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Medical Case Review Experts Serving New Brunswick
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Experts in reviewing medical cases for assessment of merit, liability, damages and standard of care deviations. Medical Case Review experts serve as expert witnesses and forensic consultants in New Brunswick legal matters, and provide expert reports and testimony for judges, attorneys, lawyers, law firms, insurance companies and government agencies in Federal and state court trials and arbitrations in New Brunswick.
The listings below are of Medical Case Review experts serving New Brunswick.
Featured ListingsGloria M. Kardong, MD, DFAPA
Medical Expert Witness, Psychiatry
Palo Alto, CA
Dr. Kardong is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. She is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University Medical Center. She provides consultation to the Stanford Schools of Law and Medicine as well as the California Medical Board. Medical Case Review is one specialty area.
Expert ListingsIu Health Arnett Hospital
Eric Orenstein
Lafayette, IN
I am a board-certified fellowship-trained orthopedic surgery specializing in hip and knee replacement surgery. I am in my 29th year of active clinical practice and am a Clinical Assistant Professor in Orthopedic surgery at the IU School of Medicine.
NeuroCare Institute of Central Florida
Hal Pineless
Winter Park, FL
Board certified neurologist practicing in Florida for 33 years. Experienced in IMEs,medical records and disability reviews,expert witness work. Have been involved in treating concussions, dementia, auto accidents, movement disorders, headaches, epilepsy, other neurological disorders.
Elite Medical Experts
Burton Bentley II, M.D., FAAEM
Tucson, AZ
Dr. Burton Bentley II is a board-certified emergency medicine physician and a nationally recognized authority on medical liability, informed consent, and complex issues at the intersection of medicine and law. He earned his M.D. degree at the University of Arizona, completed a residency in Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and now serves as CEO of Elite Medical Experts, a consulting firm he founded in 2010. Elite aligns Professors of Medicine and Surgery as experts in complex litigation and consulting, and serves over 4000 clients across the United States and internationally.
Ernest P. Chiodo, MD, JD, MPH, MS, MBA, CIH
Clinical and Forensic Medicine
Chicago, IL
MD & JD (Wayne State), MPH (Harvard), MS (Biomedical Engineering and Toxicology-WSU), MBA (University of Chicago), MS (University of Oxford), CIH. Physician, Attorney, Certified Industrial Hygienist, Toxicologist & Epidemiologist. Former Medical Director of the Detroit Health Department. Board certified in internal med, occupational & environ. med, & public health. Inducted into the Engineering Hall of Fame (Wayne State University).
Hawkins Forensic Consulting, Inc
Lois Hawkins
Mesa, AZ
Registered Nurse & Certified Life Care Planner specializing in Assessment of future Medical & Rehabilitation care needs for Traumatic & Acquired Brain Injury, Spinal Cord Injury, Amputation(s), Soft Tissue / Chronic Pain, Burns, Cerebral Palsy & Developmental Delayed, Birth Injuries, Visual & Hearing Impaired
Matthew C. Lee, MD, RPh, MS
Matthew C. Lee, MD, RPh, MS
Richmond, VA
As a physician, pharmacist, pharmacologist and researcher I have the unique and distinct perspective that no other expert has. My multiple degrees provide additional support to my experience to one another in being recognized as an expert by the courts.
Geoffrey A. Negin, M.D.
Board Certified Radiologist
Ft. Myers, FL
Specializing in personal injury, medical malpractice, traumatic brain injury and child abuse cases.Fellowship Trained in Neuroradiology and a Senior Member American Society of Neuororadiology. Actively practicing general radiology for 20+ years with 90% of income derived form clinical practice.Performing medical legal and radiology case reviews for 20 years including experience in depositions and trial testimony. Experienced national lecturer. References relating to medical expert and trial testimony expertise are available upon request.
Turkington Medical
Kirsten Turkington, DNP, APRN, CNLCP
Scottsdale, AZ
Kirsten Turkington DNP is Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner with extensive clinical experience. Dr. Turkington reviews a variety of medical and nursing related cases across the lifespan. Experienced with wide variety of cases and brings clinical expertise to each case. Excellent verbal and written skills with ability to critically appraise the necessary details.
Expert testimony
Cost Estimation
Billing Review
Medical Record Review
Medical Chronologies
Evaluation for tampering and inconsistencies
Medical Writing
Medical Literature Research
Sanjay Adhia, M.D., MRO Forensic Psychiatrist
Sanjay Adhia
Houston, TX
Dr. Adhia is triple Board-Certified in Forensic Psychiatry, Brain Injury Medicine and Psychiatry consulting in civil, criminal and probate cases and testifying as needed. Recent cases include competency complicated by alcoholism with liver failure, transplant ineligibility and delusions in the question of competency; date rape (DFSA) drugs; malpractice regarding medication; matricide; medical malpractice between treater and patient; PTSD in victims of human trafficking. Dr. Adhia is skilled in diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment plans for anxiety and depression disorders, PTSD, medication, drug, and alcohol addiction.
Dr. Adhia currently provides psychiatric treatment to those with Brain Injury, Stroke and Spinal Cord Injury at a renowned neurological rehabilitation center. Previously, he served as the Medical Director of a clinic that provided treatment to psychiatric and Substance Use Disorder patients. Dr. Adhia has conducted evaluations and treatment in a maximum-security correctional facility requiring his skill in diagnosing and treating addiction, severe psychotic disorders, mood disorders and Impulse disorders; he treated psychosis with hallucination and delusional disorders, schizophrenia. Psychiatric conditions among offenders were often combined with drug and/or alcohol addiction.
Dr. Adhia serves on the faculties of University of Texas Health and Science Center. In the past he was on the faculty of the University of Texas Medical Branch Department of Psychiatry.
In 2019, Dr. Adhia was appointed by the Governor of Texas to the Governor's Advisory Committee to the Texas Board of Criminal Justice on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments.
Dr. Adhia conducts forensic evaluations with Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Network assessing victims of human trafficking, kidnapping, false imprisonment and undue influence. His skill in diagnosing PTSD is an asset in this setting.
Dr. Adhia is experienced in institutional standards of care and medical malpractice in hospital and institutional settings with application to private treatment, rehab or senior care.
Dr. Adhia is a certified Medical Review Officer with expertise in Drug and Alcohol testing and toxicology. He has an FDA Buprenorphine Waiver to treat Opioid Use Disorders.
Shimon Oami, MD
Shimon Oami, MD
Cedarhurst, NY
Dr. Oami is a highly experienced quadruple board certified pathologist with fellowship training and board certification by both the American board of pathology and the American board of dermatology. His areas of expertise include Dermatopathology, cytopathology, Anatomic, Surgical and Clinical Pathology, Cancer / Tumor pathology and pathology of preneoplastics conditions, Infectious disease pathology, Pap smear, ThinPrep and SurePath Gyn and Non Gyn exfoliative pathology, FNA pathology, Autopsy Pathology, Delayed diagnosis, Cause of Death, Causation and Standard of care. He has a deep understanding of the laboratory setting and processes and is very discerning of clinical implications involving the different intricacies of laboratory practice and as they apply to clinical practice. Expertise in clinico-pathologic correlation and deviation from standard of care have made him instrumental in securing judgments on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants alike. As an effective communicator with a compelling and logical trajectory of thought, he has been instrumental in ensuring success on behalf of the defense as well as in assisting to prosecute cases on behalf of the plaintiff. Those who have used his services describe him as "professorial, effective and convincing."
Forensic Psychiatric Associates LLC
Alberto M. Goldwaser, M.D., D.L.F.A.P.A
Morristown, NJ
Dr. Alberto M. Goldwaser is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, in General Psychiatry and in Forensic Psychiatry. He has been named as a "Distinguished Life Fellow" of the American Psychiatric Association - a special distinction "for exceptional contributions to the community and the profession of psychiatry." Dr. Alberto M. Goldwaser has conducted Civil, Criminal, Military, and Administrative Forensic Psychiatric Examinations in many states. He offers Independent Medical Examinations and Testimony for Plaintiff and Defense.
ENT and Allergy Associates, LLC
Steven B Levine, MD
Trumbull, CT
Actively practicing award-winning board-certified Otolaryngologist-Head & Neck Surgeon (Ear, Nose & Throat). Yale faculty. Former Cornell and Penn faculty. Medical degree from University of Rochester and residency at University of Pennsylvania. National and international invited speaker with publications related to hearing, sinus, allergy and throat disorders. Patent holder in hearing diagnostic device. Castle Connolly Top Doctor for 19 consecutive years. Leadership positions at state and national medical societies. Experienced expert witness (both deposition and trial).
William Bisordi MD, FACP
William Bisordi MD, FACP
Larchmont, NY
I am a Board-Certified Gastroenterologist with over 35 years experience in Gastroenterology and Gastroenterological disorders. I have served as an expert witness for both plaintiff and defense for the past 25 years. I am able to do medical record review for merit and also review of a case that has already been filed with depositions etc. My turnaround time is extremely quick and I am always available to discuss the case further with the referring attorney. My fee includes review of the medical record and discussion with the referring attorney and a written affidavit if required. Further time spent on deposition and trial is billed on an hourly basis.I have testified over the years and enjoy preparing for trial and have been told that I have been an excellent credible expert witness by some of the finest malpractice lawyers in the tri-state area and many other states where I have testified.
Merrill Wise, MD
Merrill Wise, MD
Memphis, TN
Expert in all aspects of sleep medicine (including adult and pediatrics). Full time board-certified sleep medicine specialist practicing in a large accredited sleep center, with academic background. Extensive involvement and leadership positions in field of sleep medicine through service on Am Academy of Sleep Medicine board, publication of numerous practice guidelines, multiple papers on evaluation and treatment of excessive sleepiness (hypersomnia), and participation in the AASM Sleep Scoring Manual and the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, 3rd Edition. Experience in medical malpractice review and testimony, intellectual property/patent law, and impact of sleepiness on safety.
Dainius Drukteinis, M.D., J.D., FACEP
Dainius Drukteinis
Tampa, FL
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Tampa General Hospital; Board Certified in Emergency Medicine; Cornell Medical School, NYU/Bellevue Emergency Medicine Residency; Tulane Law School; Reviews medical malpractice, Automobile Injury-Personal Injury Protection Law Reviews, EMTALA, peer review, risk management, trauma and wound care, acute injury to prisoners, chest pain, abdominal pain, stroke, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, respiratory distress, drug-related injury.
Richard A. Beck, MD, FACS, FARS
Jacksonville, FL
Dr. Richard A. Beck is a board certified Otolaryngologist (ENT) offering expert witness services with experience in testimony by deposition and at trial. He is a surgical expert in ear, nose, throat & airway. Over 20 years of expert witness practice, independent medical examination (IME) and case review. Expert review of causation in complex ENT cases.
Gary B. Harris MD, FACEP
Dr. Gary B. Harris
Inverness, IL
Emergency Medicine/Trauma. Exp. in case review, formal/informal doc. prep, consultation, discovery deposition/expert witness testimony, P/D. Highly articulate, Board-certified/re-certified in Emergency Medicine. 36 years full-time practice experience. Contact by email at firstname.lastname@example.com
Simon Lee, MD
Simon Lee, MD
Atlanta, GA
Dr Lee is a Board Certified Anesthesiologist practicing in a world renown academic institution. He has practiced in clinical settings from outpatient surgical centers small rural hospitals to a major trauma center. He is actively involved in research and teaching and is the Medical Director of the Recovery room PACU.
Monica Argumedo, M.D., Forensic Psychiatrist
Monica Argumedo
Park Ridge, IL
Monica M. Argumedo, M.D. is a Board-Certified Forensic and Clinical Psychiatrist (ABPN) in practice for over 15 years. Dr. Argumedo has testified about her forensic opinions in more than 40 cases in open court. Dr. Argumedo has rendered forensic opinions in many dozens more cases that settle without need for a trial. She opines in civil litigation and criminal jurisdiction and works extensively in HR private administrative matters.
Georgia Persky Consulting LLC
Georgia Persky
Harrison, NY
Georgia J. Persky RN, MBA, PhD, CLNC, is a seasoned nurse with over 40 years of broad Clinical Nursing experience (inpatient and surgical) and 25 years of Senior Leadership in Healthcare Organizations. Expertise include Nursing, Hospital, Nursing Home and Home Health Agency, Fall Protection, Pressure Ulcer Prevention, Wrongful Death, Healthcare Practices and Records, Legal Nurse Consultants / LNC
C. Paul Sinkhorn, MD
OB/GYN - Medical Expert Witness
Riverside, CA
Expert Reviewer/Witness for OB/GYN. Teaching faculty at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and University of California, Riverside Medical School. 50/50 Plaintiff/Defense. Please see website at www.expertdoctor.net for full information.


