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Auditors find 3rd instance of illegal Bell taxes
State auditors Thursday said they had found a third instance in which the city of Bell collected taxes illegally, bringing to $5.6 million the amount owed to taxpayers and raising questions about how the struggling town will balance its books.
In a letter to Bell officials, state Controller John Chiang said the city had failed to get the required voter approval as it hiked business license taxes by more than 50% over the last decade. The exact amount overcharged is unknown, but Chiang estimated it at more than $2.1 million. More than 1,000 businesses were affected, he said.
Chiang's auditors previously found that Bell had illegally raised a "retirement tax" to fund pensions, costing taxpayers $2.9 million, and assessed improper sewer fees of more than $600,000. In all, auditors' findings of tax and assessment overcharges amount to $5.6 million, or more than one-third of the city's $13.5 million general fund.
City officials said Thursday the latest finding was a financial setback and that they were working with state officials to form "a relief plan" to deal with refunds and the loss of future revenue from lowering taxes that were illegally raised.
"Today's finding is another potential problem for us," interim City Administrator Pedro Carrillo said, adding that the immediate effects are unclear. Carrillo said he would consider "any and all means" to balance the budget but declined to say if layoffs or cuts to city services were imminent.
The working-class city of about 39,000 drew national attention this summer when The Times reported that its top officials were among the highest-paid public employees in the country.
A subsequent Times analysis of county records showed that Bell also had the second-highest property tax rate among Los Angeles County cities. Even with a rollback of the retirement tax, Bell will still have a higher rate than many cities in the county, records show.
The auditors' findings underscore property owners' longstanding complaints that they were overtaxed. After the salary scandal broke in July, throngs of residents protested at City Council meetings, decrying assessments on their tax bills that they said they didn't understand or were not fully informed about.
Alberto Alvarado owns Nuevo Mundo Super Market, a meat market and bakery across from City Hall that's been in his family for nearly 50 years. Over the last decade, he said, he has complained to the city not just about rising business license fees but about trash, water and sewer charges and other city fees he said make it difficult for businesses to survive.
"I know it's not like this in other cities," he said in Spanish. "Walk down Gage …. You'll see how the businesses have closed. It's like the city wants us to close."
Sadas Cortes, who owns Lidia's Bargain, a new-and-used clothing store just down the street on Gage Avenue, said business owners had tried to ask city officials about the fees over the last few years but "they would just blow us off."
"That's the whole problem," he said. "We don't know what's legal and what's not. We're going by what the city told us."
The city will immediately draft a resolution to lower business license taxes, Carrillo said, and also plans to suspend new payments for those who have overpaid in the past. He said he did not know if such a moratorium would satisfy the controller's demand for refunds but that giving the money back would deplete Bell's reserves.
The city expects to refund the $2.9 million in overpaid retirement taxes from its estimated $5 million in reserves. But Carrillo said he hopes to avoid draining that fund by having to also return all $2.1 million in business tax overcharges disclosed Thursday.
Carrillo said he was in discussions about it with Chiang's office, whose team of auditors he has been working with for weeks at City Hall.
Auditors are also looking into whether any state or federal funds were misused and into who audited and approved the tax hikes.
The Los Angeles County district attorney and the state attorney general also are investigating Bell. On Wednesday, Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown announced a civil lawsuit against eight Bell officials and council members, accusing them of fraud and misuse of public funds.


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Miami-raised poet Richard Blanco recited a poem of unity that evoked his childhood and the spirit of America at the second inauguration of President Barack Obama on Monday.
The poet, who was born in Spain to Cuban exiles, recited his poem "One Today" at the ceremonial swearing-in of President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
Click Here to Read the Full Poem
Blanco, 44, is the youngest inaugural poet and the first Latino and gay inaugural poet.
Blanco's parents emigrated to New York City days after he was born, then settled in Miami. He later attended Florida International University and now lives in Maine.
Before the inauguration, Blanco said he was speechless when he was told he'd be delivering the original poem, according to the Miami Herald.
"It took me 10 minutes to remember what the word for inauguration is in Spanish," Blanco told the Herald.
He also spoke about his mother, Geysa, a Cuban exile who gave him strength.
"She is a very brave woman and has worked hard all her life for my brother and me," Blanco said.

