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Mexican finance minister resigns amid Trump scandal
Pena Nieto said he had accepted Videgaray's resignation and replaced him with social development minister Jose Antonio Meade, a former foreign and finance minister.
Flanked by both men at the presidential residence of Los Pinos, Pena Nieto praised Videgaray as a public servant who has been "committed to Mexico and loyal to the president."
The Mexican leader made no mention of reports that Videgaray played a crucial role in setting up Trump's August 31 meeting with Pena Nieto, which drew widespread scorn because of the Republican candidate's anti-immigrant rhetoric.
The president's approval rating has since sunk to 23 percent, according to one poll.
The Washington Post, citing Mexicans familiar with the deliberations, reported last week that Videgaray was a leading advocate for the sit-down at Los Pinos, serving as the behind-the-scenes liaison with Trump's campaign.
An economist who earned a doctorate from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Videgaray saw the meeting as a political risk worth taking in case Trump was elected, the Post said.
But the visit backfired on the president, with Mexicans voicing outrage that a US politician who has branded Mexican migrants as "rapists" would get such a prestigious invitation.
More than 88 percent of Mexicans expressed displeasure over Trump's visit, according to a survey by the Mitofsky polling firm.
Pena Nieto told Milenio television this week that he took the decision to invite Trump, and that "nobody recommended it to me."
– Trump's 'political cost' –
Speaking later at the finance ministry, Videgaray thanked Pena Nieto, hailing his "great generosity as a human being and, above all, his great patriotism."
A long-time aide, Videgaray managed Pena Nieto's presidential campaign in 2012.
Luis Carlos Ugalde, director general of the consultancy Integralia Consultores, said Videgaray's resignation could be linked to the Trump visit.
"I suppose it has to do with the fact that the political cost for the president has been very high," he said.
Videgaray's role compromised his ability to negotiate the budget with the Congress this week, he added.
Meade, who served as foreign minister for Pena Nieto and finance minister under former president Felipe Calderon, defended Trump's visit in a newspaper interview published prior to Videgaray's resignation.
"It was useful for the country," he told El Universal.
Trump said at a joint news conference after his meeting with Pena Nieto that his demand that Mexico pay for a wall along the US border had not been discussed.
Criticized for not challenging Trump in front of cameras, Pena Nieto later said that he had privately told the brash New York real estate tycoon that his government would not pay for a wall.
Pena Nieto has defended his decision to meet Trump as necessary to open dialogue with someone who could possibly become his counterpart in the United States after the November election.
The president also invited Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who declined this week.
– Other scandal –
Videgaray's departure comes with the economy not performing as well as hoped, shrinking by 0.3 percent in the second quarter, while the peso has dropped against the dollar.
He was also ensnared in another scandal, over his purchase of a home from a government contractor.
The same contractor had sold a mansion to Pena Nieto's wife, the former soap opera star Angelica Rivera, raising questions about conflicts of interest.
Although an investigation led by the minister for public administration cleared Videgaray and Pena Nieto of wrongdoing last year, critics questioned the probe because it was conducted by someone the president had picked.
Scandals aside, Videgaray was known as the "intellectual architect" of a series of major structural reforms Pena Nieto drove through Congress, Ugalde said.
"In his handling of the economy, there are mixed points of view," he said. "Some say he did well, others say the debt has increased."
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përshëndetje skeptics,
I have recently started to read Richard Dawkins' book, The Greatest Show on Earth, in Which Dawkins summates all the evidence available for evolution, and puts it in a book, trying as best as possible to explain evolution to somebody who does not agree with it. It is a very interesting book to read, with plenty of interesting examples from nature and analogies, which have enhanced my knowledge of evolution and how to explain it to others.
While I was reading, I came across an analogy which I just had to hear, which answers a question often raised in rebuttal to evolution. When talking with a creationist, the idea that genetic diversity cannot occur often comes up (in contrast to the genetic diversity of the human species from just 2 humans? But that's another story). They say that in a population, genetic diversity cannot occur. They make an analogy with genes as paint. If you take a species, which ranges in colour from red to blue, and you go about procreating, every time you mix two animals, you will only get closer and closer to purple, and genetic diversity will shrink. Eventually, all you will be left with is purple. How can evolution happen if it works like that.
Dawkins argues that evolution does not work like this. In fact, it works quite differently. He proposes that instead of mixing paint, it is best to imagine evolution as shuffling cards. This is how evolution works, and the evidence is right in front of us.
By imagining evolution as card shuffling, it is much easier to get the idea of evolution. Instead of animals being created by mixing of paint, it is more like they are having two decks of cards shuffled together. In this way, instead of just ending up with a disgusting purple mess, you end up with the world as it is today.
This can be used to explain our tweaking of the canine species. Say for some reason a breeder wants to lengthen the tail of Labradors. When he does it, he picks the Labradors which have the most 'long tail' genes (cards), and goes about creating a new species. By isolating these dogs with longer tails from the dogs with shorter tails, you can ensure that more and more 'long tail' cards remain in the sub-species every time you shuffle the deck.
The logic behind this 'shuffling and re-ordering', as opposed to mixing, is actually pretty clear and is presented to us roughly every 5 seconds. When you breed a man and a woman together, one who subscribes to the 'mixing' analogy would expect the baby to come out as a hermaphrodite. Instead, this doesn't happen, we get either a boy or a girl. This is just the mixing of a deck of 1 card. With one card having M on it, and one card having F on it.
Now, imagine this happening with the whole genetic code. Instead of just the one gene for gender (gender isn't determined by genes, but it makes no difference to the analogy), you have this going on with every single gene in the code. When a baby is being 'made', this process will be occurring. Take a single gene in the code. If the mother has gene A, and the father has gene B, the baby will not have a mixture of A and B as their gene, they will get either 'A', or 'B'. This happens all along the code.
Hopefully, I've done a good job at explaining this analogy, and haven't butchered it. That's all, by shuffling of cards, not mixing paint, with occasional cards falling out of the deck, or 2 being stuck together and coming apart due to plenty of shuffling, you get evolution.

subset: commoncrawl


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Matic had as much to do with this as anybody, and it's most likely worth bearing in mind that Mourinho was being connected with Eric Dier for the majority of the summer since he initially imagined the Serb would be off limits. "Generally I do not like to pursue impossible targets," the United manager clarified before the West Ham game. "There is not any point being seen to make moves for players you can't get. I could see when I came that we had a participant that is Matic-type, but there aren't many and I didn't believe Matic would move. Mourinho didn't need asking twice. Matic had been a Chelsea player who had fought to find a look-in that was first-team. He had been sold to Benfica in 2011 as part of the deal that brought David Luiz to London, and it's a measure of how highly he had been rated by Mourinho that when the manager returned for another spell at Stamford Bridge among the first things he did was buy him back. So Chelsea couldn't have been amazed by Mourinho's continuing admiration for the midfielder. "He's one of the signings you can create where there are no question marks," Mourinho said. "He isn't an inexperienced young man coming to a different country. You may trust him to carry out." sbobet casino
The sounds coming from Chelsea at the moment suggest someone in the club thought otherwise. If Matic performs through the season as impressively as he started there will be a certain quantity of humiliation at Stamford Bridge and a couple of questions. The majority of the flaws now being recorded as reasons why his selling to United made great sense -- it's been hinted that he's insufficiently mobile, ponderous on the ball and tactically stiff -- will hit Mourinho as favorable recommendations. He knew what he got, a performer who plays with an uncomplicated game and probably has enough. Matic is a 6ft 3in, ideal for the side.
Matic would appear to most eyes to have lots of shelf life left, and the possibility remains that Chelsea hasn't only strengthened a direct rival but diminished themselves. They deserve to have all their best players fit and available before being correctly judged, but they left a sloppy, inauspicious beginning and now have suspensions in addition to injuries to take care of. Some are blaming a lack of leadership on Conte, others imply Roman Abramovich could be more proactive, and the lack of clarity over who's currently making the decisions and doesn't augur well for a successful title defense. He found a solution everyone knew and took over a team. It seems the problems are back and the foggier than ever. Conte has admitted as much. Over at United, the clouds are lifting. The consensus is that Mourinho has a team capable of playing. A powerful yet stylish one. Chelsea should keep an eye on that, because.


