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By Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger
Doo-wop was urban -- four or five kids, hanging out on a steamy street corner. Rap was urban -- teens calling each other out in rhyme, dancers spinning on a square of cardboard.
But classic rock came from the 'burbs.
What other place had spare rooms, basements, garages? You need space (and forgivingly thick walls) to start a band. You need room. And you don't find that in a cramped city apartment.
It's one of the many things that "Not Fade Away" gets right, including its characters' raw yearning for authenticity.
David Chase's tribute to '60s rock, rebellious youth and expanded-ranch New Jersey has a white hero who talks a lot about the blues, especially, awkwardly, to the old black man he works with. Much to his confusion, the fellow prefers easy listening.
But the same middle-class privilege that separates Douglas from the music also, ironically, gives him the means to copy it and claim it as his own.
Not Fade Away
Who: With John Magaro, James Gandolfini, Bella Heathcote. Directed by David Chase.
Rated: R; contains drug use, strong language, sexual situations and violence.
Running time: 112 minutes.
When: Opens Friday, Jan. 4.
Where: Area theaters.
Grade: A-
That urge to express yourself is something its director understands. Chase has wanted to make a movie for 40 years; it was TV's "The Sopranos" that finally gave him the power. But it also burdened him, a bit: How do you get past old fans' expectations?
Chase makes the move gently, bringing some of "The Sopranos" with him. So there are scenes of Jersey sub shops and angry Italian-American family dinners. James Gandolfini shows up as a fiercely traditional father gorging on ice cream in front of the TV.
But this is not a mob story.
Instead, it's a mod story, of how, in 1964, bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Kinks started showing up on American airwaves. That they were copying white British musicians who were themselves copying black American musicians just made the irony richer.
There are some things Chase misjudges, slightly. He introduces a narrator, and then mostly forgets about her until the movie's end. He also overplays some of the family strife. Molly Price, always threatening to kill herself, rarely makes the mother much more than a joke.
But John Magaro is excellent as Douglas, who goes away to college, comes back with a Bob Dylan 'fro and a taste for grass, and is never going to be the same again. Bella Heathcote, with her huge, grave eyes, is a perfect pinup as his dream girl, Grace.
It's music that rules here. Chase is a three-chord rock guy. The nuggets he unearths (with the help of off-screen music director Steve Van Zandt) are a greatest-hits roundup of British Invasion songs.
What makes this movie unique is that it's not just one more story of a band that got big in a hurry. Whether or not Douglas, or any of his bandmates, are going to make it in rock 'n' roll, or anything else, is left unresolved at the end of the movie. But they've left their old lives behind.
And it's because grungy, garage-band rock, which could only happen in the neat, clean suburbs, has delivered them to the great big, dirty, wonderful city -- and adulthood, at last.


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Cash for Clunkers program and a first-time homebuyer tax credit helped drive the economy up 3.5 percent from July through September, according to government data released today.
The news drove Wall Street to its best day in three months, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped almost 200 points to recoup most of its losses for the week.
But while the growth was taken as a sign the economy was emerging from the worst recession in 70 years, economists remain concerned the temporary incentives might not have been enough to spur sustained consumer spending, which normally drives recoveries.
"Even if we've turned the corner, we know it's a long way before we're completely recovered," Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, said in an interview with the Associated Press. "You can't have an unemployment rate of 9.8 percent and not be deeply troubled."
If shoppers continue to be rattled by widespread unemployment and tight credit, the fragile recovery could come undone, sending the economy back into recession. The uncertainty reflects the complexity of an economic decline so severe that it has been dubbed the Great Recession.
In one of their semi-annual economic forecasts, a group of Rutgers University professors provided another bleak detail today: employment in New Jersey is unlikely to show any significant improvement until 2011.
Nancy Mantell, director of the Rutgers Economic Advisory Service, said the recession may merely be fading.
"It may be over in the sense of production, but not in the sense of jobs," Mantell said.
New Jersey lost 161,300 jobs, or 4 percent of its employment base, between January 2008 and July 2009. After gaining 700 jobs in August, the state saw 12,700 jobs eliminated in September. "Unfortunately, New Jersey has now lost more jobs than it gained during the expansion of 2003 to 2008," Mantell said,
Joseph Seneca, a professor at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, said job creation will take longer because of the depth of the cost reductions businesses made during the recession.
Before companies begin hiring new workers they will bring back furloughed employees, restore pay cuts and return to full-time status workers whose hours were cut, Seneca said.
"But employers will have to be convinced of revenue sustainability before they hire new workers,'' he said.
Millions of Americans have yet to feel a real-world benefit from the recovery in the form of a new job.
James Hughes, dean of the Bloustein School, said the country lost 3.2 million jobs in 2008 and even more losses were projected for 2009. In January, 749,000 private sector jobs were erased — an unprecedented number for a single month.
In remarks prepared for a small-business group today, President Obama acknowledged there was still a long way to go to restore the economy.
"The benchmark I use to measure the strength of our economy is not whether our GDP is growing, but whether we are creating jobs, whether families are having an eaiser time paying their bills, whether our businesses are hiring and doing well," the president said.
With joblessness growing and wages dipping slightly in the third quarter, consumers are expected to be more restrained in the months ahead. That would put a much heavier burden on America's businesses to keep the recovery going.
Seneca said more stimulus spending is likely to offset that effect.
"There's such a will to make sure the country doesn't slip back into recession,'' he said. "There will be more spending to come.''
The Associated Press contributed to this article.


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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine will talk state financial woes with municipal officials.
Corzine is to speak Thursday to a League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City.
He's expected to cite fiscal problems that have left the state with mounting debt and annual budget deficits.
Corzine has been mulling plans to solve those problems by hiking highway tolls.
Lawmakers have been saying that Corzine's plan could be worth about $15 billion. The Star-Ledger of Newark reports it could bring in $16 billion.
Corzine refuses to say how much tolls may go up, but a Wall Street finance lawyer estimates Corzine would have to boost tolls 150 percent to get $15 billion.