subset: commoncrawl


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One of the most heated exchanges in Tuesday night's debate came when President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney clashed over oil and gas leases on federal land.
The men interrupted each other over how many energy leases the Obama administration had issued, with the president saying oil companies "had leases on public lands that they weren't using. So what we said was, you can't just sit on this for 10, 20, 30 years… if you want to drill on public lands, you use it or you lose it… And so what we did was take away those leases, and we are now re-letting them so that we can actually make a profit."
In what may have been one of the most contentious debates of the modern era, President Barack Obama and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney squared off on gas production, the security situation in Benghazi and workplace inequalities among other issues. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.
Yet that spark-generating skirmish was only one aspect of a deeper discord between the rival candidates on how America can develop more energy and what effect increased energy supplies will have.
The two candidates didn't get around to grappling with difficult policy questions that have developed due to the increased production of oil and gas within the United States in the past four years:
- Should the new supplies of domestically produced oil and natural gas be used only in the United States, helping drive down domestic prices?
- Should U.S. natural gas producers be allowed to export more of the gas they're producing, as they've petitioned the Obama administration to be allowed to do? (The administration is awaiting a macroeconomic study on liquefied natural gas exports which has been percolating inside the Energy Department.)
- Should the Environmental Protection Agency crack down on the technique known as "fracking," which is used to produce natural gas, because it might jeopardize groundwater supplies?
- And, as journalist David Owen explains in his book The Conundrum, making vehicles more fuel efficient – which Obama took credit for in the debate -- in effect makes each mile driven cheaper. Will this tend to lead to Americans driving more miles? "The problem with efficiency gains is that we inevitably reinvest them in additional consumption," Owen writes.
In response to a question from an undecided voter, the president defends his record and tries to make his case for re-election.
The increased supply of natural gas and oil has fundamentally altered the energy picture in the United States – a fact Romney alluded to Tuesday night a few minutes after the men had their first energy clash: "By virtue of new technology (we can) actually get all the energy we need in North America without having to go to the Arabs or the Venezuelans or anyone else."
The Financial Times reported last week that for the first time in decades energy companies are poised to export substantial amounts of crude oil: at the port of Corpus Christi, Texas, crude is being loaded for shipment for the first time since the 1940s, the paper reported.
Related: Battery firm bankruptcy comes after bipartisan funding under both Bush and Obama
Going unmentioned in Tuesday's debate was the failed 2010 cap and trade greenhouse gas emission bill, which was a centerpiece of Obama's agenda in his first two years as president. That bill would have, at least in the short run, increased energy prices.
So – with the focus in Tuesday's debate on lowering energy prices and not on reducing emissions – it might have been politically fortunate for Obama that the Senate didn't pass the House-passed greenhouse gas bill in 2010.
Tuesday night's energy clash began when a questioner in the audience told Obama that his energy secretary, Steven Chu, "has now been on record three times stating it's not policy of his department to help lower gas prices. Do you agree with Secretary Chu that this is not the job of the Energy Department?"
Obama didn't give a direct answer, instead responding that "the most important thing we can do is to make sure we control our own energy."
He claimed that "we" – and he didn't specify whether by "we" he meant American energy companies or the federal government – "increased oil production to the highest levels in 16 years."
He added that "natural gas production is the highest it's been in decades." That's true, in part to environmentally contentious "fracking" in Pennsylvania and other states.
According to an analysis by the Van Ness Feldman law firm, which specializes in energy regulatory law, Romney's position is to ensure EPA regulations do not discourage "fracking," while Obama administration policy has been to require all companies drilling for gas on public lands to disclose chemicals used during the fracking process.
As for lower gasoline prices, Obama contended that energy efficiency is "how we're going to reduce demand and that's what's going to keep gas prices lower."
Obama also used the chance to mock Romney for saying that "when I took office, the price of gasoline was $1.80, $1.86. Why is that? Because the economy was on the verge of collapse, because we were about to go through the worst recession since the Great Depression, as a consequence of some of the same policies that Governor Romney's now promoting."
But apart from the point-scoring and rebuttals, there's a difference between the two men.
As energy consultant Geoffrey Styles has written, Romney's energy plan "focuses mainly on oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy, which together meet 91 percent of current U.S. primary energy demand." Obama's rhetorical and thematic emphasis has consistently been on alternative-energy sources such as wind and solar, which still -- and for the near future -- will meet only a small fraction of U.S. energy demand. His endorsement Tuesday of "an all-of-the-above strategy… that's what we're going to do in the next four years" is not where he started out rhetorically in 2009.
Surprisingly, Romney passed up the chance to mention that battery manufacturer A123 Systems, which got nearly $250 million in grant money under Obama's 2009 stimulus program, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday.
Obama also used the energy clash to score points against Romney for his apparent inconsistency on the question of coal, saying that "When you were governor of Massachusetts, you stood in front of a coal plant and pointed at it and said, this plant kills, and took great pride in shutting it down. And now suddenly you're a big champion of coal."
Obama and his "opposition research" team were correct: as the Boston Herald reported in 2003, as governor Romney announced a crackdown on PG & E's Salem Harbor Station power plant.
"I will not create jobs or hold jobs that kill people," Romney said in a speech outside the plant. "And that plant - that plant kills people."
The mayor of Salem, Mass., said at the time that the electric utility threatened to close the plant – costing jobs and $6.5 million in property taxes - if Romney didn't give the plant more time to meet new pollution rules.
"If the choice is between dirty power plants or protecting the health of the people of Massachusetts, there is no choice in my mind. I will always come down on the side of public health," Romney said at the time.


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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – On Saturday, March 2, The Riverside Arts Market returns for it's fifth year under the Fuller Warren Bridge. It will feature over 150 artists, vendors and farmers and include an opening ceremony and parade led by the Stanton College Prep Marching Band.
"The market is such a festive atmosphere," says Krysten Bennett, director of the Riverside Arts Market. "We're all about community. So in addition to all of our artists and food artists and vendors and farmer growers we have nonprofits at the market every week that talk about what they do in the community, we have street performers saxophonists and jugglers and tight rope walkers and contortionists. On our river stage, we always have musicians sometimes dancers theater troupes, and so it's just really a festive family friendly atmosphere every week."
Bennett says there are always at least three bands or musicians on the stage during the day, and this year will bring a new yoga series that will be starting at 9 a.m.
The parade and opening ceremony at 10 a.m. kicks off the day, and activities continue until 4 p.m.
The final weekend of Farmers Riverside Arts Market is next Saturday, February 23, although fresh produce and farm products are available throughout the year at the Arts Market.
For more information, visit riversideartsmarket.com.


