text:
Stage–Wise Adaptive Designs presents the theory and methodology of stage–wise adaptive design across various areas of study within the field of statistics, from sampling surveys and time series analysis to generalized linear models and decision theory. Providing the necessary background material along with illustrative S–PLUS functions, this book serves as a valuable introduction to the problems of adaptive designs.
The author begins with a cohesive introduction to the subject and goes on to concentrate on generalized linear models, followed by stage–wise sampling procedures in sampling surveys. Adaptive forecasting in the area of time series analysis is presented in detail, and two chapters are devoted to applications in clinical trials. Bandits problems are also given a thorough treatment along with sequential detection of change–points, sequential applications in industrial statistics, and software reliability.
S–Plus functions are available to accompany particular computations, and all examples can be worked out using R, which is available on the book′s related FTP site. In addition, a detailed appendix outlines the use of these software functions, while an extensive bibliography directs readers to further research on the subject matter.
Assuming only a basic background in statistical topics, Stage–Wise Adaptive Designs is an excellent supplement to statistics courses at the upper–undergraduate and graduate levels. It also serves as a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners in the fields of statistics and biostatistics.
1 Synopsis.
1.1 Multistage and Sequential Estimation.
1.2 Adaptive Designs for Generalized Linear Models.
1.3 Adaptive Methods for Sampling from Finite Populations.
1.4 Adaptive Prediction and Forecasting in Time Series Analysis.
1.5 Adaptive Search of an MTD in Cancer Phase I Clinical Trials.
1.6 Adaptive and Sequential Procedures in Phase III of Clinical Trials.
1.7 Sequential Allocation of Resources.
1.8 Sequential Detection of Change Points.
1.9 Sequential Methods in Industrial Testing, Reliability, and Design of Experiments.
2 Multistage and Sequential Estimation.
2.1 Stein s Two–Stage Procedure.
2.2 Modifications to Attain Asymptotic Efficiency.
2.3 Two–Stage Sampling From Exponential Distributions.
2.4 Sequential Fixed–Width Interval Estimation.
2.5 Distributions of Stopping Variables of Sequential Sampling.
2.6 Sequential Fixed–Width Intervals for the Log–Odds in Bernoulli Trials.
2.7 Bayesian Sequential Estimation.
3 Adaptive Designs For Generalized Linear Models.
3.1 Exponential Example.
3.2 Adaptive Designs for the Fisher Information.
3.3 Adaptive Bayesian Designs.
3.4 Adaptive Designs for Inverse Regression.
3.5 Stochastic Approximation.
4 Adaptive Methods for Sampling from Finite Populations.
4.1 Basic Theory.
4.2 Two–Stage and Sequential Estimation of the Population Mean.
4.3 Adaptive Allocation of Stratified SRS.
4.4 Adaptive Search for Special Units.
4.5 Adaptive Estimation of the Size of a Finite Population.
4.6 Applications in Software Reliability.
4.7 Sampling Inspection Schemes.
4.8 Dynamic Bayesian Prediction.
5 Adaptive Prediction and Forecasting in Time Series Analysis.
5.1 Basic Tools of Time Series Analysis.
5.2 Linear Predictors for Covariance Stationary T.S.
5.3 Quadratic LSE Predictors for Nonstationary T.S.
5.4 Moving Averages Predictors for Nonstationary T.S.
5.5 Predictors for General Trends with Exponential Discounting.
5.6 Dynamic Linear Models.
5.7 Asymptotic Behavior of DLM.
5.8 Linear Control of DLM.
6 Adaptive Search of an MTD in Cancer Phase I Clinical Trials.
6.1 Up–And–Down Adaptive Designs.
6.2 Bayesian Adaptive Search: The Continuous Reassessment Method.
6.3 Efficient Dose Escalation with Overdose Control.
6.4 Patient–Specific Dosing.
6.5 Toxicity versus Efficacy.
7 Adaptive and Sequential Procedures in Clinical Trials, Phases II and III.
7.1 Randomization in Clinical Trials.
7.2 Adaptive Randomization Procedures.
7.3 Fixed–Width Sequential Estimation of the Success Probability in Bernoulli Trials.
7.4 Sequential Procedure for Estimating the Probability of Success in Bernoulli Trials.
7.5 Sequential Comparison of Success Probabilities.
7.6 Group Sequential Methods.
7.7 Dynamic Determination of Stage–Wise Samples Size.
8 Sequential Allocation of Resources.
8.1 Bernoulli Bandits.
8.2 Gittins Dynamic Allocation Indices.
8.3 Sequential Allocations in Clinical Trials.
8.4 Bernoulli Bandits with Changepoint.
8.5 Sequential Designs for Estimating the Common Mean of Two Normal Distributions: One Variance Known.
9 Sequential Detection of Changepoints.
9.1 Bayesian Detection When the Distribution Before and After the Change Are Known.
9.2 Bayesian Detection When the Distributions Before and After the Change Are Unknown.
9.3 CUSUM Procedures for Sequential Detection.
9.4 Tracking Algorithms for Processes with Change Points.
9.5 Recursive Estimation with Changepoints.
9.6 Additional Theoretical Contributions.
10 Sequential Methods in Industrial Testing.
10.1 Sequential Testing (SPRT).
10.2 Characteristics of Sequential Procedures in Reliability Estimation and Testing.
10.3 Some Comments on Sequential Design of Experiments.
10.4 Sequential Testing of Software Reliability.
Appendix: SPLUS/R Programs.
Author Index.
Subject Index.


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C Spire Outage in Miramar Beach, Walton County, Florida
C Spire Wireless, headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi, is the sixth largest wireless provider in the United States and the largest privately held wireless provider in the United States. The company is a full-service provider of transport, Internet and telecom services.
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The site allows users to create customized profiles, rankings and maps that make data visual and digestible. It also features a neighborhood-level child opportunity index, the first of its kind, developed in partnership with the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University. In addition to providing this index and hundreds of standard measures broken down by race and ethnicity, this site also generates unique, equity-focused data on known structural factors that drive existing disparities among varying racial and ethnic groups. It allows users to zoom in from a national perspective to ever-small levels of geography: examining individual metropolitan areas, school districts, and in some cases even neighborhoods, providing pinpoint views of the often nuanced inequities present among children of varying racial and ethnic groups.
Creator: Institute for Child, Youth, and Family Policy
Submitted On: 03/17/2014
Subject: children
Access rights: Free Access
Type: Interactive
Modern Westerners brought up on a steady diet of popular songs and romantic movies tend to believe that interpersonal attraction and mate selection are both random and very subjective. Popular culture propagates the notion of "love at first sight" and teaches us that "love is blind, "love just happens," and "you can't help who you fall in love with." Research shows, however, that this is not necessarily true and that, in reality, society aims Cupid's arrow more than we like to think. In this exercise we explore the concepts of homogamy, routine activities, social networks, and mere exposure by examining how similar respondents are to their partners on a variety of social characteristics and how they met and became involved with their partners.
Creator: ICPSR
Submitted On: 03/17/2014
Subject: love, interpersonal attraction, relationships, romance, homogamy, mere exposure
Access rights: Available by Subscription
Type: Activity
What basic skills are needed to read a poll? How are scientifically sound polls conducted? How can one gauge the reliability of poll data? In this lesson, students learn terms associated with polling as well as how to read and evaluate poll methodologies and results. They then practice administering and interpreting polls.
Creator: The New York Times The Learning Network
Submitted On: 03/17/2014
Subject: polling, survey research, methods, public opinion
Access rights: Free Access
Type: Activity
This calculator, for a single childless worker, shows the hard choices that have to be made by those living on the smallest paychecks.
Creator: The New York Times
Submitted On: 02/11/2014
Subject: sociology, economics, poverty, minimum wage, working poor
Access rights: Free Access
Type: Interactive
TeachingWithData.org, through a partnership with the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) has developed a library of pedagogic modules for educators across the curriculum. Each module features a particular pedagogic methodology including examples of how the method can be applied in a variety of subjects. SERC vets these modules with pedagogic experts; all pedagogic content is subject to a blind peer review process before it is made live.A growing collection of classroom activities, submitted by faculty, is included within each pedagogic module. The result is an enhanced collection that allows users to seamlessly browse between pedagogic content and classroom activities. The modules can be used in their entirety or instructors can use the modules to generate ideas for their instruction.Modules include:Teaching with DataDeveloping Quantitative ReasoningQuantitative WritingTeaching Quantitative Reasoning with the NewsUsing Socio-Scientific Issues-Based Instruction
Creator: Science Education Resource Center (SERC)
Submitted On: 02/11/2014
Subject: pedagogic modules, classroom activity
Access rights: Free Access
Type: Module
Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.
Creator: Politizane
Submitted On: 10/25/2013
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Brookings Institution Interactive: The Final Countdown: Prospects for Ending Extreme Poverty by 2030
Over a billion people worldwide live on less than $1.25 a day. But that number is falling. This has given credence to the idea that extreme poverty can be eliminated in a generation. A new study by Brookings researchers examines the prospects for ending extreme poverty by 2030 and the factors that will determine progress toward this goal. The interactive tool below allows users to explore the study's key findings.
Creator: Brookings Institution
Submitted On: 10/21/2013
Access rights: Free Access
Voting Behavior: The 2012 Election is a new SETUPS (Supplementary Empirical Teaching Units in Political Science) that offers students the ability to analyze an accessible dataset drawn from the 2012 American National Election Study (ANES) survey of the American electorate.
Creator: ICPSR
Submitted On: 10/16/2013
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This tool allows the user to view the rates of survival by year and gender, hazards, behavior and can be sorted on these factors.
Creator: Understanding Uncertainty
Submitted On: 10/08/2013
Access rights: Free Access
This tool allows user to select a region to answer the question or view all responses worldwide.
Creator: The Economist
Submitted On: 10/04/2013
Access rights: Free Access


