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News for 09/02/2009- Exactly Who Were the Groups on That Secret Conference Call, Anyway?
On August 11th, President Obama held a conference call with all his special interest allies in order to push renaming 09/11 as our National Day of Service instead of keeping the day for strict remembrance of those who perished in the awful and unjust terrorist attacks on our country. Their feeling is that the Republican Party owns this day, according to some reports, and this would be a way to "capture" the day for the Democrats. What horrendous thinking, illustrative of what is wrong with this country. The resolution, introduced in the Senate by Charles Shummer (D-NY) as S.245, then in the House as HR 718, by Doris Matsui (D-CA) was being furthered by the President by consulting this hand-picked assemblage. Groups on the call included: ACORN, AFL-CIO, Apollo Alliance, Color of Change, Community Action Partnership, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs, Friends of the Earth, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Mobilize.org, National Black Police Association, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Council of Negro Women, National Wildlife Federation, RainbowPUSH Coalition, Urban League, Young Democrats of America.
Who are these organizations and why were they given a seat at the table?
ACORN- Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDZiMjkwMDczZWI5ODdjOWYxZTIzZGIyNzEyMjE0ODI To understand the nature and extent of Acorn's radicalism, an excellent place to begin is Sol Stern's 2003 City Journal article, "ACORN's Nutty Regime for Cities." (For a shorter but helpful piece, try Steven Malanga's "Acorn Squash.") Sol Stern explains that Acorn is the key modern successor of the radical 1960's "New Left," with a "1960's-bred agenda of anti-capitalism" to match. Acorn, says Stern, grew out of "one of the New Left's silliest and most destructive groups, the National Welfare Rights Organization." In the 1960's, NWRO launched a campaign of sit-ins and disruptions at welfare offices. The goal was to remove eligibility restrictions, and thus effectively flood welfare rolls with so many clients that the system would burst. The theory, explains Stern, was that an impossibly overburdened welfare system would force "a radical reconstruction of America's unjust capitalist economy." Instead of a socialist utopia, however, we got the culture of dependency and family breakdown that ate away at America's inner cities — until welfare reform began to turn the tide. While Acorn holds to NWRO's radical economic framework and its confrontational 1960's-style tactics, the targets and strategy have changed. Acorn prefers to fly under the national radar, organizing locally in liberal urban areas — where, Stern observes, local legislators and reporters are often "slow to grasp how radical Acorn's positions really are." Acorn's new goals are municipal "living wage" laws targeting "big-box" stores like Walmart, rolling back welfare reform, and regulating banks — efforts styled as combating "predatory lending." Unfortunately, instead of helping workers, Acorn's living-wage campaigns drive businesses out of the very neighborhoods where jobs are needed most. Acorn's opposition to welfare reform only threatens to worsen the self-reinforcing cycle of urban poverty and family breakdown.
HERE ARE JUST A FEW ISSUES INVOLVING ACORN http://www.rottenacorn.com/activityMap.html Acorn is charged with several counts of voter fraud within 14 states. Here is the map and the charges. http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-acorn-voter-fraud/ There is a history of voter fraud charges envolving Acorn. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_606173.html
A group of dissident members is seeking a federal investigation of ACORN for alleged criminal violations stemming from an embezzlement scandal that rocked the organization last year. The splinter group, ACORN 8, released a 24-page document in January, 2009, that asks federal investigators to consider fraud, embezzlement and conspiracy charges, and criminal civil rights violations relating to the embezzlement of nearly $1 million from the nonprofit's accounts and an alleged cover-up of the theft for almost a decade. "Moreover, due to the admission that a felony has been committed, other federal offenses may have also been committed … ," states the document signed by 14 members of ACORN 8, including recently expelled members of ACORN's national board of directors.
http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/2009/05/embezzlement-of-dale-rathke.html Starting sometime in the late 1990's and ending sometime in the early part of this decade, Dale Rathke, brother of founder Wade Rathke, was involved in embezzling somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million from the ACORN accounting and financial services arm Citizen Consulting Incorporated. At the time, Dale Rathke was heading up CCI. CCI has acted as the weigh station for all financial funds for ACORN and all of it's affiliates. In other words, any money earmarked for any activity within the ACORN network starts out at CCI. http://theeprovocateur.blogspot.com/2009/01/inside-story-of-acorn.html ACORN has hundreds of affiliates though no one, outside the insiders, knows exactly how many. It likely receives hundreds of millions of Dollars from the government. Though again, no one is sure because all of it is hidden by using the private CCI as an initial weigh station. It works with HUD, HHS, and the Department of Labor along with a host of philanthropies in order to continue its operations. All of it is done in the shadows through a very sophisticated network of affiliates and one private company, CCI, doling out the money. By doing this, it becomes nearly impossible to track its activities. What I have brought to light is only scratching the surface but should give everyone an idea of just how powerful and dangerous ACORN is. http://moneyrunner.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-acorn-helped-housing-crisis-harm.html The truth is that the root cause of the mortgage mess is found in Washington and with organizations like ACORN which have long pushed and used extortion tactics to force banks to make bad loans. All the while, collecting millions of dollars in grants and "donations" from banks that paid them protection money.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/17/lawmakers-concerned-role-acorn-census/ The U.S. Census is supposed to be free of politics, but one group with a history of voter fraud, ACORN, is participating in next year's count, raising concerns about the politicization of the decennial survey. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now signed on as a national partner with the U.S. Census Bureau in February 2009 to assist with the recruitment of the 1.4 million temporary workers needed to go door-to-door to count every person in the United States — currently believed to be more than 306 million people. ACORN's partnership with the 2010 Census is worrisome to lawmakers who say past allegations of fraud should raise concerns about the organization. "It's a concern, especially when you look at all the different charges of voter fraud. And it's not just the lawmakers' concern. It should be the concern of every citizen in the country," Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland, R-Ga., vice ranking member of the subcommittee for the U.S. Census, told FOXNews.com. http://democracygone.blogspot.com/2009/08/acorn-funded-by-bailout-tax-dollars.html Acorn, funded by bailout tax dollars, working against our Second Amendment and our Constitution! CONNECT THE DOTS: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6968
THE APOLLO ALLIANCE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80zzW6Osyhs http://captkarl.blogivists.com/2009/08/27/socialist-communist-organization-apollo-alliance-has-big-corp-sponsors/
…The Apollo Alliance is Socialist / Communist radical group that is being sponsored by many Big Corporate sponsors and, of course, huge Unions. The Liberty Tree Lantern believes it is important for all of us "so far" free Americans to know who we are stacked up against in the "Fascist" Corporate world who have joined forces with the Socialists and Communists to form the "hybrid" leading to a One World Order and enslavement through near total taxation, in the form of withholding, payroll, fees and all sorts of taxes, on our common working man earnings. Besides both houses of the U.S. Congress and The Obama Administration, who are domestic enemies of and directly usurp and infringe upon The Constitution, here is who We The People are up against in it's defense and to protect our INDIVIDUAL freedom, unalienable rights, finances and property according to the Socialist / Communist Apollo Alliance's own website. Be warned people, these are enemies of The Constitution and our very FREEDOM. May God help us!
CONNECT THE DOTS: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7490
Isn't it interesting that just as Glenn Beck exposes Van Jones the Green Job Czar in the Obama Administration as an avowed Communist ex-con, his group which he co-founded ColorofChange kicks into high gear to try to silence Glenn Beck's voice. Let's face it, no news organization out there does their homework anymore. Everyone is afraid to speak the truth. It is no surprise that when Glenn Beck starts going after the big boys in the Obama Administration that thug-like reprisals begin to appear. No matter what Glenn Beck says, he has the right to say it. What about all the times that MSNBC called George Bush a racist?
Its a racist organization screaming about racism. What else is new? If the advertisers suffer from hypogonadism then I guess they just miss the opportunity to get their message out to a few million folks each night. Can you imagine the outrage if you took out the word "Black" and replaced it with "White" in the following passages?
http://colorofchange.org/ Colorofchange.org: Our goal is to empower our members—Black Americans and our allies—to make government more responsive to the concerns of Black Americans and to bring about positive political and social change for everyone. What they do: Using the Internet, we will enable our members to speak in unison, with an amplified political voice. We will keep them informed about the most pressing issues for Black people in America and give them ways to act. We will lobby elected representatives using email, the telephone, and face-to-face meetings. We'll bring attention to the needs and concerns of Black folks by holding coordinated events in different parts of the country, running TV and print advertisements, and demanding that the news media cover our issues. We will also work with other groups—online efforts and other organizations that are doing related work—to magnify our impact. When we come together and speak with one voice, we cannot be ignored.
CONNECT THE DOTS: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/Hollywood%20Hit%20on%20Glenn%20Beck.html
Community Action Agencies (CAAs) are nonprofit private and public organizations established under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to fight America's War on Poverty. Community Action Agencies help people to help themselves in achieving self-sufficiency. Today there are approximately 1000 Community Action Agencies, serving the poor in every state as well as Puerto Rico and the Trust Territories.
|…Structural racism explores the causes of the enormous racial disparities that exist in income, wealth, education, housing, employment, and crime throughout our society. The lens of structural racism points out the interrelated causes of persistent poverty. For example, inadequate housing and a weak local economy result in a low tax base which leads to poor schools that do not prepare people for the workplace adequately and thus they cannot make a livable wage in this economy. Using the structural racism lens helps explain why siloed approaches to reducing poverty may not reach the goals we desire. This prestigious national project of the Community Action Partnership and funded by the Ford Foundation is exploring the assumption that place-based strategies to reduce poverty and enhance economic security are more effective when they take the racial inequalities that are a result of structural racism into account in their program design.
Deep South Center for Environmental Justice http://www.dscej.org/ Environmental Justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced, and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things. A major goal of the Center has been the development of minority leadership in the areas of environmental, social, and economic justice along the Mississippi River Corridor. The DSCEJ has become a powerful resource of environmental justice education and training. A major aim of the Center has been the development of curricula that are culturally sensitive and tailored to the educational and training needs of the community. This group recieves funding from US Government under US Dept of HUD and US Dept of Labor. Founder, Beverly Wright, Ph.D., is also author of the book: Race, Place, and Environmental Injustice After Hurricane Katrina
80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs The current economic crisis is hurting America's youth more than any other generation. Our national unemployment is 17.3%. We graduate college with an average of $27,000 in student loans. We are uninsured and victims of predatory lending. Despite the overwhelming evidence, Congress has yet to act or even discuss the impact of the economic crisis on young Americans. 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs is a coalition of leading youth organizations committed to addressing the crisis by uniting the Millennial generation to own and direct our economic future.
CONNECT THE DOTS: This is coalition made up of the following organizations: http://80millionstrong.org/content/coalition , including the Hip Hop Caucus, ShoutAmerica, Campus Progress, Voto Latino and Mobilize.org
Friends of the Earth– A Rockefeller Family Fund At Friends of the Earth, you will find a group of committed people who fight daily for a healthy and just world. http://www.foe.org/ Friends of the Earth knows regulation, legislation, taxes, and banking have a big impact on our environment. We hold our elected officials accountable and work to expose unnecessary funding for environmentally destructive projects—saving taxpayers' money and the planet.
CONNECT THE DOTS: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/funderprofile.asp?fndid=5208&category=79 The Rockefeller Family Fund (RFF) was incorporated in 1967 by Martha, John, Laurance, Nelson, and David Rockefeller. Its principal beneficiaries are leftwing environmentalist organizations. Several RFF Board members formerly worked for the now-defunct San Francisco-based TechRocks company, which provided information-technology support and development for a number of anti-corporate, non-profit organizations. One RFF representative sits on the steering committee of the Peace and Security Funders Group. Recipients of RFF philanthropy include: the Tides Foundation; the Tides Center; Alliance For Justice; the People for the American Way Action Fund; the American Civil Liberties Union's Women's Rights Project; the Sierra Club; Friends of the Earth; the NARAL Pro-Choice America, Environmental Media Services; the League of Conservation Voters; the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund; the Waterkeeper Alliance; the Environmental Working Group;Planned Parenthood; the Proteus Fund; the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund; MoveOn.org; Defenders of Wildlife; Environmental Media Services; the Greenpeace Fund; the Brennan Center for Justice; Project Vote; the Center for Community Change; the Center for American Progress; the National Wildlife Federation; the NAACP National Voter Fund; the New World Foundation; Earthjustice; among others.
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Center_for_Political_and_Economic_Studies Founded in 1970 to provide training and technical assistance to newly elected black officials, the Joint Center now explores a range of public policy issues of concern to African-Americans and other communities of color. According to its mission statement, the Joint Center, through research, analysis and publications, seeks to "improve the socioeconomic status of black Americans and other minorities; expand their effective participation in the political and public policy arenas; and promote communications and relationships across racial and ethnic lines to strengthen the nation's pluralistic society." Mobilize.org Mobilize.org is an all-partisan network dedicated to educating, empowering, and energizing young people to increase our civic engagement and political participation. We work to show young people how public policy impacts our lives, and more importantly – how we can impact public policy. Current Staff includes James Bernard, who is currently working in the Community Strength Department of SEIU, going back to his labor roots. He launched The Source and XXL, two hip-hop magazines, and has written about popular culture.
CONNECT THE DOTS: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/printgroupProfile.asp?grpid=7285 Describing itself as a coalition of "student, faculty and civil liberty organizations," Free Exchange on Campus (FEC) defines its mission as "advocating for the rights of students and faculty to hear and express a full range of ideas unencumbered by political or ideological interference."
FEC was co-founded by Campus Progress (a project of the Center for American Progress), the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association's Student Program, the American Association of University Professors, the American Civil Liberties Union, People For the American Way (and its "Young People For" program), the United States Student Association, and the Center for Campus Free Speech. The foregoing organizations are also part of the coalition's current membership. Additional FEC coalition members include the American Library Association, the Free Press, the AFL-CIO (and its Department for Professional Employees), the Association of College and Research Libraries, Common Cause, Democracy Matters, Mobilize.org, the Modern Language Association, the National Women's Studies Association, the National Writers Union, the Progressive States Network, the Roosevelt Institution, the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press, and the National Association of State Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs). FEC's contention that leftwing political bias does not thoroughly pervade university faculties is debunked here, here, here, here, here, and here. Free Exchange on Campus is a well-funded coalition. As of 2005, FEC member Campus Progress held assets of $1.25 million; U.S. PIRG, $6.2 million (in 2005); the American Association of University Professors, $5 million (in 2004); People for the American Way, $3.1 million (in 2004); the National Education Association, $89.3 million (in 2004); the American Federation of Teachers, $67.6 million (in 2004); and the ACLU Foundation, $196.1 million (in 2005). FEC is also funded by George Soros's Open Society Institute and the American Federation of Teachers.
National Black Police Association According to their website: http://www.blackpolice.org/ The National Black Police Association was established: To improve the relationship between Police Departments as institutions and the minority communities; To evaluate the effect of the policies and programs within the Criminal Justice System upon the minority community; To serve as a mechanism to recruit minority police officers on a national scale; To work toward police reform in order to eliminate police corruption, police brutality and racial discrimination; and To educate police officers to perform with professionalism and compassion.
National Coalition on Black Civic Participation http://www.ncbcp.org/ The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP) is a 501©3, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to increasing Black civic engagement and voter participation. NCBCP was founded on May 6, 1976. For thirty-two (32) years, the NCBCP, through its 80 member organizations, 12 state and local affiliates, and strategic partners, has served as an effective convener and facilitator at the local, state and national levels of efforts to address the disenfranchisement of African Americans and other marginalized communities through civic engagement.
National Council of Negro Women http://www.ncnw.org/ According to their webiste, their mission is to lead, develop and advocate for women of African descent as they support their families and communities. We fulfill our mission through research, advocacy and national and community-based health, education and economic empowerment services and programs in the United States and Africa. Through section and affiliate volunteers in 34 states, NCNW addresses local needs while impacting communities nationwide.
National Wildlife Federation http://www.nwf.org/ Their Mission Statement Says: Inspiring Americans to protect wildlife for our children's future. But the organization is best known for these stances: Opposes U.S. oil drilling in Alaska, Supports the ban on DDT, Seeks to restrict land-development projects
CONNECT THE DOTS: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6903
NWF recently endorsed a document called the Earth Charter, which blames capitalism for many of the world's environmental, social, and economic problems. The National Wildlife Federation receives financial support from the Bank of America Foundation, the Beldon Fund, the Bullitt Foundation, the Compton Foundation, the Energy Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, and the Turner Foundation.
Rainbow PUSH Coalition http://www.youtube.com/user/rainbowpushcoalition The RainbowPUSH Coalition is a progressive organization fighting for social change. Best known for :
- Civil rights organization formed by merger between two groups founded by Jesse Jackson
- Supports race preferences, alternatives to incarceration, and bigger government
- Drives much of its agenda through frivolous, unsubstantiated charges of institutional and corporate racism
CONNECT THE DOTS: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6431 Rainbow/PUSH is the result of a 1996 merger between two groups founded by Jesse Jackson. One was People United To Serve Humanity (PUSH), established in 1971, which advocated race preferences in the form of affirmative action. PUSH also helped sponsor a massive June 12, 1982 rally, organized by the Communist Party USA and the Soviet-supported U.S. Peace Council, advocating the dismantling of America's military arsenal. The other organization was the Rainbow Coalition, formed in 1985 to counter policies enacted during President Reagan's second term which Jackson deemed discriminatory against African Americans. Today Rainbow/PUSH maintains its national headquarters in Chicago, and has branch offices in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Atlanta, Houston, Silicon Valley, New Orleans, and Washington, DC.
Characterizing the United States as a nation rife with discrimination against African Americans and other minorities, Rainbow/Push lists its major issues as: "Jobs and Economic Empowerment; Employee Rights and Livable Wages; Educational Access; Fair and Decent Housing; Voter Registration and Civic Education; Election Law Reform; Fairness in the Media, Sports, and Criminal Justice System; Political Empowerment; Trade and Foreign Policy; Affirmative Action and Equal Rights; Gender Equality; and Environmental Justice."
NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE http://www.nul.org/mission.html The mission of the Urban League movement is to enable African Americans to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights.
CONNECT THE DOTS: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6593
In 1971, Vernon Jordan, who had previously headed the United Negro College Fund and would eventually, two decades later, become an advisor to President Bill Clinton headed the National Urban League. Jordan expanded the organization's activities in the areas of equal housing, education, and minority business development. He also instituted the Urban Leagues's State of Black America Report. During his tenure, Jordan demonstrated an inclination to blame white racism for even the most egregious black-perpetrated outrages. In the wake of a 1980 black riot in Miami, for instance, he suggested that the city's "white power structure" — political and judicial — had created a racial atmosphere in which refraining from rioting was "too much to ask of any [black] human being." Over the years, Urban League reports and public statements have frequently condemned the United States as an intractably racist nation.The National Urban League has received funding from: the American Express Foundation; the AT&T Foundation; the Carnegie Corporation of New York; the Annie E. Casey Foundation; the Fannie Mae Foundation; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the Joyce Foundation; the W. K. Kellogg Foundation; the Sara Lee Foundation; the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Pew Charitable Trusts; and the Verizon Foundation.
Young Democrats of America www.yda.org/ Designed to deliver valuable information about how to become part of a new generation of Democratic political activists. The Young Democrats of America has been the official youth arm of the Democratic Party since 1932. Since 2002, YDA has operated independently of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as a nonfederal 527 political organization.
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3 Responses to "News for 09/02/2009- Exactly Who Were the Groups on That Secret Conference Call, Anyway?"
Together We The People can take our country back. I am pleased to hear that you are out there "Soldier for Liberty"..
Keep you chin up, your head down and dig your foxhole deep.. Don't let any Tory take your resolve or shake you.
God Bless, very truly yours in FREEDOM
[…] and https://soldierforliberty.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/news-for-09022009-exactly-who-were-the-groups-on-t…) On August 11th, President Obama held a conference call with all his special interest allies in […]


