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The ghosts of the U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship's (LCS) past still haunt the program – with the specter of LCS-yet-to-come striking fear among some in Congress about what may be in store for the fleet in terms of costs and operational relevance.
Over the past year or so, the Navy has done a yeoman's job of exorcising some of the evil spirits that seem to have possessed the program, acknowledging soaring cost growth, shoddy shipbuilding, poor quality assurance and a dismal public relations performance.
With the LCS-1 USS Freedom's deployment to Singapore this spring, it seemed that the Navy had rounded a corner – that it would be able to get the "water under the keel" and the programmatic data it would need to develop the right operational estimates, logistics train and anecdotes it required to re-develop the ship's concept of operations (conops) and arrive at a truer lifecycle cost picture for the program.
But now, with a recent draft U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the program's progress thus far, some scabs are being peeled back and the Navy is finding itself again in LCS-defense mode as some in Congress seek to call the service to task and even, as GAO suggests, "pause" funding to get a better handle on the situation.
Particularly galling to some in Congress is the report's Table 5 – "Evolution of Navy Statements About Littoral Combat Ship Capability," which chronicles the changing narrative of the ship's concepts and capabilities.
What the table shows, Congressional sources say, is how the Navy has changed its tune throughout the program – so much so, that it may be difficult to trust what service officials have to say now, especially in light of some of the unknowns highlighted in the other tables detailing potential factors that could affect LCS costs and operations.
Here's the gist of the GAO report Table 5:
Concept: LCS's capability against adversaries
Early (2004-2008): Primarily developed for use in major combat operations. Will gain initial entry and provide assured access—or ability to enter contested spaces—and be employable and sustainable throughout the battlespace regardless of anti-access or area-denial environments.
Current (2011-2012): Current LCS weapon systems are under-performing and offer little chance of survival in a combat scenario. Not to be employed outside a benign, low-threat environment unless escorted by a multi-mission combatant providing credible anti-air, anti-surface, and anti-submarine protection.
Concept: How LCS will deploy
Early (2004-2008): Will be a self-sufficient combatant.
Current (2011-2012): Lacks the ability to operate independently in combat. Will have to be well protected by multi-mission combatants. Multiple LCSs will likely have to operate in a coordinated strike attack group fashion for mutual support.
Concept: How mission packages swaps will be utilized
Early (2004-2008): Mission packages will be quickly swapped out in an expeditionary theater in a matter of days.
Current (2011-2012): Though a mission package can be swapped within 72 hours if all the equipment and personnel are in theater, swapping out mission packages overseas presents manning and potentially expensive logistical challenges. An LCS executing a package swap could be unavailable for between 12-29 days, and it may take 30-60 days or more for equipment and personnel to arrive in theater.
As the GAO notes, there are some basic developmental differences between LCS and other ship programs.
"LCS 1 and LCS 2 followed an unusual trial and acceptance process. According to the seaframe program office, this was because they were funded as research, development, test, and evaluation ships that were intended for experimentation and the Navy wanted to get them fielded as soon as possible," GAO says.
"In addition, neither LCS 1 nor LCS 2 has gone through Combat System Ship Qualification Trials, which can be part of operational testing," GAO says. "These tests represent an opportunity to verify and validate combat and weapon systems performance for new ships, and the Navy and test entities use data collected to issue warfare qualifications and certifications. Navy program officials believe that they have conducted many of these same activities during the developmental testing phase. DOT&E (director of operational testing and evaluation) officials disagree, emphasizing that operational effectiveness and suitability can only be assessed through operational testing."
Furthermore, GAO points out, DOT&E has reported concerns that the Navy deployed LCS-1 without completing shock qualification of many components, including gas turbines, diesel generators, and switchboards."
Some of these very systems are those that have been experiencing problems during Freedom deployments.
"Survivability testing is important because it can reveal equipment or system failures that may necessitate class-wide design changes," GAO says. "The program office's technical experts have also identified knowledge gaps in areas related to the LCS designs and structure. In particular, the Navy is not satisfied that it understands how the aluminum used on both variants will respond to shock and fire, or how the Independence class trimaran hull will react to underwater shocks. It also lacks credible modeling and simulation tools for assessing the vulnerabilities of ships constructed to primarily commercial standards, particularly for aluminum. The Navy plans to complete surrogate tests with aluminum structures in fiscal years 2013 and 2014 to help mitigate these knowledge gaps."
GAO observes, "LCS is built to a limited survivability standard, and like material support ships, mine countermeasures ships, and patrol combatants, it is not expected to operate in the most severe or hostile environments. DOT&E has reported that the LCS is not expected to maintain mission capability after taking a significant hit in a hostile combat environment. Program officials state that LCSs meet the survivability requirements to which the ship was designed."
But also worrisome, Congressional sources say, are potential future issues raised by other tables in the report.
Like this one – "Major Littoral Combat Ship Conceptual Questions Regarding Ship Operations and Seaframe Variants," which says the following:
Conceptual question: Relative advantages of each seaframe design
Issue: Because the Navy changed its approach from what was to be a limited initial purchase of seaframes followed by experimentation to concurrent acquisition and experimentation, it is currently unknown if the unique design attributes of each seaframe make one or the other more suited to specific mission sets and/or theaters of operation. The Navy acknowledges that the two seaframes are different ship classes with distinct capabilities and limitations that will affect mission tasking and deployment. For example, the former Undersecretary of the Navy and others have posited that the Freedom variant may be better suited to the Middle East region and the SUW (surface warfare) mission given its maneuverability, while the Independence variant may be better suited to the western Pacific region and the ASW (antisubmarine) and MCM (mine countermeasure) missions given its longer range and larger helicopter deck. The Navy has not yet determined if it will down-select to one variant or contract for mission-specific variants.
Conceptual question: Feasibility of the reduced manning
Issue: LCS is intended to operate with a crew that is one-fourth to one-fifth the size of other comparable-sized ships. LCS currently has a core crew of 40, plus 23 aviation detachment crew and 15-19 mission package crew. Internal Navy analysis has shown a concern with high levels of crew fatigue on the LCS due to the higher workload required to compensate for the fewer crew members. The LCS-1 core crew was increased to 50 for the Singapore deployment, and the Navy is considering permanently increasing the core crews to 50 or potentially more to address crew fatigue and workload concerns. The mission module crews may also need to be increased as the Navy gains experience using all three modules.
Conceptual question: Feasibility and mechanics for the novel shore-based contractor maintenance approach
Issue: The Navy is implementing a new maintenance concept for LCS, whereby it will heavily rely upon shore-based contractor and civilian personnel to support and maintain the LCS. The seaframe crew itself will conduct very little preventative maintenance; the Navy envisions doing this work pierside. This approach will result in more complex logistics than is usually required for forward deployed ships, since parts and personnel will have to be forward deployed. This approach is unproven; data gathered on the LCS-1 Singapore deployment will help the Navy to determine whether it will be feasible and cost-effective. If the Navy elects to have the crews conduct more preventative maintenance onboard, it may require additional crew and seaframe design changes to accommodate spare parts storage.
Conceptual question: Mechanics of mission module swaps
Issue: The Navy has not yet determined where mission modules might be forward-staged and how frequently they may be swapped out. In addition to recent wargames demonstrating that these swaps may take longer than initially planned, there is still deliberation on what types of crew qualification testing may be necessary after a swap occurs. Additional qualification testing could in turn require more time after a swap to get the ship back out to sea
And then there's this table – "Potential Areas of Littoral Combat Ship Operation and Support Cost Uncertainty," which says:
Reasons for Cost Uncertainty: Evolving support plans
Issue: DOD has not yet approved a revised version of the Navy's LCS Life Cycle Sustainment Plan. This plan is a summary of the LCS sustainment strategy being developed by the LCS seaframes program office, and it includes discussion about how the LCS will address issues including shore support; replenishment and refueling; maintenance; and training. Changes to any of these areas could impact O&S costs.
Reasons for Cost Uncertainty: Evolving manning levels
Issue: The manpower concept for LCS is a departure from traditional Navy operations. For example, LCS will be the first ship to use such a degree of minimal manning, and one of the first surface combatants to use a rotational crew concept. The Navy has not yet finalized the manning for the different LCS variants and mission modules, and assumptions are still changing. In advance of deployment of LCS 1 to Singapore the Navy added 20 berths to LCS 1 and 10 additional billets to the ship. Manning is the most significant life cycle cost driver for ships.
Reasons for Cost Uncertainty: Heavy reliance on contractor-based maintenance
Issue: Instead of having the ship's crew perform most preventative maintenance while underway like other ship classes, LCS will return to port periodically for contractor-led maintenance periods. The ship will be unable to conduct most forms of preventative and corrective maintenance at sea, including basic activities like corrosion removal and painting, and will not have many spare parts on board or crew tasked to conducting repairs. For the initial deployments, contractor maintenance personnel will be flown in from the United States. The Navy is operating under an interim support plan contract for this work, but it plans to competitively award a longer-term contract that more fully reflects its support strategy in 2014. Until these contracts are negotiated and signed, the exact scope of work to be performed and the cost of performing it will be unknown. At the same time, the Navy is evaluating shifting some maintenance back to the ship's crew, which indicates that its strategy is still evolving. Adding crew to conduct maintenance would add to O&S costs, though costs may be offset by reducing reliance on contractors. Further, it is unknown how mission module sensors and systems will be maintained. Some of these systems are sealed units containing sensitive electronics, and the LCS is not envisioned to be equipped with electronics repair technicians or appropriate parts to conduct repairs. It may be that any damaged or malfunctioning systems will have to be removed from the ship and returned to the contractor in the U.S. for repair.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says of course there have been problems with the lead ship of a new class and a totally new concept of building and operating ships. He says it would not surprise him if there are more issues yet to come.
But, he says, the ship's potential utility and relatively inexpensive cost make the LCS worth the risk.
"The main thing about the LCS is how different it is," Mabus says. "It's a matter of difference in how the Navy is acquiring, building and planning to employ the ship."
But some in Congress can't help feeling they've heard it all before – or at least some version of it. The question now is whether lawmakers are willing to make the same bet again, hoping the Navy is on the right course this time.
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Advocates say lost medical data poses insurmountable problems.
The Veterans Affairs Department should loosen its evidentiary standards for disability claims if it cannot locate lost records, the head of a group of lawyers who handle veterans' claims told a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Committee Tuesday.
Michael Viterna, president of the National Association of Veterans Advocates, said loss of service records "poses difficult, if not insurmountable, obstacles" for a veteran seeking to file a claim.
Richard Dumancas, deputy director for claims for the America Legion, told lawmakers it's been difficult to locate records for many of the 653,000 Guard and reserve members who served in Afghanistan or Iraq.
For those who served with active duty units and were wounded, their personnel and medical records are literally scattered across the globe. Collecting the records has proved daunting for veterans trying to document disability claims.
Alan Bozeman, director of the veterans benefits management system at the Veterans Benefits Administration, said that after active duty service, these Guard and reserve members retain their own medical records, and if called up again, need to bring those records when they return to their units.
Personnel and medical records are stored and managed by a number of organizations, including the National Archives and Records Administration, VA and Defense officials said.
Scott Levins, director of the NARA National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, said the center holds 60 million military records, but since the mid-1990s, the military services stopped sending medical records of retirees to NPRC. The services also stopped retiring official military personnel files to NPRC in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and instead retain them in-house in electronic formats, Levins said.
James Neighbors, Director of the DoD-VA Collaboration Office, said Defense has provided VA with access to service-specific personnel records using the Defense Personnel Records Information Retrieval System since 2002, with access through a secure, Web-based application since 2007.
Neighbors said Defense has as policy to transfer medical records to the VA when a service member leaves active duty and currently transfer personnel and medical records data to VA for over 300,000 service members annually, most via electronic interface but some in paper form.
He added that Defense has a new agreement with VA to provide access to its health artifacts and image management solution, which will serve as a repository of scanned paper medical record, which he said is "on track for accelerated deployment by September 2013." Nextgov reported in March 2011 that HAIMS will not be able to handle bulk scanning until 2013.
Bozeman told lawmakers that VA also has in place two contracts to scan 60 million pages of veterans' paper records per month into its electronic system.
Dumancas and Viterna both said they viewed the entire records system as flawed and filled with holes that frustrate veterans filing disability claims. Viterna said the law needs to be changed to put the burden of proof for disability claims on the government, not individual veterans.
NEXT STORY: The four-hour work week fantasy

