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ROCKFORD — City Council members approved a new initiative Monday to partner with volunteers and a nonprofit group to make downtown Rockford more attractive.
Aldermen voted 10-2 to approve an agreement with the Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau to launch Forest City Beautiful, which would take on beatification tasks like pulling weeds, mulching, planting flowers, hanging baskets, trimming trees, planting new ones and adding lighting.
The city will contribute $50,000 for RACVB to hire a landscape architect to develop plans for downtown improvement. It would also provide $20,000 annually toward maintenance for two years. RACVB expects to raise $120,000 annually through private donations and contribute $50,000 from its own budget toward the initiative.
Aldermen debated the proposal for nearly 45 minutes before voting in favor. Ald. Teena Newburg, I-9, and Jeanne Oddo, D-8, voted against. Aldermen expressed concerns about the cost and whether the money could be better spent improving other parts of the city.
"I can't support something asking for $50,000 for landscape architectural services," Newburg said. "That's $50,000 to tell us where to put our plants and what kind of plants to put there. I think that's ludicrous, sorry."
Proponents say it helps the city by providing additional funding and manpower from volunteers and donors for maintenance that is the city's responsibility.
"People are starting to believe in Rockford," said Ald. Tim Durkee, R-1. "This is a good thing because people are stepping up and they're getting involved in their downtown."
Kevin Haas: 815-987-1410; email@example.com; @KevinMHaas


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photo 1 of 19
Brad Blackburn
raining: I have 2 to 3 training sessions a day. Normally strength and conditioning in the morning, and fight training in the evening whether it's grappling, striking, or both.
Getty Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this image or clip. If you violate our intellectual property you may be liable for: actual damages, loss of income, and profits you derive from the use of this image or clip, and, where appropriate, the costs of collection and/or statutory damages up to $150,000 (USD).

subset: commoncrawl


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• Powder coated 18 Gauge steel front. • Automatic reset thermal limit. • Steel block fin element. • Weight 22 lbs. • Vane axial fan blade: 600 RPM / 175 CFM. • Grill dimensions: 15-3/8" Wide x 20-9/64" High. • Rough in dimensions: 14-3/16" Wide x 19-15/16" High x 4" Deep. • Units with dual wattage, factory wired to highest wattage.• Wattage selectable at time of installation on some models.
Typical Specifications: Furnish and install Electric Forced Air Heaters where specified. The heaters shall be constructed of a heavy gauge steel housing. The rough-in dimensions are 14-3/16" Wide x 19-5/16" High x 4" Deep. The finish shall be powder coated paint in ivory or white color. The units shall be available in ratings from 750 through 4800 Watts. The heaters shall have a low speed 600 RPM motor which drives a vane axial blower to deliver a quiet 175 CFM of down flow air. The heating element shall be of the sealed block fin type with large, parallel steel fins for quick heat transfer. Unit shall have a standard thermal overload cutoff for added safety, a fan switch for fan only operation, and is available with a single pole, or double pole built-in thermostat, or no thermostat. The in-built thermostat shall be calibrated to provide a range of 50 degrees F. to 90 degrees F. All heaters shall be listed by ETL. The heating element shall be supplied with a manufacturer's 1 year limited warranty.


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Too many steps. First you track down and buy a kit, then you have your rail milled, then you have your body milled. Each step adds time and money.
This next part I say with some reservation. As an indy game maker and an active member of those communities I often see people pop up and say "I have a great idea, will somebody (who has dedicated years and invested their own money to learn how) code it for me!?". It happens with whack-a-mole frequency. So I understand when I suggest this that the custom fabrication folks here on AO have their hands full with their own ideas careers and families already. But if anyone does have the time, and there is enough interest, I would love to see a built to purpose pump body/rail/kit.
I have a few thoughts about how this could be done while keeping cost down, but I'm sure the pro's know better than I. Would anyone else like to see this?


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With warmer weather come inquisitive and often invasive insects. When temperatures are pleasant many people would prefer spending more time outside enjoying their patio sets or firepits, but find themselves shut in to avoid hungry mosquitoes, stinging hornets and uninvited crawlers.
Take back your outdoors with bug zappers, insect killer and more helpful solutions from Ace. And while an electric bug zapper can help control the moth population and many other airborne pests, we also carry several mosquito killer models, specifically designed to attract and help eliminate mosquito populations from residential and other outdoor locations.
A bug killer can help you limit the amount of bugs invading some of your favorite outdoor places. If you're more concerned with insects following you on walks or during other activities, it's also a smart idea to apply some insect repellant. For more information check out our section on insect lights and traps.
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text: Save This Event For Later Ride for Care Fundraiser Mitchells, VA, Sun Aug 11, 2013 Who's Registered? | Contact Event | Event Website | Google Calendar Start line address: 12240 Mitchell Road, Mitchells, VA 22729 Presented by Bike Stop Racing USA Cycling Permit # 2013-1477 This is a past event. If you wish to see the details for this event click, "Continue" below. If you are looking for a current event, please search the event calendar .


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George Clooney is thinking about running for governor. Of California.
An actor becoming governor of California?
It could never happen.
Yet multiple media outlets are reporting the 53-year-old Oscar winner is seriously thinking about it.
"George has been talking to politicians about running for years," an insider told Us Weekly. This person also reportedly says the "The Monuments Men" star ultimately wants to be a senator.
Some nerve. The guy hasn't even taken over as governor, and he already wants a senate seat.
"George has said his ultimate goal is to become a US senator, but he knows he would have to hold a position like governor first," the source said.
Us Weekly reports that a friend of Clooney's -- who may or may not be the "source" -- predicts a 2018 run, saying, "He has good ideas that he wants to implement."
I don't know about his ideas. But he's pretty dreamy for an old guy.
Clooney reportedly once claimed he couldn't run for office because, "I've slept with too many women, I've done too many drugs and I've been to too many parties."
But enough about the Clinton Administration ...
Clooney is engaged to British attorney Amal Alamuddin and is reportedly looking for a home in London. Which is a ways away from California.
Tony Hicks provides celebrity commentary for the Bay Area News Group. Contact him at Facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks or Twitter.com/insertfoot.


