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"The Brothers Size" and "Marcus, or The Secret of Sweet." Where: Berlind Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, 91 University Place, Princeton. When: Through June 21. Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. How much: $15-$49. Call (609) 258-2787 or visit mccarter.org.
Most playwrights would do almost anything to have a production at the McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton.
Tarell Alvin McCraney now has three being produced in rotating repertory.
And he's all of 28 years old. While McCraney is 6-foot-3, he may well already be taller in stature as a playwright. He's been an artist in residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company and has seen his plays produced from Atlanta to Barcelona, from Pittsburgh to Dublin.
His excellent "In the Red and Brown Water" began a Princeton run at the Berlind Theatre on April 24. Now it's being joined by "The Brothers Size" and "Marcus, or the Secret of Sweet." These two will form one complete evening of theater.
All the plays take place in the gritty mythical town of San Pere, La. While McCraney grew up in Florida and Georgia, he has firsthand knowledge of Louisiana. In 2006, he was commissioned by Southern Repertory Theatre in New Orleans to write a play about Hurricane Katrina. McCraney already knew about such a natural disaster from Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which cost his family their home and all their possessions.
"The Brothers Size" pits the hardworking owner of an auto-repair shop against his brother, who was recently released from prison. While Ogun would like to have Oshoosi join him in the shop, Oshoosi is far more interested in loafing. When Elegba, Oshoosi's former cellmate, arrives, Ogun finds himself in a two-against-one situation as both of them mock his by-the-book life.
"I wanted to talk about growing up in the black community," McCraney says. "We're urged to be Christian liberals who strive for upward mobility. But what about the black person who doesn't want that? We've come so far thanks to black people who once bonded together to show the whites that they were like them -- Christian, and America-loving, and whose civil rights were amended and given because of that. So it's hard to say, 'Well, actually I'm not like that. I'm different. Do I still have a place in the community?'"
Of "Marcus, or the Secret of Sweet," McCraney says, "'Sweet' can mean many things. It can refer to taste. Good-naturedness. And being gay."
Marcus is a 16-year-old boy coming to terms with his sexuality. "But, the play isn't about his coming out, because nobody doubts what his sexuality is," McCarney says. "We start the play knowing it. But there's a moment in life when the world and society tells you who you are, whether you want them to or not. At some point, every person is told, 'These are the things we think about you, things that we know because of your race, or your age, or your gender. These are the stereotypes and archetypes we'll put upon you.'"
McCraney shakes his head. "You can either say to these people, 'Yes, I will be what you say' and walk in that vein -- or you can deny them, and say 'No, I'm augmenting that in some way.' I'm interested in that moment when the person decides his yes or no.
"As it turns out, saying yes is just as hard as saying no, and saying no is just as hard as saying yes -- only in different ways," he says. "Either way, you're not working in absolute truths. What you decide becomes your truth. Now what are you going to do about it?"
McCraney expects to be at most of the post-play discussions, if not all of them. "If people want to have a conversation about these plays, I want to be there to have it with them," he says.


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MINNEAPOLIS -- Desperate for a victory, the Minnesota Vikings were prepared to take one any way they could get it.
Yes, even an underwhelming victory over the Detroit Lions.
Corey Chavous and Brian Williams each returned interceptions for touchdowns late in the game, and the Vikings sent the Lions to their 22nd consecutive road loss, 24-14 on Sunday.
"Everyone's going to say, 'It's Detroit,' but a win in this league is a win," Minnesota coach Mike Tice said after his team ended its four-game losing streak.
The Vikings (7-4) remained one game ahead of Green Bay in the NFC North, despite an offense that looked just as weak as Detroit's during most of the afternoon.
Daunte Culpepper completed 20 of 30 passes for 196 yards, no scores and an interception. Randy Moss sprained his right ankle in the second quarter and played on, finishing with five receptions for 56 yards.
Minnesota punted six times, and none of Culpepper's half-dozen deep throws to Moss were completed. But the Vikings followed up four awful games with one of their best defensive efforts of the season.
"We just returned the favor," Williams said.
Aaron Elling's 24-yard field goal capped a 73-yard drive and put Minnesota up 10-7 with 2:45 left.
Chavous picked off Harrington's pass and returned it for a score 19 seconds later, and Williams grabbed his third interception and ran it back for a touchdown 20 seconds after that.
"It was there for us to take," Detroit coach Steve Mariucci said.
The Lions (3-8), whose last away victory came on Dec. 17, 2000, against the New York Jets, tied the Buffalo Bills (1983-86) for the second-longest road skid in NFL history. The Houston Oilers (1981-84) own this dubious league record with 23 consecutive losses away from home.
With visits to Kansas City and Carolina left on the schedule, Detroit has a good chance to break it.
"This one was tough. We had chances all day," said Harrington, who threw seven interceptions in two losses to the Vikings this year.
The Vikings were the NFC's last unbeaten team at 6-0 until porous defense and a recent rash of turnovers led to four consecutive losses. The arrests of starting defensive ends Kevin Williams and Kenny Mixon for drunken driving exacerbated their troubles this week.
"I have to commend our team for sticking together," Culpepper said.
The Lions were the perfect cure, even though untimely penalties and stalled drives kept Minnesota to just 10 offensive points.
Harrington completed 21 of 41 passes for 167 yards, four interceptions and one late touchdown pass to Az-Zahir Hakim.
The crowd of 63,946, officially a sellout but the smallest at the Metrodome this year, was late to arrive with a snowstorm swirling over most of the state.
The Vikings' fans never really got fired up, either, and they began booing after halftime whenever Eddie Johnson jogged out to punt.
Minnesota got a 52-yard punt return by Keenan Howry to set up its first second-half possession, but Moe Williams was stopped for a 1-yard loss at the Lions 21 and stripped of the ball by Dre' Bly.
Bly picked the ball out of the air and carried it to the Vikings 35 before lateraling to Corey Harris. He eluded a hard-charging Culpepper to complete the touchdown return and tie the game at 7.
"We're going to learn as a team it's not what you do, it's when you do it," Harris said.
That statement seemed to ring true for Minnesota.
"We knew we had this in us," free safety Brian Russell said. "We just haven't been playing up to par lately."
- Michael Bennett, who rushed 15 times for a season-high 73 yards, scored on a 25-yard run around right end to put the Vikings up 7-0 in the first quarter.
- Bly, who had Moss well-covered most of the game, reaggravated a hamstring strain in the third quarter that cost him two games earlier this month. Bly played sporadically, but didn't finish the game.
- The three interceptions by Williams tied a Vikings record, done most recently by current Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio in 1993.
- Detroit RB Shawn Bryson and WR Bill Schroeder each kept playing after sustaining a concussion.
The Associated Press News Service
Copyright 2003, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved

subset: commoncrawl


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Even though council members expressed some misgivings about a lack of diversity and of "subject matter expertise" among New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu's blue-ribbon slate of nominees for the reconstituted Public Belt Railroad Commission, the City Council gave unanimous approval Thursday to the nine nominees.
Emily Arata, Landrieu's deputy mayor for external affairs, said the new board is not expected to serve on a long-term basis. Rather, its members will be asked to recommend ways to reform the railroad's "faulty governance structure," which she said was "one of the things that got us into this mess."
A report last month by Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera and earlier print and TV news reports showed that the Public Belt's former general manager, Jim Bridger, used the agency's credit card as if it were his own, regularly buying dinner and drinks for friends.
The audit report also found that Bridger, a former New York City railroad executive who earned $350,000 a year in New Orleans, bought luxury SUVs and used them for personal trips, doled out lucrative contracts in violation of public bid laws and spent $3 million on three 1920s-era railroad cars.
Arata told the council's Governmental Affairs Committee that the city will ask the Legislature next year to extensively revise the laws dictating the membership and structure of the railroad's board. She noted, for example, that some members are supposed to be nominated by business organizations that no longer exist and that members serve unusually long terms of 16 years.
The new board also will begin the search for a new general manager, she said, noting that Landrieu and Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin have been personally involved in running the railroad on a daily basis in recent weeks. She said the administration wants to get the management situation back to normal as soon as possible.
Bridger ran the century-old, city-owned railroad from 2001 until he was suspended by the board in August.
He resigned Sept. 13, saying he was "leaving the Public Belt Railroad in the best condition it has been in for decades." However, Landrieu said he had "acted recklessly and inappropriately in disregarding the public's trust and best interest."
Although board members said they had been unaware of Bridger's extravagant spending habits and had been misled by Bridger and other staff members, Landrieu asked the entire board to resign. As of last week, 13 of the 14 members had resigned or said they intended to do so. Two seats have been vacant.
Landrieu then announced nine new nominees -- including three university presidents, a former mayor and the 2010 king of Carnival -- Wednesday and asked the council to consider their nominations on an expedited basis.
After the Governmental Affairs Committee held a special meeting early Thursday morning, the full council held a special meeting to vote on the nominations immediately before its regular biweekly meeting.
Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer pointed out that five of the nominees live in a small section of Uptown and the other four near Lake Pontchartrain. She said neighborhoods along the railroad's riverfront tracks, such as the French Quarter, Bywater, St. Roch, the Upper 9th Ward and the Irish Channel, should be represented on the board because they have to deal most directly with the impact of the lengthy trains that carry cargo to and from Port of New Orleans wharves. "They need a seat at the table," she said.
Council President Arnie Fielkow and Darlene Kattan, executive director of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Louisiana, said the board needs members with experience and expertise in the railroad business.
Arata noted that there are still six nominations to come and said she expects the new board members will stay in office only until the board's structure and nomination procedures are reformed, probably by mid-2011.
The new members approved Thursday were:
- Madlyn B. Bagneris, an Entergy Corp. executive.
- Former Mayor Sidney Barthelemy.
- Edgar Chase III, a Dillard University administrator.
- Scott Cowen, Tulane University president.
- Ruthie Frierson, founder of Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans.
- Marvalene Hughes, Dillard University president.
- R. Hunter Pierson Jr., an investments manager and 2010 Rex, king of Carnival.
- Lynes "Poco" Sloss, president of Bellwether Technology Corp.
- The Rev. Kevin Wildes, Loyola University president.
Barthelemy and Chase were nominated by the Chamber of Commerce. Pierson and Sloss were nominated by the New Orleans Board of Trade. The rest were selected by Landrieu.
Bruce Eggler can be reached at email@example.com or 504.826.3320.