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Samsung Works to Improve Eye Recognition Features
It never seems too early these days to make predictions on what features will be in the next flagship smartphone from Samsung Electronics
While the company itself is still busy marketing its Galaxy Gear smartwatch around the globe, tech blogs have already started writing about a few hardware features that may come with the next generation Galaxy S smartphone - none of which Samsung would confirm, but one of them being an iris scanner.
This wouldn't be the first time Samsung is testing the idea of linking human eyes with smartphone usage, as recent Galaxy smartphones come with software features that recognize a person's eyes for adjusting the brightness of a phone screen or even for scrolling up and down a web page.
But a patent filing by Samsung with the U.S. authorities published earlier this month shows the company may be considering taking the technology one step further and use it for people authentication in Samsung devices.
Though the filing doesn't go into specifics of how the technology can be applied in practice, it puts the technology in direct comparison with fingerprint recognition, which Apple Inc.'s new iPhone 5 came with earlier this year.
"The iris has unique patterns whose number is larger than that of the fingerprint...and...is being evaluated as a biometric identification technology more advanced than a fingerprint or retina scanning technology," Samsung's filing with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office said.
A Samsung spokeswoman declined to confirm whether the company is considering the application of iris-based authentication for its next flagship device. The document only says the technology may be embodied in many different forms including a computer, a tablet computer and a mobile device.
Practicality aside, companies are competitively stretching the horizon of sensor-based technology for general use. Just last week, U.S. patent authorities published a filing by Japan's Sony Corp. that shows a wearable computing device in the form of a wig with sensors, while Google Inc. has filed a patent for an electronic tattoo that can be placed on a person's neck.


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2 June 2010 Edition
Callely defends his expense claims
2 June 2010
Fianna Fáil Senator Ivor Callely is at the centre of an expenses storm after it emerged that the Dublin-based TD had claimed over €80,000 in subsistence and travel expenses from his property in west Cork. On Wednesday, he insisted that he fully complied with the regulations concerning his expense claims. Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach Brian Cowen is now coming under increased pressure to take action against Callely. Free article
Anderson calls for support of Destined Lottery Awards Bid
2 June 2010
Sinn Féin Foyle MLA Martina Anderson has called on people in Derry and Donegal to get behind a local charity in their bid to win the Access to Citizenship -Lottery Awards 2010. Destined is a voluntary organisation with charitable status which was established in August 2002 .It is based at Great James Street in Derry. It seeks to address the needs of people with a learning disability in a whole life context. The organization has as its core ethos the involvement and full participation of its members with a learning disability in all aspects of activity and at all levels of the decision making process. Free article
PPS 21 requires further improvement
2 June 2010
Following the publication today of the final building and environmental legislation on PPS 21, Sinn Féin Planning Spokesper-son, Cathal Boylan, MLA, said it needed further improvement. After an exchange with the Minister, Boylan said, "This revised policy provides increased opportunities to develop in the countryside. The new policy proposals includes less restrictive personal and domestic circumstances, building within existing clusters and a clearer definition of criteria for gap sites, as well as an opportunity to develop away from farm clusters. It is also proposed that a new Rural Design Guide is due to be published in the Autumn. Free article
The Irish unity pledge campaign in Canada
2 June 2010
A campaign has been launched in Canada to win support for an Irish Unity Pledge, following a conference there last November, which was attended by Gerry Adams. Last November, Friends of Sinn Fein (Canada) Inc. presented a Forum in Toronto entitled "A United Ireland: How Do we Get There?" The object of the conference was to generate discussion around how Canadians could help win Irish unity. Speakers at the conference included Gerry Adams M.P., Charlie Angus M.P. (NDP), former Canadian Solicitor General Warren Allmand, former Saskatchewan Attorney General, Chris Axworthy, and Montreal trade union leader Manon Peron of the Conference of National Trade Unions. Representatives of Irish Canadian groups from across Canada, including the G.A.A, also addressed the audience, which numbered over 300 people. Free article
Patients suffer cutbacks while Anglo-Irish Bank gets another €2 billion
2 June 2010
Sinn Féin Health & Children spokesperson and Cavan-Monaghan TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin has described as "a danger to the health and safety of patients" Wednesday's announced closure of a range of hospital services in Cavan and Monaghan General Hospital over the summer months. He said it was "obscene" that patients are suffering cuts while the Government has just poured another €2 billion of taxpayers money into Anglo-Irish Bank. Free article
Page 1 of 2
Mortgage holders need assistance
2 June 2010
Measures must be taken to help mortgage holders struggling to meet payments, according to Sinn Féin Finance spokesperson Arthur Morgan, TD. Morgan said recent figures from the Central Bank showed a 13% increase in the number of mortgages in arrears. Many of these people are paying mortgages on homes now in heavy negative equity. Free article
Domestic abuse victims on the rise
2 June 2010
Safe Ireland, which represents services delivering frontline support to victims of domestic violence, said on Wednesday that the number of women seeking shelter after being subjected to domestic violence has increased by 43% in the last two years. Free article
Waterford resists water charges
2 June 2010
Sinn Fein City and County Councillors David Cullinane, Brendan Mansfield and Pat Fitzgerald this week launched a local campaign of opposition to the introduction of domestic water charges. The councillors dismissed Government claims that any new charging mechanism is about water conservation. Free article
Seanad to debate Donegal job creation
2 June 2010
Sinn Féin Senator Pearse Doherty has secured a debate in the Seanad on the need for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and innovation to make towns in Donegal South West a priority for future IDA investment. Doherty has called for a comprehensive strategy from the IDA to promote Donegal. Free article
Ritchie's public humiliation of O'Loan continues
2 June 2010
Margaret Ritchie's public humiliation of Declan O'Loan seems to be continuing apace, according to Sinn Féin MLA Daithí McKay. Free article


