muse and partner Cristiane.
Também queria agradecer a minha família brasileira: Gegê, Jayme, Andreia, Alê, e Sheila.
MY musician friends who inspired, contributed and facilitated all this
John Daly, Liz Carroll, Martin Hayes, Kevin Crawford, Brian Conway, Mairéad Ní Mhoanaigh, Brendan Bulger, Tommy Peoples, James Kelly, Patrick Mangan, Bill Gerhardt, Kieran O'Hare, Liz Knowles, Beanie O'Dell, John Doyle & Cathy Peterson, Ken & Brad Kolodner, Hannah Seng, The Paul McKenna Band, Anna Colliton, The Western North Carolina Folk Arts Center, Jennifer Pickering, Leah & Chloe Smith, Jason Anick, Jeremy Kittel, The Seven Deadly Venoms, Eliot Wadopian, Luís Barcelos, Pedro Paes, Shane Meehan,


text:
b. Dec. 4, 1930, Pickens, Ok.
d. July 4, 1957, Prescott, Ariz.
COD: Internal injuries /Crushed by Brahma bull
h/o Patsy Jo Sullivan
s/o Leo Geoffry & Roxeann (Hood) Sullivan
Occ: Carpenter
Korean War Veteran
Site # Q/008/G
Ruffner Funeral Home, Prescott, Ariz.
Burial: July 8, 1957
Mt. View Cemetery records /Ariz. death records
Contributed on 5/26/05
Record #: 23376
On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Arizona, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 5/26/05 • Approved: 3/21/17 • Last Updated: 3/21/17 • R23376-G0


text:
Cal's Cobbs: Shooting's a passing fancy
Updated 11:35 pm, Tuesday, January 15, 2013
At this point in the season, points are not the point for Cal point guard Justin Cobbs, a point he made pointedly Tuesday.
"We just care about winning," he said. "Shots, points, that doesn't matter. ... We all just want to win. Nobody cares about individual accolades. ... The little things will help us win.
"If I'm open, I'm going to take (the shot). If not, I'll keep working hard."
The response was in answer to a question about the offensive game Cobbs had in Cal's last outing, a 67-54 win over Washington State on Saturday. The Bears (10-6, 2-2 Pac-12), play Stanford (10-7, 1-3) at Maples Pavilion at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
Against the Cougars, Cobbs attempted no shots in the first half and only two in the second, both of which he made. He also made all six foul shots he attempted in the final 2:05 to help the Bears hold off WSU.
Cobbs, a redshirt junior, finished with 10 points to drag down his season scoring average a bit to 14.9 per game, behind the team- and conference-leading 20.1 of Allen Crabbe.
"If it does take more scoring, I'll score. It doesn't matter to me," said Cobbs, fighting back a cold. "I'm learning when to shoot as a point guard. I want to get my teammates involved, make sure the offense is running well and this man, Allen, is getting his shots."
Cobbs, though, realizes that Cal is usually better off when he scores, and he is capable of going off, as in 28 against Oregon last season or a stretch of eight Pac-12 games in 2011-12 in which he reached double figures.
"My role has expanded as a point guard," he said. "I'm not just getting my teammates involved; it's scoring. I have to facilitate and score."
At halftime of the WSU game, Crabbe realized Cobbs hadn't taken a shot and said, "I told him he has to keep shooting the ball. I felt at times he had shots" and didn't take them.
Cobbs had a response for his teammate, saying, "It shows you when the offense doesn't go well, if you do the little things, you can still be victorious."
Injury report: Swingman Ricky Kreklow remains out with lingering pain and weakness in his right foot following October surgery. Kreklow already used a redshirt year in 2011-12 when he transferred from Missouri.
"He'd really like to play," head coach Mike Montgomery said. "This has been disappointing for all of us. We've got to wait for (his foot) to get strong enough to play. He's really working to strengthen the whole thing."
As for guard Brandon Smith, who missed the past five games with post-concussion symptoms, he saw a specialist Tuesday and is waiting to receive clearance to resume playing.
