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Meet Sandy Cardoza
Sandy Cardoza recently completed her first year as a member of the De Anza family. Cardoza is the evening supervisor in the Library West Computer Lab, and has worked with libraries and computer-based programs serving students (K -8) in San Francisco and San Mateo counties.
Her work in the Library West Computer Lab requires that she be flexible, friendly and professional. Sandy has also worked with disabled students of all levels, addressing their special needs with competence and knowledge in the lab.
"She is a team player, puts the student's needs first, and the suggestions she brings to the Learning Center as well as the computer labs bring a high level of efficiency to the setting," says Senior Library Technician Alicia Sustaita-Parsons. "I have seen the difference she makes."
Sustaita-Parsons also says Sandy's work ethic and computer skills are exemplary. "Sandy helps students, faculty and staff with any computer issues, and if she can't solve the problem right away, she will find out how and get back to them with a high level of efficiency."
But her computer background is not her only asset; her people skills are are also important to the lab's very diverse computer setting, says Sustaita-Parsons. "When the technical functions students are attempting to do on their computers make them frustrated and demanding, Sandy takes it all in stride. Attitude is so important, and Sandy's attitude rocks."
"I love that part of my job is one of offering a clean, quiet and well-equipped place on campus to all De Anza students," Cardoza says.


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WINONA, Minn.—Winona State University is hoping to get two of its oldest campus buildings added to the National Register of Historic Places.
A Winona Daily News report ( http://bit.ly/VKTKrf) says Phelps Hall dates back to 1914 and Somsen Hall opened in 1924.
Phelps was named after the university's second principal. It was originally used as an elementary school for 200 children.
Somsen was initally called College Hall. It was later renamed after Stephen H. Somsen, the college's resident director from 1909 to 1933.
Somsen Hall is also the home to a historic Depression-era mural painted in the second-floor entrance by John Martin Socha. It depicts pioneer life with scenes of loggers, railroad workers, a riverboat captain and Native Americans.
The National Register lists more than 80,000 historic sites across the country.
Information from: Winona Daily News, http://www.winonadailynews.com

subset: commoncrawl


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It's hard to resist some of these eBook deals, so I thought I would share the temptation. Check out these cheap YA reads!
Scarlet by A C Gaughen (Just 2.99!)
Many readers know the tale of Robin Hood, but they will be swept away by this new version full of action, secrets, and romance.
Posing as one of Robin Hood's thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. Helping the people of Nottingham outwit the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in.
It's only her fierce loyalty to Robin—whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her—that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.
Royal Rebel by Dana Taylor (Another Robin Hood retelling – $1.99)
Courageous, captivating, cunning—the Royal Rebel leads her band of freedom fighters against the tyranny of Prince John. Inspired by the legend of Robin Hood, "Royal Rebel" twists a familiar tale into a fresh, romantic adventure.
Robin, the secret daughter of King Richard, fights injustice as she awaits her father's return from the Crusades. Joining forces with arrogant knight extraordinaire, Sir Simon of Loxley, the two undertake a mission to save the kingdom. Filled with humor, whimsical imagination, and romance—"Royal Rebel" will capture your heart.
Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul by Leanna Renee Hieber ($1.59)
I was obsessed.
It was as if he called to me, demanding I reach out and touch the brushstrokes of color swirled onto the canvas. It was the most exquisite portrait I'd ever seen–everything about Lord Denbury was unbelievable…utterly breathtaking and eerily lifelike.
There was a reason for that. Because despite what everyone said, Denbury never had committed suicide. He was alive. Trapped within his golden frame.
I've crossed over into his world within the painting, and I've seen what dreams haunt him. They haunt me too. He and I are inextricably linked–bound together to watch the darkness seeping through the gas-lit cobblestone streets of Manhattan. Unless I can free him soon, things will only get Darker Still.
Pillage by Obert Skye ($1.99)
When fifteen-year-old Beck Phillips travels by train to the secluded village of Kingsplot to live with his wealthy but estranged uncle, Beck discovers some dark family secrets. A buried basement, a forbidden wall, an old book of family history with odd references to. . . dragons? Beck's life is about to be changed forever in this suspenseful tale about the destructive nature of greed and the courage to make things right. Pillage is filled with Mr. Skye's signature humor as well as some very intense moments, including a surprise ending, that will keep readers young and old engrossed and entertained.
The Weepers: The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker ($1.99)
Sherry has lived with her family in a bunker for more than three years. Her grandfather's body has been in the freezer for the last six months, her parents are at each other's throats and two minutes ago, they ran out of food. Sherry and her father must leave the safety of the bunker. What they find is an empty Los Angeles, destroyed by bombs and haunted by Weepers – savage humans infected with a rabies virus. While searching for food, Sherry's father disappears and Sherry is saved by Joshua, a hunter. He takes her to Safe-haven, a vineyard where a handful of survivors are picking up the pieces of their other lives, before the virus changed everything. Sherry must find a way to help her family, stay alive, and decide whether Joshua is their savior or greatest danger as his desire for vengeance threatens them all. This debut novel is a page-turner that is not easy to forget.
Living Violet: The Cambion Chronicles#1 by Jaime Reed ($2.99)
Book 1 of The Cambion Chronicles
He's persuasive, charming, and way too mysterious. And for Samara Marshall, her co-worker is everything she wants most–and everything she most fears. . .
Samara Marshall is determined to make the summer before her senior year the best ever. Her plan: enjoy downtime with friends and work to save up cash for her dream car. Summer romance is not on her to-do list, but uncovering the truth about her flirtatious co-worker, Caleb Baker, is. From the peculiar glow to his eyes to the unfortunate events that befall the girls who pine after him, Samara is the only one to sense danger behind his smile.
But Caleb's secrets are drawing Samara into a world where the laws of attraction are a means of survival. And as a sinister power closes in on those she loves, Samara must take a risk that will change her life forever. . .or consume it.
Please Note: All prices were accurate when posted


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CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Rap lyrics written by a man convicted of killing a Reno drug dealer were allowable evidence at trial because they described details of the crime, a divided Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Deyundrea Orlando Holmes for the 2003 shooting death of Kevin "Mo" Nelson outside a Reno recording studio.
Holmes wasn't arrested until 2008 after genetic evidence recovered from a cigarette butt gathered at the murder scene matched his DNA. He was on parole in California at the time of his arrest. He was convicted and sentenced in 2011 in to life without possible parole.
In his appeal, Holmes argued Washoe District Judge Janet Berry should not have allowed a jury to hear lyrics to a rap song, "Drug Deala," that he penned in jail while awaiting extradition from California.
Part of the lyrics read, "I catching slipping at the club and jack you for your necklace." In gangsta parlance, "jacking" is slang for robbery.
The lyrics also referenced, "I'm parking lot jacking, running through your pockets with uh ski mask on straight laughing."
Witnesses said Nelson, a known drug dealer, was lured to the recording studio by Holmes and others on the pretense of a methamphetamine sale.
Two men wearing ski masks and black clothes, later identified as Holmes and another man named Max Reed, accosted Nelson and his friend Kenny Clark, in the parking lot, according to court documents. During the struggle, Nelson's shirt and chain necklace were torn off and his pockets turned inside out.
Nelson's attacker, identified as Holmes, then removed his ski mask, declared that he was going to shoot him, and then he did. Nelson staggered, fell and died. Clark managed to call 911 and flee.
In upholding the conviction, Chief Justice Kris Pickering and Justice James Hardesty noted that the trial judge instructed the jury it could not use the lyrics to prove Holmes "is a person of bad character or that he has a disposition to commit a crime."
They also recognized that defendant-authored rap lyrics may use exaggerations and involve "abstract representations of events or ubiquitous story lines."
"But these features do not exempt such writings from jury consideration where, as here, the lyrics describe details that mirror the crime charged," the justices wrote.
Jurors were told they could consider Holmes' statements, including the lyrics, as "confessions, admissions or neither."
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Nancy Saitta said the lyrics did not sufficiently suggest description of the crime.
"The lyrics did not reflect knowledge of the specific event any more than they describe routine criminal behavior," Saitta wrote, adding such topics are "frequent fodder for rap lyrics."
Saitta said presenting the lyrics to jurors amounted to unfair prejudice requiring reversal of the conviction and a new trial.


