text:
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
- Format: DVD [MOD]
- Run Time: 40 minutes
- Region: 1
- Language: English
- Studio: HBO Archives
- DVD Release Date: February 15, 2012
- Genre: Documentary
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If you are interested in the emotional experience of working for years in an American car factory this is the film you don't want to miss. In the Last Truck you will hear the stories of people who have worked together for years and are now facing an end to that experience. It's also really interesting to see how an an assembly line works. Well worth watching!
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One of the best documentaries I have ever seen! Steve and Julia acurately represented all GM factory workers who have lost their jobs due to corporate greed!


text:
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas coach Mike Anderson has a message for his outside shooters who are struggling so far this season.
Don't hesitate. Pull the trigger.
"We've got to be able to take them," Anderson said Monday afternoon. "I think our guys are a little tentative about taking shots."
Arkansas (3-3) is hoping its long-range struggles will end as it tries to snap a three-game losing streak against Oklahoma (6-1) in Bud Walton Arena at 6 p.m. tonight.
It's the fourth game of a rugged nonconference stretch that already includes losses to Arizona State, Wisconsin and Syracuse. It ends at No. 3 Michigan on Saturday.
While Anderson doesn't want players throwing up 3-pointers for the simple sake of doing it, he believes Arkansas can benefit from more opportunities after shaky performances so far this season. The Razorbacks are shooting 26.2 percent (26 of 103) from long range, which ranks 13th in the SEC. The latest issues came in the Syracuse loss, when Arkansas was 5-for-24 from behind the 3-point line.
"I think our shooting is a lot better than it's showing," Anderson said. "You've got to remember also now, we've played against some very good basketball teams, some veteran teams that early in the year, defense is going to be ahead of the offense."
One of the most disappointing aspect for Arkansas, though, is the fact their best outside shooters, and most experienced players, have struggled to make shots so far.
Junior Mardracus Wade is 4-for-14 (28.6 percent) from 3-point range through six games. It's a sharp contrast from last season, when he was one of the SEC's best perimeter shooters after making 47.6 percent (70-for-147) as a sophomore.
Guard BJ Young has found plenty of ways to score in his five games this season, but is just 3-for-19 (15.8 percent) from long range so far. It comes a year after he shot 41.3 percent (50 of 121) from behind the 3-point line.
"We know he's better than that. I think he's better than that. Let's hope it's coming," Anderson said. "He's due. Not only is he due, our whole team is due."
Arkansas is hoping a breakthrough will come against the Sooners, who beat the Razorbacks 78-63 in Norman, Okla., last season. Arkansas has won two straight against Oklahoma in Bud Walton Arena, including the 96-88 upset win against the Blake Griffin-led Sooners during the 2008-09 season.
This Oklahoma team will be another challenge for Arkansas' perimeter offense. The Sooners, who are in their second season under coach Lon Kruger, are limiting opponents to shooting 26.1 percent (29-for-111) from long range this season.
Anderson said one solution to the shooting woes could include a lineup shakeup for tonight's game. He was asked about point guard Dee Wagner and indicated the freshman could be in the starting lineup. Anderson believes Arkansas has been in a better rhythm with Wagner on the court and said he'll be "out there quite often."
Wagner made two of Arkansas' 3-point baskets, to go along with three assists, in 23 minutes against Syracuse.
"He is getting more comfortable," Anderson said. "Our guys are getting more confident in him. I think both defensively and offensively things started to flow when he was out there. He is getting the ball to the right people at the right time."
Anderson believes there is hope they'll start falling, too, with forward Marshawn Powell's improvement in the paint. He said Arkansas began to establish something down low in the second half against Syracuse and it may create some open looks for the Razorbacks' perimeter shooters if it continues tonight.
"Now comes the time where you have got to make shots," Anderson said.
Anderson Jr. Suspended Indefinitely
Anderson announced that his son, Anderson Jr., has been suspended indefinitely after a driving while intoxicated arrest early Sunday. It was Anderson Jr.'s second DWI arrest in less than a year and third since March 2007.
"As a coach and a father I am disappointed with the events that occurred late on Saturday," Anderson said. "Our staff serves as positive role models to our student-athletes and in working with our administrative staff we placed Mike on indefinite suspension. It is indefinite. Our family will continue to support him throughout this challenge. My family and I request that you respect our privacy at this time."
Anderson Jr. is the program's video coordinator. Anderson said those duties will be handled by others on the staff during his son's indefinite suspension.
"We have got a staff of veteran guys that have been with me for some 10 years – ever since I have been the head coach," Anderson said. "We have some people in place. Basketball operations is Jeff Daniels and we have an assistant to him to continue to make sure everything goes smooth."
Oklahoma (6-1) at Arkansas (3-3)
When: 6 p.m.
Where: Bud Walton Arena
Radio: Razorback Sports Network
Series: Arkansas leads 14-12
Last Meeting: Oklahoma 78, Arkansas 63 on 12/10/11 in Norman, Okla.
Coaches: Arkansas — Mike Anderson (21-17 in second season); Oklahoma — Lon Kruger (21-17 in second season)
Projected Lineups: Arkansas — F Hunter Mickelson (6-10, So., 6.3 ppg), F Marshawn Powell (6-7, Jr. 13.3 ppg), G Ky Madden (6-5, So., 6.8 ppg), G Mardracus Wade (6-3, Jr., 7.3 ppg), G BJ Young (6-3, So., 21.4 ppg); Oklahoma — F Romero Osby (6-8, Sr., 11.1 ppg), F Amath M'Baye (6-9, Jr., 10.1 ppg), G Steven Pledger (6-4, Sr., 9.9 ppg), G Je'lon Hornbreak (6-3, Fr., 6.9 ppg), G Isaiah Cousins (6-3, Fr., 3.7 ppg)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Teanaway > Ingalls Peaks > Climber's Log
Ingalls Peaks Climber's Log
[ Sign the Climber's Log ]
|South Ridge
Date Climbed: Jul 3, 2010
|Freezing fog above the lake. Rime ice on the rock. Crampons and fixed rope for the scramble below the first rock pitch (I know, I know!) then the sun came out and made everything better. Great climb with plenty of interesting route options.
|Posted Feb 1, 2011 4:17 pm
|South Face and East Ridge
|Soloed the South Face a few times and climbed the east ridge a couple of times, once in winter.
|Posted Dec 28, 2010 8:49 am
|South Peak twice
Date Climbed: Jul 15, 2005
|The first time I took the puzzley and fun scramble up the east face, then in '10 went up the southeast face on snow. I love this area. Ingalls Way/Lake may be my favorite trail, but then there's so many I want to see.
|Posted Dec 8, 2010 8:10 pm
|South peak scramble
Date Climbed: Aug 29, 2008
|No. 011, personal clibmer's log.
First major scramble, went with Druksel Dorji via Ingalls Lake route. Long day but well worth it.
|Posted Nov 28, 2010 1:27 pm
|Dan Winter
|Ingalls South
Date Climbed: Sep 14, 2010
|Scrambled up Ingalls South with a great group from the Seattle Mountaineers on a stellar day.
|Posted Sep 15, 2010 10:49 pm
|South Peak
Date Climbed: Oct 29, 2008
|Out for a Hike to Ingalls Lake and took the detour up South Peak. Never got around to signing the log. Weather was great and the company was good too.
|Posted Oct 29, 2009 4:23 pm
|Bryan K
|S Ingalls
Date Climbed: Jun 16, 2009
|Made the summit with Fortune to follow
|Posted Oct 19, 2009 8:48 pm
|East Ridge
Date Climbed: Aug 30, 2009
|Traffic jam once we reached the notch, but it's easy to pass other parties by finding alternatives. We passed 3 rope teams from the top of the 1st pitch to the summit.
|Posted Aug 31, 2009 3:41 am
Date Climbed: Jul 11, 2009
|Climbed all three with Lloyd. Yeah, slightly off-route on the East Peak :) Third time up the North Peak. The short approach and easy climbing makes it a good annual fun-trip.
|Posted Aug 16, 2009 11:03 am
|Cool Area
|East, North, and South in a long sunny day. Little off route on the East, but it all worked out.
|Posted Jul 12, 2009 9:26 pm
|South Ridge
Date Climbed: Jun 12, 2005
|Fun climb. Cold and windy on the approach, but gorgeous during the climb.
|Posted Aug 22, 2008 10:14 pm
|South Ridge on N. Peak
Date Climbed: Jun 12, 2008
|First pitch was mostly snow, but otherwise good climb in perfect weather.
|Posted Jul 19, 2008 2:17 am
|Brian Jenkins
|South Ridge
Date Climbed: Jul 6, 2008
|Met Ron, Pete and Allie in Cle Elum and camped at the TH. On the trail by 5:20 am to try to beat the crowds. Some snow even before Ingalls Pass. Pretty solid snow from there. Didn't realize I was on the first pitch until about halfway up so started there. I finished the lead of that, Pete got the classic 5.6 lead and I finished up the third pitch. We were the first group of the day but the masses has come in behind us so long delays in rapping down but all the climbers were very cool and we all just hung out until safe to pass. Back at the car at 6:20 pm and home at about midnight. Loud Dream Theater music and Red Bull did the trick on the ridge back. Beautiful area around Ingalls and Stuart is in your face there!
|Posted Jul 7, 2008 12:59 pm
|Romp in the snow and slick rock on South Ridge of North Peak
Date Climbed: Jun 22, 2008
|Did the East Peak couple of years ago. Went back to do the North Peak. Left car at around 6am. Due to heavy snow year, encountered snow the last mile and 500 vertical feet before Ingalls Pass. Got to below the South Ridge route and there were already a group of 4 on it. Luckily they were descending as we were starting up. Pretty much had the route to ourselves until a group of two came up as we were rapping off. Took the standard route and it was fun! Very windy and obscured by clouds on and off. That is until we were hiking out...when the blue skies opened up!