text:
From the outside, it's a car crash. Or a UFO crash. Or, to use the watery metaphors that are de rigueur when talking about Zaha Hadid's £269m Aquatic Centre, it is like a vast turtle waving over-sized flippers. A great roof, whose beauty should come from the way its great weight came down to the ground at three points is engulfed with even bigger temporary structures, blown-up, go-faster versions of what might be seen at a county cattle fair, needed to house the 15,000 temporary seats for the Olympic Games. They will be taken away afterwards, leaving a 2,500 capacity, which is the most that any non-Olympic swimming event is likely to attract.
Then, once spectators have negotiated the crowd management arrangements, which the building accommodates somewhat clumsily, they will enter a space that can only be described as stonking, a room big enough for more than 17,500 people. It is impressive because it is big, and purposeful, and will contain large crowds, but also because the architecture rises to the occasion. The architects' moves are confident and equal to the scale of the place. They don't fumble or tinker. More than that, the interior has a feeling of wholeness. It feels moulded or carved, not assembled. It looks like a body more than something constructed out of pieces.
The big thing is the roof, steel-framed and timber-clad, which floats and undulates, but is also palpably substantial. Officially, it's like a wave, but, with its combination of weight and agility, it's very like a whale. At either end a concrete bowl, containing the pools, the permanent seating and support spaces, rises to meet the roof where it descends. Along each side, in the gaps formed between the bowl and the roof, huge glass walls will be installed after the games, opening the space to the sky and the surrounding park. Now these gaps open to steep banks of temporary seats, contained within the great flippers that are so problematic on the outside. Inside, they are continuous with the rest of the space, and add to its drama.
The work focuses on the two pools, for swimming and diving, coming down to a few human bodies in water, small and fragile relative to the whole, a shift in scale that is somehow achieved smoothly. The diving platforms are moulded out of the same concrete as the rest of the lower structure, making them extensions of the architecture rather than additional pieces of concrete.
Another pool, for practice, would be part of the experience too, visible behind a wide glass wall, but International Olympic Committee (IOC) regulations have required an unfortunate temporary partition. It's something to do with keeping athletes and officials apart, which is clearly very important, but it blocks the view. Elsewhere the interplay of architectural and sporting demands is happier. The greys of the structure are offset by strong primary colours: the blue pools, the yellow and red of the lane markers, and an interesting pinkish light filtered from the outside through translucent walls in the temporary extensions.
The Aquatic Centre is the London Olympics' most majestic space: the most potent, the most charged. It is also 2012's most difficult child, the first venue to be designed, the last to be finished. It was accompanied along the way by stories of escalating budgets (nervous builders, and near abandonment of the design). Built, it has compromises, like the view-blocking partition and the flippers, about which Hadid does not even try to pretend to be happy. As originally conceived, the awkward temporary extensions would not have been there, as there was to be a roof big enough to cover both temporary and permanent, but this proved too extravagant.
The obvious comparison is with the £93m, 6,000-seat Velodrome, another wavy-roofed work completed last February, seemingly with the smooth precision of a high-performance bike. The Velodrome's roof required 300 tonnes of steel; the Aquatic Centre's – about the same size but with admittedly more difficult conditions – uses 3,000 tonnes. The Velodrome, trim and taut, is also a handsome building, and promises to be a powerful venue.
Part of the complication comes from the fact that the centre was designed before London won the bid. London was in danger of being seen as the safe-but-boring option, with dull buildings, and Hadid's design could be waved in front of the IOC as evidence of stardust. The problem was that the people who would eventually be the clients for the building, the organisations set up after London won the bid, didn't exist then, and the brief was not as developed as it would be later. When designs come first and clients second, there is often trouble.
But there may also be a mismatch between the processes of something like the Olympics and architecture as conceived by Hadid. Architecture, for her, is something that should make its presence felt, intervene, change things, perhaps get in the way. Her style seems to be about dynamism and weightless modernity, but her buildings are actually massive. They are slow, not fast. They reflect an old idea, common to Palladio and Le Corbusier, that architects sculpt and shape and compose. Hence her roof, which dips down in the middle to suggest two different spaces within in the overall enclosure, one for swimming and the other for diving.
What London 2012 wants is a great whirring delivery machine, driven by the inexorability of the project's deadline, where as many details as possible are determined in advance by specifications and regulations. They want architects to slip into the machine noiselessly, if possible with a bit of elegance, like Hopkins Architects at the Velodrome. With Hadid there is more of a grinding and crashing of gears, but she set out to achieve "a really great spatial experience", and did so.
I am sure that the Aquatic Centre could have been built more cheaply and easily, and without its crashes of permanent and temporary. It is a building that will be at its best after the games, when the flippers have been replaced by the great glass walls, although it will then face a new risk of being too grand for a public pool. The wavy roof risks being too small for the Olympics and too big for its afterlife. It can only be hoped that, whatever plans are made for its future upkeep, they are equal to the ambitions of the structure.
But, given that the whole £9bn Olympic extravaganza spends money that could have had more prudent and practical uses, it does not seem so terrible that a small fraction of its extravagance should go on a space as magnificent as this. Many hundreds of millions will be flushed away on more boring things, such as consultants' fees and security that may or may not be necessary.
Lastly, a note to the IOC. While the Centre offers 17,500 seats for watching swimming, only 10,000 will be able to watch diving events. This is in accordance with IOC specifications, which seem to assume that people find diving a bit boring. Evidently, the specification writers haven't heard of Tom Daley.


