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LightField Studios/Shutterstock
The birth of a child is supposed to be one the happiest moments of a parent's life, but that is not always the case. Some serious drama can go down in the delivery room, as is quite evident in the following stories.
(Content has been edited for clarity.)
Andy Dean Photography/Shutterstock
"One of my friends, who is very fair skinned and a soldier in the Army, was sent back home from his deployment to be with his wife for the birth of their child.
His wife is also fair skinned. The baby was not; the baby was dark, very dark.
Long story short the wife had fooled around with a guy right after my buddy went out for his deployment, and when she found out she was pregnant, she figured there was a 50/50 chance it was her husband's child and not from her other lover.
She said, 'I'm just going tell him it's his baby and hope it all works out.'
It didn't.
My buddy said his heart sank when he saw the doctor's eyes. The doctor saw the baby before he did, and the doctor knew it was about to get messier than it already was.
After the divorce, the baby's mother became a complete train wreck, and the father was nowhere to be seen, so my buddy ended up adopting the baby that was not his."
Marjan Apostolovic/Shutterstock
"This was my husband's birth in 1944. His mom was in labor in a small town birthing home. It was at the local doctor's house. His mom was in a back room with the doctor and a nurse. My father-in-law was in the doctor's living room, which served as a waiting room. The doctor came out and told him there were complications and that he could save the mom or save the baby, but he had to choose.
My father-in-law got up, walked out, got a weapon out of his truck, and came back in. He pointed the barrel at the doctor and said both better live or the doctor wouldn't. He then sat down on the couch.
The doctor went back into the room with the laboring mother and ended up pulling the baby out with forceps. Mother and baby lived. So did the doctor."
"When I was in nursing school, we only had one clinical day dedicated to labor and delivery. Well, my day had gotten canceled and moved because of a blizzard, so my make up day was at an intercity hospital instead of the nice suburban hospital I had gotten for the rest of my rotation.
On the day of my clinical, I was paired with a young teenage couple. The girl was on her fourth pregnancy, though it was only the second full-term pregnancy as the others were aborted. The baby daddy was miserable the entire time, saying things like, 'Can I just leave and come back later?' He got into a screaming match with the girl's mom when she told him to stop complaining.
As soon as that baby popped out and the dad held it, he handed it back and said, 'This ain't mine,' and left the room. The poor girl was hysterical crying. He came back and started screaming at her for cheating because the baby was 'too light-skinned.' Everyone was saying babies all come out white but he started yelling at everyone who said that. He said he wouldn't see either of them until he had a paternity test in his hand and left.
He never came back."
"One of my coworkers is about to become a dad, and so his wife has been spending a lot of time at their local hospital. His wife has heard some pretty crazy stories from the nurses, including this one.
One day a guy came running down the ward hallway screaming for help that his wife was in labor and they needed the doctors to come quickly! The nurses looked around curiously and asked him, 'Ok, so where is she?'
The color drained from the husband's face as he thought it over.
He yelled, 'OH NO!' as he ran out of the hospital.
Forty minutes later, the husband returned with wife in tow. In his initial rush, he'd packed a change of clothes, the car seat, camera gear, and high tailed it to the hospital while leaving his wife at home!"
"Where to start...
1) Baby daddy and grandma are in the delivery room. We're setting up the table to deliver and cheerfully ask, 'Okay dad, want to cut the cord?' Baby daddy loses his cool. 'Not if this she-devil is in the room!' and points to the grandma. They get into a yelling match and meanwhile the patient and I make awkward eye contact while the nurse and the other resident try to calm them down. We deliver the baby and I cut the cord.
2) Couple with no prenatal care shows up in labor. End up needing a c-section. We get the baby out and I'm closing up when the baby daddy starts yelling at us and accusing us of being not real doctors. We keep on going and ignore him. He demands to talk to the CEO of the hospital and keeps on standing up and looking over the drape. At one point, he is behind me until the nurse gets him to sit down. Finally, we finish up as he's yelling at us. She never shows up for follow-up appointments but later ends up with a surgical site infection. They try to sue us. I always wonder if there was some underlying abuse there.
3) Mom asks if the baby is mixed....in front of baby daddy who is the same race.
4) Baby daddy asking for paternity tests the minute baby is born. Chill.
5) Crunchy granola couple come in to see if mom is in labor. They pass out pamphlets for their birth plan. It's made to look like a playbill. Cute. Start to read it, nothing seems too off, they want to wash the baby, they don't know if it's a boy or girl and want dad to announce... Except I get to the end, and they specifically request no verbal communication with mom. All communication must go through dad. No referring to the baby as 'baby,' refer to the baby as 'special soul.' Those requests were quickly ignored.
6) I'm doing an initial prenatal visit for a mom on suboxone. Good for her, trying to get over her addiction. She seems motivated, she's excited, baby daddy seems excited. Both seem like a cute couple. I'm doing a quick ultrasound in the room, and he randomly asks 'so can you tell me who the dad is?'
'You need a DNA paternity test for that.'
Mom looks shocked.
'Well let's do it.'
'We don't do them until the baby is born. The method for doing it before delivery has risks associated with it so we don't do genetic testing unless we think there's a risk of a birth defect.'
'Then WHY am I here?'
Mom is bawling at this point. I ask him to leave.
7) This is sad. Mom comes in all messed up with an abruption. Kid gets delivered by emergency section and goes to NICU. Brain-dead. Basically only has some episodic spasms of movement. Cops tell mom she can't withdraw life support because then she's on the hook for manslaughter, so she doesn't. And the guy she put down as the dad on the birth certificate? Her husband whom she cheated on who doesn't care at all about what's going on. The real baby daddy has no say in withdrawing life support. Made me cry.
8) The teens who get pregnant and their moms who somehow think withholding an epidural will make them think twice about premarital coitus. Okay, but let's do some birth control instead? So messed up.
9) Mom's cousin is with her as she rolls in at 9 cm with her 3rd kid. She's Snapchatting pictures of herself posing next to mom who looks very uncomfortable. We deliver baby whom she deems her 'hot lil nephew.' MA'AM HE IS FIVE MINUTES OLD.
10) Med student gets recognized by baby daddy as he helped deliver his other baby mama."
Tom Wang/Shutterstock
"When I was an intern, we had a woman who was eight-months pregnant get crushed in a head-on collision. The mom was pulseless on the scene, so EMS brought her in immediately. We had about a 60-second warning in the emergency room to get the OBGYN crash team and the NICU response team down.
It was clear the mom wasn't going to make it, but we had to try to keep her alive so we could do a perimortem C-section to get the kid out alive. I was on the trauma team, so while I was working on trying to keep the mom's circulation going to perfuse the uterus, the obstetrician started the delivery. We opened the woman's chest to start internal compressions and to see if there was an aortic injury we could temporize.
A C-section is usually fast; perimortem sections are faster. From skin cut to baby out and over to NICU team was about 45 seconds. They started CPR because the baby had a low heart rate and was essentially dead. That's when we found a second baby. It turns out the mom was having twins.
I joined the impromptu NICU team as we tried to save this second baby. But it became clear this was futile, and we abandoned efforts and turned all our resources to the first baby. We worked on that baby for over an hour, but we were never able to get it stabilized. We were able to get the baby to the NICU, but unfortunately, it arrested again and could not be resuscitated.
The husband and father, who was in the car as well, was physically fine besides some minor contusions. When he told him what happened, that he had just lost essentially his whole family, the poor man just collapsed. There was no crying or screaming; he just went down like a sack of potatoes. I will never forget the expression on his face; it was filled with immense pain, sorrow, and suffering."
Rachel L. Sellers/Shutterstock
"A woman was giving birth to her child and didn't want her father, who likes to drink, to know. He showed up in the labor and delivery ward, absolutely smashed out of his mind demanding to meet his grandchild.
We tried to act like his daughter wasn't there. He started to yell, and the baby's father heard him and came out to ask him to leave. The wasted grandfather became very irate and started to smash the windows in the doors and the nursing station.
The father of the child tackled his father-in-law, grabbed him by his collar and dragged out of the unit, onto an elevator, and then dragged him outside.
It's sad how many wasted people show up demanding to see the new member of their family. It's a regular occurrence."
"I heard this from an elderly client who used to be an obstetrician. He was telling me stories about when he used to deliver babies at peoples' homes way back in the day.
He was telling me about his son, and I asked if he delivered his own son. He said yes and told me the most amazing, heartbreaking, and heartwarming story.
