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Troutman himself is the dominant character in the decor, albeit as a younger version of the Georgia-born investor: a tall, dashing, auburn-haired playboy with a winning smile, mugging alone or in the company of a galaxy of stars from Jackie Gleason to Don Shula. The Jockey Club's original visionary, seated behind the desk of his modest paneled office on the lower floor of his penthouse, still has brick-red eyebrows and an easy Southern charm, but his white hair attests to the years that have passed since both he and the Jockey Club first appeared on the Miami social scene. (Troutman is vague about his age but seems to remember that he was born in 1921.) The name "Jockey Club" refers to not only the condominium towers, of which there are now three, but also to the once-chic social club facilities: the restaurant, four bars, three swimming pools, fifteen tennis courts, fitness center, marina, and fourteen hotel rooms that later became a separate entity.
"It was a hot club," Troutman says of the good old days at 11111 Biscayne Blvd. "We were jam-packed every night, and we had quite a few thousand members. It was everything we had dreamed of it being."
Though Troutman was the impetus behind building the club, he was not the only dreamer involved in the nascence of the Miami hot spot. Among the original investment group were developer Harper Sibley and an old friend of Sibley from Rochester, New York, Jack Herman.
But it was Troutman whose name, face, and personality came to embody the Jockey Club. "A club like this is a personal situation," he emphasizes. "In other words, you really have to take care of it personally. If you've got one member or umpteen thousand members, they more or less look to you. So from that standpoint it's sort of a fun thing, but it's also a trying thing. All day long you're talking to people. You get tired of people congratulating you," he proffers with a slight smile.
"I can hardly name the celebrities that I didn't have here at one time or the other. And I concentrated on it, highlighting the club with celebrities, with special situations, things that really turned people on. You have to sort of be part of it and have it in your system. If you don't, you don't do too well."
After eating, breathing, walking, and talking the Jockey Club for a decade and a half -- during which he and another of the original partners gradually bought out the others -- Troutman decided it was time to get its business operations out of his system. He remembers selling his stake in the club facilities to his partner in the early Eighties.
After he had abdicated his official position with the club, he was able to look down from his lofty perch on the ownership changes, bankruptcies, and foreclosures that bedeviled the club through the mid- and late Eighties. "The people who were running the club then didn't know how to make it happen," he opines. "They didn't know how to give it the ambiance, the flair. You run into any ex-Jockey Club members now, most of them get into, 'Gee whiz, what a great place this was. What happened?'"
Jack Waxenberg, president of both the Jockey I condominium association and the homeowners' association encompassing all three condo towers, has lived in the building since it opened. He recalls fondly the original incarnation of the club that was just an elevator ride away. "It was like going down to your living room," he recalls. "It always seemed there was someone there who would buy you a drink, or you'd want to buy them a drink. The dining room was excellent. It was a good place to be. In those days, you belonged to the Palm Bay, Turnberry, and here."
Though he sold his shares of the Jockey Club in 1972, Jack Herman still feels a sense of pride about the club in its heyday. "We provided the membership with a way of life that was unparalleled as far as the world was concerned," declares the 81-year-old Herman. "People came from Europe, South America, the main cities in the United States. It was the most prestigious club in the country. It was international in scope." He rattles off a list of luminaries who would see and be seen in the restaurant and bar: Hubert Humphrey, Van Cliburn, Jackie Gleason, Bebe Rebozo, Joe Robbie, Pierre Salinger, Chet Huntley, Eva Gabor.
Jack's wife Bobbie Herman remembers personally taking care of a couple of Australian tennis legends of the Seventies. "Tony Roche and John Newcombe were the wildest, craziest, sweetest guys," coos Bobbie, now 70 years old. "They'd be out drinking all night, then at five in the morning they knew they couldn't play if they didn't eat. So where did they go for their steak-and-eggs Australian breakfast? To Bobbie's door."
Every entrant to the Jockey Club's restaurant, from A-lister to wannabe, had to pass through the same gatekeeper: maitre d' Tino Pareto, a short, trim, energetic emigre from Genoa, Italy. Pareto, who currently runs Tino's Place, an Italian-Peruvian restaurant in Coral Gables, remembers fondly his years at the Jockey Club. "On a weekend night, it was wall-to-wall people," he reminisces in a gentle Italian accent. "We used to do an average of about five, six, seven hundred dinners. Everything was French service. They were coming down from New York, from San Francisco, from New Orleans. Everybody met at the Jockey Club for the weekend. They used to call me from London, from Paris, from Hong Kong and say, 'Such-and-such a day I'll be there, make me a party for 50 people.' It was a different time, a good time, good prestige."
Pareto remembers seeing the departure of Walter Troutman and the other original investors from the operations of the club as a harbinger of bad times; he left in 1982.
His instincts proved keen. The Eighties were indeed a grim decade for the Jockey Club -- for both members and residents. The social club property was sold three times between 1985 and 1989, and a 1989 savings and loan debacle involving some $15 million in bad loans left the operation in the hands of the FDIC. After the Herman family, whose patriarch Jack was among the original owners, bought it from the federal government that year, the old magic didn't return. Even renowned New York City chef Larry Forgione couldn't spark a revival: His fine-dining and open-to-the-public restaurant, called An American Place Waterside at the Jockey Club, lasted only a few months in 1994.
Hoping for a turnaround, the Herman group, headed by Jack's son-in-law Sam Sardinia, sold the club in 1995 to Boca Raton-based Sky Scientific, a mining and development company, but the new owner failed to make its mortgage payments shortly thereafter.
The tribulations of the club itself were intertwined with those of the residential units. Jockey III, the final tower, was completed in 1982, bringing the total number of units to 411. The decline of property values in the area, exacerbated by the financial and operational nightmares plaguing the club, dragged down the value of the condo units and engendered increasing ill will from the residents toward the Hermans. The culmination was a 1996 lawsuit by the three condominium associations against the Hermans' company, Jockey Holdings, Inc., that is still pending -- as is a counterclaim by Jockey Holdings against the condo associations.
Though one of the issues disputed in these suits is that of payment for the upkeep of the club's common areas (i.e., what proportion should be paid by the residents and what proportion by the owners of the restaurant/recreation properties), the residents have other concerns about the consistent failures of the "club" part of the Jockey Club. "It's definitely had a negative impact on the condominium owners," Waxenberg says of the disastrous past two decades. "The apartments are worth 40 to 50 percent of what they were at their peak."
Miami-Dade County property records bear out Waxenberg's bleak assessment. Sixteen owners in the three towers sold their condos in the county's fiscal year 1996-97; all but four got much less for their property than they had paid, and none made a profit. Units that had sold for $250,000 in the Eighties sold for $129,000, $115,000 -- even as low as $61,000.
Considering these dismal trends, the Hermans were eager to unload the property. Membership in the private club had dwindled from some 7000 in the Seventies to a meager 500 last year. The condo associations were cursing and suing. As the club, its owners, and the condo dwellers have aged and memories of swankiness have faded, a procession of white knights has ridden through the automatic gates to rescue a property clearly in need of rescuing. Yet all these chevaliers have had chinks in their armor -- and, in some cases, a good bit of tarnish as well.
Eduardo Jesus Anton is burdened by a world of problems that have nothing to do with the time he spent at the Jockey Club, but as he paces the stark visiting room in downtown Miami's Federal Detention Center, tall and grim-faced in his forest-green jumpsuit, his role in the attempted revival of the club still weighs heavily on him.
"The person who basically did all the reconstruction of the Jockey Club, who had the vision for the Jockey Club, who sold, really, the Jockey Club project to George Hernandez, was me," Anton growls, his deep baritone serrated by Marlboros. "That I will always take full credit for. Not blame, credit. I took a bankrupt property, a deal that nobody wanted to touch, and I saw an opportunity to make this the deal that got me back from the wilderness I was in. In return, I had to sell my soul to George Hernandez."
Being behind bars is nothing new to Eddie Anton. A former real estate salesman and ex-Marine (drummed out for going AWOL and writing bad checks), he served three years in federal prison for a kickback scheme in 1986 involving Housing and Urban Development money, according to court records. Anton, who moved to Miami from Spain with his family in 1973, says he needed the money (he claims to have netted $17,000 in the scam) to help his then-girlfriend, who was pregnant with his child, get herself and her son away from the boy's father.
After serving his time from April 1991 to May 1994, he was paroled -- but he had been indicted, while in prison, on numerous felony counts of bank fraud and wire fraud, many related to real estate deals. Free on bond, he entered a guilty plea on September 24, 1996, to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud; on January 28 of this year he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. The potential punishment for these crimes ranges from no jail time to 25 years in federal prison.
But in the summer of 1994, although he was a convicted felon and facing another indictment, the Cuban-born Anton was still hopeful he could put his real estate skills to work while awaiting the resolution of the charges against him. He hooked up with a young Coral Gables attorney named Jorge "George" Hernandez, whose law practice was in the same building as the office of Anton's bail bondsman.
"I was helping George fix his office and expand his office, and expand his business," Anton says. "I renovated that office myself physically, with a hammer, myself. I helped him with the hiring of the people, because he wanted to get heavily into the real estate part of the law, and clearly that was my field of expertise. I put my contacts to work for him.
"Even though my parole officer went to him and said, 'You understand he has a criminal record, et cetera, et cetera,' George just asked for a copy of all my criminal files so he could read them and make sure he was not going to bed with some guy who was fucking little kids or some shit like that.
"George Hernandez became like my brother. So in return, for my brother, I did things that I didn't need to do. I advised him, hours and hours and hours. I trained his marketing people how to get leads, I managed his people. And he grew from nothing to a powerhouse of title and mortgage work in South Florida. Here you have a kid that was making 30 Gs a year when I met him, all of a sudden he's getting 100 files a month for a closing at $1000, $1200 a file, and that's a lot of mortgages. And I was getting 400 fucking bucks. I didn't mind. He was my brother."