|Posted Jun 23, 2008 2:53 pm
|South Peak
Date Climbed: Oct 23, 2007
|Mostly a snowshoe climb. We had blue skies and solitude.
|Posted Oct 27, 2007 7:06 pm
|South Ridge
Date Climbed: Sep 7, 2007
|Enjoyable, I wish it was longer.
|Posted Sep 10, 2007 1:48 pm
|SW Face
Date Climbed: Sep 8, 2007
|Fun rock climb. A little more than 9 hours car-to-car.
|Posted Sep 9, 2007 9:03 pm
|south peak
|took a jaunt up from ingalls pass.
|Posted Jul 5, 2007 7:37 pm
|South peak
|Cool scramble in spring. Left splitboards at ridge for a fun tour alternative to Stuart.
|Posted Jan 5, 2007 1:19 am
|South Ridge Climb
Date Climbed: Oct 1, 2006
|Hiked in late pm and camped just before reaching Ingalls Lake. We left camp at 8:00am and climbed the South Ridge. Fun route but very short. We made 2 pitches going up and rapped off 3 times with single 60m rope from the summit down to the notch, and 2 more from the notch down to the bottom. We were back at camp at 11:15am!!
|Posted Oct 5, 2006 4:01 am


text:
I think I read somewhere a few months or so ago that the mods were planning on setting up an alternative system to entry to the Beta Guild, given that PI is no longer accepting new betas. I know some betas I've tried who are not in the beta guild are as good as some in the beta guild and think it would be nice for that to be recognised.
I know this would be rather complicated/ take a lot of time but I was just wondering if something was in the works or not.
Thank you! Alex


text:
ID Cards!
What a great idea, I don't know why anyone else hasn't thought of it..............
A bill has been introduced in Parliament which would force online retailers to check customers' ages before selling goods that cannot be sold to children. The Online Purchasing of Goods and Services (Age Verification) Bill received its first reading in Parliament on Tuesday when it was introduced by Labour MP Margaret Moran as …
ID Cards!
What a great idea, I don't know why anyone else hasn't thought of it..............
If there's *anything* that should strike terror into the hearts of the average man it's when someone speaks those five words, since they mouth often spill from the mouths of people who haven't a clue how to go about it. It's as if legislation is some sort of magic bullet that solves all the world's ills.
Let them explain how it will be done, in detail and in language that anyone who isn't a lawyer can understand, before they're allowed to submit even a green paper on the subject. Then when everyone's finished laughing the edjit in question can go away and cry in the corner.
Rather than going after every ecommerce retailer in the world, hasn't anyone seen the weak link here?
"The People newspaper worked with a 14-year-old called Zach," said Moran. "He got a pre-paid card at a local store; he paid cash and walked out the door with it."
Solve that problem, much easier. Or you could publish a list of these Chav-Visa cards identifiying codes (first four digits) and block those at ecommerce sites.
I am all for just banning children from the net, move the responsibility to the parents for the snotty nosed rascals.
This is just another way to try and sneak in the ID card.
Personally I don't care what the children do, but if the politicians are going to use them as pawns, I say we just sacrifice them and move them off the board.
This is just another attempt to introduce compulsory ID cards by stealth. If someone under 18 has to be prevented from using or buying a service then EVERYBODY has to provide acceptable proof of age.
To use the "won't someone think of the children" argument in this manner is just typical of our current, increasingly corrupt government where lies, spin and obfuscation are used to justify mind boggling bad decisions.
(Where are the political icons?)
lets introduce a compulsory ID card system to ensure that kiddies can't buy forbidden goodies using a card that should have been checked by the supplier who sold it to said kiddie.
Wouldn't it be simpler to limit the sale of pre-paid credit cards? It seems that there was no loophole before their introduction. It would also be easier and cheaper to implement.
Apart from that it seems audacious that the government should ask anyone else to get their house in order. A bit of introspection is required.
Alas, Margaret Moran isn't the only MP who has a 19th-century view of the Internet as something which governments can control. The recent cluster of teenage suicides in Wales prompted the local MP to call for social web sites which "romanticised" suicide to be shut down.
So an unscrupulous or easily fooled shop keeper sold something illegally to an under-age customer and the response isn't to clamp down on this single point of failure, but to inconvenience everybody who pays for anything online? How exactly do they expect to enforce this? I can't imagine many overseas hosted porn sites being particularly concerned about the short arm of English law!
Instead of selling pre-paid credit cards, why not offer pay-as-you-go cards that are applied for in the normal way and topped up at your local shop or bank before use, just like a mobile phone?
Or is this another backdoor attempt to foist ID cards onto us?
...for the justification of the National ID card, if you ask me. Enter your unique ID number, and we can check it against our database for your age and address.
How many children obtain cigarettes and alcohol by mail order?
And as for porn, what's the damage, and isn't there loads of it available on the Internet without payment, legally or otherwise?
Incidently, how many people knew that you have to be 18 to buy cigarettes nowadays? I didn't, until I just looked it up.
As ever an MP gets in a lather about alleged faults in online shopping - and then proves the problem lies elsewhere!
If someone is under the age of 18 then they shouldn't have access to credit. The fact that some 14 year old managed to get a pre-payment card meant he retailer who sold it to him was at fault. Maybe I'm a bit thick but should it be the person who owns the shop who should be taken to task? Why not make the law on selling restricted items more draconian? Why more laws to fix a problem that doesn't exist?
Thankfully this is a PMB and will get talked out.
Paris to illustrate another dumb bint who doesn't know her arse from her elbow
Arrest Zach for illegally buying a pre-paid card, arrest the retailer for illegally selling a pre-paid card, extrapolate to those committing similar crimes - job done.
Alternatively, we could blame Tesco, etc for not verifying ages even though the very act of paying is verification, introduce a whole load of legislation to make it more irritating for people to shop online and add additional costs to those small retailers that the web is supposed to have set free, whilst leaving Zach and his criminal buddies to continue breaking the law.
So to positively identify yourself on the intarwebs one needs a biometric reader to stick your finger in. Maybe these could be made in different shapes, such as a politician's arsehole?
If 14-year-old Zach was wrongly issued with a credit card by a bank, who would be at fault, the bank or the retailer which assumes the law has been correctly applied (no-one under 18 should have a credit card).
So why is it suddenly back to front when Zach is wrongly issued with a pre-pay card? Does the MP have some agenda, perhaps?
Then when this is done another loophole will be ordering from foreign websites. What do we do now to protect the children, put up a great firewall?
Is that a typo in her surname?
If you have you have an National id card you can buy these. if not, tough luck...
`So an unscrupulous or easily fooled shop keeper sold something illegally to an under-age customer'
Pre-pay visa isn't illegal to sell to under-18, and is actively marketed to the over 18s as a means of providing not-quite-cash to your children. I was contemplating getting a couple for my daughters: in the summer when the elder is thirteen she'll probably do her first Birmingham to London by train on her own trip, and it'd be handy to have something that can bail her out of trouble.
And before people say ``didn't have 'em in my day, didn't come to any harm'' the assumption that everyone travelling has a mobe and a credit card has become deeper and deeper rooted. If you screwed up a journey in 1985 and needed to go to a hotel, you could book in with cash: now a lot of places simply won't do it without the sort of ID that a child won't have. Similarly, the streets and stations were full of payphones in 1985: no longer.
Even if prepayement cards were made legal for only 18s only what about debit cards? I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure the card I had when I was a teenager would be sufficient to buy goods online. Perhaps the solution would be to require payment cards to encode an age value within the card number or similar? That way the prepayement cards could be sold as no age specified, 16, 17, 18 etc?
You can't know how old the person on the end of the wire is.
The solution is for the parent to filter the websites inappropriate to their children. Buy a filter service or buy some software to filter. So they can't order stuff online from sites they're not allowed to be on.
Banning the cards doesn't really help since there are lots of payment systems (even credit cards now) issued to under 18's.
Only accept payment via credit card... Problem solved!
...yet another unenforceable law.
Please won't someone take these absolute pillocks outside and give them the damn good slapping that they so richly deserve.
Simple solution really , if only we could only migrate by a FTL Star Ship to another planet in another star system and we could leave these moronic politicians to live in an abandoned world of their own to live out their fantasies alone !
Alternatively we stay at home , give every politician we can find a one way trip on the slowest sub light speed bucket cruising at half light to some distant planet well past Barnard's Star so they can create a fantasy world out there so as to speak and leave the rest us in this mad world of ours in total peace and bliss !
the driving division issues ID cards as well and many people have them.
non drivers even carry them .
by requesting the ID #
and blocking the pre-paid cards should be a modest solution.
I understand that many do not even think of the driving permit in their pockets , but your already numbered....might as well use it.
and if " anyone appearing under 40" is the rule for " carding" a person, and "only 18" can buy these pre-paid cards....then the fact that the retailers are at fault and the government should set their sigts on mending that fence instead of creating more fences.
you could order some porn mail order, tick the "I am over 18" box, and wait for the package.
plus ca change ....
The main thing here is politicians starting to realise they are in some ways becoming less relevant ... how on earth does this drippy MP think they are going to tell Uncle Sam he has to check the ID of every UK order they ship ?
... is a government that wants to be able to control everything it's citizens do.
never before have I seen such a ****ing retarded law.
That is impressive as it has been the season of ****ing retarded laws.
excuse me I'm so ****ing amazed by how reatrded this law is I'm going to have to sit in a queit room and stare at the wall.
O.o My brain can't take it. It's trying to kill itself. O.O
Anon Superhero is fighting for his survival.
God it's so retarded
See beyond the generic - how ****ing retarded, just use a parents credit card.
O good god.
I know that's the point (oh the poor little shits might get drunk, so what) their either using their parents cards anyway or their own pre pay.
