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Microsoft Office 2019 Crack + Product Key Generator + Serial Number [Latest]
Microsoft has released Microsoft Office 2019 Product Key Generator automation software, which is very useful and provides professional tools for document processing. One of the unusual features of Microsoft Office 2019 is that it has an excellent graphical user interface and is easy to understand. Nowadays, Microsoft Office is the most useful and famous software. Microsoft Office 2019 Crack is spreading day by day, as well as updating and improving. Many new features are added for the benefit of its users. After a series of preview versions, now Microsoft finally introduced an updated and much better official understanding of Office 2019.
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Microsoft Office 2019 Product Key Generator + Crack [Latest]
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Does the product key launch in Microsoft Office 2019 Crack?
There are license keys for Professional 2019, Office Home & Business 2019, and 32-bit, and 64-bit activation tools for everyone to download on user demand. Office 365 version, then it will be upgraded automatically. You will have a great experience of documentation. Some of the components and functions which are restricted in the previous version are now available, and the user can use them. In addition, there are some special tools added to it for better performance after using this new version. You will love it. However, I regret to inform you that according to some disclosures and complexities, Microsoft Office 2019 Crack only works on Windows 10. In this case, if you are using Windows 8.1 Windows 7, or some older versions, you will not be able to install it and cannot use it.
Microsoft Office 2019 Crack to the latest version automatically without doing anything. However, if you are using Microsoft Office 2016 or an earlier version, you should uninstall it completely. The user's Microsoft account will take the place of his Office product line for many tasks, such as reinstalling Office and activating Office. In some cases, users bought multiple copies of Office and then used the same install button to install Office on multiple computers. The activation fails on the other running systems. The activation process fails because each install button is associated with a unique product key installed only on one computer.
Microsoft Office 2019 Product Key is the most recent version of the productivity tool by Microsoft. It features significant developments over Microsoft Office 2016 and earlier versions of the on-premises Office. Office 2019 Product Key includes new features and efficiently has no expiry date for Office apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Skype for company and server products such as Exchange, SharePoint, and Skype for Business. In addition, Microsoft Office 2019 Product Key makes security updates and fixes. With Office 2019, users can get Morph and Zoom to PowerPoint; new data-analysis features for PowerPivot; Learning Tools such as Read Aloud and Text Spacing for Outlook and Word; various security upgrades Throughout the package much more.
Microsoft Search is designed for Office Users, which will permit them to traverse Windows, Office.com, office programs, SharePoint, OneDrive, and much more. Suggestions are a rebranding of a number of the features. Microsoft is working on AI to make the user experience to make it much better and smoother. The Microsoft Delve effectively surfaces documents that others in your company have shared using Microsoft Graph. 'Design Ideas' before seen in PowerPoint can serve you to design and format your content through the influence of AI, which can presently also be used over Excel and probably Word too. Ideas will work and support different perspectives and insights into your data or design your slide in PowerPoint to deliver excellent use of your available content.
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- Add visual effect.
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Ever struggled to discover a file that has been delivered to you as an attachment? Stress no longer! Click here File > Open> Shared with me.
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New Website Templates are great for producing a low-fidelity layout sketch to present notions before the actual design process.
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The Accessibility Checker is much better than ever, with upgraded support for global criteria and useful recommendations to make your files more accessible.
- Helpful sounds enhance availability.
Turn on sound cues to guide you while you work. Sound signals are a part of audio effects, which you may see in Options > Benefits of Access.
Microsoft Office 2019 Product Key
Office 2019 Product Key
Microsoft Office 2019 Key
Microsoft Office 2019 Product Key
How to use Microsoft Office 2019 Product Key?
Not sure about the version of Microsoft Office or the activation status of your copy? These steps can help you find the same. You can use Microsoft Office 2019 Activator.
- Open any Office application (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)
- Go to File> Account
- The activation status of the program is right under the product information title.
- If it says that the product is active, it means that you have a validly licensed copy of Microsoft Office.
- But a yellow highlighted box reads the product activation requirement, indicating that you need to copy the Office of your Microsoft Office Office.
- One more way, CMD will be used to check the activation status.
- Follow these steps to activate the situation using CMD.
- Locate the Microsoft Office installation folder (e.g., C: \ Program Files (x86) \ Microsoft Office \ Office16).
- Open a new command window.
- Enter the CD <Office Installation Path> (Step 1).
- Now execute cscript ospp.vbs / dstatus.
- After running this script, you will be able to see the current license status.
- You can also see the expiry date, your product's last five letters, and other similar details.


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Inside Venus
Venus is a slightly smaller than the Earth, with a diameter 95% that of Earth (12,103 km) and a mass 81% that of Earth. If we could walk around on the surface of the planet (without being killed by the toxic blast furnace of an atmosphere), gravity would be close to that on the surface of Earth.
The interior of Venus is probably similar to
interior. Venus,
like Earth, is one of the terrestrial planets and is
made of rock and metal. It probably has a partly molten metallic core, a
rocky mantle, and a crust. The planet rotates very slowly, taking more
than 243 Earth days to spin once on it's axis (even longer than the time
it takes for Venus to orbit the Sun, about 225 Earth days).
This may be the reason the planet
doesn't have a
The varied terrain of Venus, including volcanoes, mountains, craters, and lava flows, suggests that the planet was once, and perhaps still is, geologically active. But basic questions about the interior of Venus remain, such as the thickness of the lithosphere.

subset: commoncrawl


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LONDON (AP) — British supermarket chain Asda says it is recalling all corned beef from its budget range after traces of a veterinary drug were found in some batches.
The Food Standards Agency says "very low levels" of a painkiller called phenylbutazone, known as "bute," were detected in the products.
The agency said Tuesday it was the first time the drug has been found in a meat product in the U.K. since the horse meat scandal began. Dozens of processed meat products contaminated with horse have been pulled from store shelves across Europe in the past few months.
Earlier tests had shown that Asda's corned beef contained more than 1 percent horse DNA.
Authorities said although animals treated with bute shouldn't enter the food chain, the risk to human health is very low.


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Guess who's decided to work after being yelled at? On Friday, the House of Representatives approved $9.7 billion in new aid for victims of Hurricane Sandy. The vote comes on the heels of Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) being met with a wave of scathing criticism from tri-state Republicans, with the loudest critique coming from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (pictured).
SEE ALSO: Homicides Up 7% In 'Stand Your Ground' States
As legend has it, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) called Christie at 11:20 p.m. ET, after a deal on the so-called fiscal cliff was reached to let him know that there would be no additional vote on the supplemental funds. After that call, Christie claims he phoned Boehner four times, with Boehner allegedly refusing to return his calls. Christie went on to say that he was never given an explanation as to why the vote was canceled.
As someone who's long shown he hates being ignored, Christie said, "Shame on Congress" for placing "politics ahead of their responsibilities." "Our people were played last night as a pawn," Christie added. "Last night, my party was responsible for this."
He went on to note: "There is only one group to blame. The House majority and their Speaker, John Boehner."
In response, Boehner and Cantor released a joint statement assuring that a vote to direct resources to the National Flood Insurance Program would take place on Friday and that another would happen on January 15th, the first full legislative day of the 113th Congress, to "consider the remaining supplemental request for the victims of Hurricane Sandy."
Christie got a lot of praise for Boehner-bashing because he played in to the spitfire, tell-it-like-it-is-no-matter-your-political-persuasion persona he's crafted and miraculously maintained since Sandy hit the shores of New Jersey.
Whether or not that championing is well-deserved is an argument that will likely continue to fall by the wayside as concern is more focused on getting a national Republican to join in on the condemnation of the do-nothing Congress consisting largely of GOP obstructionists. But for the record, if there was anyone who pushed Boehner to schedule today's vote it's Rep. Peter King (R-NY), who not only slammed his fellow Republicans in the House's claims that FEMA money has been enough so far to settle concerns of Sandy victims, but told New Yorkers to not give any money to House Republicans until they provide real aid to them.
To be somewhat fair to Boehner, he has reason to worry about the way the second spending measure will go once it hits the House floor. Today's measure was approved on a 354 to 67 vote.
Naturally, all of the dissenters were members of his own GOP caucus.
Meanwhile, the adults of Congress, the U.S. Senate, are expected to adopt the measure later today on a unanimous voice vote.
As frustrating as it is thus far to see hurricane victims wait this long for help, no one should be surprised by the behavior of House Republicans, especially other Republicans.
In the past, Christie has dismissed Republican holdouts on Sandy aid as "stupid and selfish," but they're operating essentially under the same flawed premise that Christie employed when mocking Obamacare.
William Saletan wrote in the Slate piece "Sandy Socialists" about Christie's brutish hurricane evacuation order:
If you defy government instructions and don't take basic precautions, you aren't just risking your life. You're making the rest of us bail you out. That's not fair.
What's odd about Christie and other Republican governors is that they recognize this principle only when a hurricane hits. When it comes to injury or disease, which we know will strike everyone on this planet, the Republican governors defend your right to ride it out. They oppose any requirement to buy health insurance. If you get sick, the rest of us will shell out to rescue you.
Chris Christie isn't the only hypocritical Republican who suddenly became angry and emboldened to speak on flawed conservative ideology when tragedy took place within their jurisdictions, but he's presently the one howling that hypocrisy the most.
I agree wholeheartedly with Gov. Christie that it's pitiful to see people suffer longer than they should because of selfish politicians. Then again, Christie has shared that same point of view when it suited his own interests.
If Christie truly wants those in power to stop being "stupid and selfish" in terms of policy, let's see what he does once he goes after the next Republican presidential nomination.
Sound off!
Michael Arceneaux is a Houston-bred, Howard-educated writer and blogger. You can read more of his work on his site, The Cynical Ones. Follow him on Twitter: @youngsinick


