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Testimony: Before the Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight, Committee on Homeland Security, House of Representatives: United States Government Accountability Office: GAO: For Release on Delivery: Expected at 11:00 a.m. EDT: Thursday, July 23, 2009: Federal Air Marshal Service: Actions Taken to Fulfill Core Mission and Address Workforce Issues: Statement of Steve Lord, Director: Homeland Security and Justice Issues: GAO-09-903T: GAO Highlights: Highlights of GAO-09-903T, a testimony before the Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight, Committee on Homeland Security, House of Representatives. Why GAO Did This Study: By deploying armed air marshals onboard selected flights, the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS), a component of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), plays a key role in helping to protect approximately 29,000 domestic and international flights operated daily by U.S. air carriers. This testimony discusses (1) FAMS's operational approach or "concept of operations" for covering flights, (2) an independent evaluation of the operational approach, and (3) FAMS's processes and initiatives for addressing workforce-related issues. Also, this testimony provides a list of possible oversight issues related to FAMS. This testimony is based on GAO's January 2009 report (GAO-09-273), with selected updates in July 2009. For its 2009 report, GAO analyzed policies and procedures regarding FAMS's operational approach and a July 2006 classified assessment of that approach. Also, GAO analyzed employee working group reports and related FAMS's initiatives for addressing workforce-related issues, and interviewed FAMS headquarters officials and 67 air marshals (selected to reflect a range in levels of experience). What GAO Found: Because the number of air marshals is less than the number of daily flights, FAMS's operational approach is to assign air marshals to selected flights it deems high risk—such as the nonstop, long-distance flights targeted on September 11, 2001. In assigning air marshals, FAMS seeks to maximize coverage of flights in 10 targeted high-risk categories, which are based on consideration of threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences. In July 2006, the Homeland Security Institute, a federally funded research and development center, independently assessed FAMS's operational approach and found it to be reasonable. However, the institute noted that certain types of flights were covered less often than others. The institute recommended that FAMS increase randomness or unpredictability in selecting flights and otherwise diversify the coverage of flights within the various risk categories. In its January 2009 report, GAO noted that the Homeland Security Institute's evaluation methodology was reasonable and that FAMS had taken actions (or had ongoing efforts) to implement the institute's recommendations. To address workforce-related issues, FAMS's previous Director, who served until June 2008, established a number of processes and initiatives, such as working groups, listening sessions, and an internal Web site for agency personnel to provide anonymous feedback to management. These efforts have produced some positive results. For example, FAMS revised its policy for airport check-in and aircraft boarding procedures to help protect the anonymity of air marshals in mission status, and FAMS modified its mission scheduling processes and implemented a voluntary lateral transfer program to address certain quality-of-life issues. The air marshals GAO interviewed expressed satisfaction with FAMS's efforts to address workforce-related issues. The current FAMS Director has expressed a commitment to continue applicable processes and initiatives. Also, FAMS has plans to conduct a workforce satisfaction survey of all employees every 2 years, building upon an initial survey conducted in fiscal year 2007. GAO's review found that the potential usefulness of future surveys could be enhanced by ensuring that the survey questions and the answer options are clearly structured and unambiguous and that additional efforts are considered for obtaining the highest possible response rates. To its credit, FAMS has made progress in addressing various operational and quality-of-life issues that affect the ability of air marshals to perform their aviation security mission. However, sustaining progress will require ongoing consideration by FAMS management—and continued oversight by congressional stakeholders—of key questions, such as how to foster career sustainability for air marshals given that maintaining an effective operational tempo can at times be incompatible with supporting a work-life balance. What GAO Recommends: GAO's January 2009 report (GAO-09-273) recommended actions for improving the design and response rates of FAMS's workforce satisfaction surveys. TSA agreed, and FAMS has begun steps to implement these actions. View [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-903T] or key components. For more information, contact Steve Lord at (202) 512-4379 or firstname.lastname@example.com. [End of section] Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: I am pleased to be here today to discuss the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS), which has a core mission of deploying trained and armed federal air marshals to provide an onboard security presence on selected flights operated by U.S. commercial passenger air carriers. The agency's cadre of air marshals grew significantly in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11), and pursuant to the Aviation and Transportation Security Act.[Footnote 1] Nonetheless, as noted in our January 2009 report,[Footnote 2] because the total number of air marshals is less than the approximately 29,000 domestic and international flights operated daily by U.S. commercial passenger air carriers,[Footnote 3] FAMS routinely must determine which flights are to be provided an onboard security presence. To facilitate making these decisions, FAMS developed an operational approach--commonly referred to as the agency's concept of operations--for deploying air marshals on selected flights. As further noted in our January 2009 report, FAMS also faces challenges in addressing various operational and quality-of- life issues that affect the ability of air marshals to carry out the agency's mission. Such issues range, for example, from maintaining anonymity during aircraft boarding procedures to mitigating the various health concerns associated with frequent flying. With selected updates as of July 2009, this statement summarizes information presented in our January 2009 report, which addressed the following questions: * What is FAMS's operational approach for achieving its core mission of providing an onboard security presence for flights operated by U.S. commercial passenger air carriers? * To what extent has FAMS's operational approach for achieving its core mission been independently assessed? * To what extent does FAMS have processes and initiatives in place to address issues that affect the ability of its workforce to carry out its mission? Also, as you further requested, this statement presents information on possible oversight issues related to FAMS. To address the questions, we reviewed (1) relevant legislation regarding FAMS's mission, (2) the agency's policies and other documentation regarding the strategy and concept of operations for carrying out that mission, (3) a July 2006 classified report prepared by the Homeland Security Institute based on its independent evaluation of FAMS's concept of operations,[Footnote 4] and (4) documentation regarding various working groups and other initiatives that FAMS had established to address issues that affect the ability of air marshals to carry out the agency's mission. Also, we interviewed FAMS headquarters officials and visited 11 of the agency's 21 field offices, where we interviewed managers and a total of 67 air marshals. We selected the 11 field offices and the 67 air marshals based on nonprobability sampling, which is a method of sampling where observations are selected in a manner that is not completely random, generally using specific characteristics of the population as criteria. Results from a nonprobability sample cannot be used to make inferences about an entire population because some elements of the population being studied had no chance or an unknown chance of being selected as part of the sample. However, the interviews provided a broad overview of issues important to air marshals. More details about the scope and methodology of our work to address the questions are presented in appendix I of our January 2009 report.[Footnote 5] In conducting work in July 2009 for this statement, we requested updated information from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), contacted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General to discuss its FAMS-related audits or inspections, and (3) reviewed FAMS budget data for fiscal years 2009 and 2010. We conducted the work for this statement in July 2009 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. Background: FAMS was originally established as the Sky Marshal program in the 1970s to counter hijackers. In response to 9/11, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act expanded FAMS's mission and workforce and mandated the deployment of federal air marshals on high-security risk flights. Within the 10-month period immediately following 9/11, the number of air marshals grew significantly. Also, during subsequent years, FAMS underwent various organizational transfers. Initially, FAMS was transferred within the Department of Transportation from the Federal Aviation Administration to the newly created TSA. In March 2003, FAMS moved, along with TSA, to the newly established DHS. In November 2003, FAMS was transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Then, about 2 years later, FAMS was transferred back to TSA in the fall of 2005.[Footnote 6] FAMS deploys thousands of federal air marshals to a significant number of daily domestic and international flights. In carrying out this core mission of FAMS, air marshals are deployed in teams to various passenger flights.[Footnote 7] Such deployments are based on FAMS's concept of operations, which guides the agency in its selection of flights to cover. Once flights are selected for coverage, FAMS officials stated that they must schedule air marshals based on their availability,[Footnote 8] the logistics of getting individual air marshals in position to make a flight, and applicable workday rules. [Footnote 9] At times, air marshals may have ground-based assignments. On a short- term basis, for example, air marshals participate in Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams, which provide security nationwide for all modes of transportation. After the March 2004 train bombings in Madrid, TSA created and deployed VIPR teams to enhance security on U.S. rail and mass transit systems nationwide. Comprised of TSA personnel that include federal air marshals--as well as transportation security inspectors, transportation security officers, behavioral detection officers, and explosives detection canines--the VIPR teams are intended to work with local security and law enforcement officials to supplement existing security resources, provide a deterrent presence and detection capabilities, and introduce an element of unpredictability to disrupt potential terrorist activities. FAMS's budget request for fiscal year 2010 is $860.1 million, which is an increase of $40.6 million (or about 5 percent) over the $819.5 million appropriated in fiscal year 2009. The majority of the agency's budget provides for the salaries of federal air marshals and supports maintenance of infrastructure that includes 21 field offices. FAMS's Operational Approach to Achieving Its Core Mission Is Based on Risk-Related Factors: FAMS's operational approach (concept of operations) for achieving its core mission is based on assessments of risk-related factors, since it is not feasible for federal air marshals to cover all of the approximately 29,000 domestic and international flights operated daily by U.S. commercial passenger air carriers. Specifically, FAMS considers the following risk-related factors to help ensure that high-risk flights operated by U.S. commercial carriers--such as the nonstop, long- distance flights targeted on 9/11--are given priority coverage by federal air marshals[Footnote 10]: * Threat (intelligence): Available strategic or tactical information affecting aviation security is considered.