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Hamilton County Circuit Court Clerk - Larry L. Henry
Circuit Court Clerk
500 Courthouse
625 Georgia Avenue
Chattanooga, TN 37402
Hours: Monday - Friday
8:00 am - 4:00pm
these holidays
TN Case Finder Information
Contact the Circuit Court Clerk/Circuit Court
Circuit Court Dockets
---Regular Jury Service
---Grand Jury Service
Newly Enacted HAMILTON COUNTY LOCAL RULE 10.06 FAMILY LAW MEDIATION
Local Rules of Civil Practice Effective 09/01/2017
Civil Case Cover Sheet
Frequently Asked Questions
Circuit Court Filing Fees
An IMPORTANT Announcement that may affect the way you pay child support.
Parenting Plans
Divorce Education Seminars
Circuit Court Clerk
Circuit Court Judges
Sessions - Civil Division
Sessions - Civil Division - Court Dockets
Sessions - Civil Division - Court Costs
Sessions - Civil Division - FAQs
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The Clerk of the Circuit Court maintains Circuit and Sessions Civil Courts. The Clerk is a state mandated constitutional official. The Clerk's responsibility is to attend the court by providing staff, which performs all the clerical functions for the courts. The Clerk is responsible for the management of all complaints, petitions, summons, orders and other documents relating to lawsuits filed with the court. The Clerk also handles the collection, receipt, and accounting for all litigation taxes, court costs, fines, fees, and restitution as ordered by the court. The Clerk also handles the collection, receipt, and civil warrants, Detainer warrants, executions, garnishments, subpoenas and other related documents as assigned by law, preparation of reports to the County and the State of Tennessee. The Clerk collects and disburses child support payments as ordered by the Circuit Court Judges. The Clerk is also responsible for filing Orders of Protection, Judicial Hospital cases and Emergency Committals.
The Circuit Court Clerk also serves as a clerk to the Board of Jury Commissioners and maintains current data on all prospective jurors and handles the empanelling of jurors for Circuit, Criminal and Chancery Courts.
The Parenting Coordinator for Hamilton County, who assists the courts and litigants in domestic cases with children, is also under the supervision of the Circuit Court Clerk.
Serve the Judges, lawyers and citizens of the County in an efficient, attentive and courteous manner;
Provide the most cost-effective service possible to the public and to members of the legal profession;
Manage and process court documents with speed and accuracy;
Collect litigation taxes, fees, fines and court costs as cases are concluded;
Receipt and disburse collections timely;
Prepare reports to the State of Tennessee in compliance with established guidelines; and
Research new technology that would increase the efficiency and decrease the cost of operation.
© 2020, General Government of Hamilton County |
E-mail the Webmaster


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Title: The Diamond of Drury Lane
Author: Julia Golding
Pages: 419
Cover Rating: 4/5
Character Rating: 5/5
Plot Rating: 4/5
Over all Rating: 4/5
I am inclined to say that I liked this book exceedingly well. At first, I must admit, I thought of maybe putting it down, and reading it later, or never. But I wanted to give the book a chance, since all books deserve at least a 2 chapter trial. Anyway, but the end of the first Act, I was completely hooked. In fact I read most of the book (about 300 pages) within one day. I thought the characters enchanting, but not perfect. They were very believable, and sincere. I think they were the highlight of the book. The plot was also very good, and kept you wanting to read more. All in all, it was a big hit in my opinion, and I highly recommend it.
Cat is a streetwise orphan living in the Drury Lane Theatre in 1790s London. Her budding friendships with violin prodigy Pedro, a former slave; two teenage members of the aristocracy; and the theatre's mysterious new prompter are put to the test when she agrees to help safeguard the hidden treasure of the title. Golding's fast paced story abounds with atmosphere and adventure as Cat struggles to prevent the vicious leader of one of Covent Garden's street gangs from finding the diamond.

subset: commoncrawl


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TORONTO – Some of the most active companies traded Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange:
Toronto Stock Exchange (14,260.72 up 81.88 points):
Fortis Inc. (TSX:FTS.IR). Utilities. Up 10 cents, or 0.30 per cent, to $33.70 on 19.7 million shares.
Kinross Gold Corp. (TSX:K). Miner. Up 21 cents, or 4.71 per cent, to $4.67 on 9.4 million shares.
BlackBerry Ltd. (TSX:BB). Communication equipment. Down 65 cents, or 6.53 per cent, to $9.31 on 7.1 million shares.
Loblaw Companies Ltd. (TSX:L). Retail. Down 42 cents, or 0.89 per cent, to $47.03 on 6.2 million shares. The company said Friday it has closed its $12.4-billion cash-and-stock deal to buy Shoppers Drug Mart Corp. (TSX:SC) Retail. Down 24 cents, or 0.39 per cent, to $61.10 on 412,414 shares. Under the agreement, which limited the amount of cash available, Shoppers Drug Mart shareholders who chose to receive cash will be paid $49.22 in cash and 0.2592 Loblaw shares for each share. Shoppers Drug Mart shareholders who did not make a choice will receive $26.53 in cash and 0.7363 Loblaw shares for each share.
Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd. (TSX:CLL). Oil and gas. Up 1.5 cents, or 5.66 per cent, to 28 cents on 4.4 million shares.
Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Aerospace. Down two cents, or 0.49 per cent, to $4.06 on 4.1 million shares. Brazilian prosecutors are seeking the arrest of 13 foreign executives, including one from Montreal-based Bombardier, for alleged involvement in a cartel to raise prices for the construction and upkeep of subway and train systems in Sao Paulo. Eleven of the 13 executives work for Siemens of Germany, one for Bombardier and another for South Korea's Hyundai Rotem.
Toronto Venture Exchange (989.73 up 4.38 points):
Supreme Pharmaceuticals Inc. (TSXV:SL). Biotechnology. Up 0.5 cents, or 8.33 per cent, to 6.5 cents on 22.4 million shares.
Kilo Goldmines Ltd. (TSXV:KGL). Unchanged at two cents on 9.6 million shares.
Companies reporting major news:
Augusta Resource Corp. (TSX:AZC). Miner. Up 10 cents, or 2.99 per cent, to $3.45 on 271,493 shares. The company, which is fighting a hostile takeover bid by HudBay Minerals Inc. (TSX:HBM) Miner. Up 10 cents, or 1.20 per cent, to $8.45 on 229,735 shares, says nine potential buyers have signed confidentiality agreements and have been reviewing its books. The company said it will start site visits to its Rosemont copper project in Arizona next week and expects them to take place over the next three to four weeks.


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Read this article from Jay Sorgi at WTMJ's website. Feel bad for these guys.
Detainees taunting WI troops w/Favre talk
4 Responses to "Detainees taunting WI troops w/Favre talk"
56Coop Says:
November 19, 2009 at 5:24 pm |
If we can't torture detainees, why are they allowed to torture us?
PackerBelle Says:
November 20, 2009 at 12:47 pm |
A) Because we're better than they are so we shouldn't need to stoop to do ing that
B) Because getting razed about a football team isn't exactly torture.
56Coop Says:
November 21, 2009 at 11:39 am
I wish I could figure out a way to convey sarcasm on the net. Obviously didn't come across this time.
- 56Coop Says:
- PackerBelle Says:
Ron La Canne Says:
November 20, 2009 at 1:44 pm |
Actually it says more about the Queenies and Minnesota. Nice fan base up dere. hey ya!


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Retired CHP gumshoe's Zodiac suspect is dead
The man fingered as the Zodiac serial killer by a retired California Highway Patrol officer in a new book has died - leaving the mystery as alive as ever, and adding yet another figure to the long list of deceased men associated with the case.
The man was a 92-year-old former real estate salesman who died in Fairfield in February. The Chronicle is not naming him because law enforcement agencies do not consider him a suspect, even if former CHP Officer Lyndon Lafferty does.
The Zodiac shot or stabbed five people to death in Solano, Napa and San Francisco counties in 1968 and 1969, slayings that have never been solved. The killer taunted police and newspapers, including The Chronicle, with letters bragging about his lust for murder and challenging investigators to crack ciphers he said would reveal his name.
Lafferty, 79, wrote in his new book, "The Zodiac Killer Cover-Up: AKA the Silenced Badge," that he first encountered the man in 1970 while on patrol in Vallejo. He gave the man the pseudonym George Russell Tucker in his book, and went to check up on him at his home four months ago - spotting him in the driveway - before sending his book to press.
Lafferty wrote that he focused on "Tucker" while working with the late Solano County sheriff's Sgt. Leslie Lundblad. He wrote that the man's wife had been having an affair with a judge and that the affair had led officials to halt investigations of the man in the Zodiac killings.
The judge and the wife are long dead, Lafferty said.
Lafferty learned this week that "Tucker" is also dead - as of Feb. 2. A Solano County sheriff's investigator said he died of a heart attack.
"I can't say my suspect is absolutely the Zodiac, but I am 98 percent sure we have the right man, and he's been our suspect for 40 years," Lafferty said. He researched his book with seven fellow sleuths, including other law enforcement officials who investigated the case at its height.
The man he named is in the Napa County sheriff's database of people of interest in the case, but was not considered a serious enough candidate to list as a suspect, said Napa police Detective Todd Schulman, who is on a cold case task force in the county.
"We get two or three tips a week," he said.
Solano County and San Francisco investigators also said the man is not a suspect.
In the Fairfield neighborhood where the now-deceased man's tidy blue house sits empty, residents said they couldn't imagine their affable neighbor as a killer.
Nora Del Ross, who lives across the street, said the man moved in the same week she did about 40 years ago. She said he was kind to her children and brought gifts to newcomers.
"No, there's no way he would have been the Zodiac killer - not the way I knew him," she said. "I'm blown away. It's utterly ridiculous."
"He never seemed like a psycho killer or anything like that," said Ana Braselton, 25, who moved in next door to the man two years ago. "He was a good man, at least from the outside."
"Tucker" joins the pantheon of people named in the case over the years by amateur sleuths. New names still pop up every week on Internet forums, ranging from people's uncles and fathers to some whom authorities have actually investigated.
Foremost among them in terms of police interest is Arthur Leigh Allen, a convicted child molester from Vallejo who died in 1992 at age 58. He was named as the Zodiac in former Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith's 2002 book, "Zodiac Unmasked."
Others looked into by police were a carpenter from Orange County, a convicted killer in Ohio and a former Martinez newspaper editor. All are dead, and authorities never named any as suspects.
Kevin Fagan and Demian Bulwa are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com.