Say the former, your screwed cause if they can get that they can just use their parents id card to pretend. if the latter, their kids, they can still get their parents id cards, they just need to write down the id number when they're not looking.
so we're back to square one but we have id cards that the govt think are oh so wonderful. twits. should pull their heads out of the sand and stop taking back-payments for shit ideas.
Exactly my thoughts...
We have a solution, now lets find a problem it can solve. (And I say problem loosely).
It's not just under-age binge drinkers who use those pre-paid cards, you know.
I have a regular credit card which I use for online shopping at Amazon and other large companies, but I occasionally buy things from small online merchants, and I prefer to use a pre-paid card for those purchases, especially when I'm dealing with someone for the first time.
Surely it's easy to cheat and borrow a credit card? So we need a better way to test if a person is over 18.
Q1: You see someone pulling off a difficult skateboard trick. Would you consider this: a: 'sick', b: 'rad', c: 'wicked', d: 'marvellous'
Q2: Punk was invented by whom? a: 'Wham?' b: 'Green Day!', c: 'The Sex Pistols or maybe The Ramones.' d: 'Miles Davis.'.
I have a lot of sympathy for the shopkeepers... you're running a shop in a, shall we say less upmarket area, you're already paying a fortune for insurance what with all the vandalism and breakins, and a bunch of the local kids who you know damn well are responsible for all the damage are in the shop, quite probably underage, quite probably tooled up with knives and so on, asking for booze, ciggies and pre paid cards. I think you've got to be awfully brave and probably totally lacking in common sense to turn them down...
Post the goods with an "18" sticker on them, and require the postie or courier to hand them only to somebody either known or proven to be over 18, exactly like the checkout operator at a supermarket is required to do.
Then make it a crime for a person over 18 to pass the contents to a person who isn't also over 18. Which probably needs to be done for supermarket sales too -- it probably shouldn't be legal for an adult to pass an over-18 item even to a member of their own family.
In my day we got the older kids to do the shopping for the alcohol, tobaco, or pornography. Clearly even if you bring in a law that say's you cannot sell credit to minors someone will go along and buy it for them.
A simple solution would be to tell the industry that anyone buying goods to be delivered, where ther is an age limit, must sign on receipt and show proof of age just as they do and did in high street shops.
Or not.
I have a solo card and use that alot of order from online.
There are still a few places where I can get a decent deal that do not accept Solo cards, therefore I HAVE to pay a higher price.
This will cause hell for the under 18's that use cards properly and legally.
Luckily, i'm now 18 - but still have a Solo card.
I've never seen such a thinly veiled attempt to introduce national ID cards through the back passage...
This isn't a particularly new problem, I remember nearly 10 years ago, signing up to AOL when I was only 16. They didn't believe that I was 16 with a "credit" card (in reality my Visa Electron) and said they could enforce their contract (which at the time didn't mean a lot to me). It wasn't until I got a letter from my mum's lawyer along with my birth certificate proved I couldn't sign a contract under the age of 18....
This is not particularly a new problem and quite frankly the government has bigger things to worry about than a few thousand kids getting drunk...
"Using the card, Zach was able to order XXX porn videos from Amazon, and knives from Tesco that were delivered to his home where he signed for them personally. Oddbins delivered some Vodka to his house, and apparently William Hill let him bet £10 on a football match,"
Sounds to me like he had a pretty good day.
Look if the Government just enforced the existing laws on the sale of prepayment cards that would just solve the problem.
But if they can tie online sales into the ID Card system the Government can also monitor your online sales patterns by linking the authorisation to the requesting website & items!
Trebles all round !!!
Could they implement a drunk shopping credit card, for purchases after 11pm, like a Land Rover from Ebay or a DVD of Time Bandits 1981 .
It would just pretend to let you buy stuff and spoof the pages until the next day.
Didn't this kid have knives, vodka, and porn at home already ?, most houses have 2 of them.
Make "National Bio-metric ID-cards" mandatory...
Redesign computers to be able to read the "National Bio-Metric ID-cards"...
Redesign computers to then be able to use "thumb-print scanners", and thereby, be able to compare the ID-card to the actual "user"....
And finally, (for true "safety")... redesign computers to verify, and thereby "Trust", all software and hardware... so, that "users" cannot alter any of the mandatory "security features".
...Oh wait, "Microsoft Vista" already has all that, built-in. What a fortunate coincidence.
What existing laws? Why do you think it's illegal for under-18s to buy them?
The whole point of prepaid cards is that they're not credit and are free of any contractual baggage. Therefore, they're not subject the credit and contract laws which prevent under-18s from getting other cards.
@Another back door route. "...for the justification of the National ID card, if you ask me. Enter your unique ID number, and we can check it against our database for your age and address."
Oh, so sorry, we can't verify that as our database has gone missing... Sound familiar?


text:
PEOPLE v ADAIR
Docket No. 101286. Argued March 6, 1996 (Calendar No. 12). Decided July 16, 1996.
Michigan Supreme Court, Lansing, Michigan 48909
Chief Justice:
James H. Brickley
Charles L. Levin, Michael F. Cavanagh, Patricia J. Boyle, Dorothy Comstock Riley, Conrad L. Mallett, Jr., Elizabeth A. Weaver
No. 101286
The defendant is charged with two counts of sexually assaulting his wife. This is an interlocutory appeal from a trial court order granting in part and denying in part, pursuant to the rape-shield statute, MCL 750.520j(1)(a); MSA 28.788(10)(1)(a), the defendant's motion in limine to introduce evidence of specific instances of the complainant's sexual conduct with the defendant both before and after the night of the alleged sexual assault. The trial court's order
would allow the defendant to introduce evidence of the complainant's subsequent consensual sexual relations with him that had occurred within thirty days of the alleged sexual assault. The Court of Appeals vacated this portion of the order. 207 Mich App 287, 293; 524 NW2d 256 (1994). We granted the defendant leave to appeal. 450 Mich 873 (1995). We reverse and remand to the trial court in light of this opinion.
The defendant has been bound over for trial on two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct[1] on the basis of allegations made by his wife that he sexually assaulted her in the early morning hours of September 27, 1992. On October 28, 1992, the complainant testified at the preliminary examination that she had been served with divorce papers a few days before the alleged sexual assault. The defendant and complainant continued to share the same house at that point, along with their two children and her two children from a previous marriage. They had been married for six years. The complainant was sleeping in the basement on the night of the alleged sexual assault. She testified that she was awakened by the defendant in the early morning hours. The two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct are based on her allegations of digital-anal penetration and of digital-oral penetration by the defendant against her will. The defendant
denies that the alleged incidents occurred.
At a pretrial hearing on October 23, 1992, the complainant stated that she had engaged in consensual sexual relations with the defendant after the alleged sexual assault.[2] The complainant has also stated that digital-anal sexual activity was a common practice in the couple's marriage.
The defendant moved in limine to introduce evidence of specific instances of (1) the complainant's subsequent consensual sexual relations with him, (2) the marital common practice of digital-anal sexual activity, and (3) the complainant's alleged sexual relations with a third person. The trial court precluded proposed evidence of particular marital sexual activities, but would allow generalized testimony that a sexual relationship had existed, and would allow evidence of the complainant's subsequent consensual
sexual relations with the defendant within thirty days of the alleged sexual assault.[3]
The prosecutor appealed, seeking to exclude evidence of subsequent consensual sexual relations. The defendant answered, again seeking to introduce evidence of the couple's particular marital sexual activity of digital-anal penetration.
The Court of Appeals majority found that evidence of subsequent consensual sexual relations was barred by the rape-shield statute. 207 Mich App 290. The majority further held that exclusion of the evidence would not violate the defendant's constitutional right of confrontation because the evidence had insufficient probative value. In contrast, the dissent believed that the evidence of subsequent consensual sexual relations was admissible under the rape-shield statute. The dissent further believed that it was admissible under the defendant's constitutional right of confrontation because it was probative of the defense theory that the alleged incident "never occurred because, if he had forcibly assaulted her as alleged, she would not have agreed to have sex with him on two occasions within a relatively short time thereafter." 207 Mich App 297 (Giovan, J., dissenting).
The rape-shield statute provides:
Evidence of specific instances of the victim's sexual conduct, opinion evidence of the victim's
sexual conduct, and reputation evidence of the victim's sexual conduct shall not be admitted under sections 520b to 520g unless and only to the extent that the judge finds that the following proposed evidence is material to a fact at issue in the case and that its inflammatory or prejudicial nature does not outweigh its probative value:
(a) Evidence of the victim's past sexual conduct with the actor.
(b) Evidence of specific instances of sexual activity showing the source or origin of semen, pregnancy, or disease. [MCL 750.520j(1); MSA28.788(10)(1) (emphasis added).]
The defendant seeks to introduce evidence of both prior and subsequent consensual sexual relations with the complainant. Such evidence clearly falls within the statute's general exclusionary rule. "It bars, with two narrow exceptions, evidence of all sexual activity by the complainant not incident to the alleged rape." People v Stull, 127 Mich App 14, 17; 338 NW2d 403 (1983) (emphasis in original).[4]
We turn first to the proposed evidence of subsequent consensual sexual relations. The defendant contends that this falls within the statutory exception for "[e]vidence of the victim's past sexual conduct with the actor."
Evidence of Past Sexual Conduct
Initially, we must determine to which period of time the term "past" refers: before the alleged sexual assault or
before the evidence is offered at trial. The Court of Appeals majority held that "past" limited evidence of sexual conduct to that occurring before the alleged incident. 207 Mich App 291. The prosecutor argues here that this interpretation is correct. Conversely, the panel's dissent believed that "past" encompassed all sexual conduct occurring before the evidence was offered at trial. Id. at 293-294. The defendant agrees with the dissent.
