text:
Batches of each variety of onion have already been potted into modules so here's hoping the mystery problem that affected our onions last year was a one off occurrence.
Monday, February 16
Topsy Turvy Onion Crops,
Batches of each variety of onion have already been potted into modules so here's hoping the mystery problem that affected our onions last year was a one off occurrence.
27 comments:
Reading with interest as this is the first time I've ever grown onions {done shallots before} and I planted my sets {a mixed bag of three sorts} in November on a patch of previously unused ground. I don't know if they are doing well or not, as I've nothing to compare to; there are lovely strong green shoots but the bulbs don't seem to be growing much yet, so I'm hoping this is something that comes later as the days warm up a tad. Maybe I planted too late, and I certainly didn't know you can bring on in modules! This is information I must now squirrel away for future use!ReplyDelete
I have frozen onions in the past, sliced and diced ready to use, but will not do so in plastic again as everything cross contaminated with onion/plastic smell ~ all wasted. A friend is experimenting with using glass in the freezer so that is my next step {with great care, obviously}
As to the onions almost going over, I'd be making a caramelized onion chutney!
Sorry, rattled on a bit today ~~~DebReplies
I'm happy for you to rattle on Deb. Onion bulbs won't have bulked up yet so don't worry. As the weather was mild ion autumn later planting may not be an issue. Some years when we have planted late the bulbs haven't even shooted until early spring, The trouble is that the weather is unpredictable so you can;t guarantee that the autumn will be mild.Delete
Did freezer bags contaminate?
I used Tesco's freezer bags, and another generic freezer bag too, both ended up making the onions taste of plastic. I tried Tupperware~style containers and they ended up tasting of onion. Lose Lose!Delete
We still haven't had real winter weather yet!
I've had mixed results in the past with my onions, and we don't actually use that many, so I've decided to streamline everything this year. I'm not going to bother with red onions, which rarely do well for me, or shallots and I've decided that three dozen sturon should do us. I wonder what caused the foliage on your onions to keel over as they did last year, it's worrying that more and more pests and diseases keep being discovered, isn't it?ReplyDeleteReplies
We always find red onions to be far more fussy Jo and white ones are even worse. If we didn't have plenty of room onions would be one of the first things to be chopped out.Delete
Pests are a nightmare - did you read about the aquilegia disease? I've linked to the article at the top of the blog.
For all the reasons above, plus onion root rot, I've given up large scale onion growing and currently buy my onions in sacks for very little money (certainly less per kg than mine were working out grown from sets) from an asian grocer. I don't get a wide choice of variety (yellow or red), but at least I know what I'm getting.Delete
My plot neighbours had a similar occurrence with their autumn and spring planted onions and garlic last season and had to lift early. Funnily enough they found the spring grown ones from sets were more affected than the ones from seed. We all decided that they had just matured extra early due to the exceptional growing weather and lack of rain last year.
That was the conclusion we came to, SandD but the brown spots were the worry. As I have commented already we wouldn't grow them if it wasn't that we have lots of space - we certainly don't grow them to save money it's more a satisfaction issue of not having to buy veg :)Delete
I'm with you on that one - it's definitely all for the satisfaction that we do it.Delete
There is a fungal condition of onions called Purple Blotch disease which sets in where insects damage leaves. Despite the name, the blotches look more brown than purple but are distinctly round - like in your photos.
You could be on to something SandD through further investigation I also came across onion blight and this did occur at about the same tome as some potatoes were affected by blight. I may send a photo to the RHSDelete
I've frozen sliced or chopped onions before with success so I see no reason why you couldn't freeze small whole ones. We have a mixed bag selection out on the plot along with some shallots. With the left overs I might put them in a pot to see if they grow to a suitable pickling size! Thanks for the tip xReplyDeleteReplies
That should work, JoDelete
I've never particularly liked the texture of raw frozen onions and they make the freezer smell of onions for a while. Make sure your other food in there is well protected. I have frozen caramelized onions and was happy with that.ReplyDeleteReplies
I think it will be soup, DaphneDelete
I hope what ever caused the problem doesn't return Sue, there is nothing worse than not knowing what's causing issues.ReplyDelete
Good luck with this years crop.Replies
Thanks, Angie fingers crossed that we don't have a repeat.Delete
I'm almost at the end of last year's onions, they didn't store very well for some reason. Maybe I didn't dry them well enough, but they've been hanging in a cool dry garage. I'm interested to see how early you plant yours, I shall see if I can get mine in earlier this year.ReplyDeleteReplies
Last year we planted them out on the plot on 10 April, CJ. Most of them were first started off in modulesDelete
Well a lot of great advice on your blog and also from the posts! I am starting onions from seed this year and keeping fingers crossed. Yours all look fantastic except for the ones that suffered (. Hope you don't get that this year.ReplyDeleteReplies
I've never grown onions from seed Bren so I'll be interested to see how you get on. I hope we don't get a repeat tooDelete
You get a really big choice of variety of onion seed, and in the past I've had more success with seed than with sets which can fail to swell and grow (as I see has happened to you too). Seeds are supposed to bolt more readily than sets, but the sets bolt readily too no matter how much you water in dry weather. Seeds are no more difficult to grow in modules than the sets, you just have to be a bit earlier (Feb) so they have time to get big enough to go out early.Delete
It;s the early sowing that pits us off SandD as we don't usually start sowing much 'til the end of March,Delete
Well, I have never grown any onions, which some might find surprising, but the reason is lack of space. We use a LOT of onions in our cooking, and we would need a huge space if we were to grow enough for all our needs. Also, I think that onions have low VSR, because they are slow (and difficult?) to grow, but cheap to buy.ReplyDeleteReplies
If I was in your position Mark I wouldn't grow onions eitherDelete
How strange that the foliage just died like that....each year something weird seems to pop up. I was just about to ask how long you could keep your onions before they started sprouting and then you showed them doing just that...what would happen if you planted those, would they grow bigger or just rot down?ReplyDelete
I only manage to get tiny onions, hardly bigger than when first planted so onions are my obsession...it's like an illness now, each year I give it one more go....you know the one....sighs...xxxReplies
I'm guessing that if you plant a small onion, Dina it will just quickly run to seed. It will be interesting to find out though.Delete
Oh I do hope that the mystery ailment does not return this year Sue. I only grow a few onions which I pick to use when they are spring onion size so less time for things to go wrong. I plant more shallots though and your post is a reminder that I must get cracking!ReplyDeleteReplies
So do I Anna. I've sent photos to the RHS so maybe they will be able to help.Delete
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LyX is a WYSIWYG editor for latex files. It's a little bit clunky to use at first, and isn't perfect (thank you, open source developers– I'm not ungrateful!) but after becoming familiar with it, it's probably the single piece of software that has most improved my productivity. I like it so much I use it not just for papers but often as a scratchpad for math. Many times during random discussions I've used it to quickly bang out some equations and after seeing how fast it was, others immediately switched to using it.
Anyway, while macros may be the best feature you LyX aren't using, I recently discovered another couple excellent ones I wasn't familiar with after years of use so I thought I'd publicize. Specifically, I've always hated the process of including explanatory figures into LyX. Exporting plots from an experiment is tricky to improve, but when trying to create explanatory graphs, I've always hated the process.
Before, I thought the options were.
1) Create the graph in an external program. This is fine, of course, but is quite inconvenient when you want to go back and revise it. The external program usually saves it in some other format, so you have to open the graphic in open it again, revise it, export it to .pdf (or whatever), then open the document in LyX, compile it. Then, when you don't like the way it looks, you have to repeat the whole process. It works, but it's not efficient, since you can't edit the content in place. (Which is the whole point of using a WYSIWYG editor in the first place– remove the need for thinking about anything but content.)
2) Write the graphics directly in LyX in a language like TikZ. This is more "in-place" in that you don't have external files to find and manipulate. However, I find TikZ to be quite painful to get right with many re-compilations necessary. If the TikZ document is in place each requires a full compilation of the document. This is hilariously slow when making something like Beamer slides. Further, this totally violates the whole point of WYSIWYG since you're looking at code, rather than the output.
There are better ways! I've wasted countless hours not being aware of these.
Preview Boxes
First, LyX has a beautiful feature of "preview boxes". Take the following very simple TikZ code, which just draws a square:
\draw[red] (0,0) -- (0,1);
\draw[green] (0,1) -- (1,1);
\draw[red] (1,1) -- (1,0);
\draw[blue] (1,0) -- (0,0);
Typically, I'd include this in LyX files by inserting a raw tex box:
And then putting the the TikZ code inside:
This is OK, but has the disadvantages from (2) above. The code can be huge, if I have a lot of graphics, I can't tell what corresponds to what, and I have to do a (slooooooow) recompile of the whole document to see what it looks like.
However, if you just add a "preview box":
You get something that looks like this:
So far, so pointless, right? However, when you deselect, LyX shows the graphic in-place:
You can then click on it to expand the code. This solves most of the problems: You can see what you are doing at a glance, and you don't need to recompile the whole document to do it.
Native SVG support
Newer versions of LyX also natively support SVG files. You first have to create the file externally using something like Inkscape, which itself saves directly to the SVG format. Then, you can include it in LyX by doing Insert->File->External Material:
And then selecting the SVG file:
Again, LyX will show it in-place and (if LyX is configured correctly…) correctly output vector graphics in the final document.
What's even better is that LyX can automatically open the file in the external editor for you. If you right click, you can "edit externally":
Then the external editor will automatically open the file. You can then save it with a keystroke and go back to LyX. No hunting around for the file, no cycles of exporting to other formats, and you see exactly what the final output will look like at all stages. You can really tell that LyX was created by people using it themselves.