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Sorry for the lateness of this post, still playing catch-up this Monday ...
As Nate McMillan put it in last night's postgame comments, "It's a one-game season now."
Save for the Game 1 blowout, this has been as even a series as projected. With Houston holding a 3-1 advantage heading back to Portland, the difference in the last three games has been which team can survive with fewer mistakes and capitalize on opponent miscues.
The long rebounds, loose balls, second attempts leading to second-chance points, shots bouncing in, a big shot, a tip here, a steal there. The little things added up for Houston in Games 3 and 4 as the home team escaped with two wins by a combined four points. Despite Brandon Roy (averaging 28.2 points per game) single-handedly trying to carry this team to another win, we're yet to see the Blazers settle in and play their brand of basketball this series. And credit Houston's frustrating defense for that.
The Blazers are learning the value of each possession in the postseason, while earning some on-the-job training in those two games.
Jason Quick, Rockets hold off Blazers 89-88 and take 3-1 series edge:
The broad strokes of this defeat include the Blazers giving up a whopping 10 offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter, which resulted in 13 second-chance points. For perspective on how astounding the rebounding collapse was, the Blazers led the NBA in offensive rebounds by averaging just more than 12 a game.
"I don't know why," said disgusted Blazers center Joel Przybilla, who had 12 rebounds. "We got the stops, we just didn't rebound. They wanted it more than us, that's what it comes down to, plain and simple."
In addition to the rebounding, the Blazers had a series of maddening turnovers in the final two minutes.
Joe Freeman, For Blazers' Outlaw, rhythm returns, but late miss stings:
Perhaps the only silver lining in the defeat was that, for the first time in the series, Outlaw was finally able to find a little bit of rhythm and make a meaningful contribution. He scored 14 points on 6 of 14 shooting and drained his first two three-pointers of the series.
Most of his damage (12 points) came in the first half, when McMillan almost exclusively played Outlaw at power forward. It added up to a glimmer of hope for Outlaw, who entered Sunday night's game in a postseason funk, averaging just 7.0 points per game and shooting 30 percent from the field (9 of 30) -- which included an 0 for 7 effort from three-point range.
The Blazers have seen very little of the player who averaged 12.8 points per game, drained a career-best 89 three-pointers and shot 45.3 percent from the field in the regular season. And it has cost them dearly.
"He's taking it pretty tough," Roy said. "Travis knows he's a big part of what we do and he knows we need him to win basketball games. But we're all teammates, we're all friends in that locker room, so we're trying to do our best to boost his confidence."
John Canzano, Rudy Fernandez deserved to be the go-to guy:
You set up a three-point play for Fernandez. You run him off screens. You get Fernandez the ball behind the arc and tell him to let it fly. And if misses, you go to the locker room knowing you got beat with your best shooter taking the shot.
The Blazers failed to do that on Sunday. And while it takes four games to win a seven-game series, it was a crying shame that Portland shied away from what was an important moment of a wonderful season.
There will be a lot of talk today about whether Portland deserved to win Game 4.
Mike Barrett, Blazers nipped again:
If the Blazers would have been able to hold on down the stretch, we'd be calling this an enormous victory, a grow-up win, and quite possibly a series-changing win. But, the fact of the matter is, the Blazers are headed home for game 5, down 3-1 in this best-of-seven series, and are facing the fact that to advance, they're going to have to win three-straight games.
Now, winning three straight in this series isn't as unlikely as it sounds. The Trail Blazers have just dropped two playoff games on the road, by a combined total of four points, and if they can win at home, will get yet another shot to get a victory in Houston. That, of course, would mean a game decisive game seven back in Portland. But, that's getting way ahead of where we currently are.
This was a close game, to be sure. The Blazers played better than they did on Friday night. They played a more complete game. They played more Blazer basketball. But they still did not control this game for 48 minutes or anything close. They still did not rip this game off of its hinges and make it their own no matter what happened. They still could not put together a complete effort. Too many holes, too many mistakes, too many lost opportunities...that's the storyline here. Any one of them could have won the game. Any ONE. But collectively they ended up costing us.
There's a way to sum this up neatly. This team is talented. This team is putting up a fight. But this team is in over its collective heads right now and it shows. The Blazers aren't collapsing or giving up, but they're hesitating in areas that are usually second nature to them. They're not comfortable on the court against the Rockets. They're not playing strong.
The Rockets are comfortable. They may not always be successful, but they're not rattled. The Blazers are rattled by Yao Ming, by the refs, by the rebounds and threes given up, by the fortunate bounces on Houston shots, by the whole situation. After all is said and done the epitaph on this series will almost certainly be that the Blazers were just too young and inexperienced to take advantage of an opportunity that was right there before them.
Dwight Jaynes picks through the rubble of last night:
- Yup, the Blazer post defenders aren't getting a fair chance to defend Yao. I believe they are paying the price for beating him up in the first two games of the series. I would guess the Rockets sent tape of those beatdowns to the league office and officials were instructed to clean up the post play. And Greg Oden gets the usual Greg Oden fouls. It's too bad but it started months ago. So much of the next offseason depends on Oden's development. I hope he's up to the task.
- Honestly, I don't know if this would do any good or not. But Rick Adelman doesn't leave the officials alone. Ever. Never has. Either does Gregg Popovich or Doc Rivers or Phil Jackson. I've covered coaches from both extremes -- Adelman, Jack Ramsay and Mike Dunleavy never stopped yapping at them. Mike Schuler, P.J. Carlesimo and now Nate McMillan never said much to them. My thought is this: If it seems as if the other team is getting all the calls, yet they're on the refs all the time -- you better go get your saddle and mount up. You better start riding them, too. It seems every time there's a cheap foul on Oden, the camera shifts to McMillan, who is just sitting there on the bench without a peep. At some point, I think he probably ought to take a technical foul.
Kerry Eggers says, It's not over:
When a team takes a 3-1 lead, the statistical evidence is astronomical that it goes on to claim the series.
The Blazers can't look at it that way. Win Game 5, and it puts a little pressure on Houston going back home for Game 6. Steal one there, and anything can happen in a Game 7.
Portland, the No. 1 rebounding team in the league during the regular season, must win the backboard battle the rest of the series.
The Blazers can't let the Rockets shoot .481 from the field or .409 from 3-point range - as they are doing thus far - and expect to get back in the series. Portland's defense was better Sunday night. The Blazers blocked nine shots and held Houston to .398 shooting. But the Rockets made 9 of 16 treys, as big a factor as any in the outcome.
Portland must take care of the ball better than it did in the fourth quarter Sunday, when it had seven of its 41 turnovers in the series.
Richard Justice, Bag of tricks has Rockets on verge:
It wasn't always pretty. The Rockets won because of 16 offensive rebounds and some huge defensive stops. They won it despite missing eight foul shots.
They also finished the night with 24 assists and just nine turnovers, an indication they were playing hard and smart even when they weren't playing great.
They combined a great game and a lousy one and another great one into one tidy little package.
"When they got aggressive, we got really impatient," Adelman said. "That's been our M.O. all year."
Jonathan Feigen, Homespun heroics:
If the game-winning moment was typical, the rest of the fourth quarter represented a huge and vital departure from the Rockets' formula, at least in recent games.
The Blazers had come back from 11-point first-half and eight-point third-quarter deficits to lead 77-71 three minutes into the fourth quarter. More troubling for the Rockets than the six-point hole, however, was the way the offense had been breaking down. With Portland still fronting Yao Ming but usually bringing the double team from the perimeter rather than with the power forward, the Rockets did not get the open looks that carried them to 51.4 percent shooting in the first three games.
Brian McTaggert, Roy nearly brings Blazers back in Game 4 loss:
"I tried to change my approach from Game 3," said Roy, who scored 19 points in Game 3. "I felt like I was forcing it a little bit when I got in the paint and tonight I just tried to take what they gave me. When I was in the paint, if they collapsed, I tried to kick it out to our guys. When they didn't, I just tried to make a good shot or a good read."
Roy led the Blazers with seven points in the first quarter and had a game-high 15 at the half. He nearly outscored the Rockets by himself in the third quarter, tallying 10 points to lead Portland back from a seven-point deficit.
Joesph Duarte, Rockets cleaning up the glass:
With 7-1 center Joel Przybilla and 6-11 forward LaMarcus Aldridge, the Blazers were among the best rebounding teams in the NBA.
In all three wins in the series, the Rockets have outrebounded the Blazers, including a 43-41 edge in Game 4. That included a 16-9 advantage on the offensive boards, allowing the Rockets several second-chance opportunities in the fourth quarter.
"They're a tough team," Blazers guard Brandon Roy said. "We came into this series knowing if there was one team that could do a good job outrebounding us it's Houston. Those guys work extremely hard."
Henry Abbott on playoff experience:
Down three games to one, widely expected to lose the series, playing at home in Game 5, and maybe trying on the idea that a summer of regret could be starting soon, I suspect the Blazers won't be so cautious Tuesday night. If it's bombs away, the shift in attitude would unleash more of Portland's talent.
Kevin Arnovitz, Houston's Figure Four:
Scola and Landry teamed up for ten buckets Sunday night, the majority of which were the direct result of Portland's defensive focus on Yao. This left the Houston 4s to find space and opportunities on the floor to make the Blazers pay.
But most of all, there were all those second shots. The Blazers' best defensive effort of the series went to pot because of 28 second-chance points by the Rockets, the most damaging of which came on back-to-back 3-pointers by Shane Battier that gave Houston the lead for good at 85-83 with 3:24 left.
Portland forced a whopping 50 missed field goals by the Rockets, 15 of which came off the ice-cold hands of Ron Artest; throw in four missed second free throws and there were 54 defensive boards up for grabs.
Alas, the Blazers collected only 32 of them, for a piddling 59.3 percent defensive rebound rate. Given that Portland ranked sixth in defensive rebound rate during the regular season, while Houston was a lowly 17th at the offensive end, this was a category Portland figured to dominate.
Instead, the Rockets got 22 extra possessions thanks to their offensive rebounding, as well as Portland's failure to imitate Bill Russell -- four of Houston's second shots came after the Blazers blocked shots out of bounds. Luis Scola took advantage of Portland doubling off him to grab seven offensive boards, while little Kyle Lowry hustled his way to three in the last seven minutes from the point guard position.
Ball Don't Lie sums up my thoughts on this call perfectly:
And that late-game charge on Roy, when he supposedly bowled over Chuck Hayes? Total, modern-NBA, bollocks. Shane Battier was fantastic in forcing Roy into a tough shot, and then blocking it from behind. Houston earned a stop and would have gotten the ball back. Shane didn't need the help.
To me, it comes down what I think is a pretty significant question. What, exactly, did Roy do to knock Hayes down? Because having parts of his body inadvertently touch Hayes' certainly did not do the trick. And if Roy's move -- a foul, it was called -- wasn't enough to knock Hayes down, then why was it a foul? Because Hayes fell down?
Nothing against Hayes. He's one of my favorite players, honestly, and he's only doing what works in today's NBA. What the officials have rewarded, time and time again.
By the book, yes, it was a charge. But Roy was controlled and did not create the contact on that charge. Hayes made the right move in stepping forward and getting set, but he stepped under Roy. Roy didn't run into him. With the game on the line, in the playoffs, that should be a no-call. But I digress ...
Wendell Maxey, Down....But Not Out:
Game 5 on Tuesday could be their last home game of the season. It could be the last game period. No one wants to go there - again. But knowing how Game 3 and Game 4 losses hurt in Houston - being so close but so far away twice - it is safe to assume the Blazers will take Game 5 against the Rockets at the Rose Garden.
Pencil it in.
It's not in Portland's DNA to lose three-straight games. It's just not.
The biggest difference in this series -- so obvious even the TNT guys who don't do their homework anymore said it -- is that Houston is getting consistent production from their role players and what the Blazers are getting is nearing laughable. Blake played a better game tonight, but he's been a disaster in the fourth quarter. Joel and Greg get passes for having to deal with Yao and the refs. Travis? Inconsistent at best. Nic Batum has barely even gotten a chance to play, so who knows. Sergio has played himself off the roster. Channing can't play in a series as physical as this. Only Rudy has brought his mojo, and even he's getting his minutes yanked around. Meanwhile, Von Wafer, Kyle Lowry, Carl Landry and Chuck Hayes, not to mention Scola and Battier, are showing up and putting their stamps on the games. The Blazers just have Roy making the last charge of the light brigade with LaMarcus providing covering fire while Joel fights a dragon in a field.
The Rockets won this game on the glass. The total margin was only two, but perhaps more telling was the difference between offensive boards where the Rockets held a +7 advantage. Each time there was a rebound up for grabs the Rockets were able to come away with it-whether it be Kyle Lowry leaping over Brandon Roy and his own teammate in Luis Scola, or Chuck Hayes ripping the ball out of Roy's hands while drawing the foul.
The Rockets came out on top on nearly every hustle play. You can't sustain momentum, build a significant lead, or win a game on the road, without manufacturing a little of your own luck. I'm surprised by the softness shown by the Blazers considering they're coached by Nate McMillan who established a name for himself by rubbing the shine off the floor with his jersey. Tenacious was, and probably still is, the best word to describe McMillan, but I wouldn't use that label on his players. The Blazers don't have a Shane Battier, that much is clear, they also don't have a Ron Artest or Carl Landry. They don't have an enforcer and that's hurting them every time they leave the huddle.


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Economic Uses
Comments: Has been successfully maintained in several marine aquaria. Sometimes taken for human food and oil in mass shore drives in Japan and in small cetacean fisheries in Taiwan and the Caribbean (Leatherwood and Reeves 1983, Stacy et al. 1994). Sometimes regarded as pest by fishermen who perceive these whales as a competitor for fishes. Sometimes takes fishes hooked on fishing lines; sometimes causes significant impact on tuna long-line fishery in the tropical Pacific (IUCN 1991).