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September 2011
September 30, 2011. We welcome our special motorcycling correspondent Scott Bowles back to The Virtual Rider's seat where he reviews the Harley-Davidson SuperLow. With a seat height lower than a politician's approval rating, does this bike help reinvigorate the Sportster line? TVD's Editor takes a look at two new safety technologies from GM, and examines the inner workings of the Fiat-Chrysler tie-up. Al Vinikour strikes a more somber note this week, supporting people who erect roadside memorials. And Mercedes-Benz introduces a new fragrance for men who own a Mercedes... or want to smell like they do.
September 23, 2011. Toyota introduces the 2012 Camry. We ask whether it's enough to bring buyers back into the Toyota fold. Ford offers a fun little flap for the Focus that every car should have. And Al tees off on why colors are colors, until you have to name them.
September 16, 2011. If it's September of an odd-numbered year, this must be Germany or, more specifically, Frankfurt. This year's Frankfurt Motor Show had the weird, the wild and the wonderful, but only a few vehicles made it on to the Editor's list of the truly significant. Except for one. It's a marketing exercise he rather liked. Switching gears, Al Vinikour tees off on politicians with gusto. See why he thinks they should keep their hands off the auto industry. Finally, the Editor was on local cable access recently with friend and former colleague John Clor to discuss the future of automotive safety, and how it will affect the driving experience.
September 9, 2011. This week, our Web Development Director cleans his car with a product you might not expect. Jaguar introduces its C-X16 concept ahead of its Frankfurt debut. Al Vinikour takes a crossbow to miscreants and left-lane hogs. Dan goes out to drive Hyundai Genesis Coupe, and comes back with an opinion. And Al (with crossbow) and the Editor (wearing the apple) do a podcast.
September 2, 2011. As promised last week, the First Run on the 2012 Beetle is here. It's stands out in what otherwise is a veritable Truck Fest that includes the Editor's review of the Ram 1500 Tradesman, and Al Vinikour's First Run on the 2012 Jeep Wrangler. Speaking of Al, he gives Donald Trump a sure-fire investment idea guaranteed not to go flat.


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I remember when my second was born. My first was already 4 but it was still hard to balance her needs with the needs of the newborn- who, being a newborn was up for hours in the night and cranky and nursing all. day. long.
It's really rough to not have family close by- ask me how I know! Is there any chance that someone could take a week off from work, or even just a day here or there, and help you out? Now is the time, if ever. You don't want the baby blues tipping over into PPD or something like that.


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The Boston Redevelopment Authority board on Feb. 14 unanimously approved Suffolk University's plans to move forward with a new campus building at 20 Somerset St. that will feature general-use and science classrooms, a light-filled cafeteria/function space, and indoor and outdoor lounging areas.
The BRA determined that the building is in accord with the University's Master Plan and that its impacts – which include relocating all academic classrooms from the residential part of Beacon Hill – will benefit the neighborhood. The University will now work with city, state, and preservation officials to finalize the design for the $62 million building and move forward with construction.
"This building will provide the flexible academic facilities essential for today's learning and teaching environment," said Suffolk University President James McCarthy. "At the same time, it shows the value of partnering with neighbors, elected officials and city agencies to find solutions that benefit all."
Expected to open in 2015
The sleek new building, expected to open in summer 2015, will encompass 112,000 square feet in 10 floors, two of them partially or fully below grade. There will be four floors each of general-education and science classrooms of various sizes, providing 1,100 classroom seats. It also will include student support services.
The neighborhood will benefit as active use is restored at the site of the old MDC headquarters, which will be replaced with a building designed to be respectful of its surroundings. The new building will be adjacent to open space, and the state-owned Roemer Plaza will be landscaped to provide an inviting area for students and neighbors to gather.
The University will refit the Donahue and Archer buildings for office space and eventually sell its Fenton Building and annex on Derne Street and the Ridgeway building on Cambridge Street as part of its plan to relocate classrooms.
"Through institutional planning we're encouraging colleges and universities to look at their assets strategically," said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "Suffolk University's decision to consolidate classroom space in a new building closer to the core of their campus benefits the institution and their neighbors in Beacon Hill."
The BRA's approval of the redesigned project is the result of a close collaboration among Suffolk University, elected officials, and a community task force made up of members from surrounding neighborhoods, as well as with its neighbors on Beacon Hill and representatives of the abutting Garden of Peace.
"This is a textbook case of neighbors, elected officials, and the University coming together to craft a project that benefits all," said John Nucci, the University's vice president for Government and Community Affairs. "We listened very closely to everyone involved, and the result is that we now all agree that this project will be an asset to Suffolk University, Beacon Hill, and the whole area for decades to come."
The University is working with the NBBJ architectural firm.
Features of the 20 Somerset project include:
- Creation of more than 300 new construction jobs
- Designed and constructed according to high green design and sustainability standards; will seek LEED Silver certification
- Relocation of all classrooms and a cafeteria currently located within the residential area of Beacon Hill
- Returning an active use to a now-vacant property
- Creating a vibrant new public space for use by all through improvements to Roemer Plaza
- Maintaining the existing building setback from the adjacent Garden of Peace and providing an appropriate building façade facing the garden
- Maintaining the existing building height, thus producing no new shadow on the Garden of Peace


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To view an abstract, select an author from the vertical list on the left.
2006 Grant - Schnaider-Beeri
Effects of Glycoxidation on Cognition
Michal Schnaider-Beeri, Ph.D.
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, New York
2006 New Investigator Research Grant
Studies have shown that diabetes may be a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and the associated declines in cognitive function. One concept that has been proposed to explain why diabetes is associated with cognitive decline involves the formation and action of compounds called advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AGEs form from chemical reactions of dietary sugars (such as glucose or fructose) with the proteins and fats that are part of the body. AGEs accumulate in the body with age and are usually found in higher levels in persons with diabetes.
It has also been observed that persons with Alzheimer's disease have much higher levels of AGEs in their brains compared with people with no cognitive impairment. Because the formation of AGEs depends on a person's diet, it may be possible to reduce their formation by changes in diet.
At this time, it is still unknown whether AGEs are responsible or contribute to the declines in brain function seen in persons with cognitive decline or Alzheimer's disease. Michal Schnaider Beeri, Ph.D., and colleagues plan to collect evidence from a large number of individuals to assess whether high levels of AGEs are associated with cognitive decline.
The researchers plan to measure levels of AGEs in persons not showing evidence of Alzheimer's disease. In addition they will administer a series of tests to measure each person's cognitive function. Using statistical methods, they will analyze whether AGEs levels are associated with lower performance on cognitive tests at the beginning of the study. They will also follow participants for several years to determine if their AGEs levels affect the rate at which their cognitive function declines during aging.


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Pre-Nursing Program
The Liberal Arts and Sciences: Sciences Program at Nyack College provides students with a pre-nursing curriculum prior to applying to the BS Nursing program. It also prepares those desiring knowledge-enhancement in the natural sciences and/or preparing for employment in the health services.
Students who satisfactorily complete the 60-credit program and meet all the program requirements, normally two years of full time study, will obtain an AA Liberal Arts and Sciences: Sciences. The Liberal Arts component and the Major Field component parallel the Nursing program coursework/curriculum to allow the maximum transfer of credits into the BS Nursing program.
A 2.5 GPA is required for admissions into the program. Incoming students will also be required to take the Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS) before starting the program. This is used solely for course placement purposes and does not impact admissions into the program. The TEAS test is a multi-choice exam designed to measure essential skills and academic readiness for entry level satisfactory performance in a formal college based nursing education program. The exam covers topics in Mathematics, Reading, Science, and Language Usage.
Those who wish to enter the BS Nursing program will be required to take the Kaplan Nursing School Entrance Exam during their final semester of the Liberal Arts and Sciences: Sciences program. The Kaplan exam is designed to determine the academic readiness of applicants to post-secondary education programs. It contains four subtests: Math, Science, English, and Reading.
This degree is highly marketable. Having acquired a range of learning and research abilities in the sciences, as well as critical thinking and writing skills, students from this program are better qualified to respond to the demands of the health services field.
The Pre-Nursing program is offered at the Rockland campus.