Bonus feature
This one is described well-enough already, but helps a lot in big documents: you can click on a point in a generated .pdf and automatically have LyX sync the editor to the corresponding point in the file.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Okanagan Grocery is the source of what very well might be the Okanagan's best bread.
Owner and head baker Monika Walker, a Western Living "Top 40 Foodie Under 40", is a self-proclaimed bread geek. She and her small team are constantly experimenting with recipes and processes to perfect their product and to create new loaf types. Their creations include a Callebaut Chocolate loaf, a peanut butter & jelly loaf and an organic apple raisin sourdough. Brioche, Bavarian pretzels and rosemary focaccia are a few of their more traditional offerings.
Every week, 15 new, hand-shaped varieties of breads grace the shelves of their industrial chic warehouse space. As far as ingredients go, Monika uses organic unbleached white flour and a natural starter. Never will you find preservatives, additives or mixes at Okanagan Grocer. You won't even find bread tins as every loaf is shaped by hand the old fashioned way.
Also sold in-house are jams made by Monika's husband, local cheeses, espresso from Bean Scene and more quality, locally made products.
This story was written for 102.7 The Peak


text:
Obama's Deal
Michael Kirk
Jim Gilmore
Mike Wiser
Jim Gilmore
Michael Kirk
Sen. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), Presidential Candidate: Fired up! Ready to Go!
ANNOUNCER: Tonight on FRONTLINE-
Sen. BARACK OBAMA: Your voice can win an election!
ANNOUNCER: He promised change.
Sen. BARACK OBAMA: Your voice can create the kind of America we dream about!
ANNOUNCER: Then he took on one of Washington's toughest issues.
Sen. BARACK OBAMA: Let's be the generation that says we will have universal health care in America. We can do that!
ANNOUNCER: What happened next surprised everyone.
Sen. ORRIN HATCH (R-UT), Finance Committee: The only way you they could get it through was to bribe their members.
TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), Senate Majority Leader, 2001-03: Hundreds of millions of dollars spent on lobbying.
CHRIS JENNINGS, Sr. Clinton Health Care Adviser, 1993-01: Very political, very aggressive at creating deals.
DAVID GERGEN, Counselor to President Clinton, 1993-94: Those deals can be pretty smelly.
NEWSCASTER: Another day, another headache for President Obama.
NEWSCASTER: Is this just the dirty reality of politics?
NEWSCASTER: News of a back room deal-
SCOTT BROWN (R-MA), Senate Candidate: All those back room deals- it's just wrong, and we can do better!
PETER BAKER, The New York Times: It was a wake-up call that President Obama wasn't everything that they thought he was.
SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, The New York Times: The president has staked his entire first term on this.
RYAN LIZZA, The New Yorker: There's always two sides of Obama. You have to lift up people, but at the end of the day, it is about deal making.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight on FRONTLINE, Obama's Deal.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: At stake right now is not just our ability to solve this problem but our ability to solve any problem.
NEWSCASTER: It's the inauguration day of the nation's first African-American president.
NARRATOR: Barack Obama had promised change.
NEWSCASTER: He spoke of no less than remaking America.
NARRATOR: His signature issue, universal health care.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: In this effort, every voice has to be heard.
NEWSCASTER: This is a huge issue the president is taking on now.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Every idea must be considered.
NEWSCASTER: Everybody loves the idea of health care reform.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Every option must be on the table. There should be no sacred cows.
NEWSCASTER: Could health care reform really happen?
NARRATOR: From the very beginning, even inside his own West Wing, the issue would test President Obama.
RYAN LIZZA, The New Yorker: The White House had a debate about whether they should actually go forward with it.
NARRATOR: No president had ever made headway on comprehensive health care reform.
JONATHAN COHN, Sr. Editor, The New Republic: First if became, "Let's not do health care." Then it was scale health care back.
RYAN LIZZA: Vice President Biden was opposed to doing it, absolutely opposed to doing health care. Biden had seen too many universal health care programs die in his long time in Washington, and he warned Obama and his aides not to do it.
DAVID NEXON, Fmr. Kennedy Aide: The economic team was saying, "Oh, listen, we've got to spend all our energy on fixing the recession. We can't launch a big spending program at this time."
NARRATOR: The president took it all in, and then it was chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's turn.
SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, The New York Times: He's a brilliant political strategist, hard-nosed, profane, just a force of nature.
CHRIS JENNINGS, Sr. Clinton Health Care Adviser, 1993-01: Very political, very aggressive at creating deals. In fact, probably more so than one would anticipate someone from the Obama administration being.
NARRATOR: Obama's choice of an inside deal maker like Emanuel had surprised many of his supporters.
RYAN LIZZA: He's sort of the opposite of Obama in a lot of ways. It was an immediate indication that this White House was not going to be about "Kumbaya" and getting along and trying to do everything they could to win Republican votes, they were going to try and win.
NARRATOR: Emanuel told Obama to win, he needed to move fast.
PETER BAKER, The New York Times: He recognized that the moment Obama was going to be at his strongest was the beginning.
NARRATOR: In the end, the president decided to go for health care right away to make a larger point.
DAN PFEIFFER, White House Communications Director: We were sitting in the Oval Office and we were sort of having a debate around health care at one point, and the president said, "It's about health care, but it's not really about health care. It's also about proving whether we can still solve big problems in this country." And this was going to be the test case for that.
NARRATOR: In his first address to Congress, the president wasted no time putting health care on the nation's agenda.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Let there be no doubt. Health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year!
SHERYL GAY STOLBERG: The president has staked his entire first term on this.
MATT BAI, The New York Times Magazine: There's no bigger priority than health care.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: [February 24, 2009] We can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold. We can't afford to do it!
NARRATOR: At the time, it looked like an easy victory for the president.
TOM DASCHLE, (D-SD), Senate Majority Leader, 2001-03: Failure to do this would be viewed as a failure to govern, an inability to use the 60 vote majority that we have in the Senate and the significant margin we have in the House.
JOHN PODESTA, Co-Chair, Obama Transition, 2008-09: I don't think anyone in the White House or on Capitol Hill believe that failure's an option here. They have to be successful in getting health care reform done or they'll pay a tremendous political price.
NARRATOR: Rahm Emanuel knew about the political price an administration pays when it loses the battle for health care reform. Sixteen years ago, he worked in the Clinton administration.
DAN BALZ, The Washington Post: The Clinton effort to do health care was sort of a classic "smart people will solve your problems" approach to an enormously complex, messy political issue.
MATT BAI: Bill Clinton delivered a, you know, thousand-page plan onto the doorstep of Congress after a year and said,"My wife came up with this. It's a really good plan. Pass it," at which point the chairmen, who'd been there longer than them and were going to be there longer than them, basically tossed it aside and killed the bill.
DENNIS RIVERA, Service Employees Int'l Union: I remember Patrick Moynihan, the senator from New York, telling me in his very thick Irish accent that he just got this document, 1,273 pages, describing how health care reform should be done and basically says, "I'm not even going to read it."
NARRATOR: The Clinton White House also angered powerful special interests.
TOM DASCHLE: The AMA opposed them. The insurance companies opposed them. The doctors across the board, hospitals, you name it, they were on the other side, and the Clinton administration understood that there was little hope that they would ever bring them around.
"LOUISE": [television commercial] But this was covered under our old plan!
NARRATOR: They buried the administration in an avalanche of negative TV commercials.
"HARRY": The government may force us to pick from a few health care plans designed by government bureaucrats.
"LOUISE": Having choices we don't like is no choice at all.
"HARRY": And they choose.
"LOUISE": And we lose.
DAVID GERGEN, Counselor to President Clinton, 1993-94: The Harry and Louise ads cost and cost and cost us in the Clinton years.
Sen. GEORGE MITCHELL (D-ME), Majority Leader: It is clear that health insurance reform cannot be enacted this year.
NARRATOR: They were handed a devastating defeat. Emanuel had seen it all. Sixteen years later, as President Obama's chief of staff, he would try do things differently.
SHERYL GAY STOLBERG: What did he do that's different from what Bill and Hillary did? Everything. Everything.
DAN PFEIFFER: The great lesson that everyone shared, both folks like Rahm, who were there, and historians, is you need congressional buy-in on the front end.
NARRATOR: The White House would hold Congress's hand every step of the way. Obama and Emanuel had stocked the West Wing with an all-star line-up of former congressional insiders.
JOHN PODESTA: He's got Pete Rouse, who served as both Daschle and then Senator Obama's chief of staff.
MATT BAI: The head of management and budget, Peter Orszag, was the head of the Congressional Budget Office.
SHERYL GAY STOLBERG: Melody Barnes, who is the head of the Domestic Policy Council, was for years a top aide to Ted Kennedy.
JOHN PODESTA: Phil Schiliro, who was the top staff guy for Henry Waxman.
MATT BAI: In the communications department, Robert Gibbs, who worked in the Senate, who's now the press secretary.
JOHN PODESTA: So they had a very, very strong team of people who knew the Hill, knew how to work the Hill, knew how to have success on the Hill.
NARRATOR: And to run it, they brought back the quintessential Washington insider, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle.
MICHAEL MYERS, Sr. Adviser to Sen. Kennedy, 1998-09: It was an enormous signal that this really is a priority for the administration. They're not messing around, they're bringing in the pros, they're bringing in the big guys to get this done.
NARRATOR: Obama decided he would stay in the background. He would encourage Congress to come up with a plan, fast track it, relying on good will and personal relationships to get it passed. But the idea of hiring insiders almost immediately hit a snag.
NEWSCASTER: ABC News has learned of problems faced by another of President Obama's cabinet choices, Tom Daschle, the president's-
NEWSCASTER: Tom Daschle is trying to save his nomination.
NEWSCASTER: -an unwanted distraction for the Obama administration-
COMMENTATOR: And I think that just shows a problem with integrity, and we cannot afford that in our government right now..