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Norman Schwarzkopf dead at 78
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Gulf War hero and New Jersey native, died Thursday of complications from pneumonia in Tampa, FL. Schwarzkopf led the international forces that drove Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991. He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2008. His father, Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf Sr., was founder and commander of the New Jersey State Police.
Lisa Jackson leaving EPA post
Star-Ledger reporters Matt Friedman and Jenna Portnoy confirmed that Lisa Jackson is leaving her post as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and that she will not run against Chris Christie in 2013. Here's what The Washington Post is saying about Jackson's tenure.
New anti-fracking bill introduced
NJ.com's Mark Bonamo reports that Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon (R – 13th Dist.) has introduced a bill to continue the state's freeze on hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," in the Garden State. O'Scanlon wants to withhold any state action until more studies can be completed on the controversial process for extracting natural gas from underground rock formations.
Green Acres program out of cash
New Jersey conservationists are hoping that they will be able to protect 640,000 of unspoiled state land and historical sites protected by the Green Acres program. But Tom Wright-Piersanti of The Star-Ledger reports that they are looking for a more secure form of funding now that the fund has used the $400 million it was granted in 2009.
Last rabbi sentenced in Dwek sting case
Star-Ledger reporter Salvador Rizzo writes that Lavel Schwartz is the final rabbi to be sentenced in "Operation Bid Rig." The Brooklyn rabbi, who will spend a year and a day in jail, was one of 46 charged the largest federal corruption in New Jersey. The sting was triggered by Solomon Dwek, the failed real-estate investor who cooperated with the FBI to bring down various public officials.
Camden waterfront prison to be sold
Jason Laday from the South Jersey Times reports that the Economic Development Authority has been cleared to buy Riverfront State Prison in Camden for $1. The EDA will look for a developer interested in converting the 16-acre property to a project that revitalizes the corridor along the Delaware River.
On the National Scene
According to politico.com, more politicians in Washington could be willing to take the budget talks over the "fiscal cliff" as they approach the Dec. 31 deadline. The Senate returned to D.C. on Thursday and House members will return Sunday.
Want more New Jersey politics? Follow @njerseypolitics on Twitter and LIKE us on Facebook. You also can contact David Chmiel at firstname.lastname@example.com or call 201-273-3687.


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Star Fox 64 3D
- Platforms: 3DS
- Developer: Nintendo
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Genre: Action
- VN:F [1.9.22_1171]User Score: 0 votes
- Add to MyGames
The Star Fox team triumphantly returns to one of its greatest missions with the remake of Star Fox 64 in full 3D. The entire Star Fox universe spreads out realistically into the depths of the Nintendo 3DS screen while the 3D visuals give the player a clearer grasp of distance and position. This makes the game more approachable and intuitive, thereby allowing players to focus on the action. Star Fox 64 3D also puts the two screens of the Nintendo 3DS system to use, with the top screen featuring 3D game play and the bottom screen displaying the various characters and their dialogue
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Star Fox 64 3D
Star Fox 64 is old, but those who think back in nostalgia on their Nintendo64 and want to relive that adventure in small and in 3D can now do it on the 3DS with this remake. The content of the game hasn't changed so also the story is exactly as it was. The planet Corneria […]
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LANSING, MI -- Michigan lawmakers may consider sending a $194.8 million lump sum payment to Detroit -- rather than $350 million over 20 years -- as part of a "grand bargain" settlement that would minimize pension cuts and speed up the city's exit from bankruptcy.
Detroit's latest plan of adjustment, filed Monday in federal bankruptcy court, includes a draft "state contribution agreement" outlining the potential settlement and various strings that would be attached to any cash.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder originally proposed devoting up to $350 million in state money over two decades, likely through tobacco settlement revenue, but he has signaled a willingness to consider a smaller one-time payment, as requested by Detroit pension funds.
Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr also said last week that a lump-sum payment "probably makes better sense."
The unsigned state contribution agreement specifies that the state would make a payment "equal to the net present value" of $350 million over 20 years. That would amount to a single payment of $194.8 million, roughly $155 million less than originally anticipated.
Read: Detroit bankruptcy plan of adjustment filed May 5, 2014
House Speaker Jase Bolger wants to "look at all of the options and see which one works better," according to spokesperson Ari Adler, but the Marshall Republican has made clear he likes the idea of a shorter payment period that would ensure a firm end date for state support.
"If we go up front, with a lump sum, we now know $194.8 million would be the number we're working with," said Adler. "But then you have to decide where that money would come from. There's still a lot of unanswered questions."
The state money would be part of a "grand bargain" -- which also includes $366 million pledged by philanthropic foundations and another $100 million from Detroit Institute of Arts donors -- designed minimize pension cuts for retirees and protect prized art work from sale.
Detroit creditors -- including retirees and bondholders -- are set to receive ballots for the city's restructuring plan May 12, and they'll have until July 11 to enter their votes.
Without state funding, monthly pension reductions for general retirees could balloon from 4.5 percent to 27 percent while police and fire would lose all cost of living increases. Legislative approval is no sure bet, and Republican leadership has made clear that any state money for Detroit will come with multiple strings attached.
The state contribution agreement outlines what form some of those strings might take:
Pension oversight: The Detroit General Retirement System and the Police and Fire Retirement System would each be required to establish a seven-member "investment committee" that would recommend and approve pension investments and assumptions for at least 20 years.
Income stabilization fund: Detroit and its pension funds would have to establish an "income stabilization" program to provide targeted payments ensuring that vulnerable retirees remain above the federal poverty line.
Limited liability: The state and its related entities would be released from any liability in lawsuits filed by eligible pensioners involving the bankruptcy case, Michigan's emergency manager law or pension protections included in the state constitution.
Transition board: The city would be required to cooperate with a transition advisory board set up under the auspices of the emergency manager law or comply "with any new legislation that is enacted regarding post-bankruptcy governance."
Enabling legislation could be introduced as soon as this week in the Michigan House. The 10-bill package would pave the way for a state contribution and may detail other "post-bankruptcy governance" options.
Adler said leadership has been studying financial advisory boards in New York City and Philadelphia as they work on the legislation but indicated "there's still a lot of dots to connect."
Bolger has also called on unions to contribute to the settlement, indicating he may not even hold a vote until they do. Snyder and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) have both said that they are not asking for a union contribution.
Orr spent two days in Lansing last week, lobbying lawmakers and explaining the plan of adjustment. He is expected to return this week if and when the legislation is introduced.
Snyder, speaking with reporters after Orr's visit, cited "tremendous progress" in the bankruptcy case, including a string of recent agreements between the city and employee unions, that could motivate lawmakers to approve the state funding.
"The plan of adjustment will show a number of parties coming on board to settle it, particularly the retirees, but also a number of unions, in terms of the active membership," Snyder said. "And I think that really creates an environment where we should be looking to go forward with the legislation about the settlement."
Jonathan Oosting is a Capitol reporter for MLive Media Group. Email him, find him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter


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Palm Beach Post
April 19, 2004
MANALAPAN - By the end of summer, the license tag of every car entering the multimillion-dollar Point Manalapan neighborhood will be digitally recorded despite midnight darkness or midday glare, even if the driver bolts through the stop sign.
With technology only months old, the seaside bedroom community in Palm Beach County will be one of the state's, if not the nation's, first municipalities to use license-tag recognition technology for more than just writing traffic tickets.
''Big Brother is watching you,'' said Town Commissioner Peter Blum last week after commissioners approved spending up to $60,000 on the system.
''Or, Little Brother, in this case,'' said Commissioner Tom Gerrard, a retired telecommunications executive who is helping guide the town's foray into technological crime-prevention.
Government cameras pointed at citizens are nothing new, but better technology and lower costs are making it more popular.
The town of Palm Beach installed cameras on Worth Avenue two years ago after a rash of smash-and-grab robberies.
If the Point Manalapan system works well, commissioners may consider a town-wide wireless system.


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Catherine Bell
Best known for her work as the headstrong Marine Corps attorney Lt. Sarah 'Mac' MacKenzie on the action drama series "JAG," Catherine Bell now stars in "Army Wives," the one-hour ensemble drama series on Lifetime. "Army Wives," which is currently shooting its 7th season, captures the struggles, dreams and friendships of a diverse group of women – and one man – living with their spouses and families on an active army post. They deal with the pressures and traditions the military imposes on those who are left behind while their partners serve their country. Bell plays Denise Sherwood, a devoted wife who has returned to work as a nurse while her husband is a major in Iraq and whose son was killed in combat in Afghanistan.
Bell was born in London and moved to Los Angeles with her family at the young age of three. While studying biomedical engineering at UCLA, Bell ventured into modeling, which soon led to immediate recognition in both the United States and overseas. Building on her success as a model, she decided to pursue an acting career, which was launched soon thereafter.
Her feature film credits include Universal's mega-hit "Bruce Almighty" opposite Jim Carrey and opposite Steve Carrell in the sequel, "Evan Almighty," as well as "Men of War."
Bell starred in Hallmark Channel's highest-rated original movie series "The Good Witch," "The Good Witch's Garden," "The Good Witch's Gift" and "The Good Witch's Family" as Cassandra "Cassie" Nightingale. Bell's other recent small screen credits include Lifetime's "Still Small Voices," "Law & Order" and "Friends."
Bell, along with her 2 children, divides her time between their home in Southern California and Charleston, South Carolina where "Army Wives" is filmed.
As a wife, mother and nurse practitioner, Denise Sherwood has devoted her life to the care of others. She married Frank and rose through the ranks with him as he ascended to Colonel. Together they have two children, son Jeremy who was killed in action in Afghanistan, and their young daughter Molly. Growing up in a military family, Denise expertly maneuvers the pressures of Army life and often takes new wives under her wing to help them acclimate. But as classy and solid as Denise is, it hasn't always been rosy. She's made some bad decisions, suffered incredible loss and struggled with some growing pains over the years. Amidst all the changes at Joint Base Marshall bring, Denise is forced to take up the mantle of tribe leader.


text: Langa started the season well with 102 fish to 8 rods and plenty of water still held above the damn to last the coming weeks, writes Peter Rippin of Flyfisher Group. A great way to start the season and music to all the ears of those fishing mid July and early August. The slight lack of fish seen in the lower river pre-season turned out to be that they were stacked up in the upper and middle river leading to the best Langa opening in history.


