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The first thing visitors see when they walk into the museum at Yuma Territorial Prison are hard, flinty eyes.
No, it's not the museum staff having a bad day.
Grim faces of some of the prison's most notorious inmates adorn big banners lining one wall. A murderers row of mug shots includes "Buckskin" Frank Leslie, whom Wyatt Earp compared to Doc Holliday in gun skill; Pearl Hart, who committed the last Arizona stagecoach robbery; and spooky-eyed Elena Estrada, who stabbed her unfaithful lover and then cut open his chest, pulled out his heart and threw the bloody mass into his face.
Now, that's an exhibit!
The bold, eye-grabbing graphics are new. When Yuma took control of the state park, the city organized fundraisers and gave the hilltop hoosegow a complete makeover, starting with the musty museum. New exhibits and artwork paint vivid images of life inside the walls.
Another popular addition is the Gatling gun, a menacing replica of the bullet-spewing beast that thwarted many escape attempts. The 1875 adobe sally port, where prisoners first entered the pen, has been restored, as has the guard tower's wooden deck. Less than 18 months after being slated for closure, Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park looks better than ever.
"When the community rallied to keep the park open, that enthusiasm spread," says Stan Chitwood, who has volunteered at the prison since 1994. "People feel an ownership of the park now, and everyone feels privileged to be part of a cooperative effort."
It's the same at other parks. During a time of economic upheaval, the last thing anyone expected was a rebirth for state parks, but in some ways that's occurring.
In 2009, the Legislature yanked $8.6 million from Arizona State Parks' budget. Thirteen parks were slated for closure. As partnerships with communities and non-profits were forged to keep the gates open and the lights on, a positive aspect of this economic crisis emerged: An army of volunteers stepped forward, rolled up their sleeves and went to work. Parks that were woefully understaffed suddenly had people ready to tackle long-overdue infrastructure problems and move forward on aesthetic projects.
Fort Verde
Fort Verde was one of the 13 doomed parks, but remains open thanks to an agreement with Camp Verde and lots of helping hands. Volunteers spruced up the fort's buildings with new paint, fresh shutters and shake-shingle roofs, all of which had to be carefully researched to maintain historical integrity. The fort was a base for Gen. George Crook's U.S. Army soldiers and scouts during the 1870s and 1880s.
When Camp Verde took over the state historic park, it put out a call for volunteers. Chris Donahue is one of several who answered.
"Fort Verde is so important to Arizona history because it's unique," says Donahue, who gives interpretive tours while dressed in period costume. "These are 140-year-old military buildings still intact, which just aren't found anywhere else. They allow us a rare glimpse at that era. Plus, the park is an invaluable research facility. We have files on virtually everyone who served at the fort and detailed information about the town as well."
Fresh exhibits have been added to the Fort Verde Museum, including a bugle found on the Little Bighorn battlefield in 1878 that later was owned by a colonel stationed at the fort. It had been languishing in a storage room until someone built a proper display a few months ago. Now people come just to see the storied artifact.
"People walk in the door and their first words are, 'Where's the bugle?' " Donahue says. "That's what the park is here for, to preserve and protect that history."
Although state parks may be just a line on a budget sheet to the Legislature, they are vital economic engines for small towns. When parks were threatened with closure, communities such as Yuma, Camp Verde and Tubac took it personally, as if residents were being denied access to their backyards.
"For us, it's about an energetic and visionary staff of volunteers who are passionate about this park and what it means to the town and the state as a whole," says Shaw Kinsley, director of Tubac Presidio State Historic Park.
Tubac Presidio was designated as Arizona's first state park and preserves the heritage and ruins of the first European settlement in what would become Arizona. Thanks to an all-volunteer staff, the park is now open daily, instead of five days a week. The entrance has been redesigned to give visitors a better understanding of the park.
The crown jewel at Tubac is its newest exhibit. Sixteen epic paintings by William Ahrendt line the walls of Otero Hall. Arizona Highways magazine featured Ahrendt's vivid paintings in its Cavalcade of History series from 1987 to 1990. Now 16 giclees (ink-jet printing) on canvas depicting the broad sweep of the state's colorful past are displayed together for the first time.
"Cavalcade of History is a stunning exhibit. And it was made possible because Tubac residents feel very connected to this park," Kinsley says. "It's the same reason we have such a great group volunteering. We have one volunteer who comes in and gives demonstrations on the state's first printing press, which still works perfectly. We have another volunteer who does nothing but put up and maintain bird feeders, which is great for our winter visitors. It's just a matter of people doing what they enjoy in a way that benefits the park."
Parks for the people
No one appreciates the value of this rising volunteer force more than Renee Bahl, executive director of Arizona State Parks.
"The majority of parks would not be open without the help of volunteers. They're fantastic. They're the silver lining in all of this. They lift our morale," Bahl says.
Even parks that are moneymakers benefit from volunteers.
"We wouldn't be able to conduct tours at Kartchner Caverns without volunteers," Bahl says. "The work that volunteers do equates to 120 full-time positions. They're giving new life to the parks."
An impressive thing about Yuma is that the town saved not one but two state parks. Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park is a 10-acre compound that once served as a supply point for all military posts in the Southwest. It also had been slated for closure. Instead, the Yuma Visitor Center was relocated to the park grounds, a free-admission policy was instituted and attendance to the park has quadrupled.
Quentin and Tamara Gerbich of Chandler, along with their children, Jacob, 12, and Allison, 10, spent a recent Sunday afternoon at Fort Verde. They were well aware of the threatened park closures.
"State parks should be open," Quentin says. "We decided to visit as many of the state parks as we can to teach the kids about Arizona history."
And it's not just the kids getting an education.
"We're native Arizonans, and we never knew so many of these places existed," Tamara says.
Explore state parks
State parks are more than scenic and historical treasures; they are the connective tissue of the Arizona experience. Despite much-publicized budget woes, parks are enjoying a renaissance thanks to dedicated staff and hardworking volunteers. Go and see what's new at the state parks in your area. Then travel outside your area and see some more.
Many Arizona parks are now operating with help from their communities, volunteers and even the Hopi Tribe. In addition to the parks featured in this story, Tonto Natural Bridge, Homolovi, McFarland and other parks have benefited from outside support. To volunteer at a state park, visit azstateparks.com.
Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park: Visitors can climb into the guard tower, tour the infamous "snake den" punishment cell and have their mug shots taken at the original mirror used by prisoners to create profile views. While kids may find some historical sites dull, a place where they can lock their siblings in a cell and have mug shots taken wearing prison stripes definitely isn't one of them. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. $5, $2 for ages 7-13.
Details: 1 Prison Hill Road. 928-783-4771, azstateparks.com/Parks/YUTE.
Fort Verde State Historic Park: Experience life through the eyes of a frontier soldier at this fort built in 1871. The park is the best-preserved example of an Indian wars-period fort in Arizona. Tour historic buildings with period furnishings. The museum offers an unblinking look at the hardships of frontier life. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. $4, $2 for ages 7-13.
Details: 125 E. Hollamon St., Camp Verde. 928-567-3275, azstateparks.com/Parks/FOVE.
Tubac Presidio State Historic Park: Tubac was established as a Spanish presidio in 1752. Those early ruins are still visible in an underground exhibit. Visitors also will see an impressive museum that houses Arizona's first printing press (demonstrations are offered), a furnished 1885 schoolhouse, living-history exhibits and Otero Hall, filled with 16 paintings by William Ahrendt capturing the broad sweep of Arizona history. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. $4, $2 for ages 7-13.
Details: 1 Burruel St. 520-398-2252, azstateparks.com/Parks/TUPR.
Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park: The park also serves as the Yuma Visitor Center. All early military posts in the Southwest were supplied via Yuma Quartermaster Depot. Some of Arizona's oldest and best-preserved buildings are situated on high ground above the Colorado River. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Free.
Details: 201 N. Fourth Ave. 928-329-0471, azstateparks.com/Parks/YUQU.
Find the reporter at Facebook.com/RogerNaylorinAZ. Follow him on Twitter: @AZRogerNaylor.
On "Tom Sawyer Day" members of the community come out to help whitewash the fence at Fort Verde.
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Big Data: In-Memory MapReduce
By Jean-Pierre Dijcks-Oracle on Aug 05, 2011
Achieving the impossible often comes at a cost. In the today's big data world that cost is often latency. Bringing real-time, deep analytics to big data requires improvements to the core of the big data platform. In this post we will discuss parallel analytics and how we can bring in-memory – or real-time – to very large data volumes.
The Parallel Platform that run in Memory
One of the often overlooked things we did in Oracle 11.2 is that we changed the behavior of data that resides in memory across a RAC cluster. Instead of restricting the data size to the size of a the memory in a single node in the cluster, we now allow the database to see the memory as a large pool. We no longer do cache fusion to replicate all pieces of data in an object to all nodes.
That cache fusion process is show above. In state A, node 1 has acquired pieces of data into the buffer cache, as has node 2. These are different pieces of data. Cache fusion now kicks in and ensures that all data for that object is in the cache of each node.
In 11.2 we have changed this by allowing parallel execution to leverage the buffer cache as a grid. To do that we no longer do cache fusion, but instead pin (affinitize is the not so nice English word we use) data onto the memory of a node based on some internal algorithm. Parallel execution keeps track of where data lives and shuffles the query to that node (rather than using cache fusion to move data around).
The above shows how this works. P1 and P2 are chunks of data living in the buffer cache and are affinitized with a certain node. The parallel server processes on that node will execute the query and send the results back to the node that originated the query. With this in-memory grid we can process much larger data volumes.
In-Database MapReduce becomes In-Memory MapReduce
We talked about in-database MapReduce quite a bit on this blog, so I won't repeat myself. If you are new to this topic, have a look at this post.
Because of how the database is architected, any code running within it leveraging parallelism can now use the data hosted in memory of the machine. Whether this is across the grid or not, doesn't matter. So rather than having to figure out how to create a system that allows for MapReduce code to run in memory, you need to just figure out how to write the code, Oracle will ensure that if the data fits, it will leverage memory instead of disk. That is shown in the following picture.
Now, is this big data? Well, if I look at an Exadata X2-8 machine today, we will have 2TB of memory to work with and with Exadata Hybrid Columnar Compression (yes the data resides in memory on compressed state) this means I should easily be able to run upwards of 10TB in memory. As memory footprints grow, more data will fit within the memory and we can do more and more interesting analytics on that data, bringing at least realtime to some fairly complex analytics.
More at Oracle Openworld
For those of you who are going to San Francisco (with or without flowers in your hat), expect to see and hear a lot more on big data and MapReduce! See you there!

