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In the end, it was a 12.48-pound false albacore hooked in the shallows off Memorial Wharf in Edgartown, and a 10.13-pound bonito snagged in 60-foot seas off Noman's Land that proved to be the grandest catches of all as the 59th Annual Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby came to a close on Sunday.
Robert W. Thomas and Tom Langman walked off the stage at the Atlantic Connection in Oak Bluffs the big winners after their keys popped open the locks to the two grand prizes: a 19-foot Boston Whaler and a Chevrolet Silverado 4x4 truck. Mr. Langman won the truck with his bonito and Mr. Thomas won the boat with his albacore.
Dozens of awards and prizes totaling thousands of dollars were also handed out for various categories at the awards ceremony.
"This is for all the Wharf Rats," a jubilant Mr. Thomas yelled to his friends and supporters after winning the Boston Whaler. A large, supportive crowd that had cheered for Mr. Thomas for most of the event, erupted into applause.
A full house cheered throughout the ceremony as tournament officials awarded prize after prize to dozens of participants who competed in the five-week tournament. Brand new fishing poles and bags of tackle and gear awaited a wide range of fisherman whose catches stood up as winners.
There were awards for junior and senior anglers, for individual accomplishments and family catches. Fishermen from eight to 87 took the stage.
Ashleigh L. Plante, 9, walked away with the Wayne Jackson Memorial Award for the heaviest fish caught by a junior, a 39.08-pound striped bass. Fishermen of all ages were audibly impressed. "That's a nice fish," mumbled more than a few members of the audience.
Lev Wlodyka and Jack Livingston won the boat and shore Grand Slam - the highest total weight in all four fish categories. Mr. Wlodyka finished with a 76.98 cumulative score in the boat category while Mr. Livingston weighed in with 48.50.
Mr. Wlodyka still holds the record for the highest grand slam score with 81 points. "I started fishing too early this year," he said with a smile. "Next year's the year."
Derby weigh master Bill Jurczyk said while the grand leaders are the ones who get a shot at the big prizes, winning the grand slam "is like winning the green jacket at the Masters. It's a symbol of respect among the fisherman."
But as usual in this tournament, people were most anxious to see the awarding of the grand prizes. Two out of eight grand leaders walk away with the keys to the boat and truck in hand, and this year it was, as always, a nerve-wracking moment.
Each of the four grand leaders - the fishermen who caught the biggest bluefish, bonito, false albacore and striped bass during the tournament, from both the boat and shore categories - chose randomly the order in which they would select a key from out of a hat. After establishing the order, all eight contenders picked their keys, and then waited for their turn at a lock.
Only one key in both foursomes opened the lock. The gang of four boat leaders in contention for the truck tried their luck first, and it was Mr. Langman, who chose second and popped the lock.
"My friends told me I wanted to be second or third in line, so I was delighted when I picked second," Mr. Langman said afterwards. "I didn't expect to win, but I got lucky. People always say 'Good Luck' when you go out fishing, but it takes on a whole new meaning when you end up winning a truck."
Mr. Langman, a seasonal resident of Menemsha, said he was originally trolling for large bluefish south of Noman's Land with Ben McCormick when he caught the bonito on a Missouri plug.
"Winning this, it's a once in a lifetime experience," he said.
After Mr. Langman's brief celebration, Betsy Miraglia (8.75-pound bonito) strolled over to derby president Ed Jerome for the first shot at the Boston Whaler, but her key failed to open the lock. Keith McArt (42.26-pound bass) was next, but he, too, was unsuccessful. That left an incredulous Daniel Benedetto (15.40-pound bluefish) and a giddy Mr. Thomas for the top prize.
Mr. Benedetto was next in line, and his anxiety was evident. With the crowd yelling "fifty-fifty", Mr. Benedetto stepped forward. When his key failed to click open the lock, the crowd erupted into applause for Mr. Thomas, who raised his arms more in disbelief than in victory.
Chants of "Bobby" echoed throughout the club.
"I couldn't believe it," he said afterwards. "I spend year after year fishing that wharf, and to win with a fish I caught on the first day [of the derby] is just unbelievable to me. It's something. Good karma, I guess."
His false albacore, weighed in at 8:01 am on Sept. 12, was caught on a rod he borrowed from a friend at the one spot he always fishes.
"I am always down there, that's why they call me a wharf rat," Mr. Thomas joked later as he stood next to his new boat. "I'm just still in shock."
Mr. McArt, who was fishing in his sixth derby, was only a little disappointed he didn't win the Whaler. For him, the satisfaction came in just being on stage.
"It was very warm up on stage," he joked afterwards, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow. "But it was something I have always dreamed about. Of course you want to win it, but for me, it was more about being part of the history of this tournament."
Mr. McArt was also in the running for the shore grand slam, but never found a bonito to put him in contention. He could only laugh when recalling how close he came.
"I was standing next to Betsy [Miraglia] when she caught the winning bonito," he said, laughing. "We were on the jetty off Beach Road in Oak Bluffs. I had been fishing for awhile with nothing biting, and when I decided to take a break and sit down and eat something, she hooks this big bonito. Right next to me."
He smiled and shook his head.
"Oh well, what can you do?"
Fish tales of the like were abundant on Sunday, and as the Atlantic Connection emptied out on to Circuit avenue and another derby came to an end, Burt Horrow was eager to spin his own yarn. He went to accept the Howie Leonard Award for largest boat false albacore caught by a senior for his friend, Harold Gordon, who was in France. As Mr. Horrow waited for his wife to pick him up, he clutched his friend's award and joked that he should have won this prize.
"I was the fishing guru," Mr. Horrow said, laughing. "I taught Harold everything he knows about fishing. But he won this, so now, I guess I have become the student."
Grand Leaders
Boat bluefish: William W. Farnham, 15.17. Shore bluefish: Daniel J. Benedetto, 15.40. Boat bass: William F. Lehman, 47.62. Shore bass: Keith A. McArt, 42.46. Boat bonito: Tom Langman, 10.13. Shore bonito: Betsy J. Miraglia, 8.75. Boat albacore: David C. Kadison, 12.37. Shore albacore: Robert W. Thomas, 12.48.
Grand Slam Leaders
All Tackle Boat: 1, Lev C. Wlodyka, 76.98; 2, Patrick T. Jenkinson, 71.86; 3, Mark S. Plante, 71.10.
All Tackle Shore: 1, Jack Livingston, 48.50; 2, Daniel K. Tilton, 47.72; 3, Daniel A. Keniston, 47.61
Flyrod Boat: 1, Kevin A. Ludwig, 41.37; 2, David C. Kadison, 36.35; 3, Thomas J. Rapone, 35.95.
Overall Leaders
All Tackle Boat Bass: 1, William F. Lehman, 47.62; 2, Lev C. Wlodyka, 46.08; 3, Mark S. Plante, 46.08.
All Tackle Shore Bass: 1, Keith A. McArt, 42.46; 2, Heath J. Estrella, 40.33; 3, Charles Rimas, 36.78.
All Tackle Boat Bonito: 1, Tom Langman, 10.13; 2, Geoff K. Codding, 9.28; 3, Patrick T. Jenkinson, 9.14.
All Tackle Shore Bonito: 1, Betsy J. Miraglia, 8.75; 2, Bernie B. Arruda, 7.14; 3, Daniel A. Keniston, 6.30.
All Tackle Boat Bluefish: 1, William W. Farnham, 15.17; 2, Ted Rosbeck, 14.43; 3, Ken R. Brede, 14.14.
All Tackle Shore Bluefish: 1, Daniel J. Benedetto, 15.40; 2, Peter J. Cook, 13.19; 3, Dennis Guluzy, 12.88.
All Tackle Boat False Albacore: 1, David C. Kadison, 12.37; 2, Donald M. Benefit, 11.22; 3, Jared E. Fisher, 11.01.
All Tackle Shore False Albacore: 1, Robert W. Thomas, 12.48; 2, Robert Correll, 12.08; 3, Gregory Williams, 11.41.
Flyrod Boat Bass: 1, Kevin A. Ludwig, 18.60; 2, David C. Kadison, 16.44; 3, Thomas J. Rapone, 15.84.
Flyrod Shore Bass: 1, Oh Keong, 17.82; 2, Patrick J. Paquette, 17.73; 3, Jonathan R. Herman, 14.32.
Flyrod Boat Bonito: 1, Ken P. Baracchini, 7.57; 2, Brian Nunes-Vais, 6.50; 3, Kevin A. Ludwig, 6.36.
Flyrod Boat Bluefish: 1, Porky J. Francis, 10.09; 2, Art Crago, 9.61; 2, Kevin A. Ludwig, 8.31.
Flyrod Shore Bluefish: 1, Chip J. Bergeron, 9.32; 2, Norris E. Johns, 6.74; 3, Thomas J. Rapone.
Flyrod Boat False Albacore: 1, Rick A. Peters, 11.95; 2, Bob W. Hayman, 10.88; 3, Andrew G. Moore, 10.35.
Flyrod Shore False Albacore: 1, David R. Thompson, 10.75; 2, Robert Wilcoxson, 10.70; 3, Wilson L. Kerr, 10.33.
Junior All Tackle Boat Bass: 1, Ashleigh L. Plante, 39.08; 2, Trevor Maciel, 36.80; 3, Ben T. Ciciora, 36.50.
Junior All Tackle Shore Bass: 1, William B. Stewart, 26.29; 2, Jesse Forney, 18.11; 3, Emilyanne A. Wiliston, 17.45.
Junior All Tackle Boat Bonito: 1, Kassidy R. Bettencourt, 6.42; 2, Sarah L. Kadison, 6.27; 3, Max A. Davies, 6.03.
Junior All Tackle Boat Bluefish: 1, Kassidy R. Bettencourt, 12.72; 2, Kurt Rivard, 12.49; 3, Zachary Coutinho, 12.46.
Junior All Tackle Shore Bluefish: 1, Lucy Benedetto, 9.77; 2, Samuel Scott, 7.25; 3, William B. Stewart, 7.06.
Junior All Tackle Boat False Albacore: 1, William C. Kadison, 11.25; 2, Gus M. Hayes, 10.22; 3, Sarah L. Kadison, 9.18.
Junior All Tackle Shore Albacore: 1, Scott Canavan, 8.96; 2, Christian Nation, 8.47; 3, Jarek B. Peters, 8.31.
Mini-Juniors All Tackle Boat Bass: 1, Travis Leaf, 29.32; 2, Connor Leaf, 28.84; 3, Christopher Mayhew, 28.56.
Mini-Juniors All Tackle Shore Bass: 1, Cameron Maciel, 20.21; 2, Olivia Pate, 12.40.
Mini-Juniors All Tackle Boat Bonito: 1, Brian T. Fraser, 6.30; 2, Tony P. Canha, 5.86; 3, Travis Leaf, 4.84.
Mini-Juniors All Tackle Boat Bluefish: 1, Christopher Mayhew, 10.60; 2, Tony P. Canha, 9.48; 3, Cameron Maciel, 8.37.
Mini-Juniors All Tackle Shore Bluefish: 1, Lexus M. Pate, 3.67.
Mini-Juniors All Tackle Boat False Albacore: 1, Wyatt A. Jenkinson, 8.42; 2, Gordon A. Moore, 7.63.
Mini-Juniors All Tackle Shore False Albacore: 1, Lexus M. Pate, 7.92.
Daily Results
Thursday, Oct. 14
All Tackle Shore Bonito: 1, Kathi M. Pogoda, 5.10.
All Tackle Boat Bluefish: 1, David Pothier, 10.96; 2, Jeffrey G. Cleary, 9.40; 3, Mike E. Mayrand, 9.97; 4, Annette M. Cingle, 8.66.
All Tackle Shore Bluefish: 1, Michael R. Drinan, 8.44; 2, Hayden L. Boullie, 7.26; 3, Ralph J. Peckham, 9.05; 4, Winslow Crocker, 4.73.
All Tackle Boat Bass: 1, Jen Clarke, 34.30; 2, Lois K. Stout, 13.17; 3, Kevin E. Peters, 33.18.
All Tackle Shore Bass: 1, Everett L. Whorton, 24.64; 2, Morgan T. Taylor, 16.56; 3, Daniel C. Stiles, 22.39; 4, Bob Jacobs, 20.94.
Flyrod Boat Bluefish: 1, Brian Nunes-Vais, 4.20.
Flyrod Shore Bass: 1, George P. Moran, 12.81.
Junior All Tackle Boat Bass: 1, Sam Larsen, 16.73.
Junior All Tackle Shore Bass: 1, Dan D. Durawa, 14.77.
Mystery Prize Winners: Winslow Crocker, Kathi M. Pagoda, Brian Gracie, George P. Moran.
Friday, Oct. 15
All Tackle Boat Bonito: 1, Jakob S. Levett, 4.98; 2, Daniel L. Larsen, 7.88; 3, Gregory H. Tayntor, 7.75.
All Tackle Boat Bluefish: 1, Frances Fisher, 12.37; Butch J. Ritz, 11.43; 3, Tom R. Barlosky, 13.97; 4, Jaime B. Gaspar, 11.00.
All Tackle Shore Bluefish: 1, Peter J. Pate, 10.15; 2, Winslow Crocker, 9.64; 3, John C. Wenstrom, 8.67; 4, Hayden L. Boullie, 9.77; Hat Trick, John A. Kallel, 11.01.
All Tackle Boat Bass: 1, Jefferson S. Howell, 29.03; 2, Michael J. Cassidy, 19.75; 3, Leonard A. Giusti, 17.30.
All Tackle Shore Bass: 1, Daniel A. Keniston, 28.12; 2, Jeffrey A. Pribanic, 21.89; 3, Jonathan S. Pike, 20.60; 4, Angela C. Fisher, 19.22.
Flyrod Shore Bluefish: 1, Tim P. Sheran, 5.12.
Junior All Tackle Boat Bluefish: 1, Jesse L. Thomas, 7.05; 2, Connor Cassidy, 6.84; 3, Sydney E. Davies, 4.59; Hat Trick, Tony P. Canha, 9.94.
Junior All Tackle Shore Bluefish: 1, Jarek B. Peters, 6.84; 2, Chris A. Morris, 3.38.
Mystery Prize Winners: Hyaden L. Boullie, Jakob S. Levett, Troy J. Kresser, Tim P. Sheran, Jesse L. Thomas.
Saturday, Oct. 16
All Tackle Boat Bluefish: 1, Wiltz Moreis, 8.38; 2, Edward Rice, 7.72; 3, Edward J. Jerome, 5.35, Hat Trick Tom R. Barlosky, 9.68.
All Tackle Shore Bluefish: 1, James H. Fretz, 9.92; 2, John C. Wenstrom, 9.77; 3, Joseph Gerau, 9.12; 4, Daniel J. Benedetto, 15.40.
All Tackle Shore Bass: 1, Paul B. Schultz, 15.18; 2, Johnny Hoy, 13.26; 3, Annette M. Cingle, 12.23.
Junior All Tackle Boat Bluefish: 1, Alex C. Rowell, 4.36.
Junior All Tackle Shore Bluefish: 1,.William B. Stewart, 7.06; 2, Lexus M. Pate, 3.67.
Junior All Tackle Shore Bass: 1, Olivia Pate, 12.40.
Mystery Prize Winners: Wiltz Moreis, Paul B. Schultz, Lexus M. Pate.