In the late '40s, the town ambulance/hearse/taxi pulled up at his little independent practice out in rural Illinois. A volunteer firefighter came in and said they had a lady in labor and they wouldn't make it to the hospital, which was over an hour away. He told them to bring her in. He delivered the baby and mom passed out. All seemed normal.
The mom later woke up, and the doctor came in to give her the baby. She started screaming, 'Get it away from me!'
The doctor was confused and couldn't figure out what was going on with the mother. She started flailing around and screaming that she didn't want to look at 'it.'
When the doctor later returned with the child, the mother still looked terrified, as if the newborn had nine heads. He finally asked, 'Well, what do you want me to do with your son?'
The mom remained silent for a long time, and as the doctor was getting up to leave, she quietly asked, 'Can you get rid of him?'
The doctor asked what she meant. She said, 'You know. Maybe just make him go to sleep so he won't wake up.'
He said it took everything in him to not beat this woman to death right then and there. He went off on a tangent about how much he loved his work working with all the new mothers in all these little towns full of 'salt of the earth' people with great family values. On and on about how happy it made him bringing life into the world and this woman wanted him to murder her baby.
When the doctor asked why she wanted to get rid of the baby, the mother said that her husband was in the military and the child was not his. She couldn't let him find out. He understood her rationale for not wanting her husband to know, but murder? He suggested family, an orphanage, and other options. She said no to all of them because she 'couldn't risk this coming back to haunt her.'
He told her he'd see what he could do and he let her rest. The next day, he tried to talk to her again, and she was more adamant about 'making it sleep.' She said she wanted to hold her baby. He refused since he thought she'd try to kill him herself. She went nuts.
In the end, he sent her home and told her that he'd given the baby to his brother who was a pastor and was unable to have children. He promised he'd never tell anyone who she was.
Then he said he 'taught her a lesson.' If she ever found herself pregnant again, she would come to him whether it was her husband's or not. If he ever found out she went elsewhere, he'd tell everyone the story. He said he did this because he was afraid she'd get knocked up and kill the next one. And he knew he'd find out if she went elsewhere because he was the only baby doctor for five towns and knew other docs at the hospitals.
She never had any other kids. Supposedly, she died from an overdose a few years later.
The doctor and his wife raised that baby as their own son. His wife wasn't able to have kids, and the pastor brother was a fib just to make her think he'd already given the baby away. He eventually told his son a watered down version of the story when the kid was older. The kid ended up becoming a plastic surgeon and had nine kids of his own. He's doing very well, he's very happy, and he probably never would have had a shot had that small town fireman tried to press on to the hospital and wound up delivering the kid in the middle of nowhere. He was convinced she would have delivered and then smothered the baby by the time they got to the hospital."
"We caught a man cracking open the anesthesia cart and stealing medication while his wife was in labor with his child.
When the police came to arrest the man, he was sobbing and kept saying over and over, 'Y'all aren't going to let me see my baby be born?' The arresting officers were both like, 'Um... Nope. You should have thought about that before.'"
Narong Jongsirikul/Shutterstock
"A doctor was delivering the baby via vacuum extraction, and the suction cap came off the baby's head. The baby's father thought the doctor had pulled the infant's head off, so he punched the doctor in the jaw. The doctor went straight down to the ground like a felled tree. Much yelling ensued, and people had to hold the father back before he finally realized that the baby was fine and that its head was still attached. The unconscious doctor was pulled into a chair, and another physician came in to finish the delivery.
We had to have a quick and frantic conversation at the nurses' station about whether to allow the father to remain in the room. We decided that from his vantage point, it may have appeared that the baby's head had been removed and that he had a momentary loss of reason. Once the father realized his mistake, he was horrified at what he'd done and was profoundly apologetic."
"I remember assisting with a delivery as a medical student working with a family resident physician. Usually, they let the student do a lot of it to get experience, but I remember the attending physician, referring to the resident, telling me, 'No, no, let her do it. She needs the practice. You just watch.'
When an attending says, 'No, no, She needs the practice,' it's not a good sign. Luckily the baby itself got delivered, and I thought all is good.
After a baby is born, you have to deliver the placenta by applying gentle traction on the cord to encourage progress. While the attending was distracted by the new baby, I watched in horror as the resident YANKED on the umbilical cord. Of course, it snapped. She had this look of dread on her face and with good reason.
Now we had to take drastic measures.
The attending physician was explaining to the husband what would happen next.
'We're going to take her back to the OR.'
'She's having surgery?'
'Hopefully not, sir. We're going to extract the placenta manually.'
'How are you getting in if there's no surgery?'
'Well, sir, we're able to enter through the birth canal.'
'You're gonna put some tool inside her?'
'No sir, we'll be doing a manual extraction.'
'With a hand. And arm.'
'You're going to stick your ARM up my wife?'
'That's about right, sir.'
'You mean to tell me you're going to fist my wife?'
The conversation sort of went on this way for a while. We got back to the OR, and I watched in horror as the attending put on a glove that pretty much went to her shoulder, and just dove right in. She was in past her elbow manually scraping the placenta out. The wife was loopy but not 'out' during the procedure and was providing colorful commentary.
When we finally finished and the woman was with her husband, she said, 'I swear to God, I could feel them pressing on my lungs.' The husband said, 'I thought they went in from below,' and in beautiful theatrics, she grabbed his shirt, pulled him towards her, and through clenched teeth said, 'They did.'
As for me, I decided to go into psychiatry."
Alena Ozerova/Shutterstock
"When I had my first child, I ended up having a c-section. When we made it to the post-op area, there were two other families - one on either side of us - but it seemed so quiet.
We were cuddling our new baby, and he was dozing when I realized one of the women next to me was sobbing quietly; her baby had not survived.
Then we realized the family on the other side of us had a baby with a previously undiagnosed congenital disability and the family was in shock. We were the only happy and healthy group in the unit. I asked my husband to quietly go to the nurse's station and respectfully request to be moved as soon as possible and not have our happiness add to the burdens of the families near us. I think of those moms every year on my kid's birthday."
"I was in medical school on my obstetrics rotation doing a late night shift because I want to see some births. A schizophrenic woman in her 20's came in, laboring with her sixth child.
Police had to break her door down because she went into labor and continuously screamed, 'I'm not giving birth to Satan's baby! This is Satan's baby!' The doctor on rotation looked unamused and said to the nurse, 'Sedate her a bit, we'll do a C-section if she refuses to push.'
After about 30 minutes, the doctor told me to go in and do a pelvic exam and to give him a report on her status. He went in with me, and then got called out as I was putting on gloves, saying he'd be back in a minute. I introduced myself to the patient, explained what I was doing and started the examination. I felt a contracting sensation, and the next thing I know, a baby's head pushed out into my hands. I was in shock staring at the baby when I started to scream, 'I, uh, need some help here!'
Both mother and child were healthy. After everything settled down, the mother approached me and said, 'What's your name? I'll name it after you.' It was a boy, and I am female, but she insisted I give her my name. I didn't want to mess up this kid's life, so I said, 'Henry.'"
Ljupco Smokovski/Shutterstock
"I was staying in the hospital with my sister while she was pregnant and have some interesting stories about the two elderly men awaiting the birth of their grandchild.
We got to know this family over the two days, and they seemed nice except for these two men. They were constantly shouting and swearing at each other the entire time. One time, the paternal father tried to ask a nurse for directions to the cafeteria, and the other dad called him a 'worthless piece of trash.' These two hated each other. It was mental.
They broke out into a full-on fist fight in the hallway and ended up knocking over some cleaning supplies. I had to help break up the fight. Let me remind you that these two were 67 and 75 years old. The hospital staff asked them to leave as they were stressing out the patients which is the last thing a woman in labor needs.
The hospital staff asked me to make sure the two men actually left the building, and when they got to the parking lot, they started going at it again. I had to break it up (again), and just before security arrived, one old guy got into a wheelchair and claimed that the other tried to flip him over. The other grandfather then walked up to the guy in the wheelchair and punched him in the face. Then the guy got up, and yep you guessed it, they started fighting again."