[Footnote 11] * Vulnerabilities: Although FAMS's specific definition is designated sensitive security information, DHS defines vulnerability as a physical feature or operational attribute that renders an entity open to exploitation or susceptible to a given hazard. * Consequences: FAMS recognizes that flight routes over certain geographic locations involve more potential consequences than other routes. FAMS attempts to assign air marshals to provide an onboard security presence on as many of the flights in the high-risk category as possible.[Footnote 12] FAMS seeks to maximize coverage of high-risk flights by establishing coverage goals for 10 targeted critical flight categories. In order to reach these coverage goals, FAMS uses a scheduling process to determine the most efficient flight combinations that will allow air marshals to cover the desired flights. FAMS management officials stressed that the overall coverage goals and the corresponding flight schedules of air marshals are subject to modification at any time based on changing threat information and intelligence. For example, in August 2006, FAMS increased its coverage of international flights in response to the discovery, by authorities in the United Kingdom, of specific terrorist threats directed at flights from Europe to the United States. FAMS officials noted that a shift in resources of this type can have consequences because of the limited number of air marshals. The officials explained that international missions require more resources than domestic missions partly because the trips are of longer duration. In addition to the core mission of providing an onboard security presence on selected flights, FAMS also assigns air marshals to VIPR teams on an as-needed basis to provide a ground-based security presence. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2009, TSA reported conducting 483 VIPR operations, with about 60 percent of these dedicated to ground-based facilities of the aviation domain (including air cargo, commercial aviation, and general aviation) and the remaining VIPR operations dedicated to the surface domain (including highways, freight rail, pipelines, mass transit, and maritime). TSA's budget for fiscal year 2009 reflects support for 225 VIPR positions at a cost of $30 million. TSA plans to significantly expand the VIPR program in fiscal year 2010 by adding 15 teams consisting of 338 positions at a cost of $50 million. However, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the VIPR program. In June 2008, for example, the DHS Office of Inspector General reported that although TSA has made progress in addressing problems with early VIPR deployments, it needs to develop a more collaborative relationship with local transit officials if VIPR exercises are to enhance mass transit security. [Footnote 13] An Independent Assessment Concluded That FAMS's Approach for Achieving Its Core Mission Was Reasonable; Recommendations for Enhancing the Approach Are Being Implemented: After evaluating FAMS's operational approach for providing an onboard security presence on high-risk flights, the Homeland Security Institute, a federally funded research and development center, reported in July 2006 that the approach was reasonable.[Footnote 14] In its report, the Homeland Security Institute noted the following regarding FAMS's overall approach to flight coverage: * FAMS applies a structured, rigorous approach to analyzing risk and allocating resources. * The approach is reasonable and valid. * No other organizations facing comparable risk-management challenges apply notably better methodologies or tools. As part of its evaluation methodology, the Homeland Security Institute examined the conceptual basis for FAMS's approach to risk analysis. Also, the institute examined FAMS's scheduling processes and analyzed outputs in the form of "coverage" data reflecting when and where air marshals were deployed on flights. Further, the Homeland Security Institute developed and used a model to study the implications of alternative strategies for assigning resources. We reviewed the institute's evaluation methodology and generally found it to be reasonable. Although the institute's July 2006 report concluded that FAMS's operational approach was reasonable and valid, the report also noted that certain types of flights were covered less often than others. Accordingly, the institute made recommendations for enhancing the operational approach. For example, the institute recommended that FAMS increase randomness or unpredictability in selecting flights and otherwise diversify the coverage of flights. To address the Homeland Security Institute's recommendations, FAMS officials stated that a broader approach for determining which flights to cover has been implemented--an approach that opens up more flights for potential coverage, provides more diversity and randomness in flight coverage, and extends flight coverage to a variety of airports. Our January 2009 report noted that FAMS had implemented or had ongoing efforts to implement the institute's recommendations. We reported, for example, that FAMS is developing an automated decision-support tool for selecting flights and that this effort is expected to be completed by December 2009. FAMS Has Taken Positive Actions to Address Issues Affecting Its Workforce and to Help Ensure Continued Progress: To better understand and address operational and quality-of-life issues affecting the FAMS workforce, the agency's previous Director--who served in that capacity from March 2006 to June 2008--established various processes and initiatives. Chief among these were 36 issue- specific working groups to address a variety of topics, such as tactical policies and procedures, medical or health concerns, recruitment and retention practices, and organizational culture. Each working group typically included a special agent-in-charge, a subject matter expert, air marshals, and mission support personnel from the field and headquarters. According to FAMS management, the working groups typically disband after submitting a final report, but applicable groups could be reconvened or new groups established as needed to address relevant issues. The previous Director also established listening sessions that provided a forum for employees to communicate directly with senior management and an internal Web site for agency personnel to provide anonymous feedback to management. Another initiative implemented was assigning an air marshal to the position of Ombudsman in October 2006 to provide confidential, informal, and neutral assistance to employees to address workplace- related problems, issues, and concerns. These efforts have produced some positive results. For example, as noted in our January 2009 report, FAMS amended its policy for airport check-in and flight boarding procedures (effective May 15, 2008) to better ensure the anonymity of air marshals in mission status.[Footnote 15] In addition, FAMS modified its mission scheduling processes and implemented a voluntary lateral transfer program to address certain issues regarding air marshals' quality of life--and has plans to further address health issues associated with varying work schedules and frequent flying. Also, our January 2009 report noted that FAMS was taking steps to procure new personal digital assistant communication devices--to replace the current, unreliable devices--and distribute them to air marshals to improve their ability to communicate effectively with management while in mission status.[Footnote 16] All of the 67 air marshals we interviewed in 11 field offices commented favorably about the various processes and initiatives for addressing operational and quality-of-life issues, and the air marshals credited the leadership of the previous FAMS Director. The current FAMS Director, as noted in our January 2009 report, has expressed a commitment to sustain progress and reinforce a shared vision for workforce improvements by continuing applicable processes and initiatives. In our January 2009 report, we also noted that FAMS plans to conduct a workforce satisfaction survey of all employees every 2 years, building upon an initial survey conducted in fiscal year 2007, to help identify issues affecting the ability of its workforce to carry out its mission. We reported that a majority (79 percent) of the respondents to the 2007 survey indicated that there had been positive changes from the prior year, although the overall response rate (46 percent) constituted less than half of the workforce. The 46 percent response rate was substantially less than the 80 percent rate encouraged by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in its guidance for federal surveys that require its approval.[Footnote 17] According to the OMB guidance, a high response rate increases the likelihood that the views of the target population are reflected in the survey results. We also reported that the 2007 survey's results may not provide a complete assessment of employees' satisfaction because: * 7 of the 60 questions in the 2007 survey questionnaire combined two or more issues, which could cause respondents to be unclear on what issue to address and result in potentially misleading responses, and: * none of the 60 questions in the 2007 survey questionnaire provided for response options such as "not applicable" or "no basis to judge"-- responses that would be appropriate when respondents had little or no familiarity with the topic in question. In summary, our January 2009 report noted that obtaining a higher response rate to FAMS's future surveys and modifying the structure of some questions could enhance the surveys' potential usefulness by, for instance, providing a more comprehensive basis for assessing employees' attitudes and perspectives. Thus, to increase the usefulness of the agency's biennial workforce satisfaction surveys, we recommended that the FAMS Director take steps to ensure that the surveys are well designed and that additional efforts are considered for obtaining the highest possible response rates. Our January 2009 report recognized that DHS and TSA agreed with our recommendation and noted that FAMS was in the initial stages of formulating the next workforce satisfaction survey. More recently, by letter dated July 2, 2009, DHS informed applicable congressional committees and OMB of actions taken in response to our recommendation.