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U.S. Immigration Reform Didn't Happen in 2013; Will 2014 Be the Year?
Immigration reform undoubtedly will be on the Washington agenda in 2014, after a roller coaster of a year that began with significant momentum for legislative action but ended without results.
Entering into 2013, the political stars seemed aligned to achieve sweeping immigration reform of the type the United States accomplishes only every few decades. Prospects peaked when the Senate passed major overhaul legislation in June. But action stalled in the House of Representatives, where the bipartisan Senate bill found little favor in the GOP-led chamber.
While some argue that the clock has run out on immigration reform in the 113th Congress, which runs through 2014, others counter that the finish line remains in sight, even during an election year when all 435 House seats and one-third of U.S. Senate seats will be on the ballot.
2014: Is the Timing Right?
House Republican leadership has stated that immigration will be a priority in the new year, with House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) stressing in December that immigration reform is "absolutely not" dead. The Speaker and his leadership team are preparing to release their principles for immigration reform during January, according to the New York Times. Bills on border security, interior enforcement, E-Verify, agricultural guest workers, and high-skilled immigration were approved by House committees during 2013 and may be brought to the House floor this year. And House Republicans have been working behind the scenes on other immigration-related legislation. However, the ability to get legislation through Congress and to President Obama's desk will depend on if—and how—House Republicans decide to address the legal status of the estimated 11.7 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. The comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate last June includes a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants, something that is anathema to a significant number of House Republicans.
While the recently passed budget deal frees the congressional calendar in January, the most likely window for immigration legislation to move forward is from the beginning of May to when Congress adjourns for the summer recess. The bulk of primary election filing deadlines will have passed by the end of April, untying the hands of House Republican members and candidates who fear that support for immigration reform sought by business, faith-based organizations, immigrant-rights advocates, congressional Democrats, the White House, and others could invite a primary challenge. What is clear is that if the House hasn't finalized action on immigration reform during 2014 and negotiated a compromise with the Senate, the legislative clock resets to zero on January 1, 2015 with the start of a new Congress.
If the House does take up immigration this year, it is most likely to vote on a series of bills individually or in clusters rather than taking up an omnibus bill such as the one approved by the Senate. Thus, predicting next steps is elusive. Boehner has ruled out going to conference with the Senate-passed S. 744 and it is unclear how the Senate will respond to the passage of piecemeal House bills.
Conventional wisdom has it that Congress will not pass a major immigration bill in an election year. However, if history is any guide, almost all major immigration bills since 1952 (except the Immigration Act of 1965) passed during election years.
Furthermore, in recent months, immigration reform advocates have pinned their hopes on three developments. First, in November, President Obama indicated that he is open to the House's piecemeal approach. Then in December, Boehner hired Rebecca Tallent, a well-regarded former aide to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and veteran of the 2006-07 immigration reform debates in the Senate. The hire has been interpreted as a sign of Boehner's commitment to tackle immigration. Finally, Boehner's strong criticism of tea-party groups that attacked the recent House-Senate budget deal suggest that he may be more willing to buck his party's right flank, where much of the opposition to immigration reform is concentrated.
2013: The Year That Wasn't
Immediately after the 2012 presidential election, in which the growing electoral strength of Hispanic and Asian constituencies was viewed as key to Barack Obama's success, immigration vaulted to prominence—as a deliverable for Democrats to key voting blocs and a concern for establishment Republicans worried that demographics increasingly would work against the GOP absent a change in tone and policy.
Yet as the memory of the 2012 elections faded and the 2014 elections loomed larger, high politics gave way to the retail politics of individual members' own elections and the roadblocks to immigration reform became insurmountable, at least for the year.
The 113th Congress began with a flurry of bipartisan action on immigration that had eluded Congress since 2007. A bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight released a framework for immigration reform in late January. One day later, President Obama outlined his own vision, consistent with the Gang of Eight plan. Momentum picked up in earnest when Senate negotiators, with White House support, systematically cleared hurdle after hurdle in assembling their compromise, including sticking points that had derailed legislation in 2006 and 2007. Key stakeholders such as the Chamber of Commerce, agricultural interests, and labor groups came on board, further adding to the belief that a new era of action on immigration was at hand.
The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744) was formally introduced on April 16 and cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 21 after days of debate. The legislation was given a boost when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the bill would reduce the federal deficit by $197 billion over ten years and by $700 billion over 20 years. It was quickly brought to the Senate floor, where additional changes—including $40 billion in additional border security enhancements—were negotiated to win key Republican votes. On June 27, the Senate passed S. 744 on a bipartisan 68-32 vote.
S. 744 touches nearly every aspect of the U.S. immigration system on a scale not seen since 1965. It would devote vast resources to strengthening border security, implement a mandatory E-Verify system within five years, introduce a new entry-exit system, revamp the legal temporary and permanent immigration system, and offer an eventual pathway to citizenship to the majority of the current unauthorized population.
Many experts believe that the bill's successful and relatively smooth journey through the Senate was owed to the Gang of Eight, which after authoring the bill, remained united in its strategy to keep its product intact and fend off "poison pill" amendments that would have led to the bill's failure.
The Senate success created expectations for quick House action. After all, the Senate bill had won a strong bipartisan majority, polls showed robust public support for the measure, and a growing coalition of nontraditional players—including law enforcement, Silicon Valley, universities, agricultural interests, and small businesses—was seen as sufficient to create pressure on House GOP leaders to bring it to a vote. But House action did not materialize.
Soon after the Senate acted, Speaker Boehner declared that the Senate bill would not be brought to the House floor because it did not have the support of the majority of House Republicans.
The House meanwhile attempted immigration on dual tracks. A bipartisan group of lawmakers began crafting a comprehensive immigration proposal seemingly similar to the Senate's, but the group lost key Republican members and fell apart by early fall. Separately, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte (R-VA) led a Republican "piecemeal" effort involving individual reform bills aimed at different aspects of the immigration system. By the time the Senate bill passed, House committees had approved five small-bore immigration bills, only one with bipartisan support. In the months that followed, prognosticators suggested that House passage of these piecemeal bills would lead to negotiations with the Senate and ultimately, comprehensive legislation that both chambers would approve.
With the pivotal August recess coming and going without the kind of anti-reform backlash that lawmakers had faced in 2006, the possibility of enacting immigration legislation seemed ever greater, particularly after approximately two dozen House Republicans declared their support for legalization for unauthorized immigrants.
However, as the year began winding down, pressing issues such as Syria, the budget, and the debt ceiling took precedence and House leaders made no move to bring to the floor the committee-passed bills or articulate another strategy. The 16-day government shutdown in October deepened the rift between Democrats and Republicans, and Congress and the executive branch, and exacerbated tensions within the GOP. Later that month, GOP leaders concluded that there was not enough time left in the year to bring immigration legislation to the floor.
The Activists
As the prospects for immigration reform darkened in the second half of 2013, the pressure tactics used by pro-reform advocates evolved. During Senate debate, advocates focused their energy on lobbying for passage of the legislation and to fend off unfriendly amendments. But as the picture in the House clouded, immigrant-rights activists began to adopt a more confrontational and sometimes aggressive strategy involving protests, sit-ins, and acts of civil disobedience. In early October, 200 activists — including eight congressmen — were arrested when they engaged in civil disobedience by obstructing an intersection on Capitol Hill. Similar, smaller actions have continued to take place across the country. In November, a number of advocates, including veteran union leader Eliseo Medina, began a 22-day fast for immigration reform. The fasters, who drew significant attention, received visits from President and Mrs. Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Cabinet members, and prominent lawmakers. Other activists stalked GOP leaders at their homes, favorite restaurants, and offices, to press for movement on immigration reform. In a final push the day before the House left Washington for the year, approximately 1,000 activists descended on more than 100 House offices to protest inaction. In addition to pressuring members of Congress, advocates increasingly frustrated with the lack of congressional action have trained their ire on the White House, demanding that the president halt deportations.
This tense dynamic, pitting advocates against a Democratic administration with which they traditionally have been aligned, is sure to play out further in 2014 the longer that legislative limbo continues. It remains to be seen if 2014 is the year for immigration reform, but what is clear is that reform-minded activists intend to hold political Washington to account, whether Democrat or Republican, until major reform of the nation's immigration laws—particularly as regards treatment of unauthorized immigrants—is accomplished.
Policy Beat in Brief
Poll Finds Deportation Relief More Important than Path to Citizenship. Latinos and Asian Americans believe it is more important for unauthorized immigrants to get relief from the threat of deportation than to be offered a path to citizenship, according to two surveys conducted by Pew Research Center's Hispanic Trends Project. While majorities of both groups support giving a pathway to citizenship to the country's unauthorized population, 55 percent of Hispanics and 49 percent of Asian Americans responded that relief from deportation is more important. The poll also showed that should Congress fail to pass the Senate's immigration reform legislation, 43 percent of Hispanics and 48 percent of Asian Americans say they would mostly blame Republicans, while 34 percent of Hispanics and 29 percent of Asian Americans say they would hold Democrats and/or President Obama mainly responsible.
- See the Pew study here.
ICE Releases FY 2013 Removal Numbers. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it carried out 368,644 removals in fiscal year (FY) 2013, down 10 percent from the prior year, when there were 409,849 removals. For 2013, 133,551 removable noncitizens were apprehended in the U.S. interior and 235,093 at the border. According to ICE, 59 percent of the year's removals had been previously convicted of a crime and 98 percent met one or more of ICE's stated civil immigration enforcement priorities. The top countries of removal were Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. In recent years, the Obama administration has come under increased scrutiny for record high deportation levels.
- Read about ICE removals.
Jeh Johnson, Alejandro Mayorkas Confirmed for DHS Top Slots. On December 16, the Senate confirmed Jeh Johnson as Homeland Security Secretary and Alejandro Mayorkas as Deputy Secretary, the second highest ranking position in the department. Johnson was approved by a 78-16 vote and Mayorkas by 54-41 as the Senate wrapped up its work for the year, and following an earlier rule change by Senate Democrats that lowered the number of votes needed to stop a filibuster from 60 to 51 votes. Senate Republicans had protested the scheduling of a vote on the Mayorkas nomination while the Department of Homeland Security inspector general continues investigating whether Mayorkas, who headed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services prior to becoming Deputy Secretary, had improperly helped secure foreign investor visas for a company with ties to the brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Mr. Mayorkas has strongly affirmed the propriety of his conduct.
- Read about the Johnson confirmation.
- Read about the Mayorkas confirmation.
Immigration Prosecutions Reach Record High, Jump in NM. According to a new Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) study, federal prosecutions for immigration crimes in FY 2013 reached an all-time high, with new cases being filed against 97,384 defendants, a 5.9 percent increase from FY 2012. The lead charges were illegal entry (55 percent) followed by illegal re-entry (38 percent). A second TRAC study showed that of the country's 94 judicial districts, for the first 11 months of FY 2013, New Mexico saw the greatest growth in criminal immigration prosecutions, experiencing a 45.7 percent jump from FY 2012. Arizona saw the sharpest drop with 21.6 percent fewer prosecutions from FY 2013 to 2012.
- See the report on immigration prosecutions.
- See the report on immigration prosecutions by district.
Obama Administration Sets Policy for Unauthorized Relatives of Military Personnel. On November 15, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a policy memorandum allowing unauthorized spouses, children, and parents of armed forces personnel and veterans to stay in the country while they pursue permanent residency. It enables them to "parole in place" and remain in the United States to apply for permanent residency, rather than apply from abroad and potentially not be readmitted to the United States for a period of as long as ten years. The memo formalizes an existing policy aimed at relieving military members of anxiety experienced because of the immigration status of their family members. The Pentagon is also reviewing a set of policies used in various military branches that currently bar U.S. citizens from enlisting if they have dependents who are in the country illegally.
- Read the USCIS memo.
Panama Added to Global Entry. In November, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced the inclusion of Panama in its Global Entry program, which allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States. Global Entry is available to certain citizens of select countries, which include the Netherlands, South Korea, Germany, Qatar, the United Kingdom, and Mexico; Panama is the first Central American country to join the program. Global Entry is also available for U.S. citizens, nationals and lawful permanent residents.
- Learn more about Global Entry.
USCIS Approves Maximum U Visa Petitions. On December 11, USCIS approved allocation of 10,000 U nonimmigrant visas for immigrant crime victims during FY 2014, marking the fifth straight year that USCIS has reached the statutory maximum since it began issuing U visas in 2008. The U visa allows victims of designated crimes (including domestic violence, rape, and aggravated assault) to apply for four years of temporary work authorization and protection against deportation. Recipients must prove that they suffered substantial abuse as a result of the crime, have information concerning the criminal activity, and who are helpful to law enforcement in the investigation and/or prosecution of the crime.
- Read the USCIS press release.
Obama Administration Pledges to Renew DACA Program. On December 12, White House Domestic Policy Council Director Cecilia Munoz pledged that the Obama administration would renew deferred action for beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides protection from deportation and work authorization for two years to certain unauthorized immigrants who came to the United States as children. Benefits for the earliest DACA recipients will expire in late 2014. As of September 2013, a total of 588,725 applications were submitted and 455,455 approved. While applications surged during the first few months of the program, they have largely tapered off to around 15,000 per month for the last several months.
- See the DACA statistics here.
New York High Court Requires Deportation Warnings. On November 19, the New York Court of Appeals by 5-2 ruled that judges in the state must warn noncitizen defendants that they face deportation if they plead guilty to a felony. The majority's opinion stated "that deportation constitutes such a substantial and unique consequence of a plea that it must be mentioned by the trial court to a defendant as a matter of fundamental fairness." The ruling overturned a 1995 decision holding that judges are not required to provide deportation warnings, but falls in alignment with a 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Padilla v. Kentucky requiring defense attorneys to advise their clients of the deportation risk to a guilty plea.
- Read the opinion here.
First Racial Profiling Action Against SB 1070 Filed in AZ. On November 12, the Arizona ACLU filed a complaint against the city of South Tucson charging that police engaged in racial profiling under the state's "show me your papers" law. According to the complaint, police singled out 23-year-old Alejandro Valenzuela because he is Hispanic and brought him to a local Border Patrol station where he was held for five hours before being released. Valenzuela is unauthorized but has a grant of deferred action under the DACA program. Arizona's "papers" measure, which requires state and local police to determine the immigration status of anyone they stop, arrest, or detain for a state crime or offense and then suspect to be unauthorized, was the sole provision of Arizona's omnibus immigration law SB 1070 to be upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2012. The impending lawsuit will be the first legal challenge to the law on racial profiling grounds and could reopen debate over the measure's constitutionality.
King County, WA Limits Cooperation with ICE. On December 2, the King County Council passed an ordinance limiting how law enforcement agencies will honor immigration detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under the ordinance, King County will limit detainers to only those who have a demonstrable and significant criminal history and therefore might present some risk to public safety. A detainer is a notice that DHS issues to law enforcement authorities requesting that an arrestee be kept in detention so that ICE can take the individual into custody. California and Connecticut, as well localities in 12 states, have policies limiting cooperation with ICE detainers.
- See the ordinance.


