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See list of recent news alerts about Israel and the West Bank
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April 9, 2002. Yuzuru Saito, TV Tokyo: Harassed
April 9, 2002. Vincent Benhamou, free-lance: Harassed
April 1, 2002. Dana Lewis, NBC News: Attacked
March 31, 2002. All Media: Censored
March 29, 2002. Carlos Handal, Egyptian Nile TV and Abu Dhabi TV: Attacked
April 30, 2002. Youssry al-Jamal, Reuters: Arrested
April 18, 2002. Maher al-Dessouki, Al-Quds Educational TV. Arrested.
April 2. Al-Quds Educational TV's offices near Ramallah were occupied by Israeli troops early in the evening. Two staffers were detained briefly, and the station was forced off the air. The troops remain in the building and several tanks are in the building's parking lot.
April 1, 2002. Ismail Khader, Reuters, and Mark Mina, Middle East Broadcasting Centre: Harassed
Cases 2001
• December 13, 2001. Israeli missiles hit the Voice of Palestine radio station broadcasting headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to international news reports. The building's main transmitter was destroyed, knocking the station off the air.
Later, bulldozers flattened the building while Israeli soldiers detonated explosives that toppled a 90-foot radio and television tower and destroyed the station's transmitter, which is also used by Palestine TV.
Voice of Palestine went back on the air using another frequency. Palestine TV reportedly broadcast with poor reception.
The attack came amid Israeli military strikes against Palestinian National Authority targets in what Israel described as reprisals for recent deadly suicide bombings and shootings carried out by radical Palestinian groups. Israel holds Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat responsible for the violence.
• December 6, 2001. Israeli authorities barred Awad Awad, a photographer for Agence France-Presse (AFP), from entering Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's office. Awad, who had covered news events at the office on several previous occasions, was there to photograph a meeting between Sharon and the Norwegian foreign minister.
Awad was denied entry despite having the necessary Israeli Government Press Office press card, which grants journalists access to official events.
Israeli authorities later told AFP, without further explanation, that Awad would not be allowed in the prime minister's office for 15 days.
• October 24, 2001. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) harassed journalists and barred them from covering clashes in the Palestinian village of Beit Rima on October 24. Journalists from the Associated Press, Reuters, and AFP tried to enter the town by car but were turned back by the soldiers. They then attempted to enter the village through a back road, but Israeli soldiers again refused them entry. One journalist was told it was a "closed military area." The group returned to the village's main checkpoint. They managed to drive through the military post but were pulled over soon after by a group of soldiers who told them to leave the village immediately. When the group protested, a soldier hit one journalist's camera lens, and Israeli soldiers shoved two other journalists. The convoy was then escorted out of the village by Israeli military cars.
• October 12, 2001. Palestinian security forces barred journalists from entering the Meghazi refugee camp in Gaza, where the militant Islamic Jihad organization was staging a memorial service for a group member who had been murdered. Media outlets received the order via fax from Police Chief Ghazi Jabali.
• October 12, 2001. Palestinian security forces arrested Alaa Saftawi, publisher of the militant Islamic Jihad weekly Al-Istiqlal, over an article criticizing the Palestinian National Authority's crackdown on demonstrators in Gaza.
He was released without charge on November 16.
• October 9, 2001. Palestinian authorities barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip and prevented other reporters from reaching the scene of bloody clashes between Palestinian protesters and Palestinian police that resulted in the deaths of two protesters and the injuries of dozens more a day earlier. The ban remained in effect for one and a half days.
The demonstrators were protesting U.S. military strikes against Afghanistan. Some of the protesters expressed support for Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
On October 8, Palestinian authorities banned some foreign reporters from entering Gaza and prevented others from reaching the scene of clashes. At least two journalists who did manage to cover the clashes were attacked by Palestinian police and later detained for several hours.
For security reasons, the journalists involved in this incident asked that their names and affiliations not be revealed to the public.
• September 20, 2001. At about 11:00 a.m., Palestinian police and security agents descended on the offices of the private television station Al-Roa TV and ordered the station to cease broadcasting immediately.
No reason was given for the suspension, and the officers failed to provide station staff with any official documentation to justify the raid. Station director Hamdi Faraj eventually received a document from the local police stating that the station had been closed by order of Hadj Ismail Jaber, general director of the Palestinian military and police forces in the West Bank.
Staff at Al-Roa told CPJ that they believe the closure came in reprisal for a news bulletin aired earlier in the day. The bulletin announced that Al-Roa had received a statement from the Al-Aqsa Brigades, a group affiliated with Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization, claiming responsibility for an attack on two Jewish settlers in the West Bank, which resulted in the death of one settler.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was evidently embarrassed by Al-Roa's bulletin, which suggested that a group technically under Arafat's control might have violated the recently announced Palestinian cease-fire.
By Al Roa's own count, it was the 10th time PNA authorities had closed the station since it was founded in the early 1990s.
On September 22, authorities allowed the station to resume broadcasting.
• September 14, 2001. Palestinian police briefly detained several photographers and cameramen working with international news agencies in the Gaza Strip and confiscated their equipment. The journalists had been covering a rally to commemorate a Palestinian suicide bomber that the militant Islamic group Hamas staged in the Nusseirat refugee camp. During the rally, one protestor reportedly held up a portrait of Osama bin Laden, the exiled Saudi financier suspected by the United States of orchestrating the recent attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.
Palestinian police later stated that they "confiscated media material which documented illegal acts" at an illegal rally. Although the PNA returned the journalists' camera equipment that weekend, some of their video footage had been erased. The AP reported yesterday that its video was missing 45 seconds of footage. Another photographer told CPJ that images stored on his digital camera had been erased.
• September 11, 2001. According to international press reports, Palestinian police and armed gunmen prevented several news photographers and cameramen from documenting events in the West Bank city of Nablus, where groups of Palestinians celebrated the terrorist attacks on the United States by honking horns and firing live ammunition rounds into the air.
According to The Associated Press, Palestinian security authorities summoned a free-lance cameraman working for the AP that same day and warned him not to air his footage of the events. Members of the Tanzim militia, affiliated with the Fatah organization, also issued warnings that the AP cameraman interpreted as threatening.
Later, the AP quoted Palestinian National Authority (PNA) cabinet secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman as saying that the PNA "[could] not guarantee the life" of the AP cameraman if the film were broadcast. In the end, the footage was not aired, apparently out of concern for the journalist's safety.
• August 13, 2001. Tarek Abdel Jaber and Abdel Nasser Abdoun, a reporter and cameraman, respectively, for the state-run Egyptian Television network, were assaulted by an unidentified Israeli soldier at the Qalandia checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah while they were filming in the area.
Abdoun told CPJ that the soldier approached him and Abdel Jaber when they left their car to gather film footage. Abdoun said the soldier ordered him in English to move back, and that he obeyed. The soldier then tried to kick him in the shin. He then approached Abdel Jaber and slapped him across the face. The soldier proceeded to kick Abdoun in the groin, and he fell to the ground.
According to Abdoun and Abdel Jaber, the other soldiers at the checkpoint did nothing to stop the attack. Abdoun captured the incident on video. Abdoun was taken to Makased hospital in Jerusalem, where he was treated and released after three hours.
In an August 12 statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman's office called the incident "wrong and completely unacceptable" but accused the journalists of refusing to leave the scene and of "provoking the soldiers guarding the checkpoint."
The IDF said that the soldier involved in the attack was "tried by the battalion commander and received a [suspended] 21-day prison sentence...and was suspended from commanding positions."
• July 31, 2001. Muhammad al-Bishawi, a reporter for the Nablus-based Palestinian news service Najah Press Office and for IslamOnline.net, an Internet news service based in Qatar, was killed in an Israeli missile attack that had targeted Hamas leader Jamal Mansour. Israel had accused Mansour of masterminding several suicide bombings.
Various sources, including al-Bishawi's Cairo-based editor, reported that at the time of the attack, al-Bishawi was in the Palestinian Center for Studies and Media, a Hamas information office, to interview Mansour for an article he was writing for IslamOnline.net.
Al-Bishawi covered many topics for IslamOnline.net, ranging from Palestinian weddings to suicide bombers.
• July 29, 2001. Israeli soldiers attacked a number of journalists in the compound of the
Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, where the journalists were covering clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters.