text:
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|[TowerTalk] Tin roof blues
|firstname.lastname@example.com (Tom Rauch)
|Tue, 12 Jun 2001 06:59:51 -0400
Hi Barry, > sheets. Using a simple home made clip on rf current meter showed no > current in a wire from the junction of the high band radials to the roof. > i.e. the fan of radials effectively isolated the system from the metal > below. What that might show is the radials and roof are almost perfectly coupled. If they were isolated, if there was a voltage difference, current would definitely flow. When there is no current via a low impedance connection, they are at exactly the same potential. There is considerable current of the feedline to a 1/4 wl groundplane with four or less radials, because four radials do not "hold" the feedline shield to zero voltage. You can actually measure an SWR change on a 1/4 wl groundplane as a low impedance ground wire is touched to the shield of the coax just below the groundplane, and you will measure current in that wire. If you do not see that effect it is most likely because the roof and radials are already acting like one big ground, connected through capacitance and mutual inductance! 73, Tom W8JI firstname.lastname@example.com List Sponsor: Are you thinking about installing a tower this summer? Call us for information on our fabulous Trylon Titan self-supporting towers - up to 96-feet for less than $2000! at 888-833-3104  www.ChampionRadio.com ----- FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/towertalk Submissions: firstname.lastname@example.com Administrative requests: firstname.lastname@example.com Problems: firstname.lastname@example.com
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The Landmarks Foundation provided the following description of the topics that will be covered during the symposium:
"The Creek Indians, occupying their traditional homeland on the Alabama-Georgia frontier, were to face dramatic challenges as the Nineteenth Century approached, and by the last of the 1830s, events would have disrupted and devastated their lives and lands.
Since the arrival of Europeans in the Sixteenth Century and their quest for control of the land, the Creeks had been able to hold back the tide and retain their hegemony, but by 1813, there was such disunity among the Creeks themselves, and with the Americans, that a "war within a war" ensued."
The event is also hosted by The Alabama Department of Archives and History, Auburn University's Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities and the Alabama Humanities Foundation.
The event will run from 8 :30 a.m. until 4 p.m. General Admission is $40 while Members admission is $35. Light breakfast, lunch and refreshments are included in registration.
For more information, visit the Landmarks Foundation website.


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BEIJING -- The United States and Japan played to a 1-1 draw Tuesday in women's field hockey.
The Americans, who haven't won a medal since 1984, earned their second straight tie against a top five-ranked team. The U.S. played to a 2-2 draw against No. 2 Argentina on Sunday.
The U.S. team has two points in Pool B with three games to play, and will play defending Olympic champion Germany on Thursday.
The U.S. earned the draw when team captain Kate Barber scored in the 58th minute on a shot that slowly rolled into the goal to tie the score.


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So Joe Torre was so overwhelmed by the moment in front of that big crowd on the Cooperstown lawn last weekend that he plum forgot to mention George Steinbrenner and the Steinbrenner family in his Hall of Fame induction speech?
Yeah, right.
That must have been it.
Poor guy had never seen so many folks all in one place at the same time and his mind just went into temporary brain-freeze.
And if you believe that, I'll tell you a little story about how the Steinbrenner family's baseball team is going to turn things around over the next two months and capture the American League championship.
And how they'll move on after that and win the World Series.
I have to say, I watched Torre up close for many years in moments of soaring joy and bitter disappointment.
I've sat in baseball dugouts, and locker rooms and office spaces and auditoriums, and listened to the former Yankees manager speak on every subject under the sun.
From the mastery of Warren Spahn, to the medicinal properties of herbal tea, to playing with a couple of Staten Islanders in the old NYC Journal American All-Star game of his Brooklyn youth.
What I have never, ever seen is the consummate baseball manager, um p.r. man, flustered by any circumstance you can ever imagine.
I also can't recall ever seeing Torre unprepared for a moment.
There is no question that Torre deserved his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
He earned it.
And there's also no question - at least in my mind - that whoever was left out of his remarks in Cooperstown last weekend was not mentioned for a reason.
And he earned the right to do that, too.
Pat Riley is a master when it comes to over-achievement.
But I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction contrary to Riley's earlier declarations.
No, Pat.
Your Miami Heat is not going to be in the thick of things in the NBA now that LeBron is gone.
That simple.
In the year of Roger Angell's birth Wally Pipp still had a foothold on the Yankees first-base job and Babe Ruth smacked 54 home runs while the rest of his pinstriped teammates combined to hit just seven more than that.
The team's games of that summer were played in the Polo Grounds. There was not yet a Yankee Stadium
Last weekend the 93-year-old writer of baseball stories of wit and precision was honored at the annual Hall of Fame ceremonies with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, the baseball writer's equivalent of induction.
To say Angell is deserving of the recognition is to be trite.
For someone whose day-job was editing the work of people like John Updike as the fiction editor of The New Yorker, taking the Lexington Avenue train from his Upper East Side home to River Avenue and 161st Street was a labor of love and habit.
He'd been doing it, after all, since as boy he'd sometimes spy Yankees owner, Colonel Jacob Ruppert, in the same subway car.
And his writing, to this day, elevates the conversation of baseball in America.
Nothing less.
Congratulations, Roger.
I don't want to pile on Ray Rice at this point.
I have already had my say about the NFL's (lack of) punishment following Rice's felony assault of his fiancé in an Atlantic City casino elevator.
But Rice said something in his very brief statements last week that need to be addressed.
He (kind of) apologized in regard to the ugly incident, and then said something you hear a lot of in this day and age.
Rice said he that he was embarrassed by his thug-like behavior and that, "That's not who I am as a man."
The point is, it is exactly who Rice is as a man.
You are what you do in this world.
It's that simple.
Not many people punch out women in elevators, thank goodness.
But at least for now, and for a good, long while to come, Ray Rice is among their number.
You earned it, Ray.
Wear it.
Make no mistake.
Paul George's gruesome leg injury on Friday night in a meaningless Team USA intrasquad scrimmage will raise plenty of questions about high-priced NBA players performing in national competition off-season.
Giants – Bills in Canton, Ohio, tonight to kickoff the NFL preseason.
A sure sign the World Series is only 2½ months away.


