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The foreign exchange (FX) market is one of the most liquid tradable assets, with over $5 trillion of daily transactions. The market is decentralised and primarily traded over-the-counter (OTC) rather than exchange based. The FX market is popular for many reasons, though one important reason for individual traders is that it is open 24/6. This means that FX is tradable from Sunday night (Asian market open) continuously until Friday evening (US close). There is only a short period when FX isn&…Continue Reading →
Abshire-Smith Global Ltd ("ASGL") Part 1. Introduction 1. These Terms and Conditions form the basis of the traders' live trading contest "Abshire-Smith Global Ltd - Trading Competition 2013". The "Contest". 2. Taking part in this contest constitutes acceptance of these terms along with ASGL's Best Execution Policy, Client Agreement, Retail Client Protections Notice and also Risk Warning. ASGL "the Company" &…Continue Reading →
The Abshire-Smith trading competition 2013 is for new live funded trading account with $4,000 in cash prizes to be won. To take part in the Abshire-Smith trading competition, complete a live trading account application. What are the steps to enter the competition? First step – Complete an application for a live trading account Second step – Fund your live Abshire-Smith trading account Final Step – Start trading in your live Abshire-Smith tradin…Continue Reading →
The euro has retraced some of the move upwards against the dollar from last week, when Bernanke surprised markets and didn't taper the Feds bond-buying programme. Tuesdays IFO Business climate index data from the powerhouse of Europe (Germany) was the highest since March 2012, but was below analysts' expectations. Technical Outlook The pair is currently testing the 14.6% Fib with the RSI pointing higher, which could see the euro push back up towards the 8-month high r…Continue Reading →
The UK financial regulatory body has evolved from the previous regulator, the Financial Services Authority (UK) into two separate regulatory authorities; the Financial Conduct Authority (www.FCA.org.uk) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (www.bankofengland.co.uk). Abshire-Smith was previously regulated by the FSA (UK), and is now regulated by the FCA. The company's details can be located on the Financial Services Register. What has happened to the Financial Services Au…Continue Reading →
Australia's main trading partner is China, who imports a significant percentage of their raw materials from the mining nation, fuelling economic growth. The concerns over a Chinese economic slowdown from its double digit growth are an important driver for the Aussie currency. The HSBC China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index rose to 51.2 in September compared with a final reading of 50.1 in August. HSBC chief China economist Qu Hongbin: "The HSBC Flash China…Continue Reading →
At the Wednesday announcement and the press conference the Federal Reserved surprised investors by holding the monthly stimulus at the current level of $85bn. The majority of analysts has expect the FOMC to vote to begin to taper at the September meeting, with the size being in dispute. The decision was released at 19:00 (London) with an accompanying statement followed by a press conference at 19:30 with Fed Chief, Ben Bernanke. The unchanged level of monthly bond-purchased had c…Continue Reading →
Will the FOMC announce that they are to begin tapering their monthly bond-purchases today or not? At some point they will have to beginning tightening monetary policy as the endless supply of artificially cheap money would have negative consequences for the US economy. The FOMC has been meeting for the last two days and at 19:00 (London) the outcome of the meeting will be announced to the markets. Speculation and front running of the expected tapering has engrossed traders for the last…Continue Reading →
Spot Gold Gold has been a favourite for traders recently, speculating as to when the Federal Reserve will begin to taper its monthly bond-purchases (QE). The tightening on monetary policy from the current level of $85 billion is expected to begin after this weeks (September 17-18) meeting. Analyst's expectations are that the Fed will reduce its current level by $10-15 billion per month, from the current $85 billion of purchases. The precious metal has been seen as a hedge…Continue Reading →
The UK unemployment rate has been brought into investors focuses following Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney's Forward Guidance. He stated that the interest rates would be held at the record low of 0.50%, until the unemployment rate drops to 7% from the current 7.8%. The Bank of England's forecasts that the unemployment rate will fall to 7% in 2016, though the markets are pricing an increase in interest rates in 2014. There are various caveats to the Forward Guida…Continue Reading →
Technical Outlook Level of resistance 1.3888 (23.6% Fib retracement line) Major support at 1.3104 (50.0% Fib) supporting Thursday trading RSI is mid-range, currently point down, but could support a retest high Macro Outlook The euro has traded upto a week high against the greenback during the Asian session, coming off during the European trading. Trading has been focused around the potential military strikes from a US/French coalition following the alleged use o…Continue Reading →
Technical Outlook Sterling has been bid in FX space in an upward channel for the last 2 weeks, within a bigger upward trend since the end of June. 1.5717 being the recent high was broken during the Asian session with the pair reaching 1.5732, the next level of resistance is likely to be 1.5751, which was the previous daily high on the 17th June. The RSI is relatively high (76.2) which could mean the pair is overbought in the short term, seeing some profit taking. Macr…Continue Reading →
At 13:30 (London) the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the US employment report for August. Bank and broker estimates for US Non-Farm report for August: Morgan Stanley +190K Danske Bank +200K Lloyds TSB Bank +185K Standard Chartered Bank +200K Commerzbank AG +175K Wells Fargo & Co. +205K Credit Agricole CIB +160K Soc Gen +220K Moody's +185K Goldman, Sachs & Co. +200K RBC Capital Markets +185K H…Continue Reading →
It is the first Friday of the month and that means it is the release of the pivotal US jobs report; Non-Farm Payrolls. The monthly release is a significant data point for the economy, as the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has reiterated at the FOMC meetings that the bond-buying programme (QE) will remain if unemployment remains above 7%. Bernanke also stated that they would hike interest rates from the current record low of 0.25%, last altered in 2008. ADP, Initial Jobless Claim…Continue Reading →
As expected the MPC have left interest rates on hold at 0.50% and quantitative easing at £375bn. Carney is now under pressure following the recent better than expected data points from the UK, pointing to a recovery that it is gaining traction. The Governors Forward Guidance, of ultra-loose monetary policy seems to be being ignored by the markets, as traders believe that the bank will be forced to raise rates earlier than forecast. The minutes of the meeting will be publish…Continue Reading →


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Finding Records in Your Access 2003 Tables
When you want to track down a particular record, creating a query is overkill. Fortunately, Access 2003 has a quick way to find one specific piece of data in your project's tables and forms: the Find command.
Find is available both on the toolbar and through the main menu. (Choose Edit –> Find. Keyboard-oriented folks out there can press Ctrl+F.) Access 2003 doesn't care which way you fire up the Find command — it works the same from either avenue.
Although the Find command is pretty easy to use on its own, knowing a few tricks makes it do its best work. After you know the Find basics (covered in the next section), you can fine-tune the Find command by using the tips in the section called, "Tuning a search for speed and accuracy," later in this article. That section shows you how to tweak the Find settings for more detailed search missions.
Finding first things first (and next things after that)
Using the Find command is a straightforward task. Here's how it works:
1. Open the table or form you want to search.
Yes, Find works in both datasheet view and with Access forms.
2. Click the field that you want to search.
The Find command searches the current field in all the records of the table, so make sure that you click the right field before starting the Find process. Access 2003 doesn't care which record you click — as long as you hit the right field, Access is happy. (And it's important to keep your software happy!)
3. Start the Find command by clicking the Find toolbar button (the one with the binoculars on it) or choosing Edit –> Find.
The Find and Replace dialog box pops into action.
4. Type the text you're looking for into the Find What box, as shown in Figure 1.
Take a moment to check your spelling before starting the search. Access isn't bright enough to figure out that you actually mean hero when you type zero.
5. Click Find Next to begin your search.
Before you can count to one by eighths, the Find command tracks down the record you want, moves the cursor there, and highlights the matching text. If Find doesn't locate anything, however, it laments its failure in a small dialog box.
6. If Find didn't find what you were looking for:
• a. Click OK to make the dialog box go away.
• b. Make sure that you clicked in the correct field and spelled everything correctly in the Find What box.
• You may also want to check the special Find options covered in the next section to see whether one of them is messing up your search.
• c. Click Find Next again.
What if the first record that Access finds isn't the one you're looking for? Suppose you want the second, third, or the fourteenth John Smith in the table? No problem — that's why the Find and Replace dialog box has a Find Next button. Keep clicking Find Next until Access works its way down to the record you want or tells you that it's giving up the search.
Tuning a search for speed and accuracy
Sometimes, just providing the information in the Find What box isn't enough. Either you find too many records or the ones that match aren't the ones that you want. The best way to reduce the number of wrong matches is to add more details to your search.
Precise adjustment makes the pursuit faster, too.
Access offers several tools for fine-tuning a Find. Open the Find and Replace dialog box by clicking the Find button on the toolbar or by choosing Edit –> Find. The following list describes how to use the various options:
- Look In: By default, Access looks for matches only in the current field — whichever field you clicked in before starting the Find command. To tell Access to search the entire table instead, change the Look In setting to the Table option, as shown in Figure 2.
- Match: Access makes a few silly assumptions, and this setting is a good example. By default, Match is set to Whole Field, which assumes that you want to find only fields that completely match your search text. The Whole Field setting means that searching for Sam doesn't find fields containing Samuel, Samantha, or Mosam. Not too bright for such an expensive program, is it? Change this behavior by adjusting the Match setting to Any Part of Field, which allows a match anywhere in a field (finding both Samuel and new sample product), or to Start of Field, which recognizes only a match that starts from the beginning of the field. To change this setting, click the down arrow next to the field (see Figure 3) and then make your choice from the drop-down menu that appears.
- Search: If you're finding too many matches, try limiting your search to one particular portion of the table with the Search option. Search tells the Find command to look either
• At all the records in the table (the default setting)
• Up or Down from the current record
- Clicking a record halfway through the table and then telling Access to search Down from there confines your search to the bottom part of the table.
- Tune your Search settings by clicking the down arrow next to the Search box and choosing the appropriate choice from the drop-down menu.
- Match Case: Match Case requires that the term you search for be exactly the same as the value stored in the database, including the case of the characters. In other words, if the database contains the oddly capitalized name SmItH, Match Case finds that value only if you search for the name using exactly the same odd capitalization (in this case, SmItH). Match Case works very well when searching your database for names.
- Search Fields As Formatted: This option instructs Access to look at the formatted version of the field instead of the actual data you typed. Limiting the search in this way is handy when searching dates, stock-keeping unit IDs, or any other field with quite a bit of specialized formatting. Turn on Search Fields As Formatted by clicking the check box next to it. This setting doesn't work with Match Case, so if Match Case is checked, Search Fields As Formatted appears dimmed. In that case, uncheck Match Case to bring back Search Fields As Formatted.
- Most of the time, this option doesn't make much difference in your life. In fact, the only time you probably care about this Find option is when (or if) you search many highly formatted fields.
If your Find command isn't working the way you think it should, check the options in the preceding list. Odds are that one or more of these options aren't set quite right!