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Being familiar with the word nincompoop is probably more of a sign of one's age than of being up to on the latest linguistics. Nonetheless, there is nothing wrong with reminiscing the world of words.
To my surprise, nincompoop is an official word – thus not slang – so here are a few official definitions:
- a fool or simpleton
- a stupid person; fool; idiot
- a silly, foolish, or stupid person
- one deficient in judgment and good sense
The great American orator Mo Howard even used some of the following nincompoop's synonyms: ass, blockhead, boob, clod, coot, cuckoo, ding-a-ling, dingbat, ding-dong, dip, dipstick, dolt, doofus, dope, dork, dweeb, dumbass, dunce, fathead, fool, goof, half-wit, idiot, imbecile, jackass, jerk, lummox, lunatic, moron, nerd, ninny, nitwit, numbskull, numskull, nut, nutcase, oaf, peckerhead, plonker, schmo, schmuck, simpleton, turkey, witling, and yo-yo.
The British throw in berk, charley, charlie, git, nit, plank, pillock, and thicko. Other languages add fjols (Danish), uilskuiken (Dutch), nigaud (French), trottel (German), sempliciotto (Italian), mentecato (Spanish), numpty (Scotish), and dumhuvud (Swedish).
As one can imagine, nincompoop's etymology and history brings forth more information.
- Latin's non compos mentis, not a sound mind, is a legal phrase
- French ne comprend pas means "he does not understand."
- In his 1676 play The Plain Dealer, British playwright William Wycherley has one character calling another a "senseless, impertinent, quibbling, drivelling, feeble, paralytic, impotent, fumbling, frigid nincompoop."
Now we know more about nincompoop – and yes, timely with the words of Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan who recently referred to Sarah Palin as a nincompoop. Given the information above, her word choice seems appropriate. Besides, Sarah Palin continues to champion nincompoopery – the characteristic actions of a nincompoop.

