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Download This Bill in Microsoft Word format
Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter
General Bill
Sponsors: Reps. Hayes, Gambrell, Agnew, Bowen, Gullick and D.C. Moss
Document Path: l:\council\bills\agm\19411mm09.docx
Companion/Similar bill(s): 454
Introduced in the House on April 22, 2009
Introduced in the Senate on January 19, 2010
Last Amended on January 14, 2010
Currently residing in the Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry
Summary: State Board of Pyrotechnic Safety
Date Body Action Description with journal page number ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4/22/2009 House Introduced and read first time HJ-61 4/22/2009 House Referred to Committee on Judiciary HJ-62 4/23/2009 House Recalled from Committee on Judiciary HJ-262 4/23/2009 House Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry HJ-262 4/30/2009 House Committee report: Favorable with amendment Labor, Commerce and Industry HJ-4 5/5/2009 Scrivener's error corrected 5/13/2009 House Debate adjourned until Thursday, May 14, 2009 HJ-18 5/14/2009 House Debate adjourned until June 20, 2009 HJ-32 1/13/2010 House Debate adjourned until Thursday, January 14, 2010 HJ-27 1/14/2010 House Amended HJ-533 1/14/2010 House Read second time HJ-535 1/14/2010 House Unanimous consent for third reading on next legislative day HJ-542 1/15/2010 House Read third time and sent to Senate HJ-1 1/19/2010 Senate Introduced and read first time SJ-8 1/19/2010 Senate Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce and Industry SJ-8
View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site
Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter
January 14, 2010
Introduced by Reps. Hayes, Gambrell, Agnew, Bowen, Gullick and D.C. Moss
S. Printed 1/14/10--H.
Read the first time April 22, 2009.
Amend Title To Conform
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Chapter 56, Title 40 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
Section 40-56-1. It is the policy of this State, and the purpose of this chapter, to promote the safety of the public and the environment by effective regulation of pyrotechnics. Public safety requires that persons who handle pyrotechnics have demonstrated their qualifications, that they adhere to reliable safety standards, and that the sites where pyrotechnics are manufactured, stored, and sold adhere to reliable safety standards. It is neither the policy of this State nor the purpose of this chapter to place undue restrictions upon entry into the business of handling pyrotechnics.
Section 40-56-5. Unless otherwise provided for in this chapter, Chapter 1, Title 40 applies to the Board of Pyrotechnic Safety and licensees regulated under this chapter. If there is a conflict between this chapter and Chapter 1, the provisions of this chapter control.
Section 40-56-10. (A)
There is created The State Board of Pyrotechnic Safety to be is composed of six seven members appointed by the Governor. One of the appointees must be a fireman employed by a local fire authority, one must be a pyrotechnics retailer wholesaler, one must be a law enforcement representative, one must be a fireworks retailer, and three three must be members of the public who shall do not possess any pecuniary interest in any entity engaged in a business directly involving the sale of pyrotechnics. A seat on the board that remains vacant for sixty days must be filled through an appointment by majority vote of the chairman of the House Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee, the Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee, and the State Fire Marshall. The board shall elect from its members a chairman, vice-chairman, and such other officers as it may consider necessary to serve for terms of one year and until their successors are elected and qualify.
(B) The terms of office for members are for
two four years and until their successors are appointed and qualify qualified. Vacancies must be filled in the manner of the original appointment for the unexpired portion of the term.
(C) The board shall meet at least annually and not more than once
per each month. All meetings must be scheduled at the call of the chairman. The board shall elect from its members a chairman, vice chairman, and other officers as it considers necessary to serve for terms of one year and until their successors are elected and qualified. All members shall receive mileage, per diem, and subsistence as provided by law for members of state boards, committees, and commissions for days on which they are transacting official business, to be paid from the general fund of the State. The Director of the Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation, pursuant to Section 40-73-15, shall employ such personnel as necessary to carry out the duties of the board.
(D) The Department's Office of State Fire Marshal shall provide administrative support as required by the board to perform its prescribed functions. The State Fire Marshal is an official consultant and is authorized to attend all meetings.
Section 40-56-20. As used in this chapter:
(1) 'APA' means the American Pyrotechnics Association.
(2) 'Board' means the State Board of Pyrotechnic Safety.
(3) 'Consumer fireworks' means any small firework device designed to produce visible effects by combustion and which must comply with the construction, chemical composition, and labeling regulations of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as set forth in Title 16, Code of Federal Regulations, parts 1500 and 1507 and APA Standard 87-1. Some small devices designed to produce audible effects are consumer fireworks, including, but not limited to, whistling devices, ground devices containing 50 mg or less of explosive materials, and aerial devices containing 130 mg or less of explosive materials. Consumer fireworks are classified as fireworks UN0336, and UN0337 by the U.S. Department of Transportation at 49 C.F.R. 172.101. This term does not include fused setpieces containing components which together exceed 50 mg of salute powder. Consumer fireworks are further defined as those classified by the U.S. Department of Transportation hazard classification 1.4G. These fireworks were formerly known as 'Class C Fireworks'.
(4) 'CPSC' means The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
(5) 'Department' means the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
(6) 'Display fireworks' means large fireworks designed primarily to produce visible or audible effects by combustion, deflagration, or detonation. This term includes, but is not limited to, salutes containing more than 2 grains (130 mg) of explosive materials, aerial shells containing more than 40 grams of pyrotechnic compositions, and other display pieces which exceed the limits of explosive materials for classification as 'consumer fireworks'. Display fireworks are classified as fireworks UN0333, UN0334, or UN0335 by the U.S. Department of Transportation at 49 C.F.R. 172.101. This term also includes fused setpieces containing components which together exceed 50 mg of salute powder. Display fireworks are further defined as those classified by the U.S. Department of Transportation as hazard classification 1.3G. These fireworks were formerly known as 'Class B Fireworks'.
(7) 'DOT' means the U.S. Department of Transportation.
(8) 'Fireworks' means any composition or device designed to produce a visible or an audible effect by combustion, deflagration, or detonation, and which meets the definition of 'consumer fireworks' or 'display fireworks' as defined by this section.
(9) 'Licensee' means a person, firm, or entity that has been issued a license by the board under the provisions of this chapter to manufacture, sell, or store fireworks.
(10) 'NFPA' means National Fire Protection Association.
(11) 'Pyrotechnics' means any composition or device designed to produce visible or audible effects for entertainment purposes by combustion, deflagration, or detonation.
Section 40-56-30. It is unlawful for a person to engage in the manufacturing, storage, or sale of pyrotechnics unless in compliance with this chapter.
