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MARIETTA, Ga. – A backstop lined with radar guns is what Jarrett Montgomery faced on Saturday night. Montgomery pitched 6 1/3 innings for the Indiana Prospects only allowing two hits, three walks while striking out seven. Unfortunately, a tough seventh inning allowed Dallas Mustangs Sharp to walk away with a victory.
Montgomery took the mound in the bottom of the seventh with his team ahead 2-1, putting the pressure on.
"Pressure is my specialty," explained Montgomery. "I like pressure. It makes me want to do better to get out of the situation. I handle pressure pretty good. You've got to come back from it (and) thrive off of pressure. You worked yourself in, you got to work yourself out."
Montgomery spent his time on the mound throwing an 88-91 mph two seam fastball that caught the corners of the plate for strikes. He said a low, outside fastball is always his go-to pitch when he has two strikes on a batter. He also threw a killer changeup and said his fastball change-up combination is definitely his strength.
Montgomery is currently ranked No. 29 on the Perfect Game High School Class of 2015 National Rankings, and is ranked No. 2 overall in Indiana. Montgomery said he hopes to work hard enough to be No. 1 or at least in the top 10.
"He's a top 20 kid in his class," said head coach Jeff Surbey. "He really brings a lot of energy. He is a true leader, (and) kids look up to him and like playing with (him). He's just a true leader. He brings out the best in the players, (and) he's a great teammate.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound right-hander is from Indianapolis, Ind. and attends Lawrence Central High School. He's done a few college visits and says Florida, Florida State and Louisiana State are his top three schools as of right now.
"(I'll play) anywhere down south," added Montgomery. "I don't want to stay anywhere near Indiana where it snows in the spring.
"I want to go to college for business. I want to own my own business (one day). I for sure want to be my own boss. I'm thinking (of doing) something in baseball and I want to give back to kids, (and) maybe build a couple baseball fields in Indiana."
Although he is looking at schools, Montgomery has the dream of being drafted, like his brother Christian Montgomery, a Perfect Game All-American who was drafted by the Mets right out of high school.
"Me and him are very close," said Montgomery about his relationship with his brother. "He helped me a lot. He started with me when I was younger; whatever he learned he taught me at a younger age."
Montgomery said he's very competitive with his brother and tried to be better than he was.
"We go head-to-head," added Montgomery. "I compare his stats from when he was my age. I thrive off of him."
Montgomery has been playing with the Indiana Prospects since he was 12 years old. He said he's had a lot of fun with this program over the years, but he really enjoys playing for Surbey.
"(My) first three years was all about fun. Now it's all about business and winning, (while) still having fun," said Montgomery.
"He's very charismatic," said Subey about Montgomery. "The kids like to be around him. He treats them with respect. It would be very easy for a kid of his caliber to be all about him, but he includes kids, he genuinely engages with them and talks about them and it's not all about him."
The Indiana Prospects started in 2003, and Surbey has been with them for a few years now.
"Our main thing is player development (and) helping kids get to the next level whether its junior college, Division III, Division II, Division I, or the draft. We had the No. 7 draft pick (2012 PG All-American Trey Ball) in the 2013 draft," explained Surbey.
The Indiana Prospects mission statement reads:
The Mission of the Indiana Prospects Baseball Organization isTOTAL PLAYER DEVELOPMENT. We strive to provide our players with superior training, knowledge and the highest level of competition possible.
"(We) help foster the environment for their growth," added Surbey. "Surround them with good players but also kids with character. It's not about the kid who throws 90, it's about good teammates and bringing kids together from outside of the state and molding them together to be great teammates."
NOTE: Following the game on Saturday night, Montgomery verbally committed to Florida State University.


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|Mall cops: Alleged kidnaper escorted, not reported
|High water? Autumn Hill residents question $180 bill
|Movie wars II: Carmike fights back with $1.50 flicks
|Seed-ville: Grow-local op grows Carpe Donut
|Good-bye, Carmello's; Hello Mex... and meals tax hike?
|Let the mural-making begin
|Greenwood: EPA leaves Superfund site 27 years after fatal disaster
|Less hazardous: Acme Visible Records gets cleaned
|Broken condos: Barracks West complex sold short
|Barnes Lumber: Mystery buyer revealed-- sorta
|New trend? Ramsay goes on absolute-auction block
|Civil Kickstarter: Film on Julian Bond needs $24K
|More coffee: And more hand-tamping at Milli Joe
|Route 29 exits: Calypso, Olivaté close shop
|Semantics: The meaning of Thane Kerner's Silverchair success
|Emergency coffee: Mudhouse serves sans power
|Mystery bidder: Barnes Lumber sells to unidentified buyer
|Ix to NYC: Starlight finds its sweet spot
|Connections: Who are the BOV's Kington and Craig?
|Claudius Place: Crozet skybar nears ground breaking

subset: commoncrawl


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My second post of the morning - just a quickie.
Not going to say much as this Amazon customer review says it all...
At the VERY LEAST this could be a nice little base for experimenting. It may even end up being todays Teisco of the future.
"I first saw this guitar in a guitar magazine advert and thought it looked very cool. As it was an "Artist Signature" model I assumed it would be expensive and forgot about it. Some months later I happened across it on the Amazon site for $159, free shippng and thought it might be a diamond in the rough and ordered it immediately. Was very happy with it out of the box, very well made and a cool looker too! I confess I like this guitar so much I took it to my luthier and had him dress and polish the frets, set up intonation and put high end strings on it adding $60 to my cost. This is now my favorite guitar among several higher end instruments, very easy to play and sounds great through several different amps. Some might question the wisdom of spending $60 to set up a $159 guitar but even without the tweaking she is a sweet ride."OK, "sweet rides" aside interesting eh? IT IS NOW ON AMAZON.COM at $84.99 NEW! and eBay for $75.99 NEW! That's €54 or £47 (plus shipping)
At the VERY LEAST this could be a nice little base for experimenting. It may even end up being todays Teisco of the future.
David in Chilly Barcelona
Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!