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It is no secret that the Bush Administration is engaged in the most radical assault on the separation of church and state in American history. The apostles of religious correctness never hesitate to broadcast their contempt for the Republic's secular laws and traditions–whether that means committing the federal government to uphold the "sanctity of marriage," as the President did in his State of the Union address, or stocking Grand Canyon National Park's bookstore with fundamentalist tracts claiming that the awe-inspiring canyon was created in six days.
It is equally evident that most Democrats are too terrified of being seen as antireligious to acknowledge that the very survival of America's secular government may be at stake in the 2004 election. Howard Dean's sudden discovery of the value of daily prayer, after being tarred with the dreaded S-word early in the primary season, exemplified the spinelessness of politicians (and others in public life) who fear identification with secularism, nonreligious humanism, even liberal religion–everything once encompassed by the lovely, evocative term freethinking.
Timid twenty-first-century secularists–in sharp contrast to the bold proselytizing freethinkers of the late nineteenth century–are missing a chance that may never come again if the Republicans have four more years to appoint federal judges who share their scorn for secular government.
The campaign offers the perfect opportunity to re-educate Americans about a heritage that has been denigrated not only by relentless attacks from the religious right but also by the failure of public schools to foster awareness of the nation's secular roots, embedded in a Constitution that omits any mention of God and instead assigns supreme power to "We the People."
Right-wing religion, money and political clout have driven the rise of religious correctness during the past thirty years, but an equally important factor is the larger American public's unexamined assumption that religion per se always exerts a benign influence on society. The ultraconservative minority has exploited that assumption brilliantly and succeeded in tarring opponents of faith-based adventurism as enemies of all religion, as atheists, as "relativists."
It takes a drastic example of religion's potential to do either public or private harm–say, a Christian Scientist's denial of a blood transfusion to his dying child or the transformation of a plane into a lethal weapon in the name of radical Islam–to shake the American faith in religion as a positive social force. Indeed, religious correctness demanded that Bush deny any connection between the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and "real" Islam. Yet there is a very real connection–however twisted it may seem to moderate and liberal religious believers–between fundamentalism and extremism in Christianity and Judaism as well as Islam.
The problem, of course, is not religion as a spiritual force but religion melded with political ideology and political power. Since the religiously correct do not acknowledge any danger in mixing religion and politics, evil acts committed in the name of religion must always be dismissed as the dementia of criminals and psychopaths.


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Tenants in Stark County paid more in rent the past three years than during the recession, according to the American Community Survey released by the Census Bureau on Nov. 14.
Carolyn Youden just laughs when you ask if she's noticed an increase in rental rates.
"I know there was one year we didn't have a rent increase," she says, still smiling.
Actually, there were two: 2009 and 2010. When, as Youden says, "the economy hit bottom."
Rifling through past rental statements, she chronicled five increases in seven years. Youden's monthly rent was $640, including pet fees for two cats, when she moved into a two-bedroom with a loft at the Versailles Gardens Apartments in 2006. Now, it's $775, including pet fees for a dog.
She said the greatest increase yet was an additional $25 for people and $15 for pets enacted in August. It was the first pet fee increase since she's lived there.
Tenants in Stark County paid more in rent the past three years than during the recession, according to the American Community Survey released by the Census Bureau on Nov. 14.
The number of units where people paid less than $200 in gross rent between 2007 and 2009 fell from 5.5 percent to 4.2 percent for the 2010 to 2012 period. The total number of units in the $300 to $499 range fell from 17.7 to 14.4 percent in the same time period.
Meanwhile, the number of renters in apartments that cost $500 to $749 increased from 37.7 percent to 41.5 percent of all rental units, according to according to a census report.
Tricia Reed, a Realtor with Cutler Real Estate, said she's seen rental houses in Stark County priced at $1,100 or more when the actual value is closer to $900. It's due in part to an increase in demand and the perception of it, she said.
Cutler Real Estate facilitates leases between landlords and tenants in Northeast Ohio. Reed said she has seen an increase in foreclosures, short sales and energy workers in the past few years, but not enough to warrant some of the overpriced rentals.
"They've heard the stories that these people that are coming from out of town have so much money, they'll pay two and three times what the warranted market value is," Reed said.
Still, Stark County is beginning to see some of the effects of Utica Shale drilling as limited housing in Carroll County forces workers to look north. Reed said industry offices in the Canton area also draw a lot of tenants.
"Our big ones are Timken and Diebold," Reed said. "And with Chesapeake's headquarters being in Louisville, we don't have an inventory."
In counties northwest of Stark with less gas and oil action, rents are "a lot more reasonable," she said.
Dan Coen, co-owner of the Utica Shale Housing Group which focuses on workforce housing and the DDK Property Group which serves mostly low-income renters, said energy workers still live mostly south of Stark County. He expects that to change within the next year or two as energy activity grows but said abundant Canton-area housing should prevent a huge effect on rental rates.
"With the housing being so scarce in those southern counties, more and more people will drive," he said.
Bill Lemmon, of Brookwood Management, said Stark County's rental occupancy has regained strength. The company, which owns Versailles Gardens Apartments in North Canton, said rent has increased about 2.5 to 3.5 percent a year in the past two years.
Since there weren't as many rent increases during the recession, Lemmon said, they've tried to catch up with operating costs now that the market is improving.
"Within the last two years, the market has turned around, occupancies have been good, and rents have gone up somewhat," he said.
Youden, 60, said she understands operating costs increase but said rent used to be much less expensive in the Canton area. She retired from Timken in 2008 and lives with her husband on a mostly fixed income. He works in construction management.
To keep their current apartment in North Canton, Youden said, they've had to cut back on personal expenses every year.
"We used to go out two, three times a week," she said. "Then it became once a week. Now it's never."
Kristina and Anthony Kosunick, who live in Englewood Manor Apartments in Plain Township with their two children, are also unsure how to sustain their current living situation if rent continues to increase. Kristina is a stay-at-home mother to a 7-year-old son with autism and a 3-year-old daughter. Anthony works at the Akron-Canton Airport.
They collect Social Security disability payments for their son, which have reached the maximum, and rely on food stamp assistance. Assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was cut by an average of 5.5 percent at the start of November because of an expired provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,
The Kosunicks said they expected rent to increase at some point.
"But we didn't know they were going to keep on doing it every year," Anthony said.
The rent was $470 a month when they moved into the two-bedroom apartment in 2008. It went up for the first time in January to $490 and will go up to $510 this January. They were told the market value had increased, Kristina Kosunick said.
Ideally, the family would like to find a three-bedroom for less than $500. Kristina said most rentals she's seen, even on the lower-end, are closer to $600. Whether they can continue to live in their current apartment depends on the ability of social services to continue meeting their needs.
For now, Kristina said it's tough, but doable.
"We're getting by," she said.
Reach Kelly at 330-580-8323 or
On Twitter: @kbyerREP