Section 40-56-35. (A) Except as otherwise provided for in this section, a person, firm or entity that manufactures, sells, or stores fireworks shall obtain a license issued by the board pursuant to this chapter. General license requirements are as follows:
(1) An application for licensure must be submitted on forms prescribed by the board accompanied by applicable fees.
(2) A license is required for each physical address or site at which fireworks are manufactured, sold, or stored.
(3) A copy of the appropriate license issued by the South Carolina Department of Revenue for retail sales of fireworks must accompany each application for a retail fireworks sales license.
(4) Initial license applications and applications for license renewal may be approved only after an authorized agent of the board inspects the buildings and facilities where fireworks are to be manufactured, sold, or stored for compliance with the current codes and standards.
(5) All licenses and permits may only be issued for one calendar year.
(6) Licenses must be prominently displayed at the licensee's place of business approved for the manufacture, sales, or storage of fireworks.
(7) Licenses issued by the board are nontransferable.
(8) The board shall set fees for licenses and other incurred administrative costs.
(B) A license is not required for:
(1) manufacture, sale, storage, transportation, handling, or any combination of these, including, but not limited to, railroad torpedoes, automotive, aeronautical, and marine flares and smoke signals;
(2) transportation, storage, handling, or use of fireworks, or any combination of these, by the Armed Forces of the United States;
(3) transportation, handling, or use of fireworks, or any combination of these, by the State Fire Marshal, his employees, or any commissioned law enforcement officers acting within their official capacities; or
(4) fireworks deregulated by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Section 40-56-50. The Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation shall provide all administrative, fiscal, investigative, inspection, clerical, secretarial, and license renewal operations and activities of the board pursuant to Chapter 1.
Section 40-56-70. (A) It
shall be is the duty and responsibility of the board created in Section 40-56-10 to promulgate, pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act, regulations relating to the sale of pyrotechnics in this State, including the manufacture, sales, storage, and fire safety of such these products. These regulations must be adjusted using the procedures in Chapter 34, Title 1.
(B) The board may conduct hearings on alleged violations by licensees of this chapter or regulations promulgated pursuant to this chapter and may discipline these licensees.
(C) The board also shall
also recommend to the General Assembly legislation it deems considers necessary for the safety and control of the sale of pyrotechnics.
Section 40-56-80. (A) The Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation shall investigate complaints and violations of this chapter as provided for in Chapter 1.
(B) The department or any authorized agents may enter during reasonable business hours the premises or vehicle of a person engaged in the manufacture, sale, or storage of pyrotechnics to inspect, investigate, or examine the properties or installations they consider necessary. When an emergency exists, as declared by the department, the inspector may enter the premises of a person and take necessary action for public safety including, but not limited to, the evacuation of the area in which the emergency exists.
(C) Fire chiefs and their inspectors, sheriffs and their deputies, chiefs of police and their officers, and SLED agents have the authority to inspect any building, facility, or vehicle where fireworks may be manufactured, stored, or sold and any records of manufacturing, storage, sales, and purchases that are required to be maintained.
(D) Any official named in this section, having the authority to inspect, may confiscate any illegal fireworks being manufactured, offered for sale, stored, or possessed.
(E) The board may compel the attendance of witnesses to testify in relation to a matter within its jurisdiction.
Section 40-56-100. In addition to other remedies provided for in this chapter, the board pursuant to Chapter 1 may issue a cease and desist order or may petition the Administrative Law Court for a temporary restraining order or other equitable relief to enjoin a violation of this chapter or a regulation promulgated pursuant to this chapter.
Section 40-56-115. The board has jurisdiction over the actions of licensees and former licensees as provided for in Chapter 1.
Section 40-56-120. (A) Upon a determination by the board that grounds for discipline exist, the board is authorized to:
(1) issue a public reprimand;
(2) impose a civil penalty not to exceed two thousand five hundred dollars;
(3) place a licensee on probation or restrict or suspend a license for a definite or indefinite time period and prescribe conditions to be met during this period including, but not limited to, satisfactory completion of additional education, or a supervisory period; or
(4) revoke the license.
(B) The board may take disciplinary action against a person for:
(1) the grounds stated in Chapter 1; or
(2) a condition found as a result of an inspection, examination, or investigation provided for in Section 40-56-80 that is hazardous to public safety.
Section 40-56-130. The board may deny licensure to an applicant based on the same grounds for which the board may take disciplinary action against a licensee.
Section 40-56-140. A license may be denied based on a person's prior criminal record only as provided for in Chapter 1.
Section 40-56-150. A licensee under investigation for a violation of this chapter or a regulation promulgated pursuant to this chapter may voluntarily surrender the license pursuant to Chapter 1.
Section 40-56-160. A person aggrieved by a final action of the board may seek review of the decision pursuant Chapter 1.
Section 40-56-170. A person found in violation of this chapter or a regulation promulgated pursuant this chapter may be required to pay costs associated with the investigation and prosecution of the case pursuant to Chapter 1.
Section 40-56-180. All costs and fines imposed pursuant to this chapter must be paid in accordance with, and are subject to, the collection and enforcement provisions of Chapter 1.
Section 40-56-190. Investigations and proceedings conducted under the provisions of this chapter are confidential, and all communications are privileged as provided for in Chapter 1.
Section 40-56-200. (A) A person required by this chapter to obtain a license to do business in this State, who has not obtained a license or who operates while his license is suspended or revoked or who violates a provision of this chapter or a regulation promulgated pursuant to this chapter, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not less than one thousand dollars and not more than two thousand dollars or imprisoned for not less than ninety days and not more than one year.
(B) This chapter does not repeal, amend, or otherwise affect fire codes and regulations adopted by the State Fire Marshal.
Section 40-56-210. In addition to initiating a criminal proceeding for a violation of this chapter, the board may seek civil penalties and injunctive relief as provided for in Chapter 1.
Section 40-56-220. (A) All facilities for the manufacturing, sales, or storage of fireworks must comply with regulations established by the board.
(B) All consumer fireworks must comply with standards set by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the CPSC for consumer fireworks. The board may request fireworks be tested by a CPSC certified testing group to see that these standards are met.
(C) Retail sale and use of small bottle rockets are not legal within South Carolina. Small bottle rockets are consumer fireworks with motors less than one-half inch in diameter and three inches in length, a stabilizing stick less than fifteen inches in length, and a total pyrotechnic composition not exceeding twenty grams in weight.
(D) Fireworks may not be sold to anyone under the age of sixteen.
Section 40-56-230. (A) Each application for a retail fireworks sales license must be accompanied by evidence that the applicant holds a policy or policies providing public liability insurance coverage for retail sales activities at the location for the permitted sale period, which policy or policies are issued by an insurance company or companies authorized to do business in this State and which policy or policies provide coverage in the following minimum amounts:
(1) one million dollars for injuries or damage to any one person in one accident or occurrence;
(2) one million dollars for injuries to two or more persons in any accident or occurrence; and
(3) one million dollars combined single-limit coverage for any one accident or occurrence.
(B) Each policy, except those policies issued for fewer than ninety days' use for seasonal permits, by its original term or an endorsement, shall obligate the insurer that the insurer will not cancel, suspend, or nonrenew the policy without thirty days' written notice of the proposed cancellation, suspension, or nonrenewal being given to the board. If liability insurance is canceled, suspended, or nonrenewed, the insured shall give immediate notice to the board.
Section 40-56-240. (A) A person may not store display fireworks in this State unless the person has obtained a wholesale license from the board.
(B) Only licensed wholesalers shall sell or provide fireworks for displays.
(C) All buildings and structures used to store display fireworks must meet regulations established by the board.
(D) These license holders also must comply with U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms regulations.
Section 40-56-250. (A) If the board or its designee finds a condition as a result of an inspection, that is hazardous to the public safety or a violation of this chapter or regulations promulgated pursuant to this chapter, the board shall issue an order in writing to remove or correct the condition. If a person fails to comply with the terms of the order, the board may issue administrative citations and may assess administrative penalties against any licensee.
(B) Administrative penalties authorized under this section are separate from and in addition to all other remedies, either civil or criminal.
(C) Administrative penalties assessed pursuant to this section may not exceed two thousand five hundred dollars for each violation.
(D) An entity or individual assessed administrative penalties by citation under this section may appeal the citation to the Board of Pyrotechnic Safety within fifteen days of receipt of the citation. The appeal must be filed in writing. If an appeal is filed, the board shall schedule a hearing, which shall make a determination in the matter. If no appeal is filed, the citation is deemed a final order, and the administrative penalties must be paid within thirty days of receipt of the citation.
Section 40-56-260. An owner, manager, or operator of any location regulated by this chapter shall report to the board within twenty-four hours of any fire or explosion of which the person has knowledge, with as complete detail as possible, together with evidence as he has obtained after investigation of the fire or explosion. Reports filed pursuant to this section are confidential and for the use of the board only pending investigation completion.
Section 40-56-270. If a provision of this chapter or the application of a provision to a person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of this chapter, which can be given effect without the invalid provisions, or application, and to this end the provisions of this chapter are severable."
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
This web page was last updated on Monday, October 10, 2011 at 12:22 P.M.


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Emergency Information
Hurricane Dorian
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Cost: $3.00 per class or 12 classes for $30.00

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
My uncle passed away yesterday and it was a shock to us all. We had just saw him the past Sunday and he was smiling and laughing with the rest of us, and it was his 25th wedding anniversary. I'm going to miss him like crazy and I know my cousins will too, Ann is only in the 5th grade and Brandon is a Senior in High School. It hurts losing a loved one, but what hurt more this time was that it was similar to my grandmas death. Both passing away from cancer, not being able to see us graduate, not having enough time with us. I just feel numb right now.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Posted by Kira324 at 6:06 PM 0 comments Links to this post
I missed my chance to say good bye again to a loved one and this time it was my uncle.
Posted by Kira324 at 1:43 AM 0 comments Links to this post
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
My teacher apparently loves one of the essays I wrote in class and wants me to get it published, but I don't think I could. It's about my grandma and how I was weak for not being there for her and with her. I can't even imagine anyone else reading this paper.
maybe? I don't know...
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verstapp wrote:Perhaps its because my tester doesn't have a 'special mains cable socket' or even a 'special mains lead' but only the plain ordinary ones supplied
Now, when you say this, do you mean you were trying to use the 13A plug to IEC C13 lead to supply mains power to the PT300, via the IEC C14 inlet?
If that's the case, you're onto a non-starter.
The IEC inlet is only used for testing mains leads/extensions with the earth bond, insulation resistance and polarity tests.
It certainly won't provide power into the PT300 for any of the powered tests (touch current, PE current, RCD & loop test).
The 'special mains socket' is shown as reference 7 on figure 2, page 3 of the PT300 manual.
You should have a corresponding power lead which fits into this connector. If you don't, then all the powered tests are out of your grasp until you source a replacement lead.
Here's one:
or I'm sure Seaward could supply one.


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text:
In the West, we're always told that we're IPv6 laggards and that large parts of Asia are already running the new protocol. But apparently, China has some work to do before the whole country is IPv6-ready, too. Li Kai, who is director in charge of the IP business for CNNIC, has told ChinaTechNews that the current supply of IPv4 addresses will only last another 830 days. Furthermore, most network operators in China are only IPv4-capable—with the exception of educational networks. CNNIC is the China Internet Network Information Center, which handles the registration of .cn domains and also distributes IP addresses in China in cooperation with APNIC, the provider of address space in the Asia-Pacific region.
So apparently, China isn't much further along with IPv6 deployment than Europe and North America, where the research/educational community primarily has large IPv6 networks (for instance, Internet2 and GÉANT), while most of the commercial Internet is still hampered by the limited 32-bit address space of the original IPv4 protocol.
The predicted 830 days means there are enough IPv4 addresses to last until January 1, 2011, a nice, round date. This end date for the IPv4 supply is a good deal sooner than the one predicted by the scripts written by APNIC's Geoff Huston, which currently list November 2, 2010 as the date the IANA global pool is going to run out. This pool currently holds 654 million addresses, but there are also 325 million unused addresses hidden in nooks and crannies and held by the five Regional Internet Registries that handle address distribution in various parts of the world. They use very similar rules, so all ISPs throughout the world have equal access to address space—but this may or may not translate into equal access for their users.
Those additional 325 million addresses would be used up a year later according to Huston's calculations, on November 1, 2011, ten months after Kai's predicted end date. With a total of 979 million addresses, we'd have to use up 1.18 million (Kai) or 0.86 million (Huston) a day. The most address-use-heavy month in the past decade was this February, with 920,000 addresses a day, but half the months from 2007 until now have seen an average of under 500,000 addresses a day. So yes, the end is near for the IPv4 address supply, but probably not that near.
In the past, there have been stories about how China had fewer addresses than MIT or Stanford. This was true until around 2002. China started that year with some 13 million addresses in use and ended it with 22 million. MIT has, and Stanford had, a block of 16.78 million addresses, given out long ago when PCs still ran 16-bit software, and 32 bits seemed like a lot. However, China has more than made up for a slow start address-wise, and recently passed Japan as the second-largest holder of IPv4 addresses, with 167 million addresses as of this week. The US has 1.44 billion. China is now also the largest user of new addresses, with nearly 32 million addresses put into use this year, compared to the US's 27 million, with Japan and Korea each using some 7 million, and Germany and Italy 6 million.
On the other hand, I personally have 281,474,976,710,656 IPv6 addresses.


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Your browser does not support iframes.
At first glance, it would appear that the top two teams in the Eighth Region, Anderson County and South Oldham, are favored to be headed for a showdown in the regional championship game set for Saturday night at Gallatin County.
But there are six games to be played before then and with Anderson in the role of the defending champion and South Oldham being the top-ranked club since Jan. 1, the targets on both teams' backs are huge.
On paper, Anderson County looks like a good bet to win its third consecutive 30th District championship. The Lady Bearcats are 20-8, have won seven of their last eight and seem to be playing much better than when they struggled to beat Collins 56-49 back on Jan. 15.
But games are not played on paper. In fact, on the court, Collins, 15-13, is a difficult matchup for Anderson because of the Titans' athletic ability. Forward Aaliyah Wells gives Collins an athletic presence in both the low post and around the lane.
Even though Anderson County's boys were eliminated from the post-season basketball tournaments Tuesday night, there are still plenty of reasons to keep watching the high school game. Here are a few:
I will admit that it feels a bit strange to be clearing out some nights on my calendar in early March. For the first time in 11 years, the Eighth Region boys' basketball tournament will go on without Anderson County.
Spencer County made sure of that Tuesday night when the Bears took Anderson's best punch in the first four minutes of the second half, then pulled away to win 60-47.
Anderson County can be thankful Lowell Gordon had a hot hand Monday night. The junior, who is usually one of the smallest players on the court, came up big for the Bearcats in their district tournament win over Eminence Monday night at Spencer County.
Early, Anderson struggled a bit. The Bearcats did not appear to be tight, but just could not find the rim from the outside. However, Gordon nailed back-to-back 3-pointers in the second quarter that got Anderson going. The more he – and the rest of the Bearcats shot – the hotter they got.
Spencer County's boys beat Shelby County, 61-56, on Tuesday night in a game that reportedly was much closer than most expected.
According to our sister paper, The Sentinel-News in Shelbyville, Spencer shot 24 free throws to Shelby's four. Spencer hit just half of its chances at the free throw line.
Logan and Chris Dunbar led Spencer with 18 and 16 points while Eric Schreiner, whose desperation 3-pointer gave Shelby a win over Anderson County last Wednesday, finished with 13 for Shelby.
The word that Anderson County High School graduate Jacob Russell had transferred from Eastern Kentucky came rather quietly for someone who had been so highly touted just a year earlier when Russell was a high school senior and was named the state's Class 5A Player of the Year.
As Ryan Alves, of the Eastern Progress, reported, Russell left EKU after one season in Richmond. He transferred to the University of Kentucky, which could not comment on Russell's decision until he enrolled because of NCAA rules.
Under normal circumstances, I pull for a team from New York about as often as Alex Rodriguez has to apply for food stamps. But these are far from normal circumstances.
It's not often I turn on an NFL game that I see someone walking the sidelines that I have stretched barbed wire fence with. Or one that I sat across from in a lawn chair, chatting and sipping a glass of iced tea.
Meet Rex Ryan, head coach of the New York Jets.
I would not want to have the responsibility that has fallen on high school administrations during this winter.
While we have not had a major winter storm – think 8-12 inches of snow – yet this winter, what we have seen is long stretches of bad weather that have had people scratching their heads and school administrators juggling schedules to try to get athletic events in.
And no matter what you decide, you know someone is not going to be happy.
Every now and then in this business, you run across someone that makes you step back, pause and really wonder.
"Is this person real?"
I can't say that I know Randall Cobb well. Two conversations at media opportunities provided by the University of Kentucky and following him on Twitter isn't really a friendship, you know. Yet, like many who follow the Wildcats, I feel like I got to know Cobb in a small way.
And I am a better person for it.
Copyright © 2019
The Anderson News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Lawrenceburg, KY and the surrounding area.


text:
the post where i compare life to embroidery thread
10 comments:
Allison- I totally understand! Sometimes you just say its ok to take a break! The photo is still really beautiful!ReplyDelete
Allison, At times I need to change my direction to refuel my creativity. :) PaulaReplyDelete
Oh.....I think your going to get a lot of understanding here!!!! You pretty much just discribed my life right now to a T!!!! It is good to take a deep breath!!! And spring is on it's way......Happy Day to you!!!!ReplyDelete
Lol this post is great! It's about where my life is at right now too, including the messy thread!ReplyDelete
LOL you kill me!ReplyDelete
But yes, it is a bright, beautiful sign to slow down and veg :)
I love this post! Definitely take some time for yourself and relax. I think when you start feeling like you HAVE to craft/DIY/sew just to have something to post about, you need a break. :)ReplyDelete
Lovely post :-) Enjoy your little break to recharge!ReplyDelete
I understand! Just slow down and take some time to catch your breath and kiss your adorable baby! Everyone will be here when you get back! Kick your feet up, make a cup of tea, and enjoy your family! xoReplyDelete
I'm with ya! I've been lacking motivation lately, and have only stuck to knitting as my creative outlet. Although I've been itching to do something different, I didn't know what until I saw your handprint keepsake post. I'm crossing my fingers that I can take a sans-child fabric shopping trip this weekend and get started ASAP. Thanks for the motivation!ReplyDelete
Love the comparison to embroidery thread...even though it may not be organized/perfect it's still beautiful!ReplyDelete
Just wanted to let you know that I tagged you in a post: http://kerraftycreations.blogspot.com/2012/02/tag-your-it.html
Just a bit of fun, don't feel pressured to play along. Just wanted to share your blog with others since I think it's fantastic!
I appreciate each and every lovely comment you leave!
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.


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Get a sneak peek at the first, inevitable 'Scandal' clothing line
Few mainstream TV shows have garnered as much attention for their wardrobes as "Scandal." Leading lady Olivia Pope, played brilliantly by Kerry Washington, has garnered die-hard fans who love not only her no-nonsense personality, but also her style -- many who perhaps wish they could incorporate some of Olivia Pope's badass-ness into their work clothes. And now they can.
ABC, Kerry Washington and "Scandal" costume designer Lyn Paolo have partnered with mall chain The Limited on a collection inspired by the Shonda Rhimes drama and Pope's aesthetic, specifically. It's pretty unusual for a show's lead actor to be a part of such a collaboration but, as Paolo has told us, Washington is obsessed with fashion and plays a big role in the creation of her character's look, which hinges on cream and neutral-colored wide-leg pants, feminine yet confident blouses and statement-making belted coats.
Most of Pope's wardrobe comes in at a pretty high or "aspirational" price point -- Paolo pulls a lot of Armani and Valentino -- and "Scandal"'s first fashion collaboration was with luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue on a window display. But with The Limited collection, the Olivia Pope aesthetic becomes more widely accessible. Expect affordable versions of her signatures, including a plaid round collar cape, priced between $49 and $250.
The collection will bow in The Limited stores and online in late September, just in time for the show's fourth season.
More From Fashionista:
American Apparel as We Know It is Over
Vince Preps Second Public Offering Less Than a Year After IPO
Avon Lays Off 600 Staffers
Designer Jay Ott's Cause of Death is Determined


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Talk:Tool template
From ForensicsWiki
Revision as of 18:01, 4 April 2006 by Uwe Hermann (Talk | contribs) (Tool template discussion.)
- I'm not sure the template makes sense in it's current form - it's too specific, IMHO. Not every tool "understands filesystems" (jhead, snort, ...), not every tool has any search facilities (dd, wipe, ...), not every tool supports hash databases, etc. etc. --Uwe Hermann 14:01, 4 April 2006 (EDT)


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Ubaldo cools nerves to deliver impressive first start
SARASOTA, Fla. -- As he was preparing to take the mound at Ed Smith Stadium on Friday afternoon, the feeling set in for Ubaldo Jimenez. He was about to make his official Orioles debut, and he was a little nervous.
"Definitely, I was excited. I'm like, 'I'm going to be there for the first time wearing the Orioles uniform,'" Jimenez said. "I was very excited, but I was like, 'I have to get it under control because usually when you try to do too much, things get out of hand and [you] throw a lot of balls.'"View Full Game Coverage
SARASOTA, Fla. -- As he was preparing to take the mound at Ed Smith Stadium on Friday afternoon, the feeling set in for Ubaldo Jimenez. He was about to make his official Orioles debut, and he was a little nervous.
"Definitely, I was excited. I'm like, 'I'm going to be there for the first time wearing the Orioles uniform,'" Jimenez said. "I was very excited, but I was like, 'I have to get it under control because usually when you try to do too much, things get out of hand and [you] throw a lot of balls.'"View Full Game Coverage
It was only a Grapefruit League exhibition game, but suffice it to say, Jimenez got it under control. The Orioles' newest starter threw two perfect innings and struck out three batters in the Orioles' 15-4 win over the Phillies. He threw 17 of his 25 pitches for strikes, mixing in a few sliders and splitters with his two-seam fastballs.
Signed to a four-year, $50 million deal on Feb. 19 to upgrade Baltimore's rotation, the 30-year-old right-hander showed flashes of the dominant pitcher he was from 2008-10 and in the second half of last season. The Orioles hope he can do so over a full season and become a top-of-the-rotation force once again.
"We'll find out," Orioles pitching coach Dave Wallace said. "But certainly he has the ability with what he's done."
Manager Buck Showalter set the bar low before Jimenez's first appearance in an Orioles uniform, saying that he just wanted the veteran starter to get his work in and get ready for the regular season. But the Orioles were encouraged by what they saw from Jimenez on the mound, as he touched 91 mph on the stadium's radar gun and efficiently breezed through Philadelphia's top six batters.
"You don't know what to expect. Guy's getting his feet on the ground for the first time," Orioles bench coach John Russell said. "But I was really impressed with the way he commanded the ball to both sides of the plate, especially bringing the ball back, his sinker, starting it at a left-hander and bringing it back for a strike. That's a good sign for his first outing. Threw some decent offspeed pitches. I thought it went very well for him, and he did some things he wanted to get done today."
Ben Revere led off the game with a quick groundout back to the mound. Jimenez then struck out Jimmy Rollins, who went down swinging, and caught Domonic Brown looking at a 90-mph fastball for strike three to end the inning.
Jimenez came back out to the mound and got Ryan Howard to look at a called third strike. Marlon Byrd then flied out to right-center field, where Nick Markakis made an impressive running grab, and Bobby Abreu flied out to left to finish up Jimenez's nine-pitch second inning.
Overall, Jimenez said, he couldn't have imagined a much better first day on the job.
"You always want to make a first impression. It means a lot," Jimenez said. "Obviously, I want to go out there and be there for the team right away.
"I feel good, but I know I'm not 100 percent like most of the pitchers are right now. They're probably a week ahead of me, but I feel fine. I'm getting there. I've been doing some routines that they want me to do in order to get ready for the season, and that's what I'm doing."
Part of that routine was to avoid throwing a four-seam fastball in his first start. The plan going forward is to keep focusing on throwing the ball over the plate, which he said will get more difficult as his arm strength and velocity continue to build -- even if he made it look simple enough on Friday.
As effortlessly as Jimenez appeared to find his rhythm on the mound, he seems to be fitting in just as well in the clubhouse. After spending the last 2 1/2 years in Cleveland and the rest of his career in Colorado, Jimenez said he was curious to see how long it would take him to adjust to his new surroundings. But he said Friday that he "felt at home the first day," and Wallace said the Orioles have taken to Jimenez the same way.
"Very engaging. As you see, he captures you with that smile, but he gets serious when you see him go about his job," Wallace said. "He has fit in very well so far, and I think the guys have embraced him."
That's helped Jimenez feel comfortable during his first 2 1/2 weeks with the Orioles. All it took to make him relax Friday was a reminder that if he was nervous, he'd start trying too hard, overthrowing the ball and missing his spots.
As first impressions go, it certainly could have been worse.
"I think for his sake, and all the things involved, it's great to get the first one out of the way," Wallace said. "He was pretty efficient. I think more than anything, it was just real good to get his feet on the ground."
Adam Berry is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @adamdberry.


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dummy(redirected from dummies up)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Legal, Financial, Encyclopedia.
1. Synonym(s): pontic
2. British usage for pacifier (q.v.).
[substitute, imitation dumb, lacking the power of speech, fr. O.E.]
state of depressed consciousness in which the still mobile animal walks continuously and compulsively, head down, stumbling gait, walking into fixed objects, head presses when it meets a fixed object, when trapped in a narrow place is incapable of backing out, walks into human habitation which it would ordinarily shun. May walk in circles. Does not respond to ordinary stimuli, does not eat or drink. Caused by encephalitis, hepatic encephalopathy, subacute lead poisoning. Called also blind staggers, dummy syndrome. See also neonatal maladjustment syndrome.
dummy calf syndrome
thought to be a behavior problem inherited in some breeds; the newborn calf is bright and alert but lacks teat seeking and teat sucking reflexes.
dummy disease
said of lambs born with hydranencephaly due to intrauterine infection with bluetongue virus, usually the vaccine strain.


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In October of 2006, an Amish community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, hired a contractor to demolish their schoolhouse with a backhoe and remove the debris to an undisclosed location. The demolition took only fifteen minutes, at dawn, and by noon on the same day the building's former site had been planted with clover and grass. Six months later and a few hundred yards away, the community opened a new one-room schoolhouse—superficially identical but, within closely held design traditions, as architecturally different as possible from its predecessor.
In August of 2012, members of the Sikh community of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, replaced shattered windows, removed stained carpets, and replastered damaged drywall, restoring their temple to its previous meticulous order—all but for a dime-size hole in a metal doorframe leading to the main prayer area, beside which they placed a small gold-colored plaque inscribed with the words "We Are One."
In December of 2007, the provost of Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Virginia, announced that a thousand square feet of the second floor of a campus building called Norris Hall would be converted to a Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention, while some further three thousand square feet would house the school's Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, whose old home in neighboring Burruss Hall would become a new Center for Student Engagement and Community Partnerships.
In January of 2013, the Cinemark multiplex in Aurora, Colorado, reopened with a new name, having converted, from numbers to letters, the signs identifying its individual theatres, and having combined two existing theatres, including its well-known Theatre Nine, into a new oversize screening room called XD-I. The initials XD stand for extreme digital, a widescreen format that enabled Cinemark, on the night of the reopening, to project "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" to its fullest technological effect.
The common thread to these—and many more—demolitions and constructions is the legacy of gun violence, and the fates of the spaces in which mass shootings have taken place. Since the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School (which partially converted its infamous cafeteria and library into a glassy atrium with a mural of a tree canopy on its ceiling), that question about design and public space has shadowed the protracted policy debate about these public tragedies.
Recently, that question has come to Newtown, Connecticut, where the future of the building housing Sandy Hook Elementary remains uncertain. A January town meeting at the Newtown High School auditorium, as reported in the New York Times, revealed the range and passion of opinion. "I cannot ask my son or any of the people at the school to ever walk back into that building," said one mother of children who had been at Sandy Hook on the day of the shooting, who wanted the building razed and replaced. "My children have had everything taken away from them," said another mother, who wanted the school restored and reopened, suggesting that taking away their school building would add injury upon injury, loss upon loss.
Architecture has a special relationship to memory. And to disaster. The memory palace, that celebrated mnemonic device wherein Roman orators remembered passages from speeches by visualizing themselves walking through corresponding passageways in imaginary buildings, has its legendary origin in the story of a sole survivor retracing his steps through a recollected dinner party, in order to recover the bodies of friends buried by a catastrophic roof collapse.
To return to any place is, associatively or figuratively, to reconstruct any event that happened at that place—especially if it's a personally or universally defining event. To acutely mark that spot with an architectural artifact like a monument or memorial makes it impossible to miss, but also denies us the architectural setting of everyday life that enabled—or witnessed—that event in the first place. And such monuments can also seem, all too easily, to relieve us from our duty of further recollection and reflection. To demolish whatever stood at a place may seem like erasing that place's defining event from history. But, conversely, to restore a place too completely to some earlier state can become a form of erasure, a denial that any disruption has ever happened. After the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center were destroyed, in 2001, the footprints of those buildings were declared inviolately unbuildable in perpetuity—an act of polemical and political remembering. The very evening of the day on which Venice's St. Mark's Campanile suddenly collapsed, in 1902, officials voted to rapidly construct a photographically exact replica on the spot—an act of strangely precise forgetting.
Shootings, events defined by immediate sightlines and ballistic trajectories, are an especially spatial and architectural kind of violence, and some ineffable part of their violence is to space itself—to the very airspace or geographical coördinates at which shots were fired or taken. The architectural task in the long aftermath of such shootings is not only to repair structural damage but to calibrate a balance between remembering and forgetting sufficient for daily life to continue nearby—and to figure out how the shapes, materials, and details of buildings can participate in that calibration. The architectural task is not only to provide actual security and defensibility but to figure out how the ways you see and move through buildings can affect your feelings of being at risk or at home.
It's a task familiar to Erlend Haffner, a young architect and founder, with Hakon Aasarod, of the Oslo design firm Fantastic Norway. Two months after the July, 2011, mass shootings at the Labor Youth Party summer camp on Utoya Island on Lake Tyrifjorden in southeast Norway, Haffner began weekly meetings with survivors—mapping an architectural path forward for the camp. Existing structures on the island will be restored and refurbished for this coming summer, and designs and renderings for new buildings were released last September. The sometimes-surprising solutions that Fantastic Norway developed are tailored to that particular distant island, but they may also have universal applications for Sandy Hook and beyond. "The task," Haffner said, "consists of not just designing a new space but also trying to understand people's relationship to the place, in order to recognize and reclaim it, to win it back."
Haffner and Aasarod were unusually well prepared for the kind of long listening those weekly meetings required. Partway through architecture school, in 2004, the two dropped out for two years and drove around Norway in a bright red caravan decorated with their first names, printed in an insouciant Atari-era typeface, becoming roving community organizers and designers. "We would pull into small towns and villages," said Haffner, "and meet with communities to discover their needs, and to see if those needs could be met by design, and if we could fund parks, people, public space. It was our real education."
What Haffner remembers most from his early meetings with Utoya stakeholders was their great concern that the camp would cease to be a functioning facility, and would inadvertently become a permanent shrine. "They had a fierce desire that it continue to be a living place," he said. One consequence of that desire was the decision to site an official memorial on the mainland and a smaller, private memorial site for families at a secluded spot at the southern end of the island itself. Another challenge was iconography: "This quite famous image went all around the world, of this stark white house on a dark island," Haffner recalled, "and it suddenly appeared as something quite sinister."
So the designers focused on transforming the profile of the island landscape as seen from an approaching ferry. In the proposed design, that historic white structure, an administrative building halfway up a hill rising from the water's edge, is now overlooked and surrounded by a spiky skyline of buildings farther up at the ridge of that hill. "The new buildings become characters that stand behind the old, so it's not alone anymore," said Haffner, "like all these guys standing together, saying we're here beside you, developing a collective spirit."
Those small new buildings have big old personalities. Freestanding bell towers and lookouts, bird-like and modernly angular, are connected by sheltered deck walkways to low, broad-shouldered sheds that recall vernacular farming and fishing structures. "We wanted them to have a kind of familiarity with the landscape," said Haffner, "and be neither a spaceship from the future nor a traditional log house from the past: something simple and quite pure but down-to-earth and pragmatic." The desired effect, he said, is one of timelessness, "almost as if you had just built them yourself, or as if they had been there forever."