text:
Hearings Torpedoed Bid for Supreme Court Seat
Robert Bork, a conservative jurist and legal theorist whose failed 1987 nomination to the Supreme Court helped set the tone for contentious and partisan confirmation hearings, has died at age 85.
Mr. Bork's son, Robert H. Bork Jr., confirmed the death Wednesday.
At the time of his high-court nomination, Mr. Bork was no stranger to political controversy. He had earlier became perhaps the best-known Solicitor General in U.S. history when, as acting Attorney General in 1973, he fired Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox after Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus each resigned rather than carry out the firing that President Richard Nixon had ordered. The episode went down in history as the "Saturday Night Massacre," and Mr. Bork was criticized for bending to the president's will.
Mr. Bork's searing 1987 confirmation hearings for a seat on the high court also served as a cautionary tale for future nominees, who became reluctant to share their legal opinions before lawmakers.
In the later part of his life, Mr. Bork expanded his purview into cultural criticism, arguing in "Slouching Towards Gomorrah" that liberalism was undermining Western civilization.
A self-described Constitutional "originalist" who was critical of judges who appealed to a right of privacy and other doctrines not explicitly written into the Constitution, Mr. Bork inspired intense emotions on both the political right and left. So stormy were his confirmation hearings that his name entered the English language as a byword for attacking a public figure in the media.
Nominated by President Reagan to fill the Supreme Court spot of the retiring centrist justice Lewis Powell, Mr. Bork became the object of opposition by liberals who feared, among other things, that he would tip the court's balance on Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion. Mr. Bork had publicly condemned the decision as legally shoddy, and affirmed this view under Senate questioning.
Within an hour of his nomination in 1987, Sen. Edward Kennedy, paladin of the left, rose in the Senate to condemn Mr. Bork's jurisprudence.
"Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution," Mr. Kennedy said. "The doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens."
The words rankled and Mr. Bork dismissed them, telling author Michael Kelly that "There was not a line in that speech that was accurate." But the speech set the tone for the hearings, the first ever televised for the high court, which ended in Mr. Bork's being rejected, 58 votes to 42.
Raised in Pittsburgh, Mr. Bork was the son of a steel-company executive and served in the Marines. He described himself as a schoolboy socialist, but by the time he completed his legal studies at the University of Chicago he was a committed laissez-faire conservative.
He specialized in antitrust law and was in private practice in Chicago for a decade before taking a substantial pay cut to take a teaching post at Yale University Law School in 1962.
Collaborating at times with Yale constitutional scholar Alexander Bickel, Mr. Bork developed a conservative judicial philosophy centered on what he took to be the original intent of the Constitution's framers.
In an influential 1971 Indiana Law Journal article, he assailed the high court's recognition of a right to privacy in Griswold v. Connecticut, contending that the court should recognize only rights clearly specified in the Constitution.
Among his other controversial holdings was that the first amendment applied only to political speech, and that Roe v. Wade was a usurpation of state's rights. It was that position, more than any other, that would galvanize opposition to his Supreme Court nomination.
Mr. Bork also published "The Antitrust Paradox: A Policy at War With Itself," an influential study that argued that consumer benefit should drive antitrust actions.
Mr. Bork drafted position papers for Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign in 1964 and Richard Nixon's 1968 and 1972 campaigns. In the early 1970s he emerged as the staunchest defender of Mr. Nixon's proposals to end busing students to achieve school integration, and by 1972 was mentioned on shortlists as a possible candidate should a seat on the Supreme Court come open.
Instead, Mr. Nixon appointed him solicitor general. Among Mr. Bork's first acts in office was to issue a brief that only the President—and not the Vice-President—was immune to criminal prosecution. The opinion helped the government bring charges of bribery, extortion, tax fraud and conspiracy against Vice-President Spiro Agnew, who subsequently resigned.
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Weeks later came the "Saturday Night Massacre," when at the President's behest Mr. Bork fired Mr. Cox as Watergate special prosecutor. What is sometimes lost in the telling of that tale is that Mr. Bork insisted that the prosecutor's office staff be retained, that the investigation go forward, and that a new prosecutor be appointed. He appointed Leon Jaworski as the new special Watergate prosecutor on Nov. 1, 1973, the same day Mr. Nixon announced the nomination of Ohio Sen. William Saxbe as the new attorney general.
Mr. Bork stayed at Justice under the end of the Ford administration, then returned to Yale, where he remained for several years. In 1981, he returned to Washington, where he became a partner in a corporate law practice. Within months President Ronald Reagan's attorney general, William French Smith, appointed Mr. Bork to a position on the D.C. Court of Appeals, a traditional staging post for seats on the Supreme Court. His colleague on that bench, Antonin Scalia, was picked as a nominee in 1986.
In 1987 came Mr. Bork's turn, and the resulting brouhaha changed the nature of Supreme Court nominations. Mr. Bork, looking distinctly out of the ordinary with his rotund frame and scraggly red beard, barely tried to sugarcoat his contempt for judges who found new "rights" lurking in the Constitution. Meanwhile, critics vilified him and tried to dig up dirt by investigating such ephemera as his video rentals. (The leaked list contained mainly Hollywood classics; the leaking of the list help spur the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988, thus fulfilling Mr. Bork's contention that Americans enjoyed a right of privacy only as enumerated by specific legislation.)
Mr. Bork's partisan rejection seems to have embittered him, and he resigned from the appeals court in 1988 and devoted himself to writing books, two of which became bestsellers: "The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law" and "Slouching Toward Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline."
Despite this dyspeptic public mien, Mr. Bork retained a certain zest, and once wrote to The Wall Street Journal to respond to a feature on the martini, "The correct response when offered an olive is, 'When I want a salad, I'll ask for it."
His wife died in 1980, and Mr. Bork remarried in 1982, wedding a former Catholic nun. In 2003, Mr. Bork converted to Catholicism, and credited his wife for inspiring him. Asked why he waited so long to convert, Mr. Bork told the National Catholic Reporter, "There is an advantage in waiting until you're 76 to be baptized, because you're forgiven all of your prior sins. Plus, at that age you're not likely to commit any really interesting or serious sins."
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Four days before the Iowa caucuses, it's now clear that Mitt Romney could win there and then the New Hampshire primary a week later.
The latest Iowa polls show the former Massachusetts governor neck and neck with Texas Rep. Ron Paul for the lead, with both in the low 20s among likely caucusgoers. In New Hampshire, polls show an average 20-point lead for Mr. Romney over his nearest competitor, Congressman Paul.
If Romney wins both, that would be unprecedented for someone who isn't already president.
Since the GOP Iowa caucuses began to matter in 1980, Iowa and New Hampshire have had a history of going in different directions. And if Romney wins both by comfortable margins, then for all intents and purposes, it's game over.
Romney will have a lock on the Republican nomination, as the only candidate with momentum, big money, a national organization, and substantial room for growth in his numbers. (Iowa provides a clue on that last point: 50 percent of likely GOP caucusgoers view Romney as "acceptable" for the nomination, versus only 35 percent who see Paul that way, according to the new NBC-Marist poll.)
"If he wins both, the image that it's over will be hard to shake," says Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. The media will be full of stories about how no one who is not already president has ever pulled off the one-two punch.
But if Romney wins Iowa with a small plurality, that will give hope to the also-rans. And there's no indication that Romney can win Iowa going away, because of continuing reservations over his moderate image, policy flip-flops, and Mormonism.
Also, the caucus format favors the most enthusiastic voters, as it requires attending an evening-long event at an appointed time, unlike a primary. The NBC-Marist poll shows Romney has less "strong support" (51 percent of his voters) than the surging Rick Santorum (59 percent), Paul (54 percent), and Rick Perry (52 percent).
So if Romney wins Iowa, it is likely to be with a low plurality – perhaps even with the same 25 percent he won in his second-place finish four years ago. Chances are Paul won't be far behind. And Mr. Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, could surprise both.
Next, if Romney wins New Hampshire by a smaller-than-expected margin – say, by less than 10 percentage points – he will have underperformed, raising questions about his ability to compete on less-friendly turf. South Carolina, with its large conservative evangelical population, will provide that test in its Jan. 21 primary. After that, the Florida primary (Jan. 31) will test Romney's strength among a bigger, more diverse GOP electorate – and could seal the former governor's fate either way.
But it's really too soon to game out anything beyond Iowa and New Hampshire, as those two contests are likely to winnow the field. The question will be where the supporters of the dropouts end up going.
For now, Romney is waging a battle against expectations.
Even though he campaigned little in Iowa in the early going, he, his family, and key surrogates – see New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie – are all in, waving the Romney flag in the Hawkeye State in the home stretch. Anything less than a strong second-place finish for Romney on Tuesday will raise eyebrows.
The latest NBC-Marist poll contains another piece of good news for Romney in Iowa.
Among tea party supporters, Romney and Paul are tied at 17 percent each. The only candidate who performs better is Santorum, at 20 percent. Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, whose overall numbers have taken a dive, polls at 16 percent among tea partyers. Texas Governor Perry gets 15 percent, and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann gets 10 percent.
"This is the Romney dream scenario," Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, told NBC. "When you look at the tea party and conservatives, they are all splintered."
One final caveat: The Iowa caucuses have a habit of producing surprises. Last time, it was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's come-from-behind victory with 34 percent of the vote. At this point, a victory by Romney or Paul wouldn't be surprising. Santorum could be the surprise finisher of Iowa 2012 – even if it's coming in a strong second.
An early clue could come Saturday at 7 p.m. central time, with the release of the final Des Moines Register poll of likely GOP caucusgoers. In the final precaucus poll of 2008, The Register had Mr. Huckabee leading.


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Our state is facing the greatest public health challenge of our lifetime. As many South Carolinians who have worked all of their lives, paid taxes, and been actively involved in their communities are now reaching retirement, they are also at risk of losing everything they've worked so hard to earn.
So how do you go about planning to care for the more than 900,000 seniors we have right now and the million more headed our way over the next 15 years? Government did not anticipate today's skyrocketing health-care costs, people living longer, or people outliving their resources. The reality is that there is not enough public money to serve the more than 900,000 seniors we now have in South Carolina, and federal and state laws fall short in helping us determine how to apply these precious dollars. It's clear to me that we have to modernize a system that has not been changed for years; we have to plan and coordinate services so they are easier to access; and we have to create public-private partnerships to provide the safety net our seniors and vulnerable adults deserve.
First and foremost, I plan to continue upgrading the Office on Aging, assisting the network in their outreach efforts, speaking to civic and service clubs, and developing a strategic aging plan for our state. Office on Aging staff members are working hard to develop more efficient office processes, implement a new procedures manual, improve access to pertinent information on our website, create outreach opportunities, and provide training online, among many other things. We've also got to find a way to transport the good ideas and best practices I have witnessed as I've traveled across the state to other areas that need assistance. I have instructed the Office on Aging staff to give flexibility when we can, streamline the system where we can, but at all times remain accountable to the taxpayers of this state. That is where I will not bend.
I am convinced that home and community-based services are the key to helping keep people independent, healthy, and happy at home, for as long as possible. More importantly, these services prevent the migration to more expensive care. So, as government revenue streams diminish while our senior population continues to increase, we must look for additional funding sources or volunteers to provide for these critical programs.
With the help of community leaders across South Carolina, we can find creative ways to build partnerships to help fill in the gaps. One of the things the federal government got right is that they believe senior services are best delivered at the local level. One size does not fit all for the many unique areas of our state, so it is crucial that we help develop plans, prioritize resources, and reach out to leaders in communities throughout South Carolina for help. Perhaps the power of these types of partnerships was best illustrated when Leadership South Carolina's Class of 2013 chose to highlight senior hunger in our state. You may not realize it, but South Carolina ranks in the top 10 states for senior hunger. Leadership South Carolina's class project was to bring awareness to this issue, and they answered the call by raising more than $100,000, which included a public service announcement campaign in addition to providing two Honda minivans for use in underprivileged areas in South Carolina that needed help transporting seniors and meals to some of our state's most vulnerable adults. This partnership with Leadership South Carolina was a step in the right direction, and it was a prime example of how various other groups around the state can also become involved to make a difference.
What it all boils down to is this: Providing care for our seniors and our exploding senior population will require that we do things differently. Albert Einstein once said that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity.
Making the aging network efficient and expanding its capacity to care for up to two million seniors and vulnerable adults over the next 15 years is not going to be easy and it certainly will not happen overnight. Let's approach this challenge as a team. We have a chance to make a big difference and can accomplish far more if we work together.
For more information, contact the SC Lieutenant Governor's Office on Aging call 803-734-9900 or 800-868-9095 or go to www.aging.sc.gov.