text:
Jack Peterson didn't know at the beginning of his junior season that he would end it being a part of one of South Jersey's best boys tennis rivalries.
But the Schalick High School standout battled Pitman freshman Zac Castagna four times — winning three, including the championship of the Tri-County Conference Showcase — all in thrilling fashion.
The three wins were part of a school-record 27 for the Cougar No. 1, who went undefeated in Tri-County Conference Classic Division play for the second straight year and has been named Today's Sunbeam Boys Tennis Player of the Year for the second time.
But of all his accomplishments on the court this season, the entertaining four-part series with the hard-hitting Panther freshman topped the list.
"Winning Tri-County was a lot of fun, because in the final I kind of got a revenge victory," said Peterson, who lost the third matchup in the South Jersey Group I playoffs. "It was nice to come back. Every match has been extremely competitive. Every time he came out, he played a little differently, upped his game, worked on things and found different ways to attack me.
"He played better every match. The competition was really nice with our styles of play, and I just happened to get the better of him three times."
Peterson, as part of his development this year, was a little more aggressive than Castagna, who could rally with the best of them from the baseline.
The Cougar junior won the first two meetings, 6-0, 4-6, 7-5 and 7-5, 7-6 (3). Castagna picked up his win, 6-3, 0-6, 6-4.
The final matchup in the Tri-County Conference Showcase ended with Peterson on top, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-5.
"I closed off the net, added the pressure and I think that made the difference in the last match," said Peterson. "He hits bigger off the forehand, and I was playing steady retriever tennis. Neither of us were too inclined to come to the net, but I had to force myself to come into the net."
Peterson suffered a disappointing loss to Middle Township's Jeremy Novick in the third round of the South Jersey Interscholastic Tournament, but was pleased to join Gateway's Kyle Bright as the only area player to capture a win at states, defeating Memorial's Brandon Davis, 6-1, 6-3.
Peterson lost in the second round to Old Tappan's Sakura Yamaji, 6-0, 6-2.
"I played a good player in the first round, and I was on my game," said Peterson. "The best part of that is not having to drive an hour-and-a-half to play an hour and then drive back. The second round was an eye-opener, as far as levels go."
Schalick coach Bruce Konyak noted he saw a different Peterson this year than the player who was still a strong No. 1 as a sophomore.
"He really picked up his game overall and made himself an all-court player, worked on his volley and approach," said Konyak. "He brought a more consistent added dimension and his serve was a lot more of a weapon.
"Next year, I know he wants to have the best winning percentage in school history (89 percent). He'll be a four-year starter, three at No. 1, which I don't think has ever happened at Schalick. Going undefeated for a third year in the Classic would be a nice little goal as well."
Peterson is already looking forward to his senior season and knows what he needs to do this offseason to improve his game, because he knows the competition — including a certain No. 1 from Pitman — will be improving as well.
"I'm already planning my training, which means getting stronger and faster, so I can hit the ball harder," said Peterson. "I know Zac will be much better, so I'm going to have to be better if I have any chance of beating him."
Contact Bill Evans at 856-845-9478 or firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
On 17 January 2013 Dubai Drydocks World announced that QE2 would become a 500 room luxury hotel in Asia, however QE2 remained at the dry dock in Dubai until 2015 with no major refurbishment undertaken.
As of today, the ship has been berthed alongside in Port Rashid. In August 2016 her lifeboats were removed and lifeboat davits cut off.
The world watches and waits to hear the final decision for QE2's future. The best place to find out about the latest QE2 news is The QE2 Story Forum. The video shows the state that QE2 currently finds herself in.
Since arriving in Dubai, the most iconic ocean liner in the world has made but three short voyages. The first was to and from the Dubai Dry Dock in 2009. The second in late 2010 when she relocated to the inner harbour at Port Rashid, to make space for the growing cruise market in Dubai, and the third another trip to the Dry Dock in 2013.
To the delight of QE2 fans worldwide, QE2 was superbly and professionally cared for by a live-in crew supplied by V-Ships from November 2008 to January 2013. The ship was in an excellent condition during this time. Her mighty MAN B&W engines were still running, powering essential services and lighting throughout the ship. As she is idle (and not sailing) the nine engines were cycled through one at a time so that they each remained in good working order.
Since her arrival at Port Rashid, QE2 had been "kept company" by a number of cruise ships. Her former fleet-mates QM2 and Queen Victoria visited in 2009 and 2010 during their respective world cruises while Queen Elizabeth met QE2 for the first time in early 2012.
While she was well cared for by Istithmar, since the departure of her V-Ship's crew, there are questions whether the new, smaller crew are able to care for QE2 in the same manner as her previous custodians.
On 31 December 2011 the QE2 came alive after more than three years alongside at Port Rashid, as the location of a lavish New Years party, hosted by Global Events Management.
Hundreds of guests enjoyed a party that spanned her open decks. While hosting royalty and celebrities during the party, QE2 was the star of the show, proving to be an excellent entertainment venue.
To view images and read more about the event, click here


text:
Head over to coupons.com and score a coupon from Carrabba's.
Click on the restaurant tab to get this coupon:
$10 Off
Carrabba's Italian Grill
Enjoy 2 delicious entrees and receive $10 off. Dine in only
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If you open a can of chicken noodle soup and immediately examine it microscopically, you will find no microoganisms. If you let the open can sit on the shelf for a few weeks and then examine it, you will find lots of microorganisms. The origin of these microorganisms is most likely:
Airborne microorganisms
If an individual was bitten by a tick and develops a Bull's eye rash, which organism could be causing these symptoms?
Borrelia burgodorferi
Paralytic shellfish poisoning occurs when ________ are eaten by humans or marine mammals.
Bacteria are useful in all of the following ways, EXCEPT:
They transfer plasmids containing antibiotic resistance genes
What is so significant about the evolution of photosynthesis on Earth?
It allowed aerobic, multicellular organism to evolve.
Fungal cell walls are different from plant cell walls because fungal walls contain:
chitin, while plant walls have cellulose
Which of the following represents an appropriate scientific name for a human?
Homo sapiens (in all italics)
Based on current knowledge about the conditions of the early Earth, the first organisms were most likely:
Anaerobic prokaryotes.
Which of the following is FALSE about the Endosymbiont theory?
It states that an anaerobic predatory cell engulfed an aerobic bacterium which evolved into a chloroplast
The Miller-Urey experiment showed that:
it is possible to create simple biomolecules such as sugars and amino acids by reacting ammonia, water vapor, methane, and hydrogen gas in a chamber filled with electric sparks
Molds easily contaminate foods because fungi:
produce huge numbers of highly mobile, airborne spores.
Who was the Swedish naturalist who established the modern binomial system for classifying organisms?
Which of the following about HIV is FALSE?
it is spread in the same way in which the Polio virus is spread
The scenario of chemical evolution leading to the origin of life on Earth is plausible because:
there was a vast period of time for simple chemicals to evolve into complex cells.
When a zygosporangium germinates, it must undergo ________ before forming a stalked sporangium.
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text: Campaign Finance Tax Dollars For Political Campaigns? It's On Washington's Ballot By Austin Jenkins • Sep 20, 2016 TVW Listen Listening... / 2:20 It's been 44 years since Washington voters approved an initiative to require the disclosure of campaign contributions – and 24 years since voters enacted limits on campaign donations. Now comes a proposal to update those laws and usher in a new era of publicly-financed elections. Initiative 1464 on the November ballot is a 23-page rewrite of the laws governing political campaigns in Washington. Washington Volunteers Gather Signatures To Push For Overturning Citizens United Ruling By Ashley Gross • Aug 6, 2015 Ashley Gross / KPLU Listen Listening... / 1:57 Some news reports say the 2016 presidential campaign could cost twice as much as the 2012 race. People in Washington state who are disgusted by all the money flowing into politics are gathering signatures to try to amend the U.S. Constitution. Diane Tilstra is one of them. She remembers vaguely hearing about the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case. "Just on a peripheral level, I was paying attention to it and thinking, `Gee, that doesn't sound good,'" she said. Big Checks From Special Interests Flow To Legislative Caucus PACs In Washington By Austin Jenkins • Aug 28, 2014 Austin Jenkins This November's election will decide who controls the Washington state Senate. Democrats are desperate to win back the majority while a mostly-Republican coalition that took power last year is determined to hold on. In the meantime, big-money interests on both sides are trying to influence the outcome. They're pouring unlimited contributions into political action committees controlled by the legislative caucuses. Washington's Mid-Term Elections Draw In More Than Nearly $33 Million So Far By Austin Jenkins • Jul 21, 2014 Washington Public Disclosure Commission Washington's Aug. 5 primary is now less than a month away. It's a mid-term election year with no statewide offices on the ballot. Even so, nearly $33 million have already been contributed to campaigns. Round Two Begins in Seattle Mayoral Election Money Race By Ashley Gross • Aug 7, 2013 401(K) 2012 Listen Listening... / 1:13 Now that the Seattle mayoral race has been narrowed down, Ed Murray and Mike McGinn will begin their next wave of fundraising, and it's shaping up to be an interesting money race. State Sen. Ed Murray won the primary and has so far won the race for campaign dollars. According to the state Public Disclosure Commission, Murray's raised about $140,000 more than McGinn. And as of the most recent filings, Murray still had five times as much money in his coffers than the mayor. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz calls for a boycott on campaign contributions By KPLU News Staff • Aug 16, 2011 Kin Cheung / AP Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wants some change in Washington D.C. and the best way to get it, he says, is by boycotting donations to political campaigns. In an open letter sent to Starbucks on Monday, he urged other company heads to withholding campaign contribution until President Obama and Congress solve the nation's financial woes.


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It's now a bit less than 24 hours until the first casts of the 2013 Pennsylvania trout fishing season at 8 a.m. Saturday. Excited?
What will be tied at the end of your line for that first cast tomorrow? Where will you be making that first cast? Will you have been there overnight? Or, will you arrive there at 4 or 5 a.m. to hold your favorite spot? Or, will you be arriving at 7:55 a.m. and hoping for the best?
Share your plans as comments on this post. Let's get the trout talk running.
I'll get it started.
Because I will be covering the first morning of the season, as I have for a good many first days, I won't be fishing myself until late in the day. Instead, I will be gathering your tales from the water, and photos and video of you in action, from pre-8 a.m. until early afternoon at least.
I'll be starting the day at Opossum Lake near Carlisle in Cumberland County. The lake has been drained for the past few years because of problems in the spillway. But it's been repaired and refilled and stocked with a fresh supply of Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission trout.
Opossum is a popular first-day lake among many Central Pennsylvania anglers, so it seems like a logical place for me to be around 8 a.m. tomorrow.
From there, I'll be moving to other streams and lakes across the region. Any suggestions on spots you would like to see featured in PennLive.com's coverage of the first day this year?
It would be great to see your comments here, but if you want to connect by email you can always get me at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Carli Lloyd, the U.S. midfielder and native of Delran, has broken a bone in her left shoulder while playing with the senior national team at the Algarve Cup in Portugal.
Lloyd, whose injury was officially listed as a non-displaced greater tuberosity fracture of the left shoulder by U.S. Soccer today, will not need surgery to fix the break but is expected to require between six and eight weeks to heal.
As a result, Lloyd will miss the Algarve Cup final on March 13 against Germany, a blow for the U.S. considering Lloyd's propensity for goals in tournament finals. In Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, Lloyd scored to secure Olympic gold for the U.S.
It is likely the former Rutgers standout will also miss the start in April of the inaugural National Women's Soccer League season. Lloyd, 30, has been allocated to the Western New York Flash, based in Rochester, N.Y.
"Although it's an unfortunate circumstance, I've been through injuries before and have come back even stronger," Lloyd, who has played 154 times for the U.S. national team, told the U.S. Soccer website. "I'm disappointed that I'll be missing some National Team events and some league games, but as soon as my shoulder allows, I'll be back and ready to compete."
Thank you all for the love and support. No doubt I will return stronger than before. In the meantime I will need some new hobbies. #sad— Carli Lloyd (@CarliLloyd) March 12, 2013