"We're hoping he'll get the green light," Montgomery said.
Pound those boards: Cal has a plus-5.1 rebounding edge over its opponents, 39.4 per game to 34.3. The Bears have four players averaging between 5.0 (guard Tyrone Wallace) and 7.4 (forward David Kravish) per game.
Briefly: Saturday's game at Maples will be televised by KICU (Channel 36). ... In a statistic for which Montgomery had no explanation, Cal's opponents have 20 more steals than do the Bears, 95-75.
John Crumpacker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: email@example.com Twitter: @crumpackeroncal


text: On Mon, 25 Jan 1999, Charles M. Hannum wrote: > No, in fact your change did not revert all of zsparam(); it did not > revert the `#if 0' back to its original state. Point taken, I mis-spoke. But this change needs to stay in. If we don't have that part in there, then mac68k looses BADLY if someone hooks up peripherals which supply clocks to the mac. These clocks come in on the same pins as DCD and CTS. If we leave the #if 0, then we never will be able to support even having these things plugged in. :-) mac68k really does have to have a way to say don't enable interrupts on these pins. It does it now by having these status pins not show up in cs_rr0_cts & cs_rr0_dcd. I'm open to other ways of doing this, but we need to be able to do it, and this way seemed clean - if we aren't going to do anything with that status bit in zstty_stint, then don't enable interrupts. It does make cs->cs_rr0 not cache all the bit states (if there's no interrupt enabled, we don't follow changes), but since these clocks are around 1 MHz, that's not a problem. > Furthermore, I *specifically* stated why just reading rr0 at that > point is incorrect. True. But it's lunch time and I'm hungry. :-) If you want to beat me to adding all the functionality you described in your message, please do. The only thing mac68k needs to keep of the changes to zsparam is the #if 1 part. I'm off to lunch. :-) Take care, Bill


text:
If you make a mistake, a polling place official will give you a new ballot. You will be limited to 3 ballots (one original, two replacements).
If an individual whose eligibility to vote in the election cannot be determined at an early voting center or at the polls on Election Day, he or she may vote by Special Ballot. Once the Board has determined that he or she is eligible to vote in this election, his/her vote will be counted.
A provisional ballot and a special ballot are one in the same.
A voter may be required to complete a special ballot for any of the following reasons:
Registered voters do not need to present proof of residence to vote, however some polling places require ID to enter the facility. It is therefore encouraged that you take some form of identification with you to vote.
If you will be registering during the early voting period or at the polls on Election Day, you will need to provide proof of residence in order to register and vote a special ballot. If you are a first-time voter who registered by mail and did not provide proof of residence when registering, you will need to show proof of residence in order to cast a regular ballot.
Acceptable forms of proof of residence include the following (must include the name and address of the voter):
If an error is made, the scanner should reject your ballot and you may take your ballot back to the ballot clerk and receive a new ballot.
Nevertheless, it is strongly advised that you carefully review your ballot before submitting it because if the scanner does not detect your error, your vote will not be counted for that contest.


text:
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text:
Home »Feminine Clock »Tattoos »Tattoos
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text:
I arrive at the Anvil Inn. For precaution, I have one Nerogueian Commander with me.
We entered the inn around midnight. The inn is mainly lit by a fire directly across from the door.
We walk towards the bartender, seeing if he knows where the Mythronian is.
Then I heard a voice, almost like a whisper: "Over here..."
It came from the corner of the inn.
It was a hooded Mythronian.
We sat down.
Mythronian: I have a hood on because many people still don't like us Mythornians around here in Tomeu.
Avelese: We are doing our best to treat you guys well, some just don't understand.
Mythronian: Anyway, you came here to talk with me. The Pirates stole my treasures while I was fighting. Then they ran off. I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but there's a forest beyond the desert that they went towards.
Avelese: So you would like us to track these men down and return the treasure...
Mythronian: That's correct. Thank you for doing this, I'm still recovering as you know.