NARRATOR: The once powerful Senate majority leader had made enemies. The Finance Committee chairman, Max Baucus, a Democrat from Montana, was an old rival.
CECI CONNOLLY, The Washington Post: Daschle was not helped by the fact that Max Baucus was not necessarily a close friend or ally.
NARRATOR: Baucus allowed Republicans on the committee to tear into Daschle's personal finances.
DAN BALZ: You had a very rigorous Senate Finance Committee staff that was scrubbing the tax returns of the nominees that were going through that committee that's unlike anything that I think we've seen in many years.
NARRATOR: Senate investigators found income tax problems. Daschle had left the government and cashed in, making millions at a Washington law firm. Along the way, a client had provided a limo for Daschle's personal use. Eventually, he paid more than $140,000 in taxes and penalties on the gift.
JONATHAN COHN: To this day, I think there are people in the greater Daschle universe who say the reason that Tom Daschle did not make it through the confirmation process is because Max Baucus gave him such a hard time, dragging out the confirmation, and the details and all the financial disclosures.
NEWSCASTER: There is plenty of drama in Washington at the moment-
NEWSCASTER: -Republicans talking about limousine liberals who don't even pay taxes on their limousines-
NEWSCASTER: It's a very bad cloud over this nomination.
POLITICIAN: It's disheartening, obviously. It frustrates me.
NEWSCASTER: Does this really represent the kind of change that Mr. Obama said he would be bringing to his administration?
NARRATOR: Daschle had been around long enough to know he had become a liability for the new president.
CECI CONNOLLY: Obama quickly, calmly accepted the resignation offer, did not pause, did not look back.
NARRATOR: He'd campaigned as a political outsider but surrounded himself with insiders and watched as one of them was taken down in a political knife fight. Seven weeks into his presidency, in March of 2009, the new president gathered in one room at one time friends and potential enemies alike.
NEWSCASTER: They're talking about lawmakers, doctors, nurses, hospitals-
NEWSCASTER: -bringing together lawmakers and interest groups, cabinet officials, members of Congress, the White House team conferring on how to overhaul health care.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: I know people are afraid we'll draw the same old lines in the sand and give in to the same entrenched interests and-
CECI CONNOLLY: Many of these players for years, if not decades, had a record of opposing any sort of health care reform efforts.
NARRATOR: Rahm Emanuel engineered this strategy. Everyone remembered how special interests had sabotaged the Clinton plan.
PETER BAKER: They want to get people at the table. They don't want this to be, at first at least, a fight against the insurers, a fight against the medical industry. They want- the pharmaceutical industry. They want to get buy-in.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: I want to switch gears and get some groups in here.
NARRATOR: Obama's advisers had told him that many of the lobbyists in the room were prepared to cut a deal. Karen Ignagni is the chief lobbyist for the insurance industry.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Why don't you wait for a mike, Karen, so that-
KAREN IGNAGNI, Pres., America's Health Insurance Plans: We entered this year being committed to change, being committed to restructuring and committed to actually helping to get this done.
We hear the American people about what's not working. We've taken that very seriously. You have our commitment to play, to contribute, and to help pass health care reform this year.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Good. Thank you, Karen. That's good news. That's America's Health Insurance Plans. [applause]
SHERYL GAY STOLBERG: This was really astonishing. Here she was, on record, saying, "We're going to help you." And so, too, were the drug companies.
WENDELL POTTER, V.P., CIGNA Insurance, 2003-08: Karen Ignagni wanted to be sure that she was at the White House, representing the industry in the most positive way that she possibly could. It was part of the industry's charm offensive, as I call it. The industry knew that it was going to be under attack this year, or at least the legislation would focus very heavily on the insurance industry.
JONATHAN COHN: And you know, look, I mean, they could read the political tea leaves, You know, the saying in Washington was, "You can be at the table or you can be on the menu."
NARRATOR: Privately, Ignagni was playing hardball. She said she'd support the bill only if everyone was required to buy health insurance.
TOM DASCHLE: They said for the first time they would support universal coverage with one caveat, and that is that we have an individual mandate requiring people to buy insurance, so it's not just the sick that buy insurance but everybody. That was the quid pro quo.
NARRATOR: Obama had campaigned against the mandate. Ignagni was insisting he reverse himself.
WENDELL POTTER: They want to make sure that they get a requirement that all of us buy health insurance. They want to make sure that we are all forced by to buy products from them. And they want to make sure that there's no alternative other than the private insurance market. That's why they're so adamantly opposed to the public option.
NARRATOR: Obama had also supported the public option, a government health plan, and Ignagni wanted him to walk away from that, too.
JONATHAN COHN: It is not wiping out the private insurance industry, it's just creating a public insurance plan that would compete with private insurers. But they wanted no part of that.
NARRATOR: Emanuel would keep Obama away from direct deal making with Ignagni, but with Tom Daschle gone and health care's most powerful advocate, Ted Kennedy, dying of cancer, the negotiations would have to be handled by that powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus.
CECI CONNOLLY: Who do they get after losing Tom Daschle and largely Ted Kennedy? Max Baucus. Not the first choice of most of the people in the West Wing.
MATT BAI: He's not glamorous. He's one of the senior most senators. Very few Americans know anything about him.
PETER BAKER: He's from Montana, a more conservative Democrat than a lot of people in the White House, worked with the Bush administration on things like tax cuts and issues that are anathema to a lot of the liberal base.
NARRATOR: Cutting deals with health care industry groups was right down Max Baucus's alley.
PAUL BLUMENTHAL, Sunlight Foundation: In 2008, during his reelection campaign, which is really when this debate began, he raised well over a million dollars only from the health insurance sector. That's a pretty astounding amount for somebody who's going to have a central role in this debate.
NARRATOR: In all, Baucus received more than $2.5 million from special interest groups in the health industry.
CECI CONNOLLY: What the campaign contributions often do is that they open doors. They give industries entree to important congressional staffers and lawmakers.
[www.pbs.org: Follow the campaign contributions]
NARRATOR: Privately, Ignagni pushed Baucus for a bill that would include the mandate to buy insurance and kill the public option. That didn't sit well with the president's liberal supporters.
HOWARD DEAN, Chair, Democratic Nat'l Cmte., 2005-09: The Senate bill, you know, frankly, is just an insurance company bill. The insurance companies, actually, literally did write it. There were two senior staffers in Max Baucus's office, one who used to work for United Health Care and one who used to work for WellPoint, who wrote the bill. It's a great bill from the insurance companies' point of view. It doesn't happen to do a whole lot to change the system and to bring reform.
NARRATOR: The left counterattacked at a hearing in May.
NEWSCASTER: Going to take you live to a Senate Finance Committee hearing looking at health care.
Sen. MAX BAUCUS (D-MT), Finance Committee Chairman: The committee will come back to order!
NARRATOR: Liberal outrage arrived in Baucus's own hearing room, as health care activists, one after another, shouted him down.
PROTESTER: With all respect to Senator Baucus, this hearing is public, but the public is not being heard.
PROTESTER: There's millions for the insurance industry, the HMOs and the pharmaceutical companies, and you're denying the people a voice!
PROTESTER: We want a seat at the table.
PROTESTER: Why are their voices not being heard? Every health care lobbyist in America is at the table!
NARRATOR: The activists were especially angry that Ignagni had a seat at the table but they did not.
MARGARET FLOWERS, M.D., Physicians for a Nat'l Health Prgm.: When we received the list of the dates of the hearings and who was being invited, and we saw who was invited, we requested that we have one person invited in the, you know, series of three hearings. They were inviting 41 people total to testify. And they said no.
Sen. MAX BAUCUS: Committee will be in order. The committee will stand in recess until the police can restore order.
KAREN IGNAGNI: I thought Senator Baucus did a spectacular job of handling that, not getting rattled in any way, handling it in a not only very professional way but an empathetic way.
NARRATOR: Baucus himself declined to discuss his role with FRONTLINE.
NEWSCASTER: Five people were arrested at a Senate Finance Committee meeting hearing on health care reform and charged with disruption-
NEWSCASTER: So what Chairman Baucus has decided, this option cannot be part of the discussion at a Senate hearing? I think that's wrong. I don't think it's fair!
NARRATOR: That spring, Baucus and the White House were also secretly negotiating another deal, this time with the pharmaceutical industry. Their top lobbyist was a classic Washington character.
CECI CONNOLLY: Billy Tauzin is a New Orleans politician, a very colorful, lively figure who took over the pharmaceutical industry trade group, PhRMA.
Rep. MICHAEL BURGESS (R), Texas: Billy Tauzin is a formidable negotiator. And Billy Tauzin knows how things work on the Hill, and he knows how things work in this town.
NARRATOR: His most notorious act took place when then Congressman Tauzin and Senator Baucus pushed through a Medicare prescription drug bill.
Rep. BILLY TAUZIN (R), Louisiana: We are about to pass a $400 billion insured drug account for these citizens who have no drug insurance today.
NARRATOR: In 2003, in the middle of the night, Tauzin kept the House voting machine open until he could scrounge and wheedle just enough votes to pass the controversial measure.
Sen. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH), Health Committee: It was a payoff to two industries, the drug industry and the insurance industry. There was no question about it. They did very, very well out of this bill.
NARRATOR: It meant hundreds of billions of dollars for the pharmaceutical industry.
Rep. DAN BURTON (R), Indiana: The comptroller general said when we passed the Medicare prescription drug bill that it was the worst piece of legislation, fiscally, that he had ever seen. And he said over time, it was going to be a disaster.
NARRATOR: It continues to be a classic Washington story of money and behind-closed-doors maneuvering. It made Tauzin's reputation.
Rep. MICHAEL BURGESS (R), Texas: You know, smart money's always going to be on Billy Tauzin in a negotiation because he knows what he's doing.
