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The University of Illinois Springfield will introduce its new men�s basketball coach at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
The State Journal-Register has learned Drake assistant coach Bill Walker is expected to be named head coach of the Prairie Stars.
Walker has NCAA Division I experience and has coached for over 25 years. He was an assistant at Texas A&M and Minnesota, and he performed the same duties at NCAA Division II Central Missouri State and Missouri-St. Louis. He began his career as an assistant at Alabama-Birmingham in the late 1980s. His resume also includes a stint as a NBA scout with New Orleans.
Walker is native of Warrensburg, Mo. He played at State Fair Community College in Sedalia, Mo., before transferring to Missouri-Rolla, now Missouri S&T.
Walker joined the Drake program under first-year coach Ray Giacoletti last April.


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I've somehow managed to go two weeks without a wine review. Don't know how that happened, but this week should be all wine-related.
I picked this up based on a recommendation from a friend. The 2006 Ortman Cuvée Eddy is from San Luis Obispo in California (the beloved Paso Robles area). $21, 14.7% abv. 44% Syrah, 30% Grenache, 9% Mourvedre, 15% Petite Sirah, 2% Viognier. Which means that this is something like a GSM/CDR/CDP/Cote Rotie hybrid. Let's just say it combines the best of Southern France with the experimental enthusiasm of Southern California. On the nose it's a blackberry explosion, jammy and full-bodied. On the mouth there are firm tannins, a bit of a chocolate flavor, and great deep berries. Overall this is an excellent wine, and went down well with a ribeye and some green beans.
The name comes from the eddies or swirls that form in a river, and are reflected in the spiral O in the name of the winery. Which leads me to...
Typography time at Benito's Wine Reviews! The winery logo is set in the font family Shelley, which uses the same lowercase letters among its three variants. Shelley is a notoriously popular wine label font and can be found on wines from all over the planet. The O in Ortman is set in Shelley Andante, while the F & V are set in Shelley Allegro. Tricky, but an acceptable design choice given the caps involved. Kudos to the bit of integration with the V and i in Vineyards. It's always nice to see that someone didn't just slap something together in Microsoft Word and send it off to the printer.

subset: commoncrawl


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May 28, 2013
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The Maryland gymnastics coaching staff announced Tuesday that both sessions of its 2013 summer camp are full and registration is now closed.
Both sessions of the camp were received very positively with a total of 120 gymnasts now registered for each of the one-week sessions.
"We're excited to have such a great turnout for camp," said head coach Brett Nelligan. "We have excellent young gymnasts coming from all over the country and we've assembled a phenomenal staff, it's going to be a lot of fun."
The camp will feature over 25 Level 10 gymnasts from across the country, including two international gymnasts. The camp includes gymnasts from 7-17 years old, including beginners of all ages through elite.
The first session of the camp will run from July 28 through Aug. 1. The second session will be held Aug. 4 through Aug. 8. Both sessions will be at the Maryland Gymnastics Training Facility in the School of Public Health.


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What is the best comprehensive casino game for ipad?
I'm looking for a casino game that has a wide range of games to play, such as slots, keno, poker, etc. I have an ipad 2 so I'm also looking for something that has realistic looking graphics too.
Any suggestions?
Any suggestions?


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text:
Submission + - Drones still face major communications challenges getting onto US airspace (networkworld.com)
coondoggie writes: "Communications and effective system control are still big challenges unmanned aircraft developers are facing if they want unfettered access to US airspace. Those were just a couple of the conclusions described in a recent Government Accountability Office report on the status of unmanned aircraft and the national airspace. The bottom line for now seems to be that while research and development efforts are under way to mitigate obstacles to safe and routine integration of unmanned aircraft into the national airspace, these efforts cannot be completed and validated without safety, reliability, and performance standards, which have not yet been developed because of data limitations"


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An old cliche indicates a person's name is Mud, but it actually is in the case of writer-director Jeff Nichols' engrossing drama casting Matthew McConaughey as the title character, a fugitive who tells two idolizing Southern youngsters (Tye Sheridan, Jacob Lofland) that he's fled after committing a murder.
He wants to reunite with an old flame (Reese Witherspoon), and he seeks the boys' help in doing so. Sam Shepard and Michael Shannon also are in the cast. DVD extras: four "making-of" documentaries; audio commentary by Nichols. *** (PG-13: AS, P, V) (Also on Blu-ray and On Demand)
Buy 'Mud' on DVD.