subset: commoncrawl


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Via Dublab:
Top Tape is co-presented by our brethren in sound, Leaving Records. For this recurrent happening the dublab tape team dig up their favorite cassingles, mixtapes, and cassette spooled albums for a night of magnetic music. This evening of super saturation is hosted by Frosty + Matthewdavid and features an all-tape tag-team rotation of amazing djs. VHS visions are mixed live on the big screen by Alex Pelly and occasional inspired video heads.
This is an archive of a special Top Tape installment celebrating the collaborative Stones Throw x Leaving Records double cassette compilation DUAL FORM. The night featured all-tape sets by Peanut Butter Wolf, Matthewdavid, M. Geddes Gengras, White Rainbow, EMV, Knxwledge, Large Cats, Cat 500, Sun Araw and many more! Dual Form "Golden Tickets†were dropped at local record stores and lucky winners received a limited edition Leaving Records mix tape cassette by Matthewdavid. High energy was truly in the air for this night. We hope you enjoy the archive!
Stream/download below…


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Friday's mass shooting at Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut is shocking and horrifying – the time and the place of these massacres inevitably catch us unawares. But the fact that another mass shooting has occurred is not shocking, any more than the last one was, or the next one will be.
Just as with the mass killings earlier this year at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and the Aurora movie theater, near Denver, Colorado, the chorus of empathetic responses that will follow these tragic shootings in Newtown, Connecticut marks a stubborn refrain in a perennial American elegy. Different singers mouthing different words, but basically singing the same song.
Psychological profiles of the shooter emerge, along with portraits of the victims, while the political class closes ranks so that the nation can heal. Incanted tones to sooth a permanent scar.
All rituals serve a purpose. And this one is no different.
This Friday, 28 people are currently reported shot dead, including 20 children. Their families must be given space to mourn, and that space should be respected.
But it does not honour the dead to insist that there must be no room in that space for rational thought and critical appraisal. Indeed, such situations demand both. For one can only account for so many "isolated" incidents before it becomes necessary to start dealing with a pattern.
It is simply not plausible to understand events in Connecticut this Friday without having a conversation about guns in a country where more than 84 people a day are killed with guns, and more than twice that number are injured with them.
Amid all the column inches and airtime now being devoted to these horrific slayings, though, that elephant in the room will remain affectionately patted, discreetly fed and politely indulged. To claim that "this is not the time" ignores the reality that America has found itself incapable of finding any appropriate time to have this urgent conversation. The victims in Newtown, Connecticut deserve at least that. And these tragedies take place everyday, albeit on a smaller scale.
America's president, Barack Obama, understands this. The number of homicide victims in his home town of Chicago this year has outnumbered the fatalities among US troops serving in Kabul.
In response to the Aurora shootings in July, President Obama was right to suspend the routine campaign rhetoric and play the statesman. Nobody wanted to hear about Mitt Romney's tax records and stimulating the economy on that day. There were other days for electioneering, true, but he was wrong to insist on this:
"There are going to be other days for politics. This is a day for prayer and reflection."
Yet that "other day" for debating gun laws never came – not at any point in the three months that remained before the election. Even now, right on cue, the president's spokesman, Jay Carney, has intoned the familiar strain that "now is not the time" to talk about gun control.
For what are we to reflect on if not how this, and so many other similar calamities, came about. Those who insist that we should not "play politics" with the victim's grief conveniently ignore that politics is what caused that grief. Not party politics. But a blend of opportunism on the right that flagrantly mischaracterises the issue, and spinelessness on the left that refuses to address it.
Americans are no more prone to mental illness or violence than any other people in the world. What they do have is more guns: roughly, 90 for every 100 people. And regions and states with higher rates of gun ownership have significantly higher rates of homicide than states with lower rates of gun ownership.
The trite insistence that "guns don't kill people, people kill people" simply avoids the reality that people can kill people much more easily with guns than anything else that's accessible. Americans understand this. That's why a plurality supports greater gun control, and a majority thinks the sale of firearms should be more tightly regulated.
The trouble is that people feel powerless to do anything about it. The gun lobby has proved sufficiently potent in rallying opposition to virtually all gun control measures that Democrats have all but given up on arguing for it. In the meantime, the country is literally and metaphorically dying for it.
Gun control is possible. There are both a constituency for it and an argument for it. But it can't happen without a political coalition prepared to fight for it.
If America can twice elect a black president, it can do this.
• Editor's note: this is a revised and updated version of an article by Gary Younge that appeared 20 July 2012. This article was also amended as the number of casualties was confirmed
• Follow @garyyounge on Twitter