When first contacted for this story, George Hernandez, now 29 years old, agreed to be interviewed. In subsequent telephone conversations, however, he became increasingly reticent, declining -- politely -- to be interviewed in person. Throughout these exchanges, he refused to go into detail about his relationship with Eddie Anton, but his feelings about his former associate are clear.
"On anything that Eddie Anton says, I have no comment," Hernandez snaps. "He's just a scumbag convict."
In mid-1996, Jockey Holdings, Inc. (the Hermans' ownership group) was sifting through the wreckage of its sale of the club facilities to Boca Raton-based Sky Scientific, which had bought the majority interest in February 1995. By November of that year, Sky's failure to pay its mortgage or property taxes led Jockey Holdings, which still held the mortgage, to begin foreclosure proceedings.
By this time George Hernandez was wearing many hats. In addition to practicing real estate law, he also brokered mortgages and sold real estate title insurance. It was in his capacity as a lawyer, though, that he first learned of the availability of the Jockey Club. He recalls being intrigued by the prospect of buying such a prestigious property for the relatively low asking price of $3.8 million.
"The name carries a certain aura, especially in South Florida," says Hernandez, who grew up a middle-class Cuban-American kid in Westchester and Kendall. "It was one of the first premier resorts."
According to Jack Herman's daughter Stephanie (a part-owner of their company), while the foreclosure on Sky Scientific's mortgage was making its way through the courts, George Hernandez called her. "He and his people said that, in doing their due diligence on the case, they decided that they liked the deal so much they wanted to buy it," she recalls. "We were nearly ecstatic. We would get the title back, we had a buyer, and we didn't have to worry. We were thrilled."
Hernandez won't comment directly on his original deal to buy the Jockey Club. Last year he told New Times he laid out a $750,000 down payment, received financing from the mortgage holders (the Hermans) for the rest, and began work immediately on renovating the rundown restaurant and bars in August 1996.
Both the Hermans and their attorney Larry Goodman emphasize that, contrary to the impression Hernandez gave, the upstart never actually owned the club. What Hernandez had, Goodman says, was a licensing agreement under which he would renovate and operate the Jockey Club with the understanding that the club would be his if, by December 31, he could pay off the long laundry list of financial burdens (back taxes and liens) the property had accumulated.
Goodman says that although Hernandez did make some payments up-front, the total amount was nowhere near $750,000. Most of the money Hernandez brought to the deal, the attorney adds, took the form of physical rehabilitation of the property. (In November of last year, Hernandez estimated he had pumped some $1.5 million into the renovation. Goodman and the Hermans dispute this amount; today Hernandez will not comment on either the renovation or the down payment.)
Hernandez's point man in the construction operation was Eddie Anton, who supervised the project from one of the fourteen suites in Jockey I that served as the club's hotel rooms. Anton also helped assemble the talent that would bolster Hernandez's attempted resuscitation. Among the cogs in this new machine were Susan Garfinkle, a seasoned South Beach publicist who had promoted clubs and parties; Miguel Aston, a food-and-beverage director who had run the dining operations of Miami landmarks such as the Mutiny Hotel and the club on Fisher Island; and chef Daniel Theme of Miami Beach's Osteria del Teatro.
This crew hurled itself into refurbishing the club and restoring its lost luster. Early reactions were generally positive. Opening night, November 9, 1996, coincided with the first Tyson-Holyfield fight and drew some 175 people, including a gushing Bob Beamon, gold medalist in the long jump at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and a Jockey Club member (see the New Times story "The Ride of His Life," November 21, 1996)."The club was busy," Jack Herman remembers. "I didn't attend too many of the parties, but he had a lot of marketing. It was very active under George. There were always parties, and it was a very Latin American scene."
The residents of the three condo towers, fed up enough with the Herman clan's flounderings to have sued Jockey Holdings in February of last year, were willing to listen to Hernandez's plans, though they remained a bit guarded. "[Hernandez] had what I thought was a good idea, to get every resident to be a member and pay $80 a month, which is not a lot," recalls Jockey I condo association president Jack Waxenberg. "But he wanted you to pledge ten years' dues from your apartment [rather than pay year by year]. Then that would be four or five million dollars to go directly to the bank and pay everybody off. We said, 'Well, we don't have to be members.' Finally I said, 'Talk to me in a year about a membership.'"
But even though the parties and the general business of the club looked good, some of those on the inside during the closing months of 1996 noticed signs of trouble and conflict brewing -- both within Hernandez's team and between his group and the Hermans.
Susan Garfinkle remembers some problems with employees getting paid during this stretch, though she adds that she never had a problem herself. (She, like Eddie Anton, was living in one of the Jockey Club hotel rooms during her association.) She also stresses that the person running the day-to-day operations was not Hernandez -- the person whom she had been hired to promote as the new face of the Jockey Club -- but Anton.
Anton emphasizes that he was not only the implementer of the new vision for the Jockey Club but its mastermind. His execution of that vision, from hiring and firing staff to courting potential investors in the development of a proposed Jockey IV as a time-share resort, continues to be a point of pride for him.
"This was my life," he says, his voice rising. "One deal. Not to retire, but to show the world that you can go to prison and come back. To show the world, yes, I stole money to help my son, I had to become a fucking criminal. But I had nothing to be ashamed of." (As he does numerous times during his interview in the Federal Detention Center, he punches the table for emphasis.) "I was hard, I was brutal, I was Machiavellian, and I don't have a fucking problem with that." He insists that he would sometimes pay his employees out of his $10,000-per-week stipend. (Hernandez would not comment on how much Anton was paid.) "They were my fucking men," he stresses. "They were my soldiers."
Miguel Aston confirms that Anton's "soldiers" got paid, but adds that it was Anton himself who sometimes gave the food-and-beverage director pause. "I was actually a little skeptical about the whole situation from the beginning," says Aston, a tall Spaniard who recently opened Renaissance restaurant in Bay Harbor Islands. "Eddie Anton had the classic gangster attitude. Not necessarily that he was a gangster, but his attitude, his behavior, was identical. He had a very rough way of being, the way that he talked, the way that he express himself. He was a very ordinary individual. His behavior was ordinary, not classy. George Hernandez was a more sophisticated individual. [Anton] will swear a lot, and will tell anybody to fuck off any given time, you know?"
The feverish renovation and reopening of the Jockey Club was only the first aspect of the grand scheme. The real jewel (and cash cow) would be Jockey IV, a project that had been proposed as far back as 1994. Mario Rodriguez, a Miami-based developer of time-share resorts, acted as a broker in Hernandez and Anton's attempts to woo Argentine time-share firm Apartour into developing Jockey IV on the adjacent Lear School property. (No Jockey Club-related entity owns this weed-choked, eight-acre slice of land and its crumbling, low-slung buildings, but the Herman group has consistently used the possibility of developing it as a carrot for prospective investors.) Rodriguez knew Susan Garfinkle, who took him to meet Eddie Anton last winter.
"Mr. Machiavelli," Rodriguez says dryly of Anton. "He was rather proud of saying that The Prince is his favorite book, his personal bible, and it only took minutes after I met him for him to announce that he'd been to prison. He was a manipulator like you wouldn't believe. I first went in with the idea that me and my group would be developers or managers for developers, but it didn't take too long to realize that it would require ongoing cooperation with Eddie and company, and that just was not going to work.
"Eddie was a maniac, yelling and screaming for the flimsiest of reasons," Rodriguez continues. "At some point during the negotiations I wanted to cultivate a relationship with the Hermans, because I felt that a year from now, Eddie would either be dead, in jail, or out of this deal somehow."
George Hernandez says Anton's overbearing manner eventually proved too much to take: "Toward the end of November and into December, he had taken too much control and was starting to be antagonistic with the Hermans." (Everyone interviewed for this story who was at the Jockey Club at this time remembers at least one toe-to-toe shouting match between Stephanie Herman and Anton; Herman refuses to discuss it.)
"He had no right to do this," Hernandez adds curtly. "He was a peon, he was an employee. I dismissed him."
Getting rid of Anton, though, did nothing to help Hernandez finalize a deal for Jockey IV or even buy the existing club. When the first day of 1997 came, attorney Goodman says, Hernandez had paid neither the various debts and obligations still owed on the property, nor the agreed-upon down payment. As far as the Hermans were concerned, Hernandez's reign at the Jockey Club was over right then, even though he continued on at the club for some weeks.
While acknowledging that he couldn't come up with all of the funds, Hernandez says his departure from the scene was at least partially his choice.
"We'd had the intention to purchase the club, it's just that financial and legal problems came up," he offers. "The project really lost its appeal. I wasn't interested in running the club without owning it."
With Hernandez neither owning nor operating the facility, the first two months of 1997 became a bizarre interregnum. The height of the insanity was a party for South Florida magazine to which Hernandez had committed. For a while it appeared that the fete would fall through altogether. But the Hermans ponied up the necessary cash to pay the staff and the entertainment (aging Brit-rocker Dave Mason, flown in just for this performance), and the party was by all accounts a success. Publicist Garfinkle left the Jockey Club after this party and has since moved herself and her business to Boca Raton.
By the end of February Hernandez and Anton had other concerns -- the "financial and legal problems" to which Hernandez alluded above. Both were named in a lawsuit alleging that Hernandez, through his law practice, was selling mortgages on properties he didn't own. The plaintiffs in the case, which was filed February 27 and is still unresolved, are two national title-insurance underwriters that guaranteed titles insured by policies issued by Hernandez in his role as a title insurance agent.