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Apparently these "ideal" orgs don't have anyone actually completing anything to give "success stories" so they resort to getting (and publishing) "successes" from people "in progress" on services.
This is the best they can come up with?
A further indictment of the complete failure of the "ideal org" program and GAG II.


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Analysis: An elusive immunity issue
on Mar 3, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Showing some hesitancy to leave it to the State Department to decide when foreign government officials can be sued in U.S. courts for human rights abuses, the Supreme Court on Wednesday struggled to figure out what Congress wanted courts to do with such lawsuits. Not one of three lawyers who argued in Samantar v. Yousuf, et al. (08-1555) seemed to make a convincing case, thus leaving the Justices to work out a decision, unaided by much beyond their own perceptions, in coming weeks. The Justices' puzzlement began in the opening minute of the argument, and remained throughout.
A former high-ranking official of the dictatorial regime in Somalia, now living in Fairfax, VA, is seeking to head off a claim for damages by members of a Somali clan and their relatives that he was responsible for torture, rape and other atrocities during years of repression in the east African nation. For the Court to rule for him at this stage, however, it appeared that the Justices would have to accept a simple premise: his government would have been immune to a damages lawsuit, so he was, too, since what he did were official acts. The Justices, though, appeared to regard the issue as notably more complex than that.
The ex-official from Somalia, Mohamed Ali Samantar, fled the country when the regime collapsed nine years ago. Sued in a federal court in Virginia by Somali expatriates, Samantar is now seeking immunity under a 1976 federal law that supposedly clarified U.S. policy on when a foreign government would be given immunity from lawsuits in American courts. The law makes no mention of the legal status of present or former officials of a foreign government, but the Supreme Court took his case to clear up a dispute among lower courts on whether, despite that silence, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act would insulate individual foreign officers — present or former — from liability.
Samantar's lawyer, Shay Dvoretzky of Washington, had barely finished his opening sentence when Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wondered how the Court was to sort out that law, and one passed 15 years later (The Torture Victims Protection Act), subjecting foreign officials to lawsuits in the U.S. if they had engaged in torture. Even assuming immunity for foreign officials under FSIA, Kennedy asked, why was that not overridden by the TVPA? Dvoretzky said the later law had to take into account the "background immunity principles" reflected in FSIA and predating it. Congress, the lawyer contended, never took away that earlier immunity understanding.
But the response did not clear up the uncertainty that was evident on the bench. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for example, wondered if any lawsuit against a foreign officer for wrongdoing would ever be able to survive a claim of immunity. Dvoretzsky said there could be cases under exceptions written into FSIA, or if the foreign state waived immunity for the official — something Ginsburg suggested would never happen.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., also protested the lawyer's attempt to pare down the importance of the 1991 law allowing lawsuits based on torture claims. And Ginsburg returned to the fray, suggesting that the lawsuit against Samantar was seeking money from him, not from a foreign government, so that lawsuit was not the equivalent of a suit against the government as such. The lawyer countered that the issue was not who would pay, but whether the acts at issue were acts on behalf of a government, and that makes them legally immune.
Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., then questioned how courts would be able to decide whether an official's actions were the official acts of a foreign state, Dvoretzky suggested several ways, but insisted that it was not a difficult inquiry anyway.  That led several Justices off into an exploration of other forms of legal immunity, leaving the impression that the Justices were having difficulty sorting out different levels of immunity in the diplomatic and foreign policy context, thus intimating further that Congress may not have spoken clearly enough to guide the courts.
Next, Justice Stephen G. Breyer introduced a further complexity — how to determine immunity if the foreign official no longer was in government or the foreign government simply "disappeared," with either case perhaps changing the legal equation.  That led Dvoretzky into what seemed like a concession: if the foreign government had ceased to exist, he said, the former official probably could be sued. He sought to explain: what immunity was all about was foreign government immunity. That explanation, though, merely served to take Breyer and other Justices off into an exploration of another form of immunity: the so-called "act of state" doctrine.
Justice Scalia moved to bring the argument back to FSIA's immunity concepts as embodied in its actual text, and in the process undercut Dvoretzky's alternative argument that, if Samantar is not directly immune because he was acting as the state, he was immune because he qualified as an agent of the Somali government. Justice Alito also challenged the lawyer's overall argument about individual liability, noting that "it's something of a mystery that the FSIA doesn't say anything at all about this form of [individual] immunity: doesn't codify it, doesn't abrogate it, doesn't preserve the preexisting law." Dvoretzky insisted that the issue went unmentioned because it was not in question in 1976.
Before Dvoretzky sat down, the argument moved on briefly to a point that would later emerge with greater clarity: what role the Court should expect, or allow, for the U.S. State Department in advising courts on the concept of foreign governments' or individual officials' immunity.
The meandering nature of the argument while Dvoretzky was at the podium continued when the Somali expatriates' lawyer, Patricia A. Millett of Washington, took her turn. She immediately sought to use the 1991 anti-torture law as a way to bolster her clients' claims against Samantar, but promptly encountered comments by Chief Justice and Justice Scalia suggesting that it made little sense for Congress to have barred lawsuits against foreign governments but not for the officials who acted for such a government. "The only way a state can act," the Chief Justice said, "is through people." Scalia added that it "seems very strange" to write a law giving a government immunity but not its "principal officers," adding: "I guess you could write it that way, but I don't know why anybody would want to write it that way."
Justice Breyer picked up on that point, and suggested that, if a foreign official did not share his government's immunity, all that lawyers for someone suing the official would have to do was to rewrite the lawsuit to target the individual, for the very same conduct, so the lawsuit could then go forward. When Millett said that would put the lawsuit outside the immunity grant of FSIA, Breyer retorted that, if that is true, the FSIA law "does nothing whatsoever." Unsatisfied, Breyer persisted: "I cannot imagine any complaint that isn't open to that because…a state can only act through an individual….What you are saying [is that FSIA] is only good as against a bad lawyer, because any good lawyer would simply fill in the right names."
Breyer then moved on to test what "principle" would govern whether a given present or former foreign official was, in fact, immune to a lawsuit. He obviously was seeking guidance on what mechanism the courts would use to settle that issue. Millett responded with a series of variable factors to consider, but did not lay out a governing principle. She insisted that Congress had provided "a framework" for sorting out individual liability.
The Chief Justice picked up on Breyer's point, then moved the discussion into what Congress had in mind about the Executive Branch's role, when courts are pondering whether immunity should be recognized in a given case against foreign wrongdoing. Congress, Roberts suggested, passed the FSIA "to get the Executive Branch out of the business" of picking and choosing when immunity should be allowed, and when not. He went on to note that, in this very case, the Executive Branch was arguing that courts should revive the practice of asking the State Department whether immunity existed in a given case. "It seems to me," Roberts told Millett, "the whole reason you have the FSIA is undermined by the position you are listing today."
Justice Scalia joined in, suggesting that FSIA was passed in order to "take away from the Executive" the determination of immunity, and handed it to the courts. Millett, however, said that the Executive had to remain involved, because of the "foreign relations implications" of immunity questions. Late in Millett's argument, Justice Ginsburg probed whether she was "in sync" with the Executive Branch's argument that it was up to that Branch to tell the courts when to acknowledge or deny immunity to a foreign official. The courts, the lawyer said, should give "respectful deference" to the government's view, but not "rubber-stamp" it.
Scalia then commented that "the State Department wants to be able to decide whether individuals will be held liable." He also said that he would "find it much more acceptable to have the State Department say that a particular foreign country should be let off the hook" than to let that Department decided whether "an individual human being shall be punished." Justice Kennedy chimed in with a note of his own skepticism about the State Department's role.
Those exchanges set the stage for a fairly rough time for the federal government's lawyer, Deputy Solicitor General Edwin S. Kneedler.  He had only begun when Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked him to discuss the "practical implications" of the government's position so far as it would allow some lawsuits against individual foreign officials with the State Department continuing to have a role in advising the courts on immunity. If a lawsuit were filed, and the lawyer kept it alive against an immunity claim by naming specific officials, "would not grind the courts to a halt" [presumably, while awaiting advice on whether immunity applied].
Kneedler conceded that courts would have to work out the immunity issue at the outset, in order to determine if they had authority to decide the case. When Justice Breyer took a turn probing how immunity disputes would be resolved when individual foreign officials were sued, the government lawyer sought to show that Congress did not want to oust the Executive Branch from advising courts on when immunity for an individual should be recognized. Using the complex situation that has since developed in Somalia, where there now is no functioning government, Kneedler strove to make a case for a continuing role for the State Department in dealing with "the sensitivities of foreign official immunity."
But, when Justice Ginsburg tried to nail down whether the U.S. government now considered Samantar to be immune, Kneedler said the government was not taking a position on that now, and noted that further proceedings remain in lower courts.


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The Conservative Case Against the Suburbs
In his recent column, "Why Suburbia Irks Some Conservatives," the prominent urban geographer Joel Kotkin creates and then slays a number of straw men in defense of suburban development patterns and all that is right and good in this country. This, unfortunately, is a lament that too often goes unchallenged, ceding a large swath of the American experience in the process. It is time for conservatives to confront the true nature of the suburbs.
America's suburban experiment is a radical, government-led re-engineering of society, one that artificially inverted millennia of accumulated wisdom and practice in building human habitats. We can excuse modern Americans for not immediately grasping the revolutionary ways in which we restructured this continent over the past three generations–at this point, the auto-dominated pattern of development is all most Americans have ever experienced–but today we live in a country where our neighborhoods are shaped, and distorted, by centralized government policy.
Kotkin begins his piece with a reference to Franklin Roosevelt. In the depths of the Great Depression, Roosevelt pushed for the creation of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The traditional way of building a home–in slow increments over time, sometimes with an attached commercial enterprise that helped with cash flow–became impossible to underwrite as government officials, desperate for economic growth, used regulation to make the single family home the only viable option for new homeowners. The federally-established Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac followed. The results were rising home ownership and economic growth, but on a very different framework, one where families held significantly higher levels of long term debt.
Dwight Eisenhower likewise embraced the capacity of centralized government action to reshape society. The Interstate Highway Act was a grand vision to connect the entire country with a world-class highway system. This undertaking was finished three decades ago, but policymakers found transportation spending such a seductively simple way to create short-term jobs and growth that we continue to expand it aggressively.
American governments continue to be obsessed with maximizing people's capacity to travel, even as they ignore minimizing the amount people have to travel. Not only must American families pay the taxes to support this continually-expanding system, but to live in it they are required to purchase, maintain, and store a fleet of vehicles even as they endure heightened sensitivity to oil price fluctuations (and support the military adventures that result).
Like Medicare, Social Security, and a myriad of other federal initiatives, housing and transportation subsidy programs are as popular today as they are financially insolvent. In an effort to prop up our suburban experiment, we now have the Federal Reserve owning the mortgage-backed securities market while Republicans in Congress champion "pension smoothing" as a way to pretend an insolvent federal highway trust fund can continue to build more roads. As with any over-centralized effort, a lack of appropriate feedback mechanisms allows the system to continue barreling down its present course–until it buckles under its own insolvency. Our suburban experiment has an expiration date.
Kotkin argues for the popularity of subsidies for highways and dispersed single-family homes when he claims the suburbs, "represent the epitome of the American Dream and the promise of upward mobility." This is a pleasant platitude, but is it true?
If it were, we should expect the typical American to actually enjoy more upward mobility than those in other societies. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Research shows that most Western European and English-speaking nations have higher rates of mobility than the United States, despite living at much higher densities.
We would also expect Americans to have more economic security–more accrued wealth–than those in other societies. Again, the reality is that Americans rank 19th in median net worth behind countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and Japan, countries that have urban population densities many times that of the United States.
The sad reality is that, despite the marketing, the suburbs were never about creating household wealth; they were about creating growth on the cheap. They were born under a Keynesian regime that counted growth from government spending as equivalent to that coming from private investment. Aggressive horizontal expansion of our cities allowed us to consistently hit federal GDP and unemployment targets with little sophistication and few difficult choices.
That we were pawning off the enormous long-term liabilities for serving and maintaining all of these widely dispersed systems onto local taxpayers–after plying municipalities with all the subsidies, pork spending, and ribbon cuttings needed to make it happen–didn't seem to enter our collective consciousness. When all those miles of frontage roads, sewer and water pipes, and sidewalks fall into disrepair–as they inevitably will in every suburb–very little of it will be fixed. The wealth necessary to do so just isn't there.
To quote the late columnist Earl Wilson, "Modern man drives a mortgaged car over a bond-financed highway on credit card gas." Debt-to-income and debt-to-assets ratios for U.S. households have grown steadily during suburban expansion. That's because there is an enormous ante required to participate in Kotkin's version of the American dream. Two cars. Two incomes. Home, work, daycare, school, milk, and fun all require an enormous investment in time behind the wheel every day. It should be no surprise that younger Americans, burdened with student loan debt and having diminished job prospects, are less and less willing to tie themselves to a 30-year mortgages with two car payments.
Where Kotkin sees a "forced march towards densification and ever more constricted planning augurs," I see the unwinding of our great suburban experiment. As government's ability to subsidize this artificial pattern of development wanes, a return to more traditional living arrangements is inevitable. For thousands of years, cities have been engines of wealth creation. In America, they are becoming that again.
This leads us to a final truth: cities desperately need conservatives. These are places that have been abandoned to the left for decades. Many urban dwellers are hungry for better government. They want a more responsive bureaucracy. They favor unwinding many of the stifling regulations and perverse subsidies that have built up over the years. They are angry with the political patronage systems run by a governing class that has been unchallenged for decades. Why would conservatives cede this ground so easily?
If conservatives want to identify with the artificial paradigm of an urban left and a rural right meeting on the suburban battlefield, we will continue to empower a progressive governing minority in a country that is solidly conservative. Instead of abandoning America's growing urban centers to the left, we must see the inherent conservatism rooted within traditional neighborhood patterns of development. These are our people. They are there just waiting for us to speak to them.
Clinging to the Kotkin Doctrine of suburban primacy during this period of change will not only lead to a generation of conservative exile; it will produce a much weaker America.
Charles L. Marohn, Jr. PE AICP (@clmarohn) is a licensed engineer, a professional planner and the president of the non-profit Strong Towns. His latest book, A World Class Transportation System, is now available on Kindle.
This post was supported by a grant from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.