subset: commoncrawl


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FrameWorks is a Mission West Virginia program that finds families for children waiting in the foster care system. We believe that all children are adoptable and deserving of a permanent, loving family.
T.H.I.N.K. is a program through Mission West Virginia, Inc. (MWV) that focuses on adolescents and their health. The program provides education to adolescents in West Virginia on issues related to teen pregnancy prevention, making healthy decisions, and positive relationship development.
e-IMPACT focuses on providing computer hardware and training to people across the state and Appalachian region who would otherwise find it difficult, if not impossible, to bridge the digital divide and develop the skills necessary to succeed in the emerging information-based economy.
Contact us.
Mission West Virginia
168 Midland Trail, Suite 1
Hurricane, WV 25526


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Call us at +(512) 275-6300 | Hours 9-6 PM CST
Need Help? Click here to chat with us!
Free Shipping on All orders over $85.00 in Continental US *Some restrictions apply
The 501-27 3-leg frame has a light design despite of the 276 lbs. max load and has new unique characteristics for height adjustable tables:
The frame width of 59-13/16" x 56-7/8" is an ideal size for corner office environments, home offices etc.
The triple column system gives great stability. Powder coated in RAL 9006 (silver). The 501-27 3-leg is a modern, light design desk at a very reasonable price.
Parts are guaranteed for two years, however, seller MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER WRITTEN, ORAL, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, or STATUTORY relating to the LIMITATION OF goods purchased from or through seller. RESELLER HEREBY EXCLUDES ANY WARRANTY OF BUYER''''S REMEDIES MERCHANT ABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Buyer waives all claims against seller relating to goods purchased from or through seller, and agrees to assert all claims for breach of warranty, contract, or tort against the manufacturer of the goods. The parties agree that buyer''''s sole and exclusive remedy shall be for the repair or replacement of defective goods by the manufacturer in accordance with the manufacturer''''s customary warranty. All specifications and engineering information have been obtained from the product manufacturers for buyer''''s convenience only. Seller does not assume responsibility for accuracy of the information provided by the manufacturer. Motor: 2 years Metal Parts: 5 years
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Most orders over $85 ship FREE within the continental United States. Shipments to Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, U.S. territories, APO, and FPO addresses do not qualify for the free shipping program.
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Enter Spa 6, one of the most luxurious spa hotels in the UK and discover a haven for the body and mind. Spa 6 is a truly tranquil setting for an enviable range of beauty treatments and spa facilities designed to pleasure, pamper, enhance your fitness and ensure you enjoy a genuine spa experience. Set in the heart of the Cotswolds, this Cotswolds Spa Hotel is the perfect place to experience some real 'me-time'.
Call 01285 864071 to book or enquire.
Find new, innovative ways to enhance and energise your body and mind. Whether you want to improve your fitness, shape-up or unwind, our Spa and Leisure Club boasts all the latest facilities in a contemporary setting.
See complete list of facilities
Our state-of-the-art gym offers a full range of Technogym equipment including, running machines, exercise bikes, stepping machines, cross trainers, wave machines and a comprehensive resistance section with a free weight training area. Our highly qualified team, including on-site fitness trainers, are available to advise you and assist you with your personal fitness programme, as well as to simply listen, offer advice and ensure that you feel totally at ease.
Lay back and relax in our 11 metre hydrotherapy pool, which relaxes muscles and stimulates blood flow.
From the moment you step into our sauna, your senses will be soothed by the gentle heat, which cleanse and purify body and mind.
Awaken your entire body with our luxurious experience shower which stimulates the blood flow and leaves skin tingling.
After time in the sauna, cool down with our bucket shower, which releases a bucket of cool water – a vital part of the genuine spa experience.
Scented with exotic aromas, our steam room helps to cleanse the body and arouse the senses.
After a treatment it is important to let the body relax to maximise its benefits. Our relaxation room is designed especially for that, with comfortable loungers, a tranquil atmosphere and a selection of refreshments available for 30 minutes after your body treatment.
Experience the ultimate state of tranquillity in our state-of-the-art, dry floatation room.
An ancient Arabic tradition that uses mud to purify and soften the skin.
Ready and waiting to give those vital finishing touches.
*Additional charges apply. Pre booking is recommended
At Spa 6, our members and guests are our number one priority. As a member of Spa 6, part of one of the best Spa hotels in the UK, you will benefit not only from the highest levels of service and facilities, but also from a wide range of additional benefits.
There is no better way to relax than with one of our luxurious spa day packages. Whether you have something to celebrate or are just in need of some serious pampering, there is a Spa 6 package to suit you. And why not stay at one of the best spa hotels in the UK?
Exclusive to Spa 6, these luxury treatments have been prepared with you, our guest, in mind. We have worked with skincare experts from Decléor Paris to create this special range. Whichever you choose, your therapist will tailor it to suit your individual needs.
We offer a wide range of Decléor treatments from relaxing massages to cleansing facials to those all important finishing touches. Decléor products use only the finest 100% essential oils and natural plant extracts. Rebalance mind, body and spirit with Aromatherapy and Phytotherapy.
Monday - Friday 6.00am until 10.00pm
Saturday – Sunday 7.30am until 9.00pm
Last entry 30 minutes prior to closing
Children are not permitted in the spa treatment area or gymnasium, however they may use the spa pool at restricted times. Children's swimming times are as follows:
Monday – Friday; 7.00am – 9.30am & 3.00pm – 6.00pm
Saturday and Sunday; 8.00am – 10.00am & 3.00pm – 6.00pm
We respectfully ask that guests with children who are 16 and under can adhere to these times. Children under the age of 16 need adult supervision at all times in the pool. Unfortunately we cannot allow children less than 2 years old to use the facilities due to the increased risks associated with the hydrotherapy elements of the pool. Children are not permitted to use the sauna and steam rooms.
Click here
Copyright © 2015 Principal Hayley Group. All rights reserved.


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What is in this article?:
- Prepping sprayers for 2014: newest tech on the market
- Tricking out your sprayer
- What's on your turret?
On-farm sprayers are gaining value due to crop protection, productivity improvement tasks. Maintaining your farm's sprayer means working through numerous details. Look at key factors when considering an update or a trade for better performance.
More About:
Tricking out your sprayer
Better controls, greater precision and other enhancements are available from third-party players.
Your existing sprayer, whether pull-type or self-propelled, is a significant investment. Keeping it modern and efficient starts with calibration and proper nozzle selection, but these days there are other tools coming on the market. The list is long, and what follows is a look at some key product areas that offer the opportunity to push up sprayer efficiency and value.
Making your sprayer 'digital'
You're going to be hearing more about pulse width modulation, or PWM, as sprayer makers work to offer a wider operating range for sprayers. TeeJet is just one company rolling out new technology in this area with its DynaJet Flex 7120 system. It offers enhanced rate control and speed-independent sprayer consistency. With PWM, the spray pulses through the nozzle at a constant rate that can easily compensate for sprayer speed changes and with a wider range of flexibility than a standard system.
For example, with a constant pressure system and a standard controller, your speed range may be pretty fixed between 5 and 15 mph. With PWM, that range widens to as much as 2 to 20 mph, giving you much more flexibility under a range of spray conditions.
TeeJet is also rolling out a droplet size monitor, the Sentry 6120, that can provide real-time views of just how your spray nozzle is performing. A compact standalone monitor can show you, based on pressure and flow, just want kind of droplet pattern you're getting as you roll through the field. Learn more at teejet.com.
Enhanced nozzle control
Altek, a European company, is moving into the U.S. market; on its home turf, the pull-type sprayer is much more common. The firm offers Smart Nozzle nozzle-by-nozzle control, and this year has enhanced the system controller to use an Android tablet for better performance. The Elektra all-electric nozzle control is replacing the air-over-electronic control the company has offered in the past, and is just entering the market.
The system works with both pull-type and self-propelled sprayers. And that tablet control links to the system using a Bluetooth connection. That eliminates a wiring harness in the cab just to have that display with you. Learn more about the Elektra by visiting h-agtec.com.
Height control
Consistent boom height over the crop canopy can enhance sprayer efficacy, and Bestway offers the AutoGlide system as an aftermarket add-on. The system uses ultrasonic range sensors mounted on the spray boom to continually monitor and maintain height of the booms above the crop canopy.
The system ties into your machine's existing electric-over-hydraulic controls for simpler installation, and a compact in-cab controller uses a straightforward menu for setup and calibration. You can also adjust the height on the go. Learn more at bestway-inc.com.