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Korean and Southern food may not seem like a natural pair. But now it's one more example of traditions emulsifying in the great American melting pot. Korean-American chef Edward Lee makes that case with his new cookbook Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories From a New Southern Kitchen.
Fusion cooking comes naturally to Lee: He grew up in an immigrant neighborhood of Brooklyn surrounded by Jamaicans, Indians, Iranians and Jews.
"When they immigrated to America, my parents deliberately decided they weren't going to live in the big Korean enclaves," Lee tells Morning Edition host David Greene. "They wanted to spread out and be amongst other people. That education in cuisine, ranging from so many different immigrant groups probably left more of a lasting impression on me in cuisine than anything else.
"Their whole thing was 'You're an American. Be an American,' " Lee says.
But Korean food was a way Lee connected with his grandmother. She rarely spoke of Korea because she didn't have very happy memories, he says, but "food was the one thing that was kind of sacred and pure and hadn't been torn apart."
As a kid, Lee says he would hang out with her in the kitchen, and at first, she ignored him. "I would, little by little, start helping her with things," he says. "She got very annoyed by that at first. She's like, 'You're a man. You're not supposed to be here learning how to make kimchi — that's women's work.' "
Over the years, he says, they developed a strong bond that relied on few words.
Korean food was also how Lee established himself as a chef. In 1998 he opened a restaurant in Manhattan called Clay, which attracted a clientele that included plenty of celebrities. But the excitement wore off quickly.
"Everything seemed right on paper: Korean kid opens Korean restaurant," he says. "But it just didn't feel right to me, and I wasn't incredibly proud of the food. I felt like it was just an extension of what I thought people wanted me to cook."
He started to re-evaluate things and decided to travel around the country. The farthest his family had traveled in his childhood was New Jersey. "That was huge for us," he says. "Although I grew up in America and I was influenced by all of the things that other Americans are, I had no idea what America was. It was this vast unknown beyond New Jersey."
So in 2001 Lee went to places like Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., for the first time. And it was in Louisville at the Kentucky Derby that he fell in love with the South.
Within a year he had moved there to take over a restaurant called 610 Magnolia and the fusion instinct kicked in. He started mixing Korean spice with Southern comfort food.
"Southern food tends to be a little bit on the sweeter side. Asian food tends to be a little bit on the saltier, kind of umami side," Lee says. "When they work and you put them together, they are actually are a wonderful marriage."
Grits, for example, reminded Lee of congee, a rice porridge Koreans usually eat with soy sauce and seafood. So Lee came up with a recipe for lamb braised in soy sauce and served over grits, transforming the sweet taste of the corn into something new.
Or take fried chicken. Koreans actually have a long tradition of frying chicken, Lee says. They just have a slightly different method of preparing the chicken for frying. "The results are almost similar, but it's just different pathways to the same place," he says. "And I find that a lot in Asian cuisine and Southern cuisine."
The Kentucky Derby is tomorrow and it is as much about pageantry and food as it is about the races. The Derby was a big reason why Chef Edward Lee fell in love with Kentucky. The "Top Chef" chef trained in kitchens all over France. He owned a restaurant in Manhattan that attracted plenty of celebrities.
But then at age 27, he started to take these road trips all across the country.
CHEF EDWARD LEE: Wound up, through a friend of a friend who said, hey, you've got to go to Derby. And I thought of course I do.
GREENE: Of course you do.
LEE: I have to wear seersucker and drink bourbon.
GREENE: Right.
LEE: And wear a hat. It just felt like a great party and a great atmosphere.
GREENE: And 10 years later, Lee is still there. He owns a couple of restaurants in Louisville and is just out with a new cookbook called "Smoke and Pickles." Before all of that, as a Korean-American kid growing up in Brooklyn, Edward Lee learned to love a huge range of flavors and cultures and all the ways they could mix together.
LEE: My parents deliberately, when they immigrated to America, decided they weren't going to live in the big Korean enclaves, that they wanted to sort of spread out and be amongst other people.
GREENE: To expose you to other cultures and?
LEE: Yeah, and just to be American, which I thought that was pretty forward-thinking. I probably didn't realize it or appreciate it at the time but, I mean, I was surrounded by Jamaicans and Indian cuisine and Iranian cuisine and Jewish cuisine and...
GREENE: What a mix.
LEE: Yeah. And a lot of these people just became, you know, our default babysitters. You know, they would be neighbors and they would come by and drop off food and we'd hand out and I would go to their house. You know, it was just we experienced it really from a home kitchen, not from a restaurant side.
GREENE: Hmm. So many flavors. It sounds really cool.
LEE: Yeah. That was - for me, I grew up watching my grandmother cook and I would hang out with her in the kitchen and she knew I was watching her. And she would just continue. And she would ignore me for hours. And she would just tell me, like, get out of here, I'm busy. But she knew I was watching. And I would, little by little just start helping her with things.
And I knew it was very funny too because from a very patriarchal society that Korean culture is, it's the daughter that does that. My sister, god bless her, I love her, but, you know, she can't cook a thing of Ramen.
GREENE: She hears this and she won't be offended, right?
LEE: No, no. She knows that. She's happy to eat out at restaurants. And she was kind of wild child and I was the one - I was like I'm not going anywhere. I live here. I'm going to watch you cook and I'm going to steal your secrets. She put a lot of thought and effort and meaning into everything she did. And then there was a lot of it that she rejected some of the things of her past because to her it represented poverty.
You know, it's like to cook rice on the stovetop was something that poor people did. Because now, look at me, I've got an electric Japanese rice maker.
GREENE: Huh.
LEE: And with a touch of a button I can make rice in 20 minutes.
GREENE: She preferred sometimes to use the rice cooker because it was a statement about that I'm not in poverty. I can afford a rice cooker.
LEE: Exactly. Yeah.
GREENE: You grew up, you get this great career, and you open up a Korean barbecue restaurant in the middle of Manhattan. Why is that not where you decided to stay? Why did you not feel like, you know, I've made it, this is great?
LEE: You know, it wasn't - it was an OK restaurant. You know, I'm not going to lie.
GREENE: It was all right. It was OK.
LEE: Everything seemed right on paper. You know, Korean kid opens Korean restaurant.
GREENE: Mm-hmm.
LEE: But it just didn't feel right. And I wasn't incredibly proud of the food. I felt like it was just an extension of what I thought people wanted me to cook.
GREENE: And so that brings us to Kentucky. Tell me how you blend Southern comfort food and, you know, Korean food and Korean spices. What's the key?
LEE: To me it's just very instinctual. I didn't know much about Southern food when I first moved to Louisville, but obviously the more I lived here the more I traveled and the more I met farmers and the more I met these crazy people that grew these crazy things here. And, wow, this is amazing.
And I love that, you know, because Southern food tends to be a little bit on the sweeter side. Asian food tends to be a little bit on the saltier, kind of umami side. And when they work and you put them together, they are actually are a wonderful marriage.
GREENE: Kimchi, pickling cabbage? It's sort of...
LEE: This is fermented cabbage pickle.
GREENE: Where do we see kimchi meeting Southern food in your book?
LEE: Kimchi is really a verb. You kimchi things. You can kimchi cabbage.
GREENE: Ah.
LEE: You can make kimchi out of oysters, cucumbers, radishes.
GREENE: I can kimchi oysters?
LEE: You can kimchi oysters. But all you're doing is, you know, taking raw oysters, putting it into a brine, and then letting it ferment.
LEE: And you cure it. So, I mean, yeah, you can kimchi pretty much anything.
GREENE: I'm very curious, because you said you've traveled around the farms of Kentucky and you've seen some crazy things. What's the craziest?
LEE: I remember the first time that I heard the word sorghum.
GREENE: Sorghum.
LEE: So sorghum is very much like a cane sugar.
LEE: And it looks like bamboo and you chop it down. And then you boil it down to make something that resembles honey but is a lot darker, deeper, richer, has more flavor.
GREENE: Huh. And you use that in a lot of your cooking?
LEE: Pretty much the day I discovered sorghum I said we are never using honey again.
GREENE: Aha.
LEE: When I first got here 10 years ago there was still this fascination with European cuisine and, you know, you would go to a restaurant and we've have wildflower truffle honey from Alba. And, you know, it was all delicious. But I remember driving through a roadside stand and saw this old farmer in dungarees and she had this thing call sorghum in a jar.
And I remembered this sorghum. I said, isn't that, like, you know, feed for animals? And she said, well, that's sorghum crop. This is sorghum plant. And she explained the whole thing to me. And I remember thinking why are we buying honey from 1,000 miles and in another continent?
GREENE: Yeah.
LEE: When you have this incredible indigenous product not 30 miles away from my restaurant and these incredible people who spent their life and their parents' lives and their grandparents' lives and their great-grandparents' lives growing this crop in a farm in Winchester, Kentucky. And I thought this is incredible. This is what agriculture is all about.
GREENE: Before we go, I can't leave you without mentioning the Kentucky Derby one more time. Because there are a lot of good Kentucky Derby drinks in this cookbook.
LEE: Yes, there are. We love the cocktails. I keep the cocktails very simple because for the very simple fact that a good bourbon is good on its own with maybe a cube of ice and a little bit of water.
GREENE: Mm-hmm.
LEE: But if you must, during the celebration season, everyone likes to have a little flourish on their cocktail. So we do have some fine cocktails like the jalapeno mint julep.
GREENE: Oh, wow.
LEE: Which is a drink that bites you back a little bit.
GREENE: Edward Lee, this has been so much fun. We really appreciate the time.
LEE: Thank you. I enjoyed being on.
GREENE: Edward Lee's new cookbook is called "Smoke and Pickles" and if you want to make that jalapeno mint julep for the Derby tomorrow, you can find the recipe at our website npr.org. It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Smyrna Town Council discussed several topics at their Feb. 4 meeting including the possibility of putting in LED lights on Carter Road from Sunnyside Road to Route 13, and the approval of a zoning amendment to residential districts.
Here are a few other items discussed at the meeting.
Carter Road closure concerns
Town Manager Dave Hugg touched on several topics during his manager's report, including the temporary closure of Carter Road at Wheatley's Pond Road.
Hugg said a meeting was held between DelDOT and several town officials regarding the closure, which Hugg said DelDOT did a relatively poor job of informing the public about.
"They blocked the road in such a way that traffic was being diverted through the doctor's offices off of Deak Drive, behind the ER center and out to Route 300," Hugg said.
Hugg also said the blocked road is making it difficult for individuals needing to get to Bayhealth's Emergency Department as well as patients going to the doctor's offices off of Deak Drive.
"I think we have an interim solution of moving forward that will involve some improved signage," Hugg said. "We are attempting to work to work with DelDOT and with the facilities out there."
Police promotion update
Police Chief Wil Bordley told council that the department is in the process of giving departmental evaluations. Once this process is complete, he will start the process of promoting officers to the corporal position.
Council approved a motion in January for the department to add two more corporal ranks in 2013.
Utility projects update
Hugg said a number of utility projects in town are wrapping up, including the Green Meadows pump station. A pre-bid meeting for the Duck Creek utility crossing has been scheduled. A pre-bid meeting has also been scheduled for the Greensbranch pump station. Hugg said the town is also estimating the costs of the Glenwood street paving project, which will be the priority of this year's Municipal Street Aid project.
Resident suggests Verizon Fios
Smyrna resident Tom Sloan addressed council during public forum regarding his displeasure with Comcast and asked for the town to contact Verizon Fios. Sloan said he believes it's time that residents have an alternate to Comcast.
Councilman Bob Johnson said the idea has been discussed in previous Utility Committee meetings.
Town lawyer Barrett Edwards said the town is in the middle of renewal process with Comcast, but he didn't see the issue with the town having both Comcast and Verizon Fios as the contract was nonexclusive; however, some council members thought the deal was exclusive.
Sloan was asked to attend a Utility Committee meeting to continue discussing the idea.
Council approves Comp Plan update
Smyrna Town Council approved the Comprehension Plan Update by a vote of 6-0; Mayor Pat Stombaugh abstained. Stombaugh originally asked to postpone the vote as she didn't receive the information in enough time to properly review it.
It was noted that the only changes to the plan are the updated data from the 2010 Census, council's adoption of the Source Water Protection Ordinance, subdivision totals through 2012, updated land annexed in through 2012, and maps showing land rezoned.
The approval is pending certification from Gov. Jack Markell.
Sheridan's approval for road closure
Sheridan's Irish Pub was given approval to close a portion of North Market Street beginning the afternoon of Friday, March 8 through the morning of Monday, March 11 for the Annual St. Patrick's Weekend Celebrations and to close off four parking spaces parallel to Sheridan's Irish Pub on Friday, March 15 through Monday, March 18.
Sub-committee formed
Council approved the forming of a sub-committee to review the applications for the assistant to the town manager position. This is a new position recommended and approved by several town committees and council in the 2013 budget.
Hugg said he's received 57 applications and has been able to go over about half of them, a third of which warrants additional review.
Councilman Jeff Flairty said the intention of creating a sub-committee was to have three council members available to help guide the process of hiring an Assistant to the Town Manager.
Mayor Pat Stombaugh, Councilman Bob Johnson, and Flairty were approved to be the three members on the committee.
Little League sponsorship
Councilman Anthony DeFeo brought up a possible Smyrna/Clayton Little League team sponsorship under "Other Council Business." DeFeo said a letter regarding the sponsorship was in each council member's packed of information for the meeting, but the item wasn't on the agenda.
Hugg said in year's past the town has sponsored a team but didn't last year. The cost of a sponsorship is $250. DeFeo then made a motion for council to approve the sponsorship of a little league team.
"We can afford a $250 sponsorship," DeFeo said.
However, than Stombaugh said the money isn't specified in the budget, and that non-profits are supposed to submit a letter to the Finance Committee first. Town Lawyer Barrett Edwards then pointed out that the item can't be voted on because it's not on the agenda; therefore, the item was dropped for the next council meeting.
Email Jennifer Dailey at email@example.com.


