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Local schools hold candidate forums
Moose Lake Community Schools
With numerous seats up for election on the Moose Lake, Willow River, and Barnum school boards, each school held a candidate forum to help voters learn more about each candidate. A brief synopsis of each forum can be found on this site.
Moose Lake Community Schools:
A school board candidate forum was held at Moose Lake Community Schools Thursday, October 25. The event was hosted by the Moose Lake School PTA.
PTA President Sara Thiessen introduced the candidates. Candidate Lisa Anderson-Reed was unable to attend the forum. Superintendent Robert Indihare gave a short "State of the School" address before turning the meeting over to moderator Adam Kamp.
The candidates — Byron Kuster, Jamie Jungers, Scott Benoit, and Kristi Skelton-Weisert — were each asked the following series of questions.
What is your vision of the role of technology?:
Jungers: "We need to keep up with all of the new technology. We have just invested $300,000 in rewiring the school for a wireless system. The system can be removed and taken to a new site if need be."
Kuster: "The role of technology is important. The SMART Boards are good. We need iPads for teachers. One of the great ideas is for 'flipped classrooms.' The lecture is pre-recorded and the kids listen to it at home, then do their homework in the classroom. The teacher is free to walk around and help, if necessary. There are many educational apps. Apps can make learning fun."
Skelton-Weisert: "Technology is a wonderful thing. But, we need to keep a balance between technology and books. Students need contact with teachers."
Benoit: "We need to make sure that technology is seen as a tool. It does promote cost savings. Can use SMART Boards to read. We need to keep up with the time. Teachers are what makes learning successful."
Best use of the land on County Road 10?
Kuster: "I see a lot of positives for the land. There is an increased need to look at possibility of building a new school out there. The Alco is the third largest volume store in the country. It is a big draw to people — brings a positive new dimension to the land use."
Skelton-Weisert: "I don't really have a vision. I like selling a strip of the land. I would like to reserve some for residential use and land for the school. The flood changed ideas of building on the current location. We are lucky we own 200 acres free and clear."
Benoit: "We need to look at development of land for the school. We need to do what is best for the school district."
Jungers: "There has never been a time when the school and the community have been so intertwined. The land is essential for the town, the school, and the community. It's an opportunity to bring the tax base up. It makes good sense to build a building up there. Selling 13 acres to a developer would bring business to town and lead to the building of infrastructure, roads, sewer, and water. We are reconvening the Building Task Force. There is discussion on split campuses or K–12."
Options for a balanced budget?
Skelton-Weisert: " We have done what we needed to do at the time. We have felt obligated to keep a reserve. We have done a prudent job financially and have made tough decisions."
Benoit: "The creative means to a balanced budget is declining. We can only analyze a budget to a point. I like the idea of exploring child care based at the school. It is something to explore as well as selling land for income."
Jungers: "Budget cuts were made by a previous board. Taxes are a necessary thing. At the local level they are needed. The state keeps cutting funds. When we ask for a levy, we really need it."
Kuster: "This district does need to keep a balanced budget and be fiscally conservative. Schools are an investment. The ideas of child care/day care is a possibility. We could also encourage people in the community to look at a financial gift when they are estate planning. Perhaps have a community garden."
What makes Moose Lake School District marketable?
Benoit: "Location. It is centralized for large employees like the MSOP, CIP and the hospital. We need to get the facts and information out to the big businesses. Get folks moving into our area."
Jungers: "The school is dated. We need to change this. Let's start talking about remodeling or building. We need to start attracting young people to raise their children here in Moose Lake."
Kuster: "A new building is a big draw and puts us on par with other schools. We have excellent teachers. The sports program and extra curricular activities are an attraction. We need to make it possible for people who work here to put their kids in school here."
Skelton-Weisert: "We have history here. This is important for a lot of people. We have incredibly wonderful teachers — 75 percent of the teachers have a Master's Degree. They are highly educated and motivated."
Sharing athletics cooperative with Willow River?
Jungers: "It's a huge cost savings, connects our kids, combining of schools only cooperative in Minnesota. It does affect us when students from both schools don't participate in a sport. Number one way of getting out in the public is sporting games. Be accessible."
Kuster: "It helps with open enrollment and it helps with ideas to attract new students. The economist Demming helped the Japanese to promote their car industry by determining what customers want."
Skelton-Weisert: "People need to feel they are listened to. Make a connection with Moose Lake using assets we have."
Benoit: "Need to push information. Need to be available. School sports are an opportunity for this. Texting and e-mail are also a resource. Have an Advisory Board, welcome input, vote based on community members' wishes, not personal."
Why should people vote for you?
Kuster: "I am a licensed teacher with a BAS Degree in teaching physics and chemistry and a Master's of Education degree from UMD. I have worked with students from all ethnic backgrounds of varying levels of academic skill. I have served on the Moose Lake-Windemere Sanitary Sewer Board for the past 16 years and I understand the importance of long term planning, budgeting, and goal setting. I know how to be a positive, active board member."
Skelton-Weisert: "I have been a member of the Moose Lake School Board for two terms. It takes a bit of learning to have a sense of what you are doing. It took about two years for me. I would like to continue involvement with the district. I am a licensed Teacher and have been a substitute teacher in Moose Lake. Currently, I have been working as a social worker with flood relief in the area. I have a passion for our children, a passion for education and a passion for our community."
Benoit: "As a third generation Moose Lake alumnus, I am interested in investing in the success of our students. I listen to people and what they want for their school. I would fully plan to explore block scheduling. In using this system, electives will increase for students creating individualized educations."
Jungers: "I have been an active member of the school board since being voted in four years ago. I have participated on several committees. I have had four children in the district over the past five years. I graduated from Moose Lake in 1984. As a board incumbent, a parent, an alumnus, I am qualified to continue to serve on the local school board because I know our school, students, and staff. I am aware of the areas that need improvement, and I am a staunch supporter of what the district is currently doing right."


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November 25, 2002
Recognized as one of the nation's foremost experts on pension plans, Dr. Shlomo Benartzi, an associate professor of accounting at UCLA Anderson, jointly developed the Save More Tomorrow (SMT) program to ease employees into the often-complicated process of contributing to their employer's retirement savings plan.
The program was created in response to a shift in the way companies are setting up their retirement plans. Prof. Benartzi explains that there has been a switch from defined benefit plans to defined contributions plans, causing employees to bear the burden for making decisions about how much to save. The SMT program grew out of studies suggesting that many people want to save more, but often put off hard decisions that would allow them to do it.
Dr. Benartzi said that employees who decide not to join their companies' plan or save very little appear to be saving at less than the predicted life-cycle savings models. He says that the choices made by employees reflect bounded rationality and lack of self-control, and his research suggests that at least some of the low-saving households are making a mistake.
The Save More Tomorrow program was designed by Prof. Benartzi and Prof. Richard H. Thaler of the University of Chicago and is outlined in the paper "Save More Tomorrow: Using Behavioral Economics to Increase Employee Savings," which is slated to be published in Journal of Political Economy. Their research investigates participant behavior in defined contribution plans, examining:
How participants make investment choices in retirement saving plans.
How plan participants and plan sponsors view company stock.
The role of plan design on participant behavior.
How employee saving rates can be increased.
Specifically, SMT enables employees to pre-commit to contribute a specified percentage of an upcoming pay increase to their retirement plan. With each subsequent pay raise, their contribution rate as a percentage of their salary would continue to rise.
"The basic idea is to give workers the option of committing themselves now to increase their savings rate later, each time they get a raise," Prof. Benartzi said. "People commit in advance to allocate a portion of their future salary increases toward a better future."
After several organizations implemented the plan, the professors reported key findings suggesting that SMT is extremely effective:
Most people (78 percent) who were offered the SMT program elected to use it.
Eighty percent remained in it through the third pay raise.
The average saving rates for SMT participants increased from 3.5 percent to 11.6 percent over 28 months.
Profs. Benartzi and Thaler are currently working on additional "behavioral prescriptions" to help employees better diversify their retirement portfolios. Their latest working paper is called: "Sell More Tomorrow: Using Behavioral Economics to Increase Employee Diversification."
Prof. Benartzi, a member of UCLA Anderson faculty for six years, recently received tenure and was promoted to associate professor of accounting. He has served on the U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Advisory Council. He has also conducted extensive research in the area of company stock as a 401(k) investment.