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On a hot summer day, a fresh salad with some filling additions is all that is needed for lunch or dinner. This colorful salad is full of flavors and textures, and is the perfect example for such a dish. The vegetables are mixed with a light honey-mustard dressing, then topped with tangy pan fried Halloumi cheese. The pistachios and olives add another layer of flavor, and it all makes for a very tasty and filling salad. Serve it with crusty fresh bread on the side, and enjoy.
* Halloumi cheese is a Cypriot semi-hard, unripened cheese. It has high melting point and can be fried or grilled without breading. Traditionally, it is made with sheep's or goat's milk, or a mix of the two, and seasoned with a bit of dried mint. Some newer versions are made with cow's milk as well. It can be found in many supermarkets and specialty cheese stores.
* Though it doesn't have Halloumi's unique flavor, if you can't find Halloumi, the Mexican "Queso de freir" (i.e. cheese for frying), can be a good substitute.
Makes: 2-4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
For the dressing:
2 tsp honey
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp salt
1 tsp grated garlic
¼ tsp freshly ground 4 peppers mix
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 1 large)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
For the cheese:
1 Tbs light olive oil
8 oz (225 grams) Halloumi Cheese, sliced thick
For the salad:
Inner leaves from 1 large head of Romaine lettuce, washed and dried
2-3 radishes, thinly sliced
A handful of salt cured black olives
¼ cup natural pistachios
5-6 cherry tomatoes, halved
1. In a medium bowl, mix the honey, mustard, salt, garlic, pepper and lemon juice. Whisk in the olive oil, to create a smooth dressing.
2. Heat 1 Tbs olive oil in a medium pan over medium-high heat . Add the cheese slices, in one layer. Fry for a 1-2 minutes until golden on both sides. Place on paper towel, to absorb extra oil.
3. Mix the salad ingredients in a large bowl, add the dressing and mix lightly. Transfer to a serving plate, add the fried cheese and serve immediately.


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By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, March 18 (HealthDay News) -- Any athlete who suffers a suspected concussion should be withdrawn from play and stay on the sidelines until a qualified health care professional determines that all symptoms have subsided and it is safe to return to the field, new guidelines state.
Issued by the American Academy of Neurology, the latest recommendations aim to keep young athletes as safe as possible.
"With the older guidelines, we were trying to rate concussions at the time of the injury and predict recovery times, but now we know, 'When in doubt, sit 'em out,'" said guideline co-author Dr. Christopher Giza, an associate professor of pediatric neurology and neurosurgery with the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Mattel Children's Hospital.
"The point is that no single quick test is really a litmus test for a concussion," he said. "We know now that we need to make sure a player has had a thorough and proper evaluation, involving a symptoms checklist, a standardized assessment and balance and cognitive testing, before being returned to play. This evaluation has to be done on a case-by-case basis, so each person goes through an individualized recovery process."
Giza and his colleagues reported the new guidelines in the March 18 online issue of the journal Neurology.
According to the academy, upwards of 1 million professional and amateur U.S. athletes suffer a concussion every year.
The new guidelines were issued following a thorough look at all the available concussion research through June 2012.
Among the conclusions: experiencing a concussion raises the risk for experiencing a second, and perhaps more debilitating, one. That risk was found to be highest in the 10 days following the initial injury.
One expert said the new guidelines are needed.
"One of the big problems is that we have a culture within many sports that still encourages young people to play through the pain, including head pain," said Dr. Gail Rosseau, a clinical assistant professor in the department of neurosurgery at the Northshore University Health System in Chicago.
"But one of the most important things we now know is that until those who have had one concussion are fully recovered they are more likely to have a second concussion," Rosseau said. "The stories we hear that are horrific to every parent and every coach is the child who gets a concussion and goes back to play too soon, and gets a second one with devastating consequences."
Just how devastating it can be was outlined earlier this year in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics, which detailed the harrowing double-concussion experience of Indiana high school student Cody Lehe. Resuming football too soon after an initial concussion, Lehe suffered a second concussion. Severe brain injury ensued, leaving Lehe mentally impaired and largely wheelchair-bound.
"When athletes are sent back to play with a concussion, it's because they didn't know they had one or people recognized it but didn't do anything about it," Giza said. "We have to educate trainers, physicians and players so no athlete comes back too quickly or arbitrarily."
To that end, the new guidelines call for trained health professionals to quickly and methodically look for any of the telltale signs of a concussion, including: a headache; light and sound sensitivity; poor balance, coordination and reaction time; speech, sleep or memory disturbances; and, less commonly, a loss of consciousness.
Alongside such symptoms, a custom-tailored recovery plan should take into account a patient's prior concussion history and his or her age. The guideline authors emphasized that younger patients typically need longer recovery periods, and cautioned caregivers to handle patients of high school age and below more conservatively in terms of allowing any return to play.
Across team sports, football (for which well-fitting helmet use is encouraged) was deemed the riskiest activity, alongside rugby. They were trailed overall by hockey and soccer, while the highest risk among girls was pegged to soccer and basketball.
But team sports are just part of the story, Rousseau said.
"The activity that causes the most head injuries is not football," she said. "[It's] not hockey. It's biking. In terms of raw numbers, the biggest group of concussions hitting emergency rooms is cyclists. Nobody is talking about getting rid of bikes. We need to talk about making all sports safer, and that includes individual sports."
The National Football League Players Association, the American Football Coaches Association, the Child Neurology Society, the National Association of Emergency Medical Service Physicians, the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Athletic Trainers Association and the Neurocritical Care Society have all endorsed the new guidelines.


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April 23, 2013— -- Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's condition was upgraded today to fair.
Tsarnaev, who has wounds in his head, neck, legs and a hand, had been listed in serious condition and officials initially feared he might not live to explain why he and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev allegedly bombed the race.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick even said over the weekend that authorities "hope he survives, because we have a million questions."
This morning by doctors at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center upgraded his condition to fair.The improvement comes as the 19-year-old has started to provide his version of the events that led to the deadly Boston Marathon bomb attacks.
In his initial responses to questions, Tsarnaev has reportedly told investigators the attack was devised from the Internet. The two brothers, he said, had no direction or financing from governments or rogue groups overseas.
For all the power of the two explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line, and for all the dramatic gun fights on the streets of Watertown, and for all the suppositions about the role of disciplined, well-trained terrorists, the college student has reportedly told investigators the whole attack was devised from the Internet. The two brothers, he said, had no direction or financing from governments or rogue groups overseas.
Authorities tell ABC News they now believe the two foreign-born brothers were inspired to violence by the Internet preaching's of al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, the charismatic American-born radical jihadist, who has been dead now for more than a year. They used instructions from an al Qaeda Internet magazine to make their pressure cooker bombs. And Dzhokhar, the younger of the brothers, may not have even known about the plot until a week or so before the attack, sources told ABC News.
Seth Jones, a counter-terror expert at the RAND Corporation, said the attack's simplicity and home grown origins may wind up being some of the most chilling aspects the Boston bombing.
"This is kind of the al Qaeda modus operandi now, not relying only on operatives, but trying to get people do it yourself radicalization to build their own bombs without coming to a training camp in Pakistan or Yemen or other locations," Jones said.
"They ad-libbed part of it and made some decisions on a few elements of the bomb making but what's different about this is they took a very simple recipe and then targeted the Boston Marathon," Jones said. "And why the marathon? Because it was there, essentially, and easy. Not long in the planning."
RELATED: Feds Investigating Accused Bomber's Disgust With US
Authorities also told ABC News it is increasingly likely that the older of the brothers, Tamerlan, devised the plot and did most of the work in pulling it together.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died during a firefight with police early Friday morning.
"The older brother appeared to be the more radicalized of the two and was the one that drove the need to conduct the attack as well as the preparation for the attack that is building the bombs," Jones said.
As to what drove Tamerlan to violence, his younger brother has apparently told investigators it was his hatred of America, and its policies in Afghanistan and Iraq, law enforcement sources said.
Officials say they do not plan to take what the younger accused bomber has told them at face value, and that the probe will continue to examine whether there were overseas terror connections of any kind. "It would be in his interest to minimize his own role," one official said.
But the younger brother is reportedly telling investigators is consistent with what many of those who knew Tamerlan were observing -- his disgust with things American and Christian.
RELATED: Boston Bombing Suspect Dzhokhar Charged With Using Weapon of Mass Destruction
Authorities are continuing to uncover details of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's life in the hope their search will help provide more clarity about the motive for the deadly bombing. Federal agents spent much of Monday searching for evidence behind a Cambridge rug store, in a cluttered alley area where the Tsarnaev brothers' father used to repair cars.
The FBI sought to question Tamerlan's American wife, Katherine Russell, who was seen over the weekend leaving Tsarnaev's Cambridge apartment with her three year old daughter. A Rhode Island native, she converted to Islam and changed her name from Katharine to Karima.
Her lawyer, Amato DeLuca told ABC News that Russell was shocked by recent events.
"She couldn't believe it," DeLuca said. "Imagine, just think of yourself. You got a brother or a father or somebody and you see their picture and it's like wow, what's going on. She was in complete shock."
DeLuca also said Russell works long hours as a health care aide and suspected nothing. She was at work when she heard about his involvement four days after the bombing. DeLuca wouldn't talk about the investigation or if his client has been questioned by the FBI.
Her family issued a statement saying: "In the aftermath of the Patriots' Day horror we know that we never really knew Tamerlane Tsarnaev. Our hearts are sickened by the knowledge of the horror he has inflicted."
RELATED: Tamerlan Tsarnaev's Aunt, Uncle: Nephew Was Deeply Religious but Not an Extremist
Evidence of troubled moments in Tsarnaev's past turned up in police records, which showed that his then-girlfriend called 911 in tears to report that he was beating her up.
And local prosecutors told ABC News that they are now exploring whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev had any connection to the brutal 2011 murder of three young men, one of whom was a friend and sparring partner.
The three were found with their throats slashed, covered in marijuana and cash.
Authorites are also looking closely at the six month trip Tsarnaev took last year to Russia and Chechnya, at a time that rebel groups there carried out a number of violent attacks. Just last year alone Dagestan lost 115 police officers in almost 300 terror attacks. A couple of years ago this street was obliterated by a car bomb. Investigators want to know whether he met with any of the notoriously fierce extremists there.
Neighbors in Cambridge told ABC News that Tsarnaev was a changed man, swearing off tobacco and alcohol, linking to extremist jihadist videos, and saying I don't have any American friends. I don't understand them. One neighbor said he expressed anger about America and Christianity.
"So with the Bible he believed that it was a cheap copy off the Koran and that it was used as an excuse for many wars fought by America to invade countries and take land away," said Elbrecht Ammon. "He mentioned how America is a colonial power and wants to take as much land as possible and most casualties are innocent people shot down by American soldiers."
On Monday, the mother of the two brothers, Zubeidat Tsarnaev, told ABC News today from Russia that Tamerlan was always the leader of her two boys, and that after the bombing he called her to say, "Everything is okay, thanks to Allah."
ABC News' Ned Berkowitz, Cindy Galli, Angela Hill, Megan Chuchmach, Rym Momtaz, Randy Kreider, and Shushannah Walshe contributed to this report.