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When Johnny Carson introduced David Brenner to the world in 1971, he warned that the young comic was "somewhat warped."
For most comedians, the operative word would have been "warped." David Brenner, though, was all about the "somewhat."
By looking slightly askew at the world, Brenner deftly generated out-sized laughs from the ordinary – becoming a "Tonight Show" staple for two decades and influencing a generation of comics, most notably Jerry Seinfeld. Brenner, who died Saturday at age 78, leaves the stand-up stage as a master of observational humor.
Sure, his act, while smart, didn't carry the intellectual heft of a Mort Sahl. And while his punchlines could be pointed when appropriate, his humor arrived devoid of the anger that fueled the likes of George Carlin and Richard Pryor.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
But Brenner's affable relatability proved his strength, letting audience members feel like they were in on the joke as he mined everyday absurdities for material. In that first "Tonight Show" appearance, he won over the crowd with eight minutes about asking for directions, with his comic curiosity driving the routine.
"Whose the guy who makes maps?" Brenner asked the audience in Carson's New York studio, as if he were talking just to them and not to the millions watching at home. "Why does every map have to be 20 feet by 38 feet? Everyone's gotta get out of the car when you open them."
The bit, which included what would become many comedians' go-to phrase – "Did you ever notice…" – offered a roadmap for future great and not-so-great stand-ups. It's a routine that could have rolled out of the mouth of Seinfeld, whose "Tonight Show" debut in 1981 included a gag about the folly of "Left Turn O.K." traffic signs.
Brenner never quite reached the success of Seinfeld or fellow Philadelphian Bill Cosby, whose deeper experience-driven, storytelling-style humor he came closest to capturing in his at-times achingly funny 1983 memoir, "Soft Pretzels and Mustard."
While Brenner appeared on or guest hosted "The Tonight Show" 150 times, he wasn't even in the running for the job when Carson stepped down in 1992 (though Brenner believed the post would have been his had Carson quit a decade earlier). Personal issues during Brenner's later career limited his stand-up appearances.
But at his best, David Brenner took his many fans on somewhat warped journeys into the silliness of the commonplace – and got us lost in laughter.
Jere Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is also the author of "Raising a Beatle Baby: How John, Paul, George and Ringo Helped us Come Together as a Family." Follow him on Twitter.


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Filtering by: Committee Emory, Eugene, Emory University Remove constraint Committee: Emory, Eugene, Emory University Committee Rochat, Philippe, Emory University Remove constraint Committee: Rochat, Philippe, Emory University Degree M.A. Remove constraint Degree: M.A. Keyword Law of Effect Remove constraint Keyword: Law of Effect Research Field Psychology, Developmental Remove constraint Research Field: Psychology, Developmental Research Field Psychology, Experimental Remove constraint Research Field: Psychology, Experimental School Laney Graduate School Remove constraint School: Laney Graduate School
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Hush Little Baby… Operant Learning Methods Using Maternal Singing to Reinforce the Reduction of Fetal Movement
About this Master's Thesis Student Name: G. Mayowa Faboyede Date Uploaded: 12/04/2017 Research Field: Psychology, Experimental, Psychology, Behavioral, and Psychology, Developmental Department: Psychology


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Man Thinks Biting Pregnant Wife in the Tush Is a Good Idea, Police Disagree
You could say a Palm Bay, Florida man and his wife got into an "eated" argument.
Police arrested Stepfon Muse after he allegedly bit his pregnant wife in the rear end when they got into an argument. And you thought the pregnant lady is the one who should have weird cravings.
The couple got into a fight while they were driving. The wife tried to exit the vehicle, but Muse held her back, hit her on the arm and then bit down on her keester. Cops said they saw a visibly bite mark on the wife's rear end.
Muse was charged with aggravated battery, which is really just police talk for "being a jerk husband."
It's unclear why the couple was fighting, although one can imagine he was trying to prove that it's not that dangerous to eat and drive.


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"I've never seen it. It was basically high-class pornography. A Baader Meinhoff terrorist on the run — me — checks into a hotel to kill himself. Meanwhile, for whatever reason, this beautiful French woman in the next room is watching this man through a crack in the adjoining door, and she decides that she wants to fuck him. [Italian accent] 'Try and get an erection, Bruce.' I'm like, 'Fuck off! Get an erection, with fifty people standing here?' One lunchtime one of the prop men comes up to me with a box that looks like it contains duelling pistols, and there are all these fake dicks in there and he wants me to strap one on. I thought, 'Christ almighty! I've been to drama school! No!' It was a very rude film. Lots of ridiculous sex scenes that were the most unusual things I've ever done."
From Smoking in Bed, Conversations with Bruce Robinson, edited by Alistair Owen.
Yeah, the film really isn't very good. Robinson already had his writing career up and running, though, so this was virtually his swan song to acting.
On to nobler things, such as Universal horror limericks! We've been chronicling the adventures of the SON OF FRANKENSTEIN in rhyming form over at Limerwrecks, and my contributions are here and here , while I sing the praises of Joseph H Lewis's THE BIG COMBO here , here, and especially right here (continuing the oral theme from above).