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Update: 1pm Forensic evidence found on Corryn Rayney's body could not be matched to samples taken from the Rayneys' Como home with the same certainty as fingerprints or DNA evidence, Lloyd Rayney's wilful murder trial heard today.
The court was also told that marks on Mrs Rayney's jeans could have been made while she was being buried and were not necessarily incurred while she was being dragged, as a previous witness has suggested.
Peter Collins, principal chemist at WA's ChemCentre, agreed under cross-examination that the nature of the evidence recovered from Mrs Rayney's clothes and hair and examined by him, including paint and plastic particles, could not be matched 100 per cent to samples from the Rayneys' home.
For example he agreed that the only way an "unequivocal" match could be determined between paint samples was if the edges could be matched up.
The court heard yesterday that Mr Collins found "no significant difference" between paint recovered from one of the boots Mrs Rayney was wearing when she died and paint at the Rayneys' home. That implies a match of more than 95 per cent.
The prosecution claim Mr Collins' testimony supports their allegation Mrs Rayney was killed at home and her body likely dragged across her front yard. Other witnesses have given evidence about soil found on her body, which was also found to correlate to soil found at the Rayneys' home.
Mr Rayney's lawyer Tony Elliot today asked Mr Collins if he was given the opportunity to survey the "wider area" outside the Rayneys' home to "see how common this colour or types of paint were". Mr Collins said he was not.
He said samples taken from the Rayneys' on several separate occasions were intended to provide "a reasonable and representative sampling of the paints" found at the home.
Asked if his approach when comparing paint samples was to look for differences between known samples Mr Collins said that was correct.
He also agreed with Mr Elliot's assertion that the absence of significant differences "suggests that paints could have a common origin … not that they must have but that they might have".
"(The results) definitely don't say they must have (come from the same place)," Mr Collins said.
"There's a degree of interpretation that can be applied to each of the fragments or group of fragments. Unless some material is universally distributed … (the results) support the proposition that they share the same origin.
"Really for each individual fragment or group of fragments there's a different weighting for that proposition … none of them say they must have come from the sample (taken from the Rayneys' home), that's for sure."
The court also heard about fibres found on Mrs Rayney's body and near her Kings Park grave. Mr Collins said a red polyester fibre was found on the knee of her jeans and red "polyester thread" was found on the track near her gravesite.
Fibres were collected from the Rayneys' home.
Mr Collins said red and black fibres recovered from vegetation in Kings Park close to where Mrs Rayney was buried did not match clothing found at the Rayneys' home. Nor could the fibres be matched to the clothes Mrs Rayney was wearing when she died.
However, two fibres found on Mrs Rayney's shirt – but which did not come from the shirt – did match some of the fibres found in Kings Park.
Mr Collins referred to an apparent "snag point" in the bush where he said it appeared that a piece of wood hanging from a tree may have snagged "someone walking past" and caught some fibres.
Mr Collins was asked about what Mr Elliot described as the "oval marks" on the bottom of Mrs Rayney's jeans, saying he "didn't observe any damage" to the fibres of the jeans themselves. He said the marks were consistent with "pressurised contact".
Asked if the marks could have been made by the pressure of soil when Mrs Rayney was being buried Mr Collins said it was "probably a possibility". However, he added there were likely "many plausible explanations".
The court has previously heard from mineralogist Richard Clarke, who suggested the marks - which he described as V-like formations - could have been consistent with a "dragging event".


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No surprises here with this weekend's release of new movies. Ocean's Thirteen (preview) easily took the top spot in the box office earnings by nearly doubling the second place earner, Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Knocked Up (review) held a pretty good percentage of its earnings to get the #3 spot and beat out the other new comer, Surf's Up (preview). I was surprised that Surf's Up, $18M, didn't place higher considering its appeal to a wider audience, including children. The third new release, Hostel Part II, wasn't able to break the $10 million mark, but did earn the #6 spot just over Mr. Brooks (review). Also of interest, I can't remember the last time I saw a Top 10 box office earner pull in less than $1M, but there sits Disturbia at #10 with $0.5M.
If you missed any of the background on the new releases check out our Weekend Movie Preview with trailers and details.
Box office earnings for movies this weekend, June 8 - 10, 2007:
- "Ocean's Thirteen" $ 37.1 million
- "Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End" $21.3 million
- "Knocked Up" $20 million
- "Surf's Up" $18 million
- "Shrek the Third" $15 million
- "Hostel Part II" $8.7 million
- "Mr. Brooks" $5 million
- "Spider-Man 3″ $4.4 million
- "Waitress" $1.6 million
- "Disturbia" $0.5 million
Posted on: Sunday, June 10, 2007


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Aminka E3 is less then two weeks away. WHOA. O_O What are you guys most excited to see?!4 years agoReply
jmcduff Tomb Raider4 years ago
cookiemonster426 Wii U, Metal Gear, and Fire Emblem!!! :D4 years ago
Arcterran How Nintendo will fare, considering this is probably going to be their most important E3 yet4 years ago
gameguy523 Pikmin 3 :D4 years ago
JakeKillings Sega Dreamcast 2!4 years ago
deraj626 Fire Emblem Awakening. :D4 years ago
Prof.Smash Definitely Kingdom Hearts 3D, as well as some Resident Evil 6.4 years ago
Nathanrockz pikmin 34 years ago
phlr26 I just hoe Nintendo doesn't screw up like it has before.4 years ago
desertfox41 First Party is definitely PIkmin 3. But for third party I am really excited for Aliens: Colonial Marines. The use of the controller and graphics looks amazing. Randy Pitchford stated the Wii U version will be the best looking console version. Also even though the release date was delayed till Feb. 2013 for 360, PS3, and PC,...expand4 years ago
FLYmeatwad The best part of E3 to me are the surprises, so I'm just hoping there are some of note. As far as known commodities I am definitely interested to hopefully see more of THE LAST OF US and DISHONORED.4 years ago
calvinkenobi Luigi'smansion 2 - and maybe a luigi's mansion 1 with new play control. And surprises, I want surprises!4 years ago
bluewolveine For people to realize that hype is stupid.4 years ago
tamago_sensei I dream of seeing what I shall never see...Yoshi's Island on VC.4 years ago
littlesisgaming Wanna see Sony's show, perhaps get some more ACIII info, and of course, I want to see if Nintendo can impress me with the Wii U. Just need to get there, via IGN's community blogger contest! ;)4 years ago
Lordnbz The Wii U is the number one thing to watch for me. Really excited to see what first party titles they have up their sleeves to blow our tiny little minds with :P4 years ago
JimmyGii An epic Halo 4 trailer.4 years ago
Mr.Croft1 Resident Evil 6!!!! And ACIII4 years ago
Luigi762 LoZ: encyclopedia in americano!!! not a game, but still!!!4 years ago
chava872002 I hope to see a 3DS lite, and a release date for the WiiU. Also, playable demos of Luigis Mansion, and more footage for the next Super Smash.4 years ago
grap3fruitman I'm both excited and afraid to see "Dead or Alive 5."4 years ago
kayne24 I don't want to see a 3DS lite. I waited a long time for the 3DS, finally got it for $250, then the price got lowered. Sure, I got those Ambassador titles, but if Nintendo now releases a 3DS lite...I'm only going to be happy if I get a serious discount, or if they don't release it all. I mean, the PSP had one control nub or...expand4 years ago
kayne24 And of course, more 'bout the Wii U.4 years ago
mrx408 Calling it now, no 3DS lite at e3 this year. Nintendo will finally start selling the 3DS at a profit later this year. I'm guessing they will want at least a year of sales with profit before they move on to the next thing. Anything else would just be a bad move for them4 years ago
kayne24 And Fire Emblem: Awakening for North America! PLEASE, NINTENDO!!!! Metal Gear Rising, possibly a new Zelda, I want to also hear more about that StarFox/Metroid crossover!4 years ago
hellztourguide Remeber when Miyamoto-San said he wanted to make a 3d Link to the Past? Well what if it was a 3d 3D link to the past...so a 3d adventure in 3d with the lttp overworld to explore oot style! That would be frickin awesome as lttp is my favorite game of all time. I would be shocked and awed.4 years ago
DaCangri12 The Wii U power, in action!!4 years ago
MegabusterLegends3 First of all, any Nintendo franchise in full HD, looking its absolute best. I'm sure Retro will deliver this, but the Pikmans may surprise us! In my dreams, Elite Beat Agents Wii U .... Link to the Past 3D, HECK YES! If that were to happen, I would probably wet my tunic.4 years ago
Teru_XD Wow...Something tells me that the Pikmin game will look awesome. Can't wait!4 years ago
adnantendo All things Nintendo...Mario,Zelda,pikimin,metriod,wii u sports,u wii sports...whatever lol I just want it to start NOOOOW! xD4 years ago
thornhark Everything,and not just nintendo. Also looking forward to halo 4 borderlands!!4 years ago
Mitchy_D XBOZ4 years ago
pjz15 Layton!!!4 years ago
Yogotiss Event though I'm PC gaming. I'm excited to see the Xbox4 years ago
dmckenzie4 Some news of Monster Hunter 3G and Monster Hunter 4 getting localized.4 years ago
Mitsuraga That thing DMCKenzie4 said, but like, times ten.4 years ago
bhattu101095 assassins creed 34 years ago
nuttyjrg what the vita has to offer4 years ago
CMackthe3rd The WiiU.4 years ago
zeroxjs Wii U and Fire Emblem!!!4 years ago
TheElementX Hope fully fire emblem awakening4 years ago
Think-DPr A new 3DS model.4 years ago
Bobzco213 Animal Crossing, anyone? No? Ok? Ok.4 years ago
TheElementX Animal crossing and hopefully fire emblem too.4 years ago
dmaul71140 Well I just hope its not the same stuff from last yeat for the 3ds. Some new 3d metroid or kirby would be boss4 years ago
chuckywannaplay Mechwarrior Online.. and Mechwarrior Online.. and I think I'm really looking forward to Mechwarrior Online. If not those, then maybe Mechwarrior Online.4 years ago
oceanpharaoh NINTENDO.4 years ago
bennymatthew Honestly? Boobs and games. In general. Together. The more reveals the better, if you're catching' what I'm throwin' here...4 years ago
bhattu101095 The awesomest n coolest: GTA - 5... sweeeet ;)4 years ago