subset: commoncrawl


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Italian fascism and German national socialism were committed to abolishing private property in practice, if not in name.
The core problems protested by the "Yellow Vests" are largely of an economic nature, while they also targeted the political class that is widely seen as being out of touch with reality.
Decentralization and SecessionStrategy
Money and Banking
Legal SystemPhilosophy and MethodologyPolitical Theory


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Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times
Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times
It truly is a new day in Log Lane Village.
Monday night, the town's Board of Trustees officially got a new look, with a large crowd watching the change happen.
Four trustees were at their last meeting on the board, and the newly elected ones took over their seats just a short time later.
"I think we're going in a whole new direction now," Mayor Ed Parker said afterward. "I think we have a board that's ready to roll and will work for the betterment of the town."
After Town Clerk Kim Alva swore in Parker to another term, the mayor swore in the six trustees: Rick Alva, Michael Carlson, Raina L. Hallahan, Shawn Greenwell, Martha Manion and Robin Mastin.
The board then proceeded to re-appoint Fred Cook as town marshal, Kim Alva as town clerk and Carmen Beery as town attorney. Rick Alva abstained on the vote.
They also appointed Manion as Conservation Trust chairwoman, replacing outgoing Trustee Rose Condos, and reappointed Kim Alva treasurer and Rick Alva as mayor pro tem. Rick Alva abstained on the treasurer and mayor pro tem votes.
The board also set all the board, except Rick Alva due to potential conflicts with his wife being clerk, as signatories on the town's bank accounts. He abstained on the vote for this, too.
Kim Alva said this would make it simpler to get signatures for town checks if multiple people were out of town or unavailable at the same time.
Before these actions were taken, though, the board heard the monthly reports.
In his mayor's report, Parker said that the town was "popping" with activity.
Things were starting to happen, with Kim Alva receiving the first application for a marijuana business and some construction projects in the works, he said.
A new building soon will go up on Ash Street, he said, and a Little Caesar's Pizza was still a possibility. He said he knew of at least two other marijuana establishment applications that likely soon would come in, and there may be others yet to come.
One of the things Public Works Director Bert Kammerzell talked about in his report was a need to work with engineers to determine what changes would need to be made to a water line on the southeast part of town.
That area could house marijuana grow operations before long and would need a better water source, he said.
He also reported on the fire hydrant in that area and its need for replacement, which the board later approved spending $2,590 to do.
Rose Condos gave her final Conservation Trust report, telling the mayor and incoming trustees about bids she had gathered for new shingles for the picnic structures in Town Park, as well as for paint for those pavilions.
She also reported she talked with vendors for security cameras for the Town Hall/Community Building and had at least one bid that could be considered for this.
Parker said he also had gotten a bid for this, and the issue likely will come before the board at the May 14 regular meeting.
Other action
The outgoing board also:
• Approved the March 12 regular meeting minutes.
• Approved of the March 12 to April 8 payables.
• Heard farewell comments from outgoing trustees Delores "Dee" Jimenez, Condos and Jeanie Cardona; they thanked the community for allowing them to serve and wished the new board well.
Contact Times Staff Writer Jenni Grubbs at email@example.com, follow @JenniGrubbs on Twitter or check out tout.com/jennigrubbs


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I just discovered that I evidently got two completely different Wild West maps confused with each other, in my original topic and posts!
The one I've been using is this one, by ICrafting:
That's the direct download link, which does NOT go through the ad place.
You can read more about it here:
That's the place that I first saw it, and if you download it from there, watch out for the ad stuff that pops up. It eventually takes you to the link above, so I'd suggest going ahead and reading through the stuff at this link, but downloading from the first link, instead. BTW--this one has NO texture pack associated with it.
I really like this version! It's rather vast, but a lot of fun. There's a link for more pictures at the first link. That picture link is:
Again...this is the one I like. I've now downloaded the other one, too, though, and found that I do NOT like it! Some of you might, but to me, it's way too busy, and way too staged, and...well...it's just not like the other one. It makes my computer run hot, and it feels claustrophobic to me, plus too dark, and it has a lot of restrictions and full walls full of conversational instructions that you're expected to read, do, read, do, read, do...etc. Not my cup of tea.
However, if you want to take a look at it, here are the links for it. It was evidently created by TheDragster. I think it's a knock-off on the other one...could actually have been done over after he played the other one.
If you go for that one, go for the new one with the horses, and if you want to get the texture pack, you can. It does have some fun graphics in it...like the clock in the main picture that you can see at that site (which doesn't exist in the other map).
So there you go.
Take your pick or do both (or neither). I'm sticking with the first one.
I've retyped the Rules and Challenges ICrafting displayed on the website, and added a few challenges of my own.
1) Play on any difficulty--including Peaceful.
2) No cheating.
1) Tame a horse.
2) Spend four days at the hotel.
3) Find the lost gold mine.
4) Buy goods from the traders.
5) Try the "Blue Beer Light."
6) Build your own house and farm, as follows:
*Build a red barn, using red wool.
*Build a stable.
*Make a 20x20 wheat farm.
*Make a 20x20 carrot farm.
*Make a 20x20 potato farm.
*Make a melon and pumpkin farm.
*Make a garden from at least 30 grass blocks, and plant jungle trees.
7) Expand the town with three more western-style buildings of your choice.
8) Do some TNT mining at the hills.
9) Find the two abandoned huts.
10) Tame four dogs.
11) Make a huge pasture from at least 50 grass blocks.
12) Make an automatic sugar cane farm.
13) Make full diamond armor.
14) Make a jukebox.
15) Find the lost mineshaft.
16) Build a small cottage near one of the mountains.
17) Found a new town.
Some Extra Challenges I've Added to My Game:
1) Protect the town, as you would do for any regular village, so that the villagers don't disappear. They have unique trades, that go with the theme of the town, that will stand you in good stead.
2) Fix up any areas on any of the buildings, that aren't safe, or that are impractical or missing parts.
3) Somewhere in town, build a statue using every color of either wool or hardened clay, or both. You should be able to make enough dye from the natural surroundings, that you can do this.
4) Figure out how to get some of the tradesmen from the original town, to your new town, and get them to mate (it can be done without cheats or being in Creative).
5) Make a cocoa bean farm.
I encourage you to come up with some other goals that can be shared with the others here, as well.