subset: commoncrawl


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Twenty-two emotions are written on our faces
People's features express more feelings than scientists thought
S. Du et al/PNAS 2014
Human faces just got a lot more emotional.
People can broadcast more than three times as many different feelings on their faces as scientists once suspected. For years, scientists have thought that people could convey only happiness, surprise, sadness, anger, fear and disgust.
"I thought it was very odd to have only one positive emotion," says cognitive scientist Aleix Martinez of Ohio State University in Columbus.
So he and colleagues came up with 16 combined ones, such as "happily disgusted" and "happily surprised." Then the researchers asked volunteers to imagine situations that would provoke these emotions, such as listening to a gross joke, or getting unexpected good news.
When the team compared pictures of the volunteers making different faces and analyzed every eyebrow wrinkle, mouth stretch and tightened chin, "what we found was beyond belief," Martinez says. For each compound emotion, almost everyone used the same facial muscles, the team reports March 31 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Martinez's team's findings could one day help computer engineers improve facial recognition software and help scientists better understand emotion-perception disorders such as schizophrenia.
- S Du, Y. Tao and A. M. Martinez Compound facial expressions of emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Published online March 30, 2014. Doi: 10.1073/pnas.1322355111.
- E. Engelhaupt. Your fear is written all over your face, in heat. Science News Online, March 26, 2014.
- S. Milius. Face smarts. Science News. Vol. 182, October 6, 2012, p. 20.
- Aleix Martinez's lab website.


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The biggest municipal bankruptcy in American history could leave residents of Alabama's most populous county paying astronomical rates for public services performed by a skeleton crew of county workers. Or it could simply mean tightening the belt another few notches, depending how much of Jefferson County's $4.15 billion debt will have to be paid.
It's even possible that, just as companies have benefited from bankruptcy, that the county surrounding Birmingham will emerge stronger for it.
For now, much is uncertain for following the county's Chapter 9 filing on Wednesday. The full impact on its 658,000 resident's won't be clear until after a judge approves the move at a hearing next month and local officials negotiate a plan with creditors for adjusting its debts. The outlook among some officials was grim a day after the filing, while others defended the move.
The receiver appointed to run the sewer system's finances said he expects residents to see significantly higher sewer rates, while the lone county commissioner to vote against the bankruptcy predicted that damage to the county's image could drive away businesses and residents, lowering its tax base. An investment researcher who studies government finances said that Jefferson County could have a harder time borrowing money to build infrastructure, and the pain could spread to other cities.
Municipal bankruptcy filings elsewhere have also led to higher taxes, pension reductions for public workers and spending cuts on schools, roads and other infrastructure.
"We are in uncharted territory. Nobody has ever done anything like this on this level," said Jefferson County Commissioner George Bowman, who opposed his four fellow commissioners in the vote.
Commission President David Carrington said Thursday that unrelated fiscal problems already were necessitating cuts in services and hundreds of jobs, and the bankruptcy filing would actually keep those from being as deep. He wouldn't provide specifics.
Because of the past layoffs and office closings, residents already face hours-long lines for services such as renewing their car tags. Bowman said the county has already cut 500 jobs through layoffs and attrition in the last six months was likely to get rid of 1,000 regardless of the bankruptcy.
Some were already beginning to worry about how the bankruptcy could affect their wallets. Lifelong Birmingham resident Charlie Bell said his monthly sewer bill recently went up to $27, and he's fearful for what's next.
"I've never quite seen it this bad, as long as I've been alive," the 56-year-old said of the county's fiscal woes.
The predicament is the culmination of years of problems. The county's debt ballooned after a federally mandated sewer project was beset with corruption, court rulings that didn't go its way and rising interest rates when global markets struggled.
The county had been working since 2008 to avoid the cost and embarrassment of the bankruptcy filing. There appeared to be a breakthrough two months ago when the county and its creditors gave preliminary approval to a settlement.
But as the details were worked out, the sides couldn't come together on how to pay about $140 million of the total, said Commissioner Jimmie Stephens.
Also weighing in the decision was a dispute between the commission and the court-appointed receiver, which continued to play out Thursday. The commission asked the bankruptcy judge to remove John Young Jr. as receiver and let the county run the sewer program. Young filed court papers Thursday saying the federal court can't remove him because he was appointed by a state court judge to oversee the insolvent system.
Young said the bankruptcy would result in sewer rate hikes that could be double what the dashed settlement would have required. He said politics was a factor in the commission's decision to file bankruptcy.
"Politicians don't want to be attached to rate increase and tax increases, and both were going to be necessary," he said.
But an influential money manager of retirement funds for state employees said many suspected thebankruptcy was coming because even with $1 billion in concessions under the proposed settlement, the debt was still too big for the sewer system to cover based on its annual revenues.
"The debt was so huge you didn't have any options," said David Bronner, CEO of the Retirement Systems ofAlabama.
He said a bigger factor in the county's cutbacks will continue to be the shortage of money caused after an occupational tax was struck down in 2009.
Some outside observers said bankruptcy was the right move. Chicago bankruptcy attorney James Chatz, who wasn't involved in the Alabama case, said the filing allows all sides to have a moment of calm and then try to reach an agreement. In the meantime, Jefferson County can continue to run its operations and pay its bills.
"I think there is a deal to be made over a long, long period of time," he said.
The size of Jefferson County's bankruptcy overshadows the one filed by record-holder Orange County, Calif., in 1994 over debts totaling $1.7 billion. Pennsylvania's capital city of Harrisburg recently sought bankruptcyprotection under similar circumstances in a federal filing that listed about $458 million in creditors and claims.
To try and keep the bankruptcy from hurting its image further, Gov. Robert Bentley said Thursday he would be working to do damage control with the companies that had loaned Jefferson County money.
"We want to make sure the Jefferson County bankruptcy won't hurt Huntsville and other Alabama cities when they try to borrow money," he said.
But Richard Ciccarone, managing director and chief research officer at McDonnell Investment Management in Oak Brook, Ill., said the bankruptcy will make it harder and more expensive for Birmingham and Jefferson County to borrow money, and it could affect other cities and counties in Alabama.
"People will be looking at the state in a more careful eye," he said.
Still, some residents were sanguine. Hollis Wormsby said he felt like the county had no choice but to file forbankruptcy and that its decaying infrastructure was going to necessitate fee increases one way or another.
"This is happening in every major city in the country. Fees are going to go up," he said Thursday.
William Mills, a lawyer who lives in Jefferson County, said bankruptcy is never desirable, but the county must get the problem solved. Its debts aren't going to go away.
"We need to get this behind us," Mills said.