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Coronado TV is the City of Coronado's government access channel, a public channel that provides timely and informative content for the community. The channel offers programming 24 hours a day seven days a week, including two City Council, two Planning Commission, one Naval Complexes, and three other live board, commission or committee meetings per month.
Watch Coronado TV live.
Operated through the City Manager's Office and a contract administrator, Coronado TV produces all the video and bulletin content. In addition, to live meetings and rebroadcasts of meetings, Coronado TV also produces the City Manager's Weekly Update video and other special events, public service announcements and short features.
Coronado's local government channel provides enumerable opportunities for the City to broadcast public meetings and information to enhance our ability to attract viewership, become more open and engaged with citizens, and build trust through communication and transparency.
Coronado TV can be found on Spectrum Cable Channel 19 and AT&T U-verse Channel 99. Please note that if a program runs longer than anticipated, the meeting immediately following it on the schedule will begin later than the published time. Scrolling text at the bottom of the program on Coronado TV will inform the viewer if a show is running long.
1825 Strand WayCoronado, CA 92118

subset: commoncrawl


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Full Stache is a full suspension 29+ trail bike with an oversized appetite for rugged backcountry riding and trail explorations into the unknown wild. Build it up the way you want! We're giving you a head start with the FOX Float rear shock, a Bontrager Line 35mm stem, headset, and a rear axle.
It's right for you if...
You believe mountain biking isn't about racing or showing off. It's about the experience of being out there in the rough, wonderful wild. For you, every ride is both a battle against nature and an appreciation of it. There's a whole lot of beauty in dirt, rocks, and roots. Trails don't need to be perfectly sculpted to be enjoyed.
The tech you get
We call it a frameset, but it's a lot more than that! An Alpha Platinum Aluminum frame with 130mm of travel, a stiff Straight Shot down tube, Knock Block frame defense, and a FOX Float rear shock with Trek's exclusive RE:aktiv damper. Plus, a Bontrager Line 35mm stem, a headset, and a rear axle.
The final word
This is a new breed of performance backcountry trail bike. If you love seeking out the untamed trails in the wild and discovering new lines while ripping bikepacking adventures, Full Stache is your dream ride. It's like that one friend who's always egging you on to go a little farther, because there's bound to be something epic right over the next ridge or at the bottom of the next valley.
Why you'll love it
- Build it up exactly the way you want, for exactly your kind of adventure, but be sure to follow these requirements: minimum tire width: 29x2.6, recommended axle-to-race: 550mm (560mm/140mm travel max), maximum chainring size: 34 teeth
- This bike was born for adventure in the wild outback, where capability isn't just something that's nice to have but an absolute essential
- Super short chainstays make Full Stache surprisingly agile, even with its 29+ wheels
Frame | Alpha Platinum Aluminum, tapered head tube, Knock Block, Control Freak internal routing, downtube guard, magnesium rocker link, Mino Link, ABP, 130mm travel |
Headset | Knock Block Integrated, cartridge bearing, 1-1/8'' top, 1.5'' bottom |
Rear Shock | Fox Performance Float EVOL, RE:aktiv 3-position damper, tuned by Trek Suspension Lab, 210x55mm |
Accessories & Extras | Bontrager Switch thru axle, removable lever, Bontrager Line Stem, 35mm, Knock Block, 0 degree, 60mm length |
* Subject to change without notice.