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Army coach Rich Ellerson cut off the question with a quick shake of his head.
Army falls short to Navy once again
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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Not long after Benito Jones got the offer from his dream school, the star defensive tackle knew he had to make the commitment.
Jones, a 6-foot-2, 275-pound defensive lineman from Waynesboro, Miss., became Alabama's first commitment for the class of 2016. Jones, who grew up an Alabama fan, committed to Alabama head coach Nick Saban in his office on Sunday night.
Jones was visiting Alabama for the start of its prospect camp, which runs through Wednesday.
"(Saban was telling me) some things about school and how to keep your grades up and how to be a leader on and off the field," Jones said. "He said to keep playing hard.
"I told him I wanted to commit. He looked at me like, 'Are you playing or not?' I told him I was for real and I wanted to commit."
Jones said he could play anywhere on the defensive line, but likely projects as a defensive tackle. He's a 4-star recruit and ranked No. 98 nationally on the 247Sports composite rankings. Jones is ranked as the No. 10 defensive tackle nationally and Mississippi's No. 3 prospect.
Alabama offered Jones on May 18, he said, and even though he has two more years of high school left at Wayne County, he felt that it was the right time.
"I went up there for A-Day and got to see all the stuff," Jones said. "When I was there for a campus visit, I saw a lot of stuff and it caught my eye and I liked it. I said that's the place where I belong."
Jones, a top prospect already with offers from Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Georgia and Florida State, maintained that he is 100 percent committed to Alabama, but will visit other schools for camps.
Even with just one commit, Alabama is ranked No. 11 in the 247Sports team rankings for 2016. Miami already has six commits, while Ole Miss and Florida have three each. Jones was recruited to Alabama primarily by assistants Bo Davis and Burton Burns.


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Work Interests Used in Occupational Profiles
Work interests indicate a person's preferences for work environments and outcomes. The interest areas listed in each occupational profile indicate the two interest areas most strongly related to the preferences of workers in the occupation. The interest areas used in the occupational profiles are the Holland Occupational Themes (RIASEC), a theory of careers and vocational choice based upon personality types. It was developed by the psychologist John L. Holland. Each letter or code stands for a particular "type": Realistic (Doers), Investigative (Thinkers), Artistic (Creators), Social (Helpers), Enterprising (Persuaders) and Conventional (Organizers).
Artistic (Creators) - are artistic and like change. They enjoy using their imagination, creativity, feelings and intuition. They like working in jobs where they are free to set their own schedule.
Conventional (Organizers) - detail oriented and organized. They like to analyze data, keep financial records and do research. They can be counted on to be accurate and enjoy structure and closure.
Enterprising (Persuaders) - like to influence, persuade or lead people and manage others. They enjoy working on a team toward goals, competition and business-like activities.
Investigative (Thinkers) - interested in science and logic. They like to analyze, evaluate and solve problems, and enjoy learning and understanding the causes of events.
Realistic (Doers) - prefer to work with objects, things, machines, tools, plants or animals. They have mechanical ability, enjoy being outdoors and working with their hands.
Social (Helpers) - like to work with other people. They enjoy teaching, helping and curing people. They are good with words.
For more information, visit O*Net Online.


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It's been a wet summer in Mercer County, and puddles, pools and swamps have been producing a bumper crop of mosquitoes. But county and state mosquito watchers are fighting back.
Last September, the county's mosquito squad logged 27 service requests from county residents besieged by the tiny bloodsuckers.
Fast-forward one year, and they've already crossed the 200-request mark for this month.
"On a year like this, when we had 20 inches of rain in the month of August, we're getting significant numbers that I've never seen in my career, and I've been doing this for 12 years," said Ary Farajollahi, superintendent of the county's mosquito control division.
As the state continues to dry out from Hurricane Irene and other late-summer storms, entomologists and mosquito experts in the county and state are warning of elevated mosquito numbers.
The county has already received 500 more service calls than usual this year. In a recent week, one data count found 12.28 mosquitoes in each observation trap, compared with a historical average of 2.94.
The insects breed in the standing water left by floods and heavy rains, and this summer's soggy weather has provided the kind of water-filled swamps, buckets and garbage cans in which mosquitoes thrive.
Standing in Hamilton's Bear Swamp, near the Assunpink Creek, Farajollahi pointed to pools of water that have lain stagnant for weeks.
"When you get flooding like this throughout the county, that's going to translate to extensive amounts of mosquito production and that's really been a big, big problem for us this year," he said, slapping away one particularly persistent member of the Psorophora ferox species.
Mosquitoes don't just bite and cause itchy red welts. The insects are vectors for a variety of diseases, including West Nile virus, which sickened a 50-year-old Hamilton man earlier this summer.
One variety, the invasive Asian tiger mosquito, can spread 30 different diseases, from West Nile to Dengue fever.
The county is battling back against the pests, embarking on a monitoring and spraying campaign that included helicopter spraying in the wake of Hurricane Irene.
"We really wanted to use the very latest techniques to get aggressive with our mosquito control approaches because we know this is going to be a very bad year," said Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes.
The state has stepped up its pesticide application too, warning that late summer and early fall bring an increased chance of contracting West Nile from mosquitoes, especially when the weather's been wet.
Bucks County, Pa., will spray for adult mosquitoes — the prime carriers of disease — on Monday in Solebury Township near New Hope.
In Mercer, the fight has taken a toll on Farajollahi's team, which includes five inspectors and five to six seasonal workers.
Workers may spend the night and early morning running pesticide trucks to attack adult mosquitoes, only to head out again during the day to apply larvicide to mosquito breeding grounds.
"It's been brutal on our staff this year," he said.
He's asked residents to pitch in with mosquito prevention, especially when it comes to the Asian tiger mosquito, which prefers small, water-filled containers to swamps and floodlands.
The county is monitoring three sites in Hamilton and Trenton for the black-and-white striped species, which bites people and mammals throughout the day, not just the usual period at dawn and dusk.
A $3.8 million federal grant has allowed the county to partner with Rutgers and Brandeis universities to study and work on eradicating the mosquito.
"Unfortunately, in the city of Trenton we're dealing with a lot of abandoned pieces of properties and there's a lot of trash and a lot of debris and even stuff as simple as a puddle that's going to stand around and collect water that's going to produce mosquitoes," Farajollahi said.
Besides applying repellent, residents can help by draining anything holding standing water on their property, from kiddie pools to planters to birdbaths.
"Mosquito control is a job for everyone and we need help from residents to control the populations that are on their own properties," he said.
Contact Erin Duffy at firstname.lastname@example.com or (609) 989-5723.


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Grottola and Munna Family
Are you looking for an Italian surname? Do you need more information about your family heritage?
This is the right place to start your genealogy search.
This is the right place to start your genealogy search.
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
- genealogynut
- Newbie
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Grottola and Munna Family
I need help in locating the churchs in Foggia Italy. Just found out my grandparents came from there. If I could get Church names I can write to them but have no idea how to go about locating churchs. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you Mary
Thank you Mary
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OnomasticoYesterday : s. Sabina Today : s. Simone Tomorrow : s. Ermelinda


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At some point today, the RAGE tool kit will be released to Steam for your user-content creating pleasure. The download will be pretty dang hefty, weighing in at over 35 GB.
Bethesda made the announcement earlier today on the company's official blog. The kit utilizes "the same tools used to create RAGE and its DLC, The Scorchers." Packed with assets and game maps, users will presumably have all they need to start modding the crap out of the first idTech 5 title.
Before getting started, Bethesda does recommend checking out some reading material they've provided. The tools are understandably complex and targeted towards "technically sophisticated and adventurous" modders. Those documents can be found here, on Bethesda's blog.
When the kit is released, you'll be able to find it under the Tools section of Steam, the same place where you may download Skyrim's Creation Kit.


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The Local Courthouse Safety Act is introduced in the House of Representatives
On July 25, H.R. 6185, the Local Courthouse Safety Act of 2012, was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.). The bill has now been introduced in both chambers of Congress and is gaining considerable bipartisan support. This legislation will allow courthouses to receive unused security equipment, such as metal detectors, wands, and baggage screeners, from federal agencies as well as allocate existing federal funding toward courthouse security equipment. The next step for H.R. 6185 is a mark up by the House Judicial Committee and a subsequent vote, which will likely happen after Congress comes back from August recess.
NCRA has been critical in working with House and Senate leaders to pass this absolutely critical legislation for our members, and will remain actively involved in the process until this legislation is passed into law. Our involvement with this legislation helped to secure a bipartisan group of important cosponsors on the House Judiciary Committee which will help this legislation pass through committee when it comes up for a vote. The legislation currently has eight cosponsors, including Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), Bobby Scott (D-Va.), Ted Poe (R-Texas), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Howard Coble (R-N.C.), and Mark Amodei (R-Nev.).
In a promising sign for the legislation, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed this legislation with broad bipartisan support via a voice vote, a very promising sign for the bill. Sen. Al Franken (D- Minn.), the legislation's champion, stated after the bill's advancement to the full Senate, "Our local sheriffs, judges, and other court personnel, as well as the public, should be able to carry on business in our local courthouses knowing they are safe."
NCRA appreciates the leadership by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), and Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.) to introduce this vital piece of legislation into Congress. NCRA's Government Relations Department will continue to work closely with Congress to gain support for the bill in order for it to pass. For more information on the Local Courthouse Safety Act of 2012, please visit NCRA's Government Relations Page.