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Welcome to day 2 of 3 of the Impression Obsession Valentine Release Blog Hop! There are great new stamps to share and there will be 4 Gift Certificates given away!
The hop will run for 3 days (12/4/17 - 12/6/17) with a list of participants on the Impression Obsession Blog each day at 6am EST. Visit the participating IO Design Team members blogs (only one comment per blog please) for a chance to win one of FOUR $25 Gift Certificates! Four random winners will be picked from all comments on all of the hop days.
Comment entries will be open until 9pm CT on Sunday Decmeber 10th and all winners will be announced on the Impression Obsession blog on Monday December 11th. Good luck!
All of the new stamps you'll be seeing on the hop are available NOW at www.iostamps.com
Now, get ready for a wonderful dose of inspiration and check out what the other team members created. Have fun!!
Next on the hop is Chris Dayton
If you find yourself lost or needing to start over, hop on over to the Impression Obsession Blog for a complete list of designers participating.


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Greece, the birthplace of democracy, may be suffering from an overdose of public input.
The decision by Greece's government to hold a January referendum on its deal with the European Union to restructure public debt has thrown the pact — and investors — onto shaky ground. Stocks around the world took a sharp dive on Tuesday's news, and other European leaders left little doubt over how they felt.
The Spanish government warned that any delay on the part of Greece in enacting the deal would be dangerous for the rest of Europe. Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel set an emergency meeting with their Greek counterpart, Prime Minister George Papandreou.
"They won't say this publicly, but privately they will be telling Papandreou, 'If you say no to this, then you're out of the eurozone and you're out of the EU.' That's extreme, but I think that's what they're going to threaten," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight.
With so much at stake, so much uncertainty in global markets and so much international pressure, what exactly is behind Papandreou's call for a referendum? Daniel Kelemen, the director of European studies at Rutgers University, said it's about political survival.
In the short term, Papandreou faces a confidence motion Friday that could bring down his government, which already enjoys only the slimmest of majorities in Parliament. In the longer run, getting a "yes" vote would give the beleaguered prime minister the legitimacy to go ahead with painful reforms, Kelemen said.
"He's taking a big gamble in calling this referendum, but I think there's a decent chance he would get a 'yes' vote," Kelemen said.
While the Greeks loathe the austerity measures they've been asked to swallow, Kelemen said a majority of them want to stay in the European Union and stick with the euro.
"So, if you frame the referendum such that 'yes' means we stay in the euro and undertake these painful measures while 'no' means we have to leave, I think there's a good chance it passes," he said.
Behravesh agrees. "What he's essentially saying is, 'Fine, you Europeans agreed to this but I'm going to put it to the Greek people. I'm not going to unilaterally shove this agreement down their throats,' " he said.
IHS lowered the probability of a Greek default to 20 percent after last week's debt deal but raised it to 40 percent after the referendum announcement.
"I think the markets are worried and ought to be worried," Behravesh said. "This is very much a case of one step forward, two steps back in Europe."
Will There Really Be A Vote?
But amid all the uncertainty, there's no guarantee that the announced referendum will even take place, according to Kelemen. "You can imagine a number of scenarios over the next few weeks where it might not happen," he said.
Frank Hess, a professor of West European studies at Indiana University, however, thinks the die is cast and that there's probably no going back on the promise of a referendum.
He thinks that putting the deal to a vote — especially one that looks, at first blush, like a big loser for other EU governments — could just be Papandreou's idea of a bargaining strategy.
"If they got a better deal, it would certainly increase the chances that the referendum would pass," he said.
IHS Global's Behravesh thinks that's a vain hope on the part of the Greek government.
"I can't imagine the Europeans are going to go back and renegotiate," he said.
If the referendum goes forward, the Greek people would very likely see "a massive public relations campaign that will paint a very dire picture of what happened if Greece turns this down," Behravesh said.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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JoJo Siwa
JoJo Siwa is an American dancer and YouTube personality. She is known for appearing on Dance Moms and is now on Nickelodeon. JoJo with her big bow dances her way into the hearts of young girls all over with her dance moves and inspirational messages (Eat, Dance, Sleep). Find items with her signature bow and other sweet and sparkly personalized gift ideas sure to make any young girl thrilled. We have a wide selection of exclusive designs on t-shirts, pillowcases and bedding, beach towels, back to school supplies like backpacks, pencil bags, purses, totes, as well as room decor items including bow holders and room signs.


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Listings Presented by Dhah Realty Group
Featured Listings
MLS listings provided by Pillar 9™. Information Deemed Reliable But Not Guaranteed. The information provided by this website is for the personal, non-commercial use of consumers and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing.


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Four people were shot early this morning after a Meek Mill appearance in Wilmington, Delaware.
Mill, a Philadelphia rapper, was performing at the Moodswing Niteclub Lounge on Kirkwood Highway.
After the show was done, according to police, as people were leaving, some of them started firing their guns in the parking lot of the nightclub. That was just before 2 a.m.
Three men and on woman were hit.
None of the injuries appears to be life-threatening.
Police said when they got to the scene, there were hundreds of people -- 600 to 700 by their estimate. They could hear gunshots. Police were able to disperse the crowd, but they were not able to make any arrests.
Two of the victims were taken to local hospitals by their friends and the other two were treated at the scene, according to Sgt. Paul Shavack. The men are 21, 22 and 24 years old. The woman is 33. Police say five cars were also damaged by gunshots.
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
Investigators say they would like to talk with anyone who has information about the shootings. You can find more information on their Facebook page.