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Readers of this forum have probably heard rumors of gentrification in post-Katrina New Orleans. Residential shifts playing out in the Crescent City share many commonalities with those elsewhere, but also bear some distinctions and paradoxes. I offer these observations from the so-called Williamsburg of the South, a neighborhood called Bywater.
Gentrification arrived rather early to New Orleans, a generation before the term was coined. Writers and artists settled in the French Quarter in the 1920s and 1930s, drawn by the appeal of its expatriated Mediterranean atmosphere, not to mention its cheap rent, good food, and abundant alcohol despite Prohibition. Initial restorations of historic structures ensued, although it was not until after World War II that wealthier, educated newcomers began steadily supplanting working-class Sicilian and black Creole natives.
By the 1970s, the French Quarter was largely gentrified, and the process continued downriver into the adjacent Faubourg Marigny (a historical moniker revived by Francophile preservationists and savvy real estate agents) and upriver into the Lower Garden District (also a new toponym: gentrification has a vocabulary as well as a geography). It progressed through the 1980s-2000s but only modestly, slowed by the city's abundant social problems and limited economic opportunity. New Orleans in this era ranked as the Sun Belt's premier shrinking city, losing 170,000 residents between 1960 and 2005. The relatively few newcomers tended to be gentrifiers, and gentrifiers today are overwhelmingly transplants. I, for example, am both, and I use the terms interchangeably in this piece.
One Storm, Two Waves
Everything changed after August-September 2005, when the Hurricane Katrina deluge, amid all the tragedy, unexpectedly positioned New Orleans as a cause célèbre for a generation of idealistic millennials. A few thousand urbanists, environmentalists, and social workers—we called them "the brain gain;" they called themselves YURPS, or Young Urban Rebuilding Professionals—took leave from their graduate studies and nascent careers and headed South to be a part of something important.
Many landed positions in planning and recovery efforts, or in an alphabet soup of new nonprofits; some parlayed their experiences into Ph.D. dissertations, many of which are coming out now in book form. This cohort, which I estimate in the low- to mid-four digits, largely moved on around 2008-2009, as recovery moneys petered out. Then a second wave began arriving, enticed by the relatively robust regional economy compared to the rest of the nation. These newcomers were greater in number (I estimate 15,000-20,000 and continuing), more specially skilled, and serious about planting domestic and economic roots here. Some today are new-media entrepreneurs; others work with Teach for America or within the highly charter-ized public school system (infused recently with a billion federal dollars), or in the booming tax-incentivized Louisiana film industry and other cultural-economy niches.
Brushing shoulders with them are a fair number of newly arrived artists, musicians, and creative types who turned their backs on the Great Recession woes and resettled in what they perceived to be an undiscovered bohemia in the lower faubourgs of New Orleans—just as their predecessors did in the French Quarter 80 years prior. It is primarily these second-wave transplants who have accelerated gentrification patterns.
Spatial and Social Structure of New Orleans Gentrification
Gentrification in New Orleans is spatially regularized and predictable. Two underlying geographies must be in place before better-educated, more-moneyed transplants start to move into neighborhoods of working-class natives. First, the area must be historic. Most people who opt to move to New Orleans envision living in Creole quaintness or Classical splendor amidst nineteen-century cityscapes; they are not seeking mundane ranch houses or split-levels in subdivisions. That distinctive housing stock exists only in about half of New Orleans proper and one-quarter of the conurbation, mostly upon the higher terrain closer to the Mississippi River. The second factor is physical proximity to a neighborhood that has already gentrified, or that never economically declined in the first place, like the Garden District.
Gentrification hot-spots today may be found along the fringes of what I have (somewhat jokingly) dubbed the "white teapot," a relatively wealthy and well-educated majority-white area shaped like a kettle (see Figure 1) in uptown New Orleans, around Audubon Park and Tulane and Loyola universities, with a curving spout along the St. Charles Avenue/Magazine Street corridor through the French Quarter and into the Faubourg Marigny and Bywater. Comparing 2000 to 2010 census data, the teapot has broadened and internally whitened, and the changes mostly involve gentrification. The process has also progressed into the Faubourg Tremé (not coincidentally the subject of the HBO drama Tremé) and up Esplanade Avenue into Mid-City, which ranks just behind Bywater as a favored spot for post-Katrina transplants. All these areas were originally urbanized on higher terrain before 1900, all have historic housing stock, and all are coterminous to some degree.
Figure 1. Hot spots (marked with red stars) of post-Katrina gentrification in New Orleans, shown with circa-2000 demographic data and a delineation of the "white teapot." Bywater appears at right. Map and analysis by Richard Campanella.
The frontiers of gentrification are "pioneered" by certain social cohorts who settle sequentially, usually over a period of five to twenty years. The four-phase cycle often begins with—forgive my tongue-in-cheek use of vernacular stereotypes: (1) "gutter punks" (their term), young transients with troubled backgrounds who bitterly reject societal norms and settle, squatter-like, in the roughest neighborhoods bordering bohemian or tourist districts, where they busk or beg in tattered attire.
On their unshod heels come (2) hipsters, who, also fixated upon dissing the mainstream but better educated and obsessively self-aware, see these punk-infused neighborhoods as bastions of coolness.
Their presence generates a certain funky vibe that appeals to the third phase of the gentrification sequence: (3) "bourgeois bohemians," to use David Brooks' term. Free-spirited but well-educated and willing to strike a bargain with middle-class normalcy, this group is skillfully employed, buys old houses and lovingly restores them, engages tirelessly in civic affairs, and can reliably be found at the Saturday morning farmers' market. Usually childless, they often convert doubles to singles, which removes rentable housing stock from the neighborhood even as property values rise and lower-class renters find themselves priced out their own neighborhoods. (Gentrification in New Orleans tends to be more house-based than in northeastern cities, where renovated industrial or commercial buildings dominate the transformation).
After the area attains full-blown "revived" status, the final cohort arrives: (4) bona fide gentry, including lawyers, doctors, moneyed retirees, and alpha-professionals from places like Manhattan or San Francisco. Real estate agents and developers are involved at every phase transition, sometimes leading, sometimes following, always profiting.
Native tenants fare the worst in the process, often finding themselves unable to afford the rising rent and facing eviction. Those who own, however, might experience a windfall, their abodes now worth ten to fifty times more than their grandparents paid. Of the four-phase process, a neighborhood like St. Roch is currently between phases 1 and 2; the Irish Channel is 3-to-4 in the blocks closer to Magazine and 2-to-3 closer to Tchoupitoulas; Bywater is swiftly moving from 2 to 3 to 4; Marigny is nearing 4; and the French Quarter is post-4.
Locavores in a Kiddie Wilderness
Tensions abound among the four cohorts. The phase-1 and -2 folks openly regret their role in paving the way for phases 3 and 4, and see themselves as sharing the victimhood of their mostly black working-class renter neighbors. Skeptical of proposed amenities such as riverfront parks or the removal of an elevated expressway, they fear such "improvements" may foretell further rent hikes and threaten their claim to edgy urban authenticity. They decry phase-3 and -4 folks through "Die Yuppie Scum" graffiti, or via pasted denunciations of Pres Kabacoff (see Figure 2), a local developer specializing in historic restoration and mixed-income public housing.
Phase-3 and -4 folks, meanwhile, look askance at the hipsters and the gutter punks, but otherwise wax ambivalent about gentrification and its effect on deep-rooted mostly African-American natives. They lament their role in ousting the very vessels of localism they came to savor, but also take pride in their spirited civic engagement and rescue of architectural treasures.
Gentrifiers seem to stew in irreconcilable philosophical disequilibrium. Fortunately, they've created plenty of nice spaces to stew in. Bywater in the past few years has seen the opening of nearly ten retro-chic foodie/locavore-type restaurants, two new art-loft colonies, guerrilla galleries and performance spaces on grungy St. Claude Avenue, a "healing center" affiliated with Kabacoff and his Maine-born voodoo-priestess partner, yoga studios, a vinyl records store, and a smattering of coffee shops where one can overhear conversations about bioswales, tactical urbanism, the klezmer music scene, and every conceivable permutation of "sustainability" and "resilience."
It's increasingly like living in a city of graduate students. Nothing wrong with that—except, what happens when they, well, graduate? Will a subsequent wave take their place? Or will the neighborhood be too pricey by then?
Bywater's elders, families, and inter-generational households, meanwhile, have gone from the norm to the exception. Racially, the black population, which tended to be highly family-based, declined by 64 percent between 2000 and 2010, while the white population increased by 22 percent, regaining the majority status it had prior to the white flight of the 1960s-1970s. It was the Katrina disruption and the accompanying closure of schools that initially drove out the mostly black households with children, more so than gentrification per se.1 Bywater ever since has become a kiddie wilderness; the 968 youngsters who lived here in 2000 numbered only 285 in 2010. When our son was born in 2012, he was the very first post-Katrina birth on our street, the sole child on a block that had eleven when we first arrived (as category-3 types, I suppose, sans the "bohemian") from Mississippi in 2000.2
Impact on New Orleans Culture
Many predicted that the 2005 deluge would wash away New Orleans' sui generis character. Paradoxically, post-Katrina gentrifiers are simultaneously distinguishing and homogenizing local culture vis-à-vis American norms, depending on how one defines culture. By the humanist's notion, the newcomers are actually breathing new life into local customs and traditions. Transplants arrive endeavoring to be a part of the epic adventure of living here; thus, through the process of self-selection, they tend to be Orleaneophilic "super-natives." They embrace Mardi Gras enthusiastically, going so far as to form their own krewes and walking clubs (though always with irony, winking in gentle mockery at old-line uptown krewes). They celebrate the city's culinary legacy, though their tastes generally run away from fried okra and toward "house-made beet ravioli w/ goat cheese ricotta mint stuffing" (I'm citing a chalkboard menu at a new Bywater restaurant, revealingly named Suis Generis, "Fine Dining for the People;" see Figure 2). And they are universally enamored with local music and public festivity, to the point of enrolling in second-line dancing classes and taking it upon themselves to organize jazz funerals whenever a local icon dies.
By the anthropologist's notion, however, transplants are definitely changing New Orleans culture. They are much more secular, less fertile, more liberal, and less parochial than native-born New Orleanians. They see local conservatism as a problem calling for enlightenment rather than an opinion to be respected, and view the importation of national and global values as imperative to a sustainable and equitable recovery. Indeed, the entire scene in the new Bywater eateries—from the artisanal food on the menus to the statement art on the walls to the progressive worldview of the patrons—can be picked up and dropped seamlessly into Austin, Burlington, Portland, or Brooklyn.
Figure 2. "Fine Dining for the People:" streetscapes of gentrification in Bywater. Montage by Richard Campanella.
A Precedent and a Hobgoblin
How will this all play out? History offers a precedent. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, better-educated English-speaking Anglos moved in large numbers into the parochial, mostly Catholic and Francophone Creole society of New Orleans. "The Americans [are] swarming in from the northern states," lamented one departing French official, "invading Louisiana as the holy tribes invaded the land of Canaan, [each turning] over in his mind a little plan of speculation"—sentiments that might echo those of displaced natives today.3 What resulted from the Creole/Anglo intermingling was not gentrification—the two groups lived separately—but rather a complex, gradual cultural hybridization. Native Creoles and Anglo transplants intermarried, blended their legal systems, their architectural tastes and surveying methods, their civic traditions and foodways, and to some degree their languages. What resulted was the fascinating mélange that is modern-day Louisiana.
Gentrifier culture is already hybridizing with native ways; post-Katrina transplants are opening restaurants, writing books, starting businesses and hiring natives, organizing festivals, and even running for public office, all the while introducing external ideas into local canon. What differs in the analogy is the fact that the nineteenth-century newcomers planted familial roots here and spawned multiple subsequent generations, each bringing new vitality to the city. Gentrifiers, on the other hand, usually have very low birth rates, and those few that do become parents oftentimes find themselves reluctantly departing the very inner-city neighborhoods they helped revive, for want of playmates and decent schools. By that time, exorbitant real estate precludes the next wave of dynamic twenty-somethings from moving in, and the same neighborhood that once flourished gradually grows gray, empty, and frozen in historically renovated time. Unless gentrified neighborhoods make themselves into affordable and agreeable places to raise and educate the next generation, they will morph into dour historical theme parks with price tags only aging one-percenters can afford.
Lack of age diversity and a paucity of "kiddie capital"—good local schools, playmates next door, child-friendly services—are the hobgoblins of gentrification in a historically familial city like New Orleans. Yet their impacts seem to be lost on many gentrifiers. Some earthy contingents even expresses mock disgust at the sight of baby carriages—the height of uncool—not realizing that the infant inside might represent the neighborhood's best hope of remaining down-to-earth.
Need evidence of those impacts? Take a walk on a sunny Saturday through the lower French Quarter, the residential section of New Orleans' original gentrified neighborhood. You will see spectacular architecture, dazzling cast-iron filigree, flowering gardens—and hardly a resident in sight, much less the next generation playing in the streets. Many of the antebellum townhouses have been subdivided into pied-à-terre condominiums vacant most of the year; others are home to peripatetic professionals or aging couples living in guarded privacy behind bolted-shut French doors. The historic streetscapes bear a museum-like stillness that would be eerie if they weren't so beautiful.
Richard Campanella, a geographer with the Tulane School of Architecture, is the author of Bienville's Dilemma, Geographies of New Orleans, Delta Urbanism, Lincoln in New Orleans, and other books. He may be reached through richcampanella.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, and nolacampanella on Twitter.
1 The years-long displacement opened up time and space for the ensuing racial and socio-economic transformations to gain momentum, which thence increased housing prices and impeded working-class households with families from resettling, or settling anew.
2 These Census Bureau race and age figures are drawn from what most residents perceive to be the main section of Bywater, from St. Claude Avenue to the Mississippi River, and from Press Street to the Industrial Canal. Other definitions of neighborhood boundaries exist, and needless to say, each would yield differing statistics.
3 Pierre Clément de Laussat, Memoirs of My Life (Louisiana State University Press: Baton Rouge and New Orleans, 1978 translation of 1831 memoir), 103.