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Freaking News
John Travolta in the Caribbean - pictures
Bobblehead Celebrities
Source Palate
2397 days ago
15 comments
high resolution picture
excellent use of source and he looks like on a weekend party... good chop in making his bottled head and the Coconut watermelon mix is great nice innovative
Congrats, Hitspinner. True the best picture in contest.
Congratulations HS. It's about time for you to hit the Winner's circle.
Yo, I just realized while looking at my stats page. This was chop #500 here at FN. Geriatric... you noticed too. Oh well, I'm back in my comfort zone and have my big puter back and running. I had so little to chop with over the last few months so the work was a bit lack-luster. Hopefully now I can keep a AAA+ production line going on these goofy buggers. Thanks HH, Icy, Wanderer, Gugu, Doc, Ariel, Rajesh, Geri and Eric.
Really good chop, congrats on the win and thanks you for your nice comment on my chop.
Gold congrats, Hitspinner.Deserved place,all composition is perfect.
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text: Published on April 20, 2017 Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Related Category: 2 Up Front Submitted by: Brew Sports No comments yet Facebook Comments Cancel reply Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Related Posts 2 Up Front – MLS Eastern Conference Preview Related 2 Up Front – NWSL opening weekend, New England Revolution: Scott Caldwell Related 2 Up Front – Rachel Wood (SheBelieves Cup) Related


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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Before his 35-mile commute through Appalachian hills to classes here at the University of Tennessee, Michael Miceli eats a gigantic breakfast. It is his way of getting through the day without spending money on a campus lunch.
Food deprivation is merely one trick Mr. Miceli uses to minimize his college debt, now creeping past $22,000. So the $300 bill he got from the university this semester — for food — sent him into a tailspin.
"I was in near panic at the thought of having to borrow more money," said Mr. Miceli, 23, a linguistics major.
For the first time this year, the University of Tennessee imposed a $300-per-semester dining fee on Mr. Miceli and about 12,000 other undergraduates, including commuters, who do not purchase other meal plans. The extra money will help finance a $177 million student union with limestone cornices, clay-tiled roofing and copper gutters, part of a campus reconstruction plan aimed at elevating the University of Tennessee to a "Top 25" public university.
Tennessee's contract with its dining vendor, Aramark, is just one example of how universities nationwide are embracing increasingly lucrative deals with giant dining contractors, who offer commissions and signing bonuses to help pay for campus improvements and academic programs. It is part of a new model of raising money through partnerships with private vendors, officials say, and with state funding for higher education still below pre-recession levels, a way to replace lost revenue.
Under its contract, which runs through 2027, Tennessee will get 14 percent of all food revenues plus $15.2 million in renovations to dining facilities.
In exchange for signing a 20-year contract that runs through 2034, the University of Virginia recently got a $70 million contribution from Aramark, based in Philadelphia — in addition to $19 million in renovations and annual commissions increasing to $19 million a year. Texas A&M announced a 10-year deal in 2012 with Chartwells, a subsidiary of the British-based Compass Group, that included a $22.7 million signing bonus and $25 million in capital investments.
Universities frequently announce the windfalls with great fanfare, but critics say the cost gets passed on to students and contributes to the expense of college. Tom Mac Dermott, a dining consultant who works with universities, said upfront payments were built into the price of the meal plans. "When you keep tacking on this stuff, the cost of the plan goes up."
President Obama mocked gourmet college food in a speech in February at Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis, suggesting that it raised college costs. And meal plan fees are increasing annually at many schools, driven partly by demands that food be locally sourced, freshly made and hormone-free.
Yet the particulars of the contracts reveal that much of the meal plan cost does not go for an individual's food. Colleges use the money to shore up their balance sheets, create academic programs and scholarships, fund special "training tables" to feed athletes, and pay for meals for prospective students touring campus.
Like many such deals, Texas A&M's agreement with Chartwells comes with a catch, Mr. Mac Dermott said. If Texas A&M wants to cancel the deal, a pro rata portion of the money must be repaid.
"Suppose the operator isn't doing well over time?" Mr. Mac Dermott said. "The university can't get rid of them. The investments are made on the guarantee that if the contract is terminated by either party, the client will return the money. That's not a gift."
But Phillip Ray, A&M's vice chancellor for business affairs, said there was no clawback if the contract were terminated for cause. "People say, 'You've signed this big deal, now they own you,' " Mr. Ray said. "Not at all. We call the shots."
In 2013, the year after A&M entered its agreement, several dining facilities there were temporarily closed by the county health department, which found rodent droppings and a roach infestation.
Other colleges have deals that offer sweeteners — renovations to the president's house, private parties catered for employees, free meals for athletic officials in exchange for free football tickets.
These arrangements, which auditors have criticized, can create revenue streams outside the normal budgeting process for funding pet projects, raising the potential of abuse.
At South Carolina State University, a historically black institution, a 2014 audit found that students paid $343 a year in "hidden costs" for food. The money was rebated to the institution by its vendor, Sodexo, a French company, partly to pay for a $5 million wellness center, which was never built. The university, under new leadership, said it has ceased the practices described.
An audit this year at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette found that the food vendor catered free parties for children of a university employee while inflating bills to the university. In a response to the audit, the university said the employee had repaid the fees.
For food vendors, one of the critical components in turning a profit is a guaranteed revenue stream.
Hofstra University on Long Island announced in 2013 that it would require a minimum buy-in from all residential students. Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., will require participation by even seniors who live in dormitories with kitchens next year, said Skyler Golann, chairman of the student dining committee.
"There's definitely been a backlash," said Mr. Golann, a sophomore from Hinesburg, Vt. Brandeis said the requirement would help pay to renovate dining halls without increasing tuition and other fees.
This is how mandatory meal plans have become a political issue, both on campus and off. The New Jersey General Assembly last year adopted a ban on mandatory meal plans, although it was never approved by the Senate.
"Some colleges were particularly egregious in requiring high-cost meal plans," said Assemblyman Joseph P. Cryan, who sponsored the legislation. Meal plans at some private schools cost more than $3,000 a semester.
The mandatory meal plans that have created the biggest controversies are those imposed on students who live off campus. One of the first protests arose in Alabama, where students at several universities sued to block the plans, but the Alabama Supreme Court ruled against them in 2011.
Danny Evans, a Birmingham lawyer for the students, said that since his lawsuit, the idea has "gone viral," spreading to other colleges. This year, in addition to the University of Tennessee, colleges ranging from Loyola New Orleans to Suffolk County Community College on Long Island — a commuter school with no dormitories — have announced mandatory commuter meal fees.
Responding to complaints, administrators said dining was important for commuters because it fostered campus community, citing studies showing that students with meal plans stay in school longer.
Administrators here at the University of Tennessee, where a $1,899-per-semester meal plan is mandatory for freshmen who live on campus, first floated the requirement that other students buy a $300-per-semester meal plan at a meeting two years ago. Grant Davis, a student who attended the meeting, at which Aramark served lobster ravioli, said, "We knew we were being greased."
Students protested the plan, garnering more than 1,000 signatures practically overnight on a petition titled "Don't Force Feed Us."
Phase 1 of the new student union building, heralded as the cornerstone of a campus transformation, opened this year, with a Chick-fil-A, Subway, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Starbucks and several other restaurants.
Students can get refunds if they do not eat the food, but experience at other schools shows that most succumb to the fast-food temptations.
Mr. Miceli, a senior from Dandridge, Tenn., intends to ask for a refund.
Even so, he said, he regards the money as a loan to the university that he could not afford.


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McNeese State 56 - 98 16Michigan State
Balanced attack sends Michigan State past McNeese StateNov 9, 2013 - 5:29 AM East Lansing, MI (SportsNetwork.com) - Gary Harris led the way with 20 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, as No. 2 Michigan State began its 2013-14 schedule with a 98-56 rout over McNeese State in the first-ever meeting between both schools.
Branden Dawson added 12 points and 12 boards for the Spartans (1-0), who haven't dropped a season opener at home since 1970. Denzel Valentine clocked in with 12 points, while Keith Appling and Travis Trice totaled 11 points each.
"I think our guys deserve some credit, even though I wouldn't give them very much," Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo said. "There are still a lot of good things."
Adreian Payne posted another double-double after pouring in 10 points and grabbing as many rebounds.
Jamaya Burr and Ledrick Eackles each contributed 11 points in defeat for the Cowboys (0-1).
Adrian Fields drained a triple and McNeese took a short-lived 13-12 advantage with 5:35 played, but it was the last for the visitors in the contest.
Harris countered with a trey to kick off a 16-3 run, ending on his two free throws with 10:26 left before halftime.
Shaun Johnston connected from long distance and Burr followed with a bucket to shrink the Cowboys' edge to seven, but the Spartans pulled away from there.
Harris and Valentine sank back-to-back shots from beyond the arc to create a 13-point spread, and Michigan State's margin eventually ballooned to 52-25 at halftime.
The Spartans scored the first 11 points of the second half before three minutes elapsed. Alex Gauna's shot pushed the hosts' margin over 40 points just over 4 1/2 minutes in and MSU cruised the rest of the way.
"There are some positive things we can take back from this, but we've got to build on this game and find out how to play with this type of caliber team," McNeese State head coach Dave Simmons said.
Game Notes
MSU next faces Kentucky in the Champions Classic on Tuesday ... The Spartans shot 51.9 percent for the contest and held the Cowboys to 27.4 percent efficiency ... Michigan State also claimed a healthy 66-29 advantage on the glass.
Nov 8 8:52 PM
Nov 8 7:44 PM
1st Half - 20:00
Nov 8 7:11 PM
Related News
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- Tom Izzo Updates The Health & Status Of Mark "ROCKET" Watts Thu
- Tom Izzo Updates On Team & Cassius Winston For #15 Spartans Thu
- An Early Prediction Michigan State Vs. Wake Forest Thu
- Michigan State to No. 1 in AP poll, Villanova drops to No. 3 Jan 1
- Ward, Bridges help No. 2 Michigan State rout Savannah State Dec 31
- For mid-majors, opportunities can feel fleeting Dec 22
- Bridges has 33, No. 2 Michigan St swats away Houston Baptist Dec 18
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- No. 2 Michigan State signs 5 players to hoops scholarships Nov 8
- Michigan State's Bridges tops AP preseason All-America team Nov 6