In an affidavit, Lynn Wilburn, a private investigator retained by the title insurance firms, writes that on at least two separate occasions Bell Holdings Inc. gave Hernandez money for properties to which Hernandez did not hold title. (Bell Holdings is owned by 38-year-old entrepreneur Robert Bell, whose Banana Boat sunscreen was an international success and earned him millions. The Miami native, who sold his company to Playtex in 1993, recently re-entered the sunblock game with the Sea & Ski brand.)
Among these transactions, Wilburn writes, was $900,000 given to Hernandez to purchase outright "certain real property located at the Jockey Club"; namely, the fourteen hotel rooms -- which he never owned. Wilburn asserts in the affidavit that the deed Hernandez delivered to Bell Holdings for this property on September 24 of last year was fraudulent.
Robert Bell himself confirms that Bell Holdings did business with George Hernandez but won't comment in detail because of the litigation. "I wasn't really personally involved in the day-to-day operations of [Bell Holdings]," he adds.
In other instances, Wilburn continues, Hernandez persuaded Bell Holdings to lend money to people to buy real estate -- but in many cases, Wilburn writes, no purchase was made; Hernandez allegedly kept the money.
"It is my estimate that the Defendants have conspired to steal, and have in fact stolen, amounts in excess of $3 million," Wilburn writes in his affidavit. Though the acts he describes are crimes (notably mortgage fraud, a federal offense), no criminal charges have been filed in this matter against Hernandez or Anton. Wilburn would not comment on the specifics of his findings outside of what was set forth in his affidavit, but he did confirm that Hernandez and Anton were being investigated for these questionable transactions. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami would not comment for this story.
Possible criminal consequences notwithstanding, the civil case alone has drastically reshaped Hernandez's life. The judge appointed a receiver for Hernandez's law firm/mortgage brokerage/title insurance company. Shortly after the suit was filed, Hernandez resigned from the Florida Bar.
Hernandez has a theory about the source of the fraudulent documents mentioned in the title insurers' lawsuit. "After Eddie Anton left the Jockey Club, there were some documents that were forged," Hernandez says in his soft, earnest voice. "He took money from an investor of mine, defrauded them. When that hit, and I saw that he'd used my name on the forgery, I voluntarily and temporarily resigned from the Bar to show that I had nothing to do with this.
"Anton apparently had created fraudulent mortgages via computer," Hernandez goes on. "I didn't know that his conviction was for mortgage fraud. When I fired him, for whatever reason he went back to his old ways."
That Hernandez, the man he says was once as close to him as a brother, would accuse him of forging documents is no surprise to the incarcerated Anton. He also insists that Hernandez knew full well what kind of felon he was. "I should have known better than to play with people who knew my legal background, who took full advantage of that," he laments. "I'm not going to regret the fact that, because of me, 100-and-some-odd people had employment, that I made that place feel again what it used to be, which was renowned worldwide. I'm not going to tell you that if I had the ability to redo it again that I would not do the deal. I think the deal was a good fuckin' deal, and a deal that I proved that you could make money on. Unfortunately, George Hernandez needed to steal money to make the deal happen. Unfortunately, there was a man with a criminal fuckin' record in the middle, who was able to be used."
The Herman family was reluctant to be interviewed for this story. But over coffee and cookies in their two seventh-floor apartments in Jockey I, Jack Herman, his wife Bobbie, and their daughter Stephanie tried to put a brave face on what Stephanie called the family's "annus horribilis."
In addition to the craziness at the club downstairs, the family was beset by further tragedy. Sam Sardinia, husband of Jack Herman's daughter Lori and president and CEO of Jockey Holdings, died of brain cancer at age 65 in March; he was gravely ill while Hernandez and Anton were in charge. Charles Kwasha, Jack Herman's brother-in-law and another partner in Jockey Holdings, died in May at age 90.
The Hermans' comments on the brief reign of George Hernandez are often oblique, though at the mention of Eddie Anton's name the family moans in unison. "He scared me to death," says Stephanie. "I don't think I can comment on him. His behavior was very ... erratic."
Jack Herman, a smallish, tanned man in a bright yellow polo shirt, is more willing to talk about the group of potential new owners for the Jockey Club, who entered the picture in mid-February, shortly before the nearly canceled South Florida magazine party. The principal figure in this new group was Trinidadian businessman Karl C. (or K.C. or Casey) Langford, who came down from Washington, D.C.
"We were introduced to K.C. Langford by a reputable person who lives in Washington. He seemed very credible," Jack Herman says. "He knew a lot of people; he surrounded himself with very prominent people." These people, Herman continues, included several possible investors who expressed interest in both the club and the Lear School property next door.
Herman says Langford, much like Hernandez before him, entered into a licensing agreement with the Herman group toward the end of February, under which he would operate the club with the intention of eventually buying it.
"He fooled everybody," Herman says. "He brought in economists from Washington, resort developers from Texas, California, Japanese architects, developers, construction people. The people were real; we've since heard that they were fooled, just like we were."
Holdovers from Hernandez's team quickly realized that the switch to Langford was not going to be the panacea the Hermans hoped for. "The really miserable times started after [Hernandez and Anton] left, with this K.C., the scum of the earth, a no-good son of a bitch," says food and beverage director Miguel Aston. "If I ever saw him, I don't know what I'd do."
Aston recalls that Langford and his assistant, Susan Fletcher, simply weren't paying anyone for anything -- vendors or employees. "His checks that were bouncing around, it didn't matter to him whatsoever," Aston says. "Purveyors, they were owed thousands; everybody stopped delivering things. We couldn't even get the garbage picked up. He used to send people to buy the liquor illegally -- in the stores, that's illegal to sell in the bar. What he was trying to do, I think, was milk the place, because he was collecting all the dues from members, collecting revenues from the marina, collecting this, collecting that, and not using any money whatsoever for any purchases.
"I think the Hermans were against a rock and a hard place, you know? They had to go around with whoever it was because it was the only chance they had to have the thing open."
Between February and June of this year, the Jockey Club continued to operate under Langford, but his apparent inability or unwillingness to pay employees was a continual problem. Chef Daniel Theme (who has since moved on to Lucky Cheng's restaurant in Miami Beach) says that he was almost never paid on time under Langford, and then was rarely paid in full. Kitchen staff fared much worse; Theme recalls more than one occasion when he had to give a five-dollar-per-hour employee cash out of his own pocket for gas or food.
Yet Langford continued to drum up interest in the Jockey IV development and successfully wooed at least one investor. Richard Hines, a real estate consultant and investor in Alexandria, Virginia (near Langford's old home base of Washington, D.C.), says he gave Langford some $450,000 for various real estate deals, including somewhere between $50,000 and $75,000 for Jockey IV.
Hines, who characterizes Langford as "one of most colorful con men I've ever run into," filed suit in July against Langford in Montgomery County, Maryland, for $30,000, which he says he gave Langford in the form of a promissory note.
Hines is not the only D.C.-area business person looking for Langford. Circuit court records in Prince George's County, Maryland, show that in March 1995 two firms sued Langford for breach of contract. Four judgments have been rendered against Langford, totaling some $260,000.
Hines remembers seeing an example of Langford's reluctance to pay his staff. On one visit to the Jockey Club, he says, he saw Susan Fletcher "verbally abusing" one of the kitchen staff. From the content of the harangue, Hines says, "it was clear he had not been paid."
"Money was going in to Langford, and he apparently paid people with bad checks. He conned people regardless of race, color, or creed, and if you didn't have money to feed your family that was just too bad. If someone like me gets conned, I probably deserve it," Hines allows. "If someone like them gets conned, that's immoral."
From February on, according to Theme and Aston, the size of the staff began to dwindle. The South Florida shindig in late February was the last party of any consequence. Aston left in April, Theme about a month later. Condo association president Jack Waxenberg remembers going down to the restaurant one day during this period and seeing a single waiter on duty. Finally, in mid-June, Langford and Fletcher left not only the Jockey Club but apparently the country. The restaurant and bars have been buttoned up tight ever since. Stephanie Herman remembers a phone call from Fletcher in which she said that she and Langford were in Jamaica and were "afraid of some of the people they owed money to."
Some creditors have filed suit against Langford's Jockey Club Resorts Inc. over bad checks: Grand Western Brands Inc. for $5274.18, Uleta Rentals Inc. for $2649, Aaron Rents Inc. for $9137, Miami Purveyors Inc. for $1607. In several of these cases, a summons could not be delivered to the defendants; Scott Modlin, attorney for Uleta Rentals, says the process server who attempted to deliver the summons to Langford noted that the defendant, as of mid-July, was in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Montego Bay directory assistance has no listing for anyone named Langford with the first initial K or C. There is a listing for a Susan Fletcher, but the number is unpublished.
Echoing former Jockey Club employee Aston, Jack Herman calls Langford "a no-good son of a bitch." ("Dad!" his daughter Stephanie admonishes.) But he still has hope. "Unfortunately Langford came right after everything that happened with George, but we still think the club can be what it was until very recently,"Herman says. "It's gorgeous. The Jockey Club is a world-class place. Yes, we were fooled, we were scammed, but we don't want that to destroy any chance of having a good way of life here again." The Hermans are not suing or pressing charges against Langford, mostly because, Bobbie Herman says, "it would take Interpol to find him."
The family still wants to sell the property -- "to someone who is credible and not involved in any shenanigans, for lack of a better word," says Jack Herman. They say they are scrutinizing some likely prospects with the aid of a New York firm whose name they will not disclose. (Richard Hines says that, despite the chunk of change he lost to Langford, he remains interested in the property and has recently spoken to the Hermans about it.)
George Hernandez, his wife Kimberly, and their two young sons live in a modest townhouse in Hollywood. Though he resigned from the Florida Bar, Hernandez says he is continuing to work in real estate. He also says he and his attorneys are preparing a civil suit against the Hermans, though at press time it had not been filed and Hernandez would not discuss it.