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IT'S A DISASTER! e-news Feb 2011
This month's topics:
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Resources & Tools for First Responders
FEMA 2/8 Webinar: Citizen Corps Council Successes
Formidable Footprint 2/26 Tabletop Exercise (Floods)
+ Depiction 2/24 pre-exercise webinar link
National AgrAbility Project 2/24 Webinar (Disabilities)
SF CARD 2/7 - 2/11 Drill: CBRNE event, ICP + social media
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Resources & Tools for First Responders
We learned about a few free tools available through the end of March so including them and some other resources we had on file for First Responders in this month's Spotlight. Please share these with your colleagues too!
CEMPlanner is a web-based service that brings planners and stakeholders together on a collaborative platform and facilitates the planning process (based on FEMA's CPG-101) to create and maintain standards based plans. The system's flexibility allows users to create numerous plan types such as the EOP, COOP, Exercise Plan, Pandemic Flu Plan, Communications Plan, etc. Previstar is offering its CEMPlanner emergency planning software service at no cost to city and county Emergency Management and Public Health organizations to bolster their planning processes and emergency plans in 2011. The offer is part of its Partnering for Preparedness program and is open to enrollment to the first 10 qualifying jurisdictions per state that subscribe to the service by March 31, 2011. The complimentary service lasts for 12 months and includes training and customer support. At the end of the term, organizations can purchase a license for continued use of the service or cancel the subscription with no obligation. To learn more about this free offer visit the Previstar website at www.previstar.com or contact Joe Gordon at 813-244-7774.
(Since being introduced to the market in 2009, Previstar's CEMPlanner has been utilized by emergency management and public health organizations across the country and numerous other public and private sector organizations.)
The American Institute for Preventive Medicine is offering a free guide that helps people prepare for disasters and deal with the emotions of anxiety, guilt, confusion and fear that follow a crisis or tragedy. AIPM's Take Charge: Handling a Crisis and Moving Forward 32-page color booklet includes: Reactions to a crisis; Handling anxiety; Coping with loss; Dealing with insomnia; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; Getting on with your life; Being prepared for a disaster; and How to help others. Take Charge is available to download for free thru the end of March 2011 at www.healthylife.com/template.asp?pageID=85. The download code is NWH350.
(AIPM is an award winning developer and provider of medical self-care, disease management and wellness publications, programs, and online content. They work with over 13,000 corporations, unions, hospitals, MCO's, government agencies and colleges to reduce health care costs, lower absenteeism and increase productivity.)
AHRQ's Hospital Preparedness Exercises Resources provides a new toolset for strengthening hospitals' ability to protect communities nationwide against public health disasters, such as creating care centers during an influenza pandemic or treating casualties in the wake of a bioterrorism attack. www.ahrq.gov/prep/hospex.htm
The American College of Emergency Physicians' (ACEP's) In a Moment's Notice: Surge Capacity in Terrorist Bombings is a free 60-pg PDF w/ opinions and recommendations of EMS, trauma, nursing, etc experts on dealing w/ surge issues. www.acep.org/ptsurge/
Also, ACEP's Bombings: Injury Patterns and Care curriculum is designed to be the minimum content that should be included in any all-hazards disaster response training program. This content is designed to update the student with the latest clinical information regarding blast related injuries from terrorism. www.acep.org/blastinjury/
Homeland Security Affairs Journal has a good resource called Threat-based Response Patterns for Emergency Services: Developing Operational Plans, Policies, Leadership, and Procedures for a Terrorist Environment by Robert T. Mahoney. This article reviews what an Emergency Service Department should understand about the elements of 1) threat, 2) risk, 3) security, 4) resources, 5) crisis leadership, 6) training, and 7) planning. It then reveals how gaining an understanding of each of these elements both informs and improves all the other elements. Such knowledge enables these elements to be mutually supportive in the development of counter terrorism response patterns. This process uses a series of understandings, transitioning in sequence from one element to the next, and each builds on the previously gained knowledge. www.hsaj.org/?fullarticle=6.3.2 (Also available as 29-pg PDF just above header) hat tip EM Magazine
National Public Health Radio Network (NPHRN) is a collaborative initiative between CDC's Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR) and the Division of Emergency Operations (DEO). In summary, the NPHRN will provide CDC, state, territorial, and local health departments with non-infrastructure dependent redundant communications capability – a "back up" method of communication when all else fails. http://emergency.cdc.gov/nphrn/
NIH's Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness is a web-accessible bibliographic database of electronic resources related to public health preparedness. Some of the resources focus on how the public health workforce can improve its readiness to respond to emergencies; others provide guidance on how to mitigate and manage the public health consequences of disasters. It is a tool for practice-based public health professionals who need to find preparedness information in the fullest form, and in the quickest way possible. http://phpreparedness.nlm.nih.gov/
The NIMS Incident Command System Field Guide® pocket reference is now available for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It allows you to customize contact information for each incident for rapid on-scene communication, and provides detailed dynamic checklists that ensure that no detail is missed. The content is all-hazards, non-jurisdictional and discipline-specific, and includes responsibilities and rules for applying the Incident Command System (ICS). Learn more on iTunes
FEMA's Community Preparedness Webinar Series provides up-to-date information on community preparedness topics and resources available to citizens, community organizations, and Citizen Corps Councils. The Citizen Corps Council Successes – Tapping Your Community's Resource webinar is Tuesday, Feb 8 at 2:00 EST and will introduce participants to three award winning Councils with best practices to share. Visit www.ready.gov/preparedness-leader/webinar-library to learn more.
Formidable Footprint - A National Neighborhood Exercise Series - Members of CERTs, Neighborhood Associations, Faith-based groups, Citizen Corps and others can join the Formidable Footprint tabletop exercise on Floods on Saturday, Feb 26 from 9:00AM - 4:00PM EST. This is the second of 6 online webinars between now and June .. and they're all FREE to attend. For more information and to register for the 2/26 and other 2011 exercises visit www.drc-group.com/project/footprint.html
Also... join Depiction on Thursday, Feb 24, for a pre-exercise webinar where valuable information and guidelines regarding exercise participation will be provided. The webinar is being hosted by Chris Floyd of the Disaster Resistant Communities Group and Ric Skinner, GISP, of The Stoneybrook Group LLC, who will be facilitating the mapping portion of the Formidable Footprint exercises.
The National AgrAbility Project is having a free webinar that explores emergency preparedness for Farmers, Ranchers and other Rural Residents with Disabilities. It will cover the development of emergency preparedness plans and support networks, sheltering, fire emergencies, mental health issues in emergencies, and more. The webinar is Thursday Feb 24 at 3:00 p.m. EST. To register visit http://news.agrability.org/2011/webinar_2-11.html
San Francisco Community Agencies Responding to Disaster (SF CARD) Program Manager Brian Whitlow will travel to Disaster City (College Station TX) from Monday Feb 7 thru Friday Feb 11. The exercise which Brian and other emergency responders from San Francisco will be participating in is geared toward a CBRNE event using simulations to train on incident management skills, staff responsibilities, situational awareness and decision-making skills. The course focus will be on the Incident Command Post (ICP) and the key decision-making requirements within that response node. The idea behind this drill is to help SF CARD staff better understand and practice the processes using social-media technologies to disseminate disaster-related updates. If you would like to monitor and be part of the discussion during the week long drill, follow SF CARD on Facebook or Twitter
Bill Liebsch was interviewed by the Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network and appears in their February eJournal. (Article starts on page 10 of the 19-page PDF)
Janet Liebsch appeared on the American Preppers Network Live show on Friday 2/4/11. Listen to the archive and learn about the Prepper Podcast Radio Network
Janet will also be appearing on DestinySurvival Radio this Thursday 2/10 at 1p Central on Preparedness Radio Network
...only 32 of the 4,000 miles - less than 1% - along the northern border have an "acceptable level" of security, according to the Government Accountability Office report?! The report by the watchdog arm of Congress said federal officials can only detect illegal border crossings along 1,007 miles of the border, and blasted federal agencies for not cooperating with each other. It also found that illegal crossings by terrorists are more likely to occur across the northern border than the southern border. Source: NY Daily News via NTARC
...a multidisciplinary team of scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science succeeded in developing an enzyme that breaks down organophosphorus nerve agents efficiently before damage to nerves and muscles is caused. Recent experiments performed in a U.S. military laboratory (USAMRICD) have shown that injecting a relatively small amount of this enzyme into animals provides protection against certain types of nerve agents, for which current treatments show limited efficacy. Source: ScienceDaily
...individuals exposed to disaster may experience a number of psychological problems including PTSD, grief, anxiety, and increased substance abuse, but the evidence shows that less than 30% of adults experience severe, lasting levels of these problems. The majority of people exposed to a disaster experience passing distress but return to psychological health. In other words, people tend to be psychologically resilient. Source: ScienceDaily
Education for Disaster Risk Reduction (Edu4drr) is a social network by and for teachers and educators who want to make a difference in disaster prevention education. http://www.edu4drr.org (Hat tip to Chasing4Life)
Sophos, a world leader in IT security and data protection, has a great YouTube video on creating a complex hard-to-guess password. Also ~ check out their blog discussing security issues at http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com
The University of Missouri Extension offers a great 19-pg template to guide families through the development process of developing a Family Disaster Plan. The plan is designed to be filled out electronically, however download the file to your computer before filling in the plan to protect your personal information. And keep an updated printout handy in a secured location. Learn more
Got a cool link or idea? Email it to Janet at email@example.com
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Bill & Janet Liebsch
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Back to 2011 e-news