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We'll spend the next several days figuring out our brackets (perhaps, sadly, with a 65-team field for the final time). In the meantime, some thoughts on college hoops.
1. If you didn't make the tournament, it's your own fault. This is the weakest at-large field ever. It's so weak that Florida, considered a bubble team, was actually seeded 10th. I can't feel any sympathy for teams that were supposedly "snubbed." Snubbed means you deserved to make it. Note to Mississippi State: If you want to be included, don't lose to Rider early, don't lose to Auburn late, and schedule better in-between out of conference. This year's field is Exhibit A why 96 teams would be horrendous for the quality of the tournament.
2. Duke's path to the Final Four is too easy. I take a bigger issue with the selection committee about seeding and where it places teams. Yes, Duke was the ACC regular-season and tournament champion. But the ACC was down with North Carolina falling off the radar. Duke barely beat Miami and Georgia Tech in the past two days at the ACC Tournament, and might not have been a No. 1 seed had it lost. So how are the Blue Devils rewarded? Not only do they stay in the South while Syracuse -- a first-round loser in the Big East Tournament but a decidedly better team throughout the year -- goes out West. Duke also gets to open against the play-in game winner and gets the weakest No. 2 seed (Villanova) in its region. The road is set for Duke's first Final Four trip since 2004. Meanwhile, there are two Final Four-quality teams in the Midwest facing No. 1 national seed Kansas: Ohio State and Georgetown. Go figure.
3. Jump on the Big 12's bandwagon. Usually there's one conference to ride for a lot of picks deep into the tournament. The Big East is always an obvious choice. Look at the Big 12, too. Besides Kansas, an obvious choice, Kansas State is a legit threat to make the Final Four from the West. And Baylor has the size to beat Villanova and reach the Elite Eight vs. Duke in the South.
4. Don't take these teams too seriously. That would be you, Texas, Wake Forest, Tennessee and Purdue. Alas, the committee paired underachievers Texas vs. Wake Forest in the first round so someone has to win.
5. Possible early-round upsets. No. 12 UTEP can beat No. 5 Butler and provide a book end to Butler's last loss, also against a C-USA team (UAB). No. 13 Murray State will give No. 4 Vanderbilt a tough test, potentially setting up UTEP vs. Murray State for a Sweet 16 spot. No. 6 Tennessee is so hit-and-miss that it could flame out vs. No. 11 San Diego State. No. 13 Siena will be a hot upset pick over No. 4 Purdue, minus injured star Robbie Hummel. And watch out for No. 12 Cornell, which is a tremendous 3-point shooting team.
6. First-round games with a back story. Syracuse opens against Vermont. Sound familiar? In 2005, the 14th-seeded Catamounts stunned the third-seeded Orange in the first round in 2005. If it happens again, it will be the first 16 over a 1. Don't bank on it. How about the Cornell-Temple matchup? Cornell coach Steve Donahue spent 10 years as Temple coach Fran Dunphy's assistant at Penn. That's an intriguing game you probably wouldn't care about, but it's worth watching.
7. Intriguing potential second-round matchups. Maryland vs. Michigan State. Gary Williams vs. Tom Izzo is usually a matchup you'd see in the Sweet 16 or later. Xavier vs. Pittsburgh. They're similar scrappy teams. Duke vs. Louisville. There's no truth to the rumor that CBS already has the tip-off time set for Mike Krzyzewski vs. Rick Pitino.
8. How tested is Kentucky? That will be a key question surrounding Kentucky's young team. John Calipari typically thrives in the tournament when the public doubts his team. In this case, he has doubted his own team because of its youth. The Wildcats are extremely talented but won't have an easy road. If Kentucky gets knocked out early, I suspect it will come against a team that plays a grinding style and frustrates the Wildcats. Say hello to Temple, Wisconsin or Cornell in the Sweet 16.
9. ESPN takes Joe Lunardi too seriously. I like Lunardi's work. Once again, he nailed most of the teams in the field and a good number of seeds, too. But is it really necessary for ESPN to "unveil" Lunardi's mock bracket in the hour before CBS shows the actual bracket? ESPN treated Lunardi's bracket as if it was the real thing. News flash to ESPN: Lunardi is not on the selection committee. Seriously, he isn't.
10. Dothan, Ala. cost Birmingham from watching the ACC Tournament. This was driving me nuts yesterday and today. I could watch every semifinal and final from every major conference except the ACC. They were on ESPN but got blacked out in Birmingham. I contacted ESPN to find out why. It turns out my cable provider, Charter, was getting the feeds from Dothan, which had to black them out because Dothan is considered an ACC market. The ACC Tournament gets aired on ESPN and Raycom, and Dothan's Fox station was showing the Raycom game. Somehow, I suspect Charter will find a way to hike my bill because of this.


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New Orleans Wine and Food Experience leaders say they expect sell-out crowds this evening as the festival's Grand Tastings get under way at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in downtown New Orleans.
The Grand Tastings, which continue Saturday, showcase the best of the best from a city devoted to culinary passion and prowess.
As doors opened Friday at 6 p.m., guests began wandering from booth to booth sampling complex creations by New Orleans' most celebrated chefs and restaurants, and tasting fine wines crafted by vineyards in Italy, California and other renowned spots. The tastings feature recipes from more than 75 chefs, about 60 restaurants and about 100 wineries.
"With the quality we have, it attracts a lot of people," said Jamie Peckenpaugh, executive director of NOWFE.
A half-hour before doors opened, Peckenpaugh said he expected this year's Grand Tastings to sell out at 2,000 guests. That prediction is based on the number of tickets presold this year plus the number of guests who typically buy tickets at the door every year, she said. The Grand Tastings, which switched from the Supedome to the smaller Convention Center this year, appear to be attracting slightly larger crowds this time, Peckenpaugh said.
"It's a good year," she said, adding that media coverage and NOWFE marketing could be the reason for the increased attendance.
As guests entered the ballroom on Friday, banquet chef Norman Hunt and others from the M Bistro at The Ritz-Carlton booth prepared crawfish and corn crepes with goat cheese foam, tomato jam and ghost pepper caviar. Hunt said he expects diners to enjoy the dish's mix of sweet and savory tastes.
Across the ballroom, executive chef Matt Perrin of Seymour's Restaurant and Bar in Harahan said he thinks crowds will like the freshness of the shrimp and spicy kick of Seymour's shrimp and tomato bisque.
"It's got a little New Orleans kick to it," said Rhonda Meyer, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Eddie.
Grand Tastings attendance is typically split about evenly among locals and out-of-town visitors, Peckenpaugh said.
"I don't know too many people in New Orleans who aren't into food and wine," Peckenpaugh said. "And our out-of-towners obviously have a passion for it."
Marcie Dickson of Atlanta, who lived in New Orleans for years, said she annually joins friends Renee Brown of New Orleans, owner of Bayou Brew Tea, and Zena Moses of New Orleans, a vocalist with the band Rue Fiya, in attending the NOWFE Grand Tastings.
"We've had some great gumbo so far and some cheeses," Moses said, as the three oohed over samples from St. James Cheese Company in New Orleans. "I'm expecting some top-notch food."
Gigi Aldrete of Dallas, who was born and raised in New Orleans, said she attends foodand-wine festivals throughout the country, but her hometown festival stands out. NOWFE includes "a lot of different events that are pretty unique," she said while sipping on wine from Flora Springs Winery and Vineyards in St. Helena, Calif.
Aldrete cited NOWFE's Royal Street Stroll, an outdoor food event, as a favorite attraction, but she also looks forward to the Grand Tastings each year.
"It gives you the opportunity to sample the best that New Orleans has to offer," Aldrete said.