Some 15 to 20 journalists were covering events in the Al-Aqsa compound. Among them were Awad Awad and Majfouz Abu Turk of Reuters, Atta Oweisat of Zoom 77, free-lancer Mona al-Kawatmi, and Rashid Safadi of Al Jazeera. The journalists said they were standing together in a group and that because of their position and equipment, they could not have been mistaken for Palestinian demonstrators.
Abu Turk told CPJ that Israeli soldiers first tried to deny journalists entry to the compound by blocking all seven doors. He said that most of the journalists barred from entering the compound eventually gained access, including himself. Once the clashes began, the journalists said, Israeli forces started firing rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd. (The army denied using rubber bullets.) The journalists said that the attacks against journalists started during the "second wave" of Israeli attacks against demonstrators.
Individual journalists were abused, threatened, and forcefully removed from the compound. Awad sustained a broken tooth when he was kicked in the face by an Israeli soldier. Awad said that at about 3:15 p.m., as he was photographing the clashes, a soldier charged him and kicked him in the mouth. Bleeding, Awad ran away. A few moments later he was again attacked by the same soldier, who kicked him several more times.
• July 29, 2001. Sakher Abu al-Aoun, a correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in the Gaza Strip, was beaten by five assailants armed with pipes as he made his way to AFP's offices. He suffered a concussion.
In a letter to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, AFP said the incident was "particularly alarming because the assailants...clearly said they knew Sakher was a journalist."
AFP quoted Palestinian Authority secretary general Ahmed Abdulrahman as saying that the attacks against Abu al-Aoun were probably connected with a report the journalist filed about bloody clashes involving two feuding families in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza.
• July 9, 2001. Jewish settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron attacked Mazen Dana and Nael Shiyoukhi, cameramen for Reuters; Hussam Abu Alan, a photographer for Agence France Presse; and Imad al-Said, a cameraman for Associated Press Television News.
The journalists were covering settlers attacking a Palestinian wedding party in the Al-Raf section of the city, across from the large Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba.
After they arrived at the scene, the photographers began filming the violence from 20 to 30 meters (22 to 33 yards) away, until Israeli border police ordered them to leave the area. They moved to a different location and resumed filming the settlers, who were throwing stones at cars and homes. Some of the settlers turned on the journalists and threw stones at them.
One settler pointed his machine gun at the cameras of Shyioukhi and al-Said. Abu Alan was beaten by another settler. None of the journalists were seriously injured, although Abu Alan sustained slight injuries to his face and neck.
According to the journalists, the soldiers and police who were present did nothing to stop the attacks.
• June 26, 2001. Hazem Bader, a free-lance cameraman working with The Associated Press Television News, came under heavy machine gun fire while riding in his car in the West Bank city of Hebron.
At around dusk, Bader was driving home from an assignment when his car was attacked in the Palestinian-controlled Bab al-Zawiyah section of the city. Bader said the gunfire came from an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) outpost near the Jewish settlement of Tel Rumeida, about 500 meters (555 yards) away.
The first round of shots hit a wall just a few meters from his car, forcing him to exit the vehicle and take cover. Ten seconds later, Bader said, another round struck a nearby streetlight. A few minutes later, five or six rounds were fired directly at his car, three of which struck the vehicle.
Bader told CPJ that the street where the attack occurred was empty and peaceful. "It was an open and clear area," Bader said. "No one was moving in the area." He added that his car was plastered with Arabic, Hebrew, and English stickers that clearly identified it as a press vehicle.
IDF spokesman Olivier Rafowicz told CPJ that he had no information about the incident but added that the IDF had received a letter of inquiry from the AP and was "looking into it." Israeli authorities had taken no action on the case by year's end.
• May 29, 2001. Joshua Hammer, the Jerusalem bureau chief for Newsweek magazine, and Gary Knight, a photographer on assignment with the publication, were detained by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
The two were interviewing Palestinian militants in the town of Rafah who claimed to be members of the Fatah Hawks, an organization that Palestinian National Authority officials claim no longer exists.
During the interview, the militants informed the two journalists that they were being detained "to protest unfair American and British press coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," according to Newsweek. The journalists' driver and translator were also detained.
In a statement, the militants said: "This operation comes as a message to the U.S. and British governments to reconsider their calculations and that all their citizens in Palestine and the Arab world will be subject to abduction and killing in case the full, biased and unjustified support continues to the government [of Israel]."
The journalists were allowed to leave unharmed after four and a half hours. They said they did not feel threatened, Newsweek reported. Meanwhile, Palestinian officials denied any involvement in the incident.
• May 15, 2001. Bertrand Aguirre, a reporter for the French television channel TF1, was wounded in the chest by a live round while covering clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian demonstrators near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Aguirre had just finished a stand-up report when an Israeli border policeman opened fire from about 150 to 200 meters (166 to 222 yards) away. A single round struck the journalist in the chest. Aguirre's bulletproof vest most likely saved his life.
Aguirre was standing about 50 to 100 meters (55 to 111 yards) behind stone-throwing Palestinian demonstrators who were between him and the border policeman. The incident occurred during a lull in the clashes, according to eyewitnesses.
While it is uncertain whether the soldier was aiming at Aguirre, video footage shows the soldier opening fire in the direction of unarmed demonstrators and journalists. The footage shows that he was not in a life-threatening situation and had violated the IDF's rules of engagement.
"It's clear that the soldier opened fire with live ammunition on an unarmed crowd and that he was shooting to kill. Was he aiming at me or not? I can't tell that," Aguirre told CPJ. The journalist contended that he was easily recognizable as a reporter since he was holding a microphone and wearing a conspicuous white flak jacket as he stood alongside his camera crew.
On June 21, Danny Seaman, director of the Government Press Office's Foreign Press Department, told CPJ that an internal police investigation into Aguirre's shooting was under way. Investigators had received video footage of the incident, Seaman said, along with the bullet that wounded the journalist.
The investigation, Seaman said, was taking place under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. He reported that if any evidence of wrongdoing was found, the Justice Ministry might initiate a criminal prosecution. Seaman said the results of the investigation were expected to be released in late June.
In September, the Justice Ministry dismissed the case for what it said was lack of evidence. A report of the investigation dated November 20 contained a lengthy account of the Justice Ministry's investigation of the Aguirre case. After interviewing the Israeli soldier who fired the shot, other soldiers, and journalists on the scene, the investigator concluded that "it is impossible to make the connection with certainty between the shot fired by the suspect and the wounding of the journalist because the whole picture is not present.... In my opinion, it is appropriate to close the case due to lack of evidence."
• April 20, 2001. Layla Odeh, a correspondent for the United Arab Emirates-based Abu Dhabi TV, was shot by Israeli troops at about 1 p.m. while she and two colleagues were interviewing residents in the town of Rafah whose homes had been destroyed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the journalist told CPJ.
Without warning, two shots were fired in the journalists' direction from a nearby IDF position. When the crew attempted to flee the scene, a third shot was fired, striking Odeh in the back of her thigh. She was taken to the Shifa hospital, where she underwent surgery to remove the bullet.
Odeh and her colleagues reported that no clashes were taking place in their vicinity at the time of the shooting. They also maintained they were clearly identifiable as journalists due to their conspicuous camera equipment. Video footage appeared to confirm their account.
IDF spokesman Olivier Rafowicz expressed regret for the incident and said that an IDF investigation was under way. He told CPJ that "there was no intention to hit the journalists" and added that the TV crew had been in a dangerous "area of violence."
On April 25, CPJ protested the attack in a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and urged him to ensure that Israeli authorities launched a thorough investigation into this incident, as well as other similar cases involving journalists wounded by Israeli gunfire.
In a June 7 letter to CPJ, Prime Minister Sharon's spokesman Raanan Gissin wrote that the Odeh incident was "under official IDF investigation," but said he "cannot release any of the findings yet." He added that "the Prime Minister and the IDF are serious about examining this matter thoroughly."
On June 11, a CPJ delegation met with the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., David Ivry, and presented him with the Odeh case and those of 15 other journalists wounded by live rounds or rubber-coated steel bullets since violence erupted in the occupied territories in late September 2001.