subset: commoncrawl


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"Saturday Night Live's" Fred Armisen isn't the only one making fun of "The View's" Joy Behar – "Jersey Shore" stars Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi and Jenni " JWOWW " Farley have lampooned the talk show host, as well.
The reality stars – whose MTV series returned last week with record ratings – posted a video on YouTube, with Snooki imitating Joy during "The Nancy and Flow Show."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: We Did It All For The 'Snooki'! Hot Shots Of The 'Jersey Shore' Star!
U.S. & World
"This girl is disgusting. I am Joy and I'm on the freakin' 'View,' and I own everything in the world and I rule everything, and that's all. And when I say that Snooki is a wh***, she's a wh***," Snooki said, posing as Joy.
"Who would want to read a book about going to the Shore and having a good time?" JWOWW said, referencing Snooki's new book, "A Shore Thing."
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Hollywood's Infamous Celeb Feuds
"These 'Jersey Shore' kids are disgusting. You know why I don't like them? Because I'm f****** Joy and these people ruined my life in high school. That's why I love to talk s*** about them on my little talk show," Snooki's impression continued.
"Instead of worrying about the Great Depression, they worried about making my life a living hell," JWOWW added.
"Get real Snooki, go sleep in a garbage can!" Snooki said in another part of the lengthy video, where the two reality stars break character multiple times and begin to laugh. "I actually admire her even though I make fun of her… I'm a hater, but deep inside I'm f****** obsessed with her. I'm obsessed with all of 'Jersey Shore'"
VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Situation's Abs In Action
See Snooki and JWOWW's video, HERE!
Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: GTL For Everyone! Stars Of MTV's 'Jersey Shore'
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
PLAY IT NOW: Access Hollywood Live, Snooki Part 2: 'I'm Over The Boys' Of 'Jersey Shore'
PLAY IT NOW: Preview: Season 2 Of MTV's 'Jersey Shore' Continues With 13 New Episodes
More from Access: [ 'Jersey Shore' MTV Joy Behar ]