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Get up to $1000 in cash when you sell your Used or Vintage gear for a limited time Learn More
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Items where Department is "Educational Research" and Year is 1999
|Up a level
Arksey, H. and Knight, P. T. (1999) Interviewing for social scientists. Sage, London. ISBN 0761958703
Bardgett, Richard D. and Kandeler, E. and Tscherko, D. and Hobbs, Philip J. and Jones, T. H. and Thompson, Lititia and Bezemer, T. M. (1999) Below-ground microbial community development in a high temperature world. Oikos, 85. pp. 193-203. ISSN 0030-1299
Bentley, J and Tang, C W and Owen-Lynch, P J and Downes, C P and Baldwin, S A and Whetton, A D (1999) The survival signals stimulated by interleukin 3 include a phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase/PKB mediated translocation of the GLUT 1 glucose transporter to the cell surface. Blood, 94 (10). 471A-471A. ISSN 0006-4971
Cuban, Sondra (1999) Book review : Presstime in paradise : the life and times of the Honolulu Advertiser, 1856-1995 by George Chaplin. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998. History of Reading News, 23 (1).
Deem, R. (1999) Power and resistance in the academy - the case of woman academic managers. In: Transforming managers : gendering change in the public sector. ULC Press, London, pp. 66-83. ISBN 1857288750
Edwards, Anne and Warin, Jo (1999) Parental Involvement in Raising the Achievement of Primary School Pupils:Why bother? Oxford Review of Education, 25 (3). pp. 325-341. ISSN 0305-4985
Frank, F. and Hamilton, M. (1999) Whatever next? Policy and practice in workplace basic skills in the UK. In: Researching work and learning : a first international conference. University of Leeds, School of Continuing Education, Leeds, pp. 631-644. ISBN 0907644406
Goodyear, Peter (1999) Asynchronous multimedia conferencing in continuing professional development: issues in the representation of practice through user-created videoclips. Distance Education, 20 (1). pp. 31-48. ISSN 0158-7919
Goodyear, Peter (1999) Educational technology : virtual learning environments and architectural practice. In: Educational science and technology : perspectives for the future. Twente University Press, Enschede, pp. 75-91. ISBN 9036513871
Goodyear, Peter (1999) New technology in higher education : understanding the innovation process. In: Integrating information and communication technology in higher education. Kluwer, Deventer, pp. 107-136. ISBN 9026832060
Goodyear, Peter (1999) Pedagogical frameworks and action research in open and distance learning. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-learning. ISSN 1027-5207
Goodyear, Peter (1999) Seeing learning as work: implications for understanding and improving analysis and design. Journal of Courseware Engineering, 2. pp. 3-11.
Goodyear, Peter (1999) The role of the tutor in corporate CBT/interactive multimedia. Technologies for Training Ltd. and Department for Education and Employment.
Goodyear, Peter and Smith, Christine and Haugen, H. and Ask, B. and Sgouropoulou, C. and Koutoumanos, A. and Skordalakis, E. and Bartoluzzi, S. (1999) User trials and evaluation study. Working Paper. UNSPECIFIED, Brussels.
Hamilton, Mary (1999) Visible worlds: vernacular literacies and new technology. Working Paper. UNSPECIFIED.
Hamilton, Mary and Merrifiield, J. (1999) Adult basic education in the UK : lessons for the US. National Review of Adult Learning and Literacy, 1 (1).
Hamilton, Mary E. and Barton, David P. (1999) The texts of everyday life : public and private identities in vernacular literacy practices. Caldernos Linguistics and Society, 3. pp. 45-71.
Harvey, L. and Knight, P. T. (1999) Policy and accountability. In: Education, training and the future of work. Developments in vocational education and training. Routledge, London, pp. 232-257. ISBN 0415202108
Houghton, A. M. (1999) Confidence, communication and citizenship: enterprising community learning. In: Social Change and Active Citizenship in the Learning Society. European Society for Research in the Education of Adults (ESREA). UNSPECIFIED.
Houghton, Ann-Marie (1999) Voyages of discovery : deciding a convenient time, place and pace to suit adult learners in the community. In: The Final Frontier: Exploring Spaces in the Education of Adults, SCUTREA 29th Annual Conference, 1999-07-051999-07-07.
Houghton, Ann-Marie and Ali, Helen (1999) Voices from the community. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning, 1 (3). pp. 45-46. ISSN 1466-6529
Jackson, C. (1999) Underachieving' boys? Some points for consideration. Curriculum, 20 (2). pp. 80-85.
Knight, P. T. (1999) Editorial. Quality in Higher Education, 5 (2). pp. 101-105. ISSN 1353-8322
Knight, P. T. and Saunders, M. S. (1999) Understanding Teachers' Professional Cultures Through Interview: A Constructivist Approach. Evaluation and Research in Education, 13 (3). pp. 144-156. ISSN 0950-0790
Knight, P. T. and Trowler, P. R. (1999) It Takes a Village to Raise a Child: mentoring and the socialisation of new entrants to the academic professions. Mentoring and Tutoring, 7 (1). pp. 23-34. ISSN 1361-1267
Morton, J. E. and Summerfield, ? and Jones, Keith (1999) Use of faecal coliforms to trace sources of pollution at Morecambe North. In: Society of Applied Microbiology Conference on Aquatic Microbiology, 1999-07-01.
Ormerod, Thomas C. and Fritz, Catherine O. and Ridgway, James (1999) From deep to superficial categorization with increasing expertise. In: 21st Conference on Cognitive Science, 1999-08-01.
Passey, Don (1999) Anytime anywhere learning pilot programme : a Microsoft UK programme in 28 pilot schools. Working Paper. Microsoft UK, Reading.
Passey, Don (1999) Preparing Teachers for the 'Connected Learning Community'. In: IFIP WG 3.1 and 3.5 Transactions, 1900-01-01.
Passey, Don (1999) Strategic evaluation of the impacts on learning of educational technologies: Exploring some of the issues for evaluators and future evaluation audiences. Education and Information Technologies, 4 (3). pp. 221-248. ISSN 1360-2357
Passey, Don and Steadman, S. and Forsyth, K. and Hutchison, D. and Scott, Andrew (1999) Anytime anywhere learning pilot programme: a Microsoft UK supported programme in 28 pilot schools. Working Paper. Microsoft UK, Reading.
Pritchard, C. and Deem, R. (1999) Wo-managing Further Education; gender and the construction of the manager in the corporate colleges of England. Gender and Education, 11 (3). pp. 323-342. ISSN 0954-0253
Sime, Julie-Ann and Pengelly, M. (1999) Supporting learning in teams : the instructional design. In: Public Deliverable 2.2, ETOILE Project. UNSPECIFIED.
Sime, Julie-Ann and Pengelly, M. (1999) The acquisition and use of shared mental models. In: Public Deliverable 2.1, ETOILE Project. UNSPECIFIED.
Sime, Julie-Ann and Pengelly, M. and Goodyear, Peter (1999) Evaluation criteria. In: Public Deliverable 5.1, ETOILE Project. UNSPECIFIED.
Smith, Christine and Goodyear, Peter (1999) Enabling Professional Learning in Distributed Communities of Practice:Descriptors for Multimedia Objects. In: World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications (EDMEDIA) 1999. AACE, Chesapeake, VA, pp. 207-212.
Smith, Christine and Goodyear, Peter (1999) Enabling professional learning in distributed communities of practice: Descriptors for multimedia objects. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 22 (2). pp. 133-145. ISSN 1084-8045
Smith, Leslie (1999) Eight good questions for developmental epistemology and psychology. New Ideas in Psychology, 17 (2). pp. 137-147. ISSN 0732-118X
Smith, Leslie (1999) Epistemological principles for developmental psychology in Frege and Piaget. New Ideas in Psychology, 17 (2). pp. 83-117. ISSN 0732-118X
Smith, Leslie (1999) Necessary knowledge in number conservation. Developmental Science, 2 (1). pp. 23-27. ISSN 1363-755X
Smith, Leslie (1999) Representation and knowledge are not the same thing : peer commentary on "A theory of implicit and explicit knowledge, Zoltan Dienes and Josef Perner.". Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22 (5). pp. 784-785. ISSN 1469-1825
Smith, Leslie (1999) Representation and knowledge are not the same thing. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22 (5). pp. 784-785. ISSN 0140-525X
Smith, Leslie (1999) What Piaget learned from Frege. Developmental Review, 19 (1). pp. 133-153. ISSN 0273-2297
Teasdale, Peter R. and Hayward, Sean and Davison, William (1999) In situ, high resolution measurement of dissolved sulfide using diffusive gradients in thin films with computer-imaging densitometry. Analytical Chemistry, 71 (11). pp. 2186-2191. ISSN 0003-2700
Thompson, Leanne and Reeves, Christopher and Masters, Kate (1999) In the Balance:Making Financial Information Accessible. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 17 (2). pp. 65-70. ISSN 0264-6196
Trowler, P. R. and Knight, P. T. (1999) Organizational socialization and induction in universities: Reconceptualizing theory and practice. Higher Education, 37 (2). pp. 177-195. ISSN 0018-1560
Warin, J. and Solomon, Y. and Lewis, C. and Langford, W. (1999) Fathers, work and family life. Family & parenthood : policy & practice . Family Policy Studies Centre, London. ISBN 190145536X
Williams, S. T. and Mortimer, A. M. and Parry, Jackie D. (1999) Phages in soil. In: Encyclopedia of Virology. Academic Press, London.
Wright, W. A. and Knight, P. T. and Pomerleau, N. (1999) Portfolio People: Teaching and Learning Dossiers and Innovation in Higher Education. Innovative Higher Education, 24 (2). pp. 89-102. ISSN 0742-5627
Yorke, Mantz (1999) Leaving early:undergraduate non-completion in higher education. Falmer Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 9780750708968


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North Raleigh: Community
Volunteer Notes: Nov. 19
Hands on Triangle
Hands on Triangle presents volunteer opportunities in the Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill areas. For information and other ways to volunteer, visit www.handsontriangle.org or call 919-613-5105.
SAFE Haven for Cats
SAFE Haven for Cats needs volunteers to help care for cats at its facility at 8431-137 Garvey Drive, Raleigh. Shifts are from 10 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday and from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Email firstname.lastname@example.com, or visit SafeHavenForCats.org for more information.
Foster homes for cats
Snowflake Animal Rescue, a nonprofit group, is seeking foster homes for cats in need. For more information, go to www.snowflakerescue.org or call 919-990-2478.
Second Chance pet rescue
Second Chance Pet Adoptions seeks volunteers to assist at its no-kill shelter. Clean cat rooms, wash dogs and offer foster care. For more information, visit www.secondchancenc.org or call 919-851-8404.
Hospice volunteers needed
Liberty Home Care & Hospice needs volunteers to help care for its residents. Liberty serves Raleigh, Cary, Garner, Knightdale, Apex, Fuquay-Varina, Wendell and Zebulon. For information, go to www.libertyhomecare.com.
Inter-Faith Food Shuttle
The Inter-Faith Food Shuttle seeks volunteers for activities. Get your hands dirty at the teaching farm, deliver food to people in need or lead cooking classes and demonstrations. For information, visit www.foodshuttle.org.
ESL volunteers
The English as a Second Language program seeks volunteers to help teach English as a second language, as well as program outreach. Knowledge of another language is not required to participate. For information, contact the program office at 919-996-6844 or email the volunteer coordinator at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Special Olympics
Special Olympics Wake County seeks volunteers to help during training and competitive events. Volunteers assist as event officials, athlete escorts, coaches, award presenters and more. For more information or to volunteer, visit www.raleighnc.gov or call Recreation Program Manager Brian Philpot at 919-996-2111.
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
The Carolinas chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is looking for volunteers to help with fundraising and events. For more information, call 919-845-2155 or visit www.cff.org/Chapters/carolinas.
SPCA of Wake County
The SPCA of Wake County needs volunteers for various activities at adoption centers and events. For more information, visit www.spcawake.org.
Drivers needed
The Center for Volunteer Caregiving needs volunteers to drive seniors to appointments, four to eight hours per month. Call 919-460-0567 or visit www.volunteercaregiving.org to volunteer.