Mythronian: I have a map, you'll need it to get through the desert and forest.
And with that, he handed Avelese the map.
Avelese: I'll get back your treasure, you can count on it.
Mythronian: Thank you so much! That was all the money I had. Without it, I'm stuck in this city.
With that, the meeting was adjourned, and Avelese and the Commander walked out.
The door closed behind them.
Not long after, the hooded Mythronian also left the inn.
Mythronian: I guess they are trying to keep in good touch with us Mythronians...
Photos of the Build.
The Anvil Inn.
The sign.
The inside of the inn.
Without the Minifigs.
The two sides of the inn can swing out, so you can play inside of it easier (or make the inn bigger).
The bartender side.
If you attached bottles to this...
Then the bottles hang up over the stand. (I thought that was pretty cool!)
Barrel that collects wine.
The other side with a room and bed on top.
My (ugh...) windows... They didn't turn out the best...
Overhead view.
The people in the inn and the bartender (He's second from the right).
Avelese, the Nerogueian Commander, and the Mythronian.
Now off to catch those pirates!
With that they headed off into the night...
Thanks for looking! God Bless!


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Story last updated at 9/25/2013 - 1:56 pm
I had been to Sitka half a dozen times in 20 years before I finally set aside an hour to take the tour of the Russian Bishop's House. The whole experience was so interesting and memorable that it alone is worth a trip to Sitka if you are interested in the history of Alaska.
Just a block from the center of town, the house is unique in American history because it's only one of four surviving examples of Russian colonial architecture in North America. The impressive yellow rectangular building with a red sloped roof was constructed by the Russian American Company in 1842. The house was the administrative heart of the Russian Orthodox Church for over 125 years, in a diocese that stretched from California to Siberia.
The first Bishop in live in the house was the remarkable Saint Innocent of Alaska, born Ivan Evsyevich Popov on Aug. 26, 1797. Ivan moved to Sitka in 1842 and remained until 1851 when he returned to Russia, where he eventually became the head of the entire Russian Orthodox Church.
Working all over Alaska and the Russian Far East, Innocent was known for his abilities as a scholar, linguist, and administrator. He wrote many of the earliest scholarly works about the Native peoples of Alaska, including dictionaries and grammars for their languages for which he devised writing systems.
The second man in residence was Father Iakov Netsvetov who died in Sitka in 1864. The Russian Orthodox Church continued to use the Bishop's House as a school, residence and place of worship for another century until it was closed in 1969. By that time, the building was in a serious state of neglect, filled with rotten wood and tilting walls exacerbated by a badly leaking roof. The decay continued until 1973 when the National Park Service obtained the property and began a 16-year-long project to restore the building to its 1853 appearance.
Today some 200,000 people a year tour the house, led by the engaging Park Service staff who clearly love the history of the building and its inhabitants. While anyone can see the exterior of the house and the first floor exhibits for free, the guided tour is $4 and allows you to see the second story of the building where most of the cultural treasures are housed. Tours leave every 30 minutes and last about as long, though you are encouraged to ask questions and stay as long as you would like.
Once on the tour you learn that the house was constructed by Finnish Ship builders of square-hewn Sitka Spruce logs some 65 feet in length, joined together with mortise and tenon joints in the wall sections and scarph joints in the foundation, which get tighter over time.
The insulation found under the floors is a combination of sawdust, gravel and sand on a subfloor, which was elaborate for the mild Southeast Alaska climate but made for a very comfortable building. Adding to that comfort was a very effective heating system that made use of warmth accumulated in the kitchen for dispersal upstairs, and European-style room furnaces — not fireplaces — which kept heat stored in the brick around the fire-boxes to radiate heat during the day.
The first floor contains general information about the history of Sitka, the building and its occupants. Here was the kitchen, offices, living quarters for the students when this served as a seminary, and classrooms, both for seminarians and indigenous children.