text:
In which issues concerning the profession of philosophy are
bitched griped about
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Deep Thought
--Mr. Zero
25 comments:
oh yeah? i miss last year when i had 20+ to prepare. this year's ~10 seem like so few i may not even bother with them at all :P
- October 27, 2010 at 10:25 AM
Well luckily there are only half the amount of people looking for jobs this year, right? ... No? Oh...
- October 27, 2010 at 12:44 PM
Who paid for the postage? If it was your Ph.D. granting school or the school you were VAPing for, then all the power to you. But sending out 75 applications and having to pay for it yourself, the postage would have to break the bank!
- October 27, 2010 at 2:07 PM
- Ben said...
Is this a reference to how few jobs you have to apply to in total or to the fact that (as a recent commenter noted) so many are online these days that you have fewer to mail even if you have more to apply to?
- October 27, 2010 at 2:10 PM
And a personalized cover letter for each . . .
- October 27, 2010 at 2:24 PM
Quick comment for folks applying to jobs where electronic submission is discouraged: don't tell us that your materials are available on-line. By the time we're ready to sort through these things, we won't have time to download and print them OR to write you back and request the materials in hard copy. You'd think it'd go without saying, but hard copy means our department's evaluation procedure is built to work with hard copies.
- October 28, 2010 at 5:25 AM
I've never had that many applications to send, but I got my degree the same year that the economy went into its death spiral.
This year's 44 is the most yet for me. And I'm glad (as I've already said), that most of them are online, given the postage costs.
However, all things considered, I guess I'd rather have to do 44 applications than 75, especially if the results are the same. 44 is a more efficient path to rejection than 75, no?
Apparently I haven't been at this long enough to not be stupidly optimistic, yet again, that this year I shall triumph.
- October 28, 2010 at 5:29 AM
Hey Anon 5:25AM (what the hell time zone is this blog in anyway?):
Is there some reason why, if I have sent all the requested material for the dossier (and probably slightly more than requested in my teaching portfolio), I should not point out that my website has additional materials on it (such as links to ALL my publications, etc.)? The reason I have a website is so that I can have realtime updates to my CV, and provide additional stuffs should anyone want them. Seems silly to pretend it doesn't exist for the SCs that want hard copies. It would be quicker for them to download additional stuff they want than to have photocopied stuff they didn't want.
I guess my question is, why would it bother you to be informed of the existence of my website, and its bounteous riches, in my cover letter?
- October 28, 2010 at 6:06 AM
zombie, I think Anon 5:25 was saying that it is a bad idea to point SC members to websites for the "requested" application materials, instead of providing hardcopies. You, in contrast, are saying that it would be ok to point SC members to your website for "additional" materials, and I wouldn't think that Anon 5:25 would have a problem with that. Personally, I think that's great.
The problem with pointing SC people to websites for the requested materials instead of providing hardcopies is that it is not as immediate. That takes one more step to find out your information, and that is really one step too many when we have so many applications to view. Put another way, it's an inconvenience that doesn't bode in your favor - not that that means outright rejection (b/c that would be silly), but you want to be as pleasing as possible. I reiterate from a previous thread that you need to be quite conscious of what kind of impression you could be giving to the SC.
- October 28, 2010 at 7:13 AM
I would guess from my SLAC it is the case that we want equal documentation from all final applications we are looking at. Some members of the SC may download the material some may not and it becomes a mess if some members have some things and others do not. We ask for a set number of documents and judge the candidates on these documents.
- October 28, 2010 at 7:13 AM
Re: Anon 7:13am - in that case, then is it bad to sometimes send things that aren't explicitly asked for? For example, for teaching-intensive schools, I've been sending student evaluations, even if all that is asked for is a teaching statement. I think my evals give me a huge leg up because they've all been rather stellar. Certainly, some departments might simply throw these materials out, but I'd hate to think that it counts against me if I'm sending materials they haven't explicitly asked for.
- October 28, 2010 at 10:03 AM
Well, I would be shocked if applicants did not send the requested materials and pointed the SC to a website instead. That would be stupid. So certainly I can see the objection to that.
But really? Have applicants done that?
- October 28, 2010 at 10:12 AM
Once again I wonder why philosophy departments insist on being in the dark ages when it comes to using technology. Why is it so hard to get the application process online? Get applications downloaded to a central server/database. Allow the hiring committee access to the documents. Provide the committee with a group space for initial evaluations. Print out only those documents necessary for hard-copy review.
Getting an academic gig in philosophy is an insanely overcomplicated and expensive process for those hiring and those applying.
Hire a freaking student work study with computer skills to bring you out of the dark ages. Or, better yet, give a poor graduate student a Research Assistantship to upgrade, maintain, train, or otherwise provide technological support to a profession that brags that it's members only need pencil and paper to work.
- October 28, 2010 at 11:25 AM
I find Anon 5:25's comment, and the ensuing discussion, a little odd. First, I'm surprised that anyone would send a letter saying "all the materials you ask for are available on my website, so I'm not bothering to actually send it, even though you SPECIFICALLY say you want hard copies." Are people really that stupid/lazy?
Second, I'm surprised that people in universities think they need to print out everything of interest on a website, or even download it. The whole idea of posting something on a website is so that it's always available to anyone with an internet connection and a computer / tablet / smartphone / Wi / refrigerator with a computer chip that orders milk when you run out. Most universities have pretty solid wireless, and most faculty have 1+ computers. If I'm in a committee meeting and someone mentions something online that I missed, I can call it up on my laptop or look at his copy. Are there still faculty who have difficulty using the internet? I mean, it's been around since 1969.
Also, I guess I should mention that any department that can't figure out how to get on the internet is going to lose a lot of points in my book if I end up interviewing with them. Sure, they'll have 600 other candidates (more if they're not in Idaho) to choose from, but I'll bet some of the better candidates feel the same way I do.
Word verification: culade. As in, if you want a job at our university, you have to be willing to drink the culade.
- October 28, 2010 at 11:37 AM
I read applications almost every year, and for some of the jobs they are online, and here's what I hate about it: At my school, each part of the application (CV, cover letter, each rec letter) has to be clicked on separately. If it's a pdf, it'll show up in my browser, but if it's a .doc, it'll get *downloaded* to my computer (with a file name that is a seemingly random string of numbers) and then I have to open it in word. There are _man_ ways that this is inconvenient: it takes time for each document to open or download, I can easily get confused about where the other documents for this particular candidate are on my computer, and it is much more difficult to _skim_ a whole application.
If there were a way for the whole application to be offered to me, by my school's software, as one *single* pdf file, that would be fine. But until my school can do that, I'm really grateful that some of the searches I participate in are still in the dark ages, with hard copies.
Those of you who think that readers who prefer hard copies "can't use the internet" have no idea how annoying the online process can be for readers. And the upshot of it is that I don't even look at parts of the application I would otherwise glance at.
- October 28, 2010 at 11:55 AM
You'll love this one: Not only are we annoyingly asking for paper copies, but then we have to scan your complete dossier into a PDF and send it to the EEO office in order to comply with state requirements. Why don't we ask for electronic versions in the first place? You'll understand when you actually work with baby boomer philosophers. tl:dr inter-generational warfare trolling.
- October 28, 2010 at 12:38 PM
This is Anon 5:25 writing back.
>>Is there some reason why, if I have sent all the requested material for the dossier (and probably slightly more than requested in my teaching portfolio), I should not point out that my website has additional materials on it (such as links to ALL my publications, etc.)?<<
As others have suggested, that's fine. I won't look at your website unless I'm thinking of interviewing you on the basis of materials submitted in hard copy, but that's OK.
And yup, I wrote in because there are applicants who decline to submit hard copies of primary materials (CV, writing sample, etc.) though we request them expressly.
- October 28, 2010 at 1:31 PM
Anon 11:55,
I ragged on tech-illiterate faculty in my last posting, so let me rag on candidates a bit now. There's no reason not to submit all electronic files in pdf. For one thing, it keeps people from accidentally deleting things when they read (hey, it happens).
BTW, Word documents are being "downloaded" any differently than pdf files. They're just not opening in your browser, but rather with a separate program.
Oh, an application that asks for a lot of components can run 20-30 pages. Are you sure you'd rather one pdf? That would require a lot of leafing through. Here's a suggestion: if you collected paper copies, you need to have an AA collate and copy the materials anyway. Why not have one person download, save, and rename all the files, then put them on a CD for each committee member. It's the same amount of time for the AA, and then you get a CD with a file for each candidate, with individual files labeled "cover letter", "CV", etc. That'll save some trees and make it much easier to lug your files around.
- October 28, 2010 at 2:15 PM
I have Adobe Pro, so I can put all the pieces of my dossier in a single pdf file. And I tried doing that for a couple of applications that asked for email submission. What happened? The emails ALL got bounced because the file size was too large. For one job, I had to email three separate times to get my whole dossier to them. That's a waste of everybody's time, not to mention a logistical nightmare.
Online applications? Sheesh, don't get me started. I spent about 45 minutes uploading a gajillion separate files for U Chicago last night. Not to mention rescanning all my evaluations at a lower rez so the pdf wouldn't exceed their chintzy file size limit. Lame.
The online applications cost candidates a lot of wasted time too. The benefit is that they save us money, and hey, fewer dead trees. Time's not free, but a little more invested upfront in creating a more efficient process will save a lot in the back end.
Or let's skip the whole flooferah and have a lottery. My odds would be about the same, I'm guessing.
- October 28, 2010 at 2:52 PM
- BunnyHugger said...
Approximate number of things I applied for, to the best of my memory:
2003-2004: 100+
APA interviews: 0
Phone interviews: 0
Campus visits: 0
Comments: I was an idiot back then. I went on the market without a Ph.D. in hand and a date set in May. Plus, as the number indicates, I applied for everything in my area (which I defined more broadly back then) regardless of whether it was clearly out of my league.
2004-2005: 75
APA interviews: 5 (4 Eastern, 1 Central)
Phone interviews: 3
Campus visits: 1 (with a school that didn't APA or phone interview me but just picked three finalists and flew them out)
Comments: With Ph.D. in hand, I tried again and felt very happy with my 4 Eastern interviews, more than any of the other grads from my program had, yet none of those led to a campus visit. I also did not get a job from the one that did fly me there, and ended up landing my current yearly-contract position based on a phone interview late in the game, which was probably my luckiest break ever.
2006-2007: 30
APA interviews: 0 Eastern, 1 Central
Phone interviews: 0
Campus visits: 0
Comments: Starting this year I only applied for tenure-track positions henceforth since I had my current position as backup. The lower number was due to that and also to being choosier in general and applying only to things that seemed more promising.
2008-2009: 70
APA interviews: 2 Eastern, 0 Central
Phone interviews: 2
Campus visits: 3
Comments: One of the APA interviews and both of the phone interviews led to campus visits. I really really really really wanted one of those jobs, and had been told I was one of only two finalists. Didn't get any offers. I told myself that the number of flybacks I'd had this time surely suggested I was "getting close" and perhaps my number would come up next year. Ha ha ha.
2010-2011: 25
Interviews: None whatsoever.
Comments: Applied for everything in sight as in the previous year. Started coming to terms with the likelihood that I will never be on the tenure track, and wondering whether I should be upset or not.
2011-2012: 15 so far
Comments: I'm not holding out a lot of hope, but at least I've learned to apply only for schools that might have some interest in hiring me (i.e. teaching-oriented schools).
- October 28, 2010 at 2:55 PM
Our department is required to follow the application procedures dictated by our (state) university's office of academic personnel, which they develop in consultation with our EEO office. So far, they are insisting on hard copies of everything. Please don't blame the philosophy department. We hope the university will eventually move to all-electronic submissions. We have been told there are technical and legal problems with that, but let's all hope they can be resolved eventually.
- October 28, 2010 at 5:16 PM
Anon 7:13 again.
The central issue with my point is when we establish a set number of documents for the first round of SC meetings WE established what we want by thinking about it. If someone brings in additional information via any format (Paper, digital...) the SC grinds to a halt so we can all read it, think about it, consider it, then search for similer matieral from others to make the process fair. It makes the SC process unmanagable, that is why we establish parameters at the first meeting. When we are down to three the gloves come off and most data is fair game, including searching out friends that may know the top 3.
- October 29, 2010 at 8:19 AM
Supposedly, there are laws which prohibit the asking of certain questions in job interviews. Are those laws state, federal, or both? Can anyone recommend a good resource on this issue?
- October 30, 2010 at 12:43 PM
To 12.43 if you're hiring your eeo office will have good guidelines. They are eager to avoid legal problems for your institutions. Philosophy departments are notorious for not properly consulting with EEO during searches.
If you're a candidate, this is a good short summary: http://technicaljobsearch.com/interviews/illegal-questions.htm
- October 30, 2010 at 2:42 PM
This is off topic, but--
Has anybody else fallen into the trap of looking at the descriptions of job candidates coming out of other departments? Can anyone offer advice (apart from not having done this in the first place) for what to do when you find someone who is almost identical to you, but slightly better, on paper?
- November 4, 2010 at 1:22 PM