[Footnote 18] The response letter noted that agency plans include (1) ensuring that questions in the 2009 survey are clearly structured and unambiguous, (2) conducting a pretest of the 2009 survey questions, and (3) developing and executing a detailed communication plan. Congressional Oversight Issues: Federal air marshals are an important layer of aviation security. FAMS, to its credit, has established a number of processes and initiatives to address various operational and quality-of-life issues that affect the ability of air marshals and other FAMS personnel to perform their aviation security mission. The current FAMS Director has expressed a commitment to continue relevant processes and initiatives for identifying and addressing workforce concerns, maintaining open lines of communications, and sustaining progress. Similarly, this hearing provides an opportunity for congressional stakeholders to focus a dialogue on how to sustain progress at FAMS. For example, relevant questions that could be raised include the following: * In implementing the agency's concept of operations, how effectively does FAMS use new threat information and intelligence to modify flight coverage goals and the corresponding flight schedules of air marshals? * In managing limited resources to mitigate a potentially unlimited range of security threats, how does FAMS ensure that federal air marshals are allocated appropriately for meeting in-flight security responsibilities as well as supporting new ground-based security responsibilities, such as VIPR team assignments? What cost-benefit analyses, if any, are being used to guide FAMS decision makers? * To what extent have appropriate performance measures been developed for gauging the effectiveness and results of resource allocations and utilization? * How does FAMS foster career sustainability for federal air marshals given that maintaining an effective operational tempo is not necessarily compatible with supporting a better work-life balance? These types of questions warrant ongoing consideration by FAMS management and continued oversight by congressional stakeholders. Mr. Chairman, this completes my prepared statement. I look forward to answering any questions that you or other members of the subcommittee may have. Contacts and Acknowledgments: For information about this statement, please contact Steve Lord, Director, Homeland Security and Justice Issues, at (202) 512-4379, or email@example.com. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this statement. Other individuals making key contributions to this testimony include David Alexander, Danny Burton, Katherine Davis, Mike Harmond, and Tom Lombardi. [End of section] Footnotes: [1] See Pub. L. No. 107-71, § 105, 115 Stat. 597, 606-08 (2001) (codified as amended at 49 U.S.C. § 44917). [2] GAO, Aviation Security: Federal Air Marshal Service Has Taken Actions to Fulfill Its Core Mission and Address Workforce Issues, but Additional Actions Are Needed to Improve Workforce Survey, [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-273] (Washington, DC.: Jan. 14, 2009). [3] The specific number of federal air marshals is classified. [4] The Homeland Security Institute is a federally funded research and development center established pursuant to the Homeland Security Act of 2002. See Pub. L. No. 107-296, § 312, 116 Stat. 2135, 2176, as amended. The institute's mission is to assist the Department of Homeland Security in addressing relevant issues requiring scientific, technical, and analytical expertise. In March 2009, the institute's name was changed to Homeland Security studies and analysis Institute (with a logo expressed as HSsaI). In this testimony, we use the former name, which was applicable at the time of our review of FAMS. [5] See [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-273]. [6] The transfer of FAMS to ICE was based partly on the assumptions that (1) air marshals would be afforded a broader career path by cross- training with ICE's investigative division and (2) ICE's special agents could provide a surge capability by serving as supplemental air marshals, if needed. See GAO, Aviation Security: Federal Air Marshal Service Is Addressing Challenges of Its Expanded Mission and Workforce, but Additional Actions Needed, GAO-04-242 (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 19, 2003). [7] The specific number of air marshals assigned to an onboard team, whether for a domestic flight or an international flight, may vary depending on such factors as duration of the flight, the type of aircraft, the departure and destination cities, and awareness of specific threat information. [8] In determining air marshals' availability, FAMS officials stated that they must consider such factors as training requirements, other ground-based duties, and annual leave plans. [9] "Workday rules" refer to the parameters that FAMS uses for assigning air marshals to flights. As applicable to nonovernight missions, for example, FAMS tries to assign air marshals to flights (or combinations of flights) that will return the air marshals home during a scheduled 10-hour workday. [10] Under this approach, FAMS categorizes each of the approximately 29,000 daily flights into risk categories--high risk or lower risk. [11] FAMS considers "threat" and "intelligence" as separate risk- related factors. [12] FAMS's criteria for determining high-risk flights are classified. In part, FAMS's determinations are guided by the provisions of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act that specify the deployment of federal air marshals on flights presenting high security risks, such as the nonstop, long-distance flights targeted on 9/11. [13] Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, TSA's Administration and Coordination of Mass Transit Security Programs, OIG-08-66 (Washington, D.C.: June 12, 2008). [14] Much of the specific information in the report is classified. [15] FAMS's changes to check-in and boarding procedures concern air marshals' interactions with airline personnel. FAMS's policy continues to require air marshals to adhere to established TSA regulations and locally established airport procedures. [16] In July 2009, the DHS Office of Inspector General informed us that it was initiating a review with objectives that include determining whether TSA is pursuing communication capabilities to ensure that federal air marshals in mission status can receive and send time- sensitive, mission-related information through secure communication while in flight. [17] The OMB guidance governs federal agency surveys of the public at large or outside individuals, groups, or organizations, such as local government entities. The FAMS workforce survey was administered internally to gather information from the agency's employees. Although internal workforce surveys such as the one conducted by FAMS do not require OMB approval, we believe the OMB standards and guidance provide relevant direction on planning, designing, and implementing high- quality surveys--including the need to obtain a high response rate to increase the potential that survey responses will accurately represent the views of the survey population. [18] Pursuant to 31 U.S.C. § 720, the head of a federal agency must submit a written statement of the actions taken on our recommendations to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform not later than 60 days from the date of the report and to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations with the agency's first request for appropriations made more than 60 days after the date of the report. [End of section] GAO's Mission: The Government Accountability Office, the audit, evaluation and investigative arm of Congress, exists to support Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and accountability of the federal government for the American people. GAO examines the use of public funds; evaluates federal programs and policies; and provides analyses, recommendations, and other assistance to help Congress make informed oversight, policy, and funding decisions. GAO's commitment to good government is reflected in its core values of accountability, integrity, and reliability. Obtaining Copies of GAO Reports and Testimony: The fastest and easiest way to obtain copies of GAO documents at no cost is through GAO's Web site [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov]. Each weekday, GAO posts newly released reports, testimony, and correspondence on its Web site. 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- Publish date:
- Updated on
- Year
- 1948
Heavy-metal legend Ozzy Osbourne born
On this day in 1948, John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne, the heavy-metal musician and star of the pioneering reality TV program The Osbournes, which originally aired from 2002 to 2005, is born in Birmingham, England.
Osbourne first gained fame in the 1970s as a founding member and the lead vocalist of the heavy-metal band Black Sabbath. After being fired from the group in the late 1970s, he embarked on a successful solo career. In the mid-1990s, he and his wife Sharon launched Ozzfest, a popular annual tour of heavy-metal and rock acts. As a performer, Osbourne became infamous for biting the heads off a dove and a bat onstage and was also accused of promoting suicide and Satanism through some of his lyrics.
Osbourne's fame widened beyond the music world with the debut of The Osbournes, a reality TV show featuring the rocker and his family that debuted on MTV on March 5, 2002. The idea for the show reportedly sprang from an episode of MTV's Cribs, which featured the feisty, frequently foul-mouthed Osbourne clan at home. The Osbournes focused on Ozzy's relationship with his spunky wife Sharon and the couple's two teenagers, Kelly and Jack; a third sibling, Aimee, opted not to participate in the show. Filmed largely at the Osbournes' Beverly Hills, California mansion, the show covered a range of topics, from Ozzy's battles with a vacuum cleaner to his efforts to stay sober; to Sharon's fight against colon cancer; to Jack and Kelly's partying and often-bratty behavior; to the family's pack of misbehaving pets.
The Osbournes, which aired its last original episode on March 21, 2005, proved to be one of the highest-rated series in MTV's history and spawned a string of reality TV shows about celebrities on various networks, including MTV's Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, with pop stars Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, which aired from 2003 to 2005, and Hogan Knows Best, which featured pro wrestler Hulk Hogan and his wife and children and debuted in 2005 on Vh1. Gene Simmons of the rock group Kiss starred with his family in Gene Simmons Family Jewels, Denise Richards: It's Complicated, which debuted in 2008 on E!.
In addition to turning Ozzy Osbourne into a household name and sparking a boom in celebrity-focused reality TV, The Osbournes transformed his wife and longtime manager Sharon into a star in her own right. From 2003 to 2004, she hosted her own TV talk show and later went on to make numerous guest appearances on various TV programs and to serve as a judge on the TV competition America's Got Talent.

subset: commoncrawl


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Microsoft, FBI Flatten Monster Botnet
Jun 7, 2013 4:45 AM PT
A coalition comprising Microsoft, the FBI, financial industry companies and technology firms has taken out more than 1,400 botnets that used the Citadel Trojan to steal victims' online banking information and information about their identities, following an investigation launched in 2012.