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Welcome to Bricco, a premier restaurant in Harrisburg PA with a world-class dining experience. Bricco is located in historic downtown Harrisburg and is currently Harrisburg's only Distinguished Restaurant of North America (DiRoNA), Wine Spectator and Santé magazine award-winning restaurant
Bricco is Now Serving Lunch!
Dine at Your Favorite Downtown Harrisburg Restaurant in a Whole New Way!
Be sure to stop by to try our delicious food in our casual and welcoming atmosphere. Our lunchtime hours will be Monday – Friday, 11:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. We can't wait to see you for lunch! Check out our new lunch menu here.
Come See Why We're One of The Best Restaurants in Harrisburg
Join Us For A Fine Dining Experience With Italian & Mediterranean Cuisine
Bricco truly provides the most complete fine-dining experience among gourmet restaurants in Harrisburg.
We invite you to join us on a sensory excursion through Mediterranean and Italian flavors, a union of local Pennsylvania produce and Tuscan-style inspirations. The menu at our fine dining restaurant, prepared by Chef Devin Witmer and his talented kitchen staff, rotates seasonally to deliver rustic, soulful dishes with a culinary nod to the South of France, Italy, Greece and Spain. Bricco is an epicurean treasure perfect for gourmet restaurant and wine enthusiasts, romantic dinners, special occasions and more.
Begin your journey with an antipasti dish, from Calamari Fritti paired with a roasted tomato sauce and olive tapenade to Bricco's signature Antipasto featuring artisan-cured salami. Relax with a gourmet wood stove pizza or indulge in a decadent seafood tower. Highlight your urban-dining experience with one of our award-winning entrees, from Braised Beef Short Ribs to Lamb "Due Sensi." Complementing our dinner innovations is an impressive wine list and a decadent dessert listing. We even offer Harrisburg happy hour for a great place to unwind after a long day at the office. Why not discover our extensive wine list, selection of local craft brews and special cocktail menu? Just as with our diverse dinner and dessert menus, our adult specialty cocktails feature the finest of what's locally available in addition to the best the world has to offer in wines and spirits. Enjoy hot buttered rum made with local apple cider on a cold winter afternoon, or relax al fresco with a limoncello cocktail on a warm evening. When partnered with our delicious small plates and fresh oysters, you'll discover why Bricco is one of the gourmet Italian restaurants Harrisburg residents and visitors love.
The Olewine School of Culinary Arts
Bricco is a collaboration between the Olewine School of Culinary Arts and the Harrisburg Hotel Corporation. Founded with funding from the Benjamin Olewine III family, our kitchens feature the brightest up-and-coming culinary stars who are passionate about creating the freshest, most innovative dishes with expert care. From our award-winning cuisine and atmosphere to Ciao! Bakery's incredible European-style desserts and breads, our staff will delight and satisfy your every expectation for taste, quality and service.
Fine Dining in Harrisburg PA
From relaxing after work with a locally crafted brew and artisanal cheese platter to sampling the best short ribs and the finest house-made gourmet chocolate desserts, Bricco is unmatched in the Harrisburg region for taste, quality and service. Make a reservation at Bricco today, and discover why the experts name us among the finest gourmet restaurants in Harrisburg.
Bricco is a collaboration between the Olewine School of Culinary Arts at Harrisburg Area Community College and Harrisburg Hotel Corporation; managing general partner of The Hilton Harrisburg. Visit us today to see why we're recognized as one of the best restaurants in Harrisburg!
Experience fine dining in Harrisburg. For parties of 7 or more, please call: 717.724.0222


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I have to run top command on one computer being on another. My targeted PC has IP 192.168.0.81
I was trying to do it: ssh 192.168.0.81 top
But I got this result: top: tcgetattr() failed: Invalid argument
Could anybody help me with this issue?
System info: Linux iRP-C-09 2.4.18-timesys-4.0.642
Top version: 2.0.7


text: Hello, I need code that will allow me to display the Label in Vertical form. I am using JFrame not JPanel, I don't know if I still need to post my codes, because I don't have any error in my program, just asking the right code for my question. I've been searching in google but I can't see accurate. Please post here what to import and the code. I need to put the label, bottom of my graph.


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(Bloomberg) — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will examine the exposure of stock exchanges, brokerages and other Wall Street firms to cyber-attacks that have been called a threat to financial stability.
More than half of exchanges surveyed globally in 2012 said they experienced a cyber-attack, while 67 percent of U.S. exchanges said a hacker tried to penetrate their systems. The SEC's roundtable discussion of those risks tomorrow occurs as the agency weighs a new rule proposal asking whether stock exchanges should be required to tell their members about breaches of critical systems.
The agency also will probe how public companies are disclosing cyber threats in filings provided to investors. Businesses including Target Corp., from which hackers stole payment-card data for millions of shoppers in December, are required to disclose cyber threats when the information would affect an investor's willingness to own the company's shares.
"There certainly has been a spate of very recent, high-profile data breaches, and I'm sure that grabbed the attention of the SEC," said John Reed Stark, a managing director at data security firm Stroz Friedberg LLC.
Tomorrow's event was spurred by SEC Commissioner Luis A. Aguilar, who said in a speech last month that "there is a substantial risk that a cyber-attack could cause significant and wide-ranging market disruptions and investor harm."
Public companies aren't required by the SEC to disclose all cyber risks, though the regulator routinely reviews how such threats and incidents are described in annual reports. Some lawmakers, including Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have asked the SEC to consider making the disclosures mandatory.
Systemic risk
The Financial Stability Oversight Council, a group of regulators led by the Treasury Secretary, said in its 2013 annual report that successful cyber-attacks could pose a threat to the stability of financial markets. Among exchanges, 89 percent said cyber-crime should be considered a systemic risk, according to a 2012 International Organization of Securities Commissions report. The SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which oversees broker-dealers, identified cybersecurity as a priority for compliance examinations. Finra said in January it would ask about 20 of its member firms how they manage and defend against the threat of cyber-attacks.
Cybercrime cost financial services companies, on average, about $18.8 million in 2013, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute, a research and consulting firm. The report estimated an average cost for brokerages of $19 million and $21.9 million for investment advisers.
Trading algorithms
Hackers targeting broker-dealers may seek intellectual property such as trading algorithms or the source code of trading systems, said Richard Bejtlich, chief security strategist at Milipitas, California-based information-security consultant FireEye Inc. Manipulation of critical data systems probably poses the greatest risk to Wall Street companies whose buy-and-sell decisions and order routing is increasingly automated.
Under a rule proposed last year, exchanges would be required to promptly disclose to their broker-dealer members any breaches of critical systems. Exchanges could withhold the information if they believed release of the data would do further harm or undermine an investigation of the intrusion.
"If you can start changing the data that you have access to, that can potentially undermine the integrity of the system and that is where people get pretty nervous," Bejtlich said in a phone interview.
Panelists scheduled to speak at tomorrow's roundtable include representatives of Bank of America Corp., BATS Global Markets Inc., the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., and Wells Fargo Advisers LLC. The Treasury Department's Cyrus Amir-Mokri, assistant secretary for financial institutions, and White House cybersecurity adviser Ari Schwartz also will speak, according to an SEC announcement.


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Duke University has a vibrant research community involved in Empirical Legal Scholarship. The library has developed a program to support faculty members who wish to incorporate empirical research into their legal scholarship. An Empirical Research Analyst is available to assist individual faculty members with their research tasks, including: developing research proposals, acquiring data sets, determining the best statistical approach to use in analyzing data, and performing statistical analyses. These sections of the website provide access to key resources, as well as descriptions of specific services and computer programs which are available at Duke.
Describes services available within Duke University.
Data Sources
Recommended links for data sets and statistical compilations, organized by topics which are most relevant to empirical research in a legal context.
Data Storage
Outlines options for storing your data securely and/or provide access to collaborators.
Programs & Software
Links to information about statistical computing software available to the Duke community, as well as training materials for these programs.
Outlines law reviews and journals which regularly publish empirical research, and includes examples from authors at Duke Law.
Introductory training materials for basic statistical methods.


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Who Made the Bed in the Maroon 5 Video?
A music video released this weekend by the American band Maroon 5 features lead singer Adam Levine and his girlfriend, model Anne Vyalitsyna, lying down in a series of beds.
But one particular bed steals the show in the "Never Gonna Leave This Bed" video, which was shot around Los Angeles. It is a contemporary-style abacá-and-metal bed that was made in the Philippines. The bed, designed by Kenneth Cobonpue, a Filipino designer based in Cebu, appears in the opening sequence and in several other shots during the video.