subset: commoncrawl


text:
In 1975, Frederick Brooks published several essays on software engineering in a book titled "The Mythical Man-Month." Dr. Brooks started the computer science department at the University of North Carolina and was its chairman for 20 years.
In 1975, Frederick Brooks published several essays on software engineering in a book titled "The Mythical Man-Month." Dr. Brooks started the computer science department at the University of North Carolina and was its chairman for 20 years.
The book's title comes from the fact that, in software development, the term man-month is not operative. If it takes one programmer six months to complete a task, two programmers cannot do it in three months. It will likely take four or five months because of the need for communication and coordination.
And here's the kicker — if you assign 30 programmers to it, the same task could take years.
Which brings us to the Healthcare.gov website debacle. Even though Brooks explained the principles more than 35 years ago, high-level corporate executives and government bureaucrats rarely believe they apply to their current situation. Mix in management's urge to insert "minor" changes all through the development process, and you have a recipe for a spectacular software failure.
The major problem with the health care website is that integration of the work of 55 contractors was assigned to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. And despite several stunning software failures on its resume, CGI Federal was awarded an outrageous $93 million contract.
The president of CGI Federal's U.S. operations is a 2012 Barack Obama campaign donor, and one of CGI's executive vice presidents and first lady Michelle Obama were fellow members of activist political organizations while students at Princeton.
So we have Obama cronies with obscene contracts developing pieces of a system that are then put together by bureaucrats whose only skills are political. What could possibly go wrong?
Another of the contractors is Teal Media, which is run by the design manager for President Obama's 2008 campaign website, Jessica Teal. On its website, Teal Media bragged about its work on the Obamacare website — until the Obamacare website flopped in early October. Then Teal removed references to it.
Unfortunately for Teal, the removal was noticed and harshly ridiculed by conservative websites, causing Teal Media to sheepishly put the page back up. Long live the alternative media.
The Obama administration initially proffered the silly excuse that the website crashed because it was so popular. Hogwash! For reference, Amazon has processed as many as 1.1 million transactions per hour on high-volume days. At that rate, the goal of 7 million initial Obamacare enrollees is but a day's work.
One example of horrible management is the political decision, made only a few weeks before rollout, to require people to enter their personal information before they could estimate the cost of insurance. While this makes sense from a sales perspective, it is so counterintuitive from a programming standpoint that, no doubt, there were screams of protest. One typically wants to keep the user out of resource-hogging operations like saving demographic information until after one is sure the user is serious.
As of this writing, the Obama administration refuses to say how many people actually enrolled for health insurance through the website.
We can assume the website uses an Oracle database because it spits out untrapped run-time error messages in Oracle-eze. Determining the number of enrollees in an Oracle database is easy. To see for yourself, go to oracle.com, and search for "counting rows."
It should take a database administrator fewer than 3 minutes to determine how many records are in the enrollee table.
More importantly, the administrator could easily count the number of enrollees under age 30 — the prime group of suckers required to keep Obamacare from bankrupting the country.
President Obama was able to convince many in that age group to vote for him despite being responsible for their high unemployment rate, so, one assumes, he thinks he can now convince them to pay more than $2,800 per year for something they don't need. I remain skeptical.
At this point, nobody knows how the software debacle will pan out. Entirely eliminating government bureaucrats from project management and assigning experienced software developers to integrate the system might work, but it's a certainty that just throwing more programmers at it will not work.