"This was a lengthy process, and we relied heavily on our financial services and technology industry partners to ensure that we would be able to take aggressive action against this threat," Richard Boscovich, assistant general counsel at the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, told TechNewsWorld.
Microsoft filed a civil suit last week against 82 alleged botnet operators and cut communications between the botnets and millions of infected PCs they controlled. Escorted by United States Marshals, Microsoft representatives on Wednesday seized computer servers from two data-hosting facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. [*Editor's Note - June 7, 2013]
Redmond and the FBI have notified appropriate organizations abroad, and the FBI has served court-authorized search warrants related to the botnets in the U.S.
"I believe we shared some information with our foreign law enforcement partners," FBI spokesperson Jenny Shearer told TechNewsWorld. However, she could not confirm whether any arrests were made, or say how badly the botnet operators were hit.
How the Citadel Was Breached
Agari, which protects customers against email threats, "detected phish from these botnets as soon as they started targeting our customers," Bob Pratt, the company's vice president of products, told TechNewsWorld. The firm alerted customers and provided Microsoft with specific information about the technology used in the phishing attempts.
A10 Networks provided advanced sinkhole infrastructure technology to support the operation, and Nominum provided a robust DNS solution, Microsoft' s Boscovich said.
Redmond used proprietary tools, as well as tools from its industry partners, to monitor the malware's activities and identify the botnets' alleged operators, he added.
Microsoft alleges John Doe 1 named in its suit may have created and maintained the botnet, and may be in Eastern Europe, Boscovich said. The other operators are believed to be located around the world.
What's a Citadel and What Does It Do?
Citadel is a banking Trojan that has been around since 2011, according to Symantec. It is offered as a full crimeware kit with payload builders, a C&C server infrastructure, and configuration scripts to target various banks, all for a measly US$3,000.
Citadel is an enhancement of the source code of the Zeus Trojan that was first used to attack the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2007. In 2010, the FBI arrested more than 90 suspected U.S. members of an international cybercrime ring that used Zeus to steal about $70 million; suspects were also picked up in the UK and the Ukraine.
Several versions of Citadel exist. In 2012, Seculert alleged that the cybercriminals behind Citadel had adopted the open source model.
What Else Citadel Did
In May 2012, the FBI warned that Citadel was being used to deliver the Reveton ransomware.
The Citadel Trojan has hit more than 5 million people worldwide and caused more than $500 million in losses among consumers and businesses around the world, Microsoft said.
Citadel blocked antivirus and antimalware programs from accessing their home sites, so they could not remove it -- but these programs can now function as designed, Boscovich remarked.
Can Citadel Be Killed?
Due to Citadel's size and complexity, Microsoft does not expect to fully eradicate botnets using the malware, Boscovich said. The cybercriminals could regain control over some of the infected computers, so victims have to disinfect their PCs as soon as possible.
Go to Microsoft's botnet support page if you think you are a victim of Citadel or other malware.
Security "is a continuous fight," Joe Bonnell, founder and CEO of Alchemy Security, told TechNewsWorld.
Citadel will likely "be back with a vengeance as a more resilient variant," he said. "Malware infection is best prevented by newer technologies being developed by companies such as Bromium, who protect users from drive-by and embedded malware through micro-virtualization."
The battle against cybercrime "has some aspects of whack-a-mole," Craig Kensek, spokesperson for AhnLab, told TechNewsWorld. "This is true with many criminal activities -- if you stop one gang, another may take its place."
*ECT News Network Editor's Note - June 7, 2013: Our original published version of this story stated that "together with United States Marshals, Microsoft representatives on Wednesday seized computer servers from two data-hosting facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania." However, "the U.S. Marshals Service was only in charge of executing the seizure order by escorting Microsoft on the scene of the seizures," Microsoft spokesperson Anne Good informed TechNewsWorld.


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A new government study claims that U.S. consumers intake nearly as many empty calories from alcohol as they do from soda.
"We've been focusing on sugar-sweetened beverages. This is something new," Cynthia Ogden, one of the study's authors and an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Associated Press.
The study results, which were published on Thursday, claim that Americans get about 6 percent of all their calories from soda and other sweetened drinks, with about 5 percent coming from alcoholic beverages.
And while the CDC said the results should raise concerns amongst consumers, a representative from the alcohol industry claimed just the opposite.
"This research shows that the overwhelming majority of adults drink moderately," Lisa Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the Distilled Spirits Council, said in a statement.
The Obama administration has announced it plans to exempt alcoholic beverages from proposed federal regulations requiring calorie count labels on restaurant menus. A provision of the Affordable Healthcare Act requires restaurants with 20 or more locations to print the nutrition information on their restaurant menus.
In its three-year study of more than 11,000 U.S. adults, the CDC found some interesting statistics regarding alcohol consumption:
For example, while there are substantial differences in the drinking habits of men and women, there appear to be broad similarities within genders across ethnic and other cultural lines.
Men consume about three times as many calories (150) per day from alcohol than women (about 50). And men prefer to get their alcohol calories from beer, while women have no clear preference in their libation of choice.
A different study from the Beverage Marketing Corporation claims that soda consumption in the U.S. has actually declined in recent years.


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Gospel: Women of Faith - All He Says I Am
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Artiste: Women of Faith
Year: 2019
Added: , (2019-05-13 )
Year: 2019
Added: , (2019-05-13 )
fast download Women of Faith - All He Says I Am songs
Women of Faith[1] is a Christian-based live events organization. It stages non-denominational events across North America. According to the company, its events have been attended by more than four million people in total.
New Life Treatment Centers began staging the events in 1996. Thomas Nelson Publishers purchased a 60 per cent stake in New Life Treatment Centers in 2000,[2] and subsequently transferred operation of the events to its Live Event Management subsidiary. In 2013 Live Event Management's Women of Faith was purchased by the William Morris Agency. William Morris Agency, now WME Entertainment has since sold Women of Faith.
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Is The Pen Mightier Than The Mic?
Often taken for granted, album liner notes have long enriched the experience of listening to recorded music, providing essential information, compelling insights, historical contexts, and engaging backstories to the sounds created by musicians.
The Recording Academy has long recognized this unique genre of musical and literary discourse. In 1963 jazz critic Stanley Dance and jazz writer/composer Leonard Feather won the inaugural award in the Best Album Notes category for their superb annotation to The Ellington Era, chronicling the work of Duke Ellington.
The writers of GRAMMY-winning liner notes have been a gifted and varied lot. In some years, musical artists themselves have been acknowledged for liner notes they've written on behalf of their own music, or for that of other artists.
Johnny Cash claimed a Best Album Notes GRAMMY in 1968 for his notes to his seminal Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison album, and went on to win again in 1969 for the words he penned for Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline. Other musical artists who have won Best Album Notes GRAMMYs include John Loudermilk (1967), Sam "the Sham" Samudio (1971), Tom T. Hall (1972), Glenn Gould (1973), Gunther Schuller (1975, 1984), James Brown (1991), and John Fahey (1997), among others.
The artist tradition almost continued this year at the 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards with Neil Diamond's nomination for Best Album Notes for the retrospective compilation of his early work, The Bang Years 1966–1968. Though the honor went to Hear Me Howling!: Blues, Ballads & Beyond As Recorded By The San Francisco Bay By Chris Strachwitz In The 1960s, with notes penned by Adam Machado, it does not subtract from Diamond's unique contribution to this recording.
"Neil is an incredibly engaged, active artist in all that we do with his catalog," says Adam Block, executive vice president and general manager of Legacy Recordings, the Sony imprint that released the Diamond collection. "From track selection to photography to layout, Neil is usually deeply involved in every release. So I certainly wasn't surprised when Neil said he wanted to write the liner notes. It's not at all that common for the artist to sit down and write the notes himself or herself. So that makes the liner notes to his release particularly interesting and enjoyable."
While a majority of compilations and box sets contain album liner notes written by professional music journalists, critics, historians, and scholars, the writers are typically selected with great care by an artist or label.
"The most important thing, beyond basic writing skills, is to choose a writer who has a deep passion for and knowledge of the music," says Scott Wenzel, a producer at jazz catalog specialty label Mosaic Records. "One specific project that comes to mind is Dan Morgenstern's notes for The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935–1946). Louis and Dan were very close. Dan's love of Louis and his music is really palpable in those liner notes. I was almost in tears when I read them. The Armstrong Decca sessions aren't generally as highly regarded as his earlier work with the Hot Five. But Dan really brought out the idea of how great the Decca sessions were. That package won a GRAMMY [in 2009 for] Best Album Notes."