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20 most ridiculous things musicians have demanded at their concerts
Van Halen demanded all the brown M&M's be removed from the group's candy bowl. Turns out that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to music stars' backstage demands.
Van Halen demanded all the brown M&M's be removed from the group's candy bowl. Turns out that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to music stars' backstage demands.
Beth Orton, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Michael Kiwanuka are also among the gang interpreting the Scientologist's songs for him
French brand Eleven Paris has arrived in London's Carnaby Street – it's about time, says Stephanie Hirschmiller
Few acts unite popular musical opinion like David Bowie. Arguably, even more so than The Beatles. Even if Bowie's new album The Next Day, which was released on Monday, doesn't tickle your fancy like Low or Hunky Dory, it'd be a bold move to say you didn't love at least some of his work. The man, frankly, unarguably, is a genius. Are we quorate on that? Right.
Berlin's much vaunted love affair with David Bowie has been given a new lease of life with the release of the singer's first album in a decade, featuring a track dedicated to his time in the once-divided Cold War city at the end of the 1970s.
Ageing rockers The Rolling Stones celebrated 50 years in the industry by performing to a packed London crowd for the first time since 2007.
Ohhh no, we can't insure your bulldog. This was the response from Churchill Insurance when Timothy Taylor, of Leicestershire, tried to get a quote to cover his six-year-old bulldog, Monty, who'd just been given a clean bill of health.
Slash has started work on his second solo album.
Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012 Olympic Committee (LOCOG), said yesterday that Britain's reputation would be "trashed" if Tottenham Hotspur's plan to rip down the Olympic Stadium was given the go-ahead next week.
A new exhibition of work by Mick Rock, often referred to as 'The man who shot the Seventies,' opens in London tomorrow.
Yony Leyser's new documentary seeks to find 'a man within' the controversial writer, wife killer and drug addict. But can anybody reveal this better than Burroughs himself? Matilda Battersby finds out
Before his recent death, alt-country icon Mark Linkous (aka Sparklehorse) and producer Danger Mouse began work on the collaborative project that would become Dark Night of the Soul, featuring an astonishing array of guest vocalists, among them Wayne Coyne, Iggy Pop and David Lynch.
Still crazy after all these years
Being the antithesis of a morning person, getting up before dawn should count as a heroic achievement. Indeed, staring out of my hotel window at the street-lit cityscape, I'm suffused with all the smug tranquillity of the early riser. Only then do I realise it's actually 10.15am: I've overslept by two hours and missed my appointment with Knut, my guide. Such is the slow, surreal process of acclimatising to Tromso in Norway, located 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle, where for two months from late November, the sun never rises.
It's rock'n'roll (and I like it)
Kurt Cobain and Johnny Cash have had the video game treatment in Guitar Hero 5 while the Beatles have been immortalised in their own title.


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Tarun Jolly followed one of the classic paths to entrepreneurship by spotting a weakness in his field and starting a new company to address it. His path, though, is more of a speedway.
In less than two years, his firm Renaissance RX, which runs toxicology and DNA tests to help doctors tune prescriptions for individual patients, ballooned to more than 800 employees in 44 states. Based at the New Orleans BioInnovation Center incubator on Canal Street, Renaissance reports processing between 1,200 and 1,600 DNA tests daily, alongside 700 to 1,000 toxicology tests.
It started with three employees 20 months ago. A year ago, it had about a dozen.
"We've had this intense, crazy growth," Jolly said. "We lose track of time because things have happened so fast."
A 38-year-old Kenner native, Jolly also said he is devoted to New Orleans and determined to grow locally. The Renaissance name refers in part to the city's revival since Hurricane Katrina. He also thinks genetic technology is poised to trigger a leap in medicine akin to Western civilization moving out of the Dark Ages into the Renaissance, he said.
The business sprang from Jolly's work as an anesthesiologist and pain management doctor. He found it frustrating working with the toxicology laboratories that process urine tests checking what medications patients have in their systems to avoid drug interactions and confirm people are following prescriptions and not abusing pain medicines. The data that came back wasn't formatted well for doctors, he said. He had to conduct additional research to interpret the results.
So in fall 2012 he spun off a toxicology lab from his medical practice with the goal of producing more accessible reports.
Months later, he added the DNA testing, and that's when the company surged.
The genetic information on patients tells doctors how individuals metabolize different drugs, letting physicians customize prescriptions for each person.
The practice thus far has been to factor in people's height and weight in deciding what doses to set. Doctors adjust prescriptions later if the drugs don't work, or if they cause unwelcome reactions. Genetics technology, Jolly said, allows the rise of precision "personalized medicine," an increasingly popular term.
"Two years from now, this is going to be standard of care," Jolly said.
The company's DNA tests cost $600, but because people's genes don't change, patients only need the test once. The toxicology tests are $95 and must be repeated for different occasions. Medicare and insurance often cover the costs, Jolly said.
One of Jolly's customers, family medicine doctor Jason Leonard, who is based in Sumter, S.C., and co-owns a chain of clinics in that state, agrees with Jolly's prediction that this DNA technology will reshape medicine.
"This is one of the first really practical applications of the human genome project," that mapped all human genes, Leonard said. "We are just on cusp of seeing how powerful this is."
"It's helped me really tailor what medicines to prescribe," because it shows how long different medications will linger in a patient's body, helping set dosages and make decisions about additional prescriptions. "Having that knowledge ahead of time is really, really powerful."
Leonard sometimes encounters insurance that doesn't cover the tests, but he said Renaissance RX is generous, often reducing the price for patients based on their income.
And he said Renaissance RX solves the problem of lab reports that are laborious for doctors to read.
"They break it down for you and make it so simple," Leonard said.
The company uses all the lab space and half the office space on the fourth floor of the BioInnovation Center building. It will soon need a larger setting, Jolly said.
Its labs are lined with machines and computers that analyze test samples. They buzz with technicians running the process.
Rapid technological advancement allows faster test processing with smaller machines, Jolly said. He said the company has developed some of its own methods for efficiently processing the high volumes of tests sent from doctors' offices. The company is working on patents for some of the science and processes it has created.
"Accuracy was the biggest, biggest thing for us," Jolly said, describing steps for checking and double-checking tests. "For us that's what matters more than anything else is the validity of these results that we're putting out there."
The business so far has funded itself, Jolly said. It has advanced through a process of lining up business, acquiring technology to meet the demand, handling more tests to pay for the equipment, then adding more machines and stepping up the number of tests again and repeating. Jolly said the company is able to find customers to fuel that curve with an "immensely responsive" approach to business, behaving like a partner to its clients.
It employs 60 to 70 people in New Orleans but hundreds more nationwide, mostly sales people and DNA sample collectors who go to doctors' office and do cheek swabs.
Jolly has two partners, Barry Griffith and Patrick Ridgeway, but he shows little interest in courting investors. He wants his decision-making untethered from outside interests. And he sees the company as a long-term project. He wants to build "a 20-year company."
Jolly's fast pace and ambitious talk are familiar to his friends in business.
Leonard, the doctor in South Carolina, described him as a high-energy combination of medical expertise and entrepreneurial flair. Jolly said entrepreneurship captivates him. He has filed to create several companies and also functions as an angel investor in other people's startups.
Todd Matherne, owner of Renaissance Publishing, which produces New Orleans Magazine and other publications, knows Jolly from their joint membership in the Louisiana chapter of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, which gathers business owners to advise each other. Jolly is the kind of person who sees problems as opportunities, Matherne said. And he seems indefatigable.
"He is always on, that guy," Matherne said. "He is always on. He is never not on."
"What he has done, moving from a practicing physician to an entrepreneur, is incredible," Matherne said.
For the next few months, Jolly said, he might hold steady on further growth. "We just want to make sure that we build the infrastructure that we need," he said.
Finding enough chemists is also a major challenge, he said. He plans to work with the University of New Orleans on a workforce training effort.
But his ambitions remain grand. When the cost of collecting and storing the data on each person's entire genetic code falls enough that people start getting full genetic reports in greater numbers, he plans to seize on that.
"It's not like we just discovered DNA," Jolly said. "Technology has kind of caught up with science."
"We never, ever want to be beaten on technology," he said.


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If mom can tutor her child, her value can rise by as much as $10,000 annually. iStockphoto
On this Mother's Day, Linsey Knerly of Investopedia asks whether raising children is a better value proposition for some women than staying in the work force.
"There is much discussion surrounding what it costs to raise a child, but a large portion of the expense can be reduced by having a mom stay at home with her kids. This often thankless job doesn't pay in the same way as a traditional occupation, however, leaving the matriarch of the family to garner her wages in snuggles and a somewhat delayed feeling of accomplishment," she writes.
Pointing out the added values of a specialized education, the salary fluctuations that locations naturally create (a metro mom's value can be up to $90,000 more than a rural mom's according to Salary.com's salary calculator), and outsourcing mom's TLC and cleaning services, may well prove too costly to warrant her going back to her day job.
So let's go to the numbers. Insure.com took an informal look at the various tasks a typical mom does and how much a family would have to spend to pay professionals to do the same things, based on pay rates garnered from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. From nursing duties to childcare, cooking and cleaning, chauffeuring, home maintenance, personal planning, and finding out what the kids are up to, Insure.com's Mother's Day Index assessed the value of the family matriarch at $61,436 annually.
Considering the latest employment picture, if mom were a part-time worker earning anywhere from minimum wage to the higher-end of just over $10.25 per hour, working 25.3 hours per week (reportedly what the average American worker puts in according to the Intuit Small Business Index), she would earn $8,700 to $12,300, a loss to the family of approximately $50,000 annually once we consider what a nanny would be paid to watch the kids while mom was at work.
Romy Ribitzky earned her MBA from Tel Aviv University. While studying at the heart of Startup Nation, she ran her first 10K, jumped 15 meters into a pool as part of Israel's toughest hikes, and conquered her fear of Excel. A former editor for Upstart Business Journal, Romy is currently an Editorial Curator with CityBiz.com.
Sign up to receive Upstart Business Journal's free daily email newsletter, weekend edition and breaking news alerts.


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- born
February 8, 1906
- died
September 1, 1994
Artur Balsam, (born Feb. 8, 1906, Warsaw, Poland, Russian Empire—died Sept. 1, 1994, New York, N.Y.) Polish-born U.S. pianist who , was an accomplished soloist, accompanist for violin and cello, and chamber musician whose elegant interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn sonatas distinguished his vast repertoire. Balsam received his musical training in Lodz, Poland, where he made his concert debut at the age of 12. He attended the Lodz Conservatory and the Berlin State Academy of Music and was the winner of the 1930 International Piano Competition and the 1931 Mendelssohn Prize. The following year he toured with violinist Yehudi Menuhin in the U.S., his permanent home after the rise of the Nazis. He recorded about 250 works, notably the complete set of Mozart violin and piano sonatas (with Oscar Shumsky), the Beethoven violin sonatas (with Joseph Fuchs), and cello sonatas (with Zara Nelsova). During the 1960s he performed as a member of a trio with violinist William Kroll and cellist Benar Heifetz. He also taught at Boston University, the Manhattan School of Music, New York City, and the Philadelphia Academy of Music. From 1956 to 1992 he headed a chamber music summer school in Maine.