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Here's the Trailer for Rob Schneider's Netflix Show Real Rob
Nov 20, 2015 5:57 PM EST
He's baaack! Netflix released a trailer for Real Rob, Rob Schneider's series about his madcap misadventures in Hollywood. It's another addition to the pile of meta, my-life-as-comedic-commentary series that have been trending as of late. The trailer… Read more


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A Future for Agriculture, A Future for Haiti
"We plant but we can't produce or market. We plant but we have no food to eat. We want agriculture to improve so our country can live and so we peasants can live, too."
-Rilo Petit-homme, peasant organizer from St. Marc, Haiti
What would it take to transform Haiti's economy such that its role in the global economy is no longer that of providing cheap labor for sweatshops? What would it take for hunger to no longer be the norm, for the country no longer to depend on imports and hand-outs, and for Port-au-Prince's slums no longer to contain 85 percent of the city's residents? What would it take for the hundreds of thousands left homeless by the earthquake to have a secure life, with income?
According to Haitian peasant organizations, at the core of the solutions is a commitment on the part of government to support family agriculture, with policies to make the commitment a reality.
Haiti is the only country in the hemisphere that is still majority rural. Estimates of the percentage of Haiti's citizens who are farmers span from 60.5 percent (UN, 2006) to 80 percent (the figure used by peasant groups).
Nevertheless, food imports currently constitute 57 percent of what Haitians consume (World Bank, 2008). It wasn't always that way; policy choices made it so. In the 1980s, the U.S. and international financial institutions pressured Haiti to lower tariffs on food imports, leading to a flood of cheap food with which Haitian farmers could not compete. At the same time, USAID and others pressured Haiti to orient its production toward export, leaving farmers vulnerable to shifting costs of sugar and coffee on the world market.
Eighty-eight percent of the rural population lives in poverty; 67 percent lives in extreme poverty (UNDP, 2004). Things have grown worse for them since the 2008 hurricane season, when four storms battered Haiti in three weeks, destroying more than 70 percent of agriculture and most rural roads, bridges, and other infrastructure needed for production and marketing. At least during the earthquake, only one farming area, around Jacmel, was badly damaged.
There is a direct relationship between the state of agriculture and the earthquake's high toll in deaths, injuries, and homelessness. The quake was so destructive because more than three million people were jammed into a city meant for 200,000 to 250,000, with most living in extremely precarious and overcrowded housing. This is partly due to the demise of peasant agriculture over the past three decades, which has forced small producers to move to the capital to enter the sweatshop and informal sectors.
It is also due, in part, to the fact that government services effectively do not exist for those in the countryside. ID cards, universities, specialized health care, and much else is available exclusively, or almost exclusively, in what Haitians call the Republic of Port-au-Prince, forcing many to visit or live there to meet their needs.
"It's not houses which will rebuild Haiti, it's investing in the agriculture sector," says Rosnel Jean-Baptiste of the group Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen (translated literally, Heads Together Small Peasant Farmers of Haiti). Those interviewed for this article, including dozens of peasant farmers from five organizations as well as economists and development experts, agree that the current moment offers an opportunity to create secure employment for the majority, increase rural development, and reduce hunger. Their goal is resettlement with employment for those displaced from earthquake-hit areas.
If reinforced, agriculture could help feed the nation, which is currently suffering a dire food crisis. More than 2.4 million Haitians are estimated to be food-insecure. Nine percent of children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, and 24 percent from chronic malnutrition (World Food Programme, 2010). That poverty is political in origin, largely due to World Bank and IMF conditions on loans which have squeezed the poor, and free trade policies which have made it impossible for farmers to grow enough food to meet the needs. Securing adequate and affordable Haitian-grown food is one step toward diminishing that poverty, while another is rejecting IMF prescriptions.
Food Rebellions:
7 Steps to Solving the Food Crisis
Alternatives to the trade and "aid" policies that displace farmers and increase hunger.
Agriculture could also offer a solution for the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people now residing in rural areas. In interviews with dozens of Port-au-Prince residents who are taking refuge in the Central Plateau, most say they would stay there if they could find a way to sustain themselves. If they could be given the land and resources necessary to begin farming, they would not need to return to city sweatshops, which do not provide a living wage, job security, or health or safety protections. Port-au-Prince could then become a livable city without overcrowded and inhumane conditions, without more than eight out of ten people residing in slums (as suggested by UN Human Settlements Program reports).
"We are meeting with different sectors to construct a Haiti where all Haitians feel like children of the land," says Sylvain Henrilus of Tèt Kole. Peasant groups—even those with historic distrust of each other—and other allies are meeting regularly to plan their advocacy and mobilization for reorienting Haiti's political economy in favor of agriculture, based on the following priorities:
- Food sovereignty, the right of people to grow and consume their own food. With trade policies which support local production, Haiti's levels of self-sufficiency could increase. Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay and the National Peasant Movement of the Papay Congress says, "the country has the right to determine its own agricultural policies, its own food production policies, to produce for family and for local consumption in healthy and simple agriculture which respects the environment, Mother Earth, as the mother of future generations."
- Decentralization of services. The "people outside," as rural inhabitants are known, must have access to services equal to the people of Port-au-Prince. The ability to meet their needs where they are is the right of rural people as well as a way to keep Port-au-Prince from again becoming overcrowded. Rosnel Jean-Baptiste says, "We need to deconstruct the capital, bringing services into the country and helping people find jobs there."
- Technical support, especially for sustainable, ecological farming. Farmers in the region of the Artibonite, for example, stated that their melons, bananas, and tomatoes are not producing well, but they don't know what the problem is or how to resolve it. They need advice from agronomists. They also need credit to help them buy equipment, as well as support with storage and marketing, reforestation, and irrigation and water management. Elio Youyoute, a member of a community peasant association in the south, says, "We are trying to grow enough food to feed the cities, but we need help from the state."
- Land reform. Those who work the land need secure tenure. Otherwise they will continue to be unable to support themselves on what Haitians call 'a handkerchief of land,' plots sometimes no larger than 15 feet square. Land reform must be not just a one-time hand-out, which would quickly revert to its previous concentration as struggling farmers are forced to sell their small gardens, but a change in tenure laws accompanied by technical support. Sylvain Henrilus of Tèt Kole says, "The land reform we need is not what Préval did in his first term, which was to just divide a bit of land into very small plots without any support, but where those who work the land have the right to that land with all the infrastructure and means - not just to adequately feed the people but to export as we used to do, to have our sovereignty in all dimensions."
- Seeds, what Doudou Pierre of Vía Campesina's coordinating committee calls "the patrimony of humanity." Haiti's seed stock is not going towards the March planting season as intended, but rather toward feeding the flood of internally displaced people. Farmers need help in procuring seed supplies, which they insist not be genetically modified. Chavannes Jean-Baptiste insists that "If people start sending hybrid, GMO seeds, that's the end of Haitian agriculture."
- A ban on food aid in the medium to long-term. U.S.A.I.D. alone is giving $113 million in food aid this year, according to an Associated Press article on February 26. Farmers agree that aid is critical in this moment of crisis, but say that the government needs to quickly do everything it can to shore up production so that domestic agriculture can begin replacing the aid. Otherwise, Haiti will grow even more dependent, and multinational food and seed companies will overtake Haiti's market even more.
The challenges are many. The chief challenge is securing the state's commitment of the priorities outlined above. The government has a long history of responding not to the needs of peasant farmers but to those of the large landowning class and, more recently, to the desires of the U.S. and other foreign powers looking to dump or sell food in Haiti.
In interviews, farmer after farmer indicated a resolve to work to change this state of affairs, recognizing that it will be a long haul. Says Tèt Kole's Rosnel Jean-Baptiste, "It's up to us social movements to put our heads together to change the situation of food production and the model of the state in Haiti."
More of Beverly Bell's .
:: How a community-based food system works


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It can't get much dumber than Yahoo!'s Sports Friends, but when Jayson Werth and Joey Votto chat at first base about the racing presidents, we have to listen in.
The authors decided to make Werth look clueless by calling Alexander Hamilton a president. Of course, followers know better, as Jayson Werth has always been among the more prominent members of the Let Teddy Win movement.
Filed under: Appearances, Videos | Tagged: Jayson Werth, Joey Votto, Sports Friends | 1 Comment »


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Organic Certification
QAI (Quality Assurance International), part of the NSF International family of companies, is a leading organic product certifying agency accredited to the USDA National Organic Program (NOP), the Canadian Organic Regime (COR) and Mexico's Organic Products Law (LPO). Founded in San Diego in 1989, QAI is an active leader in the organic industry, advocating for high integrity organic regulations.
QAI brings organic industry knowledge and expertise to sectors such as crop production, food manufacturing, dietary supplements, personal care and cosmetics, livestock, honey, maple syrup, poultry, eggs, sea vegetables, dairy, mushrooms, hydroponics, greenhouse, distribution, retail and foodservice.
NSF International's Director of Standards Development Awarded Meritorious Service Award From ANSI
- 2 months ago
Jessica Evans, Director of Standards Development at NSF International, was recently awarded the Meritorious Service Award from the American National...
NSF International Opens New Qingdao, China Location
- 2 months ago
NSF International hosted an opening ceremony for its new Qingdao, China location earlier this month. The new location will support...
NSF International Honors Joe Corby With 2019 Food Safety Leadership Award
- 7 months ago
ANN ARBOR, MICH. – NSF International, a global public health and safety organization, announced Joe Corby, Senior Advisor to the...
How long does the certification process take?
Generally, the process takes about eight to 10 weeks from receipt of payment and all data required for review. We also offer various levels of rush services.
How much does it cost to be certified?
The fee for QAI's organic certification depends on various factors (e.g., size of operation, location, etc.). A fee schedule is provided with the QAI application for organic certification.
Who sets the regulations that govern Quality Assurance International (QAI) as an accredited organization of the United States Department of Agriculture?
QAI certifies to the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) regulations. While QAI does not develop the regulations, QAI is actively involved in the industry working groups and the National Organic Standards Board to help ensure long-term consumer trust in organics.
QAI strictly follows regulations established by the NOP, the federal regulation that ensures all USDA requirements are met. As part of its accreditation, QAI updates programs and policies as needed to ensure ongoing compliance with NOP regulations. The NOP website provides more information on the role of accredited organizations.
Just as consumers in the United States rely on the NOP and its accredited certifiers to ensure that all organic-labeled food destined to enter the U.S. meets U.S. organic production and labeling laws, other countries and regions (including Japan, Canada and the European Union) have similar governance. For more detailed information on global organic regulations, visit the QAI website.
What does "certified organic" mean?
In the United States, "certified organic" means that a nonprofit, state or private certification organization, such as QAI, which has been accredited by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), has verified that products labeled as "organic" meet strictly defined organic standards.
Similarly, in some global markets, "certified organic" means that a certification organization, such as QAI, has been approved by an accreditation body to certify products in the respective international markets.
What is organic?
In the United States, organic is defined as a production system managed in accordance with the Organic Foods Production Act and the National Organic Program to respond to site-specific conditions by integrating cultural, biological and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance and conserve biodiversity.
Source: USDA - National Organic Program 2001
Other countries and regions, including Japan, Canada and the European Union, have their own federal regulations covering the production and labeling of organic foods.
For more information about international regulations for organics, visit the QAI website.