An eight-time GRAMMY winner for his work in this field, Morgenstern says he's proud of all his award-winning projects, "but probably my current favorites are the ones I did on Armstrong."
Morgenstern won his first Armstrong project GRAMMY in 1994 for Louis Armstrong — Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man 1923–1934.
"He was a particular hero of mine," adds Morgenstern. "I think he brings out the best in me. One of the foremost things you're trying to do as a liner notes writer is enhance the experience for the listener."
In 1988 music journalist/critic/author Anthony DeCurtis won a GRAMMY for his very first liner notes project, the pioneering Eric Clapton retrospective box set Crossroads.
"To me, liner notes are a story," he says. "I wanted to tell the story of Eric Clapton's life and offer some of my own personal insight into his music. For example, how his musical style and even his looks would always change — that sense of restlessness. Liner notes are about the music, of course. But the artist is the creator of that music, and I think understanding the artist helps you to understand the art. Good liner notes provide a real opportunity to do that."
As with any art form, the style, tone and content of album liner notes has changed over the years. With vinyl LPs, liner notes were often printed on the release's back cover, often spilling over onto the paper envelope, or liner, that held the disc itself. Examining the front and back cover of 12-inch album packages was a key element of the purchase experience and decision.
"I always loved liner notes as a kid," says DeCurtis, who came of age during the '60s era of rock music. "Sometimes liner notes back then could be loopy, 'poetic,' ridiculous or just plain ad writing, but it all seemed important because it was pretty much all that you had. It wasn't the way it is now, where there is information everywhere. But even today, with the right writer and the right artist, there's still a sense that liner notes can take you to another place. There's still a kind of depth that liner notes can attain that I feel is hard to find elsewhere."
But are liner notes becoming a lost art in the digital era? Block doesn't think so.
"The digital age of packaging — whatever packaging will evolve into in the digital space —hasn't even dawned yet," says Block. "But certainly the tablet device presents a spectacular opportunity to what music fans experience with an album or musical presentation. We're seeing certain apps that hint at what's ahead. Legacy has a [Jimi] Hendrix app that I think is a really compelling, incredibly engaging and deeply satisfying experience. I do believe that as long as people are interested in music, they will be interested in the stories of the artists who made the music and of the music itself.
"As long as that interest exists, we will find a way to deliver those stories."
(Veteran music journalist Alan di Perna is a contributing editor for Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado. His liner notes credits include Santana Live At The Fillmore East, the deluxe reissue of AC/DC's The Razor's Edge and Rhino Records' Heavy Metal Hits Of The '80s [Vols. 1 and 3].)


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Jada Blackwell Schaumburg
Only a sophomore, Blackwell played an instrumental role in Schaumburgs second straight winning season under coach Ashley Berggren. The 5-foot-10 guard-forward averaged 12.1 points and had a career-high 25 against Palatine. Blackwell also grabbed 4.8 rebounds per game while handing out 22 assists this season and making 16 steals. Jada is one of the most versatile players in the area, said Berggren, about her second-year varsity player. She has great touch around the basket and can knock down 3 point shots from anywhere around the perimeter. She poses an extremely hard matchup for other teams due to her versatility.
Brittany Collins Maine West
One of the top players in the Central Suburban North, the Illinois Coaches Basketball Association second team all-stater has already scored 1,395 points (the school record is 1,648 by Megan Edwards) in her three-year varsity career, with 906 rebounds. This season, she led the Warriors with 18.4 points and 13.2 rebounds. Her tenacity and ability make her a special player, said Maine West coach Derril Kipp of the junior forward. She goes after every rebound and shot close to 50 percent from the field. Kipp said Collins has developed more of an outside shot, making her offense all that more dangerous. Collins also averaged 2 blocked shots, 3 assists and 2 steals per game. A lot of colleges are interested in her, Kipp said. Despite being 6-foot-2, shes also a ballhandler for us.
Diamond Boyd Elk Grove
Boyd was a gem for four years, collecting nearly 1,100 points while averaging 16.5 points her fourth and final season on the varsity. She also averaged 7.5 rebounds and 3.8 steals. Diamond had the responsibility of shouldering a large part of the offensive load this season and did a great job of accepting this challenge, said Grens first-year coach Kathie Swanson of the 5-10 senior forward. She knew the opposition would zero in on stopping her but still found ways to score. Swanson said it was a great pleasure to coach Boyd. Her length and athleticism made her a valuable defender, as she led our team in rebounding and steals, Swanson added. She was a major difference-maker on the court. She has a bright future and will be greatly missed next season.
Erin Fabbri St. Viator
It was the first season for Christina Jost as St. Viators coach and she got to witness a second season in which Fabbri was an all-area selection. The Lions 5-foot-8 junior guard was the heart of the team, averaging a team-high 15.2 points (455 points in 30 games) while shooting 49 percent from the field. She also averaged team-highs in 4.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.9 steals. Theres not a more deserving kid than Erin, Jost said. Her stats speak volumes but she does so much more than that. She does so many things that do not show up on the stat sheet through her leadership not just within our team, but the entire program. Her hard-nosed play and never-quit attitude are infectious.
Alexis Glasgow Rolling Meadows
An Associated Press first team all-state selection, Glasgow had another terrific season and during it made her verbal commitment to Northwestern. The 5-foot-10 junior guard (17.0 ppg) had games of 16 points (semifinal) and 24 points (title) in the final four of the Class 4A state tourney. She led Meadows this season with 93 3-pointers while also grabbing 128 rebounds. Alexis is one of the best scorers in the state, said Mustangs coach Ryan Kirkorsky. She has guts and she wants to take big shots in big games. Even more impressive is that she improved all the other facets of her game she has become a better ballhandler, rebounder and defender. Im excited to see what Alexis has in store for next season.
Haley Gorecki Fremd
Already being looked at by Division I coaches, Gorecki looked like one of the top players in the area all season, despite missing 13 games with an ankle injury. The two-time all-area selection has over 30 scholarship offers and she is only a sophomore. Averaging 17.6 points, she scored a career-high 30 against Hoffman this season. Gorecki also amassed 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals per game. Haley is one of the top sophomores in the state, said Fremd coach Dave Yates of the 5-10 all-state guard. She impacts the game in so many ways. She can beat you shooting the jump shot, attacking the rim, and is one of the most gifted passers I have ever coached.
Morgan Harris Hersey
Harris was on the go for the Huskies from start to finish and led the team with her 12.6 ppg, 2.6 steals, 36 3-point baskets and 75.4 free throw shooting percentage. Morgan was our go-to scorer, who worked equally hard on both ends of the court, said Hersey coach Mary Fendley of the 5-6 junior guard who averaged 2.5 assists. Harris also set a school record with 12-of-12 free throws in one game (vs. Warren) and ended the season making 25 free throws in a row. Morgan brought an undeniable energy to our team, Fendley added. Her love for basketball combined with her competitiveness make her a joy to coach.
Amanda Kelly Schaumburg
On the first day of February, she scored her 1000th career point. But Kelly (17.0 points per game this season) was doing much more than just scoring in her four-year varsity career. She found teammates with assists and helped spark the defense with steals. Amanda sees the floor extremely well and has the ability to change the momentum of the game, said Saxons coach Ashley Berggren of the 5-foot-7 senior guard. Kelly averaged 4 assists this season and also made 2.5 steals. She tossed in a career-high 34 points against Plainfield East. Her competitiveness, determination, and drive to improve her game has paid off both with individual recognition and team success, Berggren added. She set the standard for both work ethic and positive attitude throughout the season.
Jackie Kemph Rolling Meadows
The two-time Mid-Suburban League Player of the Year and Illinois Basketball Coaches Association first team all-stater was electrifying to watch with her uncanny drives to the basket which helped lead to a team-high 640 points in her junior season. The 5-foot-6 point guard (19.6 ppg) could also be counted on for 7.4 assists per game with her outstanding awareness on the floor. Kemphs blazing speed allowed her to finish many fast breaks and create relentless pressure at the front of the Mustangs defense. Still weighing Division I offers, Kemph is the 2013 Daily Herald all-area honorary captain as she helped lead Meadows to its best season in school history with 30 wins and a second-place state trophy.
Angie Kirchoff Barrington
Only a junior, Kirchoff helped lead the Fillies in more ways than just her 9.2 scoring average. Angie worked extremely hard for us, said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. She is an extremely versatile player who is not afraid of putting it all out there for the good of her team, The 5-10 guard also shot 76 percent from the free throw line. What I like most about Angie is her heart and passion for the game and for her team, Barreiro added. I am looking forward to her returning next year with even more confidence and being an bigger leader for our team. She continues to be a pleasure to coach and showed her versatility by playing the 1, 2 and 3 positions this season.