Climbing the stairs to the second floor we find the bishop's living quarters and private chapel. The wallpaper is a reproduction of the original design. In fact, 30 layers of wallpaper were removed in restoration upstairs, while numerous layers of paint had been applied to walls downstairs over the years.
Some of the furniture is original, including a chair crafted by St. Innocent to match other chairs already there. St. Innocent was a carpenter among his many other talents. A desk he built remains in his private office. It contains three secret compartments for the storage of important documents. Each compartment could be opened only by one who knew the location of the special, spring-loaded fixture which would trigger access. St. Innocent's private library is located off his monastic bedchamber.
The Chapel of the Annunciation in the house served as St. Innocent's private chapel. Today, services are held here twice a week on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. The historic icons and other church artifacts dating from the Gothic and Renaissance periods are absolutely stunning and have huge significance in the Russian Orthodox community because they are an intact collection from a time in Russian history that was all but destroyed by later political and social upheaval.
Our guide told a very touching story about the time Mrs. Boris Yeltsin, wife of the first President of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, visited and exclaimed over the church of her childhood appearing before her eyes, a sight she thought was lost forever. She asked for private time in the chapel where she held her own church service.
If you love history, you can touch the past at the Russian Bishops House. I marveled at the warmth of the building and the beauty of the furnishings from a time and place that would have had few creature comforts. It is easy to imagine yourself a guest of the house long, long ago and few leave the building without an appreciation of those who settled Alaska and those who stayed.
If you go:
106 Metlakatla St Sitka, AK 99835
(907) 747-0110
The Russian Bishop's House is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., running tours of the second floor every 30 minutes.


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A growing number of editors believe explaining the rationale for controversial decisions to readers and viewers can help strengthen credibility.
By Susan Paterno Susan Paterno (firstname.lastname@example.com) is an AJR senior contributing writer.
The Boston Globe broke a venerated journalistic tradition last fall: The paper published a story about former mayor and gubernatorial hopeful Raymond Flynn's drinking habits without suggesting that they had impaired his work. Not long after, the Washington Post ignored a practice it had made famous during Watergate: It sometimes relied on just one anonymous source in stories about President Clinton's alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky. Then in March, after two boys were arrested for killing four middle school classmates in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the New York Times proclaimed the death of one more journalistic rule: "News organizations once were quick to withhold the names of young people who had been charged with crimes... That self-imposed rule is now gone."
Rape victims are named. Suspects are identified before being arrested. Color photos of child abuse victims are splashed across the front page.
As society's mores evolve, the guidelines journalists use to govern themselves are changing as well. But some decisions invite disdain and anger from the public, who now rank journalists right up there with lawyers and used car salesmen.
What should editors do in such situations? The answer is not to play it safe, say journalists and media experts, but rather to explain to readers and viewers the rationale for potentially inflammatory decisions. If it's clear that a news organization has thought through the ramifications of its actions, it's much more likely that people will respect the ultimate decision even if they don't agree with it.
"We've all had to make decisions we knew were going to tick people off. It's not a matter of breaking the rules, but of being conscious that our role in society will discomfit people often,"
says James M. Naughton, former executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer and now president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. "Sometimes the discomfit will be widespread or so severe that we should slap ourselves and say, 'Do we really want to do this?' If the answer is yes, then we need to do it and give additional explanation to readers."
On the same day the Globe ran its story on Flynn's drinking, for instance, the paper ran a sidebar explaining why it was doing so. "Any time you write about the private lives of public figures, there's going to be controversy," says Ben Bradlee Jr., the Globe's deputy managing editor for projects. Editors had lengthy discussions about the story before it ran, he adds; by publishing the explanatory sidebar, editors were acknowledging that Flynn's drinking "is a sensitive issue, and we should explain our thinking."
The Post clarified its position on using anonymous sources in a lengthy March 15 column by then-Managing Editor Robert G. Kaiser, who explained, "We realize that we strain relations with readers when we ask them, as we did in this case and many others during the past seven weeks, to trust us and our unidentified sources. But we are left in this position once we decide that our first obligation to readers is to give them as good and timely information as we can. And that is our decision, almost always. Informing the readers comes first."