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Soccer is the king of sports in Spain and Victor Tudela, like many teens his age, is passionate about it.
Tudela said that since he was young he would play the game with friends but said that you have to be exceptional to play in club teams in his hometown of Colmenar Viejo, located around 20 miles from Madrid. In high school in Spain there are no high school teams but club teams instead.
Despite never having played on an organized soccer team before, Tudela, 16, a junior exchange student at Yreka High School has made an impact on the Miner boys soccer team this winter.
Victor is a forward for Yreka and is second on the team with five goals and has impressed head coach Miguel Galvan with how quickly he has become a contributor for the Miners.
"He's been one of the standouts for the team," Galvan said. Coach Galvan has been impressed with Victor's passion for the sport, his leadership, and the way he competes and gives a lot of effort to try to win and pushes the other players on the squad to do their best.
"He gets along with everybody and has done well for us," Galvan said. "I have enjoyed having him be a part of the team...He wants us to play the best we can."
Galvan said that Tudela is certainly a major contributor to the squad and did not expect to hear from him that this was his first time playing organized soccer.
"I was surprised when he told me," Galvan recalled. "I was really impressed with him when he showed up at tryouts."
While Victor said he is considered "OK" in soccer in Spain, he certainly was not a star player _ just someone who loved the sport and would play soccer with his friends.
Tudela said that his sport in Spain is volleyball and he is on a club team in his hometown. He would have played volleyball in the U.S. if he had the chance. But, Yreka does not offer boys volleyball, only girls.
Originally, Tudela thought of trying out for the basketball team. But, he said, that after the first day of practice he realized even if he made the team he knew his playing time would be limited. That's when he decided to give soccer at Yreka High a shot.
Victor said he has enjoyed playing the sport here and helping his team anyway he can. Tudela admitted that he is passionate about soccer and gives it his all and that it's never easy when the team loses, but has enjoyed his experience overall.
"I want to win," Victor said. "I take the game seriously."
Currently, the Miners are 4-7 for the year.
Galvan said that Victor has excellent soccer skills, and has the speed to quickly score and also does a good job passing the ball to teammates. He recalled a goal Victor recently scored at home against Anderson when he went through three defenders to score the goal.
When he was in Spain, Victor said he followed American football and was intrigued by it. Despite never having played the sport in his life and not totally understanding all the rules, he tried out for the Miners gridiron team this past fall. He made the squad as a wide receiver and defensive back. While Victor did not play much besides some time in one game during a blowout loss, Tudela said he loved the experience of trying a new sport in another country.
"I didn't play too much but I had fun," Tudela said. "I had never played before and I was competing against people that had played for 10 years...It was cool to say that I tried it."
Before coming to Yreka, Victor's only previous experience in America was a trip to New York City. Overall, Tudela said he has enjoyed his experience in a small town like Yreka and said he has made several good friends in his time here. He added that he has enjoyed staying with his host family, Gary and Maureen Mason.
"They have been really nice to me," he said.
Tudela said that there are a few differences he has had to get used to.
One, Victor said, is meal times, which are quite different than in Spain. In his home country they normally eat lunch around 3 p.m. and dinner around 10 p.m. Here, lunch is usually around noon and 6 p.m. for dinner, which he admitted has been one thing he has needed to get used to.
Galvan said that Victor will be missed after he leaves at the end of the school year.
"I wish he could stay for another year," he said. " But I know he's here for just a year and he has to go back to his country."
Spanish exchange student making his mark: Victor Tudela on Miner boys soccer team: Played FB in fall
Soccer is the king of sports in Spain and Victor Tudela, like many teens his age, is passionate about it.


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Community: Season 3 DVD
America's most incorrigible study group of misfits returns for a hilariously ingenious new year at Greendale Community College. From homicidal Halloween pizza parties, holiday Glee Club smackdowns, foosball showdowns, epic pillow fight wars and an underage campus security force to a shocking remarriage, a riotous funeral service, submarine sandwich throwdowns, a new Vice Dean (Emmy® winner John Goodman) with a strange air-conditioning fixation and a crime show homage for the ages the Third Season of televisions boldest, brashest comedy is the most brilliant yet. Get ready to cram it all in.
- Additional Details
- Format: DVD
- Rating: Not Rated
- Number of Discs: 3
- Run Time: 467 Minutes
- Region: 1
- Aspect Ratio: Widescreen
- Studio: Sony Pictures
- DVD Release Date: August 14, 2012
- Subtitles: English
- Color: Color
Deleted Scenes
Gag Reels
Commentaries On Every Episode
A Glee-ful Community Christmas Featurette
This Is War: Pillow Vs. Blankets Mockumentary Featurette


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Grouper, Red – U.S.
Red Grouper are found in the western Atlantic from Massachusetts to southern Brazil but are most commonly found along the west coast of Florida to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Red Grouper account for 73% of all U.S. grouper catches.
Red Grouper begin life as females and transition to males between 7 and 16 years of age. They are at a healthy abundance level in the Gulf of Mexico and are rebuilding toward a healthy level in the South Atlantic. Fishing levels on Red Grouper are sustainable.
Red Grouper are caught using handlines and bottom longlines. The fisheries that catch Red Grouper target a range of groupers, snappers, and other fish, and result in bycatch of some depleted species. The longline fisheries also accidentally catch some sea turtles and sharks. Fishing occurs over some sensitive habitats, like rocky reefs. While handline fishing causes minimal habitat damage, fishing with bottom longlines may result in moderate damage to these habitats.
This fish may have high levels of mercury that could pose a health risk to adults and children. More info here about mercury in grouper. Check out our mercury in seafood section.