In response to CPJ's research, the embassy wrote on June 19: "There was an investigation into this incident. The investigation revealed that Ms. Odeh was hit by a rubber bullet fired from a raised lookout position. The severity of her injuries was due to the use of rubber bullets from this position. Because use of rubber bullets in this situation were found to be dangerous, their use has been forbidden in such cases."
The ambassador also promised to send a detailed report to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem and to the IDF asking for their immediate attention to the specific incidents highlighted by CPJ. In December, the IDF said the case was still under review.
• March 26, 2001. Israeli soldiers attacked Amer Jabari, a cameraman for ABC News; Nael Shiyoukhi, a cameraman for Reuters; and Hussam Abu Allan, a photographer for Agence France-Presse, while they were covering a Palestinian demonstration in the West Bank village of Halhoul.
According to Shiyoukhi, an officer approached the journalists and ordered them to evacuate the area in exactly one minute or face arrest. He gave no reason for the order.
When the journalists did not leave, soldiers began to push them, and one punched Jabari in the nose. Shiyoukhi was pushed against a military jeep. He also reported that an officer would have arrested him had a group of women not intervened.
Abu Allan, who was watching the incident, was struck with a rifle butt. The Israeli army alleged that the cameramen were preventing the soldiers from performing their work, and that one had attacked a commander. The cameramen denied these allegations.
March 21, 2001. Palestinian National Authority (PNA) security forces, acting on orders from President Yasser Arafat's office, closed the Ramallah bureau of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel and barred its staff from entering the premises. The move apparently resulted from an Al-Jazeera promotional trailer that advertised a forthcoming episode in a documentary series about the Lebanese civil war. The trailer showed a demonstrator holding a pair of shoes over a photo of Arafat.
On March 19, PNA security authorities contacted the bureau to demand that Al-Jazeera withdraw the trailer within two hours or else face closure. Shortly thereafter, security officials visited the bureau and told staff that their office was closed indefinitely. On March 21, Palestinian security forces took up positions in front of the bureau and prevented staff from entering.
On March 23, following international condemnation and the intervention of several high-profile Palestinian figures, Arafat allowed Al-Jazeera's bureau to reopen.
• March 10, 2001. Reuters cameramen Mazen Dana and Nael Shiyoukhi and Agence France-Presse photographer Hussam Abu Alan were attacked at around 4 p.m. by Jewish settlers in the West Bank town of Hebron.
The journalists were filming settlers throwing stones and empty bottles at local Palestinian residents near the Jewish settlement neighborhood of Tel Rumeida.
Dana was struck in the leg by a bottle and in the face by a stone, which cut his lip and broke three teeth. The settlers also threatened to smash the journalists' cameras. Shiyoukhi, meanwhile, was kicked in the leg and hit in the neck with a stone before fleeing.
Israeli soldiers finally intervened and escorted Dana and Abu Alan away from the scene of the attack. However, the journalists were again attacked by a separate group of Jewish settlers, who broke Abu Alan's camera. All three photographers were taken to a hospital for treatment.
• March 8, 2001. An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier in an armored carrier
opened fire in the direction of three Reuters journalists--Christine Hauser, Ahmed Bahadou, and Suhaib Salem--at the Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip. Reporter Hauser, cameraman Bahadou, and free-lance photographer Salem were about 50 meters (55 yards) from the armored carrier when the soldier started firing a heavy machine gun in their direction. The journalists quickly took cover.
Reuters reported that when the shooting occurred, Bahadou and Salem were pointing their cameras in the opposite direction from the carrier, and that Hauser had taken out her notebook. The journalists believed they had made eye contact with the IDF soldiers in order to assure them that they were press. The Netzarim Junction was described as quiet at the time.
Army spokesman Olivier Rafowicz later characterized the gunfire as "warning shots," claiming the journalists had violating IDF policy by approaching the outpost. Due to the "tense security situation in Gaza," Rafowicz told Reuters, "civilians are not allowed to approach...outposts because of a present threat of terror activity." He added that the journalists failed to inform the IDF ahead of time of their presence in the area.
However, Reuters pointed out that the IDF requires no such notification from journalists working there. Hauser later said that contrary to what the Israeli army reported, the journalists were walking away from the IDF post when the shooting occurred.
In a June 19 response to CPJ's research, Israel's embassy in Washington, D.C., wrote that an "investigation was launched the day of the incident. The investigation found that the soldiers involved acted within IDF guidelines. An official statement from the IDF Spokesman was issued."
• February 16, 2001. From February 16 to 20, Israeli authorities barred editions of three Palestinian daily newspapers--Al-Quds, Hayat al-Jadida, Al-Ayyam--from entering the Gaza Strip. The measure was part of a closure of the Gaza Strip imposed by Israel in response to an attack on Israeli soldiers by Palestinian militants.
• February 15, 2001. A transmission tower of the private television station Nablus TV was damaged by Israeli gunfire during clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus. The tower was perched atop a residential building that was hit by the Israeli fire.
Ayman al-Nimer, technical director of the station, said that because of the destruction, about 40 percent of the station's viewers could not watch the channel. Israeli fire had also knocked out the station's transmission in January, stopping all broadcasts for
20 days.
Nimer told CPJ that he could not confirm that the station was targeted, but the fact that the transmission tower has been hit twice within a short period of time raises questions about the Israel Defense Forces' intentions.
• February 11, 2001. Louay Abu Haikal and Hussam Abu Alan, photographers for Reuters and Agence France-Presse, respectively, were attacked by two Jewish settlers while covering clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron. Abu Haikal told CPJ that when he tried to defend himself from attack by pushing the settlers back, an Israeli soldier struck him in the neck with a rifle butt. The soldier then aimed the rifle at Abu Allan's head and threatened to shoot him, according to the journalists. The soldier temporarily confiscated the journalists' identification cards, which were returned after their respective news agencies were contacted.
•February 9, 2001. Laurent van der Stock, 36, a veteran photographer working for the GAMMA photo agency and Newsweek magazine, was struck in the left knee by a live bullet while covering clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli troops near the West Bank town of Ramallah. The bullet entered above his knee and exited through the back of his leg, severing an artery and causing nerve damage.
At the time of the incident, van der Stock and several other photojournalists had been covering clashes near the City Inn Hotel, along Ramallah's border with its sister city, Al-Bireh, for about two hours. An Israeli army position composed of soldiers in jeeps was located about 100 meters (111 yards) away from the hotel. According to journalists at the scene, armed Israeli troops were also stationed in buildings situated on the high ground behind the jeeps, some 500 meters (555 yards) from the journalists.
According to the journalists, Palestinian demonstrators had launched several attacks on the Israeli jeeps, using stones, pipes, and slingshots. The soldiers responded by exiting their jeeps and opening fire with rubber bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades. Palestinian gunmen in buildings along the main road also fired sporadically on the Israeli positions in the course of the afternoon.
At about 3:15 p.m., van der Stock ventured into the middle of the road during clashes in order to photograph Palestinian youths retreating from an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) counterattack. "I understood the demonstrators would run back, so I ran [out] about 20 seconds ahead of time and photographed people running [retreating] toward me," van der Stock told CPJ. "I was shot in the [left] knee."
Van der Stock described the situation just prior to the incident as chaotic but added that anyone firing live ammunition into the crowd should have known that he was a photographer, since he carried two cameras around his neck.
In a telephone interview, IDF spokesman Olivier Rafowicz told CPJ that IDF troops and Palestinian gunmen were engaged in a fierce gun battle at the time van der Stock was shot. Because of the general confusion and because the bullet that entered the photographer's leg was never retrieved, the army was unable to determine who fired the shot, Rafowicz claimed.
Nonetheless, van der Stock and eyewitnesses interviewed by CPJ maintained that the shot was likely fired by an Israeli soldier stationed either on the ground or in a nearby building. "The way the bullet came and hit him straight in the knee, there was no doubt it came from straight ahead [i.e., the Israeli positions]," one photographer at the scene told CPJ. "The Palestinian gunmen who were firing earlier were in the buildings...100 meters [111 yards] to the left and right but behind Laurent. His back would have been to the Palestinian gunmen...From what I saw...it would have to be a ballistic miracle for him to have been hit by Palestinian fire." Moreover, journalists on the scene added that gunfire from the Palestinian side had ceased for some time before van der Stock was shot.