NARRATOR: And just over a year later, Tauzin was hired as the pharmaceutical industry's top lobbyist.
Rep. DAN BURTON: Billy got a very good job with PhRMA. I think he makes around $2 million a year. At least, that's what I've been told. Many of his staff people went with him or went to work for pharmaceutical companies. And Billy was the main pusher of the bill.
NARRATOR: In the 2008 presidential campaign, the incident became one of Barack Obama's favorite complaints about the Washington political culture.
Sen. BARACK OBAMA, Presidential Candidate: And you know what? The chairman of the committee who pushed the law through went to work for the pharmaceutical industry making $2 million a year. Imagine that. That's an example of the same old game playing in Washington. You know, I don't want to learn how to play the game better, I want to put an end to the game playing.
NARRATOR: But secretly, one year later at Max Baucus's Senate office, the Obama White House was negotiating with Billy Tauzin.
PETER BAKER: It's a very Rahm Emanuel idea, get them at the table, make them agree to something with the threat that something worse could be out there if they don't. And once you get this buy-in, that should eliminate pockets of opposition.
NARRATOR: Billy Tauzin knew that during the presidential campaign, Barack Obama had promised to slash drug prices.
CECI CONNOLLY: PhRMA had some real concerns that there would be an effort by the Democrats to enable the government to negotiate for its prices on Medicare prescription drugs, and this could be potentially a very big hit to the industry.
NARRATOR: Tauzin also knew the White House was eager for any early deal that appeared to contain costs.
JOHN PODESTA, Co-Chair, Obama Transition, 2008-09: I think he was smart in saying that "If I get in early, I can make a deal that my members can live with."
NARRATOR: He proposed a complicated formula which he said would cut drug costs by $80 billion over 10 years. White House aide Jim Messina took the deal to the Oval Office. Emanuel and Obama believed there was an implicit threat attached. If they didn't agree to the deal, Billy Tauzin could do real damage.
DAVID NEXON, Sr. Adviser to Sen. Kennedy, 1983-05: From the point of view of Obama and the Finance Committee, it's a huge advantage to have this interest group on your side.
CECI CONNOLLY: PhRMA certainly had deep enough pockets to do some real damage advertising-wise if it wanted to.
RYAN LIZZA, The New Yorker: If you can stop $100 million from being spent to attack your plan, that looks very- you know, that's not such a bad deal.
NARRATOR: But taking the deal meant the president would back off his campaign promise to dramatically cut drug prices.
TOM DASCHLE: We talked about it. It's always been my practice not to reveal conversations I've had with the president or people in the White House.
NARRATOR: Tom Daschle continued to visit the Oval Office in an unofficial capacity.
TOM DASCHLE: The president saw it as an opportunity to seize the moment, you know, to get signatures on the line, to say, "This looks like an opportunity we haven't had before. So let's lock them in to the extent we can. I'm going to seize the moment."
DAN PFEIFFER, White House Communications Director: They brought stuff to the table and were willing to work with us. And the president said that having people at the table is better than having them throwing stuff at the table.
INTERVIEWER: But not an easy thing to do?
DAN PFEIFFER: No, certainly not. Certainly not. And went in with full eyes open that there are going to be people in our party who would be critical of that.
NARRATOR: The president accepted the deal.
RYAN LIZZA: There's always two sides of Obama. You have to have the sort of inspirational message. You have to have something to lift up people. But at the end of the day, when you're passing legislation, it is about deal making. There's no other way to do it.
NARRATOR: In June, the president announced the broad outlines of the PhRMA deal. He did not mention what he had given up to get it.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: [June 22, 2009] This is a significant breakthrough on the road to health care reform, one that will make the difference in the lives of many older Americans.
NARRATOR: It didn't take long for the secret to leak.
NEWSCASTER: Another day, another headache for President Obama.
PROTESTER: Is this just the dirty reality of politics?
PROTESTER: News of a back room deal riled fellow Democrats.
NARRATOR: Once again, it was the liberals in the president's own party who began to criticize the deal.
NEWSCASTER: There's also growing concern that the Obama administration secretly made concessions to drug companies.
PETER BAKER, The New York Times: The liberals were watching what was going on with increasing alarm because what they saw was the new White House getting in bed with the people that they thought they had been fighting against for all these years.
NEWSCASTER: Obama's rewarded the drug companies in a big way.
PROTESTER: What did the pharmaceutical industry get in return?
JOHN PODESTA: I think people who thought that the pharmaceutical industry was still reaping profits that were excessive were unhappy with that deal and were particularly unhappy that it got cut behind closed doors.
PETER BAKER: It was a wake-up call, really, to a lot of liberals that President Obama wasn't everything that they thought he was.
NARRATOR: For months, the president had been doing deals- insurance and pharmaceuticals, Now it was time to write a bill and to fulfill another campaign promise, to create a Washington beyond partisan politics.
DAN BALZ: A bipartisan outcome, even in a minimalist sense, was certainly a very, very high priority of President Obama.
NARRATOR: Again, Max Baucus would have to be the point man. Getting through his Senate Finance Committee would be the crucial test.
PETER BAKER: If they could get five, ten Republicans, that would have been enough. And Max Baucus was, they thought, their key to getting that.
NARRATOR: Baucus had a close relationship with the ranking Republican, Chuck Grassley.
Sen. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R-IA), Finance Committee: Senator Baucus and I were still working on what we thought ought to be a- not just a bipartisan bill but a kind of a consensus bill. In other words, something that would get 75 or 80 votes.
NARRATOR: But others said they saw nothing for the Republican Party in Baucus's proposals.
Sen. ORRIN HATCH (R-UT), Finance Committee: I found myself coming out of those secret meetings, those private meetings, and criticizing virtually everything they were doing. So I talked to Max, I talked to Chuck Grassley and others and said, "Look, I don't think I can support this."
NARRATOR: And from the beginning, Grassley was under intense pressure from his own party.
JONATHAN COHN, Sr. Editor, The New Republic: Charles Grassley is in line for a committee chairmanship. The Republican Party plays hardball with its members. I think the message got through that he was jeopardizing his standing in the party by playing too nice with health care reform.
MIKE MYERS, Sr. Adviser to Sen. Kennedy, 1998-09: It became clear that the Republican game plan was going to be just to say no, to deny this president any victories.
JONATHAN COHN: There was enormous pressure from the Republican leadership. They did not want to be part of this. They did not want to make a deal. The word went out.
DAN PFEIFFER: You had the Senate leadership in Mitch McConnell and John Kyl saying, "Don't get involved. This is going to be the president's Waterloo. It's our way to win back the Congress."
NARRATOR: And as the summer wore on, winning Grassley over became harder and harder for Baucus.
JOHN PODESTA: The process, particularly in the Finance Committee, just felt like that race that was being run starting on January 20th all of a sudden hit some mud, and people's shoes got pretty soggy and pretty heavy.
Rep. MICHAEL BURGESS (R), Texas: Everything kind of bogged down. I mean, here we were on this march to produce this bill and at least get it through the House floor before the August recess, and all the wheels came off.
NARRATOR: Impatient, Emanuel began a campaign to convince the president to change course, to scale back their ambitions.
RYAN LIZZA: Rahm Emanuel is all about, as he says, putting points on the board. Just get a deal and get it over with.
DAVID GERGEN: Rahm was the guy who was skeptical about trying to go for major comprehensive health care reform. He saw what happened. He was there during the Clinton debacle. He knows how much it takes out of a presidency.
DAN PFEIFFER: It was entirely a conversation of feasibility. Option A, pass the comprehensive bill. Option B, smaller bill. And option C, which no one would entertain, would be to do nothing.
NARRATOR: The president made the final decision.
RYAN LIZZA: Obama weighed in and said, "No, I want to try and get what I campaigned on. I want to try and get the full bill."
NARRATOR: But Congress was in no hurry.
NEWSCASTER: Some members of Congress telling the president to slow down, don't push so hard.
NEWSCASTER: They don't like timetables over there at the Finance Committee.
NARRATOR: By August, as Congress headed home for the summer recess, there was still no bill. Some in Washington wondered whether health care reform could survive the recess.
PETER BAKER: Heading into the summer recess is a period of great frustration for the White House. Everything was getting stuck. Everything was sort of slowing down. And as they head into August, they don't recognize what's about to hit them.
PROTESTER: You want to kill my grandparents, you come through me first!
PROTESTER: God will take care of health care.
PROTESTER: You dirty thieves!
PROTESTER: We can't afford it!
PROTESTER: Afro-Leninism!
NARRATOR: Angry citizens, stoked by economic fears, outraged about bail-outs and expanding government-
PROTESTER: The things that Obama's doing are the exact things that Hitler did.
PROTESTER: No public option!
NARRATOR: -focused their rage on the health care bill.
Rep. MICHAEL BURGESS: Boom, the summer town halls literally blow up in our faces.
PROTESTER: Radical communists and socialists!
Rep. MICHAEL BURGESS: The fat really hit the fire when we went home in August for what usually is a fairly leisurely stroll through the district-
PROTESTER: Yes, we can!
Rep. MICHAEL BURGESS: -a town hall here-
PROTESTER: Baby killer! Abortion is murder!
Rep. MICHAEL BURGESS: -a summer parade there, an ice cream social here. No, it was all health care all the time. And people were- were red hot about it. It was a radioactive issue all summer.
PROTESTER: We won't pay for murder!
NEWSCASTER: The surprise is just how out of hand these town hall meetings are getting-
NEWSCASTER: There is an ugliness with these fringe people who are comparing the president to Hitler.
KENNETH VOGEL, Politico: This opposition was real. And this opposition rose up. And this opposition let individual members of Congress from across the country know that they had problems with this health care plan.