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Corners & Crosses with Aneatria Watson
Between soccer, band and maintaining a 4.0 grade point average, Bastrop High senior Aneatria Watson has become quite adept at time management.
"The hardest part for Aneatria was during football season when she was having to juggle strength and conditioning and band practice," Bastrop Lady Rams coach Jessica Pylant said, "but she worked it out.
She would either come to us during first hour and band during second hour or vice versa. When we were having our two-a-day workouts over the summer, she was always at practice except when she was at band camp."
Like most of her teammates, Watson had zero soccer experience when she tried out for the school's first side last year. Though still learning the sport, Watson's work ethic has helped offset the inexperience.
"Aneatria's very dedicated," Pylant said. "She's going to hustle and give 110 percent in practice as well as in the game. She's going to push herself."
Watson has moved to fullback (defense) after beginning the season on offense as a forward.
"Aneatria is going to do whatever it takes to get the job done, whether it's academically or in soccer," Pylant said.
BDE: What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of soccer?
Aneatrea Watson: My favorite part is learning how to do tricks with the ball.
My least favorite part is all the conditioning.
BDE: Had you ever played prior to last year?
Watson: I had never even kicked a soccer ball until last year.
I watched soccer on TV and thought it was kind of boring, but once I started playing and understanding what what was going on, it was a lot different. I was watching and cheering for the U.S. team last year during the Summer Olympics.
BDE: Why did you decide to try out for the team?
Watson: It was a new sport and it sounded like it would be something fun to do. I decided to try it and found out that I like playing.
BDE: What is the biggest improvement you have made since last year?
Watson: I've gotten better at controlling the ball.
BDE: What have been some of the biggest challenges in starting a program from the ground up?
Watson: Getting people to participate has been a challenge. Since most of us haven't played before, we had to learn the rules of soccer and the basic techniques the game requires.
BDE: What has the soccer program added to the school?
Watson: It's something that has never been done here before, so it brought in the excitement of starting something new. Soccer gives people who don't participate in football, basketball, baseball or track another opportunity to participate in sports.
BDE: What steps need to be take in order to build a competitive soccer program at Bastrop High?
Watson: We need to get more people to participate. We have to keep working hard each year and get people to start when they're freshmen.
What we really need to do is get a (youth) program in Bastrop so people can start playing when they're
little and grow up playing soccer.
BDE: What are your thoughts on the future of the program?
Watson: If more people will start participating, they would find that it's a fun sport to play and soccer could be as big here 10 years from now as it is at Neville.
BDE: How do you approach a match against a more experienced team like Neville?
Watson: You just have to go into the game with the mindset that you can win or at least compete with them. You have to play the best you can play. If that happens to be better than they play, then that's a plus.
BDE: What are you going to miss the most about playing high school soccer?
Watson: I'm going to miss my teammates and learning to play soccer.
BDE: What do you like best about attending Bastrop High?
Watson: My favorite part about going to school at Bastrop High is seeing my friends and learning something new every day.
BDE: What part of the Mu Sigma trip are you most looking forward to?
Watson: I'm looking forward to seeing New York City for the first time.
BDE: What are your future plans?
Watson: I plan on going to college at Louisiana Tech or Northwestern State and majoring in computer science with a minor in business. I'm going to try to open my own business one day.


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Author Tess Gerritsen is suing Warner Bros. for $10 million, saying they breached a contract she signed in 1999 entitling her to additional proceeds if they made her book "Gravity" into a film.
Try following along ...
Gerritsen -- known for her "Rizzoli & Isles" crime novels -- sold the film rights to her book "Gravity" to Katja Motion Picture Corporation and its parent company, New Line Productions, for $1 million. She later believed efforts to make the book into a film fizzled.
According to TMZ, years later, Gerritsen said she was aware of the Sandra Bullock movie, also called "Gravity," but initially thought the similarities to her book were coincidental.
Gerritsen now says she tried to make her book into a screenplay and wrote new material, including scenes of a space station being demolished by debris and the female astronaut drifting untethered through space. The author says she later found out someone connected to her screenplay ended up working on Bullock's "Gravity."
The plot thickens.
Entertainment Weekly reported that, according to Gerritsen's breach of contract complaint filed Tuesday in Los Angeles, the author believes the studio owes her a $500,000 production bonus and 2.5 percent of 100 percent of the net proceeds if the film was made.
Since 2008, Warner Bros. has owned and controlled New Line and Katja. The 2013 Warner Bros. film made more than $716 million worldwide.
Gerritsen says she wrote and submitted additional material for the film, including "scenes of satellite debris colliding with the International Space Station, the destruction of the ISS, and the surviving female medical doctor/astronaut left drifting in her space suit, alone and untethered, seeking the means to return to Earth." She says that to her knowledge, efforts to develop the film ended in 2012.
Sorry if I just ruined the ending for you.
Gerritsen wants a jury trial, saying she is owed a "Based on the book by Tess Gerritsen" credit and the bonus and royalties outlined in her original contract, which is estimated to be at least $10 million.
Warner Bros. (sort of) declined to comment to TMZ, directing them toward a statement reportedly made by Gerritsen in a news story last October. "Yeah, 'Gravity' is a great film, but it's not based on my book," Gerritsen reportedly said, noting that she saw the movie in Bloomington over the weekend. "Alas, the movie is not based on my book, despite the similarities."
The ploy thickens ... more.
Contact Tony Hicks at Facebook.com/BayAreaNewsGroup.TonyHicks or Twitter.com/insertfoot.


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Truman State defeats Southwest Baptist, 65-56, to advance in the MIAA Tournament
KIRKSVILLE: With 14 minutes to play in their game against the Southwest Baptist Bearcats, Truman State held a 14-point lead and looked they were going to hit cruise control on their way to Kansas City.
However, a 13-2 run by SBU cut that 14-point lead to just three with over 5:30 to play. TSU would rebuild their lead to as many as 10 and is going to make the trip to KC after a 65-56 win.
Coming out of halftime SBU cut the Truman lead to three with just under 16 minutes left, from there TSU went on a 13-2 run to gain a 14 point advantage which was the largest lead of the game. Becka McHenry helped lead the Bulldogs run as she scored four straight points on two free throws and a layup. Amy Briggs and Allie Norton got hot from the outside and each knocked down a three ball, and Jennifer Conway added another Truman layup.
SBU was unable to come all the way back from the large deficit.
"We hit a couple big buckets and knocked down some open threes. I felt like we did a tremendous job of getting the 50-50 balls. You have to give SBU a lot of credit, they fought back hard," said Truman State head coach Michael Smith.
Truman had hit the skids a little since their early season success. The ladies were only 3-3 in their last six games prior to Tuesday night's game.
"It goes through your head a little that this could be your last game, but that is part of the pressure that makes the postseason fun," said McHenry.
As wide open and free flowing as the second 20 minutes was, the first was a slow, grind-it-out game if there ever was one. TSU shot only 43 percent from the floor in the first half and SBU was worse than that at 39 percent. Truman took a 27-23 lead to the half, as they were able to hit a couple big three-point shots in the last minutes of the half.
"It was just two teams pressing because they knew there was a lot on the line. I'm just glad that our kids competed because I feel they didn't compete very well in our last game at Northwest Missouri, so I was just happy for our effort," said Smith.
Another huge difference between this game and Truman's game on Saturday was the play of the Bulldogs post players, and in particular Jennifer Conway. Against the NWMSU Bearcats, Conway failed to register a point. Against the SBU Bearcats she had 16.
"I feel like the difference in the game was our post presence, which we talked about before the game. Both offenses revolve around the post, even though we have really good guards. I think Jennifer Conway was the difference for us tonight the way she showed up and gave us a presence in the paint," said Smith.
This was Truman's seventh straight win over Southwest Baptist. The win also gives the TSU women's program their third straight trip to Kansas City for the MIAA Tournament, something that hasn't been done sine 1997-99.
"It's just a great honor. I'm extremely happy for our players and our seniors, this will be their third trip. I'm happy for our young kids because it's a tremendous arena and environment to play in," said Smith.
The slide that Truman went on late in the season dropped the Bulldogs to the No. 5 seed, and forced them to play a first-round game before playing in the quarterfinals in KC. They will take part in those quarterfinals on Friday afternoon when they face the No. 4 seed Emporia State Hornets, TSU beat ESU 78-58 at Pershing Arena earlier this season in their only meeting. The Lady Hornets ended the Bulldogs season last year in KC and the TSU players haven't forgotten about that.
"It's just going to come down to preparation and how bad we want it. We know we can be the better team," said McHenry.
The winner of the 4 vs. 5 game will play Saturday against the winner of the 1 vs. 9 game, which pits Washburn against Northwest Missouri.


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I'm facing a security problem on my client's web sites, and need some advice.
Two sites have suffered a total of three security breaches over the past several months. In each case a PHP script in the site's document space was modified to redirect the user or load content from a suspicious site.
The last time this happened was over the past weekend. The thing that was different about this incident was that it happened despite a very strong password that should have made it essentially impossible for anyone to get access to the FTP account.
I sent the hosting service a support request, asking for a copy of the FTP log and any other assistance or advice they could provide.
I got the log, which showed no FTP access to the modified file during the period when the breach occurred.
With the log I got a form email which said in effect, "We're very concerned for your security, but we aren't responsible for anything that happens to your site. If you can't fix the problem yourself, here are some great security tools and services you can buy..."
They made a list of suggestions, none of which seem to apply to this case. The FTP password is now very strong, as I said. There is no commercial software on the site to be infected. The site does not have any downloadable software that might be infected, and does not allow users to upload anything or post messages.
I'm not expert enough to be certain that the applications I developed for my client are bulletproof, but I don't see how any sort of "front door" attack, like a SQL injection attack, could lead to the problem we've encountered.
I'm pretty sure that when I contact tech support again, they're going to want me to prove that the problem isn't mine before they'll look at it. Which is my reason for seeking help.
Is there any way a vulnerability in my code could enable someone to modify files in my document space?
If so, I'd appreciate pointers on how to correct the vulnerabilities, if there are any, or prove that there aren't, if there aren't.
Once I've done that, I'd appreciate pointers on how to demonstrate to the hosting service that the ball is in their court.