As evidenced by this reasonable disagreement over the meaning of the statutory exception, we find that the term "past" is ambiguous. 2A Singer, Sutherland Statutory Construction (5th ed), § 45.02, p 6. The rules of statutory interpretation of ambiguous terms are well established. "The lodestar of statutory construction is legislative purpose or intent." People v Gilbert, 414 Mich 191, 205; 324 NW2d 834 (1982). When faced with two alternative reasonable interpretations of a word in a statute, we should give effect to the interpretation that more faithfully advances the legislative purpose behind the statute. People v Rehkopf, 422 Mich 198, 207; 370 NW2d 296 (1985).
In People v Arenda, 416 Mich 1, 10-11; 330 NW2d 814 (1982), we addressed the legislative purpose behind the rape-shield statute:
The rape-shield law, with certain specific exceptions, was designed to exclude evidence of the victim's sexual conduct with persons other than defendant. Although such evidence was admissible at common law in relation to certain issues, this practice has repeatedly been drawn into question. The courts, with increasing frequency, have recognized the minimal relevance of this evidence ….
The prohibitions contained in the rape-shield law represent a legislative determination that, in most cases, such evidence is irrelevant. . . .
The prohibitions in the law are also a reflection of the legislative determination that inquiries into sex histories, even when minimally relevant, carry a danger of unfairly prejudicing and misleading the jury. Avoidance of these dangers is a legitimate interest in the criminal trial process, see MRE 403. The prohibition indirectly furthers the same interests by removing unnecessary deterrents to the reporting and prosecution of crimes.
At the same time, the prohibitions protect legitimate expectations of privacy. . . .
The interests protected and furthered by the rape-shield law are significant ones. Given the minimal relevance of such evidence in most cases, the prohibitions do not deny or significantly diminish defendant's right of confrontation. [Emphasis added; citations omitted.]
The rape-shield statute was aimed at thwarting the then-existing practice of impeaching the complainant's testimony with evidence of the complainant's prior consensual sexual activity, which discouraged victims from testifying "because they kn[e]w their private lives [would] be cross-examined." House Legislative Analysis, SB 1207, July 18, 1974. A complainant's sexual history with others is generally irrelevant with respect to the alleged sexual assault by the defendant. MRE 401. More importantly, a witness' sexual history is usually irrelevant as impeachment evidence because it has no bearing on character for truthfulness. MRE 608.
Generally, irrelevant evidence is inadmissible as substantive evidence. MRE 402. MRE 403 provides that even relevant evidence may be excluded if its probative value is outweighed by prejudicial considerations. The rape-shield
statute reflects this evidentiary postulate, but with a significant modification. MRE 403 calls for the exclusion of probative evidence when "substantially" outweighed by prejudicial considerations. In contrast, the rape-shield statute calls for exclusion when the probative value is merely outweighed by prejudicial considerations. After weighing the minimal probative value of evidence of sexual conduct not incident to the alleged sexual assault against the inherent prejudicial and inflammatory effect on the jurors of parading the complainant's sexual history through the court room, the Legislature determined that as a general rule such evidence would be legally irrelevant and inadmissible as a matter of law. People v Hackett, 421 Mich 338, 347-348; 365 NW2d 120 (1984).[5]
However, when the proposed evidence relates to the complainant's consensual sexual relations with the defendant, the public policy interests in excluding prejudicial, inflammatory, or misleading bad act character evidence are no longer the primary focus of the statute. People v Perkins, 424 Mich 302, 307; 379 NW2d 390 (1986). Instead, the focus shifts to materiality and balancing probative value against prejudice. Id. at 307-308.
With this background in mind, we turn to the statutory exceptions. Again, the touchstone of the rape-shield statute
is relevance. In providing two narrow exceptions to the exclusionary rule, the Legislature premised both exceptions on the threshold determination that the proposed evidence is "material to a fact at issue." MCL 750.520j(1); MSA28.788(10)(1). First consider subsection b, which allows the admission of evidence that is material to prove that semen recovered from the complainant or her resulting physical condition was the result of someone other than the defendant. Such evidence could be probative of a defense theory such as misidentification.[6] Likewise, under subsection a, the complainant's consensual sexual conduct with the defendant must be material to an issue in the case. In Perkins, we found that evidence of a prior sexual encounter between the complainant and the defendant could be probative of the defendant's version that the events on the night in question were consensual. Id. at 308.
In the instant case, the trial court considered the meaning of the term "past" and determined that arbitrarily limiting evidence of the complainant's consensual sexual relations with the defendant to that occurring before the alleged sexual assault could exclude relevant evidence.[7] We
agree. The rape-shield statute was grounded in the evidentiary principle of balancing probative value against the dangers of unfair prejudice, inflammatory testimony, and misleading the jurors to improper issues. Where the proposed evidence concerns consensual sexual conduct with third parties, the Legislature has determined that, with very limited exceptions, the balance overwhelmingly tips in favor of exclusion as a matter of law. However, where the proposed evidence concerns consensual sexual conduct with the defendant, the Legislature has left the determination of admissibility to a case-by-case evaluation.
It is axiomatic that relevance flows from the circumstances and the issues in the case. It is primarily for this reason that we reject the argument that otherwise relevant evidence becomes legally irrelevant and inadmissible merely because it occurred after an alleged sexual assault and not before. The Legislature did not intend an arbitrary limit on relevant evidence, and we find that imposing such a time limit would not faithfully further the legislative purposes of the rape-shield statute. Accordingly, we hold that "past" sexual conduct refers to conduct that has occurred before the evidence is offered at trial.[8]
The partial dissent would not consider "whether the proffered evidence is relevant and whether its prejudicial nature outweighs its probative value," slip op at 2, if the proffered sexual conduct evidence did not "occur[] before the alleged assault," id. at 3. In addition to the reasons explained above, we reject this interpretation of the rape-shield statute because it runs the risk of violating a defendant's Sixth Amendment constitutional right to confrontation.
This Court has stated:
The fact that the Legislature has determined that evidence of sexual conduct is not admissible as character evidence to prove consensual conduct or for general impeachment purposes is not however a declaration that evidence of sexual conduct is never admissible. We recognize that in certain limited situations, such evidence may not only be relevant, but its admission may be required to preserve a defendant's constitutional right to confrontation. [Hackett, 421 Mich 348.]
Conversely, the partial dissent would hold that as a matter of law postincident sexual conduct would never be admissible—even if relevant. To the contrary, we believe that determinations of relevance, materiality, prejudicial value, and the defendant's constitutional right to use the
proffered evidence, depend on the facts of the case. Accordingly, the rape-shield statute should not be interpreted to foreclose consideration of such issues arbitrarily. Further, Michigan v Lucas, 500 US 145, 151; 111 S Ct 1743; 114 L Ed 2d 205 (1991), suggested that an arbitrary interpretation and application of the rape-shield statute's provisions could violate the right to confrontation.
This of course does not end our inquiry regarding the admissibility of the proposed evidence. The statute further provides that such evidence is admissible "only to the extent that the judge finds that the . . . proposed evidence is material to a fact at issue in the case and that its inflammatory or prejudicial nature does not outweigh its probative value . . . ." MCL 750.520j; MSA 28.788(10) (emphasis added).
The determination of admissibility is entrusted to the sound discretion of the trial court. In exercising its discretion, the trial court should be mindful of the significant legislative purposes underlying the rape-shield statute and should always favor exclusion of evidence of a complainant's sexual conduct where its exclusion would not unconstitutionally abridge the defendant's right to confrontation. [Hackett, 421 Mich 349.]
We generally review the trial court's determinations of evidentiary issues for abuse of discretion. Perkins, 424 Mich 308.
Subsequent Consensual Sexual Relations
The defendant argues that evidence of subsequent consensual sexual relations between the complainant and the
defendant within a relatively short time after the alleged sexual assault would be relevant to whether she was in fact raped. In contrast, the prosecutor argues that evidence of subsequent consensual sexual relations is not relevant in this case because consent is not an issue. The prosecutor further argues that any probative value is minimal because the complainant and the defendant were two married people going through an emotional period after the defendant had filed for divorce. The prosecutor further argues that the marital rape provision, MCL 750.520l; MSA 28.788(12), reveals that the Legislature contemplated cases such as this, where married people who were living together would be involved in rape allegations, and, accordingly, subsequent consensual sexual relations would not be unexpected because of "the complexities of human emotion." The prosecutor emphasizes that this evidence would be highly prejudicial because it would divert the jury's attention from the alleged events of the night in question. Both parties' points are well taken.
The rape-shield statute provides that the trial court should balance these considerations in determining whether the proposed evidence is material and whether its probative value is outweighed by its prejudicial nature. On a common-sense level, a trial court could find that the closer in time to the alleged sexual assault that the complainant engaged in subsequent consensual sexual relations with her alleged assailant, the stronger the argument would be that if indeed she had been sexually assaulted, she would not have consented to sexual relations with him in the immediate aftermath of
sexual assault. Accordingly, the evidence may be probative. Conversely, the greater the time interval, the less probative force the evidence may have, depending on the circumstances.
Even so, time should not be the only factor. The trial court should also carefully consider the circumstances and nature of the relationship between the complainant and the defendant. If the two did not have a personal relationship before the alleged sexual assault, then any consensual sexual relations after the alleged sexual assault would likely be more probative than if the two had been living together in a long-term marital relationship. Additionally, the trial court could find that there may be other human emotions intertwined with the relationship that may have interceded, leading to consensual sexual relations in spite of an earlier sexual assault.[9] Depending on the circumstances, the trial court may find that these other considerations have intensified the inflammatory and prejudicial nature of subsequent consensual sexual conduct evidence and properly conclude that it should be precluded or limited. Moreover, the Legislature, by the use of the term "unless and only to the extent that" in the rape-shield statute, expressly limited admission of such evidence to what is necessary for the defense. Therefore, the trial court appropriately should limit the scope of sexual conduct evidence where constitutionally possible.