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After "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" put the launch of the DC/Warner Bros. universe on shaky ground, the studio came back swinging at Comic-Con Saturday armed with movie stars, brand new footage and a sense of humor.
The 6,500-some fans in Hall H got a glimpse of never-before-seen footage from the superhero all-star film "Justice League " from director Zack Snyder, as well as the action-packed first trailer for "Wonder Woman," starring Gal Gadot.
Snyder and the cast flew in from London to tease "Justice League," which is currently in production and not set to hit theaters until November 2017.
The lively "Justice League" footage highlights Bruce Wayne's recruitment of what will be the Justice League team, including The Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and Aquaman (Jason Momoa). Ben Affleck, who plays Bruce Wayne/Batman, hyped the film with his fellow cast mates, including Gadot and Superman actor Henry Cavill — putting to bed any lingering suspicions that his character was actually killed off for good at the end of "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice."
The lighter touch in the "Justice League" reel is likely a direct response to the widespread criticism of the self-seriousness of "Batman v Superman," and will be a pivotal moment for the studio in bringing together all of the personalities that they hope will also stand on their own, much like Marvel and Disney have done with "The Avengers." Warner Bros. has 10 films pegged to the interconnected universe over the next few years including "Suicide Squad," which comes out next month, "Wonder Woman," ''Aquaman," ''The Flash," and the stand-alone "Batman" film, which Affleck is directing and starring in.
To kick things off, Affleck was joined on stage by all of his fellow directors David Ayer ("Suicide Squad"), Patty Jenkins ("Wonder Woman"), James Wan ("Aquaman"), Rick Famuyiwa ("The Flash") and Snyder.
"DC is the foundation of what we all know about comic books and heroes. To have my voice be a part of that is really exciting," Famuyiwa said.
Wan, who made his name in horror films like the "Saw" and "Conjuring" films, said that he'd be bringing some of that sensibility to "Aquaman" as well.
Neither Wan nor Famuyiwa had any footage to show, since "The Flash" and "Aquaman" don't come out until 2018, but fans did get a first look at director Patty Jenkins' "Wonder Woman ," which highlights the romance and World War I-era adventure of Diana Prince's origins. The movie comes out in June of 2017 and will be the first time the iconic superhero has had her own film in her 75-year history.
"Knowing how many people care so much for this character ... it was important to portray (her) in a way everyone can relate," Gadot said, seated alongside co-stars Chris Pine and Connie Neilsen, who plays her mother. Audiences first met Gadot's "Wonder Woman" in "Batman v Superman."
The baddies of "Suicide Squad," out Aug. 5, took the stage too, including stars Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Jared Leto.
"This is not a movie about good versus evil," Smith said. "This is a movie about bad versus evil."
It wasn't all comic books and superheroes in the studio presentation, though. Audiences saw the first trailer for "Kong: Skull Island ," a 1970s-set King Kong story starring Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John Goodman and "Straight Outta Compton's" Jason Mitchell and Corey Hawkins, from director Jordan Vogt-Roberts that comes out in March 2017.
"Kong is film history. Kong is where genre met mainstream," Vogt-Roberts said of the classic character.
The studio also unveiled a trailer for "The Lego Batman Movie," an irreverent, joke-packed spinoff of the breakout "Lego Movie" character voiced by Will Arnett set for February 2017.
Charlie Hunam was also there to tease "King Arthur: The Legend of the Sword ," which looks as frenetic and deadpan as most of director Guy Ritchie's films, as was the cast and director of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ," coming to theaters this November.


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Calvert, Edward
Calvert, Edward, 1799–1883, English painter and engraver. A great admirer of William Blake, Calvert, along with several of his contemporaries, formed a group around Blake called the Brotherhood of the Ancients. Calvert's art celebrated the life of primitive society. In his later work he was deeply influenced by a visit in 1844 to Greece.
See L. Binyon, The Followers of William Blake (1925).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: European Art, 1600 to the Present: Biographies