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The Independent Report provides an independent, non-partisan, non-ideological analysis of economic news. The Independent Report's mission is to inform its readers about the unsustainable nature of our economic system and the various stresses encumbering it: high debt levels (government, business, household); debt growth exceeding economic growth; low productivity growth; huge and persistent trade deficits; plus concurrent stock, bond and housing bubbles.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Class of 2013 Facing Considerable Challenges Ahead
This spring, millions of college students across the country are celebrating the annual rite of commencement. They will leave behind their textbooks, classrooms and weekend beer bashes to begin seeking full-time employment.
Yet, even as they are graduating into the adult world, many of them will end up unemployed and living back at home with their parents. As of 2011, 45 percent of recent college graduates were living with family instead of on their own. And a full 61 percent more college-educated 18-34-year-olds were living with their families in 2011 than in 2001.
Last year, the number of 18- to 30-year-olds living with their parents grew to 20.7 million, a 3.9 percent gain from 2010.
The struggle to find work is driving this so-called "Boomerang Generation" back home with their parents instead of striking out on their own to begin an independent adulthood.
As of this time last year, 53 percent of recent college grads (those under age 25) were unemployed or under-employed (working in jobs that don't require a bachelor's degree), according to the Associated Press (AP).
It's clear that not much has changed in the past year and the class of 2013 will be facing similarly stark prospects as they compete with other recent graduating classes for full-time employment.
As the AP notes, recent graduates are now more likely to work as "waiters, waitresses, bartenders and food-service helpers than as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined."
The fact that so many young college graduates can only find employment in such low-paying jobs is particularly troubling since student loan debt has reached $1 trillion dollars, eclipsing credit card debt for the first time in American history. It is the new American credit bubble. Yet, the problem appears poised to worsen.
Last fall, a record 21.6 million students were expected to attend American colleges and universities, constituting an increase of about 6.2 million since fall 2000, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
Record college enrollments have been driven in part by both increases in the traditional college age population and rising enrollment rates. Between 2000 and 2010, the 18- to 24-year-old population rose from approximately 27.3 million to approximately 30.7 million. Meanwhile, the percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds enrolled in college also was higher in 2010 (41.2 percent) than in 2000 (35.5 percent).
Unfortunately, all those millions of students are piling up a whole lot of debt.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, student debt has grown dramatically over the last decade — some 43 percent of Americans under the age of 25 had student debt in 2012, with the average debt burden now $20,326. By contrast, back in 2003, just 25 percent of younger Americans had debt, and the average burden was $10,649.
For the 2010–11 academic year, the average annual price for undergraduate tuition, fees, room, and board was $13,564 at public institutions (including $5,076 for in-state tuition) and $32,026 at private, not-for-profit and for-profit institutions.
College tuition and fees have surged 1,120 percent since records began in 1978 — four times faster than the increase in the consumer price index.
Cumbersome tuition debt has put young graduates at a significant disadvantage when they are attempting to begin their adult lives. Large student loan debts delay their ability to create families, buy a first home, or start businesses.
Recent college grads are confronted by the double-whammy of huge tuition debts (which many of them will carry for at least a decade) and the prospects of low-paying jobs — assuming they can find one at all. Servicing student loan debt with a low-wage job is the sort of thing that drives young graduates back home to live with their parents and it is limiting household formation.
The household growth rate was cut by two-thirds between 2007 and 2010 compared to the previous 10 years, according to the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank. The downturn was directly related to poor economic conditions and it occurred despite the fact that the population was steadily increasing each year. This has negatively affected the housing market, as lower household formation rates reduce housing demand.
Americans under age 30 face a startling unemployment rate of approximately 12%, and many of them have college degrees. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for Americans ages 16–24 stands at 16.2 percent, more than double the national rate of unemployment.
However, young people who can't find jobs aren't the only ones facing a struggle. Those fortunate enough to be employed are suffering from falling wages.
Between 2000 and 2011, the real (inflation-adjusted) wages of young college graduates declined by 5.4 percent. For those with only a high school diploma, the wage decline was even worse over that period, falling 11.1 percent.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, young college grads were earning an average of $16.60 an hour in 2012, while young high school grads were making an average of $9.48 an hour.
Many of those fortunate enough to be employed are working at jobs well below their education level that don't require a college degree. It's no wonder that many young people have begun to question the value of a college education.
According to government projections released in March of 2012, only three of the 30 occupations with the largest projected number of job openings by 2020 will require a bachelor's degree or higher to fill the position — teachers, college professors and accountants. Most job openings are in professions such as retail sales, fast food and truck driving — jobs that aren't easily replaced by computers.
None of this is good for the economy or the future of our country.
According to the Census, the number of Americans under the age of 25 with at least a bachelor's degree has grown 38 percent since 2000. Yet, not nearly enough jobs have been created to accommodate them, which has resulted in the falling wages young college graduates have endured over the past decade, as well as the perennial employment problems we're now confronting.
When a college grad is unemployed for a long stretch, or working in a low-wage job that doesn't require a college degree, it hurts future employment prospects. Trying to explain long employment gaps on one's resume to a potential employer can be difficult. Worst of all, it can have long lasting economic consequences, restricting income for the rest of one's working life.
According to a new analysis by the Center for American Progress, the nation's stubborn unemployment problem will cost young Americans a staggering $21.4 billion in earnings over the next decade.
Sadly, the joy and ebullience associated with graduation may be short-lived for many of this year's college graduates, as it was for each of the classes that graduated into an uncertain world since the Great Recession scarred this nation.
This year's class will enter adulthood burdened by high student loan debts, poor job prospects and low wages. That will keep many of them from forming their own households and participating in the broader economy in the way that previous generations of college grads did.
Instead, many in the class of 2013 will be returning to their parents' houses in what will feel like their high school years all over again. Many will surely question why they bothered incurring so much school debt in recent years, debt that will undoubtedly hinder them for many years to come.
Worst of all, their job prospects may not be all that better than their peers who didn't go to college, which will make servicing hefty school loans all the more challenging.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
The Regrettable History of the Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve is the country's most powerful financial institution. Yet, most Americans have little, if any, knowledge about what the Federal Reserve System is, or what it does.
The Fed, as it is commonly referred to, was conceived in secrecy in 1910 by a group of powerful bankers. The group then used their power, wealth and influence to get the Federal Reserve System codified into law by Congress three years later.
On December 22, 1913 the Federal Reserve Act, the bill creating the Federal Reserve System, was passed by Congress. It was then signed into law by President Wilson the very next day. At that moment, a banking cartel was empowered by law and given the exclusive franchise to create our nation's money supply.
What may surprise many people is that the Federal Reserve isn't federal at all. It is not part of the federal government. Rather, it is a private corporation with stockholders. It should be of little surprise that the Fed's seat of power is New York, home of the giant Wall St. banks that have run it from the beginning.
In 1910, a group of New York bankers, along with some key Washington politicians, met in secret on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia to hammer out the terms for what would become America's central bank.
Senator Nelson Aldrich, the Republican whip in the Senate, was among the group. Aldrich was the father-in-law of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and later became the grandfather of Nelson Rockefeller, our former vice-president.
Aldrich was joined by Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Abraham Andrew, who later became a Congressman.
And there were the five powerful and influential bankers in attendance.
Frank Vanderlip was there. He was the President of the National City Bank of New York, which was the largest of all the banks in America, representing the financial interests of William Rockefeller and the international investment firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Company.
Henry Davison was there, the senior partner of the J. P. Morgan Company. Charles Norton was also there; he was the President of the First National Bank of New York which was another one of the giants. Benjamin Strong was at the meeting; he was the head of J. P. Morgan's Banker's Trust Company. Three years later, Strong would become the first head of the Federal Reserve System.
Finally, there was Paul Warburg, who was probably the most important person at the meeting because of his knowledge of banking as it was practiced in Europe.
Warburg, one of the wealthiest men in the world, was born in Germany and eventually became a naturalized American citizen. He was a partner in Kuhn, Loeb & Company and was a representative of the Rothschild banking dynasty in England and France. His brother, Max Warburg, with whom he maintained a very close working relationship throughout his entire career, was the head of the Warburg banking consortium in Germany and the Netherlands.
These seven men sat around a table on Jekyll Island and created the Federal Reserve System, which has now been in existence for 100 years. Represented at the meeting were the Morgans, the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds and the Warburgs. Though they were all competitors, they formed an alliance on on Jekyll Island — a banking cartel.
To be clear, a cartel is a coalition or cooperative arrangement between parties intended to promote a mutual interest. The purpose is to reduce or eliminate competition between themselves to maintain high prices, enhance profit margins, and secure their market share.
Why did they meet in secrecy? Writing in the Saturday Evening Post on February 9, 1935, banker Frank Vanderlip gave this reasoning:
"If it were to be exposed publicly that our particular group had gotten together and written a banking bill, that bill would have no chance whatever of passage by Congress."
Apparently, the bankers knew the public would be shocked to learn that the Federal Reserve is not, in fact, federal. It is a system of 12 private banks and its name was chosen by the bankers that created it to persuade the public that it is part of the government. But it is not. In fact, the Federal Reserve has private shareholders.
The board of directors and chairman of the Federal Reserve System are appointed by the US President. So the Fed is a hybrid; it is a private corporation that has been empowered by the government to determine monetary policy. But once the president chooses the directors and the chairman, he has no further control. The Fed was designed to be autonomous. It has authority over itself. It can set interest rates and create money out of nothing, according to its own discretion.
Aside from the fact that the Federal Reserve isn't federal, it also has no reserves. The Fed simply creates money out of thin air and then loans it out at interest — at a rate dictated by the Fed. Setting interest rates and regulating the money supply are both functions of monetary policy, which is solely determined by the Fed.
The Fed routinely increases the money supply in an effort to spur a low, stable rate of inflation. As a general rule, the Fed seeks an inflation rate of 2 percent annually. However, at that rate, the dollar would lose 20 percent of its value in the span of a decade.
The Fed claims that inflation spurs economic growth and prosperity. However, inflation devalues the purchasing power of money, which hurts everyone. Inflation is detrimental to savers, to people who work for a living, and to those on fixed incomes, such a seniors.
Since money continually loses value, inflation compels people to spend money rather than save it. The Fed would argue that this stimulates the economy. At times when the rate of inflation is higher than interest rates (such as now), people and corporations are encouraged to take on more debt and spend money before its purchasing power erodes further. But this just encourages debt bubbles, malinvestment and imprudent spending.
Then, when the economy subsequently crashes, the Fed prints even more money as a means of solving the problem it created in the first place by printing too much money.
Even when a corporation has enough of its own capital to pay for a new project, instead of borrowing from a bank, the Fed's extraordinarily low interest rates can compel the corporation to borrow. Cheap money can be very enticing. Banks don't like private capital formation; they want to lend money. It's their business after all.
When it comes to lending, there's no better customer than the government itself.
That's the reason a group of ultra-powerful bankers persuaded Congress to codify their scheme into law; they were able to form a banking cartel that is empowered by the government. US law protects the banking cartel and Congress uses it for its own interests; namely, to fund deficit spending.