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Dear Barbara: I saw Robert Irvine on the Food Network showing a failing restaurant chef how to make a pie without a soggy crust. He baked the bottom crust, cooled it, and smeared a layer of butter on the bottom and sides to prevent the juices from leaking under the crust. Chef Irvine then filled the center with apples, sugar and spices, and placed the top uncooked crust over the apples. The pie was perfectly baked.
I did the same thing and it was totally burnt on the bottom; the juices were everywhere; the edges of the bottom crust were burnt. I did dock it a little bit, but just enough that it wouldn't bubble. I baked it according to the recipe I had. Where do you think I may have gone wrong? — Jo Lea from Lodi


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Liz Benjamin of the Daily News has video footage of City Councilman Charles Barron's press conference at City Hall this afternoon calling for Speaker Christine Quinn to resign.
Liz also quotes Council Republican Minority Leader James Oddo, a friend of Ms. Quinn's who has emerged as one of her closest allies since recent revelations that her staffers stashed away money into fictitious groups for mid-year budget allocations.
Oddo, a Staten Islander, happened to be on the steps talking to political consultant Hank Sheinkopf as Ms. Quinn coincidentally walked by Barron's press conference as she entered City Hall.
Oddo has parted company with Ms. Quinn on many issues, including a domestic partnership bill he opposed in the Council. (Ms. Quinn is openly gay.) He also voted against congestion pricing and does not agree with her recent reform measure in response to recent revelations about an ongoing investigation into her office's accounting practices, and a subsequent reform measure she proposed.


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50 years ago we ran into Podere La Pieve, whose name derives from an old, Romanesque church made of white and pink stones, dating back to the year 1000. The house was abandoned, everything was missing. There was only a big fireplace.
To get there we had to follow a bumpy path and the land was uncultivated. We decided to buy it anyway.
We tried our best to make it become comfortable. We looked after the garden, cultivated the fields and planted new vineyards and olive trees. We dedicated all our energies to the renovation of the other buildings to be able to accommodate people that are lovers of the nature like we are and interested in a direct contact with our territory.
As managers of an Agriturismo we are pioneers: we have got licence number 5 in the entire province. With the passing of the time La Pieve has returned to be what it was in the past: a characteristic stone farmhouse, immersed in the forest and full of charm.
At guests' disposal:
Shared Pool 8 mt in diameter, depth 1,50 mt.
Large garden and wood with walking trails.
Each apartment ( 5 in total) has a private outside space with table and chairs.
Shared barbecue in common area, shared washing machine.
Colle val d'Elsa at 4 km
Parking within the grounds.
Bus km 5
We suggets to come with your own car
San Gimignano and the Elsa valley (Val d'Elsa)
Maybe the expression has been used to many times but it's still appropriate: There's no better comparison than calling San Gimignano, the city of hundred towers, the "Medieval Manhattan".
A kind of fortified village that, to the great joy of the visitors from all over the world, seems to have "turned to ice" in the 14th century to keep alive the miracle of an urban and architectonical structure that has remained unchanged over the centuries. In the last 25 years luck was on the side of this corner of the Sienese land: By now San Gimignano has surpassed in celebrity many bigger and more important places. It's the home of one of the most famous and antique Tuscan wines, the only white wine which is well known all over the world: the Vernaccia.
Certainly it's not enough to mention only the inevitable comparison with Manhattan (by now there are only 18 towers left). The little town and its territory have so much more to offer.
The Elsa valley, antique and very civilized land, cradle of the trade routes in this region and cradle of learning and art from the time of the High Middle Ages, rich in famous monuments, beautiful little towns and breathtaking panoramas.
Let's mention just some of them: Colle di Val d'Elsa, the city of crystal, Casole, Monteriggioni with its intact city walls that have been celebrated even in Dante's Divine Comedy, Poggibonsi and its fortress of Poggio Imperiale, an uncountable number of Romanesque parish churches (like the one of Cellole or the extraordinary Badia a Isola), oratories, monasteries, castles and villages.
All these sights are not only relics of a glorious past, but they are still a symbol of the territory's richness which still lasts thanks to the industriousness of its people and a dense network of trades that has its origins in medieval times, when the Via Francigena ran through the Elsa valley, the road which connected the papal town of Rome with Northern Europe between the 9th and the 15th century with a steady stream of warriors, pilgrims, saints and emperors.
Today we can still find some traces of this extraordinary road which explain why in the course of the centuries villages, castles, bridges and pilgrims' hospitals have been built just where they are and not anywhere else.
Ground floor apartment.
Double bedroom with en-suite bathroom with shower, living room with cooking area and double sofa bed.
The apartment is characterized by old stone walls.


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Dear Pat: Please explain why water no longer runs over the spillway on Patch Road, just off Liberty Road. A Horton reader
Dear Reader: The spillway was installed several years ago at the Putney Mill Pond, which is part of the Grand River, according in Liberty Township Supervisor Jim Spink.
He describes the spillway as a relief valve; when water levels are high, it relieves the overflow of water and sends it on downstream.
The spillway replaced a culvert.
This spring, you may see less water over the spillway because the water levels are lower than in years' past, he said, so less water makes it to the spillway.
Dear Pat: Several years ago, it was common to see Consumers Energy vehicles that had a statement painted on them that said "This vehicle powered by compressed natural gas." Do their vehicles no longer use natural gas as fuel? A Jackson reader
Dear Reader: Consumers Energy is replacing older vehicles in its fleet with hybrid electric vehicles. There are still about 10 natural gas fueled vehicles in the fleet, said utility spokesman Jeff Holyfield. So far, the company has purchased seven hybrid-electric cars and pickups that are being tested, with plans to purchase more, including large vehicles such as bucket trucks.
The new "green" vehicles will be marked so the public can identify them, he said.
The natural gas fueled vehicles never really took off in popularity. Gasoline stations could't make enough profit off the natural gas fuel, and phased it out as the pumps aged and needed expensive maintenance and repairs.
Dear Pat: What can be done about people who violate a clearly posted "No Solicitors" sign and leave their advertisements and literature on your property? A Michigan Center reader
Dear Reader: In order for the police to enforce a "No Solicitors" posting on your property, you must first ask the person to leave your premises, according to Tom Finco, Jackson County undersheriff.
"If they refuse, a police officer can then arrest them," Finco said.
If, however, the material is left on your property when you are not home (in spite of your posting,) you may also want to try contacting the organization that sponsors the literature or advertisements and make a complaint directly to them.


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A candidate seeking the top job at the University of New Orleans has withdrawn his name from consideration for the post, while the remaining four candidates will interview for the job next week. Raymond Alden III, executive vice president and provost at Northern Illinois University, withdrew his candidacy Tuesday. No reasons were given, but University of Louisiana System President Randy Moffett said it's not uncommon for candidates to make such moves during a presidential search.
Moffett, who also chairs the university's presidential search committee, said the panel will hold public interviews with the remaining candidates -- Colin Scanes on Nov. 29; Steven Goodman on Nov. 30 and Peter Fos and Michael Wartell on Dec. 1
The committee will then select at least two finalists to be interviewed by the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System on Dec. 9 in Baton Rouge.
In addition to public interviews, each candidate will meet with faculty, staff, administrators, students, and community members. A full schedule of meetings is posted at www.ulsystem.edu/UNOSearch.
Fos is a professor at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans; Goodman is vice president for research at State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse; Wartell is chancellor of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne; and Scanes has served as a vice chancellor at the University of Wisconsin.
UNO's presidency has been open since September 2010 when then-chancellor Tim Ryan was ousted amid disagreements with officials of the LSU system. Since then, the Legislature has approved the transfer of UNO from the LSU system to the University of Louisiana system, which governs eight other universities around the state.


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Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone
By Marta Cooper / 18 April 2012
Azerbaijani journalist and Index award-winner Idrak Abbasov was brutally assaulted today.
Idrak Abbasov was filming the demolition of a house by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) in the village of Sulutapa. His brother told reporters that several SOCAR employees grabbed the journalist's camera and started kicking him. "He was covered in blood, his head was broken, and one eye was fully closed. I ran up and tried to protect Idrak, but they started beating me," Roman Abbasov said, adding that he took his brother to hospital after police blocked doctors from reaching their home.
Index understands that other reporters were present at the scene but Abbasov was singled out by his attackers. When Reporters from the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS) later attempted to travel to the scene to document the attacks, their taxi was pulled over by SOCAR employees and the journalists and their taxi driver were beaten.
Abbasov is believed to have suffered rib fractures and concussion. His family are awaiting news on damage to his internal organs.
Kirsty Hughes, Index's chief executive urged the Azerbaijan government to launch a full, transparent and independent investigation into the brutal attacks against Abbasov, his brother and colleagues. She said:
Idrak Abbasov was awarded the Guardian journalism prize at the Index on Censorship free expression awards for his brave reporting and for standing up to state intimidation in Azerbaijan. This attack against him and other journalists is truly horrific. The fact that police were present and failed to intervene reveals the level of hostility against journalists and activists among Azerbaijan's authorities.
"In Azerbaijan, where I have come from, telling the truth can cost a journalist their life," he said upon receiving the award last month.
On 9 September 2011, after Abbasov investigated the activities of a local oil company, SOCAR sent bulldozers to his family's home and claimed ownership of the site as part of a project to develop local oil resources with Global Energy Azerbaijan Ltd. His parents and brother were hospitalised after being attacked by the company's security service during the incident.
One assailant reportedly said: "Tell Idrak to get smarter, or we will cut off his ears."
It is believed that bulldozers targeted Abbasov's home because of his work monitoring human rights. The journalist, one of IRFS' founding members, reports for newspaper Ayna-Zerkalo and contributes to the Institute for War & Peace Reporting.
Listing the threats of detention and harassment Azerbaijani journalists face, Abbasov said at the Index awards:
This is the price that my colleagues in Azerbaijan are paying for the right of the Azerbaijani people to know the truth about what is happening in their country. For the sake of this right we accept that our lives are in danger, as are the lives of our families. But the goal is worth it, since the right to truth is worth more than a life without truth.
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Plants → Magnoliophyta → Magnoliopsida → Proteales → Proteaceae Juss. → Lambertia Sm. → Lambertia multiflora Lindl. → Lambertia multiflora Lindl. var. multiflora
Many-stemmed shrub, to 2 m high. Fl. orange-red, Apr or Jun to Oct or Dec. White or grey sand, brown sandy clay, laterite gravel, limestone. Sandplains, slopes, plains.
Beard's Provinces: South-West Province.
IBRA Regions: Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain.
IBRA Subregions: Avon Wheatbelt P2, Dandaragan Plateau, Lesueur Sandplain, Northern Jarrah Forest, Perth.
Local Government Areas (LGAs): Carnamah, Coorow, Dandaragan, Gingin, Irwin, Moora, Three Springs, Victoria Plains.
Publication or other use of content on this site is unauthorised unless that use conforms with the copyright statement.