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I'm tickled pink to have received the One Lovely Blog Award from Lisa Ellam at Faces of my Family and Amanda Epperson at the Scottish Emigration Blog and I'm rather shame-faced that it has taken me a while to get round to adding the Award here. It's lovely to have encouragement from fellow bloggers. Make sure you have a look at Lisa's and Amanda's blogs – they both write interesting blogs and have entertaining writing styles.
The rules of acceptance are:
Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person(s) who granted the award and their blog link.
Pass the award to a few of your favorite blogs and/or other blogs that you've newly discovered.
Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.
Due to pressures of work, I haven't added any new blogs to my Google Reader for weeks – I'm having difficulty keeping up with my existing reading, but thank you Lisa and Amanda, this award means a lot to me. When I catch up with myself, I'll list my latest favourites in a future post and pass on the Blog Luuurve 🙂


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In the Big Easy, good times roll along many avenues
Cab driver Jorgé Castillo sounded proud as he talked about his hometown of New Orleans. "This city decorates with oak trees," he said as he swung his SUV onto St. Charles Avenue.
The setting among the grand Southern live oaks is majestic and serene in the Garden District. Compared to brassy Bourbon Street, this is a quieter side of New Orleans. But it's not staid.
Strands of beads dripping from the oaks — remnants of Mardi Gras parades long past — are a reminder that many avenues lead to good times in the Big Easy. When the bons temps get rolling, the inertia can't be confined to a single street or just one quarter.
St. Charles Avenue
Sights: The 4½-mile route that arcs from Lee Circle in the Central Business District through the Garden District and to the bend in the Mississippi River at Carrollton Avenue is a living textbook of 19th-century architecture. Given the number of mansions along the route, Corinthian columns might deserve a separate census category in this ZIP code.
Streetcar stops are busy at neighboring Tulane and Loyola universities, which sit across from Audubon Park and Zoo.
Sounds: Electric streetcars clang and hum down the center of the avenue. The normally quiet rides take on a party vibe when gaggles of college students board on their weekend entertainment pursuits.
Flavors: Avenue Pub, a bar that never closes, embodies the spirit of New Orleans. It's housed in a mid-1800s two-story building with a broad balcony. In addition to a premier selection of beers, the kitchen turns out everything from burgers and hummus to Dump Truck Fries — waffle-cut fries topped with roasted pork, port wine au jus and grilled onions.
Avenue Pub, 1732 St. Charles Ave. TheAvenuePub.com or 504-586-9243
Lacking the polish and pricing of restaurants designed to lure tourists, Please-U-Restaurant is a friendly hole-in-the-wall diner that's all about good food. The owners are Greek, but they make a darn good shrimp po'boy.
Please-U-Restaurant, 1741 St. Charles Ave. 504-525-9131
Stuffed mirliton is among the special dishes on the menu at Vincent's Italian Cuisine. It's a tasty take on the squash that grows in few places other than southern Louisiana.
Vincent's Italian Cuisine, 7839 St. Charles Ave. VincentsItalianCuisine.com or 504-866-9313
Prytania Street
Sights: More mansions line the quiet street a block south of St. Charles. It was here that wealthy Americans settled in what became the city of Lafayette in 1833 before being annexed into New Orleans in 1852.
Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, the oldest city cemetery, sits at Prytania and Washington. Gayl Pearson is among the Save Our Cemeteries volunteers who lead daily tours through the grand graveyard, which has had its share of silver screen glory in films such as "Interview With a Vampire" and "Double Jeopardy."
Hourlong tours cost $20. SaveOurCemeteries.org
The 1884 building that housed Crescent City Skating Rink is home to the Garden District Book Shop, a treasure trove of local books. Pick up a copy of "The Historic Garden District: An Illustrated Guide and Walking Tour" (Voulez-Vous, $8.95) and go exploring.
Garden District Book Shop, 2727 Prytania St. 504-895-2266
Sounds: Neighbors chat as they walk their dogs, and the sounds of children playing drift over the fence around a mansion-turned-school. Tour guides describe architectural details and reveal names of those who have lived in some of the homes. Julia Roberts, Nicholas Cage, John Goodman and Anne Rice all have lived in the area.
Flavors: Stop in the venerable Commander's Palace restaurant for a bloody Mary and get a glimpse of how New Orleanians celebrate special occasions. Food is set on tables with service choreographed as precisely as a ballet.
Commander's Palace, 1403 Washington Ave. at Prytania Street. CommandersPalace.com or 504-899-8221
Magazine Street
Sights: The mélange of shops, restaurants and residences exudes a hip vibe that might change every two or three blocks, but it never loses its funky feeling. It's an easy place for tourists to soak in local flavor and mingle with folks lucky enough to live in the Crescent City.
Antiques shops are abundant, as are art galleries and boutiques.
Sounds: The pace picks up along Magazine, keeping an energetic buzz but never nearing a big-city frenzy. Lively conversations and shopkeeper greetings drift over traffic noise, and music filters out shop doors.
The soothing sound of water flowing from the beer-tap fountain on the patio of The Bulldog invites passersby in for a beverage. It's a good spot for people-watching, and it's dog-friendly so Fido can have a drink, too.
The Bulldog, 3236 Magazine St. bulldog.draftfreak.com or 504-891-1516
Flavors: Shrimp po'boys at Joey K's are good, but don't overlook the eggplant Napoleon, a tower of sliced eggplant, shrimp and crawfish. It's tempting enough to make you want to grab a bite from the neighboring table. Joey K's Restaurant, 3001 Magazine St. JoeyKsRestaurant.com or 504-891-0097
Grab a snack of spicy boiled seafood or take home dinner from Big Fisherman Seafood. They also will pack up shrimp, crab, oysters and boudin for the trip back home.
Big Fisherman Seafood, 3301 Magazine St. BigFishermanSeafood.com or 504-897-9907
Frenchmen Street
Sights: The party starts when the sun goes down and neon nightclub signs light up the Faubourg Marginy (FO-berg MAR-uh-nee), the neighborhood next door to the French Quarter.
An impromptu street concert draws a crowd that lingers before drifting to watch a woman twirl a fiery baton and swallow the flame. The street shows entertain patrons strolling between the live-music clubs on Frenchmen Street.
Sounds: From a zydeco quartet playing in a doorway to jazz belting out of the Spotted Cat, live music is the draw day and night on Frenchmen Street. The bars are small and the dance floors are packed as notes of blues, jazz and soul fill the air.
Blue Nile, 532 Frenchmen St. BlueNileLive.com or 504-948-2583
Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro, 626 Frenchmen St. SnugJazz.com or 504-949-0696
Spotted Cat, 623 Frenchmen St. SpottedCatMusicClub.com or 504-943-3887
Flavors: Indecisive diners can indulge in the Taste of Soul sampler of Cajun and Creole goodness at the Praline Connection. The platter could feed a family. But they all might want another helping of the fried chicken before the bread pudding is served.
And then there are the pralines (PRAH-leens). Thankfully they travel well.
Praline Connection, 542 Frenchmen St., PralineConnection.com or 504-943-3934
Oak Street
Sights: An inviting scene has emerged along a quiet street that intersects Carrollton Avenue and the streetcar line. Vintage clothing and funky home furnishings attract window shoppers in the area that's a mix of small residences and student hangouts.
"We don't get many tourists down here," says Crystal Payne, the affable bartender at Squeal Bar-B-Q. "Only the cool ones."
Sounds: Listen for Kitty Meow, the resident calico shop cat, at Blue Cypress Books, a delightful place to browse used books and regional literature.
Blue Cypress Books 8126 Oak St. bluecypressbooks.blogspot.com or 504-352-0096
Flavors: The smoke from the pit in the front yard might entice tourists to Squeal, a barbecue joint in a brown Craftsman cottage. And inventive menu items such as Black-Eyed Pea Egg Rolls might keep them there.
Just don't share the secret of the bacon praline cheesecake. Tourists might beat down the door and wake up the quiet street.
Squeal Bar-B-Q, 8400 Oak St. Squeal-Nola.com or 504-302-7370