text:
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The following sections provide demographic and development related data for the City of Manassas. Demographic information is not only important for the long-range planning of the city, but is also important for the provision and funding of services to city residents. The data is provided in addition to
data tracked by the economic development department.
City of Manassas Key Demographics
The City annually publishes a
demographics report
, which summarizes population estimates for the city, as well as estimates across several different topic areas including populations, housing, income, employment, and education. The data provided in this profile is based on the most recent U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) and Population Estimates Program (PEP) with Decennial Census data provided when available. Descriptions and links to these and other available data sources are provided in Appendix A.
View Full Report
(December 2019)
Take an Interactive Demographic Tour
City of Manassas Development Activity
In order to provide additional information to residents and the business community about development activity in the City of Manassas, the Community Development Department maintains reports on current development activity and pending land use cases (rezoning and special use permit):
Development Activity Report
Pending Land Use Cases
View applications under review or scheduled for
public hearing
Learn more about new development projects in
Economic Development.
2020 Census
Find out more about the upcoming 2020 Census:
Development Applications, Forms and Fees
Zoning Permits
Historic Overlay District
Meetings and Hearings
Plan & Permit Status
Demographics and Development Data
Plans, Standards & Studies
Property Code Enforcement
Community Development Director
Staff Directory
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Yep that's the word that comes into my mind, when I realize how long it's been since I've last written on this blog. I can't believe that a month has almost passed and not one post from little old me.
What have I been up to, you may wonder?
Well, basically I went on a trip win, with my sister (who I call Sissy..I know, I know. Original, isn't it?) and have been back home for almost a week. My Sissy actually won the trip last year from an online sweepstakes. It was the only prize and it was a good one, if I do say so myself. (Which I just did.)
The prize included airfare, flight for two people, hotel stay for 5 nights/6 days at the Wynn (which is a swank hotel btw), up to $350 per person for show tickets, up to $300 per person for salon/spa services, a tour of the Hoover dam and a helicopter tour with champagne brunch at the Grand Canyon. I don't think I've left anything out. AVR $6,000! Whoot!
Now we couldn't actually take the helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon, because my Sissy is also a little person, like myself. Nowadays, no one wants to be liable when helping anyone on and/or off of helicopters, airplanes, whatever. Now my Sissy could have taken anyone with her and if she had taken someone of average heights, who is more able bodied than myself, then it could have been more possible to have done this Grand Canyon tour.
In fact, for many years Sissy has said that if she ever won a trip to Vegas, she would take our Mom. Mom loves Vegas as much as we do and it's been awhile since she's been out there. However, when Sissy won the trip, Mom wasn't feeling all that great and didn't think that she could handle all the walking that was likely on this trip. So Sissy extended the invite to me.
Sissy talked with the company that handled the arrangements of the trip and let it be known that we were both disabled. The company actually did great on most things and since we couldn't take advantage of the helicopter tour, we ended up getting another show added onto the itinerary and it was awesome! They also changed the Hoover dam tour to one that included the Grand Canyon, so we wouldn't have to miss out on that. I will go into more of how that went, later on.
So Sissy and I ended up seeing the Beatles "Love" by Cirque De Solei at the Mirage as well as Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. They were both really good shows. I would probably have to say that I enjoyed the Phantom better. Not sure why, but since we were on the second row, that might have had something to do with it. But the music on both performances, where wonderful and thoroughly enjoyed.
I am hoping to upload some photos from our trip later on. I do have a flickr account, and might add them there. I'm still unsure of how to put them on here, without making it take forever for the page to load. I'm still learning, what can I say?
At the moment, I am tying this on my laptop and it's acting weird . So I will go ahead and post this, so that maybe my readers, if I still have any, will know that I didn't drop off the face of the earth. I am hoping to post again a lot sooner, than last time. Maybe in 21 day instead of 24.
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Roses Round Two
Tuesday February 18, 2014
So the roses Mike ordered and scheduled for delivery on Valentine's Day didn't show up due to the snowstorms. No big deal. He called ProFlowers just to see when they would arrive and to ask if they could refund the extra "delivery on Valentine's Day" shipping fee. The roses showed up the next day but then another set showed up today courtesy of ProFlowers for all the trouble!
Double the roses :)
Tags: gift, rose
18 Responses to "Roses Round Two"
Awwww how nice! Great whenever a company tries to make things right!
Now that's good customer service :3
I'll definitely order from them in the future!
That's what I call superb costumer service. They may have lost a dozen roses, but they gained costumer royalty in return which is priceless.
Roses! They're so nice to look at and instant cheer up :D
I guess a woman can never have enough roses! Love double roses haha
That's so nice that they decided to give you double the roses…that's a way better option than getting a refund. Love the roses…they're sooo pretty and pink! <3
Beautiful roses, that was nice of them!
Long story short, we got locked out on Valentine's and had to call a locksmith. The dinner my bf had planned was ruinned and we had to do valentine's on Sunday instead. It certainly was a day I won't forget, hahaha!
That's cute!
I wanna smell them :D
Happy late Valentine's Day!
« I Want Angel Heart | Snow and Chocolate »


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One person can be the start of something big.
Chad Pregracke was 17 years old when he decided to clean up the Mississippi River one piece of garbage at a time. He'd spent his summers on the Mississippi as a commercial diver, fighting his way through the murky water for mussels buried in the muddy river bottom. But along with mussels, he discovered a staggering amount of junk — appliances, cars, boats, bowling balls, tires, you name it — that were simply dumped in the waterway. And he became determined to do something about it.
Edwin Moses, of course, is a legendary Olympic track and field athlete who won gold medals in the 1976 and 1984 games. A physics major who figured out a more efficient way to negotiate hurdles, he won 122 consecutive races, an undefeated streak that stretched almost 10 years. But Moses, whose success came from brains and grueling physical preparation, also witnessed the rise of steroid use among his peers, spurring him to become a pioneer in the battle against performance-enhancing drugs.
And finally, Jay Altman was a young English teacher at a respected New Orleans prep school in the late 1980s who was appalled by low student expectations at many of the city's public schools. In 1992, Altman opened what was essentially a charter school — before such things officially existed in Louisiana — in the city's gritty Treme neighborhood. His efforts would become the foundation for dramatic improvement in the New Orleans public school system.
What do these three have in common? All of them spoke at re:public, the Center for Digital Government's annual leadership retreat held in early November in La Quinta, Calif. More importantly, they show how one person can be the start of something big.
These days Pregracke runs Living Lands & Waters, a nonprofit that has organized nearly 70,000 volunteers into cleanup crews that have pulled more than 7 million pounds of garbage from the nation's waterways over the past 16 years. Moses remains active in anti-drug efforts, and he's chairman of Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, a global group of elite athletes using sports as a tool for social change. Altman's nonprofit, FirstLine Schools, now operates five public charter schools in New Orleans, and the group is known as a specialist in turning around low-performing institutions.
Many of us labor inside large, complex organizations where change is hard and innovation isn't always welcome. But the lesson here is clear: Never discount the power of an individual with a good idea and the perseverance to see it through.
As I write this on the way home from the re:public conference, it's hard not to be inspired by these stories — and to think that more of us should start something big.
Looking for the latest gov tech news as it happens? Subscribe to GT newsletters.


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XMM-Newton unveils hidden cosmic giant
Astronomers working with XMM-Newton have discovered a new cluster of galaxies, hidden behind a previously identified cluster of galaxies. The recently exposed cosmic giant is apparently just as bright as the first group, but is six times further away.
The discovery was made by an international team using ESA's orbiting X-ray observatory. Being fooled by a cosmic giant is no laughing matter for an astronomer. For years, astronomers racked their brains over the relation between two regions equally bright and large in X-rays, located in the galaxy cluster known as Abell 3128. "That is the charm of science", says Norbert Werner, PhD student at SRON Netherlands institute for Space Research. "You always find things that you did not expect."
Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe. They consist of tens to hundreds of massive galaxies, of which each in turn consists of hundreds of billions of stars. Gravity is the binding factor. The hot cluster gas, at temperatures of tens of millions of degrees Celsius, emits X-rays, which renders the cluster visible for space telescopes such as XMM-Newton. Detailed analyses of these X-rays tell astronomers more about the composition of the gas and accordingly, its origin.
What was so intriguing about the two X-ray spots in cluster Abell 3128 was the fact that although they had the same size and brightness, the gas clouds seemed to have completely different compositions.
Werner says, "While one spot was clearly caused by a hot gas cloud rich in metals released by supernova explosions in the galaxies, the other spot seemed to contain a much lower amount of metals than any other cluster previously observed. What we observed completely contradicted the current theories about how large structures in the universe arise."
The observations with XMM-Newton made the surprise complete. The gas cloud behind the puzzling X-ray spot was found to be 4.6 thousand million light years away, at least six times further than Abell 3128. "We were therefore looking at two completely different objects, which from our perspective were in exactly the same line of sight," said Werner.
Foam bath
"The research into this large cluster of galaxies mainly centres on the question as to how the large structures of the universe have been formed', explains project leader Jelle Kaastra. According to current belief, material is spread throughout the universe as a web of thread-like structures of rarefied hot gas - the cosmic web. Between these threads are cavities that are becoming increasingly large as the universe expands. "Compare it to bubbles in a bubble bath", says the astronomer. The density of material is highest at the intersections in the web. Therefore that is where galaxy clusters develop.
Due to their enormous mass and gravitational attraction, the clusters have their own dynamics. Kaastra says, "They attract each other, collide and fly through each other; a whole host of things happen that we can study with X-ray telescopes such as the XMM-Newton."
Notes for editors:
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research built the Reflection Grating Spectrometer (RGS), capable of analysing the X-rays in detail for ESA's orbiting X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton. The satellite was launched in 1999 from French Guyana and still functions superbly. The operation of the satellite has recently been extended for five more years, until December 2012.
The results from the research of Norbert Werner and Jelle Kaastra were recently published in the scientific journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The article 'Complex X-ray morphology of Abell 3128: a distant cluster behind a disturbed cluster' is by N. Werner, E. Churazov, A. Finoguenov, M. Markevitch, R. Burenin, J. Kaastra, and H. Böhringer.
For more information:
Norbert Schartel, ESA XMM-Newton Project Scientist
Norbert.Schartel @ esa.int