As history repeatedly shows, one sure-fire way to promote deficit spending is through warfare. Central banking got its start in Europe, where powerful bankers first persuaded the continent's kings to grant them legal sanction for their activities. The European central banks quickly became the primary funders for the continent's frequent and widespread wars.
Warfare provides a need for immense borrowing and therefore provides banking corporations with huge profits in the form of interest income. It's said that bankers are on both sides of every war. That way, they never lose.
The government primarily raises money for its budget through taxes. But year after year, decade after decade, Congress spends more than it receives. So, it turns to the bond market to raise the difference and meet its desired spending level.
Individuals, financial institutions and foreign governments lend money to the US government by purchasing Treasury bonds, notes and bills. But when there aren't enough buyers, the Federal Reserve simply creates money out of thin air so that it can buy government debt. This is called "monetizing the debt."
Through this means, the government can access any amount of money without having to justify raising taxes, the sort of thing that rarely wins elections.
The Fed also buys government bonds from the banks with its freshly created money. The banks then loan this conjured money to businesses and individuals and collect interest on it. It's a pretty sweet deal.
The problem is that all of this freshly created money flowing into the economy dilutes and devalues all of the existing money in our wallets, purses and bank accounts. This is the process of inflation, which is reflected as rising prices. But prices aren't really rising; the value of our money is falling.
When money is simply created out of thin air, it leads to continually diminished purchasing power for everyone. Prices keep going up because the value of money keeps going down. The Fed has created trillions of dollars in just the last few years.
Here's some food for thought: a dollar in 1913 buys about nine cents worth of goods today. That's what the Fed has done to our money.
The ones who gain from this process are the banks that collect interest on the Fed's funny money. The Big Banks are also in a position to gain because they have full purchasing power the instant this fresh money is created. As soon as they spend it, or loan it to businesses and individuals — in other words, as soon as this money enters the economy — it becomes diluted.
Inflation can be thought of as a tax. Little by little, you surrender your money. And since there are no write-offs, exemptions or deductions, inflation falls most heavily on the poor, those on fixed incomes and retirees.
When trillions of dollars are being created by the Fed (as is the case today), all that money must be channeled into the economy. To create demand for all this new money, the Fed lowers interest rates, encouraging businesses and individuals to borrow. All new money is loaned into existence. That's how the Big Banks are in a position to gain; they collect interest on money created out of nothing.
In an inflationary environment, everyone is encouraged to borrow and spend as quickly as possible before money loses more buying power. Borrowers can then pay off their loans with depreciated money, which seems like a winning proposition. But the underlying reality is that their money has been steadily, continually losing value. There's no good way to spin that.
All of this monetary manipulation, or stimulation, leads to a business cycle in which booms are inevitably followed by busts. In those downturns, servicing all the debt undertaken during the booms becomes difficult to impossible. The housing bust is a perfect example of this.
During these busts, or crashes, people end up losing assets to the banks that lent them money created out of nothing in the first place. It's an incredible racket.
At this point, you may be asking, Don't banks make loans with deposited money? Yes, but there isn't nearly enough savings in the US to support our borrowing. For decades, we've borrowed more than we've saved. But the Fed doesn't worry about that anyway. When Fed officials make up their minds to create more money and inject it into the economy, the amount of existing savings hardly enters their calculations.
The group of bankers that created the Fed — along with their political backers who enabled them — used economic stability as their reasoning for creating the Federal Reserve System.
The reality is that, far from creating economic stability, the Fed has a long history of creating instability. The Fed is the reason for our boom and bust cycles, our economic expansions and contractions, our continual recessions. Nor has the Fed prevented bank failures, which was one of the reasons given for its creation. The FDIC closed 465 failed banks from 2008 to 2012 alone.
Since its inception in 1913, the Federal Reserve System has presided over the crashes of 1921 and 1929, the Great Depression of 1929-1939 and recessions in 1945, 1949, 1953, 1958, 1960-'61, 1969-'70, 1973-'75, 1980, 1981-'82, 1990-'91, 2001 and 2007-'09. That's a total of 12 recessions from 1945 to 2009.
The country still hasn't fully recovered from the Great Recession, which ended, officially at least, in June 2009.
During these crashes, the banks invariably get into trouble when borrowers are unable to service their loans. In these instances, the Big Banks turn to the government for a bailout. The small, local and regional banks are allowed to go belly up, or are bought out by their competitors. But the Big Banks are deemed "too big to fail" and are bailed out at taxpayer expense.
The thinking is that these Big Banks are systemically linked and therefore critical to the nation's economy. We're told that chaos would ensue of the natural process of capitalism (survival of the fittest) were to play itself out. So, instead we have a socialized system in which the taxpayers are forced to pick up the tab for the Big Banks' egregious behavior. We've witnessed this on a grand scale since the Wall St. crash in 2008.
Profits are privatized; losses are socialized.
The Fed's policies aren't just bad for America; they're detrimental to the world. Since the dollar is the world's reserve currency (meaning that it is used to settle trade accounts around the globe), trillions of dollars are held overseas by foreigners and their governments. The Fed also trades currencies with other nations, sending even more dollars overseas.
So, when the Fed inflates our currency and devalues the dollar, people around the world — even in the poorest of nations — suffer for it. But since so many of the dollars already in existence are overseas, this saves Americans from the worst effects of inflation. All of the US currency outside the country doesn't dilute the money supply as much as it would if all our money stayed here at home.
If, or when, that money starts returning to the US in large sums — buying American real estate, products and/or services — the inflationary effects will be enormous.
Ultimately, there is nothing good that comes of the Federal Reserve and its actions. There is no labor involved in the creation of money. It's as easy a few simple keystrokes on a Federal Reserve computer. The Big Banks are getting this fresh money at virtually zero interest and then loaning it to the public. They are profiting from invented, or conjured, money.
The Big Banks use their gains, in turn, to acquire power, politicians, media outlets and the like. In essence, they are buying influence — if not outright control — of our country.
Our nation derives no value from the Fed. To the contrary, it is undermining this country in a myriad of ways.
Sunday, May 05, 2013
U.S. Homeland Security Spending Tops $791 Billion Since 9/11
FRONTLINE recently aired a revealing documentary called "Top Secret America" about the expansion of the US security, defense and intelligence apparatus since the 9/11 attacks. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent, with very questionable results. In exchange, Americans have surrendered many of their privacy rights.
In the aftermath of Sept. 11th, 2001, the US government initiated the largest covert action program since the height of the Cold War; some in the CIA say it was the biggest ever. And the entire program has been shrouded in secrecy.
The National Security Agency (NSA) created a global electronic dragnet capable of reaching into America's communication networks, capturing 1.7 billion intercepts every day. The amount of information coming in from all over the world is overwhelming, so the NSA turned to private contractors to help them wage their covert war.
The NSA spent billions of dollars on more than 480 private companies, including CACI, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrup Grumman and Boeing. Exactly how much money the NSA was spending in the years after 9/11 is one of the government's most closely guarded secrets. The agency's budget, like its work, is a state secret.
Despite the enormous spending on intelligence gathering, there have been repeated and considerable failures.
No WMDs were ever discovered in Iraq. Consequently, the 9/11 commission suggested that the US should have a director of intelligence to make sure that all the different agencies would share their information, be efficient and avoid overlaps.
Soon after, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) was established to oversee America's $80 billion intelligence community.
The DNI headquarters now occupies 500,000 square feet of some of the priciest real estate in the Washington area. It's the size of five Wal-Marts stacked on top of one another.
In 2009, the massive Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began construction of their new $3.4 billion headquarters. It will rival the Pentagon as the largest government complex ever built in Washington. And DHS has continued a nationwide spending spree, sending billions of dollars to state and local police. The DHS funded high-tech terrorism centers around the country. Every state has at least one. There are 74 in total.
Yet, there are questions about its effectiveness.
"You can look, if you're objective, at all of this money and all of this effort and say, 'What would have happened if we hadn't done that?", asks Richard Clarke, White House Terrorism Advisor from 1998-2001. "And in almost every case, nothing would have happened. It's true that there hasn't been another attack. It's not true that all of this expenditure and all these people have stopped it."
The Counterterrorism Center, alone, gets 5,000 pieces of information every day. This means that each day they are looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Despite all of this information and all of the billions spent, US intelligence didn't pick up on the "underwear bomber" that tried to blow up a Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam at Christmas of 2009. Nor did it discover the Times Square bomber five months later, or the Boston Marathon bombers in 2013.
"We're all very glad that bin Laden has finally been caught, but it was a handful of people," says Richard Clarke. "It wasn't this enormous, bloated, tens of thousands of people apparatus that we've set up. It was a small, highly-skilled, highly dedicated group of intelligence analysts. That's who found him. Not all of these contractors, not these giant agencies and giant centers."
There are close to a million people fighting America's shadowy War on Terror. Their numbers rival the active Army.
Looking at over a decade's worth of federal budget material, the National Priorities Project has calculated the total amount the U.S. government has allocated for homeland security since 9/11 at more than $791 billion.
"Every year, three dozen entirely new federal organizations, 1,900 private companies, billions and billions of dollars of waste, 17,000 locations ─ these are gigantic edifices that are going to stay here," says Dana Priest, author of Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State. "This world is growing up behind a black wall."
The question is this: has all of this massive spending, all of this snooping and all of this secrecy, made us any safer? And what have we surrendered as a society along the way?
Journalist and columnist Glenn Greenwald, a former constitutional and civil rights litigator, makes some very salient points about government secrecy:
The surveillance state destroys the notion of privacy, which is the area in which human creativity and dissent and challenges to orthodoxy all reside. The way things are supposed to work is we're supposed to know everything that the government does with rare exception. That's why they're called the public sector. And they're supposed to know almost nothing about us, which is why we're private individuals — unless there's evidence that we've committed a crime. This has been completely reversed, so that we know almost nothing about what the government does. It operates behind this impenetrable wall of secrecy, while they know everything about what it is we're doing, with whom we're speaking and communicating, what we're reading. And this imbalance, this reversal of transparency and secrecy and the way things are supposed to work, has really altered the relationship between the citizenry and the government in very profound ways...
What history shows is that when governments are able to surveil people in the dark, generally the greatest outcome is that they abuse that power and it becomes tyrannical. If you talk to anybody who came from Eastern Europe, they'll tell you that the reason we left is because society's become deadened and soulless, when citizens have no privacy. And it's a difficult concept to understand, why privacy is so crucial, but people understand it instinctively. They put locks on their bedroom doors, not for security, but for privacy. They put passwords on their email accounts, because people know that only when you can engage in behavior without being watched is that where you can explore, where you can experiment, where you can engage in creative thinking, in creative behavior. A society that loses that privacy is a society that becomes truly conformist. And I think that's the real danger...
Secrecy is the linchpin of abuse of government power. If people are able to operate in the dark, it is not likely or probable, but inevitable, that they will abuse their power. It's just human nature. And that's been understood for as long as politics has existed. That transparency is really the only guarantee that we have for checking those who exercise power.
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The diagnostic laboratory at Zydus Hospital is equipped with some of the most advanced and state of the art equipment, which ensures timely and accurate results. The department offers 24*7 services to provide blood transfusions and a range of testing facilities, including biochemistry, haematology microbiology, serology etc.
Our pathologists are dedicated professionals and experts who provide trusted diagnostic services. The staff of the Clinical Laboratory is committed to exceptional service for every patient sample that entrusted to us.