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Victor Ambros named co-recipient of 2014 Gruber Genetics Prize
Victor R. Ambros, PhD, professor of molecular medicine, has been awarded the 2014 Gruber Genetics Prize, along with longtime collaborator Gary Ruvkun, PhD, professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and David Baulcombe, PhD, professor of botany at the University of Cambridge.
Victor R. Ambros, PhD, professor of molecular medicine, has been awarded the 2014 Gruber Genetics Prize, along with longtime collaborator Gary Ruvkun, PhD, professor of genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and David Baulcombe, PhD, professor of botany at the University of Cambridge. They received the prize for their pioneering discoveries of the existence and function of microRNAs and small interfering RNAs, molecules that are now known to play a critical role in gene expression. Dr. Ambros is the Silverman Chair in Natural Sciences and co-director of the RNAi Therapeutics Institute.
"The discoveries of these three pioneering scientists have opened major new areas in chemistry, biology, agriculture and medicine, and have revealed fundamental mechanisms that are shared among organisms as diverse as plants and animals, including humans," said H. Robert Horvitz, PhD, Gruber and Nobel Prize laureate, and David H. Koch Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Established in 2001, the Gruber Genetics Prize is awarded for fundamental insights in the field of genetics and may include original discoveries in genetic function, regulation, transmission and variation, as well as in genomic organization. The prize, which is awarded along with a gold medal and an unrestricted $500,000 cash award, will be presented to the recipients in San Diego on Oct. 19 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics.
The unlikely discovery of microRNAs, also known as miRNA, and their function dates back to the 1980s when Ambros and Dr. Ruvkun were both postdoctoral fellows in the lab of Dr. Horvitz at MIT, studying how the lin-4 and lin-14 genes regulate developmental timing in the nematode C. elegans. Ambros and Ruvkun wanted to understand how mutations of the lin-4 kept the worm's larvae from developing into fully formed animals, while mutations in the lin-14 gene caused the larvae to mature prematurely.
In 1989 Ambros established that lin-4 acts as a repressor of lin-14 activity. How lin-4 achieved this repression, however, was not known. In 1991, it was Ruvkun who established that genetic anomalies in lin-14's sequence—specifically in an area of the gene called the 3' untranslated region (3' UTR)—were associated with excess production of the lin-14 protein produced from the messenger RNA that lin-4 targets.
A year later, Ambros successfully isolated and cloned lin-4. To his surprise, Ambros found that the gene's product was not a standard regulatory protein as he had expected, but a tiny non-protein-coding strand of RNA about 22 nucleotides long that is conserved in other nematode species.
Working together, Ambros and Ruvkun compared the lin-4 and lin-14 sequences and discovered that the 22-nucleotide lin-4 RNA and the 3' UTR were partially complementary and that the short complementary regions were highly conserved in evolutionary comparisons to other nematode lin-4 and lin-14 genes. They hypothesized that lin-4 RNA regulated lin-14 by binding to its 3' UTR sequences. Ruvkun then showed that lin-4 controlled the translation of the lin-14 mRNA into protein and it was through this channel that lin-4 achieved repression of lin-14.
Ambros and Ruvkun published back-to-back studies in Cell in 1993 that described these remarkable findings. The discovery, however, seemed more an oddity than a breakthrough at the time, in part because the lin-4 gene existed only in the worm.
The broader importance of the findings—the idea that miRNAs might play a role in gene expression in other organisms—was not immediately clear. Then, in 1999, Dr. Baulcombe, a British plant biologist, reported on his own groundbreaking discovery that a similar class of RNAs is involved in a related silencing process affecting viruses, transposable elements and gene expression in plants. This was followed the next year by Ruvkun's twin discoveries that he had found a second microRNA—let-7—in C. elegans and that let-7 was evolutionarily conserved across the animal kingdom, including in humans. The results showed that the activity of microRNAs was not just restricted to a single species of worm.
Since this discovery, researchers have identified almost 2,000 unique human miRNAs that are responsible for regulating more than half of all human genes. Study of these and other related classes of small RNAs has exploded into an exciting new field of research. Scientists have linked the gene-silencing abilities of these tiny molecules to a diverse range of important developmental and physiological processes in both plants and animals. miRNAs have now been implicated in a wide range of both normal and pathological activities including embryonic development, blood-cell specialization, muscle function, heart disease and viral infections.
"At one time, these small RNAs were considered just an unimportant scientific oddity," says Huda Y. Zoghbi, MD, professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor University and chair of the selection advisory board to the Gruber Prize. "But thanks to the exciting work of Victor Ambros, Gary Ruvkun and David Baulcombe, we now know that they are anything but unimportant, both to human health and to the health of the planet."
Ambros completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as his postdoctoral research, at MIT. After completing his postdoctoral fellowship, Ambros joined the faculty at Harvard in 1984 and remained there until 1992, when he accepted a faculty position at Dartmouth. He arrived at UMass Medical School in 2007. Ambros has maintained a very close collaborative relationship with Ruvkun through the years, though the two have not worked in the same laboratory since the early 1980s.
At UMMS, Ambros continues his research on microRNA function and gene regulation during development, and is focused on understanding the genetic and molecular mechanisms that control cell division, differentiation and morphogenesis in animals.


