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Kaylee and Flywheel
There wasn't much in the way of personal possessions that Kaylee wanted to pack, but every mechanical part required and deserved special consideration in case it may be needed at home, and mayn't where she was headed. As she threw clothing into her bag, Flywheel sorted the rare varieties of nut and bolt and chip and wire, separating them with his deft tiny hands to be placed in containers.
The voice in the open doorway, behind her and blocked from Flywheel's line of sight, took them by surprise: "I don't like this."
Kaylee didn't rise from her knees, but she immediately stopped what she was doing, twisting to look over her shoulder. "Daddy, it's a job!"
He was hovering in the doorway, rubbing anxiously at the bridge of his long nose. His daemon, a mallard duck, quacked at Kaylee but wouldn't come into the room. "I know it, I know it," he replied. "I just don't like you takin' off to the big empty hardly knowin' a whit about this ship or them who runs it."
"Well as to that, the ship's a Firefly," said Kaylee, returning to folding her clothes to set them in her bag. "We ain't seen a Firefly hereabouts in an age, huh? Just pieces of 'em comin' through the market. I had Bester take me inside this one for a look and we took to each other right away. Her name's Serenity. I got her engine runnin' and the cap'n was so pleased he offered me Bester's place as mechanic on the spot." She froze again, struck with a sudden thought. "Oh, poor Bester!"
Flywheel finished with the nuts and jumped to her shoulder to nuzzle her ear. "He'll be fine."
"Jian ta de gui, girl, it ain't that bush-louse Bester I'm concernin' about!" Daddy exploded. The duck stretched out and flapped her wings, stirring up the dust that had traveled in on Daddy's boots.
Kaylee stood up, stretching to relieve the cramps from kneeling too long. "I hear that, Daddy, but I can swear to it, everything's gonna be shiny. Anyway, there ain't much of a choice anymore, right? Our prospects are fallin' through left n' right. Best bet for work is off-planet, and I'm the only one as can aweigh with ease to send money back to you."
To emphasize the point, Flywheel launched from her shoulder and soared down to the floor, landing squarely in front of Daddy's daemon. Nose to beak, they regarded each other for a moment, and then the duck bent her long neck and pulled a single feather from her wing, offering it to Flywheel.
"Don't forget where you come from," Daddy said, his voice husky with emotion.
The rest of her goodbyes were no easier, but Flywheel clung to the feather and rubbed his soft face against her neck and whispered to her about all of the amazing things they would see and do out in the Verse.
On board Serenity, everything fell into place. She met the crew, tossed her bag into a room of her very own, and helped the pilot get the ship into the air with a whoop. Kaylee emerged from the engine room greasy and smiling, only to be stopped in her tracks on her way back to her new bunk.
Standing in the corridor was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, wearing the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. A long-legged bird with a magnificent crest struck a pose beside her, personifying grace. Kaylee hadn't thought that such an exotic daemon could even exist.
The stranger's eyes swept up and down, and Kaylee's cheeks burned with shame, knowing how she must look in comparison to such elegance. She began to stammer out an apology, but then a smooth pale hand was extended, for all the world like it expected to be shaken. "Hello. You must be the new mechanic. Mal has been telling us stories of your brilliance all day."
"Don't touch her!" Flywheel blurted out. "You're all dirty!"
"He means me," Kaylee clarified hastily. "I'm real sorry, it's sure a pleasure to meet you, but here I'm gettin' in your way when you must be off somewhere....distinguished."
"I'm not going anywhere," the woman laughed. "If my hand gets a smudge, that's what sinks are for. My name is Inara. This is Mosaic."
The crane dipped his head in greeting. Flywheel glided down to the floor, and Kaylee watched as the two daemons touched, nose to beak.
Inara and Mosaic
Whenever Inara was beautifying herself on the day of an engagement, Mosaic always spent the time preening. He began as she was towelling off from her shower, and as she dressed, arranged her hair, and applied her makeup, he moved from feather to feather, conversing with her between each one. Without fail they would finish at the same moment, Inara feeling satisfied that the image in the mirror was the one that she wanted the client to see, and Mosaic looking much the same, to the naked eye, as he always did.
Today, it was unlikely that anyone but the crew would see her, but she and Mosaic went through their routine just the same. The Guild's teaching was to cultivate the habit of peak physical presentation until it became a part of oneself, and it had been years since Inara had felt comfortable wearing a casual outfit. The reasons behind the custom were practical as well as psychological -- a client might seek her out at any time, and it was equally damaging to appear onscreen looking slovenly as it was to reject the call -- but what mattered most to her was taking pride in her own work. She appreciated the face in the mirror, flawless and contented.
"I'm still uncertain about the young man on Persephone," she said to Mosaic as she selected a palette of eyeshadow. "To be quite honest, if you hadn't formed such a fixation on his daemon, I don't think I would have paid him a second thought."
The crane's sinuous neck swiveled to regard her over his back. "Fixation? I simply pointed out that we had never seen one like her before."
Inara laughed gently, remembering. "A wallaby. But you did like her. And so did I."
"I would dance for her," he stated. It was a promise he never made lightly, and not for every client that they had agreed upon together. Mosaic's dance was beyond the mating display of any bird in nature. Every daemon who had been privileged enough to see it had been captivated. "But you'll need to make up your mind about the man, first."
She hesitated, the makeup brush halfway to her face. "I trust your judgment, Mosaic." It was nothing but the truth. The Guild encouraged voluble conversation with one's daemon whenever there was a private opportunity, as a way to work through any misgivings or complicated feelings and stay centered. Inara's relationship with Mosaic had been completely healthy for as long as he had had his adult form.
"But you're afraid he'll try to touch me. Aren't you?" He shook his crest and turned his attention back to his feathers, but not before adding, "I am."
Inara sighed. "If only they would read the terms." Most of them did, of course; it was a legal document, and not one to be taken lightly. But a sexually stimulated man could too easily reach out in a fit of passion, craving more connection, forgetting the limitations of this kind of union. And the senator's son with the wallaby daemon, however swai his smile, was so young...
"I know who we should talk to," said Mosaic.
"Why should we talk to anyone?"
He continued as if she hadn't spoken. "The Shepherd. Pukutino. There's no need to tell him the details."
There was no need to tell him anything at all. Inara said as much, in clear phrasing, and her daemon nodded along and preened and preened until she had fastened the last pin into her elegantly cascading curls, and she thought that the topic was closed.
A few hours later she found herself deep in conversation with Shepherd Book. It was purely philosophical, of course, but when she hinted that she had some experience with non-consensual daemon touching, his sympathy was almost as comforting as the sizable gap he kept between himself and Mosaic.
Shepherd Book and Pukutino
Book found it amusing that so many liked to call him "preacher" when they had never heard him preach. The crew would probably be surprised to even find that he could; to them, the title of Shepherd meant that he read his Bible a lot and didn't date. Those who were curious about his past were curious about the violent parts, and they knew better than to ask him about those.
But not everything was a secret. He wished he could have shown them how he would create a congregation out of thin air on the outer planets, in open-air chapels or town squares or any empty space. It might begin with a conversation among believers who wanted his advice, and then someone would overhear and ask a theological question, and more would gather as he offered them all that he knew. Or he might be asked in advance to speak -- settlements without a Shepherd in residence would perform their own blessings and rituals, but if he volunteered to deliver a sermon, he was seldom turned down.
As the crowd began to form, the clear high chirp of a cricket would draw them together. Heads turned to find the source of the unexpected sound, which rang out in the early morning or high noon or dead of night, any season on any planet. Some laughed when they realized it was just a daemon, perched on Book's hand, which he held flat in front of him at chest level. Some wandered off at that point, uninterested in what would happen next.
Those who remained, remained in a hush, and the hush was never broken no matter how many joined the throng as the sermon played out. Sometimes he made a joke, and there would be laughter; sometimes he asked a question, and there would be answers; almost always, he would invite them to chant or sing with him, and then the joyful sound would ring out like thunder...but with the odd, very rare exception, nobody interrupted. Nobody tried to shout him down. The cricket's song had cast a spell that held them there long after it ended.
Those who wanted to hear it again were not disappointed. Book would give his final blessing, and a different kind of music would fill the air: the ethereal sounds of nature given human intelligence and artistry. Children hugged daemons to their chests in the shapes of rabbits and dogs, and stared with wide eyes. Some of their parents might wipe away a tear as the last notes faded.
He felt a sincere kinship with everyone he met on these occasions, but he rarely forged a friendship that outlasted his time on their planet. That there was sorrow behind him, that the cricket's name was Pukutino, that he would rather skip a meal than choke down another plate of the Alliance's freeze-dried beans -- none of that served a purpose, not when they had come to hear about God.
On Serenity it was different. Malcolm would stride past and hurl out a cheerfully sarcastic question about why God couldn't be bothered to send a little windfall to folks in dire straits, and his daemon, trotting along in his wake, would look up to Book's shoulder and pin her ears back at Pukutino.
Without really meaning to, Book began writing a sermon in his head that he knew he would never have the chance to give. It was Mal's daemon who inspired it, one day when he was trying to figure out exactly what breed of dog she was, and noticed something profoundly sad in her dark eyes. It was likely that Mal's origins were in a place where every other person you met would have a dog just like her: a working animal, faithful and intelligent and sociable. Bred for herding sheep.
The title of 'Shepherd' was, of course, an unofficial name for priests, brought into common usage when people began to object to the more traditional 'Father'. In Book's imaginary sermon, he explained that he liked the image that the word shepherd evoked, and that it was the same word for a man in a field at night and for a dog that looked like Malcolm's Mary Ellen. He went on to talk about how the purpose of the metaphor was not to portray others as mindless sheep, but to show that they were valued, worthy of protection and guidance.
He knew that he wouldn't reach Mal with a sermon. But he hoped that one day it would occur to him on his own: there were two Shepherds on Serenity.
Malcolm and Mary Ellen
As a child, Mal used to love stories about the Sunset Riders, a band of nomads whose daemons had settled as horses. Too big to be brought safely into normal accommodations, the herd would run together over the plains all day, and set up camps at night so that there would never be more than a sheet of canvas between Rider and daemon.
In truth, he had thought that they were only a legend, at first. Once or twice he even saw one with his own eyes and remained unaware, for when they came into town to trade they wore a perfect disguise: a saddle and bridle on the horse, tailed by a sheepdog. The illusion was broken only if the dog ran away or the horse spoke, which did happen occasionally. It was a safe little town, and the Sunset Riders could relax their guard there.
The earliest memories that Mal could summon had Mary Ellen as a pony, and when he got old enough to go off on his own, she was a buckskin mare as often as she wasn't. They rode out as far as they dared, and sometimes they would glimpse the Sunset herd from afar, ambling along on their varied horse-daemons with a string of pack mules following to carry their gear.
He had found a picture in a magazine once, an artist's rendition of a Sunset Rider on his daemon with a topless woman up there with him, face to face, kissing him while her songbird daemon perched on his shoulder. Mal thought it was the sexiest thing he had ever seen. He ripped out the page and hid it carefully but took it out almost every night for months.
One day that would be him, when Mary Ellen finally settled and they joined the Sunset herd and had all kinds of adventures and let pretty girls ride double with him. He dutifully learned the trade from his family, but informed them all along that it was only temporary and they'd better have a backup plan for when he grew up. His father had laughed. "When I was your age, I was gonna be a star captain," he said. "You hold onto those dreams, son. Mary Ellen will tell you when it's time to let 'em go."
Mary Ellen, who had been kneading the bed in the form of a cat, sat up indignantly and stalked outside, and took her horse form as soon as Mal was out the door. "We'll show him," she said, and knelt to let him mount.
After his father died there had been no time for dreams. He no longer practiced the trade to keep his mother happy but to keep her alive. Mary Ellen was whatever she had to be, until she had been a border collie for a week and confessed to him that she didn't know at what point she had lost the ability to be anything else.
Somehow, losing the chance to be a Rider made it easier to adjust when they went off to war. The future had been taken from them once; why shouldn't it change again? Mary Ellen wasn't a born fighter, but she could handle herself, and she knew how to lead. They rose quickly through the ranks.
During a long spell of downtime, Mal found he was able to tell Zoe about the Sunset Riders without a trace of bitterness, just because she was curious. He even laughed as he described that picture he had sweated over, finding it in his mind's eye and realizing how hideously malproportioned it had really been. "And I wanted to be that buckaroo," he chuckled. "Gracious Lord did intervene, praise Him."
She smiled too, but her question caught him off guard: "How do you know the buckaroo was the Sunset Rider?"