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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – A Texas-based chain of head lice removal clinics will expand outside its home state for the first time with a franchise in Bessemer.
The Lice Place, based in suburban Houston, will open April 8 at 1201 Lake Drive in the Morgan Village Shopping Center, according to Ponder Properties Commercial Real Estate, which leases the center. The franchise will be owned by John Powell and Terra Dillard.
The clinics use a pesticide-free manual method to remove lice and nits, Powell and Dillard said in a prepared statement.
The Texas company was founded by Penny Warner, a registered nurse, and has five locations in Texas.
Head lice grow to a length of two to three millimeters and attach eggs at the base of a hair shaft, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The insects feed on human blood. Six million to 12 million U.S. children between the ages of 3 and 11 are infested annually, according to the CDC.


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Georgia mansion, listed for $40 million in 1993, sells for $7.8 – the buyer intends to tear it down.
Daily Archives: August 21, 2010
17 years on the market? We've got an older one than that in Greenwich
Filed under Uncategorized
Eddie Lampert, Sears, and why you should short the company
From brother Anthony, a tale of woe about Sears, Roebuck.
The tale concerns Sears, Roebuck & Company, a company for which I've always had a soft spot. Whatever the dowdiness of their stores and catalogs, Sears for a long time had a well-deserved reputation for service. Not any more.
Back in June, after moving into new digs in a co-op in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, one of the relatively new Kenmore air conditioners that came with the place came down with a fearsome rattle. I called Sears In-Home Repair Services to schedule a repair. Ten days hence was the earliest date they could give me (in fairness, it was the onset of the long hot summer), with a four-hour time window for arrival. On the appointed day I took time off from work and waited at home for the repairman. No one showed up and no one from Sears called.
A phone call from me to Sears prompted a perfunctory apology and offer of a new repair date, again ten days hence, with a four-hour time-window for arrival. I asked if I might expect more than that from Sears and was told I might not. I asked the operator if I might speak with someone higher up and she adamantly refused. I nevertheless agreed to the new repair date (it was bloody hot and it was the bedroom AC that was ailing) but also fired off an email to Sears protesting its less-than-stellar performance. I received the following less-than-mollifying (and literate) reply.
Dear Anthony Fountain,
Thank you for contacting Sears. We appreciate hearing from you.
We sincerely apologize that we did not deliver on your expectations with your recent experience with Sears. Please know that we appreciate your business and value you as a customer. By sharing your feedback, you have made it possible for us to address the issues. We will pass your feedback along to our teams, to ensure that Sears can achieve excellence in everything we do.
Mary J.
Sears Holding Corporation
(It reads as if it were copied and pasted from a training manual, doesn't it?) Unfortunately, sharing that feedback with the Sears teams had little effect. On the next scheduled repair date I again took time off from work and again waited at home for the repairman. No one showed up and no one from Sears called.
A somewhat testier phone call to Sears resulted in, you guessed it, more perfunctory apologies and yet another suggestion of a new repair date, this time only seven days hence (the heat wave had finally broken), with the usual four-hour time-window for arrival. When I pointed out this was the second no-show, the woman on the wire told me there was nothing she could do but after considerable discussion, at last offered me a coupon good for "free home-repair consulting services" from Sears which, having no need for them, I declined. On the scheduled date, yet again, I took time off from work and waited at home for the repairman. No one showed up and no one from Sears called.
By this time, as you might imagine, I had worked up a fair head of steam and was hell-bent reaching someone, anyone, at Sears who might be able to do something about this. After vigorous discussion with an operator at the Sears In-Home Repair Services, who repeatedly denied my request to speak to someone in management, she finally relented and transferred me to the Sears "Customer Solutions" Department. Again, more perfunctory apologies and, you guessed it, an offer of a new repair date with a four-hour time-window for arrival. At this point I had decided Sears' owed me considerably more than just another repair date and told the "Customer Solutions" woman just that. More discussion ensued but eventually she offered up a fifty-dollar gift card. Nope. More discussion still: finally, after repeatedly denying my request to speak to someone higher up, she transferred me, after my being on hold for a long, long time, to one Mike, her manager.
Ah, what a piece of work was Mike! Mike (he refused to tell me his last name but eventually disclosed his "employee number," 80821, so that will have to do) seemed determined to break me. Badgering and berating me, constantly interrupting me by accusing me of interrupting him, Mike 80821 chided me for turning down the fifty-dollar gift card offered earlier. Because I had turned it down, he truculently informed me, he would not offer it again, and demanded I accept his offer of…you ready? Yup, a new repair date with a four-hour time-window for arrival. I told Mike 80821 nothing would satisfy me now other than a free repair job and boy, oh boy did that set him off. I stood my ground and finally Mike 80821 threw in the towel and transferred me to his boss, a Jeff Wolf who, astoundingly enough, actually seemed sympathetic to my plight.
Alas, while we were negotiating a settlement, we got cut off. Jeff, to his credit, tried calling back but got mired in my voice mail. I tried calling Jeff back but not having his extension could not make it past what obviously serves as the Sears' employees' line of defense: the "Customer Solutions" department.
I find it astonishing that a company can be so contemptuous of its customers. I can only assume the employees at Sears are circling the wagons, preparing for their employer's imminent demise. Too bad, though, it used to be a good company.
Filed under Uncategorized
This is why we should still have vocational ed
NYT: Bank robber forgets to don mask
EDEN, N.Y. (AP) — Note to would-be bank robbers: when robbing a bank, be sure to put on your mask. Police said a robbery suspect had a dust mask around his neck but didn't pull it over his face when he walked into an HSBC branch Wednesday afternoon in the town of Eden, 15 miles south of Buffalo.
The bank's surveillance video shows the man walking into the bank and handing a teller a note that police said demanded money. The video also shows a dust mask that remains hanging around the man's neck.
While handing the note to the teller, the man answers his cell phone, then grabs the note and runs out of the bank.
Police speculate that the call came from the suspect's get-away driver, alerting him that he forgot to put on his mask.
The suspect remains at large.
Filed under Uncategorized
Dutch girl, 14, freed to try solo circumnavigation
You may remember that the Dutch authorities had barred the attempt but they've relented after she, like those boys in Jaws", got a bigger boat" and proved she could sail it. Good luck to you, lass.
Comments Off on Dutch girl, 14, freed to try solo circumnavigation
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For once, we agree
Biden warns voters that they won't like Republican alternative. I've never liked the Republican alternative.
Filed under Uncategorized
The NYT discovers the Brant divorce
Lots of gossip. Better than Scusie!
HE was a billionaire with a vast art collection and his very own polo team. She was a Sports Illustrated supermodel and the ex-girlfriend of a rock star. The union of Peter and Stephanie Brant was always a bit odd, and now it has turned into one of the most bitter, high-profile divorces in years.
By the time Brant v. Brant goes to trial on Sept. 20, the two sides will have generated more than 12,000 pages of public divorce documents (with thousands more sealed), paid millions of dollars in lawyers fees and fractured an already delicate cadre of family and friends forced to take sides.
Among their neighbors in Greenwich, the enclave of hedge fund managers and Connecticut bluebloods, the reaction to the Brants' nasty dispute is largely one of witnessing a car wreck they want to move quickly past.
Mr. Brant's looks weren't nearly as attention getting as Ms. Seymour's — Vanity Fair once described him as a "taller, more dashing version of Buddy Hackett" — but Ms. Seymour seemed taken. "He's strong, intelligent, sensitive," she told People magazine in 1994, "and very masculine."
Filed under Uncategorized
A couple of sales reported yesterday
31 Dandy Drive, a 1957 original on one acre, sold for $950,000. It came on a year ago last May, asking $1.249. Assessment is $899,000.
74 Porchuck, an 1885 house, renovated in 2004, sold for $1.385 after asking $1.695. Assessed at $1.219. It's a beautiful home but has just 1.2 acres in the 4 – acre zone, so no adding on. Still, I personally would prefer it to Dandy Drive.
Comments Off on A couple of sales reported yesterday
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RIPLEY Beginning next week, some Ripley residents may have to travel to purchase groceries, gas and other items after it was announced the town's Country Fair convenience store will be shutting its doors.
According to Town of Ripley Supervisor Pete Ryan, the official closing date of the store is expected to be Sunday, June 13. He said the closing would have a major impact on the community, especially to senior citizens and others who may not have ready access to transportation.
"It's a very important business," Ryan said. "From an employment standpoint, it has a significant impact. There are a lot of folks who rely on the Country Fair for essential groceries."
Article Photos
Photo by S. Alexander Gerould
Country Fair in Ripley will close Sunday for good. It is the only gas station in town.
Ryan said he has been in touch with Country Fair officials, who, he said, had indicated the Ripley store wasn't earning enough profit. Ryan added the store's lease is up for renewal, and the company has chosen not to renew it.
"We've been part of the community there for 25 years, said Paul Rankin, vice president of Country Fair. "Our lease is expiring. As times change, we're obviously working with different formats in the future and it doesn't fit into our plans."
While Rankin didn't know how many employees were currently working at the store, he said all of them had been offered positions with other Country Fairs, adding some have accepted the move while others have not.
Many Ripley residents were upset to learn of the store's closing.
"It's the only store we have in town. We need it," said Joan Hart, while sitting in Meeder's Restaurant with her husband, David. "I was shocked. I can't believe they are closing."
Another resident, Mark Henry, said the closing would have a negative effect on the community.
"It's going to hurt," he said.
However, Ryan said several other community businesses have indicated a desire to help fill the void caused by Country Fair shutting down. Patty Knight, one of the owners of the Ripley Country Market, said her business would stock bread, milk, eggs, coffee, soda, newspapers and other items.
"We will be doing the best we can to fill the void," Ms. Knight said.
For now, Ryan said town officials will work to find a new occupant for the building.
"Our mission is going to be to find a new tenant and fill the need there," he said. "We'll just have to work hard going forward to fill the void and meet the community's needs."