Deanna Kuzmanic Wheeling
Only a sophomore and already a two-time all-area selection, Kuzmanic received all-state recognition after a season in which she averaged 13.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists. Deanna was the offensive leader of our team this season, said Wheeling coach Julissa Hernandez of the 5-9 guard. When she was not putting points on the board herself, she was looking for ways to ensure her teammates were scoring. Kuzmanic shot 38 percent from the field and 78 percent from the free throw line. Deannas intense game play was definitely contagious to those on the court with her, Hernandez added.
Katie Lomas Conant
Lomas enjoyed a breakout season for the Cougars as she went from a role player as a freshman to leading the team with a 10.0 scoring average in league play. Katie causes matchup problems for other teams, said Cougars coach Dan Travers of the 5-foot-10 sophomore guard-forward. If you put a big post on her, Katie has the ability to beat her off the dribble. If you put a guard or small perimeter player on her, she can post her up in the lane. Lomas is also a varsity soccer and volleyball player. One of Katies greatest strengths is her competitiveness, Travers said. She plays the game at such a high level of intensity. Katie amazingly also finds time to be a member of the sophomore class student council and earned a 3.5 GPA on a 4.00 scale.
Ashley McConnell Fremd
With 1,564 points, 94 wins and four Mid-Suburban West championships, McConnell enjoyed one of the finest careers of anyone to wear the Fremd uniform. Ashley followed up a stellar junior year with an even bigger and better senior year, said Fremd coach Dave Yates of the two-time MSL West Player of the Year. I have never coached a player who has stepped up and played at an elite level in so many big games in her career. McConnell, the Daily Herald all-area captain in 2012, scored 33, 35 and 38 points in a six-game span in late December. For the season, she averaged 18.8 points (52 percent from the field) and made 68 3-pointers. Despite the talent and accolades, she is one of most humble kids in the school, Yates said of the 5-10 senior guard who averaged 3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2 steals per game. She has been the cornerstone to our last four MSL West championships and impacts the game in so many ways beyond scoring.
Kelly Naughton Elk Grove
There was no question who was in charge of the Grens offense. Kelly did a great job of handling the ball and setting the tempo on offense, said Elk Grove coach Kathie Swanson, whose point guard averaged 8 points and a team-high 4 assists. We relied on her to show composure in pressure situations and she always came through. Naughton, a 5-foot-6 senior guard who will play for Division I Jacksonville State next season, was the teams floor leader on both sides of the court. Kelly was someone we relied on to be a leader, Swanson said. We often had her defend the other teams best scorer and she consistently held them well below their scoring average. This helped lead to a lot of our success this season. It was a great pleasure to coach Kelly. Her commitment and love for the game will be missed next season.
Bailey North Buffalo Grove
A four-year starter for the Bison, North finished her career with 1030 points and nearly 600 rebounds. The 6-foot senior center averaged 10.6 points and 7.1 rebounds in her senior season. She shot 79 percent from the free throw line. She had an unbelievable career, said first-year BG coach Steve Koldziej. To be honest, I can only imagine how she would have performed for four seasons if she wasnt hurt as much as she was (missed games early this season with a stress fracture). Shes a great kid and has her best basketball ahead of her. North, who scored a season-hig a stres fracture) h 20 points with 10-of-12 free throws against St. Charles North, will play for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside next season.
Nia Pappas Palatine
Pappas, an Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis recruit, has been a mainstay at guard for Palatine the last four seasons. Despite missing six games with an ankle injury this winter, Pappas averaged 10.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2 steals. Nia started at point guard all four years, said Pirates coach Leslie Schock, who has also been the Pirates coach for four years. It is hard for me to imagine coaching Palatine basketball without her. She has been a leader by example through her work ethic and love of the game. Pappas tossed in a career-high 30 points against Highland Park and ended her career with more than 1,100 points.
Alexa Resch Barrington
Resch took her game seriously, and it showed on the court. She played every game with emotion and heart, said Barrington coach Babbi Barreiro. I think she has done a great job working with a somewhat young team, and in trying to be a leader for us. Resch was the Fillies second-leading scorer with 8 points and 7 rebounds, and shot 72 percent from the free throw line. Alexa had a very solid year for us, Barreiro said of the 5-10 senior forward who scored a career-high 30 points with 8 rebounds against Schaumburg. Defensively she has always been a force for offensive players to try to battle against, and that has been the most special part of her game. She is not afraid of playing physical and we will definitely miss her next season.
Becca Stoczynski Hoffman Estates
Stoczynski, who could play a guard or forward position, was nonstop on the court. We asked her to do a lot of things this year, said Hawks coach Mike Nocella of the 6-foot senior who started three years on the varsity. She can post up, drive to the hoop, and the second half of the season realized she could hit 3s consistently (11-for-23 for the season). In the Mid-Suburban League, Stoczynski had 306 points, 227 rebounds, 67 assists, 51 steals and 25 blocked shots. She also shot 76 percent at the free throw line, 48 percent from 3-point range and 47 percent from the field. Becca was a real workhorse for us, Nocella added. She would do anything asked of her.
Jenny Vliet Rolling Meadows
Vliet was a double threat. Despite being 6-foot-2, not only she could hurt opponents inside but from long range, too, connecting for 47 3-pointers. She had three big ones in Meadows final two games in Normal where the Mustangs took second place in the Class 4A state finals. The versatile junior guard-forward averaged 10 points this season while grabbing a team-high 283 rebounds along with 55 assists. Jenny is a coaches dream, said Meadows coach Ryan Kirkorsky. She was the glue to our team. She can do everything on the floor. Shes our best defensive player, our best rebounder and one of the best shooters in the state. And what sets her part is that her only goal is to win.
Casey Weyhrich Hersey
At 5-foot-5, she may have been smaller than most of her opponents, but Weyhrich always found a way to be big in the eyes of her coach and teammates. She was our primary ballhandler who consistently was asked to guard our opponents top player, despite often being outsized, said Hersey coach Mary Fendley of her senior guard. Caseys willingness to do whatever we needed made her the ultimate team player. Weyhrich led the Huskies with 2.9 assists per game and was second with 7.6 ppg and with 25 3-pointers. Her leadership skills facilitated a wonderful team chemistry, Fendley added. Caseys work-ethic, attitude, and kindness added so many of the intangibles that any team needs to be successful.
McKenzie Wiedemann Palatine
Despite missing more than a handful of games with a knee injury, Wiedemann made a major impact on the Pirates winning season. The senior guard had averaged 10.9 points, 2.6 assists, 2.1 steals and 2.1 rebounds. The three-year starter produced her career-high of 25 points against West rivals Hoffman Estates and Barrington. She is a ferocious competitor and has an unbelievable desire to win, said Pirates coach Leslie Schock. McKenzie was a great vocal leader on and off the court.
Bernie Williams Fremd
The all-conference, tri-captain of the Vikings always seemed to come through with a clutch play when the Vikings needed it. At 5-foot-9, Williams (7 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals per game) may have been one of the smaller forwards in the league, but she always managed to use her positioning and athletic skills to compete against the taller posts. Bernie plays with an energy and passion that is contagious, said Fremd coach Dave Yates. Her love of the game and leadership were a big reason for our success the past two seasons. She is one of those players who does all the little things that dont make the newspaper stats, like taking charges and chasing down offensive rebounds. Yates said Williams game evolved to a point where he could play her at any position on the floor. She gave everything she had every day in practice, he said. Bernie set the tone for our team as far as the work ethic required to be a champion.
Taylor Will Prospect
Wills last name is so fitting. Because this talented 5-foot-10 sophomore guard-forward has plenty of will and determination as she hustles non stop up and down the court. Will led the Knights with 14.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 410 points in her second all-area varsity campaign. She also averaged 2.2 assists, 1.6 steals and shot 44 percent from the field. Taylor is mentally locked in and ready to go every single game, said Prospect first-year coach Ashley Graham. She plays with extreme pride in her game and in herself. Taylor is a workhorse on the offensive end. She carried us and we asked her to do just about everything for us. She is also a very talented defensive players, She is one of most athletic kids not only in the conference but the area. She is just a tremendous athlete, and shes only a sophomore. Her future is bright for sure.
Destinee Young Hoffman Estates
One of the most talented posts in the area, Young will continue her career at Old Dominion after scoring 1,383 points in high school (third most in school history). The 6-foot senior played in seven holiday tournaments and made the all-tournament team each time. She led the Mid-Suburban League with 109 rebounds (282 overall) and she was first in scoring with 196 points (453 overall). Young also had 75 assists and 47 steals for the season. She is the complete player every coach dreams of having, said Hoffman Estates coach Mike Nocella. Our conference had more than 10 Division I players this year and Destinee was consistently double and triple-teamed. Nobody could handle her one on one. Young also had a Hoffman career record of 203 blocked shots. Her 935 rebounds were second in school history. In her last game, she collected 33 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists against Zion-Benton. The fact she got 7 assists indicates she is a team player as well as a scorer, Nocella said.Player School Pos. Yr.Jada Blackwell Schaumburg G So.