"Shuh muh?"
"If the man and the girl were both on the horse, and the bird was on his shoulder, how do you know the horse was his daemon? Maybe she was the Sunset Rider." She raised an eyebrow. Her daemon Trygg, a born fighter if Mal had ever seen one, pulled his lips back over a mouthful of gleaming fangs.
Mal looked at Mary Ellen, and she looked at him. "That does change matters a mite, don't it?" she said.
Zoe, the truest friend a man could ask for, never told a soul about the picture. Of course, she never let him forget about it, either.
Zoe and Trygg
People underestimated Trygg all the time. He was dismissed offhand as a housecat, and even mistaken for a weasel once or twice. If Zoe had been looking for love, she probably would have encouraged the misconceptions, and tried to make her daemon purr and sit primly like the kind of domestic creature that men found desirable in a wife. But she was a warrior, and Trygg was a wildcat, and they had better ways to turn a misconception to their advantage.
After too many battles under her belt to count, Zoe knew what to expect when the two sides first faced each other in close combat. Nobody would target an evenly matched opponent if they had any choice in the matter. They went for whoever they thought they could defeat, so they could keep fighting instead of dying in the first round. Most never even realized that they were choosing; it was simply what happened.
Inevitably, a big man with a big daemon would take a look at Zoe, and focus on her in a way that made Trygg hiss, "He's yours." She was ready, when the man attacked. He, on the other hand, was never quite ready for her.
The daemon counterpart was always a fierce creature, a mastiff or wolverine or boa constrictor -- something that could make short work of a jaguarundi. They always knew it, too, so they never realized until it was too late that Trygg had one more thing to say before he took off at top speed: "She's mine." And then he would attack someone else's daemon.
It wasn't fair play, splitting up during a fight. It simply wasn't done. But Zoe had learned, early and firmly, that the battlefield was no place for etiquette, and the moment of confusion that it caused when Trygg slipped away like a shadow had saved her life again and again. She was haunted by memories of daemons skidding to a halt, looking around in open astonishment, and then vanishing into Dust as she dispatched their humans. By that time, Trygg would be locked in combat with a cat his own size, or a bird, and Zoe had an opening to back him up and get her second kill.
When there was a chance to safely sleep, she curled herself around him and asked if they really had the right. His answer was always the same: "It's no more than they'd do to us. It's survival. If a man threatens us, you deal with him. If a rat threatens us, I devour her."
They had followed Malcolm Reynolds into Serenity, twice, before she realized she had been asking the wrong question. Trygg had spent years stalking at her side with pinned ears and bristling whiskers, and when they were alone, he was still taut and alert, ready to face anything. She yearned to see him play, maybe roll onto his back and bat his paws at her. Somehow, he couldn't process that they were safe now, and she thought she knew why.
"Can we be forgiven?" she whispered to him at last, and his answer came in a heaving sigh. "I don't know."
He was the spirit of violence. When he looked at another daemon, his only thought was to whether it was stronger or weaker than he was -- what kind of chance he would have if it came to a fight. Mary Ellen was exempt; he was accustomed to obeying her. He could be kind to the small and frail, knowing them to be harmless. But when that chatty pilot with his ridiculous mustache and his chatty woodpecker joined the crew, Trygg made a point of informing Zoe, in confidence, "I could catch her and crush her in my jaws and it would take me no more than ten seconds."
She put all of her energy into unlearning war, and did her best to tolerate Wash and the thousand little annoyances that he brought with him. Gradually, she could see improvement. Her flashbacks came less frequently, and Trygg developed a peaceful way of washing his face while she read the news in the morning. She stopped trying to give Wash a hard time, or maybe he stopped trying to bother her.
The morning after the first time she slept with him, Trygg lay down across his bare chest, purring for all he was worth and flexing his claws in the air. Zoe jumped, sending Constance into a flutter, and then sat back and laughed in unbridled joy.
She had been such a fool. Trygg had been a fool, she could see it now clearly. The answer had been here all along. They were forgiven.
Wash and Constance
The joke was that New Cali, the city where Wash grew up, was the Rodent Capital of the Verse. Nearly everyone you met there had rat or squirrel or gerbil daemons, riding on shoulders or tucked in pockets, staying out of the way. It made some sense, given the overpopulation problem, that daemons would mature into forms that didn't take much space, but nobody seemed to question the lack of flying creatures. Even city birds, like sparrows and pigeons, were as rare as tigers.
"It's the sky," Constance would tell him, even as she defiantly tried out every kind of bird that she could imagine. "It's boring and it smells like niou-se. Nobody wants to fly in it."
But Wash did want to fly. There was no flight school on the planet, so he set his sights off-world and studied what he could in the meantime. Books were good and computers were better, and he hung around spaceports whenever possible until pilots started to recognize him and laugh whenever they spotted the scrawny kid scoping out their ships and taking notes on their landings.
In spite of all that, his first real breakthrough came from Constance. She was swooping lazily around his room as a parakeet, and he was watching her flight path when he suddenly realized that the similarity between birds and spacecrafts was not just metaphorical. Nature had perfected aerodynamic travel long before human hands ever built an engine. "Do that launch again!" he said excitedly, and then, "Be a bigger bird and do it again!" and then "Come here and let me look at your wings! They're shaped different! That's why you took off different!"
She spent most of the next day as a bat. Following that, she was various species of insect, which proved to be even more enlightening: the anatomy of a beetle was nothing at all like a dragonfly or a bumblebee, let alone a bird or mammal. He made careful comparisons, sketching outlines of her wings each time and looking up facts about each animal, but they both soon grew weary of bugs. She wasn't meant to be anything but a bird.
When she settled, though, it was as one of the only types of flighted avian that she had never tried before: a woodpecker with a long neck and a bright red crest, large enough to soar high but small enough to sit comfortably on his shoulder. "Starship accommodations tend toward a paucity of wood," he warned her as they prepared to finally leave for flight school.
"Then I'll have to peck on your skull," she replied cheerfully.
As soon as they were enrolled, they began to see bird daemons on every shoulder, future pilots all of them. Wash was sure he had found his place, and his people.
That impression died quickly. Sometimes he seemed like the only one here who actually wanted to learn, who cared about aerodynamic theory and had independently studied techniques that he wouldn't have a chance to implement until he was licensed. At other times, he could see how far his New Cali background had set him behind, and so could his peers, and they relished it. The only reason anyone was here was to build a foundation for a good career and move on, anyway. Wash didn't get depressed, exactly, but he didn't talk much either, except to Constance and that only when they were alone.
His first real job was on a freight ship with a crew of two hundred. At least eighty percent of them had reptilian or amphibious daemons. They were nice people, for the most part, but he had started to feel that he knew exactly what to expect when he met someone with a lizard on his shoulder, and that these weren't his people either.
Serenity came along only after he had plenty of jobs and crews under his belt for comparison. She was the smallest ship he had ever travelled on, yet somehow the most diverse. There was no "typical" daemon here. A dog, a crane, a cricket...he asked Zoe, once they had gotten to know each other, if she found it peculiar at all, and she didn't know what he meant. The Browncoats had been a ragtag bunch, too, where you'd rarely see the same kind of daemon twice.
Wash replied that he hadn't seen a hyena daemon even once, which was the truth. He supposed most people would look at her and make the reasonable assumption that Jayne was a dangerous, opportunistic thug, but he also had the feeling that most thugs stayed dangerous because the people they met let themselves get pushed around. Constance wasn't even wary around the hyena.
Instead, she found a way to amuse herself by dive-bombing Jaxon whenever she and Jayne weren't looking. It resulted in some pretty scary-sounding snarls and a lot of incredulous looks from the rest of the crew, but Constance never lost a feather and Wash never got bullied.
It all worked out. Nobody here was anything like him. He had found his people.
Jayne and Jaxon
Everywhere he went it was always the same ruttin' joke: "Which one's Jaxon and which one's Jayne?" Sometimes maybe it weren't a joke so much as folk couldn't fathom the fact, plain as day, that a man could be named Jayne and a man's daemon didn't have to be a deviant to bear the name of Jaxon.
She was the biggest and the toughest on Serenity, though that weren't to say much. Mal had that dog with the tail always windshield-wiping, nothing to strike fear in a heart. Zoe's weaselly brown cat, now, if he were a mite bigger he'd give Jaxon a run for the money, but he weren't, so he didn't.
The rest of 'em didn't factor. Kaylee's little flying rodent could get swallowed whole if Jaxon decided one day she didn't like him. Jayne thought it was fair in the meanwhile to stop letting that stripey-faced fuzzball land on her face and ride around on her head, but Jaxon never gave him more than a half-assed growl about it. Kaylee would look down and make little cooing noises about how cute they were, and Jayne couldn't tell Jaxon to cut the crap and put her ferociousness back on, because there was a chance she'd ignore him and then everyone would see and laugh.
Inara had some kind of long-leg grass goose, which marked the first time a daemon had ever made Jayne curious, because what did a Companion's clients do with her daemon? Touch him all over, he guessed, but maybe more than that. Maybe the bird used them long feathers to tickle the customer's nethers. Maybe the Companion's daemon's job was to keep the fella occupied while the Companion picked up his daemon and touched her all over.
Jayne couldn't stop thinking about it. One day Inara looked at the mud still dried on Jaxon's legs from the last job, and said, real pleasant-like, "Mal has some brushes he uses on Mary Ellen. I'm sure Jaxon would like that too."
Jaxon herself rejected the idea with a disdainful snort, and Jayne guffawed and explained, "She ain't no pampered puppy like Mary Ellen. She'll get the muck off herself when the mood hits her."
Inara shrugged serenely. "It's always worthwhile to have some bonding time with your daemon."
"Bondin' time?" he echoed, but he saw his opening to finally ask. "Why? Whaddaya do with your daemon?"
She smiled. "I talk to him, of course."
Jayne and Jaxon shared a look of disbelieving. Why would anyone be needing to flap jaws with a partner that saw and heard everything you did, that knew what was in your head before you blurted it out anyway? Jaxon only ever spoke when she had something gorram useful to say, like "Duck" or "I smell food."
The preacher had a bug daemon, not even one with a sting. Wash had an annoying noisy bird that swooped at Jaxon for no reason and pecked on metal when she wanted attention.
That fancypants doc, now, his daemon mighta been the second one what set Jayne's mind to wondering. She was a brown rat creature, which the doc was always correcting about because he said she weren't no rat but a mink. "Ain't that just a variety o' rat?" Jayne asked, and Doc got bent outta shape like it was an insult. Like Jayne couldn't do better than that for an insult. Her name was Hysteria, or something like it. He got plenty of correction on that account, too, but he couldn't properly remember the name on her and didn't in particular care.
No, there was only one thing of interest 'bout the mink daemon, and that were due to the doc's kwong-juh duh sister. The witch, if ever there was one. The princess of raining danger on folks what was nearby.
The girl with no daemon.
There was some kinda story behind it but a sane world don't just accept an explaining for a daemonless human walking about like the living. She moved normal, she ate, she talked like a real person even if it didn't make no sense most of the time, and she knew she had something in the absent, but she couldn't give anyone a hint on when she'd seen him last. Even her high-falutin' brother didn't know where the gorram daemon had gone, or why she could still go on without it.
It was the doc's conviction that there was still something there to heal, and hell if he didn't marry hisself to finding an answer, but Jayne didn't know what he thought was a best case for a condition like the girl had. Was he gonna make her a new daemon? Trick her mind so's she thought she didn't need one?
Or was he planning to share Hysteria with her? The Tams spent a lot of time alone together. It gave Jayne chills to think about -- he liked some kink, but they was brother and sister. Maybe all they did in there was talk, like Inara and her educated bird.
But River never looked more normal than when she had her eyes on Simon's daemon. Something was up with them.
Simon and Asteria
"I'm okay," said Asteria softly, but there was strain in her bright black eyes. "She needed that. It wasn't too much."
Simon picked her up, one hand under her chest, the other cradling her hind end, and held her against his chest. On a better day she would have climbed to his shoulder, but she always took time to get her bearings after River had touched her. It seemed to be taking more out of her each time. River was becoming more reluctant to accept the invitation. River needed it more than ever.
When he rescued her he hadn't known what to expect, but not this. He had seen her there, so alone, and his joy at finally coming to the end of his search evaporated as he realized it was only her body, so alone. He was too late and she was dead, and he hadn't even known that was a possibility. Then she spoke and he saw he was wrong again, but he was still too late, her daemon was gone and she was so, so alone.
The medications that he prescribed her helped with her mental health, to some extent, but he had no idea how to treat her for a lost daemon. He didn't think there was a doctor in the Verse who would know that, unless it was the ones who had done this to her. This was something spiritual, metaphysical. It should never have entered anyone's mind that this was so much as a risk.