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Tag Archives: zero waste
You'd be hard-pressed to find a Canadian who hasn't heard of A&W. That's because their first location opened over 60 years ago, and they have over 900 locations across the nation. They were often the first nationally branded restaurant in a community. And while their frosted mugs are embedded in our memories, they continue to evolve with their customer's changing needs. From farm to table, the supply chain in the food service industry is under intense scrutiny from customers who not only want to know where their food is coming from, but also the humanitarian and environmental effects. With a demand for transparency, social media can impact the supply chain addressing customers' desire for better understanding of how products are sourced. And A&W Canada is leading the pack, with quality products that speak to a changing demographic. They're the first and only national Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) in Canada to serve beef raised without the use of hormones or steroids, pork and chicken raised without the use of antibiotics, and eggs farmed in Canada from hens fed a diet without animal by-products. And yes, they also serve organic, Fairtrade coffee, too.


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Possible Duplicate:
Plural/singular verb agreement with units
Does modifying a collective noun with a number make the subject plural?
Can anyone help me determine the correct verb in this sentence? I am not sure what to do. If it were not such a complex introductory phrase, it would be more obvious. The general consensus of my friends who are not professional writers is that the verb should be are.
To me the question is whether or not the subject is singular (i.e., "a large collective volume of paint", perhaps in a tank) or plural (a lot of the individual gallon containers of paint).
If simplified to other options, it would be like these:
- Paint is sold.
- Gallons of paint are sold.
- More paint is sold.
- More gallons of paint are sold.
- More than 1000 gallons of paint is sold. [emphasis on total volume]
- More than 1000 gallons of paint are sold. [emphasis on individual containers]


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Where can I use my new Players Club card?
Your new Players Club card can be used at any slot machine or table game at all seven SIGA casinos.
How do I earn points for slot play?
You will earn 1 point for every $1 in credits played on slot machines. 1,000 points = $5 in cash back. You do not earn points while playing promotional credits.
I forgot my Players Club card at home. Can I get another one?
Yes, simply visit the Players Club desk to receive another Players Club card for free.
Will my membership or points ever expire?
If you choose not to redeem your Players Club points, they will expire 18 months after the date on which they were earned. Free slot play offers expire at the end of each gaming date.


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An afternoon of joy for Dodger fans suddenly turned to an evening of tragedy, as a hastily-called press conference confirmed that Dodger General Manager Ned Colletti mistakenly acquired Man-E-Faces rather than Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez.
"I regret to inform Dodger fans everywhere, as well as my boss Frank McCourt, that I may have screwed up here a bit," said Colletti at the press conference. "When [Red Sox GM] Theo Epstein told me that we could 'steal Manny by giving up [Dodger prospect Andy] LaRoche,' I was so ecstatic that I forgot to confirm Manny's last name. Upon further review of the contract I signed, it seems that I gave away LaRoche not for Manny Ramirez, but for a fictional character from the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon.
"For failing to read the fine print," Colletti continued, "I am truly sorry and apologize for any confusion I may have caused."
McCourt stood behind Colletti at the podium, weeping into his Boston Red Sox hat.
"When Theo told me I was picking up a three-tool player, I assumed it was Ramirez," continued Colletti. "Still, I'm hoping that Man-E-Faces' alternate human, robot, and monster faces might give our lineup the flexibility it needs to adapt to game situations."
It is suspected that Colletti may also have been confused by Man-E-Faces' good friend, Ram-Man, who shares a name that almost sounds like a common nickname of the Red Sox' Ramirez.
McCourt left the press conference hastily, only mumbling under his breath as he exited the room. "The least he could have done was pick up He-Man, for pete's sake. Shit, we still need a power bat. This guy's orange plastic gun is useless."
The press conference also ended very awkwardly. After Colletti had left the podium and McCourt had left to go watch the Red Sox game, a shirtless Joe Torre entered the room wearing a blonde wig. "The moral of this story," Torre told a perplexed group of reporters, "is to always read the fine print before you sign any legal contracts. And it helps if you can consult a lawyer!" As Torre walked away from the microphones, a little man in a red robe and floppy hat appeared to levitate across the room.


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The Eleventh Annual Southern California Linux Expo
February 22-24, 2013
Hilton Los Angeles International Airport
February 22-24, 2013
Hilton Los Angeles International Airport
The BSD Certification Group (BSDCG) is pleased to offer the BSDA certification exam to attendees of SCALE. The exam will be paper based and in English. Exam information is available from the Certification page of the BSDCG website. Exam candidates should be proficient in the BSDA Certification Requirements and the Command Reference, both of which are available for free download from this page of the website. Participants need to register for a BSDCG ID. Once you have an ID, you can choose an exam location and pay for the exam. The exam price is $75 USD and payable through Paypal or credit card.
February 24, 2013


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Loganite Log In
Your Cart is Empty
Welcome to the Official Website of the Maternal Order of The Loganites!
I'm the receptionist PattisPet, Patricia hired me as Zach Teak does not have the best track record with receptionist's but please don't tell Master Z as he likes to think he is in charge around here. Patricia comes by often and likes to share her inspirations, usually in pictures but don't worry the doctors have assured us that she will be allowed more then just crayons soon …. ish!
Please make yourself at home, browse around, remember the guys round here like being watched so visit often!!
Oh and please don't give the author coffee after midnight!!!