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Sail recommendations?
View Single Post
25th March 2010, 11:04 AM
Dream Team - School Guru
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,177
Hi CM,
First, what size GO do you have now? GO 145/150; Go 165; GO 185/200?
At 175 Liters, the Rio S does suit your weight, but the GO boards (even the smaller ones) will most likely plane earlier that the Rio S.
If you need the centerboard (to stay upwind in very light winds) the yes, the Rio S will
give you that.
I'm hoping to sail the new 2010 Rio S in the next week or so.
As far as what sail size, since your husband is buying you what ever rig you need I would suggest larger than a 6.5 m2.
Since you are small, and a woman, do all you can to get a 100% carbon mast to suit whatever sail you choose.
The difference in weight from an =< 75% mast in your 6.2 m2 Gaastra Echo to a 7.5 m2 NCX with
a 100% mast will be very noticeable.
If you feel the 7.5 m2 is too large, then see if you can get a 7.0 NCX Pro on a Red Line 100% 460 cm mast.
That would be about as light in weight as you can get.
If the 7.0 still seems too large, look at the 6.5 NCX Pro on the same 460 cm Redline 100% carbon mast.
Where are you located that there are not tons of used sails on the market?
Many of the remaining WS shops have lots of used sails (as well as closeouts and demo sails).
Another super light weight sail to consider would be the Severne Glide 7.5 m2 which should be even lighter and more powerful in light winds than the NCX Pro.
At 60 kilos (132 lbs.) you won't need too large a sail, but you will need a powerful sail that can get you planing very early.
If you are having issues staying upwind on the GO board you have, let me know and we can give you some techniques to try that will keep you upwind nearly as well on the GO with no centerboard as you would on the Rio S with the center board, and the GO will get planing earlier because it's lighter.
Hope this helps,
Last edited by Roger; 25th March 2010 at
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WASHINGTON: Indian-American legal luminary Vince Girdhari Chhabria has been confirmed by the United States' Senate as a federal judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Chhabria, who is currently travelling to India, in a statement, thanked U.S. President Barack Obama for nominating him to the prestigious judiciary position in the country.
Currently, Deputy City Attorney at the San Francisco city attorney's office, Chhabria also thanked Senator Barbara Boxer for recommending him to the President and Senator Feinstein for her support and guidance through the confirmation process.
"The fact that I have been confirmed while travelling in India makes this an especially proud moment for me," Chhabria said.The South Asian Bar Association of North America welcomed the confirmation of Chhabria, describing this as a historic occasion for the community.
Previously, Chhabria worked as an associate at the law firm Covington and Burling LLP from 2002 to 2004. From 2001 to 2002, he clerked for Justice Stephen G Breyer on the United States Supreme Court.
In 2001, Chhabria worked at the law firm of Keker and Van Nest, LLP, after completing a one-year clerkship for Judge James R Browning of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
He began his legal career by clerking for Judge Charles R Breyer of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California from 1998 to 1999.
Chhabria received his J D in 1998 from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley and his B A in 1991 from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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Menswear 101: Behind the scenes on a fashion photo shoot
Take a look behind the scenes of the March 2012 "Menswear 101" photo shoot. Alan Klinner and dog Carl Jr. taking a break at the KMAC warehouse, where the shoot was held, while Alan's coworker, Griffin, cleans up a beam in the background. Out of all the pieces of wood in the warehouse, Carl Jr. chose the one in the photos as his favorite, and he hardly ever let it out of his sight.
March, 2012
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Download our media kit and learn more about our mission, as well as how to place an ad in our publication.


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MARSHALL - Masterson Personnel not only wants to help people find jobs, but find jobs that are suited to them, said Donna Schlecht, business development manager for the employment service in Marshall.
Masterson, which expanded into Marshall in June, has been in operation since 1968 and has 20 offices in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa, Schlecht said. Owners Greg and Dan Masterson are from Walnut Grove.
"We really look at Masterson Personnel and the client as a partnership, and communication is very important to us in forming that partnership," Schlecht said.
Article Photos
Photo by Jodelle Greiner
Donna Schlecht, business development manager for Masterson Personnel, works the phones recently in her office in Marshall. The business expanded into two this summer.
The first thing for Schlecht and John Anderson, staffing coordinator, to do is glean all the information from both parties.
"We like to meet with each, the client and personnel," she said. "We get a good understanding of the business, job description, do a walk-through to understand the work environment and culture in the business.
"We pre-screen and pre-test, interview and go through a skills check list," she added. "We are really getting to know that person. Then we can start matching."
"I'd like everyone who comes through the door to have a job waiting for them," Anderson said.
"We do some temp to hire, direct hires, do some temp staffing," Schlecht said. "Light industrial to office."
Their staffing ranges from accountants to engineers, office assistants, food packaging, welders, assemblers, machinists and "forklift operators are one of our specialities," Schlecht said.
"We're very good at staffing on short notice and for large quantities," she said. "For some clients we staff up to 400 temps a day."
They work with five businesses in the area now, "but are looking to expand," Schlecht said. "The Marshall office has a 70-mile radius we support."
"Great community," Anderson said. "Great people, strong work ethic. I'm sure we'll have success here and in the surrounding areas."
The workers are employees of Masterson, not the business they work for. They receive their paychecks from Masterson and there are "incentives for personnel for good attendance and good performance," Schlecht said.
"There's a lot of follow-up," Schlecht said. "That's where the communication comes in. That helps us catch anything that might make it not a good fit as soon as possible."
Masterson also provides an on-site employee to help businesses manage large groups of people and helps with safety training.
"Our goal is to be an extra resource to enhance the productivity," she said.
"We are an asset," Schlecht said. "We believe in what we do and we do a good job."


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METAMORA, Mich. -- Jake Vogel (Comstock Park, Mich./Grand Rapids CC) shot a 7-over 79 and Michael Kanalas (Rives Junction, Mich./Jackson Northwest) followed with an 85 as the men's golf team hosted the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference's final jamboree of the fall season in less than desirable conditions Monday (Oct. 7). The pair finished 16th and 36th respectively.
Tyler Newell (Livonia, Mich./Dearborn Divine Child), one of four freshmen on the Mustangs roster this season, started hot and finished with a 91 despite being greeted with chilly temperatures, high winds, and rain throughout the day.
The subpar conditions made the difficult par-72, 6,363 yard course at Metamora Golf & Country Club more challenging as many players in the 10-team field posted above average scores. Dylan Martin (Belleville, Mich./Homeschool) rounded out the Mustangs scoring on the day as the team posted a 384 to place 10th of 10 in the 56-player field.
Nick Campbell of Siena Heights came from behind to win individual medalist honors for the fall season after shooting and even-par 72 on the day. Davenport University finished eight shots behind Monday's winner Siena Heights, but entered with a padded lead to win the WHAC regular season title for the third straight time.
Frank McAuliffe, head coach of a young Mustang squad that fielded their first team in program history this season, was pleased with his group's effort.
"I'm very proud of the guys for battling through awful conditions today," said McAuliffe. "We were a few shots off of our lowest team score – which is really impressive since we were playing in elements we really haven't seen so far this season. We have a great group of young men on our team and I look forward to adding to our program in the near future."
The Mustangs score of 384 was five off their low round of 379 set at the WHAC's second jamboree on Sept. 19.
To view complete fall season statistics and scores, visit:
Follow men's golf on twitter: @MGroveGOLF


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If punny names for podcasts are something you appreciate (and why wouldn't they be?) then comedian Kyle Ploof has one that is perfect for you.
His weekly podcast, which can be found at www.kyleploof.com, is called "The Ploof is in the Pudding." Ploof uses it to showcase a different guest comedian each week.
And when he isn't helping to highlight the talent of other comedians, Ploof is utilizing his own. He was awarded the title of Best New Comic after winning Boston's Last Comic Laughing contest, and also took home the title of Boston's Best Stand Up in the 104.1 WBCN contest.
Ploof has been featured in the Original Las Vegas Comedy Festival and the New York Comedy Expo. And this Friday, he'll be performing at the Leedy Theatre of Lebanon Valley College. The performance is free to the public as part of LVC's Friday Night Comedy Series.
WHEN: 9 p.m. Friday
WHERE: Leedy Theatre, Mund College Center, 101 N. College Ave., Annville
COST: Free
INFO: 717-867-6030 or www.lvc.edu/live-calendar


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The Macomb Daily reports that the father of the boy, Bernard Androsuk, is seeking damages from coach Joseph Hoff, an assistant coach at Roseville Middle School, over the October incident.
Mac Daily: "The players would attempt to tackle him while he charged toward them with a football in his arm,' the lawsuit says. Immediately afterward, Alexander Androsuk complained about being injured, and, "Hoff responded by stating that Alexander was faking the injury," the lawsuit says.
Last year, home video of the incident was aired on Fox 2 when the Androsuks were considering legal action.
Fox 2: Androsuk, who weighs 189 pounds and 5'6" tall, is cut out of the last game of the season because of that fractured collarbone. Meanwhile, his dad is asking why an adult coach would actually don a helmet and take part in a hitting drill with twelve and 13-year-olds.
"You don't want to know my true reaction. I'm not going to say it on TV, but I'm just going to say, at the least, really disgusted with the whole thing," Bernard Androsuk told us.