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About The Waters
In eastern Idaho isolated livestock and agricultural activities started in the
1840s. Widespread occupation started in the 1860s with the dispersion
of peoples to the Snake River Plain and to the highlands in present day
Franklin, Oneida, Caribou and Bear Lake counties. It was a harsh life
for these pioneers, and in order to survive, natural resources had to be
utilized to the fullest extent. By 1870s impacts the on the cold water
fisheries had begun. Vast herds of cattle and sheep ranged along the Lander,
Oregon, and California trails, and up the South Fork of the Snake River
causing bank erosion and riparian zone destruction, providing a growing
threat to the quality of lakes and streams. On the Snake River Plain more
and more water was being diverted from streams for agriculture resulting
in the loss of both habitat and fish. Settlement of Teton Valley, the Lost
River valleys, and the Swan and Grand valleys of the South fork of the
Snake River was next. Last came settlement of more remote areas
away from the Snake River Plain.
Trunk StreamsStanding on the most southerly and not too lofty Manan Butte one gets a perspective of the trunk stream system of eastern Idaho. Facing east, the South Fork of the Snake River in a verdant fringe is seen flowing almost straight across the plain from its canyon between the Big Hole and Caribou ranges. From its course irrigation canals radiate like branches from the trunk of a tree. On the north horizon one sees Big Bend Ridge through which the Henry's Fork cuts after it gathers its sources in the Island Park area. To the northeast the Henry's Fork, tapped by irrigation canals, turns in slow arcs through the plain to its confluence with the South Fork, almost at ones feet. To the native east Idahoan this is the start of the Snake river. Facing south one sees it flow west around the butte then arc southwesterly into the blue haze of the plain. On it flows through the monotonous flats accepting first the remnants of Willow Creek then those of the Blackfoot River. On through the degraded cottonwood forest above the broad expanse of American Falls Reservoir it courses. Here it pauses and takes in the Portneuf River and numerous spring creeks before plunging more westerly to exit eastern Idaho. For more than a century the trunk streams have supplied life-blood water to agricultural activities, industries, and towns in the Snake River Plain. These activities in turn have had a profound influence on the trunk streams and their trout populations . . .
*Publishers Note: The following waters are covered in detail in this book. Space prohibits covering each of them in detail here.
Trunk Streams:
About The Flies
*Publishers Note: Snake River Country has 32 pages of flies, including color photos of each, the recipe and additional comments on the insect it imitates and where it is fished and how. Space prohibits covering each of them in detail here. However the following fly is representative of the information given for each of the included flies.
Speckled Biot SpinnerHook: Tiemco 100 or equivalent, size 16.
Thread: Cream nylon. 6/0
Tail: Four or five still grizzly cock hackle fibers.
Abdomen: Light tan goose biot.
Thorax: Light tan dubbing.
Wings: Pair of gray Hungarian Partridge hackles, tied spent.
For a MAP of the Snake River Country, click
Credits: From the Snake River Country, published by Frank Amato Publications. We greatly appreciate use permission.
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The single joke around which Paul Provenza's documentary revolves has a standard beginning and ending, like pieces of bread that make a sandwich stuffed with excrement, incest, and whatever other foulness the teller can come up with. Provenza and Penn Jillette recorded more than 100 comedians riffing on this joke; the result is an exploration of the nature of comedy and a celebration of free speech. The Aristocrats is deeply funny -- unless you don't like crude humor, in which case your head might explode -- and the two hours of extra footage include legendary tellings from the likes of Bob Saget and Sarah Silverman that play even better in expanded form. A feature about comedians' other favorite jokes includes what surely is the most offensive joke ever told without words: Billy the Mime performing "The Abortion." God bless America. -- Jordan Harper
he Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder: Punk & New Wave (Shout Factory)
Tom Snyder, who used to fill late nights on NBC with small talk and stale smoke, never seemed to know much about his guests besides what some flunky had written on a notecard. He "plays" dumb during his October 1977 roundtable discussion of punk with Jam frontman Paul Weller, Runaway Joan Jett, rock critic Robert Hilburn, dismissive promoter Bill Graham, and the surprisingly thoughtful Kim Fowley; his musical guests say more with their eyes (rolled back in disbelief) than their mouths. Yet all the chats are illuminating -- primarily those with Elvis Costello and Patti Smith -- and the performances are thrilling, chief among them those by the Jam, Costello & the Attractions, and the Ramones, who wanted the airwaves and got 'em for three songs. -- Robert Wilonsky
Saturday Night Live: The Best of David Spade (Universal)
Consider us among the few who have always found David Spade oddly likable, not least because he's so eager to make an ass of himself. This collection, culled from his six seasons on the show and later guest visits, certainly brings the funny, with Spade's recent appearance as the post-prison Martha Stewart -- chain-smoking and wielding a sharpened spoon -- helming the ship. The extras aren't particularly rich (whose idea was it to include Spade's tepid appearance on Conan?), but they're better than the meager offerings on Alec Baldwin's new best-of. Still, if you've got a thing for Baldwin -- the veteran actor has become an SNL staple as guest host -- you're better off with his DVD. His early appearances are hot, and he absolutely nails his Charles Nelson Reilly. -- Melissa Levine
Glenn Tilbrook: One for the Road (Image)
Amy Pickard's road movie is a delightful thing, as modest as its star and just as charming. Indeed, Glenn Tilbrook actually is the hell-of-a-guy he comes off as here -- a man who, as co-singer and co-songwriter in Squeeze, used to sell out arenas, but is delighted nowadays to lead a packed club in a rousing sing-along of "Tempted" or "Goodbye Girl" that ends up in, oh, a parking lot or somebody's house. The doc's full of those funny moments, as Tilbrook and his gal-pal/manager tour the States in an RV, mingling with the common folk, who treat him like their best friend. The movie's best moment occurs in a trailer park outside Dallas, where Tilbrook small-talks some folks who flip when they find out who he is. The music's stellar, too, a collection of Squeeze best-ofs and Tilbrook's solo stuff, which is no less essential. -- Wilonsky


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Sudanese Appetizer
(Salatet Zabady bil Ajur)
2 cucumbers
2 garlic cloves
1¾ cups plain yogurt
¼ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
Makes 6 bowls. Takes 1 hour 15 minutes
Peel and dice cucumber. Mince garlic cloves. Add all ingredients to serving. Mix well with whisk. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
1) The modern-day submarine looks like a cucumber. Of course today's subs, which can stay submerged for six months and carry enough nuclear missiles to reduce several cities to a glowing fog of atoms, are unarguably more destructive than even the most beserk cuke. The fact remains, however, that nuke rhyming with cuke is no accident.
2) The first military submarine, the Turtle (1775) was based on a turnip. It didn't do much. Underwater, culinary warfare fell out of favor for twenty-french years. Fulton designed the Nautilus for the French in 1800. It never went to sea as the humidity of the vessel caused the crew's bread to go moldy and war without fresh bread was unthinkable.
3) In 1864, the submarine, H.L. Hunley, of the Confederate Navy sank the North's wooden warship, the Housatonic. This was the first successful sinking of a warship by a submarine. It was also the first successful sinking of a submarine as the Hunley was too close to its own exploding torpedo. Remarkably, no had imagined this occurrence. A month later, Rebel scientists hit upon the idea of simulating a submarine attack with cucumbers and matches. Unfortunately for the South, General Sherman had already begun his destructive march through Georgia. He had specific orders from President Lincoln himself to cripple Confederate submarine research by having his army destroy every cucumber it came across. Once the Union soldiers found how much fun came from fighting cucumbers than a grey coat who'd shoot back, they started uprooting and burning all crops. The South no longer had food to feed its armies. Surrender of all rebel forces followed soon.
4) But the Civil War was a near-run thing for the U.S.A. In 1866, Congress authorized the creation of the Cucumber Underseas Naval Department (CUND.) Over the years, research expanded to investigate undersea applications from all fruits and vegetables.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.


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Artists on «
Amel Larrieux
Amel Larrieux Guitar Chords
R&B singer/songwriter Amel Larrieux grew up in New York's Greenwich Village. Her mother, Brenda Dixon Gottschild, was a dance critic and professor, and she was raised in an artistic environment. She formed Groove Theory, a duo with former Mantronix member Bryce Wilson (aka Bryce Luvah), which signed to Epic Records and scored a gold-selling Top Ten pop and R&B hit in October 1995 with "Tell Me," followed by the Groove Theory album, which hit the Top 20 of the R&B chart. In 1996, Larrieux was a vocalist on the self-titled album by Sweetback, a group featuring three members of Sade, which reached the charts. Larrieux released her debut solo single, "Get Up," in November 1999, and it reached number 37 on the R&B chart. Her debut solo album, Infinite Possibilities, was released by 550 Music in February 2000. Larrieux teamed with crooner Glenn Lewis and recorded "What's Come Over Me?" for the Barbershop soundtrack, released in 2002. The two reunited a year later and appeared on Stanley Clarke's 1, 2, to the Bass album with their version of "Where Is the Love," a performance that earned them a Grammy nomination. In 2004, Larrieux established the Blisslife label, where she released Bravebird, Morning (2006), the stripped-down vocal jazz set Lovely Standards (2007), and the playfully eclectic Ice Cream Everyday (2013). ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi
indie r&b
neo soul
urban contemporary
Guitar Chords:
I Like The Sunrise
No One Else
Wild Is The Wind
Wild Is The Wind (ver. 2)