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SPRINGFIELD – The number of inmates locked up in Illinois prisons is at an all-time high, according to an Associated Press analysis, that coincides with Gov. Pat Quinn's battle with state employees over closing correctional facilities.
The Department of Corrections disputes the AP's findings and says the number is about 100 inmates lower. But the department's own numbers confirm that the prison population has grown to near-record highs despite its prediction of a decline in incarcerations.
The AP's review of Corrections Department data show the population hit 49,154 over the weekend. That's 19 inmates more than the previous record, which the agency said last week was set Oct. 6.
Agency spokeswoman Stacey Solano said the AP's numbers were inaccurate, and added that the October record had not been broken.
The AP's analysis was done using inmate data made public by the department on its website.
The dubious milestone for a system designed for 33,700 inmates comes after promises last spring that the prison population would continue to decline. A Corrections report at the time did forecast the population would reach 49,000 – but not until January 2013. And despite that acknowledged spike, officials said the overall trend was downward and projected that the number would drop to an average of below 46,000 by the middle of 2013.
Solano said the system can handle more than its design capacity indicates but did not dispute that the number of inmates has risen.
"It is not unusual for intakes to increase during the summer months due to additional commitments from the local courts," Solano said.
Even without the forecasted drop, the news came at an inopportune time for Quinn, who's in the middle of a legal knock-down, drag-out skirmish with the largest state employees' union over closing prisons.
The Democratic governor wants to shutter major lockups at Dwight and Tamms and three halfway houses because of the budget crisis.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees won a judge's order last month to delay the closures until the two sides negotiate terms regarding workers' safety and fate of displaced staff members.
The union says talk of shuttering facilities makes no sense when prisons are overcrowded and lawmakers voted to keep the facilities open, providing money in the budget which Quinn cut. AFSCME also argues the prisons are understaffed. Records show there are 4,000 fewer Corrections employees than a decade ago, when there were just over 43,000 inmates.
The AP used a computer to collect and sort information about state prisoners from the Corrections Department's website.
It determined the population reached its new record sometime Saturday. Solano said the agency's Sunday number came from an internal computer program but had no suggestions about why that system would have different numbers than those made public on the website.
After hitting the peak, the number dipped by four Sunday, and Monday's total of 49,144 reflects an increase of 323 inmates just in the last month.
John Maki, of the prison watchdog John Howard Association, said he's watched the numbers rise all summer. He agreed with Solano that intakes increase with warm-weather crime and that even a rapid change is not usually reason for concern. But, he said, Illinois is in a unique situation.
"We have a prison system built for 34,000 and any extra bodies is alarming," he said. "The numbers we've seen ... just puts more stress on the system that's already very stressed out."
Maki said it should be another nudge to Quinn to consider reforms, such as safe alternative sentencing for low-level offenders and putting rules in place for a revamped early release program for well-behaved inmates, which the Legislature approved last spring.
Solano said officials are writing early release rules and plan to submit them for legislative approval next month.
Associated Press editor for newsroom innovation Troy Thibodeaux contributed to this report.


text:
Lead story: Suite treats
GCN Lab Reviews index
GCN Lab TV index
MICROSOFT WAS PRODUCING office suites years before anyone else.
The company's suites have become so firmly entrenched in most government and business organizations that the Office application formats have become the de facto standard, the look ofits applications familiar to nearly everyone.
With Office 2007, Microsoft is shaking up that familiar look.
The first thing that users have to get used to with Office 2007 is ribbons at the top of the screen where the toolbars used tobe.
The ribbons contain all of the most commonly used functions tabbed by groups, such as Insert and Page Layout.
When you insert a picture, for instance, a new ribbon tab is created that has image formatting functions on it. This is rather smart and an improvement from older versions, but there is a learning curve for most users who are accustomed to another interface.
Word is an extremely powerful word processor, with all the bells and whistles. With the ribbon interface, we were able to add tables, drawings, images and other embedded objects to our documents quickly and easily.
Excel is even more powerful than prior versions, providing gridsthat are 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns, a giant leap in capacity from the 2003 version.
The 2007 version of PowerPoint comes with SmartArt graphics, which allowed us to quickly add a layout or flow chart and customize it to our needs.
Overall, these applications have significant performance improvements over previous versions.
In addition to the three basic components, Office Standard 2007also includes Outlook, probably the most widely used e-mail programin existence.
This is the one Office component that looks and feels much likeits older version, which is definitely a good thing.
Although everyone else has adopted the file formats found inOffice 2003 as pretty much standard, Microsoft decided to try tocreate a new one.
When Sun Microsystems used the Extensible Markup Language tocreate the OpenDocument Format (ODF), Microsoft decided to createits own XMLbased format, Office Open XML.
Unfortunately it seems as though OOXML is rapidly becoming theBeta- Max in the XML-based standard file format arena 'Microsoft products are the only popular applications using it.
Initially, Office products are unable to save in anynon-Microsoft format, except for the most limited public domainformats, such as Rich Text Format.
They are able to save to PDF once a free add-on is downloadedfrom Microsoft's support Web site.
Microsoft sells Office Standard 2007 for $400, which we feel ishigher than it needs to be. However, the company offers an upgradeversion for $240, which is reasonable, considering most usersbuying an office suite are doing so to replace another version.
Although Microsoft Office Standard 2007 is not compatible with Apple Macs, they have now released a Mac-only version called Office: Mac 2008.
This new version of Office is definitely Microsoft's bestyet, with smart, accessible interfaces and the powerful functionswe have come to expect from the Office suite.
Its potential problems stem mostly from the generalpublic's natural reluctance to try anything new. However, ifyou give the ribbon intreface a try, you'll likely be gladyou did.
Microsoft, 800-426-9400, www.microsoft. com
About the Author
Greg Crowe is a former GCN staff writer who covered mobile technology.
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:Sunny Leone Porn star doesn't mean prostitute - Adult movie star Sunny Leone says that 'porn star' does not automatically mean 'prostitute'. The curvy babe, originally Karen Malhotra, born to Indian oldsters, took the US adult entertainment trade by storm, however never planned to become a porn star. however the cash was simply too smart, she says.
"My oldsters, who are originally from Punjab, were fully shocked once they pointed out i used to be within the adult entertainment trade. Their reaction was what I expected, and that i was ready for it. When my father realized what I did, he said, 'You did not even raise us before you probably did this! however no matter you are doing, confirm you are doing it well.' My mother was conjointly surprised when she found regarding my lesbian lovemaking videos, however she accepted it. and therefore the proven fact that my work did not modification me as someone worked in my favour. My oldsters soon realized it and revered me for who i'm and my choices. therefore there was never any question of being disowned by my family," she says. Have her oldsters seen any of her hardcore adult videos? "Of course not! Whose oldsters would do that?" she asks.
Sunny says it's ignorance that produces individuals equate adult stars with prostitutes. "I assume India does not have an adult entertainment trade - that is why individuals haven't any plan what it's. I ran a corporation that took care of the deals I sealed with companies to sell and share my content on-line and to different media. Running a corporation was toil. i might work for regarding 60-70 hours per week. It wasn't a celebration. I even have just one partner. so method, i am terribly restrained within the world," she says.
Isn't it true that she lost her virginity when she was 16? "Yes. The guy played basketball in highschool.
He was as recent as me. we tend to simply liked one another. Losing my virginity at sixteen was with reference to creating a alternative that I wished to create at that age. Since my oldsters have lived removed from India for several years, their thought method is completely different. They've perpetually let me take my very own choices. i do not regret something that I've done to this point. I even have no regrets regarding who i'm. I even have a pleasant life, nice family, nice friends and build a decent living," she says.
Sunny says collaborating in "Bigg Boss" can build individuals understand she is not the cliched 'adult star'. "I grew up during a regular Indian household; i have been taught to be a decent person. i would like Indian individuals to understand that. and i have perpetually been curious about Bollywood, therefore with this show, i would get smart roles in Hindi films," she says.
Now that she's in India, can she conjointly visit relatives in Delhi? "I last came to Delhi this year in February. i might prefer to return soon. however I wasn't born here, love it says on-line - i used to be born in Canada," she says.