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The NHL and NHLPA officially signed off on an amendment to the CBA to rework the way the league registers long-term and specifically "lifetime" contracts which extend beyond a player's 40th birthday early on Saturday morning, slowly cobbling together the legalese as the hockey world leaked the news that yes, the NHL would register Ilya Kovalchuk's now-15-year-long contract, and yes, the NHL would drop its threats to negate Roberto Luongo and Marian Hossa's contracts.
On Friday night, Puck Daddy, TSN's Darren Dreger, the Canadian Press, Associated Press, the CBC, ESPN's Scott Burnside and E.J. Hradek, Fox Sports' Spector, at least twenty other sources I'm not willfully omitting, the New York Post's Mark Everson and the gent that's been on top of this story since the get-go, the Bergen Record's Tom Gulitti, who duly noted an important point before getting down to business on Saturday morning, all confirmed the news:
September 3, Bergen Record: The NHLPA's 30-member player board gave the union negotiators pre-approval to negotiate and agree to the deal, so no vote after the fact will be needed. (Normally 20 yes votes would be needed for a change to the CBA to be implemented).
September 4, Bergen Record: The new rules will apply only to long-term contracts, defined as those with terms of five years or longer, and only to contracts executed after Sept. 4, 2010. The new rules apply to contracts signed between now and the end of the CBA, as well as all contracts signed that begin in the 2012-13 season. The parties have agreed that the new rules do not automatically carry over into a new CBA. The existing CBA expires on Sept. 15, 2012.
Again, the amendment stipulates the following CBA changes:
**A contract of five seasons or more is considered a long-term contract.
**If the long-term contract extends beyond the player's 41st birthday, the cap hit will be calculated two ways.
A) The average of the player's salary every year in the contract up to the year after the player turns 41. (The player's age on June 30 at the end of the season is considered his age for the full season).
B) In subsequent years, the actual salary for that season will be his cap hit. So, if the player makes $2 million in the season in which his 41 and $1 million when he is 42, his cap hit will be $2 million the first year and $1 million the second.
**For a long-term contract in which any of three years in it average to more than $5.75 million, then for purposes of calculating the salary cap hit, none of years, ages 36 to 40, will be valued at less than $1 million. In other words, if Player X has three years that average more than $5.75 million in a contract of longer than five years and he would make $600,000 at age 38, for the purposes of calculating the cap hit, $1 million would be the salary added into the total—not $600,000—for that season.
**Any contracts preceding this agreement, including Kovalchuk's, would not be affected by this amendment.
So that's that, right?
Of course not. Player agents obviously adore this deal, starting with Rich Winter, whose highest-profile client, Marian Hossa, would have been looking for a job if the NHL and PA hadn't come to an accord. Winter described the compromise thusly to the Sporting News's Craig Custance...
September 4, The Sporting News: "It's a hat trick for the NHLPA. They preserved and protected $300 million worth of contracts. These contracts are no longer an issue," Winter told Sporting News. "Number two, it provides absolute certainty to the process and … it takes out of Gary Bettman's hands an incredible amount of unchecked power."Not necessarily. The NHL can still negate contracts at will if they deem any deal to circumvent the "spirit" of the CBA, and they can still do so retroactively, because that's the power that Richard Bloch's interpretation of Article 26 gave them. The league's players, GM's and owners still live under a very real threat of a reign of terror--Gary Bettman and Bill Daly found a collective bargaining chain that's attached to the necks of their owners, GM's and players, and it's incredibly hard to believe that the league's lead masochist won't jerk that chain when the Chairman becomes angered.
Moreover, the NHL has firmly established that presumptive NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr ought to expect an out-and-out war to be waged when any and all bones of collective bargaining tension come to the fore, whether pin-bone-tiny or dinosaur-leg-bone large. The war of 2012 was declared the day the NHL rejected Kovalchuk's 17-year contract, and no one should assume that it is anything other than underway at any and all times. While unrealistic, it's entirely possible that the NHL could threaten to invalidate contracts or bully its way toward amending the CBA without actually sitting down and collectively bargaining compromises whenever irritated, and if one player's contract can cause two months' worth of legal wrangling, imagine what might happen when something particularly contentious comes up.
It's war here, and in forcing the NHLPA to come to the table and agree to any sort of concession limiting teams' abilities to bend the CBA into a Mobius strip via lifetime contracts which extend beyond 5 years or a player's 40th birthday, the league won, and won big.
Winter continued in speaking to the Globe and Mail's James Mirtle, and fellow mega-agent and Twitter superstar Allan Walsh weighed in as well--with Walsh making points worth underlining and tucking away for later reference:
September 4, Globe and Mail: "It persevered and protected $300-million worth of contracts," Winter said. "It took, out of [NHL commissioner] Gary Bettman's hands, the unchecked power he had to impose onerous penalties on players and agents. And it has created certainty. Now we know what we can sign. It's been a long time since we've seen the NHLPA score a hat trick, but that's what happened."
Some agents and general managers were worried that every contract with "a twist in it" would have to be run past the league office before being registered. Winter said not having Bettman involved in multiyear contracts was a "huge victory" for the players and their association. Most, though, viewed the Kovalchuk settlement as good for both sides.
"There have been almost 6,000 contracts done since the lockout and what are we talking about here – four?" noted agent Allan Walsh of Octagon Hockey. "I think that's a very narrow issue to be declaring victory one way or the other. It really doesn't [have a great impact]," he added. "The [collective agreement] has two years left. There's only going to be one more contract cycle next summer. If there's no extension of the [collective agreement] in the summer of 2012, there will be little contract activity … because who knows what the new [collective agreement] will look like."
Exactly. If the PA won, it won for Steven Stamkos, Tyler Myers, Matt Duchene, John Tavares, and a select crop of players who can now sign career-spanning contracts to remain with the teams that drafted and developed them, and it won for the next summer's free agent class, including players like Zdeno Chara, who will most assuredly sign contracts which extend until their 40th birthday.
Despite the protests of the league's apologists (more on them in a minute), "lifetime" contracts don't constitute the majority of players' escrow withholdings--the Long-Term Injured Reserve exemption forces players to essentially pay their replacements' salaries--and the arguments that small-market teams can't compete in the long-term contract or big-money realm seem pretty damn silly when you consider the money the Oilers threw at Dustin Penner or the fact that even the Atlanta Thrashers could take about $8 million worth of Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Sopel, Ben Eager and Andrew Ladd off the Chicago Blackhawks' hands, never mind the fact that a team subsidized by the league in the Phoenix Coyotes just shelled out $7 million to a 38-year-old Ray Whitney...But those who step where Gary Bettman tells them to and preach the gospel of parity might disagree with the even-handed conclusion of the National Post's Bruce Arthur--and they do...
September 3, National Post: [I]t appears that instead of a surrender, the NHL and its players actually came to the rarest of creatures in hockey — a deal that makes sense for both sides. The NHL could have swung a hammer; instead, they used a pen.
Now sure, New Jersey gets to keep a deal that contravenes even the amended cap rules. As do Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Vancouver. But instead of closing off the spigot all at once, it appears that the league merely established something resembling clarity, which is nice, since after the rejection of the Kovalchuk deal there were no guidelines on what was legal, and what was not. In the absence of a CBA that actually spelled out the rules, the league was left floating in space.
But this is the fairest of all possible solutions. There was always going to be an end to these kind of deals. Cap contravention — if legal, under the written rules — was always going to face its fall of Saigon. There was going to be a last deal on the helicopter, and the only question was whether it would be Ilya Kovalchuk's or not.
For now, the NHL got its test case, courtesy of one of the CBA's architects in an unwitting Devils GM Lou Lamoriello, and it certainly "set the tone" for the donnybrook to come.
Again, however, those who truly believe in the "spirit" of the CBA, like the Hockey News's Ken Campbell, sound crestfallen tones, because they wanted to see the PA bleed (and because they get into hockey games for free, parity's fine by them):
September 3, The Hockey News: The fact is, even with some clarity on this issue going forward, there will still be a good number of contracts out there that circumvent the spirit of the CBA and will likely come back to haunt the teams that signed them. After all, how could the league possibly be happy when it just approved a contract in which the player receives 90 percent of the total payout in the first two-thirds of the deal?
That the league accepted this sham of a deal indicates how badly it wanted to have this issue put to bed once and for all. Does anyone really believe that Kovalchuk is going to play the last five years of this contract at an average salary of $2 million after making an average of $9 million through the first 10 years of the deal? What the Devils have done with this deal is effectively buy themselves $2.33 million in cap space, since the cap hit through the life of the deal will be $6.67 million. The fact that Kovalchuk will be making an average of 170 percent of that amount in Years 3 through 8 ($11.2 million) and less than 15 percent of it ($1 million) in 2020-21 through 2022-23 makes this whole thing a joke from the word go.
But it appears the league and the players finally have some clarity on these long-term deals and good on them for achieving that. Teams will now no longer be able to use contract years in a players 40s to tank a contracts annual average value for purposes of avoiding the salary cap. The risks of not finding a consensus with the NHL Players' Association were simply too high. I'm guessing that's why the NHL held its nose on this deal and will not act on others like it in exchange for coming to an agreement.Because, you know, any deal that pushes the rules to their limits smells like what Gary Bettman produces that doesn't stink, y'know...
A little strangely, the Vancouver Sun's Cam Cole, whose "beat" includes a team that managed to retain Roberto Luongo's services thanks to this ruling, and it's not me that got into the scatologic vein here, because Cole shovels the crap pretty heavily while suggesting that any sort of attempt to play with the rules is a sacrilege against the supposed perfect document forged during the second lockout:
September 4, Vancouver Sun: Has everyone at the NHL and the NHL Players' Association forgotten, already, what that winter was like? Why is it that the two sides come out of a bitter, destructive lockout promising a new spirit of partnership and co-operation with the aim of winning back fans and growing the game, and then, as soon as the microphones are shut off and the notebooks closed, both set out to kneecap the agreement by whatever means they can?It was never a partnership, mind you, and as soon as the document was signed, the "Inflationary Spiral" and "Thank You, Fans!" yielded ticket price increases that had nothing to do with a team's performance or salary structure (because ticket prices never had to do with either in the first place) and personnel decisions not made by the concept of achieving competitive balance, but, y'know, actually engaging in the business of winning games, which sells those ever-increasingly-expensive tickets to begin with...
"Let's see if we can get ourselves neck deep in feces again, guys," the owners and player agents say, in private. "It was so much fun last time."
How come we hear not a peep from those poor, starving franchises (read: Edmonton Oilers, et al) that were willing to shut down the game for a year because they couldn't afford to pay $42 million in salaries but are now paying $56 million and trying to cheat their way around the salary cap to spend even more?
Why does the NHLPA — forgive me for still thinking of it as an actual representative union — not protect the vast majority of its rank-and-file members, who suffer each time one of these Beat The Cap scams is signed? What was the lockout all about, again? Remind me.
Spoken like a journalist. The Oilers, Thrashers, Coyotes and every other team bought into the concept of a salary cap based upon league-wide revenues instead of team-by-team revenues, and they bought into the now-narrow $15 million payroll "band" that Bettman insisted upon instead of something more grounded in common sense or the very logical and proven belief that the league was cooking its books and under-reporting revenues long before it hired Arthur "Enron" Levitt.
And again, the NHLPA's members suffer far, far, far more from the LTIR (and, this year, over-35 performance and signing bonuses, which count against the players' share but not the salary cap, which teams can exceed by up to 7.5% to dole out those bonuses) than they ever could by the $15-20 million in "buried" money floating around out there...
Perhaps most fittingly, the Toronto Star's Damien Cox, who lives in the most insane hockey market on the planet and covers a team that has about as much interest in winning as it does in advocating for cuts in teachers' pension benefits (ahem), penned the most passionate defense of Bettman's NHL, in fact blaming the owners who sign the lifetime-contract players' paychecks (should I even mention at this point that it would have been "bad pool" for Bettman to p*** off Chairman of the Board of Governors, Jeremy Jacobs, and his Boston Bruins, Rocky "Son of Dollar Bill" Wirtz's Blackhawks or Bettman's other other right-hand man in the ownership department, Ed Snider and his Philadelphia Flyers?) for screwing the commissioner.
Cox does, of course, call out Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch by name, and again, as a denizen of Laff Land, he calls Ilitch, Snider, Wirtz, Jacobs, and Ted Leonsis out for a simple reason which signifies ultimate betrayal to him--the pursuit of winning:
September 4, Toronto Star:Why? Why did all these powerful owners, largely devoted Bettman supporters, repeatedly ignore his advice and pleadings? Well, because they wanted to win Stanley Cups. So they worked in concert with player agents — the very people they have accused of wrecking the industry — to cook up contracts that basically allowed them more bang for their cap buck.
It was never about the players' association, not really. But at the end of Friday's compromise deal, one that resulted in the approval of Kovalchuk's 15-year, $100 million contract after a previous contract was rejected, it was the already battered union that was placed in the position of appearing as though it had capitulated.
In truth, it was these powerful owners, not the union, that created the entire mess. Ilitch gave self-serving deals to Henrik Zetterberg and Johan Franzen. Snider provided Chris Pronger with his retirement contract. Jacobs directed GM Peter Chiarelli to agree to Marc Savard's wind-down deal. Then Chicago and its new boss, Rocky Wirtz, jumped in to throw a copycat contract at Marian Hossa.
Even worse, Cox suggests that the "union" ought to "learn a lesson" from this:
The Kovalchuk contract, and those that preceded it, just proves that owners will hurt themselves if the players will only let them. Bob Goodenow made a career out of understanding that one pure fact. Even Bettman's best backers will always serve themselves first.
It's called the business of professional sports, and Ilitch, whose Governor, Jimmy Devellano, reluctantly voted for the salary cap to both be good citizens and to curry favor for a promise that will never be granted in a Red Wings move to the Eastern Conference, is no friend of Bettman's, nor a friend of the concept of sacrificing his team's wins for the sake of the "team" that is, supposedly, the NHL's 30 owners, who compete with each other for both wins and revenue (lest we forget that the Wings are one of the most profitable teams in the league--but not as profitable as the Leafs).
I have no idea what the hell Cox is trying to suggest to the union, either, because it makes no sense whatsoever for a player to ever say, "No no, I can't take the money you're offering me, it's bad for the game, bad for the league, and someone else might 'lose' because I'm shortchanging my fellow players."
Maybe in Cox's world, that makes sense, but in the competitive world of professional sports, even a capped world, it makes no sense, for players, owners, the NHLPA or, ultimately, the NHL, despite Bettman's stated and repeated desire to turn his league into a NFL-like league where parity reigns and personnel turns over at astonishingly regular rates.
This isn't about fair or right. It's about winning, and it's about money, and that's fine and good.
It's the people that claim that any of this has ever been about the "good of the game," the "purity of sport," or "what the fans should want" that baffle the hell out of this very biased and partisan fan, because I sure as hell want to see the Red Wings win as regularly as possible for the longest period of time possible, and you'd better bleepin' believe that I want my Red Wings to win with players whose jerseys I can invest in without fearing that they'll be playing for the Blackhawks next year...
Unless their name's Marian Hossa, anyway.
The bottom line here, from this very biased Red Wings fan's view, is that nobody really "won" here, but if someone found a pressure point upon which to press, and a Joker-like tenor of psychosis whenever his patience is tested in anything CBA related over the next two years here, it's Chairman Mao and the People's Republic of Hockey.
The amendment of the CBA is just the first chapter of the authoring of a third CBA in fifteen years. It remains to be seen whether the NHLPA, the players, and yes, competitive owners, GM's and members of the Board of Governors can convince the Chairman and his shaven-headed lackey to write the rest of that CBA without turning the lights off in 2012 and burning the village down for the third time, supposedly in order to save it, and save the owners from themselves.
Cross your fingers and enjoy the first and last weekend of the NHL's week-long off-season.