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Beans have always come in handy when animal proteins were scarce; now they can stand in for red meat when you're trying to cut back to eating no more than 3 ounces of lean red meat per day, as AICR recommends for lower cancer risk.
For a warming and satisfying meal, look no further than our Health-e-Recipe for Sweet Potato Bean Soup. Almost a stew, This rich-tasting soup is based on a rich low-sodium chicken broth enhanced with tomato paste, a product high in the protective phytochemical lycopene.
Simmered with nutritious onions and celery, chopped sweet potato chunks add plenty of the cancer-preventive phytochemical beta-carotene (also present in other orange vegetables and fruits, like carrots). Read more… "Healthy, Hearty Sweet Potato Bean Soup"


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Following a mid-cycle review of its 2003 water strategy [1], the World Bank says it is moving from stand-alone water supply projects to those that link water use to resource management. The report, endorsed by the World Bank Board's Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE), also directs the Bank Group to provide, with partners, improved sanitation to the 2.6 billion people who still live without it, in both rural areas and fast-growing urban slums.
The strategy review found significant improvement both in funding levels and project performance, with satisfactory ratings consistently higher than the Bank-wide average of 75 per cent. The Bank's water commitments will continue to rise to an estimated US$ 21-25 billion for the coming three years.
Some other important new strategic directions covered in the review include:
- scaling-up of support for hydropower
- more focus on water for climate change adaptation and mitigation
- increased assistance to agricultural water management; and
- exploring opportunities for private financing for and corporatisation of water utilities
The scaling-up of its water activities has led to a recruitment drive, so that now the Bank employs 158 sector specialists. Nevertheless, there are several areas like (surprisingly) economics and finance, and wastewater reuse where expertise is missing. To compensate for this the Bank set up the Water Anchor which can call on experts as short-term consultants, through various technical support facilities. One of these is SWAT, the Sanitation, Hygiene and Wastewater Support Service. Since its inception in 2005, SWAT has committed about US$ 1 million for operational support in 28 countries and 33 projects. The service has influenced a total sanitation and wastewater investment valued over US$ 1.1 billion.
[1] Vandycke, N. (2010). Sustaining water for all in a changing climate : World Bank Group implementation progress report of the Water Resources Sector Strategy. Washington, DC, USA, World Bank. xiii, 105 p. Download full report
Related web sites: World Bank – Water | SWAT
Source: World Bank, 31 Aug 2010


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More 1992 Fleer from Motherscratcher!
Break out the blue and orange and book your stay, leading off is Howard Johnson (Mets). Glenn Sutko (Reds), John Ramos (Yankees), and Kevin Appier (Royals) are up next. I always did like Appier, but have no real reason for it. Weird. Jeff Russell (Rangers), Jim Thome (WAHOO! Indians), Ivan Calderon (Expos), Mark Davidson (Astros), and Pat Clements (Padres) finish up this first group. Thome sure looked young then...
Edwin Nunez (Brewers), Don Slaught (Pirates), and Carlton Fisk (White Sox) lead off. I have to say, the black text on these cards is sharp. Too bad Fleer didn't just use black text for all the cards. How cool to pull a Fisk!! Gary Carter (Dodgers), Cal Ripken/Joe Carter (Orioles/Blue Jays - The Indispensibles II), Willie Banks (Twins Prospects), Jack Morris (Twins), and Gerald Perry (Cardinals) finish things up.
Dang, Fisk followed by Carter and Ripken plus Joe Carter... This is 90's collecting heaven here... Well, close anyway, right?
Sunday, April 19, 2009
1992 Fleer
3 comments:
- Dr Thunder said...
That may very well be the ugliest set ever produced.
- R.N. Coyote said...
I, too, like Kevin Appier and also for no reason at all. He is one of most underrated pitchers to pitch.
- Wax Wombat said...
Carter didn't look right in a Dodgers uniform. Kinda like Joe Torre...
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
BuzzCity has just launched a mobile advertising campaign planner. The campaign planner gives you access to some high level mobile internet statistics for countries around the world. There are some important take-aways from a quick skim over the data:
The iPhone is only one handset in a portfolio of handsets
The first statistic that really stands out is that iPhone users make up less than 1% of the mobile internet market in Australia. Therefore less than 200,000 Australian's own an iPhone, given that almost 100% of the 20+ million Australians and some percentage less than that would actually use the mobile internet. What does this mean? It means that the iPhone should only form part of your mobile offering, along with all the other available handsets.