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Gotta see patients right now (blogging isn't my day job, though I wish it was), but thought I'd at least end the guessing.
I'll post full details later tonight or tomorrow, Grumpyites!
A Blog detailing the insanity of my medical practice and the stupidity of everyday life.
I'm on call! Have mercy!
If Mr J.A. Gives you any shit, just have him plunge his bad hand into Ed's bowl. Tell him Ed is an expert on "laying on fins" and he'll be cured instantly.
Those types are just stupid enough to believe it.
LD50 Rat
can't wait to know what happen..OMG..i'm excited.. ^^
OMG - I can't believe you are doing this to us.. you are the master of suspense!
I don't mean too, I swear.
Can't say "Excuse me, Mrs. Smith. My readers are waiting, and your brain tumor can wait".
Tonight or tomorrow?! So wrong, Grumpy! I can't wait.
and my word confirm is joyin...how right is that?
On call? There's no sniveling in Blog Land. Channel your inner 20 something self. I bet you could stay awake for 3 days, and somehow study, see your S0, do a few beer bongs and BLOG!
A career, marriage, children, and a life is no excuse.
Your loyal following waits...
Besides the guy with the tumour has probably been wandering around with it in his head for a while. He can wait 10 minutes. ;)
LD50 Rat
Ah, something to look forward to!
Looking forward to hearing about him... know your busy, but waiting is hard.
::tapping foot::
::humming Jeopardy tune::
I'm typing it RIGHT NOW people, hang on!
Nice tie-in on the Jeopardy tune, Peedee.
Tony roams the streets of Spanish Harlem, singing . . .
"Tonight, tonight, just post that stuff tonight. Tonight we want some Doc Grumpy fun . . ."
Why is there a picture of birthday cake in the top left corner of my Blogger dashboard for the last 3 days, anyway?
The birthday cake Blogger logo was for the service's 10th birthday. Blogger (pre-Google acquisition) was launched in late August 1999.
Captcha: ablum, urine-free blandness.
Little Calf Creamery. Delicious homemade ice cream and food in Thousand Oaks!


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This past spring 2017 an F35 entering Boston Harbor traveling past Deer Island and possibly heading towards Winthrop MA smoked right past my F35! One question captain. Who built those beautiful tri-radial sails for you?
Thank you,
Mark K.
S/V Encore
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Annals by Daniel P. Nastali and Phillip C. Boardman
Books, Music & More
Into the Twilight
Out-worn heart, in
a time out-worn,
Come clear of the nets of wrong and right;
Laugh, heart, again in the grey twilight;
Sigh, heart, again in the dew of the morn.
Your mother Eire is always young,
Dew ever shining and twilight grey;
Though hope fall from you and love decay,
Burning in fires of a slanderous tongue.
Come, heart, where hill is heaped upon hill:
For there the mystical brotherhood
Of sun and moon and hollow and wood
And river and stream work out their will;
And God stands winding His lonely horn,
And time and the world are ever in flight;
And love is less kind than the grey twilight,
And hope is less dear than the dew of the morn.
William Butler Yeats
Read the novels of the Dragon Skies, "Beneath A Dragon
Sky", "The Last Dragon Harper", "Dragon Harper Curse", & the latest
addition "Red Knight and Dragon Skies", the history of Myrddin, the last Dragon
Harper. A thrilling, dark and sensual story of war and revenge set
in 6th Century Celtic Scotland. Drop into the
Gordd Cymru for
other great Websites
Copyright © 2000 Gordd Cymru. All Rights Reserved.