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Independence Police Department
223 N. Memorial Drive
Independence, MO 64050-3013
Public Information Office
Officer Tom Gentry
(816) 325-7258
News Release
For immediate release: October 29, 2013
Missing Person Found
The missing person, Mr. Eric D. Zassalow has been found. Independence Detectives were notified by personnel from a local hospital this afternoon that they thought Mr. Zassalow was at their facility. A detective responded to the hospital and confirmed that it was Mr. Zassalow. Apparently he walked into to the hospital seeking shelter. Hospital personnel became suspicious and called the Independence Police.
Mr. Zassalow did not appear to have any health concerns and was returned back to his home.


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gift books for teens
We've linked the images to Book Depository—they have free postage anywhere in the world and great pricing—but Amazon might be cheaper for North American readers. And you might also like to browse our shop for more gift inspiration. As always, please feel free to email us for special suggestions.


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Navy pilot who performed heroic blind landing during Korean War dies
By STEVE CHAWKINS | Los Angeles Times | Published: December 21, 2013
The stunned Navy pilot was gripped in pain, blood was pouring down his face and a good part of his warplane was destroyed.
But worst of all, Ensign Kenneth Schechter couldn't see. An enemy shell had smashed into his Skyraider and fragments pierced his eyes. Hurtling over the Korean coast at 200 mph, Schechter was suddenly enveloped in blackness.
"I'm blind! For God's sake, help me!" he cried into his radio. "I'm blind!"
Even before the anguished call, Lt. j.g. Howard Thayer knew something was wrong. One of the planes in his formation was inexplicably climbing toward a thick cloudbank at 10,000 feet, where it could easily disappear.
Thayer called out: "Plane in trouble, rock your wings. Plane in trouble, rock your wings."
Schechter, snapping out of semi-consciousness, did just that.
Over the next 45 minutes, the temporarily blinded Schechter followed one calm instruction after another from Thayer, his best friend on the aircraft carrier USS Valley Forge. Severely wounded, Schechter finally managed a safe landing on a remote Army dirt strip. Thayer flew beside him, just feet away.
Schechter, who permanently lost the use of his right eye and whose skills and courage during the Korean War were finally recognized by the Navy with a Distinguished Flying Cross in 1995, died Dec. 11 in Fairfield, Calif. He was 83.
He had prostate cancer, his son Rob Schechter said.
After his military service, Kenneth Schechter became an insurance agent in the Los Angeles area. He also was active in Republican politics and a leader in various local causes, including the formation of a park district in La Cañada Flintridge.
But the event that defined much of his life occurred when he was 22 years old and on his 27th combat mission over Korea.
It was March 22, 1952, and Schechter was in a group of pilots ordered to bomb rail and truck lines. Flying at 1,200 feet, he was hit.
"Instinctively, I pulled back on the stick to gain altitude," he wrote in an account for the 2001 book, "Chicken Soup for the Veteran's Soul." "When I came to, sometime later, I couldn't see a thing. … I felt for my upper lip. It was almost severed from the rest of my face."
As Thayer gave step-by-step instructions, Schechter leveled his plane. He dumped his canteen over his head and, for a moment, saw his controls through a red-rimmed veil. But then — nothing.
"Get me down, Howie," he moaned. "Get me down."
Thayer guided his stricken friend toward the waters off Wonsan, where, he hoped, U.S. destroyers would pick him up.
But Schechter refused to bail out. On his second mission in Korea, he had seen his wing man, Lt. Cmdr. Tom Pugh, leap into the same waters. Pugh drowned before help reached him.
"Jump out in that icy water blind? You'd have to be insane," Schechter said in a 1995 Times interview.
Thayer didn't argue. But the nearest air base was 30 miles away and he didn't think Schechter would make it.
Schechter was weakening. Thayer, close enough to see his friend's head slumping, looked around desperately for a field, a rice paddy, any place flat. Then he remembered the Jersey Bounce, a rutted strip that had been used by reconnaissance planes.
"Schechter, for all his loss of blood, handled his plane beautifully," a writer for the Saturday Evening Post recounted in 1954. "Spare energy and strength came from some reservoir God stores up for wounded men to draw on when a final, desperate effort is needed."
Approaching the trip's most difficult maneuver, Thayer told Schechter to lower his wheels.
"The hell with that!" Schechter barked, figuring a belly landing would be safer than slamming onto uneven ground with his wheels down.
Thayer remained unflappable.
"We're heading straight," he intoned. "Hundred yards to runway. You're 50 feet off the ground. You're level. You're OK. You're over the runway. Twenty feet. Kill it a little. You're setting down. OK, OK, OK. Cut!"
Thayer flew back to the Valley Forge, where sailors who had heard the tense transmission mobbed him with congratulations.
Schechter was flown to the hospital ship Consolation and then military hospitals in Pusan, Korea and San Diego.
He left the Navy months later but his final flight became famous. A 1954 film, "Men of the Fighting Lady," dished up the incident with Hollywood license, making jets of the men's prop planes and staging Schechter's landing as a flaming wreck back on his carrier.
The son of European immigants in the garment trade, Schechter was born in New York City on Jan. 30, 1930, and grew up in Los Angeles.
He attended UCLA for two years before his active duty, later receiving a bachelor's degree from Stanford University. He went on to receive a master's degree from Harvard Business School.
In his mid-60s, Schechter asked Navy officials what had happened to paperwork that was filed decades earlier to support the issuance of medals.
It was never received, he was told.
"That first letter was heartbreaking," Schechter said in a 1995 Times interview. "It was a cold letter — like, don't bother me."
With aid from then-Congressman Carlos Moorhead, (R-Glendale), Schechter was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on board the aircraft carrier Constellation in San Diego.
Schechter is survived by his wife, Sue, whom he married in 1955; daughter Anne Buckley; sons Rob and Jonathan; and seven grandchildren.
Thayer, who was best man at the Schechters' wedding, died in 1961. Then a lieutenant colonel, he crashed into the Mediterranean while guiding a fellow pilot whose plane's electrical system had failed. Neither man's remains were found.
Thayer received a Distinguished Flying Cross posthumously, in 2009.


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It's a Boy for Rachael Leigh Cook and Daniel Gillies!
Apr 8, 2015 9:18 PM EDT
Rachael Leigh Cook has welcomed her second bundle of joy, a boy, with husband Daniel Gillies! The Perception and Originals stars first announced the pregnancy in January. Theodore Vigo Sullivan Gillies was born Saturday at 5 a.m. in Los Angeles, E! N… Read more


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Have yourself a merry sustainable Christmas
Red and green are traditional Christmas colours, but the Waikato Waste Advisory Service (WWAS) is urging Waikato businesses to emphasise the "green" this festive season.
Community » What's Happening » News » Media releases - archived
You can access our archive of media releases since 2000 by using the filter by date range search on the left hand side. Once you have made your date selections, click the filter button.
This archive does not include the recent media releases.
Red and green are traditional Christmas colours, but the Waikato Waste Advisory Service (WWAS) is urging Waikato businesses to emphasise the "green" this festive season.
Last week Environment Waikato recommended to the Graham's Creek working party that $10,000-$15,000 needs to be spent each year to cover the cost of regular stream maintenance.
Cambridge dairy farmer John Fisher was officially appointed as Waikato Regional Council's Waipa Constituency member at an extraordinary meeting in Hamilton today.
Environment Waikato Councillor Paula Southgate's commitment to rural New Zealand has won her a place in the 2007 Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme.
Environment Waikato laid eight charges against a civil engineering firm, an earthworks firm and two individuals for breaches of the Resource Management Act in Hamilton District Court yesterday.
A ratepayer opinion poll will be taken into account as part of the three-yearly review of Waikato's regional transport system, says Environment Waikato passenger transport spokesperson Paula Southgate.
Environment Waikato is seeking residents willing to help with projects such as managing bait stations for rat control, as the first part of a project to improve Whangamata Harbour.
The trust set up to manage the multi-million dollar joint fund to protect Lake Taupo has been given the go-ahead to start work.
They're young. They're a little bit crazy. And they'll be Orbiting the city this weekend.