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My Day Snapshot
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It's a pleasure to be a part of this site & on your friends list! I would like to invite you all to take a look at my blog! My newest post 'Why do we lie?'
Auhtor, Artist, Photographer, new Mommy & always on the go! Read her rants raves non-stop thoughts. The insanity. Her daily living is now an open book. www.synnicity.blogspot.com
And if you have time Join me in my growing Community! http://theblogfrog.com/745755
Say hello! I answer all my comments! Take care & God bless, Erika.
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The history of Hanukkah
Provided by WorldNow
Hanukkah, also known as The Festival of Lights, is a Jewish holiday celebrated for eight days and nights. It starts on the 25th day of the Hebrew month Kislev, which falls between November and December on the Gregorian Calendar. This year, Hanukkah starts at sundown (as all Jewish holidays do) on December 20th.
The story of Hanukkah begins during the reign of Alexander the Great. When Alexander conquered Syria, Egypt and Palestine, he allowed the people under his control to observe their own religions.
A century later, however, Antiochus IV, a successor of Alexander, was in control of the region and began to oppress the Jews -- prohibiting the practice of the Jewish religion and desecrating the Temple by requiring the sacrifice of pigs (a non-kosher animal) on the altar. Led by the Maccabees, the Jews revolted, triumphed, and moved to rededicate the Temple.
The miracle of Hanukkah occurred when the Jews returned to the Temple. At the time of the rededication, there was very little oil left to light the menorah, which was supposed to burn throughout the night -- every night. While the oil they found was only enough to burn for one day, it burned for eight days -- the time needed to acquire a fresh supply. An eight day festival was declared to commemorate the miracle.
Today, Jews celebrate Hanukkah for eight days by lighting candles in a menorah each night.
Hanukkah is not actually a major religious holiday in the Jewish faith. The only religious observance is the lighting of the candles; and the menorah is the centerpiece of this ceremony. The menorah holds nine candles -- one for each night, plus a "shamash" used to light the others. On the first night of the holiday, one candle is placed at the far right of the menorah and lit (after prayers are recited) with the shamash. Each night, another candle is added, moving right to left.
Traditionally, dreidel (a gambling game) is played on Hanukkah. The dreidel is a square top with a Hebrew letter on each side. The letters stand for the phrase "Nes Gadol Hayah Sham" (a great miracle happened there). They also tell you what happens when the dreidel lands on them! Nun (nit) means nothing happens. Gimmel (gantz) means you take everything. Heh (halb) means you get half. Shin (shtell) means you put one in. Most people play for matchsticks, pennies, or small candies.
Because of the significance of oil to the holiday, it is traditional to eat fried foods on Hanukkah, The most popular being potato pancakes (or latkes).


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LONGMONT -- A hit-and-run driver struck a fire hydrant at Hover Street and Curtis Place on Tuesday afternoon, knocking the hydrant from the water main and flooding three intersections.
Longmont Police Officer Billy Sawyer said 22-year-old Marye Peterson was pulled over and ticketed on suspicion of careless driving and leaving the scene of an accident.
He said she reported that she was driving north on Hover Street and swerved to avoid a car that had braked. She struck the hydrant.
"Then she got scared, accidentally backed into a car and she left," he said.
Witnesses provided police with her license plate number. Police said Peterson was pulled over on the east side of Longmont.
Longmont Fire Lt. Michele Goldman said city utility workers responded quickly and worked to find the shut off for the main, but water and mud obscured the work. The hydrant poured out water for 15 to 20 minutes, and Hover's intersections at Curtis Place, Bruce Place and Third Avenue were flooded. Traffic was routed around the flood and the work.
Tito Zavaleta stood by and watched as firefighters and utility workers tried to stop the flow.
"It is a lot of water," he said.
His cousin's car was struck when the driver fled, he said.
Goldman said water was shut off to all of Curtis Place while utility workers looked for the shutoff for the hydrant.
Pierrette J. Shields can be reached at 303-684-5273 or at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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If the mom can do it, why not the uncle?
Rob Kardashian posted a photo of niece North West on Twitter late Thursday, only days after Kim Kardashian posted one of her own.
"Goodness @KimKardashian she's soooooo pretty!!!! LOVE HERR," he captioned the post, showcasing side-by-side shots of North West.
On Monday, Kim Kardashian added a shot to Instagram of North West sitting with her daddy, Kanye West.
West has publicly and frequently discussed his desire to keep North West out of the public eye as much as possible. The Kardashians -- who have their own reality TV show, "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" -- seem not to have gotten that message.
Ann Tatko-Peterson provides celebrity commentary for the Bay Area News Group. Follow her at twitter.com/atatkopeterson.


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A long time Automag fan but played mostly pump.
I bought a real old field Automag and tried to reserect it a few years ago but to no avail.
What I recall is that it leaked air down the barrel.
With a limited budget I figure a old automag is far better than No Automag!
The questions are.
1) Why is air leaking down the barrel?
2) How do I fix it?
3) What to do next?
Thank you for any help you can provide!


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At age 65, John Large has found success again with the pole vault.
At age 65, John Large has found success again with the pole vault.
Large, the Belding High School pole vault coach, won the 65- to 69-year-old age group in that event at 11-3 3/4 in the USATF Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 24 in Landover, Md.
Large, who pole vaulted in Greenville, gave up the sport 41 years and came back in 2007.
He ran into a friend from high school days, Bob Banhagel from Ionia, who mentioned how much he enjoyed USA masters track competition and had actually won the pole vault in 2010. Banhagel, back in the 1960s, set the school record in the event, becoming one of the first vaulters in the state to clear 13 feet.
"He said, 'You've always worked out your whole life, you always run and lifted weights, and you don't do anything about it. Why don't you try pole vaulting?'" Large recalled
Large thought about it and decided to try it in the USATF masters division.
"I did my first meet. I thought I was in shape for it, but I really wasn't," he said. "My body wasn't ready for what I had to do."
He vaulted 9 feet at a Grand Haven meet and took first place.
"I trained and I trained and I trained. I did well the first year," he said. "I tell everybody it took me two years to get in shape, just to get in shape. I was always having injuries."
Last year at Cornerstone, he landed head first into the standards and dislocated his shoulder. He recovered after three months and then won three master meets in Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan.
"Physically, I came back real quick," he said. "I did exactly what the doctors and therapists told me to do."
But he admits that he lost several months that he had to sit out because of injuries.
"I'm getting my confidence back now," he said.
He won the 55-meter dash in the Indiana masters and 60 meters in the Michigan championships and said the speed helps him in his vaulting.
"I do a lot of speed training," he said. "I'm enjoying it and I'm doing it really well. It's a double benefit that's going to help my jumping. If you have a bad day jumping, you can always focus your energies on something else. Somedays you're not going to jump well so you can go out and have a good day of sprinting."
Large had the Greenville record in the pole vault for about nine years.
"It wasn't very high, it was 11-10," he said. "My best jump is 12-2, and that's now. In high school, we didn't even have a track. I got all my track practice at the meet. I loved jumping in Ionia. It was the only track to have foam to land in. All the other teams in the conference, had sawdust or loam.
Basically, we landed in a mixture of dirt and sawdust."
That's why Large enjoys the modern-day landing pits and equipment he can use to go back to his pole vault days. He won the outdoor nationals. He was happy with how he was jumping, but then he sustained the shoulder injury.
"Now I'm trying to make a comeback," he said. "I was jumping way higher in practice than I had ever jumped before."
Large, a retired musician, is a volunteer coach at Belding.
"I took last year off because of my injury," he said. "This is my fifth year."
Belding coaches John Carlson and Joel Madsen contacted Large about helping out with Belding track.
"I'm doing the sprinters workouts with the track team to stay in shape, which I've never done before," Large said. "It's helping out a lot. It's a structured workout, not just me doing it on my own."
"He goes through the warm-ups with the team every day," Carlson said. "He's running the spring workouts at age 65. He worked out in our weight room all winter. He's a tireless worker."
Carlson also noted that Large has used Belding High School's new indoor track and notes that residents of the community are invited to utilize it.
Carlson has been impressed with Large's coaching skills.
"He's doing a great job," Carlson said. "He understands the mechanics of it well. He makes sure the (athletes) get the mechanics of it."
Large plans on being in the USATF Masters outdoor nationals Olathe, Kansas, in July "as long as I'm healthy. I have a bunch of meets coming up," he said.