XHTML services have viability
BuzzCity says 22% of mobiles accessing the internet have an XHTML browser feature. This would imply about 4.4 million handsets with the ability to checkout standard XHTML websites.
XHTML browsing may only make up 22% of handsets accessing the internet but if you combine this with figures indicating that iPhone users consume much more data than other users then you could assume that XHTML mobile users consume more than non-XHTML mobile users. This might be because those users are more savvy, have better phones, or just have a better browsing experience because of richer data or a richer browser.
So, it would now seem viable to develop straight XHTML services to suit your mobile users which will make development easier.
Further Information
Where it starts to get interesting is mixing this data up and being able to drill down from all different angles at once. Unfortunately, the statistics BuzzCity provides are just broad at the stage, but they do serve as a great starting point for mobile internet usage. Something that needs to be done is to verify these statistics against statistics from others.
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Greektown Superholdings, Inc. Adopts a Shareholder Rights Plan
By: PR Newswire
Dec. 31, 2012 02:25 PM
DETROIT, Dec. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Greektown Superholdings, Inc. ("Greektown" or the "Company") announced today that its Board of Directors has adopted a Shareholder Rights Plan.
The Rights Plan is intended to protect Greektown and its stockholders from efforts to obtain control of Greektown that the Board of Directors determines are not in the best interests of Greektown and its stockholders, and to enable all stockholders to realize the long-term value of their investment in Greektown. In general terms, it works by imposing a significant penalty upon any person or group that acquires 25% or more of the voting capital stock of the Company without approval of the Board of Directors or without entering a Minority Shareholder Protection Agreement (described below).
Under the Shareholder Rights Plan, common share purchase rights will be distributed as a dividend at the rate of one Right for (a) each share of capital stock issued and outstanding on the record date, which will be the close of business on January 15, 2013, (b) each share of preferred stock issuable upon exercise of the Company's outstanding warrants to purchase preferred stock and (c) each share of preferred stock that has been accrued as a dividend upon the Company's outstanding preferred stock. The distribution/payment date of the Rights dividend will be January 24, 2013, but such distribution/payment date may be delayed or suspended if required by the Michigan Gaming Control Board.
The Company believes that the distribution/payment of the Rights dividend does not contravene any Michigan Gaming Control Board order or any regulation, but has requested guidance from the staff of the Michigan Gaming Control Board.
Each Right entitles the holder to purchase from the Company three-quarters (0.75) of a share of Series A-1 Common Stock of the Company initially at a price equal to the current market value of three-quarters of a share of Series A-1 Common Stock. The Rights will continue to be represented by, and trade with, the Company's capital stock certificates unless the Rights become exercisable.
The Rights generally will be exercisable only if a person or group acquires beneficial ownership of 25% or more of the Company's voting stock, or commences a tender or exchange offer that, upon consummation, would result in a person or group owning 25 percent or more of the Company's voting stock. A person that otherwise would cause the Rights to become exercisable by exceeding these thresholds can avoid causing the Rights to become exercisable by signing a Minority Shareholder Protection Agreement in the form attached to the Shareholder Rights Plan. Existing shareholders that hold more than the 25% threshold may avoid triggering the exercisability of the Rights by complying with the covenants in the Minority Shareholder Protection Agreement.
The Minority Shareholder Protection Agreement provides that the signing shareholder and its affiliates (1) is only entitled to nominate, whether directly or indirectly, less than 50% of the board of directors of the Company and with respect to votes for directors other than their nominees for less than 50% of the board of directors the signing shareholder must cast its votes in the same proportion as the votes not controlled by the signing shareholder, (2) may not engage in transactions with the Company (including mergers and other transactions to extract value from its relationship with the Company) without approval of the majority of the members of the board of directors who are not nominated by the signing shareholder and its affiliates and approval of 2/3rds of the votes of shareholders other than the signing shareholder and its affiliates, and (3) will only be allowed to cast 29.9% of the total votes of the Company's capital stock with respect to any matter other than the election of directors (votes above 29.9% controlled by the signing shareholder and its affiliates would be cast in the same proportion as the votes not controlled by the signing shareholder). Additionally, the Minority Shareholder Protection Agreement provides for a standstill to prevent the acquisition of additional shares by the signing shareholder and its affiliates.
Under certain circumstances, the Rights may be redeemed for $0.00001 per right at the option of the Board of Directors. If not redeemed, the Rights will expire on December 30, 2015.