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Leave it on the floor. It's all part of the game. No harm, no foul. You've heard many times how the intensity of a game can heighten emotions and anger but really doesn't get too personal or travel beyond the lines.
Well, not always. Or do you buy the idea Carmelo Anthony waited by the Celtics' bus a few weeks ago to help Kevin Garnett with his bags?
Those two breakfast buddies met Thursday for the first time since KG put Honey Nut Cheerios on the menu and caused Melo to flip out. Bad blood ensued, and you wonder how these All-Star teammates will coexist next month in Houston. How genuinely will they root for one another in that game? When it's time to bump fists, will Melo accidently aim high? Oh, the possibilities.
At least Melo isn't alone. A handful of players would love to swipe at KG if it didn't cost them money or a fractured knuckle, and standing second in line would be Joakim Noah. He and KG go at it every time the Bulls and Celtics meet.
"He's always on some BS," Noah said last week. "Just trying to throw elbows. Cheap shots. Just trying to get you off your game."
Because of his passion for elbows and getting personal in trash talking (calling Charlie Villanueva, who suffers from a skin disease, a "cancer patient" and wishing Tim Duncan a happy Mother's Day after Duncan lost his mother), KG is a modern-day Bill Laimbeer. Antagonism is his tool, and he keeps it sharp, which leads to feuds that often go beyond the court.
While most player feuds die peacefully before the buzzer, the NBA is rather rich in those that don't. Some feuds are more than just competitive fire (Chuck Person vs. Larry Bird). Some don't take a unique and peaceful turn, like when Kobe Bryant campaigned hard for the Lakers to sign Matt Barnes, who notoriously irritated Kobe in the past. Those are harmless spats that go nowhere.
Other feuds run deep and personal and often have far-reaching consequences. Here are 10, like Melo vs. KG, that left the floor.
10. Charles Barkley and Charles Oakley
Barkley is famous for hitting hard while sitting at the Turner studios. Oakley isn't a studio gangster. He punched Tyrone Hill over an unpaid debt and clocked Jeff McInnis over a woman. You messed with Oak at your own risk. So when Barkley said something that Oakley didn't like during their playing days, Oakley went Oakley on him, slapping him at a preseason game and then, more famously, at the players association meeting in 1999. Witnesses said Oakley told Barkley: "Every time I see you, I'm slapping you." Just last year, Oakley said: "He's a coward … he wasn't a leader or a role model. Now he talks so bad about the younger guys. He's a fraud, he can criticize the younger kids … he wants to be funny, the whole TNT thing and all that, they're like some clowns on that show." Barkley and Oakley share a good friend in Michael Jordan, but that's where it ends between the two. When told Oakley's remarks, Barkley didn't slap back, more like pushed back when he said: "Dude, it's over with. Let it go."
9. Kobe Bryant and Smush Parker
Kobe had many teammates he didn't respect. Parker topped that list, as Kobe has reminded us many times. Parker was the Lakers' starting point guard in the post-Shaq years, and during this transitional period Kobe wasn't close to winning a title. He took it out on Parker, an overachiever who only lasted two seasons with the Lakers. After Parker left, Kobe always dropped a Smush reference, and none were complimentary. The entire episode blew up last fall in Lakers training camp when Kobe, without being prodded, mentioned Parker again: "Smush was the worst. He shouldn't have been in the NBA but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard." Parker responded by saying he refused to pass Kobe the ball; that Kobe often separated himself from the team even during dinner functions; and that Kobe refused to speak to Parker. It was a revealing look at Kobe during a selfish period. Smush said: "What I don't like about him is the man that he is. His personality. How he treats people." Kobe didn't respond to specifics raised by Parker, but maybe Kobe finally put this one to rest. "I wish him the best," Kobe said, before one last dig. "He's playing in China, right?"
8. Tim Duncan and Joey Crawford
Referees are taught early to develop thick skin, but Crawford is more egotistical than most. Duncan has been one of the biggest whiners for years, always quick to disagree with the most obvious of calls, and so this was bound to happen. Crawford ejected Duncan for laughing on the bench in 1997 and then challenged him to a fight. Crawford was fined $25,000, suspended by the league and banned from working Spurs games. This was an embarrassment for the league because Crawford gets high marks and Duncan is headed to the Hall of Fame. Yet the league couldn't risk having Crawford ref Spurs game for appearance reasons, if nothing else. The ban no longer exists, but Duncan did get revenge when he and Tony Parker were photographed at a Halloween party last October aiming fake guns at a fake Crawford.
7. Dan Gilbert and LeBron James
Love hath no fury like a spurned boss who loses his cash cow and then fires off a letter written in comic sans. Rather than take a long walk after LeBron announced he was going to South Beach, Gilbert went straight to the keyboard and let his emotions go. He said LeBron was guilty of "cowardly betrayal" and "selfishness" and was a "former hero," all of which was perhaps true. But an owner shouldn't stoop to that level; that's what fans and media are for. Besides, Gilbert also guaranteed the Cavs would win a championship before LeBron. Well, the Cavs haven't won 50 games since LeBron left two-plus years ago. Gilbert has since admitted his mistake and said he's over it. That's good, because we'll be reprising the letter in a few summers when LeBron teams up with Kyrie Irving to give Gilbert and Cleveland the championship they wanted all along.
6. LeBron James and DeShawn Stevenson
You had to be versed in hip-hop-ology to understand the depths of this beef that began in 2008 and ended, we think, when Stevenson rubbed salt in LeBron's wound at the 2011 NBA Finals. They were on different teams when the Cavs and Wizards met in the playoffs six years ago. LeBron was a rising superstar and Stevenson an aggressive role player who could shoot three-pointers and also from the lip. The short version of what happened: Stevenson talked tough to LeBron, who compared himself to Jay-Z and Stevenson to Soulja Boy. What's interesting is, when Hova himself interjected and also dissed Stevenson in a rap lyric, Stevenson backed down and took it as a compliment. Now that's power. Anyway, Stevenson had a solid run in the Finals -- we all saw what happened to LeBron -- and said The King "checked out." Basically, the roles reversed: Stevenson was suddenly Jay-Z and LeBron was, well, Vanilla Ice.
5. Alonzo Mourning and Larry Johnson
They were teammates for four years in Charlotte, back when the city had winning basketball, and looked to have a long relationship together. But then the Hornets stupidly gave Johnson a groundbreaking $84 million contract, which ultimately forced them to trade Mourning and begin an exit strategy for the franchise out of Charlotte. For unclear reasons, Johnson and Mourning became bitter enemies after going separate ways. Unfortunately for them, they were on separate teams during those Knicks-Heat alley-fights of the late 1990s. And so we were blessed with one of the most enduring video snippets of all time: Jeff Van Gundy attached to Mourning's leg in an effort to break up a nasty fistfight between Mourning and Johnson in 1998. Near the end of their careers, they bonded over health problems; Johnson had multiple back surgeries while Mourning required a kidney transplant. Recently, Johnson said: "Man, I'm 42 years old. I don't have time to hold grudges against another grown man. I had my back issues. He had his kidney issues. So there's no time for any real grudges."
4. Spike Lee and Reggie Miller
Miller actually had a more intense relationship with Knicks guard John Starks, who head-butted Miller in a playoff game, but his courtside "chats" with the Knicks' No. 1 fan were more infamous. Their running dialogue almost became a self-parody because of all the attention it received, and besides, Lee couldn't physically prevent Miller from doing anything. But maybe that's why this "feud" is considered one of the most historic in sports. Miller credits Lee's taunting for helping him score 25 points in the fourth quarter of a 1994 playoff game, and Spike's image blew up bigger than any of his films. Then and now, Spike enjoys relationships with NBA players and coaches and even was on speaking terms with Miller when they saw each other at functions. Word is they "played up" their "bad relationship" to make things seem more legendary than it was. But they weren't as chummy as Jordan and Spike. Anyway, Miller said: "Time heals all wounds. We're friendly. We can talk about things now."
3. Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas
They went from a kissing match to a pissing match, two friends and competitors breaking apart and going years without speaking. Two weeks ago Magic tweeted: "I had a great private convo with @iamisiahthomas. Glad we can be friends again." Wow, that's a long time between smooches. They were famous for a peck on the cheek before tipoff whenever their teams met in the 1980s. Their famous friendship was well-documented in sappy TV stories. Then Magic announced he was HIV-positive in 1991 and accused Isiah of making insensitive insinuations in the days that followed. The feud had costly consequences for Isiah immediately. When Michael Jordan hesitated to join the Dream Team if it included Isiah, Larry Bird (remember Isiah's "white player" comment?) and Magic agreed to keep Isiah off the historic Olympic team. That was insane. Isiah is the only player to beat all three in a game or series of any significance, and remains the greatest "short player" of all time. But such was the price of former friendship. Good that they're now catching up on old times.
2. Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas
They were fierce competitors not only locked in the same conference, but the same division, meaning they were guaranteed to meet at least a dozen times, including playoffs. So that's one reason for the beef. Also, Jordan represented the flashy new-school player who threatened Isiah's place in the game. And so we had the Jordan Freeze Out at the All-Star Game, and the Pistons Walk Off with seconds left before losing to the Bulls in the East finals, and most famously the Isiah Keep Out from the 1992 Olympic team. Again, Isiah was the loser here, and unlike the feud with Magic, there's almost no chance of reconciliation with Jordan, who holds grudges well. At least Isiah can say he ran a team better than Jordan. Or can he? Close call there.
1. Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal
This is the most damaging feud in NBA history because it robbed the Lakers of at least one championship and ruined a great dynasty. They had money, the treasures of fame, Los Angeles by the throat and the chance to leave an unmatched mark in NBA history. And yet, after title No. 3, they couldn't be in the same room together because the "Kobe beef," as Shaq later recounted in a rap, became too great. Kobe complained about Shaq's lack of conditioning and Shaq complained about Kobe's shot selection. Both were right, actually. When Kobe panicked and told police in Colorado about Shaq's supposed off-court habits, that was the final straw. It's shocking how they didn't come to blows and reached the 2004 Finals anyway. Not even Jerry West and Phil Jackson could repair the damage, and mediator Brian Shaw only managed so much. The feud lasted for another two years before they finally made peace and realized the opportunity they lost. The best moment of the feud? When Shaq, during a cameo in the film parody "Scary Movie 4," hears a frightening voice and replies, "Kobe?


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Step 1: Write 500 words or less on the following question: IF YOU WERE APPOINTED COMMISSIONER OF TENNIS, WHAT WOULD BE THE ONE CHANGE YOU'D MAKE TO IMPROVE THE SPORT? There are no right or wrong answers - just be creative.
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PITTSBURGH, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Shaun Suisham's 34-yard field goal with no time left on the clock Sunday boosted the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 16-14 victory over Philadelphia.
The decisive boot capped a 12-play, 75-yard Steelers drive that came after the Eagles had grabbed a 14-13 lead on Brent Celek's two-yard touchdown grab.
Rashard Mendenhall, returning this week from an injury, keyed the final push with 31 rushing yards, finishing the game with 101 total yards from scrimmage and a score.
Ben Roethlisberger connected on 21-of-37 passes for 207 yards for Pittsburgh.
LeSean McCoy picked up 80 yards from scrimmage and caught a touchdown pass for the Eagles (3-2).
Michael Vick connected on 20-of-30 passes for 175 yards and a pair TD passes in the loss.