But Kaiser added, "Recent reader reaction has reminded us that we can and should do more to describe how we work in difficult situations... Traditional newspaper journalism leaves insufficient room for dialogue between journalists and their readers. We have resolved to do better."
This type of openness flies in the face of long-held newsroom custom. Ethicist Michael Josephson says that "there's a school of thought in journalism that if you acknowledge questionable decisions, it destroys credibility." But in seminars with the public he has found the opposite to be true. "Every member of the public said explaining decisions enhanced credibility. People aren't shocked by questionable decisions. The biggest obstacle to credibility is arrogance, the silent assumption that 'We know what's best.' "
Almost always, the most controversial news decisions center on ethical or moral concerns. When Chicago Sun-Times Editor in Chief Nigel Wade decided to play the news of a 15-year-old Oregon boy's schoolyard shooting spree in May on pages two and three rather than page one, for example, the paper told readers that "more prominent coverage might harm or frighten vulnerable children."
When editors find themselves debating the ethics of a story or the possibility that it may disconcert or confuse readers, Josephson, founder of the Joseph & Edna Josephson Institute for Ethics in Marina Del Rey, California, encourages them to also run a sidebar reflecting the prepublication editorial dialogue. "Those tend to be a rarity," he says. Instead, explanation, if any, is more likely to appear in a weekly column written by the reader representative, ombudsman or public editor, but only 34 of the nation's approximately 1,500 dailies have such positions.
Some major metropolitan newspapers and a larger number of small town dailies have editors who write regular columns to explain not just controversial decisions but basic journalistic practices, "questions many of us in the business take for granted," says Earl Maucker, editor of Fort Lauderdale's Sun-Sentinel, whose weekly column addresses everything from the use of graphic 911 tapes to why the paper publishes so many advertisements.
Many media executives fear that public trust is eroding, and a flurry of credibility studies, forums, seminars, discussions and projects in the last year have attempted to find ways to buttress public confidence in journalists. As president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Sandra Mims Rowe, editor of Portland's Oregonian, launched one of the most comprehensive surveys of media credibility this decade, the Journalism Credibility Project. The need to explain news decisions more thoroughly to the public "came up over and over" at an ASNE-sponsored workshop last fall, says Arlene Morgan, the Philadelphia Inquirer's assistant managing editor for readership. "It really has permeated almost every conversation on credibility."
In a speech at ASNE's annual convention in Washington, D.C., in April, outgoing president Rowe singled out San Jose Mercury News Executive Editor Jerry Ceppos and Austin American-Statesman Executive Editor Rich Oppel for praise. In their columns, Ceppos and Oppel "respectfully anticipate readers' concerns and give insights into newsrooms. They don't make excuses. They're not filled with promotional fluff. They communicate standards and help demystify the institution," Rowe said.
Two years ago, Ceppos' newspaper published a photograph of a convicted killer gesturing obscenely toward clicking cameras, with an explanation of why the paper decided to run it. The paper received about 1,200 responses to the photo, two-to-one in favor of publication, says Ceppos.
The San Francisco Chronicle also ran the photo, without considering explaining the decision; nearly all 130 calls the paper received were critical, says Managing Editor Jerry Roberts. Ceppos attributes the mostly positive reaction the Mercury News received to the short explanation, which invited readers to "let us know what you think."
The Chronicle's Roberts says he would definitely consider explaining the decision to run the photo if the same situation arose today. "What we would do differently is put the question on the table: Should we explain ourselves or not?" he says. In the last year, in fact, the Chronicle has explained a series on race and photos of a mentally ill foster child. But, cautions Roberts, explaining too much "becomes a danger, a cover-your-ass device. As editors, we're getting paid for our decision making. I worry about being in a position of defending ourselves all the time."