Diamond Boyd Elk Grove F Sr.
Brittany Collins Maine West F Jr.
Erin Fabbri St. Viator G Jr.
Alexis Glasgow Rolling Meadows G Jr.
Haley Gorecki Fremd G So.
Morgan Harris Hersey G Jr.
Amanda Kelly Schaumburg G Sr.
Jackie Kemph Rolling Meadows G Jr.
Angie Kirchoff Barrington G Jr.
Deanna Kuzmanic Wheeling G So.
Katie Lomas Conant G-F So.
Ashley McConnell Fremd G Sr.
Kelly Naughton Elk Grove G Sr.
Bailey North Buffalo Grove C Sr.
Nia Pappas Palatine G Sr.
Alexa Resch Barrington F Sr.
Becca Stoczynski Hoffman Estates G-F Sr.
Jenny Vliet Rolling Meadows G-F Jr.
Casey Weyhrich Hersey G Sr.
McKenzie Wiedemann Palatine G Sr.
Taylor Will Prospect G So.
Bernie Williams Fremd G-F Sr.
Destinee Young Hoffman Estates G-F Sr.* Captain
Special mention
Carly Brossard (Schaumburg), Meg Cerniglia (Hersey), Justyna Chojnowski (Leyden), Catherine Ernst (Fremd), Victoria Galizia (Leyden), Shelbi Hernandez (Christian Liberty), Erica Hill (Hersey) Shante Hill (Hoffman Estates), Bryanna Hopkins (Barrington), Jennie Horstmann (St. Viator), Julie Jambrone (Buffalo Grove), Morgan Keller (Rolling Meadows) Marilyn Lortz (Fremd), Brie Majkowski (Wheeling), Monica Masini (Palatine), Erin Mayer (Palatine), Sarah Mazurek (Conant), Michele Molini (Prospect), Ashley Montanez (Rolling Meadows), Jess Moriarty (Christian Liberty), Alexia Prosperi (Maine West), Amanda Salzman (Buffalo Grove), Catherine Sherwood (Prospect), Melissa Solorio (Elk Grove), Megan Sullivan (Christian Liberty), Riley Williams (Schaumburg)All-area selections and team capsules by John Leusch


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WhartonPhylly on Family Tree Circles
view: full | list
Journals and Posts
de Hasting (Quertain) Franks' tree
Reference family tree. Not original author, original author unknown. Quertain's wife was a de Hastings. Family tree is her linage to through Frank dynasty.
de Hasting (Quertain) Norse tree
Reference file. Not original author. Original unknown. Family tree chart with notes of the de Hastings Norse lines. Traces back to 3rd concubine of Charlamain. Quertain's wife was a de Hasting.
de Hastings m de Quertain (de Querton) de Hastings line
Reference material on de Hasting's line. de Quertain (de Querton)'s wife was a de Hasting.
Compilation of various sources. A "file drawer" reference. Am not orig author of family history notes. Orig author not given or known.
Quertain to Wharton
Compilation of mine & other's research, ref material.
Wharton Family Tree-Philidelphia
Compilation of mine & other's research. Using as a "file drawer" reference.
Wharton Family Trees
Compilation of mine & other's research. Using as a "file drawer" reference.
Wilson Boyce Wharton
b. 9/24/1910 Champagn, IL
d. 9/01/1970 Sturgis, KY
married to Mattie P. Powell
b. 1915 d. 1994
Buried in joint plot-
Phyisee (sp?) Cemetary, Sturgis KY,
Union County
Donald Ray Wharton
m/d Virginia Gudgeon
1. Phylicia Marie (Lisa Marie)
2. Jamie Leigh
3. Donald Ray (Donald Lee)
3 children became state wards due to mother's mental state, he was serving in Vietnam War. Children adopted by seperate families. A fourth child born while couple seperated. Without dna, paternity uncertian. -Michael
m/d Doris Littlejohn
1. Donald Ray
2. Patricia
3. Vinelle Renee
m Deborah ?
Clarence "Skeeter" Wharton
Samual "Sammy" Wharton
James "Jimmy" Wharton
William "Bill" Wharton
Larry Wharton
Zelda Wharton McDowell
Walter Wharton
Florence Wharton Waddell
Dorothy Wharton
Phylicia Wharton
*Florence Wharton Waddell's obit lists Pearl Pemberton as her mother, lists her siblings, & has no mention of her father or deceased siblings. Not sure who the Pearl Pemberton is. Photo of my grandparent's headstone says "Mattie P. Powell". No one in famiy ever recalled her being called anything but "Mattie".
- Displaying 1-7 of 7 Journals
- 1
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Sep 25, 2006
Sept. 25, 2006
Senior harrier Stephanie Rothstein won the prestigious Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis Saturday to lead the Gauchos to a first place finish, one of the top performances in team history. Rothstein posted a winning time of 21:12.45 as UCSB totaled 87 points for the victory. The Phoenix, Ariz. native became the first Gaucho to ever win the event. Unranked UCSB defeated No. 9 Arizona State, which won the race last season. The field was comprised of 30 teams, nine of which advanced to the 2005 NCAA Championships. Rothstein returns to action Oct. 14 at Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind.


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$54.59 - On Sale
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3. 100% Handmade Studded Leather Band
4. Unique & Dedicate, Perfect for Gift Ideas
5. Romantic Piano Paint
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Type: Quartz
Display: Analog
Dial Window Material: Glass
Case Material: Metal
Case Diameter: 1.57 Inch
Band Material: Cowhide Leather
Band Length: About 7.9 Inches
Band Width: 0.47 Inch
What's Included:
1x Wrist Watch
Postage Details
We ship package via Registered Air Parcel delivery as default, 7-10 days door to door delivery for US, 2-3 weeks delivery for all other countries. Express Services are also available, please contact me if you would like to upgrade..
Item will be shipped within 3 business days after payment cleared, and Tracking # will be provided.
*Customer Services
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Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Fire & Life Safety Education Request
Community Education is the City of Markham's first line of defense against fires in our community. The safest fire is the one that is prevented before it happens. By educating our residents on how to prevent fires, how to put out fires, and how to escape a fire quickly we eliminate dangerous situations before they occur.
We accomplish this via our public education programs. Some of the most popular options that are available to the public are:
- A Fire Truck Visit – consists of a fire truck tour, explanation of firefighting equipment, brief discussion on home fire safety and the firefighter's role within the community.
- Fire Station Tour – for groups of 25 people or less, a fire station tour can be arranged. See where firefighters live, work, and train up close while receiving a information on home fire safety.
- Educational Presentation – We attend community, corporate and special events to discuss, present, and exhibit fire and life safety messages relevant to your audience such as home or workplace fire safety.
- Fire Extinguisher Training – available to groups that are interested in increasing their level of comfort with a fire extinguisher. Consists of both an in class presentation and practical exercise.
All requests should be submitted at least 7 days in advance in order to be processed. Markham Fire & Emergency Services staff are always in service when attending or hosting community events. This means that our staff may be late, leave early, or absent all together due to an emergency response. Unfortunately, in these cases you will likely not receive advanced notice and in the case of a fire station tour, all guests must vacate immediately. We apologize for any inconvenience. Should this occur, please contact us again to reschedule at 905.477.5530.


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The shelves of any collector should contain key reference books to help them in their quest. A good bibliography (a systematic list of books and other works) will guide the collector through their chosen subject pointing out new reading paths and helping to broaden their knowledge.
In his essential book Among the Gently Mad, Nicholas Basbanes (the renowned collector) says that the most successful collectors �become conversant with the literature...learn the rudiments of bibliography.�
As a book collector, your main resource should be books themselves and for this purpose we offer the following list of bibliographies as a primer.
A good reference body for works of socialist fiction and proletarian novels.


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Gary Garrels, the highly sought-after curator who has helped raise the profile of the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and beyond, is jumping ship.
The Hammer snagged Garrels, 56, from the Museum of Modern Art in New York three years ago. But now he is moving to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as senior curator of painting and sculpture. He will start his new job in September, succeeding Madeleine Grynsztejn, who left in March to direct the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
During his stint as chief curator at the Hammer, Garrels' combination of scholarly acumen and an affinity for new art enlarged its reputation as more than a continuation of the legacy of the late oil executive Armand Hammer, who founded it in 1990 mostly as a repository for his own collection of Old Master, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and 19th century drawings.