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As a covered participant in the Med Plus Advantage program you have access to some unique benefits.
Please enter your program ID or pass code provided to you by your program to display your certificates of coverage and benefits. If you do not have your ID #, contact your Dean or Benefits Director, call 1-888-627-6618, or email email@example.com


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G by GUESS Felisity Heels
Mix it up! This mixed-media heel gives your classic looks a trendy modern twist.
Browse all deals at G by GUESS
See more in Shoes
* This offer may contain time-sensitive information and offers. Please check with G by GUESS to confirm actual price & availability.
Please enter your name
- Be the first to comment!


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|Contact Me-|
JaniceO Portfolio|
JaniceO Designer Tees|
JaniceO Printable Digital Art|
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© Janice O'Connor,
All prices are in AUD. Image sizes are in inches.|Powered by Fotomerchant.com
The mounts of kings, as much a creature of light and beauty as an animal of substance and loyalty. Digital art of the most beautiful members and progenitors of the equine family. Available to purchase on archival quality papers and canvas.
Two Arabian stallions, face to face. Digital painting.
A young black, purebred Arabian stallion standing up for visitors to his Santa Ynez home.
Heavily stylized image of a grey Arabian stallion on the lawns of a Calfornia Arabian stud.
Proud bay purebred Arabian stallion in oils.
A grey purebred Arabian stallion staring down the ages of his heritage.
An Arabian gelding and his friend, learning together.
Two Arabian stallions, face to face. Digital painting on brown paper.
An Arabian gelding and his friend, learning together. In the style of modern art, bright colours, hard lines, styling depth that...
Beautiful Arabian mare enjoying a gallop in the sun.
A young purebred Arabian, chestnut colt on a stud farm in the Santa Ynez valley in California, USA.
A grey Arabian filly showing off her paces for stud visitors. Image taken in the Santa Ynez valley, California, USA.
The winner of the Triple Crown, World Champion, Canadian Champion and USA Champion in the same year, Simeon Shai was bred by the...
Young fillies enjoying a gallop in green fields of Comanche Lodge Arabian stud, Kentville.


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The world depends on mariners. Mariners depend on SCI. And we depend on you.
Photos in and around New York Harbor from the U.S. Coast Guard-presented second annual Tug/Barge Day at McAllister Towing and Transportation on Thursday, August 23, 2012.
Photos by the Rev. David M. Rider, President & Executive Director.
SCI's Center for Maritime Education provides career development opportunities for mariners through cutting-edge training.


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With an active participation, we have left behind the MECPSE Manufacturing Industries Exhibition.
The exhibition held between the dates March 23 – 25, 2017, Parma, Italy is a meeting point for production technologies and industrial sectors at Italy.
We found an opportunity to present our innovative solutions about sealing technologies. Visitors were also informed about Kastas' recently introduced investments and more detailed information, analysis and features about FR200-Friction Reduced Rod Seal, has launched at 2015.


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Thursday, March 3, 2011
Technology Will Be The Death Of Me
Posted by Doe Cheese at 10:15 AM 0 comments
Labels: gadgets
Posted by Doe Cheese at 10:08 AM 0 comments
It's Happened
Well it has happened.....Wiz has gone mainstream lol
He is on the cover of the March issue of Rolling Stone.
(have I mentioned I hate blonde hair on black men)
(have I mentioned I hate blonde hair on black men)
Anywho, RS has deemed him Hip Hop Rookie of the Year yet a large portioned of the United States was just recently introduced to Wiz Khalifa with his smash Black & Yellow.
For whatever reason mixtape rappers are never the same once they go mainstream.
Their Cd's are generally lame compared to their mixtapes.
I mean really prime example is Drake.
So Far Gone is still in daily rotation on my ipod, but his debut album is more than forgettable.
Will Wiz suffer the same fate....9 times of 10 the answer is YES
But America loves lame hip hop now (I.E. Wacka Flacka) so I'm more than certain the youngn's will gobble it up lol
Posted by Doe Cheese at 9:33 AM 0 comments
Labels: Magazines, new music, wiz khalifa
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Terminal Radio - FSOL Tribute Mix Series
Discuss musical topics that are not directly 808 State related.
Moderators: Pob, markus, nickking, Ancodia
Post Reply
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
Terminal Radio - FSOL Tribute Mix Series
Hi everyone,
A group of us FSOL fans have started a mix series called Terminal Radio.
It is a transmission broadcast offshoot of Terminal Window, a music project from FSOLBoard, a community of Future Sound of London fans on the internet. Artists on the board were invited to contribute tracks and collaborations to the album, given nothing but the title Terminal Window. Members who made tracks for the Terminal Window series and general fans of FSOL and ambient music were invited to contribute a 15 minute mix. Eight of these were collected and mixed together into a 2 hour trip. Each volume will feature eight more alternate universes converging into one super quadaural meta-brain.
Volume 1 features Nmesh, Herd, Akkya, The Dark Electronic Poets, Ross Baker, Loose Link, Five Minutes Alone and Offland.
Listen and download here:
http://www.soundcloud.com/akkya/fsol-fo ... inal-radio
Volume 2 features Nmesh, cubus, Mischapex, Akkya, Noisesurfer, Clockwork Keyboard, Sven Meyer and Five Minutes Alone, plus radio announcements from American radio personality Asia Ludlow aka Nikki Love:
http://www.soundcloud.com/akkya/fsol-fo ... al-radio-2
Finally for now, Volume 3 features Nmesh, cubus, Five Minutes Alone, Sven Mayer, Akkya, Noisesurfer, Ross Baker and Loose Link:
Next up for Volume 4 it will be our first on Fnoob Radio, and we'll be joined by DVNT of Darkfloor and Riz Maslen aka Neotropic.
If anybody does ambient, trip hop, IDM, sample or a mixture of all these you are invited to make a 15 minute mix for a future volume, post here or PM me or go here:
FSOLBoard: http://www.fsolboard.co.uk/
Here's Terminal Window 1 and 2, they're both free:
Terminal Window: http://www.terminalwindow.bandcamp.com/
Re: Terminal Radio - FSOL Tribute Mix Series
Very very cool, thanks for sharing!
Post Reply
2 posts • Page 1 of 1


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Kansas State Chapter
State Chapter President position is open. We are looking for certified members (CVAs/MAFFs/ABARs) to serve as State Chapter Presidents willing to lead their State.
If you are interested in serving as a State Chapter President, please contact NACVA's Executive Director, Jonathan Jackson at email@example.com or call (800) 677-2009.


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Theresa May will announce plans to make forced marriage a criminal offence in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It comes after warnings that up to 8,000 young women a year are forced into marriages without their consent.
But campaigners have warned that criminalising forced marriage altogether could deter victims from coming forward.
The Home Office consultation, which closed at the end of March, was launched at the request of Prime Minister David Cameron, who said last year that forced marriage was "little more than slavery" and "completely wrong".
The new law is expected to distinguish between arranged marriages and forced marriages where there is no consent.
Mrs May is also expected to announce a £500,000 fund to help schools and other agencies know how to spot early signs of a forced marriage.
A Government advertising campaign will also aim to highlight the right to choose who you marry.


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"The CRC program will not only accelerate my line of research into the complex world of quantum many-body physics, but contribute to the training of this new generation of multidisciplinary computational physicists."
In addition to his associate faculty position at Perimeter, Melko is an associate professor at the University of Waterloo and an affiliate with the Institute for Quantum Computing.
- Read the University of Waterloo's article about Melko's Canada Research Chair
- Check out an article about Melko in Inside the Perimeter
- Learn more about computational physics at Perimeter
- Learn more about Melko's research, and see some of his work


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When you are caring for someone in their final months, you can support your children or teens by communicating openly with them about the situation and the person's illness. There are a number of ways that you can support your child or teen during the late stage of dementia and at end of life:
Communicate openly
Support your child or teen by communicating openly with them about the situation and the person's illness. It's important not to try to spare children or teens from knowing that a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle is dying; they will sense the truth. Silence or whispered conversations could make them imagine situations that are worse than the reality. Give your child or teen information about what to expect and opportunities to ask questions and to express their feelings. Be as open as possible with whatever questions and emotions that may come up, and answer their questions truthfully in words they understand. Also consider some of the excellent books that are available to help you talk about serious illness and dying with your children.
Involve them in what's happening
In the final months, continue to include children and teens in activities with the person who is ill, if your child or teen is willing and open to this. Remember to keep visits short for small children. After death, involve your child in family rituals such as the funeral. An older child or teen may want to have a role in the final remembrance activities which could involve gathering and arranging photographs for display or reading a meaningful passage at the funeral. Your child may also want to choose special mementos from the possessions of the person who has died.
"We left my son with his grandfather after his death. That was my son's first experience of death and we gave him his private time. I've always encouraged people to say what they want to say before the person dies or after the person is gone. That's going to be their last time with the person in the physical sense." – Rachael Mierke, a caregiver in Winnipeg
Include them in your grieving process
As a parent, you may be coping with your own grief at the same time as your child or teen needs support with theirs. Reserve time for your children and consider that they may benefit from being included in your grieving process.
How a parent grieves affects the way a child grieves. Adults who acknowledge and express their feelings and cry with their children help them to accept and understand death. When adults who are sad don't acknowledge or show their feelings, this may confuse children. Tell your children that you love them as much as ever during your time of grief.
Suggest outlets for their grief
Explain to your child or teen that their thoughts and feelings of grief are normal and that it is okay to cry. Encourage them to express feelings by talking, painting, writing a poem, or playing music. They may enjoy writing or talking about things that they learned from the person, for example, or sharing funny memories.
Keep the school informed
Make sure that your child's teachers and school counsellors are aware of the illness in your family and consider the possible effects on school or performance in other activities. Try to maintain the child's usual routine as much as possible.
After the person with dementia dies, help your child with the transition back to school by going over the routine. Let teachers and school counsellors know about the loss your family has experienced. Talk with your child about what they may wish to share with friends or classmates. They may be apprehensive and be tempted to keep the loss secret because it will make them feel different. Encourage your child to talk about their grief with friends or classmates they trust, which creates opportunities for them to be supportive.
Additional resources
- Our Resource list for kids and Resource list for teens include recommended books to help support children and teens of different ages
- Talking with Children and Youth about Serious Illness by Canadian Virtual Hospice
Next section: Grief and loss