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Disclaimers: Go to Part I for disclaimers on this story.
Part III: Thursday
Pre dawn. The crackle of long distance phone lines.
"Have you heard from him, yet?" Deep, cultured.
"Nooo.... But thats not unusual."
"I mean, ummmm.... Once he checks in for the information, he usually doesnt get back in contact until the job is completed."
Long pause. "And your sure hes reliable?"
"Positive! Hes... uh... worked for me before. Top notch work, too."
"You told him it has to be done by this mornings council meeting?"
"Yes! Yes! He knows all that! Itll get done."
Another long pause. "I certainly hope so." Pause. "Ill be in town this weekend. Dont disappoint me." Click.
The man closed his eyes and swallowed reflexly before setting the handset into the cradle with a shaky hand. Jesus, I hope I dont.
The long legged woman strolled nonchalantly through Lloyd Center Mall, blue
eyes scanning. Still a little early, she mused, watching the thin crowds
shopping. Xena had spent most of the previous day and evening roaming around
the downtown area, in the hopes of spotting her prey, to no avail. She had pretty
well ruled out the shelters in the area, as well. Probably staying with friends
or at a squat. Maybe under a bridge.... Ill run through them after dark
She had been unable to sleep the night before. Seemed like everytime she got comfortable and dozed off, she jerked awake with nightmares. After the third time, she had decided to just get out of bed and practice her swordwork. Xena hadnt really been plagued with nightmares for... well... decades. It was a bit disconcerting, to say the least.
Tomorrow was the official kickoff for the Rose Festival, beginning with the Starlight Parade through the downtown area after dark. Her chances of finding the kid easily were diminishing rapidly. Rose Festival dumped thousands of people into the area that normally wouldnt see downtown Portland but for two or three times a year. And all the sailors from the ships that were now docked on the port constituted another several hundred.
Xena sighed in resignation and moved down to the next shop. The deep bass beat of alternative music assailed her ears as she stepped in. 'The Hot Topic,' said the neon sign. She lazily inspected the gothic and heavy metal t-shirts while studying the patrons.
She heard the crash of steel against steel. Flashing silver moonlight, the
somber sparkle of crimson glancing. The two protagonists whirled and danced
before her, one dark, one bright. Mocking laughter, contralto remark, growling
anger. Leather and armor reflections, swirls of brass. The dangerous game closed,
bright falling forward. Dark crouched, heaving breath, spun around to face her.
Eyes of ice, pale fire, lightning flashed into her eyes.
Rickie squinted at the shaft of sunlight that fell on her face. She sneezed. Grumbling, she sat up on the dirty mattress where shed been sleeping. Of all the freaking places to sleep, I had to pick the one with the sunny corner. She rubbed her eyes, yawned and stretched, feeling the satsifying crackle of her spine settling into place. Remembering the dream. Im gonna have to get that one written down. Then she felt the unsatisfying mumbling of her stomach. Hmph. Maybe Sisters is open already, she thought, mouth watering at the large helpings of casserole and cornbread that the homeless restaurant dished out for minimal money or chores.
The girl scrubbed at her face. She used her fingers to comb through her long honey hair and stood up. Picking up her battered notebook, Rickie worked her way around the sleeping bodies of other youths, heading for the boarded window that served as an entrance.
Glen Doblie, lawyer extraordinaire and current city council member, blew into
the meeting room, two aides breathlessly following in his wake. He continued
dictating a quick note to his broker, glancing about the room. Two of the other
council member were already in attendance. Only the mayor and three more
to arrive before they could get the show on the road.
He brushed his hand through his thinning brown hair. "Finish up with my usual," to one aide. "Thanks for the file, Dan, Ill look it over," to the other. He moved to the table at the head of the room.
Sensing their dismissal, the two aides deflated and looked a bit lost for a few seconds. Finally, one of them sat down to watch the meeting; the other adjusted his tie and left the room.
Doblie greeted the other council members with a smile and settled himself into his chair. He popped the briefcase he held, dropped Dans file inside, and closed it up. Seating himself, he took a look over todays agenda. Police funding, legalizing gambling in the city, various and assorted minor tax issues, and the ever present Rose Festival functions going on this week. Nothing too pressing. If things turned out well, his week would definitely be a time for rejoicing.
He continued to scan the agenda and attached paperwork, raising his muddy brown eyes to watch his compatriots enter the room. Still no mayor.
The room began to fill with the usual crowd of reporters, concerned citizens and the occasional trouble makers prepared to argue every little thing. Actually, it was a pretty sparce crowd, compared to other meetings. Too many people down on the Waterfront watching the ships, he thought.
Doblie made small talk with his neighbor, discussing the current Blazer scores versus last years. He listened as people shifted and muttered, paperwork rustled, the casual murmuring, smothered coughs, a woman blowing her nose. He glanced at his watch, noticing that the mayor was ten minutes overdue. He smiled to himself. Maybe she isnt going to make it.....
Hearing people at the entrance, he looked up. His face froze in a smile, eyes intently following the group coming into the room. His heart beat rapidly and he could feel the sweat breaking out on his forehead.
The small brown haired woman, mayor of the city of Portland, entered the room and warmly greeted the occupants. She broke away from her entourage, made her way to the table and settled down in her chair. "Well, sorry Im late, folks. Lets get started."
The lawyer extraordinaire blinked, gulped, and hastily grabbed for the papers in front of him. Oh, boy! Shits gonna hit the fan now.
The dark haired woman nursed her drink at the end of the bar. She rotated her
head, loosening up her rock hard neck muscles. Heaving a sigh, she shook her
head to herself and took a gulp from her beer. She wore blue jeans and a white
t-shirt, the ever present black leather vest, black boots shining dully in the
low interior lighting.
Nada. Nothing. Zilch. Nichts, nein, nil. Xena pursed her lips in thought. Maybe the kid has bailed, left town. Her heart thumped painfully and she felt a hollowness within. Crushing the irrational feelings of abandonment down, she growled and finished her drink. Its not Gabrielle, she reiterated to herself. Physical resemblance means nothing. Its just a fluke.
She waggled her empty beer bottle at the bartender who nodded and winked solemnly at her as he finished mixing a drink for another patron. Sighing, the brunette set the bottle back down on the coaster. She turned sideways on the stool and leaned her back against the wall to watch the interior, her right arm resting on the countertop.
Relatively busy for a regular Thursday evening. Itll be far busier tomorrow, she conceded. Fun Center at the parkll be open for business at noon.... Placell be packed not long after that. Wall to wall people. The rollerblades would have to be left behind. What with all the people at Waterfront Park, Xena would be hard pressed to walk through the crowd, let alone roll. Besides, she knew that wheels would be banned for the duration on the sidewalk to forego 'traffic' accidents.
The tall woman nodded thanks to the bartender as he set another beer down and removed the empty. She pushed a ten spot from the bills sitting on the counter to him, picked up the bottle and took another swig.
Unseeing icy eyes watched the other patrons of the Virginia Cafe. It was a small, cramped establishment, but boasted having been there for nearly a hundred years. The main room was divided in half by a chest high partition, with booths and tables on one side and the bar on the other. There was a loft area with more seating to the rear of the establishment. While normally, Xena would have been sitting at the back of the bar, she had a better view of the door here by the front window. Outside, the busy traffic of Park Avenue trundled past.
A cute little number approached her end of the bar and set her tray down on it. "Hey, Sonny," the girl called to the bartender. "I need two Snakebites and a Michelob." The bartender grunted acknowledgement and the waitress smiled in thanks and glanced over at Xena. "Hi."
"Hi." The older woman studied the girl. Doesnt look old enough to be serving alcohol, she thought. She chewed her lower lip in consideration before leaning forward towards the waitress. "Excuse me, but could I ask you a really stupid question?"
The girl looked into the intense blue gaze and grinned. "Sure. It wouldnt be the first time," she laughed.
Xena smiled in return. "Okay.... Hypothetically, if you were a nineteen year old living on the streets of Portland, where would you go tonight?"
The waitress raised an eyebrow, her grin becoming crooked. "Well, you got me there. I havent had that particular question." Her brow furrowed in concentration, hazel eyes narrowing. "Id have to say the City."
"The City?"
"Yeah. Its a nightclub for minors. You know, drug free and hate free zone and all that. Its where lots of runaways hang out. Place stays open until six in the morning, so they dont have to look for someplace to crash all night." She smiled to herself. "I remember that wed go dancing there on the weekends. When the cops would wander through, all the streetkids would move to the center of the dance floor and the rest of us would mill around on the outside. That way nobody got busted." The waitress looked to her tray as the bartender put her drinks on it. "Thanks, Sonny." She turned back to Xena. "Well, gotta go." Smiling, she weaved her way through the crowd.
The brunette watched her move away, mind racing. "Sonny!" she bellowed to the bartender. She spun around on the stool to face the bar. "I need a phone book!"
Xena took a swig from her water bottle and watched the entrance to the City
Nightclub. She was parked a half block away with a good view up and down SW
13th Street. How lucky, she thought sardonically.
It was still light out, despite it being past eight in the evening. And still quite a bit of traffic on the street. The woman could hear the sounds of heavy traffic on the freeway nearby. There were several youths hanging out in front of the establishment, wearing their ragged uniforms of shorts, baggy pants, t-shirts and flannels. It appeared that the doors had just recently been opened, and these were the kids who wanted to be fashionably late.
Drug free zone, eh? Considering the clientele, Id pretty much doubt that. She let out a deep breath and pushed back into the cushion of the seat, hands bracing against the steering wheel. The woman relaxed her grip and glanced at her watch. Gonna be a loooonnngg night, she thought bleakly. She hoped it would pay off.
As the time passed, she idly watched the comings and goings from the building in front of her. Darkness settled in, traffic slowed. She watched with disgust as adults went into the club, exiting later with a youth in their arms. She shook her head to herself. Always gotta be somebody to take advantage, she mused before mentally kicking herself. Gods, thats hypocritical, lady! You should be the one to talk!
As it was nearing ten oclock, Xena saw another group of kids coming up the sidewalk behind her. She scanned them in her side mirror, but there were too many to catch a view of them all. Then she heard the laugh.
Xenas mouth dried up and her eyes widened as the tell tale red-gold hair came into view from behind a taller boy. By the Gods! She even sounds like Gabrielle!
Despite the fact that she had been expecting the remarkable resemblance, the immortal was stunned. She watched, sky blue eyes feasting on the lithe form walking by. The eyes, the hair, facial features burned into her mind and united with her memories of her bard. The girl was dressed in ragged shorts and a sleeveless black midriff t-shirt, exposing her pierced navel and slim waist. She was talking to a Filipino girl, animatedly moving her hands to accent the tale, though the entire group was listening. Walks like her, moves like her, Xenas mind stuttered. Her mouth was open in a gasp that never ended, only able to move her eyes to follow as the group of teens sauntered to the entrance of the club. She watched as Gabrielle - NO! Rickie Gardner! her mind insisted - finished her story with a flourish and bowed to the laughter of the group around her.
Xena remembered to breathe after the young woman entered the City. She took a shaky breath and gulped her water, wishing it was something a little more substantial. Her mind buzzed with such rapid fancies, that she had difficulty pinning any of them down. Her thoughts dueled with each other, mercilessly.
It is! No! It cant be her! How could it be? Gods, its her. NO! Its impossible! Gabrielle is DEAD, fool! She shook her head, trying to clear it. Rickie Gardner, Rickie Gardner.... So much like my bard.... Rickie Gardner, dammit! Ive gotta get out of here...