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O'Connor, 66, who was San Diego's mayor from 1986 to 1992, used a cane and a family friend to help her walk into and out of the room.
Attorney Eugene Iredale said she would take no questions, adding that she is still recovering from brain surgery, in which a large tumor was removed in 2011.
Iredale and Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip Halpern told reporters earlier that both sides agreed her health was too fragile for a trial and so she entered into an agreement that halted criminal proceedings for two years with the promise of repaying the $2 million.
"The prosecution is frozen, stayed, in limbo for two years," said Iredale. "At the end of the two years, that case is dismissed … without any finding of guilt."
O'Connor gambled more than $1 billion of her assets at various casinos between 2000 and 2009, but the federal violation came when she used funds from the R. P. Foundation that her late husband, Robert Peterson, set up for charities before his death in 1994. Peterson was the founder of the Jack in the Box restaurant chain.
O'Connor now lives with her twin sister in La Jolla and only has her mayoral pension for support. At the press conference, she spoke about her depression following the deaths of her husband, three siblings and some close friends.
"I still intend to pay it back. I never meant to hurt the city," said O'Connor, who started to cry, and then stood up and left the room with assistance.
O'Connor and her sister have sued three investors who they say defaulted on more than $7 million when the investors took over a Mendocino County hotel the sisters owned. Iredale said O'Connor has signed an agreement that if she recovers $2 million in the lawsuit, it will all be turned over to her late husband's trust.
Iredale said the gambling stopped after the removal of her brain tumor. He released letters from physicians who described her memory loss and cognitive deficits. O'Connor went to a hospital emergency room in January 2011 after she saw flashing lights and could not speak.
When she underwent brain-imaging studies, doctors found a large mass — a benign tumor — in the center of her brain. Iredale said the tumor affected her judgment and reasoning and she experienced hallucinations.
O'Connor was elected mayor in 1985 after Roger Hedgecock resigned when he was convicted of perjury and conspiracy to violate campaign laws.
"Today is a sad day for the city of San Diego," Halpern said following O'Connor's court appearance. Federal prosecutors, he said, "take no pleasure" in filing the case against O'Connor, but, he added, "No one is above the law."


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BILLERICA -- Parents upset by replacement of traditional A-B-C grades with a "standards-based" numerical system will present a petition to the School Committee on Monday night demanding to have the district return to the old way of doing business.
The 2011-2012 school year marked the end of the traditional sixth-grade report card, where achievement has historically been illustrated by the traditional and all-encompassing A-B-C grading system. In its place
is now a standards-based report card, one which seeks to grade nearly every aspect of what happens inside the classroom, from homework completion and participation all the way up to monthly tests and final exams.
Deb Burke said her 11-year-old son, a sixth-grader, started the petition one day during lunch at the Marshall Middle School.
"Sign this if you do not like the new grading system and want to go back to percentages and letter grades," his petition simply stated.
Deb Burke decided last month to bring the petition to fellow parents.
Tough times adapting to change, it seems, are not restricted to the kids.
"It seems like a feel-good situation," she said last week. "They don't want to give the kids an 'F' because it might hurt his or her feelings."
Burke and other parents say they are worried that the new system means students no longer have an initiative to work harder for that 'A' grade. Gone, also, is the honor roll.
The new system requires teachers to tack a number, ranging from one to four, alongside various classroom subject matter. The new system was instituted because the state adopted new curriculum frameworks in math and English/language arts.
Rather than an all-encompassing grade, sixth-graders receive numerous grades in each subject, based on goals to be met. For the numeric system, a four means "the student consistently meets and often exceeds the standard," while a one means "the student is not meeting the standard at the present time."
In mathematics, for example, students are graded on 10 skills, such as "understand and represent rational numbers; apply this understanding to real world situations" and "compute fluently with multi-digit whole numbers and decimals."
Burke said she's worried the district is "creating a group of mediocre kids" by "bucketing them together."
The petition has been online for a little more than two weeks and has garnered more than 500 parent signatures.
Superintendent of Schools Tim Piwowar said Thursday he understands that the change is tough for both parents and students. The new system was actually introduced to kindergarten and first grade in 2008, eventually including fourth and fifth grades at the start of 2010.
Piwowar said parents had little to say about the elementary school changes.
"We took that silence as tacit approval that people understood," he said.
After a lull in 2011, the start of the current school year saw the new system brought to sixth grade. And then came the backlash.
Piwowar said he recently sat down for lunch with a table of sixth-graders at the Marshall Middle School to hear what they had to say about the new system.
He recalled one girl's reasons for disliking.
"I asked her why," Piwowar said. "Her answer was that she didn't like bringing her report card home because instead of a parent seeing an A-minus they saw areas where she could improve. "I said to her, that's kind of the point."
Other school districts also use some form of standards-based grading. In Westford, for example, elementary school students receive one of six grades on a variety of standards: "N" for "needs more time," three "A" grades for "approaching the standard," "M" for "meeting the standard," and "M+" for "mastery."
As for fears that the new system will be introduced at the high school level, Piwowar was quick to squash any rumors. But the system will be introduced to seventh and eighth grades during the next two years, albeit with a hybrid letter grade attached to the standards report.
"Kids applying to Shawsheen Tech or private schools will still be able to use their letter grades," he said.
For Piwowar, he's not only up against convincing parents and students, he's also going against hundreds of years of conventional educational culture. The reasons behind the switch, he said, are the opposite of what Burke and other parents have said they fear the most -- mediocrity.
He talked about a fictional student who routinely scores 95s and 100s on decimal multiplication tests because she learned to multiply decimals before sixth grade.
"Mom and Dad are happy she got an A-plus but the reality is that she hasn't learned anything new," Piwowar said.
Parents will be able to have their say at Monday night's meeting, which will be at the Parker Elementary School at 6 p.m. Piwowar said he's viewing it as an opportunity to keep the conversation going. He added that he's committed to explaining the reasons for the changes.
But he knows the roadblocks won't be moved with ease.
"There are cultural pieces at stake here," Piwowar said. "Like if kids have older siblings who went through sixth grade with letter grades, like when they see or hear about letter grades on movies or on television.
"There will always be this cultural thing about getting A's and B's and the status that comes with it," he said.
Follow Evan Lips on Twitter @evanmlips.


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Ruth B. Susich, of Ashland, Ore. passed away at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center Friday, February 15, 2013 surrounded by her family.
Ruth was born Ruth Dooms in Dryad, Wash. April 8, 1924 to Henry and Gladys Dooms. The family moved to the Rogue Valley where she attended elementary school at Jackson and middle and high school in Ashland, graduating in 1942.
She was well known for her years working at Bob's Lunch Counter in downtown Ashland, as well as many years at Parsons Pine Products, Associated Fruit, and SOS. She was involved with Lions Club International and Degree of Pocahontas, where she held several offices locally and statewide.
Ruth loved to travel and took the opportunity whenever she could. She was a regular on Raindance tours, took several cruises, including Panama Canal and Mississippi Queen Riverboat cruises. She made friends wherever she went.
She is survived by daughter, Joyce Iverson-Athanas (David); grandchildren, Debbie Whisenant (Gary), Deanne Tanner (Steve), and Daniel Athanas (Jennifer); seven great-grandchildren; and nine great-great-grandchildren.
Ruth was preceded in death by husband, Blaine Iverson; husband, Charles Susich; parents, Henry and Gladys Dooms; son, Neil Iverson; and brother, Robert Dooms.
Viewing will be held Wednesday, February 20, 2013 from 5:00 7:00 p.m. at Litwiller-Simonsen Funeral Home, 1811 Ashland St., Ashland, OR 97520. Funeral service will be Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 10:00 a.m., also at Litwiller-Simonsen in Ashland, followed by interment at Jacksonville Cemetery.
Arrangements by Litwiller-Simonsen Funeral Home, www.litwillersimonsen.com.