JOHN PODESTA: In that first week of August, the anger was spilling out. It was spilling out so much that guns were spilling out of people's coat pockets at town hall meetings.
TOWN HALL PROTESTER: I'm not a lobbyist with all kind of money to stuff in your pocket!
JOHN PODESTA: And I think that the members themselves were a bit taken aback by the intensity of that anger.
TOWN HALL PROTESTER: -and the rest of your damned cronies up on the Hill! _[applause]
PETER BAKER: There was anger out there, and members of Congress listened and they were scared.
JONATHAN COHN: We had this horrible backlash. I mean, there were moments in August when it looked like it was done, this was the end of health care reform.
NARRATOR: Senator Grassley, the swing man in the president and Max Baucus's bipartisan strategy, felt the fire from his conservative base.
Sen. CHARLES GRASSLEY: I had people come to my town meeting with sheets of paper that thick off the Internet and quoting from the bill. You know, I've never had that happen before. People were up on it, and people didn't like what they were reading.
TOWN HALL PROTESTER: Democrat or Republican or whoever, senator or congressman, voted this bill, we will vote you out! [cheers]
PETER BAKER: Suddenly, the idea of cutting a deal with President Obama no longer looked like it was good politics, no longer looked like it was good policy.
Sen. CHARLES GRASSLEY: There's a bill out of the House of Representatives put together under Speaker Pelosi's leadership. I'm- I'm- [boos] I am- I'm- I would not vote for that. [applause]
RYAN LIZZA: It's not a profile in courage. It's someone who becomes convinced that health care, if he supports it in any version, will end his career politically down the road.
PETER BAKER: Once they sort of lost Grassley, they lost arguably their last chance to really get a bipartisan bill.
PROTESTERS: Kill the bill! Kill the bill! Kill the bill!
NARRATOR: Just as the town hall anger was reaching its boiling point, the president received more bad news.
NEWSCASTER: Senator Edward Moore Kennedy, the patriarch of the Kennedy clan, has died.
NEWSCASTER: The last in the line of this extraordinary American dynasty is gone.
NEWSCASTER: Last night, an American political era came to an end.
NARRATOR: The most passionate advocate of health care reform was dead, but some believed Kennedy's death might change the tone of the debate.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Ted Kennedy's life work was not to champion the causes of those with wealth or power or special connections, it was to give to give a voice to those who were not heard.
PETER BAKER: It was an emotional rallying point for Democrats for a while- "Win this for Teddy" kind of thinking.
CECI CONNOLLY: Some people thought, "Well, gosh, maybe in memory of Senator Kennedy, some of these old Republican friends of his would rejoin the effort."
NARRATOR: The president would redouble his efforts to achieve Kennedy's dream.
JOHN PODESTA: After consulting with a number of people, including Senator Daschle and others, I think the president concluded, "I need to take back control of this."
CECI CONNOLLY: They know that their most powerful tool is Barack Obama- always has been, probably always will be.
JOHN PODESTA: His audience really in that speech wasn't the public in general, it was the people sitting in that chamber.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: [September 9, 2009] The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action! Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do!
PETER BAKER: It was an attempt to sort of recapture the high ground. It was an attempt to, you know, bring the debate back to a loftier level.
NARRATOR: But the tone immediately sunk to a new low.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms- the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.
Rep. JOE WILSON (R), South Carolina: You lie!
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Not true.
PETER BAKER: A lone congressman says,"You lie"-
Rep. JOE WILSON: You lie!
NARRATOR: It was Republican representative Joe Wilson from South Carolina.
PETER BAKER: -crystallized this moment in Washington. It crystallized the anger. It crystallized the fervor of the opposition.
MIKE MYERS: I was in the chamber when the speech was being given, and there was a gasp on both sides of the aisle.
Sen. ORRIN HATCH: I was upset with that. That was inappropriate. I was sitting there and I thought, "What in the world? Why would anybody do something like that?"
NEWSCASTER: -an outburst that continues to reverberate across the country-
Sen. JOHN McCAIN (R), Arizona: Totally disrespectful, no place for it-
RUSH LIMBAUGH, Radio Talk Show Host: He is lying, President Obama is, from the moment he opens his mouth until he ends the speech!
COMMENTATOR: How did we get to a point where it's OK to yell "You lie" at the president while he's speaking to Congress?
NARRATOR: The effort to forge a bipartisan agreement was for all practical purposes over. Now the president would turn to the Democrats. They pressured Max Baucus. Emanuel wanted a bill ASAP.
Sen. ORRIN HATCH: They just ignored Max in the end. They just felt they could ram this right through and to heck with Republicans, to heck with conservatives.
CECI CONNOLLY: I don't think Rahm Emanuel ever worried much about bipartisanship. He was focused on winning.
NARRATOR: Senate majority leader Harry Reid would take control of the bill. Talk of a public option was back. The mandates the insurance industry had fought for were watered down. Karen Ignagni didn't like what that might mean for the bottom line.
KAREN IGNAGNI, Pres., America's Health Insurance Plans: I was concerned about what we were seeing from our actuaries, what we were seeing from our economists. We were very concerned about what was happening.
DAN BALZ, The Washington Post: And the insurance companies at that point decided, "We've got to fight back on this."
NEWSCASTER: -America's Health Insurance Plans said the finance bill could result in dramatically higher insurance premiums.
NEWSCASTER: The insurers are trying to scuttle the health care bill-
NEWSCASTER: White House officials today said they feel broadsided.
NARRATOR: At the White House, they decided a war with the insurance industry was just what the doctor ordered. In his weekly Internet address, the president let them have it.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: The insurance industry is rolling out the big guns and breaking out their massive war chest to marshal their forces for one last fight to save the status quo.
DAN PFEIFFER: It's always great to have an enemy in politics. There's no question about that. However, we didn't pick the insurance companies as the enemy, they decided to play that role when they decided to spend tens of millions of dollars to defeat health reform.
[www.pbs.org: Read Pfeiffer's Interview]
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: They're flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions. And they're funding studies designed to mislead the American people.
KAREN IGNAGNI: I have a hearing disability. I wear a hearing aid. And I didn't have my hearing aid in, and I thought to myself, "This can't be true." I ran around looking for my hearing aid because I was sure that I was mishearing, not hearing it correctly.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: It's smoke and mirrors. It's bogus. And it's all too familiar.
NARRATOR: Karen Ignagni and her allies fought back.
TELEVISION COMMERCIAL: New, hidden taxes that Congress wants on your health care, hidden health care taxes on medicines, medical devices and health insurance.
NARRATOR: They secretly funneled millions of dollars to a tough ad campaign by the Chamber of Commerce.
TELEVISION COMMERCIAL: Call Congress. Tell them no hidden health care taxes in a recession..
NARRATOR: And powerful senators stepped up to support her cause.
CECI CONNOLLY, Co-Author, Landmark: There were still some- Senator Lieberman was one, Senator Nelson of Nebraska was another- who still said there's merit to what the insurance industry is saying. And those were critical swing votes.
NARRATOR: Emanuel and Harry Reid were now doing deals just to win over Democrats. They killed the public option, pleasing Senator Lieberman and others. They lowered proposed taxes for medical device makers for Evan Bayh. The final hold-out was the Democrat from Nebraska, former insurance executive Ben Nelson.
PETER BAKER: Ben Nelson is one of the more conservative members of the Democratic caucus in the Senate, and they needed his vote. They had to have his vote.
CECI CONNOLLY: That meant sitting down and hammering out a deal, really giving him almost what he wanted, anything he wanted.
HOWARD DEAN: The focus at the end of a bill like this is always about how you're going to get those last two or three votes. And compromises are made and thrown at senators' feet in order to get them to vote.
NARRATOR: In Nelson's case, the cost was $100 million. The costs of expanding Nebraska's Medicaid would be covered by the U.S. taxpayers.
Sen. ORRIN HATCH: To a lot of us, we were very, very upset about it. It was very poorly done. But the only way they could get it through was basically to bribe their members.
NARRATOR: Senator Nelson denied there was a quid pro quo for his vote, saying instead he was opening the door for all states to receive similar Medicaid compensations. But Washington and the media saw it differently ... they called it the "Cornhusker kickback."
RUSH LIMBAUGH: Prostitution has been legalized in Washington, D.C.!
COMMENTATOR: Is this deal for Ben Nelson forever and ever, amen? Forever and ever and only for Nebraska?
COMMENTATOR: You've got to compliment Ben Nelson for playing The Price is Right.
DAVID GERGEN: It's not a pretty process. There is deal making. That's the way it's been done for a long time. But those deals done in your front parlor can be pretty smelly. The public was already up to here with what they were seeing in Washington, and I think it just put them over the side.
Sen. ORRIN HATCH: That was very sour stuff to most people in this country. They realized that this is not the way to legislate.
SENATE CLERK: Mr. McConnell, no. Mr. Menendez?
Sen. ROBERT MENENDEZ (D), New Jersey: Aye.
NEWSCASTER: The Senate convened to send President Obama a hard-fought Christmas present.
SENATE CLERK: Ms. Murkowski.
Sen. LISA MURKOWSKI (R), Alaska: No.
NEWSCASTER: -its first roll call vote on Christmas Eve since 1895.
SENATE CLERK: Mr. Nelson of Nebraska.
Sen. BEN NELSON (D), Nebraska: Aye.
Vice Pres. JOE BIDEN: The ayes are 60, the nays are 39. HR 3590 is passed.
NEWSCASTER: Tonight, the ayes have it. The Senate passes an historic health care bill-
NEWSCASTER: This was a strictly party-line vote, all the Democrats voting yes, all the Republicans voting no, the final tally 60 to 39.
CECI CONNOLLY: On Christmas morning, everyone was sitting around thinking that he was an LBJ-like genius because it appeared that he was on the verge of accomplishing what no president had for 70 years.
SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, The New York Times: They were so close. They were inches away from getting this bill.
PETER BAKER: They had 60 votes on record in the Senate. They had the House bill in hand. The Emerald City was right there in the distance.
NARRATOR: The White House wasn't paying attention, but up in Massachusetts, that "Cornhusker kickback" was still hanging in the air. It was almost election day. At stake was Ted Kennedy's Senate seat.
NEWSCASTER: The polling numbers are all over the place-
NEWSCASTER: This could be a breakthrough for the Republicans.
NEWSCASTER: I think the headline in The Boston Herald this morning says it all- "Mass hysteria."
NARRATOR: A political newcomer was on the verge of taking a seat the president was counting on to pass health care reform.
NEWSCASTER: Republican Scott Brown is riding a wave.
NEWSCASTER: Brown's campaign language has the aura of a revolutionary crusade.
SCOTT BROWN (R-MA), Senate Candidate: Business as usual is not the business we like, and all those back room deals from Nebraska and others- it's just wrong, and we can do better! [cheers]
PETER BAKER: Scott Brown effectively used that as a way of saying that change has not come to Washington.
NARRATOR: The Democrat, Martha Coakley, was sinking in the polls.
PETER BAKER: Only belatedly does it dawn on the White House what's about to happen. The president's not going to go up there to campaign for her until the Friday before the election, when Martha Coakley calls David Axelrod personally, and says,"I need him to come up."
CECI CONNOLLY: They frantically sent Obama up to Massachusetts the weekend before.
PETER BAKER: He makes very clear to the Massachusetts electorate what's at stake here is the Obama presidency, and do they want to hand the Republicans the power to stop his agenda on health care, on everything else?
NARRATOR: By election day, the president knew they would lose.
CECI CONNOLLY: January 19th, 6:30 PM, about an hour-and-a-half before the polls close in Massachusetts, Obama calls for Pelosi, Reid, Biden and Rahm Emanuel to come to the Oval Office.
NARRATOR: They immediately convened an emergency meeting.
DAN PFEIFFER: From the very moment that it was clear that Scott Brown was going to win that seat, he began thinking through what the next steps would be to be able to right the ship and get health care done.
NARRATOR: The president asked Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi if she could get the House to pass the Senate bill.
CECI CONNOLLY: Pelosi is annoyed and quite adamant that there's no way she can sell that to her House members, almost kind of lecturing, saying, "You don't understand the realities in the House. This won't work." And Obama finally snaps, uncharacteristically for him, and he says, "I understand that, Nancy. What's your suggestion?" And there is no suggestion.
DAN PFEIFFER: We went from, basically, beginning to plan how and when the president would sign the bill to if we could even resuscitate the bill.
NEWSCASTER: Scott Brown is the winner of the Massachusetts United States Senate race.
NEWSCASTER: Brown's victory shakes up Massachusetts and it shakes up the nation!
NEWSCASTER: -Republican taking over the seat that Ted Kennedy held for 46 years.
CAMPAIGN WORKER: Here he is, the United States Senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown!
Sen.-Elect SCOTT BROWN: People do not want the trillion-dollar health care plan that is being forced- [cheers]
Sen. CHARLES GRASSLEY: In one election was a composite of all that ill feeling from the grass roots of America. And if it can be expressed in liberal Massachusetts, they know it's a lot worse in Montana and Wyoming.
[www.pbs.org: More of Sen. Grassley's interview]
Sen. ORRIN HATCH: If they replace the so-called Kennedy seat with a Republican, then my gosh, you'd better wake up.
NARRATOR: The president's supermajority was gone. The Republicans now had their 41st vote.
The worst blizzards in history buried Washington in February.
NEWSCASTER: Getting a health care bill passed now looks more difficult than ever.
NEWSCASTER: All of the options for health care get very ugly.
NARRATOR: It closed the government.
NEWSCASTER: I don't see any way you go forward from here with health care.
NEWSCASTER: They're shell-shocked.
NEWSCASTER: They're going to need a whole new strategy on health care reform.
NARRATOR: Barack Obama was coming to terms with what looked like his first significant failure as president.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: This is a complex issue. And the longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became. I take my share of blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people.
DAN PFEIFFER: The process was messy, and so it turned people off. It ended up being behind closed doors. It was filled with a lot of partisan wrangling, people yelling at each other across the table. We ended up having a process that represented a lot of what the American people hated about Washington.
DAN BALZ: The president is in some ways kind of rebalancing himself. The year had been very hard on him. The Massachusetts defeat symbolically was terrible, and practically, had a devastating effect.
NEWSCASTER: The president admitted he's made some mistakes in his first year in office, but said he won't quit.
NEWSCASTER: A chastened U.S. president Barack Obama concedes he's made some mistakes in his first year in office.
NEWSCASTER: He's got an uphill fight here.
NARRATOR: While the country waited, Obama formulated a new plan. He would personally sell the bill to Congress and the American people.
DAN PFEIFFER: The president said to us that he would do anything, he will call anyone, meet with anyone, he will speak anywhere, he will do whatever it takes to make the case. He was going to have to be the primary spokesperson for health reform. He was going to have to force action.
NARRATOR: He deployed Rahm Emanuel to work with Speaker Pelosi. They would try to get enough Democrats on board to push through the Senate bill.
CECI CONNOLLY: They realized that their political operation had come way off the tracks and they needed to quickly right that operation.
NARRATOR: They began their comeback by staging a showdown with the Republicans out in the open, on national television.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: [February 25, 2010] I'm looking forward to listening.
NEWSCASTER: The president is gathering House and Senate leaders, Democrats and Republicans, to try to save health care reform.
NEWSCASTER: It's a high-stakes gamble that could be all or nothing for the president.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Everybody please have a seat.
DAN PFEIFFER: The summit was an opportunity to hit the restart button on how people viewed the process, to do it all on live on TV, open for the American people to see, make them feel more comfortable with the process.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Here's the bottom line. We all know this is urgent.
SHERYL GAY STOLBERG: Suddenly, the president was in the driver's seat.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: This became a very ideological battle.
CECI CONNOLLY: They needed to show that Obama was back in charge.
NARRATOR: Political theater. One by one, he took on Republicans.
Sen. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R), Tennessee: The Congressional Budget Office report says that premiums will rise.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: No, no, no, no, Lamar. This is an example of where we've got to get our facts straight. Let me respond to what you just said Lamar, because it's not factually accurate.
DAN BALZ: That was, I think, the moment that he stepped up in a way that he hadn't before.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Let's- let me just make this point, John, because we're not campaigning anymore. The election's over.
Sen. JOHN MCCAIN (R), Arizona: I'm reminded of that every day. [laughter]
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Yeah.
DAN BALZ: There's no question that there was a change in his style. He took ownership of this health care issue. He challenged everybody on this front.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: -of how we actually get a bill done-
NARRATOR: And then for a month, Barack Obama the campaigner hit the road to sell the bill.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Do not quit! Do not give up! We keep on going! We are going to get this done! We are going to make history! We are going to fix health care in America with your help! God bless you! And God bless the United States of America! [cheers]
NARRATOR: On Sunday, March 21st, the president waited to see whether he had convinced just enough members of his own party to push the bill through.
NEWSCASTER: -down to the wire on health care reform. The House votes just hours from now-
NEWSCASTER: After months of rancor in the streets, the vote takes place in just a few hours.
DAN PFEIFFER: Sitting in the Roosevelt Room, the president, the vice president- we sat- there was a small bit of anxiety as we watched the votes tick up. We've had victory snatched from us before.
REPRESENTATIVE: On this vote, the yeas are 219, the nays are 212. The motion is adopted.
SHERYL GAY STOLBERG: When the 216th vote comes over, a big cheer erupts.
NEWSCASTER: It's 219 to 212. No votes from Republicans.
NEWSCASTER: -all Democrats, no Republicans.
NEWSCASTER: This is a huge victory for this president.
NEWSCASTER: For decades, they've been trying to do it. It has now been done.
Pres. BARACK OBAMA: Good evening, everybody. This legislation will not fix everything that ails our health care system, but it moves us decisively in the right direction. This is what change looks like.
NARRATOR: It was victory, but experienced Washington knew the president would pay for it.
CECI CONNOLLY: It came at a high price, the entire first year basically dedicated to this, having their hopes for bipartisanship dashed. And the White House still is not certain how this will sell in the country.
DAN BALZ: There is a realism that it has come with a cost. We don't know what's going to happen in the November elections. We don't know what's going to happen in 2012. But there's no question that this health care battle has put his party at risk, and how they deal with that is the next chapter. But this was a historic moment.
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A FRONTLINE Co-Production with Kirk Documentary Group, Ltd.
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ANNOUNCER: There's more to explore on our Web site. Watch the program again on line, read the extended interviews, get more details on the lobbying, deal making and key turning points in the long road to health care reform. Then join the discussion at PBS.org.
Next time on FRONTLINE: In a country ravaged by decades of war, a tradition banned by the Taliban has been secretly revived, young boys sold by their families to wealthy merchants and warlords, taught to dance and to entertain. FRONTLINE takes you inside the illicit sex trade of Afghan boys.
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Taking Cuttings
Annuals can add such striking color in our gardens. But like everyone else I am looking for ways to stretch my gardening budget. One way is propagation.
Normally I purchase a couple hanging planters each year to give my patio some color. Our local nursery grows wonderful geraniums that just burst with flowers.
Each basket contains 4 to 5 geranium plants. I brought these planters in for the winter to see how they would fare. Even with a lack of care 2 of the 3 planters are doing okay, although its new growth is leggy due to the lower light available. So I took some cuttings of the plants.
At least this is what I've read! So I purchased some Jiffy peat pellets I use for seed starting, some rooting compound, and off I went.