He does offer a postmortem on his attempt to replace the old dynasty at the graying Jockey Club. "The crux of the story is egos and greed," he says. "You walk into the offices and there's a picture of Old Man Herman on the wall like he's the president of the United States. It's a really weird world that I wouldn't want to live in, that I don't want my sons to grow up in. That's a fucked-up world."
After he was fired from the Jockey Club, Eddie Anton says, he spent several months trying to see if the relationship he had built with the Argentine time-share firm could be parlayed into another development somewhere else; he says he even went to Argentina to meet with Apartour. While on this mission, he failed to appear for his April 14 sentencing hearing; his bail was revoked and a warrant issued for his arrest. U.S. Marshals picked him up in Texas in July, and he was transferred to Miami's Federal Detention Center the same month to await sentencing -- and to face an additional charge for failure to appear.
Anton remains bitter that much of the story of the mortgage-fraud lawsuit brought against him and Hernandez will come down to George's word against his. "Who are you going to believe? This young fucking child-looking kid, or this fucking con artist?" he asks ruefully.
Meanwhile, though members can dock their yachts at the marina or play a couple of sets on the tennis courts, they cannot enjoy a martini or a filet mignon.
And the residents of the the Jockey Club -- especially the older inhabitants of Jockey I who remember the bygone glory days -- don't share the Hermans' dogged optimism. "I don't think anybody will buy it," sighs Jack Waxenberg. "They have nothing to sell. They're selling pie in the sky.


text:
Lake County Sheriff Curran planning attorney general run
Curran plans to run against Madigan for attorney general
Citing a statewide need to better combat crime and corruption, Republican Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran says he's seriously considering making a bid for attorney general.
And, he said, he would do so regardless of whether current Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan -- who is rumored to be weighing a run for governor but has not yet announced her intentions -- seeks re-election.
"I intend to run against her," said Curran, of Libertyville. "She's won by big margins in the past. But, look, I have a good feeling. Does everyone I say that to connect with me on that? No. But I think we (as a state) can do much better."
Curran says his "next step" is to continue to gather support through his exploratory committee. He plans a formal announcement come spring.
According to Curran's most recent filings with the state board of elections, he has just over $78,000 in his campaign war chest.
Curran, whose experience includes work in the Cook and Lake County state's attorney's offices and the Illinois attorney general's office, is two years into his second 4-year term as the county's top law enforcement officer. After running in 2006 as a Democrat to successfully unseat Republican Gary Del Re, he switched parties. While he describes himself as "definitely at home within the Republican party," he notes that he doesn't agree with the GOP on all issues.
A devout Catholic, Curran says his faith influences his position on various issues.
"I spend time daily in prayer and in Mass and seek spiritual counsel, and I feel that I'm prompted with clarity that I need to embrace, " he said.
Curran has grabbed recent attention statewide, testifying before lawmakers in Springfield to push a plan to allow undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses.
It's an issue seen as important for statewide candidates in 2014 as Latino voters helped deliver Democrats big victories on Election Day in November.
As for the Lake County sheriff's position, at least one of the county's police chiefs has expressed interest.
Curran and Mundelein Chief Raymond J. Rose had lunch last week, Curran said.
Rose -- who in September announced his retirement, effective in January -- on Tuesday said he's "interested in considering" a bid, but plans to talk with his family about the decision first.
"It's absolutely possible," he said.
"Once I've had a chance to reflect on this, it will put me in a better position to make this final decision."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Braciole al Ragù
Region: Italy, Campania
Category: Beef
Season: Any
Difficulty: Medium Difficulty
Braciole are stuffed meat roll-ups popular in the cooking of all southern Italy but especially in Naples and Sicily. They go by other names such as involtini, but for any Italian-American they were always known as braciole and they were always braised in ragù.
Interestingly, the word braciole derives from the word for charcoal, implying that it was originally cooked alla brace, that is, grilled and that it was a cut of meat with the bone. Braciole was once synonymous with "cutlet." One finds the use of the word meaning cutlet more commonly in north-central and central Italy, while in southern Italy it also means the boneless slice of meat itself, from beef, pork, veal, chicken, and turkey that gets rolled up as well as the prepared dish. With hard times upon us, braciole make a lot of sense because you can use cheap cuts of meat and stretch them to feed many people as well as feeding many people over many dinners. My mom's family, the DeYeso's were poor in the Manhattan of the 1930s and for this reason braciole were a terrific way to stretch a dollar, an appetite, and some meat. Our family didn't use wine in their ragù, but I give you that option. The DeYeso's also made braciole with pork, but in that case one would find pine nuts and raisins in the stuffing.
[photo: Clifford A. Wright]
Yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings
Preparation Time: 2:45 hours
2 cups (about 6 ounces) one-day old bread crumbs
6 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons soppressata or any salami finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 1/2 pounds beef rump roast, cut into 16 slices and pounded as thin as scaloppini with a mallet
1/2 pound thinly sliced prosciutto
6 ounces pancetta
1 celery stalk
1 small carrot, peeled
1 medium onion
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup dry red wine (optional)
2 1/2 pounds canned whole plum tomatoes
1. In a bowl, prepare the stuffing by tossing together the bread crumbs, 3 tablespoons of parsley, the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, soppressata, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Lay the beef slices in front of you. Season very lightly with salt and pepper and lay a 1/2 slice of prosciutto on top. Place a heaping tablespoon or more of stuffing on the end nearest you and roll up the meat tightly, tucking in the sides. Secure the ends with toothpicks and set aside the roll-ups as you continue rolling.
2. In a food processor, finely chopped the pancetta, celery, carrot, and onion using pulses of the machine. This is called a battuto.
3. In an earthenware (preferably) casserole, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat using a heat diffuser if the earthenware is not flame-proof, then cook, stirring occasionally, the battuto until the vegetables turn translucent and the pancetta renders some fat, 5 to 6 minutes. Add the roll-ups to the casserole and cook, turning with tongs, until they turn color on all sides, about 8 minutes. Pour in the red wine, if using, and cook until it is more than half evaporated, about 5 minutes. (If using a regular flame-proof casserole the cooking process may go a bit quicker).
4. Reduce the heat to low, add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the meat is tender and could be cut with a fork, about 2 hours. Stir in the remaining parsley, turn the heat off and let sit for 5 minutes before serving. Remove the roll-ups from the casserole and remove their toothpicks or leave them and warn diners to remove them. Serve the braciole with a little ragù or you can serve the braciole as a second course and serve some spaghetti as a first course with some ragù and parmigiano cheese. Save the remaining ragù for a spaghetti dinner the next night.
Posted: 05/14/2009
Related Recipes:
Grilled Beef Rolls with Bread and Pancetta
Grilled Veal Rolls with Mortadella and Pecorino
Grilled Veal Rolls with Mozzarella and Prosciutto
Grilled Veal Rolls with Pancetta
Grilled Veal Rolls with Pine Nuts and Raisins
Grilled Beef Rolls with Pecorino, Currants, and Pine Nuts


text:
Listening #33
I'm beginning to understand why some people enjoy writing about crazy tweaks like electron counseling and magic listening trousers: When an idea is that new, it brings with it the chance for some gifted but heretofore unappreciated journalist to rise through the ranks and describe it to an anxious world. By contrast, when a defeated and baggy old establishment writer sets out to describe a CD player or amplifier, the product is surely the millionth such thing to come down the pike, and before long the readers complain: We used to like you, but you don't try very hard to excite us anymore.
Footnote 1: BAC = Big-Ass Choke, custom-made for Wavelength Audio by Magnequest.
Here, then, is news that isn't crazy: Wavelength Audio, the company that made its name as a pioneer in the decidedly retro field of single-ended triode amplifiers, is now among the first to make a perfectionist-quality digital-to-analog converter specifically for use with personal computers. Wavelength has designed two of the things, in fact, and both have tubed output stages.
Of course, it's my job to tell you why you might want or even need such a thing—and for once, that's easy: The market for compact discs appears to be taking on water, while the market for downloadable music is sailing briskly, if not always smoothly, ahead. At least, that's what spurred Wavelength Audio's Gordon Rankin to develop and market a computer-driven D/A converter.
"Literally one month before the 2004 CES," Rankin says, "I saw an article on the Internet about how much healthier the music-downloading industry is than the traditional record industry." Rankin, who has a background in mainframe computer design, had recently built a custom universal serial bus (USB) hardware controller for a company that was itself developing a sound-to-PC interface, and he was inspired to build a similar device to deliver the music stored on a person's computer hard drive to his or her high-end audio system. Rankin wasn't the first to make that leap—some companies, especially in the pro audio field, had already brought upgraded soundcards to the market—but he may have been the first to create such a thing for the audio perfectionist: "Most of those products go from the USB connection standard to an S/PDIF environment, and then to an input receiver, but I didn't want to do that. I designed my converter to go straight from the USB connection to the Philips TDA1543 chip."
Rankin's first such product, the prototype of which was completed barely in time for that CES ("On the first day of the show we were still putting pieces of wood on its enclosure," he says), was the Wavelength Cosecant ($3500), a USB D/A converter that was something of a hit from the start. Even so, Rankin admits that, at the time, he didn't see all of the Cosecant's potential. "I was surprised: Even at CES, I had older guys—not just the younger downloader types—coming up to me and suggesting applications for the Cosecant."
Now Wavelength has introduced a newer, lower-cost USB D/A converter: the Brick, a simple but nice-looking black box with an outboard power supply, priced to sail out the door at $1750.
Significantly, Rankin doesn't promote either of his USB converters as a mere accessory for casual listening, but rather as the keystone of a user's primary digital listening system. "A computer is smarter than any transport," Rankin says, "and computers are only getting better. When a transport reads a disc, if there are any errors, they're passed on to the DAC: The transport certainly doesn't reread the track until it gets it right. But a computer has more than enough memory to buffer and reread tracks, and ensure error-free rips. With a computer you can put a whole song into memory—30 megs uncompressed—and cache it out to the USB port, no problem."