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# 2 We'll get you !
The kids have been admiring our number 2 pinata all week. Today we filled it with candy ( tricky way to get the rest of that Halloween candy out of my house ) and we took turns taking 2 swings until it busted. Finally , we let our friend Nolan hit it until it bust ! SO much fun and learning at the same time. After it was opened and we all scrambled for the candy, we we allowed to eat 2 pieces.. just two. I said one but Mr. Randy reminded me that we were talking about the number two , so….
and now for Friday flicks ! One video was taken on our walk as Mrs. Jody helped Malia count out ten leaves. Most kids can count to ten but being able to count out ten objects is all together different – and more important ! The second video is of an impromptu doctors office set up and some conversation there. ( I think this was initiated by Audrey who had a new little brother born on Monday. )


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At noon on Oct. 6th, in Nashville, TN, over 200 protestors gathered at Legislative Plaza to hold the first rally of the Occupy Nashville movement, a branch of the Occupy Wall Street movement that has been making headlines in recent weeks. At the rally there was a very diverse crowd of people ranging from libertarians to socialists to anarchists holding signs with phrases including "End the Fed," "Tax the rich," and "End corporate welfare," while chanting slogans such as "we are the 99%" and "the people united will never be defeated."
At the rally, YAL@VU volunteers distributed copies of The Morality of Capitalism while one member held up this sign:
Around 2PM, the protestors moved to the front steps of the Nashville branch of the Federal Reserve where several members of the crowd began speeches on inflationary tactics used by the Fed to prop up the economy.
Around 4PM, protestors headed to Centennial Park , where we interviewed some of them:


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Posted: November 14th, 2014.
Lips for you, moustache for him! These two simple vectors are the ideal representation of male and female – bride and groom – wifey and hubby. And with so many lips-and-mo inspired bits and bobs popping up all over the place, you certainly won't battle to find the right elements to turn this into a full-on theme for your wedding day:
Original images and their credits available on Pinterest


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JAMA. Published online March 19, 2014. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.2896
Although physicians like to think they practice evidence-based medicine, that appears to not be the case with prescribing the cardiovascular drug ezetimibe. And some critics say that use of surrogate markers to guide practice rather than clinical outcomes such as occurrence of myocardial infarction, stroke, or death has likely played a role.
Ezetimibe is an intestinal cholesterol absorption inhibitor found to reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels by about 20% when given alone. It also further reduces LDL-C levels when added to statin therapy, which blocks cholesterol synthesis in the liver by inhibiting HMG-CoA reductase.
The Food and Drug Administration approved ezetimibe in 2002 for use in the United States primarily because it lowered LDL-C levels, a surrogate marker for prevention of cardiovascular disease. Whether ezetimibe improved clinically meaningful outcomes remained a question.
That question was somewhat answered in January 2008, with the announcement that the Ezetimibe and Simvastatin in Hypercholesterolemia Enhances Atherosclerosis Regression (ENHANCE) trial, sponsored and conducted by industry, found that the addition of ezetimibe failed to reduce atherosclerosis progression compared with simvastatin alone, despite lowering LDL-C levels. Atherosclerosis progression was determined by a change in the intima-media thickness of the walls of the carotid and femoral arteries—yet another surrogate end point (Kastelein JJP et al. N Engl J Med. 2008;358[14]:1431-1443).
US and Canadian physicians continue to prescribe ezetimibe even after a study found giving the drug with a statin failed to reduce atherosclerosis progression compared with the statin alone.
The ENHANCE result prompted some leaders in the cardiology community to question ezetimibe's place in cardiovascular disease treatment. Harlan Krumholz, MD, professor of medicine and epidemiology and public health at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, said the study should change practice. "Although not definitive, [ENHANCE] increases our uncertainty about the clinical value of this novel drug. Without some evidence of improved outcomes associated with its use, ezetimibe should be relegated to a last option for patients who need medication for hypercholesterolemia, and even in these cases, it is reasonable for clinicians and their patients to wait for further information before considering it," he wrote in NEJM Journal Watch (http://tinyurl.com/pk9xr29).
So did the ENHANCE results change practice? In the United States, the answer is "somewhat," while in Canada, the answer appears to be "no."
In a study published in the American Heart Journal, researchers looked at ezetimibe prescription trends before and after ENHANCE, using data collected from CompuScript in Canada and IMS Health in the United States from January 1, 2002, to December 31, 2009. The researchers found the monthly number of ezetimibe prescriptions per 100 000 population rose from 6 to 1082 in the United States from November 2002 to January 2008 and then declined to 572 per 100 000 population by December 2009, a decrease of 47.1%. In Canada, however, use continuously increased from 2 to 495 per 100 000 from June 2003 (when the drug was approved in Canada) to December 2009 (Lu L et al. Am Heart J. doi:10.1016/j.ahj.2014.01.014 [published online February 27, 2014]).
Coauthor Cynthia A. Jackevicius, PharmD, MSc, a professor of pharmacy practice and administration at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California, and an adjunct scientist, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, in Toronto, said her team was initially surprised by the Canadian results.
"Previous findings showed ezetimibe use in Canada experienced a more conservative uptake, so we expected to see a decrease in use in response to the ENHANCE study," Jackevicius said. "So we looked for different factors, and one is the Canadian lipid guidelines, which specifically said ezetimibe could be added to statins, and that didn't change after ENHANCE came out."
A study of ezetimibe use in Saskatchewan, the only Canadian province that lists the drug for open formulary access, even though guidelines say it's a second-line agent for lowering cholesterol, reflects Jackevicius's team's findings. Using data from provincial health administrative databases, the Saskatchewan researchers found that ezetimibe prescriptions were 2.5% of cholesterol-lowering dispensations in 2004 and 8.8% of such dispensations in 2011 (Alsabbagh WM et al. Can J Cardiol. 2014;30[2]:237-243). The authors concluded that allowing unrestricted use of ezetimibe in Saskatchewan may have led to a large number of inappropriate prescriptions, at odds with Canadian clinical guidelines.
And although ezetimibe use declined in the United States, its use per 100 000 population is still greater than Canada's, generating US expenditures of more than $2.2 billion in 2009.
Krumholz, one of the coauthors on the study with Jackevicius, remains perplexed as to the continuing popularity of ezetimibe. "The drug continues to defy gravity, and that's probably a result of really strong marketing and the singular focus on cholesterol numbers," he said.
Krumholz said heart health campaigns urging patients to "know your numbers" and treatment goals based on cholesterol measurements, such as getting asymptomatic individuals' LDL-C levels below 130 mg/dL, have worked in ezetimibe's favor at the expense of evidence-based medicine. "Is this the drug that lowers your LDL-C and helps you? We don't know that," he said. "The comfort of hitting a target offers little benefit if you don't know that it is really protecting you."
Although ENHANCE has not derailed ezetimibe prescribing, the newest cholesterol management guidelines just might. The guidelines, issued late last year by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, abandon the idea of reaching a target level for LDL-C, instead recommending the use of statins to reduce LDL-C levels only for certain types of patients.
Will this change in the guidelines affect ezetimibe prescribing? "It will be interesting to see what the guidelines will do," Krumholz said.
Read the complete article here.