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Hu, Wilson led team to swim title
Oak Harbor graduates John Hu and Evan Wilson helped Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, N.J.) win the East Coast Athletic Conference men's swim title last weekend.
Hu won Swimmer of the Meet honors by scoring the most points (128) in the conference championships. Wilson finished fourth in points (113).
Hu won three individual events, set two school records and established NCAA championship B cuts in the 200 breaststroke and 200 individual medley and an A cut in the 200 fly.
Wilson also established B cuts in the mile and 200 breaststroke.
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It helped shape her coaching career at her alma mater.
In her 10th season at the helm of the program, the uncompromising Warners, who guided the Knights to the 2010 national championship, teaches and preaches the pursuit of excellence on and off the court.
"As a coach, I strive to win. I'm not going to apologize for that. But I also want each of my players to grow as a Christian and as a person," she said. "A lot of times, one of those gets put on the back burner in athletics. Here, we strive to do both. I don't apologize for wanting to accomplish either one."
Warners, 44, earned the 298th victory of her coaching career Wednesday night as undefeated and No. 1-ranked Calvin prevailed in a three-game sweep of Hope College in front of 2,212 fans at Van Noord Arena.
It upped the Knights' record to 15-0 and 7-0 in Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association action.
Hope, ranked No. 13 in the nation, suffered its first loss in the MIAA to slip to 12-3, 5-1.
The Knights, who haven't suffered a loss since falling to Hope in the MIAA Tournament finals at DeVos Fieldhouse in Holland on Nov. 6, 2010, also stretched their win streak to 21 matches in a row.
"I thought as the match went on, we just got better and better with our passing," Warners said after the Knights held off an early challenge to win by scores of 26-24, 25-20 and 25-16 against the Flying Dutch. "I definitely think the winning the national championship last year has taught our group how to compete under pressure."
Warners understands all about pressure.
She grew up as a Hope College supporter during her childhood.
It wasn't until just before graduation from Holland Christian High School she developed an affection for Calvin. Her father, Harvey, was a distinguished biology professor at Hope and her older brother Curt attended Hope, where he was the starting goalkeeper on the men's soccer team in the mid-1980s.
Warners began her coaching career at Hope College.
She served as interim coach of the Flying Dutch volleyball team in 2004 while coach Karla Wolters was on academic sabbatical leave and then spent eight seasons as Calvin's softball coach from 1997-2004.
"When I coached there," she said of her stint at Hope, "there wasn't a team I wanted to beat more than Calvin. I grew up my whole life a Hope fan, but that all changed in May of my senior year in high school."
Now, she's the coach of the defending D-II national champions and approaching a coaching milestone. Her career record as a volleyball coach is 298-67 (.816) overall and 277-56 (.832) at Calvin.
Her players agree the focus is on both winning and having fun.
"I think she focuses a lot on this is a new team this year," senior All-American middle hitter Rebecca Kamp said of her coach's words of wisdom about the pressure to repeat as national champions and taking nothing for granted this season. "She tells us that every game is a new game. Every point is a new point."
In never adds up to pressure, though, sophomore setter Megan Rietema said.
"In games, she keeps us relaxed," the former Grand Rapids Christian High School standout insisted.
Curt Blankespoor is proud of what his sister has accomplished in coaching.
"I was proud of the program she built even before they started winning," he said after watching Wednesday's match. "I have a daughter in eighth grade and another one in 10th grade, both volleyball players. I'd love it if they could play for my sister. She does a great job of developing her players' life skills as well as their volleyball skills."
It is accomplishment on and off the court that still consumes Warners.
"It did fill a hole," she said of finally winning a national championship as a coach. "You can't help but relive what you went through as a player. I didn't want our players to go through what I went through.
"Our motto this year is: 'Joy in the journey, loving the challenge.' No matter the outcome."
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Simple Joystick for more Complicated Games
Published by: One Switch on 31st Oct 2011 | View all blogs by One Switch
Being able to connect a simple Atari style joystick to modern games consoles in almost anyway you like is now possible thanks to a new SpecialEffect and OneSwitch custom-built controller.
Pictured above is an Atari compatible Competition Pro joystick velcroed to a Maxess board, patched into a C-SID interface. This set-up allows up to five controls of your choice to be assigned to the simpler joystick. The wish for this came from Shaz Hossain, as he was finding a number of PS3 driving games wouldn't allow him to reconfigure the controls as he wished to his HORI Real Arcade Pro 3 arcade stick. We're hoping this prototype will do the trick for him, until the day that all driving games have fully reconfigurable controls.
Anyone attending the REPLAY event will be able to see this joystick in action on the DDR/Destruction Derby set-up.
As a side note, the reason Destruction Derby will be on show for part of the day, is due to it's highly accessible nature in so far as driving and giving people the chance to get around a track. In fact, if you jam the accellerator on, on the oval tracks you can get around with a single switch for steering left or right. The best version is for the PSone, which will also work on PS2 and PS3 fat. Alternatively you can download it from the PSNetwork for the PS3 slim. Hugely recommended.
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Jan. 21 is a day to commemorate the life and works of Martin Luther King Jr., and Harrisburg residents can celebrate that day with several events, kicking off the 2013 Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.
Opening ceremonies for the event, with the theme "Serving Those Who Serve," are set for 9 a.m. at John Harris High School, 2451 Market St., Harrisburg, honoring Central Pennsylvania's firefighters.
Harrisburg Fire Chief Robert Talloni will be the keynote speaker. The event will also honor several community leaders with the second annual Keeper of the Dream award, which is a tribute to their efforts to advance the ideals of King.
This year's honorees are Sean Wilson, Clenistine Dunson, Robert Tate and the late Rev. Olin Harris.
The opening ceremonies will be followed from 10 to 11 a.m. with youth activities, including poetry, storytelling and other artistic activities.
And that evening at 6:30, the first International Poetry and Storytelling Festival will be held at Dixon University Center, 2986 N. 2nd St., and will feature Harrisburg's poet laureate, Rick Kearns, among others.
High school poets are encouraged to submit their work for a poetry contest with the honoring-those-who-serve theme. Winners will be announced that day. Submit your poems for consideration to email@example.com.
The day's events are sponsored by the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service Steering Committee, and the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg.
For more information on they day's events, visit www.wacharrisburg.org.


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December 13, 1999
The bride is the daughter of Dick and Donna Weller of Renton. She graduated from Lindbergh High School in 1993, from Seattle University in 1997 with a degree in psychology, and also in December 1998 with a master's degree in education. She is an academic advisor at Edmonds Community College.
The groom is the son of Pam Hitzemann of Woodinville and Jerry Hitzemann of Lake Stevens. He graduated from Woodinville High School in 1993 and from Seattle University in 1997 with a degree in civil engineering. He is an engineer at Coughlin Porter Lundeen in Seattle.
The newlyweds reside in Seattle.


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Clovis Elementary
Monday: Breakfast — English muffin with egg and cheese. Lunch — Bean tostada, Spanish rice, lettuce and tomato, fruit.
Tuesday: Breakfast — Pancake sausage on a stick. Lunch — Nacho cheese stuffed potato, garden salad and ranch, oatmeal cookie.
Wednesday: Breakfast — Waffles. Lunch — Chicken fingers, mashed potatoes and gravy, English peas, whole wheat roll.
Thursday: Breakfast — Sausage bisquit. Lunch — Pig-in-a-blanket, baked French fries, California veggies, blueberry buckle.
Friday: Breakfast — Yogurt and cinnamon toast. Lunch — Frito pie, garden salad and ranch, pineapple orange salad, jello.


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Schaumburg 49, Glenbrook South 41: Senior guard Kyle Bolger led the way for the host Saxons (12-8) in a nonconference victory with 21 points.
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Tasting Notes
Black Label Sauvignon Blanc offers quintessential varietal notes of gooseberry,lemon, grass, zesty citrus and minerals.
Technical Notes
A blend of fruit from estate vineyards, the Black Label Sauvignon Blanc was specifically designed to enjoywith food and as such, is ideally suited for restaurant service. After pressing, the juice was portioned offinto two groups. Most of the wines were fermented in stainless steel at cool temperatures to retaincrispness and acidity. The remainder fermented in neutral oak barriques, which lent weight andcomplexity to the wine.


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Thursday, March 31, 2016
Awarded By
The Dallas Foundation
Award Amount
Up to $2,500 annually, non-renewable.
Up to three awards provided annually.
Deadline Info
Applications are available online or by contacting the Dallas Foundation. In addition to the printed and completed application, the applicant must also submit the following items: a certified high ... sign up for full scholarship deadline information.