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....that we're all standing around in the fog talking about these things and it sounds like there are heaps of us engaging in these practices. But when the fog lifts, we realise that there are only a few of us talking and engaging in these practices and they are not half as widespread or effective as we thought...
I have been mulling this over for quite some time. I have been to a number of online meetings, conferences and courses over the last few years that have really talked up open education practices. To hear the speakers, open education, Connectivism and MOOCs are hugely influential and making big changes to the way people learn. But it seems to me that it is always the same people who attend these courses or conferences, and so I wonder just how wide spread and influential these practices really are.
These questions have been re-enforced by this stock take of these open courses, or MOOCs. The courses are mostly facilitated by the same people, based in the USA and are focused around the discipline of education. What I would like to know is...how well these practices translate into the "real world"...outside the fog?
To that end I have been thinking about how I could involve myself in the development of a MOOC for health professionals. I have had a few conversations with people about this and there seems to be a group of health professionals including doctors and occupational therapists who are interested in proceeding this concept further....an online course for health professionals designed to deal with real world issues.
I am incredibly excited about the prospect of a course that has been developed collaboratively across health professions, for participants all over the world. It could also be a suitable topic for my EdD research. But am I still propagating the interests of a select few...back in the fog again...or will a MOOC for health professional really gain some traction? Time will tell....
Image: 'Rainbow Man'


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Driftwood fires, first kisses, and young love are sure to come to mind with the new Beach Boys-driven musical "Good Vibrations."
The show harks back to a time when the most soul-searching anyone had to do was about whom to take to the prom.
"What I said to our cast on the first day is 'If we can make people happy for a couple of hours then we're doing a great thing, because things are so serious in the world right now,'" says director John Carrafa. "I can't go fight in Iraq. I feel my talents are best used at making people happy, and I feel like we have a chance to do that here."
Amid a growing number of nostalgic retrospectives aimed at baby boomers, such as the Billy Joel-fueled "Movin' Out," the upcoming Elvis musical "All Shook Up," and a play featuring John Lennon's post-Beatles oeuvre "Lennon," Broadway is quickly becoming a stronghold of family-safe, feel-good entertainment.
Some say it's about time.
After years of accidentally buying tickets to edgy tales of the Lower East Side such as "Avenue Q" and "Rent," tourists visiting Manhattan won't have to worry about explicit lyrics, sexuality, or political discourse packaged as entertainment.
"I think the Republicans are going to love it," says Mr. Carrafa, whose previous credits include "Urinetown" - the antithesis of "Good Vibrations." "They won't have another convention for a while but I could imagine 'Good Vibrations' being a show they would love. The Beach Boys and 'California Girls' are classic Americana."
While a Broadway revue featuring some of the most popular songs of all time would seem like a no-brainer, the challenge was coming up with a compelling yarn that would connect the dots between songs.
"We're telling a story about some kids who buy into the dream of what the music is about, that California dream," Carrafa says. "As the character Bobby says at the beginning: 'Once upon a time there was a place called California ... we all wanted to go there,' and this play is about what happens when you get your dream."
The handsome cast of teeny boppers want to go to the dance, fall in love, and borrow the car, a catalogue of longing nearly every American can identify with.
"The Beach Boys songs are really carefree but there are two sides to the music," explains Carrafa. "There's 'Fun, Fun, Fun,' and 'Be True To Your School,' 'Deuce Coupe,' and 'I Get Around,' but then three or four years later Brian Wilson wrote the album 'Pet Sounds,' which had 'I Just Wasn't Made For These Times,' and a lot of much deeper, emotionally resonant songs, so our story does go to a really deep and heartfelt place by the end."
The question is, will "Good Vibrations" play to the cynical iPod generation tagging along on the family's trip to Manhattan? After all, most successful entertainments for teens and preteens - such as the film "Shrek 2" and TV shows such as "The O.C." and "Life As We Know It" - seem to include a healthy dose of self-awareness and irony.
"This music is transgenerational, which is one of the appeals of the show," says David Larsen, who leads the cast and is in his 20s. "If you're a fan of hip-hop, you have an appreciation for the lyric, and if you listen to Brian Wilson's music, the emotional depth of the lyrics as well as the melodic changes are something people should be able to appreciate," no matter what kind of music they listen to.
Costar Jessica-Snow Wilson agrees. "I mean, who's not going to want to see a bunch of teenagers running around on stage in bikinis having an amazing time?"
The show is not a biography of Wilson or any of the surviving members of the Beach Boys, but the narrative does try to personify the tone and message of the band's canon.
"Everyone - at any age - can identify with the insanity of high school and its social groups," says Richard Dresser, who wrote the musical's book. "The sense of place for California and the sun and the surf and the sand made you want to go there. So those were the big elements of the story we had to include. For me, the music doesn't tell a literal story but an emotional one, because of the sense of yearning that's so strong in the songs."
Liberties were taken with some numbers in "Good Vibrations," Mr. Dresser says. "Die-hard fans may not hear the songs exactly as they were on the albums, but they're going to hear them reinvented in an exciting way."
The costumes, ethnic mix, and dance numbers in "Good Vibrations" are about as racy as Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon in Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), a comparison Dresser dismisses.
"A lot of people think of The Beach Boys as white-bread, bubble-gum music, but there are darker elements in the music and darker elements in our story," he says. "Some of the reference points are very '60s-ish, but that's only because it's when the music came out. You don't ever know exactly [what period you're in] because every time they're about to say the year there's feedback on the mike."
Since the Beach Boys inspired countless "good time" bands from the Go-Gos to Smashmouth to Offspring, the show's creators hope the songs will also inspire theater audiences in an increasingly tough financial climate for Broadway shows.
"It's about how contemporary kids take this music and make it their own, and in so doing show us that this music is timeless - that everybody has a piece of it and that everybody can make it theirs," says Carrafa. "Each kid who does a song in the show does it their way so there's a country version of one song, and we do David Larsen's own version of 'Fun, Fun, Fun.' It's really about kids in 2005 reinterpreting the Beach Boys' music for themselves, and it's all about being accessible."
• 'Good Vibrations,' which has begun previews, opens at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on Jan. 27.