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home | metro silicon valley index | movies | current reviews | film review
Photograph by Richard Foreman
CAN'T WE GET ALONG?: Renaissance-man bad guy Russell Crowe attempts to negotiate his way out of some sticky business in '3:10 to Yuma.'
How the West Was Lost
James Mangold tries to breathe gunsmoke into a moribund genre in '3:10 to Yuma'
By Richard von Busack
AFTER THE success of Walk the Line, director James Mangold tries to make 3:10 to Yuma as a Western to end all Westerns. This strategy has been tried before (in 1969, for instance, in a little movie called Once Upon a Time in the West). If 3:10 to Yuma becomes a hit, it will be because of the power of the Western themes themselves and not because of the social-commentary and bric-a-brac with which Mangold loads this film.
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A debt-harried, maimed Civil War vet, Dan Evans (Christian Bale), is ranching an arid patch in southern Arizona. As the film begins, his barn is burned by regulators from the Southern Pacific railroad, who want him to sell out his property. Evans doesn't shoot the marauders, which seems like weakness to his chafing adolescent son Will (Logan Lerman), a 14-year-old intoxicated by Western dime novels.
Evans has no room for adventure, though. His youngest son is gasping with tuberculosis and he has to face the disappointment of his weary wife, Alice (maybe they should have found someone wearier than Gretchen Mol). Having to raise some money fast, Evans must herd his scrawny cattle into town.
Nearby, the actual stuff of dime novels is going on. The fearsome Ben Wade (Russell Crowe), armed with his pistol, "the Hand of God," has engineered a robbery of the Wells Fargo stagecoach. His pinprick-eyed psycho lieutenant Charlie Prince (Ben Foster) helps shoot the survivors. Among them is the hired gun Byron McElroy (Peter Fonda), who was protecting the coach's gold.
Evans and Will stumble into the crime scene; Wade and his bandits help themselves to the rancher's horses. Though gut-shot at close range, McElroy survives the attack. After a quick operation from the town's veterinarian (Alan Tudyk of Serenity, good and droll as always), Evans helps organize the capture of Wade.
An unsteady posse heads out: one broken rancher; one bespectacled horse doctor, one high-handed weakling of an SP executive (Dallas Roberts) and one wounded lawman. They escort Wade to the railhead at Contention, to ship him off on the 3:10 train to the territorial prison at Yuma. Wade's armed and dangerous gang remains at large, ready to spring him during the trip across the Apache-haunted open country.
Elmore Leonard's story fueled the original film version, a minor but efficient oater of 1957, complete with Frankie Laine moaning the title song. Glenn Ford played the thoroughly evil robber, and Van Heflin—always half-crumbled before any film began—played the desperate rancher who helped round him up.
I interviewed Leonard once and asked him why he had stopped writing Westerns. I wondered if the social changes of the late 1960s had pushed him into more morally ambiguous work than Westerns provided. (Leonard was living outside Detroit and would have gotten a good look at the 1968 riots, which would tend to make anyone lose faith in the idea that sometimes a man's got to take the law into his own hands and do what he's gotta do.)
Leonard said that in his opinion the Westerns dried up strictly because of firepower itself. Once audiences had heard automatic weapons, they were less interested in six-shooters. Well, Mangold has that avenue covered, and the final shootout is a 101-gun salute, with a plywood town getting splintered.
This big-time gunplay is part of the nod to all the movies that have come along since the golden age of the Western. Since I saw an uncut version, these scenes may have been deleted. What I did see was an Indiana Jones kind of business with an exploding tunnel and dozens of Chinese laborers milling about. Crowe's Wade is the post–Hannibal Lecter killer, a dandy in an embroidered vest, able to charm one moment and spear a person's throat in the next.
Just as Vietnam kept intruding into Westerns from 1965 to the early 1980s, Mangold puts in a bit of Iraq: an Abu Ghraib torture sequence and a speech of disillusionment from Evans, who believes that he lost his leg in a war that decided nothing and got paid chump change from the government as well.
All this is distracting enough, but Mangold gets caught in the fork of having too much identification building up between the two protagonists. Wade grows in Renaissance-man status, waxing philosophical and doing little pencil sketches between murders. At some point, Mangold must have been struck by worrying that the audience would be disappointed if either good or evil triumphed. Here is the same wishy-washiness that was evident in Mangold's troubled Cop Land.
Mangold does deliver enough of the basic pleasures of the Western so that much of 3:10 to Yuma works on the basic level. The film has a clear path to success, though. This has been the cinematic summer of "bromance" (to use a word coined by David Carnie to describe Knocked Up, Superbad, Chuck & Larry, etc.), and Crowe and Bale's moral duel comes to this year's kind of crowd-pleasing ending. Ultimately, the last line ought to be the one Joanne Dru delivered in Red River: "Anybody with half a mind would know you two love each other."
3:10 TO YUMA (R; 117 min.), directed by James Mangold, written by Halsted Welles, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, based on a story by Elmore Leonard, photographed by Phedon Papamichael and starring Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, opens Sept. 7 valleywide.
Send a letter to the editor about this story.


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Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling was an American chemist who lived between 1901-1994. He was the first person to apply quantum mechanics to chemistry, and made great progress in the field of molecular biology.
Pauling was the first person to understand and explain how atoms bond with each other to form molecules. He won two Nobel prizes during his life: One for his work in chemistry and the other for his efforts at stopping nuclear weapons testing.


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Build responsively
Permit requirements
Permits are required for all types of development in the floodplain, not just for the construction of buildings. For instance, if you intend to clear a site, install fill, or regrade an existing site, you must first submit plans and secure a permit from the Town of Mount Pleasant. These permitting requirements are in place to help control activities which may increase the flood hazard on your property or for a neighboring property. Before you build, fill, or otherwise develop in the floodplain, please contact the Building Inspection Division at 849-2029 or the Planning Department at 884-2029. Also, if you see construction, clearing, or filling in the floodplain but no permit sign is posted, please notify the Town at one of the above numbers.
Information concerning special construction requirements in the floodplain, such as freeboard and flood resistant materials, may be obtained by contacting the Building Inspection Division at 843-884-5184. Also, the Town's Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance is available online.
Substantial Improvement/Substantial Damage Requirements
If your home or business sustains damage or if you are making improvements to the structure and/or the interior of the building, then the Town's Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance may affect how you rebuild or make improvements if your structure is located in a flood zone. For instance, a building that is "substantially damaged" must be repaired to meet the same construction requirements as a new building, including the elevation requirements. "Substantial damage" is damage of any origin sustained by a structure whereby the cost of restoring the structure to its before damaged condition would equal or exceed 50% of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred. It is important to note that substantial damage includes damage of any origin, not just flooding. A house that is damaged 50% or more by a fire or tornado must also be brought into compliance with the current flood regulations. A "substantial improvement" is any repair, reconstruction, alteration, or improvement to a structure, the cumulative cost of which for a ten-year period equals or exceeds 50% of the fair market value of the structure either before the start of construction of the improvement, or if the structure has been damaged or is being restored, before the damage occurred. As with substantial damage, buildings that are substantially improved must meet the same construction requirements as new buildings. Note that costs are cumulative for ten years. If, for instance, a structure underwent renovation work six years ago that was equal to 30% of its value and then sustains 25% damage in a storm this year, then the 50% threshold for a ten-year period will have been exceeded and the structure will have to be brought into compliance with the current flood regulations.
The substantial improvement/substantial damage regulations can be complex. If you are planning repair or renovation work on a structure in a flood zone, please contact the Building Inspection Division at 884-5184 to determine if your project will be impacted by these regulations. General information on substantial damage/substantial improvement can also be obtained from FEMA's web site.
Drainage System Maintenance
The Town has a complex storm drainage system composed of open ditches and closed pipe sections. These systems may be owned by the Town, State, the County, or private property owners. The ditch systems and piped systems work together to carry stormwater runoff from homes and roadways to area ponds, creeks, and marshes. It is critical to maintain these systems in a high flow capacity to reduce flood occurrences. To accomplish this, the Town inspects major ditch systems twice a year and cleans systems as needed or reported. Residents should take extra care to prevent debris from entering the ditch and piped systems. Blockages or flooded areas can be reported to the Stormwater Office at 843-856-2157 for investigation and cleaning.


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Hi-Res Audio Player does not recognize the device, and cannot play back music.
If you encounter the error, "No output device has been selected" is displayed on the Hi-Res Audio Player, check the following:
- For a Windows PC, make sure the driver for the USB DAC device is installed.
- Open the Device Manager from the Control Panel, etc.
- Select Sound, video and game controllers.
- Check that Audio Driver is installed.
- When connected to a Windows PC, the driver is automatically installed. If it is not installed automatically, download the driver from the Sony support website, then install it.
- For Mac OS, the preinstall driver works instead, so there is no need to check the above.
Mac OS X 10.11 is not supported. If you do not have a supported OS version, use another supported application, such as iTunes. (As of Oct 2015)
- Check the device setting of the Hi-Res Audio Player.
- Select Device from the Configure menu.
- Select the connected device from the Device drop-down list and press OK.
- For a Portable Speaker, select Sony Audio Driver.
- For a Digital Media Player, select:
Sony ASIO driver or ASIO driver for SONY PHA-1A.


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Carlsbad, CA (March 6, 2012) – Last month Upper Deck released details on a nine-card insert set in the company's new World of Sports set called "World of Politics." The set was included as a way to commemorate the presidential campaign by profiling incumbent Barack Obama and eight other members of the Republican Party hoping to earn the GOP nomination. Upper Deck alluded to the fact there was a rare variation of these cards and it makes light of how difficult things can be for these politicians as they make their way across America campaigning.
"The campaign trail is tiring, but everybody has to take time out to eat," said Brandon Miller, brand manager for collegiate sports products. "Eating on the road is not all bad however as frequently politicians get to sample some amazing local dishes along the way. We felt it would be interesting to create very limited variation cards of these famous political heavyweights breaking bread on the road."
Politicians featured in the "World of Politics" variation set include Barack Obama, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul and Herman Cain. Candidates are shown taking a bite out of everything from pork chops to corn dogs.
Political junkies can find Upper Deck's World of Sports set in stores now.
Upper Deck is the leading sports and entertainment trading card and collectibles company. For more information on Upper Deck and its products please visit www.upperdeck.com.
Web Design by Jacob Tyler


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Are modern cloth diapers such as gDiapers or bumGenius really cost efficient compared to disposible diapers? It seems the diapers themselves are quite expensive and then you have to include the cost of cleaning them, and have enough on hand that you don't run out.
Do they really work out cheaper in the long run?