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John Cominsky wants people to know that the Tranzport Hood is easy to use. He demonstrates this by putting one on. The change in his appearance is remarkable.
In seconds, Cominsky no longer resembles an inventor and enterprising businessman. Instead, he looks like a dangerous maniac. A maniac with a pair of pantyhose on top of his head and a diaper around his mouth.
"It's not pretty, but it works," Cominsky murmurs through the hood, quoting from his own sales brochure. "See how it stays in place? They can't brush it away." He shakes his head, unable to free his lips from the confining elastic of the diaper, which is made of the same "layered bacteria-filtering medical fabric" used in surgeons' masks.
A collection of articles on Colorado prisons.
Related Westword articles
A collection of articles on Colorado prisons.
The Tranzport Hood may be a low-tech entry in the war on crime, but Cominsky insists it's a necessary one. The hood is designed for handcuffed, belligerent prisoners who are inclined to spit or bite while being transported. It should be used "immediately after a prisoner has spit or threatened to do so," the brochure advises, to minimize the corrections officer's risk of exposure to AIDS, hepatitis and other viruses; it also reduces the odds of some tubercular convict coughing or sneezing on you. At $3.75 a pop, the disposable hood is "the Fast, Easy, Inexpensive way to protect you and your fellow officers from possible illnesses and the uncomfortable feeling of being spit on!"
That uncomfortable feeling is so widespread in the prison business that Cominsky isn't the only hood vendor displaying his wares at the American Correctional Association's 129th annual Congress of Correction, a massive confluence of prison executives and suppliers. Just a short walk from Cominsky's booth at the Colorado Convention Center -- down the aisle and to the left, past the stun guns, water cannons, surveillance cameras, body armor ("Extreme Comfort in Extreme Situations") and suicide-resistant toilet fixtures -- lurks Tranzport Hood's chief competitor, Eagle Gear, manufacturer of the Spit Net.
Eagle Gear has a larger booth than the Tranzport Hood. The literature is slicker, the product line more extensive; in addition to the Spit Net, Eagle also touts the Control Bar (a metal bar that slips over handcuffs, allowing you to "guide and steer the prisoner without putting yourself at risk"), the Tube (a "hand containment system" that prevents manacled prisoners from grabbing weapons or keys) and the Mitt (hand containment for "those on the move"). The California-based company also has a full-sized mannequin to model its Spit Net, leaving the sales staff free to concentrate on their pitch.
"Officer safety is a big deal," notes Eagle vice president Jerry Bennett. "We had a lot of calls for something that could protect officers from the airborne pathogens that are out there. We came out with this product, and it really caught fire fast."
The Spit Net may have hit the market first, but Cominsky, a former carpet installer from South Carolina, says he patented his hood design several years ago. And the original Spit Net is an awkward thing with straps, reminiscent of a beekeeper's helmet; the new, improved, strapless Spit Net looks a lot like -- well, the Tranzport Hood. "We believe we offer a better product for less money," Cominsky says.
It's the hardy dream of the 1990s entrepreneur: Build a better spit-containment system, and the booming prison industry will beat a path to your door. But flying mucus is only one of many concerns facing America's jail and prison administrators as they seek to feed, house, clothe and manage an inmate population that's now pushing the two million mark. The opportunity for niche products is endless. Looking for rugged outerwear that can deflect shanks, shivs and icepicks? Check out the Safariland StabPro vest. Have a hankering for bar-coded plastic bracelets that allow guards to scan inmates like so many sacks of potatoes? Say hello to the Clincher Inmate Identification Wristband. Because disgruntled inmates tend to stuff things down their suicide-resistant toilets, there's even an emerging "problem solids reduction industry" -- dominated by the Muffin Monster, a huge green grinder that's an essential add-on to any prison sewer system.
In all, more than 500 exhibitors descended on downtown Denver this past month, hawking everything from razor wire and body-cavity probes to inmate phone services, health and food services and entire modular housing units that snap together like Lego blocks. Some of the biggest exhibitors included Colgate-Palmolive and US West, leading construction contractors and architectural firms, and private companies that build and operate their own prisons under contract with state governments. The five-day Congress of Correction, which attracts 6,000 corrections professionals from across the United States and Canada, is the largest gathering of its kind in the world, an occasion for the industry to take stock of itself. And from Wall Street's perspective, it's very good stock indeed. Once the most obscure and unmentionable of all public expenditures, corrections is now a $40 billion-a-year proposition.
It's fitting that this year's ACA gathering was held in Colorado. As state Department of Corrections chief John Suthers noted in greeting the attendees, Colorado's Fremont County, which boasts nine state prisons and four federal lockups, "proudly calls itself the corrections capital of America." The state's inmate population has more than doubled in the past decade and continues to increase at a rate that's twice the national average -- making the DOC one of the fastest-growing gorillas in state government, second only to the Department of Transportation. Since 1995, the DOC has increased its number of employees by 20 percent, its payroll by nearly 50 percent. Although the agency has added thousands of new beds in recent years and continues to build new prisons, it can't keep up with the crush; currently one out of every five state inmates is housed in a private prison.
All of which makes the Centennial State the perfect setting to contemplate the central paradox of the corrections game: At a time when violent-crime rates have been declining for years, why is it that the prison population keeps going up, up, up?
At first glance, the answer seems obvious. Lock-'em-up lawmakers, including Governor Bill Owens, have argued that crime is down because there are more prisons, stupid; in other words, the career criminals are off the streets. But there's actually little historical correlation between the crime rate and the rate of incarceration, and many criminals are never caught and convicted, much less imprisoned. The real reason for the prison boom, criminologists say, has to do with the transformation of the corrections industry over the past two decades into a revolving-door system of punishment, with only token efforts at rehabilitation.
Suthers alluded to some aspects of the transformation in his welcoming speech to the ACA brethren. Harsher penalties for drug offenders. Longer sentences. More parole revocations. More mentally ill inmates. (Colorado has more than 1,500 prisoners who've been diagnosed as chronically mentally ill but only 250 beds at the special prison designed to house such inmates.) A recidivism rate that, in Colorado, hovers officially around 40 percent but that some observers claim is as high as 60 percent.
Yet the former prosecutor didn't seem in the least chagrined by this litany of failure. "I've taken over a very good department that's dedicated to being even better," Suthers told the assembly.
The American Correctional Association's own role in the prison boom is as problematic as the growth itself. At the annual convention, which features professional seminars and workshops as well as a chance to shop for pepper spray, there was no shortage of speeches about the need for reform. Many members of the ACA -- a group that includes wardens, guards, counselors, parole officers and halfway-house operators -- readily acknowledge that overcrowded prisons are hard to manage; that the majority of the nation's inmates are nonviolent offenders; that thousands of them might be better handled in community corrections or diversion programs; that the boom has generated a wealth of problems as well as opportunities.
Yet down on the exhibit floor, even the problems are seen as opportunities -- an invitation for the private sector to cash in with more gadgets, more jobs, more prisons. Inmates are no longer simply a captive market; in many ways, they have become a commodity themselves. Imagine: 1.8 million live ones, in constant need of health care, feeding, commissary supplies, electronic monitoring, "after care" programs and spit containment.
Even as the private sector's involvement mounts, one group appears to have been shut out of the process entirely. ACA executive director James Gondles concedes that the public hasn't been sufficiently involved in shaping the direction of corrections policy, a situation he blames not simply on ignorance but indifference.
"Nobody wants to hear or read about a prison," Gondles says, "because when they do hear about it, it's because there was a killing, a riot, a disturbance of some kind. The governors' psychology is the same way. Several directors of prisons told me that when they came to work, their governors told them, 'Just keep us out of the newspapers.' In other words, keep a lid on it."
But Gondles believes that public concern about prison costs and conditions is rising. "We are going to see more citizens interested in jails and prisons," he predicts cheerily. "The rate of incarceration is becoming so high that we're going to reach a point where everyone knows someone who is in jail or prison."
The very first Congress of Correction was held in Cincinnati in 1870. Presiding over that historic event was Ohio governor and future U.S. president Rutherford B. Hayes. At the time, the ACA was known as the National Prison Association. But that was before guards became "correctional officers," before convicts became "inmates" who received "placement" rather than incarceration, before the prison regimen became a matter of "programming," before throwing a prisoner into solitary confinement in a strip cell became known as "administrative segregation."
Newspeak is rampant in the Orwellian prison industry. There's even a movement afoot to refer to inmates as "clients" -- as if a change in labels would ensure that caged felons receive the same excellent service that lawyers, social workers and therapists dole out to their customers. The shift is part of the ACA's unflagging efforts to promote a more professional image for the industry.
One way the organization has sought to polish its reputation is to woo high-profile personalities to speak at its conventions. Recent gatherings have featured the likes of Attorney General Janet Reno and James Carville and Mary Matalin. This year's keynote speaker was former game-show host and 20/20 anchor Hugh Downs, the man who holds the record for longevity in network television -- not quite as venerable as Rutherford B. Hayes, but almost.
ACA director Gondles did his best to whip up enthusiasm for Downs, introducing him as "a walking, living awardee...a legend...a member of the Guinness Book of World Records...Mr. Broadcast Journalism!" Yet Downs's remarks to the assembly had nothing to do with prison reform or the professionalism movement. He gave a standard stump speech, full of mildly amusing anecdotes about the Paleolithic era of television. The crowd seemed to perk up only when, in response to a question from the floor, Downs launched into one of his pet peeves -- the abysmal failure of the war on drugs, which has filled prisons with hundreds of thousands of offenders whose crimes are directly related to their chronic substance abuse.
"We've managed to turn a medical problem into a crime problem," he said, generating a burst of applause.
Still, the selection of Downs as opening speaker was a revealing one. Of all the TV personalities commanding fat fees for personal appearances, it's hard to imagine one who would be more palatable to prison administrators than the grandfatherly Concentration veteran. Corrections executives frequently complain that they get about as much respect from most journalists as they do from spitting inmates.
"The media tend to paint us in a negative light," bemoaned convention panelist Garry Dennis, a deputy commissioner of corrections for the state of Kentucky. "People only see the bad things. We are becoming a profession, but we have some distance to go in rehabilitating our image with the general public."
The ACA pushes professionalism by offering its members a wide range of services and products, including extensive training manuals and videos, legislative liaison work, and a slick bi-monthly magazine, Corrections Today, bursting with ads that depict snarling inmates cursing the virtues of products such as unbreakable toilets ("I got ten years, but Santana is in here for life!"). One of its principal revenue sources, though, is its accreditation commission, which "audits" prisons on a regular basis so that they may be certified as meeting certain minimal professional standards.
Accreditation has become a kind of Holy Grail for the vast majority of jail and prison administrators. They've invested millions in training and renovation in an effort to meet ACA standards, believing that accreditation will improve security and staff morale, insulate them from lawsuits and upgrade their image. (Colorado's DOC now has eight fully accredited prisons, including its supermax, with more under consideration.) The push to meet the requirements, which address everything from cell space to kitchen sanitation to appropriate use of force, has made the ACA the primary arbiter of prison conditions outside the court system.