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Stem Cell Transplant for Hematologic Diseases (HIMSUM)
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00058825
Recruitment Status : Terminated (Slow accrual due to practice changes meant study would take too long to finish)
First Posted : April 15, 2003
Results First Posted : October 22, 2015
Last Update Posted : November 7, 2016
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- Study Results
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
Patients are being asked to participate in this study because they have a cancer in their blood, Fanconi's Anemia, or have been unsuccessfully treated for bone marrow failure such as Aplastic Anemia or Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria. Any of these conditions could benefit from an allogeneic stem cell transplant using a donor that is related to the patient.
Stem cells are created in the bone marrow. They grow into different types of blood cells that the patient needs, including red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. In a transplant, the patient's own stem cells are killed and then replaced by stem cells from the donor.
Usually, patients are given very strong doses of chemotherapy prior to receiving a stem cell transplant. However, because of the patient's condition, they have a high risk of experiencing life-threatening treatment-related side-effects. Recently, some doctors have begun to use chemotherapy that does not cause as many side-effects before patients receive a transplant.
This research study adds CAMPATH 1H to a low-dose chemotherapy regimen, followed by an allogeneic stem cell transplantation. We want to see whether adding CAMPATH 1H to the transplant medications helps in treating the disease. We also want to see whether there are fewer life-threatening side-effects from the treatment. CAMPATH 1H is a drug that is still being studied. CAMPATH 1H stays active in the body for a long time after patients receive it, which means it may work longer at preventing graft-versus-host-disease (GvHD) symptoms.
|Condition or disease
|Hematologic Malignancies
|Biological: Campath 1H Drug: Fludarabine Procedure: Stem Cell Transplant Radiation: Total Body Irradiation (TBI) Drug: FK506 (Tacrolimus) or Cyclosporine
|Phase 1 Phase 2
Before treatment begins, stem cells will be collected from the donor's blood or bone marrow. The stem cells will be collected and frozen before we start to give the patient chemotherapy.
After admission to the hospital, patients will receive total body irradiation (very strong x-rays that kill cells in the bone marrow), Fludarabine and Campath 1H prior to the stem cell transplant (infusion of the donor's stem cells).
Starting 7 days after the transplant, the patient will be given G-CSF by subcutaneous injection, until a blood test shows that numbers of granulocytes (a type of white blood cell) in the blood are more than 1,000/uL. This is to help increase blood cell counts.
After transplantation, the patient will undergo several evaluations at different times. These are standard evaluations and tests performed for any patient who has received a stem cell transplant, as part of routine clinical monitoring.
We will also be looking at the patient's immune function (how the body protects itself to prevent and fight infections and diseases). To do this, blood tests will be performed at regular intervals (every 3 to 6 months) for 2 years.
Depending on how well the donor stem cells work in the body after the transplant, the patient may receive one or more Donor Leukocyte Infusions (DLI). This is when leukocytes (a type of white blood cell) collected from the same donor that provided the stem cells are given to the patient through a central line into a vein.
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Actual Enrollment :
|27 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Single Group Assignment
|None (Open Label)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|Phase I/II Study of Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation for Patients With Hematologic Diseases Using Haploidentical Family Donors and Sub-Myeloablative Conditioning With Campath 1H
|Study Start Date :
|August 2000
|Actual Primary Completion Date :
|September 2014
|Actual Study Completion Date :
|September 2014
Experimental: Stem Cell Transplant
Total body irradiation (TBI); Fludarabine and Campath 1H; FK506 or Cyclosporine; Stem Cell Transplant; G-CSF.
Biological: Campath 1H
Day -5 to Day -2: Campath 1H dose schedule as per institutional SOP.
Drug: Fludarabine
Day -5 to Day -2: Fludarabine 30 mg/m2.
Procedure: Stem Cell Transplant
Day 0: Donor stem cells infused.
Radiation: Total Body Irradiation (TBI)
Day -6: Total body irradiation of 600 cGy as two doses without blocks at a rate of less than or equal to 10 cGy/minute.
Drug: FK506 (Tacrolimus) or Cyclosporine
Day -2: FK506 or Cyclosporine as medically indicated to prevent GvHD.
- Transplant Related Mortality (TRM) [ Time Frame: 100 days ]Percentage of patients with transplant related mortality
- Time in Days to ANC Engraftment [ Time Frame: 30 days ]Engraftment was defined as the day of absolute neutrophil counts (ANC) exceeded 0.5 X 10^9/L on the first of 3 days.
- Donor Chimerism Engraftment of Greater Than 50% [ Time Frame: 30 days ]Number of patients that engrafted who showed a chimerism (donor cells) of greater than 50% in the first 30 days
- Acute Graft Versus Host Disease [ Time Frame: 100 days ]Number of patients with Acute Graft Versus Host Disease within 100 days post-transplant
- Chronic Graft Versus Host Disease [ Time Frame: 1 year ]Number of patients with Chronic Graft Versus Host Disease within 1 year post-transplant
- 2-year Relapse-free Survival [ Time Frame: 2 years ]Relapse-free survival (RFS) was calculated from the time of transplant to the date of relapse, death, or last follow-up, whichever occurred first. Survival data were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method.
- 2-year Overall Survival [ Time Frame: 2 years ]Overall survival (OS) was calculated from the time of transplant to death from any cause or censored at last follow-up. Survival data were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method.
- Number of Patients Who Engrafted With the Isolex/CLINIMACs System [ Time Frame: 30 days ]Engraftment was defined as the day of absolute neutrophil counts (ANC) exceeded 0.5 X 10^9/L on the first of 3 days.
- Median Time to Engraftment With the Isolex/CLINIMACs System [ Time Frame: 30 days ]Engraftment was defined as the day of absolute neutrophil counts (ANC) exceeded 0.5 X 10^9/L on the first of 3 days.
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|up to 70 Years (Child, Adult, Older Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
- Diagnosis of myelodysplastic disorders; Fanconi's Anemia; Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (including secondary); Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia; Multiple Myeloma; Plasma Cell Dyscrasia; lymphoproliferative disorders (Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, Hairy Cell Leukemia, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, and Hodgkin's Disease). Diagnosis of myelodysplastic disorders which is not good risk by IPSS: Fanconi's Anemia; Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (1st or subsequent relapse, or 2nd or subsequent CR, or refractory disease); Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in 2nd or subsequent remission or relapse or refractory disease; Philadelphia Chromosome-positive Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (failed STI and interferon); Multiple Myeloma (Stage II or III); Lymphoma; Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (primary refractory or recurrent disease); Hodgkin's Disease (after relapse); Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (failed chemotherapy and/or anti-viral therapy); bone marrow failure such as Aplastic Anemia and Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria; PNH (failed prior therapies).
- Conditions that increase treatment related mortality: (need one or more to be eligible): Age > / = 50 years; EF of less than 45%; DLCO less than 50% or FEVI 50-75% of predicted value; Diabetes Mellitus; Renal Insufficiency (but creatinine clearance not less than 25 mL/min); Prior recent history of systemic fungal infection; 3rd or greater remission of AML or ALL; Significant Grade III or IV neurologic or hepatic toxicity from previous treatment; More than 1 year from diagnosis (CML or Myeloma patients ONLY); Multiple types of treatment regimens (equal to or more than 3); Significant Grade III or IV neurologic or hepatic toxicity from previous treatment; Prior autologous or allogeneic stem cell transplantation.
Haploidentical family member donor. This protocol is open to patients who lack a 5/6 or 6/6 HLA antigen-matched donor. Due to the increased risk of GvHD, patients with Fanconi Anemia and a 5/6 HLA match will also be eligible.
For this protocol, the "best" donor will be defined as a first-degree haploidentical family member who matches at the greatest number of MHC loci. Matching will be determined by Class I and Class II DNA typing. The donor should be sufficiently healthy as to not be at increased risk from the stem cell mobilization procedure. Should more than one "equally" MHC-incompatible donor be identified, other selection criteria will include: age and size of donor, CMV status, and sex. The Principal Investigator will make final decisions.
- Available healthy donor without any contraindications for donation.
- Patient and/or legal representative and/or legal guardian able to understand and sign consent.
- Age between birth and 70 years.
- Women of child-bearing potential must have a negative pregnancy test.
- Pregnant, lactating or unwilling to use contraception.
- HIV-positive patient.
- Uncontrolled intercurrent infection.
- Untreated blast crisis for CML.
- Uncontrolled high-grade lymphoproliferative disease / lymphoma.
- Unstable angina and uncompensated congestive heart failure (Zubrod of 3 or greater).
- Severe chronic pulmonary disease requiring oxygen (Zubrod of 3 or greater).
- Hemodialysis dependent.
- Active hepatitis or cirrhosis with total bilirubin, SGOT, and SGPT greater than 3X upper limit of normal.
- Unstable cerebral vascular disease and recent hemorrhagic stroke (less than 6 months).
- Active CNS disease from hematological disorder.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT00058825
|United States, Texas
|Texas Children's Hospital
|Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
|The Methodist Hospital
|Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
|Principal Investigator:
|George Carrum, MD
|Baylor College of Medicine; The Methodist Hospital
|Responsible Party:
|George Carrum, Principal Investigator, Baylor College of Medicine
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|NCT00058825 History of Changes
|Other Study ID Numbers:
|First Posted:
|April 15, 2003 Key Record Dates
|Results First Posted:
|October 22, 2015
|Last Update Posted:
|November 7, 2016
|Last Verified:
|September 2016
Keywords provided by George Carrum, Baylor College of Medicine:
stem cell transplant
Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Hematologic Diseases
Fludarabine phosphate
Immunosuppressive Agents
Immunologic Factors
Physiological Effects of Drugs
Calcineurin Inhibitors
Enzyme Inhibitors
Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action
Antineoplastic Agents
Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic
Antifungal Agents
Anti-Infective Agents
Dermatologic Agents
Antirheumatic Agents
Antineoplastic Agents, Immunological


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Food stamps for fast food: 48 local Jack in the Box locations accepting EBT
SAN ANTONIO -- The rumors are true. Forty-eight Jack in the Box locations around San Antonio are now accepting food-assistance payments for their fast-food meals.
Throughout the week, many locals noticed advertisements promoting the new payment option. Some took photos and posted them on social media.
According to a spokesperson for the franchise, the restaurant chain is in the process of rolling out technology that would allow all of its San Antonio locations to accept Lonestar, EBT, Cash Aid and TANF cards.
The following is a statement released to KENS 5 by the restaurant chain:
"This is a great program for those customers who need financial assistance to help them feed their families, especially for some seniors and those who cannot cook for themselves."