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Jim O'Neill has a simple answer for those who bore him by demanding that he drop the R from Bric: he reminds them that, this decade, Russian GDP is likely to grow in dollar terms by as much as that of the entire eurozone.
The chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management's enthusiasm for Russia was matched yesterday by the markets, which welcomed Vladimir Putin's re-election, despite its inevitability.
The question is whether Mr Putin can make good on his lavish campaign promises. He has, for example, pledged not to raise the state pension ages of 60 for men and 55


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David and Katrina Baudek loaded their two children, Jacob and Desiree, into a pickup truck late Thursday during a powerful winter storm, trying to get their sick son to a hospital, said Yavapai County Sheriff's Office spokesman Dwight D'Evelyn.
They left their home about 70 miles north of Phoenix and headed out on a dirt road that normally is passable.
Tributaries of the nearby Agua Fria River had already flooded local roads, and when the Baudeks tried to cross one of them, their truck got stuck in the water and was swept off the road. Katrina Baudek escaped to higher ground as her husband moved the two children into the truck's bed for safety.
A witness nearby heard the commotion and threw the father a rope while someone called for help, D'Evelyn said. As rescue crews arrived, the floodwaters rose and swept David Baudek and his children from the truck bed.
The father managed to get to safety with his daughter, but the boy remained missing. D'Evelyn said the body could have been carried miles away and he is presumed dead.
Two swift-water rescuers from the Central Yavapai Fire District had jumped in the water to search for the boy, said Assistant Chief Charlie Cook. Tied together, the rescuers swept back and forth across the rushing water but came up empty, he said.
Rescuers battled severe wind gusts and sheets of horizontal rain, as the survivors looked on.
"It was pretty extreme conditions," Cook said.
An Arizona Department of Public Safety crew flew over the area where the boy was last seen and found debris piles that were to be checked for any signs of the boy, D'Evelyn said. The mother's jacket was found farther down river..
D'Evelyn said the conditions wouldn't have allowed the boy to survive.
"A 6-year-old, depending on his medical condition, would probably be unconscious fairly quickly and not have the knowledge of what to do or how to react and probably couldn't swim," he said. "Even an adult would have a hard time in this situation."


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Traffic was stop and go on most major highways in Northeast Ohio Thursday morning, thanks to whiteout conditions.
The low visibility, caused by high winds and flurries, was blamed for crashes and slide-offs across Cuyahoga County.
The area remains under a wind child advisory until 10 a.m. Friday. The National Weather Services said wind chill readings will drop to between 10 and 15 below. The snow will continue through Thursday afternoon with wind gusts up to 36 mph.
Here's what people are saying on Twitter and Instagram about the whiteout:


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The Style Gallery is a great new way for you to view, love, and share outfit photos. It's meant to showcase
all the expressive, creative, and inspirational personalities of our community!
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Isn't it just the worst when a trusty wardrobe staple seems to be sucked into a black hole? As it turns out, your new favorite sweatshirt will never disappear, for this grey top by Make It Good features a glow-in-the-dark outer space print! Portland-based Make It Good screen prints everyday items with the utmost care and enthusiasm. You reap the benefits of their high-quality work by wearing this comfy, organic-cotton-blend sweatshirt with nearly anything and being the most comfortable gal in this Milky Way all day!
Final Sale: This item cannot be returned or exchanged.
All measurements in inches.
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KOCHVILLE TOWNSHIP, MI – Knowing the film's reputation, some might call the technical difficulties that brought "Manos: The Hands of Fate" to a grinding halt Jan. 24 a godsend.
But rest assured, promised the theater crews at the Saginaw 12. The random DVR problems that sent RiffTrax fans home early won't affect its Thursday, Jan. 31, broadcast of "Plan 9 from Outer Space," hilariously ripped to shreds by "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" alumni Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett.
Rated PG-13, it begins at 7:30 p.m. at the theater at 3250 Kabobel. Tickets, available at the box office and online at gqti.com, cost $12.50.
To say the RiffTrax films are bad is beside the point, or rather it is the point. "Manos" was so full of pregnant pauses that the commentators' shouts of "Line! Line!" became a standing joke. Read related "Manos" story here. And the classic "Plan 9" has been called the gold standard of awesomely bad cinema, which means it doesn't get worse than this.
That's good news to fans of RiffTrax, a spin-off of the popular "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" television series. In its new setting, the three commentators stand to the side of the screen during a live show, beamed to theaters such as the Saginaw 12 around the country.
When Saginaw 12 brought "Birdemic: Shock and Terror" to the screen a few months ago, I laughed so hard that my ribs still ached a day later. Eager to share the pain, I raced to the website rifftrax.com to buy a download of the commentary, which you can coordinate to a DVD of the film.
And you know the real groaner of it all? The word out is that the "Birdemic" filmmakers are creating a sequel!
Because "Plan 9" is a Best of RiffTrax Live, it's an encore presentation of the trio's 2009 broadcast. It's also a good chance to see Wood's dubious masterpiece on the big screen.
Look, too, for the usual shorts, Nelson, Murphy and Corbett warming up on the continuing travails of the hapless Norman and putting their unique spin on public domain educational films that become almost demonic on their watch.
It's going to be one bad night at the movies.


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Cheats and Walkthroughs(48)
SOCOM 4 Full Deployment edition was announced today and will retail for $149.99. So what will $150 get you? The Limited Edition bundle will come with a PlayStation Move controller, a navigation controller, a PlayStatoin Eye, a PlayStation Move sharpshooter and of course a copy of SOCOM 4. The bundle and SOCOM 4 will be available on April 19 exclusively for the PS3.


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Fools Rush In
- Directed by Andy Tennant
===Story=== Opposites attract in this conventional but refreshingly unpredictable romantic comedy. New York nightclub designer (Matthew Perry, from television's ''Friends'') is in Las Vegas to supervise the construction of a new project when he meets a fiery Mexican beauty (Salma Hayek). It's lust at first sight, and their one-night stand takes an unexpected turn when she shows up three months later to announce that she's pregnant. They're determined to do right for each other, so they get married in a Vegas chapel with an Elvis impersonator as their witness. Then comes the hard part--trying to figure out if they're actually compatible. The plot complications are mostly familiar, but Perry and Hayek throw some bright sparks as their initial bliss turns to more realistic concerns for family and future. Along the way there's some sharp dialogue and a few good laughs to give this all-too-human comedy an enjoyable spin. ''--Jeff Shannon'' ===DVD Features=== *Color *Closed-captioned *Widescreen *Dolby
|Matthew Perry
|Alex Whitman
|Salma Hayek
|Isabel Fuentes Whitman
|Jon Tenney
|Carlos Gómez
|Tomas Milian
|Tomas Fuentes
|Siobhan Fallon
|John Bennett Perry
|Richard Whitman
|Stanley Desantis
|Judd Marshall
|Suzanne Snyder
|Cathy Stewart
|Anne Betancourt
|Jill Clayburgh
|Nan Whitman
Recent threads
- Genre: Comedy Movies
- Director: Andy Tennant
- Producer: Columbia/Tri-Star
Theatrical Release North America Feb 14, 1997
Ratings North America PG-13
DVD Release North America Dec 3, 2002