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Found 11 resultsAuthor Title Type [ Year]
Filters: Author is Huang, Maoyi [Clear All Filters]
Global land carbon sink response to temperature and precipitation varies with ENSO phase. Environmental Research Letters. 12(6):064007.. 2017.
Global patterns of drought recovery. Nature. 548120552650044912911053915264037164349213639132911663293417411117447125110348372561527126110118(7666):202-205.. 2017.
CO 2 and greening observations indicate increasing light-use efficiency in northern terrestrial ecosystems. Geophysical Research Letters.. 2016.
Disentangling climatic and anthropogenic controls on global terrestrial evapotranspiration trends. Environmental Research Letters. 10(9):094008.. 2015.
Global Patterns and controls of soil organic carbon dynamics as simulated by multiple terrestrial biosphere models: current status and future directions. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. :n/a-n/a.. 2015.
Toward "optimal" integration of terrestrial biosphere models. Geophysical Research Letters. 42(11):4418-4428.. 2015.
Impact of large-scale climate extremes on biospheric carbon fluxes: An intercomparison based on MsTMIP data. Global Biogeochemical Cycles. 28(6):585-600.. 2014.
Sensitivity of global terrestrial gross primary production to hydrologic states simulated by the Community Land Model using two runoff parameterizations. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. :n/a-n/a.. 2014.
Toward verifying fossil fuel CO 2 emissions with the CMAQ model: Motivation, model description and initial simulation. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association. 64(4):419-435.. 2014.
Spatiotemporal patterns of evapotranspiration in response to multiple environmental factors simulated by the Community Land Model. Environmental Research Letters. 8(2):024012.. 2013.


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Whitney Shaw recorded her fourth multi-hit game of the season against St. Louis Sunday (Gil Talbot).
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – After collecting wins in its first three games at the UC Riverside Tournament, the Harvard softball team (6-3) dropped its first game of its spring break trip with a 5-3 defeat at the hands of St. Louis Sunday. Harvard finishes the tournament with a 3-1 record, having topped the Billikens, 2-1 in eight innings, Saturday.
The Billikens jumped out to an early 1-0 lead thanks to a double and an RBI single in the top of the first inning, but the Crimson responded in the bottom half of the frame. For the second time this season, Ellen Macadam bashed a homerun as Harvard's first batter of the game, knotting the score at 1-1. Macadam is hitting .889 as the first Harvard batter of the game, having collected eight hits in nine opportunities this season.
St. Louis retook the lead in its next at-bat, this time bringing three runs home with a bases-loaded walk and a two-RBI single to left field. Once again the Crimson had an immediate answer, punching back with two more runs in the bottom of the second. Allison Scott and Jane Alexander knocked back-to-back one-out singles and moved to second and third on a Jackie Cooley groundout. Macadam came up big once again, steering a single to center which plated Scott and Alexander to cut the deficit to one at 4-3.
The middle innings saw the pitchers bare down and not allow another run come across. Harvard nearly knotted the score at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth but Macadam was gunned down at home trying to score on a Kasey Lange grounder to short. A solo homer by the Billikens in the top of the seventh gave them some extra breathing room and despite putting runners on first and third with two outs in the bottom half of the inning, the Crimson was unable to plate any more runners, sealing the 5-3 final.
Macadam once again paced the offense for Harvard, going 3 for 4 from the plate for her fifth multi-hit game of the young season. The senior also drove in all of Harvard's runs in the game and knocked her team-leading third homerun of the season. Shaw and Scott each had a pair of hits in the loss. Rachel Brown fanned 11 St. Louis batters over 5.2 innings of relief while Julia Moore absorbed the loss for Harvard, picking up three K's in the outing.
The Crimson will take Monday off and resume play Tuesday with games against Wisconsin and Loyola Marymount before starting competition at the San Diego Classic II Thursday.


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Bone Handled Cheese Knives, Set of 4
- Only at Williams Sonoma
- One Day Deal
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Easy, hassle-free returns online and in-store for eligible items.Learn More
Earn 5% Back in rewards4 plus free standard shipping3every day when you shop with your Williams Sonoma credit card at Williams Sonoma.Apply Now Learn More
- Summary
Throughout history, some of the most beautiful utensils have featured handles carved from natural bone. Today, our distinctive cheese knives continue that tradition with handles fashioned from smooth, polished water-buffalo bone. Gleaming stainless steel and brass details complement the rich, earthy hues of the bone. Use the spreader for spreading soft cheese and the fork for transferring portions to individual plates. The pronged knife is useful for breaking up hard cheeses and spearing portions, and the server slides under cheeses and appetizers for serving. 6 1/2" to 7 1/2 long. Hand-wash. Set of four. A Williams Sonoma exclusive.
- Shipping
Shipping Information
UPS can deliver most in-stock items within 3–5 business days. UPS is unable to deliver to P.O. boxes.
Shipping Rates
The shipping rate varies depending on your order total and shipping destination. View Shipping Options and Charges.
Next Day Delivery
For an additional charge of $26 per address, we can expedite delivery to most destinations. This service is not available for some oversize items, items shipped directly from the supplier (including perishable and custom-manufactured items), out-of-stock items and items to be shipped outside the contiguous 48 states.
Orders received by 9:00 p.m. ET Monday through Thursday will arrive the next business day; orders placed Friday through Sunday will arrive on the following Tuesday.
Return Policy
At Williams Sonoma, we take great pride in the quality and craftsmanship of our products. Attention to design, materials, safety and construction are our priority. Upon receipt, please inspect your purchase and notify us of any damage; we will arrange for a prompt replacement.
If within 30 days, you are dissatisfied for any reason, you may return your purchase for a refund of the merchandise value. An original receipt or gift receipt is required for all returns and exchanges. Returns with a gift receipt will be refunded in the form of a Merchandise Credit for the amount indicated on the gift receipt. Returns with original receipt will be refunded in the original form of payment, cash and check refunds over $100 will be issued as a company check (may take 14 business days from time of request).
For all cutlery returns (knife sets, single knives, cutting boards, knife sharpeners and knife storage), please contact us at 888.922.4108 to initiate the return.
We cannot accept returns on monogrammed, personalized, special-order items, custom upholstery, food, items shipped direct from the vendor or on items damaged through normal wear and tear. Final sale items ending in .97 or .99 cannot be returned.
Made to Order and Final Sale Furniture items are non-returnable and cannot be cancelled once the order is placed.
For returns of items purchased from your Williams Sonoma Gift Registry, we will gladly provide a refund or exchange for the merchandise within 90 days of your event or within 90 days of purchase, whichever date is later. View Full Returns Policy.
Rated 2 out of 5 by upscalebohemian from Not Up to the Task These had multiple scratches on the shiny metal parts right out of the box. Worse, the knives just weren't up to the task of cutting hard cheeses. If you want to buy these to share an elegant repast with friends, you'd better serve only soft cheeses or you'll be sitting there struggling. I gave up and used my Wusthof paring knife. These are beautiful, except for the scratches, but they don't come with any kind of case and are going to get even more scratched as time goes on. It's a pity the quality control just isn't there, that the knives aren't sharp, and that there's not a more hefty cleaver for hard cheeses. Gorgeous, but to look at, not to use. Needlessly difficult to remove from the box too. How many times do you have to wrap wires before they're secure? There were 8 wires wrapped about 30 times each!Date published: 2015-10-09Rated 4 out of 5 by SPHWS from Beautiful Set Great construction, beautiful knives. Some difficulty with harder cheeses, they are not that sharp. We use them nearly every day.Date published: 2013-05-15