Then there's the matter of timing: Any D/A converter and its datastream source must be synchronized with one another, and in a system of digital separates, that's usually accomplished by having the converter lock on to the word-clock signal contained in the datastream from the transport. According to Rankin, the S/PDIF environment is more prone to unwanted variations in the frequency of the incoming word-clock signal, which the converter is always trying to track. But with a USB controller generating its own word-clock signal, the frequency remains steady. "In USB," Rankin says, "the bit clock and the word clock are almost a given: There are only a few frequencies it has to deal with, and if it sees a standard PCM signal coming in, it says, 'What's this? 44.1kHz? Fine—let's go!' It doesn't waver."
There are other reasons Rankin prefers using a computer over a traditional transport: "A computer lets you do more with your music system than a transport does. It can stream radio broadcasts from the Internet. It can let you record, compile, and annotate collections of your favorite music. It can play movies. And a computer's performance can be upgraded without changing the hardware.
"The great thing is, you can buy a dead-quiet laptop computer, add a large FireWire hard drive, and wind up with a killer transport for less than $1250. If you want something more expensive than that, I think you're wasting your money."
Beyond having a USB controller instead of an input receiver chip, the Brick shares a number of similarities with the other D/A converters in the Wavelength stable—key elements of which are Gordon Rankin's fondness for simplicity and purity, and his disdain for oversampling filters. Like Junji Kimura of 47 Laboratory, whose Shigaraki 4715 D/A converter I wrote about in the March 2003 Stereophile, Rankin opts for a zero-oversampling approach, suggesting that digital filters are an unnecessary evil in the first place, and that oversampling, in particular, creates more problems than it cures. "I have a degree in mathematics," he says, "and one thing I firmly believe is that none of these [consumer audio] products, with the possible exception of dCS, has the processing capabilities to actually do the math they need to do. But more important, I don't want to destroy the intent of the original music. My approach is: no math in, no math out."
So much for what's not inside a Wavelength Brick; the components that actually made the cut are a fascinating mix of old and new playback technologies. First there's Gordon Rankin's custom USB controller, which requires no special drivers, and which works with any computer that uses a 1.1-spec or better USB audio connection—meaning that Windows 98se and above, Macintosh OS9 and above, and Linux 2.4.22 or above will all make friendly neighborhoods for the Brick. The controller gathers the input datastream and buffers it, and sends it out in I2S format to the above-mentioned 16-bit Philips converter chip. Current-to-voltage conversion is done passively, using 1%-tolerance film resistors, and the output voltages go directly to a 12AU7 dual triode tube.
That tube is configured as a reactor-follower, which Rankin says is similar to a cathode follower, except that it uses a BAC (footnote 1) instead of a resistor as a current source: The follower buffers the output (in the keeps impedance low sense of the word). The power supply, which is driven by a high-quality wall wart, uses a pair of Linear Technology voltage regulators to feed various portions of the circuit, and contains no fewer than 10 ultra-high-quality Black Gate capacitors.
I can say with hand on heart: Installing the Brick is a breeze. Simply plug in the wall wart, use a USB cable to connect the Brick to your PC or Mac, and, assuming your computer is already booted up, run the appropriate routine so the Brick can be recognized and addressed for what it is. (An EEPROM within the Brick's USB controller contains all the information your computer requires: No additional software is necessary.) An interconnect pair of the usual sort takes the Brick's analog output to the preamp or integrated amp of your choice, and the only other thing you should be aware of is that the Brick's output voltage appears to be about 10–15% lower than average. By the way, the Brick does not invert absolute signal polarity.
For my first trial, Wavelength Audio loaned me a fully tricked out Apple Mac Mini G4 system with 1GB of RAM and v.10.3.8 of Mac's OS X. I used the cable supplied with the Brick for the USB connection, and ran a long pair of Nordost Valkyrja interconnects from its analog outputs to the line-level inputs of my Fi preamp. The Mac Mini was Gordon Rankin's spare computer, which he'd already equipped with 32GB of music burned from his own collection, and because his tastes and mine have a number of points in common—XTC and the Clash were well represented—I was up and running, listening to music I knew and loved, in less than half an hour.
But before you assume the worst from our friends on the other side of Styx (the river, not the poodle-rockers), let me say from the get-go: Within one second of connecting the powered-up Brick to the USB port of my grimy, despised, five-year-old Gateway, itself running the lustily and rightly hated Windows XP, the Found New Hardware dialog box appeared on the screen. I went to My Computer > Control Panel > Audio Devices, and there it was: "WA Brick USBDAC." It worked without a hitch.
One other note: The Brick is designed so that its USB controller and D/A chip are powered up all the time, but when the computer is turned off or in "sleep" mode, the filament and rail voltages are removed from the 12AU7 tube and a relay mutes the analog output, so no pops or thuds are heard through the music system that it's connected to.
So then: Given a Wavelength Brick and a hard drive full of music, do you really need anything else? I suppose that all depends—the greatest variable being, How did all that music get on your hard drive in the first place?
The best and most obvious answer is I put it there myself. So it goes with Gordon Rankin—who, as I mentioned above, had already ripped a number of selections from his own music library onto the hard drive of the Mac Mini on my desk. I wondered, quite naturally: Do those songs sound as good coming from the computer and the Brick as they do when I play my own CD copies?
The differences I heard between the two formats on XTC's "Books Are Burning," from Nonsuch (CD, Geffen GEFD-24474), were the sort of differences I might expect to hear from two different CD players, or perhaps two different D/A converters. Both were acceptably good: I enjoyed the song as well through the Mac Mini and Brick driving my preamp as I did with the actual CD spinning in the Linn Unidisk SC, which has come back to roost for a short time. While auditioning the computer system, I listened carefully for cymbal decays during loud passages, and subtle spatial cues. (I'm by no means an imaging freak, but such things can reveal problems with low-level detail, phase distortion, and good ol'-fashioned noise.) I heard nothing that troubled me, and a lot to like—such as the nicely fleshed-out sound of Colin Moulding's electric bass, which remained nimble and on pitch. When listening to the regular CD I did get the impression that the snare drum and tambourine were struck with greater force, but the difference wasn't great enough to tip my overall satisfaction one way or the other.
Interestingly, those roles were entirely reversed with the next comparison I made: the CD of the Chieftains' Long Black Veil (Columbia 62702-2). Again, both digital formats were enjoyable, although in a blind test I might have said my own CD was the more compressed of the two: The computer-delivered version was rhythmically sharper, and voices—such as Sinead O'Connor's, on her nice performance of "He Moved Through the Fair"—had a little more presence and texture.
I tried something unfair: Gordon had the Clash's Super Black Market Clash (Columbia 63895) on his Mac, so I played "Justice Tonight/Kick it Over" and enjoyed it greatly. Then I dug out my 10" vinyl copy (Black Market Clash, Epic 4E 36846) and compared the two: As far as sheer involvement was concerned, the computer wasn't embarrassed in the least, although all the percussion (and I lump Paul Simonon's electric bass in with that, since that's more or less how he approaches the instrument) had greater impact off the vinyl. After that, I couldn't resist the temptation to be even more unfair, and to spin my original 12", 45rpm version of same (CBS 12-8087), and the bass was soooo much deeper and more forceful that I had to laugh out loud. (I didn't know my Quads could do that!)
Then there's the little matter of downloadable music.
Before I go any further, I assure you that this isn't just another attempt to use an unfair comparison—a really unfair one this time—to get a cheap laugh: I realize that the playing back of compressed music files is not what the Brick's designer sees as a primary use for his product. Still, it's incumbent on any vintner to acknowledge that at least some of his product will wind up being mixed with Sprite and spilled to the sounds of "La Macarena."
So I did it. I opened an iTunes account of my own and downloaded $15 worth of music onto the Mac. (Hope you like bluegrass, Gordon.) The results, though less than stunning, were at least minimally satisfying. I bought "Blackberry Blossom," by the Tony Rice Unit, and while it sounded airless and undynamic, and while a lot of nice details went AWOL—such as the cool syncopated bass lines Tony plays on his guitar behind David Grisman's mandolin solo—I was nonetheless able to get something out of it. I tapped my foot, and at one point even caught myself playing air Dobro along with Jerry Douglas.
Classical music suffered more. I downloaded the Emerson Quartet's performance of Beethoven's String Quartet 11, but the sound was so lacking in drama, nuance, and texture that the recording was suitable for nothing more challenging than background music. Then again, maybe that's the point: While the variety of popular music available from iTunes is commendable—obscure gems like Shiny Beast (Captain Beefheart), Vintage Violence (John Cale), and The Spirit Cage (Martin Newell and the Cleaners from Venus) are all available at the click of a mouse—the selection of orchestral and chamber music betrays a shallow, Sunday-brunch approach to the classics.
But let's be real: The "Blackberry Blossom" file was only about 2.6MB, and a single movement of the Beethoven was scarcely more than that; storing an uncompressed version of the same piece would require more than 10 times the storage space.
I don't have any use for background music—but I don't mind having cheap, easy access to individual songs, so I can predict whether I'll want to own a certain album or not. I can put up with limited fidelity if it means being able to buy great songs like "The Girl of My Dreams" (Bram Tchaikovsky), "A Million Miles Away" (the Plimsouls), or "Too Many People" (Paul and Linda McCartney) without also having to buy the junk they came packaged with. And, as an amateur musician, I'm often asked to learn individual songs by artists to whom I'm otherwise indifferent. That's a privilege I'd rather not pay more than 99 cents for. Personally.
And I'm intrigued by the promise of audiophile-quality downloads, such as the ones hinted at by www.MusicGiants.com. (See Wes Phillips' recent piece about that forthcoming service.) By that time, maybe something faster than 56k dial-up service will be available in Cherry Valley.