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Big Easy Baseball Pros is the Times-Picayune's new tracker of Major League Baseball players from the New Orleans metro area and local colleges. Check in every Monday for an exclusive feature as well as updated stats, links, and more.
Every Monday we'll pick one Big Easy Baseball Pro to forecast and analyze his 2011 performance.
This week: Charlie Furbush
The second player from a Paul Mainieri-coached LSU baseball team has broken into the big leagues.
Last week, lefthanded pitcher Charlie Furbush joined Louis Coleman as the second player from the Mainieri era to make a major league roster.
Furbush pitched for one season at LSU. In 2007 as a junior, he played on Mainieri's first team after transferring from tiny St. Joseph's in Standish, Maine.
He is a native of South Portland, Maine. He and San Diego's Tim Stauffer are the only Mainers currently in the majors.
Furbush was selected in the fourth round of the 2007 draft by the Detroit Tigers, who were likely lured by his size (he is 6'5"), above-average velocity, and how little miles he has on his arm being from the short-seasoned Northeast.
Since then, Furbush has done nothing but improve.
Last year he climbed the Tigers' minor-league ladder from A-ball to AAA and ranked second among all minor league pitchers with 183 strikeouts. At the time of his call-up, he was leading the AAA International League in strikeouts.
As a minor leaguer, Furbush averaged 9.5 strikeouts/9 innings while managing his walk rate at a sterling 2.3/9. If he can maintain a ratio even close to that going forward, it's going to be tough for Jim Leyland to keep him out of Detroit's rotation.
Leyland called on Furbush to make his major league debut on Monday against the Tampa Bay Rays. When Tigers started Phil Coke slipped and suffered a bone bruise while fielding a bunt in the fourth inning, Leyland's finger pointed to Furbush, and all of a sudden he was jogging to the mound.
"I was like, OK this is it. This is everything I've been working for," the 25-year-old Furbush told MLB.com. "I couldn't have been more excited."
Furbush was impressive in his debut and notched a win, throwing 3.2 innings and blanking Tampa Bay. It was the longest outing by a Tiger reliever making his debut since 1991.
Friday night against Boston, Furbush was even better.
After Detroit's starter Rick Porcello was knocked out early by the white-hot Red Sox, Furbush soaked up five innings and allowed just four baserunners while striking out six. Most importantly, the Sox couldn't muster a run during his appearance. Furbush gave his team a chance to win what looked like a probable blowout, although Boston eventually held on to win.
In 8.2 innings in his first week in the big leagues, Furbush hasn't allowed a run. Detroit placed Coke on the DL Tuesday and called up another highly touted pitching prospect, Andrew Oliver, to take his place in the rotation.
But with a few more solid outings out of Detroit's bullpen, Furbush would place himself squarely in competition for the Tigers' final rotation spot.
Fred Lewis (Cincinnati)
.255 / 1 / 5 / .288
With Jonny Gomes mired in a major slump that has the Reds scouring the trade market for another right-handed hitting outfielder, Southern's Fred Lewis has seen a lot of playing time lately. He responded with four hits during the week, but he's not likely to be a long-term starter on a team with playoff aspirations like Cincinnati. More likely is that he'll fall into a platoon with Chris Heisey or the Reds will find another option to platoon with the lefty-swinging Lewis.The Cincinnati Enquirer's Paul Daugherty wants Heisey to start
Brian Tallet (St. Louis)
0-1 / 5.68
The lefty specialist from LSU returned last week from a broken hamate bone in his right hand that required surgery and kept him out of the Cards' bullpen for a month. Then on Saturday, Tallet gave up four runs in an inning against Colorado and left the game with what is being called "elbow tightness" that was noticeably affecting his delivery. After the game, Tallet downplayed the discomfort and was said to be available during Saturday's game against the Rockies. Tallet has only thrown a total of 6.1 innings this year, but his ground ball and strikeout ratios are both encouraging.Tallet leaves Saturday's game with elbow tightness
Brandon Gomes (Tampa Bay)
0-0 / 2.89
Not much to report here, as former Tulane pitcher Brandon Gomes didn't see any action out of the Rays bullpen in the past week. Gomes was called up from AAA Durham by Tampa Bay earlier this month and has done well in a fluid situation in the Rays' pen, which has exceeded expectations after losing Rafael Soriano, Joaquin Benoit, and Dan Wheeler to free agency. Lefthander J.P. Howell returned last week and is seen as the primary bridge to closer Kyle Farnsworth. That shouldn't keep Gomes buried, though; in his nine innings of work since being called up earlier in the month he's been solid.How Howell's return affects the Rays' pen
Ryan Adams (Baltimore)
.200 / 0 / 0 / .273
New Orleans native and Jesuit grad Ryan Adams was called up by Baltimore last week to fill in for Brian Roberts, who was placed on the new 7-day DL with a concussion.
Adams was a second-round pick by Baltimore in the 2006 amateur draft and has been solid if unspectacular in six minor league seasons. He notched his first major league hit off Jason Marquis with his parents in attendance and has two hits in his first 10 at-bats.
He'll probably have to rake to avoid being sent down when Roberts returns.
Rickie Weeks (Milwaukee)
.280 / 9 / 19 / .356
Southern's Rickie Weeks only had four hits this week, but two of them were home runs. With nine bombs, he trails only Robinson Cano's ten among all major league second basemen. Weeks' homer last Monday against the Nationals was key. In a game where Ryan Braun had been ejected, Weeks launched a shot in the seventh inning that drew the Brewers to within a run in a game they would eventually win with some late clutch hitting. Weeks' batting average on balls in play is a robust .338, much higher than the league average of .280, suggesting that he could be due for some regression in the batting average department.Baseball Reference shows the career similarities between Weeks and Brandon Phillips
Micah Owings (Arizona)
1-0 / 3.48
Tulane's Micah Owings got his second start of the season Thursday against ice-cold Colorado and prolonged their doldrums, stingily holding them to a lone run and four hits over five innings. It was his first win since July of 2009 and he's already scheduled to oppose Washington on Thursday. In two starts this season, Owings has been doing his thing without striking hitters out much, so command is crucial to his success. But after slogging through the first quarter of 2011 in the minor leagues, Owings will do whatever he can to stick on Arizona's roster.Why Owings is up and Armando Galarraga is down
Ryan Theriot (St. Louis)
.303 / 0 / 19 / .351
Former LSU shortstop and Baton Rouge native Ryan Theriot is quietly doing all St. Louis had hoped he would offensively. His batting average, OBP, and RBI totals are all roughly the same as Rickie Weeks' although Theriot has none of Weeks' pop. Still, the Cards have to love what Theriot has given them out of the leadoff spot. Last week he continued rolling, getting a hit in every game, including two in both Friday and Saturday's games. After Saturday, he has an 11-game hit streak during which he's hitting .370.The Post-Dispatch evaluates Theriot against the other shortstops available last winter
Aaron Hill (Toronto)
.241 / 0 / 19 / .281
The former LSU Tiger has been hitting a little after completely bombing and then getting hurt early in the season, but the mysterious lack of power continues for a guy who hit 62 homers over the last two years while playing second base. That put Hill into pretty elite company: Dan Uggla/Chase Utley territory, if a notch below those two. But now with Hill actually hitting like a second baseman and an injury concern to boot at a middle-infield position, Toronto's decision to decline his expensive option before the season started looks like the right one.Hill's homerlessness is starting to garner attention
Brad Hawpe (San Diego)
.234 / 4 / 13 / .296
More signs of life from LSU's Brad Hawpe, who had two more homers this week in the attempt to keep his job while San Diego's AAA first baseman Anthony Rizzo continues to scald the ball for Reno. Rizzo is one of the pieces the Padres netted from the Red Sox system in exchange for Adrian Gonzalez. All four of Hawpe's home runs have come in May, following his embarrassing April, when San Diego was scrambling to figure out what to do with him. The numbers still aren't pretty, but they're creeping their way back to respectability.Wonder what this means for Hawpe
Louis Coleman (Kansas City)
0-2 / 2.16
LSU's Louis Coleman gave up two runs this week out of Kansas City's bullpen and ended up with the loss in each game. But in 16.2 innings this year, Coleman is showing that he has a future as a bullpen arm, maybe even as a setup man. His batting average against is .161 and he has 19 strikeouts, though he does need to decrease his walks. Like most righties who throw from his arm angle, his challenge will be minimizing the damage against lefties. He dominates righties.
Ned Yost says Coleman is the Royals' situational righty
Xavier Paul (PIT)
.240 / 0 / 3 / .269
Slidell's Xavier Paul hasn't had a hit in a week, but he also hasn't played a whole lot for Pittsburgh, getting but a few pinch-hit appearances. The strikeout-to-walk ratio continues to be a major concern for Paul: 19 Ks and just two walks. Unless he starts figuring out how to get on base and make use of his speed, this is the part of his game that will keep him from being a regular player at the major league level. He also has just one extra-base hit among his 12 knocks this year.Paul's player page
Brian Wilson (San Francisco)
4-1 / 3.38
The Beard finally slipped his season ERA under 4.00 last week with three scoreless outings, including a two-inning appearance against Florida. The former LSU hurler also ended up with his 14th save on Friday in a two-strikeout appearance against Milwaukee. It was a tough week overall for San Francisco, who lost their best player Buster Posey to a season-ending injury. But Wilson continues to show that he's back to top form. He's allowed but one earned run all month and has recorded five of his six save chances.The Giants needed this one
Logan Morrison (FLA)
.327 / 6 / 18 / .415
LoMo is a beast. Since Wednesday, the Northshore graduate and Slidell product has collected eight hits in four games. It's early yet, but the Marlins keep winning, and Morrison is right in the thick of it, putting up Hanley Ramirez-like numbers in a down season for the Marlins' star shortstop. Florida swept the Giants last week, with LoMo getting the lone RBI in a tight 1-0 game on Thursday. Although ace pitcher Josh Johnson is on the DL, the Marlins' young trio of home-grown stars-in-the-making (Morrison, Mike Stanton, and Gaby Sanchez) is holding the fort impressively.How they're making this work
Big Easy Baseball Pros on the Disabled List: Mike Fontenot (San Francisco), Chad Gaudin (Washington)
Former Big Easy Baseball Pros Down on the Farm: Brian Bogusevic (Houston), Thomas Diamond (Chicago Cubs), Brad
Emaus (Colorado), Mark Hamilton (St. Louis), Wade LeBlanc (Texas), Tommy Manzella (Houston), Greg Smith (Colorado), Nick Stavinoha (St. Louis)
Ron Washington (Texas)
All is not roses for New Orleans native and Rangers manager Ron Washington in Texas. After a hot start, the Rangers lost their entire starting outfield to injury and are just getting Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz back. And young closer Neftali Feliz has either relied too much on his offspeed stuff or his fastball at different points. Strangely, the issues that seemed daunting for Wash at the beginning of the season – whether Alexi Ogando would work in the rotation and if Michael Young would produce after demanding a trade – have been complete non-issues. Ogando and Young have actually saved the Rangers from sinking, though the hot Mariners are just a half-game behind them as of Sunday morning.
Wash discusses Feliz's inconsistency


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Anyone else on a 3rd shift??
My husband works 3rd shift so the whole family is on it. We dont go to bed til about 5am and dont wake up till 3pm. I dont feel like this is "normal" mommy sleep habits. Anyone else on a 3rd shift?
I am but I work 3rd shift! My dh and kids have normal sleep habits (sleep at night, awake during the day). I usually sleep from 9-3 everyday though!
I work doubles...2nd and 3rd(3pm-7am)...2 days a week....and 1 single shift as well.
Well we only have one kid, he is almost 17 months so it's not a big deal right now because I am a SAHM. But when he goes to school i'll have to change our sleeping habits.
Quoting jendigme:
How do u handle that with ur kids? How old are they do u mind me asking?