Ceppos, too, has concerns about appearing defensive. But explaining is not the same as defending, he says. "The idea is to get past the decision and let the reader in on the process. You need to say how you got from here to there." After-the-fact editors' columns are probably less effective than explanations that accompany stories, he adds. When the Mercury News publishes articles using anonymous sources, editors explain why; when it runs stories on Microsoft, editors explain how a subsidiary of the paper's parent company, Knight Ridder, "considers itself a competitor with Microsoft because of the software company's efforts to provide news, entertainment and classified advertising content online."
Explaining to readers "how we operate and make decisions is probably the only subject in the world of journalism where there shouldn't be any controversy," Ceppos says. "People love to know how and why you make decisions. It's an easy way to get some of our credibility back."
Mercury News editors also at times have failed to anticipate reader outcry: once when the paper published a photo of a dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Somalia, another time when it ran a picture of an assassinated Mexican presidential candidate. The readers' angry response influenced the paper's subsequent decision to explain more, more often, says Mercury News Managing Editor David Yarnold. "We all learn over time," he says.
Neither did editors at the Peninsula Daily News in Port Angeles, Washington, anticipate the objections they would encounter when they published the name of a popular pediatrician suspected of – but not arrested for – smothering a newborn to death in February. A government employee tipped the paper to a state review board's investigation into the doctor's conduct and the hospital's failure to report the incident to police. No one challenged the accuracy of the story, says John Brewer, the paper's publisher. But many people questioned its ethics and demanded to know why editors published the name of a beloved local doctor suspected of such a heinous crime. The local radio and cable television station refused to reveal his name, even while covering a protest of the paper by the doctor's supporters.
Advertisers threatened to boycott, subscribers canceled, a couple of doctors tried to block Brewer's nomination to the local Rotary Club. Brewer, who believes strongly that a newspaper should "publish what you know," didn't expect "the firestorm of reaction," he says. As soon as the controversy erupted, the editor ran several columns explaining the paper's position.
"To us, it was a good, straight story, important information for the community to know," says Brewer – and a story he says he would publish again without hesitation. In the aftermath, the paper's efforts to explain its position averted an advertising boycott, minimized subscription cancellations and allowed Brewer into the Rotary Club, he says. "We got a lot of letters that said: 'Thanks for explaining, now it's clear to us.' " The only thing he would do differently next time: "If we had anticipated the cntroversy, we would have absolutely run an explanation with the story," he says, "anything to make the point clear to readers."
Sometimes editors face resistance from staff members who feel explanations are a form of opinion and have no place in the news pages. Several years ago, the Philadelphia Inquirer published a graphic photo of a Mideast terrorist attack with a cutline explaining "why we thought it was a valid photo fÊr page one," says AME Morgan. Some on the staff disagreed strenuously with publishing the explanation. "They thought our job was to report the news, not explain why we were reporting it," she recalls.
Explanations, the dissenters held, should be published by the ombudsman or on the editorial page. For the most part, Morgan agrees. "I'm for putting the news out, standing on it, and if all hell breaks loose, then explain it. If your reporting doesn't clearly explain why the story is important, maybe you should go back and look at the story." If the methods used to report the story "are so untraditional or controversial, then somehow [the reporter] has to weave that into the telling of the story."
In recent years at the Inquirer, former Editor Maxwell E.P. King recalls incorporating explanations into cutlines or stories about a half dozen times – "an explanation that was no longer than a clause, to explain what you're doing and to acknowledge that the reader is going to react." Readers upset by what they read "often feel that way because they feel left out of the process," he says. "When they know what's going on, even if they disagree, they're satisfied."
King, on sabbatical until November when he returns as associate editor, opposes a prevailing newsroom posture "that any sort of explanation weakens your position." That attitude, he says, "is one of the things that has cost us tremendously in terms of public trust." Many believe that the "father knows best" school of journalism, where editors expect the public to trust them to make the right decisions without explanation, no longer works. "People don't trust institutions in general, and they don't trust the press specifically," says Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. " 'Just shut up and trust me' may not be the best way to enhance our credibility."