Here, the trial court limited the evidence of subsequent
consensual sexual relations to that occurring within thirty days of the alleged sexual assault. This complainant, after six years of marriage to her alleged assailant and after having two children with him, consented to sexual relations with him even after she alleged that she was sexually assaulted by him. While such evidence has a fair amount of probative value that the alleged sexual assault never occurred, we also believe that the danger of misleading the jury's focus away from the night in question is significant. We remand to the trial court for further proceedings in light of this opinion with respect to the admissibility of evidence of subsequent consensual sexual relations between the complainant and the defendant.
Particular Sexual Activity
The defendant argues that evidence of the couple's marital digital-anal sexual activity is relevant to show that on prior occasions the complainant was not offended or humiliated by digital-anal sexual activity and that, if the alleged sexual assault had indeed occurred as suggested by the complainant, this would have been normal sexual activity for the couple. However, the victim's offense or humiliation is not an element of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Moreover, the fact that the couple engaged in digital-anal sexual activity during their marriage before the alleged sexual assault is not probative of the defense theory that the alleged events on the night in question never occurred. "The right to confront and cross-examine is not without limits. It does not include a right to cross-examine on irrelevant
issues." Arenda, 416 Mich 8. Exclusion of this evidence will not violate the defendant's constitutional rights.[10]
We hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in precluding the defendant from introducing evidence of prior consensual digital-anal sexual activity, given its highly prejudicial nature and its nonexistent probative value.
We reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and remand to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Boyle, Riley, Mallett, and Weaver, JJ., concurred with Cavanagh, J.
v ———– No. 101286
LEVIN, J. (separate opinion).
I agree with the majority that "past sexual conduct" includes consensual sexual conduct between the complainant and the defendant after the assault charged in the information. I concur in the reversal of the Court of Appeals for essentially the reasons set forth in the majority opinion. I dissent from the holding that
the trial court did not abuse its discretion in precluding the defendant from introducing evidence of prior consensual digital-anal sexual activity, given its highly prejudicial nature and its nonexistent probative value. [Slip op, p 15.]
The evidence of the prior consensual atypical sexual conduct in the instant case is evidence tending to show that before the atypical sexual conduct, alleged in the information to have been nonconsensual, the defendant and the complainant consensually engaged in the same atypical sexual conduct on a number of occasions. Perforce, the probative value of the past atypical consensual sexual conduct outweighs any inflammatory or prejudicial nature of the past consensual atypical sexual conduct.
For the same reason that evidence of the "victim's past [normal] sexual conduct with the actor" is, pursuant to the rape-shield statute, probative and admissible as an exception to the strictures of the rape-shield statute,[2] evidence of past atypical sexual conduct between them is probative.
The information charges the defendant with engaging in unconsented-to digital-anal sex with his estranged wife. The complainant wife acknowledged that during the marriage, before the assault charged in the information, the complainant and
the defendant had engaged in digital-anal sex on a number of occasions, which jurors might conclude, on the basis of such evidence, was normal for them.
Digital-anal sex may or may not be part of the sexual experience of one or more of the jurors who shall be empaneled to try this case. To the extent that it is, the evidence of past consensual digital-anal sex is less prejudicial; to the extent it is not, such evidence is more probative, especially for jurors who may have had little or no experience with digital-anal sex and who, on the basis of such inexperience, might regard digital-anal sex as deviant sexual behavior, and who might conclude—absent the evidence that the complainant and the defendant had consensually engaged on a number of occasions in such atypical sexual conduct—that a woman (the complainant) would not consent to such a penetration of her body.
Resolution of the factual dispute will depend on the jury's assessment of the credibility of the estranged complainant wife and defendant husband. If the evidence of consensual digital-anal sexual activity is, as the majority opines and concludes, "highly prejudicial" to a fair assessment of the wife's credibility, then it is, by the same token, highly probative to a fair assessment of the husband's credibility.
v ———– No. 101286
BRICKLEY, C.J. (concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I write separately to express my partial disagreement with the majority's construction of Michigan's rape-shield law, MCL 750.520j(1)(a); MSA 28.788(10)(1)(a), which generally excludes evidence of the complainant's sexual conduct. However, an exception to the statute permits the admission of "[e]vidence of the victim's past sexual conduct with the actor" if that evidence is material and if its "prejudicial nature does not outweigh its probative value. . . ." I agree with the majority that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in precluding the defendant from introducing evidence of specific acts of sexual activity between the defendant and the complainant. I also agree with the majority's characterization of the test balancing prejudice and probative value. However, I would uphold the Court of Appeals conclusion that the word "past" as used in the exception permits the admission only of evidence of sexual conduct occurring before the alleged assault.
The majority concludes that the word "past" is ambiguous because there was disagreement regarding its meaning among the Court of Appeals judges. In performing statutory construction, it relies on People v Arenda, 416 Michigan 1; 330 NW2d 814 (1982), to conclude that the primary purpose of the exception is to permit the admission of relevant evidence. Although I do not contest this characterization, I would not reach the issues whether the proffered evidence is relevant and whether its prejudicial nature outweighs its probative value. That analysis need only be performed if the evidence falls within the exception permitting the admission of evidence of past sexual conduct.
Although this Court does examine the legislative intent in performing statutory construction, the first consideration must be the language actually used by the Legislature. If that language cannot be construed to further the legislative intent, it is the purview of the Legislature to amend the statute. Further, a statute must be construed so as to give every word meaning. "[I]n the interpretation of statutes, effect must be given, if possible, to every word, sentence and section. . . ." Drouillard v Stroh Brewery Co, 449 Mich 293, 303; 536 NW2d 530 (1995). The result reached by the majority renders the word "past" in the exception nugatory, thereby violating this rule of statutory construction. Accordingly, I must dissent.
The majority finds support for its conclusion in the dictionary definition of past as "having occurred during a time previous to the present." Slip op at 10, n 8. However, the dictionary definition of "past" makes it meaningless in
the context of the statute. In order for evidence of sexual conduct to be admitted at trial, the conduct must necessarily have occurred during a time previous to the trial. It would be impossible to admit evidence of future sexual conduct. The result reached by the majority could have been obtained had the Legislature worded the exception so as to permit the admission of "evidence of the victim's sexual conduct with the actor" or "evidence of the victim's other sexual conduct with the actor," rather than evidence of "the victim's past sexual conduct with the actor." However, as the statute is written, in order to imbue "past" with meaning, this Court should find that only evidence of conduct that occurred before the alleged assault may be admitted.
The majority's construction is not possible under the rule requiring that every word in a statute be given meaning. I conclude that the proffered evidence does not fall within the exception to the rape-shield statute permitting the admission of evidence of past sexual conduct because it deals with sexual conduct that occurred after the incident. The evidence should not be admitted under the current wording of the statute. Accordingly, I would remand the case to the trial court with instructions to apply the rule that "past" refers only to sexual conduct occurring before the alleged assault.
People v Adair
Frank J. Kelley, Attorney Genral, Thomas L. Casey, Solicitor General, Christine A. Clancy, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, and Dennis Hurst, Prosecuting Attorney,[300 County Courthouse, Jackson, MI 49201-2220] for the people.
Lorin J. Zaner[545 Spitzer Building, Toledo, OH 43604] and Demosthenes Lorandos[7465 Valley Forge Road, Brighton, MI 48116] for the defendant.
) MCL 750.520d(1)(b); MSA 28.788(4)(1)(b).
) She testified:
Q. And have you had any consensual sexual relations with your husband since September 27?
A. There was a brief reconciliation at which time we did.
Q. Subsequent to the alleged criminal offense you've had sexual relations with your husband willingly?
A. Yes.
Q. How many occasions?
A. I don't remember.
Q. More than five?
A. No.
) The court also precluded evidence of the complainant's alleged sexual conduct with any third party. The defendant has not challenged this portion of the order.
) See also United States v Torres, 937 F2d 1469, 1472 (CA 9, 1991) (FRE 412 applies to all sexual behavior preceding trial); Flurry v State, 290 Ark 417, 419; 720 SW2d 699 (1986) (the statute applies to all sexual conduct); Cuyler v State, 841 SW2d 933, 936 (Tex App, 1992) (the statute applies to all sexual conduct occurring before trial); State v Gulrud, 140 Wis 2d 721, 729; 412 NW2d 139 (Wis App, 1987) (the statute precludes evidence of all sexual conduct occurring before the conclusion of the trial).
) There are limited exceptions to the general exclusionary rule in situations where the evidence is relevant for impeachment purposes such as bias, motive, or a pattern of false accusations because it is probative of the complainant's truthfulness. Id. at 348-349.
) See People v Haley, 153 Mich App 400, 405; 395 NW2d 60 (1986) (the evidence of adult third-party penetration was relevant to prove that the condition of the eight-year-old girl's hymen may have been caused by someone other than the defendant).
) The trial court stated that he would find evidence of consensual sexual relations with the alleged assailant on the day after the alleged sexual assault to be more probative of whether the sexual assault occurred than evidence of consensual sexual relations on the day before the alleged sexual assault.
) This interpretation corresponds to the dictionary definition of "past." Past is defined as:
gone by or elapsed in time . . . of, having existed in, or having occurred during a time previous to the present; bygone . . . gone by just before the present time; just passed . . . . [The Random House Dictionary of the English Language: Second Unabridged Edition, p 1419.]
In turn, "present" is defined as:
being, existing, or occurring at this time or now; current . . . at hand; immediate . . . noting an action or state occurring at the moment of speaking. [Id., p 1529.]
Accordingly, dictionary definitions indicate that the term "past" refers to sexual conduct evidence that has occurred before the moment it is offered at trial.
) This is not unlike what often occurs with battered spouses. People v Christel, 449 Mich 578; 537 NW2d 194 (1995).
) We note that if the complainant were to testify on direct examination that she and the defendant had never before engaged in this activity, then the evidence may become proper impeachment. MRE 607.