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Firefighters in Southern California plan to present a 5-year-old girl who's credited with saving the life of her great grandmother with a Life Saver Award in the coming weeks.
Read: 33 Arrested at Rose Parade
Karli LaFever called 911 on Monday to summon help for her great grandmother who had collapsed and fallen unconscious in her home in the 40200 block of Via Acuna in Murrieta, said fire department spokesman Matt Corelli.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
Read: Plastic Bag Ban at Large Retail Stores Begins in Los Angeles
Personnel arrived within five minutes and treated the elderly victim, whose identity was not released, for a life-threatening condition, then rushed her to a hospital, where she was stabilized.
Karli recounted the story matter-of-factly.
"I said to my mama that Nana was crying and there was blood on her nightie," she said.
Read: Calif. Governor Signs Bill to Deter Paparazzi
When she tried to awaken her unconscious grandmother but couldn't, she picked up the phone and called her mother, who in turn called 911 before rushing to the house, firefighters said.
"If she didn't call, all types of problems could've happened including death," said Capt. Casey McDonald, of the Murrieta Fire Department.
Added her mother, Briana LaFever: "My daughter is a miracle."


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Retailers are onto us. Real-time price alerts sent to your inbox, money-saving apps on your smartphone, retailer aggregators to browse before you buy — they know consumers are becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to shopping. But while it's easier than ever to bargain hunt and compare prices, the sticker price isn't the only factor influencing what you buy and when you buy it (and that price tag isn't always what it seems). That's why retailers have taken to sophisticated tactics for covert persuasion.
Increase your consumer intelligence quotient and learn to outsmart retailers by paying attention to these six traps they use to make you spend more.
Before You Buy
Retailers are onto us. Real-time price alerts sent to your inbox, money-saving apps on your smartphone, retailer aggregators to browse before you buy — they know consumers are becoming increasingly savvy when it comes to shopping. But while it's easier than ever to bargain hunt and compare prices, the sticker price isn't the only factor influencing what you buy and when you buy it (and that price tag isn't always what it seems). That's why retailers have taken to sophisticated tactics for covert persuasion.
Increase your consumer intelligence quotient and learn to outsmart retailers by paying attention to these six traps they use to make you spend more.
Selling products is about selling emotion. How do you feel in relation to a brand? What does it evoke in you? Scent is widely considered to be our most emotional sense, due in part to our impressive capacity to recognize distinct scents: Richard Axel and Linda Buck won a Nobel Prize for their work in understanding our olfactory system, which allows us to identify and categorize 10,000 scents, all of which can trigger powerful nostalgia-laced memories. This means scent can subconsciously affect our cognition and behavior.
Studies have shown that ambient scents in a retail environment can produce positive feelings toward that brand (including your likelihood to return to the store) and affect purchasing habits. Scent marketing companies, like Scent Air, are enlisted by retailers, hotels, and restaurants to produce branded scents that build an emotional connection between consumer and brand. According to the Scent Marketing Institute, specific scents actually correlate with different consumer behaviors. For example, the scent of fresh baked goods sells more homes, the scent of leather and cedar convinces us to buy luxury furniture, and citrus encourages us to browse longer and spend more.
Outsmart them: Shop on a full stomach and keep something minty in your mouth while you browse. Peppermint satiates hunger and is powerful enough to serve as a barrier to other scents that may be temptingly wafting toward you.
Product Placement
Sometimes what we purchase has less to do with the item itself and more about where it rests in relationship to our bodies and line of vision. Placing more expensive items at eye level is a widely-recognized trick for grabbing your attention (so be sure to look down for lower prices). But this practice isn't limited to adults: Retailers also place key items at heights that hit at eye level for children, in the hopes they will then appeal to parents to make the purchase.
Many stores create "rest areas" where you're more likely to linger for a prolonged period of time, and therefore rest your attention on their products. Less expensive, high margin items are often placed near the front of the store to get you to start filling your cart, and of course items in the checkout line capture your attention when you have nothing better to do than gaze intently at them.
Outsmart them: Look down. Many comparable, less expensive items are often placed on lower shelves. Take an extra moment and force yourself to do a double-take before you grab and go to the register. (And give your kids a budget or a gentle, but firm, no.)
Bargain Perception
Retailers know that everyone loves a bargain (it actually gives us a high), so stores try to make you think that's what you're getting — regardless of the reality. "Valued shopper cards" are a pervasive tactic for selling the bargain myth. You may receive a reward of one free item after purchasing 10, but you're also more likely to make purchases you don't need, just to reach that 10 item goal.
Bargain promises are hard to resist. A sale sign in a window lures you into the store, even if you aren't looking to shop, and just a few sale items near the entrance will get you psychologically excited to spend money. If it's a limited time sale, the urgency encourages you to buy more, without too much deliberation. This is particularly true for online flash sales — retailer tricks are pervasive in the digital world, as well. Surveys find that the cost of shipping is one of the top reasons people abandon virtual shopping carts. That's why most retailers have implemented a "free shipping" policy. However, that free shipping comes with a price: You usually need to purchase a minimum amount to reach that threshold, which makes you continue to shop and fill your virtual cart in an effort to score the free shipping.
Outsmart them: Check yourself when you're shopping during a sale. Do you really want that item? (A $30 shirt is not a bargain if it just sits in your closet.) It can help to put the items on hold, even for an hour, and walk around. And make a policy for yourself: It's okay to shop around for a site that offers free shipping, but it's not okay to shop for more items to obtain free shipping. Then hold yourself to it.
Retailers grab your attention by immersing you in a strategic environment, not just presenting you with a product. Creating an atmosphere of retail theater puts you in an altered mindset and affects your purchasing patterns. Music, in particular, plays such a large role in setting this consumer stage that many companies will hire "audio architects" to design a custom soundtrack that aligns with the brand and its goals. Some retailers will even match specific music with particular zones of the store to complement the products and further animate the "scene."
Some types of music are more persuasive in getting you to open your wallet: Studies indicate that classical music communicates luxury and affluence and increases spending (think that department store piano player was just for your listening enjoyment?). The pace of the music has been found to affect purchasing, as well, with slower music making you more relaxed and likely to browse longer, while loud, fast music raises your heart rate and increases per-minute sales — while also making you more likely to make impulse purchases.
Outsmart them: Reclaim the airwaves: Put in your earbuds and create your own retail soundtrack while you shop. Feeling mellow? In a hurry? Match your mood to your personal playlist and take back auditory power.
Pricing strategies are at the forefront of creating the bargain illusion: A study in the Journal of Consumer Research looked at the "left-digit effects" and found that an item that ends in .99 or .95 — what they refer to as "just below price" — sells significantly more than its pennies higher equivalent. In fact, its psychological pull is so powerful that in one experiment a $3.99 pen outsold the $2 pen by 44%. Stores also place luxury products next to less expensive items so your brain thinks the cheaper of the two is a bargain, even if the less expensive item is overpriced.
Outsmart them: Enlist digital tools as a reality check while in the store. Use the Amazon price check app to be sure you're actually getting a bargain and not being duped.
Shopping Cart Labyrinth
You may have noticed that many large retailers are a physical maze. A store layout is often like a winding racetrack, and studies indicate that shoppers will mindlessly follow this set path, leading them to encounter more items than a direct route would elicit. Essentials are often hidden in the back behind many things you either don't need or likely aren't looking for, and being forced to hunt for your purchase leaves you feeling satisfied once you do actually find what you want.
While you're navigating that maze, your shopping carts facilitate your journey. Shopping carts were invented in the 1930s with the intention of making the shopping experience more enjoyable, less strenuous, and thereby facilitating the purchase of larger items with ease — and increased frequency. Over the years, shopping carts have increased in size by nearly 40%, and some retailers offer oversized bags to put all your potential purchases in, creating a large psychological void for you to fill.
Outsmart them: Unless you're buying an oversized item, commit to carrying your items. You'll be more conscious of what you're purchasing and won't be subconsciously tempted to buy more just to fill the cart.
You Might Also Like:
Money Saving Habits That Can Cost You
5 Ways Going Green Can Save You Some Green
11 Money Mistakes You Probably Don't Know You're Making


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I don't know if Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, the Clint Eastwood vehicle featuring a young Jeff Bridges, is a sleeper but if you have never seen it, do yourself a favor and put it to the top of your Netflix queue. It was Michael Cimino's directorial debut. George Kennedy is terrific, as usual, in a supporting role.
Speaking of Cimino, check out this 2002 feature on the director from Vanity Fair.