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The first thing to know about Don McLeod is he peppers his speech with plenty of "hells" and "damns." If no ladies are present, he probably ups the spice.
The second thing is, even at 82, this country boy wishes he could get hold of the people who shot his buddy Cliff Walker, his sweet wife, Christine, and their two babies 53 years ago.
"I wish they would catch 'em and goddamn turn me loose on 'em," he says from his little house's breezy front porch, still far enough out in Sarasota County that he can hear crowing roosters and lowing cattle.
A number of people are waiting to see if DNA links the exhumed bodies of Kansas' infamous "In Cold Blood" killers to DNA found at the Osprey slaying: family, cold case detectives, authorities in Kansas, literary scholars and fans of the book's author, Truman Capote.
But as the man who found the bodies that chilly December day, McLeod maintains a burning, highly personal interest. These were his friends. And until DNA exonerated him a half-dozen years ago, he was a prime suspect.
"Oh, hell, they was ready to put me in jail!" he recalls. Not the older detectives who had been family friends for years, mind you, but the younger ones.
But it's more than that. The not knowing has troubled the mind of McLeod and his wife, Lucy, for decades.
"I'd like to find out before I die," he says. "But I'm running out of gas. Whoever they was, they was cold-blooded sons of bitches."
McLeod says he guesses he's told the story of finding his friends "a zillion times," to the ever-changing faces of detectives, to lie detector operators, to the simply curious and to reporters, some of whom still show up on his porch unannounced with their video cameras from far away.
"I always talk to people because I think I might say just one word that might help somebody remember something," he says.
With that, his aging eyes look out, only now he doesn't see the present day. It's 1959 again, the images still awful and fresh.
"It was a gruesome, gruesome thing," he says. "I can see it just as plain."
Hunting buddies
McLeod was 29, a ranch hand on the 14,000-acre Palmer ranch along with Cliff Walker, a young man "just as country as anybody you'd want to meet."
He had known the quiet Cliff, 25, for three or four years, although he had known the extended Walker family forever.
This was a time when towns were so small, you knew every car that drove down the road, and the stories of everyone inside. And their kin.
"Cliff's daddy was as good a friend as I had," he recalls.
Cliff and Don had an early-morning date to go wild hog hunting in the vast, palmetto-covered land, long before it was sliced by Interstate 75 and diced into subdivisions.
He found a darkened house, unusual since Cliff usually had a pot of coffee on the stove when his buddy arrived for one of their frequent hog hunts.
The two men butchered some of the meat for their own use and sold some. Both were paid little on the ranch and did what they could to make ends meet. Although it was illegal, they also caught alligators with nary a worry about losing a finger. They knew what they were doing.
McLeod had been shooting 'coons and other wildlife since he was a boy, not much older than Jimmie Walker, age 3.
"Then the gators just disappeared," he says with a twinkle in his eye. Parts were sold and the ranch foreman sometimes let Chris and Don take off if they promised him a gator tail for his supper.
But the agenda this day called for hogs.
"I banged on his bedroom window, then went around to the babies' window," he says. "I knew I could wake the babies up and they'd get their daddy."
When he got no answer, he used his knife to lift the latch on the door. He first saw Christine, lying on the floor. Then Cliff, on his back with his cowboy hat still on his head.
"I think he froze when he seen her," McLeod says. "I know 'cause I did."
He saw little Jimmie curled up on the floor next to his daddy.
"I thought their big ol' gas heater got 'em," he says. "It was cold."
Then he saw the blood.
"It was everywhere," McLeod says. "She put up a fight. But I knowed they was dead.
"I seen dead hogs and dead Koreans in the war. You can tell when somebody's dead."
McLeod says he didn't go looking for Debbie, who was not quite 2.
She was later found fully clothed, drowned in a few inches of water drawn in the family bathtub. She, too, had been shot, but not fatally.
McLeod said he took off running, fearful that the killer was still in the house.
"If somebody had got in my way, I would have knocked 'em down," he says.
He called the police as soon as he could borrow the 10 cents he needed for a payphone in town.
"I didn't have a damn penny on me," he says.
'Darling children'
Newspaper photos from the scene that day show McLeod, looking young and in shock, his head covered by his hunting hat with ear flaps.
He was quick to volunteer for lie detector tests, as many as were required as the machines improved over the years.
He passed every time.
The experience was deeply frightening for the young McLeods, who had a boy and a girl close in age to the two Walker children.
All four used to play together, and had visited just the day before.
"They were darling children," says Lucy McLeod, 81, who hails from Washington, D.C. She married Don after just three weeks of courtship and moved with him to a deep-country life in his native Florida.
Debbie had curly hair and Jimmie was a talker, a little cowboy in boots and dungarees.
She says Christine, 24, used to bring the children by on her way to a nearby supermarket. The young housewife and mother preferred it over the IGA nearer her remote Osprey home. Back then, young mothers in far-flung houses, often without phones, sometimes dropped in on each other for a little conversation when they could.
"She was a very nice girl," Lucy McLeod recalls. "She smiled and was happy-acting."
Rumors swirled that the killer, who raped Christine before shooting her, was her lover, but Lucy scoffs at that.
"I never saw anything that made me think such a thing," she says.
Besides, as a young mother taking full-time care of two small children, Lucy knew it was highly unlikely Christine could have carried on any kind of romance.
"There just isn't the time," she says.
Killer on the loose
As the days wore on without an arrest, the couple were fearful.
A killer was on the loose, and although others accused Don McLeod, they both knew it wasn't him.
Lucy wouldn't let her children play outdoors anymore, and Don slept with a shotgun on his side of the bed.
He also had trouble getting to sleep at night and sometimes woke in the wee hours, his mind filled with horrible images.
"It was all over the papers, and everybody knew Don was the one who found them," his wife says. "We were afraid the killer might come by and try to kill him to keep him quiet."
For many years, Lucy McLeod feared entering her house alone; detectives surmised tht that's what Christine had done, perhaps surprising her killer.
"Once in a while, we still lay in bed and think about it," Lucy says. "It's still stressful for us to talk about."
Both hope DNA will definitively link Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, the murderous pair in "In Cold Blood," to the Walkers' slaying.
Smith and Hickock's bodies were exhumed last December, near the prison where both were hanged for killing the Clutter family of Kansas in 1959.
Sheriff's deputies have said the DNA might prove too degraded to make a positive match, and the process of harvesting DNA can take weeks.
Add to that a severe backlog of cases in Kansas crime labs, including about 900 DNA samples waiting for testing, according to The Associated Press.
The McLeods say even if it isn't the "In Cold Blood" duo, whoever who did this to their friends must have shared the killers' lack of remorse.
"I think it would have to be somebody like that," Lucy says.
"I do, too," her husband says. "Whoever done this had to be cold, cold-blooded, with no heart. If it's them, it will ease my heart to know they are dead."
He just wishes the lab would hurry up with that DNA. He worries that the men's bones will be too old to tell for sure.
"I don't want no damn 'maybe.' I want to know," he says. "But I may not ever know."
The man who first saw the cold blood
The first thing to know about Don McLeod is he peppers his speech with plenty of "hells" and "damns." If no ladies are present, he probably ups the spice.


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This article or section needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of article quality.
This article or section needs more/new/more-detailed sources to conform to a higher standard and to provide proof for claims made.
|Physical Description
|Images of Ungoliant
Shelob was a child of Ungoliant, a female demon who took the form of a Spider
Shelob was a huge creature in spider form, apparently the spawn of Ungoliant and some lesser spider of Arda. She dwelled high in the mountains of Mordor, having established her lair there before Sauron claimed Mordor as his own. Shelob spent her early days feeding off elves and men, but as elves and men became scarce in the area, she fed upon orcs. Sauron would sometimes send her captured prisoners for whom he had no further use and amuse himself watching how she played with her prey. Even though they did not communicate, Sauron and Shelob understood each other. Shelob was like a pet to Sauron, and she served as a secure guardian of the pass of Cirith Ungol to prevent any intruders from entering the dark land.
Her lair was along the path that Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins took while seeking Mount Doom. Their guide, Gollum (whom the orcs of the Tower of Cirith Ungol call "Her Shelob's Sneak"), had reached some sort of understanding with her, and he led the hobbits directly into her trap.
While put off by the Phial of Galadriel in the tunnels, she intercepted them again outside and attacked Frodo, stinging him into a death-like coma. Sam managed to defeat her by letting her impale herself upon Sting when she tried to crush him under her massive body. Wounded, she fled to her lair and was never seen again.
Thinking Frodo dead, Sam took the One Ring from him and left his body behind, but discovered by listening to a party of Orcs that Shelob's venom was not intended to kill its victims but only to render them unconscious and keep their meat fresh.
The name Shelob is derived from "lob", an archaic English word for spider. A variation, "cob" is the derivation of the word "cobweb". The first element, "she", simply mentions the spider's gender.
Portrayal in Adaptations
In The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy, Shelob's appearance is held over until the middle of the third movie, The Return of the King.
In the movie, Shelob can be seen to have a retractable venomous sting at the rear end between the spinnerets, resembling a wasp's sting. This is very much unlike real spiders which inject venom with their fangs but accurate relative to the novel. Shelob also appears to have a gaping mouth, whereas real spiders can ingest only liquid. In the book, on the other hand, "clusters" of eyes are mentioned, which may suggest compound eyes like those of insects; the Shelob in the movie does not have compound eyes, which is appropriate. A hunting spider of the family Lycosidae,[source?] which Shelob most closely resembles, would have two large eyes facing forward, and a few smaller ones almost hidden below. The only spiders that can reasonably be said to have "clustered" eyes (though not true compound eyes) are the daddy long-legs spiders of the family Pholcidae, but Shelob does not resemble these rather spindly and fragile spiders in other aspects of her physique.