Generally, if the Rights become exercisable, then each stockholder, other than the stockholder whose acquisition has caused the rights to become exercisable, is entitled to purchase three-quarters of a share of a Series A-1 Common Stock for each right owned, at a purchase price equal to 50% of the then current market value of three-quarters of a share of Series A-1 Common Stock. In addition, if, after the Rights become exercisable, the Company is acquired in a merger or other business combination, or 50% or more of its assets or earning power are sold, each Right will entitle the holder to purchase, for a purchase price equal to the then current market value of a share of Series A-1 Common Stock, a number of shares of common stock of the entity engaging in the transaction obtained by dividing the then current market value for three-quarters of a share of Series A-1 Common Stock by 50% of the then-current market value of the common stock of the entity engaging in such transaction.
In addition to the adoption of the Shareholder Rights Plan, the Greektown Board of Directors has adopted amendments to the Company's bylaws adding certain procedural requirements to action of stockholders by majority consents, providing that only the chairman of the Board of Directors, the chief executive officer or a majority of the Board of Directors have the right to call special meetings of the stockholders, fixing the minimum number of directors of the Board of Directors at seven, and providing that bylaws may be amended only by action of a majority of the Board of Directors or a vote of stockholders having at least two-thirds of the voting power of the outstanding capital stock.
Details regarding the Shareholder Rights Plan and the bylaw amendments will be contained in a Form 8-K to be filed by Greektown with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
About Greektown Superholdings, Inc.
Greektown Superholdings, Inc. operates, through its subsidiaries, the Greektown Casino-Hotel. Located in the heart of Detroit's Greektown Dining and Entertainment District, Greektown Casino-Hotel opened on November 10, 2000. Greektown Casino-Hotel offers such amenities as Asteria, The Fringe, Shotz Sports Bar & Grill, Bistro 555, Brizola and a VIP lounge for players. Greektown Casino-Hotel opened its 400-room hotel tower in February 2009 and became the first Michigan casino to debut a smartphone application. For more information, visit greektowncasinohotel.com.
SOURCE Greektown Superholdings, Inc.
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Prime-Time Hypermediaby Jon Udell
When Michael Kinsley stepped down from the editorship of Slate, an interviewer asked him an interesting question: what had he expected of the Web, and where had it fallen short? The biggest disappointment, Kinsley said, was the Web's failure to deliver on the promise of hypermedia. Online music and film reviews describe songs and movies in words, he said, but rarely, if ever, quote from audio and video streams. The hypermedia Web that he had imagined was, for the most part, not happening.
Issues of copyright and fair use are doubtless part of the problem, but there are also technical hurdles to overcome. In the course of trying to transform my blog from a hypertext publication into a hypermedia publication, I've run into a bunch of obstacles. In the world of tech blogging they are -- ironically -- almost purely technical. Presentations, demos, and interviews are often freely available for viewing or listening, yet infuriatingly hard to link to. Almost anyone can create and post a snippet of audio or video, but almost no one can do so easily, spontaneously, or routinely.
In a series of columns beginning with this one, I'll review and elaborate on a variety of hypermedia techniques I've been experimenting with. I don't know beans about high-end AV technologies, so don't look for expert guidance or Hollywood production values. I come at this from the bottom up, as a web-savvy blogger frustrated by the opaqueness and intractability of existing hypermedia content. I want to be able to repurpose that stuff on my blog. I want you to be able to do the same on your blog. And I'd like to see all of our blogs enriched with original audio and video content, where appropriate. It's time to take the Web to that next level, and the means to do so are at hand.
Before diving into the gnarly details, I'll use this installment to lay out some guiding principles. In no particular order:
Blogs Will be a Primary Index into the Hypermedia Web
We normally assume that you can't search video and audio. In fact, there's technology in the pipeline that could turn that assumption on its head. In 2002, I reviewed (registration required) a revolutionary phonetic indexing system from Fast-Talk Communications (now Nexidia). Using a demo application based on this system, I was able to record phone interviews, index them in near-realtime, and then search them phonetically. For example, to find an occurrence of "MySQL" using this application, "my sequel" was an effective search term. I probably could have used "my seek well" instead. Rather than doing something really hard -- converting speech to text, then indexing the text -- the system takes a clever shortcut. It recognizes and indexes raw phonemes (the basic sounds of speech), translates your search term into phonemes, and searches accordingly.
It worked well enough for me to become a practical tool, not just a novelty. I don't know when Nexidia's (or comparable) technology will find its way into Google and its competitors, but sooner or later I expect it to radically transform our use of media content. For example, a Nokia presentation at JavaOne this year included a segment on web services middleware, focusing on a developer framework that simplifies access to a Liberty-based identity service. The whole video is 19 minutes long; this particular segment runs from 11:45 to 13:05. Suppose a search of all the JavaOne videos for "web services Liberty" yielded, near the top of a relevance-ranked list, a pointer to that segment within that stream. That's revolutionary, feasible, and coming soon -- I hope.