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"I grew up just five minutes away from there and that is the movie theater I used to go to when I was young. One of my international teammates told me about it and I called my dad, Anibal, right
away to see how the family was because I know my little sister Nicole, who is 13, loves going there now."
-- Kansas City midfielder Roger Espinoza was with the Honduran Olympic team in Glasgow when he heard of the shooting massacre at the Aurora, Colo., and was relieved to hear his family, who resides in Aurora, was safe. (AFP)


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As John Mayer celebrates a second week atop the Billboard charts with his new album "Born and Raised," the singer reveals he is "really humiliated" by Taylor Swift and her song "Dear John."
Swift has never revealed the target of her scathing breakup number, but according to a new interview with Rolling Stone, the "Your Body is a Wonderland" singer is convinced it's him.
"It made me feel terrible," Mayer, 34, said in the article. "I'm pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do. I never got an email. I never got a phone call. I was really caught off guard, and it really humiliated me at a time when I'd already been dressed down. I mean, how would you feel if, at the lowest you've ever been, someone kicked you even lower?"
U.S. & World
Mayer received heavy public criticism in 2010 after a he spoke explicitly about former girlfriends Jessica Simpson and Jennifer Aniston — even going as far as to peg Simpson as "sexual napalm" — in an interview with Playboy. He apologized at the time, and says in Rolling Stone that the experience prompted him to remove himself from the media spotlight — something he still consciously avoids when able.
Mayer and Swift, 22, were rumored to be dating in late 2009, though neither has publicly confirmed the relationship. "Dear John," from Swift's album "Speak Now," was released soon after Mayer went on his self-imposed publicity hiatus and includes the lyrics, "Don't you think nineteen's too young to be played with?/Your dark twisted games when I loved you so/I should've known."
"I will say as a songwriter that I think it is kind of cheap songwriting," Mayer goes on to say about the song. "I know she's the biggest thing in the world, and I'm not trying to sink anybody's ship, but I think it is abusing your talent to rub your hands together and go, 'Wait till he gets a load of this!"


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hi all
i am not using any HttpServlet or any?
my socket which is running at a port no 9000, how to get url from browser in the socket class?
i want to take URL class Object? how is it possible?
plzzz tell me if know thank u all.
Edit/Delete Message


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Improvements, no matter how incremental they are, are always welcome.
The T-Mobile Prism 2 from Huawei, for example, shows marked improvements compared with its predecessor, the Prism. Though both are marketed as inexpensive, low-spec devices, this most recent iteration has Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, a bumped-up processor (from 600MHz to 1GHz), and a marginally beefed-up, 1,750mAh battery. And despite it retaining the same amount of megapixels in the camera, I noticed that the Prism 2 took better photos.
Given all this, fans of the original handset won't be disappointed with the sequel. Especially since it's competitively priced at $115.99. However, if you're in the market for a higher-tiered phone that has blazing 4G speeds, a zippy processor, and an amazing screen, you won't find it here.
Save for the rubbery, matte battery door, the T-Mobile Prism 2 struts an all-plastic glossy aesthetic that looks deliberately toylike. Especially given the neon-green ring that encircles the camera lens in the rear, the device has a subtle "youthful" look that still feels rather cheap.
At 4.6 inches tall and 2.44 inches wide, weighing 3.88 ounces, it's compact, light, and easy to control with just one hand. However, its 0.49-inch profile is thick, and the hefty two-layer chin below the display adds to its bulk.
On the left is a Micro-USB port for charging, up top are a 3.5mm headphone jack and a sleep/power button, and on the right is a slim volume rocker.
The 3.5-inch HVGA screen has a 480-by-320-pixel resolution. While adequately responsive to touch, needless to say, it's not the crispest of displays. Yes, text and icons are legible and easy to make out, but you'll see aliasing around the edges of individual letters and graphics. Default wallpaper photographs show plenty of color banding, and pictures look grainy up close. And given that the touch screen isn't very bright, it was really difficult to read in direct sunlight, as it had a narrow viewing angle and the screen was dim. I didn't have much trouble viewing it indoors, however. Below the display are three hot keys that glow white when in use for back, home, and menu.
The back houses the 3.2-megapixel camera lens that lacks a flash. Below that is a small narrow slit for the audio speaker. To remove the battery door, pry in the indentation at the very bottom of the handset. Once the door's removed, you gain access to the 1,750mAh battery. Unfortunately, you'll need to take the battery out if you want to insert a 32GB microSD card in the slot.
The budget-friendly T-Mobile Prism 2 (pictures)See all photos
Software features
Given how bare-bones this phone is, it's nice to see that it ships with the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system right out of the box.
As such, you'll get your usual slew of Google apps: Chrome, Gmail, Search, Plus, Local, Maps with Navigation, Messenger, access to the Play store's Books, Magazines, Movies & TV, and Music portals, Talk, and YouTube.
Basic apps include native browser and e-mail clients, a calculator, a calendar, a clock with alarm functions, a notepad, a sound recorder, a voice dialer, and voice search. You'll also get some less common apps, like an FM radio, a Wi-Fi setup shortcut, an app offering tips on how to use your Prism 2, and a wireless emergency alerts app called WEA.
T-Mobile loaded a conservative number of its apps in as well. T-Mobile My Account gives you information about your phone and data plan; a trial subscription to the caller ID service Name ID; visual voice mail; and lastly, a 30-day trial to T-Mobile TV. This is a service via which you can stream live TV from channels like Fox News and ESPN, and download culturally significant shows like "Keeping Up With the Kardashians."
The device also has 512MB of RAM, 4GB of ROM, mobile hot-spotting, and Bluetooth 4.0.
Camera and video
The 3.2-megapixel camera features a few photo options. These include a digital zoom, geotagging, a new panoramic shooting mode, five color effects, five white balances, five ISO options, a timer, three photo qualities, three photo sizes (ranging from 640x480 to 2,048x1,536 pixels), and compositional lines.
The video recorder has even fewer options. You'll only get the same white balance, zooming, and geotagging options, and you'll get two video sizes (from VGA to MMS).
Though the original Prism and this version both have a 3.2-megapixel camera, photo quality on the newer model appeared to be markedly improved. Yes, the lack of touch focus makes it difficult to get certain objects looking sharp, and photos still had some blurry edges. But objects looked a bit more in focus, colors were slightly brighter, and overall, pictures looked less pixelated. And while the camera remains slow compared with the ones you find on more powerful devices, I felt like the time it took to refresh itself for another photo was shorter than on the first Prism.


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As you probably know, Paul Mirengoff has taken a leave from blogging and has, for now anyway, resigned from the Power Line masthead. We've decided to fill the hole left by Paul's departure by recruiting a series of guest posters. The idea is that we will have one or two like-minded writers posting, along with Scott and me, for periods loosely expected to be a few weeks to, perhaps, a month or two.
So today we want to welcome our first guest contributor, Steven Hayward. Steve is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; here is how that site describes him:
Steven F. Hayward writes on a wide range of public policy issues. He is the author of the Almanac of Environmental Trends, and the author of many books on environmental topics. He has written biographies of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and of Winston Churchill. Mr. Hayward is also a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute. He contributes to AEI's Energy and Environment Outlook series.
For his first Power Line post–perhaps as a counterpoint to Paul's finely nuanced accounts of English Premier League soccer games–
Steven has chosen to write about a monster truck rally he attended yesterday. That post is immediately below. Welcome aboard, Steve!


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"The quality of the speakers was excellent and the relevance of the topics was spot on. The keynote speakers were great also. I definitely feel I got my money's worth."
"One of the best conferences I have attended."
"ACCE [Contact Center Expo] has motivated and inspired me to improve myself as a leader in my organization and to help cultivate and encourage myself to help others improve upon themselves as well. I had such as awesome time! The people I met were so friendly and eager to offer help/advise!"
"We have worked with ICMI in the past and had good experiences. [The conference] delivered more than I expected and was so relevant for me and my current position. This was the first conference I have attended since becoming the supervisor of our contact center and it gave me an awesome opportunity to network with people, to learn how people become successful at this job and to see what is available."
"The opportunity to learn from others is invaluable. There are so many companies represented, that we are able to learn from each other without worrying about giving away trade secrets! Being able to see how others use their technology is a huge plus- it's nice to hear the challenges others have faced and the creative ways they used the technology."
"The conference was well organized and provided a variety of training sessions that I found very valuable. I enjoyed the keynote speakers, as well as being able to discuss best practices with my peers from other call centers."
"Given the opportunity, I will plan to attend again and will encourage others in my area of responsibility to attend as well."
"Having the opportunity to learn and share in a variety of settings, whether in a classroom setting that is interactive, networking with peers, or on the exhibit floor by seeing demos and squeezing in another session to take away, culminated into a wonderful experience."
It was so well orchestrated and organized and it has such a variety of topics to choose from that no matter what your needs or interests are you will find it at the ICMI conference."
"It was amazing to be around so many people in the industry. It was exciting and invigorating. To share my perspective and to get so many other perspectives helped me learn and grow."
The content was great, the speakers were well prepared and shared relevant information, everything was so well organize and ran so smoothly.
"A great opportunity to understand emerging issues and trends, technical possibilities, and real-life examples of centers and issues."
"I really enjoy seeing what other organizations are doing to meet customer expectations. Through the experiences of others, we learn how our business can best adopt new technology and methods of servicing customers to remain competitive."
"The quality of the presenters was very good and I learned a lot of valuable takeaways. I have 3 pages of typed notes."
"Quality was a great take away and social networking too. I have come back with a lot of new quality documentation procedures that I want to start in my center."
"The environment at ICMI conferences is so refreshingly real - very different from other events. I learned so much by talking with the diverse attendees."
"The keynote presentations were awesome!"
"I became a groupie of Lori Bocklund's sessions because I liked her topics and style of presentation so much. She is a wonderful speaker!"
"I met some really great peers and loved the opportunity to share experiences with them."
"Networking was tremendous and John Goodman and Joe Bannon are true assets to emerging technology and best practices."
"I enjoyed the opportunity to meet others in similar fields or facing similar challenges in their contact centers."
"The conference sessions were great, and so interactive!"
"Lori Bocklund - My favorite presenter in a session - smart, funny and filled with great information. Please keep her on the rotation of speakers at your future conferences."
"I really enjoyed the reception in the exhibit hall as this was a great way to network and see the various products that were available."