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U.S. stocks fluctuated between gains and losses, with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index trading near a record high, as a rise in consumer confidence offset a drop in business activity and investors weighed earnings data.
Apple Inc. climbed 2.8% as the iPhone maker is said to be selling $17 billion of bonds in the biggest U.S. corporate offering on record. Avon Products Inc. gained 3.7% after earnings topped analysts' forecasts. Pfizer Inc. dropped 3.6% as the world's biggest drugmaker reported earnings that fell short of analysts' projections. Newmont Mining Corp. lost 6.1% as the biggest U.S. gold producer reported profit that missed estimates.
The S&P 500 added 0.1% to 1,594.57 as of 3:20 p.m. in New York, after falling as much as 0.5% earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 2.36 points, or less than 0.1%, to 14,816.39. Trading in S&P 500 stocks was in line with the 30-day average at this time of day.
"People have seen what the market has been doing and so they just continue to tiptoe into equities," Jason Cooper, who helps oversee $2.5 billion in South Bend, Indiana, at 1st Source Investment Advisors, said in a phone interview. "In that same regard, a lot of people are ready to say 'hey, this thing can't go any further. Go slow about it.' They're willing to pull out if things get bad."
Confidence among U.S. consumers climbed more than forecast in April to a five-month high as Americans' outlook for the economy and their incomes improved, according to a gauge from the Conference Board. The S&P/Case-Schiller index of property values in 20 cities showed residential real-estate prices increased in February by the most since May 2006, a sign that the U.S. housing market is strengthening.
Business Activity
Business activity in the U.S. unexpectedly shrank in April for the first time in more than three years, the MNI Chicago Report's business barometer showed.
The Bloomberg Economic Surprise Index, which measures the degree to which economic data exceeded or missed projections, slipped today to minus 0.083, the lowest level since October. The measure peaked at 0.45 in February.
The S&P 500 has climbed 1.6% in April for a sixth monthly advance, the longest streak since September 2009. The bull market in U.S. equities entered its fifth year last month and the gauge has surged 136% from a 12-year low in 2009, driven by better-than-estimated corporate earnings and three rounds of bond purchases by the Federal Reserve.
Copyright 2014 Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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Slicing Up Naples
Ever in search of the perfect Italian meal, Alan Richman turns south, and so do his prospects
I ask little of the great cities of Italy, no more than a few admirable trattorias scattered among the unheated museums, crumbling amphitheaters and heroic statues with no noses. I'm content if the polenta is creamy, the Gorgonzola pungent, the artichokes tiny and fried just right. Is it wrong for me to want tasty bolognese sauce in Bologna or savory Genoa salami in Genoa? Simple though these needs may be, in-town dining in Italy rarely works out for me. Whenever I'm there savoring a magnificent meal, I can usually look out the window of the restaurant and see an old farmer in a pilled cardigan chugging by on his tractor. A mule stumbling along under sacks of arborio rice won't be far behind.
We all know Italian cuisine is the food of the home kitchen and, absent that, of the simple country restaurant with the wife at the stove and the husband out front, greeting guests and pretending he is the reason the place is doing so well. It is a cuisine of freshness and simplicity, which is seldom the strength of formal restaurants, yet that is not a satisfactory excuse for Italian food to suffer so acutely when exposed to the trappings of urbanity. After all, a restaurant owner has only to hire somebody with a fast car, of which there is no shortage in Italy, and instruct him to fill the trunk with ripe tomatoes, zucchini flowers and artisanal sausages and drive in from the country once a day. He must also marry a stout woman who grew up in a household in which the mother cooked for the family, and there are plenty of those around, too.
Now and then, I have enjoyed meals in Italian cities. I love the wines at Don Lisander in Milan, the fish at da Fiore in Venice and everything at Cibrèo in Florence (except the congealed calf's foot, and I don't have to apologize for disliking that). I've spent a total of four to five months in Italy in my lifetime, and while I don't wish to appear ungrateful for those travel opportunities, few of my dining experiences away from the countryside have been memorable. There is much to recommend about Milan, Florence, Venice, Rome and Bologna, but restaurants aren't among their virtues.
I've spent most of my time in the northern cities, but I'm gradually wending my way south. Most recently, I veered off toward Naples, an undertaking that had me buoyant with optimism. It is by reputation the birthplace of the red-sauce cuisine that defined Italian food for Americans throughout most of the twentieth century. Even better, the pizza of Naples is legendary, admired everywhere as the benchmark of the genre, even by citizens of northern Italy, who almost never speak of the people or the products of the south without a curled lip and a sneer of contempt. (It's mostly a work-ethic thing.) In Naples I would find pizza from wood-burning ovens, pizza sold in the shadows of perilous alleys, pizza that would expose as a cruel joke the pies we Americans have been eating all our lives.
Furthermore, I was thrilled to be visiting a city filled with the resplendence and detritus of history. Naples is a glorious relic, the most densely populated city of Europe, survivor of conquests by the Greeks, the Romans, the Goths, the Byzantines and the Normans. Naples was harried by the runaway slave Spartacus, placed under siege by the Germans, attacked from the sea by the Saracens, harassed by the Vandals, tormented by the Franks, forced into an alliance with the Sicilians and, to hurdle a few centuries, bombed by the Allies. (It caught a much needed break when Sophia Loren was born there in 1934.) The Spanish, starting with Ferdinand and Isabella, ruled Naples for more than 200 years, and under the influence of the Spanish and Bourbon kings the cuisine of Naples began to evolve, helped along by the influx of New World foods such as the tomato, the bean and the pepper.
Naples is the base of the dreaded crime organization known by the old Spanish name camorra, far more insidious-sounding than Mafia, which reeks of ineptness. In Naples I would learn if street crime and spaghetti go hand in hand, as American filmmakers would have us believe. I would gaze upon the killer volcano Vesuvius, destroyer of entire civilizations; walk dangerous alleys hung with ominous flapping laundry; inhale the sweet woodsmoke of pizza ovens mingled with the sooty residue of everyday life. I eagerly awaited my visit, for I have wearied of visiting cities so civil even the subways are safe at night.
The taxi driver bringing me in from the airport excitedly pointed out the soccer stadium where Diego Maradona starred for Napoli in the 1980s, yet another reminder that whatever the century, Naples is forever living in the past. I told him I knew a man who knew Pelé, which must have impressed him, because he failed to overcharge me for the trip. In the course of several excursions to the airport to collect my wife and some friends, all lured to Naples by promises of superb traditional dining, I deciphered the system of extortion employed by drivers plying the airport-midtown circuit. They demand two to three times the fare registered on the meter, and should the victim protest, they offer a receipt that is four to five times what is on the meter. This way the driver cheats the passenger, the passenger cheats his company, and everybody prospers by participating in a satisfying life of petty crime. I had booked a room at the Grand Hotel Parker's, which is halfway up a series of winding hillside roads from the Bay of Naples. Technically, Parker's is in Vomero, a middle-class residential area located at the top of a hill that until a few generations ago was parkland and countryside. These days Vomero has the same amount of green space as the rest of the city, virtually none. My room overlooked the harbor, one of the world's great vistas, and I must admit that waking up every morning to such a view made the trip worthwhile, even if the restaurants, as I was soon to learn, did not. A welcoming gift in my room was a wad-paper bag of sfogliatelle, the world-class ricotta-and-dried-fruit pastry of Naples that manages to be crunchy, buttery, silken and chewy at the same time.
For a good part of my life, I'd looked forward to dining in Naples. I'd dreamed of it the way lovers fantasize about Paris, scholars about Heidelberg and romantics about Venice. There is no more evocative smell to me than Pecorino Romano, the grated cheese that gently floated down upon every pasta dish served to me in the South Philadelphia restaurants of my youth. Words such as cacciatore (cooked in mushrooms, onions and tomatoes) and saltimbocca (sautéed with ham) are as emotionally appealing to me as any gastronomic terms, and I have always considered red-sauce cooking the food least likely to let me down. Back in the 1970s, when I was a sportswriter and traveled to major cities without identifiable restaurants, I always knew I could count on places named Luigi's and Mama's to serve up satisfying plates of chicken alla scarpariello with rigatoni alla marinara on the side.
I hoped to visit a dozen restaurants during my ten days in Naples. I went to only five, and I left early, dismayed. I tried five pizzerias too, and I quit on them after uncovering an awful secret: There are puddles in the pies, little lagoons of hot liquid that soak through the otherwise magnificent crusts. As troubling as I found this to be, it didn't shatter my confidence nearly as much as two restaurant meals I experienced soon after my arrival. Even a couple of nice pieces of fish in the days before my evacuation—which is how I started to think of it—couldn't make me change my mind about the essential undesirability of Naples restaurants.
The first dinner was at a quietly fashionable spot called Ciro a Santa Brigida, near Via Toledo, the fashionable shopping street Neapolitans like to call Via Roma. Ciro a Santa Brigida looks just right: nice tablecloths, simple wood furniture, the ambience of an establishment promising excellence without pretension. A friend and I stepped inside and were immediately shown to a tiny table in a cramped passageway next to a window overlooking a taxi stand. Our waiter, who spoke decent English, discouraged us from having anything we requested, including the seafood stew that is the house specialty.
I ordered a bottle of wine. He shook his head at the poor choice. "You like dry?" he asked. "Sure," I replied rather sourly. He didn't notice my distress, but Italian waiters never do. He brought us a wine called Asprinio di Aversa, which was dry all right. Perhaps it was the power of suggestion, but the flavorless, flinty wine seemed to leave a chalky film on my tongue, much like an unswallowed aspirin tablet.
I insisted on the gnocchi alla napoletana—to the waiter's credit, he warned me against it—because it sounded so right, so perfect for my very first dish in Naples. The gnocchi were gummy, probably store-bought, and the sauce was dull, not much more than canned tomatoes. We were offered no grated cheese, and when I asked why, the waiter replied, "I didn't know you wanted it." Never before had I come upon an Italian waiter mystified by the time-honored concept of cheese on tomato sauce. I insisted on the stew, which contained squid, octopus, mussels and shrimp in an oily, garlicky sauce. I liked it well enough, although the shrimp were cooked to mush, which I subsequently found standard in cucina napoletana. My friend's grilled orata, a harmless local fish of minimal distinction, wasn't fresh. An arugula salad was served soaking wet, and the leaves were too tough to chew.
It was a poor excuse for a meal, but worse awaited. I had been advised by several heretofore trustworthy friends that Dante e Beatrice served traditional food untouched by time, and I looked forward to dining there more than at any other restaurant. After all, I had come to learn about the foundation of the Italian American food that had sustained me for so long. My initial impression of Dante e Beatrice, like that of Ciro a Santa Brigida, was that it seemed just right. It's a tiny spot of two small rooms, with family photos on the pale yellow walls and no frills except a guitar player whose discordant refrains turned out to be a perfect accompaniment to the cuisine.
The moment the five of us were seated, a waiter brought out a slice of something he called pizza rustica, a sweet-and-savory ricotta cake laced with bits of ham. It was so appealing I was thrown off guard. When he suggested that he select our appetizers, I happily agreed. Out came eleven dishes, as fast as he could fling them on the table. The marinated yellow peppers were fine, and the carrots weren't too bad, although I can't say carrots take all that well to a long soak in vinegar. The other dishes were so outside the parameters of what I would call appetizing, I couldn't believe they were part of a cuisine that had established an unshakable foothold in the United States. Most were so overly marinated that my tongue shriveled on contact. The white beans were blessedly acid-free, but they were cold, bland and mushy, the only inedible white beans I'd ever been served in Italy. The mozzarella was sour, but highly desirable compared to the marinated unidentifiable vegetable jerky, which in turn soared over the marinated small smelly fish.