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MET Labs has been testing wheelchairs for safety, performance and EMC for over a decade. As an independent, third-party testing laboratory, MET puts its substantial skills and resources to work in the performance and comparative testing of your electric wheelchair or scooter. MET provides:
- ANSI/RESNA Testing
- EMC testing per CISPR11
- Static stability
- Dynamic stability
- Brake effectiveness
- Environmental simulation
- Acceleration
- Obstacle climbing
- Power and control system tests
- Safety, Performance and EMC testing to EN 12184 for electrical wheelchairs
- Safety and Performance testing to EN 12183 for mechanical wheelchairs
- Full range of performance tests to many FDA Guidance Documents and AAMI standards
- Full range of outdoor environmental testing
- Full range of performance testing including functionality, energy efficiency, durability, reliability, and more
MET Labs is fully capable of testing to the full range of EMC testing per CISPR11 so as to meet the ANSI/RESNA mandate that "Electric powered wheelchairs should operate without introducing significant electromagnetic disturbance to the environment and should operate without significant degradation of operational performance in the presence of electromagnetic disturbances that can be expected use."


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Dublin 1913 was a divided city. For the poor, life in the worst slums in Northern Europe was a daily grind of toil and want, while the well-off lived in comfort and privilege. Social inequality sparked a bitter conflict between employers and the labour movement, led by Jim Larkin.
In the centenary year of the Dublin Lockout, a new documentary from the RTÉ TV Documentary Unit, looks at the dispute from the perspective of families on both sides – tram drivers and tenement residents, employers and strike-breakers. Using family history, rare photographs and contemporary newspaper accounts, My Lockout is a personal and revealing insight into the most infamous labour dispute in Irish History.
The documentary features five families closely involved on both sides the lockout;
Miriam Larkin is the great grand-daughter of Big Jim. Miriam looks at the impact of the lockout on Larkin's wife Elizabeth and their children.
Gerry Murphy questions the portrayal of his great grand-father William Martin Murphy as the chief villain of the Lockout.
The documentary also features the descendents of tram workers, strikers and scabs.
Tom Stokes is the grandson of John Stokes a tram driver who abandoned his tram on the first day of the strike in August 1913.
Brendan Murphy is the grand nephew of Thomas Harten, a strike breaker or "scab" from Co. Meath, who was savagely attacked and killed in Dublin during the Lockout.
Janine Kyle follows the story Alice Brady, who was fifteen and locked out of her factory job when she was shot by a "scab" delivering coal on Pearse Street in Dublin.


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Services for customers with special needs
Books to You
The Books to You program is sponsored by the Library Foundation and is committed to ensure that every citizen in St. Charles County is able to enjoy a true library experience, even if they are unable to come to us. Books to You provides services by matching our senior community to one-on-one volunteer delivery and provides outreach collections to nursing homes, retirement centers, and senior citizen centers throughout the county.
To receive homebound service or to volunteer to support Books to You, please call the Extension Services office at (636) 441-2300 x. 1517 or visit the Foundation website. Referrals for customers and partners are always welcome.
Audio Books on CD
The Library District has an extensive collection of books on CD. The collection includes popular fiction and classics as well as non-fiction.
Large Print Books
Each branch library has a collection of large print books that includes a variety of popular fiction and classics as well as non-fiction. Large print books are also available through interlibrary loan if a specific title is not available within the Library District
All library buildings are handicapped accessible. Staff are available to help lift books off of shelves, carry materials, or assist in finding information.
If a sign interpreter or any special assistance is needed for a program, call the branch library seven days in advance.
Wolfner Library for the Blind & Physically Handicapped
The Wolfner Library for the Blind & Physically Handicapped is a free library service to anyone in the State of Missouri who has a visual or physical disability and is unable to use standard print materials.
The library collection consists of more than 360,000 volumes of fiction and non-fiction books in non-print formats (digital, cassette and braille) for all ages. All materials are mailed free to and from library customers, wherever they reside.
Each library branch has applications for Wolfner Library services. For more information about free library services from Wolfner Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, visit the Wolfner Library Website.


text: Welcome to the "Run the Arb" message board. This is the place to be for the latest running news, gossip and rumors from around the state of West Virginia. This is designed to be a fun place for everyone to come to talk about running and what's going on around the state. Hopefully we can get some smart runners on here giving insight and advice on training for those who are interested. Please send comments/complaints to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Austin Dixon
Austin Dixon is our Digitization Technologist. He has an Associates degree in Computer Programming and Networking and is currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science at UA. Previously, he was employed as a Network Administrator for a small retail chain. He aspires to one day become an independent Software Developer.
In his spare time, Austin is often in his home workshop building some crazy contraption; everything from BEAM robots, to flashlights, to led art, to folk musical instruments. He recently started a blog PhotonPunk.com where he chronicles the various tech-related projects he is working on.
Austin also trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, plays Native American Flute, teaches a Sunday morning bible class for fifth graders, and dabbles in graphic art. In addition, he and his wife Janiece enjoy hiking, biking, and playing Frisbee on the weekends.


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More in-depth problem solving... Wiring, Sensors, etc...
Check this section for basic theory and various general tech info.
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Allows you to choose the data by which the thread list will be sorted.
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For the longest time I could never figure out why strat bridges always made the guitar go out of tune when the whammy bar was used. I then realized the solution was simple. For those of you that don't know I'll briefly explain. Strat bridges are made to be equipped with Fender Bullet strings. The "bullet" end on the strings is made to fit perfectly inside the channels on the bridge. You'll notice brands like Ernie Ball and D'Addario have a ring at the end of the strings which does not properly sit in fender bridges.
My question is are there any other string brands which have that bullet style end, or something similar?