)The circuit judge limited the evidence of postassault consensual sexual conduct only to such consensual conduct as occurred within thirty days after the assault alleged in the information. Slip op, pp 1 and 14.
It appears that the postassault consensual sexual conduct occurred within two weeks of the alleged assault, and thus the thirty-day limitation was not protested by the defendant either at the trial or the appellate level. The following occurred at the hearing on the motion in limine:
The Court: And that in terms—you're alleging that there was subsequent sexual conduct within like thirty days of this?
[Defense Counsel]: Oh, yes, Your Honor, actually within two weeks I think it is.
Accordingly, whether the thirty-day limitation is proper has not been put in issue in this case.
)Although the defense is not consent, but that there was no sexual conduct on the occasion charged in the information, the evidence of past consensual atypical sexual conduct is relevant to negative the inferences jurors might draw, on their own initiative, absent such evidence, that the incident must have occurred as the complainant testified, because she could not have imagined such abnormal sexual conduct, or that this abnormal sexual conduct is just the kind of hostile behavior an estranged husband would perpetrate on his wife to humiliate and subjugate her.


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As of Monday evening, search-and-rescue teams were unsuccessful in their quest to find missing Pagosa Springs resident David Ritchie, who was last seen about 9:30 a.m. Friday.
He wandered off into the San Juan National Forest near the Archuleta-La Plata County line, one quarter mile east of Beaver Meadows Road.
His son, Daniel Ritchie, speculated that new medication his father was taking to treat depression and insomnia contributed to feelings of paranoia and caused him to take flight.
The family had stopped about 10 miles northeast of Bayfield, at the home of friends William and Liz Anderson, while en route to Durango to seek treatment for Ritchies symptoms. Liz Anderson said Ritchie suddenly left the stationary car and walked into the woods.
A group of about 50 volunteers, mostly friends of Ritchie, started searching immediately on Friday.
An Archuleta County Search and Rescue team joined the effort Sunday and Monday, with assistance from a TriState CareFlight helicopter on Monday, but incident commander Jesse Morehouse said no verifiable sign of Ritchie had been seen.
We had three unconfirmed sightings that possibly match his description, but nothing solid, Morehouse said.
Ritchie is 5 feet 7 inches tall, 160 pounds and has a goatee. He was last seen wearing a green, long-sleeved T-shirt that was torn in the front, khaki shorts, tennis shoes and a green baseball cap.
Unless any firm evidence of Ritchies presence is found, Morehouse said Archuleta County would possibly call off its teams today.
He expected family members and friends to continue searching.
(Ritchie) is obviously extremely well-loved by a large number of people. The turnout of his friends has been amazing, Morehouse said.
Liz Anderson agreed.
The volunteers are very dedicated. Were blessed to have them,
Anyone with information should call (970) 884-5280.


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"We're the forgotten people of Detroit," Sharonda Hawkins of city's Westside Martin Luther King Apartments, the Detroit News reports.
SEE ALSO: Tackling The Black Obesity Crisis
Eight months ago, her husband, Brandon Johnson, was shot dead several doors away from her apartment inside the complex. Hawkins, who carries her 40. caliber pistol with her whenever she steps outside of her apartment, says that the violence her 481-unit complex endures is a reflection of what is going on in the city.
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She told the Detroit News that many outsiders, especially those from outside of the city limits, do not know the real Motor City:
"You hear people who come in from the suburbs to go to Comerica Park or the casinos talking about how much they love Detroit," she said. "But they don't see the real Detroit: Open drug dealing; rapes; murders. People shouldn't have to live like this. It's like we're hostages in our own homes."
That Hawkins, who has lived in the apartment complex since 1988, is strapped with a gun to her hip, in plain sight, whenever she leaves her apartment is a very telling reality. She says it is because the police are not a very reliable source of protection. Yet, this calls to question the issue of gun rights. Is it a necessary "evil" that Hawkins has to protect herself with a gun in a gang-infested area? What us know what you think.
Go to The Detroit News watch Hawkins talk about her experience living in the MLK apartments.
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What's Your Story: Victoria College pushes student to succeed
By BY BRIANNA PEARSON
May 30, 2013 at 12:30 a.m.
I had a great life growing up. I was taught I had to work for what I want. At the age of 18, I decided to take a road my family didn't agree with, and that was giving up college for a guy. At the age of 21, I started going back to college, and it was a struggle. The college I was going to acted like they didn't care about me. Two years later, I transferred to Victoria College. Not only did I get respect from Victoria College, but I knew I was someone important to them. I was a student. Victoria College has changed my life by giving me another chance. It has encouraged me, challenged me and motivated me to do my best.
Coming into Victoria College was a huge difference from the other colleges I had been to. I started off the semester with lower grades. I had not been taught the things I needed to know. I went to my teachers, thinking they wouldn't care, just like the other colleges, but I was in for a surprise. They not only helped me get caught up, but they also helped me stay on top. They encouraged me when I made mistakes, and that was exactly what I needed. The teachers didn't make me feel dumb for not knowing; they encouraged me to learn and made it fun for me.
Victoria College has given me a challenge. I got bored with school in my younger years because I had no challenge. Yes, school was tough at times, but there was no big challenge. Victoria College has given me a challenge, which, to me, makes school more interesting. In my speech class, I did not do well on my first speech and didn't understand why. After talking to the teacher, he explained to me that, yes, it was a good speech, but he knew I could do better. He didn't want to hand me a good grade when he knew it wasn't my best. At first, this frustrated me, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. Life isn't about just getting by. Everyone always wants to better themselves, and this was his way of challenging me to better myself. After that, I have challenged myself by trying harder and trying to make a better grade, be it on a test or just on homework. This also helped me to challenge myself in life.
Victoria College has also helped to motivate me. Growing up, I had never seen myself as a leader in school. I study hard, but my grades are never as high as I would like them to be. Just recently, a teacher came up to me and asked me to be a tutor and told me to really think about it. This shocked me. Could I really be a tutor even though I don't have the highest grades? My teacher explained to me that she saw me struggle in class at times, but she liked that I wouldn't give up. This really motivated me. I had never thought about becoming a tutor, and now, I had a teacher telling me I would be a great tutor. The conversation I had with her motivated me so much; it made me try even harder in that class and all my other classes.
Victoria College has done a lot for me. It has changed my life in many ways. Not only has it encouraged me, but its instructors have also shown that they care by challenging me and motivated me in school and showing me how to apply it toward my life. If it weren't for Victoria College, I would probably be working a minimum wage job and would have dropped out of school again. I love going to class every day and feeling like I am someone important and that I can do as well as any other person in life and in school. I want to thank Victoria College for being respectful toward me and helping me do my best. I look forward to continuing school at Victoria College.
Brianna Pearson graduated from LaVernia High School and lives in Victoria. She is studying accounting.


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Nelson takes over top spot among Brewers' prospects
Long-coveted Delmonico debuts at No. 5 after moving from Baltimore in K-Rod deal
By Adam McCalvy / MLB.com
With 2013 Draftees signed and entered into their respective clubs' pipelines, MLB.com has re-ranked its Top 100 Prospects and each club's Top 20 Prospects.
With Wily Peralta and Tyler Thornburg graduated to the big leagues, the Brewers have a new top prospect.
He is 24-year-old, 6-foot-5 right-hander Jimmy Nelson, the team's second-round Draft pick in 2010 who has ascended to the top of the list by excelling this season at Double-A Huntsville and Triple-A Nashville. In his first 19 starts between the two levels, Nelson pitched to a 2.93 ERA with more than a strikeout per inning.
Nelson has also limited opponents' free passes. After a promotion to Double-A Huntsville last season, he had 42 strikeouts versus 37 walks. This season, he has 108 strikeouts versus 41 walks.
"I walked too many guys toward the second half of the season," Nelson said. "It was mechanical, a little mental and also physical, just being healthy and stuff.
"This year, I just have the mentality that I'd rather give up a ground-ball hit than a walk. Make the other guy earn it. More times than not, you'll see that you'll go deeper in games, your pitch count will be lower."
Nelson was the Brewers' lone representative at the Sirius XM All-Star Futures Game in New York, throwing a scoreless inning in the U.S. team's win against a World squad. He will have to be added to Milwaukee's 40-man roster after this season, so Nelson is a prime candidate for a September callup if he is not needed in the Majors before then.
Five players earned the Major League service they needed to graduate from our preseason prospects rankings, including the Brewers' former top two: Peralta and Thornburg.
Peralta has had the most encouraging season by far, pitching to a 4.30 ERA in his first 21 starts with particularly encouraging results in his last six outings, a stretch in which he has gone 3-1 with a 0.87 ERA. He has delivered three straight quality starts, including a three-hit shutout for the Brewers' first complete game in more than 400 games. After a very shaky start to his big league career, the hard-throwing sinkerballer looks like he could be a No. 1 or 2 starter after all.
"He has that ability," manager Ron Roenicke said. "The difference is going to be the mental side of it. Is he able to really run his own ballgame? Is he able to bounce back when he has a bad inning? The good ones, they all do it."
Thornburg remains stuck in limbo, currently pitching in long relief for the Brewers with a future still unknown. Will he be good enough to start in the big leagues? Could he be a closer? Somewhere in-between? Roenicke said the club is still deciding.
No. 12 prospect Logan Schafer, 16th-ranked Khris Davis and 17th-ranked Caleb Gindl also graduated to the big league club. All three outfielders will vie for playing time down the stretch in the wake of Ryan Braun's suspension.
New faces
Six players off the preseason list means six new faces, a list headed by the newest player in the Brewers' farm system.