I lunged for a menu. Listed was "tender roast veal." That sounded like a lifesaver, but my pleas were ignored. The waiter presented unordered rubbery rigatoni in an insipid tomato sauce. We picked at the pasta, and then I cried out, "Finito, finito!" What I thought was a universal wail of distress accidentally turned out to be perfect Italian, but it had no effect. The cook came to our table carrying an oversize skillet. "Special! Fried spaghetti," he proclaimed. I sagged at the announcement, but gamely replied, "OK, but finito after that." The fried spaghetti was crunchy. There was nothing more to it. Then the waiter rolled out a serving table groaning under the weight of diverse animal products, most unidentifiable. We barely muffled our shrieks. The long, bony things were stringy, and the fatty rolled things were tough. The meatballs had been cooked so long they were totally dried out, and yet, in a kind of perverse tour de force, they were cold.
There was more, as our futile _finito_s faded into hoarse whispers. Bitter, bitter greens. Some fruit nobody touched. Finally, a frosty pitcher of ice-cold limoncello, a local liqueur usually offered complimentarily after a meal. Here it was reminiscent of lemon-flavored dishwashing detergent, and it was on the bill. In fact, everybody was charged for every course, whether the unwanted food was touched or not. In an effort to pad the check even more, a mandatory tip was added on. It is impossible to recover fully from that kind of gastronomic body blow. What made it worse was that the wretched Dante e Beatrice, surely the worst restaurant in Italy, had been touted to me as a place that would exquisitely guide me toward a greater understanding of the cuisine I had come to explore. I was stunned. I finally understood why Spartacus was always so mad.
And I had yet to visit the pizzeria that would double my bill.
The pizzas of Naples emerge from ancient wood-burning ovens smoky, charred and puffy around the edges. Although thin, the crusts are supple and chewy, not cracker-crisp like those on the thin-crust pizzas of America. The cheese is mozzarella, either fior di latte, which is made from cow's milk, or mozzarella di bufala, made from the milk of the water buffalo. The cow's-milk mozzarella is as good as the best mozzarella in America, but the mozzarella from the water buffalo is unsurpassed—creamy, tangy and complex. (On the two occasions I ate buffalo mozzarella in restaurants—not pizzerias—it was nearly inedible.) The tomato sauce used on Naples pizzas isn't much different from the tomato sauce in America, although occasionally chopped fresh tomatoes are added to good effect. The pizzas cost almost nothing, maybe $3.50 for a whole pizza marinara (oregano-laced tomato sauce, chopped fresh garlic) that overflows an oversize dinner plate. I noticed that the women of Naples were able to handle their outlandishly large servings by leaving the wonderful outer crust untouched, an observation I passed on to Letizia Tancredi, the front-office manager at the Grand Hotel Parker's. She and I debated restaurants every morning. I would stumble into the lobby, shaking my head in dismay, and the debriefings would commence. When I mentioned to her that women were wasting the best part of their pizzas, she huffed, "We do not!" It was a rare instance in the course of many delightful culinary conversations that she was a person of few words.
When I presented her with my far more disturbing discovery about the wetness of the pizzas, she did not flinch. At Trianon, one of the oldest and best pizzerias in Naples, my wife had looked up in dismay from her tasty if fatally gooey pizza margherita con bufala (buffalo mozzarella, tomato sauce, basil, Parmigiano-Reggiano) and said, "It's soup." This was an exaggeration, although I wouldn't have been surprised to see small children with tiny boats floating them across their pizzas, reenacting Columbus sailing toward the edge of the world.
Tancredi shrugged off this disturbing flaw as irrelevant, although she did not deny its existence. "I like wet," she said. "That's because I dip the round [the outer crust] in the middle, where it is wet. We dip a lot in Naples. When we eat pasta, we dip the bread in the sauce. I have three babies, and they all dip. My husband dips. We dip a lot in our house."
After nearly twenty pizzas, I figured out what made them so wet: everything. The cooks of Naples are generous with oil, and a lot of vegetable (not olive) oil is poured onto each pizza before it is baked. Mozzarella has a high water content, and so do crushed tomatoes. Add up all that liquid and what you get is a puddle in your pizza. Trianon, which had the most flavorful pizzas in Naples, also had the wettest. The even-more-famous Brandi, which has a photograph of Chelsea Clinton on its wall, made medium-wet pizzas. It also made the worst pizza margherita, which was unfortunate, since the restaurant claims to have invented the pizza margherita to honor a visit by the Italian queen Margherita in 1889. If Queen Margherita were around today, she wouldn't be pleased. A lesser-known pizzeria, Luigi Lombardi a Santa Chiara, made admirable specialty pizzas topped with mushrooms or lightly smoked provolone cheese. We had a wonderful waiter there by the name of Ciro, but don't bother asking for him, because half the waiters in Naples are named Ciro.
The place that brazenly cheated us was Pizzeria da Mimí, on Via Speranzella in the heart of the Spanish Quarter, which slopes up from Via Toledo and was built in the sixteenth century to garrison troops. A friend and I decided to explore the narrow, uneven streets, despite having been told the area was dangerous to outsiders. We feared nothing, although I have no idea why. Via Concordia, which cuts through the Spanish Quarter, is allegedly the principal habitat of the foot soldiers of the camorra. As we strolled by the stand of an elderly fruit peddler who spoke only a few words of English, he waved us over to talk about his visit to New York City decades earlier when he sailed with the Italian merchant marine. Then he warned us to get out for our own good.
The Spanish Quarter reminded me of Boston's North End, particularly the shrewd efforts by residents to reserve parking spaces in front of their tenement buildings. One particularly resourceful woman had placed two clothes-drying racks filled with wet laundry on the street, end to end, filling a space just large enough for a car. About the time her husband returned, the clothes would be dry (if grimy from passing traffic). The code of the Curba Nostra—Our Parking Space—is inviolate in this section of Naples. Mimí is on nobody's list of the best pizzerias in Naples, but my friend and I sought it out after hearing that it attracted authentic citizenry, not tourists like us. The place isn't much to see: wobbly tables, a hideous fake-stone vinyl floor and architecturally freaky walls with tile on the bottom half and wood up top. My friend and I took one of the seven tables in the back room and ordered two Cokes and one pizza to share. Almost all the regulars were drinking Cokes from bottles. Ours came in holiday promotional cans decorated with pictures of Santa Claus. Clearly, outdated inventory was being unloaded on unwelcome guests.
Service was agonizingly slow, and not only for us. One elderly lady called over a waiter wearing a white baseball cap with BRONX on it and said, "Today?" The pizza margherita, when we finally got it, was about the same as the other margherita pizzas we'd been eating. Then we were handed a bill that was twice what it should have been. When I demanded an explanation, the waiter said, "Service charge." I paid up, figuring we were being punished for trespassing in a section of the city where tourists aren't wanted. Somebody had to teach us a lesson, and Pizzeria da Mimí did it well.
Near the end of the trip, with my spirits plunging, I decided on an act of desperation: I made a reservation at the only restaurant in Naples awarded a star by Michelin, the French guide that likes to put its inspectors in countries where they don't belong. Italian chefs who cultivate the approval of the powerful Michelin guide invariably cease refining their own culinary traditions and begin duplicating unnatural acts of French gastronomy, which is why their restaurants invariably disappoint. La Cantinella is located near a strip of delu hotel properties, across from the harbor. It has the make-believe Polynesian-paradise look of a chic Hollywood club from the '50s: bamboo walls, bamboo chairbacks and tiki-style tin lamps hanging from the ceiling. An orange-beaked tropical bird chirps away in the foyer.
The night I was there with my wife, the clientele was mostly well-dressed businessmen, and they all seemed to be eating fried-fish platters washed down with tannic red Tuscan wines. I ordered one dish that had genuine finesse, an appetizer of chilled seafood mid with baby arugula leaves in a light lemon sauce. I didn't like anything else, including an appetizer of overly smoked swordfish slivers, my wife's main course of baked fish and potatoes immersed in what I suspected was their cooking liquid, and a stunningly bad main course called Fantasia di Fritture. This turned out to be a collection of unappetizing miniature fish dumped from a deep-frying basket onto a plate from a considerable height. Garnishes did not exist, except for the powdered sugar sprinkled on dessert plates containing cakes not worth mentioning.
Service until then had been mechanical, but after dessert we were ignored. Waiters wandered by. Waiters wandered away. None looked at us. After a half hour, I suggested to my wife that we get up to leave, a generally infallible means of persuading a restaurant to bring the check. We slowly made our way to the cloakroom, tipped the coat-check girl—the only female staff presence in most Naples restaurants—strode by the bird (which also ignored us) and walked out the door. I expected to hear footsteps, but nobody came after us. The next morning, I returned to the restaurant to pay, and the son of the owner could not have been more charming or more apologetic. I learned something from this encounter. The people of Naples are at their best after altercations, win or lose. Most of the taxi drivers I refused to overpay were much friendlier after our arguments than before.
I did enjoy two restaurant meals in Naples. One was at a deceptively simple waterfront spot, Ciro a Mergellina, a large, airy, glass-enclosed structure across from a stretch of waterfront kiosks where almost all of Naples gathers to eat gelato on Sunday nights. The grilled fish was fresh and perfectly cooked, and the pizza emerged charred from a genuine wood-burning oven. Most restaurants in Naples that serve pizza use electric ovens, which means their crusts have the texture of wallboard, exactly the way we like it in America. Ciro a Mergellina stays busy until well after midnight, and the scene is engrossing. Beefy young guys who should be named Sal or Rocco (and would be in South Philly) waddle in to eat with one another, and suave older guys who look like Vittorio Gassman strut in escorting girls who look as if they should be in parochial school.
I also admired the dining room of Parker's, which had virtues I did not find elsewhere: a panoramic view of the harbor and a chef with talent. Vincenzo Bacioterracino's complimentary starter, a stuffed fresh anchovy on a bed of escarole, was the finest dish I ate in Naples. His whole baked turbot with capers, a few halved plum tomatoes and an olive or two arrived at the table in a shiny copper pan, a presentation that La Cantinella would do well to emulate. My wife and I shared one dessert, a three-tiered apple puff pastry with cinnamon ice cream, which was good enough to convince me that Giuseppe Salvati—the same man who made the sfogliatelle left in our room—is the best pastry chef in the city. The flaw of this restaurant is an eccentric menu that flip-flops between ancient recipes and inspirational cuisine to the point where ordering a coherent meal is not easily done.
Two more points about the restaurants and pizzerias. First, they generally have wretched wine lists, with many of the listed bottles not in stock. This doesn't necessarily detract from a meal, for I was often relieved when a waiter returned to the table to explain that the mediocre wine I had reluctantly ordered wasn't available. Second, the restaurants have wonderfully thick, soft tablecloths, most of them pristine white but some in comforting shades of light yellow or pale green. The restaurants of Naples can proudly boast the finest tablecloths in the world.
What I realized, after a week in Naples, was how much I loved being there, except when I was going out to eat. Everywhere I wandered, I saw or felt something that made me think of another place, a side effect of a city bursting with history. The high-rises on the hills reminded me of Hong Kong; the crumbling stucco villas, of Old Havana. I never felt threatened or uncomfortable, even when I was traversing the narrowest footstep-echoing alleys or challenging the surly staff at Pizzeria da Mimí. I enjoyed walking around Naples, an activity that could only have been more pleasurable had the sidewalks been passable. The better neighborhoods have a dog-poop problem of Parisian proportions, and elsewhere the pavements are blocked with illegally parked cars. I invariably walked in the streets, which is a challenge, since the drivers are criminally indifferent to pedestrians. Now and then, I would duck into one of the magnificent Baroque churches to offer a small donation in thanks for not becoming a traffic fatality. The police, for all I know, are the darlings of Interpol, regular Eliot Nesses, but they appear to do nothing except stand around in clumps and reminisce about Maradona's debut against Verona in 1984.
I used to think Bologna had the worst restaurants in Italy, but Naples deserves the title. I suppose I should be disheartened, considering I had arrived with such high expectations, but I am not giving up my quest to find an Italian metropolis with acceptable eating establishments. There remains one more major city on my itinerary—Palermo, the urban heart of Sicily.
I've heard wonderful things about the food of Palermo. As I understand it, the port area is paved with trattorias that offer still-writhing fish from which one might select a fine lunch. I recently read that the sautéed breaded veal chops "in the style of Palermo" are unsurpassed, and I've long wished to try a few cassata siciliana, the famous molded pastries rolled in almond paste. Yes, I'm sure Palermo is the answer. It has to be. The next city south is Tripoli, and I'm not going there to eat.