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Milk Carton Boys
Byron Mullens played 19 uneventful minutes on Wednesday, hurt his ankle and played 14 minutes on Friday, and then came off the bench for 14 more minutes on Saturday. He is another player I'm mad at, and he's going to be on my bench until he gets it turned around. There is some debate among the RW staff as to whether he was benched because of his ankle or his performance, so we'll just have to see how this plays out. I'm planning on hanging onto Mullens for now. Ben Gordon also got just 15 minutes on Friday and 11 on Saturday, so it's time to bench him until we find out what he did to his coach. I'm still not dropping Gordon until I see what happens over the next couple games, as he had hit 21 3-pointers in four games before the sudden benching by coach Mike Dunlap.
Kirk Hinrich suffered a left elbow injury over the weekend and is iffy for Tuesday against the Clippers. Start him at your own risk, and look for Nate Robinson to play well for the Bulls if he misses games. Marco Belinelli had 22 points and four 3-pointers on Saturday, while Richard Hamilton is expected to miss close to a month with his foot injury. Belinelli is hot, scoring 22, 16 and 23 points over his last three games with eight 3-pointers, and I like the idea of picking him up. Just don't expect him to stay this hot forever.
Tyreke Evans sat out Saturday's game with a bruised right knee, but it doesn't sound too serious. Then again, he's missed four out of his last five games and is questionable for Monday against Dallas. John Salmons has been playing well in his stead, but that will quickly end once Evans is back. Marcus Thornton has bottomed out for Keith Smart, playing just 17 minutes on Saturday and hitting 4-of-23 shots over his last three games. He'll get it turned around, but when it will happen is a mystery. I'd be reluctant to drop Thornton in most situations.
Wesley Matthews is a game-time decision for the Blazers on Monday with a hip injury, while Nicolas Batum is not likely for that one due to his back injury. With just three games this week for the Blazers, both players are very risky in weekly leagues, and I'm benching Batum. Luke Babbitt had nine points in 27 minutes on Saturday, but is only worth a deep-league look if these two are going to continue to miss games.
A.J. Price suffered a broken right hand over the weekend, meaning that both Jordan Crawford and Bradley Beal should be picked up if available in your league. Beal had 17 points, six boards and six assists on Saturday, while Crawford's simply been on a tear.
Hot Freaks
O.J. Mayo exploded for 40 points, eight rebounds, two steals and six 3-pointers on Saturday, and is shooting 52 percent from downtown for the Mavs. Yeah, he'll slow down a bit once Dirk Nowitzki is back, but I still think he'll hold solid fantasy value. If someone has been a "sell-high guy" all season, at some point they just become a stud. Chris Kaman had 20 points in 18 minutes on Saturday and his already injured ankle was "purple" after the game. He'll be iffy for Monday against the Kings, so start him at your own risk.
James Harden scored 39 in the same game (30 by halftime) and rolled his ankle. He should be fine and he should be in all starting lineups until further notice. Jeremy Lin was quiet in that game, playing just 18 minutes, while Toney Douglas easily outplayed him. Don't panic on Lin, and don't reach for Douglas just yet. I still think Lin will be the guy going forward, but it's definitely a situation worth keeping a close eye on.
Brandon Jennings had 26 points, six rebounds, seven assists, five steals and four 3-pointers on Sunday, which is easily the best he's looked since turning an ankle in late November. He tweaked his ankle again during this game, but played through it as usual. The Bucks only have three games this week, but it would be tough to sit Jennings. Larry Sanders had six points, six rebounds and four more blocks, and the block master should be owned in all leagues for now. To give you an idea of just how hot Larry is, he was the picture we used for both Waiver Wired and the Saturday Dose.
Brandon Knight had a career-high 30 points with five 3-pointers on Saturday and is continuing to get better and learning how to play point guard. He'll have his ups and downs, but is a must-own in my book. Kyle Singler had nine points in 35 minutes, and I haven't bought into him. He's just not that exciting of a fantasy player to own and I'm guessing his value is on the decline instead of the rise. Andre Drummond had nine points, three boards, a steal and two blocks in that game, and I'd rather sit on him.
Stephen Curry tweaked his left knee for the Warriors on Saturday, but played through it and looked good. He said later it was just some "MCL mumbo jumbo," so he's obviously not worried about it. And as long as it's not his ankle, I'm not either.
Andre Iguodala had 15 points and a solid stat line for the Nuggets on Sunday after a couple disastrous lines, so hopefully he's ready to fully break out of the funk. Corey Brewer had 15 points in 22 minutes on Sunday, and has now scored in double figures in six of his last seven games, and is averaging 18 points, nearly two steals and a 3-pointer over his last four, if you're looking for a swingman to add.
J.J. Redick broke out of his funk for the Magic on Sunday with 20 points, nine assists and four 3-pointers, but had been struggling coming in. Andrew Nicholson got hot and hit 9-of-11 shots for a career-high 19 points, nine rebounds and four steals in 25 minutes, but I need to see him do it a couple more times before grabbing him in standard leagues.
Al Jefferson returned from his back spasms with 14 points, 11 boards and a block on Sunday, while Derrick Favors was a late scratch for the Jazz with his plantar fasciitis. It was believed he would play initially, which leads me to believe he should be back for their next game on Wednesday against the Spurs. Paul Millsap is enjoying life without Favors and had 24 points and nine boards in Sunday's win over the Lakers.
Lastly, check out this news about the new NBC/Rotoworld & Yahoo! alliance.
It was another busy weekend for the Rotoworld hoops crew so be sure to check the Rotoworld News Page, the Injury Report, the Saturday Dose and Waiver Wired columns to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. Here are some headlines from the weekend, along with the schedule breakdown for weekly leagues.
4 Games: Hawks, Nets, Bobcats, Cavaliers, Mavericks, Nuggets, Pistons, Warriors, Rockets, Lakers, Hornets, Sixers, Spurs, Kings, Raptors, Wizards.
3 Games: Celtics, Bulls, Pacers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Heat, Timberwolves, Bucks, Knicks, Magic, Blazers, Jazz.
2 Games: Thunder, Suns.
Kyrie Tuesday?
Kyrie Irving and the Cavs are "hopeful" he can return from his broken finger on Tuesday and Jeremy Pargo's run will quickly come to an end if it happens. Start him at your own risk in weekly leagues, but I probably would. Dion Waiters is questionable for Tuesday with his sprained ankle and he should be benched until we get a better sense of his chances of playing. He's missed four straight.
No Bro-Lo?
Brook Lopez still isn't cutting or running, but is said to be pain free. Maybe he'll practice for the Nets on Monday and play on Tuesday, but I think that's a long shot. I'm benching him in weekly leagues unless we get more news this afternoon. Kris Humphries was benched for Reggie Evans on Sunday and had just four points, seven rebounds and two blocks. It's been a roller coaster ride for Humps thus far and things probably won't get easier when Lopez is back. Keep riding Andray Blatche until further notice.
Brow on his way this week
Anthony Davis is expected back for the Hornets from his ankle injury this week, but we still don't know if it will happen on Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday. He was running full-court drills on Saturday, so hopefully he's back sooner than later. Al-Farouq Aminu has been benched by the Hornets for a lack of "passion," clearing the way for Ryan Anderson to start at small forward once Davis is back. It would appear to be safe to drop Aminu.
Melo returns
Carmelo Anthony returned for the Knicks despite his stitched up finger on Sunday and had 34 points, so make sure he's in your lineup. Jason Kidd was a pleasant surprise in that one with 17 points, four boards, seven assists, a steal and four 3-pointers. His back is fine and Raymond Felton (4-of-15, 10 points, six assists) is still bothered by a thumb injury. I'm starting Kidd where I own him. Amare Stoudemire (knee surgery) was said to look "tremendous" in a recent workout and he's still targeting a date near Christmas for a return. It's time to move on him. The Knicks are still undefeated at home.
Lowry struggling
Kyle Lowry went off for the Raptors on Wednesday, but sprained his right ankle on Friday and hasn't looked right since. He had four points, six boards and nine assists on 2-of-6 shooting with five turnovers on Sunday, following his 10-point game on Friday. He is playing through it and should be fine, but I'm mildly concerned. Amir Johnson had 11 points, 12 boards, a steal and a block on Sunday, and could be about ready to replace Jonas Valanciunas in the starting lineup. JV managed zero fantasy points and five fouls in 19 minutes of that one. Linas Kleiza started in place of Mickael Pietrus on Sunday, as Pietrus was out with a knee injury. Kleiza had 17 points, but both of these guys appear to be more trouble than they're worth unless you're in a very deep league.
The Great Salt Lakers
Pau Gasol could return from his bum knees as early as Tuesday and it sounds like he'll remain in the starting lineup for now. Antawn Jamison was terrible in Sunday's ugly loss to the Jazz and played just 16 minutes, causing me to go on a Twitter rant about how it killed me in my main league, where I immediately dropped him for Carlos Delfino out of a sad combination of spite and anger. I just didn't want him on my team any longer, even though he could easily bounce back. Jordan Hill went off for a career-high 17 points, nine rebounds, a steal and four blocks in the loss, and it would not surprise me to see Mike D'Antoni roll with him as a starter at some point, even at Pau's expense. Just keep an eye on Hill. Chris Duhon started at point guard again and had 12 points, five rebounds, 11 assists and four 3-pointers, and it doesn't sound like Steve Nash will play during the Lakers' upcoming four-game trip. If you are desperate at PG and want to roll with Duhon, go for it. Just keep in mind that this could easily end up being his best game of the season.
Black Hole Suns
Marcin Gortat was quiet again on Sunday and responded with a "no comment" when asked about how he felt about the Suns' rotation. He's clearly displeased with his team and coach Alvin Gentry, and should be automatically benched with just two games this week. Michael Beasley has been benched and I like the idea of picking up Markieff Morris across the board. Luis Scola had 18 points and 11 boards on Saturday, but just 11 points and two rebounds on Sunday when he played 16 minutes. Which is another reason I'm into Morris right now. Shannon Brown played 40 minutes with 19 points and two 3-pointers on Saturday, and is now in the Suns' starting five, making him worth a look. Goran Dragic, who was very ill, was a very late scratch last night and didn't play. With two games this week, most of your Suns should be on the bench in weekly leagues, and yes, it's OK to drop Beasley if you want to. He had 21 points and a full stat line in his first game off the bench, but had three points in just 15 minutes on Sunday.