On March 13, CPJ wrote the IDF spokesman's office to urge the IDF to launch a serious and thorough investigation to determine if one of its soldiers in fact fired the round that injured Laurent van der Stock, and for what reason. CPJ also requested that the IDF release the findings of this investigation, along with any additional information that might shed light on the incident. The IDF responded that it was looking into the incident and promised to reply in detail to CPJ's concerns.
On December 17, 2001, CPJ received a faxed document from Israel's Government Press Office, titled "Report on Injury of Foreign Journalists Covering the Violence in the West Bank and Gaza and Operational Procedures Implemented by the IDF."
The report claimed that it was impossible to establish that van der Stock was hit by IDF fire, adding that several attempts were made to have the photographer speak directly to the brigade commander so a more thorough investigation could be conducted, but that these attempts were unsuccessful.
•February 8, 2001. The offices of the official Palestinian newspaper Al-Hayat al-Jadida, located in the West Bank town of Al-Bireh, were hit during a barrage of gunfire that lasted from about 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. No one was injured, but windows in the front of the building were heavily damaged. The staff took cover in the basement during the shooting.
According to staff, the shots came from the direction of the Israeli army base on Jabal al-Tawil, near the Jewish settlement of Pisgaout.
•January 16, 2001. Majdi al-Arbid, a free-lance cameraman and the owner of a private production company in the Gaza Strip, was detained by the Preventive Security Services of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in Gaza in connection with video footage of the PNA's execution of a Palestinian accused of collaborating with Israel.
The PNA was apparently angered that the execution had aired on Israel's Channel 2. Only a few PNA-sanctioned journalists were allowed to cover the execution, and al-Arbid was not among them. PNA officials suspected that whoever shot the footage then gave it to al-Arbid, who passed it to Channel 2.
Al-Arbid was released on January 23, after eight days in detention.
Cases 2000
• November 15, 2000. Palestinian National Authority (PNA) security forces raided the private Bethlehem television station Al-Roa' and temporarily forced it off the air. During the raid, two PNA soldiers beat station director Hamdi Farraj and several other staff members, the journalists said, while other soldiers threatened to shoot the staff and destroy the station's equipment. After forcing the staff outside, the soldiers locked the station's doors and confiscated the keys.
Though the authorities did not give a reason for the raid, it was apparently prompted by Al-Roa's incorrect report that Israeli forces had bombed a Palestinian military facility in Bethlehem.
The melee continued outside until other PNA security agents arrived on the scene and intervened to stop the beatings. Farraj and several staff members were briefly detained. The station was allowed to resume broadcasting shortly thereafter.
Two days later, at 8:30 p.m. on the evening of November 17, Palestinian police ordered the station to cease broadcasting. The police carried a letter to PNA chairman Yasser Arafat, asking Arafat to order the closure of Al-Roa' and the arrest of Farraj, whom the letter accused of promoting sectarian strife. (Farraj was not arrested).
The letter was signed by PNA police chief Ghazi Jebali, by the head of Arafat's Bethlehem office, William Nasser, and by other police and security officials. The officers also carried a written reply from Arafat that said "Do what you think is necessary," Al-Roa' reported.
Station staff told CPJ that the authorities had accused the station of promoting religious "strife" within the Palestinian community, but did not elaborate.
On November 19, about 100 local residents marched to the station's offices and demanded that it reopen. Al-Roa' then went back on the air, in defiance of the closure order, and was still broadcasting at press time.
• November 12, 2000. Israeli soldiers stopped Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana at the Khallet Khadour checkpoint, near the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, and prevented him from entering the old city of Hebron. Dana was traveling with Mary Robinson, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
The soldiers claimed that all journalists were prohibited from entering the old city. After Robinson protested, Dana told CPJ, he was finally allowed to proceed.
After they passed through the checkpoint, a group of Jewish settlers attacked Dana's car with stones and metal bars. Afterwards, the journalist was taken to the local police station and questioned for one and a half hours.
• November 12, 2000. Jewish settlers attacked a car carrying Reuters photographers Abdel Rahim Qusini and Nasser Ishtayyeh, who were traveling from Jerusalem toward the West Bank city of Nablus to investigate news that a settler had been killed that day.
As the journalists approached a bus station at the Za'tara intersection on the main road to Nablus, they saw some five Israeli soldiers standing with a handful of settlers. Suddenly, about a dozen settlers walked from behind a concrete barrier and started hurling stones at their car. A separate group of about 30 settlers then began throwing stones and pieces of cement. One stone broke the glass of the left window and struck Qusini in the shoulder.
Israeli soldiers witnessed the incident but did not intervene, according to the two journalists, even though their car displayed a "Press" sticker and had Israeli license plates. Qusini was taken to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus for treatment and was released later in the day.
• November 11, 2000. Yola Monakhov, a 26-year-old free-lance photographer working with The Associated Press, was struck in the lower abdomen by a live round fired by an Israeli soldier in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. She sustained a fractured pelvis and serious injuries to her bladder and other internal organs.
According to the AP, Monakhov was with a small group of Palestinian youths, some of whom had been hurling stones toward an Israeli outpost near Rachel's Tomb, when an Israeli soldier appeared from around a corner and took aim at the group from a distance of about 50 yards (55 meters). Monakhov fled along with the youths to take shelter behind a closed gate.
"There was maybe one youth pressed in the doorway with me," she told the AP, explaining that her backpack prevented her from entering the area. "I was waiting for the shot. And a second later I collapsed."
After initial denials, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged on November 17 that one of its troops had shot the journalist. The IDF announced that it was conducting an investigation into the incident.
In December, the IDF formally apologized to Monakhov and said that the soldier who fired the shot violated IDF regulations. The IDF also promised that the soldier as well as his commanding officer would face a court martial. To CPJ's knowledge, the disciplinary actions, if carried out, would be the first such action taken by the IDF against soldiers who abused journalists.
• October 31, 2000. Wedeman, CNN's Cairo bureau chief, was hit in the lower back by a live round at the Karni border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Wedeman told CPJ that he had gone to the Karni crossing following reports of clashes there earlier in the day. He and his crew initially stationed themselves across the street from a group of Palestinians whom he presumed had been among the protesters earlier.
"[They] were on one side of the street and a handful of journalists [were] on the other side," Wedeman said. He described the situation as tense but relatively stable at first, although there was sporadic gunfire. Journalists at the scene were wearing flak jackets and helmets.
As Wedeman and CNN cameraman Muhammad Assad walked down the road toward an olive grove, a burst of gunfire erupted. "Within minutes there was shooting. Intense shooting," he said. "I heard bullets over my head. We realized we were not in a good position." He added that what appeared to be a shell landed 16 to 22 meters (17 to 24 yards) away.
About five minutes later, while Wedeman was taking down his tripod and preparing to leave the area during a lull in the firing, he was struck in the back. The bullet passed through Wedeman's flak jacket. He could not determine the source of the shot, but did say that his back was to the Israeli position, between 400 yards (437 meters) and one mile (1.62 kilometer) away.
Agence France-Presse reported that journalists, including the CNN crew, were fired on by Israeli forces. An official at CNN told CPJ that there was "no reason to believe whoever fired upon Wedeman knew he was a journalist."
CPJ released a news alert about the attack on the afternoon of October 31.
• October 31, 2000. Israeli soldiers detained Suleiman al-Shafei, a reporter and cameraman for the Israeli television station Channel 2, when the journalist tried to reenter Israel from the Gaza Strip via the Erez checkpoint. The soldiers told al-Shafei that he was violating an order prohibiting Israeli citizens from entering the occupied territories.
After al-Shafei identified himself as a Channel 2 reporter (and an Israeli citizen), the soldiers called in Israeli police, who took the journalist to a nearby police station and questioned him for four hours. He was asked why he had gone to Gaza, whom he had met with, and what he had seen. Al-Shafei refused to answer the questions and protested his detention.
The police officers then tried to make al-Shafei sign a written pledge that he would not enter Gaza for 90 days. He refused and was eventually released on 5000 shekels (US$1250) bail, but the soldiers confiscated his footage of the aftermath of Israel's bombing of Palestinian National Authority offices in Gaza the night before.
In a virtually identical incident on November 2, Israeli soldiers again stopped al-Shafei at the Erez checkpoint for violating the ban on entry into the occupied territories and transferred him to police custody. After another interrogation, he was released on bail of 15,000 shekels (US$3750).