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John noted yesterday that Monica Lewinsky reportedly will write a tell-all book about her affair with Bill Clinton. I agree with John that Lewinsky's book probably won't have much impact on Clinton's standing. The political market has already discounted for the immorality of "Slick Willie."
To be sure, any reminder that our leading "elder statesman" is, among other things, a liar and a perjurer will be welcome. It would be nice, though, if someone also reminded us that Clinton's allegedly successful presidency failed to deal with the two most important problems the country faced during his eight years in office: the rise of Islamic terrorism directed at the U.S. and the entitlement time bomb.
Meanwhile, why has Mitt Romney agreed to participate in the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative on Sept. 25? His participation promotes the notion that Clinton is a trans-partisan do-gooder. But Clinton is the Democrats' most effective partisan. Moreover, he is bent on installing his wife in the Oval Office in 2017. If Romney loses this year, Clinton will have helped bring about his defeat. If Romney wins, Clinton will constantly be trying to undermine him so as to pave the way for a Hillary challenge in 2016. In neither scenario will Romney's participation in a Clinton-fest reflect well on him.
Clinton aspires to be both a player and a referee in our politics. Worse, he has the intellect and force of personality to just about pull it off. Worse still, Mitt Romney seems willing to help pave Clinton's way.


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Cavatelli Gratin with Bacon and Green Olives
Cheesy, creamy and delicious baked cavatelli is studded with bacon and olives. All this satisfying pasta dish needs is a nice green salad on the side.
1 lb. cavatelli, cooked
8 oz. bacon, cooked and crumbled into 1⁄2-in. pieces
3⁄4 cup green olives, coarsely chopped
1 1⁄2 cups heavy cream
1 1⁄2 cups milk
2 cups gruyère cheese
- In a large bowl, tosscavatelli with bacon, olives, cream and milk. Season to taste.
- Divide pasta into individual gratin dishes. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350° F. for 25 min. until cheese is browned on top and liquid is completely absorbed.
- Let sit 5 min. before serving.


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Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
New York's State Environmental Quality Review needs to be reformed to reduce costly delays in the process for approving development projects, according to a report released today by the Empire Center for Public Policy.
"SEQR adds an unnecessary layer of red tape to environmental regulations and local land-use laws, discouraging development that New York needs to promote a strong and growing economy," said E.J. McMahon, president of the Empire Center, who co-authored the report with Michael Wright, a senior policy analyst at the Albany-based policy research organization.
"As currently written and interpreted, SEQR can be exploited to produce costly delays and uncertainty for the kind of job-creating projects New York urgently needs," McMahon said. "While no one would argue with the intent of the law, it has become an obstacle to economic development."
Noting the state Department of Environmental Conservation is considering reforms of the SEQR law, the report says revisions are needed to:
•Reduce the potential for undue delays by imposing hard deadlines and incentives to ensure the process can be completed within a year;
•Mandate "scoping" of environmental impacts at the first stage in the SEQR review process, but also more tightly restrict the introduction of new issues by lead agencies later in the process; and
•Eliminate the law's reference to "community and neighborhood character" as an aspect of the environment potentially affected by projects, since the concept already is defined by local planning and zoning laws.
"SEQR reform has been a longstanding priority for us," said Ken Pokalsky, vice president of government affairs for The Business Council of New York State Inc. "Developers statewide have said that long and uncertain project reviews discourage potential investments in New York. As shown in the (center's) report, we can maintain environmental protections with a much more efficient review process."
The Empire Center is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, classified as a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.


text: May of 2012 marks the emergence of a new piece of malware that would soon become a household name within the security community. Known by a number of different names, including "Flame," "Viper," and "Skywiper," the bug was first identified in the Middle East and was most notably used against Iran. Capabilities include information theft, the ability to detect more than 100 security products, the ability to scan network resources and the functionality to read screenshots and record voice conversations. It communicates with its command-and-controlled servers over SSH and HTTPS protocols using extensive encryption.