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Sources: Lanza wanted to eclipse Norwegian mass murderer
Staff reports
NEWTOWN -- When Adam Lanza blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School, his goal was to kill more than the 77 people slaughtered by the Norwegian mass murderer in his 2011 rampage, two sources familiar with the shootings investigation have told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers.
After he had gunned down 20 first-graders and six teachers and administrators, Lanza was thwarted when police arrived swiftly at the elementary school, prompting him to take his own life.
The 20-year-old shooter's desire to eclipse the death toll amassed by Anders Breivik in his July 22, 2011, bomb attack and gun rampage in Norway was first reported Monday by CBS News, which cited two unidentified sources in its account.
The accounts were strongly disputed by State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance. "The whole story is inaccurate," Vance said. "The motive has not been determined. This is all coming from unnamed sources. It's all speculation. It's hideous."
None of the sources detailed how authorities learned of Lanza's intentions, but in recent weeks investigators have made substantial strides. Hearst Connecticut Newspapers reported Sunday that technicians were able to restore one hard drive to a computer Lanza used. That success, in turn, unlocked information that led them to obtain subpoenas for computers used by individuals believed to be in contact with Lanza through online gaming activities.
Another smashed hard drive has proven more challenging to rebuild. It is still being reconstructed by federal Defense Department technicians.
Much of the probe has centered on Lanza's reported obsession with violent online games. Lanza tried to destroy the hard drives of the computers in the home he shared with his mother, Nancy, on Yogananda Street in Newtown, apparently to foil attempts to trace his online history and gaming activity.
A trove of violent video and computer games were found in the house, where Lanza had killed his mother by shooting her in the head multiple times.
The probe of the Dec. 14 shootings is expected to take until the summer to complete, said Stephen J. Sedensky III, the state's attorney in Danbury, who is in charge of the investigation.
In August, Breivik was sentenced to 21 years for committing acts of terror in his bombing in Oslo and mass shooting on Utoya Island.
After detonating fertilizer bombs that damaged government buildings in Oslo and killed eight, Breivik, posing as a police officer, hunted down and killed 69 at a summer youth camp on the nearby island. A right-wing ultranationalist, Breivik said his victims deserved to die because they embraced multiculturalism and Muslim immigration.


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One month after Brittany Murphy's death, her husband Simon Monjack said Hollywood contributed to the actress' death.
In a new interview with Larry King, Monjack and the actress' mother – Sharon Murphy – opened up about their loss.
"You want to know what broke Brittany Murphy's heart? Hollywood broke Brittany Murphy's heart," Monjack told King.
The full interview with Monjack and Murphy's mother will air on CNN's "Larry King Live" on January 20.
Not surprisingly, Monjack said he's still having a hard time coping with the loss of his wife, who died on December 20 at age 32.
"How are you holding up?" King asked.
"I don't think I am. I don't think either of us are," Monjack replied.
"No," Sharon Murphy added.
"You wake up in the morning and it's like a rebirth. It's… there's not enough time to… your dreams, be they good or bad, when you wake up and I reach out to touch or hold my wife and she isn't there," Monjack continued.
As previously reported on AccessHollywood.com, Murphy was found unresponsive in the shower of her Hollywood home in the early hours of December 20. She was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA later that day.
But the actress' mother said she knew she had lost her daughter before emergency personnel broke the sad news.
"Were you there when they said she didn't make it?" King asked.
"Three people came in. Sharon and I were holding each other. And they let us know at the same time that they — that she hadn't made it," Monjack revealed.
"But we knew before that," her mother said. "It was just — you know, you felt her life go out of her."
While an autopsy was completed in the days following Murphy's death, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office previously released a statement to Access Hollywood noting that the exact cause of the actress' death was being "deferred pending the receipt of additional toxicological tests and tissue studies."
Those results were expected to take at least four to six weeks.
At the time, Los Angles County Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter told Access Hollywood outside of Murphy's home that the actress died of natural causes and no foul play was suspected.
The day after her death, Monjack reached out to Access Hollywood to speak about the loss of his wife.
"My world was destroyed yesterday," he told Access at the time.
Murphy and Monjack, a screenwriter, wed in 2007.
Murphy rose to fame after a memorable role in 1995's "Clueless." Her other film credits include "8 Mile," "Just Married," "Girl, Interrupted," "Sin City" and "Riding In Cars With Boys."
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Sudden Endings: Stars Who Died Too Soon
PLAY IT NOW: Brittany Murphy's Husband Addresses Drug Rumors
PLAY IT NOW: Access Archives: Brittany Murphy Is An Access 'Producer For A Day' (July 9, 2004)
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Brittany Murphy - Deaths - 'Larry King Live' - TV - Movies


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David, aka "Dave," "Mac," or "The Big Cheese," is a founder of 1up!. He runs the place.When David isn't running the place...hmmm. When David manages to sneak away from the office, he spends time with his daughter doing fun things like riding horses, camping, star watching and kayaking. As a former photojournalist, Dave still dabbles in digital photography.
Everything that has anything to do with our software or hardware falls into the capable hands of Christian, who heads the highly skilled 1up! team of programmers and network administrators. In other words, he's the (second) most important guy in the building.Although his hands are full with developing new products, maintaining the existing ones and making sure your site is served 24/7, Christian still has time for a little bit of fun. He's an avid baseball fan and actually likes running marathons (he ran the 2014 Boston Marathon, and did quite well!), but mostly he enjoys being with his wife and daughters.
Eric leads the talented 1up! sales and customer service teams. If you have questions about any of our products and services, give him a call or send him a quick email. They'll be happy to discuss your Web strategy and talk about ways to enhance your readers' and advertisers' experience.Eric enjoys motorcycle riding, playing guitar and cheering on the Chicago Cubs. He most enjoys spending time with his wife and two little girls.
We're located in beautiful downtown Kokomo.
2115 W Alto, Suite AKokomo, Indiana 46902
The easiest route from either north or south:
1up! is a dog-friendly employer. If you are sensitive to pets, please let us know.
To reach us by telephone or email, click on the "Knock, knock" link at the top of the page.
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Andy Wong / AP
Chinese families bring their babies to the Ritan Park in Beijing Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012. A government think tank says China should start phasing out its one-child policy immediately and allow two children for every family by 2015. It remains unclear whether Chinese leaders are ready to take that step.
BEIJING -- A Chinese government think tank is urging the country's leaders to start phasing out its unpopular one-child policy immediately and allow two children for every family in the country by 2015.
Some demographers saw the timeline put forward by the China Development Research Foundation, which is close to the central leadership, as a bold move. Others warned that the gradual approach, if implemented, would be insufficient to help correct the problems that China's strict birth limits have created.
Xie Meng, a press officer with the foundation, said the final version of its report would be released "in a week or two," but Chinese state media were given advance copies.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the foundation was recommending a two-child policy in some provinces from this year and a nationwide two-child policy by 2015. It also proposed all birth limits be dropped by 2020.
"China has paid a huge political and social cost for the policy, as it has resulted in social conflict, high administrative costs and led indirectly to a long-term gender imbalance at birth," Xinhua said, citing the report.
The foundation's press officer told NBC News that the report was "the result of two years of effort."
"China's demographic changes were analyzed in connection with seven areas," she said, citing the challenges of aging, unemployment, child and women's welfare, urbanization, education, health and family planning.
But it remains unclear whether Chinese leaders are ready to take up the recommendations. China's National Population and Family Planning Commission had no immediate comment on the report Wednesday.
'Change is inevitable'
While they are known to many as the one-child policy, the actual rules are more complicated. The government limits most urban couples to one child, and allows two children for rural families if their first-born is a girl. There are numerous other exceptions as well, including looser rules for minority families and a two-child limit for parents who are themselves both singletons.
Cai Yong, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, said the report carries extra weight because the think tank is under the State Council, China's Cabinet. He said he found it remarkable that state-backed demographers were willing to publicly propose such a detailed schedule and plan on how to get rid of China's birth limits.
Gruesome photos put spotlight on China's one-child policy
"That tells us at least that policy change is inevitable, it's coming," said Cai, who was not involved in the drafting of the report, but knows many of the experts who were. Cai is currently a visiting scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai. "It's coming, but we cannot predict when exactly it will come."
Adding to the uncertainty is a once-in-a-decade leadership transition that kicks off Nov. 8 that will see a new slate of top leaders installed by next spring.
Cai said the transition could keep population reform on the back burner or changes might be rushed through to help burnish the reputations of President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao on their way out.
There has been growing speculation among Chinese media, experts and ordinary people about whether the government will relax the one-child policy — introduced in 1980 as a temporary measure to curb surging population growth — and allow more people to have two children.
Though the government credits the policy with preventing hundreds of millions of births and helping lift countless families out of poverty, it is reviled by many ordinary people. The strict limits have led to forced abortions and sterilizations, even though such measures are illegal. Couples who flout the rules face hefty fines, seizure of their property and loss of their jobs.
Read more international stories on NBCNews.com
Many demographers argue that the policy has worsened the country's aging crisis by limiting the size of the young labor pool that must support the large baby boom generation as it retires. They also say it has contributed to the imbalanced sex ratio as some families abort baby girls, preferring to try for a male heir.
The government has recognized those problems and has tried to address them by boosting social services for the elderly. It has also banned sex-selective abortion and rewarded rural families whose only child is a girl.
Outdated or engine of growth?
Many today also see the birth limits as outdated, a relic of the era when housing, jobs and food were provided by the state.
"It has been 30 years since our planned economy was liberalized," commented Wang Yi, the owner of a shop that sells textiles online, under a news report about the foundation's proposal. "So why do we still have to plan our population?"
Ren Hao, a Chinese journalist who recently married, told NBC that he welcomed the proposed policy change but suggested that it be accompanied by new measures in education, health care and economy in order to succeed.
Read more China coverage on NBC's Behind The Wall
"Raising a child is quite a burden nowadays so, in the end, it's up to the couples to decide whether they want to have one child or more based on their conditions," he said.
Ji Jianming, a Beijing construction project manager, argued in favor of the policy. "The one-child policy was good," he said. "It allowed China to develop rapidly and improve people's lives faster."
Though open debate about the policy has flourished in state media and on the Internet, leaders have so far expressed a desire to maintain the status quo.
President Hu said last year that China would keep its strict family planning policy to keep the birth rate low and other officials have said that no changes are expected until at least 2015.
Wang Feng, director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy and an expert on China's demographics, contributed research material to the foundation's report, but has yet to see the full text. He said he welcomed the gist of the document that he's seen in state media.
It says the government "should return the rights of reproduction to the people," he said. "That's very bold."
But Gu Baochang, a professor of demography at Beijing's Renmin University and a vocal advocate of reform, said the proposed timeline wasn't aggressive enough.
"They should have reformed this policy ages ago," he said. "It just keeps getting held up, delayed."
NBC News' Eric Baculinao and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More world stories from NBC News:
- Analysis: Should next president treat Russia as friend or foe?
- Meet Afghan female rapper, colonel who defy the odds
- China considers ending unpopular one-child policy
- Expert: Tourists threaten Sistine Chapel's famous paintings
- Oasis of tolerance or 'Republic of Shame'? Two faces of gay life in Lebanon
- The secret to a perfect smile? Chopsticks, Chinese officials are told
- After decades of oppression, Kurds get taste of freedom in Syria
- Outrage after video shows Chinese teacher abusing kindergarteners
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook


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Payment delays have not increased in 2017, despite many businesses suffering from decreased liquidity due to higher import prices for commodities.
- The Mexican chemicals industry is expected to record value added growth of 1.7% in 2018 after increasing 0.3% in 2017, driven by higher sales volumes and higher (often dollar denominated) prices. However, the peso depreciation against the USD and the Euro (a large number of chemical businesses depend on basic chemicals and/or refined oil product imports from abroad, mainly the US) and the liberalisation of fuel prices largely impact businesses results. Profit margins decreased in 2017, and further decline is expected in 2018.
- More than 80% of chemicals businesses in Mexico are small or medium sized, and banks often show only a moderate appetite to provide loans. The main funding vehicles in the industry are supply chains; even for larger businesses that have good access to bank credit to fund projects.
- The common payment terms in the industry are between 60 and 90 days. Payment delays have not increased in 2017, despite many chemical businesses suffering from decreased liquidity due to higher import prices for commodities. Higher prices were able to be passed on to clients and end-consumers. A substantial increase in payment delays and defaults is also not expected in 2018.
Despite higher pressure on businesses margins we maintain a neutral underwriting approach on the petrochemicals and basic chemicals segments for the time being, taking into account the robust performance seen over the the past couple of years. However, taking into account exchange rate volatility and dollar denominated prices for commodities, we closely monitor every single buyer's performance (especially cash generation capability, leverage profile and the foreign debt/dollar denominated turnover structure).
Our underwriting stance is also neutral to the pharmaceuticals sector. While businesses in this segment are usually financially robust and well eatablished, final customers such as consumers and public health institutions are susceptible to adverse economic developments.
We are very restrictive on the energy and fuel sectors (gasoline, diesel, fuel distributors) due to high credit insurance claims in 2017 and early 2018. The black market for fuel trading is growing further, increasing the risk for businesses that even unknowingly buy fuel from doubtful sources. They could face problems with the authorities or become engaged in commercial disputes when the origins of the product has to be verified for tax reasons.


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Idaho Rancher: Grazing Bill Would Help Ranchers, Taxpayers and Environment
WASHINGTON — Today, Idaho rancher Brenda Richards testified before Congress on behalf of the Public Lands Council (PLC), the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) and the Idaho Cattle Association (ICA) in support of the Grazing Improvement Act (H.R. 657), a bill which would save taxpayer dollars and increase business certainty for ranchers who hold federal lands grazing permits. Richards, who serves as PLC Vice President and runs a cattle ranch with her husband and three sons in Owyhee County, Idaho, told the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation that passage of H.R. 657 would have a positive impact on many ranching families such as hers.
Richards thanked Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) for reintroducing the legislation, which passed the House of Representatives last session and which currently has a Senate companion bill, S. 258, introduced by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). She then gave first-hand accounts of its important role in putting a stop to the never-ending environmental litigation facing ranchers and the federal land management agencies due to the unnecessary, duplicative environmental analysis currently burdening the industry and taxpayers.
"The Grazing Improvement Act would offer the flexibility the agencies need, while providing stability to the industry," Richards said. "It would codify the language that we hold our collective breath for every year in the appropriations process, language which allows us to continue using our permits under current terms and conditions while the agencies work through the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) backlog. By extending the life of grazing permits and categorically exempting certain qualified permits, transfers, and livestock crossing and trailing from NEPA review, H.R. 657 will reduce the backlog that is the source of much consternation."
According to Richards, the current federal lands grazing permit system is broken, and gives environmental extremist groups ample opportunity to litigate. Those lawsuits are often times partially funded with American tax dollars. Richards added that the litigation, combined with agencies' reimbursing the plaintiffs' attorneys' fees, puts additional strain on agency resources and perpetuates the cycle.
During her testimony, Richards described how instability in permit renewals has impacted the ranching community in places like Owyhee County, where 78 percent of the land is federally owned.
"We cannot afford to lose access to (federal land) forage because of paperwork backlogs and litigation, but that's exactly what's happening," she said. "I encourage you to support this bill as one that will stimulate rural economies and job growth, save taxpayer dollars and ensure that the natural resources of the West continue under the careful stewardship of generations of ranching families such as mine."
Contact our Media Team
Ed Frank
Senior Director
Policy Communications
Steven Johnson
Associate Director
Policy Communications


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(Adds details on air strikes, background)
EDGARTOWN, Mass., Aug 17 (Reuters) - The White House on Sunday said President Barack Obama had informed Congress he authorized U.S. air strikes in Iraq to help retake control of the Mosul Dam, and that the action was consistent with his goal of protecting U.S. citizens in that country.
"The failure of the Mosul Dam could threaten the lives of large numbers of civilians, threaten U.S. personnel and facilities - including the U.S. embassy in Baghdad - and prevent the Iraqi government from providing critical services to the Iraqi populace," the White House said in a statement.
"These operations are limited in their nature, duration, and scope and are being undertaken in coordination with and at the request of the government of Iraq."
The Mosul Dam fell under the control of Islamic State militants earlier this month. Control of the dam, Iraq's biggest, could give the Sunni fundamentalists the ability to flood cities and cut off vital water and electricity supplies.
The U.S. Central Command said on Sunday the United States conducted a second day of air strikes against Islamic State fighters near the dam, using a mix of fighter, bomber, attack and remotely-piloted aircraft.
Central Command said the 14 strikes on Sunday damaged or destroyed 10 armed vehicles, seven Humvees and two armored personnel carriers of the Islamic State as well as one of the militants' checkpoints. The strikes followed nine U.S. air strikes on Saturday.
"All strike aircraft exited the strikes areas safely," Central Command said in a statement.
The Obama administration earlier this month launched an air strike campaign to protect U.S. personnel from the Islamic State and to ensure northern Iraq's minority Yazidis were not subject to systematic violence at the hands of the militants.
The air strikes were the first direct U.S. military action in Iraq since the end of 2011, when Washington completed the withdrawal of its troops from the country.
Iraq has been plunged into its worst violence since the peak of a sectarian civil war in 2006 and 2007. Islamic State-led fighters have overrun large parts of western and northern Iraq, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee for their lives and threatening ethnic Kurds in their autonomous province.
The Islamic State has also seized large parts of Syria as it tries to build a caliphate across national borders drawn up by Europeans a century ago. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Peter Cooney and Paul Simao)


text: By purchasing or downloading this pattern you agree to the following: - The pattern is for your personal use only; - You will not copy, share or otherwise reproduce the whole pattern or any part of it in digital, printed or other media unless for personal backup purposes; - You will not sell more than 10 finished pieces made using a single digital copy of the pattern. Thank you for looking and please check out my other items! Like Us on Facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/MonomintCreative BASIC SKILLS NECESSARY Basic bead stringing required