Even when we can search audio and video this way, though, I've concluded that text wrapped around segments within AV streams will be a potent way of finding those segments -- maybe the most potent. For the foreseeable future, text will be much more efficiently searchable than AV content. What's more, blogs together with text search engines form the nexus within which interesting bits of content are drawn to our attention. Conferences produce many hours of AV content that no one has time to consume. Buried within those hours of content are highlights that people will want to discuss and share. Bloggers today refer to those highlights, but they rarely link to them. When we do that, the Google dynamic can kick in. A few days after this article is published, I won't need to remember where I stashed the
rtsp: URL that I used in the previous paragraph. I'll just need to be able to find the article in which I used that URL. So this very article will contribute a small piece of what I hope will become a massive index into the hypermedia Web. Blogs, in aggregate, will provide the bulk of that index.
Free the URLs
When web sites present AV content, the prevailing ethic is to bury the URLs deep within layers of indirection, script, and server-side sleight-of-hand. I'm not sure why this is so. To emulate TV and radio? That's a tragic error. Web AV is a different creature entirely. If I'm watching TV or listening to radio, I can't share that experience with you, unless you're available to watch or listen right now. Even if you are available, I can't share the specific slice of content that piqued my interest and that I thought would pique yours.
URLs are the key to a whole new way of attending to media. The principle is well established in the realm of text. As a blogger and a subscriber to blogs, I participate in an awareness network. If I read something important, I'll react to it on my blog, and you'll find out about it. You provide the same filtering and alerting services to me. Collectively, we process vast flows of information with an efficiency that would have seemed unattainable just a few years ago. URLs fuel the engine that powers this awareness network. And in the realm of AV, the engine is starving for URLs. This has to change.
HTTP Can Do More Than You Think
I owe this insight to Kevin Marks, formerly an Apple QuickTime engineer and now director of engineering for Technorati. I'd been experimenting with streaming servers, and exploring the various syntaxes used to randomly access portions of streams, on the assumption that you need to use a streaming server to support random access. Not so, Kevin pointed out. Streaming protocols are necessary for live broadcast, but otherwise, plain old HTTP is good enough not only for sequential access, but also for random access. HTTP 1.1's little-known and under-exploited byte range feature makes it possible to jump around in large media files.
This has extraordinary implications for multimedia bloggers, few of whom have access to Helix, QuickTime, or Windows Media servers, but many of whom can post files to web servers that support HTTP 1.1. Suppose, for example, you record a one-hour interview and post it to your blog as a 20MB MP3 file. You needn't do anything special to support random access into that file. It's all in the hands of the client. Some (including Winamp and RealPlayer) will let you move the slider to any point in the file; others (including QuickTime and Windows Media Player) won't.
It amazes me how few people -- including my geekiest acquaintances -- know about this. Taking things a step further, I've built an experimental web-based service that eliminates the client dependency. Hand it an MP3 URL plus start/stop times, and it hands you back the corresponding slice of the file. My first version of this hack Does The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work, and needs refinement, but it convinces me that there's important territory to explore at the intersection of HTTP and media content.
Applications Can Become Movies
In the software world, we spend a lot of time describing how things work. To echo Michael Kinsley's lament about music and film, why should those descriptions use only text, possibly augmented with screenshots? Why don't we present, and quote from, live experiences?
It's way easier to do that than you might think. Tools that capture screen video, along with voiceover, can produce compelling software demonstrations. It's true that many of these tools are commercial, but some highly capable ones -- including Windows Media Encoder -- are free.
When I review these tools, I'll do so with an eye toward speed, simplicity, and spontaneity. I'm not nearly as interested in highly produced marketing collateral as I am in the vast reservoirs of experiential knowledge that would otherwise go unrecorded and unshared.
Hypermedia Blogging for Everybody
The two-way Web unleashed by the blogging revolution is, and will remain, largely a textual medium. And yet we're clearly at an inflection point. It's increasing feasible to create and share media content. If you needed special AV skills and instincts in order to do that, it would be a non-starter. But I've never been an AV guy. What motivates me to explore the subject now is a profound sense that it's ready to become part of mainstream communication on the Web. I'm not sure where this series of columns will lead, but let's take it one step at a time.