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I am pleased to report that we are going to shoot for the Amateur Open as a release date for the C&C and regular Extremes. Due to the level of interest we are going to make about half the bodies we have into C&C's.
We intend to sell them at Am Open. They will have the LVL10 mods, ACE system and semi only software. I have no price at this time but the C&C's will be over 1000 dollars.
We will have warp feed breaches on sale too. Only one comes with each gun. I know if you are getting a gun we MIGHT be able to get something setup here where you can pay a downpayment and get the color you want. No fades possible in the first batch only solid colors, either polish or dust.
DOWNSIDES: We might not have the best looking ACE printed circuit boards in the first batch. If we can't get professional boards made in time we have to make them here. They will work fine, many people are already using them in the SFL's. It might have a crappy BOX! It might have a lame MANUAL!! We have people working on both but the short time frame might screw things up.
This is a pretty big undertaking and something could go wrong at any time. Please bear with us and understand if it doesn't work out the way we plan.


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By ALISON SIDER
Phillips 66 executives said Wednesday that the company's refineries are inching toward the goal of processing only discounted crudes extracted in North America, a target they expect the company to hit within the next few years.
"Certainly its an aspiration, but it is concrete and achievable," Tim Taylor, executive vice president for commercial, transportation, business development and marketing, said in an interview. Phillips 66 said it boosted the share of discounted crude produced in the US and Canada that its refineries process to 68% of its feedstock, up from 60% last year.
That increase helped to more than double Phillips 66's first-quarter earnings. The company, one of the largest US independent refiners, beat analyst expectations with a $1.41 billion profit in the quarter, or $2.23/share, up from $636 million, or $1/share, a year earlier. Excluding items such as write-downs, adjusted earnings rose to $2.19 a share from $1.20. Revenue decreased 9% to $42.33 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently projected earnings of $1.89 a share on revenue of $41.44 billion.
Like other US refiners, Phillips 66 has been striving to increase its supply of relatively cheap crude by building rail capacity at its plants and buying rail cars to help bring crude from shale formations not yet reached by pipelines. During the quarter, it processed 221,000 bpd of crude from the Eagle Ford, Bakken and Mississippi Lime formations, up 120,000 bpd over last year's first quarter.
Mr. Taylor said relatively cheap oil from shale and Canadian sources is central to the company's midcontinent refineries and has had an impact on coastal facilities as well. Crude from North Dakota's Bakken shale is a "substantial portion" of the throughput of Phillips 66's Bayway refinery in New Jersey, and there is still room for more, he said.
Mr. Taylor said the company is taking advantage of opportunities to connect new crude sources into its refining network, and as US crude production ramps up, competition between new and existing sources will push prices of some crude varieties down.
Chief executive Greg Garland said during a conference call that the time frame for moving toward 100% discounted crude use "keeps getting shorter," but he said it will likely take a few years before the process is complete.
Phillips 66 became an independent downstream company with refining-and-marketing, midstream and chemical businesses about a year ago after being spun off by oil giant ConocoPhillips.
In the latest quarter, the refining segment's adjusted earnings doubled to $909 million, while the chemicals segment's adjusted earnings increased 30% to $282 million.
Chief financial officer Greg Maxwell said in an interview after the earnings release that Phillips 66 aims to expand segments other than refining crude oil into fuel.
"We want to be viewed as less of a refiner and more as an energy manufacturing and logistics company," Mr. Maxwell said. The company announced Wednesday that it plans to build a 100,000 bpd natural-gas liquid fractionator in Old Ocean, Texas.
ISI Group analyst Doug Terreson said Phillips 66's results were strong across the board -- the company reported a more significant earnings beat than its peers, Valero Energy and Marathon Petroleum."It wasn't just refining," he said in an interview. "The benefits of having a broad business mix were pretty apparent.
That could help Phillips 66, as high margins that have fueled earnings beats by refining companies may fade away in the coming quarters when new pipelines eliminate the market gluts that cause steep discounts for US and Canadian crude.
"Production growth outpaced takeaway capacity for a couple of years. In 2013, the converse is probably true," Mr. Terreson said. Dow Jones Newswires


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The following is a weekly summary of the fishing conditions on Norris Lake as reported by creel clerks from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA).
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Long-term research on the impacts of climate change can give us insight on how certain environments will respond to warming temperatures. Poughkeepsie Journal reports on Cary research.
Some species of freshwater mussels are teetering on the brink of extinction. The Millbrook Independent reports on studies by Cary's David Strayer and Heather Malcolm.
In places like Phoenix and Minneapolis, scientists think that cities are starting to look alike in ways that have nothing to do with the proliferation of Starbucks, WalMart or T.G.I Fridays.
Dr. Rosi-Marshall will be the next Director of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, Long-Term Ecological Research project, a role that is targeted to begin in 2016.
Researchers are recognizing the importance of understanding the effects of climate change on a local scale.
Millbrook, N.Y. -- In the northern hardwood forest, climate change is poised to reduce the viability of the maple syrup industry, spread wildlife diseases and tree pests, and change timber resources.
Today, I want to talk about that old Thanksgiving favorite — wet, rotting leaves.
Science Magazine reports on causes for the widespread decline of freshwater mussels and cites Cary research studying the factors threatening mussel habitats.
Meteorological conditions measured at our weather station as Sandy passed over Millbrook, N.Y.
Online version of our popular newsletter.
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies | Millbrook, New York 12545 | Tel (845) 677-5343
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If you're a mayor or City Council member, there are two things you must do right: plow the snow and collect the garbage, quickly and efficiently. Mess up either of those tasks and you risk getting turned out of office at the next election.
We're not worried about snow. We know that when the snowflakes fall, Public Works Director Tim Hanson's crews will quickly move it away.
We haven't been worried about garbage pickup, either. Unlike many cities our size and larger, Rockford contracts with a private company to collect and dump garbage. Since 1999 the city has hired Rock River Environmental Services to collect residential garbage in the city. It's a local company headquartered in Rockford, employing Rockford-area people. The garbage is taken to the Winnebago Landfill, also owned by the company.
The contract expires at the end of the year. Last spring, we criticized Ald. Nancy Johnson, D-8, for making a motion to renew Rock River's contract without getting proposals from other firms. Johnson, now off the council, withdrew her motion and the city sought bids.
Now, aldermen are preparing to choose between two bidders for a seven-year contract with a three-year extension clause. Rock River is bidding. The other bidder is Advanced Disposal Systems, a national company based in Florida with a local office in Davis Junction in Ogle County. Advanced also owns its own landfill — Orchard Hills in Davis Junction.
We talked to six aldermen last week, and they told us they have no complaints about Rock River's service. Five of the six said they are inclined to vote for Rock River to get the new contract. The sixth was mum on how she intends to vote.
We agree with the five because, as Ald. Jeanne Oddo, D-8, said, "If it's not broken, don't fix it."
People will pay more for garbage collection no matter who gets the next contract. There are four options available to aldermen.
We like option four. According to a City Hall staff analysis released Thursday, under option four, "unlimited collection of refuse, bulk items, recycling and yard waste are still provided. The existing 18-gallon recycle bins would be replaced by a 32-gallon can. ... In this option, Advanced Disposal is slightly less than Rock River Disposal. However, staff believes the cost difference does not justify transitioning from the current provider. Our recommendation if this option is chosen would be to remain with Rock River Disposal," the analysis says. Over the seven-year life of the contract, the difference would be $419,720 more with Rock River than with Advanced.
We agree with the staff analysis. Here are some other reasons why we think aldermen should re-up with Rock River under option four:
Rock River, headquartered on Wansford Way in Rockford, has 258 employees, and "127 of them directly service the work of the city of Rockford's waste," the company says. Those workers volunteer in hundreds of nonprofit organizations. Rock River and affiliated companies contribute to area hospitals, charities and other service organizations.
We do not think Rockford householders should be contributing to Ogle County government coffers, which is what would happen if city garbage goes to a landfill in Ogle County.
A saying often attributed to Woody Allen says 80 percent of success is showing up. Rock River leaders asked, and came to make presentations to the Editorial Board. We haven't heard from Advanced Disposal.
Rock River has a team of local customer service people who field complaints and solve problems quickly. Aldermen told us they have good relations with these folks, almost as if the garbage company were a city department.
We're pretty sure Rock River will be here for the long term. Rockford garbage has been tipped into the Winnebago Landfill since it opened in 1972, and the company is a direct successor to the William Charles family of companies that date back several generations. The company now called Advanced has either been global or national, and has gone through a series of ownership changes. We've never met any of their corporate leaders. We don't even know who they are.
Advanced has no minority employees based in Davis Junction, says Ald. Tom McNamara, D-3. Rock River's employees reflect considerable diversity, which is very important to us.A word about "totes": These garbage cans are picked up directly by a mechanical arm on the trucks. They're nice in theory, but they require open access to the curb. In Rockford, cars park on most residential streets, making totes impractical, leading to time delays.
In a perfect world where everyone could park in driveways, we'd like totes, too, but we'll stick with regular garbage cans. Again, the current system isn't broken. Don't fix it.
Let's be clear: Bidding out this contract was the right thing to do. We're confident that competition caused the sharpening of pencils and the tweaking of estimates at both companies. The winners will be the people of Rockford.