So for me, the Brick remains a wait-and-see sort of thing, but one with exceptional promise. I was genuinely excited when I got it up and running with Gordon's Mac—a rare instance of a new audio product being really fun—and I can see myself nudging in that direction, even as I spend more time and money on step-up transformers and monophonic records for the system in the next room.
Footnote 1: BAC = Big-Ass Choke, custom-made for Wavelength Audio by Magnequest.


text:
By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer
MIAMI (AP) — Down by 15 early, the Miami Heat could have hit the panic button.
Instead, they found a way to move within two wins of another trip to the NBA Finals.
LeBron James scored 26 points, Dwyane Wade added 23 and the Heat shook off a horrid start to beat the Indiana Pacers 99-87 on Saturday night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, taking a 2-1 lead and breaking a back-and-forth trend in the rivalry. The teams had alternated wins and losses in 13 straight meetings — until now.
Miami once trailed 37-22, before outscoring Indiana 77-50 the rest of the way.
"A lot of our situations that we've been through where we've struggled have been against this team," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "That's what they do to you. They're very good. It's a function of their defense.
"But we had no choice but try to re-gather."
That they did.
And then some.
Ray Allen added 16 points and led a late-game charge for the Heat, who will host Game 4 on Monday night. And it was the second time this season the Heat rallied from 15 points down to beat the Pacers in Miami — it also happened on Dec. 18.
"Tough loss for our guys," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. "Thought we competed pretty well, came out of the gates really strong, got off to a good start and then didn't manage our foul trouble well and didn't manage picking up their defensive intensity well."
It's the third straight series where the Pacers have faced a deficit.
"A ton," Vogel said when asked how much resiliency the Pacers have left. "It's very early in the series."
Paul George scored 17 points for Indiana, shooting 5 for 13 in his return after being concussed late in Game 2. Roy Hibbert had 16 points, David West added 13 and Lance Stephenson scored 10 for the Pacers, who never trailed until early in the third quarter.
Miami started the game 2 for 10 from the floor. The Heat then made 21 of their next 31 shots, including eight straight in the third that gave the two-time defending NBA champions their first lead.
James' dunk with 7:36 remaining in the third put Miami up for the first time, 52-51. That was the first of nine lead changes in the quarter, before the Heat did what Spoelstra implored his team to do in a pregame locker room address.
"Impose our identity," Spoelstra said.
Eventually, the message reached the Heat, and their two best players led the way.
"We just want to get better as the series goes on," James said. "We want to move their defense from side to side. When we do that, we give ourselves an opportunity to get to the lane. And when our shooters get going it definitely adds more space as you saw in the fourth quarter."
James' 3-pointer with 1:21 left in the third put Miami up 67-63, then its biggest lead of the night. Wade subbed in for James with 5.7 seconds left because the four-time MVP was dealing with what appeared to be a hamstring cramp and connected on a 3-pointer with 1.4 ticks remaining for a 74-67 lead going into the fourth.
James retreated toward the locker room at that point, stopping halfway down the hallway known as "Championship Alley" while trainer Mike Mancias stretched him out. Meanwhile, Wade — not exactly known for behind-the-arc prowess — opened the fourth quarter with another 3, the Heat were up 10 and the floodgates were opening.
Indiana got to 76-74 before Allen made a 3-pointer, and with that, the tone was set for the final minutes. Allen made three 3s in the final 5:59, the last of those putting Miami up by 15.
"I think we need to stick to what we do," West said. "We got away from ourselves. We tried to make some stuff on the fly, which is not us."
The halftime score looked ugly: Pacers 42, Heat 38.
That didn't even come close to describing how much Miami struggled at times. Here's one example: After 11 minutes, it was Hibbert 10, Heat 10.
Indiana led 19-5 early and 37-22 midway through the second. Luis Scola scored eight points off the bench in less than three minutes, and the Pacers were rolling.
Or at least, looked like they were rolling.
In the final 6:22 of the half, they had more turnovers (six) than points (five). And Miami took advantage, especially after George went to the bench with his third foul. Wade and James combined for 14 of Miami's final 18 points in the second, and a pair of short shots by Wade in the final minute helped pull the Heat within four at the break.
NOTES: Commissioner Adam Silver was in attendance, posing with plenty of fans for photos. … Stephenson had nine rebounds by halftime. The Heat, in total, had 11. … Heat F Shane Battier, announced earlier in the day as the winner of the league's Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award, got his trophy in a pregame ceremony from 2013 recipient Chauncey Billups. … Greg Oden was active for Miami for the first time since Game 4 of the opening round, with Michael Beasley on the inactive list.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
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text:
Showing Collections: 1 - 1 of 1
Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Papers
Identifier: MS 118
Scope and Contents The papers are arranged in four series: Business/Government, Community Betterment, Economic Development, and Organizational Relations. The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce Papers includes correspondence, news clippings, photographs, and publications related to the growth, history, and economic development of Fort Worth. There is notably a large section on aviation with the development of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Also, a large part of this collection includes air service...
Dates: 1873-1982 (inclusive); 1955-1968 (bulk)


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Welcome to LowerBloodPressureNow.org. If you continue to browse and use this website you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following terms and conditions of use, which together with our privacy policy govern LowerBloodPressureNow.org's relationship with you in relation to this website.
The term "LowerBloodPressureNow.org" or "us" or "we" refers to the owner of the website. The term "you" refers to the user or viewer of our website.
The use of this website is subject to the following terms of use:
The content of the pages of this website is for your general information and use only. It is subject to change without notice.
Neither we nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website for any particular purpose. You acknowledge that such information and materials may contain inaccuracies or errors and we expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk, for which we shall not be liable. It shall be your own responsibility to ensure that any products, services or information available through this website meet your specific requirements.
This website contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, which forms part of these terms and conditions.
All trademarks reproduced in this website, which are not the property of, or licensed to the operator, are acknowledged on the website.
Unauthorized use of this website may give rise to a claim for damages and/or be a criminal offense.
From time to time this website may also include links to other websites. These links are provided for your convenience to provide further information. They do not signify that we endorse the website(s). We have no responsibility for the content of the linked website(s).
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Some affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, Clickbank, MarketHealth, Google Adsense.
We have chosen to only recommend products on this site that we have tried or thoroughly researched. If you are unsure about whether we are affiliated with a link to a site or not, you are welcome to contact us for clarity.
Your use of this website and any dispute arising out of such use of the website is subject to the laws of the United States.
This TERMS OF USE for LowerBloodPressureNow.org is dynamic. It will continually change. You may not assume that it remains the same and you agree to check the policy each time you visit the site for changes. Unless, in the sole opinion of the website, this policy changes so drastically as to suggest a posted notification on the site or via email, you will receive no notification of changes to this TERMS AND CONDITIONS for LowerBloodPressureNow.org nor, under any circumstances, does this site promise notification. Your continued use of this site always evidences your acceptance of the TERMS AND CONDITIONS for LowerBloodPressureNow.org or any modifications.
This TERMS OF USE for LowerBloodPressureNow.org was last updated on: March 1, 2011


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(HealthDay News) – The diabetes drug metformin is safe in men with prostate cancer undergoing prostatectomy, and may improve prostate-specific antigen levels and curb tumor growth, according to a Phase 2 study presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, held from March 31 to April 4 in Chicago.
Noting that previous studies have suggested that metformin may be beneficial against prostate cancer, Anthony M. Joshua, MBBS, PhD, from the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, and colleagues analyzed data from 22 men with confirmed prostate cancer who were assigned 500mg metformin up to three times a day before undergoing prostatectomy.
During a median of 41 days of treatment, the researchers observed no grade 3 adverse events, and all men underwent radical prostatectomy with no adverse effects attributed to metformin. There were significant improvements in serum insulin growth factor 1, fasting glucose, body mass index, and waist-to-hip ratio. Prostate-specific antigen levels tended to improve (P=0.08). No associations were noted between any metabolic, morphometric, or cancer-related serum indices.
Continue Reading
"Although these are preliminary results, metformin appeared to reduce the growth rate of prostate cancer in a proportion of men," Joshua said in a statement. "This research builds on the hypothesis that metformin has a role in prostate cancer."


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Product Description
Complete Blank Lowrider Longboard in Natural
Complete Blank Lowrider Longboard The lowrider provides notable features from the Drop-Through and Drop Down deck styles. The trucks are top-mounted and the foot platform sits lower than the trucks. This shape deck allows for gnarly shredding and free-ride capabilities. This deck shape is designed for experienced riders.
All blank, natural, and stained boards are colored using a high-quality stain to provide a long-lasting natural, blue, black, red, green, or purple color.
- Deck Size: 40.75" Long x 9.5" Wide
- Wheel Base: 32"
- Construction: 9-Ply Maple
- Concave: Medium
- Flex: Low
- Wheels: Speed Cruiser 70x52mm Solid Wheels, 78A Hardness
- Trucks: 9.675" HD7 Heavy Duty Trucks, 180mm Hanger, Aluminum Alloy
- Bearings: Abec 7 Chrome Bearings
- Hardware: 1.5"
- Risers: 8mm Risers
- Griptape: Black Widow Premium Grade 80A Black Griptape
- Comes fully assembled and ready to ride right out of the box!
- Recommend to adjust the wheels/trucks first before each ride.
- Note: Colors and graphics may vary slightly from the image
Product code: YO-BCLR000
Free Shipping on orders over $99.99* - only for a limited time.
Usually ships in 2-5 Business days. Add 2-7 days for US delivery. We ship to all lower 48 USA states.
Usually ships in 2-5 Business days. Add 2-7 days for US delivery. We ship to all lower 48 USA states.