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Bill to tighten rules on ratings agencies has big loopholes
WASHINGTON — A key House of Representatives committee is set to vote soon on legislation that would overhaul financial regulation and produce greater transparency for investors, but as it's now written it fails to address many of the credit-rating agency missteps that helped fuel the global financial crisis.
The House Financial Services Committee was scheduled to approve the Accountability and Transparency in Rating Agencies Act on Wednesday, but on Tuesday it postponed the vote for a week. The measure would require greater transparency from the three major bond-rating agencies — Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings — about the methods they use in rating bonds.
The legislation is designed to strengthen the bond-rating agencies' compliance offices, which failed to alert investors that complex securities backed by U.S. mortgages were of poor quality, even though they'd received top investment-grade ratings.
A McClatchy investigation published Sunday, which quoted whistleblowers inside Moody's, found that Moody's gave high ratings to securities that it knew were of poor quality because it didn't want to lose business to competitors.
Despite widespread evidence of weakened lending standards from 2005 to 2007 and an unsustainable run-up in home prices, especially in hot markets such as California and Florida, the ratings agencies continued to provide top investment-grade ratings to mortgage-backed securities. When the bottom fell out of the housing market in late 2007, especially for sub-prime mortgages given to the least creditworthy borrowers, the triple-A ratings for mortgage-backed securities were downgraded rapidly to junk. Investors were left holding the bag.
Moody's stock, which peaked above $72, is now off by almost $50 from that high.
As part of a broad regulatory overhaul proposed by the Obama administration, House and Senate banking panels are trying to fix what went wrong, especially at the ratings agencies, whose blessing on a bond or security tells investors that it's trustworthy.
The draft legislation proposed by Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., goes farther than Obama's recommendations, but it doesn't address some of the ratings agencies' most egregious abuses.
"I think that it's well-intentioned, but I'm afraid it will have little practical effort," said Eric Kolchinsky, who was a managing director in Moody's structured finance division from January to November 2007, when he was purged, he said, for questioning ratings methodology. (Moody's denied that.)
"It does little to alter the fundamental flaws of the rating agencies' role in financial markets," Kolchinsky said of the bill.
Most abuse came in the agencies' structured finance divisions, which assisted Wall Street in packaging pools of mortgages into securities whose supporting income stream came from U.S. homeowners' payments on their mortgages.
Kanjorski, the chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, would create a separate rating system for complex securities rated by structured finance divisions. It also would minimize the conflicts of interest that stem from the bond-rating agencies' practice of advising on the makeup of these securities and then receiving handsome payments for rating them.
Several sections of Kanjorski's bill discuss how to disclose information to the public about when an outside "third party" does due diligence on underlying mortgages or other loans that are being rated. However, the bill wouldn't require such independent due diligence, which was sorely missing during the boom in home prices.
A former Moody's analyst who's familiar with the rating process for bonds backed by sub-prime U.S. mortgages said that analysts in his department were aware of the shoddy lack of research behind bond ratings, but management determined that it wasn't the company's job to verify borrowers' abilities to pay their mortgages or to do any other form of due diligence.
"It was broached at meetings, but it was decided that once you do it for one, you do it for all of them," said the former analyst, who contacted McClatchy after reading the investigative piece. The former analyst demanded anonymity in order to protect his reputation on Wall Street.
The culture at Moody's, this former analyst said, was "don't attempt to look any further because it's not our job. The question always is, 'Who is going to pay for the due diligence?' "
The House legislation would direct ratings agencies to include at least two independent members on their boards of directors, and would mandate that compliance officers report to the boards. It wouldn't direct the Securities and Exchange Commission to work with the compliance officers, however, which could have helped regulators understand the looming sub-prime crisis in 2006 and 2007.
Moody's has refused to make top executives available to McClatchy, and one prominent member of its board of directors, Harvard University business law professor Robert Glauber, didn't return calls and e-mails requesting comment. Glauber headed the National Association of Securities Dealers from 2001 to 2006, a trade group that was merged into the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a self-regulation arm of the industry that failed to avert the global crisis.
One former Moody's chief compliance officer told McClatchy that more changes should be considered to strengthen compliance departments.
"These might include a provision that the designated compliance officer could only be hired and fired with the approval of the board, that he or she be appropriately qualified and not have been employed in one of the firm's business lines within the past three years, or for three years following their departure from the post, and that the SEC meet in person with the designated compliance officer on an annual basis rather than simply receive a report which has been reviewed and revised by management," Scott McCleskey said. He's now the U.S. managing editor at Complinet, an online service for financial risk managers.
The legislation would make it easier for investors to sue ratings agencies, but plaintiffs would have to prove outright falsehoods, not just negligence.
"This element is extremely difficult to prove where the rating agency effectively remains the sole source and arbiter of the information in question," Kolchinsky said.
The former Moody's analyst who spoke anonymously said the bill would benefit small individual investors. It would require the ratings agencies to make full public disclosures of their modeling and methodology behind particular ratings.
Importantly, it also would force them to publish preliminary ratings so that investment banks no longer could sit on one rating while shopping for a better one from competitors.
However, there's no explicit requirement to provide detailed cash flow and default assumptions in a ratings agency's model, an important part of what went wrong in the mortgage finance debacle. Investment banks disclosed one set of assumptions about how a security would perform, while ratings agencies focused solely on default assumptions, effectively comparing apples to oranges.
Several whistleblowers told McClatchy that this was how Moody's mashed the numbers to arrive at the favorable ratings needed to get or maintain business from investment banks such as now-defunct Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.
"The agencies haven't always wanted to make their models public; it is proprietary information. However, since ratings are somewhat like a 'public good,' I believe this information should be available" to investors, the former analyst said.
Had the information been public, he said, investors would've known that Moody's didn't work off a loss model but only tweaked its basic assumptions to reflect the possibility of greater losses with little quantitative analysis or historical performance studies.
"If Moody's was forced to make all of their analysis public, people would have realized much earlier that the emperor was wearing no clothes," the former analyst said.
2008 SEC report on credit-rating agencies
History of rating agencies and institutional investors' view of rating agency overhaul
To ask a question about this story or any economic question, go to McClatchy's economy Q&A
How Moody's sold its ratings - and sold out investors
Questions to Moody's from McClatchy
Why haven't any Wall Street tycoons been sent to the slammer?


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I have a saying about the difference between red wine and white wine. Red wine is like standing in front of a mirror in a thousand dollar suit. White wine is like standing in front of a mirror naked.
Whereas red wine can be dressed up in fancy – and expensive – new oak that can add accents and hide imperfections, doing the same with white wine tends to be unforgiving. Use too much oak and the fruit gets clobbered. Don't use any oak and imperfections get exposed. With white wine, if the grapes aren't just right and the winemaking isn't completely sound, it shows. Many a winemaker excels at red wines but falls short on whites. It takes a skilled hand to make extremely high quality white wines. It takes an even more skilled winemaker to excel at both.
Perhaps no winemaker has impressed me as much recently with his deft touch with whites as well as reds as Jon Martinez from Maison Bleue Family Winery. Martinez brings to his winery a strong background in science (there were even Kim Wipes in his winery). He graduated from the University of Kansas with a B.S. in Chemistry and Biology and subsequently completed a Doctorate of Dental Surgery at the University of Iowa.
Martinez became interested in wine after visiting family in Provence and spending time with friend Doug Frost, MS, MW. Although Martinez' dental practice in Overland Park, Kansas was doing well, Martinez decided he needed a change. He says he was, "Tired of the insurance game. Tired of chasing money."
Martinez started out in the wine industry helping a friend start Amigoni Vineyards near Kansas City. He realized he didn't want to start a winery in Missouri. Washington, however, had proven its potential. Additionally, Martinez says, "It seemed like a place I could make a name for myself."
To learn about winemaking, Martinez started out taking viticulture and enology classes at Missouri State University, Virginia Tech, and University of California Davis. Upon arriving in Washington, he also completed the Washington State University enology certificate program.
Using money from selling his dental practice, Martinez started making wine from Washington fruit in 2005 and moved to the state in early 2008, his first full vintage. Martinez has focused Maison Bleue on Rhone varietals - his license plate is 'Rhone' - including Grenache, Syrah, Roussanne and Viognier.
The oddball in Martinez' Rhone-centric lineup is Chardonnay. The fruit for this wine comes from French Creek Vineyard outside of Prosser. Martinez purchased the vineyard, which includes nine acres of thirty-year-old Chardonnay vines, two years ago. While the age of the vines was immediately appealing, the vineyard was in disrepair when Martinez purchased the site. He worked on restoring the site, putting in a new filtration system, fixing the line posts, redoing the trellis system, and cutting out dead cordons. The results made an immediate impression, with some of the Northwest's top Chardonnay producers, such as Abeja, using the fruit. Ironically, Martinez says, "I told myself eight years ago I never wanted to make Chardonnay." However, the Maison Bleue Chardonnay is a wine that cannot be ignored. In a sea of somewhat mediocre Washington State Chardonnay, this is a wine that rises to the top.
The rest of the Maison Bleue lineup, however, does not disappoint either. At present, a full fifty percent of Maison Bleue's production is white wine. These wines are equal parts bold, nuanced, and detailed. They are all among the best white wines being produced in Washington State today. The Roussanne in particular is nothing short of stunning. Martinez, who considers himself more vigneron than winemaker, says of the grape, "Roussanne is twice as much work in the vineyard as any other white variety."
While Maison Bleue's red wines are sold out at the winery, some are still in distribution (Note: the winery is undergoing a label change with the 2008 wines labeled with what some referred to as the 'starry night' label). The 2009 red wines in the barrel, including a breathtaking Grenache from Upland Vineyard and Syrah from Boushey Vineyards, show Martinez' equally skilled touch with reds.
Perhaps there is no greater tribute to how successful Maison Bleue has been with its wines than the extensive placement the winery has in restaurants and retail stores in the Seattle area - over eighty-five in total. Quite an accomplishment for a young winery. In many cases, it has been the Chardonnay leading the way. "I never thought Chardonnay would be the grape where I would build my name," Martinez says, chuckling. Perhaps Martinez next license plate should say 'Burgundy?'
Maison Bleue makes slightly less than 2,000 cases annually. The winery is located in Prosser in The Winemaker's Loft.
Maison Bleue 'Au Contraire' Chardonnay French Creek Vineyard Yakima Valley 2009 $20
Rating: * (Excellent) Pale in color. The nose is marked by mineral, yellow and green apples, floral notes, cantelope, and hay. Crisp and tart on the palate with a weighted mouthfeel and mouthwatering acidity. Speckled with oak spices. Capped off by a lingering finish. 100% Chardonnay, French Creek Vineyard. Whole cluster pressed and fermented in three-year-old French oak (50%) and stainless steel. Aged sur lies for 7 months. Partial (20%) malolactic fermentation. 13.5% alcohol. 230 cases produced.
Maison Bleue 'Jaja' White Wine Yakima Valley 2009 $15
Rating: * (Excellent) A fascinating nose with pear, floral notes, and lees aromas. A rounded weight to the palate with racy acidity and hints of minerality. 67% Roussanne, 28% Chardonnay, and 5% Marsanne. French Creek, Olsen, and Boushey vineyards. Whole cluster pressed and fermented in three-year oak French oak (50%) and stainless steel. Aged sur lies for 7 months. Partial (20%) malolactic fermentation. 14.1% alcohol. 160 cases produced. Note: Price reduced on this wine from $17 to $15.
Maison Bleue 'Petite Joie' Marsanne Boushey Vineyard Yakima Valley 2009 $32
Rating: * (Excellent) An appealing aroma profile with marzipan and melon. A textured, creamy mouthfeel that is simultaneously weighty and light on its feet. A gorgeous wine. 100% Marsanne, Boushey Vineyard. Whole cluster pressed and fermented in French oak barrels (20% new). Aged sur lies for 7 months. Partial (20%) malolactic fermentation. 14.5% alcohol. 119 cases produced.
Maison Bleue 'Soleil' Roussanne Olsen Vineyard Yakima Valley 2009 $28
Rating: ** (Exceptional) Very pretty floral notes, exotic spices, and intense minerality on an incredibly complex nose. A creamy, richly textured mouthfeel on a palate marked by mineral, apricots, and lemon notes. 100% Roussanne, Olsen Vineyard. Whole cluster pressed and fermented in French oak barrels (20% new). Aged sur lie for approximately 7 months. Partial (20%) malolactic fermentation. 14.1% alcohol. 160 cases produced.
Maison Bleue 'La Montagnette' Grenache Alder Ridge Vineyard Horse Heaven Hills 2008 $25
Rating: * (Excellent) Leaps from the glass with red fruit, smoke, pepper, and traces of game. A big wine, layered with raspberries and fruit compote. Alcohol shows through a bit on the finish. 85% Grenache, 15% Syrah. 15.4% alcohol. 303 cases produced.
Standing in front of the mirror naked with Maison Bleue
I have a saying about the difference between red wine and white wine. Red wine is like standing in front of a mirror in a thousand dollar suit. White wine is like standing in front of a mirror naked.
8 comments
Chris Says:
Nice Review Sean, we can't wait to try Jon's next round of Red wines. We love his white wines too, but it's the reds that made us sign up as disciples.
Jerry and Janet Says:
We had a nice visit this summer. Only tasted a few of Maison Bleue Winery wines, enjoyed all.
2008 La Vie Douce Roussanne*** off-dry, nose of wild flower honey.
2008 La Montagnette Grenache*** light, dark plum
2008 La Rogue Syrah*** pepper,herbes
Chris, the red wines in the barrel are definitely worth waiting for. Thanks for the comment.
Jerry, thanks for the notes on the visit!
Wine-Beer-Washington Says:
The Maison Bleue Chardonnay has been my favorite Chardonnay this year. Jon poured me a glass at the end of Kirkland Uncorked. Security practically had to kick me out of the place because I refused to rush through my glass or to waste a single drop!
grapemaster Says:
a suit vs a nude in a mirror? depends on who you are, and what you've been drinking.
Laurie London Says:
Great post, Sean.
We just opened a bottle of the 08 La Montagnette last night and were totally bowled over. My favorite wine guy recommended it to me, saying he had only a few bottles left. For $19, it was a steal. (I'd tell you where, but then I'd have to kill you. I'm heading there today to see if he has any left.)
What a fun surprise to google them and see that you just posted an article showcasing their wines. Can't wait to drink more.
Thanks Laurie. Glad to hear you enjoyed the La Montagnette. I agree that it's a steal for that price.