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MF Global Fell Short in 'Commodities Customer Segregated Funds' – Liquidator
James W. Giddens, the Trustee for the liquidation of MF Global Inc., has filed a preliminary report on the progress of his investigation into the failure of the broker-dealer with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, the Honorable Martin Glenn, presiding.
The Trustee's investigation has preliminarily determined that MF Global Inc. had a shortfall in commodities customer segregated funds beginning on Wednesday, October 26, 2011, and that the shortfall continued to grow in size until the bankruptcy filing on Monday, October 31, 2011.
The Trustee's investigators have now traced a majority of the cash transactions, totaling more than $105 billion, made in and out of MF Global Inc. in the last week before bankruptcy and are completing the process of tracing the remaining transactions.
MF Global also executed securities transactions totaling more than $100 billion during its final week of operations. These included liquidation of customer securities, proprietary positions and other items. The securities included complex instruments, such as off-balance sheet repurchase transactions involving sovereign debt securities and derivative structures.
"For three months our investigative team has worked to understand what happened during the final days of MF Global when cash and related securities movements were not always accurately and promptly recorded due to the chaotic situation and the complexity of the transactions," Giddens said.
"With these preliminary investigative conclusions in hand, we will analyze where the property wired out of bank accounts established to hold segregated and secured property ultimately ended up. We will then determine whether there is a sound and legal basis for recoveries against third parties that will help make customers whole. These will be very complex legal and factual determinations, which we will make consistent with our duty as the advocate for the former customers of MF Global Inc."
The investigation to date has found that transactions regularly moved between accounts and that funds believed to be in excess of segregation requirements in the commodities segregated accounts were used to fund other daily activities of MF Global.
In the past, such transfers were in amounts of less than $50 million, but as liquidity demands increased and could not be met fr om internal sources, much larger amounts were used, apparently with the assumption that funds would be restored by the end of the day.
By Wednesday, October 26, as the result of increasing demands for funds or collateral throughout MF Global, funds did not return as anticipated. As these withdrawals occurred, a lack of intraday accounting visibility existed, caused in part by the volume of transactions being executed, and the 4(d) U.S. segregated commodity customer account appears to have reached a deficit condition on Wednesday, October 26 that continued through to MF Global's bankruptcy.
The Trustee has identified most of the parties that were the immediate recipients of transfers fr om MF Global Inc. during the final days and weeks of operation. These transfers were largely effected through the clearing banks acting on behalf of MF Global Inc. The ultimate recipients of these transfers included banks, exchanges and clearing houses, MF Global Inc. affiliates, counterparties, and customers of the futures commission merchant and the broker-dealer.
The number of transactions executed by MF Global during the last week prior to the bankruptcy escalated to unprecedented volumes. The rush to meet funding needs for collateral, margin and customer liquidations led to billions of dollars in securities sales, draws on credit facilities, and a web of inter-company loans across affiliates, some foreign.
The company's computer systems and employees had difficulty keeping up with the unprecedented volume of transactions. A number of transactions were recorded erroneously or not at all. So called "fail" transactions – where either the buyer or seller fails to deliver the cash or the security, respectively – were five times the normal volume during the firm's final week.
The investigation has revealed that a confluence of factors contributed to the deterioration of MF Global's liquidity position. The exposure to European sovereign debt, coupled with the announcement of disappointing quarterly results, triggered credit downgrades by Moody's, Fitch and S&P. This escalation in credit risk mandated substantial margin calls and increased demands fr om counterparties and exchanges for collateral.
As an example, the additional margin paid to support only the sovereign debt positions exceeded $200 million during the final week of operations. This was a significant drain on available cash and securities.
The sovereign debt investments undertaken on a repo to maturity basis allowed some immediate gains to be booked, but these were purely paper profits generating negligible cash while the underlying transactions resulted in calls for substantial additional margin.
The heightened risk and apparent loss of confidence drove customers to close their accounts and withdraw funds, resulting in even greater demands on a relatively lim ited amount of available cash.
The Trustee's investigation has revealed that, while personnel may not have been immediately aware of it, MF Global Inc. experienced a shortfall in 4(d) customer funds beginning during the day on Wednesday, October 26.
The MF Global parent company struggled to continue to operate and even to sell the business, but MF Global Inc. appears to have remained in a shortfall of commodity customer segregated funds virtually continuously until its parent filed for Chapter 11 protection on Monday, October 31 and the Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) proceeding was commenced against MF Global Inc. later that afternoon.
The Trustee's investigators, including the legal and forensic accounting teams, have conducted over 50 witness interviews, preserved secure access to thousands of boxes of hard copy documents, imaged over 800 computer drives, and are maintaining over 100 terabytes of data.
To understand wh ere the money went during October 2011, the analysis conducted by the Trustee's professionals has included 840 cash transactions in excess of $10 million that total $327 billion, and an ongoing analysis of related securities transactions involving a value of over $100 billion.
These large cash transactions alone span 47 bank accounts across eight financial institutions. An additional 20,000 cash transfers that total $9 billion involve transfers of less than $10 million.
The Trustee's investigation is continuing to correlate cash transfers to relevant movements of securities used as collateral or loaned to counterparties. To that end, the Trustee is now working with various third parties to further define these securities transactions and obtain more complete information about the extent and basis for transfers to sel ect parties.
The Trustee continues to investigate the complex factual and legal questions to determine how best to pursue possible recoveries and the extent to which applicable law would support claims against particular recipients of funds, affiliates, and possibly to other parties, including employees of MF Global.
The Trustee's investigation will continue, in coordination with the regulatory and law enforcement investigations that are being conducted by the Department of Justice, the CFTC, and the SEC on an ongoing basis. The Trustee will seek to release additional information related to his investigation in the future, but cannot prematurely release information that might compromise the integrity of those investigations or the Trustee's own efforts to recover funds for customers and the estate.
The Trustee's staff is continuing its analysis of customer claims after the claims filing period for commodities customers closed on January 31, 2012.
Once a claim is reviewed by the Trustee's staff on as expedited a basis as possible, a determination letter will be issued to the claimant. These determination letters are being issued on a rolling basis. The determination letter will acknowledge the claim and provide a determination as to whether the claim has been allowed, denied, reclassified, or is subject to further reconciliation or information requests.
The Trustee is eager to make additional distributions to former MF Global Inc. customers as soon as possible. However, the Trustee is required by law to hold an appropriate reserve of funds until disputed claims are resolved either through negotiation or by the Court.
At this time, the Trustee anticipates significant disputed claims against the MF Global Inc. estate by MF Global Holdings Ltd., MF Global UK Lim ited, and other entities. The Trustee will move to attempt to resolve these claims as quickly as possible, but it is uncertain how long resolution will take.
Therefore, it is not known at this time when the Trustee will be legally able to make additional distributions.
The Trustee has already distributed nearly $4 billion to former MF Global Inc. retail commodities customers with US futures positions via three bulk transfers:
Within days of the bankruptcy, the Trustee received court approval for the transfer of 10,000 commodities customer accounts with three million open positions, along with approximately $1.5 billion in collateral associated with those positions at the time of the bankruptcy. These open positions had a notional value of $100 billion.
It is estimated that 40% of all commodity futures exchange activity in United States markets came fr om MF Global Inc. trades and a serious disruption in markets was avoided by the transfer.
A transfer of 60% of the cash attributable to approximately 15,000 customer commodity accounts with cash only in the accounts, totaling approximately $500 million, was completed in November.
And in December and January a third transfer occurred that moved approximately $2 billion to restore 72% of US segregated customer property to all former MF Global Inc. retail commodities customers with US futures positions.
In addition, the Trustee has received Court approval to sell and transfer approximately 318 active retail securities accounts, which is substantially all of the securities accounts at MF Global Inc.
Nearly all securities customers have received 60% or more of their account value and already 194 of former MF Global Inc. securities customers have received the entirety of their account balances because of a Securities Investor Protection Corporation guarantee.
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If you guys don't mind, I thought we needed a place to put photos of the ROTB figs.
I think these fellas work well as a heroic/monstrous scale figures for the Transformers Masterpiece scale figures. It also makes sense for the battle beasts feel.
Edited by sinchicken, 30 November 2014 - 01:19 PM.


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BOSTON (REUTERS) - Nearly 250 people have applied to receive money from a US$51 million (S$64 million) charity fund set up for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, the fund's deputy administrator said on Monday.
Twin explosions at the finish line of the world-renowned race on April 15 killed three people and injured 264 others, many of whom lost legs in the blasts.
"We now have 247 applications, and I expect a few more to come in over the next couple of days," said Ms Camille Biros.
Applications had to be post-marked June 15 or earlier to be considered.
The One Fund was established by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick shortly after the bombings, and it has so far brought in more than US$51 million in donations, according to its website.
The fund is being managed by Mr Kenneth Feinberg, an arbitration attorney who also oversaw compensation for victims of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks and the theater shootings in Aurora, Colorado.
Ms Biros said The One Fund had yet to sort through the applications to determine which would be accepted. She said payments will be made from July 1.
The fund will pay victims according to their injuries, with claims for death, multiple amputations and permanent brain damage to receive the biggest checks.
Two ethnic Chechen brothers who lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, were identified by the FBI as suspects in the bombing.
The younger of the two, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is being held at a prison hospital west of Boston. His older brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, died in a shootout with police days after the bombing.
Tamerlan had been on a United States (US) government database of potential terrorism suspects.