Yet accreditation is no guarantee that conditions within a prison are constitutional or even safe. In the wake of the overcrowding crisis, ACA standards have proven highly elastic; for example, a few years ago the association drastically reduced its minimum required cell space for medium-security inmates -- an acknowledgment that many double-bunked prisons couldn't meet the higher standards. Prison administrators have been known to move inmates out of violent, overcrowded prisons in order to meet ACA standards, only to move them back once accreditation has been achieved. Perhaps the most disturbing case of such body-swapping occurred at the notorious Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville, which received the ACA's blessing in 1992. Fourteen months later, the Lucasville riot claimed the lives of nine inmates and one guard.
Three months ago, attorneys for inmates at a troubled juvenile prison in Louisiana refused to let their clients speak to ACA inspectors. The lawyers maintain that the ACA team had essentially ignored earlier inmate complaints about beatings by guards, inadequate mental-health and medical care, suicide attempts and widespread violence in the prison and had failed to address such allegations in their reports. "It's our feeling that the accreditation process is a sham," attorney David Utter told reporters.
Sham or not, accreditation remains a top priority for many corrections systems. Private prison operators are particularly hungry for the ACA's stamp of approval. The Corrections Corporation of America, the world's largest private-prison company, oversees 82 prisons and jails in 26 states, Puerto Rico, Australia and the United Kingdom. More than half of its stateside facilities are accredited by the ACA.
Founded in 1983 by a group of Kentucky Fried Chicken investors, the CCA has reported double-digit growth in recent years and has long been a hot pick of prison investors. Thrifty governors such as Bill Owens tend to welcome private contractors like the CCA because they save money -- usually by spending less on employee salaries, benefits and training than comparable state prisons. But the quality of private prisons varies widely; some are undoubtedly safer and offer better programs than their state counterparts, while others are considerably worse.
Two of the CCA's three Colorado prisons are accredited. The third, the Kit Carson Correctional Center outside Burlington, opened last winter and has been plagued with management problems, including lockdowns and frequent staff turnover and dismissals. But other CCA ventures have had rockier starts and prevailed, including a prison in Youngstown, Ohio, that logged thirteen stabbings and six escapes -- including those of five murderers -- in its first fourteen months of operation. Two years later, the Youngstown operation is now fully accredited.
Other aspects of privatization have escaped the ACA's passion for professional standards. One prominent exhibitor at the convention was TransCor America, a CCA subsidiary that has become the nation's biggest prisoner transport company. TransCor moves more than 60,000 prisoners annually, sometimes keeping them shackled in small vans for weeks at a time, with overnight stops in county jails and drunk tanks ("Just Hop on the Van, Man," December 18, 1997).
Inmate allegations about unsanitary and unsafe conditions, brutal treatment and even sexual assaults by TransCor staffers have generated numerous lawsuits against the company, including several in Colorado. TransCor has a $50 million liability policy, and company executives say that its employees adhere to strict policies regarding driving time and rest stops. But prisoners tell another story.
Recently, an extraditee named Aaron Ruddy contacted Westword about his TransCor experience, a two-week odyssey in 1998 that took him from New York to a jail in Jefferson County. "Everybody who was on the van never had their shackles or handcuffs removed," he wrote. "I had sores on my ankles when I got to my final destination...The 'agents' frequently ignored TransCor's safety policies by speeding any chance they could get...You could tell that [they] needed to get some rest themselves when we had to give directions or point out road safety signs... When I complained about how little food we were being served, one of the agents told me that he has flushed bigger shits than me and said he was ready to take the restraints off me and kick my ass!
"At some point in this journey I ended up on a bus. The smell was even worse than the van because now there were forty prisoners or more that had been on the road for days without showers or clean clothes...[TransCor's] policy manual states that prisoners should be in transit an average of four days or less. Everybody that I talked to that has been extradited by this company was on the road for at least ten days.
"Colorado is so worried about saving a few dollars that they would and do put people through that kind of torture. We may have made some bad choices to get ourselves locked up, but we are still people."
At present, there's no fat book of ACA standards governing the prisoner transport business -- and not much government oversight, either. TransCor boasts that its operation embraces the highest standards of training, safety and efficiency, but there are more stringent federal laws for shipping circus animals than there are for caged human beings.
Inmates shackled in vans or doing time in private big houses on the prairie aren't the only casualties of the prison boom. Increasingly, the keepers themselves are feeling battered by the lock-'em-up frenzy. At this year's ACA convention, seminars dealing with employee problems -- officer stress, ethical dilemmas, safety and liability issues, sexual-harassment complaints and so on -- were more prevalent (and tended to draw much larger crowds) than those focusing on prisoners and rehabilitation programs.
Working in corrections has always been a hazardous, thankless job, but the current wave of high-tech punishment and behavior-modification techniques has added a touch of the surreal. Old-time turnkeys may have had to watch out for the occasional "loony," but today's prison staffers preside over entire empires of the mentally ill -- as well as five-time losers who can't seem to stay straight and a growing number of lifers who have nothing to lose. Spitting is the least of the corrections professional's worries. In California, incidents of "gassing" -- the inmate practice of flinging cocktails made up of urine and feces on guards -- have gone up 40 percent in the past five years. There were 469 attempted gassings in 1998 alone.
Many of the new prisons are located in rural areas, and the locals who seek positions there are often not prepared for the indignities and pressures of the job. Nor are they inclined to talk about them. "I tell other officers' wives that I do the same job their husband does," said Kathleen Halladay, a Michigan corrections officer who appeared on the convention's "traumatic incident stress management" panel, "and they tell me, 'I don't know what my husband does.'"
"Corrections is not an easy job," noted Gary Cornelius, a Virginia jail official who spoke about stress on another panel. "You see people getting sick and burned out, and you wonder why. Inmates are our stressors. We can't get away from that."
Halladay has counseled staffers overwhelmed by the grim realities of the job, including one female officer who discovered three prisoners hanging in their cells in separate incidents over the course of a year. Cornelius is writing a book about how stressed-out officers become prone to violence themselves ("I've seen people go off on inmates for no reason") and are easy targets for manipulative prisoners.
Many corrections agencies are now developing stress-management classes and "debriefing" teams designed to counsel troubled employees before their behavior costs them their job. Sometimes the cost is even higher. Corrections officers, like other law-enforcement employees, are three times more likely to commit suicide than to die in the line of duty. Their suicide rate is significantly higher than that of the general population -- higher, even, than that of inmates.
Stress-reduction programs may make prisons more bearable for staff and prisoners alike, but triage work can do little to address what many critics see as the underlying problem with the prison-industrial complex: The system simply doesn't work.
If the goal of prisons is to protect the public from every conceivable form of criminal for a certain amount of time while ensuring that the offender will continue to commit crimes once he's released, then prisons work just fine. But if the goal is to do more than simply punish, then something else is needed, something that would address the industry's miserable recidivism rates and its inclination to simply warehouse its most difficult "clients."
In recent years, the hottest growth area in the business has been in the field of community corrections, electronic monitoring and halfway houses, with private industry leading the way. The demand for re-entry programs has generated a mini-boom for companies that provide a mix of 24-hour surveillance, drug testing, job placement and headshrinking that's supposed to somehow transform seasoned cons into productive members of society -- while protecting the public from the truly bad apples.
"We're putting away a lot of the wrong people," says James Anderson, a vice president at BI Incorporated, a Boulder company that's become the nation's leading supplier of electronic monitoring services. "I really believe that what's needed are after-care products for high-risk people. We spend $100,000 or more putting someone into prison, and we don't do anything when they get out but make them report to a parole officer. They should be at home at night for the first year and monitored very heavily."
An outfit that began by putting transmitters on cows in the 1970s, BI now has its ankle bracelets on parolees, those on probation and other offenders in community settings across the country. The company has also moved aggressively into developing its own community-corrections service centers -- places to which parolees report for drug tests, counseling and other services. BI now operates more than eighty such centers, including sites in Capitol Hill and Lakewood.
"Our programs are structured to require accountability, provide immediate feedback and administer consequences for self-defeating behavior patterns," boasts the BI convention literature. "Our staff assist clients to develop pro-social thinking and attitudes and to confront entrenched, maladaptive patterns of behavior."
BI claims to be "reducing offender risk by meeting offender needs." But even the most comprehensive re-entry program tends to have a high failure rate, in part because the most critical offender needs have been scarcely addressed during the miscreant's years in prison. Within the walls, long-term rehabilitative programs with a proven track record -- programs that focus on education, job training and conquering substance abuse -- have taken a backseat to the rage to punish.
Up to 80 percent of all inmates have a history of substance abuse, and recidivism rates drop significantly for those who complete drug programs while still in the system. But intensive, effective programs are often unavailable or over-subscribed. One 1996 study found 840,000 federal and state prisoners in need of drug treatment, but fewer than 150,000 received such treatment before being released. Educational programs, a favorite target of politicians blustering about the "privileges" prisoners supposedly enjoy, have also languished; when DOC officials were asked to rank prison programs in order of priority, educational offerings made the 25th spot on a list of 42. Vocational education was ranked 35th.
Of course, offenders rarely have a voice in determining what their true "needs" might be. The prison industry doesn't pay much attention to the views of prisoners; what does the client know about the business, anyway? Amid the throng of experts speaking at its convention, the ACA had only one professed ex-jailbird on the program, a Canadian named Rene Durocher.
Durocher spent 22 years in prison on a 47-year sentence for armed robbery. He's now working with an innovative program called Life Line, which brings successful parolees back into the prisons to work with lifers, encouraging them to make productive use of their time. Canada abolished its death penalty in 1976, and most of those serving life sentences -- even murderers -- have a chance to apply for a lifelong parole after fifteen or twenty years.
"I'm the best resource the staff can have," Durocher says. "I understand these people; I spent my life with them. My job is to tell them, 'You have to take charge of your own life. You can do the program and play the game -- but if you want to change, you have to do it yourself.'"
Thirty-three of Durocher's lifers have been released on parole in the past five years. Six are now back in prison -- one for drunk driving, the other five for parole violations. The program's overall success rate is well above 90 percent. "I am 100 percent sure that if inmates inside American prisons were allowed this same opportunity, they could succeed," Durocher insists.
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But such a program would be virtually impossible in a state like Colorado. The DOC doesn't permit any former inmates, even would-be do-gooders, to visit its facilities for at least five years. And these days, a life sentence usually means life without parole; those who were sentenced under older, indeterminate sentencing schemes remain in a state of limbo. Colorado has exactly two lifers in halfway houses at the moment. Despite the fact that both have long records of good behavior within the system, neither is expected to be granted parole in the near future.
This was the first time Durocher had been to an ACA convention. He visited the exhibit floor and marveled at all the elaborate apparatuses of punishment and at the lack of viable rehabilitation programs. Ironically, many of the nonprofit organizations that work hardest on prison-reform issues -- the Volunteers of America, various prison ministries -- were tucked in a row at the very back of the hall.
"I'm not impressed with the industry," Durocher says. "It's unbelievable what is happening here. I look at this country, and it's one of the most violent in the world. When you see the way crime has been dealt with in the United States, it's obvious that it doesn't work. Why don't you take a chance with something else?"
Visit www.westword.com to read related Westword stories.


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I had given a lot of thought to recommending associational meeting places to help boost attendance and interest in the annual meeting that takes place in various cities around the country. However, after attending the meeting in Houston, I realized something; I believe the reason that so many are now staying away from the meeting may have more to do with what happens or maybe more accurately stated, what does not take place at the annual meeting, than anything else. Let me explain.
A number of motions were brought to the floor of the annual meeting last year. Those motions were either ruled out of order or they were all referred to a committee. I looked at the report for this year's meeting and noticed that all of those motions referred to committees last year were not brought back up this year. Several motions were brought up on the floor of the meeting this year and guess what? Those motions that were not ruled out of order were referred to some committee and not even debated on the floor of the convention. Ronnie Floyd made a motion and managed to get an audience with those in charge of hearing motions, but that is all I heard of that.
The SBC has a resolutions committee that receives resolutions submitted to them before the convention convenes. This committee has the right to revise any resolution submitted to it as it sees fit before presenting the resolution to the convention for approval, if it chooses to do so. If the resolutions committee does not believe the resolution is in the best interest of the convention, it may not present the resolution at all. Once a resolution is presented, discussion ensues and the chair entertains motions to amend the resolution. Once those issues are settled, the motion with any approved amendments are then voted on. There is only one real problem with this; resolutions are nothing more than strong suggestions because those resolutions have no authority where the entities of the SBC are concerned nor do they have any authority over the church, because churches are autonomous bodies. The entities are not autonomous, but are governed by a board of trustees and as such, are not required to follow any vote taken by the convention messengers. This was clearly seen when in Phoenix the messengers voted to have Lifeway take the NIV 2011 off its shelves and when the board of trustees met in 2012, they voted to keep it. The BOT was under no mandate to act on the vote of the messengers in annual session. This is true of all the entities of the SBC.
It might also be noted, that motions made on the floor of the convention would be no more binding than resolutions. Citing an exaggerated scenario, a motion could be made on the floor of the convention to fire one of the entity heads. That motion could pass unanimously but it would still be up to the trustee board as to what they decided to do with reference to such a motion, no matter what the nature of that motion might have been.
The only real significance that can be seen in the business of the meeting would be related to voting for the president of the SBC. Since this year was considered an "off-year" for any presidential election noting Dr. Luter's unopposed re-election bid, some have said they would save their money for Baltimore where a new president will be elected in 2014. This could explain the lower than expected number of messengers in Houston. I have even heard that reason given for folks not attending New Orleans knowing that Dr. Luter would be nominated unopposed as well. The Convention then elects a First Vice President and then a Second Vice President. Bart Barber was elected to the first position unopposed and Jared Moore was elected to the second receiving 422 votes over Don Cass with 252 or so votes. There were 674 votes cast in total. William Thornton has raised a good question regarding a quorum necessary to conduct business. You can read his article by clicking here. With the number of messengers registered, 1250 would have had to be in the convention hall to even vote for the 2 VP and since 674 votes were cast, there is some wonder if that vote were not cast prematurely. It was 20 minutes or so before the scheduled time on the printed program.
There is a second problem with the nomination process of officers. Someone got up and nominated Jared Moore and basically said Jared is a personal friend; his church gives 16% to the CP and he is not a mega church pastor but just an ordinary guy pastoring a rural church of folks that love Jesus and their community. A second individual got up and nominated Don Cass and spoke to his credentials and why he ought to be the next 2 VP. Neither of these two guys even so much as waved to the crowd, as small as it was. No one had much of a clue who these two guys were other than what they were told by the individual nominating them. This process is producing some serious potential problems. Jared Moore is two heartbeats away from the presidency of the SBC. I find that problematic for a number of reasons.
The first is highlighted by an article Jared himself wrote on his own blog. For those who do not know Jared, he is an avid blogger. In an article he wrote that was published at SBC Voices on September 24, 2012 titled "An Open Letter to "Failing" Churches and Foolish Southern Baptists", he wrote the following statement:
The church I pastor, New Salem Baptist Church in Hustonville, KY, didn't record a single baptism last year (2011). I realize some folks in Southern Baptist churches and in Southern Baptist State and National entities lament our efforts as "failing," but I want to publicly rebuke them, and encourage those who have labored faithfully without much tangible fruit.
It is bad enough that Jared's church did not baptize a single person in a year but he sees it as his duty to rebuke those who find that problematic. Jared goes on to say,
"At least one baptism per year" is an unbiblical quota. Where is such a quota at in Scripture? You won't find it. So, why do some judge the ministries of others based on this quota? Furthermore, why is their quota so low? Why isn't their quota "at least one baptism per week"? Or, better yet, "100 baptisms per week"? I suppose then they would have to admit that they're failures as well?
I do understand there are a lot of circumstances surrounding people being saved and baptized in our churches. However, one of the biggest reasons people are not saved centers around our not witnessing and sharing the gospel with folks outside the pulpit. It is absolutely inconceivable that ANYONE who is saved could not win 1 person to Jesus in a year. I agree with Moore that there are no such goals spelled out in the Scriptures but I would also argue that the thought that a born again Christian would not lead one person to Christ in a year would be highly unusual as well. Moore's article can be read by clicking here. He does make some good comments but there really is no excuse for anyone to go a year without leading someone to Christ. If the 422 messengers who voted for Jared knew this fact, I wonder how many would have still voted for him?
Perhaps there ought to be some kind of opportunity to ask, "If anyone knows of any reason that this person should not be nominated to this position, let him speak now or forever hold his peace." It works for weddings; maybe it ought to be used in nominations for office in SBC elections of the future. A brief question and answer session ought to be incorporated into the election process, seeing that these are the most significant opportunities for messengers to engage in.
There was a pronounced effort made to set a tone for co-operation in the SBC. The repeated cry was for all of us to "look at all the things we agree on" and not focus on the few things that we disagree on. Personally I find that a little condescending. If there were not significant differences, we would not be having these debates in the first place. Here is a fact. The cry to get along is almost always the cry of the underdog until they become the big dog and then there is no longer any toleration for differing positions. From all indications, the same can be said of the New Calvinist movement. The new church planting organizations that are Reformed, are planting reformed church plants that are committed to reformed theology up front. More recently, the trustees of a couple state supported Baptist colleges have voted not to renew contracts on professors and the New Calvinist contingency has made their calvinism a major issue in their contracts not being renewed. Sharp criticism has been leveled against the institutions and in one case the executive director of the state. It is as if the day is fast changing and the New Calvinists are already flexing their muscles proving their desire to have one theological position in the SBC; Reformed Theology.
Call it what you want; it is what it is. We can call for unity and I believe everyone would love to see real unity. However, the unity we are seeking is a one-sided effort allowing the other side to continue doing what it needs to do to move the SBC closer to the Reformed way which I believe is set to be solidified when the SBC moves to Baltimore. The foundation has been laid and barring a significant move of God, the guys leading this calvinist charge will prevail in Baltimore and the SBC will be turned to a more reformed position.
This convention in Baltimore may well prove to be one of the most significant conventions in the history of the SBC. I believe every Southern Baptist ought to begin to make plans to go to Baltimore because win, lose of draw, this will be the convention you will not want to miss.
May God bless the SBC in these very interesting days!
Bob Hadley,
Westside Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, FL


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Junge Frau (bunt) / Young Girl (coloured): Gerhard Richter, 1965, oil on canvas, 80 x 65 cm (Gerhard Richter Art)
Pumped for a rhyming line into air
A football falling through registration,
Here I come: That's Kathy's Clown,
A song by Don and Phil in her
Consciousness. And mine. A beverage
Passes between lips, they're her lips;
I am that beverage. Her Royal Crown
Classes break on the hour
Bar, O falcon of the lecture!
Fall, footballs, through the leaves!
We clown in airs of each other's consciousness:
I bring hers stealthy cigarettes,
Between-halves tears; she brings mine
Contemporary milk of the lectures.
Turmspingerin II / High Diver II: Gerhard Richter, 1965, oil on canvas, 80 x 80 cm (Gerhard Richter Art)
Inge (bunt) / Inge (coloured): Gerhard Richter, 1965, oil on canvas, 40 x 35 cm (Gerhard Richter Art)


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(an Icelandic tale)
Once upon a time long ago, there were three brothers who lived on a farm near Bakki, in Iceland, a quiet, mountainous part of the world. The brothers were Gisli, Eirikur and Helgi, and they were full of fun and mischief when they were young. Alas, they grew only more mischievous as they grew older, and they did not grow wise. Indeed, people whispered about them; many said they were, quite simply, fools.
Because they were always together, people called them the Bakki Brothers, but they were also known as "Gisli-Eirikur-Helgi" — the names all slurred into one. Strangely enough, they called themselves the same, as if the three were just one person — one great fool!
One late summer day, the brothers set off for southern Iceland to buy a barrel. Each brother filled his pockets with coins, and they began their journey.
Iceland is different from many parts of the world. Not only is it mountainous, but there are few people in the central highlands, and the weather there changes rapidly. As the brothers traveled, despite the season, they discovered the countryside was raw and windy and wild. They came to rivers without bridges, to crevassed glaciers and to volcanoes and merciless seas. But the people they met were friendly and helpful. Many invited the brothers in for a meal, so their spirits stayed buoyant and thankful. And though their trip lasted far longer than they had imagined it might, it was a joy.
When they finally reached southern Iceland, they found the barrel maker, Mr. Fassbinder, who greeted them heartily. He had been expecting them for quite some time.
"We're Gisli-Eirikur-Helgi," they said in unison. All those days of travel had brought them even closer together, and Mr. Fassbinder seemed puzzled by this introduction.
"Which one is which?" he asked, but his question only confused the brothers.
"We're Gisli-Eirikur-Helgi," they said, and Mr. Fassbinder watched in wonder as they emptied their pockets and altogether counted out their coins.
He scooped the money from their outstretched palms, and presented them with his pride — a great oak barrel, carefully hewn, stave by stave.
"How will you carry it home?" Mr. Fassbinder asked. He saw they had traveled on foot. "It's a hefty vessel," he said, staring at their worn and ragged shoes.
"No problem at all!" answered Gisli-Eirikur-Helgi, and before the cooper's eyes they began to take the barrel apart, stave by stave.
When they were done and the barrel was in pieces, the brothers divided the staves among themselves and packed them in their bags.
"Now we'll be on our way home," they said. Mr. Fassbinder tried to speak, but before he could, the brothers had left on their long journey back home.
Just as before, they encountered wonderful people and wild storms, but they remained cheerful, and after a long, long time, they reached their farm.
They unpacked their sacks, laying the staves upon the ground inside their barn, and together, they began to reconstruct the barrel, stave by stave. After a day of this, they stood back and grinned. The barrel was the perfect shape, just right for filling with whey. It was just what they'd wished.
With the barrel standing upright before them, they began to pour the whey inside.
"We've done it!" they cried happily, but soon they began to see the whey was pouring out of the barrel, seeping into the earth beneath their feet.
"It seems to have a leak," said Gisli-Eirikur-Helgi in unison, and so they took the barrel apart once again, and, once again, they put it back together.
"Looks perfect!" they said, and again they poured whey into their barrel, but, once again, the whey spilled everywhere.
"What can be wrong?" asked Gisli, or perhaps it was Eirikur or Helgi. No one could ever be sure.
"I cannot tell," Eirikur answered, or perhaps it was Helgi or Gisli. But whichever brother it was, he squinted his eyes and stared hard at the barrel, as if to ask, "What's wrong with you?"
"We've been cheated!" Helgi said, or perhaps it was Gisli or Eirikur who said that, but whoever it was, the boys all felt cheated.
And with heavy hearts, they decided they must return to southern Iceland to demand their money back from Mr. Fassbinder.
And so they took apart the barrel once again, and they tucked the staves into their packs, and they set off on their long journey.
When they arrived, the brothers shouted, altogether and in unison, "Mr. Fassbinder, your barrel is flawed!"
But Mr. Fassbinder only smiled, and he held up the bottom of the barrel and the top — the parts the brothers had left behind. "You'll probably want these to keep your barrel from leaking," he said, and the brothers nodded happily.
"A wonderful solution!" they cried, and carrying the staves and the top and the bottom of the barrel, they walked back home, though no one is sure the brothers ever put that barrel back together again. After all, few can predict what a fool is going to do.


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It's melting!! Streams are running along the Cul-de-Sac curbs, with nowhere to go but between the islands of snow and ice. I needed to run across the street to my neighbors and had to jump over the stream and landed up with a soaker....yes, I yelped at the freezing cold wetness in my shoe.....but somehow exhilarated that it's mild enough to create these obstacles to jump. The kids were running through the water and then up the mountains of snow that remain for them to slide down. Fun, fun!!
Friday, March 7, 2008
Puddle Jumping
Posted by Faye at 10:18 PM
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Final year students in the UK are steering well clear of jobs in banking, finance and property this year, and only one in three have got themselves a job offer.
The traditional "milkround" of pre-exam recruitment has seen job offers fall by a third. Half of students are worried that even if they were offered a graduate job, the offer could be withdrawn before they start work or they'll get laid off within a year.
Applications to the Armed Forces, public sector, teaching, charities, engineering have all increased, and one in six final year students said they had deliberately aimed for apparent job security over other factors.
More than half of those questioned described their job prospects as very limited.
For the first time, the top destination for soon-to-be graduates is teaching. But investment banking is now the ninth most popular choice - down from second place last year. There was also a growth in applications for jobs in IT - the first growth in nine years. Engineering and public sector applications were up a sixth. Half of those questioned said they'd take any job offered and a fifth said they'd already applied to employers they're not interested in.
Expected starting salaries dropped for the first time since the survey began in 1995 to an average of £22,300.
All this is made worse of course by the level of debt graduates now carry - full-fat tution fees were introduced in England in 2006. So the average debt for the 2009 graduate is £15,700 - compared to £11,600 last year.
More than half of employers have cut their targets for graduate recruitment - finance has cut 2,500 graduate positions. Accountancy firms are still looking for 20.9 per cent of the advertised positions, public sector jobs account for 13.5 per cent and the Armed Forces for 12.8 per cent - a 17 per cent increase on last year.
Full results available from High Fliers Research here.
Researchers spoke to 16,357 final year students at 30 universities. This is about a fifth of the 82,500 final year undergraduates at those institutions. Medics, dentists and veterinary students were excluded. ®


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5,000 Bonus Flying Club miles with every Guest List booking. Virgin Atlantic is offering passengers an enhanced travel experience when they purchase the Guest List package. This product will allow you the opportunity to experience elements of our fantastic ground based Upper Class service. The Guest List package is available when travelling to/from: London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Boston, New York (both Newark and JFK), San Francisco and Washington. Full details
1,000 Bonus Flying Club Miles when you travel with your dog or cat on a Virgin Atlantic flight.
Full Details


text:
Kridakal (Feat. Topadalyne & Manny Rabel) - Im Fresh [Unsigned Hype]
"The hottest in the hood Kridakal presents "I'm Fresh" by KridaKal feat Topadalyne & Manny Rabel... Now iTunes,...... follow KridalKal on twitter @kridakal for booking email firstname.lastname@example.com "
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text:
UPDATE: Garfien gives us the long version:
Adam Dunn had experienced stomach pains before, but never quite like this. For several days, there were shooting pains coming from the upper reaches of his abdomen. He assumed it wasn't anything serious.
That was until he flipped on the television while in his hotel room in Kansas City on Tuesday morning and saw a story about the Cardinal's Matt Holliday who needed his appendix taken out after playing on Opening Day.
The reporter mentioned Holliday's symptoms. Dunn made a mental checklist
"Got that … got that … got that," he said to himself.
Wednesday at 2:30 a.m., White Sox general manager Kenny Williams received a phone call. It was team trainer Herm Schneider calling from a Kansas City hospital, informing him that Williams' $56 million slugger was about to have an emergency appendectomy.


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Kill Frenzy's storming debut on dirtybird, the addictive, juke charged brute with its ingenious hip hop breakdown, is back for re-release with a slew of remixes from some choice label affiliates. Not content with the originals genre-traversing legacy (including plays from Soul Clap to Skrillex and pretty much everyone in between), Belgiums booty obsessed Kill Frenzy has rallied the likes of The Martin Brothers, Zombie Disco Squad, Plastician and Mark Starr to deliver their own take on the track, bringing the work out to brand new dance floors in the process.
The Martin Brothers set the pace with a characteristically heavy house bass line, the twisted "make that booty clap" vocal sample dancing over the driving groove. Zombie Disco Squad let's the buttock-smacking claps take centre stage, while a clever percussion score and perfectly timed ellipsis make for certified ghetto house dance floor material. Dirtybird debutant by way of Croydon, Plastician, focuses on the bass elements of the original, creating a swaying dubstep rhythm where booty claps become glock pops before your very eyes, while Mark Starr opts for a similarly languid groove, without losing sight of Kill Frenzy's playful genre-splicing.
"Make That Booty Clap feat. DJ Funk" became an instant milestone in the dirtybird canon and its great to see Kill Frenzy's debut receiving such masterful reworks a year on.
Buy it here.


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As the U.S. economy continues to lag, Americans find work overseas.
It's a common scene from an American household: Kristy Williams is plying her young son, Thomas, with Oreos and marshmallows to finish his studies. The difference is that Thomas is working with a tutor learning Mandarin Chinese, and the Williamses are living in Hangzhou, China, two hours from Shanghai. Kristy and Joel Williams moved their four children from Houston to China a month ago after Joel's employer, Bray, a valves manufacturer, announced that they were looking for someone to work in their Hangzhou offices. Joel texted Kristy from work and said, "Would you want to move to China?" Kristy chuckled at first, but after thinking about it for a bit she thought, "Yeah, why not?" The Williamses are part of a growing trend of Americans who are finding that some of the most exciting opportunities lie overseas, not in the U.S. Up to 6 million American citizens are now living overseas, according to the Migration Policy Institute, and a Gallup poll shows that those numbers have leaped in recent years; between 2009 and 2011, the number of American ex-pats between the ages of 25 and 34 surged from barely 1 percent to more than 5 percent. While the U.S. economy continues to lag, with a deficit of nearly 9 million jobs, economies like China, India and Dubai are flush with jobs and possibilities for advancement. New college grads and ambitious career people like the Williamses are increasingly looking abroad in search of the next opportunity and the "American Dream." Go East young man - way East U.S. college grads are coming out of school with more debt than ever, and the debt keeps climbing. According to the Project on Student Debt, the average debt load for American grads leaped from $26,600 in 2011 to $29,400 in 2012. Even as college grads are taking on more loans, they face unemployment and poverty-level wages of $16.60 an hour, reports the Economic Policy Institute. The combination of soaring student debt and a sagging economy puts U.S. graduates in a tight spot. Yet there are plentiful jobs overseas for American grads, according to Bruce Jones, president and founder of International Tefl Academy, which helped place 1,500 people in English-teaching jobs overseas last year. In China alone, there are at least 100,000 jobs for native speakers to teach English, Jones says. "Think about it," says Jones, "there are more people in China learning and speaking English than the entire population of the U.S." Jones sees a lot of recent college graduates and soon-to-be college graduates coming through his doors looking for their next gig and trying to figure out how to make their student loan payments, but he's also started seeing retirees. In Europe, English teachers will usually break even after living expenses, he says. But there is opportunity to make cold hard cash: the people who are banking money go to South Korea and China, where they can stash $1,500-$2,000 a month after living expenses, and housing and airfare are often paid for. The same goes for Dubai and Kuwait. Jones now has 25 offices around the world and has helped more than 10,000 native English speakers find work, and the demand shows no sign of slowing. Making the leap Teaching English is a popular way to get work in a foreign country, but it's not exactly a career. Most people Jones works with teach for three years at most. Teachers can transition to other work in their adopted homes, he says. Americans go to Asia and China to make business connections and network while they are there, and some eventually end up at Samsung or LG. Casey Clemence is vice president of human resources for India and the Middle East of a large American engineering company, and he says he is contacted by seven to 10 Americans every day that are looking to get into a career overseas - about half of whom are new college grads. "I think that a lot of Americans are looking for a viable job market," says Clemence, who moved to Saudi Arabia when he was laid off by Bank of America in 2009 and found the U.S. job market had dried up. "There is high unemployment in the U.S., and people figure if they can find a gig overseas, pay the bills and pay down their student loans and get some adventure under their belt - bring it on," says Clemence. A common route he recommends for job seekers is large accounting firms that have offices from Australia to Switzerland and need everything from auditors to administrators. The foreign service is another route that many people don't think about, but it's a great possibility for people who are "culturally alive, good with languages and smart," says Clemence. Americans who already have work in the U.S. find that there are opportunities abroad, or that their employers expect them to do an international tour. When Goldman Sachs announced that it would finally be adding 1,000 jobs after the recession, for example, all of those jobs were available only in Singapore. The Williamses' move to China was voluntary, but it seemed like a smart move to get ahead. "China and Asia are important to the company's long-term growth, and companies like executives with international experience," says Kristy Williams. The couple spoke to families who had done tours in China and Europe before making the move. "Everyone was of the opinion that this will only help you," she says. Matt Mullens, a recruiting manager who moved to Kuwait in 1997 shortly after he graduated from college, warns that it's not easy to break into the global job market: "You're competing against educated English-speakers from India and Pakistan who are willing to work for less than Americans are," he says. Ex-pats should also be careful about where they take work - foreign workers often don't have the same rights as native residents, and a company can quickly terminate them without severance and cancel their sponsorship. The pay-off beyond yen and euros Some companies offer generous ex-pat packages to entice workers, including perks like nannies, drivers and tuition for private international schools. Mullen followed his then-girlfriend to Kuwait where she took a school teaching job there in the late 1990s. Her travel and housing were paid for, and the couple realized that they could get ahead much faster than on her teaching salary in the states. "One of the things people in the international community look at is what's my take-home pay versus if I stayed in the states," says Mullen. After tax breaks, housing and transportation stipends, and cost-of-living adjustments, that number can be significant. "If you make $35,000 as a schoolteacher in the states you can maybe save $5,000 if you scrimp," says Mullen. "Teaching overseas, you might save $20,000." The couple, now married with three children and in their late thirties, has used that savings to travel from Bahrain to the Philippines to Mount Kilimanjaro and to buy real estate investments in Arizona. Another perk of the international lifestyle, says Clemence, is the people: "Tonight, we had Jordanians and Russians at our dinner table - and one of them was in the Soviet Union when it fell apart - those are conversations that it's tough to find over a burger in Whittier, Calif.," he says. The Williamses see their stint as an opportunity for their kids as much as for themselves and plan to enter their children in Mandarin-speaking schools so that they will be close to fluent by the time they leave. "Being so far away from everything forces you to rely on each other and strengthen relationships," Kristy Williams says. She also acknowledges that there are hardships that come with living far away from home. Williams doesn't mind a regular diet of rice and vegetables that she finds at the local market, and hot dumplings that she buys from street vendors. Her kids, on the other hand, often long for pizza and chicken nuggets. She has to travel miles away to a specialty store to get cheese and American-style milk. Washing machines are tiny, and dryers almost non-existent, so doing laundry for a family of six is a major time drain. Joel's company provides a nanny for a few hours every day, "but it ends up compensating for the difficulties more than being a luxury," she says. Mullens also acknowledges that there is a downside to living far from home. He has missed funerals for two of his grandparents, and while he loves international travel, he's not crazy about the 26 hours of travel to see family back home in Arizona. So far, the trade-offs have been worth it, he says. Clemence sees far-reaching benefits for his kids in a globalized world. His daughter goes to an international school with Tunisians, Koreans and Jordanians. Last month, she went to Istanbul to compete in the Model United Nations and was voted best delegate from 500 kids from 40 other countries. "How do I measure the benefit to that daughter in her future life?" he says. "No amount of money buys that."%3Cimg%20src%3D%22http%3A//beacon.deseretconnect.com/beacon.gif%3Fcid%3D140611%26pid%3D46%22%20/%3E


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12 Day Philippines Island Hopper
As you follow a serene river through remote rainforest, the peaceful lap of the gentle tide is suddenly replaced with a raging waterfall that spills into a series of pristine pools in a place of impossible natural beauty.
Drink in Manila's rich history as you tour the medieval Spanish fortress in the Walled City of Intramuros, visit the oldest stone church in the Philippines and pay your respects to the 37,000 fallen soldiers at rest...
Kensington Tours – Experience The World, Your Way
Kensington Tours specializes in custom tours to over 90 countries worldwide. Our tailor-made journeys are carefully crafted to deliver a personalized adventure like no other. We build in extraordinary, enriching experiences and put the best private guides at your service. We do all this with award-winning attention to detail and unbeatable value for your travel dollar.
Expert Team with Deep Destina...


text: This is part of a two-part series designed to help Fantasy Baseball fans determine on what fantasy rankings and projections to rely. The first part covered Rankings. The second part will cover Projections. The methodology for the test relies on comparing Razzball Commenter League team drafts (576 teams in 2012 across 48 12-Team MLB leagues […]Please, blog, may I have some more?


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Floods Can Happen Anywhere...Are Your Clients Prepared?
Do You Want to Sell More Flood Insurance? Attend this Free Webinar: PIA's exclusive program with Floodbroker.com makes it easy to quote flood—and sell more policies—right on your agency's website.
On Wednesday, September 14, 2016 PIA is holding a FREE WEBINAR so you can learn all about Floodbroker.com and what it can do for your agency's growth potential. Evan Spindelman, Floodbroker.com president, will show you the website interface and illustrate how easy it is to use. The Webinar will conclude with an open Q&A session.
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Can't make the webinar?
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3. Visit PIA National's website. http://www.pianet.com/floodbroker


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Disable the Windows 8 Fast Boot feature to allow Thunderbolt devices to be recognized.
- Start up in Windows.
- Position your mouse cursor in the upper-right or lower-right corner of your screen to activate the Charms bar.
- Click on the Settings icon.
- Click Control Panel.
- Choose "Hardware and Sound."
- Under Power Options, choose "Change what the power buttons do."
- Under "Shutdown settings," remove the checkmark from "Turn on fast startup."
- Click on Save changes.
- Restart your computer. After restarting, devices connected to Thunderbolt ports should be recognized.


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In a few short lines of poetry, Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae captured the futility of the Great War. We asked prominent Canadians to recite the poem as an act of remembrance. We encourage you to record your own version and share it using the hashtag #inflandersfields.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.


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RomanCart is a shopping cart system which will easily allow you to add e-commerce to your website.
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text:
Alba Mesh Paper Clip Holder Blk
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Grinnell Putnam Team in Top 10%
The Grinnell College Putnam team placed 46th out of 546 teams from across the U.S. and Canada. The annual exam took place in December with 16 Grinnell students among the 4296 students who took the exam. Grinnell College had four students score at least a 20:
- Klevi Xhaxho: 28 points (individual rank: 641.5)
- Benjy Greenberg: 26 points (individual rank: 679.5)
- Colin Grove: 20 points (individual rank: 883)
- Alyce Eaton: 20 points (individual rank: 883)
The first three were members of the Grinnell's "team" (all contestants take part individually but three students are identified before the contest and the sum of their scores forms the team score). Congratulations to all the Putnam participants.


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LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas' new voter ID law had only been in effect for two weeks when it became the focus of confusion and controversy in a special election for a state Senate seat last week.
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas' new voter ID law had only been in effect for two weeks when it became the focus of confusion and controversy in a special election for a state Senate seat last week.
The ACLU said the law violated Craighead County voters' rights, while the law's sponsor said some problems are to be expected when voting laws change.
Act 595 of 2013 requires voters to show a photo ID at the polls and to include some type of ID, not necessarily with a photo, when voting by absentee ballot. It requires county clerks to provide voter ID cards on request at no charge, using equipment funded by the secretary of state's office.
The measure was fiercely debated during last year's legislative session, with supporters saying it would prevent voter fraud and opponents saying it would disenfranchise voters such as the poor and elderly who are less likely than others to have photo ID. Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe vetoed the legislation, but the Republican-led House and Senate overrode his veto and the measure became law Jan. 1.
On Tuesday, Republican John Cooper soundly defeated Democrat Steve Rockwell in the race for the District 21 state Senate seat vacated by the resignation last year of Democrat Paul Bookout. The initial, unofficial vote count had Cooper receiving 4,314 votes and Rockwell receiving 3,227.
Craighead County Election Commission Chairman Scott McDaniel said that to his knowledge no one showed up at the polls without a photo ID, but of the 134 absentee ballots received, about 75 were not accompanied by any form of ID. The ballots were set aside and not included in the initial vote count.
McDaniel said that although the number of ballots in question was too small to make a difference in the election's outcome, future elections could be closer, so it was important to determine what the law required.
He said the state Board of Election Commissioners advised him not to count the ballots because the law says ID must accompany absentee ballots, but the secretary of state's office later advised him that a cure period provided in the law for people who fail to show photo ID at the polls should apply also to people who submit absentee ballots without ID.
Faced with two contradictory recommendations, the county Election Commission chose to follow the secretary of state's advice.
The cure period allows a person who has cast a provisional ballot to present ID at the court clerk's office by noon on the Monday after the election to have the ballot counted. McDaniel said voters in this case will have until noon Tuesday because Monday is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
All absentee voters were given written instructions that stated a copy of ID was required, but the new requirement was easy to miss, according to McDaniel.
"It doesn't jump out at you," he said. "It's not bold, it's not in italics, it's not in red ink, nothing like that. It's just another line."
McDaniel said he hopes more will be done to educate voters and to make sure election officials know how the law is to be interpreted before the May primary election.
Alex Reed, spokesman for Secretary of State Mark Martin, said that "we're looking at entering into some contracts for advertising and things like that" to educate the public about the voter ID law in advance of the May primary.
"We're also talking with the state Board (of Election Commissioners) to try to come up with a solution to the contradictory statements," he said.
The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said its predictions that the law would disenfranchise voters had come true.
"It is going to take a lawsuit, a special session, or both to clear up this mess. We stand ready to represent affected voters, in Craighead County and elsewhere across the state," said Rita Sklar, executive director of ACLU of Arkansas.
The sponsor of Act 595, Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, said some problems are to be expected whenever voting laws change and said there is time to address the issues before May.
He added, "The ACLU claimed that (requiring) photo ID was going to stop people from voting, and … they didn't have any problem with the in-person voting requirement."
The U.S. Supreme Court said in 2008, in a ruling that upheld a voter ID law in Indiana, that states can require voters to show photo ID at the polls. On Friday, however, a state judge in Pennsylvania struck down that state's voter ID law, saying it did not further the goal of assuring a free and fair election.


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The Oscars will get a double dose of funny this March when not one but two all-star comic actors take the stage in Hollywood's biggest awards night.
Funnymen Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will co-host the Oscars ceremony, to be held March 7, 2010 in Los Angeles, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Tuesday.
"We think the team of Steve and Alec are the perfect pair of hosts for the Oscars," Oscar telecast producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman announced today.
U.S. & World
"Steve will bring the experience of having hosted the show in the past and Alec will be a completely fresh personality for this event," they said.
Martin, a two-time host of the show, said he was "happy" to co-host the Oscars with Alec Baldwin who he called his "enemy".
Baldwin, for his part, said he doesn't "play the banjo" but is "thrilled to be hosting the Oscars -- it's the opportunity of a lifetime."
The rumored host for the 82nd annual Oscars ceremony was "X-Men" and theater star Hugh Jackman, who hosted last year's ceremony, but the Broadway actor declined the offer to re-host earlier this month.
Jackman was praised last year for his hosting gig, which included musical numbers with Anne Hathaway and the cast of "Mamma Mia."
Martin, the comic legend behind the "Father of the Bride" series, hosted the 73rd and 75th Academy Awards shows.
"30 Rock" star Alec Baldwin, who was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003 for Best Supporting Actor in "The Cooler," will make his Oscars debut as this year's host.


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Summer Clearance Sale!
3' 3 x 5' 3 Kashkuli Gabbeh Rug
Made in: Turkey
Design: Kashkuli Gabbeh Collection
Pile Material: Machine Woven of Polypropylene
Brand new
Easy-to-clean, stain resistant, and does not shed
Has fringe.
Colors include: Blue, Brown, Navy Blue, Olive, Red, Tan. The primary colour is Blue.
Pile Height: 1/2"
Size FT: 3' 3" x 5' 3"
Size CM: 99 cm x 160 cm
Currently in stock


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The commission expressed concern that wind farms are being allowed to expand without adequate evaluation, with potentially serious consequences for Natura 2000 protected sites.
It has sent Portugal a reasoned opinion requiring it to revise the law to ensure it doesn't breach the environmental impact assessment and habitats directives.
The law concerned, DL 51/2010, states that upgrades of wind farms by up to an additional 20 turbines, or an additional 10 turbines in sensitive areas, "do not have a significant negative impact on the environment" and therefore do not require environmental impact assessments.
Up to 400MW of installed capacity earmarked for upgrading could be affected by the commission's decision, said a spokeswoman for Portuguese renewable energies association APREN.


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Thinking about cancer or dealing with cancer risk can be scary or overwhelming, but we believe that receiving information and resources is comforting, empowering, and lifesaving.
Research in women of average risk supports the potential benefits of a healthy diet; however, experts do not know the exact effect of diet on hereditary cancer risk. Proving that specific foods affect cancer risk is challenging, and studies of diet and cancer risk are often inconclusive. Research shows that plant-based, high-fiber foods provide phytochemicals and antioxidants; nutrients that contain beneficial chemicals that may protect cells and help repair DNA damage. Vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and fruits and vegetables that are red, orange, or purple contain these compounds.
Researchers are exploring the effects of different foods and phytochemicals on cancer risk in high-risk people; so far, no single nutrient has proven to lower cancer risk in people with hereditary mutations. The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) recommends meals that consist of two-thirds or more fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains, and one-third or less of lean protein. One study that observed women with BRCA mutations found those who ate a varied diet had a lower breast cancer risk.
While many studies on diet and cancer risk look at people at average risk for cancer, some study high-risk families. A 2006 study, for example, examined women from 80 French Canadian families: 89 women had BRCA mutations and cancer, while 48 had BRCA mutations but no cancer. The study correlated increased calorie intake with increased breast cancer incidence. The age at the time of maximum body mass index (BMI) also correlated with elevated incidence. Researchers found no overall link between BMI or weight and increased risk, but increased weight gain after age 18 and age 30 resulted in a significantly higher incidence of breast cancer.
This same population of French Canadians was used in a 2007 study, but focused on how effectively different indices of diet correlated with cancer incidence. This subsequent study used a number of different indices, but two, the "DQI-R" and "CHEI" indices showed significant differences between high and low scorers. The CHEI index is based on Canada's guide for healthy eating. According to the DQI-R index guidelines, a good daily diet contains all of the following:
Points in this index were given for satisfying the recommended daily allowances for individual food groups: grains, fruit and vegetables, milk, and meat/protein alternatives. Higher scores signify overall food diversity as each food group was scored individually, with a maximum score given when the recommended servings of that group were consumed. Individuals who scored well using the DQI-R or CHEI scales had a significantly reduced cancer incidence when compared to carriers with lower scores.
A study among a different cohort of 38 French Canadians in 2009 found that vegetable diversity, but not intake amount, led to decreased likelihood of cancer in BRCA mutation carriers.
Updated 03/26/2015


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architect wrote:The fall of Rome to the burning of London in 1666 is the time frame.
CC Contest Admin
well so much for the battle of thermopylea
leaf_of_lire wrote:Well I do not know if this question has been asked yet, but what would go into the miscellaneous category? The "does your castle creation not fit in one of our categories? then enter it here!" does not help me alot.
Spongey wrote:...
Well, after that outburst, I'm off to throw something together for the Mini-Castle Contest, which I promised myself I'd do.
Count wrote:My silly question is about the Medieval legend category. You said you can use custom weapons, but what about custom helmets and shields such as the ones from BrickForge?
well so much for the battle of thermopylea
Regarding medieval journey, are we allowed to have some form of fortification included in the MOC? For example, could the ruins of a tower be included or is this category intended to be more landscape and tour based?
Well I do not know if this question has been asked yet, but what would go into the miscellaneous category?
I assume the size limit applies to misc as well?
I was an Honorable Mention in the Custom Figure category last year, is it taboo/ faux pas to enter again?
Hippotam wrote:The winning community will receive a crate of regional fluids (portwine vs. bison grass vodka) donated (and probably smuggled through the border) by loosing community.
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