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Mocha Butter Cream Yule Log
It's become a tradition to prepare this yule log for holiday gatherings. The filling recipe came from an aunt and the butter cream frosting was my creation. I've taught cake decorating in 4-H for 14 years, but I've been cooking since I was old enough to stand on a chair and help my mother. Now my 9-year-old granddaughter is showing interest, too!
Total TimePrep: 30 min. Bake: 15 min. + cooling
Makes14-18 servings
- 5 large eggs, room temperature, separated
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons baking cocoa
- 2 tablespoons plus 1-1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking cocoa
- 1 teaspoon strong brewed coffee
- Confectioners' sugar, optional
- Chopped nuts, optional
- In a large bowl, beat egg yolks at high speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar, beating until mixture is thick and light-colored. Add flour and cocoa, beating on low speed. In another bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form; fold into batter. mix until no streaks of white remaining.
- Grease a 15x10x1-in. baking pan; line with waxed paper, and grease and flour paper. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly. Cover with waxed paper and cool completely on wire rack.
- Remove paper; invert cake onto an 18-in. long piece of waxed paper dusted with confectioners' sugar. Trim edges from all four sides of cake.
- For filling, combine flour and milk in a saucepan. Cook over low heat; stirring until thick. Cool. In a bowl, cream sugar, butter and vanilla. Add flour mixture; beat until fluffy. Fold in walnuts if desired. Spread over cake; roll up, jelly-roll style, starting from one short end.
- For frosting, beat butter until fluffy in a small bowl. Beat in sugar, cocoa and coffee. Spread over cake, using a fork to create a bark-like effect. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar and nuts if desired.
Recommended Video
Dec 18, 2013
The final product was okay but I wouldn't make it again. The cake part tasted too much like eggs and not chocolate. I added 1 1/2 more cups of powdered sugar to the butter cream frosting as it was too buttery tasting.
Dec 26, 2011
I did a lot of recipe searching for a yule log this year, and printed this one out for its filling, which ended up being disgusting! I threw it all out and made a basic butter-cream, instead. I didn't use this recipe for the cake (too plain) or the frosting (sounds like it will be too thin and weakly flavored). Totally not worth your time. Use a different recipe.
Dec 24, 2011
A beautiful start of a new family tradition!
Feb 18, 2007
No comment left


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Friday, May 18, 2012
Upcoming Appearance: Maury Wills
May 19, 2012
Time: 2pm
Cirivello's Sports
4155 Viking Way
Long Beach, CA 90808
Call for more details. - (562) 420-2113
For other upcoming signings, scroll down a bit and on the left side of this blog, you will see "Upcoming Appearances". Click the player for more details.
2 comments:
- Mike Barnhill said...
Thanks! I'm there.
- May 18, 2012 at 7:29 PM
- Mike Barnhill said...
What an amazing event. Small crowd, right price and close to home. They do it right at Cirivello's. They have you line up and then call you over one at a time. We had plenty of time with Maury and he pulled a ball out of a bag and played catch with my 5 year old. What a classy guy. Thanks for letting me know of this event.
- May 19, 2012 at 8:33 PM
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Nov 15, 2014, 04:25 am
If there is one thing that really irritates me more than anything else, it's when people use fear as a sales tactic. This gives me many opportunities to be pissed off, since fear is commonly used to sell stuff, with varying degrees of depravity: fear to sell warranties, fear to sell wars, fear to sell surveillance on the public, fear to sell political ideology. But using the fear parents have for their children in the wake of tragic school shootings, particularly doing so while outright lying about statistics to scare the hell out of parents even more, just might be the worst of them all. And that brings us to the news that a Massachusetts school has become the first in America to implement a DARPA developed "shooter detection system."
Politifact summarizes this nonsense nicely:
Originally Published: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:59:27 GMT
Quote:Authorities fired tester blanks Tuesday in the Methuen, Mass. school, which authorities did not name for security reasons, to demonstrate the Guardian Active Shooter Detection System, which alerts police of gunfire within one second, according to Reuters. Police officers and Democratic congresswoman Niki Tsongas attended the demonstration, but students were not present, as schools were closed for Veteran's Day.Congratulations, America. A defense contractor tried to sell you on the idea that our schools are war zones and you bit like a musky on a minnow. The manufacturer's website, along with most of the accompanying news articles, are filled with statistics all about how school and mass shootings are on the rise. Obviously this serves as evidence that such shooter detection systems are needed. That way, the $100k per school systems can alert authorities when these increasingly common shootings occur. The most common figure you'll hear from these contractors and in the news is the same one authorities used in buying this detection system: there have been 88 school shootings in America since the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012. The claim comes from Everytown.org, an organization dedicated to gun control and safety. And if that statistic sounds shocking to you, there's a very good reason for that: it's complete bullshit.
The technology, which boasts "near zero false alerts," was developed by Massachusetts-based Shooter Detection Systems, in partnership with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a U.S. government's military technology development arm. The company also worked with a major defense contractor that has deployed thousands of similar gunshot detection systems to war zones.
Politifact summarizes this nonsense nicely:
Quote:The main reason for the criticism of Everytown's count is that its definition of "school shooting" is relatively broad. The group's criteria goes beyond what many people would consider "school shootings" -- incidents in which a student or an intruder enters a school and fires at innocent students and staff. For many people, this is the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the phrase "school shooting" -- an incident such as Sandy Hook or, before it, the 1999 Columbine shooting in Colorado that left 15 dead, including the shooters.They then tally up the incidents using the common sense school shooting criteria: 10 instances of what we'd actually call school shootings, 39 incidents that were common criminal activity (such as robbery, etc.), 16 cases that occurred outside of school hours by people not affiliated in any way with the school, 6 suicides, and 3 accidental discharges. So, 10 school shootings, as we commonly refer to them, over the past two years. Look, that's 10 too many, of course, and every instance of gun-related death at a school is a tragedy in its own right, but that stupid, wrong, idiotic 74 shootings statistic (before it was 88 school shootings) was pitched to concerned parents, school officials, and politicians by both a company that has insane amounts of money to gain and a complicit, sensationalistic and lazy mass media and nobody is bothering to tell people that these are lies. If the company is pitching an increase in school shootings as a primary reason for spending six figures per school on their product, what happens when I show you that school shootings are not on the rise?
[Everytown.org's] definition allows for incidents that don't typically call to mind the term "school shooting" -- for example, a case in which a man unaffiliated with Alogna High/Middle School in Iowa killed himself in the school's parking lot in the middle of the night, or an early-morning armed robbery on a street that goes through the Marquette University campus in Wisconsin. Both count in Everytown's tally.
Quote:We asked James Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University, for some perspective. He pointed to the 2013 "Indicators of School Crime and Safety" report compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. There were about 45 school-associated violent deaths (not just by guns) at elementary and secondary schools each year between the 1992 and 2010 school years, according to the report. The highest annual total was 63 deaths in 2006-07, while the lowest was 31 in 2010-11. In other words, Fox said, the number of gun deaths documented by Everytown over the past year and a half are not out of the ordinary. About 15 to 20 kids in grades K-12 are killed at school each year, along with a similar number of college students, he said.Yet there is the politician, the school officials, and police, marching through a Massachusetts school, firing off blank rounds within the hallways that, if not for Veteran's Day, would otherwise be filled with young boys and girls, all to test a shooter detection system pitched by a corporation with monied interests on false claims and statistics. That's on us all for not demanding better from ourselves, our media, and our politicians. We deserve to be bilked this way for allowing the pitchmen of fear to prey on us so easily and for setting aside our skepticism in favor of the more facile emotion of terror.
"I don't mean to minimize the horror of these events or the pain and suffering of victims, but schools are safe, safer than other places that our children spend time," he said. "For some kids, school is even safer than their home."
Originally Published: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:59:27 GMT


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Gangsta Bang - Phone 1 is a mission in Grand Theft Auto level 1, Gangsta Bang, given to the Protagonist by Robert "Bubby" Seragliano. The mission is available from the first phone (from the left) in south Park in Liberty City.
The mission starts off with Bubby ordering the Protagonist to pick up a blue Mundano that Crazy Jimmy has dumped in northeast Park and take it to Dulli in West Park. After dropping off the Mundano, The Protagonist is given instructions to answer a phone outside the West Park Subway, and then to pick up a cab that is in an alleyway in southeast Island City for a bank job that Jimmy is pulling off. The Protagonist then has to pick Jimmy up outside the bank in south Park and take him to Bubby's love nest in south Island Heights.
The player is awarded 80,000 points (80,000 x Score Multiplier) and a +1 increase of score multiplier for successfully completing the mission.
Note: This is the dialogue for the PC version of the game. There may be some minor changes compared to the PlayStation and Game Boy Color versions.
Text Strategy
Follow road N/E.
Just before turn to car, crate on right for JAIL KEY.
South, West into park and West out park.
Garage. (Timed)
Crate for MACHINE GUN (faster fire rate (duh), found in few places, and not much ammo).
Steal Car.
South, West, South, Phone. (End timer)
South, West.
Drive along South sidewalk to smash crate for ARMOR.
South, over bridge, South, West before next bridge, South in alley with "I."
N/E to big road, North, cross bridge, East on first road. Guy. Follow road N/E till ->E.
Garage. END!
Video Strategy
- Not chronological, this is the first mission in the Grand Theft Auto series.