No. 5 on the updated prospects list is third baseman Nick Delmonico, who just arrived this week as the 21-year-old, left-handed-hitting price paid by the Orioles for former Brewers reliever Francisco Rodriguez. The Brewers have coveted Delmonico for years, all the way back to the 2011 First-Year Player Draft, when he was regarded as a supplemental first-round talent who fell to the sixth round because of signability concerns. His father, Rod, was the head baseball coach at the University of Tennessee and is a friend of Brewers first base coach Garth Iorg.
brewers' top prospects
|Jimmy Nelson
|Taylor Jungmann
|Johnny Hellweg
|Tyrone Taylor
|Nick Delmonico
Brewers general manager Doug Melvin asked for Delmonico three weeks ago and was told he was not available. When the market for K-Rod heated up, the Orioles changed their mind and made the deal.
"There was enough traffic on K-Rod that we were able to extract what we consider a good player who still has to develop," Melvin said. "A good player who has a chance to be a Major League player."
Also new to the Brewers' list are 2013 second-round pick Devin Williams, a high school right-hander ranked ninth, and competitive balance round pick Tucker Neuhaus, an infielder ranked 13th.
"Williams was much higher on our board than where we picked him," Melvin said. "Some teams take a lot of college players, some teams [have varying numbers of selections]. It's all over the board when it comes to that. But we liked both of these guys. They were talked about a lot."
The other new members of the Brewers' Top 20 list are right-handers David Goforth (No. 17) and Jorge Lopez (No. 18), and shortstop Yadiel Rivera (No. 20).
Rising/falling stock
The biggest climber and faller on the Brewers' list moved 11 spots apiece - outfielder Tyrone Taylor up 11 spots to No. 4 and left-hander Jed Bradley down 11 spots to No. 16. Taylor, a 16th round pick in 2012, has risen to become the Brewers' top position prospect on MLB.com's list with a strong season at Class A Wisconsin, where he has a batting average just shy of .300 and an on-base percentage near .360. Even Roenicke, who has been fighting fires with the big league club, has taken note of Taylor's plate discipline.
Bradley is moving in the other direction. After battling a groin injury last season, he is pitching to better numbers this season but has lacked the velocity the Brewers expected when they made the left-hander one of their two first-round Draft picks in 2012.
Top 100 representation
The Brewers have only one player on MLB.com's list of the top 100 prospects in baseball -- Nelson at No. 96 -- and the team's farm ranks 29th out of 30 clubs, in terms of "prospect points," which is a scoring system that awards 100 points to the team with the No. 1 prospect, 99 points to the team with the No. 2 prospect, and so on. That fits the widely held perception that Milwaukee's system is weak, something Melvin and amateur scouting director Bruce Seid have worked hard to dispute.
"From Triple-A on down to our Low-A team, we have anywhere from two to four guys at each level that have a chance to be Major League pitchers," Seid said after this year's Draft. "I'm confident in our development, I'm confident with the guys we're sending out, and I think we are definitely strengthening the system."
Adam McCalvy is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Brew Beat, and follow him on Twitter at @AdamMcCalvy. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


text:
The new parents, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, were after all considered country music royalty.
"I think it was more a gesture than anything else," Georgette Jones said with a laugh. "Billy Sherrill was such great friends with my parents and they had such a love for each other's music that I think he wanted first dibs if I had a music career."
Jones, the only child of country legends Tammy Wynette and George Jones, will kick off the "Balloons over RussVegas" hot air balloon festival at the Russellville Center for the Arts on the campus of Russellville High School. Jones said the May 1 show will be a tribute show featuring her parents' music.
With both having passed away, Wynette in 1998 and George Jones just last April, Jones felt it was very important to keep their memory and their music alive. Wynette and Jones married in 1969, and Georgette was born in 1970. As she grew, music was all around her as was the media attention her famous parents attracted.
In 2011, Jones released a book, "The Three of Us, Growing Up Tammy and George."
Jones said she had read a book written about her mother the previous year and wanted to set the record straight on who her mother really was.
"She had a wonderful sense of humor and was strong and independent," Jones said. "She believed in living life to the fullest." She said both of her parents weren't really the way they were portrayed in the media.
While her father was cast as hard-core and someone who liked to party, she said people didn't know he was light-hearted with a fantastic sense of humor and an old-fashioned way about him. Jones and Wynette divorced in 1975, and Georgette's time with her parents became divided.
Because of their schedules, Jones said, she never saw her dad that much when she was younger. She said it meant so much to her when she recorded "Daddy Come Home" with her father when she was 10 years old. "I really did mean every word," she said.
As she continued to grow, Jones knew she loved music, but she'd seen the impact its touring and schedules had on her family.
"I put off a music career for my family, and it's been the best decision I've ever made," she said. Jones was a nurse for many years while raising her two children, who are now in college.
Her mother's death on April 6, 1998, impacted Jones deeply.
"I couldn't even listen to her music until about a year later. Then there came a point when it was helpful and I enjoyed it," Jones said. "I missed music so much."
She said this led to her writing more music and thinking about a music career. The progression to her pursuing music was about a five-year process.
"I was not the kind of person who would randomly quit my job," she said. "I was in between nursing jobs and got the chance to perform in Ireland."
She said this was the first time she went out on her own as a musician.
"So much happened on this trip," Jones said. "I met my husband and a man from Texas with Heart of Texas Records who offered to give me a record label. I didn't have another job lined up, and I thought maybe I should try it."
"I'm more 'me' than I've ever been," she said of her current work, adding her music has more of an earthy sound than her parents' country classics.
Jones said during the May 1 show in Russellville, she'll share stories of how certain songs came about and she'll tell stories about her parents' lives in hopes the audience gets to know who they really were as people.
Tickets are $25 and $20. Call (417) 336-6060 or visit www.balloonsoverrussvegas.com for tickets.


text:
HOUSTON - Two men got into a shootout during an argument over a tractor, detectives said.
Brazoria County sheriff's deputies said Jonathan Luntz, 42, and William Moore, 51, started arguing in the 3000 black of County Road 245 in Brazoria about 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Investigators said one man pulled out a revolver, the other pulled out a semiautomatic weapon and shots were exchanged.
"Being New Year's and everything, we thought it was just fireworks," neighbor Angela Davenport said.
Davenport said she saw dozens of deputies rush to the neighborhood.
Both men were wounded and were taken by helicopter to Memorial Hermann Hospital. Their conditions have not been released.
Detectives said Moore is the father of Luntz's girlfriend.
"I'm very concerned – with our kids, it easily could have came this way," Davenport said.
Investigators said Moore and Luntz are both considered to be victims and suspects. Officials have not said what charged they may face.
Copyright 2013 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
All quotes tagged Disgusted
(109 quotes found)
"'You are drunk Sir Winston, you are disgustingly drunk. 'Yes, Mrs. Braddock, I am drunk. But you, Mrs. Braddock are ugly, and disgustingly fat. But, tomorrow morning, I, Winston Churchill will be sober."
"I'm disgusted with having to deal with the commercial side of our band at the moment and as a reaction, I'm becoming more uptight and complaining more. And it feels like I'm adapting a rock star attitude."
"It is curious how there seems to be an instinctive disgust in Man for his nearest ancestors and relations. If only Darwin could conscientiously have traced man back to the Elephant or the Lion or the Antelope, how much ridicule and prejudice would have been spared to the doctrine of Evolution."
"Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own."


text:
June 11, 2009
Rob with Funny Fanboy
17 comments:
- Angeliita-TwilightFan!June 11, 2009 at 8:47 PM
hahaha :) cute as always :)ReplyDelete
hahahahaha love the shirt!!! and they both look so awkward!ReplyDelete
He looks like Puck from the Real World!ReplyDelete
That's funny!
Speaking of shirts:
Rob's shirt is so Wear's Waldo!
cool shirts dudes. Rob looking sexalicious, as always.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 11, 2009 at 10:14 PM
hii :DReplyDelete
i'm from bazil
and a love soooo much twilight and too Robert Pattinson *-*
- AnonymousJune 11, 2009 at 10:15 PM
sorry . the correc is BrazilReplyDelete
Totally digging Rob's "Where's Wally?" shirt. The jacket's hot, too.ReplyDelete
Thats an awsome t-shirt. My brother would love it.ReplyDelete
I bet Robs not sad to lose the pea coat.
I - want - that - shirt!ReplyDelete
I love the boy "touch/no-touch" photo stance ;)
- AnonymousJune 12, 2009 at 1:21 AM
That is not a peacoat actually...and definitely not THE peacoat from Twilight. It is sharp, but I doubt Rob would ever wear that considering his comments about THE peacoat on the Twilight DVD. This definitely makes me think this ensemble is from a photoshoot...although some have suggested that the "Where's Waldo" shirt is the shirt he wears in Little Ashes...but that is definitely Twilght hair no? Do we think this is old or new? If it is new could it be from the supposed Vanity Fair photo shoot in Montauk?????ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 12, 2009 at 1:38 AM
It looks like long island. it probably was the photoshoot in Montauk.ReplyDelete
He looks great and the fan werid and awkward.Ilike what Rob is wearind , cute.ReplyDelete
Srsly?! Gah Rob you're killin' me. He's just *drool*ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 12, 2009 at 5:31 AM
is Rob's hair that long already?! ooh la la!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJune 12, 2009 at 7:24 PM
Loooove Rob's hair!ReplyDelete
Is that not a pea coat? It's not "the" pea coat, no, but isn't it "a" pea coat?


text: It tallies nicely with Balance of Terror too - for the episode to make any sense, the Romulan vessel had to be capable of FTL travel and it has what appear to be warp nacelles, with Scotty describes their power source as "simple impulse". Impulse Power could very well power the warp field machinery. For this reason, I think "impulse" is better described as a source of power rather than a form of propulsion - it's just that propulsion is what impulse is commonly used for.


text:
Re: Digweed - Slovenia mixes
Wasnt Kiz outed as a female a while back?
Bedrock Messageboard
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Wasnt Kiz outed as a female a while back?