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The Greatest Story Never Told
The Pantheon of Terras
The Reaper
Alignment: Neutral
AKA: Death, The Psycopomp
Domains: Repose, Destruction, Travel, Darkness, Liberation
Alignment: Neutral Evil
AKA: The Gravelord, The Walking Rot
Domains: Death, Evil, Darkness, War, Earth
Alignment: Neutral Good
AKA: Lightbringer, Sister of Lunis
Domains: Sun, Community, Good, Plants, Glory
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
AKA: Brother of Solara, Trickster's Light
Domains: Darkness, Trickery, Luck, Knowledge, Chaos
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
AKA: Lord of the Forge, Father of Dwarves
Domains: Law, Nobility, Artifice, Rune, War
Ora Lialune
Alignment: Chaotic Good
AKA: Mother Star-Eyes, Mother of Elves
Domains: Good, Magic, Rune, Chaos, Healing
Beauregard Plainstrider
Alignment: Neutral Good
AKA: Halfling Scion, Beau Two-Hands
Domains: Healing, Community, Protection, Charm, Trickery
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
AKA: The First Warchief, Orc Scion, The Culling Thunder, The Flame of Leadership.
Domains: War, Strength, Chaos, Glory, Fire
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
AKA: The Mad Smiler, Keeper of the Horrid Truth, Bob the Smiter.
Domains: Healing, Madness, Knowledge, Rune, Protection
Mother Nature
Alignment: Neutral
AKA: The Emerald Lady, Keeper of the Scales
Domains: Earth, Air, Water, Plant, Animal, Weather
Alignment: Lawful Good
AKA: The First Crusaider, The Call
Domains: Law, Good, War, Glory, Strength, Protection
Alignment: Lawful Evil
AKA: The Corrupter, Crusader's Temptation, The False Call
Domains: Evil, Trickery, Law, Nobility, Destruction, Strength
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
AKA: The Woman Scorned, Mother (To Antipaladins), The Mad Mother
Domains: Chaos, Evil, Destruction, War, Madness, Death
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
AKA: The Wildblood, The Supreme Sorcerer
Domains: Magic, Liberation, Charm, Luck, Glory
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
AKA: The Archmage, Lord of Wizardry
Domains: Magic, Knowledge, Rune, Artifice, Law
Alignment: Neutral Good
AKA: The Hospitaller, Lady of the Battlefield, The Water-Bearer
Domains: Healing, War, Strength, Protection, Water
Alignment: Neutral
AKA: The Celestial Merchant, Protector of Merchant's Row
Domains: Travel, Nobility, Weather, Trickery, Air, Community
Alignment: Neutral Evil
AKA: The Dagger from the Shadows, Death's Rival, The Vitae-Thief
Domains: Darkness, Death, Trickery, Travel, Liberation
Alignment: Neutral
AKA: The Fire from Stone, Keeper of The Formulae
Domains: Knowledge, Earth, Fire, Plant, Magic


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WASHINGTON — The nation's top auto safety regulator will seek to cast blame on General Motors when he testifies on Tuesday before a House subcommittee looking into the ignition problem of Chevrolet Cobalts and other cars.
In written testimony filed in advance, David Friedman, the acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, argues that "G.M. had critical information that would have helped identify this defect." Formal written testimony is usually not read in its entirety at a hearing, but becomes part of the official record, and gives strong indications about the tack witnesses will take in the question-and-answer session that follows.
Mr. Friedman is scheduled to testify before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. The other witness is Mary T. Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, who is expected to strike an apologetic tone but not provide any answers to why G.M. failed to act for more than a decade to fix the problem.
At issue is a faulty ignition switch that can turn off if it is bumped, shutting off the engine and disabling the air bags. G.M. has linked 13 deaths to the defect and has recalled 2.6 million cars.
"Sitting here today, I cannot tell you why it took years for a safety defect to be announced," she says in her filed testimony. But she pledged to be "fully transparent" when she had answers.
Ms. Barra will also remind lawmakers that G.M. has created a new position, vice president for global vehicle safety. She also made public an offer previously communicated to dealers, that people who owned one of the recalled vehicles, and did not want to drive it, could get a loaner car or a rental car from a G.M. dealer. And she will add "if a customer is already looking for another car, dealers can provide an additional cash allowance for the purchase or lease of a new vehicle."
Her remarks were released on the day that G.M. announced another wide-ranging recall, of 1.5 million vehicles worldwide, because their power steering could suddenly fail.
G.M.'s total for the year now stands at 6.3 million recalls worldwide. Last year, it recalled 758,000 vehicles in the United States. And now, many owners will be getting their second notice in a matter of weeks for the same car.
That's because some of the newly recalled models were already part of the 2.6 million cars recalled for the ignition switch problem, including Chevrolet HHRs and Cobalts and Saturn Ions. Also under Monday's power-steering recall are various models of the Chevy Malibu, Malibu Maxx, Saturn Aura and Pontiac GT.
General Motors had been wrangling with the safety agency over power-steering failures on its small cars since at least 2010, and won some important battles.
While G.M. recalled some models — like the Cobalt — it resisted recalling about 383,000 2004-7 Saturn Ions, at one point saying that if power assist was lost the car could be controlled, but that it would take more effort to turn the vehicle.
At Tuesday's hearing, one line of questioning is expected to focus on why G.M. used the faulty switches even though the company that made them, Delphi, told the automaker in 2002 that the part did not meet specifications.
The Democrats on the committee said they were told by Delphi that the force needed to turn the key in the switches was in some cases only about a quarter of the minimum specified by G.M., and in 12 tests, only two of the samples reached two-thirds of the minimum force G.M. required.
Even the beefed-up switches installed in the 2008-11 model year cars did not meet G.M.'s specification, Ms. Barra was told in a letter from Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the ranking Democrat on the full committee, and others who will be questioning her. The switches are used in Chevrolet Cobalts and HHRs, Saturn Ions and Skys, and the Pontiac G5s and Solstice models.
The investigation is bipartisan, but committee Republicans are likely to focus on the Obama administration's performance, meaning the role of the highway traffic safety agency. In many House hearings, the Republicans question agency officials aggressively and the Democrats ask friendlier questions, but in this case it is not clear that the safety agency will have many friends.
Mr. Friedman's prepared testimony notes that it is not only the committee that is conducting an inquiry. The Transportation Department's inspector general is looking into the effectiveness of the safety agency, his testimony points out.
Much of Mr. Friedman's testimony stresses how many defects his agency has identified, and how many recalls have been conducted — in contrast to the Cobalt problem, which N.H.T.S.A. never acted on until General Motors issued the recall.
Mr. Friedman's filed testimony also indicated that his engineers misunderstood the air bag problem. The Office of Defects Investigation, he said, "did not have clear evidence of a connection between the ignition switch being in the accessory mode and the air bag nondeployment."
When the office failed to spot the trend, he said, "our understanding at the time was that air bag systems were designed to continue to function in the event of power loss during a crash, which is not uncommon." He said that agency investigators understood that the air bag system would be able to work for 60 seconds after all electric power to the car was shut off.
A 2006 field report about a crash in Wisconsin in which the air bags did not deploy was ambiguous, he said, because it tentatively identified impact with a tree that may have been too soft to trigger the air bag.
Another line of questioning at the Tuesday hearing may be the effect of General Motors' bankruptcy in June 2009.
A report by the Democratic staff of the House committee points out that when the company emerged from bankruptcy on July 10, 2009, it was shielded from claims for crashes before that date. Among G.M.s myriad problems, the Justice Department is now looking into whether the company committed fraud in the bankruptcy proceedings by not disclosing the ignition switch defect.