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PAC Codes (or porting authorisation codes) allow mobile phone customers to transfer (port) their existing mobile phone number from one mobile phone network provider to another mobile phone network and keep their existing mobile phone number. The process is termed mobile number portability (or MNP) and for this process, you require a PAC Code. It is quick and very easy to do - follow the instructions above for full details on how to transfer (port) your mobile phone number to another mobile phone network.
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Sterling Voter's Guide – Sterling District Supervisor Election, 2011
The Sterling Voter's Guide is provided as an information resource for any readers interested in my research and opinions. Because of time constraints this year, it only addresses the 2011 election campaign for Sterling District Supervisor, but in future elections I may make it more comprehensive. [NOTE: The "theme" phrases next to each of the candidates' names in the titles were made up by me to match the content of what I wrote, and have nothing to do with what the respective candidates say about themselves.]
If you find the Sterling Voter's Guide helpful, tell your friends and neighbors in Sterling to visit SterlingVoter.com – it will bring them right here. It's easy to remember and it might help them each make up their mind and remember to vote on November 8!
- Eugene Delgaudio: HARDEST WORKING
- L. Ali Shahriari: PEOPLE'S CANDIDATE
- Alfonso Nevarez: OCCUPY STERLING
- Who I Will Be Voting For On November 8
- Find Out Exactly WHERE You Have To Go To Vote
- Sterling Voter's Guide Ownership Information, Disclaimer
Quick Links For More Information About Eugene Delgaudio:
- Campaign Web site
- Facebook page
- OTHER: Mr. Delgaudio recently gave an extensive interview which you can read by clicking here. Because he did not soft-pedal his answers, the interview stands as a revealing look at the "real" Eugene Delgaudio. Supporters likely will be confirmed in their support; previous non-supporters may or may not change their minds; and those unfamiliar with the Sterling supervisor will be able to decide for themselves what they think of him.
Eugene Delgaudio: Education and Local Ties
Mr. Delgaudio received his bachelor's degree in political science from York College of CUNY, Queens, New York.
Mr. Delgaudio first became active in the Sterling community in 1998 when he came to fight the proposed "meals tax." He was elected to the Sterling District seat on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors in 1999, and was reelected in 2003 and 2007.
Key Quotes By Eugene Delgaudio:
A county supervisor has to use a balance of funding, encouragement, and overarching executive management … It is a unique governmental office.
Why would someone keep a book for 120 days … Why would they keep hundreds of books for two years? That's tyrannical … I'm now an "enemy of the libraries" because I forced them to collect fees.
The sense of humor is what cuts through and commands mass attention on a routine basis, and it was the savior of the conservative movement.
A Closer Look At Eugene Delgaudio (Republican):
Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio has a knack for evoking strong emotions. On the one hand, he has a large group of dedicated volunteers who turn out for him on a variety of community projects throughout the year, and also during political campaigns – both his own, every four years, and those of candidates he supports during local off years.
On the other hand, he drives his detractors nuts – especially the tiny faction of extremely vocal liberal activists who follow his every move and dissect each of his public statements. Their attention to him borders on obsession and he seems to relish unapologetically stating viewpoints that some consider politically incorrect.
What nobody denies is that he is the hardest-working supervisor in the county, with a constant presence in the community, regular communications through his (at minimum) weekly "Dear Sterling American" emails, and persistent involvement in a myriad of local activities. He has raised tens of thousands of dollars from private sources for non-profit organizations and capital improvement projects. He has sent a personal letter to every honor roll recipient at Park View High School for the past 12 years. He sends out news of food banks, pothole repairs, teen job fairs, and much more, as well as warnings about accidents, traffic jams, and criminal activity, and during storms he directs snow plows to the hardest-hit areas.
For a complete definition of the county supervisor position, according to Eugene Delgaudio, click here.
It is his "day job," as head of Public Advocate of the United States – where he has served since 1983 – that gives his opponents heartburn. With a mission to promote traditional values and with 200,000 contributors, Public Advocate is a prominent supporter of faith-based initiatives, pro-life legislation, the Boy Scouts, and "equality under the law, regardless of one's sexual orientation." The latter stance tends to go unnoticed by Mr. Delgaudio's detractors, who cannot get past the fact that Public Advocate is also a prominent opponent of same-sex marriage and special privileges based on sexual orientation. Some have said he is a "hater" and some have said he is a clown.
Click here for Mr. Delgaudio's response to these criticisms.
Delgaudio with the late Warren Guerin and Scott York during community meeting to discuss the proposed Sheriff's substation at Rolling Ridge, which all three were instrumental in bringing to Sterling
Delgaudio addressing the crowd several years later, at the 2010 substation grand opening
Because he is a fiscal conservative and budget hawk on most matters under board purview, he has become the target of criticism that is frequently nothing more than blatant hyperbole. When he pushed to charge fees for use of the Claude Moore Community Center, he was accused of wanting to close the center. When he advocated charging late fees for overdue books at the library, he was accused of wanting to close the libraries. By taking the leading public role on budget matters that are easily demagogued, he makes himself a target. (Click here for background on both issues.)
As Mr. Delgaudio states: "To force others to pay for one's recreation is tyrannical and wrong. And so I created a new wave of accountability, as just one supervisor."
Mr. Delgaudio was endorsed by the Loudoun Times, largely on the basis of his work ethic.
His view on social issues is unsettlingly conservative and his antics distracting, but a deeper look demonstrates a public official who works tirelessly for the people of Sterling. We would be lying if we didn't admit that a moderation of the antics in "The Eugene Show" would be welcome. However, no one works harder for their district than Delgaudio, whose strong constituent service and unabashed push for additional resources have improved life in the Sterling District.
Final Notes On Eugene Delgaudio:
Here is Mr. Delgaudio's video statement from the Loudoun Times candidate profile page:
Not everyone gets Eugene Delgaudio's sense of humor – but that is likely because they have not yet gotten to know him. As his Leadership Institute bio says, "Eugene Delgaudio is one of the most interesting, creative, and genuinely funny elected officials in America."
In September 2010, Delgaudio and community members welcomed soon-to-be House Speaker John Boehner to Tart Lumber in Sterling
Most of the resident here do get it, as he is a uniquely effective retail politician. Door-to-door and at community events, he does reflect his stated belief that "Sterling is a microcosm of the world … I come from a background in New York where people were from every country and united in one purpose."
Eugene Delgaudio is not perfect. His vote against ending the OpenBand franchise agreement is one with which some residents – particularly in those affected districts – will disagree.
On November 8, however, Sterling voters are tasked with neither a canonization nor a coronation, but a choice. The county is facing a $75 million deficit in the upcoming fiscal year and no reason to believe it won't be worse the following year. Dire financial circumstances require leaders willing to take a hard line on spending.
If you find the Sterling Voter's Guide helpful, tell your friends and neighbors in Sterling to visit SterlingVoter.com – it will bring them right here. It's easy to remember and it might help them each make up their mind and remember to vote on November 8!
Quick Links For More Information About Ali Shahriari:
- Campaign Web site
- OTHER: Leesburg Today profile and interview.
Ali Shahriari: Education and Local Ties
Mr. Shahriari received his bachelor's degree in economics from Strayer University and is currently completing his masters degree in environmental management from University of Maryland University College, with expected graduation in 2012.
Mr. Shahriari was born in Leesburg and has lived in Sterling his entire life.
Key Quotes By Ali Shahriari:
Does every politician who runs for office in Virginia have to be from New York or San Francisco? Do those from big cities know more than us?
We need to look at what the needs might be in 50 years, not just in the next five or 10 years.
I do not want your money. I want to hear your voices …
A Closer Look At Ali Shahriari (Independent):
Ali Shahriari promises to be a different kind of Loudoun County supervisor. He believes that government has become too removed from the people, and he proposes to rectify that by opening new channels of input through an informal (at first) structure of "People's Conferences."
Diagram of Shahriari's proposed "People's Conferences." For more information, see the key at his Web site.
When members of the community are limited in their civic participation to checking a box on a ballot once every few years, or being permitted to make limited comments to the Board, there arises a distance between the small groups residing in each community, and the dominant groups that control political power. By creating "Precinct People's Conferences" equidistant from the Central People's Conference, everyone living in Sterling will have equal and continuous access to the members of the Central People's Conference and thereby to the Central Conference Secretary – a position that will become a dual-role of the Sterling District supervisor.
As Mr. Shahriari explains it, the ultimate goal is a true "rule of the masses" regardless of party or ideology:
Political parties represent interests, interests dictate what political party members decide and this naturally leaves opposing parties and interests without their voices being heard. As "The People's Candidate," I want to work alongside ALL Sterling residents to implement the people's wishes. Precinct People's Conferences in Sterling will bring all residents of Sterling to the decision making process regardless of their political philosophy.
Shahriari with Gaea Honeycutt of Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce
Mr. Shahriari supports the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms; and he believes we need to "destroy gangs in Loudoun," create a small-business friendly environment, and keep expenditures within the county's means.
On the other hand, he favors: "land use and taxing reforms that discourage private monopoly ownership of land"; county-owned pharmacies; and exploring the possibility of a county-wide minimum wage.
Other specific areas where he supports increased spending are: social services assistance to the elderly and needy; more youth services and programs; "ordinances that protect the environment" – which could create new expenses for the county; and cooperative medical and dental health programs. He proposes paying for these new expenses with new sales and alcohol taxes as well as increased business and professional licensing fees.
Mr. Shahriari is a strong supporter of public transportation, because he has used it and apparently found it wanting. He says we need "true public transportation" and increased bus service here.
Clearly, some of Mr. Shahriari's views are quite revolutionary and very much to the left of America's political mainstream. But with his conservative positions on gun rights, crime, and fiduciary responsibility he defies easy ideological classification. He might be considered a "liberal," but from from days past – more of a Reagan Democrat or, considering his ideas on property rights, a Khrushchev Democrat. Yet however we parse it, Ali Shahriari is definitely a throwback to an earlier era and not your conventional modern liberal.
Shahriari with ADAMS Center members
Although he has obviously given a great deal of thought to his positions, most notably regarding the new People's Conferences, there is one proposal that does not seem to bear the stamp of his training as an economist. On the topic of job growth, he states: "A Loudoun County minimum wage would encourage job growth and sustainable employment."
On the face of it, this statement would appear to be misconceived. Many economists might argue that – could it be legally implemented – a new, higher minimum wage would have the effect of stifling job creation because of increased costs to employers. This is a proposal needing further consideration and, if pursued beyond the campaign period, debate. Combined with increased taxes on companies, this idea could be a job killer and make it even more difficult to create a more business=-friendly environment than that in Fairfax County.
In all of his public statements, Mr. Shahriari stresses his Loudoun roots and the strong familiarity that comes with growing up here: "I have worked in Sterling. I have worked at the airport … I know the people of the community … Sterling is beautiful."
Apart from the distinction of running as an Independent (Mr. Delgaudio is the Republican Party nominee and Mr. Nevarez the Democratic Party nominee), Mr. Shahriari occupies a unique position in another way: He is a Muslim and active member of the ADAMS Center. Regardless of the normal political breakdown of the ADAMS Center membership, Ali Shahriari certainly enjoys a degree of exclusive access to the community there.
Shahriari With Imam Mohammad Magid of the ADAMS Center
Unconventionally leftist; Independent; ADAMS Center member: All of these set Mr. Shahriari apart. But the most radical aspect of his candidacy is that he is running a campaign that accepts no campaign contributions. He has pledged "not to receive a single penny of contributions for my campaign and to not spend more then $1,000 dollars of my own funds."
As surely as the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, if Mr. Shahriari wins or even makes a respectable showing when the votes are counted Tuesday evening, alarm bells will be going off in Leesburg, Richmond and throughout the state. Ali Shahriari has conducted the ultimate low-budget, grassroots campaign, relying exclusively on the Internet, local press, community ties and his own ability to walk the district to get his message out.
On his Twitter feed, he claims 2,120 Sterling residents have assured him their vote, and that a "recent poll" shows him with 68% support so far. Now, his periodic tweets report that he has been burning up the shoe leather around the district – but those numbers seem to defy rational expectations, apart from the question of how exactly he got that poll done.
One thing is for certain: If Mr. Shahriari's predicted figures are anywhere near accurate, he could have a major impact on Tuesday's results – and not simply by upsetting the calculations of the major parties.
Final Notes On Ali Shahriari:
When a candidate for the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors states that "Sterling is in dire need of political and socioeconomic reform among the diverse population in the area," the candidate seems to have a mistaken conception of the Board's proper sphere of influence. But Mr. Shahriari does make clear that he would aim at implementing his reforms on a piecemeal basis.
Similarly, his intentions to seek increased fees on businesses or a "county minimum wage" seem to betray a lack of sophistication in understanding the local economy – yet drawn as they are from essentially position statements rather than in-depth questioning, the seriousness of his proposals is hard to judge fully.
His emphasis on the importance of looking far into the future is admirable, and one gets the impression that, even if he does not win on November 8, he will be back to serve in some public capacity. One hopes some of his more leftist viewpoints would evolve over time, and that we will hear more from him on a variety of issues. In particular, it would be interesting to hear Mr. Shahriari's views – as an economist – on the county budget shortfall, because that issue is not addressed in any of his campaign materials.
Some of Mr. Shahriari's key concepts appear to be drawn from the "The Green Book," which spells out the political philosophy of the former Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi. It is arguable whether such ideas were ever implemented in Libya under the Gaddafi regime, but history tell us that such a leftist concept of government has always failed in practice.
Again, Mr. Shahriari in some senses is a centrist in terms of public policy, but to the extent he veers to the left, he veers very far.
If you find the Sterling Voter's Guide helpful, tell your friends and neighbors in Sterling to visit SterlingVoter.com – it will bring them right here. It's easy to remember and it might help them each make up their mind and remember to vote on November 8!
Quick Links For More Information About Al Nevarez:
- Campaign Web site
- Campaign Facebook page
- OTHER: Much of what can be learned about Mr. Nevarez is in the thousands of comments and blog posts he has produced around the Web. Wolverine has helpfully distilled much of that scattered information into the "Life and Times" series of columns, the beginning of which you can find by clicking here. (Click here for installments 2-8 – you will have to scroll down a ways to get to them).
Al Nevarez: Education and Local Ties
Mr. Nevarez has a high school diploma, computer learning center certificate, and one-week course on becoming an "online activist" at the New Organizing Institute (NOI is a project of MoveOn.org).
Mr. Nevarez moved to Sterling in 2008, and in 2011 announced his intention to "reclaim" Sterling.
Key Quotes By Al Nevarez:
An enemy can come in many different forms. The enemy is not always rich and powerful. That a group is my enemy only because they have been tricked or uneducated does not make them any less my enemy.
Most workers are reliant upon federal government spending for their middle class existence…
My wife handles the money. I am thoroughly unqualified to balance a check book. lol!
A Closer Look At Al Nevarez (Democrat):
If Eugene Delgaudio represents the Right, and Ali Shahriari the Left, perhaps Alfonso Nevarez represents the "Mob."
Indeed, Mr. Nevarez' February 2011 post at Daily Kos, titled "OHIO: The Next Wisconsin!" was written when he traveled to Ohio to help organize the union protests there, right around the time the following horrific scene was playing out in Madison – which will give you a vivid feel for what Mr. Nevarez appears to wish to spread "Next!" to other state capitals. In the video, a Republican state senator attempts to find a way into the state house while being chased by a mob of pro-union demonstrators.
Click here for more about the public employee unions and Ohio.
A five-year employee of the AFL-CIO, one of the key supporting organizations of "Occupy Wall Street," Mr. Nevarez has received a huge portion of his campaign funding from the unions, including $4000 from SEIU and $1500 from Food and Allied Service Trades department of AFL-CIO during the past two weeks.
At Mr. Nevarez' personal Facebook "Activities and Interests" listing, you can see his support for "Occupy" promoters Stand Up For Hoosiers, Stand Up For Ohio and Netroots Nation.
One of Mr. Nevarez' campaign strategists is Courtney Foley of UFCW.
Nevarez with former Governor Tim Kaine at the opening of Nevarez' Sterling campaign office
From his statement above that "Most workers are reliant upon federal government spending for their middle class existence," we can see that Mr. Nevarez has a simplistic understanding of how the economy works. In this worldview, your tax payments (assuming you are a taxpayer) are what allow most Americans to live normal lives. Regardless of the factors that determine your economic well-being, in order for the "middle class" to have better lives or make it through financial downturns, you and others like you need to pay more taxes.
It's a wildly inaccurate understanding of how the world works, but it is not at all uncommon among pro-union activists as we explain here.
Mr. Nevarez has also stated his belief that "nationalization of our banking system is the most credible solution to our economic crisis."
Taken together – along with his limited formal education and sweeping conception of his "enemies" as denoted in the first quote above – these beliefs place Mr. Nevarez squarely within the "mob" mainstream.
Daily Kos, the left-wing Web site where Mr. Nevarez is a frequent author and commenter, achieved massive notoriety in 2004 after four Americans were captured and mutilated in Fallujah, Iraq. After the Daily Kos owner opined "Screw them," a number of former Daily Kos participants – including the John Kerry campaign – severed their ties to the site. Mr. Nevarez began his involvement at Daily Kos in 2006.
Final Notes On Al Nevarez:
Here is Mr. Nevarez' video statement from the Loudoun Times candidate profile page:
For Sterling voters who believe in the "Occupy" movement and in what the public employee unions are seeking with their activist efforts, Al Nevarez is one of your own and it would be understandable if he is your choice on November 8.
He has said regarding his job at AFL-CIO: "By no means am I a decision maker."
However, on his campaign Web site he claims he "works to improve the lives of working families across America."
What does this signify for what Al Nevarez would bring to the job of Loudoun County supervisor?
From all accounts, in person Al Nevarez is a friendly individual, and we must assume that in seeking the Sterling supervisor position he means well. And make no mistake: All those people creating bedlam and bankruptcy in Wisconsin and on Wall Street and around the country are not devils with horns. Unfortunately, uninformed people with misguided goals can inadvertently cause a devolution into chaos despite good intentions.
We can conclude, therefore, that Al Nevarez might do well to spend more time learning about how the economy works, how the middle class actually is financed, and perhaps even how to balance a checkbook, before taking on the complex responsibilities of a member of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.
If you find the Sterling Voter's Guide helpful, tell your friends and neighbors in Sterling to visit SterlingVoter.com – it will bring them right here. It's easy to remember and it might help them each make up their mind and remember to vote on November 8!
Who I Will Be Voting For On November 8
Sterling District Supervisor: Eugene Delgaudio
Board of Supervisors – Chairman At-Large: Scott York
Sheriff: Michael L. Chapmann
Commonwealth's Attorney: James E. "Jim" Plowman
Commissioner of the Revenue: Robert S. "Bob" Wertz Jr.
Treasurer: H. Roger Zurn Jr.
Virginia House District 86: Thomas Davis Rust
Find Out WHERE Exactly You Need To Go In Order To Vote Nov. 8
First, go to the Virginia Voter Registration page by clicking here, follow the instructions to fill in the form, and it will tell you what precinct you are in.
Second, click on the little box next to "Polling Place" just beneath the search results, and you will see the name of your polling place, including directions if you need them.
Sterling Voter's Guide Ownership Information, Disclaimer
The Sterling Voter's Guide at SterlingVoter.com is provided and authorized by Joseph W. Budzinski of Sterling, Virginia. Not authorized by or coordinated with any candidate, political campaign or political committee.
Information contained in the Sterling Voter's Guide is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. Data contained herein is for informational purposes only, and no guarantee is made that the information is error-free. The information provided may change at any time without notice. Please note that once you leave this site, either by using a link I may have provided for your convenience or by specifying your own destination, I accept no responsibility for the content, products and/or services provided at other locations. I do not control, endorse, promote or have any affiliation with any other website unless expressly stated herein. All that being said, if you do not give your complete attention to every word I have written and agree implicitly with every editorial opinion I have proffered, you are probably not living half the life you were placed on this earth to live.