Disclaimers. Due to the many variations in phones, monitors, and browsers, the colors in pictures might be slightly different than on the final product. The pictures reflect the product as best as we can. However, sometimes components or color combinations are not available. Manufacturers reserve the right to substitute components on the longboard completes without notice which may alter the descriptions above. The substitution will always happen with equal or better-quality components. Sometimes a complete longboard is shown, whereas the offer is for a board only or vice versa, which is highlighted in the description.


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by Adam Pash
Click to viewI've introduced you to Quicksilver, given you the keys to working with objects therein, and I even popped the hood for a closer look at the Quicksilver preferences, which means you should be pretty much up to speed with operating inside Quicksilver. That means there's just one thing left to do.
Today I've rounded up my favorite, most frequently used Quicksilver actions and workflows in one big old Quicksilver extravaganza. If you've followed along so far but you still just don't get how you might put Quicksilver to practical, everyday use, here's how I do it.
NOTE: Remember, you can already do all of these things without Quicksilver in one form or another. The point is, with Quicksilver you can do them more quickly, without switching or opening new applications, and ideally, without too much thought. Quicksilver is at its most powerful when you perform an action shortly after you think about it, in a few keystrokes, without ever really losing focus of what you're doing.
Let's say, for example, you're like me and you work with a lot of images every day. You take some screenshots, but they're too big - you need to resize them. Then you want to email them or upload them some place, but before you do that, you want to compress the lot of them so it's a smaller file. Here's how I use Quicksilver to streamline this process:
Image Manipulation
You can get a lot more specific with your resizing, and you can save in several different image formats, so just read about the plug-in on the plug-ins preference pane for all the details.
File Compression
Address Book
Eventually I'm going to want to send these screenshots out into the world, but first I need people to send it to. Luckily QS integrates very tightly with my Address Book.
Compose emails or email directly
I absolutely love the ability to directly send an email or attachment via Quicksilver without once opening Mail.app or my browser. This is one of the sexiest things I've ever seen Quicksilver do, and it's one of the first actions that attracted me to it.
Quick uploads with Transmit
Quicksilver can index your Transmit favorites (sorry all, Transmit isn't freeware) and upload directly to a favorite with so very little work on your part.
Searching and finding
Maybe you want to look up a word in the dictionary. What, don't find it there? Then you try Wikipedia, or some other web-based tool. Or while you're searching, you may as well have a look at your desktop with Spotlight. You can browse your del.icio.us tags and bookmarks, perform quick calculations, or send a quick IM without ever opening iChat and double-clicking a contact.
Dictionary look-ups with dict.org
Quick web searches
The web search plug-in in conjunction with the Firefox bookmarks plug-in is nuts - you can use all of your Firefox keyword searches at your Quicksilver fingertips.
Spotlight and Quicksilver
Since the live results window of Spotlight doesn't do much for me anyway, I like to search my desktop via Quicksilver this way. You can actually have the results of the search show up in your Quicksilver command window if you so please, but the smart search Finder window is my results pane of choice. This isn't huge, but I like housing everything under one keyboard shortcut, so I bring my Spotlight searches into Quicksilver this way.
Browse your del.icio.us bookmarks
To get this one up and running after you've installed the social bookmarks plug-in, you'll need to go to your Quicksilver catalog and add your del.icio.us bookmarks via a custom catalog. You'll need to provide Quicksilver your login info, and from there it'll do the rest.
Quick calculator
The calculator isn't mind-blowing by any means (in fact, this is probably one area where the Windows-only Launchy bests Quicksilver), but it's still very useful for quick calculations.
Send a quick iChat IM
There used to be a great Adium plug-in for Quicksilver, but unfortunately it's not available at the moment. Fingers crossed for the future, Adium lovers.
Most of the above actions require one Quicksilver plug-in or another. In order to get these or any other number of plug-ins, you just need to refer to the plug-ins pane of Quicksilver. If you don't know what a plug-in does, just hit the little info 'i' when you select a new plug-in.
And don't forget the other videos I posted in my last Quicksilver post. After all, you'll need to know what's going on in those videos if you're going to tackle most of the stuff I showed you today. You'll also need it if you want to control iTunes with Quicksilver.
This brings to an end my three-week Quicksilver feature craze. Hopefully we've all gotten to know Quicksilver a bit better, and hopefully our Windows friends have whetted their appetite enough that some enterprising soul out there might put together something just as powerful for the Windows side of things. In the meantime, share your favorite Quicksilver uses in the comments.
Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who promises to tone down the volume of Quicksilver posts from here on out, but will never tone down his love and appreciation for the app. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.


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The longest running sitcom currently on network TV, The King of Queens, returns tonight with the first of its final seven episodes. The series is finishing its ninth year on television and is scheduled to say goodbye on Monday May 14, 2007 with a double episode.
The King of Queens centers around Queens, N.Y. blue-collar couple Doug and Carrie Heffernan who share their humble home with Carrie's eccentric father, Arthur. Doug's only refuge from Arthur is the bits of time he can spend alone with Carrie or with his TV sports-watching buddies Deacon, Spence and Danny. Queens stars Kevin James as well as Leah Remini, Gary Valentine, Patton Oswalt, Victor Williams and Jerry Stiller.
The Kevin James sitcom has long been a staple of CBS' primetime schedule. Some viewers were dismayed to find it strangely missing from the Fall 2006 schedule but CBS maintained that the sitcom would return by early 2007. Fans were pleasantly surprised when the series returned earlier than expected on December 6th and began its ninth season. That joy was quickly tempered when loyal viewers realized that it would be a short season.
Queens has been on the air since September 21, 1998. The show's popularity has waned in recent years and, as often happens, the cost to produce the show has risen. Kevin James reportedly got into a salary dispute in 2005 and CBS agreed to pay him an estimated $500,000 per episode for the 2005-2006 season. The network agreed to a ninth season, albeit a shorter one made up of only 13 episodes (versus the regular 22). Fans that knew of the situation were hopeful that an agreement would be reached to produce a full season if the ratings were strong enough.
Though Queens started the season with almost 10 million viewers, it apparently wasn't enough for CBS to want to change its plans. In late 2006, CBS decided to break up the abbreviated Queens season — running six new episodes in December/January and then airing the final seven starting tonight — replacing the seven episode run of freshman series Rules of Engagement. CBS Entertainment President Nina Tasslet said at the time, "These scheduling moves enable us to program more original episodes of comedy in targeted time periods for the remainder of the season. It also provides an opportunity to give The King of Queens a proper send-off in a high profile time period in the Monday night block it helped build."
Cast and crew alike are staying hush-hush on the story details but we do know that the final episodes will tie up a lot of storylines, give us some resolutions, and reference a lot of past events from the series' 200+ episode history. Though there are a lot of heartaches and surprises ahead (as you can tell from the network promos), the series will conclude with a happy ending.
The final episode was taped on March 15, 2007 with many friends and family members in attendance, including Ray Romano and his wife. By all reports, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. At the following night's wrap party, Williams shared, "Last night I felt the strongest sense of pride I've ever felt in my life. Nine years on a sitcom is such a tremendous accomplishment in such a difficult business. Everyone on the show has much to be proud of."
Remini commented on how difficult it is to say farewell, "It's really hard. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do, you know, to say goodbye to some people that I've been working with for 9 years. It's very hard." No doubt loyal viewers can sympathize. Stay tuned!


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In stock
Please select your option below:
Get ready for a game of fetch by lobbing the Tug-n-Toss away from your dog. This toy requires no inflation as it floats through the air and darts wildly around the ground upon impact. The handle makes it easy to retrieve the toy from the jaws of a prideful pooch that won't let go.


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Net::Akismet - Perl interface to Akismet - comment and trackback spam fighter
my $akismet = Net::Akismet->new(
KEY => 'secret-baba-API-key',
URL => 'http://example.blog.net/',
) or die('Key verification failure!');
my $verdict = $akismet->check(
COMMENT_USER_AGENT => 'Mozilla/5.0',
COMMENT_CONTENT => 'Run, Lola, Run, the spam will catch you!',
COMMENT_AUTHOR => 'dosser',
COMMENT_AUTHOR_EMAIL => 'firstname.lastname@example.com',
REFERRER => 'http://lola.home/',
) or die('Is the server here?');
if ('true' eq $verdict) {
print "I found spam. I am a spam-founder!\n";
Net::Akismet->new(PARAM => ...);
Acceptable parameters:
The API key being verified for use with the API.
The front page or home URL of the instance making the request. For a blog or wiki this would be the front page.
If supplied the value is prepended to this module's identification string to become something like:
your-killer-app/0.042 Perl-Net-Akismet/0.01 libwww-perl/5.8
Otherwise just Akismet Perl's user agent string will be sent.
If supplied, the host of the service API. The default is rest.akismet.com
If supplied, the API version. The default is 1.1
If verification of the key was unsuccessful new() returns undef.
$akismet->check(USER_IP => ..., COMMENT_CONTENT => ..., ...)
To be or not to be... check is meant to tell you. Give it enough details about the comment and expect 'true', 'false' or undef as a result. 'true' means spam, 'false' means not spam, undef is returned on errror in submission of the comment.
Acceptable comment characteristics:
Required. Represents the IP address of the comment submitter.
Required. User agent string from the comment submitter's request.
Comment text.
HTTP Referer header.
Permanent link to the subject of the comment.
May be blank, 'comment', 'trackback', 'pingback', or a made up value like 'registration'.
Name of submitter.
Submitter e-mail.
Submitter web page.
Reports a certain comment as spam. Accepts the same arguments as check().
In case of failed submission returns undef, otherwise - a perl-known truth.
This call is intended for the marking of false positives, things that were incorrectly marked as spam. It takes identical arguments as check() and spam().
Although almost all comment characteristics are optional, performance can drop dramatically if you exclude certain elements. So please, supply as much comment detail as possible.