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by John Williamson, Peterson Institute for International Economics Outline of a presentation at a conference on "The Future of the Bretton Woods Institutions: The European Contribution to the Debate on the New Financial Architecture" Organized by the American Council on Germany and the Reinventing Bretton Woods Committee Paris, France September 13, 2000
Peterson Institute for International Economics
One of the few propositions that almost all of the participants in the debate on the future of the International Monetary Fund seem to agree on is that the Fund ought to reverse the mission creep of recent years and return to focus on the areas of its core competence. Failure to do this threatens to make it as unwieldy as the World Bank has tended to be, and without the excuse that its mandate is so wide as to leave it with no alternative. The first part of the Fund's first Article, and indeed its very name, say that it is concerned with international monetary cooperation. Since exchange rates result from the interface between the monetary systems of different countries, they are clearly the Fund's business. Since monetary policy is a part of macroeconomic policy, one needs to cover the other main component, namely fiscal policy, as well. And since the monetary system is merely one part of the financial system, it is advisable to include that within the Fund's remit too. Thus I agree with the delineation of where its core competence ought to lie, as sketched in the third bullet of the background note. With the exception of the financial system, where the Fund's deep involvement is quite recent, one can say that these are indeed the areas in which the Fund's competence has traditionally been concentrated. Its present activities, namely surveillance, lending, and governance, are also accurately summarized in the first bullet of the background note. Some of us think it unfortunate that the provision of international liquidity does not rate mention as another activity. Let me say a few words about each of these activities, dividing surveillance into systemic surveillance and country surveillance, and explaining under the former why I consider it unfortunate that the Fund never developed a significant role in providing international liquidity.
Systemic Surveillance The Fund's role in systemic surveillance is at present essentially a reporting role, with the reports being made public in the biennial World Economic Outlook and the annual report on International Capital Markets, plus occasional ad hoc studies. The reason that these reports have little role as inputs into policy coordination is that there is very rarely anything worthy of the name of policy coordination, and in the rare exceptional cases the action is within the G-7 rather than in a wider framework. While the IMF prepares background papers for such meetings and an IMF representative participates in much of the discussion, it is a long time since any identifiable result has emerged from such meetings. Moreover, the IMF representative does not report back to the IMF board on the proceedings, so there is no link between the G-7 talks and the broader world community. It is often objected that policy coordination will not happen because no country is willing to subjugate its national economic interests to those of some other country or group of countries. This mistakes the nature of what policy coordination seeks to achieve: not persuading one country to sacrifice itself to the general good, but searching for mutually beneficial policy adjustments (including beneficial inter-temporal tradeoffs). One example concerns international liquidity creation. At the end of 1999 total reserve holdings of IMF members were $1319 billion, an increase of $522 billion in the preceding 6 years, of which the bulk ($391 billion) was accounted for by developing countries.1 That may be compared with a cumulative US current account deficit of some $1202 billion over the same period. The desire to accumulate reserves on the part of the developing countries has been reinforced by the Asian crisis, and this was presumably a significant factor underlying the recent magnification of the US current account deficit. If one worries that the size of this deficit is building up vulnerability for the future (admittedly as unfashionable a worry as Thailand's current account deficit was prior to late 1996), then one might think there could be mutual advantage in largescale SDR allocations that satisfied the desired buildup in developing country reserves without requiring a US deficit. That is doubtless inconceivable unless and until the developing countries demonstrate a desire to hold a major part of their reserves in SDRs rather than just to receive allocations that they promptly pass on to the OECD countries, but at present there is not even an attempt to scope out the possibility of mutual gains of this character.
Country Surveillance The Fund's surveillance of individual countries is rightly focused on helping countries avoid crises. It has recently been expanded beyond the traditional macroeconomic concerns of Article IV consultations, to include assessment of whether member countries are implementing the wide-ranging standards and codes that have been
developed, largely under the aegis of the Financial Stability Forum, in response to the Asian crisis. The result is seen in the Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSCs) that the Fund is now publishing on the internet. One has to be impressed by the speed with which agreement has been reached on these minimum international standards, and the rapidity with which the Fund has got around to initiating surveillance of them. Surveillance is concluded without any attempt to rate a country's performance. Indeed, in summing up the IMF board's review of Fund surveillance of international standards and codes on 8 September 1999, the chairman went out of his way to note that a number of Directors "had indicated that there was a risk that reports could be perceived as providing ratings of countries, and could create the impression that the Fund was assuming the role of a rating agency". He reassured them that this was not the intention. This seems to me misguided. The proposals for a new capital adequacy framework issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in June 1999 sought a way to eliminate use of the crude proxy of OECD membership as a measure of the riskiness of a borrower, and to replace this by a more satisfactory measure. The main such possibility discussed was use of the rating given a country or bank by the credit rating agencies. That proposal has attracted much criticism, and rightly so, given the weak record of those agencies. An alternative would be to use the process of IMF surveillance to generate ratings. This might cover both the traditional macroeconomic surveillance under Article IV, and the new surveillance based on the ROSCs. To permit these to be used to generate ratings, it would of course be necessary to have surveillance end by the Executive Board agreeing to some measure of a country's performance. That would indeed mark a sharp break with tradition, but it seems altogether preferable to relying on the rating agencies.
Lending The Fund has already made a number of worthwhile changes in its lending facilities since the latest round of crises. One is introduction of the Supplementary Reserve Facility (SRF) in the midst of the Asian crisis, a facility designed to lend larger sums for shorter periods at higher interest rates than has been traditional in Fund lending. In my view those changes were exactly what was needed in a facility designed to meet capital account crises. In addition, the Fund earlier this year abolished a number of facilities that had outlived their usefulness and were virtually unused in recent years. A more difficult issue concerns introduction of the Contingency Credit Line (CCL). This was intended to provide semi-automatic access to credit for countries hit by contagion that have good macro policies, are complying with the agreed international financial standards embodied in the codes discussed above, and have good relations with their private creditors. So far no country has applied for a CCL (although both Mexico and Argentina have recently shown some interest in applying). Two reasons have been advanced to explain this failure to use the facility. One is that the financial terms are too
demanding, with a commitment fee payable when the application for coverage is approved, and the same interest rate as that on the SRF payable when money is drawn. That gives no financial incentive to pre-qualify. Allied with the fact that the entitlement to draw is not quite automatic even if contagion hits, that leaves no obvious positive incentive for applying. However, a financial incentive is quite likely to be provided soon, with abolition of the commitment fee and a lowering of the interest rate to less than that on the SRF. But there is a second reason that may explain the lack of interest in the CCL, which is the ambiguous signal that applying for it would send to the markets. These might see an application as signifying weakness (a need to establish a line of defense) rather than strength. Reinforcing that concern is the certainty that if the IMF subsequently felt obliged to disqualify a country, that would trigger a crisis. If this is the true explanation, a working CCL will require replacement of the provision that countries apply for the CCL by one that they are automatically entitled to access it in case of need if they satisfy certain standards, without ever going through the process of applying and being approved. (But even this would leave the problem of an adverse signal being sent should the IMF find it necessary to declare a country no longer qualified to draw.) Even more fundamental than the issue of how to design a CCL is whether any such facility can really be expected to head off capital account crises.2 The danger is that a decision to draw on such a facility would be taken as a sign of weakness by the financial markets, which would react by staging a run. The result would be that money drawn from the CCL would be frittered away on allowing some creditors to get out while the going is good. I sometimes doubt whether there is a realistic intermediate solution between providing unlimited official loans to a country judged solvent (i.e., turning the IMF into a real lender of last resort) and restructuring a country's debt. If that is right, and we agree that there is no chance of gaining political approval for a lender-of-lastresort capacity for the Fund (specially since this would surely raise the problem of moral hazard), then the focus has to turn to involving the private sector in debt reconstruction. One would hope that this would normally involve simply extending maturities, as in Korea, rather than reducing the present value of debt service payments, and accordingly that it should prove possible to negotiate debt restructuring relatively rapidly. The simple way to provide an incentive to private creditors to enter such negotiations is to allow a country to impose, and the IMF to sanction, a standstill to debt service payments (or at least amortization payments) until the debt profile has been restructured to one that the country can be expected to service according to the revised contractual terms. Another contentious issue is whether the IMF should retain the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), rather than hand this over to the World Bank. To do justice to its name and spearhead the international dimension of a country's growth program, the Fund would need to establish expertise in a range of issues going far beyond its traditional mandate. Hence various people have suggested that this was the natural place to trim the Fund back to size. No one has denied that the Fund's traditional macro concerns have a legitimate place in PRGF programs, in that macro stability is a key precondition for rapid growth which in turn is essential for progress in reducing poverty. Those suggesting moving the PRGF to the Bank have argued, rather, that the Fund
could adequately assert its concern for macro stability if its sign-off were required before the Bank approved a program, just as the Bank's sign-off is required under current arrangements. The Fund has responded that it doubts its ability to influence a country's policies if it is not directly bringing money to the table, which makes one worry that the Bank must in that case be impotent under the existing system. The Fund has also argued that it wishes to continue to provide services to all of its members, including the poorest, who could not afford to borrow under the regular facilities. The obvious response is to allow the Fund to lend to its poorest members under similar circumstances to those under which it lends to others, namely when they confront an external crisis, but to grant them a concessional interest rate. Such arguments appear to fall on deaf ears, which makes one worry that either the Fund will go on expanding into new fields, or that poverty reduction and growth will be ill-served by lop-sided programs.
Governance of the Fund Three issues are of key importance: quotas and the composition of the Executive Board, the US veto on major decisions, and selection of the managing director. The figures below offer a big-picture comparison of output, population, and IMF quotas as a percentage of global totals: Percentage of GWP3 United States Japan European Union of which, Euroland Africa Developing Asia Latin America 21 7 20 16 2 26 9
If one takes output as the relevant criterion, it is clear that the big legitimate grumble of under-representation in the Fund is that of the Asians (whose complaint would have even more force if one thought population should be a relevant factor as well). Europe is unambiguously the most over-represented region, from which the major concessions will therefore have to come. An elegant way of resolving this problem would be if Euroland saw fit to treat itself as a single country for purposes of IMF membership. Once the UK has adopted the euro, it would be reasonable for the expanded Euroland to contemplate a quota equal to that of the United States, which would avoid the
problem of relocating IMF headquarters that would arise if it were to obtain a larger quota. In return for releasing a large block of quotas for redistribution, it would be reasonable for Europe to raise the question of the United States abandoning its veto on major decisions, by reducing the qualified majority needed from 85 percent to (say) 75 percent. The other big governance issue is how the managing director is selected. No one was happy with the way this was conducted earlier this year. We are probably not yet ready to go beyond resolving that in future (a) the procedure should be different and more dignified, and (b) that the aim should be to seek the best qualified candidate in the world, irrespective of nationality. But agreement on that much would suffice to initiate the search for a new procedure.