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Good news! THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS star Jeanne Cooper (Katherine) has turned a corner! Her son, Corbin Bernsen (ex-Father Todd), posted the following update on his Facebook page last night:
Good news continues for my mom as I believe she is being moved out of ICU to a more "comfortable" room. I was able to Face Time with her today and I can't tell you how amazing it was to speak to her and hear her voice! Her sense of humor was in tact, the greatest sign of all. I want to take a moment here to express something that - as usual - I'm at a bit of a loss for words for. So much of my reporting to you in the last week has been a sincere effort to convey her status and progress. And with your magnificent, steady prayers she has, day by day, improved. Yet still I feel a bit "guilty," weird. I mean, with all the other suffering going on, it's hard to celebrate this miraculous recovery. Also, about that, her extraordinary recovery... I've looked back over the posts because I wanted to make sure that I have been truthful and accurate. I know for a fact she was in extreme, life threatening danger that was even made more clear to me than perhaps I let on. But then, she did improve, steadily and somewhat defied the extent of the terrible news I was delivering. I want to make sure no one misinterprets this as my "making more of it than it actually was." I can guarantee you that wasn't the case. Her recovery has been nothing short of "miraculous" and very quick considering everything. That will be, if all continues in this fantastic way, the legacy of this... the effect of prayer and the ability for miracles. As always I want to close with making sure I'm accurate once again and letting you know that which I've been told... remain cautiously optimistic. That will most likely last for some time now but in the upcoming days I'll most likely drop it from these posts. I will keep the connection with you both regarding her recovery as well as "what all of this ultimately means" in the bigger picture.
I also want to take a moment to once again thank the INCREDIBLE STAFF at Cedars Sinai hospital who have helped in this miraculous recovery (that involved a lot of non miracle, expertise and kindness.) Also, I haven't mentioned my brother Collin by name, or my sister Caren who have stood by my side, holding me up and shared in your kindness. I love them both and feel closer to them than ever.


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Two successful business owners, facing no visible path to legal immigration status, must decide if they should leave it all behind and return home.
The Arrivals tells the story of two Latino men who migrated to the U.S. both for economic opportunity and to live openly as a gay couple. They operate a successful business but remain undocumented, with no clear path to legalize their status. The Arrivals will show their dramatic past and their lives today, as they open new businesses, push for immigration reform, and determine whether or not they should return home, leaving all they have worked for behind.


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Safety Ryan Clark returns to Redskins
ASHBURN, Va. (AP) Ryan Clark is returning to the Washington Redskins after the veteran free agent safety agreed to a deal Monday.
He was quickly welcomed by Robert Griffin III on Twitter, with Clark telling the franchise quarterback: "Let's go win a lot of games & have some fun!"
Clark visited the Redskins earlier this month after he became a free agent following eight seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Clark played in Washington in 2004-05, but the Redskins opted not to re-sign him and instead paid big money to Adam Archuleta, who became one of the top free agent busts in franchise history.
Safety has been a top priority for Washington this offseason. The 34-year-old Clark would also add leadership to a defense that is losing captain London Fletcher, who plans to retire.
AP NFL websites: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL


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Rosenburgs Goanna
Short Beaked Echidna
Short Beaked echidna searching for food.
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Messenger Bag w/ Leonardo Skull (Black Leather)
Messenger Bag w/ Leonardo Skull (Black Leather)
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A simply stunning collection of the best Margaret River wines
Welcome to the Margaret River Regional Wine Centre where you can find a simply stunning collection of the best wines from around the renowned Margaret River region.
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Hope to see you soon. Cheers!