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SAGINAW, MI — Of the 10 players on the Saginaw High girls basketball team, nine knew Dorian Dawkins.
"They wanted to make Dorian proud," Saginaw High coach Sophia Jordan said. "Maybe that's why it looked like they were so nervous."
Nouvel Catholic Central improved to 10-1, knocking off the Trojans, 52-39, in one of five games Saturday at Saginaw High as part of the Dorian Dawkins Showcase.
Dawkins, the son of former Saginaw High boys basketball coach Lou Dawkins, died from an undetected heart defect while playing basketball during the summer before his freshman year.
This would have been his senior year in high school.
"There was the feeling that the girls had to play as hard as Dorian played, because he always played so hard," Jordan said. "They wanted to represent Dorian and how he played."
But the 8-4 Trojans scored just three points in the first quarter and fell behind 9-3.
"We looked nervous," Jordan said. "We had turnovers. We haven't seen that in awhile."
Nouvel, however, made just 4 of 20 from the floor in the first quarter.
"We had good shots, but we couldn't make anything," Nouvel coach Kris Hengesbach said. "I was happy with how we handled their press. We didn't have many turnovers."
Eventually, Nouvel's front line of Rachel McInerney, Taylor Hengesbach and Nicole Buckingham wore down the Trojans.
"Rachel and Taylor did a nice job on the boards, but we were just missing something," Kris Hengesbach said. "Maybe it was just getting done with finals. Maybe we were still getting over our win against Valley Lutheran (Tuesday, Jan. 15) or looking ahead to Freeland this Tuesday (Jan. 22).
"We just had to dig a little bit deeper and gut this one out."
Hengesbach and McInerney scored 18 points each for the Panthers, while Buckingham added 11. All three hit double figures in rebounds, with Hengesbach grabbing 14, McInerney 11 and Buckingham 10.
Nyashia Williams paced the Trojans with 14 points.
"Nouvel's a good team ... it's hard to play against that height," Jordan said. "But we made a lot of mistakes. Now, it's back to the drawing board."
In the first game of the showcase, Bridgeport beat Buena Vista in a girls basketball game, 54-37.