• October 23, 2000. Israeli soldiers prevented Nasser Shiyoukhi, a reporter and photographer for The Associated Press, from entering the West Bank village of Sumoua, near Hebron. His Israeli government press card was also confiscated.
At the time of the incident, Shiyoukhi was returning to Sumoua, having left in order to help a number of foreign reporters who were having difficulty gaining access to the town. When he arrived at the checkpoint, the soldiers told him he could not reenter Sumoua, and then took his press card.
• October 21, 2000. Jacques-Marie Bourget, a reporter for the French magazine Paris-Match, was struck in the chest by a live bullet and seriously injured while covering clashes between stone-throwing Palestinians and Israeli troops in Ramallah. He was hospitalized in Ramallah and then flown to Paris for treatment 24 hours later.
At the time of the incident, Bourget was standing along a wall with a group of journalists and other bystanders. They were near, but not among, a group of demonstrators, Paris-Match reported and other eyewitnesses confirmed. A bullet then struck Bourget in the chest, entering his lung.
A Paris-Match editor in Paris told CPJ that the magazine was not sure who fired the round that hit Bourget, and that the magazine did not believe he was targeted intentionally. However, another Paris-Match journalist had a different view.
"From where he was standing, only those in front of him could have hit him. And those in front of him were Israeli soldiers," Paris-Match deputy editor Patrick Jarnoux told The Toronto Star. "He was nowhere near the clashes, standing alone with a photographer," Jarnoux added. "And a 57-year-old man can't easily be mistaken for a 15-year-old rock thrower."
• October 21, 2000. Bruno Stevens, a free-lance photographer working with the French newspaper Libération and the German magazine Stern, was grazed in the throat by a live bullet while covering clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in Ramallah. At the time, Stevens was standing with several other journalists, well away from Palestinian demonstrators.
Stephens told CPJ that the bullet, which he believed was fired by Israeli troops, passed over the head of a British free-lance photographer and then ricocheted off a wall before grazing his throat. He suffered a minor burn.
The incident took place just minutes after the shooting of Paris-Match's Jacques-Marie Bourget, who was part of the same group of journalists.
• October 18, 2000. An Israeli soldier shot Patrick Baz in the finger with a rubber-coated metal bullet while the photographer was covering clashes between Israeli forces and stone-throwing Palestinian protesters in Ramallah. Baz was standing with another photographer at the time.
Although armed Palestinians at the scene later engaged in gunfire with the Israeli forces, Baz said this happened after he was hit.
"It was obvious [we were journalists]. We were wearing white helmets and flak jackets," Baz told CPJ. "I got it on my finger while [the finger] was on my camera...I can't say it was a stray bullet.
"I would not complain if I was in the middle of the demonstration...[but] we were on the side between demonstrators and soldiers and in an empty field, really," he continued. "You could call it a no-man's land."
• October 17, 2000. Reuters photographer Mahfouz Abu Turk was wounded in the hand by a rubber-coated metal bullet fired by Israeli troops while he was covering clashes that erupted between Palestinians and Israeli forces in Bethlehem after the funeral of a Palestinian boy.
Just before the attack, Abu Turk was photographing the clashes from behind a cement block. He was taken to the hospital in Beit Jala, where he received four stitches for the wound.
Abu Turk claimed that his camera equipment clearly identified him as a journalist.
• October 12, 2000. At around 5 p.m., Israeli attack helicopters opened fire on two transmission towers and other technical facilities used by the Voice of Palestine in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The attack briefly knocked the Palestinian National Authority radio station off the air, but it quickly resumed broadcasting on an FM frequency.
The Israeli army acknowledged that it had deliberately targeted the radio towers. A military spokesman justified the attack by charging that the station had incited Palestinians to commit violence. Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, head of the Israeli army's operations branch, told Reuters that Palestinian state television broadcasts of Palestinians dragging an effigy of an Israeli soldier had incited a mob attack in Ramallah earlier that day, in which two Israeli soldiers were killed.
CPJ protested the attack in an October 18 letter to Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak.
• October 12, 2000. A Palestinian mob prevented several cameramen and photographers from filming the killing of two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah. Some journalists were assaulted and had their film or cameras confiscated.
A cameraman from ABC News was kicked in the groin and stomach by the crowd and prevented from filming the event.
British free-lance photographer Mark Seager was also assaulted and had his camera seized. "Instinctively, I reached for my camera," Seager later wrote in the London Sunday Telegraph. "I was composing the picture when I was punched in the face by a Palestinian. Another Palestinian pointed right at me shouting 'no picture, no picture!' while another guy hit me in the face and said 'give me your film!' I tried to get the film out but they were all grabbing me and one guy just pulled the camera off me and smashed it to the floor."
Patrick Baz, a photographer for Agence France-Presse, had two of his cameras confiscated by the crowd, though he had not taken any photographs of the killing. "I bumped into a crowd. They wanted my film," he told CPJ, saying the mob apparently suspected him of belonging to an undercover Israeli unit. "I hadn't taken any shots. I had nothing to give them. I was pushed and harassed. They started pulling at my camera." He said he ended up getting one of the cameras back after pleading with the crowd, but the other was destroyed.
One journalist working for a Western news organization who was at the scene said the angry crowd prevented several other cameramen and photographers from filming the incident.
• October 11, 2000. Israeli police called in Atta Oweisat, a photographer for the Israeli press agency Zoom 77, for questioning in Jerusalem. The journalist thought he was being summoned in reference to a complaint he filed about his beating at the hands of an undercover Israeli security unit in Jerusalem on October 4 (see case above).
Instead, Oweisat was charged with insulting the police, injuring an officer, and preventing the police from arresting demonstrators. Oweisat vigorously denied the charges. "My presence as a photojournalist has been a nuisance for [Israeli undercover agents] who infiltrate among the local Palestinians during demonstrations and who are strongly opposed to their identities being exposed," he argued.
The journalist was released on bail of 5000 shekels (US$ 1250). The charges against him were still pending at year's end.
• October 9, 2000. A rubber-coated metal bullet fired by Israeli forces hit the camera lens of Luc Delahaye, a free-lance photographer with the Magnum photo agency and Newsweek magazine. At the time, the journalist was shooting clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian demonstrators in the town of Ramallah. Delahaye estimated that he was shot at a distance of 40 yards (44 meters). His camera was destroyed.
While working at the same location the next day, his head was grazed by another rubber bullet. One week later, he was hit on the forehead by a third rubber bullet while photographing a Palestinian protester who had just been hit in the head by a live round.
"In the three incidents I was definitely targeted by the soldiers, but I cannot say if I was targeted as a human being or as a journalist," Delahaye told CPJ, adding that he was wearing only a T-shirt and not a flak jacket. "It is impossible to say."
• October 7, 2000. Walid Suleiman Amayreh, publisher of the biweekly Akhbar al-Khalil, was detained by Palestinian police after his live appearance on the Gulf-based satellite news station Al-Shareqah. During the program, Amayreh criticized the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) for rampant corruption and for pursuing a peace settlement with Israel. He also called for the release of imprisoned Hamas activists.
The journalist was questioned and forced to sign a pledge affirming that he would abide by Palestinian information laws. He was released after 30 hours in custody.
• October 4, 2000. Atta Owiesat, a photographer for the Israeli press agency Zoom 77, was assaulted by a group of undercover Israeli security agents while covering the funeral of a Palestinian in Jabel Moukaber, a neighborhood of Jerusalem. He was standing with other Israeli journalists when undercover Israeli security agents arrived and began arresting Palestinian youths.
"When I began to take pictures, seven of [the Israeli agents] attacked me, threw me to the ground, and started beating me and stepping on me, trying hard to pull the cameras away from me," Oweisat recalled. "I was holding the camera-which was hanging from my neck-tight. Then a Border Patrol soldier came and held me by the neck and one of the [agents] stepped on my stomach." Oweisat was knocked unconscious and woke up in the hospital. His bulletproof vest prevented serious injuries, he said.
A week earlier, Oweisat had filmed a group of Israeli undercover agents in Jerusalem's Shufat refugee camp. He believes this might have motivated the attack.
• October 2, 2000. Israeli forces firing live ammunition shot Mazen Dana, a Hebron-based Reuters cameraman, in the left foot and leg while he was covering clashes on Hebron's Shalalah Street.