So to ease her suffering, he began to let Asteria play the part of River's daemon. It was a poor substitute, but better than the stuffed animals that she held at night and eventually would rip to shreds in an ecstasy of grief. She was always tentative and ashamed when she stroked a hand down Asteria's back, lingering on the luxuriously soft chocolate brown fur. For his part, Simon would sit nearby, jaw clenched, looking at anything but his daemon and sister. Sometimes he threw up afterward.
It wasn't a sexual sensation, whatever the stereotypes said. It wasn't even a sense of violation -- he loved River, she loved him, and this was consensual. But a connection this intimate was never meant to be sustained between family members, even if both of them had been at peak mental stability. Sharing River's terror and emptiness was overwhelming for Asteria, who had once been so confident as she calmed and encouraged the daemons of Simon's patients.
He missed those days. The compartment under the operating table was large enough to accommodate as many daemons as there were humans on and around the table, but Asteria was the one who would take charge. "You've been injured," Simon could hear her say, even as he devoted all his attention to the patient's human body. "We're doing everything we can. You're in the hands of a highly experienced trauma surgeon…"
She still craved that connection, he came to understand, more than he craved the prestige and comfort of his former position. He had been content to know that he was helping people, but she needed to be close, to find recognition and regard, even if it lasted only an hour. On Serenity, she sought out Flywheel when Simon hadn't even realized he had been thinking about Kaylee; Asteria knew that if she lay down on a cushion, she would soon have the sugar glider cuddling up with her, letting her relax for once. She would have welcomed the attention from any daemon on the ship, but it was Flywheel who made her feel wanted.
"Her fur is so soft," said River as Simon recovered from the ordeal with Asteria in his hands.
He tried to smile. "I always thought she settled as a mink because they're discreet and they symbolize culture. Maybe the real reason was because someday you would need to pet her."
"No." River had that know-it-all tone that she still used to point things out, even if her understanding of the truth had become much less reliable as a source of knowledge. "Rich people on Earth That Was raised animals on fur farms and then slaughtered them and wore their skins as trophies. Like Reavers." She threw him a challenging look. "That's why Asteria is a mink."
Simon felt a wave of returning nausea, but said nothing. Asteria lifted her head weakly. Her voice was stern: "Hush, mei mei. This isn't a fur farm."
Later on, Simon had to do some explaining for the rest of the crew. Everyone had heard River screaming her lungs out from her bunk, and everyone knew that Simon had been in there with her. They even banged on the door, asking if he needed help, and he had just barely managed to convince them that he had it under control, so naturally they were all waiting when he and Asteria emerged, alone.
"It was just an episode," he assured them. "She's fine."
Mal's dog pinned her ears, and Mal elucidated, "Well it's a dazzlin' ray of sunshine to hear that, but might I introduce you to the idea that if that sweet sister of yours gets it in her head to wring some weasel neck while we ain't adjacent to change her mind, we'll all of us be a sizable distance from 'fine' next time an episode airs and her brother-doctor ain't alive to do anything about it."
Simon frowned, looking from face to face and finding only fear or stoic concern on all of them. "She wouldn't try to kill my daemon," he said. "Why...why would you think something like that?"
"We heard," Kaylee offered in a small voice. "We could hear some of what she was sayin'. 'Break her. Break her.'"
He wished he could have just told them all not to worry, that it wasn't what they thought, but he no longer had the luxury of safeguarding River's privacy over all. "That's not what she was saying," he admitted with a sigh. "It was 'Breaker', not 'Break her'."
"Does that have any special significance?" Inara inquired.
"Yes." Simon rubbed his hand over his face, trying not to think about how tired he was. "Her daemon was called Breaker."
A dismayed hush fell over the listeners, broken by Jayne's mutter: "Spookifyin' gorram name fer a daemon, y' ask me."
Simon excused himself, and tried to pretend he was busy in the infirmary.
Things got worse the next day, not only for Simon and River but for everybody, and he was glad he had left her safe on the ship with Shepherd Book. What had started as a routine job (smuggling, which Simon realized had somehow become 'routine' since he had come to Serenity) led them into a chaotic situation with the corrupt local government and an organized crime ring that was trying to intercept and exploit the band of refugees who were now stuck at the port.
Malcolm was making every attempt to help the refugees while at the same time turning a profit and convincing everyone that the latter motive was his only one. Kaylee disappeared for hours, finally turning up with a child under each arm and no way to find their parents. Zoe and Wash got separated from each other, too, and his woodpecker daemon panicked briefly and began pecking on a tin roof to draw his wife out, making a cacophony that terrified everyone in the vicinity. Through it all, people kept talking about a warlock or a devil hiding among them, with no clear description of who this person was or why he had them so unnerved.
Late in the afternoon, in the temporary shelter that had been staked in an abandoned area of the port, Simon found himself holding a gun to someone's head, and he knew it had gone too far. The standoff ended peacefully, and he retraced the steps that had brought him there and saw nothing that he could have done differently if given the chance, but he had no stomach for participating in this madness any longer no matter whose side he was on. He took Malcolm aside and thrust the gun back at him, handle first. "You didn't need my help here," he snapped. "Don't tell me I'm coming as a field medic when all you really wanted was to use me as a distraction."
Mal accepted and holstered the gun, unperturbed, but he was giving Simon a penetrating look, and his daemon was sniffing the ground and the air as if searching for something. "Damned if you don't distract with the best of 'em, though," he mused, stroking his chin.
Asteria bristled on Simon's shoulder. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You've been drawin' an abundance of eyes, Doc. Might be your fine features, then again, might not."
Simon covered his face with his hands, overwhelmed. Everyone on the crew had agreed that the multitude of warrants for his arrest couldn't have reached this backwater planet, but there was no other reason that he would be recognized. The Alliance had come for him, and he was going to be arrested any minute now. Him and River both. "You're imagining it," he informed Malcolm, a flimsy denial that got him nowhere.
"No," interjected Inara. "I noticed it too." She had been talking to everyone, everywhere, trying to work her way up to someone she could influence to make a difference, but it seemed like no such person existed. The government officials had no respect for Companions, and the local populace barely seemed to know what they were.
She glided closer, but instead of addressing Simon, she looked at the weary middle-aged man who had surrendered to Mal before it came to blows. "Why were you staring at him?" she asked. "He's the least threatening person here, but you were the most frightened of him."
The man didn't look happy about answering, but he knuckled his forehead respectfully, sensing that Inara's attire and manner signified her importance even if he didn't know the details. "Weren't afraid of him," he explained. "Thought he was someone else. Warlock, maybe."
Several voices groaned loudly, Simon's among them. "Not this again," he exhaled.
There was a flutter of protest from the man's crow daemon, and he responded in a more insistent tone, pointing toward Asteria. "But I can see it ain't you, on account o' your…"
He was interrupted by a scream, coming from someone over on the other side of the port. Everyone on this side turned to look, some reaching for weapons, but there was no sign of violence, just a crowd pushing back to make way for one solitary figure. "'Ere," said the man with the crow. "That's him."
Without warning, Asteria scrambled down Simon's leg and took off running, leaving him no choice but to follow her. She wasn't afraid; she was going toward the alleged warlock, not away from him, and he was crouching and opening his hands as if to welcome her. Simon couldn't begin to identify what he was feeling in this nightmare scenario, the betrayal of his own soul, until he caught up and could see the other clearly as he straightened up again with Asteria held in his arms.
Simon Tam was standing face-to-face with Simon Tam. There was no other way to interpret the young man who stared at him while clutching his own daemon to his chest. Perhaps he truly was a warlock. Simon would have wondered if he had an identical twin that he had never known about, but the doppelganger wasn't a mirror image: he was a few years younger, wearing clothing that Simon remembered owning before he had left home. He looked as shocked as Simon felt, with an underlying desperation that spoke of tragedy beyond his own experiences, but the really telling thing was Asteria. She was comfortable sitting in his bare hands, and there was none of the jarring sensation that Simon felt whenever River touched her.
The young replica spoke hesitantly, just loud enough to be heard: "Simon?"
Fascinated, Simon reached out to touch him, almost involuntarily, but the other Simon cringed and stepped back in haste. He stooped to put Asteria down, and she returned to her rightful place. "We know him," she said as Simon picked her up, and he took a deep breath, nodded, and greeted the other: "Breaker?"
Breaker's eyes instantly filled with tears. "Is she near? Have I finally found her?"
"She's near," Simon assured him. "We can go to her as soon as the situation cools down here. Come sit with me. Explain what you can. You're safe. I promise," -- he thought he might be starting to cry, too -- "I promise I'll keep you safe."
Some of the crew had come closer while they were talking, and Simon turned to the nearest, Kaylee, and said, "This is River's daemon. Can you help us keep people away from him?"
She covered her mouth with both hands, eyes wide, but she nodded, and her sugar glider daemon zoomed straight from her shoulder to Breaker's. In another second she was passing on the message to Malcolm, and then guiding the daemons to a broke-down vehicle inside the port where they could huddle together away from all humans but Simon. Inara's crane, Mosaic, joined them while Inara herself stayed respectfully outside the walls of the shelter, and Simon could see Zoe's Trygg and Mal's Mary Ellen prowling outside, keeping watch. Even Jayne's hyena made herself a guardian for the moment.
"How did you manage to get around?" Simon asked, sliding into one of the hard plastic seats positioned across from Breaker.
He had both Asteria and Flywheel on his lap, with Mosaic's beak resting on his knee, and he kept his gaze on the other daemons instead of Simon, but he responded clearly, in Simon's own voice. "I can still change. If I have to. The rest of the time, I tried to pass as human. I had a mouse in my pocket so people would think it was my daemon, but it ran away when we landed here."
"Didn't you have people trying to touch you?" Simon asked, unthinking. River's daemon looked up, with a shell-shocked expression that instantly brought to mind every vivid memory Simon had of River's panic attacks, her sudden meltdowns that seemingly came from nowhere. "Of course," he answered himself, feeling queasy. "We'll get you home soon, Breaker. You'll be whole again."
River's daemon looked no less miserable at the thought. "What if she doesn't want me anymore?"
It should have been a risible idea, but there was no telling what was going on in River's shattered mind, especially when it came to her self-perception. Her reunion with her soul would be the miracle that Simon had been waiting for, but he couldn't fool himself: the work was just beginning. "If I know my sister at all," he said carefully, "she'll be afraid that you're the one who doesn't want her. Please, if you can, just show her she's wrong."
River and Breaker
River sat in the infirmary to wait. Simon and the others had been gone all day, but she knew that something terrible was happening. Or something good. It could have been both; they gave her the same feeling anyway.
Shepherd Book had wanted to keep an eye on her, so she told him she would remain sitting on the cot and he could watch her through the glass. She had kept her side of the bargain, feet up in front of her, hands laced together around her knees, and he had kept his, walking past every few minutes but not entering the room. First he had offered her books, games, music, food -- he was kind like that. He didn't insist when she refused.
The thing that had been happening outside eventually came in, like waves crashing where the river meets the sea. It was shaped like her brother.
Her real brother watched through the glass, and did not enter the room. "Hello," she said to Breaker.
"Hello," he said back to her.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"Can I hug you?" he asked.
He was nervous. She didn't know why. Slowly, she slid one foot down to the floor, then the other, and when she was standing in front of him, she opened her arms and he stepped into them. His embrace felt just like Simon's, but he smelled like her own clothing. "I'm sorry," she replied, muffled against his chest.
When she let go, he sat down on the cot where she had been, and transformed into a white bird with wings that stretched nearly across the room. His beak made her laugh. His eyes were infinitely dark and full of wisdom. She touched his feathers with her fingertips and whispered, "Through the fog you came. Hail, in the name of God."
"I won't change again," said Breaker. "I'm not Simon."
"I know." She knew, too, that he could fly for miles and miles, and their bond would not be broken. "We have to stay here, though."
"I thought you would say that." He flapped his long wings once, holding them half-open for a long moment before resettling them at his sides. "But I don't know why."
"Because Serenity has a daemon. We're part of it. Look."
Outside the infirmary windows, they saw Simon with Asteria balled up against his heart, Flywheel peeking out of Kaylee's pocket, Shepherd Book holding Pukutino on his outstretched hand, Inara caressing Mosaic's feathery crest, Zoe wearing Trygg like a fur collar, Constance on Wash's shoulder, Jayne with his hand on Jaxon's shoulder as her ears swiveled back and forth, and Mary Ellen with her paws up on the sill until Mal pushed her firmly back down. All of them were watching her. Most were smiling.
"Then we'll stay," Breaker affirmed. "What else have I missed?"


text: Brochure Download or order your copy today... Newsletter Sign Up Sign up today and receive regular offers and updates... Sightseeing With an increasingly developed road network serving all corners of the country, Montenegro can be explored easily by car or bus, with practically any coastal spot making a suitable base for fascinating day trips. The must-see destination to grasp the history of this unique country is Cetinje, the one-time royal capital of the original, even smaller Crna Gora (Black Mountain, or Montenegro) that refused to bow to the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the seventeenth century, leadership of the plucky little state – sited not far inland from Budva – had come under the Petrovic-Njegos dynasty of prince-bishops, with a line of succession from uncle to nephew. By the early twentieth century, with Montenegro expanding as a conventional monarchy, foreign embassies set up shop in Cetinje, leaving impressive buildings that add to the town's capital-like character. The modern capital, Podgorica, is also within easy reach. Another memorable destination is Ostrog, a secluded Serbian Orthodox monastery sited, impressively, against a sheer, nearly vertical cliff face in the north of the country near Niksic. The monastery, the resting place of Saint Vasilije (Basil) of Ostrog, attracts a steady flow of pilgrims from Montenegro, the region and beyond. Natural attractions also abound throughout the country. The mountainous interior boasts numerous cave networks, requiring varying skill levels to explore. For the easiest access, however, the Blue Cave, on the coast, makes a short, pleasant excursion from Herceg Novi. To the south, the Ulcinj area offers long and undeveloped sand beaches, seen as promising sites for eco-tourism. The historic port of Bar, with frequent ferry connections to Italy, includes an attractive old town for a pleasant stroll. The Venetian influence, however, is strongest in Budva, Herceg Novi and UNESCO-protected Kotor. From there, Croatia's walled city of Dubrovnik and Bosnia-Herzegovina's fabulous Mostar are similarly close by.

subset: commoncrawl


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As I drive home from Fargo towards evening, there are end-less fields of farm equipment, sugar beets, potatoes and corn. The land is flat, the horizon endless. And then there is the mist. I drive into the mist.
The mist is the remaining wetlands. Sparse they are. When I get towards Gaawaabaabaanikaag, or my reservation, called White Earth for the clay found here, the mists begin. The muskeg begins, full of medicines, life and the filters of Mother Earth. Wetlands once covered almost 5 million acres of North Dakota, along with buffalo wallows, and soft spots of prairie and biodiversity. By the l980s North Dakota had drained almost half of the wet-lands, deemed useless by the industrialized agriculture. Into the mist, that's how I know I am home.
This is the story of Indigenous peoples and biodiversity. It is a worldwide story, and this September marked the l0th anniversary of the passage of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. A non -binding inter-national agreement, the declaration, known as UNDRIP, represents a reversal on the treatment of Indigenous peoples, a comprehensive international standard to affirm and protect the collective and individual human rights of Indigenous peoples.
As a young woman, I was involved in the first United Nations forum on Indigenous peoples. That was 1977, UN headquarters in Geneva. I was eighteen. I remembered fully that our rights to exist were not recognized. Indeed, I remember seeing pictures of Wayuu Native people from what's known as Venezuela hanging from trees like deer, hunted to the ground. I remember the villages in Chiapas and the Amazon burned down to take the land of Native peoples for mining and oil enterprises, and I remember that nation state after nation state stood by, or participated in the theft and genocide.
Indigenous peoples were viewed as internal problems of nation states, essentially the property of the state. This is not unlike how the Bureau of Indian Affairs (trust responsibility) for Native people was originally in the Department of War, and is now in the US Department of Interior. Simply stated, I am not your natural resource, I belong to the Creator and to my people.
And I remembered great leaders. As a young woman I was present when the Tadadaho of the Iroquois Confederacy addressed the UN when Phillip Deere, the great spiritual leader of the Muskogee Creek, spoke. I remember David Monongyue and the great Hopi leaders, who had prophecized the coming of the House of Mica (the United Nations is a glass building), and the Iroquois who had come to the UN for thirty years, and said, why are the red people not inside?
It was an epic time and it is now. What remains of the world, the most alive and full of the strong power of our mother, is within our territories: the worlds' remaining biodiversity, the remaining people who carry on their instructions of prayer and sustainability.
The World Bank estimates, "…Traditional Indigenous Territories encompass up to 22 percent of the world's land surface and they coincide with areas that hold 80 percent of the planet's biodiversity. Also, the greatest diversity of indigenous groups coincides with the world's largest tropical forest wilderness areas in the Americas (including Amazon), Africa, and Asia…11 percent of world forest lands are legally owned by Indigenous Peoples and communities…" Simply stated, if you want to save the planet, we indigenous people must be saved as well.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People is not binding, but it represents an evolving standard set-ting tool. To put it simply, that is how inter-national governance and civil society work – we evolve the tools to balance our societies, adapt, and be wiser. Leadership in the implementation of UNDRIP is seen particularly in Latin America, where the Declaration is reflected in revisions to countries' constitutions, including Ecuador, Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Although less explicit, UNDRIP has also influenced the constitutions of Kenya and Myanmar.
Bolivia's incorporation stands out in its comprehensiveness by including Indigenous Peoples' right to self-determination and self-government. Bolivia has also adopted the "Rights of Mother Earth" as an essential part of their constitution following the leadership of Evo Morales.
Perhaps the case of Standing Rock versus Energy Transfer Partners has brought center stage the lack of US remedy to the issues of exploitation. Indeed, the Special Rapporteur for the United Nations Human Rights Commission came to Standing Rock to take testimony as to the human rights violations caused by the US, Morton County, North Dakota and Tiger Swan., the private para military security firm which directed much of the so called unified command at Standing Rock.
The Standing Rock Tribe filed a com-plaint at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in December 2016. In that complaint, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and Yankton Sioux Tribe, with Earthjustice and the American Indian Law Clinic-UC Boulder, submitted a Request for Precautionary Measures Pursuant to Article 25 of the IACHR Rules of Procedure Concerning Serious and Urgent Risks of Irreparable Harm Arising Out of Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline to the IACHR.
They asked, in addition to an injunction on the pipeline, that the Court "…Establish clear rules requiring that indigenous people who may be affected by government decisions have the opportunity for full and meaningful prior informed consent within the meanings established in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court and this Commission…"
The Trump Administration overstepped federal regulatory policy issuing the permits for the Dakota Access Pipeline. The federal courts have not remedied this and the state courts in North Dakota are filled with over 800 cases of water protectors, arrested while defending Mother Earth. The civil cases – where we get to ask how it is that Morton County, Tiger Swan and $30 mil-lion of money directed at repressing first amendment and Indigenous Rights – are just beginning. One case, a civil case regarding excessive force, will be heard in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on October 18th in St. Paul, Minn.
Clearly the violations of the rights of Indigenous peoples (ie: Indigenous nations to protect water, land, and future genera-tions) remain constant by the Trump Administration. Trump has no under-standing of UNDRIP. However, ignorance does not constitute a legal excuse, and cer-tainly since the US was the last nation to ratify UNDRIP, it would be surprising to find leadership in the US.
On the broader scale, legal implications of UNDRIP are found in a number of international cases. As Miriam Anne Frank writes in Cultural Survival Magazine, "…One of the first achievements was in the historic Cal v. Belize case, where Maya went to court over concessions granted for the exploitation of natural resources on their territories without their consent. In this case, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Belize, Abdulai Conteh, upheld the Maya's native title, recognizing customary law in their claims to traditional use and occupation, confirming that the title has legal protection under the Belize Constitution. More importantly, he explicitly stated that Belize must follow through on its obligations under the Declaration. He referred specifically to Article 26, Para 1: "'Indigenous Peoples have the right to the lands, territories, and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied, or otherwise used or acquired.'"
In Aotearoa (New Zealand) the Declaration was used in Wakat & Rore Staford v. Attorney General regarding the claim by the Maori that the (British) Crown owed fiduciary duties in regards to their failure to reserve the agreed upon 15,100 acres for their benefit. When sending the case back to the High Court for determination, Presiding Chief Justice Elias CJ specifically quoted Article 40, "Indigenous Peoples have the right to access to and prompt decision through just and fair procedures for the resolution of conflicts and disputes with States or other parties, as well as to effective remedies for all infringements of their individual and collective rights. Such a decision shall give due consideration to the customs, traditions, rules and legal systems of the Indigenous Peoples concerned and international human rights,"
In Kichwa Indigenous People of Sarayaku v. Ecuador, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found that Ecuador had violated both international and domestic law, including the Sarayaku's right to communal property and cultural identity, and for failure to obtain their Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). This is in relation to the use of Ecuador's armed forces to support the State Petroleum Company's destruction of the environment and sacred sites of the Sarayaku. The Declaration is cited throughout this court case and the focus on FPIC will serve for other cases of development-induced violations…."
Frank continues, "… Since the passage of the Declaration, some key achievements have been made in various international fora addressing major issues of concern to Indigenous Peoples, such as climate change and biodiversity. Given the enormous and disproportionate impacts of climate change on Indigenous Peoples, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been a major focus of Indigenous Peoples' attention. Using the Declaration as a tool, Indigenous Peoples garnered some results in the Paris Climate Accord, including the preamble where there was the first specific mention of the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the importance of traditional knowledge for climate change,…" In short, the work continues, and like all societies, requires constant engagement. Democracy is not a spectator sport, nor is governance.
It is forty years since I sat with those great leaders at the United Nations. Much hard work has been done by thousands of Indigenous peoples who have traveled far, left their homelands, and "warriored up" to protect our Nations. The leadership of the international Indigenous movement is strong, much of it is young, and it has learned from all the work done before.
Here in Minnesota, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will play out in two major battles over our territories – the battles over Line 3 and the battles over the mining of our great territories of the North. Indeed, the idea of "consultation" by the state of Minnesota was marred by the resignation of Danielle Oxendine Molliver, the Tribal Liaison of the Department of Commerce. Molliver resigned because of "the failure of the state of Minnesota to fulfill its obligations of good faith and fair dealing with the tribe…with the Line 3 project."
Oxendine Molliver told The Intercept that the department had not adequately responded to the concerns of tribal members and had marginalized her after Enbridge claimed she was being overly sympathetic to indigenous pipeline opponents.
"I just kind of laughed," Oxendine Molliver said. "It means Enbridge has the authority to call the governor's office, who then has the authority to control the permitting process."
The state has offered "consultation" but that is not the same as "Free Prior and Informed Consent" that which is required under the international standard set by UNDRIP. Minnesota should join other jurisdictions in setting an example of a new millennium of legal relations with Indigenous nations.
For myself, I return to the mist. Always to the mist; for there all the medicines the Creator has bestowed upon us continue to live. Inaakiingimin, our land. And while we celebrate and nourish international standards, that which shall be protected through this work, is here in the mist.


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In anxious preparation for a historic presidential election, Afghanistan fortified its cities against attack, primed observers to detect fraud ... then was blind-sided by a problem no one had even dared to imagine – unprecedented voter enthusiasm.
Defying Taliban threats and the more mundane challenge of rainy weather, Afghans flocked to the polls in such high numbers that ballots were running out in some places by midday. Soon, more than a third of provinces were reporting shortfalls, and as the scale of the problem emerged election organisers scrambled to respond.
"I don't know how I will bear it if I don't get to vote," said 22-year-old Atifa Sultani, who had her finger marked with indelible ink – designed to stop repeat voting – at a station in west Kabul before being told that ballots had run out. "As a citizen it's my right to choose our leader, but I can't try anywhere else, because from my finger it seems I already voted."
Afghans are choosing a successor to President Hamid Karzai after 12 years, and if the handover is smooth it will be the first peaceful, democratic transfer of power their country has ever seen.
For months Kabul was filled with rumours that Karzai would seek to delay or cancel the vote so that he could hold on to power. But he kept his promises to hold the poll on time with an early-morning trip to a polling station near his palace.
"Today is a vital day for us, the people of Afghanistan, that will determine our future," he said after casting his ballot and urged other voters to come out . They did so in numbers and with a determination that surprised even optimists, and even after ballots ran out. Seven million Afghans cast votes, said election organisers, nearly two and a half million more than the last presidential poll, and about 60% of all eligible voters.
In the Kabul station that ran out of ballots, Sultani waited three hours until a last-minute batch arrived, sending organisers who had been muttering darkly about government conspiracies scrambling to reassemble the polling station.
A 77-year-old man who had ignored family warnings about going out in the rain was first in line. "It is my joy to vote," Qamber Ali said, echoing the sentiments of thousands who stood patiently in well-disciplined lines even through downpours. Younger voters posed for photos with their inked fingers and uploaded them to Facebook and Twitter. "Have voted for the future of my country," wrote artist Shamsia Hassani. Hassani was joined by hundreds of thousands of other women, many students and professionals who have come of age during Karzai's rule and were voting for the first time. Ballots ran out particularly fast at voting centres for women, who also made up more candidates than ever before.
Male and female polling stations are separate because many in the conservative country frown on the mingling of the sexes in any context outside of the family. "Of course the massive turnout of women voters is a big slap to all those who want to block us to contribute. Feeling proud to be a woman," said activist Samira Huria, who had returned to Afghanistan to take part in the poll.
It was not all good news. The election in some rural areas dominated by insurgents sounded like another vote entirely, with villagers steering clear of voting stations after the Taliban warned them to stay away, commanders taking ballot-boxes to stuff at their leisure, and rocket, bomb and gun attacks.
At least one person was killed, several others injured and more than 200 polling stations closed at the last minute because of security threats. But multiple rings of tight security, with Kabul virtually shut down for days before the election, appear to have prevented any major Taliban attacks.
The insurgents had denounced the elections as a sham, warned that anyone who worked on them or took part was risking their lives, and mounted a high-profile campaign of attacks in the runup to the vote. The bloodshed cut short some international election monitoring missions and prompted many foreigners to evacuate ahead of the poll. In Kabul a lone gunmen shot dead nine people, including a prominent Afghan journalist and his wife and two young children as they ate dinner in a city centre hotel, stormed the guesthouse of a landmine removal charity, and attacked two election offices and a ministry in less than two weeks.
Afghan intelligence sources said several squads of suicide attackers were preparing more spectacular attacks on polling day. In response the government declared four days of holiday, sent workers home, shut down all roads into the city and promised people it would guarantee their safety with more than 300,000 police and soldiers deployed around the country.
Kabul voters spooked by the string of attacks said they were unsure if the security cordon would hold but had come to the polls anyway. "I am 100% worried about security, but this is about the destiny of our country," said 23-year-old Aslan, an election monitor who by 10am had already spotted a man who had scrubbed his inked finger and was trying to vote twice.
He was part of a 200,000-strong squad of election observers, mostly tied to individual candidates, who kept a far closer eye on polling than five years ago when the vote that returned Karzai to power was marred by widespread fraud and more than a million ballots were thrown out.
It would be foolish to call the election overall a success at this stage. Reports of fraud in 2009 trickled in slowly at first, and even if this poll proves cleaner there is certain to be controversy about which areas were short of ballots, and whether it affected some candidates more than others.
Election organisers reacted fast to the high turnout, extending voting hours, sending out more ballots, and trying to explain their miscalculation to the angry masses of would-be voters. "We surveyed each area, and sent ballot papers based on population," said Ziaul Haq Amarkhil, chief electoral officer for the Independent Election Commission. "If we had sent more papers everywhere [to start with], it could have offered opportunity for fraud."
Not all the shortages were resolved, though, and monitors said they would investigate whether any stations ran out because of early-morning ballot-box stuffing. Any complaints will certainly be joined by other cases of abuse. Officials have already made arrests for attempted ballot-box stuffing and voter fraud, when four people were found with over 1,000 voter identity cards.
Even if results are declared clean, they will only be final if one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote. Anything lower triggers a second round runoff, and with strong competition between the top three candidates another polling day seems more likely than not.
Still, Afghans celebrated their extraordinary success in holding a day of voting where the focus stayed mostly on people casting their ballots, not the ones trying to stop them.
"Huge, huge day for Afghanistan. A historic event ends peacefully with millions casting their votes," said Saad Mohseni, the businessman owner of Tolo TV, one of the country's biggest channels. "A massive victory for our people, and a massive kick in the face for the Taliban."
Mokhtar Amiri contributed to this report


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2012 Fantasy Football Week 16 Pick-Ups: Vick Ballard, Colts Defense and More
Vick Ballard, RB, Indianapolis Colts
Vick Ballard seems to be coming alive at just the right time for owners in need of a running back for their season finale. Last week, Ballard racked up 105 yards on the ground against a Houston defense that hadn't allowed a 100-yard rusher since Week 4. After putting up 199 yards on 37 carries in his last two games, the rookie out of Mississippi State looks like a solid play in Week 16 against the lowly Chiefs.
Kansas City ranks 27th in rushing yards allowed (136.4 YPG) and is giving up a whopping 4.6 yards per carry. We can certainly understand if you're hesitant to turn to a guy with such a flimsy track record in your biggest game of the year, but all signs point to Ballard feasting on the Chiefs Sunday afternoon. If you're in the unenviable position of having to find your RB2 on the waiver wire this week, look no further. As of Wednesday afternoon, Ballard is still available in 48% of Yahoo leagues.
Indianapolis Colts Defense/Special Teams
We owe our readers on apology for recommending Detroit's defense last week against the Cardinals. Those who went into their semifinal matchup with the Lions in their starting lineup – this author included – were left in rough shape. But in the holiday spirit, we're giving you something even better than an apology: a DEF/ST play that could tip the scales in your favor as you chase fantasy football glory.
Indianapolis has a tantalizing matchup this week against a Chiefs team that's scored a grand total of seven points in their last two games – against the Browns and Raiders, mind you. The Colts still haven't locked up a playoff berth, and you can bet they'll go all out to avoid putting themselves in a must-win situation when they face the Texans again in Week 17.
Jamaal Charles can be a handful, but we think Indianapolis, who needs the game, will be up for the challenge. If they can take an early lead and force the Chiefs to go to the air, the Colts' defense (15% owned in Yahoo leagues) will be in great shape to pile up the sacks and hopefully, a few turnovers as well. Start them with confidence.
Good luck, and happy holidays!
Written by Aaron Schuldiner exclusively for TheFantasyFix.com. For more great fantasy analysis, follow Aaron on Twitter @SheaLivesOn.
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Delivery in Hong Kong
Courier (1-2 working days): free delivery for order spending upon HKD 1500
Pick up at boutique
Click & Collect in 1-2 days for you chocolate orders : Free
Language and shipping Country
Made with hazelnuts, covered in a thin layer of chocolate. Our artisans draw on their expertise to create these delicious fun-sized treats.
88 Queensway金鐘道 - 999077 Hong Kong
Tel.: +85225222010
Monday - Sunday: 11h - 20h
1 A Austin Road West柯士甸道 - 999077 Hong Kong
Tel.: +85221968333
Monday - Sunday: 11h - 20h
8 Finance Street 中環金融街8號 - 999077 Hong Kong
Tel.: +85228014880
Monday - Sunday: 11h - 20h
10 Charter Road 遮打道 - 999077 Hong Kong
Tel.: +85228014122
Monday - Saturday: 11h - 19h
Sunday: 11h - 18h
33 Hysan Avenue 希慎道 - 999077 Hong Kong
Tel.: +85229072002
Monday - Sunday: 11h - 19h
Our chocolates are best appreciated at room temperature. We advise that you cut your chocolate in two and let it melt in the mouth to allow time for the flavors to develop. When you are tasting several chocolates, it is best to start with a plain chocolate, then move on to flavored varieties: first those with fruits, then spices, then alcohol.
Hazelnuts are spun in copper pots and are continuously drizzled with liquid milk or dark chocolate, which delicately covers the nuts. Layer after layer is created and once the chocolate sets, the pace picks up, hardening the chocolate coating as the avelinas move around.


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Provides local transit service in the Solano County cities of Fairfield (which consists of the Travis Airforce Base and the Cordelia Village Area) and Suisun. Fairfield-Suisun Transit also operates routes that connect Fairfield to the outlying cities of Vacaville, Dixon, Davis, Sacramento and Walnut Creek.
- Website
- http://www.fasttransit.org/
- Phone
- Fax
- Address
- 2000 Cadenasso Dr, Fairfield, CA, 94533
- Mode
- Bus
Transit Centers
There are 4 Transit Centers that serve Fairfield and Suisun Transit.
RTC Regional Discount Card
RTC Processing Location
Coming August 1st 2022
Learn More on RTC Regional Discount Card
Bicycle Access
Learn More about Bicycle Access on Fairfield and Suisun Transit
511 Phone Service
From the Main Menu, use a shortcut to go directly to Fairfield-Suisun Transit by saying: "Fairfield-Suisun Transit"
From inside the Transit Agency menu, you can say any of the following agencies. If you want to use the touch-tone options, press the number "24" for Fairfield-Suisun Transit.
From inside the Paratransit Agency menu, you can say any of the following agencies. If you want to use the touch-tone options, press the number "21" for DART Paratransit.
Learn More about the 511 Phone Service
Clipper is currently accepted on Muni, BART, AC Transit, VTA, SamTrans, Caltrain and Golden Gate Transit and Ferry, and will eventually be accepted on all forms of Bay Area public transit. For information on using Clipper, please visit https://www.clippercard.com/ClipperWeb/fast/index.do


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BANNER-IN-A-BAG! Professionally printed banner with an easy-to-assemble stand in a handy carrying case... for ONLY $149!! Package includes: One Full-Color Photo Quality Printed Banner on SatinPRO Film, One UltraLite Banner Display Stand and a sturdy Nylon carrying case.
A Note About Lamination:
Our 3mil matte lamination is a high quality overlaminate featuring a clear matte finish, ideal for reducing glare and protecting your graphic. Lamination enhances the appearance of your graphic and provides additional protection for graphics that are used repeatedly.
You can shop at http://www.paradigmdisplaysolutions.com online with confidence. We have partnered with Authorize.Net, a leading payment gateway since 1996, to offer safe and secure credit card and electronic check transactions for our customers.


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Jul 30, 2019
Dr. Lori Brotto conducts research on women's sexual health and difficulties, develops and tests psychoeducational interventions for women with sexual desire and arousal complaints, and studies many aspects of sexual health including: culture and sexuality, hormones and sexual desire, cancer and sexuality, concerns...
Jul 22, 2019
Derrick Jensen is a coauthor of Deep Green Resistance, and the author of Endgame, The Culture of Make Believe, A Language Older than Words, and many other books. He was named one of Utne Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" and won the Eric Hoffer Award in 2008. We discuss animal communication,...
Jul 15, 2019
Michael Ellis has been around. His goal in life has been to excite and educate people about the rhythms of the natural world and biological processes, thereby stimulating an active participation in the protection of the valuable resources of the planet. By acting as a communication bridge between academicians and...
Jul 8, 2019
Astrid honored me by sharing a story that is both profoundly personal and, in some ways, not terribly uncommon. If you've ever felt that a relationship (or partner) was absorbing you into an alternate reality, this conversation will speak to you.
This episode is sponsored by Sun Basket.
Jul 3, 2019
SEANE CORN is an internationally acclaimed yoga teacher and public speaker known for her social activism, impassioned style of teaching, and raw, honest and inspired self-expression.
Find me on Instagram or Twitter.
Please consider supporting this podcast on Patreon.


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Vanentin's day is right around the corner. Do you have a special person in mind that you want to surprise on the day? If so, these macarons are my suggestion: romantic and sweet, but still with a fresh and fruity raspberry flavor.
1 batch macarons made by the base recipe
– 75 g (6 table spoons) egg whites
– 100 g (1/2 cup) white sugar
– 100 g (1 cup) almonds
– 100 g (1 cup) powdered sugar
Raspberry marshmallow
– 50 g (1/4 cup) sugar
– 50 g (3 tablespoons) light syrup
– 2 dl (1 cup) raspberries
– 2 tablespoons lemon juice
– 1,5 teaspoons gelatin powder
– 15 fresh or frozen raspberries
Follow the base recipe to make the macarons. Add red or pink concentrated food coloring to the mixture, while beating the egg whites. Bake and cool the macarons.
Put gelatin powder in a bowl with 1-2 tablespoons lukewarm water. Mix, and put the gelatin aside for swelling.
Squeeze raspberries through a sieve or tea strainer to remove all seeds. Pour the puree into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Let the mix boil until it is reduced to half amount. (If you skip this step the marshmallow will not get a great raspberry flavor.) While the mix boils, cut the fresh or frozen raspberries in halves.
Measure out 1/4 cups reduced raspberry puree, and mix the puree, lemon juice, sugar and light syrup in a saucepan.
Bring the mixture to a boil and place a thermometer in it while you let it continue to boil. When the mixture reaches 110 degrees Celsius (230 degrees Farenheit), take it off the heat. (If you do not have a thermometer, boil for approx. 10 minutes.) Add the gelatin to the mix and stir well.
Pour the mixture into a bowl and mix with a mixer until the batter becomes light pink and fluffy, almost like meringue. If you whisk for too long the marshmallow will start to stiffen and get really sticky, so watch out.
Put the marshmallow mix in a piping bag, and start sandwich the macarons: turn a macaron with the bottom side up, pipe on a small amount of marshmallow, add half a raspberry, top with a tiny bit of marshmallow, and press the bottom of another macaron on top of it. The marshmallow stiffens quick and can be quite sticky, so you need to work effectively. If you are two baking, one can handle the piping bag, while the other one takes care of the raspberries and sandwiching the macarons. (I managed to get my husband to be my raspberry assistant, and he did a great job :)
Place the macarons on a serving platter, serve them and enjoy!
(Tip! Did you get leftover marshmallow? Pipe it out as small tops on a baking sheet and wait until they stiffens. You have made both macarons and raspberry marshmallows :)


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Ministry Fair
Thank you so much for your interest in Westside's Ministry Fair on March 31st! We know that God has blessed our church with men and women of all ages who have a deep love for God and a wide variety of spiritual gifts. God's desire for our church family is that each of us would prayerfully consider how we can take our unique talents and passions and use them to share the Good News of Jesus and serve one another.
During our Ministry Fair, you'll have an opportunity to discover how you can jump right in and get involved in Westside's mission of Loving People to Jesus.
Consider these passages from God's Word that teach us about the important gifts God has given us—and how he invites us to use them for his glory:
1 Peter 4:10-11 (NLT)10 God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 11 Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.Ephesians 4:15-16 (NLT)15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.Romans 12:6-8 (NLT)6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
The elders and ministers at Westside believe in you, and we believe that God is calling all of us into a season of discovery. Discovering more about ourselves, our mission as a church, and the role that we can play in loving people to Jesus.
We hope you will take some time to discover your spiritual gifts. Please pick up your copy of the "Spiritual Gifts Survey" at Guest Central (made possible by LifeWay Christian Resources) or visit westsidelife.org/volunteer to access this resource online. This survey can be a good first step towards discovering some of the spiritual gifts God has blessed you with. We know it's not perfect, but if you're not too sure of the gifts God has given you, it's a great place to start!


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Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became United States law on July 26, 1990. The ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, state and local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation, and telecommunications. It also applies to the United States Congress.
To be protected by the ADA, one must have a disability or have a relationship or association with an individual with a disability. An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such impairment. The ADA does not specifically name all of the impairments that are covered.
For further information on the ADA, please call 800-514-0301, 800-514-0383 TTY or visit the ADA website.


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Anami exposes Satrupa's deed. The family vents out anger on Satrupa knowing her bad deed. Satrupa justifies herself. She tells them that she has done this just to protect Anami. Anami tells her that she can't make new relations by cutting off the old ties. Dada ji, Dadi and Baldev get furious and make Satrupa realize her mistake. Baldev feels he has lost Vatsalya because of her. He doesn't want to lose Anami. Sudha gets glad that Baldev and family have not supported Satrupa.
Dada ji tells Satrupa that if she thinks Adhiraj has done wrong with Anami, if he gets punished, then even she will be punished for kidnapping Lakshya. He wants to do justice with Satrupa. Anami waits for Satrupa to withdraw the case against Adhiraj. Satrupa feels bad that the family didn't understand the mother in her. She fails to throw out Sudha from the house. Satrupa loses the game over night. She gets compelled to withdraw the case.
Anami assures Adhiraj that Satrupa will withdraw the case. She tells him that she will leave from Lal Mahal soon, but this time she will announce her departure. Anami and Adhiraj have a romantic chat over call. He tries to stir her feelings. Adhiraj plans a surprise for Anami. Anami gets to talk to her parents. She tells her parents that they will always be together. Satrupa gets close to learn Anami's lies. Satrupa sadly gives up the battle against Adhiraj. She decides to withdraw the case, seeing the sensitive ambience at home. She doesn't want the family to know her another mistake, about which Sudha is blackmailing her. She tells Anami that she can do anything, as she will not meddle in her matters from now on. She doesn't want to lose Anami ever. Will Satrupa succeed in finding the evidence and destroy? Keep reading.


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CasaBlanca invites fans to 'Rock Fantasy'
Elton John and Rod Stewart are scheduled at the CasaBlanca Resort and Casino, thanks to Rock Fantasy – The Greatest Tribute Show on Earth.
Kenny Metcalf (John) and RG Stewart (Stewart) will perform during the casino's "supershow" in the showroom, 8:30 p.m., July 12. A live band and state of the art lighting and sound will provide background for the performers.
Metcalf is to be featured on Mark Cuban and Ryan Seacrest's network AXS TV show "The World's Greatest Tribute Bands. He has also wowed TV audiences during a performance at the Roxy in Hollywood, California, and is known for performing a technically accurate Vegas-style production, featuring the popular music, costumes and antics of Elton John.
Metcalf portrays Elton John when the singer was young. Every detail has been meticulously recreated from rhinestones to sequins. Iconic costumes including the infamous Los Angeles Dodgers uniform designed by Bob Mackie and glasses by Ray Winston finish the illusion.
John has been a powerful name in music for more than 40 years and is enjoying another wave of popularity. There is demand and desire to step back in time and experience the sights and sounds of this amazing artist.
In tribute to John's greatness, Metcalf and his band deliver.
RG as Rod Stewart has the unique moves, the iconic voice and style Rod Stewart first introduced to the world.
The talented line-up of musicians that make up the Rock Fantasy Band perform their parts live and create the excitement and joy that can only be equaled at a live Rod Stewart concert. He is one of Britain's greatest exports and created a new breed of rock star. Before anyone else, he blended styles of music that seemed contradictory to mix together. He stays in character with the "rock star as dandy" not deadbeat, and brought elegance to his performances not found in most rockers.
Stewart also introduced to a global audience a raspy voice and brilliant interpretive style. He is the original "Super Rock Star."
For more information visit www.rockfantasy.net or www.mesquitegaming.com.
Rock Fantasy
• When: 8:30 p.m., July 12. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
• Where: Casablanca Resort and Casino Showroom, 950 W. Mesquite Blvd.
• Tickets: For tickets and information visit www.mesquitegaming.com or call 877-438-7896
— Must be 21 years or older


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Since 2003, 98% of our students recommend us. You will too. Here are a few vocal ones.
Smile sheets don't tell the entire story about learning quality or learner satisfaction for a course. When a student recommends a course to a peer or colleague, you know it's working. In our case, that means 98% of our students since 2003, consider that our courses are great.
*Satisfaction rating based on direct student feedback collected from post-course evaluation forms.
"Phenomenal instructors; DI helped us put on the best new hire onboarding programming we've ever run."
Nadia Rivero, Director L&D, AMEX
"I love working with DI, they are the best partner we have on the L&D side."
Margaret Butler, Director of Technical Learning, Intuit
"DI is a great partner, easy to work with, always willing to customize programs for us, and flexible."
Tim Bomke, Sr. Program Manager, Amazon
"DI's programs continually deliver a 40% higher satisfaction rating than our previous tech training partner."
Eric Harris, Director IT PMO, Dish Networks
"Best instructor I've ever had. Very knowledgeable and articulate on the subject matter. "
-Lewis D
"Great course, already recommended. Skills taught are all relevant to front-end programming. "
-Celia H
"Daniel (H) was great at explaining everything and was also very engaging. Great job!"
-Manol Y
"Simon had a great sense of humor. He made the whole training fun. He was also knowledgeable and able to communicate and answer all of the questions to my satisfaction."
-Sunny B
"The instructor was very knowledgeable. He made it easy to ask questions and provided good conversation about the topic at hand."
-Christopher A
"The instructor was a valuable consultant as we worked through issues mapping our processes to the most appropriate tools. Blair provided valuable feedback and guidance."
-Steven F
"Excellent instructor! He tailored to the class' needs and the questions were encouraged and exhaustively answered."
-Susanna S
"I appreciated the instructor's deep knowledge and insights. Michael was very much functioning (and qualified) as a consultant, not just a trainer/teacher."
-Jessi F
"Rich was a great instructor, he kept me and everyone in this class motivated and wanting to learn more about JSF/Servlet. He was open for questions and was helpful in debugging all errors."
"I really appreciate Rich's teaching style and commitment to help. He took all the time necessary to make sure every student was set up correctly with Eclipse and Tomcat. That set the tone for a positive learning experience."
-William S
"The instructor was knowledgeable and had good presentation skills, keeping the class lively and not dry."
-Bonnie H
"Simon has very strong knowledge of the content he was covering. His answers were clear, crisp, and very helpful."
-Mynuddin S
"I especially liked how Kelby could switch from the class example to an example specific to our company to explain the concept we were covering. I was very impressed with his ease and knowledge of the topics to cover and his willingness to take questions and ability to answer them in a way that was understandable."
-Beatrice J
"I really appreciated Kelby's ability to "switch gears" as required within the classroom discussion. He was an excellent instructor."
-Joy D
"Loved it! Was able to learn through the code and to do it along with the lesson is really good."
-Vijay A
"He had a great ability to adapt to student's capabilities - good use of setting tone of course (low-key)."
-Felicia C
"Best class I've taken so far. Filled in the gaps."
-Diane K
"Excellent knowledge of Web Logic. He was able to explain in a way everyone could understand regardless of skillset in class."
-Leslie O
"Did a great job of relating theory to practical application. Well done!"
-Dan K
"Brilliant course. Good hands on experience."
-Sidharth J
"He did a great job of explaining things he didn't have an immediate answer to by going through the tool to solve the problem"
-Sarah A
"Excellent hands-on with the tool. Labs were excellent way to get a real feel of the tool."
-Joelly M
"Anil was very informative and communicated well. It was enjoyable and informative to take this class."
-Aravind K
"I loved the examples. They focused on the topics and in short time. Great!!"
-ZhongMin Y
"This was an excellent class. I would love to take more classes with this instructor!"
"A++ Course. Nice Workshop!"
"The collaborative exercises, peer work, and relevant examples were extremely helpful. I strongly recommend this course. The flow and content were both perfect."
Let DI help you design solutions to onboard, upskill or reskill your software development organization. Fully customized. 100% guaranteed.
Training Journal sat down with our CEO for his thoughts on what's working, and what's not working.


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tri county oregon
You can also change your country and language at any time using MachineFinder "Settings".
Tri-City (or Tri City) is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Douglas County, Oregon, United States.The population was 3,931 at the 2010 census. The community in Missouri Bottom near the Umpqua River is named for the three cities among which it is centered: Myrtle Creek, Canyonville and Riddle.
trump protests oregon the oregonian plus House Bill 2353 would amend that to authorize the attorney general, district attorney or a court to fine public agencies $200 plus reasonable attorney fees for "undue delay" or failure to respond to.By filing these lawsuits, we want to send a clear message: Portland Police must end its disproportionate response to protests, commit to using.
Tri-County Opioid Safety Coalition. The Tri-County Region, encompassing Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties, is the largest metropolitan hub in Oregon and is home to almost 1.8 million people, or 44% of Oregon's population.
For over 50 years, Oregon and Washington have been at odds in resolving. According to some forecasts, the tri-county area around Portland (Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas) is expected to grow.
missing oregon woman found Body of missing Oregon woman found near remote road. jennifer huston, 38, of Dundee, Ore., was last seen on July 24. SHERIDAN, Ore. — The body of an Oregon woman who had been missing for nearly two weeks was found Tuesday near a remote road, and police said there was no indication of foul play.
Serving Central Oregon & the World (541) 317-5680. Home; Services; Contact; Request Service; Payments; Address Update
oregon girl library oregon state defensive coordinator obama in oregon today Bill Laimbeer sat calmly friday in a courtside seat at the mgm grand garden while Oregon played Arizona in the Pac-12 women. I probably would have played the exact same way if (former president.oregon strength coach georgia head coach Kirby Smart was Alabama's defensive coordinator through 2015 and Oregon strength and conditioning coach Aaron Feld worked at UGA prior to joining the Ducks under Cristobal.After a drama-filled week, BYU finally announced that Beavers defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake was the man to replace Bronco Mendenhall, who pulled the "Mike" Riley" of the coaching carasel season by taking the Virginia job. Rumor has it, that Sitake is taking OSU linebackers coach Ilaisa Tuiaki with him to Provo.The OCAC Library has closed. The WCCLS system is still open though! 971.255.4192 admissions [email protected] MISSION: Oregon College of Art and Craft is dedicated to Craft as the.
3 reviews of Tri-County Appliance "I am so pleased with the customer service we received from them, the technician was on time, polite, and knowledgeable. When I called to ask a follow up question, Connie was very nice and got me the information.
flooding in tillamook oregon carver cafe oregon carver Cafe. by admin on February 9, 2009. LOCATION 16471 S.E. Highway 224, Carver, OR. ACCESS. Kris's daughter was in the movie sitting at the counter in the restaurant, and the cook was also seen in the back. Sarah was in it multiple times, once as herself pouring coffee at the counter.Heavy rains and rising waters have caused road hazards, including two landslides near Tillamook, and have prompted the National Weather Service in Portland to issue flood warnings for rivers and.
Get directions, reviews and information for TRI COUNTY LEGAL PROCESS SERVICE INC in Eugene, OR. TRI COUNTY LEGAL PROCESS SERVICE INC 1358 Oak St Ste 2 Eugene OR 97401. reviews (541) 317-5680 website. Menu & Reservations Make Reservations .
Tri-County Equipment Wallowa County Grain Growers EST 1944. Tri-County Equipment; Serving NE Oregon with new and used tractors, combines, hay balers, windrowers and farm equipment from Enterprise, Baker City, and La Grande OR. Tri-County Equipment is a subsidiary of Wallowa County Grain Growers and represents the Farm Equipment segment of the business.
Tri-County Appliance will be closed Monday, May 27th for Memorial Day. We will be open again on Tuesday, May 28th at 8:00 am. Thank you and have a great Memorial Day! Tri-County Appliance, Inc. offers a great selection of refrigeration, cooking products, microwave ovens, washers and dryers from top quality brands such as Whirlpool, Maytag, Amana, KitchenAid, General Electric, Hotpoint, Speed.
oregonian digital olive A Jitney at the end of the line on Northwest 23rd. at Thurman St. Moritz's Barber shop, in background on right, is now the McMenamins. The auto itself is a 1915 Ford Model T Touring Car.
A search of OregonLive's database of delinquent property taxes in the Portland area shows the Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (or TriMet) is among the scofflaws still owing.


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SAN JOSE, Calif, --- September 5, 2013 --- Cisco will host a conference call with Oppenheimer to discuss Cisco's Services business. Nick Earle, Cisco Senior Vice President, Worldwide Services Field Operations will provide an overview of Cisco's Services business model, strategy, and long term growth opportunities.
This event will be available via webcast on Cisco's Investor Relations website at: http://investor.cisco.com/. Additionally, participants can access the event through an audio call with the following conference call details.
Dial In Details:
US/Canada: 877-293-9117 Passcode #: 29773918
International: 706-679-5238, Passcode #: 29773918
Replay Details:
US/Canada: 855-859-2056, Passcode #: 29773918
International: 404-537-3406, Passcode #: 2977391
No previously unannounced issues will be discussed in this webcast.
Date: Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Time: 8:00 am PDT / 11:00 am EDT
Speaker: Nick Earle, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Services Field Operations
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com.
# # #
Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.


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A source of trust
Established in 1982, Kıraç Elektrik is a market leader in Turkish electrical wholesale. With a wide range of products representing global brands, the company has become a pioneer in terms of service quality and speed. The company's vision is to be true, reliable, stable and well-known by all of business partners. Kıraç Elektrik has succeeded in becoming a source of trust in its industry, offering a framework of activities focused on results and solutions.


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Member Directory
Below are members of BPWWA. If you are looking for products or services and want to support fellow BPW members, this is the place to find them. The directory is a new feature and not all members are listed. Please be patient as our database is populated over the next year.
City Supplements
Personal Health (Fitness, Nutrition, etc)
Equal Access Advocacy
Disabilities Services
Keller Williams Realty - Rosalind
Real Estate
Mary Kay Cosmetics
Beauty / Style (Hair, Cosmetics, etc)
Maxx Nutrition
Accounting / Bookkeeping / CPA
Nancy L. Sorensen Attorney at Law
Lawyer / Attorney
Nancy Sorensen is a lawyer in Burien. Her practice focuses on family law, estates and trusts. She has taught at the University of Puget Sound Law School (which is now the Seattle University Law School) and Highline Community College. She is a graduate of Seattle University and the University of Washington Law School.