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Address: 28 Tudor Arghezi St., 5th floor
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ROLANG School specializes in teaching Romanian language to international students. Programs are suitable for adult students of all ages, as well as for the different language skills requirements. The school was founded in 2009 by Mona Moldoveanu Pologea, Ph.D. Linguist and it is a member of the European Language Council. (P)


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To John Adams from David Humphreys, 17 February 1806
Boston, (Monday Morng) Feby 17th 1806
Dear Sir:
I had fully intended to have paid my personal respects to you on Saturday last, had not the unfavorable change in the state of the roads prevented. That mode of communication having failed, I have now to offer the best homage of Mrs Humphreys & myself to Mrs Adams & yourself, and to request the honour of your company at dinner with us, on Saturday next, it being the anniversary of the Birth of Genl Washington. We propose to dine by about 3 O'Clock, and expect but a small number at Table...most or all of whom, we flatter ourselves, will be your particular Acquaintances.
The bearer will attend your answer—And I shall ever remain, / with sentiments of the highest respect & esteem, / Dear Sir, / your most sincere friend & / humble Servt
D. Humphreys.
MHi: Adams Papers.


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December 16, 2015
"What led to a mistrial"
13 comments:
- Concerned citizen said...
I wish the defense had built a full-scale plywood mockup of the narrow tunnel-like confines of the transport wagon and used a couple of people to demonstrate what is actually like to enter that tunnel and commit both of your hands to attempting to seat-belt a potentially kicking/head-butting/biting/spitting arrestee...with your face right in front of his face while you're sandwiched between him and a metal divider that's inches away from your back.
If I'm exaggerating the physical challenge and risk of seat-belting a prisoner in a narrow prisoner transport area, I welcome being corrected.
- December 17, 2015 at 12:05 PM
- Moskos said...
You are not. Those things were cramped before they put a divider running down the center. And I know I can get my cuffed hands on your gun before you belt me in.
- December 17, 2015 at 12:32 PM
- Moskos said...
Those things were cramped before they put a divider running down the center.
- December 17, 2015 at 12:33 PM
- Concerned citizen said...
Here's a link to an overhead view of the prisoner transport area, provided by the vendor of the conversion module that is inserted into a Chevy Express cargo van.
Unfortunately, no dimensions are given.
But I think all will agree, it's VERY tight.
- December 17, 2015 at 1:01 PM
- Concerned citizen said...
If procedure allowed it, the defense should have required that the BPD parked a transport wagon outside the courthouse so that the jurors could have spent five minutes pretending to seat-belt each other while hunched over in the cramped space.
To a legal ignoramus such as myself, this seems like a slam dunk.
- December 17, 2015 at 1:07 PM
- Moskos said...
Well, they did *see* the van...
- December 17, 2015 at 1:17 PM
- Concerned citizen said...
Here's a pair of CNN segments focusing on the transport vans.
The second one is narrated by Anderson Cooper.
The space is much more cramped than I had envisioned.
- December 17, 2015 at 1:44 PM
- Moskos said...
It's perfectly reasonable for an officer to be worried about a head-butting spitting gun-reaching prisoner.
Notice none of those video actually show two people in there, one crawling over a resisting prisoner to get him seatbelted.
On the plus side, I do like watching Gary Truchman bang his head against the wall.
- December 17, 2015 at 1:50 PM
- Moskos said...
All that said, in a civilized society there needs to be a transport system where cuffed prisoners are safely restrained.
- December 17, 2015 at 1:53 PM
- john mosby said...
Why not a bar that comes down on all prisoners, like on a roller coaster?
The advantage is that you can operate it without getting close to the prisoner.
The disadvantage is that either everyone's restrained or no one is. But you might be able to have several bars, one for every 2-3 guys...
- December 17, 2015 at 4:59 PM
- Adam said...
I like that idea! I'm sure that would be a lot more expensive than seat belts, but $6 million civil judgments are expensive, too...
- December 18, 2015 at 10:03 AM
- Concerned citizen said...
I think the low cost fix is to remove the interior partitions that run down the middle of the BPD transport wagons.
Currently, officers using the BPD wagons are crammed face-to-face with the prisoner in an approx. 30" wide space when they apply a seatbelt. If the prisoner resists (e.g., head-butting, biting, kicking) the officer cannot back off.
I assume that officers are more or less comfortable with seatbelting prisoners into the backseat of a police car because even though they're face-to-face with the prisoner while fastening the belt, nevertheless their legs are outside the car and they can quickly pull their head and shoulders out of the car.
By removing the partitions, officers will not only be safer, but will perceive themselves to be safer, which will enable them to buckle up the prisoners.
- December 19, 2015 at 1:40 PM
- Moskos said...
15 years ago there were no partitions and most prisoners were seat belted. It was still cramped but yes, there was much more room. Exactly twice as much, I venture to say.
Ironically, I assume the partitions are justified by the need to protect prisoners from each other. So the guy across from you doesn't keep spitting on you or kicking you. So they're put there to protect people from dangerous prisoners. And yet cops aren't allowed to be concerned about the very same danger that justified the partition.
- December 19, 2015 at 1:50 PM


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Ian and a couple of other blog volunteers soon bowed out due to work demands, so this semi-retired guy with lots of time for a newspaper that gave me 19 good years, got to work on the Toronto Sun Family project.
(Website stats as of early today: 768,345 visits; average of 495 per day; 1,462,145 page views. We've always wondered who our American and European regulars were and what, if any, ties they had to Sun Media.)
The memories from people who worked on all floors of the Eclipse and 333 have been heart-felt and often emotional reads. We should have requested them throughout our five-year run.


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With this new funding, UnaBiz said that the company has entered a "new stage" of its growth
UnaBiz, which operates low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) provider Sigfox in Singapore and Taiwan, today announced that it has raised over US$10 million in Series A funding round with strategic investments from Japanese global telco company KDDI and global energy and services company ENGIE.
KDDI invested in UnaBiz through its SORACOM IoT Fund Program, run by its subsidiary SORACOM Inc, a multi-standard IoT platform that operates in over 120 countries.
The funding round included the participation of Japanese venture capital firm Global Brain through KDDI Open Innovation Fund III (KOIF3).
It also included the participation of undisclosed angel investors from Singapore and Taiwanese security management giant Shin Kong Security, a subsidiary of Shin Kong Group.
Having invested in the startup's seed funding round, ENGIE returned with an investment through ENGIE New Ventures.
Also Read: IoT should be like the air we breathe: UnaBiz on making the technology accessible to everyone
"The success of this fund-raising series is the fruition of the tireless efforts of the entire team, and with it UnaBiz will enter a new stage of growth," UnaBiz CEO and co-founder Henri Bong said in a press statement.
"In only two years, we have deployed two national networks, built an ecosystem of over 200 partners across Asia and brought our IoT solutions to over 25 countries. With our new international partners supporting us not only financially but also operationally, UnaBiz will now play a more prominent role in empowering Massive Internet of Things," he continued.
The startup will use the funding to support product development of IoT applications, that it described will combine "connectivity, end-to-end solutions, and engineering services."
It will collaborate with its partners to deliver solutions in key industry verticals such as aerospace, facilities management, food and beverage, logistics, supply chain, and smart cities.
UnaBiz was founded in 2016, with operations in Singapore and Taiwan.
The company provides Sigfox connectivity in both countries and sells IoT solutions from around the world enabled by its network.
Image Credit: Andrew Haimerl on Unsplash
The post IoT company UnaBiz raises US$10M+ Series A funding round appeared first on e27.


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Home of Tech Nerds and Beat Freaks
Sharpen your skills and make better music with our complete beat markers and producers guides to midi production.
Hey what's up fellow tech nerds, beats freaks and audio junkies. This site was created for you!Bpm Skills is the home of all things made by midi and delivered to your ear drums.
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ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ7) The man who opened fire at FreightCar America on Tuesday morning has been identified by Roanoke police.
Investigators have identified 53-year-old Getachew Fekede as the shooter. He is from Kenya.
Police say Fekede killed one person, wounded three others, and then killed himself. One of the victims has been released from the hospital. Another victim is in serious condition, and the third victim is in good condition. Two of the victims suffered wounds to their lower extremities. A bullet grazed a third person's chest.
Roanoke police say Fekede fired around 10 rounds from a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun.
Fekede last worked at FreightCar America in March. Police said he stopped showing up to work. Fekede arrived at the building by bicycle on Tuesday morning, police say.
"They had no previous contact with him until today's event, and all indications were at the time he was there a hard worker, so we have no true indication as to what might have led to him taking these acts of violence out on this location," Roanoke City Police Chief Tim Jones said.
Roanoke police received a call about shots fired shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday.
Fekede came to Virginia in 2011 as part of a refugee program.
Police believe the shooting was an isolated attack.
FreightCar America opened in Roanoke in 2005. The company invested more than $5 million, bringing the old East End Shops back to life.
Within one year, FreightCar America employed more than 400 people, producing 12 aluminum coal cars a day. But in 2009 a difficult market forced FreightCar America to cease production in Roanoke and lay off workers. That changed two years later when a Norfolk Southern $100 million order brought back hundreds of jobs.
Two people have died and three others have been hurt in an early morning shooting at FreightCar America in Roanoke.
At 6:08 a.m., the reports came in about a shooting on the 800 block of Campbell Ave. at FreightCar America.
The shooter is one of the two dead. Police believe the shooter took his own life. They also say he was either an employee or former employee.
Three victims were taken to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. One is in good condition, one is in fair condition and the third is in serious condition.
The search of several FreightCar America buildings has ended. No suspicious devices were found. Police are now focusing on the investigation into the incident. There will be a 3 p.m. news conference, which WDBJ7 plans to live stream. Click here at 3 p.m. to watch the news conference live.
Roanoke police say there is no indication of further threats to the public at this time.
There were no officers involved in the shooting.
There was one known witness who hid in a bathroom during the shooting.
"As soon as we started work it said active shooter - we all hid and did everything we were supposed to - we got organized and they took care of it," FreightCar America employee Michael Ewing said. "I was pretty close. I didn't get to see anything but i was about a minute away from it -- from actually being in there."
Authorities swept the area to check for possible explosive devices, but nothing was found. They believe that the major threat has been neutralized.
"We do know that there was an active shooter on scene. We do not know names. We have two fatalities that we can confirm at this time. There are several other people – two, possibly three – that have been transported to local hospitals with gunshot wounds," Roanoke City Police Chief Tim Jones said. "Again, the active shooter, we believe at this point, took his own life after shooting several people. This is a very large facility. It is an active investigation."
Dozens of Norfolk Southern and FreightCar America employees were waiting at Tazewell Ave. and 8 1/2 Street alongside media. Norfolk Southern employees were allowed to enter and exit the locomotive shop sometime after 10 a.m.
Community High School will be closed on Tuesday.
There is heavy police presence in the area. State police are also on the scene. Police expect to be on scene for several more hours.
The road is blocked off. Police pushed back the original perimeter to Tazewell Ave.
The victims have not been named at this time.
Carilion is a level one trauma center, which means they train and prepare all the time for situations like this.
Carilion says they handle this kind of situation the same way they would a multiple-casualty situation.
"It's not infrequent for us to have two patients come in at the same time -- sometimes three," said Andi Wright, director of trauma service for Carilion. "We have had as many as seven come in at one time and that certainly does tax us in terms of resources, whether it's staff equipment and so forth. It doesn't mean that we don't have it. It just might not be handy right here and we have to get it from another place. But again, those are the kinds of things that we're trained for that we prepare for."