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There are many scenarios under which investigators may wish to ask employees to serve as subjects. Three typical scenarios are:
This scenario is also research, but has raised several issues during UCAIHS reviews. This following discussion is meant to identify some of those questions, and supply guidance about what UCAIHS has generally found to be acceptable practice. However, each case is unique, and this document is not intended to guarantee any particular Committee decision.
Given that employees are often good sources of information about organizations, and in light of the asymmetrical employer-employee relationship, applied organizational research raises several ethical issues. The potential for employee coercion to participate in research is perhaps the most important of these issues, since employees often feel that they must perform at the behest of their employers. Thus, investigators must take steps to minimize employee coercion, while maintaining strong study validity.
Investigators may request that employers or managers identify potential employee subjects. It is permissible for employers to provide employee contact information at work. Researchers may contact employees via in-house mail. Such mailings may include the following:
Potential subjects may be contacted directly, or may be invited to contact the investigators. Examples of each are given below:
Note: given the busy pace of work life in many organizations, invitation to contact may yield an insufficient response rate, which could invalidate the research. While direct contact is somewhat more intrusive, it is not inherently coercive. Moreover, it is likely to yield a higher response rate, and thus more valid study findings.
To the extent possible, employees should be interviewed or surveyed in a fashion that does not reveal to the employer whether or not they are participating in the study.
In reporting research findings, to the extent possible:


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A royal honeymoon in Seminyak
I have written about Bali previously over the years and expressed the many different moods and emotions that it has always bestowed upon me.
When you combine its magnificent mountains, rugged coastlines, volcanic hillsides, and black sandy beaches, with the beautiful spirit of the Balinese locals it's no surprise I have always left feeling more coupled to the universe than when I arrived.
My mission on this particular sojourn was one that would keep me closer to the action zone of Bali as I ran the rule over a possible honeymoon venue for my upcoming nuptials!
The plan is to immerse ourselves in the Hindu spirit with a traditional Balinese Ceremony at Hotel Komune on the east coast and then spend a few days in Seminyak and celebrate.
My wife-to-be loves it there and I do understand why. It's not my preferred Bali destination, but it has all the fashionable shops and cool bars and chic restaurants that we don't often frequent at home. Think Bondi Beach and the Eastern suburbs of Sydney, just replace the activewear with bikinis and the budgie smugglers with European style bathers and board shorts. It certainly has a more sophisticated clientele than say, Kuta and Legian.
Bali sunsets are just superlative so we definitely wanted a beach front property. We didn't want to be in one of those massive resorts that can become a little frantic and overrun with those smaller humans, and we were also after somewhere that wasn't too uber modern that would be void of that special Balinese architecture and spirit.
Once again, I went searching with a tried and true performer that has rarely ever failed me. Accor hotels have an ever-growing collection of properties offering such a diverse range of accommodation choices so I knew there would be one just perfect for me to impress my betrothed.
The Royal Beach Seminyak, which was once the grand and luxurious Sofitel Seminyak, ticked all the aforementioned requirements and I was more than happy to give it a little test drive before the real deal.
Its position is just impeccable, beachfront and pretty much smack bang in the middle a short walk along the sand to the well know Double Six and Seminyak Beaches. Its layout consists of 125 hotel-style rooms and 17 luxury villas set amongst an outstanding 5.4 hectare sprawling tropical garden complete with two swimming pools, a lagoon, mini waterfalls with a friendly family of Asian water Monitors that love to spend their time swimming and lazing in the sun. Quite a sight.
While the resort rooms were inviting enough, I choose to park myself in a villa, knowing that would be the right choice if I wanted the best honeymoon experience. Happy wife, happy life, no strife, don't they say?
Each villa is designed in true Bali style with thatched roof and incredibly spacious internals. Large four poster beds with those romantic trimmings that enhance the ambience. Having your own little oasis is extremely special and I believe the bonus is knowing you have all the facilities of the resort on hand if you choose to engage or you can keep to yourself and venture out only when necessary.
Sun beds by your own private pool with the overhanging flora not only providing a little respite from the sun but also delivering a nice dash of nature and beautification to boot.
There are many terrific dining options along the beachfront and not much beats an ice cold Bintang, bare feet buried in the sand at sunset. Still, you don't have to leave the resort to experience that and more. The Royal Beach has a number of enchanting food and beverage possibilities for you to muse over during your stay and I suggest you do your best to dive deep into them all if you can.
Starting your day at with a massive beach walk will set your mind into guilt-free mode as you contemplate all possible options at breakfast - and there are so many. The grand buffet at Husk is just mind-blowing, in fact, you really shouldn't need lunch if you give it the nudge it deserves.
No matter what your hankering might be, I guarantee it will be fulfilled here. Just let your imagination run wild and beyond; it's all there. Certainly, too much for me to list, but I have to give mention to the mouth-watering crispy bacon and the delectable local juice that is infused with spices that make for a perfect pick me up but also have healing properties as well.
Seriously, allow yourself a couple of hours to graze every morning and then just grab your spot by the pool, get that book out and digest away!
Capris bar and bistro on the beachfront offers something a little different in the way of its cuisine. In saying that, I mean, a little something to tempt everyone. Local nasi dishes, sate campur, lots of Mediterranean styled tapas. Pizza, pasta and some of those standard resort temptations like the good old club sandwich. My suggestion is to live large and indulge yourself with the pork belly baguette with cucumber, coriander, jicama, chili and mint.
If you like a little entertainment with you fare you can always head to the popular teppanyaki restaurant and watch these master chefs put on a show that includes fine food, head high flames and a touch of patron participation. Always a fun night.
Before I wrap this one up, I do have to make special mention of the staff here. The Balinese are beautiful people no doubt, but the team here exude all that is good about these individuals.
Never-ending smiles, happy to assist at any time and always keen to engage, interact and learn a little more English at the same time and I just love that, as I always want to absorb more of their culture and language in return!
I don't expect to see the real royals relaxing poolside anytime soon, but if you want to be treated like one yourself then you should pack your tiara and royal robe and visit Royal Beach Seminyak.
"Good news my betrothed" - Honeymoon, here we come.
- Scott was a guest of Accor.
- Scott McRae is The Travelling Guy (www.thetravellingguy.com). Follow @scottythetravellingguy on Instagram and Facebook.


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Just a few months after leaving the State Department, Hillary Rodham Clinton has plunged into the lucrative world of paid speechmaking, joining a branch of the family business that has brought the Clintons more than $100 million since her husband left the White House in 2001.
For about $200,000, Mrs. Clinton will offer pithy reflections and Mitch Albom-style lessons from her time as the nation's top diplomat. ("Leadership is a team sport." "You can't win if you don't show up." "A whisper can be louder than a shout.")
She sticks around for handshakes and picture-taking, but the cost of travel, and whether a private jet is provided, must be negotiated as part of her fee.
The $200,000 she commands appears to be comparable to what Bill Clinton receives for speeches delivered in this country, though Mr. Clinton — who earned $17 million from speeches last year — has collected much more outside the United States, including the $700,000 he was paid when he spoke to a company in Lagos, Nigeria.
Convention organizers are eager to pay Mrs. Clinton, and, since leaving office in February, she has embarked on a packed schedule of events for groups like the American Society of Travel Agents and the National Association of Realtors.
But joining what is known in Washington as the buckraking circuit carries risks for Mrs. Clinton, who prides herself on a long career in public office and could be diminished by the free-flowing money as she considers a run for president in 2016.
The senators who may face off against her in three years are barred from taking such honorariums. Past presidential candidates, including former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, have drawn scrutiny for the practice; Mr. Huckabee memorably left the presidential campaign trail in 2008 to deliver an address in the Cayman Islands. "I'm not independently wealthy," Mr. Huckabee said at the time. "I wish I was. I have to make a living."
The events are also giving Mrs. Clinton large captive crowds as she considers a run for president. She shows a personal side, according to several people who have attended her speeches this summer. Along with reminisces about her mother, Dorothy Rodham, she gushes about her daughter, Chelsea, and tells the oft-shared story of the first time she heard her husband's Southern drawl as he described "the size of watermelons in Arkansas."
But she does not shy away from policy. Last month, about 17,000 people filed into McCormick Place, a convention center in Chicago, where Mrs. Clinton, in prepared remarks, talked about health care changes, as well as border security and immigration. "I hope it's heading to a new law that will resolve a lot of these issues," she told the crowd. "It's way overdue."
She praised the human resource managers gathered for their conference. "You know what it takes to provide workers the flexibility and benefits that they need to care for their children," she said.
At a time when almost everything Mrs. Clinton publicly says feeds presidential speculation, she has also used the speeches to address issues like the Arab Spring, the conflict in Syria and the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden.
Mrs. Clinton does not make her speechmaking schedule public, but the trade groups typically publicize the events. A spokesman for the former first lady declined to comment.
But her political rivals have already started to keep tabs on her speaking schedule, looking for any hint of a conflict of interest. (So far, Mrs. Clinton's staff appears to have carefully chosen where she has given speeches, avoiding paid talks to potentially controversial groups.)
"We're starting immediately to monitor both Hillary and the other Democratic rising stars and collect, tag and characterize their speeches so we can hold them accountable when the campaign begins in earnest," said Tim Miller, the executive director of America Rising, a conservative political action committee.
Mr. Miller said that it was too early to send operatives to covertly buy tickets to Mrs. Clinton's speeches, but that the group was watching from a distance "to monitor whether she's hobnobbing with investment bankers in New York City that might seem like favoritism down the line."
Since Mrs. Clinton stepped down as secretary of state, she has divided her time between writing a memoir and juggling a growing schedule of engagements, paid and unpaid. The unpaid appearances are typically focused on her advocacy work for women and girls as part of the Clinton Foundation, the charitable organization founded by her husband. (She is not completely avoiding politics, and will campaign for Terry McAuliffe, a family friend who is running for governor of Virginia.)
In Chicago, she also spoke to a sellout crowd at the Navy Pier to benefit Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy, the nonprofit group founded by Susan Axelrod, the wife of David Axelrod, a former top strategist for President Obama.
Next month, Mrs. Clinton will speak at a meeting of the Global Business Travel Association in San Diego (a convention her husband addressed for $250,000 last June), and in the fall she will deliver speeches at the conference of the American Society of Travel Agents in Miami.
As a political image builder, of course, the paid speaking circuit is almost unrivaled, said Tad Devine, a Democratic consultant who advised Al Gore and John Kerry in their presidential campaigns.
"It's a one-way street" that allows Mrs. Clinton to set her own terms, Mr. Devine said. "It's the perfect opportunity to deliver a message of your choosing to who you want, to reach a broad audience and to get paid for it."
A staff of seven working out of Mrs. Clinton's small personal office on Connecticut Avenue in Washington balances her schedule. Aides include Huma Abedin, the wife of Anthony D. Weiner, who is running for mayor of New York, and Dan Schwerin, who has worked for Mrs. Clinton since 2005.
Mrs. Clinton's staff devotes much of its time to digging through giant binders of research assembled during her time at the State Department to help with her coming book, which is scheduled for release by Simon & Schuster next summer.
A handful of trade groups — which do not endorse political candidates — started requesting Mrs. Clinton for their conferences even before she left office, said several of the executives involved in booking Mrs. Clinton.
The Harry Walker Agency represents both of the Clintons and other sought-after speakers like Kofi Annan and Dick Cheney. Don Walker, the president of the agency, did not respond to e-mailed requests for comment.
Booking one of the country's most in-demand public figures does not always work out. Last month, Mrs. Clinton had to cancel a speech at Pershing LLC's Insite financial conference in Hollywood, Fla., when it fell on the same day as the funeral of Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, at which she delivered the eulogy. Pershing got former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates instead.