It should be noted there are two different kinds of geraniums (Pelargonium). I have an ivy-leaved species known as Pelargonium pelatum. The ones I have are different than the more succulent species. It is good to note which you have as the treatment of these may be different for propagation. Namely a more succulent variety may need 24 hours of drying off before putting into a medium to avoid rot.
Each cutting I used had at least one leaf node that would be buried in the peat. A leaf node is a small swelling along the stem where leaves emerge. Its recommended that you choose cuttings where the leaf nodes are close together, but mine are leggy and so only a single node was planted. When taking the cutting be sure to use a sterilized knife. I used an exacto knife that I sterilized with a lighter.
Cut just below the leaf node making sure to keep the node intact. Err on the side of the stem being longer below the node versus cutting into the node. Remove all leaves towards the bottom of the cutting so that you have a nice stem length and the leaves will not touch the soil.
Rooting compound comes in powder an liquid form. I chose a gel compound ( Clonex ) that users said remained in contact with the cutting. The compound contains hormones to stimulate root growth. Use of this may not be necessary but you will have a higher success rate if it used.
The cuttings are dipped in the gel, then placed in the peat. The next step is to create a nice growing environment for the cuttings. You want high humidity without too much moisture that will promote rot. The cuttings can be covered with plastic bags that are held open by wire cages. In my case, I found 2 liter plastic bottles in the recycle bin. If you cut these 3 -4 inches above the bottom, the two halves form a plastic cloche. To allow a tight fit between the bottom and top, cut an inch long slit in the lower section of bottle. When you fit the upper portion over the lower, the lower can be squeezed together to fit inside of the upper portion of the bottle. Keep the cap on for more humidity, and if some drying is needed remove the cap.
On the right below you can see my finished cloches.
I do worry that the leaves leaning against the sides will cause some rotting, so I will monitor the moisture levels closely until I can get the cuttings to stand upright.
I will keep the cuttings in the front room in a place that does not get direct sunlight but is still bright.
Per my propagation book, I should start to see roots in 7 – 10 days on the fresh young cuttings.
Check back again, for the results of my first attempt at geranium propagation.
UPDATE after 10 Days
No roots showing yet. One of the geraniums in the bottle has gotten some kind of fungus and has lost its leaves. I don't know if this is from too much humidity. Two plants that were not housed in the plastic cloches died pretty quickly due to lack of humidity to keep the leaves photosynthesizing. What a balancing act it can be. And they say this plant is easy! Maybe its because I'm doing this in the dead of winter that its more difficult.
UPDATE after 2 Weeks
Signs of roots. Fighting too much moisture.
So far I believe 2 of the 7 cuttings I started with have signs of root growth. By giving a slight tug on the cutting I felt a good amount of resistance. A success rate of 28% isn't great, but I'm learning!
The cutting with the smallest leaves shown to the right doesn't look to have much hope as the rot is at the base of the cutting. You can see the stems have darkened to a brownish color and the soil is quite moist. Click here for more on over watering indoor plants.
The cutting with a longer stem is showing signs it might have roots forming via the tug test I did. If you feel resistance after about 10 days of sitting in the medium it is a good sign roots have formed. I won't be counting my chicks just yet.
The cutting with a single leaf fell out of the peat pot while I was moving it and has no signs of rooting. I don't think I had enough of a node that would produce a root, so that one is out. So I have 3 still in the running for a new plant.
Here you can see a new leaf bud starting to grow on the healthiest of my cuttings. The hairs are a reminder that these plants can tolerate some dry and should have their soil completely dry before watering again. There is always more to learn with plants. That is why I never tire of caring for them.
After 4 Weeks
Two plants have produced nice healthy roots that have grown beyond the peat pots. Roots are between 1 and 2″ long. Each plants leaves show no signs of mold or rot. I potted each in 4″ plastic pots.
Lessons Learned
Do not keep the peat or other rooting material overly wet. Each day remove the cap on the plastic cloches to allow excess moisture to escape and air to be exchanged. At the first sign of any rotting issues, try to wash it off. More likely than not, you will lose the cutting, so make sure it does not come into contact with healthier cuttings.
2nd Set of cuttings
2x red = peat pots, 1 per cloche
2x white = inert rooting medium, 2 per cloche. Will look closely for signs of rot.


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Mindfulness Stress Mgt
Course Description
Examines the impact and effects of stress on individuals and within organizational systems on health and well being. Identifies evidence-based strategies to minimize the consequences of stress. Practical experiences in mindfulness based stress reduction, biofeedback, compassion cultivation, meditation, and journaling are included.
Learning Outcomes
- Examine the consequences of stress on individual mind-body-sprit as well as the impact in organizational environments.
- Assess the attitudes, values and beliefs as an aspect of positive health and stress management.
- Differentiate the various stress and self-awareness practices such as mindfulness, meditation, compassion cultivation, journaling, guided imagery, biofeedback as methods for effective stress management.
- Design a positive lifestyle plan that incorporates stress management approaches and techniques.
Why Choose National University?
We're proud to be a veteran-founded, San Diego-based nonprofit. Since 1971, our mission has been to provide accessible, achievable higher education to adult learners. Today, we educate students from across the U.S. and around the globe, with over 200,000 alumni worldwide.
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As a Yellow Ribbon school, we offer tuition discounts to servicemembers and dependents.


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I owe a debt of gratitude to Dangerous Minds for their post Minutemen Unplugged: Punk Legends' Rollicking Acoustic Jam on Cable Access TV, 1985. Their post covers the important points of the short performance, although when I saw them in Dallas earlier that year (1985) their set only lasted a little over an hour...and still had at least 30 songs.
If you're into punk nostalgia, watch the show at Dangerous Minds or from the YouTube embed below this post. A great stroll down amnesia lane.


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35 m² - 3 people
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The little sister, room category Beletage M, is already living up to it: airy & easy-going living with style and class. The big sister, Beletage XL, applies a bit more of all this. True accommodation dreams have emerged on a whopping 35 m2 – with a freestanding bathtub based on the idea of the modern "live-in bathroom". Surprises in every nook and cranny, a feeling of living as if from a picture book. The tad of luxury that you desire – without overloading it. PS: Bookings of up to 3 people are taken.
- Double bed
- Video: Flat screen with cable TV
- Desk
- Extra seating which can be slept on
- Air conditioning
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- Hairdryer
- Bathrobe inside the room & slipper (on request)
- Cosmetics series ARGAN by la Bottega
- Phone in the room*
- Internet (gratis WLAN)
- Minibar & safe
- Traditional Viennese confect upon arrival
- Audio: JBL mini loudspeaker (on request)
Our All-Inclusives
- Organic Hollmann à la carte breakfast from 7:00 to 11:30 am (also with room service)*
- Central location
- Traditional Viennese confect upon arrival
- Austrian organic snack and beer in the afternoons from 3.00 to 5.00 pm
- Cosmetics ARGAN by La Bottega
- Sonnentor organic tea selection
- Minibar with Viennese selection*
- AC in the whole hotel
- Cable TV
- Free Internet
- Free telephone via internet at the Reception
- Safe
- Bathroom toiletries
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- Cinema
- Sauna
- Treadmill
- Piano
- Terrace
- Library & board games
- Water cooker on demand
- Newspapers & magazines
- Umbrellas
- Setup for dogs *
- Concierge service
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text:
Chan, Man-Chor and Lee, Szetsen S. and Okumura, Mitchio and Oka, Takeshi (1991) Laser spectroscopic studies of the pure rotational U_0(0) and W_0(0) transitions of solid parahydrogen. Journal of Chemical Physics, 95 (1). pp. 88-97. ISSN 0021-9606. doi:10.1063/1.461821. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:CHAjcp91
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High resolution spectrum of multipole-induced transitions of solid parahydrogen was recorded using diode and difference frequency laser spectroscopy. The J=4<--0 pure rotational U_0(0) transition observed in the diode spectrum agrees well in frequency with the value reported by Balasubramanian et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 47, 1277 (1981)] but we observed a spectral width smaller by about a factor of 4. The J=6<--0 W_0(0) transition was observed to be exceedingly sharp, with a width of ~70 MHz, using a difference frequency spectrometer with tone-burst modulation. This transition is composed of three components with varying relative intensity depending upon the direction of polarization of laser radiation. These components were interpreted as the splitting of the M levels in the J=6 state due to crystal field interactions. In addition, a new broad feature was found at 2452.4 cm^(−1) in the low resolution Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum of solid hydrogen and was assigned to be the phonon branch W_R(0) transition of the W_0(0) line. The selection rules, crystal field splitting of J=4 and J=6 rotons, and the measured linewidth based on these observations are discussed.
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|Copyright © 1991 American Institute of Physics. Received 8 March 1991; accepted 28 March 1991. We would like to thank M.-F. Jagod, B.D. Rehfuss, L.-W. Xu, C.M. Gabrys, and M. Rösslein for their assistance. This work was supported by the U.S. Air Force Contract No. F04611-86-K-0069 and the University of Dayton Research Center Award no. RI-68741X1F333615-87-C-2714. M.C.C. acknowledges a graduate scholarship from the United College, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
|Erratum: Laser spectroscopic studies of the pure rotational U 0(0) and W 0(0) transitions of solid parahydrogen [J. Chem. Phys. 9 5, 88 (1991)] Man‐Chor Chan, Szetsen S. Lee, Mitchio Okumura and Takeshi Oka J. Chem. Phys. 96, 1662 (1992); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.462157
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Oddly enough, I just participated on my first ever Blog Hop yesterday and here's another! I was nominated by Crystin Goodwin for this one and I'd like to give her a big thank you for thinking of me.
Here are the questions:
1) What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?
My character is named Klias and he's most definitely a creation of my little mind.
2) When and where is the story set?