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Our Story
Mes Amis Restaurant was created in London, UK in 1991 by my brother James. We share the same passion for entertaining and cooking the home-style food for which our mom was very well known, and some of our recipes have been handed down through generations of our family.
Mes Amis in Chino Hills will follow this family tradition, offering unique flavors, using only the freshest ingredients, and adding my own personal modern and contemporary touches.
My Journeys and all other menu items are yours to explore the new tastes and to experience a heavenly and extraordinary dining time. Enjoy!


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No-Stain Carpet? WSJ Puts It to the Test
Carpet makers say they have a new no-stain material fit for any disaster. The WSJ Mansion team put it to the test and has the results on Lunch Break. Photo: F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... ay ay ay ... ok it's time for Mansion snap ... into every home honest when I knew moved and we decorated sat down with your new living room with a glass of red wine and with just one seconds all of your brand new white profit helping mega site they have a stain free solution ... on the beest Mansion team put it to the task analysts out the wits joins us now with that itself ... from oh so thank you very much focused on the roof of things that I don't know but haven't quite often so ... I know you'll be a modified from Michael White felt that in mind yet I know it is some has here ... ALM so ... the top of materials and ... say you buy locally us around and polyester set up fifteen percent at the carpet Markit's nylon and now on it's extremely terrible but it's Korbel with baby food you have that white carpet in the red wine contains ... and polyester it's much better with pain but its four bullet clearance here you trump all over him after place it in you know five years ... so is a new market and material on the market for some classes called tramp fact ... and in that print based polymer and from what we're hearing is the best advice for all that has until Ifone based plastic is an edited ... extract of direct that the tongue ... and to a well yes ... but when there is many won't run try acts to try and say it is on right now exclusively marketed by Mohawk Industries and her team smart strain free and ... then if it has a built in stain protection and it's also very terrible so I thought it combines the best of both nylon and polyester so it's been put to the test right ... bite that of its dimensions and handed tough group ... to hold up ... I ... we had mixed results Derek was amazingly three a potted plant on and everything like that with the vacuum no trace whatsoever of us could muster was one of the other one that's right and this mustard a notoriously Corvel forsee can take it off pretty well for non sorta across care love you can see a little bit of a theme for this weekend ... the corporate front red wine ... so did did did you try them over a one trick or college that we have withdrawn those rifles was you've you've you've and take a full of red wine ... subtle the open enough sprinkle but on and then frozen cyclamates ... and then not finish of Opel why we did not I think this is half the bottle of wine and spirits ... so I'll be selling all they are they doing well with this new new sticker and ... the sale on ... the market for five years but within those five years failed to rapidly are different in one Billy cans and compared to the full carpet industry meant rate now at about eight million after the sizable portion for one specific I'd take a five person will see what happens in it that it's interesting though that this is that of ... that huge the number for a lot of people I know you like profits ... I would suggest don't have one profits and if you do don't read where one ...


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Can Gang of 8 stay tight?
The ideologically diverse Gang of Eight senators weathered months of painstaking negotiations to piece together a complex immigration plan it will soon unveil.
But the eight still face one of their biggest tests: Can they remain united once it leaves their hands?
Story Continued Below
After being locked out of the process for so long, Democratic and Republican senators are anxious to get a crack at amending the bill, setting up a treacherous path through the Judiciary Committee to the Senate floor that threatens to undermine the delicate compromise.
Most members of the group are prepared to band together, defeating one by one any controversial amendment that can upset the deal's balance. Such unity is considered essential if the senators hope to keep the core of the bill intact, hold the support of a cross-section of labor and business interests — and ultimately win the kind of broad bipartisan vote that forces the House to also act on an immigration bill.
( Also on POLITICO: Businesses propose visa plan)
Republican critics of an immigration overhaul will attempt to pull it to the right with amendments beefing up border security, toughening the 13-year pathway to citizenship and altering the various visa programs. And from the left, there will be efforts to ease the barriers to a green card for undocumented immigrants and add protections for same-sex couples, which Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has advocated strongly.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a leader of the group, said there is a "general agreement" among the group to protect their hard-won compromise.
"We haven't worked out the specifics, but we all know there will be amendments that could be very destructive to the core of the bill, and we're going to have to fight them off in a bipartisan way from both the left and the right," Schumer said.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — who is key to luring and keeping conservative support — however, remains a wild card.
( CARTOONS: Matt Wuerker on immigration)
With his eyes on the legislative process and 2016 presidential politics, he will face a difficult choice. He will have to decide whether to join fellow conservatives — such as potential presidential rivals Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas — or stick with the bipartisan group.
Rubio refused to comment when asked if he would be willing to fend off controversial amendments when the bill starts moving.
"I have nothing to add on immigration today," Rubio said in an interview Wednesday. "I will have a lot more to say in the next few days."
The focus on what will happen after a deal is announced underscored how quickly attention is turning to the next phase of the immigration debate, now that an agreement seems all but completed. Senate negotiators worked behind the scenes Wednesday to finish writing the bill and build support for it ahead of an announcement as early as this week.
( Also on POLITICO: For senators, immigration talk is local)
At a lunchtime briefing, Democratic senators in the Gang of Eight sought to allay concerns raised by members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus about the border enforcement measures that would need to be in place before the country's 11 million undocumented immigrants can obtain green cards.
According to Democratic sources briefed on the legislation, the Department of Homeland Security would need to implement a plan that achieves a 90 percent apprehension rate for people who are illegally crossing the Southern border, but the rate itself is not a trigger or a barrier to citizenship.


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9 Days Left! Super Deals!
Things are almost wrapping up at Nokomis! We only have 9 days left, so please come by and help us out. We have lots of beautiful pieces left, and they have all been drastically reduced (again).
Tops: $15-$89
Dresses: $49-$99
Pants: $19-$99
All bags have been reduced by 50-60% off
All jewelery 40-70% off
(pyrrha too, you ask? why yes! we have 20 pieces left so hurry over!)
As well, we received a few *brand new* pieces from local sweetheart Cinder + Smoke, which will be reduced by 25%!
Wednesday 19th-Friday 21st: 11-7 pm
Saturday 22nd: 10-6 pm
Sunday 23rd: 12-5 pm
closed Monday-Wednesday
Thursday 27th: 11-7 pm
Friday 28th: 11-7 pm
Saturday 29th: 10-6 pm
Sunday 30th: 12-5 pm
Give me a ring or shoot me an email if those hours don't work for you, and we can set up an appointment to get you in the shop. and please come and grab your grannies too! xox.