Nikolay Bachiyski <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Peter Pentchev
John Belmonte
Copyright (C) 2006, 2007, 2008 by Nikolay Bachiyski
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.7 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.
$Id: Akismet.pm 38 2008-06-05 17:15:12Z humperdink $
To install Net::Akismet, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm Net::Akismet
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Net::Akismet
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.


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The Conseil Régional Hauts de France is the Managing Authority of three European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) Programmes (Interreg Europe, Interreg North West Europe, Interreg 2 Seas) and one European Initiative (Urban Innovative Actions - UIA). As each ETC Programme finances projects through EU and public funding, we are committed to protect the EU and public funds that have been entrusted to us.
Therefore, we wish to be clearly perceived as opposed to fraud and corruption.
The term fraud is commonly used to describe a wide range of misconducts including theft, corruption, embezzlement, bribery, forgery, misrepresentation, collusion, money laundering and concealment of material facts. It often involves the use of deception to make a personal gain for oneself, a connected person or a third party, or a loss for another.
The EU Treaty defines fraud, in respect of expenditure, as an intentional act or omission related to:
Intention is the key element that distinguishes fraud from irregularity. Intentional deceit is not easy to prove but there are some tell-tale signs such as:
Fraud does not just have a potential financial impact, but it can cause damage to the reputation of an organisation responsible for effectively and efficiently managing funds. This is of particular importance for a public organisation responsible for the management of public funding in general and EU funding in particular.
The fraudsters one may encounter could be:
Corruption is the abuse of power for private gain. It undermines rule of law, distorts fair competition, and corrodes the social fabric of society and trust in public institutions.
Conflict of interests exists where the impartial and objective exercise of the official functions of a person are compromised for reasons involving family, emotional life, economic interest or any other shared interest with e.g. an applicant for or a recipient of EU funds. This is particularly important to prevent within an EU grant beneficiary when dealing with public procurement contracts.
The Managing Authority has a zero tolerance policy to fraud and corruption. We have identified the most likely areas for fraud in our Programmes and projects and have set up robust control systems, measures and procedures in order to follow up on all suspected cases that will be highlighted to us.
With our Member State representatives, we will furthermore seek action on national level in line with their administrative and legal procedures, wherever the need arises.
The Managing Authority expects all employees and representatives of the three ETC Programmes and the European Initiative UIA to be an example in ensuring adherence to legal requirements, regulations, codes of conduct, procedures and practices.
Through this anti-fraud policy we clearly put forward our intention:
The responsibility for an anti-fraud culture is the joint work of all those involved in the EU programmes/initiative and projects. We therefore also encourage all partners, contractors, employees, or the public to do their utmost to prevent fraud from happening, to put into place proportionate measures to detect it and to come forward with any suspicion of fraud in relation to our programmes.
If you wish to report suspicion of fraud, please send relevant information to the following email address: email@example.com, which is accessed by the Director of the legal affairs department of the Hauts-de-France Region.


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One advantage Model Hell has over Project Car Hell is that you can fit a lot of the little suckers in your garage. How about a vintage, unassembled 1972 AMC Hornet funny car kit? Yeah, you need this one!
You just can't beat the combo of AMC, drag racing, and the early 1970s when you're looking for your next 1:25 scale Model Hell project. Only problem is that this kit for sale on eBay has already been bid up to close to 100 bucks with five days to go, and the reserve hasn't been met. Might be cheaper to buy a full-size Hornet!


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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Prominent US liberal activists on Wednesday pledged solidarity with Okinawa residents opposed to a US military base, despite efforts by Japan and the United States to finalize a relocation plan.
More than 100 scholars and activists including the filmmakers Oliver Stone and Michael Moore signed a joint statement opposed to construction of a US Marine base in Nago, a quiet town on the east coast of the subtropical Japanese island, to replace the aging and unpopular Futenma Air Station.
"Not unlike the 20th century US civil rights struggle, Okinawans have non-violently pressed for the end to their military colonization," the statement said.
"We support the people of Okinawa in their non-violent struggle for peace, dignity, human rights and protection of the environment," it said.
Other signatories included two leading US scholars of modern Japan, the Pulitzer Prize winners Herbert Bix and John W. Dower, along with linguist and left-wing activist Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst who leaked the secret Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War.
Okinawa, which was administered by the United States until 1972, hosts the bulk of the 47,000 US troops in Japan. Futenma has been a particular source of grievance due to its proximity to crowded urban areas.
US officials insist that the plan to move the base to more remote Nago is meant to respond to residents' concerns while ensuring the defense of Japan, which has been officially pacifist since World War II. Okinawa is strategically close to waters that have seen rising tensions between Japan and China.
Japan and the United States agreed on the relocation plan in 1996 but opponents have campaigned to remove the base altogether, accusing US troops of noise and crime.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a conservative who supports stronger defense, appeared to achieve a breakthrough in December when Okinawa's governor accepted the relocation plan after promises of at least 300 billion yen (S$3.7 billion) in aid every year until 2021.
But the plan hit a fresh setback earlier this month when the town of Nago re-elected a mayor opposed to the base.


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Officer's Oath: Terry Lakin's Story of Sacrifice
|Get A Sample Chapter
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OFFICER'S OATH is a story that everyone should read.
It is not a 'birther' story. It is, rather, the story of a man who made a principled decision to adhere to the oath he willingly took as an officer in the United States Army. It is a story of the personal consequences of that decision and the far-reaching effect it has had on the eligibility issue.
Jack Cashill, author of numerous books, assisted Terry in telling his story. David Mercaldo, a New York-based author, has interviewed and written vignettes of the many people who contributed to Terry's case. A number of notable individuals have also contributed essays on key subjects relating to the issue.
The book is a complete story of Terry's decision, the immediate consequences, and the long-range effect of Terry's decision and should generate a substantive and engaging dialogue on the issues addressed.
Overall it is a unique book and an engaging story. Initial readers have given it high marks. It will be of great interest to supporters, detractors, and those who may have had little contact with the issues for which Terry has stood.
Reseller accounts will be available at industry standard rates for bulk sales and resale. Please visit our Contact page for information. See the right bar for ordering information.
The book contents include:
- About the Contributors
- Dedication
- The Story
- Prologue
- 1. 27 April 2011
- 2. Are You Still Free?
- 3. Never Give Up
- 4. You Knew My Path
- 5. Something to Hide
- 6. Of Paramount Importance
- 7. Grounding in Good Sense
- 8. Take Some Responsibility
- 9. The Constitution Matters
- 10. The Truth Matters
- 11. Doing What Is Right
- 12. Stay Strong
- 13. Crossing the Line
- 14. Duty, Honor, Country
- 15. I Know Why You Are Here
- 16. Never Wanted to Be Famous
- 17. A Moral and Religious People
- 18. Love Mercy and Walk Humbly
- Epilogue: Walking Righteous
- Essays by Key Participants in Terry's Action
- Joseph Farah: The War on Citizenship
- Miki Booth: From Near Dream to New Job: Moving Communities to Action
- Cmdr. Charles Kerchner (Ret): An Officer's Oath Does Not Expire or Retire
- Dean Haskins: The Presidential Circus
- James Bridge: An Oath Is Before God
- Vignettes of Key Participants in Terry's Cause
- A Note about Sheriff Joe Arpaio
- Michael New: An American Soldier Who Refused to Be a Mercenary
- David Mercaldo, PhD: Voices Crying in the Wilderness
- Walter Francis Fitzpatrick III: A Republic... do or die!
- Daria Novak: Are we on the road to political China?
- Ed Noonan: Terrorists got more constitutional protection than Terry did.
- Sarah Redd: I started out as a Democrat.
- Rock Peters: You can't run a country on personality.
- Patra Minocha: Political activism is not some sort of competitive sport.
- Theresa Cao: Sometimes truth shouts from the mountaintops!
- Gordon Smith: Terry is the best-kept secret in America.
- Rudy Davis: I see the world through the grid of my faith.
- Brent Morehouse: Americans have been asleep.
- David Moxley: The least I can do is let Terry tell his story.
- Linda M.: I'm aghast at the ambivalence of the American people.
- The Reverend David Manning: Everybody in Congress knows this man is a fraud!
- Jerome R. Corsi, PhD: Can our military raise a legal question?
- Catherine 'Kate' Vandemoer, PhD: God had a great deal to do with the Constitution.
- Greg Lakin, DO, JD: I believe what my brother did was an act of patriotism!
- Lt. Col. Robert A. Perrich: Terry is in a war, and I'm fighting alongside him!
- Margaret 'Ducky' Hemenway: This issue is one of paramount national importance.
- Joseph Farah: We're in trouble in America! We?re losing our respect for the rule of law.
- Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely: I don't think justice for Terry will come to pass.
- Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney: I'm proud of Terry! He did what he felt he had to do.
- Cmdr. Charles Kerchner (Ret): I've got deep roots in this country and I?m not leaving!
- Capt. Pamela Barnett (Ret): Our freedoms are at stake at this point.
- Jim and Peggy DeJarnatt: We need to get the message out!
- Orly Taitz, Esq.:'I believe [Obama] is the most dangerous thing one can imagine.'
- Miki Booth: He's shredding the Constitution.
- Sharon Rondeau: We need to restore the rule of law.
- Peter Boyles: We still have no answers. The questions are still enormous!
- Maj. Stefan F. Cook: I Made the Decision.
- The Art of Terry's Case
- The Chain of Command Bulletin Board
- Michigan Trucks
- The Emperor Has No Clothes
- The Freedom Club
- Timeline to Lawsuits
- Eligibility Checklist
- Medical Application
- Eligibility for Dummies
- The Websites of Terry's Case and Life
- Safeguard Our Constitution
- TerryLakinActionFund.com
- OfficersOath.com
- AmericasWebRadio.com
- Key Eligibility Resources
- General Timeline of Terry's Case