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A 50 year-old Freiburg man will serve an 8 year prison sentence after being found guilty of raping children. It was revealed he also shared his videos on the dark web. The verdict came in last week at the local district court in Germany. He was also ordered to pay 12,500 euros for court fees rendered.
Image courtesy of Süddeutsche Zeitung
In the Staufen's case, the court heard that S. Knut raped a nine year old boy twice, filmed the abuse and then spread the video as child pornography on darknet forums and darknet marketplaces. The prosecution demanded that the man be imprisoned for a period of time no less than 12 years and face subsequent preventative measures, including castration. Then, the defense tried to plead with the court to give the man 4 years without the preventative measures. However, upon giving the ruling, Judge Stefan Bürgelin said that a preventative measures lacked any clear basis and thus dismissed it.
Psychiatric expert Harmut Plenies attested to the defendant that the man had been taking advantage of "abnormal sexuality". According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung report, he said that the man needed to be "taken care of permanently". However, the appraiser did not support the preventative measures. He believed that although there could be a relapse in the condition of the suspect, the matter was not serious enough to deserve such a harsh treatment.
The psychiatrist also told the court that the defendant had been penalized in 2007 after he was found with the possession of child pornographic material. However, he had not been involved in the criminal offense of distributing the material or committing the crime on a minor in Staufen. Plenies added that for first time offenders, the preventative measures is not deserved. He also noted that mental illness was not this case..
In a previous hearing, the prosecution had described the deed as 'particularly cruel and inhuman". It argued that the child had no strength or chance to fight back against the offender. Instead, the little boy was tied up, abused and humiliated in a brutal manner.
Testifying in the court, a police officer said that the defendant had been fond of child pornographic material for a long time and it could have motivated him to try out on the nine-year old boy. She said that the material included sexual abuse of kids, bondage, as well as killing fantasies. She also noted that there were indications that the man may have abused children without getting caught.
During the trial, the Bundeswehr soldier was removed from his service. He confessed to raping the 9-year old boy. However, he denied that he had committed sexual violence on other children.
The crime he committed against the kid shocked even investigators. Local journalists noted that the prosecutor's voice was even faint from sheer horror because of what was written on the page of testimony. Some of the finer details of the charges and the process were excluded from public hearings. Furthermore, the ruling was held behind closed doors. Personal rights were upheld for the defendant and his privacy.
To make matters worse there is now an investigation into the child's mother, and her partner, who may have solicited their child for abuse. It is possible this was not the first time the 9 year old was raped or abused sexually. All contact between them and the soldier was made using the dark web and other onion sites. He is one of two convicted individuals, but there are six others in custody.
The partner is also being accused of raping the boy several times. Charges are being set forth against the mother too, since she ignored all the actions of rape with negligence. To ensure that the boy couldn't remember or report anything about the rape, the mother would then sedate him according to investigative reporting on this Darknet scheme. The court made a decision to indict each of the men individually, all in the coming months.


text:
Live Reviews
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Soweto Gospel Choir Wins Grammy
Published: 2007-02-12
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The Soweto Gospel Choir was awarded the prize for Best Traditional World Music for its second album,
, at the Grammy Awards last night.
The choir was formed in 2002 by David Mulovhedzi from a selection of the country's best choral singers, and has toured widely in the past three years to share as Mulovhedzi puts it, "the joy of faith through music."
The majority of the choir members sing in English, Xhosa and Zulu, and are from Soweto, the area where the anti-apartheid movement was so condensed.
Its first album
Voices From Heaven
reached number one on the Billboard's World Music chart in the US.
While a tour of South Africa and Europe are set for later this year, Canadians can catch the Grammy-award winning Soweto Gospel Choir when they perform at the Hummingbird Centre for two special performances on February 27 and 28th.
For more information and tickets please visit www.hummingbirdcentre.com.
Writer: Soul Shine Staff
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Go To Section
BERE, Kynard de la (d.1402), of Kinnersley, Herefs.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Family and Education
s. and h. of Sir Richard de la Bere† of Kinnersley. m. c.1387, Katherine, wid. of Sir John Pecche† of Hampton in Arden, Warws., 1s. 1da. Kntd. by May 1387.1
Offices Held
Commr. to put down rebellion, Herefs. Dec. 1381, Mar., Dec. 1382; seize Bartholomew Gorges, June 1384; of inquiry, Herefs. Feb. 1385 (murder), Nov. 1388, Dec. 1391 (lands of Sir Simon Burley), Feb. 1391 (alienation of Eaton Tregoes); array Apr. 1385, Mar. 1392, Dec. 1399; to arrest adherents of Walter Brut Sept. 1393; of oyer and terminer, Warws. Feb. 1400; to resist Welsh rebels and relieve Abergavenny May 1401; make proclamation of Hen. IV's intention to govern well, Herefs. May 1402.
J.p. Herefs. 20 Dec. 1382-Dec. 1390, 28 Nov. 1399-d.
Sheriff, Herefs. 18 Nov. 1387-1 Dec. 1388, 1 Dec. 1396-3 Nov. 1397, 8 Nov. 1401-14 Feb. 1402.
Kynard de la Bere's family held land around Kinnersley, between Hereford and Kington. His father, Sir Richard, was a comrade-in-arms of the Black Prince and became his chamberlain. He himself is first recorded in May 1381, when he stood surety for his neighbour, John Croft, as the lessee at the Exchequer of land at Eardisley. In December following he served on his first royal commission and a year later he was appointed a j.p. in Herefordshire. In October 1382 he had acted as an executor for Sibyl de la Bere (probably his stepmother), whose will stated that he might purchase her goods at a reasonable price.2
By July 1385, when he accompanied Richard II's expedition to Scotland, de la Bere was serving in the royal household as a King's esquire, and by 1387 he had been knighted. In May that year he entered into an obligation by recognizance in the sum of 400 marks to the earls of Warwick and Nottingham, both of whom were to oppose the King as Lords Appellant later that year, but whether Sir Kynard was directly implicated in the political troubles of the time is unknown. Certainly, his family background, together with the fact that he was a feoffee of Sir Simon Burley in the manor of Lyonshull, and the possibility that his wife was related to the chamber knight, Sir Richard Stury, might suggest that he sympathized with the King's party at this time. The recognizance of 1387 was to be levied on de la Bere's lands in Warwickshire, which he had presumably obtained by his marriage to Katherine, widow of Sir John Pecche (who had died in the previous year). In her right he was to enjoy custody of Pecche's manors of Hampton in Arden, Honiley near Kenilworth and Dunchurch, and on 24 Feb. 1390, during the session of Parliament he was then attending, he obtained more lands in the county when he secured royal leases of the manors of King's Norton and Pooley. His fellow MP for Herefordshire at the time was Thomas Oldcastle, who had acted as his surety, and in 1392 the two men, along with Thomas Walwyn II* and others, endowed a chantry in the parish church of Norton Canon near Kinnersley. Both de la Bere and Oldcastle were also co-feoffees of the lands of the Hereford lawyer, Richard Nash*.3
In December 1393, when he was granted exemption from serving in royal administrative offices against his will, de la Bere was referred to as a 'King's knight', and in September following he accompanied Richard II to Ireland. He did so in the retinue of Roger Mortimer, earl of March, and as the latter remained in the province for the next few years as the King's lieutenant, de la Bere may well have stayed on too. Most probably he accompanied the earl home in January 1398 and two months later, when Mortimer returned to Ireland, he undertook to act as one of his attorneys in England. His close connexion with the earl is further attested by the fact that, when Mortimer was killed by the Irish in July, de la Bere (along with William Beauchamp, Lord Abergavenny, and Thomas Walwyn II), acted as his executor. Moreover, he remained in contact with his fellow executors long after 1398, acting as a witness in 1400 when Abergavenny acquired the honour of Ewyas Harold. In February that year he was also called upon to help investigate an attack on one of Abergavenny's Warwickshire manors; and in April he was a trustee for the lands of (Sir) Leonard Hakluyt*, a fellow Mortimer retainer, at Stoke Edith, Herefordshire. Not long after, in January 1402, he was made a feoffee by Sir Edmund Mortimer (the late earl's brother) of two manors in Suffolk.4
The change of King in 1399, meanwhile, evidently did nothing to damage Sir Kynard's local standing: not only was he elected to Henry IV's first Parliament, but, ten days after its dissolution, he was restored to the Herefordshire bench (from which he had been dropped nine years earlier). In July 1401 he was one of those summoned to attend a great council at Westminster in the following month. Like most other Herefordshire gentry he was involved in the campaigns against Owen Glendower: in the previous spring he had been one of those charged with the relief of the castle of Abergavenny, and it was while accompanying Sir Edmund Mortimer's expedition into Radnorshire that, on 22 June 1402, he was killed when the English were disastrously defeated at the battle of Pilleth.5
De la Bere's will, made at Kinnersley in September 1394, was proved in 1404. He had requested burial at Kinnersley and had bequeathed all the lands to his son Richard. Other beneficiaries were his daughter, Agnes, and his widow and executrix, Katherine. The general tone of his testament, which strictly forbade any funeral pomp, recalls the wills of a group of Richard II's courtiers known as the 'lollard knights', but otherwise there is no evidence that de la Bere himself had heretical sympathies.6
Ref Volumes: 1386-1421
Author: Charles Kightly
- 1. His mother may have been Katherine, da. of Sir William Abrahall (Herefs. RO, B56/1, f. 31), although his father was m. to Sibyl, da. of William Chabbenor by 1359 (CPR, 1358-61, p. 206; CP, iii. 149). His wife's parentage is unknown, but K.B. McFarlane (Lancastrian Kings, 160) thought her to be a kinswoman of Sir Richard Stury.
- 2. Reg. Gilbert (Canterbury and York Soc. xviii), 55, 117; Reg. Trefnant (ibid. xx), 176, 179, 183; CPR, 1377-81, p. 350; CFR, ix. 250; Reg. Black Prince, iv. 1, 68-70, 74, 276.
- 3. EHR, lxxiii. 19; CCR, 1385-9, p. 311; CPR, 1388-92, p. 361; 1391-6, p. 123; CIPM, xvi. 778; VCH Warws. iii. 121; iv. 83; v. 48, 221; vi. 80, 81, 85; CFR, x. 311, 315, 318; xi. 81; Cal. Hereford Cathedral Muns. (NLW, 1955), no. 1921.
- 4. CPR, 1391-6, pp. 345, 481; 1396-9, pp. 349, 439; 1399-1401, pp. 218, 220, 492, 497, 576; Cal. Hereford Cathedral Muns. no. 301.
- 5. PPC, i. 162; CPR, 1399-1401, pp. 518-20; J.E. Lloyd, Owen Glendower, 151; W. Dugdale, Monasticon, vi (1), 354.
- 6. PPC 6 Marche; McFarlane, 207-20.