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As of 2:21 p.m. Thursday, the State Port at Morehead City has reopened after Tuesday's hazmat emergency.
Officials say all of the explosive material PETN has been removed from the port.
An investigation into the hazardous situation is underway, and there's no word on how long that investigation will last.
Nine containers of the explosive material leaked out Tuesday morning at the port, forcing the port and Highway 70 shut down along with a voluntary evacuation of downtown Morehead City. More PETN was found Wednesday, forcing the port to remain shut down into Thursday.
Previous Story:
Morehead City, NC (WITN) - The Coast Guard says it has found more compromised cylinders of PETN at the state port in Morehead City.
Nine containers of the explosive material leaked out Tuesday morning at the port, forcing the port and Highway 70 shut down along with a voluntary evacuation of downtown Morehead City. Authorities say that was caused when a fork lift punctured one of the shipping containers that housed the slury-type explosive.
The evacuation and road closure was lifted Tuesday evening, but the port remains closed as the cleanup continues.
The Coast Guard says the additional containers were not damaged in the initial accident, but were found after authorities checked other containers. The Coast Guard says that PETN may have leached out during shipping and they say it is a small area.
"The Ports Authority's goal is to reopen the Port of Morehead City as safely and as quickly as possible," said CEO Thomas Eagar.
The Ports Authority says it is working with customers while the Port is closed. That includes moving cargo from the port to their facilities and allowing ships to dock at the port.
Waterways around the port have reopened to boat traffic.
The state port at Morehead City will remained closed after Tuesday's explosive spill.
Tuesday evening the port said it expected the facility to open at 8:00 a.m.
But the Port Authority says that has been delayed as crews continue to clean up Tuesday's accident.
That remediation work is being done under the direction of the U.S. Coast Guard. Wednesday morning the Coast Guard released photographs of that work. To view, click on the PHOTOS tab at the top of this story.
The Coast Guard says there is a 300 yard safety zone around the port for vessels until the situation is safely resolved.
"The Ports Authority's goal is to reopen the Port of Morehead City as safely and as quickly as possible," said CEO Thomas Eagar.
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Life is beginning to return to normal in Morehead City after a hazmat emergency shut down the state port, closed a major highway and produced a voluntary evacuation of downtown.
Just after 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, police reopened Arendell Street, which is also U.S. 70 through the middle of town. Emergency management says the voluntary evacuation for residents and businesses has now been lifted as well.
State ports spokeswoman Karen Fox tells WITN News that the port was scheduled to reopen Wednesday morning at 8:00 a.m., which is its normal time.
Fire chief Wes Lail says there were nine drums containing the explosive material PETN in one shipping container. Nine 110-pound drums were punctured by a fork lift. Lail said the PETN was in a slurry form, shipped that way for safety reasons.
Lt. Robert Jones with Morehead City police says it's been approximately two years since PETN was brought into the port and that security is heightened anytime the material is brought into the facility.
PETN was the explosive used in the Christmas Day terror plot when a man is accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plane. In 2001 authorities say Richard Reid tried to blow up an airliner by hiding the explosive in his shoe.
Authorities say the first call came in at 4:44 a.m., but it wasn't until after 9:00 a.m. when residents were alerted. The fire chief says they first had to access the situation before making that alert.
"We approach a potential hazmat incident different than we would a car wreck or even a structure fire in that we are very a slow approach. We're not near as aggressive because what we don't know can hurt," the fire chief told reporters.
Authorities say the PETN came from a foreign ship that was delivering the material. WITN News has learned the "Lehmann Forester" is a cargo ship out of Antigua and Barbuda. Officials say the ship originated in Spain.
The Morehead City port has been shut down and authorities are say there's a voluntary evacuation of downtown Morehead City.
Morehead City police say nine containers containing highly explosive material were punctured at 4:44 a.m. Tuesday. Officials say the material is PETN.
Experts say PETN is used in detonators, grenades and projectiles and is highly explosive. According to online information, it is usually shipped as a mixture with water.
PETN was the explosive used in the Christmas Day terror plot when a man is accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plane.
Morehead City Mayor Jerry Jones says a forklift operator accidentally punctured at least one container filled with PETN, forcing the port to shut down.
To view pictures of the scene please click the PHOTOS tab at the top of the story
Morehead City is one of the deepest ports on the East Coast of the United States, and imports and exports large amounts of sulfur products, phosphate and rubber. In 2009, the port exported more than 2,000 tons of material classified as "military."
Morehead City fire chief Wes Lail says the town is talking a lot of extra precautions and that the evacuation of downtown is voluntary.
Cherry Point Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Morehead City police and fire, and surrounding agencies are on scene.
Traffic on Highway 70 from Radio Island to 5th Street in Morehead City is closed.
North Carolina Emergency Management says the leak is contained to land, nothing has leaked into the water. There have been no injuries reported.
Police are telling residents that if they do not evacuate then they should try to stay away from windows and doors. The town says no foot or vehicle traffic will be permitted in the port area.
The North Carolina State Ports Authority spokeswoman Karen Fox says the accident occurred as workers were removing the material from a vessel at the port. She says that off-loading is handled by a private company and not port employees.
Fox says she does not know where the shipment originated or where it was headed.
The Ports Authority says explosive materials are routinely handled at the port. Fox says they follow all safety and transportation regulations when handling that material. She says the exact circumstances on the accident remain under investigation.
The most explosive situation at the port may have been back in 1961, when a Navy ship, the Potomac, was off-loading aviation gas and fuel for jets, according to former WITN reporter Alan Covey.
The gas and fuel leaked into the water and ignited, causing a fire and explosion killing two and injuring dozens. Reports show the ship burned for days.
12:00 Noon Ports Authority News Release
"Emergency Crews respond to hazardous material incident at Port of Morehead City: No injuries reported. Port closed as precaution. The NC State Ports Authority has been working with Carteret County first responders and emergency management officials on the scene at the Port of Morehead City, in response to a hazardous materials incident early this morning at the Port.
There have been no reported injuries or damage to the environment.
Given the nature of the incident and regulatory requirements, the Port has been evacuated, and Highway 70 from 4th Street to Beaufort has been closed while emergency crews work to secure the area. The accident occurred during a vessel operation at the Port. Vessel operations at the North Carolina Ports are handled by private stevedoring companies.
No NC State Ports Authority employees were involved. Explosive materials are handled routinely at the Port of Morehead City, under all prescribed regulations for safe handling and transportation and in conjunction with local and state emergency management agencies.
Details on the circumstances surrounding the accident and the nature of the material remain under investigation."