?ew York Times editors have tried in the last 10 to 15 years "to be conscientious about making our actions comprehensible to readers," says Allan M. Siegal, an assistant managing editor. At the height of the media frenzy over the Clinton-Lewinsky saga, the Times published "Trust Me: A Media Guide," in which writer Jane Fritsch deflated rumors, innuendos and gossip that had passed for fact in the nation's news outlets during the previous two weeks. The paper concluded: "There are actually precious few uncontested facts in circulation," and traced the origins of the most titillating allegations to such mainstream news organizations as the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, the Washington Post – even the Times itself.
The Times uses a variety of devices to "let readers get a little closer to the reporter," says Siegal, including news analysis and reporters' and critics' notebooks. "We have a very intelligent readership, and we've always believed in treating our readers like grown-ups. We tend to level with people," he says. That way readers "know what kind of people are doing the reporting; they know how to distinguish us from Matt Drudge or Geraldo Rivera," he adds. "We have a stake in this for a bunch of reasons. Probably the most important is being believed and being differentiated from those whose standards are different from ours."
Explaining is different from apologizing, points out Diane McFarlin, executive editor of Florida's Sarasota Herald-Tribune. McFarlin recently published a sidebar to a page one report on the death of a state prison inmate, explaining why the paper had used unnamed sources in the story. "Staffs resent after-the-fact columns that read like apologies," she says. Instead, McFarlin tries to anticipate readers' questions by "facing them head-on at the time." That approach, she says, has "been well-received by the staff."
Television journalists explain controversial ?ews decisions only in the most extreme or unusual circumstances, say media critics. But one notable exception occurred in April when Jim Lehrer, anchor of PBS' "NewsHour," explained to viewers he had decided to stop using legal reporter Stuart Taylor o? the program because Taylor's commentaries in other media "have caused some blurring of the lines and some confusion about his role with us." In a column about Lehrer's explanation, Los Angeles Times TV critic Howard Rosenberg called it "almost unthinkable in an industry where even news stars are dismissed without viewers being told."
"I wasn't doing it to break new ground," says Lehrer. "Some people don't like the explanation, so you're inviting heat, but that's fine." Viewers "might not agree," he adds. "But at least they have an explanation."
Television news organizations generally have no regular ombudsmen or media reporters "who might turn the spotlight on themselves," says Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post's media writer and cohost of CNN's "Reliable Sources," where he interviews news decision makers "to talk about why they did what they did."
Though "Reliable Sources" has criticized CNN and founder Ted Turner on a number of occasions, he says, "not all news organizations want to grant journalists that freedom." And that, he says, "is a phenomenally dumb decision. Opening up to criticism actually helps your credibility. People see you're willing to take your lumps while you dole them out to everybody else.
"News organizations who hide behind their PR people are demonstrating to readers and viewers that they consider themselves beyond scrutiny. The public is aware of the double standard, and it's one of the factors that drives public anger at the media."
espite the efforts of a few, in general "the press doesn't do a good job of explaining itself, for a variety of complicated reasons," says Rosenstiel.
Editors cite fears of seeming defensive, a lack of time, deadline pressure, space constraints, an inability to predict how the public will react, and the possibility that too much reflection might lead to inaction or self-censorship. "If you start to codify the rules, before you know it, 55 people will tell you you violated your own rule," Rosenstiel says. "Plaintiffs' attorneys then use those rules to sue you."
Nevertheless, in Rosenstiel's view explaining news decisions is one part of a larger strategy news organizations can use to bolster credibility, and ultimately, readership.
"Knowing what and who you are, what you stand for," he says, "thinking really hard about how to put it into practice and then explaining it to the public, that's the recipe for good journalism and a successful enterprise."


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John J. Miller cites with approval his children's remarks on last night's speech:
My favorite lines weren't uttered by the president, but by my kids. Just as the speech was beginning, my three-year-old daughter informed me that "The president man has to catch some bad guys." She apparently thinks George Bush is some kind of superhero who will remove his suit Klark Kent-style, fly over to Iraq, and physically take care of that supervillain Saddam. My slightly more sophisticated son, age five, saw NBC flash to a view of American soldiers in Kuwait watching the president's address. His comment: "Those are the good guys!" Right on, kids.