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Another mystery mines our fascination with the past
The Machiavelli Covenant by Allan Folsom. Forge Books,2006. 560 pages
The last 20 years have seen the creation of a special niche within the genre of ÒSuspense NovelsÓ as more and more books have appeared featuring a tiny group of protagonists facing great odds as they uncover some secret from the past.
Possession, The DaVinci Code, The Shadow of the Wind, The BookmanÕs Promise: these are only a few of the books in which the plot involves the recovery of a document from the past or a rediscovery of some ancient secret. Although these works vary widely in their ambitions and their craftsmanship ÑÊPossession is one of the great novels of the late 20th century, while The DaVinci Code is pure schlock ÑÊthey share this general theme of connection to some famous personage or document of the past.
Allan FolsomÕs The Machiavelli Covenant (A Tom Doherty Associates Book, $25.95) is one of the latest newcomers to this growing company of cultural suspense tales. Machiavelli, it turns out, not only wrote The Prince and other books, but also left behind an addendum to his most famous work called The Covenant, a manual of instruction for creating a terror group whose members remain extraordinarily loyal to one another and to the idea of their superiority over their fellow human beings. Marten says of his creation that Machiavelli Òcreated the concept of a secret society made powerful by its membersÕ documented participation in a yearly, very elaborate ritual killing. The idea was that deliberate and verified complicity in murder bound them together in blood and gave them license to operate very aggressively, even ruthlessly as a group knowing they could all hang if what they had done was found out. It would have made for a pretty intimidating bunchÉ.Ó
Former detective Nicholas Marten discovers that his childhood sweetheart, her husband, and their young son have been murdered for political reasons.
Marten sets out to track down the killers, and soon comes to believe that they are involved in some massive plot involving biological terrorism. In the meantime, John Henry Harris, president of the United States, uncovers the plot as well and finds himself forced to flee from his own vice president and certain members of his cabinet.
MartenÕs activities soon attract the attention not only of his enemies, but of beautiful French photojournalist Demi Picard. Soon Marten, Picard, and President Harris have teamed up, and make their way to Montserrat in Spain, where the Machiavellian order has its headquarters. Aided by a heroic cabdriver, Miguel, the trio lays out its plans and prepares to penetrate the Covenant before it can launch a bio-weapon attack on the Middle East.
The action in The Machiavelli Covenant is non-stop; Folsom, author of The Exile, The Day After Tomorrow, and Day of Confession, knows how to make the reader keeping turning pages. He has divided The Machiavelli Covenant into short sections, with the time of day heading each section. He writes strong prose, and delivers revelations about the plot and characters with the force and surprise of a good left hook. He understands how to keep up interest in his story by superb pacing and by creating characters who, though they possess certain talents, allow readers to feel their struggles and pain as they fight their secret war.
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Although some readers may wonder why a president would flee his Secret Service protection ÑÊpresidents simply donÕt do this ÑÊPresident Harris has good reason to believe that certain advisers want him dead within a few days. It is, in fact, one of the secret service agents, Hap Daniels, who eventually helps rescue the president.
One unlikely character in the book is Merriman Foxx, a South African who is supposed to be the embodiment of the evil scientist. Foxx seems too much the superman, able to travel the world, create deadly bio-weapons, and still maintain an enormous underground lab at Montserrat containing hundreds of corpses embalmed in tanks. Not only are we never told why Foxx is keeping these corpses in his lab ÑÊwe know he used them for his viral research, but whatÕs the point of keeping them after death? ÑÊbut Folsom never fully explains how Foxx even set up such a lab. A project like this one ÑÊbuilding glass containers, bringing in the embalming fluid, the sheer maintenance required ÑÊwould require a small army of men. In an age in which biological weapons are already real and terrible in our imaginations, to turn FoxxÕs laboratory into some sort of Dr. Mengele experimental project seems overdone and ridiculous.
Despite these reservations, readers who enjoy action and suspense will find plenty of both in The Machiavelli Covenant.
Luc SanteÕs No Smoking (ISBN: 2-84323-616-9) is packaged in a cardboard box made to look like a pack of cigarettes. Inside that box is a book with hundreds of pictures and photographs from the last 70 years whose subjects celebrated, comforted, and glorified themselves in part by smoking.
In the last 25 years, we have seen that glamorization entirely reversed, so that smoking a cigarette today in public constitutes an act of utter rebellion. Where we once made the cigarette a symbol of sophistication and elegance, today we demonize smokers, forcing them to pay heavy taxes on a pleasure or a habit even as we forbid them the enjoyment of that pleasure. The same governments, both state and national, that so harshly condemn smoking allow wine and beer in every corner gas station, permit pornography on the Internet, promote the teaching of ridiculous ideas in schools and in the public arena, permit the consumption of legalized addictive drugs, and even authorizes the dropping of bombs on innocent peoples. No smoking, though: tobacco, even in the form of a pipe or a cigar, may kill you.
Smokers, ex-smokers and perhaps even a few non-smokers will enjoy Luc SanteÕs funereal celebration of tobacco.


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This is what happens when you try to put on 15 hours of continuous live coverage of an inherently boring event. Like there weren't already enough senile old men rambling at NFL Live desk.
In a moment of late-round brevity that Erin Andrews will almost certainly regret, she tried to simultaneously interview Texas wideout Quan Cosby and former pudding aficionado Bill Cosby during Day 2 of the NFL Draft. Bill invited Quan to hang out with him on draft day because ... they have the same last name. That's it. They aren't related at all and they went to two different schools, but don't try to make sense of it.
Click to viewDo you think Bill Cosby is putting on his loony old man persona as an act or is he really just losing his mind? If you knew he was doing it on purpose in an effort to get laughs, would that make it sadder?
By the way, Quan did not even get drafted, reminding us once again that the struggle of life—much like live seventh-round coverage—is futile.
Inside The Cosby Draft Room [ESPN]
Cosby will sign with Bengals [Bevo Beat]


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No one wants to be the girl who can't afford concert tickets, let alone college. Sometimes the stress of seeing how fast bills add up for tuition, textbooks, and all the extras of college life is more than girls can handle—and that's when get-rich-quick ideas get very tempting. "My friend and I used to joke, 'Wouldn't it be nice to have some sugar daddy pay for everything?' " says Lauren*, 22, from Boston, Massachusetts. "But half of me thought, 'Yeah, it would be nice.'"
Girls who are paid for dates with older men are called "sugar babies," and sites that make connections between the two, like seekingarrangement.com and sugardaddie.com, are gaining more popularity—especially on prestigious college campuses. In fact, 44 percent of seekingarrangement.com's users are students, and universities like Georgia State, Temple, and Columbia are among the fastest-growing schools on the site. "I heard about 'sugaring' years ago, on MTV's True Life," remembers Ava*, 20, from New York. "My tuition bills were huge, and it sounded so easy on the show, so I signed up."
If you're frantic to make ends meet, big paydays offered by sugaring may sound great, but there is significant danger— girls risk tremendous harm, from assault to rape. "Any guy who has to pay for dates is obviously a weirdo," says Katie*, 19, from San Francisco, California, who accepted a date for payoff on Craigslist. "There are a lot of skeevy guys out there."
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As an out-of-state student, Ava had tuition bills that were too high for her family, even with financial aid and paychecks from her two work-study jobs. "I have siblings who need to go to school, too," Ava says. So without telling anyone, she signed up on seekingarrangement.com last year.
Ava began talking to guys who promised her more money for one date than she'd make in two weeks at her jobs. But she knew meeting strangers could be dangerous, so "on my first date, I carried pepper spray and told a friend to raise the alarm if she didn't get a text from me within a half hour," she says. Ava's date, a retired man in his mid-fifties, "basically wanted someone to hang out with when he was bored." They set up movie and dinner dates and planned a trip to the zoo. In exchange, "He bought my textbooks and gave me up to $400 per date," she says. "The cash went right to my bank account—I am saving for veterinary school."
Ava tells people the money comes from her part-time jobs. "I don't feel guilty—I need to support myself," she says. "But I don't think others would understand my decision to be a sugar baby, even though I don't do anything sexual." Without the physical stuff, Ava says it's harder to find sugar daddies who want to keep seeing her. "It's a game: How long can I keep him interested?" she says. "I'm selling sex appeal, not sex."
For Lauren, stress from paying her own tuition and rent made it hard to enjoy college. Then she heard about sugaring. "When I first went on [the site], I thought, How am I actually going to go through with this? Like, What am I doing on here?" She eventually decided she'd be okay getting physical with someone if it meant she could stop scrimping. Over lunch with a man she met on seekingarrangement.com, she asked how an "arrangement" would work. "He said he'd pay $500 a week and asked how far I'd go sexually," she says. "I decided the terms, so I didn't feel like I had to do anything I wouldn't do with a boyfriend." Ultimately, Lauren ended things because she just couldn't keep faking she was attracted to him.
Katie wasn't looking for an "arrangement" but was swayed by the promise of quick cash. "I saw an ad on Craigslist that said, 'Generous guy seeking cute girl to spoil [for] $500,' " she says. "How could I not click?" When she met her date at a hotel restaurant, he gave her $150 right away, so she felt as if she had to stay. Then the date got sketchy. "He rushed me to finish my drink. Then he put his hand on my leg and asked me to go upstairs for $1,500—I knew what he expected," Katie says. "I made an excuse and left. If we had been alone, I don't think he would have taken no for an answer." Katie was able to leave the situation without being harmed, but that's not always the case for other girls. A Florida man named Marcelo Alves is facing life in prison after raping a woman he met on sugardaddyforme.com. Alves used a fake profile picture, and then assaulted his date at knifepoint when they met. "Not every guy out there just wants to help you pay your bills," says Ava. "There are a lot of predators on these sites."
Casey*, 22, from Houston, Texas, thought a few dates with men from sugardaddyforme.com could help her buy the car she needed to get to class. But most guys she met wanted a commitment. "One guy asked me to move in with him!" she says. "He promised me $10,000 a month! The money was tempting, but the expectations of a round-the-clock 'arrangement' were too much."
Casey started wondering if she was making an awful trade-off: money for her self-respect. Around that time, she met her current boyfriend. When she told him about sugaring, "He gave me an ultimatum—him or that lifestyle." Casey realized the money wasn't worth what she was risking: her safety and her chance at a real relationship. "In the end, I felt better after I decided to leave the site."
*Name has been changed


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Want To Know What Winning The Lottery Is Like?
This man in the yellow is assumed to have one-half of the Powerball jackpot. he bought the ticket in Arizona, but lives in Maryland. The store clerks claim the man had all the correct numbers. Watch his reaction when he finds out he won.