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Ethiopian Sugar Alleged to Destroy Pastoral Communities of Lower Omo
Ethiopian Sugar Corporation (ESC) is benefiting from forced resettlement of pastoral people in the Lower Omo Valley - a United Nations cultural heritage site - to make way for new sugar plantations and factories, according to a new report from the Oakland Institute.
Will Hurd, the author of the new report, is one of the few outsiders to speak the language of the local Mursi people. He was hired to work as a translator for an international fact finding team from the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) who traveled to the region in January 2012 to investigate allegations of human rights abuse. The funders provide support for Ethiopia's Protection of Basic Services Program.
To his dismay the team ignored what the local people told them.
"Forced evictions, denial of access to subsistence land, beatings, killings, rapes, imprisonment, intimidation, political coercion, and the denial of government assistance are all being used as tools of forced resettlement," writes Hurd. "(D)onor agencies were given highly credible first-hand accounts of serious human rights violations during their field investigation and they have chosen to steadfastly ignore these accounts."
Together with the report, Hurd has released transcripts of the testimony of the villagers that the team met with to back up his findings.
Under plans developed by the Ethiopian government for the Omo Kuraz Sugar Development Project, a total of 260,000 people from 17 distinct ethnic groups are to be evicted from some 375,000 hectares (1450 square miles) in south western Ethiopia around Lake Turkana and the Lower Omo Valley, a site where some of the oldest human fossils were discovered.
The ten groups that will be worst affected are the Bodi, Dassanach, Dizi, Karo, Kwegu, Mugudji, Murle, Mursi, Nyangatom and Suri peoples who live along the banks of the Omo river where a large earthern dam has been built blocking annual floods to downstream areas. A second planned dam could cause the water level of Lake Turkana by as much as 72 feet causing havoc for local fisherfolk and farmers as well as for drinking water supplies, according to experts from the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford.
ESC has started planting sugarcane on the lands that have already been cleared and six sugar factories are being built by the Metals & Engineering Corporation (METEC), an Ethiopian military-run company.
ETS freely admits that is building "three villages that enable to resettle 20,000 pastoralists is underway" in a press release on its Facebook page which immediately contradicts itself by claiming: "A single pastoralist will not be relocated due to the project."
"A total of 6, 695 jobs, including 505 permanent jobs, were created for the local community in this fiscal year," Nuredin Asaro, the general manager of Omo Kuraz sugar development project, was quoted as saying.
When Hurd visited the communities with the fact finding team last year, they were told in no uncertain terms that the community had been kicked off the land.
"Now the government has brought its big muscle, its big force, and says that it will take our cattle and take our land," said one interviewee. "We have left it without any people there and we are staying here in the plains being hit by the sun .... Now, if you go to the . . . cultivation sites along the Omo River will you see any Mursi there?"
"[The soldiers] went all over the place, and they took the wives of the Bodi and raped them, raped them, raped them, raped them. Then they came and they raped our wives, here," said another Mursi man.
"(W)e the people here are tired," said a third. "The government should come and light us all on fire."
A USAID official is heard replying: "Well, should we say that we hope it doesn't come to that."
A few months later Human Rights Watch released a report backing up the community. "Ethiopia's ambitious plans for the Omo valley appear to ignore the rights of the people who live there," Ben Rawlence, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch said in a report released in June 2012 titled "What Will Happen if Hunger Comes?: Abuses against the Indigenous Peoples of Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley." "There is no shortcut to development; the people who have long relied on that land for their livelihood need to have their property rights respected, including on consultation and compensation."
Yet in a U.S. State department report published in in April 2013, government officials reported that "development partners did not find evidence to support this claim ... of government harassed, mistreated, and arbitrarily arrested persons in South Omo in order to clear or prepare land for commercial agriculture,"
"It is difficult not to conclude that DFID and USAID have decided to support the current policy of the Ethiopian government, their strategic ally in the Horn of Africa," Hurd concludes in the new report. "By doing so, they are willful accomplices and supporters of a development strategy that will have irreversible devastating impacts on the environment and natural resources and will destroy the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people."
ETS is just the first investor to develop the Lower Omo Valley. Other companies - from India, Italy and Malaysia together with Ethiopian diaspora-owned companies in the U.S. - are expected to establish cotton, grain, palm oil and sugarcane plantations in the region soon.
- 116 Human Rights


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Old South Church voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to let its trustees sell one of the church's two copies of the 1640 Bay Psalm Book, the first book published in the British North American Colonies, a rare text that specialists say could fetch more than $10 million at auction.
The vote came after an impassioned but respectful discussion in which a few members entreated their fellow congregants not to part with such a treasure — at least not yet — but many more speakers declared that now was the time to solidify Old South's finances and invest in its future.
The proceeds of any sale will help cover costly repairs to the historic church and, leaders said, set the congregation on firmer financial ground as it endeavors to expand its work as a major progressive Christian church in Boston.
"We went from being an iconic church to being a mission church — that's what happened," said member Bill Adams of Quincy, echoing the words of the church's former moderator, Vard Johnson, to him that morning. "Now we have a job to do to get outside these walls and make a difference."
Two hundred seventy-one members voted in favor and 34 were opposed, well beyond the necessary two-thirds threshold.
A second proposal to sell a collection of early American communion silver owned by the church also passed easily. The congregation amended both proposals to limit the timeframe for a sale to 10 years.
The votes came after nearly two hours of discussion in a special meeting held between the church's two Sunday morning services.
"The members and leadership went through an amazingly open congregational process, and it was as beautiful as it was difficult," said the Rev. Nancy Taylor, senior minister of Old South. "You can't ask for more than people's passion and love for church and fulfillment of mission."
The psalm book, the work of several leading Puritan ministers who wanted a more literal — and in their eyes, more theologically correct — translation of the Book of Psalms from the Hebrew, quickly became the standard psalter used on Sunday mornings throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony, said Ian Quinn, a music professor at Yale University.
Eleven copies have survived; all are owned by major institutions. No copy has been on the market since 1947.
Both of Old South's copies are housed in the Boston Public Library, across the street from Old South. The silver is in the custody of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.
The vote in favor of selling the "historic assets," as the church calls them, came despite the strong objection of the church historian, Jeff Makholm, and several of the church's former lay leaders.
"I'm really severely disappointed with what went on today," Makholm said afterward. "There's a certain amount of fiscal irresponsibility that goes along with selling centuries-old treasures for current programs, no matter how good you think they are."
But most of those who spoke at Sunday's meeting, including a number of the church's current leaders, made a strong case for a sale. They said the church had a primary responsibility to invest in its building so that it could keep its doors open seven days a week as a "sanctuary in the city," continue ministering to the poor, and expand its membership.
Phil Stern, chairman of the board of trustees, said Old South is in a far stronger place than it has been in many years; both membership and annual giving have doubled since 2006. But he said the church needed at least $7 million in repairs, including a new heating system, updated electrical infrastructure and fire suppression improvements, and as well as storm windows and other fixes to improve the church's energy efficiency.
Addressing both the repair backlog and conservative budgeting for future needs, he said, would cost at least $400,000 a year — 20 percent more than the congregation takes in.
Proceeds from the sale of the historic items would probably boost the church's endowment enough to cover that cost and put the church on strong footing going forward, he said. Otherwise, the church would have to either spend a greater portion of its $18 million endowment than the current agreed-upon limit of 4 percent — or else cut programs and staff.
Paul Kuenstner, chairman of the church's operations committee, told the congregation that in his professional work for a foundation, he has encountered scores of historic homes and churches that have foundered under the burden of maintaining their buildings.
"Old South doesn't have to be one of those organizations," he said. "We have the ability to stay out of harm's way."
Some members argued that delaying the vote for a few months would do no harm; perhaps, they said, this would allow time to develop a new strategy for raising money or lowering costs, or at least buy time to reach greater consensus.
But Bettina Blake argued that the church made a great sacrifice in the late 19th century by giving up its beloved meeting house downtown in order to expand its mission.
"We need to have the courage to seize the moment," she said. "We need to do it now."
Afterwards, Pam Roberts, another former moderator of Old South, was thrilled.
"It is said that Christianity is always one generation away from extinct," she said. "I feel that keenly; I think our forebears felt that keenly. I don't think we can know how they would have felt about this vote, but I'd like to think they'd have said to do whatever it takes to keep the church thriving."
Makholm said it was not yet clear to him how the vote would affect the congregation; those opposed to the sale, he said, were still in a state of shock.
But Gloria Platt of the Fenway, who has belonged to Old South since 1969 and who voted against the sale, said she and other like-minded people would accept the decision of the majority and go on as before.
"We're a very understanding congregation," she said.
Lisa Wangsness can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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We've had a few big changes here at Lizzie B....which by all means does NOT mean Lizzie B is no longer a creative team. BUT...in case you've been wondering, this is what's going on! This is a post from the Missouri Star Quilt Company blog:
Meet Liz Hawkins (aka Mama Hawk) of Mama Hawk's Kitchen!
Meet Liz Hawkins, aka Mama Hawk! She's the newest addition to the MSQC family and she's bringing out the big guns. Watch out, delicious baked goods are on their way! She's the talent behind Mama Hawk's Kitchen, which opens TODAY!
Here's a little peek at what you'll be able to find in Mama Hawk's Kitchen! Make sure to follow Mama Hawk on Facebook to find out the menu each day!
We took a moment to chat with Liz about what led her to Hamilton, Missouri, and it's been a delightful trip.
Tell us about your background as a quilt designer.
I've been a quilt designer in the industry, along with my sister-in-law, for almost 10 years. We started our journey as designers together because of our combined passion for quilting, and also because we both share the exact same name: Elizabeth Ann Hawkins! We always thought it'd be fun to go into business together.
And what did that lead to?
We started Lizzie B Cre8ive as pattern designers concentrating mostly on whimsical, bright, appliquéprojects. From there we went on to publish two books with Kansas City Star. We also teach, lecture, and we just launched our 6th fabric line with Henry Glass Fabrics. It's been a wild ride, and we've made many friends along the way in this wonderful industry.
So, what brought you here to Hamilton, Missouri?
One of our dear friends suggested we all meet for a quilting retreat at MSQC in September. However, I was very reluctant to go. It was already shaping up to be a very busy month for me, but you know friends—at least if they're GOOD ones—can be very convincing. So off I went to Hamilton, Missouri for the first time ever. Just two weeks later I was back to talk about my ideas for a bakery. Then, a week after that, I was back again, renting an apartment, looking at real estate, and beginning to turn the deserted bakery into Mama Hawk's Kitchen.
You've gone from quilting to baking, you're a talented lady! When did you learn to bake?
My mom taught us all how to bake when we were kids, but I'll be honest, I wasn't the best cook in my family. In fact, my siblings still like to joke about some of my experiments in the kitchen, but when I got married, my husband and I moved to France and Switzerland. We lived there for 10 years and had our four children there. That's where I learned how to cook and bake.
Why was Switzerland the ideal place to learn to cook?
Because eating out was not an option; it was too expensive. Learning to make anything American in France was a challenge—there was no such thing as anything ready-made. You had to chop chocolate if you wanted chocolate chips. You had to start with butter, flour, and milk if you wanted a cream-based soup. And you had to go to the market at least 2-3 times a week because veggies only lasted in the refrigerator a few days, like they're supposed to.
That seems like a great opportunity to learn!
I've always loved a challenge, and I loved learning how to cook and bake over there with the freshest ingredients and most delicious chocolate and butter. In fact, when my brother came to visit, I heard him talking on the phone saying, "No Mom, I mean she really knows how to cook now, like, amazingly!" Then before I knew it, I was catering to other Americans in our community who missed things like bagels or muffins. I also made wedding cakes and introduced our French and Swiss friends to cheesecake—which they don't like, by the way. Cheese shouldn't be sweet, apparently!
What else did you pick up overseas?
I learned to bottle fruits and vegetables in the spring and summer when they're at their freshest. We lived on our own bottled salsa and tomato sauce all winter. I was worried I'd lose this ability to bake and cook fresh food when we finally moved back to the U.S. (I'll admit, when we were first starting our business, my kids ate a lot of Hot Pockets and frozen burritos). Taking time to make really good food for people, like I did back in France, is still something I find a lot of joy in doing.
When did you become Mama Hawk?
I lived in a funky little town in Pennsylvania called New Hope. It's a destination town with fun shops and restaurants and I'd been talking for years about opening up a bakery there. All the kids in the community who used to come to our house would call me Mama Hawk. They loved sitting in my kitchen because it's where I would bake yummy treats for them—that don't come out of a box from the grocery store. My kitchen is a bit more funky than most kitchens. It's bright turquoise with accents in red, and retro metal signs everywhere. It's warm and welcoming, and a fun place to hang out. Whenever I baked treats for school events, the kids would ask me to put a sticker on my baked goods so they knew which ones to buy. That's how Mama Hawk's began!
Your kitchen sounds like the perfect place to go after a hard day of quilting! What will Mama Hawk's be like here in Hamilton?
I want Mama Hawk's to feel a bit like you're coming into my kitchen at home. And just like any home kitchen, what's on the menu that day is whatever mama feels like cooking! I'll be serving up unique items for breakfast and lunch, along with delicious baked goods, so don't expect the same thing each day.
That sounds amazing! What kinds of treats will you be cooking up?
For breakfast I might make hot panini sandwiches, waffles, muffins, coffee cake, cinnamon buns, and fresh donuts. Homemade soup, salad, and panini sandwiches will be offered for lunch. There will be different layer cakes each week, which you can buy by the slice, and what Mama Hawk is really known for—ginormous cookies! We'll also be serving up specialty coffee, espresso, tea, and hot chocolate. It's my hope that there will always be a little something for everyone who comes into my kitchen, and I'll work hard to make it feel like home.
What do you like to do when you're not busy in the kitchen?
Is there anything else I do besides quilt, cook, and bake? Why yes, there are many things, but I feel like they're all part of the same family of creativity. I've been playing the flute since I was 8 years old and I taught Suzuki flute lessons for many years. I also play the Irish pennywhistle. I may even have these instruments in my kitchen and break out into spontaneous song if requested. Just be ready to do a jig if I do!
Is there anything you don't do?!
In college I studied art and my focus was watercolor, which helps when it comes to designing fabric. I also love to write. I just published a book this summer for young adults called Rewind, which is the first in a series of three. But for now, I'm just excited to be in Hamilton as a part of the MSQC family! I hope you'll all pop into my kitchen, stay awhile, and tell me your own stories. I'm looking forward to meeting you all!
Thank you so much, Liz. We can't wait to come check out Mama Hawk's Kitchen!
Lizzie B Cre8ive: http://www.lizziebcre8ive.com/
Liz Ann Hawkins: http://www.lizannhawkins.com/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/mamahawkbakes/
Twitter: @lizannhawkins
***So if you find yourself visiting the Missouri Star Quilt Co in Hamilton, MO....stop on by my kitchen for a special treat PLUS all things Lizzie B! Oh...and Beth and I are now only THREE hours apart from each other. How cool is that?!