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Student Success Coaching
Student Success Coaching is a collaborative effort between the Center for Student Success, Center for Health and Wellness Promotion, and Dean's Office of Arts and Sciences.
This unique program provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to meet one-on-one with a Peer Coach or professional staff to address academic and personal needs within a confidential setting. All coaches are USD students who have successfully completed an upper division course called "Current Approaches to Peer Assistance" (MFTS 365) in preparation for their role, and receive ongoing training and intensive supervision.
Peer coaches and professional staff are able to assist students with the following:
- Assessing and identifying presenting challenges
- Generating a Student Success Plan that includes academic and personal goals
- Connecting students with relevant resources on campus
- Developing time management and study skills, and becoming more connected at USD
Who should sign up for Student Success Coaching?
- First and second-year students placed on scholastic probation
- First and second-year students with multiple mid-term deficiencies
- First-year and transfer students struggling with the transition to college-level courses
- Any undergraduate student seeking to improve his/her academic performance
How do I make an appointment with a peer coach?
The easiest way to make an appointment is to visit the Center for Student Success in UC-114. Our staff will assist you in finding a date and time that fit your schedule to meet with a coach.
- First appointments last 1 hour
- Follow-up appointments last 30 minutes
- After scheduling an appointment, you will receive a confirmation email
- A reminder email is sent to you the day before your appointment
- We advise you to attend at least four sessions with a Student Success Coach
- Student Success Coaching is NOT tutoring - however, the CSS staff is happy to assist you in finding tutoring resources
Call (619) 260-5995 or visit UC-114 to schedule your first appointment! We do not schedule appointments over email. If you have general questions about Student Success Coaching, please contact the CSS at firstname.lastname@example.com or (619) 260-5995.
Contact Information
Center for Student Success
University Center 114
5998 Alcalá Park
San Diego, CA 92110
Phone: (619) 260-5995
Fax: (619) 260-5970


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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 - Danek and Stano
Danek and Stano - FULL CONTACT
Danek Carka and Stano Pazour came in for a very nice duo. Danek had done some duos for us before but this was Stano's first. It starts with Danek singing to Stano as he undresses him, and when the pants are down he starts to suck on Stano's dick. Then he sits him down and pulls the pants off before sucking him again, getting him nice and hard. Then Stano opens Danek's jeans, revealing his already rock hard dick. Stano shows us that he is very good at sucking as he takes Danek's cock in his mouth and really works it. He sucks it, and licks his tongue around the head. Danek is clearly enjoying it. Then the guys kiss each other and wank a bit before moving into position for a 69. With Stano on top it give Danek some easy access to Stano's ass as well so he rims it before sucking again. The guys move again, and with Stano on his knees Danek is able to rim him again, and spits on his hole before sliding a finger ...
... more about Danek and Stano - FULL CONTACT in this newsletter
Our Coming Soon Set Preview
Mykola Petruskov is 19 years old and hails from Russia. He is in the Czech Republic for work and in his spare time he enjoys playing football. Mykola is a cute looking guy who photographs very well, as you can see in this stills shoot. He does some very nice poses, and shows a very good, upstanding qualification as well a a most inviting ass. It would be great if we could persuade him to come back and do something with another guy.
Latest Updates Trailer
William Higgins Atelier Backstage Vlog
You can also watch my Vlog for this Newsletter by clicking the video above or over at the Blog:
"I haven't had so much fun since Watergate." That's a quote from William Higgins. I'm sure many can guess what it's in reference to. I'm watching the committee hearings from London as I write these words. Kind of reminds me of the Ervin hearings all those Years ago. Except the British committee members are so much more polite that the American Ervin Committee Members. Shadenfreude is rampant. To paraphrase Nixon all those years ago: Let them twist slowly, slowly in the wind.
A bit of an update, our IT guy has shown me how to solve the problem of the poster frame on the new video server for my Blog. Simple, I only had to change the name of jpegs to 'pic.' I would never have figured that out in a thousand years.
Speaking of the Blog I've posted a great Backstage Preview of a lovely 'Raunchy Sukat' duo. I love the two guys. Everyone loves Arthur, except Miro, who thinks he's ugly. Some might say 'jealously' could have been at work there. This is IMHO a fantastic shoot. And it must be said Jan is such a good sport, and SOOOO good looking.
Our Preview is a great Nude Submission Wrestling with Ladislav vs. Filip. This was a great match, and I'll be looking forward to downloading it.
Rado Zuska is aged 30 and lives in Melnik, where he works as a driver. He enjoys Fitness, Cycling and Swimming in his spare time. What a stunning guy Rado is, With a very handsome face and a magnificent body. He is so toned, that every muscle stand out, glistening as he adopts a series of beautiful poses. That is not all either, as Rado shows us his huge dick, which looks great as it is hard and rampant. But that almost outdone by the most beautiful ass you might hope see, and when it is spread it reveals the tightest of sweet pucker holes. This a glorious stills shoot with Rado, which augurs very well for his erotic video.
Jonas Vedral is aged 20 and lives in Brno. He is a student and he enjoys boxing and fitness. He looks very good in this erotic video, which starts with Jonas opening his sweater to reveal a very nice chest. He removes the sweater and lets us see the full extent of his work at the gym , as he feels his body. His hand then starts to dip into his jeans as well, as he rubs himself, and flexes his biceps. Then he drops his jeans and reveals his cock in a state of some arousal. Jonas wanks himself to get a full erection, looking at the camera as he does it, then he turns around and bends over, giving us a very nice glimpse of his ass, with his balls hanging down. We see his ass even more has his hands explore it, spreading the cheeks so that we have a nice closeup view of his hole. Then Jonas lays on the bed and starts to wank again and a helping hand arrives to rub his body as the wanking continues. The hands also lift up Jonas' legs to expose his ass again, below his rock hard dick, and we finish with Jonas wanking himself to a very nice climax. Jonas is a great looking guy and he did very well in this video shoot. I hope we can get him to go further.
Dalibor Janek and Petr Kristen give us a wonderful Broke Czech Boys shoot. Dalibor is our novice who had never had sex before. We broke him in with a BCB shoot, where he sucked and fucked Michal Adamus. Today it is his turn to take it, from Petr who is a very experienced model. We wanted Petr to guide Dalibor through, and he does exactly that. Kissing him and undressing him, then sucking on his dick. It takes very little urging for Dalibor to have a raging hard erection, with Petr's mouth working wonders. Petr then guides Dalibor's mouth to his very large, rock hard cock. Dalibor sucks it and Petr slaps it around Dalibor's face some. Dalibor has learned very quickly how to suck. Petr then gets Dalibor on his knees to start some ass play. He rims the ass and sticks two fingers in before switching to a 69. Then the time is right for Dalibor to lose his cherry. Petr's dick goes in, with a little difficulty at first, but putting Dalibor face down on the bed makes things easier for both guys, and Petr fucks Dalibor nice and deep. Then Dalibor sits on Pet's massive cock and rides it, and Petr fucks him real good, thrusting up into his ass. Petr then pulls out and shoots a nice load over Dalibor's balls. Dalibor is soon ready himself and squirts a very nice load too. What a great scene it turned out to be, and Dalibor did really well in taking Petr's big dick. I hope we can do a lot more with Dalibor, he is such a sweet guy.
Danek Carka and Stano Pazour came in for a very nice duo. Danek had done some duos for us before but this was Stano's first. It starts with Danek singing to Stano as he undresses him, and when the pants are down he starts to suck on Stano's dick. Then he sits him down and pulls the pants off before sucking him again, getting him nice and hard. Then Stano opens Danek's jeans, revealing his already rock hard dick. Stano shows us that he is very good at sucking as he takes Danek's cock in his mouth and really works it. He sucks it, and licks his tongue around the head. Danek is clearly enjoying it. Then the guys kiss each other and wank a bit before moving into position for a 69. With Stano on top it give Danek some easy access to Stano's ass as well so he rims it before sucking again. The guys move again, and with Stano on his knees Danek is able to rim him again, and spits on his hole before sliding a finger deep inside. We get a very nice view of Stano's hairy legs and ass as the finger loosens his hole. Danek decides the time is right and climbs on and slides his throbbing dick deep into Stano's ass. Stano is taking it really well and they move so that can sit on Danek's dick and ride it, bouncing up and down. Stano really knows what he is doing and rides that dick for all it's worth. Then the guys move to missionary and begin again. Danek really goes at it, and we can tell that Stano is feeling it. But that doesn't hold him back, he shoots a nice big load while Danek is fucking him deep and hard. Then Danek pulls out and wanks himself to a climax, all over Stano. They kiss each other some more before jumping into the shower to clean up. What a great scene this is, we knew that Danek would be good and happily Stano matched him all the way.
My pick of today's castings is: Jan who is featured in my Backstage video.
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By Kris Voakes | Italian Football Writer
It didn't take long for word to spread about Juan Quintero. He had barely been on Italian shores before there was a buzz around the country's sports bars about the young Colombian. Those who had seen him were describing in great details some of the things he can do with a ball at his feet. Those who hadn't were begging for their questions to be asked. "I've heard he's got immense skill, is it true?"
Arriving in the Bel Paese isn't always the easiest thing in the world for a young footballer, and Quintero had every excuse to find it about as difficult as anyone before him.
His new team, Pescara, were newly-promoted and had lost their coach and the four players who did most for them in their successful Serie B push of the previous season. They struggled to come to terms with the top flight from day one. He was also the only Colombian in the squad, and, being only 19 at the time, that must have taken plenty of adapting to, especially having never played outside of his homeland before that point.
In his favour, though, was the experience he'd built up in Colombia. Born in Medellin, he was snapped up by Envigado at the age of 11, and by the time he was 16 he had become a first teamer. After three seasons in the Primera, he moved on to local club Atletico Nacional, who Pescara then paid €2.5 million in the summer of 2012. With 75 games in four seasons in his homeland under the belt, he was not exactly a rookie, but still the Delfino couldnt have expected him to settle so quickly.
Yet somehow, he immediately began to pull up trees. After catching the eye in a sub appearance on the opening day against Inter, then setting up a goal in the 3-2 defeat to Sampdoria, Quintero quickly made his mark. His goal against Bologna on matchday four, in only his second start, earned his new side their first point of the season. It was the execution that really stood out though, with his dipping, curling free-kick finding the inside netting at Federico Agliardi's near post. The talk about him only increased from there, with big-name clubs suddenly linked here, there and everywhere. He also earned a first senior cap for his country, a 45-minute appearance against Cameroon in October.
And to an extent the hype is warranted. The 20-year-old is supremely talented with a football in his possession. Few can manipulate the ball in tight spaces as he does, and his eagerness to move it quickly to team-mates in space is to be admired. As for his set-pieces: he has a rare knack of coming within millimetres of the top corner of the net whenever he aims for it.
His lack of stature undoubtedly provides a question mark, with his 168cm, 62kg frame being dwarfed by the vast majority of players at the top end of the sport, but if he can overcome the rough-house tactics that have begun to be a feature of opponents' marking, then he could well make the step up to become a true top-class player. He also has displayed a trend of falling out of games for long spells, but there's no reason why he can't develop in this regard over time. And time, like talent, is something he has in abundance.
He hasn't had it all his own way recently though, having played only 17 minutes in December as new boss Cristiano Bergodi looks for the right blend to get his team back on track, but there's every chance he'll return from the South American Under-20 Championship and regain his spot in the first XI once more.
Unless he's sold to one of the clubs credited with an interest in him, that is. While it is unlikely that he would get into Juventus' team anytime soon, and even the Inter starting line-up may be a touch beyond his reach right now, one thing that Serie A clubs are very good at is snapping up players early and then having them develop at their behest. There's no reason why one of Italy's big clubs wouldn't be well served by signing him up and immediately loaning him back out – either to Pescara or elsewhere in the top flight.
But one thing is for certain. A player as skilful as Quintero has to be worth a punt.