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Additional speakers are being added to this series. Please check the Annual Conference Web site at www.ala.org/annual for updates.
Additional speakers are being added to this series. Please check the Annual Conference Web site at www.ala.org/annual for updates.
Revision as of 09:43, 20 January 2009
Auditorium Speaker Series
Additional speakers are being added to this series. Please check the Annual Conference Web site at www.ala.org/annual for updates.
Wanda Urbanska
Sunday, July 12, 10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
Wanda Urbanska is an expert, speaker and consultant on sustainability and green living. She is the author or co-author of seven books, including the forthcoming anthology, Less Is More: Embracing Simplicity for a Healthy Planet, A Caring Economy & Lasting Happiness (New Society: August 2009); Simple Living (Viking: 1992/ Blair: 2004); Moving to a Small Town (Simon & Schuster: 1996); and Nothing's Too Small to Make a Difference (Blair: 2004). She is host/producer of Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska, a nationally syndicated public television series currently in its fourth broadcast season on selected PBS stations nationwide (www.simplelivingtv.net). She has appeared on the Today show, CBS This Morning and Oprah, and has been heard on NPR's "All Things Considered." O, The Oprah Magazine recently identified her as "the de facto Martha Stewart of the voluntary simplicity movement." She has published in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Mother Earth News, Natural Home, Rotarian, and American Libraries, among others. A graduate of Harvard University, Wanda makes her home in Mount Airy, North Carolina.
ALSC President's Program Featuring Melba Pattillo Beals
Monday, July 13, 8:00 - 9:30 a.m.
At the age of 15, Melba Pattillo Beals walked her way into the history books as one of the nine courageous students who faced down furious segregationists, the Arkansas National Guard and the Governor of Arkansas in order to integrate Little Rock Central High School in 1957. She has written two bestselling books as a result of her experience, Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock Central High School and its sequel, White is a State of Mind: Freedom is Yours to Choose. Beals began her career at the age of 17 writing articles for major newspapers and magazines. She earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and worked as a news reporter for San Francisco's public television station, KQED, and for the NBC affiliate, KRON-TV. Beals has also written numerous articles for periodicals including People, Essence and the San Francisco Examiner and is the author of a primer on public relations, Expose Yourself: Using the Power of Public Relations to Promote Your Business and Yourself, which was an industry bestseller. In 1998, the nine students who integrated Little Rock's Central High School were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, the nation's highest and most distinguished civilian honor. Beals is currently professor and chair of the Communications Department at Dominican University of California. She and her daughter, Kellie, are writing the screenplay for a feature film based on Warriors. Sponsored by ALSC Charlemae Rollins Endowment.
Lisa Scottoline
Monday, July 13, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
Lisa Scottoline is the Edgar-Award winning, bestselling author of Lady Killer, Daddy's Girl, Dirty Blonde and many more. She currently has 25 million copies of her books in print in the United States and she is published in 25 countries. Lisa loves her job and it shows in her writing. Her bestselling novels, set in Philadelphia and featuring gutsy and resilient female characters, have thrilled and entertained readers with page-turning action and her trademark wit and humor. Lisa has created an array of unforgettable characters, and continues to add to the cast with each new book. Many of her books feature the all-female firm of Rosato & Associates, while the rest introduce fresh, new, but equally compelling heroines all written in Lisa's unique voice. A lifelong Philadelphian, Lisa still lives in the Philadelphia area and enjoys writing about her hometown city. Sponsored by Macmillan.
Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.
Monday, July 13, 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
As a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor spent her life studying and teaching others about the complex beauty of the human brain. But on the morning of December 10, 1996, her life took an unexpected turn: she experienced a massive stroke when a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. In her book My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Dr. Taylor tells of her unique, and somewhat ironic, journey into and back out of the silent abyss of the wounded brain. The book shares details of her stroke and the eight years it took to completely repair her mind and recalibrate her understanding of the world, according to the insights she gained from her intimate experience with an injured brain. Today Dr. Taylor is a neuroanatomist affiliated with the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. She is the national spokesperson for the mentally ill at the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (Brain Bank) and the consulting neuroanatomist for the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute. Since 1993, she has been an active member of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Jill Bolte Taylor shares her story as part of Oprah's "Soul Series" on XM Satellite Radio (May 12, 2008). Her story has also been featured on the PBS program "Understanding the Amazing Brain" and she was a featured speaker at the TED conference in February 2008. She lives in Bloomington, Indiana. Sponsored by Penguin.
PLA President's Program Featuring Cokie Roberts
Monday, July 13, 5:00 - 6:30 p.m.
Cokie Roberts is a political commentator for ABC News and a senior news analyst for National Public Radio. From 1996 to 2002, she and Sam Donaldson co-anchored the weekly ABC interview program, "This Week." In addition to broadcasting, Roberts, along with her husband Steven V. Roberts, writes a weekly column syndicated in newspapers around the country by United Media. Both are also contributing editors to USA Weekend, and together they wrote From This Day Forward, an account of their now more than 40-year marriage and other marriages in American history. The book immediately went onto the New York Times bestseller list, following a six-month run on the list by Roberts's first book on women in American history, We Are Our Mothers' Daughters. Roberts is also the author of the bestselling Founding Mothers, the companion volume to Ladies of Liberty. A mother of two and grandmother of six, she lives with her husband in Bethesda, Maryland. Sponsored by HarperCollins.


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I'm hoping that someone can help me solve this mystery. Z C, as he's sometimes listed in documents, was born about 1855 in Mississippi and died 23 Apr 1923 in Chickasha, Grady County, Oklahoma.
In the 1860 census he is in Bethlehem, Marshall County, Mississippi, with his parents. In 1860 he's in Waterford, Marshall County, Mississippi, also with his parents. I have been unable to find him in any census records until 1920, when he is in Oklahoma, with his second wife, Mary.
The mystery: Where is he between 1870 and 1920? I have information from others that include his first wife Lola Mont Swinney (1861-1952), his three children Harman Lamar Poe (1878-abt 1964), Minnie Dove Poe (1879-1959), and Thurman Allen Poe (1888-1979). Of course I'm still looking for documentation of his marriage to Lola and the births of the children.


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"The X Factor" Recap: Demi Lovato vs. Simon Cowell Rages On
Ahead of next week's semifinals, finalists perform two songs apiece, one acoustic; Demi angers Simon by calling... Read more »
Kanye West, Jay-Z, Frank Ocean Up for Top Grammy Prize
The Grammy Awards celebrated the diversity of music as six different artists tied for top nominee — Kanye West... Read more »
2013 Grammy Nominations: Who and What to Watch For
Will Taylor Swift and Harry Styles have an excuse for a walk the red carpet together? Will "Gangham Style" get its... Read more »
Jack White Slams Lady Gaga: Her Music Is "All Image"
Former White Stripes frontman tells Esquire UK that Mother Monster is "all artifice." Read more »
Jazz Great Dave Brubeck Dies at 91
Jazz composer and pianist Dave Brubeck, whose pioneering style in pieces such as "Take Five" caught listeners' ears... Read more »
Video: Jay-Z Takes Subway, Meets Woman Who Doesn't Know Who He Is
Hip-hop king likes hanging with the common folk, as footage from his new online documentary reveals when he talks to... Read more »
Michael Bublé Recording Duet with Reese Witherspoon
Michael Bublé confirmed that he will be working with actress Reese Witherspoon on a duet for his upcoming album. Read more »
"The Voice" Recap: Then There Were 4
Find out what went down on the NBC reality hit's Dec. 4 outing Read more »
Cassadee Pope is Having A Blast On "The Voice"
Cassadee Pope chats about how "amazing" it is to dress up, get her hair and make-up done on "The Voice." Also, she... Watch »
Bon Jovi Talks Upcoming Sandy Benefit, Daughter's Drug Arrest
Singer says he is thrilled to be performing with Springsteen and McCartney at 12-12-12 concert next week, and thanks... Read more »
Amy Winehouse's Death Home Sells for $3.2 Million
Late singer's London house snapped up after originally being put up for sale in May for $4.3 million. Read more »
Shakira's Ex Sues Her for $100 Million
Colombian hitmaker is slapped with a lawsuit filed by her former flame, who claims he's entitled to a massive slice... Read more »
"The Voice" Recap: Train Frontman Subs for Cee Lo Green
Find out what happened on the NBC reality hit's Dec. 3 outing Read more »
Lady Gaga Buys Michael Jackson Memorabilia
Costumes worn by Michael Jackson commanded hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction, and Lady Gaga was among the... Read more »
Neil Young Down by Boardwalk for Sandy Benefit Show
Neil Young said Sunday that he couldn't see performing in the area devastated by Superstorm Sandy without doing... Read more »
Chris Brown Back on Twitter, Posts Rihanna Photo
"Don't Wake Me Up" singer put his page back up on the social networking site days after his argument with comedian... Read more »
Ricky Martin Finds New Home on Small Screen
The Latin superstar has a slew of new projects in the works, including two television series and a children's book. Read more »
Stevie Wonder Cancels Israeli Benefit Concert
United Nations "messenger of peace" says he'll contribute to causes for Israeli and Palestinian children at this... Read more »
Katy Perry, Carly Rae Jepsen Get Billboard Honors
Perry's "Teenage Dream" album sparked five No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Read more »
Alicia Keys Takes "Girl on Fire" to a "Whole New...
Alicia Keys is the most excited about her new album, "Girl on Fire," she's ever been about any album. After chatting Watch »


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With violence down, Iraqis travel for big religious holiday
BAGHDAD — For the past few years, Nawal Abdulla Hadi of Baghdad couldn't travel to see her family for the Eid al Adha, giving up the traditional reunion during the annual Muslim holiday because the roads weren't safe.
The explosions that regularly shook her neighborhood in 2006 and 2007 have ceased, however, so she'll pack the kids Wednesday and take them to see their grandparents in Hillah, a city about 60 miles south of Baghdad
"This is the first time we've left our house in the Eid," she said, smiling, in a public park along the Tigris River on Tuesday with her six children and husband.
"Now I feel it's real safety, not just propaganda," she said.
Hadi is one of many Iraqis who are enjoying a noticeable decrease in violence over the past year, a trend that's allowing them to celebrate the holidays as they once did.
Iraqis began preparing for the Eid last week. The holiday marks Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael to God, and it follows an annual pilgrimage for Muslims to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
In Baghdad, people crowded street markets at night last week, buying new clothes, another tradition for families who can afford it. Many bought sheep this week as a religious sacrifice that also honors deceased relatives.
"This Eid is the most beautiful Eid of the last few years," said Mazin Shihan, 34, Hadi's husband. "During the last Eid, we didn't see families anywhere. Now they're everywhere."
The holiday began Monday for Sunnis and Tuesday for Shiites. The two branches of Islam recognize its start on different days depending on their clerics' readings of the lunar calendar.
Eid celebrations have remained safe so far this year, though they sometimes become targets for attacks. In early October, during the most recent holidays in Iraq, attackers killed dozens of people in bombings throughout Baghdad.
Fears of attacks seemed distant Tuesday while families gathered at Abu Nawas Park. The scent of popcorn drifted along a paved path where vendors sold snacks ranging from hamburgers to figs. Children played on swing sets while adults laughed at picnic tables on a sunny but cool day.
"It gives me a feeling of friendship, happiness, life and peace," said Heider al Jabouri, a sculptor from Hillah who went to the park with his sister's and his children.
Jabouri, 44, didn't let concerns about safety stop him from visiting his family in Baghdad during the Eid over the past few years, but he noticed much more traffic this time.
"You could see everywhere it was crowded," he said.
Hadi, the woman from Baghdad, took comfort in the Iraqi police and army officers she saw walking through the park. Vehicle checkpoints line the roads that lead to the park, and it's watched by patrols.
"Whenever the security situation improves, more people come to the park, and this is good," police officer Hamed Nadhen said.
Elsewhere in Iraq on Tuesday, police arrested six men who allegedly had a role in planning two suicide attacks that killed 15 people in Fallujah last Thursday. Fallujah police Col. Dawood al Marawi said the men had been seized in a home in the town of Abu Ghraib west of Baghdad and that they were suspected of belonging to al Qaida in Iraq.
Police and coalition military forces also raided the Fallujah office of the National Assembly of Journalists, an organization to which two McClatchy special correspondents belong. Officers reportedly seized several cameras. Police declined to say why they conducted the raid.
(Ashton reports for The Modesto (Calif.) Bee. McClatchy special correspondent Laith Hammoudi contributed to this report.)
Once again, Iraq's Ramadan ends in violence
Reporter reflects: 'Their grief is my last remembrance of Iraq'
Amid Iraq's violence, a radio station gives people hope
Under Iraq troop pact, U.S. can't leave any forces behind