Take it all back, the mixes are phat.....listened for the 3rd time and they're on form !!
so the negative peeps out there can just kiss ma ass
Wasnt Kiz outed as a female a while back?
just kiss ma ass
...pics or STFU
MattBlack wrote:
Further proof that Diggers is playing some real rubbish these days
I don't really understand your joke here Matt care to expand?
Because it looks like hes playing on a rubbish dump
Does it? It looks like he's in a field to me.
MattBlack having an absolute reg.
As per.
Some quality kit on display in that pic. Good to see Digweed keeping it real.
Nice to have the artwork for Slovenia.
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text:
Separate names with a comma.
Discussion in 'Other Sports' started by Tennessy XO, Apr 19, 2013.
You are obviously better versed in conspiracy theories than I am, so maybe you can help me understand.
How do the refs know when the game is going to be a blowout? Are they told by Stern to lay low until the 4th, then start manipulating the games? Are the only "fixed" games close games? What happened last night? Does Stern want the Spurs to have one blowout game just to cover the conspiracy a little better? Is MLB fixed?
Huh, interesting...
Spurs are obviously the better team, heck, Indiana was even more painfully obvious the better team last series. Had the Pacers had a half decent coach they would have won that series in 6.
D-Wade looks DONE. Bosh is being made totally useless by Spolestra's retarded half court sets, and the heat bench is so one dimensional where aside from Anderson all the role players can do nothing but shoot 3's. LeBron is the best, but no one is good enough to pull this team's dead weight.
Heat would be smart to fire spolstra, go after Lionel Hollins, trade D-Wade while his stock is still high for a interior post player, and find a real point guard. Otherwise, they won't be winning anymore championships, not one, not two, not three...
Anyone with eyeballs aint trading **** for wade
The Wizards would. Their GM is half retarded.
Conspiracy theory?
Dude, you've either been under a rock for the past 10 years- or you're in the most serious state of denial I've ever witnessed. Right now- you're actually arguing that the sky isn't blue.
^You should look this guy up.
Then get back to me about "conspiracy theories".
I know who Tim Donaghy is.
Do you know who these guys are?
The "Blacksox"
Now give me my high-five.
Dudes with fkn weird foreheads.
From the looks of it, they played baseball. So a better question would be why would I care?
Let's see if I can predict how tonight will go:
Miami will be allowed to "just play" and be as aggressive as they want on defense, yet the minute San Antonio plays anything resembling defense, their starters will pick up fouls and end up in foul trouble.
It's a "must win" game for Queen James... you know what that means.
Forecast: Tons of illegal screens and drawing fouls while charging blindly to the rim.


text: Recently I started stringing my own racquets and experimenting with various combinations... I had an older racquet with nat gut, that played pretty sweet. Then I restrung the crosses to Prince poly, pretty low about 48lb. Result was, WOW! Racquet plaid 3 times better - power was still there (maybe even more), a bit crisper, no string movement at all, mega spin, killer slices, did I say spin yet ? So there I was, playtesting, just hitting with a friend, warming up for a set. I was having fun like never before, hitting spins, right over my buddy's head (short guy) and trying for more and more... The 15 min into that madness, PING!, the mains gone. I had a bit left over of the same gut, so I patched the mains. Let's see how long this lasts. Needles to say, I'm addicted to this combo already!


text:
Has anyone had issues with .ttf files not being recognised in ArcGIS10? (eg. customise well symbols)
They show up and working in 9.3.1 but in 10 it doesn't seem to find the .ttf file.
I've tried re-installing it but still doesn't work
Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!
True Type Font files not showing in ArcGIS10
Started by Chloe Denny , Mar 27 2012 01:22 PM
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text:
At last. A reprieve.
Perhaps even elimination.
Thanks to the crafty law drafting of Sarasota City Attorney Robert Fournier, the Sarasota City Commission outlawed panhandling Tuesday on many of the city's busiest streets and roadways.
As of April 30, motorists on the busiest streets in the city won't have to endure the panhandlers trudging by their cars.
No doubt the American Civil Liberties Union will find some way to challenge this ordinance. But Fournier sounded confident with city commissioners that he crafted the ordinance as a public-safety issue and not one of infringing on the right of free speech, of which panhandling qualifies.
The city's new law prohibits individuals from soliciting for "donations, contributions, employment, business or sales or exchanges of any kind" from an occupant of a motor vehicle that is "on the traveled portion of the public roadway." By extension the ordinance would prohibit soliciting by standing on medians.
The ordinance does not prohibit people from standing on the sides of streets or sidewalks with signs advertising businesses or urging voters to support candidates.
This was Step One for the city in addressing one of the most vexing issues affecting the region. While panhandling on busy streets is indeed a public-safety issue, it's also an economic issue. It certainly doesn't help this region's most important export business — tourism.
We'll see, of course, whether the ACLU thwarts the commission's efforts. If the law stands, the commission's next challenge will be finding a similar remedy to panhandling on the city's downtown sidewalks. That will be tougher.
To be sure, panhandling is a fact of life. Beggars have walked the world's streets since the beginning of time. And they come in all varieties — some truly down on their luck, some mentally ill, some addicted to drugs, some lazy and some troublemakers.
Like most people, though, panhandlers respond to incentives. If a panhandler isn't able to fill his pockets, he's likely to go elsewhere. As we said before: Harsh as it may sound, don't give them a dime. A hand up is better than a hand out.
+ New normal: vigilance
It can happen here.
It did happen here. Terrorists were here.
The story has been told many times since Sept. 11, 2001, that Mohammed Atta, one of the infamous World Trade Center murderers, lived in Venice and trained with one of his colleagues on how to pilot a jet.
Our Longboat Observer reported a few days after the 9-11 attacks that Atta had been seen at meetings at the restaurant at the then-Longboat Key Holiday Inn.
The Longboat Observer also quoted a former Longboat Key fire inspector that a van with several men of Middle Eastern descent tried to get into the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort the morning of the attack to see President Bush but were thwarted at the guard gate and sped off.
It's easy to forget. It's easy to become complacent. We complain about the TSA putting us through its torment.
But last week's Boston Marathon bombings and terrorist manhunt are vivid reminders that this War on Terror — and that's what it is, Mr. President, accept it! — is continuing and growing increasingly prevalent on our soil. It's here all right, and has been.
To wit: Since 1990, there have been 19 Islamic terrorist-related attacks — single-person assassinations, shootings and bombings — in the United States, according to a Texas-based researcher. In addition, in the same period, law enforcement officials have thwarted more than 30 Islamic terrorist plottings and attempts in the United States and aimed at the United States.
Terrorism is not going away. Especially when those who plot it see the United States in retreat (pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan and cutting military spending) They are emboldened by what the Tsarnaev brothers inflicted on Boston.
Our fellow Americans in Boston responded as we would expect of Americans — with conviction, competence and compassion. A lesson they are sending to everyone is that all of us are now charged with living in a state of heightened vigilance.
Don't ever think it can't happen here.
+ Downtown noise pollution
"When environmental goals and controls are politically determined, they are subject to a process that is often driven by groundless accusations, supported by public fear and legislated with special interest in mind. Populist sentiment and pork-barrel politics, rather than actual environmental dangers, currently determine priorities.
We should therefore be prepared to reconsider the free-market solution to environmental pollution, which has worked in the past and could be made to work better now."
Richard Stroup and Jane S. Shaw
"How Free Markets
Protect the Environment"
Thank goodness common sense prevailed at the Tuesday Sarasota City Commission meeting.
Commissioners rejected the idea of imposing a moratorium on the opening of additional bars and nightclubs downtown, after City Attorney Robert Fournier pointed out a myriad of legal problems with the idea.
Commissioner Terry Turner was pushing the idea on behalf of many downtown condo owners who continue to complain about downtown night life being too noisy.
This is another one of those tar-baby issues that confronts every metropolitan area. On the one hand, most people would agree it's a good thing to have high-density downtown residences, a key ingredient to a vibrant city. On the other, many people also would agree it's a good thing to have an active, downtown night life contributing to the city's vibrancy.
After that, the issue gets complicated. Whose rights take precedence — the property owner whose permitted business includes live music at night or the condo dweller who wants peace and quiet? The property owner who settled on his land first? Where's the balance?
There's no perfect answer. What's more, read the quotation above; it explains the inevitable outcome.
But rather than have government craft more command-and-control laws, the players involved might consider some type of market-based approach, such as emissions fees.
Economists have developed fee schemes for airports that require airlines to pay for exceeding certain levels of noise. The louder the noise, the higher the fee.
The fees are determined in part by figuring out the harmful effects of noise. One way of valuing that is to measure the difference in property values of condos close to the noise versus those farther away.
This approach would give nightclub owners incentives to avoid paying the fees. And they would do this either by outfitting their clubs with noise abatement construction or limiting the times and decibels of their music.
No matter how this dilemma is addressed, nightclub and bar owners and downtown condo dwellers need to recognize they will pay a price for their choices — for loud music and living downtown. Nothing is free.
We heard the sound on the video again and again — the rapid-fire pop, pop, pop of gunfire that occurred between Watertown, Mass., law enforcement officers and Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. In a residential neighborhood no less.
We heard the Watertown police chief describe the horrifying gun battle between the brothers and six Watertown officers.
The two sides exchanged more than 300 rounds in furious barrage. The brothers threw bombs at his officers. And in his apparent final, desperate assault, the elder, wounded Tsarnaev charged a Watertown officer with rage, coming within 10 feet of him.
We heard commentators talk about the Chechnyan terrorists being among the most ruthless killers of their lot.
We heard how Massachusetts gun laws did nothing to stop the Tsarnaevs from obtaining their arsenal.
And then on Sunday, U.S. Sen. Diane Feingold continued to argue in favor of banning "assault weapons" in America.
Use a shotgun, she said.
Yeah, shoot it in the air from your porch. That'll stop 'em.
Get a grip. This is real.