text:
Virgin Atlantic is branding its new UK domestic operation as Little Red, and will open the first routes at the end of March.
The short-haul service will operate from London Heathrow to Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Manchester.
Little Red, which will use Airbus A320s, will operate nine daily services to Scotland and three to Manchester.
Its first flights will begin on 31 March. The aircraft will be leased from Aer Lingus.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news


text:
by Matt Slick
- If God exists, then God is perfectly loving.
- God is defined as the being who necessarily exists, is immaterial, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and morally perfect.
- If God is perfectly loving, reasonable non-belief does not occur.
- Reasonable non-belief does occur.
- Therefore, God is not perfectly loving.
- Therefore, God does not exist.
- If God exists, then God is perfectly loving.
- The problem begins with what is meant by "perfectly loving." It is an ambiguous term that makes the argument against God's existence indefensible. First of all, how does someone properly define what love is? Second, how can someone tell us how God will exhibit such love in all circumstances so as to maintain the conclusion that "if God is perfectly loving, then reasonable non-belief should not occur"? Third, by adding "perfectly" to "loving," an additional difficulty arises by implying that the person arguing against God's existence can tell us how God is supposed to behave when it comes to our belief and non-belief. But this is problematic since it means the argument is based on the subjective, emotional behavior (love is an emotion) of an infinite being--a being that cannot be comprehended sufficiently so that a person can then tell us how God is supposed to be regarding love and our belief. Therefore, the argument against God's existence cannot be maintained since it is based on subjectivity--not logic.
- Some atheists have further argued that if God exists, he will desire to have a loving relationship with his creation as soon as individuals are mature enough. After all, for God to love is also to desire a relationship with his creation. But, this is another assumption based on the ambiguity of a single emotion: love. It ignores other characteristics of God such as justice, holiness, mercy, righteousness, etc., which all play a part in the total makeup of God and influence his behavior. Whenever a single attribute of God is used to represent God, then error is the probable outcome.
- Some atheists have argued that since God is "perfectly loving," he will, therefore, provide sufficient evidence for people that would enable them to believe. But this is another assumption. According to the Bible, God is love (1 John 4:8). Jesus is God in flesh (John 1:1, 14; Col. 2:9). Yet, Jesus spoke in parables so that people would not be saved (Mark 4:10-12). The reality is that God does not behave in a manner that atheists (and other critics) want him to so as to be able to attack his character and behavior. Therefore, this cannot be used as an argument against God's existence.
- If God is perfectly loving, reasonable non-belief does not occur.
- Since the first point is not sufficiently grounded, explored, and/or explained and since there is the huge problem of the ambiguity of the term "perfectly loving," then the rest of the argument can't be logically maintained as sound.
- There is another ambiguous term found in "reasonable non-belief." What is reasonable to one person may not be reasonable to another. Therefore, this part of the argument is not sufficient either.
- Reasonable non-belief does occur.
- Therefore, God is not perfectly loving.
- Therefore, God does not exist.
- The argument fails due to the issues in 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, and 2C.


text:
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The TASKI swingo 350 B is an ultra-compact 15 inch auto scrubber. It is designed with a low machine profile and a handle that folds backwards for easy access under tables or racks. The rollerbrush, which is offset to the side, allows edge-close cleaning as well as access to corners. The wiping blade in front of the brush helps to remove the cleaning solution when moving the machine backwards. Compared to manual cleaning, the machine delivers significantly higher hygiene levels and improves the floor appearance as well as consistency of result. This is achieved through maximum scrubbing action and the innovative V-shaped squeegee which leads to excellent drying results, even on difficult floors such as tiles with deep grouts, and uneven or structured floors.
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Sound level (operators ear): 70 dBA
Product length: 31 inch (79 cm)
Product width: 17.7 inch (45 cm)
Product height: 16.9 inch (43 cm)


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text:
WaPo editor rebukes reporter for stating obvious
Reporters can no longer repeat what's already been widely disseminated by military analysts - provided it's not favorable to you know who.
The executive editor of the Washington Post, Leonard Downie Jr., has rebuked one of his Pulitzer-Prize winning reporters for suggesting on television that Israel was purposely leaving Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon "because as long as they're being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations."Reporters can't think for themselves. They can't speak for themselves. They can't act for themselves. Exactly what kind of freedom is this?* * *
The reporter in question, Thomas Ricks, is the author of a new book, "Fiasco," sharply critical of the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq.
On the August 6 episode of CNN's Reliable Sources, Mr. Ricks said that "one of the things that is going on, according to some U.S. military analysts, is that Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they're being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon."
When CNN's Howard Kurtz asked if Mr. Ricks was "suggesting that Israel has deliberately allowed Hezbollah to retain some of its firepower, essentially for PR purposes, because having Israeli civilians killed helps them in the public relations war here," Mr. Ricks agreed that he had heard that from "military analysts."
"I have made clear to Tom Ricks that he should not have made those statements," Mr. Downie wrote to Mr. Koch.
Mr. Koch compared Mr. Ricks's statements to the "the age-old blood libel."
Mr. Ricks told The New York Sun, "The comments were accurate: that I said I had been told this by people. I wish I hadn't said them, and I intend from now on to keep my mouth shut about it."


text:
Are there too many war games? Jeff and Russ the latest announcements and leaks of the two major players in the war-game scene and why the genre might be growing a little long in the tooth. Also, they'll talk about which generation they identify with and why Russ recently had to call 9-1-1.
The 404 Show # 1660
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Russ's new podcast: The West Wing History Class
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File any hateful or insightful comments at our show thread over at our subreddit: reddit.com/r/the404.


text:
Born in Madrid (Spain) in 1983 and living in London (United Kingdom). I am a Lecturer in Computer Games and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Essex (Colchester, UK). I hold a Ph.D in Computer Science from the University of Essex (2015) and a Master degree in Computer Science from University Carlos III (Madrid, Spain; 2007).
My research is centred in the application of Artificial Intelligence to games, Tree Search and Evolutionary Computation. At the moment, I am especially interested on General Video Game Playing, which involves the creation of content and agents that play any real-time game that is given to it. I am author of more than 80 papers in the field of Game AI, published in the main conferences of the field of Computational Intelligence in Games and Evolutionary Computation. I have publications in highly respected journals such as IEEE TCIAIG (the top journal on the Game AI field) and IEEE TEC (which counts with one of highest impact factors in Computer Science). I have also organised international competitions for the Game AI research community, such as the Physical Travelling Salesman Competition, and the General Video Game AI Competition, held in IEEE (WCCI, CIG) and ACM (GECCO) International Conferences.
I also experience in the videogames industry as a game programmer (Revistronic; Madrid, Spain), with titles published for both PC and consoles. I worked as a software engineer (Game Brains; Dublin, Ireland), where I was in charge of developing AI tools that can be applied to the latest industry videogames.
Finally, I have experience as a lecturer, teaching the 'Games Console Programming' module at the University of Essex, where techniques and methodologies for developing games are taught using the Unity3D game engine. Additionally, I have also lectured the module 'Computational Intelligence in Games (Team Project)' at the University of Magdeburg, when the latest Game AI techniques (such as Monte Carlo Tree Search) are taught for creating agents for General Video Game Playing.