It was Dana's second combat wound in two days. The day before, he was hit in the same leg by an Israeli rubber-coated metal bullet.
• October 2, 2000, Reuters photographer Louay Abu Haykel was hit in the leg by a rubber-coated metal bullet while covering clashes between Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank city of Hebron.
• October 1, 2000. Amer Jabari, a Hebron-based cameraman for ABC News, was wounded in the head by an unidentified object, thought to be either an Israeli rubber-coated metal bullet or a rock thrown by a Palestinian demonstrator, while covering clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli troops in Hebron.
• September 29, 2000. Khaled Abu Aker, a correspondent with the French television station France 2 and the West Bank stringer for The New York Times, was beaten by Israeli police at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque. The attack occurred after Abu Aker refused to comply with a police officer who demanded that the journalist hand over a rubber bullet that he had picked up off the ground.
Abu Aker was hit in the shoulder with a truncheon and punched in the face. His shirt was ripped and his eyeglasses stomped on in the ensuing melee, which another officer joined.
• September 29, 2000. Hazem Bader, a cameraman stringing for The Associated Press, was wounded in his right hand by a rubber-coated metal bullet while covering clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian demonstrators at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque. The bullet was fired by an Israeli soldier from an estimated range of 15 yards (16 meters), according to Bader and another eyewitness.
Bader and a few other photographers and cameramen had been filming Israeli soldiers shooting at demonstrators near the Magharbeh Gate, which overlooks the Western Wall. The journalists were stationed behind a stone column about 15 yards (16 meters) away from the soldiers. Bader claimed he was hit on purpose. "It was a clear shot at us," he said. "We were far from the demonstrators."
The bullet broke three bones in Bader's hand. The journalist later had two metal plates inserted in his hand. At year's end, he still had no movement in two of his fingers and had been unable to work since the attack.
• Sepember 29, 2000. Reuters photographer Mahfouz Abu Turk was hit in the left thigh with a rubber-coated metal bullet fired by Israeli troops. He had been covering the clashes at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque and was taking cover behind a large stone column. He retreated after being wounded but still kept filming while heading in the direction of the mosque.
Shortly thereafter, Abu Turk was hit in the right foot by another rubber bullet. He was taken to Al-Makased Hospital for treatment and released the same day.
• September 29, 2000. Israeli soldiers beat Reuters cameraman Khaled Zeghari and shot him in the leg with a rubber-coated metal bullet while he was covering clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. The attack took place about five minutes after Associated Press cameraman Hazem Bader was shot.
"I was filming the crowd during Friday prayers and when the clashes took place by the Magharbeh Gate. I took refuge behind a large rock [stone column] in the courtyard of the Islamic Museum," Zeghari said, adding that after 10 minutes or so a group of Israeli soldiers stormed the courtyard and opened fire.
"At that time I was filming the event while lying down on the ground. All of a sudden the soldiers approached me and began beating me with bats and sticks on my head and shoulders," Zeghari said. "Trying to protect my head against their fierce beating I ran toward Magharbeh Gate and from there I was [taken], bleeding from my head and right leg, to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem for treatment."
Zeghari did not realize that a rubber-coated metal bullet was lodged in his leg until doctors examined him at the hospital. The bullet was apparently fired at close range.
In addition to the bullet wound, Zeghari suffered a cut and several bruises on his head as well as bruises on his back, right shoulder, and left hand. He lost his camera during the melee.


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Netflix saw the biggest decline in customer satisfaction of all online retailers this holiday season, according to a new report.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Netflix(:NFLX) had a tough year. The embattled video company saw shares tumble more than 60% amid a series of blunders that included mishandling a subscription price hike and confusing consumers with plans to split up the company's DVD-by-mail and subscription businesses.
CEO Reed Hastings, who took a $1.5 million pay cut after the company's turbulent year, was also named the worst CEO of the year by readers of TheStreet.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings
It may come as little surprise then that customer satisfaction at Netflix declined this year more so than any other online retailer survey surveyed by analytics firm ForeSee. Netflix, which had previously topped the poll in previous years along with Amazon(:AMZN), saw its customer satisfaction slide 7 points to 79 on the study's 100-point scale.
"Netflix totally misread its customer base and is paying the price, damaging its brand among both consumers and investors," ForeSee president and CEO Larry Freed said in a press release. "Raising prices by 60% and splitting the baby into separate DVD and streaming services totally undermines Netflix's cost and convenience advantages. Customer satisfaction is predictive, which means that Netflix's financial woes may be just beginning."
Besides Netflix, other online retailers also saw declines in customer satisfaction, including Gap(:GPS) and Overstock(:OSTK), whose scores dropped to 73 and 72, respectively.
Shares of Netflix fell 0.8% in late morning trading on Thursday to $68.63.
--Written by Olivia Oran in New York
>To follow the writer on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/Ozoran.
>To submit a news tip, send an email to: email@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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Empowered Employers
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We are committed to enriching not only the performance of organizations, but also the lives of consumers and the global workforce. With these values in mind, each of our best-in-class offerings is designed to enhance employee engagement and satisfaction while also achieving meaningful business impact.


text:
Epicurean offerings are an essential part of any luxury cruise, from fine dining on board to culinary exploration ashore. But for the true gourmand seeking even more VIP food forays, a special selection of cruise experiences has garnered the official seal of approval from gastronomic giant Bon Appétit. Read on to discover three ways to join an exclusive guild of culinary connoisseurs on select sailings aboard Regent Seven Seas Cruises® and Oceania Cruises.
Perfect for those who have a passion for the intersection of food and travel, our exclusive Bon Appétit endorsed sailings include extra benefits that serve up the best of culinary offerings aboard Regent Seven Seas Cruises® or Oceania Cruises.


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During its production, director Ridley Scott's long-in-development "Prometheus" has been referred to as "sort of" an "Alien" prequel, something that has sci-fi fans understandably excited.
Scott himself has been cagey about the movie's details - neither confirming nor denying the "prequel" tag, saying only that the movie "shares the DNA" of his seminal 1979 film. (Note how the title "Prometheus" is given very similar treatment to the title "Alien" in both trailers).
Well, the first trailer is here, and it doesn't exactly clear up the mystery, but it does confirm that the movie absolutely has the "Alien" look and feel. It also has a "must see" cast including Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Guy Pearce, and Idris Elba.
U.S. & World
Check it out...
"Prometheus" opens everywhere June 8, 2012.


text:
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The BenQ Zowie S2 was designed to be shorter than the company's FK series and features the newer PMW3360 optical sensor.
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Performance, style, and mobility – you can get all of that with the new LG gram


text:
We would like to take this time to tell you a little bit about us and our company. Joseph Cronen, owner of Cronen Plumbing and Heating Inc., started this business in 1983. We are a locally owned and independently ran company. Joseph Cronen holds our master plumbers license and is an active part of this company. Cronen Plumbing and Heating, Inc. is licensed to do all phases of plumbing and heating in all cities throughout the area. We hold $2,000,000.00 in liability insurance, we are bondable, and hold bonds in many cities.
Listed below is a list of services we provide:
- Servicing the needs of property management and landlords
- We are members of the Apartment Association of Metro Denver
- Specialists in multi unit and multi story properties
- Sewer and drain cleaning
- Sewer line video inspection
- Sink, faucet, and toilet repair
- Sewer line repairs, replacement, and new installation
- Plumbing repairs
- Boiler repair, replacement and installation
- Furnace repair and replacement
- Re-piping and remodeling
- Gas line or gas leak repairs
- Water heater repair and replacement
- Backflow devices installed
- Septic tanks and drain fields repaired and installed
- 24 hour emergency service 7 days a week
Thank you for your time and we look forward to doing business with you.
Joseph Cronen
President Cronen Plumbing and Heating, Inc.
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text:
NISE Network product
"Exploring Forces - Static Electricity" is a hands-on activity in which visitors discover that electrostatic forces cause smaller balls to be suspended in a tube while larger ones fall to the bottom. They learn that size can affect the way a material behaves.
Product category
Download link
Spanish Files
Big Idea
A material can act differently when it's nanometer-sized
Learning Goals
A material can act differently when it's nanometer-sized.