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PASADENA, Calif. -- Posing for portraits for NASA's Cassini spacecraft, Saturn and its largest moon, Titan, show spectacular colors in a quartet of images being released today. One image captures the changing hues of Saturn's northern and southern hemispheres as they pass from one season to the next.
The images can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://ciclops.org .
A wide-angle view in today's package captures Titan passing in front of Saturn, as well as the planet's changing colors. Upon Cassini's arrival at Saturn eight years ago, Saturn's northern winter hemisphere was an azure blue. Now that winter is encroaching on the planet's southern hemisphere and summer on the north, the color scheme is reversing: blue is tinting the southern atmosphere and is fading from the north.
The other three images depict the newly discovered south polar vortex in the atmosphere of Titan, reported recently by Cassini scientists. Cassini's visible-light cameras have seen a concentration of yellowish haze in the detached haze layer at the south pole of Titan since at least March 27. Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer spotted the massing of clouds around the south pole as early as May 22 in infrared wavelengths. After a June 27 flyby of the moon, Cassini released a dramatic image and movie showing the vortex rotating faster than the moon's rotation period. The four images being released today were acquired in May, June and July of 2012.
Some of these views, such as those of the polar vortex, are only possible because Cassini's newly inclined -- or tilted -- orbits allow more direct viewing of the polar regions of Saturn and its moons.
Scientists are looking forward to seeing more of the same -- new phenomena like Titan's south polar vortex and changes wrought by the passage of time and seasons -- during the remainder of Cassini's mission.
"Cassini has been in orbit now for the last eight years, and despite the fact that we can't know exactly what the next five years will show us, we can be certain that whatever it is will be wondrous," said Carolyn Porco, imaging team lead based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
Launched in 1997, Cassini went into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. It is in its second mission extension, known as the Solstice Mission, and one of its main goals is to analyze seasonal changes in the Saturn system.
"It is so fantastic to experience, through the instruments of Cassini, seasonal changes in the Saturn system," said Amanda Hendrix, deputy project scientist, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Some of the changes we see in the data are completely unexpected, while some occur like clockwork on a seasonal timescale. It's an exciting time to be at Saturn."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.


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In sickness and in health… regardless of religion or cultural background, this vow usually makes its way into most wedding ceremonies. But how many of us in our relative youth at that time, actually truly understand what those words mean. "In health" is the easy part of course but what happens when unexpectedly some sort of chronic, serious illness decides to intrude on your perfect union?
That's exactly what my husband Arun and I faced over fourteen years ago. We were married just five years when my symptoms began. And despite my desire to hide my head in the sand, he's the one who encouraged me not to ignore the tremor. He was the one I ran to, my eyes full of angry tears, after the first neurologist had the gall to tell me he felt I had young onset Parkinson's. He sat holding my hand when months later the second well-renowned movement disorder specialist confirmed this life sentence despite my desire to be absolved from the initial diagnosis.
He listened to what my physicians were recommending and took care of the practical side of things when all I heard were words and nothing was registering. And he was the one who [...] continue the story


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Call us today at 800.218.6727


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Collaborating Satellite Missions
Collaborating Satellite Missions
Collaborating Satellite Missions
Take part in GLOBE Campaigns related to NASA Missions: Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites – R Series (GOES-18), Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission (SMAP), Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM), CloudSat and CALIPSO.
A summary document of GLOBE Schools and NASA Satellite missions is available for download.
To stay connected to the GLOBE Partner Satellite Missions, be sure to sign up to receive communications about the missions.
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites - R Series (GOES-18)
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites – R Series (GOES-18) is the next generation of geostationary Earth-observing systems. The advanced spacecraft and instrument technology employed by the GOES-18 series will provide significant improvements in the detection and observations of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety, protection of property and our nation's economic health and prosperity.
The GOES-18 program is a collaborative development and acquisition effort between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The first satellite in the GOES-18 series is scheduled for launch in October 2016.
Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission (SMAP)
The NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission provides measurements of soil moisture and freeze/thaw state. The SMAP Mission produces daily maps of soil moisture with global coverage every three days.
The SMAP team is looking for GLOBE Program students to take measurements at their schools. Students can compare these remotely sensed SMAP data to the actual soil moisture data they collect at their school locations.
Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM)
Water participates in many important natural chemical reactions and is a good solvent. Changing any part of the Earth system, such as the amount or type of vegetation in a region or from natural land cover to an impervious one, can affect the rest of the system. Rain and snow capture aerosols from the air. Acidic water slowly dissolves rocks, placing dissolved solids in water. Dissolved or suspended impurities determine water's chemical composition. Current measurement programs in many areas of the world cover only a few water bodies a few times during the year. GLOBE students provide valuable data to help fill these gaps and improve our understanding of Earth's natural waters.
Clouds influence Earth's weather and climate. They bringing water from the air to the ground and from one region of the globe to another. Clouds also have a large impact on Earth's radiation budget; even small changes in cloud abundance or distribution could affect climate.
GLOBE students and teachers can collect and enter data that will be compared to CloudSat measurements. CloudSat, in turn, contributes Earth science learning opportunities to lifelong learners and shares the results of CloudSats scientific research mission to improve our understanding of clouds and global climate change.
Aerosols, both natural and human-caused, can affect weather and climate. Launched on 28 April 2006 along with CloudSat, CALIPSO's mission is to study the role that clouds and aerosols play in regulating Earth's weather, climate and air quality. Both satellites fly in formation as a part of the international "A-Train" (Afternoon) constellation. CALIPSO is a collaborative NASA/CNES (Centre national d'études spatiales) satellite mission to profile the vertical distribution of clouds and aerosols and their role in the heating and/or cooling of Earth using lidar. CALIPSO and other A-Train satellites will substantially increase our understanding of the climate system.
The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2, or ICESat-2, will measure the height of a changing Earth, using technology that takes 10,000 laser pulse measurements per second. ICESat-2 will carry a photon-counting laser altimeter that will allow scientists to measure the elevation of trees, ice sheets, glaciers, and more.
The Trees Around the GLOBE campaign, launched in conjunction with ICESat-2, compares student tree height data with ICESat-2 measurements. The tree height data can then be complemented with additional GLOBE protocol data for use in student research.


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Minnesota not alone in debating gun laws
ST. PAUL -- Minnesota legislators are considering gun-related laws at the same time lawmakers in other states are walking similar paths. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week signed legislation fortifying the state's existing assault weapon ba...
ST. PAUL -- Minnesota legislators are considering gun-related laws at the same time lawmakers in other states are walking similar paths.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week signed legislation fortifying the state's existing assault weapon ban and limiting size of ammunition magazines allowed in guns. The new law also requires that the state be notified of potentially dangerous behavior by mentally ill New Yorkers.
New York legislative control is split between Democrats and Republicans, yet they agreed on strengthening laws that already are tougher than in Minnesota.
Proposals in Minnesota to ban assault weapons and large clips of bullets have questionable futures because Democrats who offered them cannot count on rural Democratic support. But there is more support to keep guns away from potentially dangerous people.
Outside the New Jersey Capitol last week, about 1,000 gun-rights activists protested debate to further restrict guns in that state.
After the protest, legislative Democrats announced they would take up 24 bills designed to control gun violence. They could receive Assembly votes next week.
In California, law enforcement officials and gun-safety advocates announced a package of bills that would close loopholes in existing gun laws and attempt to keep guns away from dangerous people. The package also would increase gun education requirements.
In Denver, a Colorado House committee took much of Tuesday debating gun legislation to increase gun-buyer background checks and limit how many bullets can be in clips.
In Montana, the state Sheriff's and Peace Officers' Association prepared a letter explaining they oppose any laws that erodes gun-ownership rights.
"The MSPOA feels that any legislation that takes away constitutional protections, including gun rights, from law-abiding citizens will not alleviate or eliminate the threat from violent or mentally ill individuals," the letter says. "In fact, it would expose our law-abiding neighbors to violence with fewer resources to counter them with."
The law enforcement group says no gun-control bills have been introduced in the Montana Legislature they oppose, but they are concerned some could be.
The Web site Business Insider reports that one factor making passing gun restrictions difficult is that nearly 100,000 people work in the gun industry.
While states are looking at gun bills, so are Congress and President Barack Obama.
Debate is the rule
Republicans fought nearly 10 hours to change rules proposed by Democrats about how the House operates.
But Democrats won out, creating a requirement that any amendments be filed 24 hours before the chamber debates a bill. The change passed on a 69-59 vote early Tuesday.
Republicans said that requirement stifles their ability to attempt to change bills.
Democrats said the new deadline gives the public a better chance to learn about amendments. Old rules allowed amendments to be introduced on the spur of the moment, which Democrats said created legislation being written in the dark of night.
"Too often, we've made mistakes as a result of doing amendments late in the night and on the fly, without preparation," House Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul.
Republican countered with charges that the change gives majority Democrats more power.
Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, said the need for amendments sometimes is not known until legislators begin debating a bill. He said the rule will restrict and silence members.
Grants available
Sen. LeRoy Stumpf, DFL-Plummer, suggests that colleges, universities and technical schools apply for a new grant program designed to help increase graduation rates for at-risk students.
The College Success grant will provide up to $300,000 in grants. They are to help students from low-income homes and those with other obstacles to completing college.
"The goal of the College Success grant is to help students who enroll in college, stay in college until they graduate," Stumpf said. "These grants help students from low income backgrounds, and those who are first in the family to attend college receive the additional support they need to stay in college and complete their studies."