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Sancerre Rouge: The Connoisseur's Wine
The Loire Valley is renowned for its grassy white wines but connoisseurs know its light, fresh, juicy reds make for sensational spring drinking
"THIS WINE IS PERFECT for sipping in a wine bar," says Clément Pinard, pointing at a glass of his Sancerre Rouge. "Perhaps while you are waiting for your girlfriend," he adds. "With a small light hanging down from above."
It's an attractive mental picture but I think Mr. Pinard, who runs Sancerre's Domaine Pinard with his brother, Florent, may be getting a little carried away, so I look at my glass and take a sniff. The red wine is slightly pale—if I hold it up to the light I can see through it—and on this serving, it is slightly chilled. The first thing that strikes me is its perfume; there is an obvious whiff of blackcurrant and raspberry. I take a sip. What a gloriously light texture, a thrilling acidity that refreshes but doesn't overwhelm the palate. I look at Mr. Pinard and think: You know, the wine bar analogy works. I could see myself nursing a glass, waiting for someone special to arrive.
We're drinking Pinot Noir. Not from Burgundy or California but from the Loire Valley, from the fertile hills of Sancerre, a cluster of villages best known for producing Sauvignon Blanc with a fresh, grassy style. But the region also produces red wine and at this time of year, these juicy, fresh, medium-light-bodied wines make for sensational drinking.
These are wines that taste of the soil. As Mr. Pinard says, they almost act like a sponge, translating the flavors from the soil into the glass. What I find is a sort of chalky aftertaste in the mouth, which is what makes them so attractive when paired with food, particularly local dishes such as pork, paté and the huge array of seafood dishes favored in the region. If ever there was a red wine made to go with fish, this is it.
But they are also wines that the connoisseurs drink—those with the inside track who know that while Pinot Noir may be more famous in Burgundy, it's been planted in the Loire Valley since the Middle Ages. As Mark Walford, director of British wine merchant Richards Walford, told me: "They are the wines I buy for myself and jolly good they are, too."
In fact, the wine trade has been active in the Loire since the Middle Ages when the Plantagenet kings of England had their wines shipped from the port of Nantes.
When we think of the Loire, our imaginations naturally conjure up images of Renaissance châteaux, medieval fortresses and crisp, white wine. Pinot Noir isn't necessarily the first grape variety that springs to mind. But the Loire shares the same soil as Burgundy; where it differs is in the weather. In Sancerre they have colder nights and warmer days, which makes a big difference in the flavor of the wine. Grown in the Loire, Pinot Noir takes on a spicy edge and possesses more of a black pepper character than it does in Burgundy.
'A glorious light texture, a thrilling acidity that refreshes but doesn't overwhelm the palate'
The other great red grape variety of the Loire is Cabernet Franc, which thrives on the chalky soils of Bourgeuil, Chinon and Saumur-Champigny.
Frédéric Mabileau, Bernard Baudry, Charles Joguet, Jacky Blot of Domaine de la Butte and Yannick Amirault are all producers worth looking out for.
In their youth, these wines can be a little astringent or green with a hard edge, but when they age and the vintage conditions have led to ripe grapes, the best examples display an attractive fruit character from damson to loganberry and dark berry. They also take on a note of tobacco or pencil shavings.
With their naturally high acidity these are wines that can also be served chilled. One can easily imagine drinking them from a carafe in a Parisian bistro to wash down a hearty steak-frites—waiting for someone special, of course.
—Find one-minute wine reviews and more at WSJ.com/vintage . Email Will at firstname.lastname@example.com or follow him on Twitter: @Will_Lyons
Corrections & Amplifications
Clément Pinard, who runs Sancerre's Domaine Vincent Pinard with his brother, Florent, describes his glass of Sancerre Rouge as the perfect wine for sipping in a wine bar. An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed the quote to Vincent Pinard, his father, and incorrectly gave his brother's name as Cosette.


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Mayor Ray Nagin's office has lodged a sharp-tongued response to a recent inspector general's report blasting the way New Orleans prepares its annual budget and calling for a recalibration of spending priorities.
Besides rebutting all 21 findings of the 57-page report issued last month by Interim Inspector General David Westerling, the 10-page response by Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Hatfield turns the tables on the OIG's office, accusing it of falling down on the job by failing to draft an operations manual and governing policies, as required by city law.
Ed Quatrevaux, who took the reins permanently from Westerling in late October, has said his staff is working to meet its obligations.
Hatfield also takes aim at one of the more ballyhooed findings of the report: that New Orleans spends more per capita on basic city services, including trash pickup, than other comparable cities. She called the methodology used to draw the comparisons "flawed" and said the inspector general declined a request by the administration to share the specific data it studied.
"Without the actual data sheets used, we cannot be sure that the OIG report is actually comparing like functions between the departments of the various comparison cities," Hatfield wrote. "If we are to make informed decisions about spending priorities, we need to have confidence in the accuracy of the OIG's analysis."
The inspector general's report also fails to make suggestions about how to improve the City Council's annual budget review -- a monthlong series of meetings that often turns contentious while offering little insight into the city's spending plans -- and it "fails to recognize the progress made over the past three years in the presentation of a high-quality budget document," Hatfield wrote.
, along with eight other appendices to the OIG's report, were posted late Monday to the agency's Web site. The inspector general's office did not release its initial report publicly, maintaining the document was not complete until the administration had a chance to respond, but it was made available to the news media by City Hall sources.


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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A family that grew up in the shadow of the Inner Belt Bridge
and documented its construction on film has spliced together hours of home
movies to create a 6-minute YouTube video of the bridge going up in the 1950s.
Made from color film shot with a 16-millimeter camera by the father of Bernie Sokolowski, now co-owner of Sokolowski's University Inn, the video gives a unique look at the building of the massive truss-arch span over the Cuyahoga River.
Workers began demolishing the bridge last month as part of a $273 million project that includes construction of a new eastbound Interstate 90 bridge through downtown Cleveland. A new westbound bridge opened in November and will handle traffic in both directions until its sister span is done in 2016.
The Sokolowskis were second-generation owners of the tavern in Cleveland's Tremont area when work started on the first Inner Belt Bridge in 1954. Outside the front door of the neighborhood bar on University Road, Sokolowski's dad, Ben, had a nice spot from which to film the eight-lane, 4,233-foot span as it rose along the edge of downtown.
Sokolowski said family members decided to condense footage of the bridge that figured so much in their life into a single movie. His son Bernard, a graphic artist, put the video together using Apple's Final Cut Pro software. Sokolowski in recent days showed it to customers at the inn's bar.
Now 58 years old, Bernie is a toddler in white shorts in the first seconds of the video, which opens with a shot of a bar patron helping him to stand. The camera pans to the family Doberman pincher, Rita, romping near the edge of a dropoff to a vista of the bridge site, and moves to Bernie's mother, Marion, before cutting away to monumental bridge piers rising on the riverbank.
Ironworkers are shown high up on the steel span without harnesses, looking almost casual as they go about their duties.
"It was a different breed of men that worked on those bridges," Sokolowski said. "These guys, most of them were World War II vets. They'd seen a lot in their day. Going on a bridge was nothing."
Sokolowski's grandfather had bought the bar already named University Inn in 1923. When the bridge was going up, construction workers stopped in on their breaks for a shot and a beer, then headed back to the high beams.
"There probably weren't many regulations on what you could do on your lunch hour," Sokolowski said.
His grandmother, visiting one day from Pennsylvania said, "'Why don't you cook these guys something to eat? They're hungry,'" Sokolowski said. "Next thing you know we started making food, home-made cooking. That's sort of how we transferred from tavern to restaurant."
Sokolowski has few recollections of the actual bridge construction because he was so young. He does remember the huge orange
As an older boy he looked at the bridge out the windows of the restaurant. "I grew up hearing freighters and tug boats blowing the fog horns," Sokolowski said. "It's just been a part of my life."
Workers on the Ohio Department of Transportation project are cutting the concrete deck into six- to eight-foot slabs that are loaded into trucks and hauled away. A controlled demolition this summer will bring down the massive steel skeleton.


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President's Column: Alphas & Omegas
This time of year encompasses endings and beginnings. For those in academia, the end of summer — that summer in which so much research was going to get done — looms; the hecticity (if I may be allowed one neologism) of the new term is about to flood in. For some observatories, summer shutdown tasks are being completed, and for all those tied to the federal fiscal year, budget juggling is under way. Unfortunately, the Congress, which is supposed to have all the budget appropriations bills for the new fiscal year completed by October 1, decided not to bother and went on vacation. The lack of seriousness with which they treat this solemn responsibility leaves all of us in unproductive uncertainty. It's clearly going to be another "interesting" year.
Our Executive Officer, Kevin Marvel, is at a beginning — of his well-deserved sabbatical leave during which he will be doing research in Finland for his book on Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander, the Prussian astronomer who published the Bonner Durchmusterung (BD) catalog of a third of a million stars more than 150 years ago — the early dawn of "big data". Kevin will also be teaching a science policy course at the University of Arizona and a non-profit management course at New Mexico State. We will welcome Kevin back in time for the January meeting in Washington, DC, which promises to be one of the largest AAS meetings ever. The Vice Presidents are putting the final touches on a packed program for which the abstract deadline — be forewarned — is only a scant seven weeks away.
The AAS Washington office is also at a beginning — having just moved into their new, far-less-cramped and purpose-built quarters one floor down in the AGU building just north of Dupont Circle. The space became available when the AGU outsourced their journal operations, and we jumped at the opportunity to solve our long-term space problems on favorable financial terms and with minimum disruption. If you find yourself in the nation's capital, drop in for a visit.
Another exciting Washington beginning is the nomination of astrophysicist France Cordova to be the next director of the National Science Foundation. Let's hope her confirmation is less contentious than many the Senate has been dealing with this term.
Speaking of journals, I'd like to thank those of you who took the time to write in response to my last column concerning the AAS publications and how we might make them even more useful by linking data to articles. I was encouraged by the amount of support this notion received, particularly among the younger members of our Society. In that vein, I would like to highlight here a relevant upcoming workshop on archival data that will be held during the Washington meeting, sponsored by the AAS Employment Committee.
We are also at the beginning of a new initiative I reported on earlier — an AAS Agents program designed to enhance both the Society's service to its members and its effectiveness in support of our discipline. Consider volunteering to be the AAS Agent for your institution by registering at http://aas.org/agents/aas-agents-program. But you'll have to hurry if you want a shot at the coveted title Agent 007, as it's the next one up.
Returning to the depressing topic of Washington politics, it is easy to get inured to the dysfunctionality. However, I am encouraged by the ideas and energy our members and fellow scientists are willing to invest in continuing to fight for rational science policy. Our Communicating With Washington effort received expressions of interest from 60 volunteers in the most recent sign-up period. This program, started under the leadership of our highly energetic Bahcall Fellow Bethany Johns, will be carried forward by our brand new Bahcall Fellow Josh Shiode (congratulations, Josh, and welcome aboard). In addition, we have recently joined an effort led by the APS and involving many other scientific societies to set up a new 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, "Science Counts", which will work toward educating voters directly about the invaluable role federally funded science plays in the future of the nation. As Carl Sagan once noted in a different context (comparing science and science fiction), the story describing the payoff on our federal research investment is spectacular and has the added advantage that it's true!
In hopes this month brings you satisfying endings and exciting beginnings,