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Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big storyline. Because there's nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
Kevin Garnett is staying with the Celtics. The Herald has learned this morning that Garnett has informed the club he will be back.
The 36-year-old considered retirement, but ultimately decided to return for an 18th NBA season — and more.
According to an NBA source and a source close to Garnett, the sides are working out the details of a deal that will be for at least two years and could possibly include a third.
"The decision came down to whether KG wanted to keep playing," said one source. "And once he decided that he did, it was going to be Boston. He wasn't going to leave Doc (River) and those guys and play anywhere else."
Concerns about the mileage on his body were alleviated when Garnett's numbers improved dramatically during these last playoffs and indeed down the stretch of the regular season. The increases roughly coincided with his move from power forward to center, where he was able outmaneuver bigger centers and pull them out to the perimeter while taking smaller opponents inside and scoring over them.
"Kevin was absolutely great this season, and he just wants to keep going," said a source. "And when you look at how he was playing, there's no reason for him to stop."
UPDATE: Yahoo's Marc Spears reports the deal is three years, $34 million.
Fantastic news. I knew all along it was Boston or bust.
The third year seems a bit much, but I doubt Garnett will hang on just to collect a paycheck. $11 million per year is a bargain.
I'm curious if Garnett will continue to play center.
The rest of the links:
Herald – Team Sully has his back | Green's heart still with C's | Offer for Doc's kid falls shy | Kids need some work | ESPN Boston – Report card: Danny Ainge | Getting to know Sully and Fab | CSNNE – Ryan: Ainge took good gamble with picks | Pro Basketball Talk – Mayo free agent, Celtics interested


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As has become customary around the changing of the calendar, here are GearBits' official predictions for 2008.
1) Blu-Ray Wins the Format War
Yep, I'm going to pick a winner and it's going to be Blu-Ray. The one-two punch of Warner Brothers's move to Blu-Ray exclusivity (from its Switzerland-like neutrality of supporting both formats) later in 2008 and Apple's announcement that BD will be the only HD format available in its products will cement HD DVD's demise. And none too soon. I don't really care which wins...just make it snappy so that prices on players and media can plummet, thanks.
2) Google's Android Shakes Up Phone Industry
For a while now, the cellphone industry has been fairly static. A few smartphone and mobile OS makers have generally tussled for market share, but the overall industry has been pretty evolutionary. Google's entry will prove to be a watershed moment, with open source finally making a big impact in the handheld space (and no, I don't consider the Zaurus to be a big deal...sorry). Actual handsets running Android will be announced, if not available, before the end of 2008.
3) Palm Supports Android
This is more of a hope than an actual prediction, as I just don't know whether the egos at Palm will let the company do the right thing and admit that their next-generation OS (which has been under development since 2004!) will be a viable contender against Android (which has essentially the same technical details but scads more developer support). But, if cooler, more rational heads prevail at Palm, they'll announce that they're plans will be to produce at least one Android-based product (probably to come out sometime in 2012 :-/ ).
4) Microsoft's HD Photo Replacement for JPEG Image Standard Goes Nowhere
I'm not saying it's a bad idea technically; I'm just saying that JPEG is so entrenched now that replacing it would be about as reasonable a thing to try as would be replacing MP3 with any of the multitudes of better formats. JPEG, like MP3, isn't great, but it's adequate (at least for consumers) and ubiquitous. We'll still be saving all our photos in JPG (and maybe RAW) at the end of 2008...and likely long after that.
5) Subnotes Will Explode in Availability (and Maybe Popularity)
I've always been a fan of tiny, sub-3-pound laptops, but I think 2008 will see a huge number of these clamshell devices come out of every corner of the consumer electronics space. The Asus EeePC and the OLPC XO Laptop are two examples. While Microsoft had a good idea in its UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC) concept, the hardware was just never executed all that well. Frankly, I think a 7" touchscreen for Windows is just too difficult. But, going with the traditional clamshell design and using cheaper and/or smaller technologies (e.g., flash memory instead of a HDD) will bring us a raft of interesting (and some good) designs at <$500 price points. Bring 'em on! And I think we'll start to see a lot more people toting these things along that traditionally avoided laptops for whatever reason (cost, weight, etc.).
6) The GPS War Heats Up
TomTom, Nokia, and Garmin will exchange hostile fire over the GPS market due to convuluted agreements regarding mapping data as well as market-share for hardware. Products will continue to decline in price and improve in functionality, and >50% of cellphones will have some form of GPS functionality available on them. I guess that's two predictions in one...oh well.
7) DRM Hits Choppy Water
2007 saw some movement away from DRM (digital rights management), especially in the music industry, but I expect we'll see similar initiatives in all areas of media. DRM has been proven again and again to be little more than an expensive technological boondoggle, and the leading innovators at the consumer media interface (e.g., Apple, Amazon, and Google) will make some headway into reversing the trend of more encumbrance for our media. The RIAA and MPAA will continue to fight it...they know how to do nothing else...but economic results will start to demonstrate that DRM actually hurts profitability.
8) Major Tech Stocks End 2008 Up Significantly
These are bound to be wrong, but what the heck...nobody pays me for stock tips. I think Apple will end 2008 at 235, Google will be at 960, and Microsoft will finish the year at 50. As for other stocks, iRobot will end up at either 46 or 12 (can you tell I'm a cynical shareholder?), IBM will show tepid growth to 112, and RIM, hurt by the continued weak US dollar and facing increasing competition, will struggle to match its 1-year high of 127.
9) I Buy a New Laptop and Am Disappointed
My Panasonic CF-W2 is now three-and-a-half-years-old and I'm starting to cringe every time I turn it on (my luck with hard drives makes me skeptical of many living past their 4th birthday). I've been looking at possible replacements (e.g., Toshiba R500, Panasonic W7, maybe the Lenovo IdeaPad U110 or the rumored Apple subnote) and so far every single one has some significant trade-offs. So, I expect I'll get one and it will turn out to be not significantly better than my aging Toughbook. You'd think in nearly four years that two grand would buy something markedly superior. We'll see...
10) Major Changes in Automotive Industry Announced
While the car business makes actual change only very slowly, we'll see some huge announcements in 2008 that will fundamentally change the future of that industry. Things like record oil prices, an increasing attention to sustainable/green technology, and significant ownership changes will substantially change the competitive landscape. Make no mistake; Toyota will continue its ascent and eclipse GM as #1 car-maker in the world. But, we will see several major announcements that will start affecting actual consumers in 2009 and beyond.
So, I'll check back in about 12 months to see how I fared. In the meantime, what do you think will happen?


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ALEXANDRIA TWP. — The pool of candidates has been narrowed in the search for the next superintendent at Delaware Valley High School, but school board President Ellen Gordon won't say how many are still in the running.
Ten candidates were recently interviewed over three days. Gordon said today, Jan. 29, that it's down to "a number that we feel we can get a suitable candidate from, that's all I'm going to say."
Each board member except Bill Dietze of Kingwood Township was able to attend the first-round interviews, said Gordon.
A second round is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 9, starting at 8 a.m. The board plans to meet in the school library, in closed session, with the candidates.
She liked the board's options so far and said, "We do hope to have a finalist identified soon after that," said Gordon.
Fourteen candidates applied for the job and were screened earlier by search firm West Hudson Associates, which suggested the finalists that were interviewed by the board.
Last year similar interviews led to a possible replacement for Superintendent Elizabeth Nastus, who is leaving the district, but that person was never announced to the community and the search was abruptly halted.
The search resumed in the fall. The school board hopes to decide a replacement for Nastus in late winter or early spring.
Nastus had planned to leave at the end of the 2011-12 school year but agreed to a new contract in April.
The goal is to have a new superintendent in place on July 1.
More Hunterdon County news: NJ.com/hunterdon • Facebook • Twitter


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If you didn't know...Hamas grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood, a religious and political organization founded in Egypt with branches throughout the world...........The Hamas Charter says it is the Muslim Brotherhood for "Palestine."
Hamas, the genocidal organization, is imposing the sharia (Islamic law) in the terror statelet of Gaza. They say, of course, that they are not, but we know that this is what the Brotherhood does: it lies to sabotage and deceive (see Imam Rauf).Hamas Principles
The principles of the Hamas are stated in their Covenant or Charter, given in full below. Following are highlights.
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).
"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. "
"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."
"After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."
Obama is holding secret negotiations with these mass murderers.
Hamas targets women's underwear in modesty drive Reuters (hat tip Weasel)
GAZA (Reuters) - The Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip have ordered lingerie shops to display more modesty.
A week after banning women from smoking water pipes in public places, the Hamas-run police force has told stores selling women's underwear to remove scantily-clad mannequins and any posters of racy undergarments.
"These measures have stemmed from complaints and pressure by ordinary people. They have to do with upholding our traditions," police spokesman Ayman Al-Batniji said on Wednesday.
Hamas leaders have repeatedly denied any intention to impose Islamic law on the Gaza Strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians.
But Hamas police have broken up a hip-hop concert in the territory and tried -- unsuccessfully -- to force women lawyers in court and female school students to wear traditional Muslim clothing, a step that drew a public backlash.
Hamas's modesty moves were widely seen by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as attempts to mollify more conservative Islamic factions that have accused the movement of failing to uphold Islamic Sharia law.