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School Delays and Closings Due to Winter Storm
UPDATE: Genoa School closed at 10 a.m. Fouke School is closing at 1 p.m. today. UACCH and UACCH-Texarkana campuses will close today at 11:00 a.m.
Here are the schools that are closed today: Blevins, Ashdown, Foreman and Horatio. Schools that are delaying their start until 10 a.m. are Avery, DeKalb, New Boston, Malta and Hubbard.
We will continue to update this list if there are any additions.
The bridges and overpasses may still be an issue today so please allow extra time to make it where ever you are going.


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Over 60 million homes in the U.S. utilize propane, whether for home heating, water heating, clothes drying, or cooking on a stovetop or an outdoor grill. Although propane is a very safe and environmentally friendly energy option, there are many tips you and your family members can follow to ensure your continued safety when using propane.
The propane industry believes that good safety habits should be adopted at a young age, and that the more children and teens know about propane, the fewer preventable accidents will occur.
The games and activities on this website are designed to teach your children or students:
Although this site is targeted toward children, it is strongly encouraged that all family members participate in learning more about good propane safety practices. After all, your family's safety is what matters most.
Max, Kate, Scout, and Sniffy are on a mission: play and learn! And propane expert Jim is there to make sure they're all taking the proper safety precautions!
Each game and activity on the site highlights an important safety tip or essential information about propane, such as how to detect the smell of propane or when you should have an adult test your home's gas, smoke, and carbon monoxide detectors. Games are broken down into three levels:
Level 1: Suggested grades pre-K to K Level 2: Suggested grades 1 to 3 Level 3: Suggested grades 4 and up
We understand that every child learns at a different pace, so encourage your children to challenge themselves at whichever level you/they feel is appropriate for them.
Several activities can be completed on the computer as well as OFF the computer. When you see the "Print 'n Play" icon, this means you can download and print out that activity and complete it in the classroom, home, or wherever your child would like! For example, some children may prefer to complete the "connect the dots" with crayons and paper and hang it on the refrigerator rather than on the computer.
"Print 'n Play" is also helpful for teachers who do not have a computer available for each student in their classroom. Click here to download the complete set of printable games and activities that are currently available (2.4MB zipped folder).
For over ten years, PERC has been dedicated to supporting and promoting the safe, efficient use of propane as a preferred energy source. PERC and the propane industry recognize that consumer safety is a top priority for you. Through workforce training and consumer safety brochures, pamphlets, radio spots, and even interactive e-learning modules, many propane marketers have taken advantage of these tools to reach out to their communities.
PropaneKids was developed as part of an ongoing effort to educate younger consumers on good propane safety habits. PERC and the propane industry believe that good safety habits should be adopted at a young age, and that the more children and teens know about propane, the fewer preventable accidents will occur.
The games and activities on this website are designed to teach younger consumers between pre-K and K through middle school:
Educating members of your community about propane safety can be as easy as setting up a booth at a local fair or community event and handing out safety brochures, visiting school classrooms to talk to students about good safety practices in their homes, or even adding a link to PropaneKids on your company's website.
If you would like to become affiliated with PropaneKids, please send an e-mail to [email protected].
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From the Latin Mass Society in England:
LMS Residential Training Conference for Priests Wishing to Learn the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Traditional Latin Mass) at Downside Abbey, Somerset.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider to attend Conference
The Latin Mass Society has announced that Bishop Athanasius Schneider ORC, Auxiliary Bishop of Karaganga in Kazakhstan, will be attending the forthcoming priests' training conference to be held at Downside Abbey from Tuesday 10th to Friday 13th August. Bishop Schneider will celebrate a Solemn Pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form in the Abbey Church at Downside on Thursday 12th August at 11.00am. He will also deliver a lecture as part of the conference.
Around 30 priests are expected to attend the conference where tuition will be given in the celebration of Mass in the older form. Some will be beginners, and will be studying Low Mass; whilst others with more experience will be expanding their skills to include Missa Cantata and Missa Solemnis. Tuition will also be provided for altar servers.
Bishop Schneider is best known for his defence of the traditional practice of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue and kneeling. His book, Dominus Est, originally written in Italian but now available in English, deals with this subject in some detail.
The public will be able to attend the 11.00 am Mass in the Abbey Church each day of the conference, but will be particularly welcome at the Pontifical Mass on the Thursday.
There are a few last minute places available at the Downside conference. Priests and potential servers interested in attending should contact the Latin Mass Society by telephoning 020 7404 7284 for further information and an application form.
For further information, please contact John Medlin, General Manager, or James Murphy, LMS Office Manager, on (T) 020 7404 7284;
(F) 020 7831 5585; (E mail) firstname.lastname@example.com