Garrels debuted as a curator at the museum last May with "Eden's Edge: Fifteen L.A. Artists," an edgy, surprising survey that mixed established figures with upstarts. Garrels also launched the Hammer Contemporary Collection, amassing nearly 1,000 works.
In the latest chapter of a 26-year career that has taken Garrels to leading showcases for Modern and contemporary art across the country -- and secured his reputation as a thoughtful scholar and creative force -- he will return to familiar territory. He was senior curator of painting and sculpture at SFMoMA from 1993 to 2000, before his five-year stint at New York's MoMA.
Neal Benezra, who directs the San Francisco institution but arrived there two years after Garrels left, said Thursday that he was delighted with the curator's decision to return to the Bay Area.
"I was very keen to find a senior person who had a broad historical range in collecting and organizing exhibitions -- somebody who is as comfortable hanging a room of Matisses or Rothkos as with identifying new, young, upcoming artists," Benezra said. "Gary has that in spades. He has a great track record."
Garrels' familiarity with San Francisco arts patrons and the museum's collection will also be a big asset, Benezra said, as SFMoMA gears up for its 75th anniversary in 2010, including an effort to expand its art holdings.
When Garrels joined the Hammer, he left a prestigious stronghold of Modern art on the East Coast for a much smaller and younger West Coast operation but one that had put itself on the art world's map under the leadership of director Ann Philbin. At the time, Garrels praised the Hammer as "a very vibrant, dynamic institution" that would give him "a chance to open up my thinking, work out experimental ideas."
In a telephone interview Thursday, Garrels said he had "grown enormously as a curator by being at the Hammer and in Los Angeles. I won't be losing touch with what's going on here."
His impending departure is "a confluence of many factors," he said, including "a strong effort" from trustees of the San Francisco museum to bring him back.
"I have retained very close ties with SFMoMA over the years, and I feel like it's a museum with very strong leadership," he said. "It also has a collection that I worked hard to build over the seven years I was there, and I still feel very close to it. That was definitely part of the decision."
Philbin, who was traveling, sent an e-mail saying, "Gary helped transform the Hammer in the three years he was with us -- building our contemporary collection and making us a much stronger institution. He will be missed, but I know this is the right thing for him. He is really going home in a way."
At SFMoMA, Garrels will head a department with five curators. His responsibilities will include planning major exhibitions, initiating new scholarship, building the collection and working with artists, collectors and curatorial colleagues around the world.
Educated in sociology at Princeton University and in art history at Boston University, Garrels established himself as a curator while serving as director of programs at the Dia Art Foundation in New York from 1987 to 1991. While there, he organized a broad slate of solo shows featuring works by contemporary artists, including Joseph Beuys, John Chamberlain, Jenny Holzer and Maria Nordman. From 1991 to 1993, he was senior curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where one of his projects was "Photography in Contemporary German Art: 1960 to the Present," a critically acclaimed exhibition that toured internationally.
During his tenure in San Francisco, Garrels organized many exhibitions devoted to prominent figures, such as Sol LeWitt, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein. But he also focused on younger artists on the rise, including Glenn Ligon, Kara Walker and Andrea Zittel.
At MoMA, from 2000 to 2005, Garrels was head of the department of drawings and a curator in the department of painting and sculpture. Among his major projects were retrospective exhibitions of works by Brice Marden and Dieter Roth. Garrels is also credited with transforming the New York museum's drawings collection with the addition of many Latin American works and a gift of more than 2,600 drawings from the Judith Rothschild Foundation.
His final two exhibitions at the Hammer will open in November. One is "Oranges and Sardines: Conversations on Abstract Painting With Mark Grotjahn, Wade Guyton, Mary Heilman, Amy Sillman, Charline von Heyl and Christopher Wool." The other, organized with Cynthia Burlingham, director of UCLA's Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts and a deputy director of the Hammer, is a survey of 500 years of portraiture from the Grunwald's collection and the Hammer's contemporary holdings.


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On December 7, 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama released the Canada–United States Joint Action Plan on Regulatory Cooperation. The Joint Action Plan is a practical first step to increased regulatory cooperation and alignment between Canada and the United States.
Bilateral working groups, led by senior officials from regulatory departments, have been established and will lead the implementation of the initiatives identified in the Joint Action Plan. Working groups are developing work plans with concrete objectives, deliverables and milestones for tangible progress within the RCC's two-year mandate.
On January 30th and 31st, 2012 in Washington, DC the Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) provided an opportunity for stakeholder organizations to engage with the RCC and to provide their views on implementation and technical aspects of the Joint Action Plan.
January 30, 2012 – Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) Meets with Stakeholders in Washington to Discuss Implementation of Joint Action Plan initiatives
As committed to in the Canada–United States RCC Joint Action Plan announced on December 7, 2011, an RCC stakeholder engagement session took place on January 30, 2012 at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. This meeting was the first formal RCC stakeholder engagement session to discuss the RCC's overall objective of regulatory cooperation and provided a useful opportunity for stakeholders from both Canada and the United States to share their views on this joint initiative.
The session allowed for an exchange regarding the implementation of Joint Action Plan initiatives, ways to foster ongoing alignment, and to prevent future unnecessary regulatory differences between Canada and the United States.
The session served to:
Participants encouraged the RCC to continue to make stakeholder engagement a central and ongoing part of their work.
The next formal RCC stakeholder session will take place in Ottawa later in 2012. In addition, there will be ongoing stakeholder engagement activities that form an integral part of the implementation process by working groups
January 31, 2012 – Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) Technical Review and Stakeholder Advisory Sessions in Washington
The following individual RCC stakeholder sessions were held on January 31, 2012 in Washington:
Agriculture and Food, Session A
Agriculture and Food, Session B
Agriculture and Food, Session C
Agriculture and Food, Session D
Agriculture and Food, Session E
Agriculture and Food, Session F
Road Transport – Motor Vehicles
Air Transport
Marine Transport
Rail Transport
Personal Care Products & Pharmaceuticals
Occupational Safety Issues
Led jointly by senior officials from Canada and the United States, the purpose of the various technical review sessions was to seek expert advice and technical input from the approximately 240 stakeholders in attendance. The sessions provided stakeholders with an opportunity to comment on technical and directional/strategic elements in two fundamental RCC Joint Action Plan areas:
The sessions resulted in considerable, high value input and dialogue around ways to move forward on the initiatives and means to broaden the work to include permanent mechanisms that could be more widely applied across sectors and foster ongoing alignment and prevent future unnecessary differences from occurring.
In addition to providing specific input on draft work plans, a number of themes emerged from these technical review sessions:
Once complete, the work plans will outline details regarding deliverables and timelines that constitute steps in addressing individual Joint Action Plan issues, and how ongoing regulatory alignment will be achieved.
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Advocacy Center helps California company secure $12.5 million contract with a Macedonian government agency
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Wind energy could supply around 4% of gross energy consumption if three projects totalling 109MW go ahead, its National Renewable Energy Action Plan says.
That is a big if. Resource assessment and environmental impact studies are needed at all three sites, as is a detailed site study for a 95MW near-shore project. Public objections to onshore wind are also a concern. In addition, Malta's isolated grid could not support the 109MW of wind power as it stands, the plan says, though capacity should increase once the new 200MW interconnection with Sicily is in place.
Given these uncertainties, the government acknowledges that its plan is quite aggressive. As a fall-back, it recommends Malta start negotiations with other member states regarding joint projects and joint support schemes in order to meet its 2020 targets.


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Geno Smith never got pulled during Sunday's 19-3 loss to the Ravens, but he may have played poorly enough to get himself pulled for next week's game against the Dolphins.
During his press conference on Sunday afternoon, Jets coach Rex Ryan wouldn't name Smith his starter for the matchup with Miami. Ryan said Smith has "had better days" and that he needed to watch tape of the game before making his decision about the starter for a game that will loom large for both 5-6 teams as they try to stay in the race for the second Wild Card in the AFC.
Smith was 9-of-22 for 127 yards and two interceptions on Sunday, continuing a six-game string that has seen him throw one touchdown and 10 interceptions. There's very little help around him on offense, which means the Jets haven't had much choice but to lean on Smith when they fall behind in games. It's been too much for the rookie to handle, although he left no doubt about his confidence in his ability to do it in his post-game comments.
Ryan had a very slow trigger finger when it came to making a move with Mark Sanchez last season, but his job is a bit more reliant on how things turn out this season than they were in 2012. The other options — Matt Simms and David Garrard — aren't particularly attractive, but neither is the prospect of throwing Smith out there again next week.