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Daily roundup of what's hot online right now with a video of George Zimmerman demonstrating the crime scene to police, the new Toyota Scion and rare orange lobsters found in Massachusetts.
Video: George Zimmerman shows the crime scene
A newly released video shows Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman at the scene of Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting a day later giving police a blow-by-blow account of his fight with the teen. Scroll to the bottom of the page to watch the footage.
LOL of the day: Orange lobsters
Bright-orange lobsters are supposedly extremely rare finds, yet one Massachusetts restaurant owner found six of them in his latest seafood shipment. He is keeping them on display in his restaurant and holding a name-that-lobster contest. Click the link above to see the pics and watch the video.
Trending topic: Toyota Scion
Toyota introduced the new Scion: the FR-S. It is definitely not like what you think when someone mentions "Scion." For starters, it's a sports car –– that actually looks good! CNNMoney reports ample power output, "glove-tight steering and a ride that's firm but still not too punishing." Click the link above to read more.
Video: George Zimmerman shows the crime scene
-- GateHouse News Service


text: NON_0448JPGJPG by WDN August 27, 2017 written by WDN August 27, 2017 Leave A Reply Please follow and like us:20 0 comment 0FacebookTwitterGoogle +PinterestWDNLeave a Comment Cancel ReplySave my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of new posts by email. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


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Houston's door struts aren't worth 2 cents in even moderately cool weather, much less the dead of winter. Our nighttime temps have dropped into the 50's for the first time this year, and my doors are sagging already (yesterday during the day with temps the 80's they were just fine). Amazon's el'cheapo Strong Arm struts may not be perfect, but they do at least hold your doors open all the way down to freezing.
Bill Robertson


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I think its appropriate the efforts of the Chinese miners that worked on the Tasmanian fields are recorded. I had the privilege of seeing one of there early workings at Back Creek recently and started looking at that first. Much historical work has recently been presented with the Dragons trail of the North East and interpretive signage as have the actual descendants of the Chinese miners themselves.
Segerberg introduced Chinese miners to the Back creek gold field. They had arrived as a group of 19 Chinese miners into Launceston with experience in Ararat, Bendigo in Victoria and New Zealand's Otago gold field in the 1850's and 1860's.
Ah Hung Was one of the 12 original Cantonese that worked at Back Creek. (They where not from Mongolia, as claimed in the paper of the day) after spending several months at Mangana and Mathina. He later married a Tasmanian girl and had 2 sons and a daughter. Syd and Henry. They opened a shop in Launceston. Had a beautiful garden and he later worked at the Launceston general hospital as a gardener. He lived, worked and raised a family at Lefroy and Back creek areas when Chinese where the largest non European people in Tasmania. Approx 1000-1500 with the major centers being on tin.
The below is part of a fantastic thesis by Helen Vivian and other detailed information about our local Chinese history. Its worth a read. Another sizable group of Chinese came over much earlier than the miners. But they where mechanical technicians and mechanical engineers. Some dates are not exact so other sources are used.
The Chinese were welcomed as experienced, industrious and frugal workers who could be relied on to make the best profit available from the diggings. Mr. James Peters (of Peters, Barnard & Co.) a Launceston businessman, arranged for the immigration of the Chinese using the services of Messrs. Lowe Kong Meng and Co. of Melbourne. The selected 19 men were mainly experienced diggers from Ararat, Bendigo and New Zealand. They were to test the ground and if they reported favourably on the prospects, there was speculation that they would be followed by one to two thousand of their countrymen.
The Examiner newspaper reports the event: "Of the thirty-eight steerage passengers brought by the S.S. Tamar yesterday, nineteen were Chinamen, and their presence in the streets of the town during the day exited no little astonishment and curiosity." ... 11 The social aspect of the question respecting the importation of these Mongolians is an important one, and we do not propose to deal with it in this paper. But only one opinion can exist as to their adaptability to the purpose for which they are intended, and if alluvial digging is ever to become a permanent source of wealth in Tasmania, these men will very soon prove it."
Gold was certainly to be found at the Black Boy (Mathinna) and in the neighbouring Mangana fields (where, in 1852, payable gold was first discovered in Tasmania) but, like most mining communities, fortunes fluctuated as rapidly as the population. In 1871 Black Boy was little more than a post-office and in 1872 the population was about 550, declining again in the mid-1870 s to revive in the late 1880 s and become a thriving gold mining town. The population peaked at approximately 2,000 during the 1890 s. It would appear, however, that the 19 Chinese miners had limited success at Black Boy as within 3 months they had removed to newly discovered ground at Back Creek. The Examiner reports in February 1871 that the manager of the Back Creek Co. lease, Mr. Segerberg, arranged for them to work his company 1 s ground. Six Worked on the Grand Junction mine and six on the Albion claim. - The latter group obtained 5 oz. of gold in their first week and the Examiner comments on their success: "It is to be presumed that the directors will now take steps to make some permanent arrangement with the Celestials for working the claim on tribute."
Source: Helen Vivian (1985) P.20 TASMANIA'S CHINESE HERITAGE: AN HISTORICAL RECORD OF CHINESE SITES IN NORTH EAST TASMANIA
http://eprints.utas.edu.au/17370/2/vivi ... thesis.pdf
http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/upfiles/qvm ... se_pt1.pdf
Chinese Miners in Tasmania - The Celestials
Famous Tasmanian Prospectors, Explorers and Track Cutters
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Large segments of the youth population no longer make a distinction between their personal peers and the adult population. Some young people have not been taught to respect their elders.
It is disturbing to hear some young people say they only respect their parents and have little or no respect for other adults.
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World Premiere of LENIN'S EMBALMERS Plays The Ensemble Studio Theatre, 3/3-3/28
The Ensemble Studio Theatre will present a world premiere dark comedy based on a true story, LENIN'S EMBALMERS, by Canadian playwright Vern Thiessen and directed by William Carden. LENIN'S EMBALMERS, part of the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project, begins previews March 3 for an opening March 8 at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street.Inspired by the book "Lenin's Embalmers" by Ilya Zbarsky and Samuel Hutchinson, translated by Barbara Bray (Harvill Press, 1999), LENIN'S EMBALMERS spins the tale of Boris Zbarsky and Vladimir Vorobiov, two scientists who were chosen by The Committee for Immortalization to embalm Vladimir Lenin after his death in 1924. The embalming of the leader of the World Proletariat - which took almost four months - was a scientific "miracle" at the time and was hailed by scientists around the world. A miracle indeed because the work began two months after Lenin's death. Lenin's embalmers developed a process which restored the body to a lifelike appearance and is still used for preventive maintenance today. Yet, as so many had during the Great Terror, Lenin's embalmers reached levels of power and influence that ultimately led to their death by a paranoid Stalinist regime. Cast in LENIN'S EMBALMERS are Steven Boyer, Zach Grenier, Richmond Hoxie, Polly Lee, Peter Maloney, James Murtaugh, Scott Sowers and Michael Louis Wells. "Vern Thiessen may have created an absurdist, dark comedy from a true story, but the truth is that the Soviet Union was an absurdist, dark place during that time," said William Carden, Ensemble Studio Theatre's artistic director and director of LENIN'S EMBALMERS. "Russia was controlled by a clique that created a false reality led by a man who thought nothing of ordering the death of millions."Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award, Canada's highest honour for playwriting, Vern Thiessen is one of Canada's most produced playwrights. He has written for stage, radio and television. His stage plays have been seen across Canada, the US and Europe, including SHAKESPEARE'S WILL, APPLE, EINSTEIN'S GIFT, BLOWFISH, THE RESURRECTION OF JOHN FRUM, and VIMY.Mr. Thiessen is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding New Play, The City of Edmonton Arts Achievement Award, the University of Alberta Alumni Award for Excellence, and The Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competitio. He has also been shortlisted for the prestigious Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. William Carden has been the Artistic Director of the Ensemble Studio Theatre since 2007. Prior to that, he was the Artistic Director of the HB Playwrights Foundation and Theatre from 1994 to 2006. As an actor and a director he has worked on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in regional theatres across the country and in Canada. At the Ensemble Studio Theatre, he has directed LUCY by Damien Atkins and PTSD by Tommy Smith. His past directing credits include MRS. KLEIN and COLLECTED STORIES with Uta Hagen, THE HABITATION OF DRAGONS by Horton Foote, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF at the Stratford Festival in Canada and James Ryan's THE YOUNG GIRL AND THE MONSOON at Playwrights Horizons.
Sets are by Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams, lights by Chris Dallos, sound by Shane Rettig and costumes by Suzanne Chesney.Tickets are $30, $20 (previews), $15 tickets for students/senior, and may be ordered at www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org or 866-811-4111. Performances are generally Wednesday through Saturday and Monday evenings at 7:00pm with matinees Saturdays at 2:00pm and Sundays at 3:00pm except Sunday, March 7, when the matinee is 5:00pm. LENIN'S EMBALMERS opens Monday, March 8, at 7:00pm for a run through March 28.