Her head jerked up at the last thought. Cool reason filtering through her mind. She couldnt leave. Shed spent entirely too much time trying to find this young woman - a witness to a brutal murder that Xena had committed. She had to find out what the young woman had seen, who she had spoken to. Beyond that, she hadnt a clue of what actions to take. Kid didnt look too traumatized, she mused, getting herself back under control. She took a deep, steadying breath and settled back down into the carseat. Forcing herself to relax, she again focused her attention on the entrance to the club.
Evening. The crackle of phone lines.
"We have to meet.... Now!" Urgent, demanding.
"Why? Whats up?"
"Its about your boy and his job."
"What? Tell me!"
"You know the place. Just be there." Click.
Weak sigh, trickle of fear.
Rickie pushed her way through the crowd of teenagers to the table she and her
friends had commandeered earlier in the evening. She took a gulp of her soda
and sat down next to Tara, setting another glass in front of her friend. The
darker girl smiled in thanks and swayed to the loud music assailing them, half
an ear on the discussion she was engaged in with an earnest young man.
They had taken a table in the corner, approximately ten feet form the dance floor. One wall had a floor length mirror running along the dance floor while the rest of the walls were painted black. The music was loud enough to rattle teeth and make conversation only possible when yelling. Lights flashed and danced all about the dance floor area. There were two doorways from this area. One led to the 'bar' that served no alcohol (unless you knew the right people.) The other led to a smaller room which held a couple of pool tables, the restrooms and a small shop to purchase munchies and cigarettes.
The building was liberally sprinkled with equal amounts of minors and adults. The adolescents were dancing, playing pool, talking, and tripping. The adults were either trying to relive their misspent youth or attempting to find a warm body to enjoy at home. The dance floor itself was packed with a crowd; people dancing in twos, threes, or more, and even by themselves in front of the mirror.
"You got something for me, Dreamer?" a voice asked seductively near her ear.
The woman shivered and said, "Alex!" She turned her back on the table and gave the lanky young woman behind her a long, wet kiss. "As a matter of fact, I do." She mouthed to Tara be right back, and moved away.
"So, howd business go today?" Alex asked, draping an arm around the blondes waist.
"Not bad, not bad. Step into my office," Rickie giggled, dragging the youth into the womens restroom and locking the door behind her. She dug into her pocket and came out with a wad of bills. "Here ya go. Sold it all without a problem, though I cant go to the park blocks right now."
"Excluded?" the dealer asked, counting the money.
"Yeah, last week. Its been a bitch." She watched Alex finish up the accounting and stuff the money into her pocket.
"Make much?"
"Actually, yeah, I did. Seems the markets drying up a bit out there. Has there been a bust that I havent heard about?"
Alex pursed her lips in thought. "Nope, I dont think so. The big guys are probably doing the supply and demand thing - holding back to raise prices." She gazed at the small woman with affection. "Need work tomorrow?"
"You know it! Im thinking about picking up a hotel room for a couple of days." She sniffed at herself and grimaced. "A showers smelling mighty good right about now."
The dealer laughed. "You can always go to Greenhouse, girl. You aint too old, yet."
The red gold hair shook negatively in earnest. "No way, dude! Then Id get stuck in another program until I could sneak away. Aint happening!"
"Well, here." Alex fished a baggie out of her pocket. "Some of the best nuggies Ive come across lately. Consider it a reward."
"Hey! Cool!" She inspected the product, noticing the crystalline structures on the leaves. "Wow. That looks great!" The baggy found its way to her pocket and she found her way into the other girls arms. A long, passionate kiss later, she added huskily, "Thanks...."
There was a loud banging on the door behind her, yelling could be heard over the dull thump of the music.
"Guess we better get outta here. The natives are restless."
Rickie snickered and opened the door. Ignoring the glares of several young women, she sauntered out, followed by Alex. She headed for the front entrance, intent on her reward. At the door, she turned and noticed her friend had been accosted by another teenager. The redhead shrugged and stepped out into the cool night air. She looked up and down the street for a momentary safe haven.
Xenas gaze intensified as the young woman stepped out of the club. She
felt green eyes rake across her and shuddered, even though she knew the golden
woman hadnt seen her. The dark woman watched as the mirror image of her
heart crossed the street and headed into the shadows of the parklike strip that
adorned the side of the freeway nearby. She observed until the form disappeared
down the hillside and debated on whether or not to follow.
The teenager pulled a small glass pipe and the baggie out of her pocket, carefully
loading up its bowl. She was seated near some bushes just in the shadows on
a hillside. Below her was the freeway with a fair amount of traffic rushing
past. She pulled out a lighter and prepared to fire it up when she heard voices
nearby. Dammit! Rickie looked around to see if shed been spotted.
She saw three men in suits about twenty feet away from her in the shadows. They looked like they were arguing. As traffic whizzed past, she caught bits and pieces of the conversation and wondered whether she should wait them out or move to someplace less conspicuous.
Glen Doblie, lawyer extraordinaire, nervously wiped fingers through his mousy
brown hair. I shouldnt be here, his mind babbled. He was silent
as he watched his associate argue with their contact.
"Your boy failed to do his job, Frank."
Detective Frank Rhyne winced inwardly. "Look," he defended, "it aint my fault! I dont know what happened to him!." He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and mopped his brow. "I checked his hotel - they say they havent seen him in a couple of days. His stuffs still there, just not him." Ginsberg! If I get out of this, youre a dead man!
The third man of the party pursed his full lips, dark brow furrowed as he glared at the police officer. "Mr. Dartmouth is not going to be happy about this. The job was not completed. The resulting mess is going to be extremely difficult to clean up. You," he sneered, "are responsible."
The detective looked down at the smaller man and shivered, intuitively knowing what price would be paid for the responsibility assigned him. He glanced at Doblie with pleading eyes, before returning to watch the man before him. "I know, I know! Ill clean it up, I swear! I just need a little time, to find someone else..." And locate that asshole...
"No. The time is past." The smaller man unbuttoned his suit jacket and reached inside. "I need a name. Whod you hire for the hit?"
Doblie watched in horror as a silenced Glock 9mm appeared in his contacts hand and aimed at the police officer. Man, this cant be happening!
"Ginsberg! Ernst Ginsberg!" Rhyne squeaked, holding his hands away from his body and beginning to back up. He stumbled as he moved upslope, unsure of his footing. "Dont do this, man!" He tried to sound reasonable. "Im a cop. The policell come after anybody who kills me with a vengeance!"
The contact smiled angelically. "Good thing we own the police department, isnt it?"
The redhead tried to puzzle out the conversation she was catching. Something
about a job not done..... Despite herself she moved closer along the shadows
to hear more.
It was obvious that the smaller guy was the one in control. The larger man was acting very nervous. The third man was pretty out of it, as far as the conversation went. He just kind of stood around and looked anxious. For some reason, she found the third man to be somewhat familiar. Where have I seen him.....?
She had gotten quite close to the trio when the gun came out. She froze in shock. Oh, shit! She heard the smug voice of the smaller mans last comment. Then she heard the odd whine/whump of three silenced rounds being fired.
Rhynes body jumped with the power of the bullets entering his body. Searing pain enveloped his chest and stomach. He slumped to the ground with a groan. His last thought was of his wife as he fell forward onto his face.
Doblie, face white, turned to the other man and gasped, "Christ! Whatd you do that for?"
The contact raised an eyebrow at him. He checked his pistol and holstered it. "I told you. Mr. Dartmouth wont be happy. And he hates loose ends." He turned to the council member, head tilted in thought. "Are you a loose end, Doblie?" he asked quietly, leaning forward and into the other mans space.
"No! No!" Doblie responded, over loud. He ran his hands through his hair again and scrubbed at his face, trying very hard not to look at the corpse nearby. His eyes darted everywhere.
And landed on a young woman in the shadows.
The dark man watched Doblies muddy eyes widen and his mouth become agape. His own green eyes narrowed and he spun around, pulling the pistol out again. He found his target and took careful aim. The kid just stood there. Like a deer in the headlights. Piece o cake. He smiled as he began to squeeze the trigger, a bit reluctant that he couldnt play with the girl first.
Rickie could only stare down the barrel of the gun. Her mind babbled at her that she should move, run, do something, but her body wouldnt react. She looked into the mans eyes and prepared to die, mentally screaming at the insanity.
Doblie watched in horror, time slowing down immeasurably. The girl just stood there! His mouth was dry, his brown eyes panicked. No! Not realizing what he was doing, he reached forward with both his hands and shoved the armed man down, hearing the shot go off. To his left, he saw a blur of movement heading for the girl, but he was unable to pay much more attention.
The contact felt himself pushed down and the pistol went off, kicking up dirt near the girls feet. He rolled as he landed on the grass, turning around and using his legs to sweep the feet out from his attacker. Doblie!? Motherfuck! As the lawyer fell to the ground, he swung the pistol, backhanding the man across the chin. There was a satisfying crunch and the lawyer screamed in pain. Glass jaw....
The small man turned back to the girl, but she was nowhere to be seen.
As the young woman disappeared into the shadows, Xena stepped out of her car
and trotted across the street. Thisll probably be my only chance to
catch the kid alone for awhile. She worked the darkness under the trees,
cursing her white t-shirt. Thats what ya get when you do a stakeout
without preparing, girl.
Letting her eyes adjust to the dimmer light, she opened her senses up. Ah! There... The sound of movement, voices. The smell of lavender and ... marijuana. Xena grinned then frowned quickly. Gun oil?
She moved closer in silence. Male voices. Arguing. Her head jerked up when she heard the telltale whining of a silencer. Swearing to herself, she picked up speed.
Xena hurtled herself into the small clearing. She watched as one man pushed the armed one down, heard the shot go off, saw the dirt kick up at Rickies shoes. Beyond thought, she flew through the air and took the girl down with a tackle. She ignored the scream of one of the men as she pulled the girl up into her arms like a rag doll. Her eyes darted around for an avenue of escape. Looking up, she thought of Amazons.
Seconds later, she was sitting on a tree branch, several feet above the clearing, her baggage seated in her lap. The blonde in her arms came to life in a panic. Xena firmly clamped her long hand over the young womans mouth and gripped her tightly around her waist.
"Be still if you want to live," she hissed into the girls ear.
She felt Rickie freeze in her arms. She sensed the inner stuggle before the woman relaxed in her arms and nodded her head. Not quite trusting her, Xena kept her hand on the girls mouth and looked down through the foliage.
The dark man moved stealthily into the area just vacated by the women. He scanned the area with intensity, unable to locate his quarry. His foot hit something and he looked down. Grinning, he bent down and picked up the pipe, lighter and baggy. "Guess I know where to start," he muttered to himself, pocketing the items. He moved back to Doblie and kicked him in the foot. "Get up," he growled.
The lawyer rolled over in agony, hands clasped over his jaw and tears rolling down his face. Unable to get up without his hands, he floundered on the grass for a few minutes until the smaller man reached down in disgust and drew him to his feet.
"Dont ever fuck with me again, Doblie," the contact hissed in his face. "Or broken bones are going to be the least of your concern. You got that?"
Eyes wide as saucers, the councilman nodded slowly and painfully.
The dark man straightened up and re-holstered his pistol. Grabbing Doblie by the arm, he said, "Cmon, Ill drop you off at a hospital.... Seems you took quite a fall while changing that lightbulb on your front step."
The injured man nodded again and whimpered, allowing himself to be pulled away.