The camp decided to add substantial new facilities, and while consolidating functions in a single location would result in an economical, monumental, and presumably more easily secured building, Fantastic Norway's design deliberately distributes these functions among many small and light structures. This village-like approach enables the design to flexibly adapt over time to the camp's continuing discussions about which existing structures to refurbish or demolish.
This seeming inefficiency also has a more subtle—but profound—effect on the mood prompted by the new spaces around the new buildings. "For those who choose to return to the camp," said Haffner, "we're working to make people feel more protected than before, and to feel more in control. So we defined a lot of different zones where people could be alone and together, at different scales of activity, so you can choose what degree of interaction you want." The outdoor spaces and pathways associated with different buildings are deliberately configured to overlap and blur. "The social zones float over each other," said Haffner, "like when my house is also your house a little bit. We're allowing different people to find the different places where they would feel most comfortable. And because we keep primary functions on the ground floors, we have a network of many low indoor-outdoor spaces, where you can be outdoors but sheltered, indoors but in the landscape. You can feel like your back is safe, but you're still part of the social and natural life around you."
Although there is presumably a security bottleneck at the island's ferry dock, the "New Utoya" design has no single monumental gate or door. And while some landscaped paths are shifted to respect sites of concentrated violence, the general layout is configured to encourage a certain wandering serendipity. "It's a summer camp," said Haffner. "People float in and out, there is not a main entrance anywhere, and you can be more in and more out, as you feel. The building doesn't have total control, and this is good. People will find their own way."
And while much of Fantastic Norway's design for New Utoya is a matter of conjuring intangible atmospheres, some of its essential effects come from things you can touch. "There's something about the human scale and body," said Haffner, "about being able to recognize your own proportions in a building, in a column you can grasp and touch and swing around." And, he said, there's something about wood. "All the buildings are wood, and all wooden boards are as individual as people," said Haffner. "We are not in a slick situation. Wood gets worn in as the people who use it make marks on it. Wood is one way to acknowledge that all the time which is ahead will also make its mark."
Photograph: Courtesy Fantastic Norway.


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Border Patrol faulted for policy on less-lethal force
A short stretch of border fence in Nogales is a flashpoint for 'rocking' attacks on U.S. law-enforcement agents.
NOGALES, Sonora -- A scruffy dirt road runs along the U.S. border fence here, up and down several hilly, rugged blocks in the gritty, cartel-dominated Buenos Aires neighborhood. Anyone standing on higher ground here can watch the white-and-green Border Patrol vehicles on the U.S. side and see where the agents are at any moment.
This is where the rocks come from.
A short stretch across the fence from this road, just a few hundred yards long, is perhaps the onespot along the entire U.S.-Mexico border where Border Patrol agents are most likely to be attacked with rocks and to respond with force.
Roughly one in every six incidents along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border in which agents used force against rock throwers in recent years occurred here, across the fence from three adjacent streets leading to the fence in Nogales, Ariz., an investigation by The Arizona Republic has found.
Agents know that what they call "rockings" are a constant threat on the U.S. side along Short Street, East Street and Escalada Drive, all of which end at the border fence near the top of a large hill, just east of the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry.
Even though Border Patrol reports show that long-range less-lethal weapons, such as one that fires irritant "pepper balls," are highly effective at dispersing rock throwers, Customs and Border Protection doesn't require agents assigned to urban areas such as this one to carry such weapons.
STORY: Numbers don't back need for lethal force at border
STORY: Wall of silence surrounds killings by border agents
Many agents do. The Republic analyzed nearly 1,600 CBP use-of-force reports nationwide from 2010 to mid-2012, obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. These reports, the most recent CBP has disclosed, showed the vast majority of the time agents responded to rockings with less-lethal weapons and easily dispersed rock throwers without injury to the agents, rock throwers or bystanders in the crowded areas on both sides of the border.
Agents have several less-lethal long-range alternatives. The pepper-ball launching system, essentially a modified paintball gun, can fire more than 10 balls per second filled with pepper spray, letting agents saturate an area up to 60 feet away with irritating vapors. The longer-range FN-303, a rifle-style weapon, uses compressed air to shoot "kinetic impact" projectiles,similar to rubber bullets, which are meant to incapacitate people without killing them. The sting-ball grenade is a hand-thrown grenade that sets off a flash and a loud bang, exploding several hundred small rubber balls, quickly clearing an area.
In nearly all of the 50 incident reports in east Nogales in which one of these less-lethal devices was used, agents reported that the rock throwers retreated south into Mexico without further incident. But some agents opt not to carry these weapons. In at least three incidents where agents weren't carrying less-lethal devices, calls were made for someone to bring them the weaponsso they could disperse the rock throwers.
That was the case at about 3 a.m. on Jan. 5, 2011. During a rocking on Escalada Drive, an agent radioed in, urgently asking for a pepper-ball launcher to be brought there. But moments later, an agent — the heavily redacted report doesn't say whether it was the same one — fired his M4 rifle through the fence into Mexico.
And 17-year-old Ramses Barron Torres fell to the ground, shot through the chest.
In pirate territory
Just past 2:30 on a recent sunny winter afternoon in the Buenos Aires neighborhood in Nogales, Sonora, a half-dozen young Mexicans rushed to the international border fence.
Quickly, they set metal ladders against the 20-foot-high rust-colored barrier. With what appeared to be bundles of marijuana strapped to their backs, several clambered swiftly up in two spots. From the top, they dropped ropes into the United States and slid down.
They crossed inwhat appeared to be plain sight of two Border Patrol sport-utility vehicles sitting perched on ridges to either side of the crossing spot, only 200 to 300 yards away. In less than 30 seconds, at least four people crossed into Arizona and disappeared amid the ravines, hillsides and houses across the fence. Neither of the Border Patrol vehicles appeared to move. Contacted later, Border Patrol officials wouldn't say whether they caught any crossers or seized any drugs in the area that day, Jan. 27.
As the crossers climbed the fence, a glassy-eyed man in his early 20s pedaled furiously up the road on his BMX-style bike and shouted at two Arizona Republic reporters and a photographer witnessing the crossing.
"If you take pictures of my friends we will take your cameras," he yelled in Spanish. "Don't take pictures."
For more than a decade, the Buenos Aires colonia, or neighborhood, has been described by Nogales residents as neglected by authorities and ceded to the cartels that control the crossings of migrants and drug runners into Arizona. The neighborhood is among the oldest and poorest in the city. Border Patrol agents say cartel lookouts watch them constantly from the hilltops here overlooking the fence, and that the cartels pay youths to throw rocks to distract or deter agents from catching crossers.
Many residents declined to speak to reporters. One glanced at another youth on a BMX bike and muttered about lookouts. The youth he looked at seemed surprised when a reporter approached.
"You should be careful," said the youth, circling on his bike. "This is a mafia area, the territory of piratas." He said he didn't know anything about anyone ever throwing rocks.
Not knowing seems to be a survival skill here.
"I come home from work, I go straight into my house; I don't see anything; I don't know anything," snapped a small older woman, gray hair in a tight bun, whose home faces the border fence.
But not everyone fears talking.Another longtime resident said she's seen youths throwing rocks at agents manytimes. She glanced down the unpaved street. Rocks are plentiful.
"They throw sometimes when the agents come, and I've seen them fire back. The pepper spray is very strong," she said. "I worry about my kids."
Her brother interrupted. "If you provoke the agents, they'll defend themselves." He shrugged. "If someone was throwing rocks at me, I'd fire back, too." Anyhow, he added, "better the pepper than bullets. The pepper won't kill you."
Agents' choice
The narratives of the rockings from use-of-force reports by Border Patrol agents on the three Nogales streets are similar. Agents see people crossing the fence, often with bundles on their back. They try to apprehend them. The agents then report being assaulted with rocks thrown by people on top of the fence or on the ground in Mexico. In some cases, the agents report rocks being thrown at them or their vehicles while on patrol.
In most incident reports The Republic reviewed, agents used either a pepper-ball launcher or other less-lethal weapons, such as the FN-303 or sting-ball grenades, to disperse the rock throwers.
Since 2010, there have been eight incidents nationwide in which agents have killed alleged rock throwers, including six in which they fired across the border into Mexico. That includes twoin Nogales:the Barron Torres case and the October 2012 shooting of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez. On Jan. 30, 2012, a Border Patrol agent fired at rock throwers in Mexico while breaking up a drug-smuggling incident near where Barron Torres was killed. An alleged rock thrower was wounded and taken to a nearby hospital.
Six people were killed in known cross-border rocking incidents between 2010-13 compared with two in 2006-09. The rise in deaths occurred even as the number of assaults against agents fell by 1,168 over the same time period.
Because of several high-profile deaths in recent years, the Border Patrol's use-of force policies — which CBP has refused to make public — have become an issue. In response to a demand by members of Congress, Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General issued a heavily redacted report last September recommending changes to the agency's use-of-force training and policies.
The report's recommendations were censored. But Border Patrol Chief Michael Fisher revealed one of them to The Associated Press, saying that, despite the recommendations, the Border Patrol would continue to consider rocks deadly weapons and to authorize agents to respond to rock-throwing with deadly force.
The Border Patrol requires agents to carry a .40-caliber handgun and one close-range less-lethal weapon, either a collapsible steel baton or a can of pepper spray. But it doesn't require agents to be certified in or carry other less-lethal weapons.
A less-lethal weapon was not available in time when an agent called for one as 17-year-old Barron Torres was allegedly throwing rocks at them from Mexico in early 2011.
Less lethal call
At 2:50 a.m. on Jan. 5, 2011, Border Patrol agents monitoring cameras along the border fence near Escalada Drive, in Nogales,reported seeing two people climb the border fence and go back into Mexico from the United States, according to a report on the Torres shooting from the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Agents watching on camera said they saw an SUV in Mexico drive up to the fence. Two people got out. The report said they appeared to confront the two individuals who had just crossed into Mexico.
One person climbed back over the fence into Arizona, picked up a bundle of marijuana on the ground and took it back to Mexico. Then that person climbed back over and picked up another bundle.
An agent arrived in his service vehicle and came under attack from three to five people throwing "big rocks" from Mexico, the report said. An agent, the report doesn't say which one, called for backup from any agent with a pepper-ball launching system.
Before that could happen, an agent shot through openings in the fence with his .223 caliber M4 rifle, striking Barron Torres in the chest. The teen was loaded into a red Dodge Durango and taken to a Sonora hospital, where he died.
The agent's account of the shooting was almost completely redacted in the federal report, but the unredacted portion said pepper-ball launchers release "an extremely effective super irritant called PAVA pepper (Capsaicin II). The systems are contact safe, target accurate within 60 feet and provide area saturation with PAVA within a 200-foot range."
Pepper-ball launchers can be particularly effective because they can be shot over the fence and saturate a large area, forcing rock throwers to retreat quickly or face highly irritating vapors that cling to skin and clothing.
The report said the Border Patrol cameras did not capture the agent firing, but did show Barron Torres making a throwing motion with his arm and then crumpling to the ground in mid-throw when he was shot. The agent was standing an estimated 40 feet from the fence. It is not clear exactly where Barron Torres was on the south side.
The federal government declined to pursue criminal charges because officials said the agent had a claim of self-defense and didn't pursue civil charges because Barron Torres was standing in Mexico when he was shot.
The youth's self-described adoptive mother, Rosa Avechoco, said she doesn't believe he was throwing rocks. But even if he was, "a rock is not a deadly weapon in the same way a bullet is," she said. "They claim that they were defending themselves, but they didn't have to shoot."
Cartels hire kids
From 2010 to mid-2012 — the 29 months covered in the data that CBP provided — there were more than 300 use-of-force incidents nationwidein which agents used force against rock throwers. Fifty of those incidents occurred at or near Short Street, East Street and Escalada Drive in eastern Nogales. There may be more, but many incident reports contained too little information to determine the location.
More than one-third of all the rockings nationwide to which agents responded with force occurred in the Nogales Station of the Tucson Sector. There are other hot spots for rocking along the border, including along the border fence in Calexico and San Diego, Calif., and on the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas. CBP had not responded by deadline to a 6-month-old Freedom of Information Act request for data since mid-2012.
Border Patrol spokesman Adame said rockings have been decreasing. They accounted for 63 out of the 152 assaults against Border Patrol agents in Arizona last fiscal year, just over 40 percent. CBP's numbers don't include whether the agents responded with force.
Adame said that assaults along the Arizona portion of the border dropped 46 percent from a year earlier. "It's dropped a lot the last couple of years because of the new fence, and because we've made leaps and bounds in terms of our cooperation with Mexican authorities," he said. The new fence is taller and longer than prior fencing.
Art del Cueto, president of the Border Patrol agent union local for the Tucson Sector, said he's been subjected to rockings, but he opts not to carry a pepper-ball launcher.
"There are a lot of factors that go into carrying these things," he said. "It's an extra piece of equipment to carry around, and it's bulky. Not everyone is trained to use it."
Cueto said many of those throwing rocks at agents are teenagers hired by the cartels.
"A lot of them are young kids throwing rocks," Cueto said. "But they're paid to throw rocks at agents by these organizations that cross drugs and people ... they're kids, but they're there for a reason."