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text:
We had sourdough hotcakes
Let's see if I can figure this out. Old dogs and new tricks don't always work.
here's the recipe I sorta followed.
the night before
1/2 cup starter
1-1/2 cups flour
1 cup water
in the morning
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
just before starting
1/4 tsp. baking soda
this recipe says it makes 18 very large hotcakes, so since there was just myself and a hungry shark teenage boy, I cut things down and we ended up with 8-9 hotcakes, about 6-7 inches across. I'm assuming everybody knows how to cook hotcakes.
my recipe for 2 hungry people, not for a ravenous horde goes like this:
1/2 cup starter
3/4 to 1 cup flour
1/2 to 3/4 cup water
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 to 3 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 to 3 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. baking soda
they were good. we liked them so much we made them again the next day.


text:
Yahoo and Facebook are embroiled in the start of what could be a long legal battle over 10 patents Yahoo claims Facebook has violated through its social networking service but now reports are circulating that Facebook may be collecting a patent war chest of its own.
A new report suggests that the world's largest social network may have acquired 750 patents from computer-systems giant IBM.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek a "person with knowledge of the transaction" revealed the purchase although the companies have not yet went public.
The move will largely be seen as a defensive maneuver as Facebook attempts to fight about against companies with far larger patent stockpiles. For example Microsoft, Apple and even Yahoo have managed to stockpile thousands of patents while Facebook has registered just 56 patents. [Read more…]


text: THIS DAY IN MUSIC………………………………….on February 14th of 1986 Bon Jovi reach the top of Billboards Hot 100 Singles Chart with "Livin' On A Prayer". The follow up to Bon Jovi's #1 hit "You Give Love A Bad Name," this song tells the story of Tommy and Gina, two kids working to make it on their own despite constant hardships. It struck a chord with America's youth, especially the ones from New Jersey. The characters in the song relate to the working class fans Bon Jovi played to. "Tommy" works on the docks, while "Gina" works in a diner. Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora wrote this with Desmond Child, a prolific songwriter who was brought in by the record company to give them a more commercial sound like he did for Kiss on "I Was Made For Lovin' You." At first, Jon Bon Jovi wanted to leave this off the Slippery When Wet album, thinking it wasn't good enough. According to Jon, a meeting with a group of teenagers changed his mind and it was added to the album. Richie Sambora used a talkbox on this, which gave it a very distinctive sound. A talkbox is an electronic device that allows a guitar player to make distorted sounds with his mouth. Peter Frampton is famous for using one on his 1976 album Frampton Comes Alive, but the technique lost popularity a few years later. When Bon Jovi released this, it was the first time many young people heard a song featuring a talkbox. Peter Frampton builds all of Richie Sambora's talkboxes for him. On VH1's The Greatest Songs of the '80s special, this was voted the best song of the decade. According to Joe Lynn Turner, formerly of Rainbow and Deep Purple, Sambora borrowed the bass riff from Turner's "Get Tough" from his first solo album, Rescue You. Turner told Uber Rock: "Richie Sambora came up to me one night, and we were drinking pretty hard and he said, 'I'm gonna steal that riff,' and I went, 'yeah, go ahead!,' and he did!" The song reached #4 in the UK.


text:
Volume 15, Issue 27
December 9, 2016
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has published a revised version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, which is dated November 14, 2016. Employers must begin using the new form by no later than January 22, 2017.
Form I-9 requirements were established in November 1986 when Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). IRCA prohibits employers from hiring people, including U.S. citizens, for employment in the United States without verifying their identity and employment authorization on Form I-9.
USCIS reports the following changes to the form:
- Instead of asking for "other names used" in Section 1, the new form seeks "other last names used."
- The certification for foreign nationals has been streamlined.
- Prompts have been added to ensure information is entered correctly.
- Employers may now enter multiple preparers and translators.
- A dedicated area for including additional information has been added.
- A supplemental page for the preparer/translator has been added.
- The instructions have been separated from the form and specific instructions are provided for completing each field.
- The form has been enhanced to make it easier to complete on a computer.
To access the new paper form, click here. To access other versions of this form (such as the electronic version or Spanish version) or the instructions, click here.
In the meantime, we continue to recommend that you prepare for compliance with the new rules by December 1, 2016.
KZA Employer Report articles are for general information only; they are not intended and should not be construed to be legal advice. Reading or replying to such articles does not establish an attorney-client relationship. In addition, because the subject matters and applicable laws discussed in Employer Report articles are often in a state of change and not always applicable to every type of business entity or organization, readers should consult with counsel before making decisions based on the same.


text:
I very nearly didn't make it out today because of a wardrobe crisis. I bought a beautiful skirt off the internet, marked size M (12), but although it is marked 12, it was actually a lot smaller than that, probably closer to an 8. It was what I ordered, so I have no complaint with the company, and I know that sizes vary, and I guess that the sizes of the brand Banned run small. Another customer had left a review to this end, so I should have taken heed. I felt that I had no issue with the seller, so instead of sending it back, I decided to insert some panels near the back to widen it out a bit, which worked out nicely in the end, but was nearly a disaster as my lovely little Mini Stitch travel sewing machine (the one I have up here in Scotland as my fancy one with half a galaxy's worth of stitch types and a vast array of feet and suchlike is in storage in England) broke after I'd sewn the first seam. Oops. After much frantic hand-stitching (not as neat as I would have liked, but I will re-sew it later) and help from my beloved Raven, I was ready to wear it out - an hour late. Oops.
I bought K. and M. delicious local ice-creams by way of an apology, and we went exploring. We went to Heroes for Sale, the local comic book and geekery shop, and then headed off towards the cathedral... by way of everywhere inbetween! The lovely shop assistant at Caledonian Gifts mended K's choker for her - she really is a lovely lady and a good friend of mine (with a spooky streak of her own). I bumped into so many people I knew in town, so kept pausing for chats.
|K. My Gothic Lolita friend, photo on phone-cam, at Eden Court.
We also kept pausing for photographs. I don't mind it, and neither did the other two, if people asked nicely and politely to photograph us - we are certainly an unusual sight in Inverness, even if I do often wander around the city in full Romantic Goth gear - but people who just assume that we are happy to be photographed and interrupt and accost us and try and get us to pose without asking politely and without even so much as a please seem very rude indeed. The tourist who just asked us to look in his direction while we were having a rather involved conversation in the Cathedral (I was discussing various bits of Christian iconography on the pulpit) really annoyed me. If he had approached us with "Excuse me, but would you mind being photographed" or even an approximation of that if his English wasn't so good, would have sufficed.
An aside: I was once a Catholic, and quite faithful in my own eccentric way (I always found it quite hard to be a good Catholic - it turned out I was meant for a different path) and I sang in church choirs for a long time. As such, despite not currently having any personal belief in the faith presented, I always feel I should at least be respectful in chapels, churches, cathedrals and other ecclesiastical buildings, regardless of denomination - one of the reasons I tend not to use flash photography indoors when I visit - and I do think that others, whatever the religious persuasion, should acknowledge that these are houses of worship with active congregations as well as places for a bit of architectural tourism, and refrain from talking too loudly (let alone shouting!), swearing, using flash photography and generally doing anything profane and disturbing within the building. I think graveyards should be treated with respect too. I was quite sad to hear people swearing, taking God's name in vain (it might not mean anything to you to say "goddamn!" but be mindful of others around you; it's breaking the Second Commandment and the "hallowed be thy name" in the Lord's Prayer), walking up near the altar, etc. I'm not a Catholic, nor a Christian, and my personal beliefs don't include any of that kind of theology (I'm a pantheist, not a monotheist, for a start), but that doesn't mean I can't respect something. You might think someone is wrong, even believing in fairytales, but you can at least be respectful out of politeness.
K. realised she had missed an appointment with a friend, and went off for her bus, and I stayed in town, talking to another S., the barmaid at Karma Lounge, before being picked up by Raven, who had been shopping for suitable clothes for Capoeira - he's decided he wants to come to classes with me, which is fun. Now we do archery AND martial arts together!
|Me, looking Lolita-ish!
The puff to the side is how the skirt is supposed to be,
the flatness on the right is what the weight of my bag did!
Phone-cam photo by K. on my phone, at Eden Court.
As you can see my outfit is decidedly Lolita inspired, but not actually Lolita. The 'granny boots' are definitely more Romantic Goth, the skirt far too high above the knee to qualify as Lolita (although I am sure it would be suitable on someone much shorter than me; I am between 5'9 and 5'10!) and the shiny fabrics more associated with Romantic Goth and Aristocrat fashion than Lolita, and the makeup definitely more Romantic Goth. I am not a Lolita, but I wanted to put together an outfit that was both "me" in terms of what I like to wear, and of a suitable sort of silhouette to go well with the outfits of the two friends I was with.