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Coming Soon to a Smartphone Near You: Ubuntu
The popular open-source operating system Ubuntu is coming to smartphones.
Canonical, Ubuntu's commercial sponsor, announced its new smartphone interface Tuesday. The company will be holding a press call later this afternoon, and showing off the OS at CES.
This isn't Ubuntu's first foray into devices outside of the desktop. Over the last few years, Canonical has spent time investing in Ubuntu for TV sets and building out its cloud infrastructure. Over the last 18 months, Ubuntu has shifted into integrating more touch-friendly controls and better touchscreen support into Ubuntu on the desktop.
With Ubuntu for phones, it appears that Canonical wants to offer OEMs an alternative to Android on both the high and low ends of the market. Canonical is also going to target the enterprise, where it can offer corporate customers a way to offer thin-client, PC and phone functionality from one profile.
Although manufacturers and carrier partners haven't been announced, the company expects the first devices to ship in early 2014.
Ubuntu for phones joins Sailfish and Samsung's Bada as operating systems looking to take on the giant that is Android.
What do you make of the Ubuntu announcement? Is there enough room in the market for another player? Let us know in the comments.
Image courtesy of Canonical


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July 2011 Newsletter: Love Of Our Neighbor - Love Of Our Holy Church
As we approach the heat of summer, when nerves and patience are tested, let us live and remain in the words of St. Paul. Let the spirit of Christ and His Law love, guide us in our relationship with our neighbor and those in our Church. For it is through our fellowship with Him, and His Grace, we find His mercy, compassion, and forgiveness we seek and need. And with this spirit, we find brotherly fellowship with one another.
What follows are Academy study notes for Romans 13: 8-10. The depth of this love beckons us to live our lives in the grace and love of Jesus Christ. Let us leave behind earthly fears and cares, seeking instead the guiding spirit of Sts. Athanasius, Ignatius, Chrysostom, and St. John of Damascus: The Spirit of Grace and Truth.
See the attached PDF files for this month's full teaching and to order the study booklets.
|July 2011 Newsletter
|Coupon - Spirit of Antioch


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What's New
Flirt Font Family by Canada Type
About: Flirt is a very authentic art deco font with a noticeable element of artistic pride, swashy delicate majuscules and very aristocratic, fashionable and flirty minuscules. The majuscules can be used as every other capitals usually are, or as initial caps. The minuscules can very nicely stand on their own quite independently from the caps whenever desired. These letters are quite similar to the hand lettering used on of the kind of theater posters, specifically burlesque and opera entertainment, which are now considered very retro-chic and fashionable to see hanging on walls in home or office.
Tags: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Art Deco, Font, Retro, Sans Serif


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Just read here at PFT that the Steelers have cut starting LB Larry Foote in what some see as a surprising move. Apparently their roster is so loaded with LB talent that they felt they could part with a starter (actually it also had to do with cap issues). Larry Foote is a pretty good player, would probably not be too expensive, has very solid 3-4 experience, is only 28 years old and could if nothing else, add quality depth to our LB group. Given the uncertainties facing Barnett and his recovery, the uneven play from Hawk, the rookieness of Matthews and the questions re whether Kampman can play OLB, I'd feel more secure knowing we had a proven veteran LB on the team .
Should the Pack bring in Larry Foote?
8 Responses to "Should the Pack bring in Larry Foote?"
56Coop Says:
April 28, 2009 at 1:19 pm |
I don't think that would be a terrible move at all but looks like Detroit might ge to him first
DaveK Says:
April 28, 2009 at 3:38 pm |
I think he would play inside LB. That puts him behind Hawk and Barnett. Might be a good idea if Barnett is not healthy or you want a really good backup. You only do that though if the price is right.
DaveK Says:
April 28, 2009 at 5:13 pm |
Any thoughts on Leroy Hill? I think he played strong side mostly. Seattle lifted the franchise tag on him after they drafted Curry. Two pretty good LB's on the free market right now.
Cindy V Says:
April 28, 2009 at 11:07 pm |
Since there is no thread posted here yet, I'll start one. Brett Favre was released from the Jets today. He requested the action through his agent, Bus Cook. Will Brett unretire this year if the right team wants him? Who would that "right team" be? Has Brett damaged his reputation amongst the NFL higher ups with his last season as a Jet?
Joe Says:
April 29, 2009 at 10:14 am |
Bring in Foote, what can it hurt to have more talent in camp.
Phil Says:
April 30, 2009 at 5:13 am |
I watched quite a bit of him when he played in college, and his brother is doing okay for Tampa Bay, why not think of bringing in the just released (by the Pats) Bo Ruud? I think he might compliment the rest of the LB's a lot better than "Pile On" Poppinga.
David Says:
May 1, 2009 at 4:33 pm |
Give Ted Thompson a call tonight and let him know. He'd be a good fit in the 3-4 Packer D.
The Pack should sign him, he'd stuff the parrot.


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This is a horrific story below and it reminds me of historical accounts about early maternity wards that I read for research on my book. Basically, as birth moved from the home to the hospital in the early 20th century, a woman's chance of dying in birth INCREASED, sometimes as much as 300 percent, especially in big cities. Why? One of the most common reasons was infection -- deadly germs spread from patient to patients, via doctors' dirty hands -- in the days before antibiotics. Although the below account is about a flesh-eating bacteria, there are many reports about harder-to-treat strains of infection that new mothers and other patients are catching simply from spending time in the hospital. Sounds like history repeating itself.
From Fox News:
Florida Woman Who Lost Arms, Legs During Birth Works for Answers
Sunday , May 20, 2007
SANFORD, Fla. — Claudia Mejia cannot give the hugs most mothers bestow on their children. Nor can she grab her 2-year-old son by the hand or place him on her lap. She cannot tuck her 9-year-old into bed or walk him to the school bus stop.
Motherhood for Mejia, 25, was redefined two years ago when a medical nightmare left her without arms and legs. She contracted a flesh-eating bacteria around the time she gave birth to her youngest son, Matthew, at South Seminole Hospital in Longwood forcing doctors to amputate her limbs to save her life.
The horror that began then still unfolds for the disfigured mother, who has pleaded with hospital officials for two years to turn her medical records over — something a judge just ordered.
She and her lawyers believe she either got the infection — "group A strep" — at the hospital or its doctors and nurses failed to quickly and properly treat it. They are suing the hospital and its parent company, Orlando Regional Healthcare System, seeking unspecified damages.
"I just want the truth," Mejia said.
Orlando Regional, however, maintains Mejia's infection was acquired elsewhere and that she was treated properly. In 187,000 births since 1988 at the nonprofit hospital system, comprised of seven medical facilities, Mejia is the only reported case of invasive group A strep, Jennings Hurt III, the hospital's attorney, said.
"Thank God it's rare," Hurt said. "The hospital and everybody associated with the hospital have great sympathy for what happened to her. It's truly tragic."
Invasive group A strep infects about three people in every 100,000 in the United States each year, said Dr. Dennis Stevens, chief of the Infectious Disease Section at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Boise, Idaho. Of those, about a third reach the flesh-eating stage, named necrotizing fasciitis, that often requires amputation, he said. The flesh-eating stage, which destroys muscles, fat, and skin tissue, is fatal in 30 to 70 percent of its victims, Stevens said.
The three days following the April 28, 2005, birth of her son are troubling, Mejia said. After she checked into the Longwood hospital and gave birth to a healthy baby boy at 7 a.m., a fever set in, medical records show.
A nursing document reveals her temperature was high throughout the day, reading 100.6 degrees at one point. Shaking and chills soon followed, and Mejia complained of severe pain in her stomach and a burning sensation when she urinated — all signs of a potential infection, her attorney, Ron Gilbert, said.
The nurses and midwives deny Mejia ever reported any severe pain, Hurt said.
"A 100.6 temperature is very, very, very low grade," Hurt said. "A person with group A strep with toxic shock syndrome has very high, spiking temperatures. Ms. Mejia's symptoms were inconsistent with that."
Diagnosing women with infection after childbirth can be a struggle, Stevens said.
"Doctors have to be able to read between the lines to know if this is the usual pain from just having had a baby or whether there is something else going on," he said. "One of the hallmarks of these nasty group A strep infections is severe pain."
As Mejia's body tried to fight off the deadly bacteria, nurses treated her with minor painkillers Tylenol and ibuprofen, medical officials confirmed.
The hospital's care was appropriate and reasonable, Hurt said.
The over-the-counter drugs, however, could not fight a disease commonly treated with an aggressive antibiotic regimen delivered intravenously.
The hospital began the process of discharging Mejia the following morning, but her then-boyfriend, Tim Edwards, complained.
"She's too sick to come home," he said. Mejia writhed in pain and began to vomit, still with nothing more than mild pain relievers and anti-inflammatory medications, Edwards said.
Doctors finally stepped in the next afternoon and ordered emergency surgery to remove her uterus, but the invasive bacteria had now entered her bloodstream. She went into toxic shock, her kidneys began to shut down and the blood flow to her arms and legs ceased, causing gangrene to set in, records show.
She was rushed to Orlando Regional Medical Center where doctors informed her that she would die if her limbs were not amputated immediately.
"I wanted to die," she said. "I really wanted to die. I couldn't go on living without arms and legs."
It was Edwards, 34, who spent an hour, racing against the clock, convincing her that she still had much to live for.
Edwards recounts his plea to his girlfriend of two years and the mother of his son: "Keep fighting. And when you're able, marry me."
Mejia said yes to life and marriage. Doctors amputated her legs above her knees, the left arm above the elbow and her right arm just below the elbow. Eight days later, Mejia and Edwards exchanged vows in the intensive care unit. She wears her wedding band on a chain around her neck.
Two years later, their love and family remain strong.
Edwards, a produce manager at Target in Sanford, begins each day at 4 a.m. He carries his wife, who without limbs weighs 84 pounds, and bathes her. Nine-year-old Jorge, a child from a previous relationship, cooks breakfast for the family — waffles "made with batter, not the kind you put in the toaster," his mother points out.
At an awards ceremony at Crystal Lake Elementary in Sanford on Tuesday, proud tears streamed down Edward's face as Jorge, a third grader there, received awards for good behavior and straight A's.
Family suppers aren't outdated either.
"We always eat dinner all together. It's never apart," Edwards said. "We're a family united."
Mejia has learned to brush her teeth, answer the telephone and surf the Internet. She eats by attaching a fork to a fabric band on her right arm above her elbow. She is motivated to walk again with the help of prosthetics.
Edwards asked her to remarry him last year on Christmas Eve.
"Next time she's going to walk down the aisle," he said.


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In July 1888, more than 100 attorneys from across the state formed Virginia's first statewide bar group. They sought to raise professional standards and improve the law. At the time, Virginia lawyers faced no standards for bar admission, no bar examination, no code of ethics. They had no voice in judicial selection or law reform. And no means existed to discipline lawyers.
The VBA helped change that. In the 1920s and '30s, we called for lawmakers to create an agency to regulate the legal profession so that we were not policing our own members. That licensing and disciplinary agency, created 50 years after we formed, is the Virginia State Bar.
Virginia is one of only three states in the nation with both voluntary (VBA) and mandatory (VSB) statewide bar groups.
Presidents of The Virginia Bar Association
An asterisk (*) indicates that the person listed is deceased.
Honoring Past Presidents Sponsorship Program
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ABA Business Law Virtual Section Annual Meeting


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It's Memorial Day (officially) and the weekend when we take time to remember those who served and, especially, died so that we can enjoy our freedoms. It's easy to take these things for granted, but there are many ways that those memories are brought back to mind. One way this is done is with music (you knew I was going there). Many songs born of wartime are still sung in all types of venues: in churches, around the piano in the parlor, and around campfires (the Boy Scouts sing a version of "Tenting on the Old Campground," many not realizing that this song is from the Civil War and the "Campground" was the area where revival encampments took place, not where folks pitched tents for recreation).
Many popular songs about war focus on the opposition to war (check Songfacts for a list of titles and links), but songs that recognize the service of our military personnel date back to the prior Centuries. WWI and WWII both spawned songs of patriotism and hope. The series "Songs that got us through WWII" is a perfect example. Wikipedia has a great article on the role of music in WWII. Perhaps by the 1940s they'd discovered that previous wars benefited from having music as an element of conflict: WWI had its songs, too (many are still sung today). And all of these are a carry over from the 1861-1865 conflict where music was prolific on both sides. There are so many websites devoted to this topic that it is hard to select just a few to share here, but here's an attempt:
The Music of the American Civil War
The Civil War Music Site
Keith & Rusty McNeil's Civil War Music Site
The Civil War Music Store
Check this collection of videos of the songs of the War of the Rebellion
My own CD of Civil War songs is also available on-line.
There are also songs from the Revolutionary War. Check these:
Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution
Keith & Rusty McNeil's Colonial and Revolution Songs
And this collection of videos of the songs of the Revolutionary War
So, as you remember the men and women who served this country to obtain and preserve our freedom, take a moment to make music part of that recognition.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Music and our Military Ancestry
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South Valley community's water issues continue
Commission to investigate Waterworks LLC.
Things are only getting worse for an Albuquerque neighborhood struggling through a second week with little to no water.
Target 7's Lauren Zakalik investigated to see what can be done to help suffering residents.
"It feels like, to me, we're the forgotten community," resident Lorraine Flores said.
Flores said water is only trickling out of her appliances and the community is nearly bone dry.
She's one of about 50 southwest Albuquerque homeowners who are serviced by small utility Waterworks, LLS, who've been dealing with these problems on and off for a year.
"We're trying to live our lives around our water. It's ridiculous. You get up, 'Can I shower today? Can I not?'" Flores said.
Last week, the utility owner told Target 7 he was open to the county taking over.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that will be possible.
"The water authority is not in a position at this point to take over that private utility," Water Authority spokesman David Morris said.
Morris said it would cost taxpayers up to $5 million to connect those homes to the authority's lines.
"And we can't ask our existing rate payers to subsidize bringing that other system on board," Morris said.
On Monday, just when neighbors thought hope had run dry, New Mexico Public Regulations Commissioner Jason Marks said he is ready to open a formal case into Waterworks, LLC.
That means the state could finally get involved after months of trying to resolve the issue informally.
Commissioner Art De La Cruz said he's going to recommend the possibility of homeowners creating their own co-op and taking over the utility themselves.


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Readers jonesing for local news on the web now have one more place to turn.
News website Fwix has emerged a strong contender in the quickly growing field of hyper-local news aggregators, sites which filter local and area news stories for you, showing you the hottest links in your ZIP code.
The site aggregates stories and videos from about 100 cities worldwide, mostly in North America. Each city has its own home page, and each city's page has different sections for politics, crime, sports and other topics.
Local news headlines are presented with the newest stories at the top, so you get a constantly-updating river of news about topics you care about in the area where you live. New stories flow in as they become hot, appearing dynamically without a page refresh.
It's a design of the times. Twitter and Facebook have turned us into breaking news junkies. Of all the hottest stories being passed around on the real-time web, few are more interesting than the ones happening closest to us, whether in our city or in our immediate neighborhood. And geoloaction tools in our computers, phones and even in our web browsers are making local content easier to find. To that end, we've seen a number of hyper-local news aggregators come down the pike. Sites like EveryBlock and Outside.in offer hyper-local experiences complete with maps, and larger sites like Google News give us the ability to filter results to state, county or city level.
Much like other aggregators, Fwix pulls content from a handful of mainstream news sources, like major area newspapers and local TV network affiliates, as well as social media sites and dozens of local blogs. Check out its long list of sources for the San Francisco bay area.
According to Fwix founder and CEO Darian Shiraz, who gave us a hands-on tour of the site, news sources are hand-picked by Fwix's small editorial team. Users can also request the addition of a news source by submitting a URL on the Fwix website.
The free Fwix iPhone app, pictured at the top, adds another way in. It has a "Report News" button – click it and you can submit a photo of something happening in your city. So if you're walking around and you see a building on fire or a gnarly car crash, take a photo with your iPhone and post it (after you call 911, of course).
For all of its depth, the year-old service isn't yet perfect.
News headlines on the Fwix front page are chosen based on popularity, which is determined by algorithms written by Fwix (using disco project code). Popularity is largely measured by how many clicks a story has gotten and how many sources are reporting an event.
The results can get wonky. When San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum was busted for pot possession, there were three headlines about it at the top of the SF bay area page. All were from different sources, but since most news outlets just ran a wire story, each link had the same headline, the same summary and the same information. Likewise when Lincecum won the Cy Young award – everyone had the story, so the first three links on Fwix were all of the same.
Other hyper-local services have the same problem, but Google News deals with the issue rather elegantly by nesting headlines for related stories.
Also, Fwix isn't yet a reliable source of breaking news. The day the Bay Bridge was shut down due to structural damage – a huge news event in San Francisco – there was nothing about it on the Fwix homepage even hours after it happened. Also, the bridge closure presented a perfect opportunity for users to submit relevant photos and tweets, but I didn't see any show up on the website.
Still, while its method of presenting aggregated news may be more chaotic than what Google News offers, Fwix does surface a wider range of stories. Every time I've visited the Fwix home page or fired up the iPhone app since I began regularly using both a month ago, I've found at least one or two interesting headlines I never would have encountered had I been left to my own devices. Several times, it was something in my neighborhood that one of my favorite go-to local blogs had overlooked. By regularly visiting the site, I've discovered some great local blogs I hadn't heard about.
Also, interesting videos show up often – something few other hyper-local news sites can claim.
While content providers and the large-scale aggregators continue to butt heads over who has the right to profit from news content, Fwix, relatively speaking, takes the high road.
The company has recently launched its AdWire service, an ad network that splits revenue with the site owners running the ads and the publishers of the stories they're linking to, many of whom are hobbyists, citizen journalists or freelance bloggers.
Along the same lines, Fwix only posts very short, one or two-sentence summaries of news stories, then offers a clearly-labeled link to the original source, much like an RSS reader. The original story's page is wrapped in a frame with buttons to share the link on social sites using Fwix's own URL-shortening service. Click-through content frames are a no-no in our book, but at least this one is easy enough to dismiss. Just click the giant "X" button.
See also:


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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Tampa's port authority has made it official -- they want the CEO of the Jacksonville Port Authority to lead its port.
The Tampa Port Authority board approved Paul Anderson's contract Tuesday morning. It takes effect Jan. 7.
Anderson will make $350,000 a year.
"I have accepted Paul Anderson's resignation as JaxPort CEO effective immediately," JaxPort board Chairman James Citrano said in a statement. "We thank Paul for his contributions and his leadership and offer sincere wishes for his continued future success."
The JaxPort board has called a special meeting for 10 a.m. Wednesday to discuss its CEO situation.
According to the Jacksonville Business Journal, Tampa didn't recruit Anderson for the job -- he applied.
In September, the JaxPort board of directors approved a 5 percent pay raise and $50,000 bonus for Anderson, but he asked that the raise be tabled after some members of the City Council complained about the raise.
The raise would have bumped Anderson's salary from $320,000 to $336,000.
The last CEO at Tampa's port earned $285,000, but its board chairman, William Brown, said the authority was willing to pay more to have Anderson at the helm.


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Internationally renowned poet, Lucien Stryk, died January 24th in London at the age of 88. Stryk wrote and edited more than two dozen books, including collections of his poetry, and translations of Chinese and Japanese Zen poetry. He also taught creative writing and Asian literature at Northern Illinois University from 1958 until he retired in 1991.
Stryk was born in Poland in 1924, then moved with his family to Chicago at the age of four. He served in the army in the South Pacific during World War II. His first book of poetry, "Taproot," was published in 1953. His poetry has been published in at least seven languages. It was his own skill in translating the work of others that led the American Literary Translators Association to create The Lucien Stryk Prize, promoting the translation of Asian works into English.
In 2002, WNIJ's Dan Klefstad went to Stryk's suburban Chicago home and recorded him reading some of his poems for a documentary about the first anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. They included a poem about his reaction to the terrorist attacks, called "Quiet, Please." Here it is, followed by his short essay about 9-11.
Another poem Stryk shared with us is "Return to Hiroshima," which he wrote while a visiting lecturer at Nigata University in Japan. Stryk was a veteran of the World War II campaigns against the Japanese military. Here he introduces, then recites, the three-part poem.
And finally, for the WNIJ 9-11 Anniversary special, Lucien Stryk introduced and recorded "And Still Birds Sing."
Stryk is survived by his wife Helen, a sister, a son, a daughter, a grandson, and two great-grandsons. He will be buried Thursday at Highgate Cemetery in London, England.


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Shock absorber's are the central chassis element. The shock absorber has a major effect on the driving characteristics of your scooter through it's spiral tension and graduated buffering. The rule of thumb goes: the stiffer it's construction and more exact it's adjustment, the better your traction and at the same time, better handling.
Here comes a manufacturer from the aeronaubic industry to take the scooter shock absorber market by storm. And rightly so! FOURNALES combines an extremely stylish appearance with impressive precision to form a wonder weapon in the shock arena. This isn't a case of all show and no blow! An air cushioning system with progressive characteristics, light (due to a lack of springs!), well made, classy optics, adjustable with an air pump and is available in blue and chrome. The surface can vary, either smooth or ribbed. Weight is only 600 grams!!
SIP-TIP: For absolute optimal shock adjustment, we recommend you use a high pressure pump from FOURNALES!
MOTORETTA March/April 2003: "High tech shock absorber (...), gets along without springs, due to it's unique system..."


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Stock funds continue to bleed despite QE3September 27, 2012: 10:43 AM ET
Mutual fund investors shrugged their shoulders at the Federal Reserve's latest ploy to stimulate the sluggish economy.
In the first week following the Fed's launch of a third round of quantitative easing, or QE3, investors yanked $4.8 billion from U.S. stock mutual funds, according to data from the Investment Company Institute. That was the quickest pace of outflows since early August.
The acceleration of the exodus from stock mutual funds is curious, as the Fed's policy aims to prop up the economy by keeping interest rates low to support the housing market and boost the stock market.
The week's retreat brings the 2012 outflow total to nearly $87 billion. By comparison, those funds lost in the neighborhood of $67 billion during the first nine months of 2010, and $83 billion during the first nine months of 2011.
Related: Federal Reserve policies favor the rich
While bailing out of stocks, investors continued to plow into bonds. The data showed that bond funds raked in $8 billion during the week ended Sept. 19.
Following the Fed's QE3 news, bond king Bill Gross, founder of investing firm Pimco and manager of the world's largest bond fund, warned over Twitter that "central banks are where bad bonds go to die." In fact, Gross cut the holdings of Treasury bonds in the Pimco Total Return Fund (PTTRX) leading up to the Fed's widely-anticipated QE3 announcement earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the ICI data showed that hybrid funds, which invest in both stocks and bonds, continued to remain in favor, attracting more $1.6 billion last week.


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This week on View from the Gutters our topic work is The Question: The Five Books of Blood, written by Greg Rucka with art by Jimmy Palmiotti, Diego Olmos, John Van Fleet, Jesús Saíz, Steve Lieber, Manuel Garcia, Eric Trautmann, and Matt Clark. Originally released under the title 52 Aftermath: Crime Bible: Five Lessons of Blood, this 5-issue mini-series follows the events of the seminal weekly DC series 52.
It features Renee Montoya—who took up the mantle of The Question in 52—continuing her crusade to both understand and ultimately bring to heel the Religion of Crime, who venerate Cain as the first criminal. It also guest stars Renee's frequent companion (and former lover), Batwoman.
In our recommendation section our hosts nominated Black Science, The Winter Men, Damage Control: The Complete Collection, Journey into Mystery: Fear Itself, Vol 1 & 2, Samurai Jack, and The Incredible Hulk and the Thing: The Big Change for discussion on our next episode, and our selected title is Journey into Mystery: Fear Itself, Vol 1 & 2.
Our hosts for this episode are Andrew Chard, Tobiah Panshin, Kayleigh Fleeman, Kit Deforge, Brant Gillihan-Eddy, and Cade Reynolds.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:55:16 — 52.8MB) | Embed


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You. Are. Awesome! Thanks for taking the initiative to make things nice. Hopefully with better weather you can get more volunteers.
We had a productive afternoon today. We walked L5 and cleaned up the trees while looking for the long pin placement (never found it), We cleared honeysuckle/trimmed the tree shoots/vines from the fairway trees on L9. We opened up the tree barrier and cleared a lot of honeysuckle at S13. Thanks to Ben, Adam, and his, out of town, friend Bobby for all the work today. 8 man hours total.


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Women Protests
How Women Have Protested Through History
How Women Have Protested Through History
Ladies, now's the time to get vocal about what you believe in. Women around the world are wielding signs, donning body paint, and marching in parades in support of women's rights and gender equality, against violence toward women, and to raise awareness for other important political and social causes. On the 19th Amendment's birthday, let's look back at the evolution of female protesters. From the French Revolution to the women's suffragist movement to civil rights, here are some memorable moments involving women around the world getting their protest on.
Source: Getty


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Maps-india - a complete tourist map guide for India offers information on various beaches in Goa with the help of maps. It provides you an opportunity to spend a holiday of your lifetime on beautiful and attractive Goa beaches. The location maps of Maps-india also gives an idea about the surrounding tourist places of various beaches in Goa.
The following map shows the location of Candolim Beach on Goa Map.
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September 25, 2020
Submitted by: Aramark
Categories: Corporate Social Responsibility, Fair Trade & Supply Chain
Posted: Aug 21, 2012 – 09:00 AM EST
PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 21 /CSRwire/ - ARAMARK, a world leader in professional services, today announced it plans to eliminate all pork from animals bred using gestation crates in ARAMARK's U.S. supply chain by 2017. The announcement by ARAMARK was made in conjunction with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the nation's largest animal protection organization.
ARAMARK and HSUS have been collaborating to put in place a plan that would address gestation crate issues by working with the company's suppliers to eliminate the utilization of crates within their supply chains. In addition to major food companies addressing this issue, nine states have also passed laws banning gestation crates, including states like Colorado, Ohio and Michigan.
"ARAMARK is proud to stand in partnership with other industry leaders and supply chain partners to transition away from gestation crates in a timely fashion," said Kathy Cacciola, ARAMARK's Senior Director of Environmental Sustainability. "We're committed to operating responsibly and addressing key issues, including animal welfare, throughout our supply chain and business, and this commitment helps move the entire industry toward the elimination of gestation crates."
To meet this goal, ARAMARK has asked its primary pork suppliers to develop plans for reducing, and then eliminating gestation crates. Working with the suppliers, ARAMARK will then take steps to provide gestation crate-free pork throughout its supply chain by 2017.
In addition, ARAMARK will begin immediately to require new supplier contracts for pork to provide a plan that addresses how they will phase out gestation creates to meet these important goals.
"ARAMARK is the largest US-based food service company taking a stand on this issue and the company's decision to eliminate pork from methods using gestation crates is a move toward even greater social responsibility," said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States. "ARAMARK has been a great partner to work with, and we applaud its decision to develop a proactive transition plan to 2017."
Gestation crates confine breeding pigs 24 hours a day during their four-month pregnancy, Pacelle said. Many farmers, animal scientists, consumers and companies in the food service industry are working to phase out gestation crates and provide more humane breeding environments.
About ARAMARK
ARAMARK is a leader in professional services, providing award-winning food services, facilities management, and uniform and career apparel to health care institutions, universities and school districts, stadiums and arenas, parks and destinations and businesses around the world. The company is recognized as one of the "World's Most Ethical Companies" by the Ethisphere Institute, one of the "World's Most Admired Companies" by FORTUNE magazine and one of America's Largest Private Companies by both FORTUNE and Forbes magazines. ARAMARK seeks to responsibly address issues that matter to its clients, customers, employees and communities by focusing on employee advocacy, environmental stewardship, health and wellness, and community involvement. Headquartered in Philadelphia, ARAMARK has approximately 250,000 employees serving clients in 22 countries. Learn more at www.twitter.com/aramarknews.
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LG Sheds Light on Internet of Things
Mar 25, 2014 8:38 AM PT
LG Electronics on Monday unveiled a light bulb designed to illuminate consumers lives in a more intelligent way.
The Smart Lamp, which can be controlled by an iOS or Android device over Bluetooth or WiFi, debuted in LG's home market of South Korea.
The 10W LED bulb is 80 percent more energy-efficient than other incandescent bulbs, LG claimed, and will last for up to 10 years when used for around five hours per day.
Mood Lighting
Users can alter the lighting in their homes according to a range of preferences -- for instance, to match the mood and beat of the music they are listening to. Consumers can set the bulbs to turn on and off at certain times when they are not at home to keep potential burglars at bay. They can turn the bulbs into an alert system for incoming phone calls or program them to operate as an alarm clock.
The LG Smart Lamp works with Android version 4.3 and higher or iOS version 6.0 and up.
The Smart Lamp follows on the heels of Philips' own smart lighting system, Hue, released last year. Users of those bulbs can choose from millions of colors and brightness intensities to light their spaces. While that system requires a ZigBee base station to operate, which may complicate matters for those who seek simplicity, the networked bulbs may offer a more integrated, complete experience throughout the home than the Smart Lamp.
"The Philips lights talk to each other and connect through a bridge so you can do more things with them and more things will connect to them. A starter Philips kit is around (US)$200 for three lights," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.
"I'd expect the single color LG lights to be brighter," he told TechNewsWorld.
Korea Debut
The Smart Lamp is retailing at 35,000 won (US$30). It is not yet clear whether the Smart Lamp is coming to the U.S.
"While they may seem rather gimmicky, there are practical applications for these products, such as security, phone or message alert notifications, and they can and will be utilized by other applications eventually," Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research, told TechNewsWorld.
"I don't expect adoption to meet that of the smartphone or for them to be used as the primary light source throughout a typical home or office, [but] I do see strong potential for smart lights. It's just a matter of the applications and getting consumers accustomed to the technology," he said.
"Smart lighting capability combined with LEDs offer consumers a wide range of flexibility and control that I believe consumers will find appealing," McGregor continued. "As the market shifts to LED lighting, this is a practical place to integrate [Internet of Things] functionality."
'Smart Bulbs Will Evolve'
"I think we're just at the precipice of seeing what smart light bulbs can do in terms of features, functions and different wattages," Laura DiDio, principal analyst at ITIC, told TechNewsWorld.
"Smart light bulbs will evolve. They offer a slew of features which will enable consumers and corporations to turn the light on at specified times or intervals when you're out of the house or on vacation to deter burglars. Smart bulbs and lamps may also have the ability to be linked to your alarm clock, cellphones and other consumer devices," she noted.
Despite the potential attributes of the Smart Lamp system, it could be that the bulbs will overly complicate otherwise straightforward tasks.
"On an elemental level, this is the equivalent of adding a remote control to your home or office lighting," Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told TechNewsWorld.
"That can be useful for some situations -- just as using a remote is for TVs and audio systems -- but it also adds layers of complexity to essentially simple tasks," he observed.
"It seems to be more of a hobbyist product as this point," King added.
"The fact is that LED bulbs are still in the early adopter phase, much as compact fluorescent bulbs were a couple of decades ago when you were paying a significant premium for the technology itself," he pointed out.
"Vendors might argue that smart consumers will pay an additional fee for valuable complementary features like light adjustment and programmability," said King, "but I believe it'll be a while before we can determine just how bright the future will be for smart light bulbs."


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Pages: 1
I have bad background color in some menus & buttons. In some apps it's ok, e.g. Thunar. But with other apps there is the problem.
I am Xfce newbie, so I don't know if it is easy to fix or not.
So, how can I fix it?
There was a change in GTK 3.8 that affected menus (and some other widgets). The themes themselves need to be updated. I know that the shimmer themes have been updated to fix this bug but am unsure of the others. More info is located here (ubuntu bug report) https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … ug/1163128.
Pages: 1


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One of the beauties of Twitter is the ability to hold conversation with people you would not normally meet. Last week, Tim Pratt of Real, Creative Eats tweeted about his weekend trip to the Earltown Maple Syrup Festival. I responded with a big 'I LOVE MAPLE!!!' tweet to which I then got a response from@AuthenticCoast with a link to the DesBarres Manor Inn recipe for Sweet Potato Soup with Nova Scotia Maple Syrup.
DesBarres Manor Inn is one of Nova Scotia's stunningly beautiful historic properties that has been faithfully restored to the full splendour of it's 1837 heritage. Located in the town of Guysborough, along the scenic Marine Drive of our Eastern Shore, DesBarres Manor has become a go to for lovers of local food and wine.
'From our spectacular open kitchen, our culinary team uses fresh ingredients from the Manor's organic garden along with seasonal gourmet treasures from local farmers and fishers to create contemporary Canadian cuisine with an East Coast flair. Seasonally inspired menus are complemented by the Proprietor's extensive wine collection, offering you a personal selection of fine wines from around the world. Combined with our attentive service, the DesBarres Manor dining room creates a culinary experience as warm as our people.'
I followed DesBarres' recipe to a T and the end result was pretty good but I was left wanting a little more of a flavour kick. Maybe it's because I've been working for the Bertossis too long but my tastebuds have developed a serious need for intense flavour.
DesBarres Manor Inn Sweet Potato Soup with Nova Scotia Maple Syrup
1 Tbsp Olive Oil, 1 tsp chopped garlic, 1/2 C chopped celery, 1/2 C chopped onion
1 Litre Chicken Stock, 2 Lbs peeled and diced Sweet Potatoes
4 Tbsp Maple Syrup, 1/4 tsp Nutmeg, 1 C Whipping Cream, 4 Tbsp Brandy
Sour Cream and Garlic Chives to garnish
Kelly's Modified Sweet Potato Soup with Acadian Maple Syrup
1 Tbsp Olive Oil, 1 clove chopped garlic, 1 stalk chopped celery, 1/2 med onion, chopped
1.5 Litre Chicken Stock, 2 Lbs peeled and diced Sweet Potatoes
8 Tbsp Acadian Maple Syrup, 1/2 tsp Nutmeg, 1/2 tsp Cardamom, 1.5 C Milk, 4 Tbsp Brandy, pinch of dried chili flakes
**Sautee garlic, celery and onion in olive oil 2 minutes
**Add chicken stock and sweet potato – bring to the boil – reduce heat – simmer one hour or until potatoes are soft
**Puree – add all other ingredients – simmer 15 minutes
**Garnish with sour cream and garlic chives
I simmered my sweet potatoes for one hour as the recipe calls for. I should have taken them from the heat when I checked them at 1/2 an hour because that's when they were done. By the end of one hour, my sweet potatoes had reduced too much and were so thick that I had to add more liquid, hence the increased measurements of stock and milk in my version. Also, my whipping cream was expired so I had to substitute milk for cream.
The only real difference in my version is the seasoning. I doubled the Maple Syrup because I found the original amount got lost among the sweetness of the potatoes. I increased the amount of nutmeg and then added cardamom to bring forth another flavour dimension. The pinch of chili flakes, once pureed, rounded out the bottom end of the sweetness with a little fire. I ate my first bowl with a dollop of sour cream and some chopped baby chives (I couldn't find garlic chives). The chives added a nice hint of oniony crunch but I think the soup could stand alone without the sour cream.
All in all, this was a really nice recipe from one of Nova Scotia's best!!