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Song written by (The Artist Formerly Known As) Prince. Released as the ninth track on the third disc of his 19th album 'Emancipation', released on 19 November 1996.
The track was presumably recorded in 1995 or early 1996 at Paisley Park Studios, Chanhassen, Minneapolis (USA). Kate Bush appears on this track with backing vocals recorded at her own studio in the UK.
The track is not believed to ever have been performed live by Prince.
- My Computer. Princevault, retrieved January 9, 2016


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Tata Motors announced the launch of the T1 PRIMA TRUCK RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
Six teams for the Championship, to participate with a total of 12 PRIMA World Trucks. Scheduled to be held at BIC, Greater Noida, on March 23, 2014.
Tata Motors announced the launch of the T1 PRIMA TRUCK RACING CHAMPIONSHIP on 22nd January 2013, in Delhi to bring truck racing to India for the first time. The first ever truck racing championship in India has been inscribed on the calendars of FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) and FMSCI (the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India). The Truck Racing Championship will be held on March 23, 2014, at the internationally acclaimed Buddh International Circuit to give Indian audiences a grand spectacle of trucks competing against each other.
T1 PRIMA TRUCK RACING CHAMPIONSHIP is being conducted under the aegis of FIA & FMSCI. The FIA is the governing body for world motor sport and the federation of the world's leading motoring organisations. One of the core responsibilities of the FIA is the development of motor sport worldwide. Through its national member clubs the FIA is involved in every level of motor sport and its remit extends to the millions of amateurs and professionals who enjoy motor sport in all of its variety. The FMSCI is a long-standing member of the FIA and is the only national motor sport federation recognised by the Government of India, for the promotion and control of motor sport in India, and is affiliated to the prestigious Indian Olympic Association.
The championship will feature 12 Tata PRIMA trucks, built for the purpose. These will be divided among six teams, with participation from experienced international drivers. The T1 PRIMA TRUCK RACING CHAMPIONSHIP is being organised by MMSCI, with safety and performance standards being followed as per (BTRA) British Truck Racing Association guidelines.
Tata Prima 4038.S will compete in the T1 PRIMA TRUCK RACING CHAMPIONSHIP 2014, with the massive power of 370 BHP @ 2100 RPM and a top speed of 110 Km/h. To make these Prima trucks fit for racing, 22 key modifications were made to meet a mix of safety and performance needs as per guidelines from British Truck Racing Association. These included significant changes in fuel tank, brake, cooling system, propeller shaft guards, racing seats and safety belts, exhaust, steering wheel among others. The trucks have gone through multiple quality checks and have also been tested on the test circuit at Jamshedpur for high speed run and control.
Buddh International F1 Circuit, acclaimed to be the best race circuit in India, will host the inaugural T1 PRIMA TRUCK RACING CHAMPIONSHIP. On the Race day, there will be two races. The first one a qualifier race, followed by the main race, seeing a rolling start of big Tata Prima race trucks. A pool of internationally acclaimed drivers, with proven excellence in the field of Truck Racing like British Truck Racing Championship and European Truck Racing Championship, has been created for this mega event.
The T1 PRIMA TRUCK RACING CHAMPIONSHIP will also witness two-time British truck racing champion, Steve Horne. As one of the most celebrated, longest serving truck racing drivers, Steve Horne has been instrumental in multiple operational aspects of India's first truck racing championship.
Source: http://www.t1primatruckracing.com/


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Greeks take Lent before Easter very seriously, therefore, most restaurants alter their menu to adapt to meatless dishes. It's a refreshing experience, to move away from the standard "souvlaki" and lamb "kleftiko", give it a go!
So, when I found myself in Athens for a long weekend in April, my parents took me straight to the port of Rafina, for lunch, which is just 10 minutes away from the airport.
We got ourselves a seaside spot and ordered some of the good old favourites: spiced sardines, barbecued sundried octopus, courgette croquettes, barbecued mushrooms with olive oil and balsamic (so simple and delicious, it's a revelation!), tomato croquettes and off course halva, sweetened semolina with cinnamon and sultanas in other words.
Oh, and then we met "Odysseus"!
A whole calamari, stuffed with prawns and chopped veggies, in a red sauce, so light, simple and flavoursome.
Sorry to be a killjoy, but next time your guests announce that they only eat fish, you have no excuse to grimace!
I must admit, I do not like heavy, complex flavours. I prefer it when I can taste the base ingredients in dishes that are more earthy and fresh.
So here is a slightly altered recipe, inspired by "Odysseus".
Sorry to be a killjoy, but next time your guests announce that they only eat fish, you have no excuse to grimace!
I must admit, I do not like heavy, complex flavours. I prefer it when I can taste the base ingredients in dishes that are more earthy and fresh.
So here is a slightly altered recipe, inspired by "Odysseus".
Drunken Calamari:
- Two fresh whole calamari (ask the fishmonger to take the cartrilige and ink out)
- Two cups of red wine
- One orange, peeled and sliced
- Three-four cloves
- Two-three cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
- Two bayleaves
- One stick of cinammon, broken into smaller pieces
- Spring onions
- One cup of rice
- Pinenuts
- Sultanas
- Olive Oil, Salt & Pepper
For the "drunken" marinade:
In a broad, deep bowl combine: the red wine, orange slices, cloves, garlic, bayleaves and cinnamon. Wash and pat dry the two calamari, leave them whole.
Marinade them for a couple of hours or preferably overnight in the lovely "drunken" liquid you've just prepared.
Get stuffing:
Get stuffing:
When you are ready to stuff the calamari, half-boil the rice with two cups of water and a generous pinch of salt; let the water get absorbed during boiling, but not dry out completely.
Once half-cooked, take the rice off the heat and mix in the chopped spring onions, pine nuts and sultanas.
Take the calamari out of the marinade and place it on a baking tray that has been slightly oiled.
Pour the marinade liquid through a fine sieve and keep the gorgeous, red, fragrant nectar aside.
Pour roughly 3/4 of a cup of the strained marinade liquid, into the rice mixture and toss around until all of the rice is coated with the wine marinade.
Use a spoon to stuff the calamari with the rice mixture, making sure there is enough marinade liquid, to help the rice cook further.
Take two toothpicks and prick the calamari's opening, closed firmly, so that the rice doesn't spill out during baking.
Place both chubby, stuffed calamari on the baking tray and pour the rest of the marinade liquid over them. Salt & pepper, generously.
Bake for 20-25 minutes in pre-heated oven, around 200C.
Remember, the calamari is already intoxicated, you are up next! x


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Precision machined centered release jaws. Release head rotates 360-degrees to eliminate bow string tourque. Padded strap with loop lock fastener. Bravo is available in Realtree Xtra®, Muddy Girl® Camo and Black. Bravo Jr. is available in Grape, Blueberry, Carrot and Broccoli. Bravo E-Z Adjust is available in black.
Fully Adjustable Trigger! "Thin Tip" Calipers!
These are great releases for the beginning bow hunter or the archer on a budget. The dual caliper jas provide a consistent release for a more accurate shote every time. With a 360 degree rotating head, this release is perfect for right or left hand archers. It has a fully adjustable, forward mounted trigger. The padded wrist strap will provide all day comfort allowing you to concentrate on the hunt and not your release.
Hose assembly Bravo releases include model C-4770 and will reduce release torque making you a more accurate and consistent archer. These products can also be found in junior sizes as well.
All-adjust Bravo releases include models C-5990, C-6210, and C-621MGP. The all adjust allows for infinite length adjustment, providing the perfect fit for finger to trigger placement which is critical to be a consistent and accurate archer.


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Scandinavian style is definitely evolving and going through a change at the moment, while we still love the bright and airy rooms with reference to the nature with a lot of wood and green plants, more colorful and elegant, soft materials are included – velour is big right now.
I love the work of my two Finnish friends stylist Susanna Vento and photographer Riika Kantinkoski and how they have captured the essence of Scandinavian living together with cabin manufacturer Kannustalo.
I don't know about you but I could easily spend my summer in one of these cabins.


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|About this Recording
8.559602 - ADLER, S: Of Musique, Poetrie, Art, and Love / Flute Sonata / Piano Concerto No. 3 / Pasiphae
Samuel Adler (b. 1928)
A prolific and gifted composer, Samuel Adler was born in Mannheim in 1928, the son of a cantor and composer of Jewish liturgical music. He moved with his family to the United States in 1939 and studied with Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, Walter Piston and Randall Thompson, acquiring expertise as a conductor under Koussevitzky at the Berkshire Music Center. In the American army he conducted the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra, earning the Army Medal of Honor, and went on, after military service, to a career as a conductor and composer. In 1957 he became professor of composition at North Texas State University and in 1966 moved to the Eastman School of Music, serving for twenty years from 1974 as head of the composition department. He went on to teach at the Juilliard School and has won considerable distinction in his long career, with a series of compositions that range from the diatonic to the serial.
The following notes are by the composer.
Three Piano Preludes
The Three Piano Preludes were written during 1999 and 2000 for three piano virtuosi who are good friends of mine. Each one of them had performed my piano music, and I wanted to give each a present by dedicating one of these pieces to them.
These are "occasional" pieces which are character studies, not so much studies of the pianist for whom they were written, but studies that explore moods and paint pictures through the medium of the piano, in the spirit of the Preludes for Piano by Claude Debussy. A tempestuous opener is followed by a rather contemplative center piece and contrasted with a vigorous finale. These pieces can be performed as a set or separately. If only two are performed, I would suggest doing Dream Sequence first, followed by either Rushing Waters or Paradelle.
Paradelle is a French poetic form first appearing in the eleventh century. It is a poem of four six-line stanzas, in which the first two lines as well as the third and fourth lines of each of the first three stanzas are identical, and the final stanza contains all the words of all the previous stanzas. This short piece is loosely constructed on those principles.
Of Musique, Poetrie, Art, and Love
A song cycle on poems of Robert Herrick (1591–1647) When the California Trio, Musique, consisting of mezzo-soprano, flute and piano asked me to write a song cycle for them, I was rereading the poetry of Robert Herrick and his poem To Musique, to becalme his Fever. Consequently I found other poems about Poetrie, Art and all of them about Love in its many manifestations. I was very excited about these wonderful poems, which to me are great commentaries about these particular subjects close to my heart. Also these texts seemed perfect for a song cycle since they had such a tremendously broad emotional content and would lend themselves to a great deal of contrasting treatments. The set was written in 1978 and given its première in California the next year. As far as the voice is concerned, it can be performed by either a soprano or a mezzo depending on the range of the person's voice. The flute uses three different instruments during the course of the performance. Besides the regular flute, the performer is asked to play the alto flute in the third song (His Poetrie His Pillar) and the piccolo in several poems especially in the final one.
Four Composer Portraits
I have always enjoyed writing pieces based on names, especially in this case of four composers whom I have known and admired for many years, on the occasion of their birthdays. These are birthday cards or tributes to these four men. The first is a tribute to my good friend Milton Babbitt on the occasion of his 85th birthday. This piece was performed for the first time at the birthday party for him at the Juilliard School. As in all four pieces, the musical material is based on his first name: C – A flat – B – G – D – C sharp. These pitches were arrived at by using A as the pitch C and going on from there if there is no musical equivalent such as a=A. This set of pitches lends itself well to a twelve-tone piece and even though I would never claim to be able to write music like any of these great composers, I tried to evoke their style in these short birthday cards.
The second Portrait is of Ned Rorem with Ned as the theme C sharp – E – D. I found this combination of pitches very useful in approximating to Rorem's lyrical style.
The third movement was for Gunther Schuller's 76th birthday and again based on his first name which netted the following pitches: G – G sharp – C sharp – A – B (for H) – E – D (for Re). The substitution of the syllable re for D was to give me seven separate pitches which made a better set for this piece.
The final portrait is of David Diamond who was my neighbor for many years while I was at the Eastman School of Music. The style, which is more contrapuntal and canonic than in the three other pieces, is indicative of his practices.
Sonata for Flute and Piano
The Sonata for Flute and Piano was commissioned for the 100th anniversary of the Juilliard School and is dedicated to Carol Wincenc who gave the première of the work in New York City on 14th September 2005. It was written in the fall of 2004 and is in three movements. When I was asked to write this work for the Juilliard anniversary I was reminded of my early college days when my classmates and I played chamber music every single day for hours. I recalled the wonderful feelings of making music, discovering the great and inspiring literature of that genre, and being transformed by the beauty of music from Baroque to the latest creations. That spirit returned to me in the writing of this work. I hope that it will exude the spirit of excited music-making.
The first movement is entitled Dialogue and explores the idea of two equal partners engaged in constant dialogue. At times the piano leads the conversation and the flute follows with its reply and at other times the rôles are reversed. It is characterized by a constant flow of energy.
The second movement, Meditation, is a contrast to the first movement and allows each player to have moments of meditation and reflection. It is a very short piece that ends after a very brief cadenza by the flute.
The third movement entitled Scherzo–Finale sees a return of the energy of the first movement only this time in the spirit of a waltz which relentlessly and tirelessly weaves its way to a rousing ending.
Soundings, for Alto Saxophone and Piano
After writing Line Drawings and a Concerto for the Rascher Saxophone Quartet, the Alto Saxophone player of the quartet asked me if I would write him a solo work, since he was leaving the quartet at that time. I certainly obliged and wrote Soundings which is dedicated to John-Edward Kelly. The work was written in 1989.
I enjoy beginning a piece with a slow movement and then following it with a rapid one, and this is also the form of Soundings. The contrasting mood also gives me an opportunity to introduce the listener to the essential harmonic language of the entire work. As mentioned, therefore, this piece begins with a slow introduction which not only sets forth the harmonic language but also introduces the intervallic relationships of the melodic ideas which hold true in both the introductory slow section as well as the very vigorous fast section which follows without a pause. While there are no new techniques used here in writing for the piano, the saxophone is asked to use its very high register and also tongue and key clicks. These days we composers are fortunate to be able to have interpreters of our music who have no technical problems and since the two artists for whom I wrote this piece fall very well into this camp, I felt very liberated to be able to express myself easily and know that the extreme technical prowess which this piece demands is not beyond the artists for whom it was written and many who are trained so beautifully today.
A musical portrait for piano and percussion.
I had just visited the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts in New York City when I received a letter from James Avery and Steven Schick asking me to write a work for their piano and percussion duo. The most remarkable image which I just could not shake from my museum visit was the huge canvas of Jackson Pollock called Pasiphae, an imaginary portrait of that Greek mythological figure. The painting is wild, colorful and complex with never a moment of real restfulness. I used these impressions of the painting as a starting-point of this work.
The beginning pictures a most peaceful mood but because of the intensity I always feel in a museum, one of agitation and mystery within, with interior sounds here represented by the percussionist playing inside the piano with timpani mallets. Then, as happens in great museums the spectator is overwhelmed by a sudden exciting image of a spectacular painting as I was with the Pollock work. From that moment on the piece takes off with total abandon and using many different percussion colors to engage the piano. In other words the piece is to depict the multitude of emotions and feelings which are generated while looking at an incredibly exciting abstract painting. The two instruments continually play different rhythms and gestures against one another, seldom, except toward the end, getting together in a march-like statement but then again wildly taking off in their own directions. A great variety of percussion instruments are used in the work: wood-blocks, temple-blocks, tom-toms, timbales, a conga drum, Glockenspiel, as well as timpani mallets playing the strings of the inside of the piano.
Piano Concerto No. 3 for Piano solo, and String Orchestra
Piano Concerto No. 3 was written in summer 2003, commissioned by and given its première at the Rivers Music School in Weston, Mass., for its 26th Seminar on Contemporary Music for Young People. The work's single, continuous movement is divided into two parts. The first part is a slow introduction, leading into the second, a fast and energetic section allowing for a display of the soloist's technique. The strings partake in a dialogue with the pianist, sometimes gentle, other times quite excited. The dialogue leads to a modified free passacaglia (in 6/8 rather than 3/4 time) and then on to a recapitulation of the introductory material.
Samuel Adler
This project was funded in part by the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music at the College of Musical Arts of Bowling Green State University.
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As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the University of Calgary, the Faculty of Kinesiology gave the "Gift of Play" to 50 schools in the Calgary area that are in need of a playground pick-me-up. As a legacy to this project, we have distributed stencil kits (paint can be purchased separately) from this project to each of the Be Fit For Life Centre's across Alberta. Please contact contact your local Be Fit For Life Centre if you would like to borrow a stencil kit to enhance your outdoor play environment.
This resource can be used to supplement activities in the classroom, quality physical education, and in conjunction with games enjoyed during free play. Playground stencils can be replicated with sidewalk chalk or tape.
Target Audience: teachers, student leaders
Cost: Free download


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NOTE: Pricing is for pick up only. Delivery charges are extra. Please Call 505-343-0466 for details.
- The trays listed are $44.95. With the exception of spaghetti $39.95.
- They feed 8-10 people.
- All trays come with fresh baked homemade bread.
- Add salad at $2.50 per person extra.
- Most other menu items are available, pricing may vary.
- Please call for details (505-343-0466)


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Tutorial at LaCartera Designs Blog
"I was torn between a Roman shade and a stagecoach valance in my craft room! After scouring Pinterest I decided to combine the two ideas to create this valance that adds a bit of color to my craft room this winter. If you're looking to add some color to your room, here's a fun 8 step tutorial".... Read more


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Washington County Judge John Brieden says he has been talking to Sheriff Otto Hanak on ways to make the county courthouse more secure and they may have come up with an idea.
When the County Commissioners meet Monday morning at the courthouse they will consider giving the Sheriff authority to hire four temporary, part time bailiffs. Judge Brieden says he expects this idea to work.
The Commissioners will have to fund the proposal for the additional bailiffs. Judge Brieden says he thinks the bailiffs could become permanent.
The Washington County Commissioners are meeting on Monday instead of Tuesday because three of the commissioners will be at a conference Tuesday through Thursday.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download


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Fright Haven, the haunted house in Stratford that opens every Halloween, will be open for four days in December to celebrate its second annual "The Frightmare Before Christmas."
The Yuletide-themed haunted house will feature overworked, deranged elves; rejected toys that come to life; a family's horrifying Christmas; and a live-action version of "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer." The event also includes a behind-the-scenes peek at how "The Frightmare Before Christmas" was created.
It will be open Dec. 15, 16, 22 and 23 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. each day. The event is recommended for ages 12 and older.
Admission is $25 in advance at frighthaven.com. Those who use the code word "CLAWS" at checkout will save $5 off each ticket. At-the-door admission is $30 or just $20 with a donation of nonperishable food for the Connecticut Food Bank.
Fright Haven is in the Stratford Square Shopping Plaza, 411 Barnum Ave. Cutoff, next to L.A. Fitness, Marshall's and Ninety Nine Restaurant. frighthaven.com.


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If a wine harmonizes with a dish, then it is certainly a culinary delight.
Food and Wine win through their successful partnership and if done right, without one obscuring the other, both partners can reveal new and sometimes unexpected flavours.
Some basic rules when selecting wine:
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