text:
Dear Editor:
Is the "Move Forward" slate running for the Board of Education committed to academic integrity and to keeping the school system free from political interference? The experience with candidate Ms. Felice Vazquez at Kean University raises concerns that they are not.
Hoboken needs to know the damage caused to Kean University by the actions of Ms. Vazquez's patron, Kean University's President Dawood Farahi, so that we prevent it from happening here:
Farahi was found to have allegedly lied about dozens of his academic credentials on eight different resumes over a 30-year period yet he was not fired by the Board of Trustees. For example, despite allegedly claiming "Over 50 technical articles in major publications" we find zero articles in peer-reviewed publications. [see: http://kft2187.org/farahi/]
The NCAA placed Kean – a Division III school – on probation for four years for five major rules violations, including the dreaded lack of institutional control. The Farahi administration was allegedly illicitly giving academic scholarships to athletes and changing athletes' grades to keep them eligible for "big" games. [see www.ncaa.org and search on 'Kean']
The Middle States accrediting agency placed Kean's accreditation on probation for failing four of their 14 standards of excellence including Standard 6: Integrity. [see www.msche.org and click on 'Institutions' to search for Kean]
Farahi hired Ms. Vazquez to a newly created position – Special Counsel in the Office of the President – to help him cling to power, in my opinion. She attempted to quash a Kean Faculty Senate Vote of No Confidence on Farahi, but was ruled out of order. The vote was 83 percent No Confidence.
According to her Linked In page, Ms. Vazquez received her M.A. from Farahi's program. Did she learn about academic integrity under Farahi's tutelage? Will she bring his corrupt standards and his poisonous leadership style to Hoboken's Board of Education?
Moreover, Ms. Vazquez is formerly an associate attorney at WeinerLesniak, the law firm of powerful State Senator Ray Lesniak, also a close friend and supporter of Farahi. Evidence of political interference by Senator Lesniak at Kean University has been mounting. [see www.unionnewsdaily.com and search on 'Lesniak'] Is Ms. Vazquez's candidacy an attempt by Senator Lesniak to exert similar influence in Hudson County?
Cronyism, political interference, resume fraud, NCAA violations and accreditation crises have no place in the Hoboken school system. Given the above, can we trust "Move Forward" to oversee the education of our children with integrity?
While faculty, like myself, will continue to serve as guardians of institutional integrity at Kean, it is the voters in Hoboken who must protect the integrity of our public schools.
James A. Castiglione, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Physics
President, Kean Federation of Teachers