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A walk along restaurant row at The Venetian hotel in Las Vegas is the gastronomic equivalent of facing the NFL Pro Bowl lineup. You know the famous names, but they're not wearing their home uniforms. Valentino (home base: Santa Monica, California) is right here, Lutèce (New York) over there. Star Canyon (Dallas) beckons down the way, and look, there's Emeril Lagasse's name (familiar from the Food Network and Emeril's, his New Orleans restaurant) on Delmonico Steakhouse and Joachim Splichal's (Los Angeles) on Pinot Brasserie. Upstairs, next to a remarkably accurate re-creation of a Venetian campo, complete with real gondolas in a canal, are Postrio (San Francisco) and Zefferino (Genoa, Italy).
Down the street, in the Bellagio Las Vegas hotel, the roster includes Le Cirque and Circo from New York, Aqua from San Francisco and Olives from Cambridge, Massachusetts, while Prime, the steak house, carries the name of superstar chef Jean-George Vongerichten (Jean-George in New York). Nearby, other famous names festoon restaurants, including Wolfgang Puck, Jean-Louis Palladin, Jean Joho, Charles Palmer and Mark Miller.
Grumpy gourmets may carp that you won't find Lagasse if you duck into Delmonico, and Eberhard Müller will probably be home in New York instead of riding the ranges at Lutèce in Las Vegas. With few exceptions, the star chefs pay only brief visits to Las Vegas to check on their operations.
On the other hand, that's not the real Eiffel Tower outside Paris Las Vegas, either. It's a one-half-scale replica. And that's an apt metaphor for the dining scene in Las Vegas. What you get is a sort of replica of the real thing. But if that Eiffel Tower is accurate enough to make Parisians do double takes, so is the food at the new wave of Las Vegas restaurants. It's safe to say that more fine dining is concentrated in about a mile of the Las Vegas Strip than in any other comparable piece of real estate in the world.
This is a long way from the way things were. For most of its existence, Las Vegas has offered inexpensive hotel rooms and cheap, abundant buffets to attract gamblers. Fine dining was a steak or un-trendy Continental cuisine. "Las Vegas continues to reinvent itself," says Paul Pusateri, president of Paris Las Vegas. "The latest surge is the restaurants. It brings business to town, and it raises the bar of what's acceptable for everyone else. The $3 buffet is history."
Several factors are driving this fine dining phenomenon. First, Las Vegas hotels sprouted shopping malls and became virtual theme parks to attract families as well as avid gamblers. Then came the economic boom of the 1990s, and Las Vegas became America's biggest convention city. Its more affluent guests weren't satisfied with ordinary hotel food. With the number of visitors approaching 35 million in 2000, the newest hotels have gone even further upscale, and so have the dining options. It started in 1992, when Caesars Palace approached Puck about opening a branch of his West Hollywood, California, flagship restaurant Spago in the hotel's new Forum Shops. Initially reluctant, Puck agreed to the deal in exchange for the financing that he needed for Granita, a seaside bistro in Malibu. Spago Vegas did so well that he added a mid-market Wolfgang Puck Café the following year at the MGM Grand. When he heard that MGM was considering adding a Mexican restaurant, he suggested Mark Miller.
Miller installed a version of his original Santa Fe, New Mexico, Coyote Café at the MGM Grand in 1993. Shortly thereafter, Jean-Louis Palladin closed his eponymous restaurant in Washington, D.C., and moved to Las Vegas to run Napa at the Rio All Suite Casino Resort on the promise that backers would later finance a new restaurant for him in New York. By 1998 cat suitclad women were rappelling up and down a glassed-in wine tower in the airy dining room of Aureole at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. (Aureole has developed one of the three biggest wine lists in the country and earned a Wine Spectator Grand Award.) Things were getting interesting.
Hoteliers and chefs hear their cash registers ringing almost as loudly as the slot machines in the casinos. "There is simply no other place in the globe with so many people coming through every year, people who are saying, 'Entertain me,'" says Rob Goldstein, president of The Venetian hotel. "That's why, when we built this hotel, we decided to dive into fine dining in a big way."
The Venetian wasn't alone. Sometimes it seems as though every American restaurateur of note has opened a branch in Las Vegas, most of them in the big new hotels that have opened in the past two years. You might think the competition would have them all scrambling for the same diners, but if anything, the audience seems to have expanded along with the number of upscale restaurants.
"It's amazing," marvels Alessandro Stratta, chef of Renoir at the Mirage. "The more restaurants that open, the more business we seem to do. I don't know how long that can last, but I think it has something to do with more awareness of the fine dining that's available here."
Things are different today from 1995, when Chicago superstar chef Charlie Trotter closed his restaurant at the MGM Grand within a year and left, citing pressure to make the restaurant bigger. At the time, people weren't coming to Las Vegas for the dining. Now they do. "What's great," says Stratta, "is that people come here and are willing to try anything. We have first-time diners who never saw a sweetbread before, but they're on vacation, they heard that gourmet food is the thing, so they try it and they say, 'Wow, this is pretty good.'"
Julian Serrano notices it, too. "Every day more people are coming to Las Vegas to eat," says the chef of Picasso, rated by Wine Spectator as the top restaurant in Las Vegas and one of the top 20 in the United States. "These are savvy establishments and they are coming here with more expectations these days. That's more pressure on me, but it also makes Picasso a better restaurant."
Stratta and Serrano are rare birds: star chefs who make their homes in Las Vegas and focus all their attention on their restaurants there. At the others, absentee chefs and restaurateurs must divide their time between their original places and their Las Vegas outposts. As a result, most observers agree, the Las Vegas version of a famous restaurant seldom delivers the same experience as the original.
Star Canyon's Stephan Pyles has had to add steak and lobster dishes to his Las Vegas menu, which is also missing some of the more esoteric items ("I can sell corn fungus in Dallas but not in Las Vegas," he chuckles) that give his original menu in Dallas some of its flair. "To really experience Star Canyon you have to be in Texas," he says. "In Las Vegas things are one step removed."
At Aqua Las Vegas, chef-owner Michael Mina intentionally makes things different from the original Aqua in San Francisco. "You can't change the signature dishes that everybody looks for, such as the tuna tartare, the lobster pot pie, the caviar parfait," Mina says. "The other 70 percent, the style is the same but the dishes are different, based on the different mix of fish and seafood we can get in Las Vegas. We want people dining in San Francisco and Las Vegas to have a different experience."
That does not impress such skeptics as Drew Nieporent, whose Myriad Restaurant Group would seem to be a natural for Las Vegas with such hit restaurants as Montrachet and Nobu in New York and Rubicon in San Francisco. "I think the jury is still out," Nieporent says. "It's a good thing and a positive thing that there has been this unbelievable influx of carpetbag restaurants in the city of carpetbaggers. But I don't think you can say it's become a culinary capital, only because there is a dumbing down of the process."
Dumbing down or not, several chefs have hit enough of a jackpot with their first Las Vegas restaurants that they have added others. Todd English has Olives at Bellagio and Onda at the Mirage. Lagasse has Emeril's New Orleans Fish House at the MGM Grand and Delmonico at The Venetian. Wolfgang Puck is the champ with five restaurants, including Spago and Chinois at Caesars Palace, Postrio at The Venetian, Wolfgang Puck Café in the MGM Grand and Trattoria del Lupo at Mandalay Bay.
"Our headquarters should be in Las Vegas," Puck says with a laugh. "That's where most of our business is. For fine dining, Las Vegas represents about 50 percent of our revenue." Puck's four Las Vegas operations (not counting the Café) earn as much as the combined total of his seven other high-profile restaurants (Spagos in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Chicago and Palo Alto; Chinois in Santa Monica; Granita in Malibu; and Postrio in San Francisco).
Miller, who visits often enough to keep the menus and spice levels of his Southwestern cuisine the same in Las Vegas as they are at the original Coyote Café in Santa Fe, is so enthusiastic that he plans to open two more restaurants in Las Vegas, one serving Caribbean cuisine and the other Asian food.
"Would I rather eat at Arpège in Paris than anywhere in Las Vegas? Of course, but I'd rather be in Las Vegas," says Miller. "It's convenient. It's hassle-free. You have a lot of choices. People are generally happy. I never see people in a bad mood. You never can say that in New York, where just going out to eat means sitting in a cab in traffic for 45 minutes."
Sooner or later, Las Vegas will run out of star chefs and hot restaurant names. What then? Serrano, for one, suggests that the chefs and managers who are laboring under someone else's imprimatur should get the chance to put their own names on a marquee. "These are talented people," says Serrano. "When the hotels give them the support that they gave the star chefs, then this whole fine dining phenomenon will start to put down some roots."
"[Serrano] is dead on," says Goldstein of The Venetian. "You don't need to get the biggest name in the world. You get a talented young guy and set him up with something special. You could do that today." Others are not so sure. "This town is still about show business," says Rino Armeni, marketing director for Southern Wine and Spirits, the wine and liquor distributor. "Some of the homegrown chefs will show their talent, but we need the name appeal. Great talent coming from out of town will always be the most important thing in Las Vegas."
So what's next? The latest rumors involve Daniel Boulud of Daniel in New York and Thomas Keller of the French Laundry in Napa Valley. Neither would say anything for the record, but the smart money is betting that older hotels will have to get in the gourmet game if they want to compete with the latest generation of Las Vegas establishments.
All of the newest hotels upped the ante in different ways. Mandalay Bay included Aureole, Border Grill, China Grill and a Wolfgang Puck enterprise, Trattoria del Lupo, in the mix. Then came Bellagio, which, in addition to lining up brand-name luxury restaurants, took the extraordinary step of setting up a star chef, Julian Serrano, with his own, Picasso. The Venetian, instead of signing the big names to management contracts, leased them the space and let them manage their own enterprises. Aladdin installed Commander's Palace of New Orleans, Anasazi of Santa Fe and upscale restaurants that already had cloned themselves in other cities, such as Italy-based Bice and Chicago-based Macanudo Steakhouse.
Paris Las Vegas took a different tack. In the planning stages, president Pusateri says, the hotel sought marquee French chefs, including Alain Ducasse, but opted instead to create its own restaurants with consulting chefs who already were familiar with operating from afar. "We didn't need a big name because big names in the other hotels were already drawing the fine dining crowd to Las Vegas," Pusateri explains. "Everybody in the world knows the city of Paris. We knew we could market ourselves if we could make it feel traditionally French."
The hotel approached Rich Melman, whose Lettuce Entertain You group includes Everest and Ambria, two of Chicago's top-rated restaurants. Melman delivered chef Jean Joho of Everest to focus on the Eiffel Tower Restaurant, Paris Las Vegas's fanciest dining room, and Gabino Sotelino of Ambria to work with Mon Ami Gabi, the hotel's brasserie.
"The other restaurants we manage ourselves," Pusateri adds, noting that the hotel hired all the chefs from France, and contracted with Gaston Lenôtre to run the chocolate and pastry shop. (Lenôtre has patisseries all over France, and in 1980 he was among the first French culinarians to make a foray into the United States when he supervised the French bakery at Epcot Center in Walt Disney World.)
All this adds up to a sea change in the way hotels approach food, not just in Las Vegas, but everywhere. In Las Vegas, a snazzy new hotel needs to put a name up on the marquee, just as it does to woo guests into the nightclubs. It can't just open a dining room with the hotel's own chefs, as most hotels and resorts elsewhere do. As Goldstein of The Venetian says, "The days of running it yourself without having some kind of identification are gone."
For all the drawbacks of absentee chefs and once-removed concepts, the payoff is that dining in Las Vegas is several leaps above what it was, and it keeps getting better.
Harvey Steiman is the editor-at-large of Wine Spectator, Cigar Aficionado's sister publication.
ANASAZI Desert Passage at Aladdin Resort & Casino, 3667 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/836-0989 Cuisine: Southwestern
AQUA Bellagio Las Vegas, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/693-8199 Cuisine: Seafood
AUREOLE Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/632-7401 Cuisine: New American Wine Spectator Grand Award Winner
BORDER GRILL Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/632-7403 Cuisine: Eclectic Mexican with Southern California influence
CHINA GRILL Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/632-7404 Cuisine: International
CHINOIS LAS VEGAS The Forum Shops at Caesars, 3500 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/737-9700 Cuisine: Asian Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
COMMANDER'S PALACE OF NEW ORLEANS Desert Passage at Aladdin Resort & Casino, 3667 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/892-8272 Cuisine: New Orleans
COYOTE CAFÉ MGM Grand, 3799 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/891-7349 Cuisine: Modern Southwestern Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
EIFFEL TOWER RESTAURANT Paris Las Vegas, 3655 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/948-6937 Cuisine: French
EMERIL'S NEW ORLEANS FISH HOUSE MGM Grand, 3799 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/891-7374 Cuisine: New Orleans Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
FIORE'S ROTISSERIE & GRILL Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, 3700 Flamingo Road Tel. 702/252-7702 Cuisine: Northern Mediterranean Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
LE CIRQUE Bellagio Las Vegas, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/693-8100 Cuisine: French
LUTECE The Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/414-2220 Cuisine: Modern French
MON AMI GABI Paris Las Vegas, 3655 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/944-4224 Cuisine: French
NAPA Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, 3700 Flamingo Road Tel. 702/247-7961 Cuisine: Eclectic French Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
OLIVES Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/693-8181 Cuisine: Mediterranean
ONDA The Mirage, 3400 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/791-7223 Cuisine: Italian
OSTERIA DEL CIRCO Bellagio Las Vegas, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/693-8150 Cuisine: Tuscan
PARIAN The Regent Las Vegas, 221 North Rampart Tel. 702/869-7777 Cuisine: American
PICASSO Bellagio Las Vegas, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/693-8105 Cuisine: French with a Mediterranean influence
PIERO SELVAGGIO VALENTINO The Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/414-3000 Cuisine: Italian Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
PINOT BRASSERIE The Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/735-8888 Cuisine: French
POSTRIO LAS VEGAS The Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/796-1110 Cuisine: Seafood
RENOIR The Mirage, 3400 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/791-7223 Cuisine: Contemporary French Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence
SPAGO LAS VEGAS The Forum Shops at Caesars, 3500 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/369-6300 Cuisine: California Wine Spectator Award of Excellence
STAR CANYON The Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/414-3772
CUISINE: TEXAS Trattoria del Lupo Mandalay Bay, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. S. Tel. 702/632-7410 Cuisine: Contemporary Italian