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SEASIDE PARK, N.J. (AP) — Firefighters have extinguished a flare-up following the massive fire that swept through a New Jersey beachfront boardwalk three days ago.
The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office says the flare-up occurred at about 2:20 a.m. Sunday in a debris pile on the south end of the boardwalk behind a Seaside Park bar. Fire companies from Seaside Park and Seaside Heights extinguished the fire by 3 a.m.
Fire and emergency management officials are monitoring the fire zone until 6 p.m. Monday and will meet then to decide if further monitoring is necessary.
The wind-whipped blaze destroyed dozens of ocean-front businesses Thursday in an area that was still recovering from Superstorm Sandy.
Officials are still investigating the cause.
On Saturday, Gov. Chris Christie pledged $15 million in state aid for businesses damaged by the fire.


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'Nanobrewery' makes beer in small batchesBy GRETYL MACALASTER
Union Leader Correspondent
December 08. 2012 8:37PM
PORTSMOUTH - A relatively new law is allowing a new crop of breweries to pop up in New Hampshire, serving small batches of specialty beers.
Earth Eagle Brewings opened the doors of their tasting room and nanobrewery on High Street on Nov. 17 and had an hour wait for the 20 seats throughout the night. It is currently the only tasting room in the city.
As a nanobrewery, Earth Eagle Brewings can brew up to 2,000 barrels a year, serve four-ounce samples in its tasting room, and fill growlers on site without having to serve food.
The cost of a state license for a nanobrewery is also significantly less than for a microbrewery at $240 annually. A microbrewery, like Smuttynose, can brew up to 60,000 barrels a year but pays an annual licensing fee of $1,200.
Earth Eagle Brewings is the latest nanobrewery on the Seacoast to take advantage of the law, which passed in June 2011. Blue Lobster opened in Hampton earlier this year along with Throwback Brewery in North Hampton, which is also focusing on artisanal brews using local ingredients.
Earth Eagles Brewings is a one-barrel brewery and has already had a hard time keeping its taps full.
"We've been trying to keep six taps on since we started, but we've had a hard time doing that because we're selling out of everything," said Alex McDonald, co-owner of Earth Eagle Brewings.
Within an hour of opening the tasting room on Thursday afternoon, two taps were already empty.
The tap list is constantly revolving, but McDonald said they always try to keep an India pale ale on tap because of its popularity.
McDonald and his wife, Gretchen, opened the adjacent A&G Hombrew Supplies about a year and a half ago.
They had been home brewing beers for many years but had to travel over an hour to get supplies.
They felt Portsmouth was an ideal location to open the shop and the business has been very successful.
McDonald said he and his brother-in-law, Butch Heilshorn, always dreamed of someday opening a brewery, and the new law and the home brew store helped move it along.
McDonald said 2,000 barrels is still a lot of beer, and as a one-barrel brewery they won't even come close to brewing that much this year.
About half of what they brew are gruits, herbal beers that are usually brewed without hops.
Their popular William Wallace Gruit is made using heather tips and juniper berries.
The craft brews come with creative names like New England Gangsta', Black Adder, Hawthorn Thicket, Jack Wagon and Obsidian, a chocolate raspberry stout made with mounds of Ghirardelli chocolate.
"We are also trying to create something that wasn't readily available out there," McDonald said. "We wanted to do something different, and as home brewers we had started entering contests and winning so we though we were doing something right."
Mike Boulerice of Portsmouth has been a regular customer at A&G and said it was something that had been missing from the city for awhile.
He said the addition of the nanobrewery is a perfect fit for Portsmouth.
"People say Portsmouth is a cultural mecca of New Hampshire, with arts, theater, music, and that I think is a natural home for craft beer," Boulerice said.
He added that nano breweries are the next natural step in the craft beer movement, and it is not just impacting the Seacoast.
Heilshorn and McDonald paid a visit to Canterbury Ale Works before opening Earth Eagle Brewings and were amazed at how many people drove out into the woods to partake in their craft brews.
"We knew we were going to be mobbed," McDonald said.
Since opening three weeks ago, the tasting room has seen a steady stream of customers. It is open Thursday and Friday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.
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Gretyl Macalaster may be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.