text:
United Still Stand
Wide World Photos |
Major League Soccer returned for its sophomore season and although the fan frenzy had cooled some there are still signs of a positive future for the league. Yes, overall attendance was down slightly, but the league signed a new television deal with ABC/ESPN, guaranteeing short term stability.
The product on the field, though it has miles to go before it can be equated with the top leagues in Europe or South America, improved somewhat and expansion franchises were awarded in Miami and Chicago.
By the end of the season, MLS Coach of the Year Bruce Arena's Washington D.C. United proved they were, once again, far and away the best team in the league. Now winners of back-to-back league championships, the United defeated the upstart Colorado Rapids, 2-1, in MLS '97 in front of over 57,000 hearty fans at a blustery RFK Stadium. United forward Jaime Moreno scored in the game's 37th minute and won the game's MVP award.
The Rapids were still a great story. Though the finished in dead last a year ago and barely made the playoffs with their 14-18 record, they put it all together in the postseason and swept both the Kansas City Wizards and Dallas Burn in best-of-three series to earn a spot in the championship game.
On the international scene, the U.S. National team became the 23rd team to qualify for the 1998 World Cup to be held in France. After several weeks when it appeared that their third straight World Cup bid was in jeopardy, the U.S. was finally able to take care of business. First they were able to escape Mexico City with a scoreless tie against Bora Multinovic's first-place Mexican team following their lackluster performance at home against the Jamaicans. Then. their impressive 3-0 win at Canada, their first ever in a Cup qualifier on Canadian grass, along with Costa Rica's tie with Mexico and Jamaica's tie with El Salvador lifted Steve Sampson's squad into the elite field of 32.
Eric Cantona, 30, surprised many when he abruptly announced his retirement after a bumpy 13-year career, the last five of which had been spent in the English Premier League with Manchester United. The gifted Frenchman unfortunately may best be remembered for his shocking "kung-fu" kick on a fan in 1995. Despite a mediocre season in 1997, Cantona was still at the top of his game and many thought he might return to French soccer or perhaps head for Japan. But instead on May 18 he announced he was leaving the sport altogether.


text:
Indonesia seeks payout to save forests
Indonesia wants to be paid $5-$20 per hectare not to destroy its remaining forests, the environment minister said on Monday, for the first time giving an actual figure that he wants the world's rich countries to pay.
Participants from 189 countries are expected to gather in Bali for global climate talks at a U.N.-led summit in December.
They will hear a report on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation (RED) -- a new scheme that aims to make emission cuts from forest areas eligible for global carbon trading.
But apart from carbon trading, Indonesia also wants big emitters such as the United States and the European Union to pay the country to preserve its pristine rainforests.
"We will ask for a compensation of $5-20 per hectare. It's not fixed; it is open to negotiation," Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar told reporters after a cabinet meeting at the presidential palace on Monday.
With a total forest area of 91 million ha (225 million acres), Indonesia could receive as much as $1.8 billion for preserving its forests under the proposal.
Indonesia will also negotiate a fixed price for other forms of biodiversity, including coral reefs, Witoelar added.
He later told Reuters that the figure matches the amount needed for preservation efforts and to create alternative employment for the local communities.
However, some critics say it is not clear how the funds would be supervised to ensure they are used properly.
Under the Kyoto Protocol's first round, which runs through 2012, about 35 rich nations are obliged to cut emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 to fight global warming.
The Bali meeting in December will initiate talks on clinching a new deal by 2009.
Kyoto focused on reducing emissions from industry and capturing greenhouse cases, but did not include a scheme to cut emissions from forestry or to protect existing forests, which could reduce global emissions by 20 percent.
The sprawling archipelago is also home to 60 percent of the world's threatened tropical peat lands -- dense tropical swamps that release big amounts of carbon dioxide when burnt or drained to plant crops such as palm oil.
Indonesia is one of the world's top three carbon emitters when peat emissions are added in, according to a report sponsored by the World Bank and Britain's development arm.
"So far we have not received anything for what we have done," Witoelar said. "Now that there is a price tag for preservation, the amount of money we get will increase multifold."
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