Different physical forces dominate when things get very, very small
Nano Content Map
Nanometer-sized things are very small, and often behave differently than larger things do.
Developed for the NISE Network with funding from the National Science Foundation under Award Numbers 0532536 and 0940143. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this product are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
Development Process
NISE Network products are developed through an iterative collaborative process that includes scientific review, peer review, and visitor evaluation in accordance with an inclusive audiences approach. Products are designed to be easily edited and adapted for different audiences under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. To learn more, visit our Development Process page.


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brmecham necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 27 diseños de 8 diseñadores freelance.
JD Optimize
JD Optimize provides internet marketing, seo, and web design for law firms and attorneys.
JD stands for Juris Doctor (it's a term for a professional law degree).
http://www.lawyermarketing.com/ is our main competitor.
Lawyers and Law Firms.
Logo is attached. Sitemap is attached. Front page content is attached.
We want the feel to be very web 2.0 and professional.
Be creative and give us something we can be proud of.
If you have a better color-scheme in mind feel free to change the color of the logo to match.
Create a front-page and secondary page design. Mainly we want to see a great front-page design. Only the contest winner will need to worry about submitting a secondary-page design (which is really just a simplified version of the front-page.)
Final delivery should be in Adobe Photoshop format, with all layers intact, and high resolution / high quality.
If a non-standard font is used, include font file with the design.


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Aah Christmas break, or winter break, as we call it in my district so as not to offend anyone with our secularism. The students eagerly awaiting when I would drop the bomb; the homework bomb. How much would I require to make them do during their break, what projects would they have to cram in the final night of vacation? I could tell they were anxious, I could tell they worried, and yet I waited. After all, we had things to do. So on the very last day before break, I stood by our assignmet board and I told them the news; You have no homework. You can read a book if you want, you can blog if you want, you can relax, and come back recharged. We have much to do in the new year and you will need your energy. Silence. Then a few mumbled thank you's.
I am nothing special, I am not alone in the refusal to assign homework over break. However, I take it one step further when I say that we have to stop pretending that education is the MOST important thing in life. True, education is important, it shapes people and their lives, but it is not the most important and it never will be. Yet, we as educators, treat it like it is. We treat missed homework assignments as if they are the end of the world, as if this child will continue on a path of failure because they didn't do whatever thing we told them to do in their free time. We treat missing school as if they will never catch up again, as if their learning journey will be stunted and never start again. We treat sickness as an inevitable nemesis and we hope the students come back to scholl as quickly as possible so as not to miss anything and then wonder when they stare at us with listless eyes.
We must stop the infringement on students' free time. Their vacations are not ours to control, otherwise school would still be in session. Their afternoons are not for us to manage, but their parents, and if their parents want to them to do work then so be it, but it is not ours to use whichever way we see fit. We complain sometimes of how much work teaching is, how we can never fit everything in to our day, how draining it can be, how teaching is a 24-hour job. We dream of vacation and of feeling like we did enough, and yet, we do the same to our students. We force hours of homework upon them all in the name of education. We force them to work when they have already given 7 or 8 hours of their best time. We take away their time and then complain when we do not get the results we expected.
So stop the madness. Stop assuming that their free time is ours because what we have to say and make them do takes precedent over everything else in their life. Yes, education is important, but our worksheets, projects, and packets are not. Remaining curious, a willing explorer, and a never-ending learner that is more important. Wanting to learn in important, being rewarded with free time for the hard work during school hours is important, being treated as if their time is, indeed, their time that is important. Coming back to school, eager to be there, because a break is what was needed, that is important for all of us. So do yourself a favor, no more homework. Keep your learning within designated hours as much as possible. Particularly during breaks. Give students what they so deserve, their own time, and take some for yourself as well. You work hard, you deserve it as much as they do.
Related articles
- Give 'Em a Break (mrspripp.blogspot.com)
- Ten Reasons to Abolish Homework (And Five Alternatives) (coopcatalyst.wordpress.com)


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Digital radio gets cheaper by the day, but does that mean manufacturers are starting to cut corners? We take a look at Pure Digital's new budget DAB digital radio.
Gone is the wooden casing, the metal speaker grills and the multiple preset buttons on the front. In is a plastic case, a simple design and a host of new features.
That's right, the new model shuns the wooden casing found on the Pure Evoke range in favour for an all white, black or pink facade and in all fairness we think it works.
In use you still get the same features as other DAB digital radios on the market and Pure has displayed the controls around the all important volume knob. Press one of the surrounding buttons - like volume, timer, presets, info, DAB/FM, menu and stations for example - and you the volume knob turns from just being the volume knob into a dial that allows you to whizz through the menu.
It's a nice idea and one that is easy to control and use, although what did confuse us is that turning the dial changes the volume rather than the station like the Pure Evoke digital radio made by the same company. What's more is that there is a dedicated volume button, which seems to be null and void.
As with other digital radios from both pure and other manufacturers the radio offers a three line LCD showing station name, volume, time and signal strength.
You can choose to change the information. Everything from the uber-geeky signal strength you are currently getting to information like phone numbers pumped out by the radio station.
Pure boast that the One is the latest DAB radio to feature two new technologies. Intellitext and textSCAN.
Intellitext gives listeners on-demand access to DAB extended text broadcasts such as the latest sports news, and headlines.
The idea is that the broadcaster sends specially formatted scrolling text, and One categorises and stores it for retrieval at the user's convenience.
In theory is sounds great, however currently TalkSport is the only radio station offering the system and even then are you really going to want to read a headline on a single line LCD screen that offers 16 characters "that is enough for n". To get around this, the second "New" technology is textSCAN that, you guessed it, lets listeners pause and control scrolling text.
Pitching it directly at the kitchen and bedroom market, the Pure One also includes kitchen and sleep timers. Both take about a second to set and are useful if you aren't planning on burning dinner.
Other features include a USB socket so you can upgrade the firmware at a later date and 20 combined DAB and FM presets.
The Pure One ships with a AC charger, but can take 6 C-Cell batteries or Pure's rechargeable ChargePAK battery pack.
So what's the catch? Well the single speaker certainly isn't as good as the one found on the company's Evoke range, but then at ?70 cheaper it's not surprising.
The Pure One is a great little DAB digital radio for the kitchen or the beach hut this summer.
The move to a plastic case isn't really an issue as the Pure One is extremely well made rather than something that would cut your fingers and the fact that it's a penny under ?50 means this will certainly appeal to a much wider audience rather than the John Lewis brigade who like the wooden casings so much.
We like it.


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Browsing Working papers by Author "Ulhøi, J. P."
Now showing items 1-1 of 1
Christensen, P. V.; Ulhøi, J. P.; Neergaard, H. (Aarhus, 2001)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Based on a number of in-depth case studies, the aim of this paper is to elucidate some of the key internal and external mechanisms influencing the foundation and early growth of high-tech and knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial ventures. Following a detailed sampling procedure, a number of semi-structured interviews were carried out between August 2000 and June 2001. The firms were chosen among those established during the last three years both inside and outside Danish business incubators. The sampling was carried out in such a way as to include both male and female entrepreneurs. Our preliminary findings indicate that in the early phases of the business, prior social relations between members of the entrepreneurial teams play an important role in both the recruiting of key employees and managers and in the success of the entrepreneurial venture. Moreover, the weak ties resulting from the personal and/or business experience of at least one of the members of the entrepreneurial team appear to enhance the likelihood of the firm being "born global". URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8136
Files in this item: 1x645152489.pdf (52.15Kb)
Now showing items 1-1 of 1


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Students "mapping out their own futures"
I've neglected to check my pigeonhole at work for a while, and hence I almost missed seeing this Education Gazette article about learning pathways at Hauraki Plains College.
This is a pretty exciting article for me, partly because the the school's approach was "significantly influenced" by a book Jane Gilbert and I wrote, Disciplining and drafting, or 21st century learning?
The article describes how the school has taken some of the ideas we talked about in the book (and talk about often on Shifting Thinking), combined with their own analysis of their students' needs, and re-created the way they think about timetabling, coursework, pathways, and student support. This quote illustrates the school's vision for its students.
As students understand their strengths and abilities they are supported in shaping a purposeful direction through their learning which fits with their aspirations for a life beyond the school gates. They see their time at school as relevant to their future and they can plan for it.