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Siege of Neverwinter
The siege has been on for almost a week now. There is still another week to go and most of the prizes are still up for grabs.
Of particular importance to the guild however are the stronghold vouchers. They drop from killing any monsters in the siege event area. It appears that they drop approximately 1x per minute for regular monsters and 3x per minute for some heroic encounters.
Pro tip:
Its not necessary to end all the HEs immediately. Hang out and kill the extra adds that are made with the end HE boss comes out. Quite a few extra vouchers can be produced that way. It is however hard to find an instance with few enough players in it to get this done very often. Most often the boss gets mobbed and killed in seconds, which is a bit of a waste.
Between 30-60 vouchers per hour can be grabbed out of this event. Per time spent, this is a far more efficient operation than any other for getting coffer value. You even get influence vouchers, and over the course of an hour you'll get more than your daily 400 that would have been received from stonghold HE runs.
'Dragon hoard coffers' also drop in this event, and a little faster in the siege area than they do in the Well of Dragons. In WoD its approximately 1x per 10 minutes, while in the siege its about 1x per 6 minutes. Btw, these are useful for getting the last 2 boons in the Tyranny of Dragons campaign, and it takes Oh so many of them. (8000 coffers total). So soak these up while you can as well!
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"We are currently writing an article "Behind the Music" with the intention of giving an insight into the lives of musicians.
It does not matter if you are just starting out or have managed to establish yourself in the music industry, everyone's story is unique and together we want to share your story.
Looking for musicians, bands and song writers from around the world to share their experiences.
If this is something you would like to get involved and share your story please complete the form below.
ALL MUSICIANS WELCOME and FULL CREDIT GIVEN
Note: if you wish to remain unnamed just tell us when you write your story.
Past editions
Behind the Music 2018 – 14th Edition with King Orange January 3, 2019
Behind the Music 2018 – 13th Edition with Jeff Parsons January 3, 2019
Behind the Music 2018 – 12th Edition with Steve Arnott of Beats Bus December 13, 2018
Behind the Music 2018 – 11th Edition with Bud Fam August 1, 2018
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This unit has been designed to help the students develop an understanding of the need to accept responsibility for the health choices that they make in terms of their personal health. In the unit, the students distinguish the difference between infectious diseases and lifestyle diseases. They will then examine what lifestyle diseases are, do some research on a chosen disease, and then identify ways of preventing them.


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- Restaurants - Typical Products - Services -
Pila is a modern and dynamic holiday centre which faces, as if it were an immense natural balcony, a small alpine town which is proud of its own history and traditions.
Pila is linked by a splendid road with panorama which quickly leads us from Aosta to the head of the valley of flowers and snow. For those who do not wish to arrive by car, a cable car is available.
It provides an interesting example of an integrated ski resort, with direct accesss to the ski slopes from all the hotels and residences, Pila has everything necessary for good quality skiing.
Some ski-lifts are also open in the summer to facilitate altiude excursions. As an alternative to trekking and pony trekking, there is the highest 9 hole golf course in Europe, a mini-golf course, tracks for mountain bikes and natural jumping-boards for para-gliding.
Pila accommodation in Hotel Farm House Farm Holiday Bed&Breakfast Camping Holiday Home Rooms for rent Residence Tourist Village Camp site.
Pila holiday in Hotel
Hotels Aosta Monte Emilius


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After 15 years of wars, a majority of US service members are deeply skeptical about America's foreign interventions. The US should focus on homeland defense and jobs instead of invading and "stabilizing" countries like Afghanistan or Iraq, a new poll shows.Most active-duty members of the US military would prefer the government to refrain from overseas missions involving so-called nation-building, a number of costly and ambiguous efforts to reconstruct post-war countries, according to a poll run by the Military Times and Syracuse University's Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF). The survey, described by the Military Times as a first-of-its-kind study, included a question: "How do you view the US government's continued involvement in nation-building efforts, establishing democracies in the Middle East and North Africa using US military and financial support?" About 55 percent of service members said they "strongly oppose" or "somewhat oppose" those efforts, while 23 percent responded positively to an idea of carrying out such missions. The remaining 22 percent were either unsure or of no opinion on the issue. It's about time US military personnel start waking up to the fact that they are at war, so that the globalist and corporations can build up foreign lands. The war on terror hasn't even been about ending terrorism around the globe, it has only been about placing globalist regimes in foreign nations so big corporations can profit on building up new nations. If we could call what the last 15 years since 9/11 has been involving US forces overseas we should really call it "The War For Nation Building"...As a veteran I've personally been waiting for the day where the majority of the military would start to realize that the war on terror has always been a false narrative, when were building nations overseas by force...While our own homeland is crumbling. Maybe this is the reason Washington is pushing for UN troop intervention over the last year, because the Washington establishment is realizing it has lost the support gradually from it's own military.
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Alchemy of England Medieval Jewelry ProductsAlchemy of England is one of the worlds finest producers of pewter gothic & medieval jewelry. You'll get more than just a pendant or bracelet you'll get a work of art. Handcrafted in the UK by some of the UK's finest gothic artists you're sure to find a piece you will love. Have a love one who is fanatic about medieval or goth jewelry? Alchemy of England products are unique gift idea for Christmas, birthdays, Valentine's Day or anniversaries.
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|Features : Toluene-freeXylene-freeColour-codedIndoor/outdoor useWaterproof ink
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The recently reinstated Glenwood Glen Head Civic Association invited Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino to its meeting on Jan. 31. There, the supervisor delivered a state of the town address to inform residents about improvements to town government and its processes, New York American Water and upgrades to the town's infrastructure and facilities. Over 30 people attended the meeting.
Overall improvements
Following a PowerPoint presentation, Saladino noted the major changes in the town that have occurred since he was elected in 2017. "This is just a small cross-section of what we've really gotten done," he said.
In 2018 the town cut property taxes by $1.3 million, lowered its capital debt — which was a whopping $750 million — and reduced its workforce payroll. Saladino added that he anticipates the debt would reduce by another $15 million in 2019. Overall spending is also down, by $10 million. The fiscal responsibility, he said, was due to enhanced internal financial controls and holding respective departments accountable for their individual budgets.
Citing the town's previous culture of nepotism, Saladino made mention of the town's Board of Ethics, which was established in 2016, and its efforts to enhance oversight and strengthen transparency. Another point of pride was the provision of same-day permits and streamlined services at the town's building department.
New York American Water
A topic on many residents' minds was New York American Water. In 2017 the company was granted a four-year rate increase, which took effect on June 1 of that year. This June, the third phase of increases will take effect. Saladino sympathized with concerned residents; he, too, is a NYAW ratepayer.
A feasibility study that would determine if a public entity could accommodate NYAW ratepayers on the North Shore could be launched as early as this month, according to representatives from the Sea Cliff Water Service Area Advisory Committee. If the study recommends that a neighboring water district could support the district's 4,500 customers, the next step would be condemnation, either by the town, the county or the state.
Saladino said the most feasible option would be a state condemnation, which would allow the Sea Cliff district to merge with a municipal water district, like Jericho. "We need Albany to bring the money here and buy out the resources of New York American Water," he said. "The state is the only entity that can afford that kind of expenditure; it is way beyond what the town can afford."
Arthur Adelman, of Sea Cliff, asked the supervisor if the town had any influence to alleviate the expense of NYAW's fire hydrant rental fees. "With the $750 charge of a hydrant we're getting hit twice," he said. "It hits the fire companies and it's added to the bottom line of our taxes."
Saladino said that the town attorney was "working on it," and that he had contacted state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli to conduct a full audit of the company. "We're doing everything we can to turn this back to a municipal water supplier," he said.
Upgrades for roads and recreation
The town will initiate phase two of its road maintenance program in 2019 to mill and refill pothole-ridden roads in Glen Head and Glenwood Landing. "The highway department has conducted a full assessment of every single road in the town, and the roads will be done per community," Saladino said. The cost of milling and refilling one mile of road, he added, costs $400,000.
Residents can also expect improvements at the town's parks and recreational facilities this year. The baseball fields at Gaynor Park, in Glen Head, will be reseeded for the new season, and a new fence will be installed. Saladino said the parks department has also discussed the possibility of adding turf soccer fields at the site.
The town's Department of Public Works and office of Intergovernmental Affairs is currently pursuing a study at Tappen Beach, in Glenwood Landing, to assess the site's septic system and consider whether it will require upgrades or be replaced.
Civics member Barbara Holzkamp, of Glen Head, said that Tappen's layout lacks proper sun shelter, save for a few umbrellas. As an avid user of the pool, Holzkamp said, "Sun protection is very important, and there is very little shade."
Parks Commissioner Joseph Pinto said that the department had sunshades, new umbrellas and chairs on order, which will be added to the park before the spring. He added that the bathrooms near the Blu Iguana restaurant would be upgraded as well.


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Watch this 60-minute recorded webinar on 2019 Compensation and Labour Relations Outlook. Allison Cowan, Director, Total Rewards, Human Resources and Labour Relations Research, and Monica Haberl, Senior Research Associate, Total Rewards, Human Resources and Labour Relations Research, share details on the pay environment, bargaining outlook, and the latest survey results informing the compensation outlook for the coming year (with updated numbers for winter 2019).
You'll gain insight into the top issues facing employers and unions today, and how the economic and compensation landscapes will play a role, including a look at:
Allison Cowan is Director, Total Rewards, Human Resource and Labour Relations Research. Since joining the Conference Board in 2000, Allison has been actively involved in research in the areas of total rewards, benefits, compensation, wellness, health and safety, strategic human resource management, labour relations, learning and development, leadership, and inclusive work environments.
Allison leads the total rewards and industrial relations research practice and is actively engaged in the group's executive networks, ongoing core research initiatives and custom research. In this capacity, Allison provides information on best practices and the latest research to leading organizations.
Monica Haberl joined the Conference Board in 2015 as a Research Associate and Network Manager with the Organizational Performance division. She works with the Compensation Research Centre and the Council for Industrial Relations Executives. She has completed research in a variety of areas including total rewards, industrial relations, talent management, leadership and engagement.
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Development and land use have eliminated and degraded millions of acres of the Sagebrush Sea, threatening sage-grouse and hundreds of other wildlife species that depend on sagebrush habitats.
The federal government is engaged in an unprecedented planning process to develop and implement new conservation measures for sage-grouse on millions of acres of public land.
The Sagebrush Sea is the seemingly endless sagebrush grasslands that cover the yawning basins and broad plateaus of the Intermountain West.
Sage-grouse are the charismatic ambassador of the Sagebrush Sea.