Jon Udell is an author, information architect, software developer, and new media innovator.
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2004-12-01 11:48:35 [View]
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Jon Udell: Prime-Time Hypermedia
2004-10-06 08:26:43 [View]
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Linking inside of a video post
2004-09-19 22:36:05 [View]
HTTP Swarming
2004-08-10 23:55:56 Gordon Mohr | [View]
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On Multimedia Blogging
2004-08-09 15:55:11 [View]
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Prime-Time Hypermedia
2004-08-08 06:33:11 [View]
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Jon Udell
2004-08-07 19:52:06 [View]
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"Some things haven't changed..." (Audioblogging)
2004-08-07 14:19:48 [View]
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"Some things haven't changed..." (Audioblogging)
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Audio and Video Blogging
2004-08-07 02:44:43 [View]
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Jon Udell explains how to blog audio and video
2004-08-07 01:43:33 [View]
2004-08-06 13:59:53 anona [View]
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Prime-Time Hypermedia
2004-08-06 10:56:27 [View]
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Hypermedia to help you tell your story...
2004-08-06 09:07:38 [View]
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"Hypermedia Blogging for Everybody"
2004-08-06 06:48:37 [View]
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Multimedia Blogging
2004-08-05 15:24:55 [View]
hypermedia linking
2004-08-05 03:14:02 rikardlinde [View]
Mind the sequential problem
2004-08-05 02:30:35 Rufposten [View]
Mind the sequential problem
2004-08-10 16:56:34 tungwaiyip [View]


text:
It's now less than a month until Aug. 1, the first official day of practice for high school sports in the 2013-14 year and change is in the air, especially when it comes to Central Davidson athletics.
It's now less than a month until Aug. 1, the first official day of practice for high school sports in the 2013-14 year and change is in the air, especially when it comes to Central Davidson athletics.
The Spartans now belong to the 3-A Mid-Piedmont Conference thanks to the latest N.C. High School Athletic Association realignment, which takes place every four years.
That alone is significant. Just in football, it means there won't be a football game between Central and rival West Davidson on Nov. 8. Rivals traditionally play the last week of the season — if they are in the same conference. But with the Dragons remaining in the Central Carolina Conference, that game will have to be played much earlier in the season, before conference play begins.
Perhaps the Spartans can pair up with Ledford for season-ending rivalry games. It would make the most sense since they are the two Davidson County schools in the MPC. Central's move helps reduce Ledford's isolation. The Panthers got yanked out of the CCC four years ago because of greatly increased enrollment. The schools have continued to play each other in all sports and now their rivalry will once again be for more than bragging rights.
The other schools in the MPC are Asheboro, North Forsyth, Southern Guilford, Southwestern Randolph and Western Guilford. Central was already playing some of those schools but will incur greater travel costs.
Central had emerged as a CCC powerhouse in soccer. The Spartans will face different challenges in the MPC and the 3-A classification in general. At least they won't have to contend with Charlotte Catholic, which is now 4-A.
Football should be a competitive sport in the MPC, with no clear favorite now that traditional power Northeast Guilford is gone.
The Spartans softball team will be tested in what has become a really strong conference, with Southwestern Randolph and Ledford leading the way. Central should fit well within that mix.
Central's volleyball team, which won the CCC title in 2012 and shared it with West Davidson in 2011, should battle Ledford and Southwestern Randolph for the MPC championship.
As for the CCC, North Rowan basically replaces Central. The Cavaliers are sure glad to be back in the CCC after a four-year exile to the 1-A Yadkin Valley Conference, where round trip bus rides were as much as 180 miles.
The CPC grew by one with Parkland joining to create a seven-team league. Parkland is best known for having the best wrestling program in the state. The Mustangs have won eight consecutive dual team state championships, the last four in 4-A and four in 3-A prior to that. There will be a lot of CPC wrestlers whose shoulders will get pinned to the mat this season and beyond. On the other end of the scale, as an inner city school, Parkland struggles in soccer. Some area schools cherry pick Parkland for easy wins.
The YVC won't be a whole lot different beside the departure of North Rowan. South Davidson has found it challenging to compete in most sports other than girls basketball in the last several years. But the Wildcats have an enthusiastic new football coach in Joe Cullen who hopes to create a winning culture.
Mike Duprez can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 218 or email@example.com.


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(MCT) — In his newly built medical office in the southwest suburbs, Dr. Nagui Hanna hears busy expressway traffic as it rumbles only a few hundred feet away. But from his window he sees acres of overgrown weeds and a maze of empty parking spaces where he had hoped to see cars and customers.
A Target and Home Depot were supposed to anchor a new Lockport Square retail center planned along the Interstate Highway 355 south extension. Thousands of commuters pass the site each day, but the development is mostly abandoned except for Hanna's Lockport Express Medical and roads built in anticipation of stores that never came.
Lockport Square is one on a long list of projects readied in anticipation of the tollway extension that opened five years ago this month, just as the housing market crumbled and the recession kicked in.
The $715 million Veterans Memorial Tollway extension connected Interstate Highway 55 on the north near Bolingbrook to Interstate Highway 80 on the south near New Lenox. It was expected to help fuel Will County's booming population and lure development that would fill sales tax coffers and grow into a thriving jobs corridor.
"I think there was a built-up expectation that OK, now the road is here, we're going to see all of this development flood in," said John Greuling, president of the Will County Center for Economic Development.
Instead, the view from the tollway is mostly the same as it was five years ago and most tax dollars spent to prepare for the growth have yet to be recovered. Many municipal leaders, though, insist development interest is strengthening and say it's only a matter of time before the economy comes back and their vision for the area is realized.
Expected growth
Will County's population exploded from 500,000 in 2000 to 670,000 in 2006, census data show. At one point, it was among the fastest-growing counties in the nation, with projections for more than a million people by 2030, according to the Northern Illinois Planning Commission.
As Chicago-area residents took advantage of cheaper homes, businesses followed, capitalizing on the available space and commercial-friendly tax rates.
"When that road was being built, we were going, as a county, through the most explosive growth period ... that, quite frankly, Will County had ever gone through," Greuling said.
The extension had been in the tollway's plans for decades, and when the 121/2 -mile corridor opened on Nov. 11, 2007, it offered new possibilities for residents in northeast Will County.
Silver Cross Hospital officials decided to build a replacement hospital for its crowded Joliet campus at the end of the new expressway in New Lenox. Residential and retail developments were in full swing, and the county, along with Homer Glen, New Lenox, Lockport and Lemont, were ready for sales and property tax revenue to roll in.
Today, they're still waiting.
Will County's population is roughly the same as it was six years ago. After four years of construction, the new hospital opened in February, anchoring the south end of the tollway. Jim Roolf, chairman of the hospital's board and a former member of the tollway's board of directors, said had the hospital board known how bad the recession was going to be, it's possible the hospital project wouldn't have happened.
As for the extension itself, congestion is extremely rare even as traffic has increased each year from about 69,000 vehicles per day in 2008 to more than 80,000 per day in 2011, tollway officials said.
Taxpayers on the hook
Along with the hospital, developers of major shopping centers and medical offices were interested in building in New Lenox where I-355 meets Illinois Highway 6 near I-80. Officials projected that the commercial projects would generate about $19 million in annual property taxes for local taxing bodies and more than $10 million in local sales tax for New Lenox, said Finance Director Kim Auchstetter.
"That was if everything developed," she said.
Even though the tax revenue has yet to roll in, some towns are still on the hook for millions because of the new tollway.
New Lenox, Lemont, Homer Glen, Lockport and Will County officials all committed to help pay $20 million for improvements along the corridor. Each party agreed to pitch in $1.5 million toward new interchanges for a total of $7.5 million. The remaining $12.5 million covered trees, traffic signals and other upgrades, mostly paid for by the county.
When the recession hit, municipal officials negotiated a plan with the tollway allowing them to make smaller payments upfront for the interchanges and pushing off the burden until 2014 when most will make one balloon payment.
The communities collectively still owe $4.5 million for the interchange work, tollway officials said.
Lockport's city administrator Tim Schloneger said when expected projects didn't materialize and the recession crippled other city revenues, it couldn't afford a big payment to the tollway. Lockport also had to find money to pay off other debt.
The city spent $10.5 million to expand its wastewater treatment facility to accommodate expected growth in the community. Schloneger said the city planned to cover the debt with tap-on fees charged to developers, but revenues plummeted when new construction stalled.
Partly to cover the shortfall, water bills for Lockport residents went up 30 percent in 2010 and 15 percent in 2011, and are set to go up 10 percent next month and 3 percent in 2013 and 2014.
Kermit Wies with the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning said the missed expectations along the tollway extension should be a lesson for communities that get ahead of themselves, a point emphasized in the agency's comprehensive regional plan.
"It's a really good argument for not speculating," he said. "I really feel sorry for the municipalities that put themselves on that hook."
Real estate woes
Homer Glen is peppered with unfinished subdivisions where developers disappeared when the housing market crashed. The small community has nine such subdivisions, four near I-355, said Erin Venard of the village's planning and zoning department.
A study commissioned by the village found that it may cost more than $6.6 million to finish improvements in subdivisions, most of which are less than 50 percent occupied.
Tom Fijan is a longtime resident of Will County whose new neighbor is I-355. The 66-year-old retired electrician said he never wanted the extension to come roaring by his home on 151st Street in Homer Township.
From his front yard he can see the expressway traffic whiz by, and he has learned to ignore the sound of trucks as he sleeps.
"It's done nothing for us but decrease home values and bring us a lot of noise," he said. "Nobody really wants to live next to an interstate."
Lockport resident John Ricchiuto lives about a five-minute drive from the vacant Lockport Square site. The tollway makes it easier for the union carpenter to get to work in Chicago, but he is disappointed the shopping center was never finished.
"We were hoping all that got done," Ricchiuto said. "It would have been nice for us."
'When is Target coming?'
While expectations for growth have fallen short, there is still room for optimism, some municipal leaders said.
"What was expected is still expected," Schloneger said. "We're starting to see a lot of pickup recently. A lot of people who hit the pause button are being very aggressive now and looking to develop their site."
Once every few months, officials from Lockport, Homer Glen, New Lenox, Lemont and the Will County Land Use Department meet to discuss the corridor and how best to market the area.
"We call ourselves the I-355 Corridor Consortium," said Steve Lazzara with the Land Use Department.
A business park planned for Lockport since 2007 is on schedule to complete its first structure this month. Homer Glen is annexing land near I-355 and preparing for big road improvements along 159th Street, Mayor Jim Daley said.
"Everything is in place for a big boom in commercial along our 159th Street corridor," Daley said.
In New Lenox, plans for an outlet mall have been proposed near the hospital, and in Lemont, a town home development is going up along I-355 on 127th Street. The developer is hanging the success of the project on its proximity to the tollway, officials said.
Schloneger said the most frequently question asked by Lockport residents is, "When is Target coming?"
"They want their tax dollars to stay in their own community, and they don't want to leave Lockport to do their shopping," he said. "It's going to happen, it's just a matter of how quickly."


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Full Episode
Author and activist Naomi Wolf grabbed attention in the early 1990s with her international bestseller The Beauty Myth. The book explored the widespread marketing of unrealistic standards of beauty by the fashion and cosmetics industries, as well as the impact those messages have on women, and it made Wolf a major voice in feminism.
Visit the Website: http://www.klru.org/overheard
Episode #312 / Length: 26 minutes


text:
Leaving Now
What would you take with you?
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(14) Anonymous, April 6, 2012 5:37 PM
Reality of Growing Up
(13) Michal, April 4, 2012 7:52 AM
This happened to me in reality...
Once it happened that in the middle of the night we found ourselves in a burning house. We ran out of course and the firebrigade arrived. As I looked down at myself, I realized I carried something in every hand. In one hand I had my guitar, in the other hand my prayer book. Only then I wondered what were the most important things for me (at age 26). A mother would have taken other things of course. - Since then I sometimes look at my belongings and wonder how I would feel in case I had to give up everything. And I realize, nothing really would disturb me. I think many of us would feel the same. The most important thing in our life is God. And He never leaves us.
(12) SusanE, April 4, 2012 4:57 AM
What Would I Take For Forever?
Material things are baggage and are like idols that we feel we must keep close for security and comfort. ~~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I would hope to take my favorite pair of comfortable shoes, my CD with photographs, my candlesticks, some clothes, medical records, addresses of my friends, and money. ~~~~ There are places there to purchase material things you need for starting life in another country. There is nothing more exciting than moving forward to something new and different.
(11) Mary Ruth Andrews, April 4, 2012 4:04 AM
Letting go of stuff
Lori, this is so exciting to me. I have been getting rid of stuff 'slowly' for years, but your talk is so inspiring. We need so little, but hang on to so much. I am keeping this and watching it again a few more times for encouragement to let go of the things we don't need, and keep the things that really matter.
(10) Meira, April 4, 2012 12:27 AM
All pieces of yourself
My last move to US took away all that I had: houses, books, comfort of home, job and... much more. I do not have anything to leave behind but experience of surviving, so where is the problem of packing? It's nice to have a bank account but most important to have your peace of mind and your knowledge with you, few things like a toothbrush and a pair of shoes, few books, others will be available through internet anyway.