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Law firm supporting feds points to progress, but says there is much more work to do.
The federal government is hiring more disabled workers and reducing the number of disability discrimination complaints overall, but it is still struggling to adequately meet the needs of disabled employees, a new study has found.
Tully Rinckey PLLC, a law firm that provides services to federal employees, found in its evaluation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Annual Report on Federal Workforce that discrimination complaints were down 6 percent in fiscal 2011 from fiscal 2010, but up 4 percent over the last five years.
The executive branch hired 18,000 disabled workers in fiscal 2011 -- up 9 percent from the previous year -- which puts the government on pace to meet the goal of an executive order signed by President Obama in July 2010 to hire 100,000 disabled Americans to the federal workforce over five years.
Joanna F. Friedman, a partner at Tully Rinckey, said these are steps in the right direction but there is work yet to be done.
"The federal government can do better at recruiting and hiring new disabled workers as the order requires," Friedman said. "Also important to retaining disabled workers is the government must ensure it is fostering a healthy and equitable working environment, which is not reflected in the increase of complaints filed on the basis of disability discrimination."
The areas with the highest increases in complaints were in appointments or hires to new positions and training, which each saw a more than 30 percent increase over the last five years. Disabled federal employees filed many fewer complaints, however, for discrimination in medical examinations, duty hours and assignment of duties.
"These reports . . . show that the federal government can change for the better when it comes to hiring and properly treating disabled individuals," she said. "But more change is necessary to combat major issues such as harassment, discriminatory terminations and failures to provide reasonable accommodations."
EEOC pointed to a statement it made when its report was originally released in August, which highlighted that federal offices are dealing with complaints more quickly.
"This report has some encouraging news, particularly looking at how federal agencies have reduced the time for processing EEO complaints," said Carlton M. Hadden, director EEOC's Office of Federal Operations. "While federal agencies must remain focused on ensuring timely processing of EEO complaints, they also must make real their obligation to make their workplaces genuine models of EEO employment."


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Latest media releases
UBS consumption indicator: Stable consumer sentiment ushers in the summer break
The UBS consumption indicator moved sideways in June. The first half of the year was weak for registrations of new cars.
Zurich/Basel, July 31, 2013 – The UBS consumption indicator remained stable for the most part in June at 1.44 index points compared to 1.45 the previous month (revised from 1.46). It trended sideways for the second month in a row.
The 27.6% year-on-year drop in registrations of new cars in June is due mainly to special factors from the corresponding period the previous year. The introduction of CO2 sanctions on July 1, 2012 spurred a rash of registrations in June, particularly of vehicles with high CO2 emissions. This raised the number of new cars registered in that month an unusual amount. In spite of this factor, however, this year's June figures are unsettling news for car dealers. Although registrations for new cars increased by 6.1% from the previous month, the negative trend dating from the start of the year continues once figures are seasonally adjusted. A weak six months for registrations thus ends with a considerable decline of 11.8%.
Retail business as surveyed by the Swiss economic research institute KOF, one of the five sub-indicators that feed into the UBS consumption indicator, supported last month's increase, but remains at a low level. Domestic tourism reveals somewhat improved consumer sentiment. The number of hotel stays by Swiss residents rose 0.3% year on year during the first five months of 2013, ending at 6.3 million.
Caesar Lack, UBS CIO Wealth Management Research
Tel. +41-44-234 44 13, email@example.com
Bernd Aumann, UBS CIO Wealth Management Research
Tel. +41-44-234 88 71, firstname.lastname@example.com
UBS publications and forecasts for Switzerland: www.ubs.com/wmr-swiss-research


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OK, it's official. I'm going to be signing Libby Boom books, alongside Catherine Rae Purves, at the Salt Lake City, Deseret Book downtown store this Saturday, on Oct. 2nd, from 6-8pm!!!
Earlier, I will be also be at the Deseret Book, Midvale, UT, Fort Union store from 4-5:30pm
All of you Utah friends...please come on down to say hello and to meet little Libby Boom!!


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DETROIT (AP) ? Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has vetoed legislation that would allow concealed weapons in churches, schools and daycare centers.
DETROIT (AP) ? Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed legislation Tuesday that would have allowed concealed weapons in churches, schools and daycare centers, days after a mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that weighed heavily on his mind.
The Republican governor said in a press release that he seeks a more "thoughtful review" related to gun violence that includes school emergency policies and mental health-related issues.
"While we must vigilantly protect the rights of law-abiding firearm owners, we also must ensure the right of designated public entities to exercise their best discretion in manners of safety and security," he said. "These public venues need clear legal authority to ban firearms on their premises if they see fit do so."
Snyder told The Associated Press Monday that his concerns about the bill were heightened after Friday's massacre that left 26 people ? including 20 children ? dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. He also drew on memories of a fatal shooting in his college dormitory more than three decades ago.
Snyder said the Good Friday 1981 shooting at University of Michigan also played into his decision-making regarding the legislation. He was a law school student and resident adviser when a student set fires by throwing Molotov cocktails onto the floor and fired a shotgun, killing another resident adviser and a student who was trying to help get people off the floor.
He said he dealt with the fire alarm while two other student advisers went up to the floor where the gunman was. If it wasn't for an ailing resident director, Snyder said, he would have responded and "that most likely would have been me" who was shot.
The reflection shaped by the incident that he said still replays in his mind sharply contrasts with the whirlwind decisions made last week by the governor, who in the final days of the legislative session led a Republican effort to make the historically union-strong state the nation's 24th to enact right-to-work legislation limiting labor's power. It was one of an estimated 282 bills passed in the so-called lame-duck session that was capped by marathon 18-hour session over 2 days.
The gun legislation he vetoed would have prohibited openly carrying guns in those places while allowing permit holders to carry concealed weapons. But they couldn't do so if the locations declare themselves weapons-free zones under the state's trespassing laws.
Under existing law, people may openly carry guns in those and other locations, but it's illegal to carry concealed weapons in schools, churches and childcare centers.
Snyder has signed two other bills he said "streamline the process" for buying handguns and end restrictions on interstate rifle and shotgun transactions to states that do not border Michigan. Residents currently may buy those firearms in any contiguous state if they conform to state and federal regulations.
State Sen. Mike Green, a Republican from Mayville and a bill sponsor, said in a release that the veto means concerns from all sides of the issue won't be dealt with "in a reasonable, responsible way."
"I am deeply disappointed that the governor would prefer a confusing patchwork of gun laws around the state rather than the one clear standard for law-abiding citizens that was established in (the bill)," he said.
Zach Pohl, executive director of the liberal group Progress Michigan, said in a release that Snyder was "making the right call."
"This is a victory for school safety and common sense," he said. "Snyder deserves credit for finally standing up to the extreme forces in his own party."
The veto means Michigan hospitals "can continue to be places of healing and wellness" without the threat of firearms, said Spencer Johnson, president of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association. "Hospitals will remain a gun-free, safe place for patients."