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An experimental film is about how people express their depression through dancing. Life can be difficult at times and because of many reasons. Therefore, I want to assist depressed people release themself, release their stresses of life through dancing. I believe that expressing oneself's feeling and creativity is a great way to loosen up positive emotions.
– Film-maker Trang Doan
A few years ago when I was going through the pain of separation and divorce, something led me to dance. I had never done it before, and if I attempted it would be the most embarrassing kind of 'Dad dancer'! Although I was pretty awkward for quite a while, by attending classes in Brighton I started to learn how to move without inhibition. I kept going along to something called 5Rhythms, a 'movement meditation' practice.
And I made a remarkable discovery. I found that problems manifested as pains and blockages in my body, which made dancing difficult, but when I 'moved' the problem, it transformed into something else. I'd been previously accustomed to think or talk or write about my problems, which didn't do much. But dance actually made a difference.
I love this film by Trang Doan. It balances the pain of emotional struggle with the release of movement. If you can move, everything changes. Although I work as a talk therapist, I do believe that if more people danced their problems they would be happier, healthier and less in need of my help.
FELT from TRANG DOAN on Vimeo.


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I am not the first person to complain about the permanence of Apple's preloaded apps. I am in no way the most qualified to complain about Apple Music. I would, though, like a chance to join this chorus—because I want to make Music go away. And frankly, it's in Apple's best interest to let me.
You might remember a similar wave of complaints after iPhone owners woke up to find a meaty iOS update had landed a Watch app on their phones, regardless of whether they owned or wanted to own or had even heard of Apple's shiny new $350-$17,000 accessory. Smart and observant writer folk rightly called out Apple's "junk drawer" problem, their increasingly overstuffed iPhone folders labeled "Apple Crap."
It was bad then. It's worse now. In fact, it's gotten to the point that it's not just frustrating for consumers. It might end up hurting Apple.
Software, Hard Times
Let's think about this from Apple's perspective for a minute. It's not hard to imagine why it might want to highlight its own wares, in the same way you don't wonder why Legoland doesn't feature a "World o' K'Nex" installation. It's just good business.
"Music, Photos, anything that ties into the cloud, all of these things are ecosystem plays," explains Forrester mobile analyst Michael Facemire. "We've seen that just having a good device isn't good enough in mobile… For Apple to maintain its stranglehold on the markets it enjoys, the higher-end markets, it needs to make sure it has that complete ecosystem buy-in."
It's true that Apple has the strongest (though not the largest, thanks to legions of perfectly decent, inexpensive Android device) smartphone and tablet ecosystem in the world. Getting iPhone owners to use Music instead of Spotify, or Apple Maps instead of Google Maps, is a hypothetically terrific way to ensure that dominance continues.
In practice, though, spotlighting your own apps only works as well as the apps themselves do. Apple Maps, which arrived on millions of iPhones in 2012, was so outrageously bad that Apple CEO Tim Cook penned a public apology (since deleted from Apple's web site) that included the unthinkable act of suggesting iOS users rely on a competitor instead:
"While we're improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their Web app."
Eep. And yet! Apple Maps, junked up as it was, remained on iPhones through the (lengthy) renovation process, an unmoving mistake.
Apple Music, the latest size-14 first-party footprint to land on iPhones and iPads, isn't nearly the same category of trainwreck as Maps. It ain't great, though. Stalwart Apple advocate and editor of the Loop Jim Dalrymple called Music "a nightmare" this week, after it gobbled up 4,700 songs from his music collection; he's going back to Spotify. "Nightmare" was also the pejorative of choice for iOS developer Cezary Wojcik, who wrote a lengthy breakdown of Music's usability, or lack thereof. And here are several hundred forum users either complaining about or offering sympathy for iCloud wreacking havoc with people's Music libraries.
This is not a best foot forward. This is taking off your sock and chirping "Look at my gout!" And because users can't delete it, for many it's just a constant reminder of that thing Apple tried once that they didn't particularly like.
"Let's say everybody buys into Facebook Messenger and leaves iMessage out of the loop," says Facemire, describing what Apple's undeletable apps are safeguarding against. "All of a sudden that's a crack in Apple's ecosystem that's very hard to get back. Once you have that crack, one or two more cracks, now I don't need an iPhone anymore."
All of which makes a strong case in favor of preloading apps. But it also assumes the alternatives Apple offers are better, or at least good. They are often not. It's true that if I like Messenger better than iMessage (which would not be a very controversial stance), I don't need an iPhone anymore. If I'm pushed toward Music and find it unbearable though, I get closer to thinking an iPhone—or at the very least, anything iCloud-related—is something I might not even want. And* that* is potentially a much bigger problem for Apple.
A Full Bloat
Apple's customers are also under more app strain than ever. The Junk Drawer principle holds up just fine, but it's starting get mighty full.
Last fall, Kirk McElhearn looked at just how much space Apple's apps (including recommended but optional offerings like the iWorks suite) took up. The figure he landed on? Just over 3GB, which combined with how much room iOS itself takes (and the vagaries of measuring storage capacity) left him with just over 8GB of usable space on a 16GB iPad Mini.
This was before either the Watch app or Music app landed, the latter of which appears to be a serious space hog due to some aggressive caching. All of this is space that could be going toward photos, or videos, or games, or comics, or any of a hundred other experiences that iPhone and iPad owners actually want.
"You don't want to become like Acer, or any of those companies, where any time you bought one of their PCs the first thing you saw was 800 things that were installed on there, taking up space," says Facemire. "At 16GB, for the lower-end iPhone and iPad, that's a valuable commodity."
One answer would be "just don't buy a 16GB device," which is true enough, but Apple still sells them without offering any caveats. Besides, at this point even larger sizes aren't immune from feeling claustrophobic. The question becomes, then, when do our Apple Crap folders suck up so much oxygen that we can't just ignore them anymore?
"I would contend that the point is probably here," says Facemire. "There can't be another Music that comes out, that's for sure. Until we get to a space where network connectivity is ubiquitous, and I don't have to store anything at all locally, the space that's already taken up is about the max that I would want to continue."
But why would anyone expect that sort of restraint? Apple hasn't walked back any of its preloaded iPhone apps, despite being increasingly commoditized or irrelevant (looking at you Compass). Not even the Tips app can be banished, even if you know its contents by rote.
Apple does clearly put thought into the apps it preloads, though, in a way that's somehow more galling. iPad owners, for instance, aren't saddled with Watch, or Calculator, or Stocks, or Compass, or a handful of other in-house apps, presumably because they don't fit the imagined tablet use case (and don't, importantly, feed into iCloud).
Here's the thing, though: I don't need Apple to imagine a use case for me. I can manage my own. I don't need Music or Tips or Photo Booth on my iPhone, but I wouldn't mind having that space to squeeze in a few more comic books. You might want it for a few dozen more photos, or to complete your menagerie of fart apps. Your specific priorities don't matter, other than that you should be able to act on them to the fullest extent possible.
Yes, most of this applies to Apple's competitors as well. There are plenty of preloaded Google apps on Android phones, and many are saddled with useless carrier bloat as well. There's a key difference though, beyond even the simple fact that Apple has unilateral control over its ecosystem and could simply decide to change course. While you can't delete them, even the most entrenched Android apps can be easily disabled, locked down to their smallest form and blocking any future updates. You can freeze Android apps in carbonite; Apple apps will only keep expanding.
Again, I'm not the first or only person asking for the power to delete Apple's apps from my iOS devices. I won't be the last. With any luck, though, we're nearing a point where Apple finally asks itself how much intractability is really worth, and how much it ultimately costs.


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Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007)
I hadn't really planned on rereading Brian Selznick's Invention of Hugo Cabret, but this year I joined the book to movie challenge. I'd been curious about the film, Hugo. This "review" will share what I thought about both the book and the movie.
I found the movie wonderful. I found it very compelling. I was drawn into the story--the time and place. This is a movie (and a book) where setting is just as important if not MORE important than the characters. Because it is set in a train station in Paris, France, in the early 1930s, because it focuses on such an intriguing orphan who is desperate to make sense of the world and fix what needs fixing, because it was a story with such a strong emphasis on friendship and making your own family, it worked for me. The book and the movie are different from one another. The movie adds characters and even gives them story-lines. The movie changes some of the relationships as well. But I thought some of the changes--at least--worked better. I liked the Hugo of the movie better than the Hugo of the book! While the novel's focus on old cinema was interesting, on film it meant SO MUCH MORE. This book was meant to be filmed.
I originally read the book in 2007. I watched the movie a few weeks ago and then decided to reread the book. I definitely preferred the movie to the book. But the book is a very quick read! It takes longer to watch the movie than it does to read the book!
© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews