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Cindy Milstein
la grève est étudiante, la lutte est populaire / the strike is the students', the struggle is everyone's
* * *
I took the above photo shortly after I got to Montreal, some two months ago, never intending to stay so long, and having little idea what the black letters on this banner meant. I knew that red — usually square, yet sometimes stretched in other shapes when needed — stood for the student strike, particularly being in solidarity with it.
But I'm an anarchist. So even though the only word I clearly recognized in the above slogan was popular, the tangible struggle that I saw on the streets over my initial five days here convinced me that the one term I understood rung true and I should stick around. Something remarkable was — and is — going on in Quebec. Anarchists do a lot of things wrong. One thing we've done right since the beginning of "anarchism" as a named political praxis, though, is gladly cross nation-state borders to lend solidarity based on a shared humanity along with shared desire for freedom writ large and egalitarian. In my case, I'm not sure how much solidarity I'm supplying. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm largely the recipient of the solidarity that going on here, both as receiver and witness.
Take today.
First there's the + 1 – 1 = 0 sort of solidarity. Where you think you're holding out some universal, nonstatist handshake of solidarity, and then realize that even if the same canceling-out dynamic happens in one's own backyard, when it occurs outside one's "own" country (that is, if one has citizenship), it underscores how you're a "guest" in a struggle that you'll never fully comprehend.
Plus One: I now nearly always carry a batch of red felt squares with safety pins in each to give out — a quite simple act to show my solidarity and let others, in turn, then display theirs. When I overheard two cashiers in a store speaking, in French, about their carré rouge, and saw one pat her upper-right chest sans red square and frown, and saw that neither wore squares, I understood enough to know she had lost hers, for what in French sounded like four times. "Parlez-vous anglais?" I asked. "Qui, I speak English," she responded. I held out two fresh cherry-red squares. "Would you both like one?" "Qui! Merci!" Their eyes lit up, at me and then each other. "Merci beaucoup! You can't get these anymore. They are all sold out." (Her English was better than my near-nonexistent French, but it still wasn't great, and I think she meant sold out of red felt. When the student strike and its "squarely in the red" square symbol became popular, rumor has it that red and even off-red felt disappeared from the shelves of every Montreal store. So people started knitting squares out of red yarn.) The pair both eagerly pinned their new red badges of solidarity to their shirts.
Minus One: Like the two clerks, I too wanted a red square, way back after my first illegal night demo some two months ago. That evening, after hours and kilometers on the streets with thousands, I was walking back the hour or so to where I was staying, at 1 or 2 a.m., and at one point noticed a flash of red on the pavement. There it was! My little red felt square! I've worn it, daily, ever since. So today, as usual, I had it pinned to my shirt. Just moments after I left the now-happy cashiers each sporting their own carré rouge, a guy on the street yelled out at me, in English: "Hey, red square! Yeah, you! You're a fucking douche bag!"
I've experienced a few disapproving gazes and downward-pointing thumbs for wearing a red square here, but the only times people have directly confronted me, verbally, briefly or for extended conversations, has always been in English. And that's never been preceded by a "bon jour" or other nicety, then allowing someone — via my accent in response — to ascertain whether to speak French or English to me. French is the official and most-often-spoken language here, and by and large, the language of the student strike. This person didn't know, of course, that I'm from the United States and barely know French; those two facts only heighten, for me, the legacy of the history of domination in which the English language plays a part. Even without that knowledge, or particularly without it, this person is signaling the still-felt tensions of the legacy of the French-English divide here, which for them (and the other folks who've chosen to instantly yell at me in English) is now displaced on to a little red felt square. A big part of the legacy leading to this student strike can be found in the 1960s' and 1970s' so-called Quiet Revolution, which illuminated many of the social inequities related to language (with, you guessed it my English-speaking readers, the Francophones often receiving the short end of the stick), which in turn gave birth to many of the French-language colleges that are at the heart of Maple Spring and also underscored a host of other social injustices related to other languages (First Nations peoples, for instance, or the "body language" of gender). As a related aside, I want to again recommend the book The Empire Within: Postcolonial Thought and Political Activism in Sixties' Montreal by Sean Mills.
Zero: Maybe the pleased cashiers versus the displeasured man on the streets don't cancel each other out. Various polls while I've been here have hedged the truth or outright lied in order to claim there's little support for the student strike, or have more "scientifically" leaned toward numbers emphasizing popular support. The felt experience of being among, say, five thousand, forty thousand, or two hundred thousand at a demonstration, not to mention seeing red squares on shirts and houses, tends to make one think there's broad support. And the picket lines and other bold tactics of tens to hundreds of thousands of students and their allies to hold the strike for five months — often against scare tactics by school administrators and brutal tactics by the riot cops — add further proof that this struggle is indeed popular. But now, on this hot July day in anticipation of what may be a really hot August when the schools are supposed to start, every little + 1 – 1 = 0 can't be ignored. As someone at the anticapitalist assembly I was at this afternoon said, whether the strike can stand strong in August against intensified policing, the chilling effect of special law 78 (whether or not it gets enforced and/or tossed out in court later), the distraction of provincial elections, and other pressures is, perhaps, "all a matter of our capacity." That is, lived social solidarity, and whether it's tangibly there or not when it really counts.
Which brings me around, secondly, to the -1 + 1 = 0 sort of solidarity.
Minus One: Me. I can now read the words in the photo that started this piece, and because I've been a participant-observer within a specific moment/movement, I can increasingly read key words and phrases, and maybe sometimes understand them when I hear them. Like grève étudiante: "student strike." Or better yet, grève sociale: "social strike," which I can also even somewhat pronounce. And I now generally get the play on (g)rève, with rève meaning "dream," as in the above-photographed street art. At the time I snapped this shot about a month ago, I didn't know that. I also didn't know the designer behind this poster. Now I know both, so can share both (hence, credit and appreciation to LOKi design's #ggi downloadable poster portfolio, ready for others walls, http://lokidesign.net/2356/2012/05/ggi-poster-portfolio/#more-3007).
Today, I could basically read the large-type summary sheets taped to the wall at the start of the anticapitalist assembly, offering ideas of, for example, various antiauthoritarian strategies related to struggling against hegemonic forces of social control like the state and capitalism while supporting the grassroots student strike as well as notions of a social strike. But when it came time for the meeting to begin and the facilitator checked in about who needed whisper translation from French to English, I was the only person out of some forty to fifty people. (And when the facilitator asked if anyone needed whisper translation into French when, or rather if, English was spoken during the assembly, no one did.)
Plus One: An anarchist I've known as an acquaintance from various anticapitalist convergences in Canada instantly volunteered to be my English whisperer (fortunately, he talks as fast as I do, but in two languages!). When I thanked him, with embarrassment, for having to translate the whole three- to four-hour assembly, he simply waved a hand in the air, tossed back his head, and muttered the French equivalent of "Pshaw, it's nothing!" But of course, it is something: a huge act of solidarity, especially given that he's an active participant in this social struggle and wants to talk at the assembly. Equally of course, he meant it: no big deal. We're both anarchists, after all, and this is what we (try to) do for each other.
For a third of this assembly, we then broke down into discussion groups around topics and/or projects. I and my personal whisper translator both decided to go to the student-social strike conversation, which attracted some twenty to twenty-five folks. He looked around the circle, and exclaimed, "OK, is there anyone here who doesn't speak and understand English?" Silence. "OK, let's just fucking do this in English, since Cindy can't speak or understand French." He meant "fucking" in the kindest of ways (indeed, several times during his whisper translation from French to English in the main assembly, he apparently added that same word to sentences, and many people around the room who could hear laughed, finally explaining the source of their mirth to me, to which he laughingly responded to everyone, "I'm adding enthusiasm!"). Again I felt the sting of embarrassment, and again the implied "Pshaw!"
Zero: Maybe the fact that I could hear, listen, understand, and even speak a couple times versus the fact that one person spent two-thirds of the assembly whisper translating to me (and a hefty chunk of the assembly spent another third switching languages for me) don't cancel each other out. A longtime anarchist friend who has lived here in Montreal for a long time, an Anglophone too, said that no matter how good their French gets, there's still a way in which one can't articulate oneself as well in political meetings, and thus it feels like it creates power dynamics around language, and who gets really heard and listened to politically. Being whisper translated to is, in some way, like experiencing a mediated or "representational" form of politics, where you're getting the sense of what the person translating for you — kindly, out of solidarity — thinks is necessary or important for you to know, or worth adding enthusiasm to. On the other hand, it feels acutely, for me, like I'm a burden for needing this help, especially since I'm here only short term, so don't need to be included substantively in the same way as, for one, the Anglophone anarchist mentioned above. I also, equally, acutely felt how it does indeed make you feel the outsider, or the less than fully "enfranchised" participant in a directly democratic assembly (where, as an aside, rather than "twinkles" for affirmation, the facilitator jokingly asked for a show of "caribou," as in the animal antlers). In terms of me — the minus one — it is merely a "Pshaw" moment. In terms of social solidarity, much less solidarity among Francophone and Anglophone students, it's been a factor that, at a minimum, makes it hard to translate this struggle to certain people, like my "Hey, red square" guy mentioned earlier, or across certain places, such as English-language schools, and that could be a bigger deal in terms of tangible solidarity come August.
Third, and finally, take yesterday, night 81, Mile-End's Popular Assembly night.
Now solidarity equates to 1 + 1 = 2, or maybe a whole lot more.
One Plus One: We're now in week four of the Popular Assembly of the Mile-End Quarter, which meets every Thursday at 6:30 to usually 9:00 or even 9:30 p.m. at a "park" wedged between two near-highway urban streets — hence, the assembly promo always adds quotation marks to the location of "Clark Park." The park is always bustling with dinner picnics and kids running from the "water park" fountains to the playground equipment. Cars, trucks, and motorcycles whiz by. It's hard to hear under the best of circumstances, and like the anticapitalist assembly, the popular one necessitates whisper translation. Fortunately, it's been not only me but three, four, or six others we need it. We huddle in a corner of the assembly circle, hardly able to hear the already-circumscribed version of the conversation (again, the "translators" are always whoever kindly volunteers and are always doing their best!). Most of us English-as-first-language folks don't speak up, except those who can speak French but have a harder time understanding it, so need the whisper translation.
Every Wednesday — well, the last two — we've also held a new casserole plus orchestra, or "orchestroles," bringing instruments of all shapes and sizes along with pots and spoons mixed with good cheer and free lit/red squares together for an illegal marching band in the streets. It's a powerful and noisy show of solidarity for the strike, and actually creates an incredibly rich and wonderful sound; the musicians are good, and the rest of us manage to make our cookware a palatable accompaniment. (One passerby this past Wednesday asked if we were from a music department, bringing songs to the neighborhoods, and another wanted to hire the horn section.) But it's also just a whole lot of silly fun. And so it's been an icebreaker of sorts for us. Switching and tangling up languages, or pantomiming what we mean, or simply laughing together, the past two weeks have opened up communication in a way our assemblies might never have accomplished.
So this Thursday — yesterday — after our breakout working groups, it turned out that those who stayed for our re-assembly into a big group again were majority English-language listeners/speakers, and only two people were exclusively French-language listeners/speakers. So it made sense to now whisper translate from English into French for them — a first at our popular assembly. One of the two Francophone listeners/speakers looked like she was struggling to hear/understand through the whole of this whisper translation. We wrapped up the assembly, in the gathering darkness, with feedback on how the assembly went. The Francophone woman, in French, explained that it was awful having to miss so much of the conversation, it was awful feeling left out, and yet it was wonderful to truly not only understand but also viscerally feel how awful it is to be in my (and others') shoes when we're getting French to English translation. Her face lit up as she explained how glad she was for that experience and, more specifically, our assembly now, because as she put it (translated to me, of course), "Together, we've finally broken through the wall of silence between us all!"
Equals Two, or More: This was true of the fourth Mile-End Popular Assembly, but also today's anticapitalist one, and last week's interneighborhood meeting, and a social strike consulta last weekend, plus the few other neighborhood and student assemblies I've gone to so far: there's always talk about the ongoing student strike, on the one side, and notions of a social strike, on the other, and how the two are inseparable as a question, discussion, and problematic. Each time someone tries to separate them, it's clear that's impossible — that they need to breath together, and breath life into each other. Which is not to say that they are equivalent. There is this sense of reinforcement or complementarity, in terms of how they can and could lend solidarity to each other. Or perhaps reciprocity is the best word choice here.
The May 22 grand demonstration called monthly by CLASSE to display support for the student strike, for instance, brought upward of a half-million people to take the streets of Montreal, illegally according to special law 78, and for all intents and purposes, such an enormous march starting in the middle of a weekday was a social strike. People left jobs and other compulsory duties to participate; stores and offices didn't open; traffic got snarled; public transit couldn't run. Another night, on an illegal nocturnal demonstration, some forty thousand or so inadvertently shut down a main bridge into Montreal simply because it took about an hour to march up a lengthy north-south street that leads into that urban artery, again offering an albeit short social strike (as in "economic disruption" writ large; the definition of "social strike" is often a topic of conversation lately, but that will have to wait until another blog post).
But without the striking students physically blockading their schools' entryways, so that strikebreaking students and other college-related people can't get inside, can't go to class, can't teach and go about the (literal) business of academia, a social strike would mean nothing. The student strike has already been victorious in many ways. It is the heart and soul of this Maple Spring, but not as a cry for present-day students' self-interest. It is a demand for solidarity across generations, where these present-day students understand that they are doing this for generations to come, so cheap or (as the demand now seems to be moving) free education is something that everyone desires, as a social good, in a good society. This has, in turn, emboldened others in what could be seen as newly emerging related struggles, to offer equally compassionate forms of solidarity. The Canadian government just passed a bill that cuts off health care access to refugee claimants (see http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Opposition+mounts+refugee+health+coverage+changes/6863444/story.html), and health care workers, along with others who see this as a first step toward privatizing all health care and just plain inhumane, are starting to pledge to offer health care anyway, even if they have to do it for free. [Note, thanks to comments someone sent me after I posted this blog, people without papers/legal status as permanent residents or refugees have long been unable to access health care in Canada.]
All to say, that there are conversations going on at every assembly and consulta about what solidarity for the student strike is, what it will look like, and how it will be implemented as August inches closer and closer, and how that might or might not relate to a social strike, as solidarity and as something unto itself. All to say, there's a whole lot of grand conversations about solidarity, and a whole lot of micro-examples of it, in the lead up to a grand experiment in solidarity on what's possible next with this student-social strike.
Those conversations never fail to mention that each striking school and/or school department or association has its own autonomous decision-making structure, and that any real solidarity has to involve taking the strategic and tactical lead from each of these autonomous bodies. They explore moral and material forms of solidarity, such as neighborhood assemblies holding festive "block" parties as teach-in, socializing, and mobilizing spaces just before thirteen of the key striking schools are supposed to go back or raising funds for legal support in advance, or students informing assemblies of their needs or coming to do teach-ins, such is as happening now with CLASSE touring to share how students have organized this strike and their direct democracy (take 4.59 minutes at the end of this post to watch CLASSE spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau Dubois speak, mostly in English and with subtitles when in French, on the how and why of this strike at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br0QdKC9a4I). The discussions also grapple with what can and cannot be said, because special law 78 (and the fallout from the G20) seems to criminalize so much that's just common sense and humane, like voluntarily gathering with groups of people to speak one's mind, and strategize toward social solidarity and social goodness.
What, then, does solidarity look like when those who want so much to be in solidarity with each other — students and neighborhoods, and assemblies of all types — can't speak as openly as they'd like, in French or English (or as one reader pointed out after I posted this piece, in many other languages that aren't part of the binary or unitary ones that predominant in most places), so have to read and whisper behind the lines, because of an emergency law meant to rip all this solidarity to shreds? Or just because of our own linguistic capabilities? Maybe our struggles to make language work, to hear and listen and speak and act in new ways, as a connective bridge between us, rather than a dividing wall of silence, are part of the answer. Or at least help to illuminate part of the (unintended) difficulties of reciprocity and solidarity in any language.
* * *
As always, if you stumbled across this blog post as a reposting somewhere, please excuse the typos/grammatical errors (it's a blog, after all), and note that you can find other blog-musings and more polished essays at Outside the Circle, cbmilstein.wordpress.com/. Share, enjoy, and repost–as long as it's free, as in "free beer" and "freedom."
(Photos: Unless otherwise noted, all photos were taken in Montreal, summer 2012, by Cindy Milstein)
Really nice text! Enjoyed hearing from a Non Quebecer point of vue. By the way, I'm the guy who used to live on Mount-Royal and that got the red square and made the banner with the black letters. Happy to see that the icon was re-used 🙂 Peace !


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Bucs' Grilli to avoid surgery for now, no timetable for return
Pittsburgh, PA – Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star closer Jason Grilli has been diagnosed with a flexor strain in his right arm.
The Pirates said a consultation with team doctors as well as Dr. James Andrews determined Grilli won't have surgery. Instead, he will be re-evaluated in 10-14 days. Grilli has been advised to rest for a period of time before beginning a throwing program.
It is not yet known how long the 36-year-old Grilli will be sidelined, but most pitchers with this type of injury commonly miss between 4-8 weeks of action.
Grilli has blown only one of his 31 save chances this season.

subset: commoncrawl


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The faculty of Reed College believes in the value of interdisciplinary approaches to problems of common intellectual concern. The humanities course required of all first-year Reed students and the 200-level humanities courses, recommended for sophomores and upper-division students, are embodiments of this conviction. Listed below are other courses and programs of study that cross departmental boundaries or that bring the disciplinary materials of two or more departments together in pursuit of insights of mutual interest.
The Reed student has the advantage of other academic choices besides the single-major fields described in this catalog. A double major is possible, and Reed offers standing interdisciplinary majors that combine two or more compatible fields of study. In addition, several dual degree programs (see the following section) offer students further interdisciplinary options. Students also have an opportunity to complete a comparative race and ethnicity studies or a film and media studies minor in addition to their chosen major field of study.
Special ad hoc programs that link two disciplines can be arranged with faculty approval. The student's academic record, the validity of the program, and the student's potential to complete the proposed program successfully are the essential factors considered by the advisers and departments.
Other Cross-Departmental Offerings
A number of courses are cross-listed in two departments. For example, several history, literature, and anthropology courses are included in the offerings of the ancient Mediterranean studies and music departments. Some of the foreign language departments offer courses in translation or in their original texts for general literature credit.
The Double Major
Students with intense interest in two major fields may petition to carry their work through the writing of a thesis in both areas, if they think that an interdisciplinary or interdivisional single major, or a major in one and strong concentration in the other, would not serve their purposes. In such cases, subject to the approval of the student's advisers and the departments and division(s) involved, a double major leading to a single degree may be possible. Alternatively, a student who has completed requirements for the degree with a single major may be permitted to return to complete the requirements, including the thesis, for a second major; in this case a second (identical) degree will not be conferred, but all work in the second major will become a permanent part of the student's record.American Studies
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Comparative Literature
Comparative Race and Ethnicity Studies
Environmental Studies
Film and Media Studies Minor
International and Comparative Policy Studies
Mathematics–Computer Science
Religion–Ancient Mediterranean Studies
Religion–Political Science


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In today's increasingly wired -- and wireless -- world, however, the surveillance situation is much more banal: Under the NSA's Prism program, APIs installed on servers running at Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other technology giants give government spooks access to meta-data relating to communications and phone calls. It is signals intelligence meets big data and analytics, with a self-writing sales pitch that seems tailor-made for the Big Three: "Mass surveillance to monitor for suspected terrorists across the entire United States, for only $20 million." Data storage, no doubt, costs extra.
To top it all off, the design of the top secret Prism PowerPoint documents -- leaked by Edward Snowden, 29, an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton who's done contract work for U.S. intelligence agencies -- are, in the words of renowned design guru Edward Tufte, "dreadful."
[ Do you know what this means for your job? Read NSA Dragnet Debacle: What It Means To IT.]
But the biggest problem with the NSA's program is that it has all the hallmarks of an "engineering first" mindset, along these lines: With all of that metadata floating in the ether, why not build it and see what secrets it might reveal? The same philosophy appeared to be behind Google's Street View program, in which a "rogue engineer" pursued wardriving by design, capturing Wi-Fi data for later analysis. Numerous governments fined Google for privacy violations.
Similar privacy fears were raised after a security researcher discovered that Carrier IQ diagnostic software installed on 141 million handsets could be used to capture every keystroke entered on the phone. While the company at first refused to discuss its software or what controls might be in place to counter abuse, it belatedly surrendered details in response to a Senator's inquiry.
Both of those episodes highlight that just because something is technically feasible, when it comes to U.S. citizens' rights -- including Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches -- that doesn't satisfy the moral question: Is it right?
Or in the words of Akamai's security evangelist, Martin McKeay: "'Democratic Surveillance' -- collect minimum needed to be effective. 'Totalitarian Surveillance' -- collect everything, sort it out later."
Is Prism even legal? George Washington University professor Orin Kerr, a former Department of Justice computer crime prosecutor, has suggested that Prism simply implements the Protect America Act of 2007 and FISA Amendments Act of 2008. But as Glenn Greenwald, the Brazil-based U.S. citizen who broke the Prism story for the Guardian tweeted Monday: "If everyone is so sure this spying is legal, why does Obama DOJ keep preventing federal courts from ruling on its constitutionality?"
Now it's up to the Obama administration to prove not only that the program is legal, but that privacy and usage safeguards are in place -- and subject to external reviews -- to ensure that information is only used to spy on foreigners, without infringing U.S. citizens privacy. In other words, the White House must prove the system is just.
Where moral questions are concerned, Snowden said he doesn't think the NSA operators were evil -- far from it. "Analysts (and government in general) aren't bad guys, and they don't want to think of themselves as such," he told The Washington Post. But the NSA's approach was based on a false premise: "If a surveillance program produces information of value, it legitimizes it,'" he said.
That "collect first, ask questions later" justification is chilling. Indeed, one big problem with big data analytics when practiced by intelligence or law enforcement agencies is that it's not a zero-sum game. The NSA's data dragnet operation snares information from everyone. According to accounts of how the system seems to work, it's then left to intelligence analysts to tweak their algorithms until they're only investigating hits on people they have a "51% confidence" of being foreign.
In the wrong hands, or without proper oversight, the data set collected by the NSA would be a privacy nightmare. In March 2013, for example, a study published in Nature found that "human mobility traces are highly unique," and that with just four data points -- involving location and time -- were required to "uniquely identify 95% of the individuals" studied. Picking two random points, meanwhile, allowed researchers to correctly identify half of people in the mobility data set, which was collected from 1.5 million people over a 15-month period.
Given the risks introduced by Prism, the big question in coming days will be: Who's guarding our secrets? Are the potentially petabytes of information being collected in safe hands?
One harbinger that the answers may not be to our liking comes via the actions of Snowden, a contract NSA network administrator who, after seeing the program in operation, gave up his $200,000 annual salary, job in Hawaii and hopes of ever seeing his girlfriend or family again. Snowden said the Prism program led him to conclude that the modern surveillance state is "such a direct threat to democratic governance that I have risked my life and family for it."
"Perhaps I am naive," Snowden told The Washington Post, "but I believe that at this point in history, the greatest danger to our freedom and way of life comes from the reasonable fear of omniscient State powers kept in check by nothing more than policy documents."
Now it's up to the Obama administration to refute that criticism and assuage Americans' concerns. In the words of Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo.), a member of the Senate intelligence committee who commented Sunday about ongoing Prism questions: "Let's have the debate, let's be transparent. Let's open this up."


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How To Install an Electric Fan
Old Air Products Frees Up Horsepower And Improves Efficiency With By-Wire Cooling
Classic Mustangs have always been plagued with cooling issues. When they were first introduced, their cooling systems were fairly effective, especially the base sticker-price models void of air conditioning and other power accessories. As Mustangs took on heat-creating options, cooling capacity began to suffer significantly. In more recent years, we've found innovative ways to improve classic-Mustang cooling systems with three- and four-row radiators, heavy-duty fans, shrouds, and in more recent times, electric cooling fans.
The beauty of electric cooling fans is efficiency. They don't consume power the way an engine-driven fan does. As the engine revs, a mechanical fan takes more power to turn, depending on its design. Electric fans turn at a constant speed as needed without robbing power and fuel.
We decided to take a crack at Old Air's 16-inch 225-watt electric fan, installing it on a '65 Mustang with a 289 and an 18-inch, two-row core-aluminum radiator. It provides 2,320 cfm of air flow. Installation was easy and performance has been exceptional. Once the fan's thermostat is dialed in, cooling is spot-on. The only problem we encountered was the Mustang's 60-amp alternator's ability to keep up. When an electric cooling fan is installed, we suggest the installation of a 100- to 130-amp alternator to keep the battery fully charged.
Fit And Function
Electric fan performance depends on proper fit and operation. The Old Air fan should be close to the radiator but at least 1 inch from the tubes. If you get too close, air stagnation issues can cause hot spots. Positioning the fan at least 1 inch from the radiator core promotes good air flow and better cooling. To achieve the proper distance, shim the fan at its attachment points. Maintain enough clearance between the water pump pulley and fan to ensure there's no chance of interference.
When searching for a power source for your Old Air electric fan, never get it from the positive terminal at your ignition coil. Because the ignition coil gets its power from resistor wire, it gets approximately 9 volts from the battery instead of 12 volts. If you connect your fan there, your Mustang might stall when the fan comes on. Get your power from the "I" terminal on the starter solenoid. If that doesn't work for your application, source the power from one of the power terminals underdash that's live only when the ignition is on. Always protect your Mustang with a fuse or circuit breaker between the power source and fan.
Trending Pages
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A 12-Second Ford Maverick? This Owner Tuned His Tiny Pickup Into Muscle-Car Territory
GM EVs to Permanently Hang Up On Apple CarPlay and Android Auto


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Derechos | Equipo Nizkor
Veteran's detention in North Korea highlights wartime guerrilla unit
Merrill Newman is the newest POW from the Korean War -- no matter that the war ended 60 years ago.
The 85-year-old veteran and retired tech executive from Palo Alto was arrested Oct. 26 at the end of a 10-day visit to North Korea.
After a month of holding him incommunicado, the North Koreans on Saturday released a videotaped confession from Newman, revealing details of clandestine and still partially classified anti-Communist guerrilla activities in which Newman was involved during and possibly after the 1950-1953 war.
"Given Mr. Newman's advanced age and health conditions, we urge [North Korea] to release Mr. Newman so he may return home and reunite with his family," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council.
[Updated at 6:58 p.m. on Nov. 30: Newman received his first official visit on Saturday in Pyongyang from the Swedish ambassador, who handles U.S. interests in North Korea in the absence of formal diplomatic relations.
"Merrill reports that he is being well-treated and that the food is good,'' Newman's family said in a statement released late Saturday. "We are asking that [North Korean] authorities take into account his health and his age and, as an act of humanitarian compassion, allow him to depart immediately for home."]
Wearing a blue shirt and khaki trousers in the videotape and looking fit for his age, Newman read from a handwritten statement in which he said he had been an advisor to the Mt. Kuwol partisans, a U.S.-directed guerrilla unit that fought the North Koreans at the end of the war.
During his trip, he asked his North Korean guides for help locating survivors of the unit or their families who might still be living in North Korea, and passed on addresses and emails of veterans who had escaped to South Korea, according to the statement.
"Although I committed the indelible offensive acts against the Korean people in the period of the Korean War, I have been guilty of big crimes against the DPRK [North Korean] government and Korean people again,'' the statement said.
The video showed Newman bowing slightly to the camera, signing the statement and sealing it with a thumbprint in red ink.
The case has dredged up ghosts of a war that never officially ended, having been settled only with the 1953 armistice.
"Most people in America look at the Korean War as 60-year-old news. Mr. Newman probably thought bygones would be bygones," said Mark Sauter, a Washington-based historian who has written widely on the war and on POWs. "But to North Korea, the war is still going on. They take guerrillas and espionage very seriously because they are masters at it and are paranoid about it being done to them."
What makes the case especially sensitive, Sauter said, is that the guerrilla activities directed by the U.S. military and later the CIA continued after the signing of the truce in June 1953.
"Just this year, I was at the National Archives trying to get documents about U.S. guerrillas in North Korea in 1954 and after," Sauter said. "A lot of them are still classified. They won't give them to me."
The Mt. Kuwol unit was named for a mountain on the west coast of North Korea and was operated under the command of the U.S. Army's 8240th unit, sometimes known as the "White Tigers," according to the U.S. Army Military History Institute at Carlisle Barracks, Pa.
They often staged "commando-type shallow-penetration hit-and-run raids" against North Korean targets, operating from offshore islands. "American advisors with the units had the task of assisting these staffs in planning operations," the institute states.
In his confession, which appears to have been written by a Korean because of the grammatical mistakes, Newman says he directed his units to "attack communications systems, rice storage, railroad and munitions" and that they were responsible for killing at least 50 North Korean soldiers as well as civilians.
Photographs released Saturday by the Mt. Kuwol Guerrilla Unit Comrade Assn. in Seoul and published by the Reuters news agency showed Newman in what appeared to be a recent visit to a war cemetery and memorial in Seoul.
After the Korean War, Newman remained in touch with the Koreans who were under his command, visiting them in South Korea and inviting them to his home in Palo Alto. He often wore a gold ring they gave him in September 1953 to thank him for his service.
His South Korean comrades told Reuters they were surprised Newman went to North Korea as a tourist.
[Source: By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times, Cal, 30Nov13]
State of Exception
|This document has been published on 02Dec13 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.


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Help for established companies; tools to grow business
Anoka County offers a program to help established businesses with research and tools to enhance business growth. It's called the Economic Gardening Program and it is designed to help mature companies think about business growth opportunities.
The program provides tools to businesses that are often only available to Fortune 500 companies. Forty hours of customized research is offered to businesses to help connect them with four key areas: strategic market research, geographic information systems, search engine optimization and social media marketing. Data and information in these areas can help identify market trends, potential competitors, enhance marketing efforts and help business executives make informed decisions on core strategies that will help the business.
The program also offers monthly roundtable discussions featuring CEOs of local businesses who have experienced significant growth. Speakers are also often brought in to discuss specific topics as well.
Additional Information about Anoka County's Economic Gardening Program (PDF)


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This article was originally published in the September/October 1993 issue of Home Energy Magazine. Some formatting inconsistencies may be evident in older archive content.
| Home Energy Home Page | Back Issues of Home Energy |
Home Energy Magazine Online September/October 1993
Who's Repairing What?
Duke Power's Success
by Frank Vigil
Frank Vigil is a senior project manager with the North Carolina Alternative Energy Corporation in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
Duke Power Company in North Carolina is one utility intent on improving duct efficiency in its service territory. In the Home Comfort Tune-Up, the utility targets all-electric homes with a mass mailing describing the program and its costs. Homeowners, if interested, reply by mail and an appointment is set up for an initial analysis by a contractor. The analysis costs $100, and half of this cost is paid by the utility. If it is determined that there's a need for duct repair, the utility pays up to 90% of the repair cost (up to a $230). The homeowner pays the balance. Some things--such as pressure relief and combustion safety--the utility will not pay for and this is outlined in the contractor's bid. Once the homeowner signs a work order, work begins immediately or an appointment is set for the repairs.
Because of the success of a pilot, Duke is starting a system-wide duct repair program. The utility plans to start slowly, completing 1,000 houses between June and December 1993. Plans for 1994 include diagnosing and repairing 5,000 houses with a ceiling of 12,000 houses per year beginning in 1996.
North Carolina Alternative Energy Corporation (AEC) played a key role in developing the program. We decided from the beginning to make the program performance-based, an essential move for truly attempting to reduce energy demand. The pilot program used blower doors and flow hoods to measure pre- and post-repair duct leakage. However, with the implementation of Duke Power's full-scale program, a switch to blower doors and a special duct tester is planned. This will provide more accurate duct leakage measurements, and allow utility representatives and contractors to identify the amount of leakage in the ductwork to the outside of the house (impacting energy) versus duct leakage to the inside of the house. With a performance-based approach, the utility is able to see if its goals are being met, contractors can determine if they're doing a good job, and homeowners know if they are getting what they're paying for.
Save the Ratepayers!
The top priority for the program is health and safety. Contractors are trained on issues pertaining to mechanically induced pressure differentials, combustion safety, indoor air quality, moisture, and house durability. If a health and safety condition exists or repairs will create a hazard (for instance, sealing the ducts will reduce whole-house ventilation to an unacceptable level), prior to performing duct repairs, the homeowner is notified before work begins. If the homeowner does not agree to remedial action as part of the repair job, a Stop Work notice is issued and the contractor leaves the job. If the homeowner agrees, a new cost estimate is prepared to include the health and safety actions. Then the work begins.
Here again, the performance basis for the program proves itself--contractors are required to measure pressures, infiltration levels, and carbon monoxide levels (where combustion appliances such as gas log fireplaces or kitchen ranges exist), and watch for unvented combustion appliances, moisture problems, chemical use, and any other signs of potential problems.
Schooling the Staff
The heart of a successful program lies in the training. Many programs around the country require little or no training. Meanwhile some schools claim to teach everything in as little as two or three days. North Carolina Alternative Energy Corporation's Duct Diagnostic and Repair School is quite intensive. Ten full days of training are required for successful completion. Five days of classroom and laboratory training are followed by five days of supervised field implementation. The classroom portion of the school is based on a program originally developed by Florida Solar Energy Center and it uses their manual, Duct Doctoring (see Resources, p. 65).
The curriculum includes two laboratories, an applications lab designed to teach students various duct repair techniques, and a second laboratory, an actual house where students practice diagnostic techniques. (AEC is constructing a two-story home located near the classroom that will allow trainers to recreate numerous diagnostic scenarios.)
Our curriculum also includes a week of supervised field work in actual houses participating in the utility program. Students work in teams of two or three and are accompanied by a trainer who assists them. The goal is for each team to diagnose and repair one house per day for five days. Each team gets a different trainer for each of the five days. Students must pass a final written exam. This, in addition to field evaluation, determines if a student has successfully completed the course and receives an I.D. card. Only contractors with I.D. cards are allowed to participate in the program.
Any utility contemplating a duct repair program must decide who will do the repairs. Several methods have been tried. Utilities that have hired general labor for the job have had great difficulties with their programs. Duke's program requires licensed HVAC contractors. A moderately skilled technician working with an installer usually has sufficient skills and experience to learn (and apply) the concepts. A trained contractor is required to be on the job at all times.
Answerperson on Hand
In the pilot program, trained utility personnel accompanied the contractors during the initial analysis, usually remaining on the job during repairs. Contractors benefited by having experienced people on hand during the analysis, particularly when unusual situations arose. Additionally utility representatives were available to answer homeowners' questions about the program, freeing contractors to work undisturbed. Because the very issue of duct leakage is relatively unheard of by homeowners, the presence of the utility person helped assure them they were getting honest answers and price quotes.
Duke Power plans to continue this close supervision it in its full-scale program, though it is unrealistic to expect a utility representative to be present at every home. Contractors that have demonstrated reasonable skills will be free to work more independently, and utility representatives will only need to provide spot checks. It's essential for the utilities to have enough trained staff to be able to both monitor and troubleshoot the program. Also a cadre of experts must be available to handle the particularly difficult situations that will occasionally arise.
Forms and Focus
A key element to any quality control program is form review. These forms enable a final quality control person to recreate situations in houses that have been worked on. Diagrams of the distribution system layout, checklists for each diagnostic and repair step, and blocks for before and after numbers help a form review person to quickly identify anomalies. Materials used, hours spent, leakages, pressures, and safety checks are all recorded by the contractor along with additional comments. Naturally these forms are only as good as the person reviewing them. It's important for the utility to dedicate a trained individual to quality assurance--including form review. (Proctor Engineering Group recently developed a computer program to assist with the form review process--see Managing Large Scale Duct Programs, p. 47.)
The program also calls for several focus group sessions with the participating contractors and utility representatives as the program grows. The intent is to help identify potential problems and new techniques and to allow for feedback among trainers, contractors, and utilities. Such feedback is an integral part of the program from the very first day of training. Positive reinforcement and quick feedback ensure that individual teams learn techniques and approaches from one another.
Real Results
The results of Duke Power's pilot program were encouraging--enough so, that Duke almost immediately committed to beginning a system-wide program. Not only do they recognize the energy benefits, but also the public relations benefits. The response from consumers has been quite positive. A recent survey indicates that after duct repair, many customers are more comfortable, their utility bills are lower, and the indoor air quality is better.
There is still room for improvement. Duct repair in and of itself is not a high-profit center for any company. However, the diagnostic approach used in the program can often highlight additional needs that will increase profits. Ventilation; shading through the use of sun-screens; moisture removal strategies; additional insulation; and sealing bypasses--all can increase work and profit margins for contractors. Although trained to diagnose such things, the typical contractor is not trained to sell these services to homeowners. Many opportunities are thus lost and the contractor is limited to performing only basic duct repair. A study by AEC showed some contractors doing better at additional sales than others. Service agreements and equipment change-outs have been the typical sales so far, with only a few contractors actively promoting duct repair outside the Duke Power program as an adjunct to their existing business.
Analysis of 82 homes serviced under the Home Comfort Tune-Up pilot showed an average pre-repair duct leakage of 285 cfm50, and post-repair of 118 cfm50 (cubic feet per minute with the house pressurized to 50 pascals). The average costs for the analysis and repairs was $380 with the homeowner paying $70 of the total. Repairs consisted of duct sealing and limited equipment service only. Average repair time was under four hours for a two-person team.
Energy savings for the 82 homes were not measured. However, in 1992, AEC monitored five homes in Durham, North Carolina, looking at energy consumption for two months before and after duct repair. The average home used 13% less cooling energy after duct repair. We estimate that the corresponding reduction in heating energy demand after repair was 600-650 kW or 13%. These five homes were in better shape than typical homes, so it is safe to assume that the energy savings from duct repairs are greater in other homes in the area. n
Related ArticlesDiscovering Ducts: An Introduction
Duct Fixing in America (Penn)
Guidelines for Designing and Installing Tight Duct Systems (Stum)
Integrated Heating and Ventilation: Double Duty for Ducts (Jackson)
Leak Detectors: Experts Explain the Techniques (Proctor, Blasnik, Davis, Downey, Modera, Nelson, and Tooley)
Managing Large-Scale Duct Programs (Downey)
Mobile Homes: Small Zones, Big Problems (Kinney)
New Group Hunts Bad Ducts (Obst)
The New Monster in the Basement (Treidler)
One Size Fits All: A Thermal Distribution Efficiency Standard (Modera)
Stories from the Buffer Zone (Kinney and Stiles)
Two Favorite Test Methods, By the Book (Modera)
Will Duct Repairs Reduce Cooling Load? (Parker, Cummings, and Meier)
Infiltration: Just ACH50 Divided by 20? (Meier)
Pulling Utilities Together: Water-Energy Partnerships (Jones, Dyer, and Obst)
Recycling Refrigerators: Whose Responsibility? (Nelson)
Shade Trees as a Demand-Side Resource (McPherson and Simpson)
SMUD's Refrigerator Graveyard--Conditions of the Deceased (Bos)
Steps to Successful Lighting Programs (Fernstrom)
Wisconsin's 'Orphan' Solar Program (DeLaune, Bircher, Lane)
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Act II is underway, and your story is dragging. What do you do?
A dragging story is not what we want as authors, so let's look at how to fix this.
A good story contains key plot events. To create a story readers love, these events must happen at the right time — including the midpoint.
If you've written the inciting incident and plot point 1 well, then at the midpoint, you'll be taking your readers on a journey where the protagonist moves from a reactionary mode to a proactive mode.
The midpoint of your novel happens at around 50% of your story's total word count. It's also about halfway through the second act. So that was a little obvious…but had to be said.
The events following your midpoint will lead the reader to plot point 2 (at the end of Act II), and then on to the climax.
Key Scenes In The Story Arc
The inciting incident is the moment the protagonist's world changes in a dramatic way.
Plot point 1 is the point of no return. The character can't back out of the central conflict. This is the moment when the setup of the story ends and Act I is over.
The midpoint is when the protagonist changes from reactive to proactive.
Plot point 2 happens when your protagonist discovers something that allows him to finish his mission, or he thinks all is lost. This depends on the type of story your writing. Act II is over.
The climax is where your protagonist faces the biggest obstacle in the story. She may or may not win…
How To Make Your Midpoint Sparkle
At the midpoint, make something terrible or life-changing happen to your protagonist. This will raise the stakes.
Your protagonist needs to find the strength to deal with whatever horrible thing you've made happen or she'll lose everything.
Because of this, she'll decide to do something and take the rest of the book to do it. Meaning, the event has to be significant.
At the midpoint point, your reader should understand the story is moving in a new direction.
Depending on the type of story you're writing, the event could be emotional, spiritual, or action packed. It must fit your story. Even though the midpoint is an exceptional event, remember the climax has to have even higher stakes.
Famous Midpoints:
Note: there are story spoilers, so don't read this section if you want to read the book or see the movie.
Gone Girl: Nick wants to improve his image and gives a press conference. Amy's "secret" best friend attacks, demanding to know what he did with Amy. Nick must now get proactive if he's going to save himself.
The Martian: Mark Watney finds out his supplies are going to be delayed and believes he's going to die on Mars. This results in kicking him into action to figure out how to live long enough for the supplies to get to him.
The Philosopher's Stone: During a Quidditch match, Harry's Nimbus 2000 broom takes Harry on a ride. Snape casts a spell. Hermione lights Snape's cloak on fire. Harry can't ignore all this and must become proactive
Twilight: Bella sees Edward's true power. This strengthens how she feels about him, and she'll do anything to be with him.
See Inciting Incident In The Context Of The Story Arc and Plot Point 1 In The Context Of the Story Arc for more on these stories.
Fictionary is online software that simplifies story editing. Why not check out Fictionary's free 14-day trial and tell better stories?


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Well, maybe not where you live, but spring has arrived in North Central Texas. Even before the green stuff sprang from the ground and tree branches, the birds declared it spring. In the morning walking Charley, it's like hearing a symphony orchestra with all the different birds singing a separate part. And the birds have been carrying on this way for weeks now.
Our temps still drop occasionally at night into the 40s, but days are routinely hitting the 70s and yes even the low 80s. I almost hesitate to share this with those of you packed under multiple feet of snow from multiple nor-easters. I hope your power is back on. However, you will be the ones smiling this summer when you're enjoying mid 70s and 80s while we will be sweltering in 105 plus and for as many as 40 days or more in a row at that!
Pic from D'Ann Burrow from the 3rd Nor'easter.
It recently came to my attention when I was looking through my books for the word "spring" for one of our Sisterhood of Suspense Sunday Hot Lines that I don't set novels in the spring time. The stories in my books take place in the fall mostly or the winter or summer. Well, my second published book, TRUTH BE TOLD ends during the spring, but only because I couldn't tie up the story. Spring wasn't a main part of the book. Winter was. The majority of the story takes place during the two weeks of the Christmas/New Year's holiday.
Then I began to wonder, why don't I set a story in the spring. I really hate summer, and yet I've had several books set in the summer. What is it about a Texas spring that makes me steer away?
I don't know the answer to that exactly. I suspect it has something to do with tornadoes and severe weather that attacks our part of the country during the spring. It seems to me I need to take that fear, because it really is a fear, of those storms and put it into the next book I write. Well, the next one after Book 4 of The Second Chances Series, which I'm working on now and should come out late fall. That's a plan. 🙂
I'm curious, is the time of year an important piece of your books? Is there one season you favor over others? Many, many years ago, I read a romantic suspense book (Sadly, I don't remember title or author.), and the winter weather was an actual character in this book. The author did a superb job making the reader experience the cold temperatures, and the biting wind. I've always remembered that book. And yes, I should turn our spring storms into a character in a book. Love to hear from you.


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On the Road is a beautiful little film with a feral heart. Nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival this year, On the Road is based on Jack Kerouac's iconic Beat novel. Sam Riley portrays Kerouac's alter ego, Sal Paradise; Garrett Hedlund is his best friend, the fast-talking, responsibility-shirking Dean Moriarty, and Kristen Stewart is the vibrant, unabashedly sexual Marylou, who sleeps with both of them. They crisscross the country in a restless, rootless search for Experience, staying up all night, amped on Benzedrine, dancing, drinking, discussing poetry with characters based on Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, and hanging in jazz clubs from San Francisco to Greenwich Village.
Riley was the lead singer of the British band 10,000 Things when he was chosen to portray Ian Curtis, the suicidal frontman of the legendary post-punk band, Joy Division, in Anton Corbijn's gritty, acclaimed 2007 film, Control. In 2008, Riley became the face of the Mario Testino-shot, Christopher Bailey-styled Burberry ad campaign. Next up? Neil Jordan's vampire thriller, Byzantium.
More From ELLE
Name: Sam Riley
Age: 32
Provenance: Berlin
Relationship Status: Married to his Control co-star, German actress Alexandra Maria Lara
Out of Control: "I'd been working in a warehouse so I was elated to get the role. Playing Ian Curtis was exhausting but intense. We really felt like a band because we were playing live. There were like 600 people there, who had been found on a Joy Division fansite. It was scary because we were playing to a roomful of experts."
Being Kerouac: "I'm not the one doing all the mad things; I'm the witness. He was non-judgmental, just watching and scribbling. He had an open mind for the hobos or the intellectuals. It was easy to play the observer when you have all these fascinating actors around you."
Between the sheets with Kristen: "You achieve a comfort level by pretending. We both have partners, and we were friendly. I'm not actually comfortable doing that sort of thing because I was feeling guilty because she was like, 19, and I was 30. I'm actually more comfortable doing psychotic things than sex scenes. Really, you just hope you get it done as quickly as possible."
Living in Berlin: "It's a fascinating place, an arts epicenter. Before World War II, it was one of the most permissive places in the world, with Cabaret-like sexuality, which is why Hitler thought it was disgraceful. It still boggles the mind how people survived the Wall. Unlike New York, Paris, or London, young people with non-conventional jobs can afford to live with some comfort and space, which is good for artists. They work hard and everything works, which, as an Englishman, I find hilarious. We panic if there's two centimeters of snow in London."
KStew knows a thing or two about the undead: "I asked her one time to explain the story of Twilight to me, and she told me about how she has this weird baby, and I said, it doesn't exactly sound like children's entertainment! I was quite surprised at how insane it all seemed. She was a little shy at first, but she's great fun to hang around with. I was really impressed with how she handled herself in an almost frightening situation in Argentina, when we were being chased in an airport by 300 screaming fans. A lot of girls her age—not to name names—go off the rails with that kind of attention, but she's got a good head on her shoulders. But no, she didn't have any vampire tips for Byzantium. I just naturally have the complexion for it."
On the Road opens today, December 21.


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The quarterbacks are waiting.
After four quarterbacks went off the board in the first round of the NFL Draft, Jalen Hurts of Oklahoma was the only QB taken in rounds two and three on Friday.
That means Saturday when rounds four through seven are completed, at least a few notable passers will be available. And more than a few other intriguing players, especially if you look outside the Power Five schools
Two Jakes
Washington's Jacob Eason and Georgia's Jake Fromm both entered the draft with a year of eligibility still remaining. Both will go into the final day of the draft waiting to be selected. Eason is a former five-star recruit with a huge arm. Fromm is the former four-star who took Eason's job at Georgia after he was injured. Both had inconsistent seasons in 2019 a and were considered third-round talents. But quarterbacks tend to get overdrafted so it's a little surprising to see them still available.
Antonio Gandy-Golden, WR, Liberty
Gandy-Golden put up crazy numbers the last two seasons at Liberty, a relative newcomer to the FBS. He caught 150 passes for 2,433 yards and 20 touchdowns. At 6-foot-4, 220-pounds, Gandy-Golden can move like a gymnast — he was one when he was little.
Curtis Weaver, Edge Rusher, Boise State
The Mountain West defensive player of the year was tied for fifth in the nation in sacks with 13.5. At 6-2 and 265 pounds he is not the most explosive athlete, but he is a hard-worker pass rusher who might be able to work his way into being an effective NFL player.
Amik Robertson, CB, Louisiana Tech
Robertson is a feisty, quick and undersized cornerback at 5-8, 187 pounds. But he makes plays. Robertson had 14 interceptions in the last three seasons and 48 defended passes. Should be effective in the slot.
Kenny Robinson, S, XFL
Robinson played at West Virginia but his college career came to an end in the summer of 2019 because of academic issues. Instead of trying to transfer, Robinson signed with the St. Louis BattleHawks of the XFL. The rangy, 6-1, 205-pound playmaker showed out in half a season in the fledgling league, improving his draft stock
Ben Bartch, OT, Saint John's (Minn.)
There has already been a Division II player drafted in Lenoir-Rhyne safety Kyle Dugger, who went early in the second round to the New England Patriots. The 6-5, 305-pound Bartch could be the second. He started his career as a tight end before bulking up to play tackle and kept his athleticism.
More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL


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Essence Magazine Cans White Republican Editor in Fun Teachable Moment
Essence magazine is, like, Glamour for black people. It is a completely bland and inoffensive publication. Still, given the racial politics in America and the general dearth of big black media outlets, Essence's moves are scrutinized through a more sociopolitical lens than Glamour's would be. Which makes everyday office scandals all the more entertaining.
Two years ago, Essence hired a white woman as its new fashion director. Huge crisis and uproar! Some people thought Essence should not have hired a white woman for that culturally sensitive position. Others thought it was fine. Others thought others who felt opposite were racist. It was a big thing. And, perhaps counter-intuitively, it was a good thing, because these sorts of squabbles, even when they appear to be over petty issues like the hiring of a fashion editor or a 30-minute weekly HBO show, are some of the only times that the issue of race in popular culture is really discussed.
Anyhow, Essence followed that hiring by hiring a white managing editor (a position with "no involvement in editorial content") named Michael Bullerdick last year. There goes the neighborhood and other ironic sayings! And before you dismiss this all as posturing, you might be interested to know that Bullerdick turned out to be kind of a racist right wing prick. What a poetic turn of events!
Richard Prince grabbed a screenshot of Bullerdick's Facebook page on which Bullerdick posted some hilarious racially tinged right wing items such as a caricature of Al Sharpton entitled "MSNBC Race Pimp." Run of the mill stuff at Sports Illustrated, I bet, but not at Essence. Now Bullerdick has been canned. (Clarification: The official statement is, "By mutual agreement, Michael has accepted a position in another division.")
Is there any lesson to be drawn from all this, apart from everyone loudly proclaiming that their own specific biases—whatever they may be—have been confirmed? Well, look: sure, white people can work at black magazines. But considering how white the media is already, it just makes god damn common sense for the few powerful black media outlets out there to try to give jobs to black journalists. Essence, a black woman's magazine, should probably have black female editors, unless there is some strong, compelling reason to hire a white guy.
This is not a reason for anybody to start hollering about reverse racism. This is a simple acknowledgment of the racial situation in America. You'll know we finally reached that "Post-Racial America" promised land when all black media outlets, black schools, black churches, black cultural organizations, and other black institutions collapse into nothingness, because they are no longer needed, because black people have been fully integrated into the American power structure and share fully in all of its benefits and therefore have no need to create separate institutions to cater to their own community.
Until then, Essence might as well hire black editors, all other things being equal.


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Jason Henry/Special to The Chronicle
Jason Henry/Special to The Chronicle
The Penguin can't hide from the Batkid
Batkid's secret revealed at last
After fighting off cancer, capturing the hearts of a city was a cinch.
Five-year-old Miles Scott - a.k.a. Batkid - lived out his wish of becoming a caped crusader Friday, quashing a crime spree in his pint-size superhero suit as San Francisco became Gotham City. Thousands of volunteers and spectators stopped what they were doing to take part.
People cheered as Miles buzzed by in a Lamborghini Batmobile. News crews gave chase as the boy rescued a damsel tied to cable-car tracks. Social media lit up with cheers.
Even President Obama took a break from defending his health care law to say in an online video, "Way to go, Miles. Way to save Gotham."
"In a world where we keep hearing about shootings and muggings, to have our city come together like this is unbelievable," said Jason Dorn, 43, who navigated the thick crowds.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation has often arranged elaborate gifts for kids with life-threatening diseases - but never at this scale, said Patricia Wilson, the foundation's Bay Area head.
Wilson had originally hoped a few hundred volunteers would support Miles, who lives in Tulelake (Siskiyou County) and is in remission from leukemia. But more than 12,000 signed up.
They saw Police Chief Greg Suhr - playing Commissioner Gordon - lend his forces to Batkid, who thwarted a bank robbery and rescued Lou Seal, the San Francisco Giants' mascot.
By the afternoon, the San Francisco offices of the U.S. attorney and the FBI had joined in the theater, indicting the Riddler and the Penguin. Mayor Ed Lee gave Miles a key to the city made of chocolate.
Elisa Haidt, 37, and Amy Jackson, 32, had tears in their eyes. They had worked with Tripit, a travel website and Make-A-Wish partner, to plan a flash mob dance in Union Square to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'. " They said Miles' enthusiasm was contagious.
"We were here to cheer on Miles, but Miles also helped us," Haidt said.
Not everyone felt the love. While city police officials said they handled Friday's crowds without extra staffing or costs, some thought the event focused too much energy on one child.
City Supervisor Eric Mar said on Instagram, "Waiting for Miles the Batkid and wondering how many 1000s of SF kids living off SNAP/FoodStamps could have been fed from the $$."
But on the streets and on social media, many reveled in what they saw as a feel-good story. On Twitter, people asked the boy to save San Francisco from spiraling rents - or to fix the health care law.
Wilson, the Make-A-Wish official, said Miles - who was 20 months old when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia - was one of many children who lost parts of their childhoods to a "grown-up battle."
By granting wishes, she said, "We get to restore a little bit of that."
Raphael Kluzniok, The Chronicle


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USATMA Board Breaking IOP 2015
USATMA practice tests and board breaking for black belts at the Isle of Palms (IOP) Recreational Center. The event took place on 14 March 2015. You can download any of these easily by clicking on original size and then right click to "save as". EnjoyRead More


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Brazil's Revista Veja, which in the past has detailed how Hugo Chavez is a threat to Latin America's stability and democracies (calling him "Totalitarianism's clone" six years ago), is now reporting on al-Qaeda's presence in Brazil.
Reuters has the story,
Al Qaeda operatives are in Brazil planning attacks, raising money and recruiting followers, a leading news magazine reported Saturday, renewing concerns about the nation serving as a hide-out for Islamic militants.
For some reason Yahoo news (link above) did not mention Hamas and Hezbollah, which the Jerusalem Post does (h/t Gates of Vienna),
Operatives from Hamas, Hezbollah, and al Qaida are in Brazil planning attacks, raising money and recruiting followers, a leading Brazilian news magazine reported on Saturday.
Both Yahoo and the JP continue,
Veja magazine, in its online edition, reported that at least 20 people affiliated with al Qaeda as well as the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas and two other organizations have been hiding out in the South American country.
The magazine said these operatives have been raising money and working to incite attacks abroad. The magazine cited Brazilian police and U.S. government reports, but did not give details on specific targets or operations.
The United States has said Islamic militants have been operating in the border region between Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Brazil has denied this, while saying it is aware that some members of Brazil's Lebanese community legally transferred funds to the Middle East.
The Veja online article (in Portuguese) headline reads, (my translation. Please link to this post and credit me if you use this translation)
Exclusivo: documentos da CIA, FBI e PF mostram como age a rede do terror islâmico no Brasil
A Polícia Federal tem provas de que a Al Qaeda e outras quatro organizações extremistas usam o país para divulgar propaganda, planejar atentados, financiar operações e aliciar militantes
Exclusive: CIA, FBI, and Federal Police document an Islamic terror network in Brazil.
The Federal Police show that al-Qaeda and four other organizations are using the country to spread propaganda, plan attacks, raise funds and recruit militants.
The article then directs its readers to read the report in the magazine's print edition. I haven't been able to locate this issue of Veja, so if any of my readers has, please let me know.
For older posts on terrorism in Brazil and the tri-border area,
Piracy, the Tri-Border Area and terrorism
US asks Paraguay to extradite suspected Hezbollah financier, formerly of Broooklyn and New Jersey
Following up on the triborder area nine,
Linked by The Datatech Guy.


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Orange Oil
½ cup olive oil
1 orange, zested
8 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 pound orzo or shell pasta
1 orange
1 pink grapefruit
1 small red onion, sliced thin
½ cup chopped fresh mint
¼ cup chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
For the orange oil, combine the olive oil and the orange zest in a small bowl. Set aside.
For the salad: In a large saucepan, bring chicken stock to a boil over high heat. Add pasta and cook until tender but firm, about 11 minutes. Drain pasta and cool for 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, segment orange and grapefruit over the bowl, reserving juice and pieces. Add onion, mint, basil, Dijon mustard, salt pepper and pasta.


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The first half of the '90s was something of a creative heyday for ESPN, as distinctive new personalities like Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, Craig Kilborn, and Kenny Mayne arrived to complement sturdy veterans like Charley Steiner, Bob Ley, and Robin Roberts. The network launched ESPN Radio and ESPN2, and expanded its relationships with the NHL, the NFL, the NCAA, and Major League Baseball. On the journalism front, ESPN's reporters were developing a reputation for breaking stories, while programs and segments like Up Close, Outside The Lines, and "The Sunday Conversation" were getting more out of athletes than the usual post-game clichés. To top it all off, Wieden+Kennedy's "This Is SportsCenter" ad campaign emphasized the network's sense of humor about itself, in addition to making Bristol, Connecticut look like a hip, happening place for sports nuts to hang out.
But sometimes the roots of an institution's failures extend directly from its successes. The popularity of the "This Is SportsCenter" campaign led ESPN management to relax its rules against the talent promoting other products in TV commercials, which put a bit of a drag on that growing journalistic integrity. Meanwhile, the increased emphasis on cleverness in the highlight packages led to sports anchors spending more time coming up with catch-phrases than offering pertinent info. (The trend may have reached its nadir when Kilborn and Brett Haber conspired to make "salsa!" into a catchphrase, as a dare.) And the more popular ESPN has become—and the closer its relationships with the major sports leagues—the more it's evolved from merely covering sports to being business partners with the people on whom it reports.
I've expressed my dissatisfaction with ESPN several times on this site, so I don't want to pile on too much. Besides, I do watch a lot of ESPN, primarily when it's just broadcasting sports—I've been parked on the network lately, what with Wimbledon and the College World Series—and will concede that the crews at ESPN still do that part of their job reasonably well. I'm not crazy about the MLB or NFL telecasts, but by and large, I have no complaints about how ESPN handles play-by-play sports coverage. It's more the studio shows that I've steered clear of for much of the last decade-plus, along with the subgenre of shows that 30 Rock once aptly skewered as Sports Shouting. Those represent where the network used to do so well, until those corrupting elements mentioned above grew too strong.
The oral history Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside The World Of ESPN, by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, puts the current state of the network in context by going back to the beginning. For nearly 800 pages, Miller and Shales collect stories about how ESPN came into being almost through sheer luck—because an unemployed sports reporter looking to create a job for himself and his son bought a 24-hour satellite feed right before such a thing became hard to acquire—and then grew through a series of shrewd moves, fortunate hires, and what turned out to be an even more insatiable appetite for sports than the American public had previously shown. Early on, the channel was the butt of jokes for filling the wee hours with the likes of Australian rules football, but this diversity-by-necessity proved to be a strength back in the days when cable channels were making their case to every fledgling system in every corner of the country. Yacht racing, for example, might've only drawn a handful of viewers in the mid-'80s, but that handful could make a hard-to-ignore noise if Kabletown refused to pay the subscriber fees that ESPN was asking.
Yet while ESPN was making inroads with the sports that ABC, NBC, and CBS barely covered—like college basketball, which ESPN elevated from a regional passion to a national obsession—the channel was being scoffed at by the major networks, and it was in a tight competition for ratings with all the other cable sports outlets scrambling to find a foothold in an emerging market. Prior to the teaming of Patrick and Olbermann on the 11 p.m. SportsCenter, the show was routinely beaten by CNN's sports highlights show. Bringing together the affably wry Patrick and the alternately eloquent and acerbic Olbermann made SportsCenter required viewing for sports fans. Behind the scenes, according to Those Guys Have All The Fun, Olbermann was a hard one to handle, disobedient to management and dismissive of his colleagues. But he could also sit down at his desk and bang out a whole show's worth of brilliant copy in under half an hour, pulling dates and stats right out of his head. Olbermann's quick rise to ESPN stardom was a harbinger of all the unearned swagger and smart-assery to come from the network's anchors, but while he was in ESPN's employ, Olbermann himself was (mostly) worth the trouble.
Like Miller and Shales' previous oral history Live From New York: An Uncensored History Of Saturday Night Live, their new book can be as frustrating as it is fascinating. The problem with the oral history format is that it tends toward the disorganized, with topics coming and going without being fully addressed, and interviewees talking around each other without any authorial adjudication of their claims. Meanwhile, in their interstitial pieces, Miller and Shales get a little fawning at times, treating the biggest steps toward ESPN's eventual dominance like the stations of the cross.
But Those Guys Have All The Fun also digs into the controversies surrounding ESPN over the years, like the claims that the remoteness of Bristol fostered a culture of frat-boy drunkenness and sexual harassment in the early days, and like the internal hand-wringing over the hiring of obnoxious talk-show host Jim Rome. Mostly, the book documents decades of power-struggles dating back to the network's origins, when the financial backers, the big-picture guys, and the day-to-day business managers clashed over how best to make money and win respect. That debate has never been properly resolved, apparently. Later, while SportsCenter was moving beyond fast-paced highlights packages and developing some real journalistic standards, other divisions of ESPN were trying to expand the brand through ESPN Radio and ESPN2, both of which valued edginess over seriousness. By the mid-'90s, it became harder and harder for any one person to control what "ESPN" stood for.
Some of the funniest and most enlightening passages of Those Guys Have All The Fun deal with the decision to separate Patrick and Olbermann by drafting the latter to host SportsNight, the flagship show on "The Deuce," which required Olbermann to wear a leather jacket and banter with Suzy Kolber (to whom he mostly refused to speak off-camera). Olbermann says that his biggest problem back then with both ESPN and ESPN2 was that there were too many bosses to answer to, none of whom agreed on the direction the network should be taking. The situation grew worse when Disney bought a controlling stake in the company and started pushing for more cross-promotion, both with their own products and with sister network ABC. Meanwhile, the on-air talent was asked to sign new contracts that made everything they wrote or uttered the intellectual property of the corporation, even though they couldn't even get upper management to spring for offices. (Dan Patrick says he was told that the fire marshal wouldn't allow it, but adds, "If you were there for three weeks as a coordinating producer, you got an office.")
Anyone looking for insight into what's wrong with ESPN in 2011 should start there, with the increasingly top-heavy bureaucracy. Judging by what Miller and Shales uncovered, creative decisions at ESPN today are being driven too often by something other than genuine, from-the-ground-up inspiration. Granted, the interviewees in Those Guys Have All The Fun insist that their various corporate partners don't kill unflattering news stories, as much as they might like to. (The creators of the short-lived ESPN drama series Playmakers have a different story to tell, but then, they're not journalists.) But there's still a chumminess between ESPN and what Howard Cosell once dubbed "the jockocracy" that leads to embarrassments like last year's The Decision, in which the network gave an hour of airtime to LeBron James as he announced where he was going to play basketball the next season. And the same lack of imagination that led to dozens of anchors imitating Patrick and Olbermann—and Chris Berman, the original ESPN shtick-meister—led to ESPN following up the offbeat sports-commentary show Pardon The Interruption with the asinine Around The Horn, in which columnists are literally awarded points just for talking, whether they're saying anything cogent or not.
Which brings us back to highlight shows, so ably parodied by our pals at Onion Sportsdome. From the "Up Next" crawl on the side of the screen to the slick smirkiness of the patter, SportsCenter in particular has become so drearily predictable. Watching the show has become like eating at the same theme restaurant every night, with the same fake-friendly waitress. (Also, why can't the anchors do better at keeping their copy and comments in synch with the highlights? I mean, isn't that their job?)
Reading Those Guys Have All The Fun reminded me how much I used to enjoy ESPN, and how much the network has contributed—positively—to the coverage of sports on television. But it also reminded me of how much more entertaining ESPN was when it was catering to its dozen or so weird niches by showing logging competitions at 3 a.m. instead of yet another SportsCenter repeat. In those early days, the staff was making up the rules on the fly. Sure, some of the rules were mistakes, and some of those mistakes became entrenched in the ESPN culture. But at least the people working for the network had the freedom to experiment. For the first 15 or so years, right through that early-'90s peak, ESPN had an infectious fannish side that made the whole world of sports seem more fun. These days, perhaps driven by that overabundance of bosses, the network is making sports seem too much like a day at the office.


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British press needs regulator, says phone-hacking inquiry
Lord Leveson concludes today a yearlong inquiry into the practices of the British press, including tabloids accused of illegal phone hacking.
| London
Britain needs a new independent media regulator to eliminate a subculture of unethical behavior that infected segments of the country's press, a senior judge said Thursday at the end of a yearlong inquiry into newspaper wrongdoing.
Lord Justice Brian Leveson said a new regulatory body should be established in law to prevent more people being hurt by "press behavior that, at times, can only be described as outrageous."
He said "what is needed is a genuinely independent and effective system of self-regulation."
Lord Leveson issued his 2,000-page report at the end of a media ethics inquiry that was triggered by revelations of tabloid phone hacking and expanded to engulf senior figures in politics, the police, and Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
His proposals will likely be welcomed by victims of press intrusion and some politicians, who want to see the country's rambunctious press reined in. But some editors and lawmakers fear any new body could curtail freedom of the press.
Leveson insisted in his report that politicians and the government should play no role in regulating the press, which should be done by a new body with much stronger powers than the current Press Complaints Commission.
But Leveson said it was "essential that there should be legislation to underpin the independent self-regulatory system."
He said the new body should be composed of members of the public including former journalists and academics – but no serving editors or politicians. It should have the power to demand prominent corrections in newspapers and to levy fines of up to 1 million pounds ($1.6 million).
Prime Minister David Cameron set up the Leveson inquiry after revelations of illegal eavesdropping by Mr. Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid sparked a criminal investigation and a wave of public revulsion.
The furor erupted in 2011 when it was revealed that the News of the World had eavesdropped on the mobile phone voicemails of slain schoolgirl Milly Dowler while police were searching for the 13-year-old.
Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old newspaper in July 2011. His UK newspaper company, News International, has paid millions in damages to dozens of hacking victims, and faces lawsuits from dozens more, from celebrities, politicians, athletes and crime victims whose voicemails were hacked in the paper's quest for scoops.
Leveson heard evidence from hundreds of journalists, politicians, lawyers and victims of press intrusion during months of hearings that provided a dramatic, sometimes comic and often poignant window on the workings of the media. Witnesses ranged from celebrities such as Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and Hugh Grant – who both complained of intrusive treatment – to Dowlers, who described how learning that their daughter's voicemail had been accessed had given them false hope that she was alive.
Leveson said that the ongoing criminal investigation constrained him from accusing other newspapers of illegal behavior, but argued there was a subculture of unethical behavior "within some parts of some titles."
While many editors have denied knowing about phone hacking, Leveson said it "was far more than a covert, secret activity, known to nobody save one or two practitioners of the 'dark arts.'"
More broadly, he said newspapers had been guilty of "recklessness in prioritizing sensational stories almost irrespective of the harm the stories may cause."
"In each case, the impact has been real and, in some cases, devastating," the judge said.
The hacking scandal has rocked Britain's press, political and police establishments, who were revealed to enjoy an often cozy relationship in which drinks, dinners and sometimes money were traded for influence and information.
Leveson said over the past three decades, political parties "have had or developed too close a relationship with the press in a way which has not been in the public interest."
He acquitted senior politicians of wrongdoing, but recommended that political parties publish statements "setting out, for the public, an explanation of the approach they propose to take as a matter of party policy in conducting relationships with the press."
Parliament will have to approve the legal changes the report recommends, and Mr. Cameron is under intense pressure from both sides. He is also tainted by his own ties to prominent figures in the scandal.
Former Murdoch editors and journalists charged with phone hacking, police bribery, or other wrongdoing include Cameron's former spokesman, Andy Coulson, and ex-News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, a friend of the prime minister.
Mr. Coulson and Ms. Brooks were appearing in court Thursday on charges of paying public officials for information.


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Use Chart Designer
The Chart Designer allows you to create bar, pie, line, dial, and area charts that can be added to a dashboard. Below are the general steps associated with creating a chart:
- Select a data source.
- Build a query.
- Set the data definitions: values, series, category.
- Select a chart type and theme.
- Enter labels for the chart title, and x,y axes.
- If applicable, adjust scaling and label rotation.
- Place your chart in the dashboard.
- Save your dashboard.
See Create a Chart in the Dashboard Designer for further details on these steps.
If you are new to charting, here are guidelines that may help you determine what type of chart is best suited for the data you want to present in your dashboard:
Bar Charts
If you want to compare items during a specific time period, consider using a bar chart. Key words to think about when creating a bar chart are compare or rank. For example if you want to compare items sold to show which one made the most profit, you might create a bar chart that ranks the products from the lowest to highest profit. The bar's length determines its ranking; the label identifies the item. Bar chart data can be presented horizontally or vertically depending on your requirements.
Pie Charts
If you are comparing parts of a whole, consider using a pie chart. Key words associated with charts include, portion, share, and percentage. If for example, you want to demonstrate the proportion of the company's budget spent on health insurance, use a pie chart. To make the chart easier to read, limit the number of slices to five. Pie charts can also be exploded, which means certain slices are pulled away from the remainder of the chart for emphasis.
Line Charts
Line charts are useful for showing changes over time. Key words associated with data that is best suited for a line chart are trend, growth, and decline. If, for example, you want to show how product sales have changed over five years, use a line chart. The slope of the line helps users quickly identify the direction of the trend.
Dial Charts
Dial charts are often associated with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Dial charts are circular and contain a scale, a needle, and one or more a dial sectors. The dial sector is used to identify a specified area on a dial chart using a particular color. For example, you could have a dial plotting inventory with a minimum dial value of 10000 and a maximum dial value of 50000. There could be a red dial sector for the region between 2000 and 4000 indicating that if the needle is in this area, there is a danger of a supply inventory shortage.
Area Charts
Area charts can be used to show a comparison of the same thing during different points in time. Area charts are not designed to provide exact data but they do give users visual clues of the relative sizes of the items they are representing.
Modify Charts
After creating a chart, you can perform any of the following modifications:


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Intoxicated policeman found in church
A Leavenworth police officer is off suspension after he was found a couple of weeks ago trespassing inside a church while intoxicated, according to a department spokesman.
Leavenworth Police Chief Lee Doehring did not release the name of the officer involved, citing personnel reasons.
The incident was reported to authorities about 2:30 a.m. July 8 at the First Baptist Church, 340 N. 13th St.
The Rev. Randall Terrill was contacted by an alarm company for the church. At that time, the pastor reportedly observed a man standing outside the church.
But "he lost sight of him," Doehring said.
The alarm company called again a short time later to report the alarm had been triggered a second time. Police were contacted.
Officers arrived and checked the perimeter of the building. After finding a door unlocked, police searched the building and found a man inside. Doehring said they almost immediately identified the man as an off-duty officer.
"He was on the floor intoxicated," Doehring said.
The man was taken into custody but not officially arrested, according to the chief.
Police found no one else inside the church. Doehring said nothing was damaged and there didn't appear to be anything missing from the church.
Apparently panic bars were being placed on exterior doors at the church and the pastor thought workers forgot to lock the door the officer used to get inside.
Doehring said police initiated a criminal investigation and an internal investigation.
Doehring said the pastor consulted with church elders, and "they elected that they did not want to prosecute the matter."
Part of the internal investigation involved an examination of what led to the incident. Doehring said the off-duty officer had gone out with friends and consumed too much alcohol.
At some point, he wandered off a few blocks from the group of friends and ended up in the church.
"His actions did violate several rules and regulations of the city and the department," Doehring said, including conduct unbecoming an officer.
The chief said he imposed serious disciplinary action but did not terminate the officer.
Doehring said he looked at the officer's history. Doehring said the three-year veteran of the department had not had any similar incidents.
Doehring said he also tried to determine whether there had been malicious intent or the officer made a stupid decision.
The chief said he believes the incident was an isolated event for the officer who showed "extremely poor judgment."
Doehring said the officer received a suspension without pay, a transfer in assignment and was required to personally apologize to the pastor.
Prior to his disciplinary hearing, the officer sought out alcohol counseling, Doehring said.
From talking with the officer, Doehring said he knows the man is extremely embarrassed and remorseful.
Leavenworth (Kan.) Times


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Mayor's Crisis Response Team (CRT) March 21 - May 4, 2023 Volunteer Opportunity Spring 2023 CRT Academy
The Los Angeles Police Department, South Traffic Division will be conducting a Sobriety Checkpoint.
Friday, June 21, 2002, between 6:00 P.M. and 1:00 A.M.
Avalon Boulevard, between L Street and M Street
Los Angeles: Beginning on Friday, June 21, 2002, between the hours of 6:00 P.M. and 1:00 A.M. of the following morning, South Traffic Division will be conducting a Sobriety Checkpoint Operation in Harbor Area. The checkpoint will be conducted on the northbound lanes of Avalon Boulevard, between L Street and M Street.
A sobriety checkpoint is one of several enforcement tools used to reduce injuries, death, and property damage caused by intoxicated drivers. The checkpoint operation on June 21, 2002 will involve sixteen police officers and two sergeants. Sergeant Roy Van Duyne will be the Officer-in-Charge of the operation.
This media advisory was prepared by Public Information Officer Eduardo Funes, Media Relations Section, 213-485-3586