The story is set after Klias finds out he's probably going to die–mostly due to what he's done. It's a paranormal story so the reason is somewhat magical or ethereal.
3) What should we know about him/her?
We should know Klias will help others even if it kills him–which it nearly did.
4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
He had accepted that he was going to die…but then he falls in love. With Amy.
5) What is the personal goal of the character?
Klias wanted to ensure that Amy was safe before he died.
6) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
It's called Amy's Courage.
7) When can we expect the book to be published?
I'm doing the big edits now. Then come little edits. You can see my progress on the first page of my blog. You can read more about Klias in the first book, Olivia's Choice. He's a secondary character in that book.
I also get to nominate five awesome blogs for this hop. I have five just in mind:
I hope everyone enjoyed this Hop. I tried to keep my answers brief and sweet. If you have questions, please give me a shout.


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Although the current earnings season is winding down, dividend raises continue to rain onto the market. Last week, the market was practically soaked as it saw nearly 30 lifts, by my count.
And at least a few of those raises were from big, high-profile companies. Here are three of the more famous issuers bumping their payouts.
Apple (AAPL -2.12%) has been an aggressive dividend raiser since resuming its quarterly payout just over five years ago. The tech giant's latest hike is an 11% bump to $0.63 per share.
The company has been fairly generous with its raises. Since the relaunch, and adjusted for a 7-for-1 stock split in 2014, the distribution has risen considerably. Adjusted for that split, it has grown from around $0.38 per share to the present level.
Apple also announced an expansion of its share repurchase program, increasing the maximum authorized amount to $210 billion from the previous $175 billion.
The two moves reflect how the company has been doing as of late. Encouragingly, it's returned to revenue and profitability growth earlier this year, following three quarters of declines. In its recently reported second quarter, it managed to increase the former by almost 5% on a year-over-year basis to nearly $53 billion. Per-share net profit advanced by 11% to $2.10.
Apple remains extremely profitable, with gross margins approaching 40%. Both cash from operations and free cash flow have seen growth recently, and the latter is more than sufficient to cover dividend payouts and share buybacks. I'd be very optimistic about the future of this dividend.
Apple's new payout will be dispensed on May 18 to stockholders of record as of May 15. At the most recent closing stock price, it would yield 1.6%. That's a touch lower than the current 1.9% average of dividend-paying stocks on the S&P 500.
The company did not provide an end date for its current share repurchase initiative.
PepsiCo (PEP -0.71%), one of the top names in the food/beverage industry, is also one of its most aristocratic. That is to say, it's high on the list of Dividend Aristocrats, the group of stocks that have raised their dividends at least once annually for a minimum of 25 years in a row.
In February, along with its Q4 and fiscal 2016 results, the company promised a 7% increase in its quarterly dividend to just under $0.81. Last week, the company made good on that promise by formally declaring the enhanced payout.
The declaration comes after a first quarter that beat analyst expectations, although it wasn't exactly a quarter for the record books. Revenue inched up less than 2% on a year-over-year basis to land at just over $12 billion. And that increase was due to increased pricing, as opposed to organic growth (volumes were either flat or down in most regions).
On a slightly more encouraging note, per-share adjusted net profit rose by almost 6% to clock in at $0.94.
Times are tough for businesses built on a core of sugary drinks (hello, Coca-Cola!) and traditional snacks, since consumers are continuing to opt for healthier alternatives. Pepsi is holding up fairly well considering, although if I were an investor, I'd prefer that the company break its recent habit of spending most, or even more, than its annual free cash flow on dividends and share buybacks.
PepsiCo's extra-fizz new distribution is to be paid on June 30 to investors of record as of June 2. It yields a theoretical 2.9%.
Marriott International
Storied hotel operator Marriott International (MAR 1.49%) is maintaining its one-raise-per-year habit. The company has declared a quarterly payout of $0.33 per share, a 10% increase over its predecessor.
That's to be expected, and not only because the company's a regular lifter. Its most recently reported quarterly results pleased the market, with Marriott convincingly beating expectations on both the top and bottom lines.
For the period, revenue rose by a beefy 47% to $5.56 billion, with adjusted net income also experiencing a pleasant boost (of 36%) to $395 million. The latter shook out to $1.01 per share, well exceeding the average $0.91 estimate from analysts. That top-line figure, meanwhile, was comfortably above projections of $5.29 billion.
What went right? Well, Marriott is doing a good job of squeezing more from its visitors. Revenue per available room -- a key metric in the hotel industry -- saw a 3% rise during the quarter, even as the company added roughly 17,000 rooms to its total count.
Those improved fundamentals, plus recent strategic asset sales, are keeping cash flow nice and buoyant. Free cash flow has been rising steadily and encouragingly over the past few years, and at the latest annual tally of nearly $1.4 billion, it easily covered the approximately $942 million in dividend payouts and share repurchases. I think this trend will continue, and I expect the company will continue adding to the former.
Marriott's upcoming dividend will be handed out on June 30 to shareholders of record as of May 19. It would yield 1.3% on the current stock price.


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The Jaguars are back to work after an extended break following last Thursday's win and the business at hand includes some roster shuffling.
Running back Justin Forsett and wide receiver Stephen Burton are heading to injured reserve while former Colts running back Delone Carter will be coming on board. Forsett broke a bone in his foot a couple of weeks ago, ending a season that saw him get the ball just 21 times in 12 games. Burton, a 2011 seventh-round pick in Minnesota, has been out with a concussion for about a month.
Carter was with the Ravens this summer after a trade with the Colts, but couldn't win a spot on the roster. The 2011 fourth-rounder ran 133 for 499 yards and five touchdowns during two seasons with the Colts.
Linebacker LaRoy Reynolds is eligible to return from suspension, so he may be ticketed for the other currently open roster spot in Jacksonville.


text: The dojo is currently working out how we will work within local, state, and federal guidelines in order to keep our dojo community safe during the Pandemic. We've closed our dressing rooms for the time being and will no longer be providing a water jug and cups. We are encouraging everyone to take care ofRead more about Gradually Re-starting Classes[…]Read more Gradually Re-starting Classes


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The Daily Express published an article today claiming that 10,000 people have signed their online petition for the government to reduce the foreign aid budget.
The newspaper claims that this is proof that readers want the government to direct money away from international development and spent on the NHS instead.
Speaking in recent months, the Prime Minister and International Development Secretary Priti Patel have been absolutely clear that the UK is committed to spending 0.7% of gross national income on international development.
This is a legal commitment. So it is factually incorrect to claim that the aid budget can be spent on the NHS.
The article also quoted John O'Connell of the think tank TaxPayers' Alliance, who called for the government to be clear about where the aid budget is spending.
DFID is committed to transparency and is consistently ranked as a world leader in aid transparency by the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI).
The International Development Secretary is now demanding more transparency from other government departments and from the agencies we work with overseas.
Speaking yesterday, a DFID spokesman said: "It's completely misleading and wrong to suggest this money could be spent on the NHS. The UK has legally committed to spending 0.7 per cent of its gross national income on foreign aid, money which goes towards tackling poverty and saving lives abroad. This money cannot be used in the UK.
"DFID is responsible for 74 per cent of the UK's foreign aid budget. International Development Secretary Priti Patel has called on the other UK government departments, which spend part of the foreign aid budget, to be accountable to UK taxpayers."


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Cig Neutron & Rannie Rodil. SFX. Fabrication. Content Creators.
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Creating weird content for y'all to enjoy ain't cheap. Show us some love on Patreon and gain access to exclusive sfx tutorials, wacky videos, crazy creature photo sets, magick recipes, and more!
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Getting weird on TikTok
Patrick Starrr convinced us to get on TikTok. Time to make TikTok weirder.


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Culinary EventsWest of the Meditation Garden 866-946‑3360
Due to COVID-19, the Culinary Studio is closed until further notice.
Experience culinary creations from the region's top chefs. Whether it's festivals, wine tastings or exclusive dining events, there's always something new and exciting cooking at Wind Creek Bethlehem.
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Last weekend, one of the largest west coast VW/Audi events took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. It's simply known as Wuste(woo-stuh or voo-stuh), and it has been going strong for 5 years now. It's about time CAMAutoMag took a road trip to check it out. Click 'Continue Reading' to check out the pics and videos.
The trip started in Salt Lake City where we met up with some of the local group for a good old-fashioned convoy down to Vegas and we picked up a few more cars down in St. George, UT where we stopped for food. Now Mike would normally accompany me on these trips, but he graciously stuck back and covered the MPRA/Lap Battle/Drift event happening at Miller Motorsports Park. So this time I brought along my good friend Spyder to help man the clicky-thing while I was driving and while I was doing video at the show.
Wuste began on Friday with a pool party(sorry, no pics) and Saturday starts off in the late morning(thanks for not making it early) with a drive up Mt. Charleston. Having been to Las Vegas many, many times, I'm ashamed to admit I had no idea this scenic driving road existed. It was about 30 miles from the show to the stopping point, but it was gorgeous and the locals feasted their eyes on a mile long convoy of V-Dubs, Audi's, and BMW's. We counted 102 cars total making the trek! The most surprising part of the drive, it was a balmy 60-degrees at the 8200ft. elevation of the parking lot, so I donned a coat with my shorts and flip-flops that were more appropriate for the 90+deg. temps back at the show.
The show then kicked off at 5pm with music, food, and generally a good atmosphere for cars. Needless to say, we're already making plans for a return next year. Check out the pics and video!
*Please be patient while the gallery loads*
Words by Trent Bray, Photos and Videos by Trent Bray and Spyder O'Neil.
*Article, Video, and Photos are copyright of CAMAutoMag.Com and their respective owners. Images and words may not be re-posted, re-distributed, modified, or copied without expressed written consent from CAMAutoMag.Com


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