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Above: Wesley Clark on lawyers for military inductees. Video by Bill Peters.
Almost yearly since 2003, as a way of testing social policy, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) has tried to reintroduce the Universal National Service Act into Congress, which would require "all young persons in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes." Subsequently, the bill has been resoundingly defeated or resoundingly ignored whenever it crosses Congress. On June 30, 1973, apprentice plumber Dwight Elliott Stone became the last man to be drafted into Vietnam before the military converted to an all-volunteer force. Thirty years later, the draft is a topic has that has resurfaced occasionally only for a few minutes before being swallowed by the news cycle: Sen. Chuck Hagel has suggested a military draft would restore equity to sharing the burden. The blogger's pet phrase "the Internets" was born in 2004, during a presidential debate, when President Bush attempted to dispel rumors about reinstating the draft.
This Saturday, Wesley Clark, Andrew Bacevich, and Amherst College '64 alum Joseph Stiglitz held a panel on national service and reinstating the military draft. Former Atlantic Monthly editor and current Vanity Fair editor at large Cullen Murphy was host / moderator. The panel was the final part of a colloquium on military service at the College. You can find audio of the discussion here, my short interview with Mr. Clark here, and quote highlights below. Since academia generally hates sound bytes, you are highly encouraged to listen to the whole thing. None of the panelists, by the way, want a return to the draft.
Andrew Bacevich; former Army Col., current professor at B.U.; author of "American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of US Diplomacy" and "The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War"
...on why we actually have a volunteer army, and the divorce between civilians and that army.
"When Richard Nixon ended conscription in the latter part of the Vietnam War, an action he took not in particular because he had any particular interest or commitment to the creation of an all-volunteer force, but because he was trying to buy time to implement his Vietnamization policy. And he thought that ending the draft would basically take the wind out of the sails of the anti-war movement. But when he did that, it seems to me that, effectively, what he was doing was forfeiting, on behalf of the federal government, any authority that the government had to command military service."
"I think in many respects, the all-volunteer force of the last decade of the twentieth century probably was seen at the time by most American citizens as the most successful federal program of the previous quarter century."
"After the Cold War, most American citizens didn't want anything to do with the Army. And the Army didn't want anything to do with citizen soldiers. So there was a mutual agreement. And, indeed, this all-volunteer force in the Cold-War era worked tremendously well so long as there were no long wars, no costly wars, and no unpopular wars."
"Approximately 0.5% of the population is serving in uniform."
"...Having divorced ourselves from the Army, we are only now awakening to the fact that we, as citizens, have remarkably little control over our Army and what it gets sent to do and how it is treated or mistreated."
Wesley Clark; 2004 presidential candidate; current military / political analyst; former West Point grad, Vietnam vet, Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO during the Kosovo War; author of "A Time to Lead: For Duty, Honor, and Country"
...on driving the conversion to an all-volunteer force, and creating a database of professionals that can be tapped for national service.
"I'm very proud of the United States Armed Forces and especially the United States Army. I was there as a company commander in Vietnam. I had an Army company of draftees, had about 115 men in the field. I had people from all over the country. Some of them didn't have a 10th-grade education. I some high school graduates, I had some college graduates. I think one guy had a Master's Degree, I had people who were smoking dope in the field, I had people who were antagonistic, who didn't get along with each other, people who were probably trying to do a lot of things they shouldn't have been doing, and I think I was the only guy in the company who actually wanted to be there. We got caught in a firefight, and I was the first guy in the company wounded. [...] Those peace-loving, anti-war, draft-dodging, unmotivated young Americans came up and saved my life in combat."
"[The all-volunteer force is] your basic Republican business model. You simply set your wage scale for the force at the market price. For the number of people you need, you figure out what the price is, and you buy them. It's truly an economic proposition. And if you can't bring them in with the emoluments of wage, you can provide benefits, like the GI Bill and give them a uniform and so forth. I was uncomfortable with it from the beginning. I grew up reading Greek and Roman stories and philosophers and histories. And I always felt that a person had a duty to serve his country. And here - my duty became helping to transition the army away from an army in which people were called for service."
"It was never an army designed to fight a war. It was always designed to be there as a deterrent, because when we created the volunteer army, it was about the Cold War. It was the time the when Strategic Air Command had a patch on their sleeve that said 'Peace is Our Profession.' And that we knew if we ever went to war against the Soviet Union we would've already failed."
"Should we have a draft? I'd love to serve in a country and be part of a country where every American feels it's his or her obligation to give time and take risks and serve their country. [...] That's what this country was based on, right here, in the state of Massachusetts. "
"We need to create a different kind of instrument for U.S. foreign policy. Right now, we're a one-tool country. We only have one principle tool of foreign policy, and that's the hammer."
"We need to be able to go in preventively - not with forces, but with assistance. We need to be helping people with the problems that they need to deal with to rebuild their own economies, or build their own economies. We need to be able to deal with problems of corruption, the problems of health, the problems of political and economic development. You can't draft 19-year-olds to do this. And you can't adapt the United States Army, no matter what a wonderful institution it be, to really work these problems. There's no reason why we don't have a professional cadre of developers associated with the State Department that interfaces with the U.N. Development Program, and it's backed up by a voluntary database of millions of Americans. I like 40-year-old Washington lawyers; I like to be able to call on them and the accountants from the Big Four, and say 'You guys from KP&G, give us six months, come over here to Ghana, work for the U.S. Ambassador with the government of Ghana and help them straighten out their national accounting - they've got a revenue problem!'"
Joseph Stiglitz; 2001 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics; author of "The Three Trillion Dollar War"
...on the costs of a 'free' war, before and after.
"This president has tried to persuade the American people that we can have a war for free."
"On the financial side, this is the first war in America's history that, when we went into war, we already had a deficit. There was no discussion of shared sacrifice - [i.e.,] while we're sending our young men and women to fight, the rest of the country sacrifices by making a little bit of an economic sacrifice. That was not what was done. Instead, there was a tax cut for upper-income Americans just months after the war started. And that, of course, means that every dollar in this war has been deficit-financed; nobody in the United States today has had to pay a cent for the costs of this war. All the bills are being passed onto you - the next generation. So that's why, in some sense, there's no financial check on war, because, as a country, we've been wealthy enough that we can borrow, we can get the Chinese to finance our wars, but it doesn't require any monetary sacrifice."
"From the first Gulf War, it lasted 30 days. We are spending now 4.3 billion dollars a year for disability pay. Almost 40% of those who fought in that war have been deemed eligible for disability. In this war, the number who are likely to be disabled will be larger, the people who are coming back right now have more disabilities, and the costs are going to be proportionally high. Already, of the people who have returned, 100,000 have been diagnosed with severe psychiatric problems, 52,000 have been diagnosed with PTSD. And the way the military has treated the troops is obviously not what you would call a good employer, so it's had to pay higher pay, large signup bonuses, large reenlistment bonuses - some of these are very large indeed. Even with that, they've had a hard time maintaining standards. The fraction of high-school graduates is going down; the fraction of convicted felons is going up. And some of the practices of the military are hard to believe. [...] One of the things we found out is that if you are injured in the first month - say you are signed up for 3 years, 4 years - if you are injured in the first month of the war, of your fighting, the military demands that you repay a pro-rated share of your signup bonus. Because after all, you didn't fulfill the terms of your contract. [...] Now, Congress is likely to change that, but what this helps illustrate is a general point: there are some things where markets really aren't well-designed to serve."
"Many people are going into the Armed Forces today - it's economic coercion. [...] But we don't have a GI Bill for these young people who don't have economic opportunities. And while the GI Bill after World War II helped changed the face of America, what we do with our current troops is we make them pay up front an amount that says, 'okay, if you pay this amount up front, then if you can go to school later on, it gives you the right. But if you don't pay this amount, you can't get these benefits.'"
"In 2005 and 2006, we had already been in the war several years, the Bush administration's request for finance for the Veteran's Aministration was based on projections made in 2002 before the war, as if there had been no casualties, no disabilities, no need for additional money. I think if there had been conscription, if everybody had somebody in their family that was at risk, that would not have occurred."


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FROM: Cat Bouwkamp, U.S. Fencing
This weekend I fenced in the North American Cup in Cincinnati, Ohio in all three weapons, epee, foil and sabre.
I left school early on Thursday to drive over for the training camp that the National Coaches had put together. As the other fencers came in, I saw the same familiar faces and a few new ones as well. Before this competition, I had been the youngest on the national front by 10 years, but a new guy who's 16 as well came to this competition to try fencing.
After the training, we had to get our equipment checked to make sure it passes all the requirements, so we stood in line for an hour and a half.
That night I went to bed early after watching some NCAA basketball -- GO UK! -- and slept like a baby.
The next morning I got up early to fence in with the guys, since I was the only woman signed up. I was unofficially allowed to fence epee with the men in pools and Direct Eliminations. Pools are set up like a round robin competition, and DE's are set up as a bracket, where if you lose you're out. Coming out of pools, I was seeded second out of 10 with all the men. I received a bye through the first round and in the second round beat the first man 15 to 5, and narrowly lost the second bout to two-time Paralympian Mario Rodriguez 15 to 14. I received gold for women since I was the ONLY woman to compete, yay!
The second fencing day was foil and I only went against one other woman and I glided through to get gold with a score of 15 to 2.
That night was a dance marathon back home to raise money for Riley Children's Hospital. I had been on the committee for the past year, so my dad drove me the two hour trip home, and I was in and out of the house and shower within 20 minutes to drive to the dance marathon. It was a great night, and we ended up meeting our goal and raising a little more than $20,000 for a great cause.
The next morning Dad and I woke up at 6 to drive 2 hours back to Cincinnati for another day of competition. That day was sabre, which is my favorite weapon. I watched all the guys fence, and got to hang out and cheer them on. Since there was only one other woman in sabre as well, I won again with a score of 15 to 3.
Overall this weekend was a great success, not only getting to see the guys that I consider my brothers and crazy uncles, but getting in a lot of great practice and competition. In 3 weeks we'll all meet up again at Nationals in Virginia Beach, VA. I can't wait!
Today marks 170 days 'til I fence in London! Good luck to any and everyone in their upcoming trainings and competitions.
Much love,
Cat B
PHOTOS from the North American Cup competition, top to bottom: Cat preparing. Cat (left) in the foil match. Cat, with her Saber gold medal, and coach Val Kizik.


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^ You could also do smoke MOP.
post #19996 of 56885
4/13/13 at 9:17am
We'll have another round of Rudy orders and Factory Finds coming up close to when the last round arrives. I'd say toward the end of the month or early May.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
You're making it really difficult to come up with adjectives to describe how rad your fits are. You walk the formal/casual line well!
Thank you! It's been a great season so far (even though it seems like this has been the longest winter ever). We should have more chinos in around early May. Working on a lot of awesome things with this as well!
They're Alden Color #8 Shell LHS. You can pick them up from Leffot or the Shoe Mart.