Well, since the kids have already matched the most sophisticated analysis to be found on The Corner, can they at least can Golberg and Derbyshire and give the Millers columns?
Ugh. Too revolted for anything but sarcasm right now. More later.


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New Amsoil OE 10W-30 Synthetic Diesel Oil has been added to the company's OE line, offering high-quality protection and performance for manufacturer-recommended drain intervals at a very attractive price point, the company said Sept. 5.
The new formulation provides outstanding fuel economy benefits for applications requiring an SAE 30 or 10W-30 diesel oil, company spokesmen said. The new addition OE 10W-30 Synthetic Diesel Oil is API CJ-4 licensed and suitable for modern and older, on- and off-road diesel applications.
"It is an excellent entry-level product for customers who want to move up to synthetic quality, but won't pay a significantly higher price than a conventional oil or aren't initially interested in extending their drain intervals," the company stated.
Benefits include:
• Meets emission system requirements
• Extreme-temperature performance
• Resists oil consumption and emissions, and
• Controls soot-thickening and wear.
Amsoil OE 10W-30 Synthetic Diesel Oil is recommended for diesel engines and, where appropriate, gasoline engines requiring any of the following specifications:
• API licensed CJ-4/SN; ACEA E9; Cummins CES 20081; MB 228.31; CAT ECF-3, ECF-2, ECF-1-a; Mack EO-O; Volvo VDS-4, VDS-3; MAN 3575; Renault RLD-3 and MTU Type 2.1.
Amsoil has been the recognized leader in synthetic lubrication since 1972. For more information about Amsoil synthetic motor oils contact the nearest Amsoil distributor, or call them at (715) 392-7101 or (800) 777-8491. Or, go to www.amsoil.com.
The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Find more news and analysis from The Trucker, and share your thoughts, on Facebook.


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>As per our Operating Guidelines, to start work we need one (or more) >Editor, Prototypist, and a Quality Assurer. You can definitely count on the build.phonegap.com crew for prototypes! I can liaison between the dev. team and the list once we agree on something.Received on Monday, 5 December 2011 18:54:14 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 19:46:09 UTC


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The United Motors V2S 250R is mechanically similar to the Hyosung Comet GT250R
Based in Miami, in the US, United Motors (set up by the Villegas family more than 50 years ago) look like they're getting ready to hit the big time this year. The company had signed an 11-year agreement with Hyosung, of Korea, back in 2005 and this involves the distribution of Hyosung motorcycles in North America.
While Hyosung will also continue to sell the same bikes through their independent dealership network in the US, United Motors are putting their own colour schemes and graphics on Hyosung bikes and selling those alongside UM's own sub-200cc machines!
The bikes which United Motors are sourcing from Hyosung are 650cc and 250cc v-twin powered sportsbikes and cruisers. New for 2007 is the fully faired, 70bhp, V2S 650R, which is pegged at US$5,999 and the fully faired, 30bhp, V2S 250R, which goes for US$3,699. For those who like cruisers, there's also the V2C 650S, which actually looks a bit like a Harley V-Rod but costs only US$6,399. And get this – while Hyosung only offer a two-year warranty on their bikes, United Motors actually offer a three-year warranty on what are essentially the same bikes!
United Motors claim that they'll soon be launching a liquid-cooled 450cc engine (all the Hyosung v-twins are air-and-oil-cooled) that'll power their off-road bikes. And in 2008, the company will also start redesigning the Hyosung bikes' bodywork, headlamps, taillamps and other small bits.
For more details, visit the United Motors website here
And this is the V2C 650S cruiser...
Also see:
Hyosung Comet GT250 mods
2007 Hyosung TrendKiller and GT650X
Get ready for Chinese bikes!
Get ready for Indian bikes!
...but Italian bikes are still the most beautiful!