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The bishops investigating the Girl Scouts: This is a joke, right?
But their cookies are so delicious!
After reading of the formal inquiry by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, according to the Associated Press, initiated by Kevin Rhoades, the bishop of Ft. Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, one might begin to wonder if we haven't finally tumbled down the rabbit hole. I mean, we are talking about the Girl Scouts here--you know, that organization that helps form girls into confident, self-possessed grown women who take leadership roles in society. Now who could possibly have a problem with that?
Evidently one big problem that some have with the Girl Scouts is its membership in a world federation of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides (WAGGGS), which takes the position that girls should have "an environment where they can freely and openly discuss issues of sex and sexuality." Well, we wouldn't want that.
But wait, some other critics claim, the Girl Scouts also have a relationship with--you guessed it--Planned Parenthood, a claim the Girl Scouts denies, though one made over and over by critics, including an Indiana state lawmaker who eventually had to apologize for saying nasty things about the Girl Scouts (like they were promoting abortion, homosexuality, and communism).
I suppose this whole thing would be a little comic--the USCCB investigating the Girl Scouts sounds more like an article in The Onion than one in the Associated Press--except for the fact that the Girl Scouts do such great work in helping girls defend themselves from a consumer culture that encourages them to think of themselves as sex objects with credit cards (as we explored in our May issue cover story). The bishops with this move also manage to irritate the last segment of the female population still available to offend: preadolescent girls and teens (having already tweaked both women of childbearing age on contraception, and religious women for whatever it is the sisters have been doing at their annual meetings).
Seriously, some honcho at the USCCB needs to put a stop to this. It looks a little, um, unhinged.


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(visited by Jan Krogh and Antanas Ðarpnickas)
05-Sep-2001 -- This confluence was a really exciting experience. Returning home to Vilnius from a business trip I decided to do the N56°E22° confluence. The weather was nice, sunny and about 22°C. The location is eight km eastnortheast of the small town of Plunge, just north of the village of Grumbliai. Further I passed the Kulskiai farmstead and parked the car where a forest road is being penetrated by the 56th degree. The GSP told me I had 600 meters to walk, so I took the short cut and started to walk through the forest. The first 200 meters were fine, a lot of nice mushrooms and singing birds. But, suddently being busy with the GSP I found myself sinking into a quagmire! I threw the camera bag on safe land, and started to toil towards a root sticking out from the ground. Tired and soaking wet I was glad to ascertain that the GSP was fine, telling me to continue further east. Trapped in between a lot of brooks, finally I found a way out through more dense forest. In this middle of nowhere I observed a man working at a small field! He was as surprised as me. We shook hands, and he told me he was Mr. Antanas Ðarpnickas, growing carrots there. I explained what I was up to, and I think he understood me... The confluence was only 50 meters from his carrot field. We jumped over one more brook, and finally there I was. After the photo shots I took the long, but safe, way back to my car where I could change to dry clothes.


text:
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