How, precisely, do they do it? Read the whole article here.


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Christian Bale
"Jimi Hendrix was my role model!"
Christian Bale
Former child star, bat-eared hero, villain and agent, Christian Bale, talks about two Oscars, self-doubt, and what history teaches us.
You started making movies 30 years ago, when you were 12. Back then, did you think you'd still be working in front of the camera so many years later?
Never! I have enjoyed every film, every journey and every party assuming it would be my last. I had fun, and at times, my life was like a huge outing to Disneyland. But I didn't really give any thought to the future back then. My father always advised me not to make too many plans because everything always turns out differently anyway. And I was a child! How can children have any idea what they want to do for the rest of their life?
At what point did you know?
Good question. Last year for a short time. When I was in my early twenties. Again and again as a teenager, and I definitely will again, in the future – all the time. But as fulfilling and satisfying as acting can be, it also has its disappointments. That's why I often feel insecure.
Doesn't winning an Oscar help?
Sure, it's a wonderful experience. But you have to be careful about how you cope with all the award hype. If you're ambitious, you begin to forget that filmmakers shouldn't be undermining each other. There's nothing worse than artists trying to undermine each other when they should really be giving each other support.
Mr. Bale, your latest movie, The Promise, deals with the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century and the bloody expulsion of the Armenian people. Were you familiar with this murky chapter of human history?
No, I knew nothing at all about it, nor had anyone I spoke with before the shoot learned anything about it in school. When I came to read the script, the centennial of this atrocity was just approaching. Suddenly, politicians all over the world started talking about what had happened back then. And you can draw parallels with the present; just think of the thousands of Yazidis recently killed by the terror militia Islamic State in northern Iraq. I found the similarities with what I read about the fate of the Armenians in the script of The Promise quite shocking. It is just terrible the way history constantly repeats itself. If a film can go just a small way to making us all learn from our mistakes, we will have achieved a great deal.
Amid all the horror, the film is also the story of a love triangle, in which you and Oscar Isaac are in love with the same woman …
To be honest, I wasn't sure why Terry George, our director and scriptwriter, felt it was so important to include that second storyline. But he explained that when we are dealing with such a little-known chapter of history, it's important to try to attract the widest possible audience, especially a young audience.
Are you and Isaac really as different as portrayed in the film?
Oscar is great and he's also one of the best actors of his generation. The difference between him and me is that he is a true actor, and somehow – and I'm not fishing for compliments here – I am not.
What do you mean by that?
I can tell you something about how I play a role, but I don't actually know the slightest thing about acting as a craft or an art form. That's why, unlike Oscar and many other colleagues of mine, I'm not particularly sociable on a shoot.
You're describing yourself as an amateur and loner? Please explain …
To me, acting is something I do instinctively. I have no technique that allows me to switch back into a role from one second to the next. So I usually keep to myself when I'm working and that creates a certain distance between me and my colleagues and the crew. But if I get to know them too well, I end up wanting to have fun with them and then I can't concentrate on being someone else in front of the camera.
So in private you're more sociable?
I'm sure there are far worse recluses out there than me. But I must admit that I often do feel more comfortable in the company of children and animals than a crowd of smart adults. Feeling I have to contribute something intelligent to a conversation is stressful for me.
My father advised me not to be make too many plans because things always turn out differently
You seem to cope well under pressure otherwise. Not many actors are willing to test their mental and physical limits so radically for a role. Would you call that an eccentricity?
Jimi Hendrix was always a role model. As a child, I saw him play guitar – probably on television – and I was thunderstruck. The way he looked at that moment! I wanted to feel that sometime in my life, too. The look on his face, totally oblivious of everything around him, the ecstasy, his fingers bloody from playing. In my work, I wanted to come at least somewhere close to that. And it's not possible without dedication and sacrifice.
One last question – regarding your Batman past: Will we ever get to see you in another superhero film?
No, I'm done with the genre now. I am very proud of the three Batman films I made with Christopher Nolan. If you're going to make comic adaptations, you should definitely do it with the very best people. We did. But Chris always insisted that three films were enough, and I think he's right. So, the short answer is: I can practically rule out the likelihood of your ever seeing me climb into a superhero costume again.


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Physical Address
San Antonio International Airport
9800 Airport Blvd.
San Antonio, TX 78216
Mailing Address
Aviation Department
9800 Airport Blvd. Terminal A, Mezzanine
San Antonio, TX 78216
Administrative Office Hours
Monday – Friday
Airport 24 Hour
Communications Line
Click for more information on nonstop service to more than 54 domestic and international destinations.
San Antonio International Airport provides commercial airline service for the South Texas region. More than 10 million travelers flew in and out of historic San Antonio in 2018 including Mexico on 11 airlines. San Antonio is a diverse, progressive and globally competitive city with a solid vision for national and international economic development. As the seventh-largest city in the United States, San Antonio is experiencing solid economic growth in 21st century industries such as bioscience and healthcare. Military City, USA is home to several military bases including Joint Base San Antonio, the largest base organization in the U.S. Department of Defense and comprised of Fort Sam Houston Army Base, Lackland Air Force Base and Randolph Air Force Base.
The International Airport itself is an economic generator for the region, supporting more than 100,000 jobs and providing nearly $1.6 billion in annual earnings for workers and proprietors. Visitors spending support nearly 15,000 area jobs with earnings of nearly $275 million.
Stinson Municipal Airport is the second oldest general aviation airport in continuous operation in the United States. As the primary reliever for general aviation traffic in San Antonio, Stinson is extremely appealing to operators of light aircraft, individuals, and private aviation companies. Stinson is also home to four flight schools and two fixed base operators. In 2011, the airport's diverse activity led to economic impacts totaling $63 million in regional economic output. Stinson is responsible for more than 1,000 jobs, including 74 airport jobs and more than 250 indirect jobs, and provide regional earnings of over $20 million.
San Antonio International Airport
9800 Airport Blvd. • San Antonio, TX 78216 • 210.207.3411
Stinson Municipal Airport
8535 Mission Rd • San Antonio, TX 78214 • 210.207.1800
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The San Antonio Airport System (SAAS) is a major economic driver in the local and regional economy. More info: Economic Study Brochure
Discover how 10 Million passengers topped off a year of success, development and growth.
Information for Travelers from the San Antonio Airport System.


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Although 86 percent of adults surveyed in a recent poll take pains to hide their online identity, more than half said that that online anonymity was impossible.
About 59 percent of 792 respondents told the Pew Internet and American Life Project that it wasn't possible to be completely anonymous online, according to the Pew Research Center. Those with "college or graduate education" tended to clear their browser history, disable cookies and not use a website because it asked for too much personal information.
The survey also found that people seemed to "bounce back and forth" from disclosing real names or known user names, to posting anonymously.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
When users post material online, they are more likely than not to attach their name or a recognizable screenname to their material: 49% of internet users say they have used their real name and 47% use a screenname or username that people associate with them. At the same time, 25% of internet users say that they have posted material without revealing who they are.
Younger users, those under 30, tended to bounce back and forth at a higher frequency, likely because they are heavier users.
The survey tells us that while most people would like more anonymity online, most have given up on that pipe dream. Many believe (42 percent) that it would be easy to track them down after issuing an anonymous comment. Only 3 percent said it would be nearly impossible.


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Capturing the Sun in a computer
ESA's SOLAR instrument suite on the International Space Station has been granted a longer lease of life to continue recording almost the full spectrum of the Sun's radiation. SOLAR is vital for understanding the Sun and its effects on Earth.
SOLAR consists of multiple spectrometer instruments, each training their eye on a specific part of the Sun's spectrum, together stretching from extreme ultraviolet to infrared.
These continuous measurements have unprecedented accuracy and are combined with data from other sources.
The Sun is our unique source of energy but it is still far from being fully understood. At the macro scale, Earth's climate is influenced by the Sun's output, volcanic eruptions and greenhouse gases.
The output is not constant but varies in roughly 11-year cycles. And the Sun influences more than just our climate – its radiation can interfere with the accuracy of in-car navigation and the orbits of satellites.
Gerhard Schmidtke, scientific lead for the Solaces instrument on SOLAR, gives a striking example: "Solar radiation can increase atmospheric drag so when we observe higher solar activity we see more old satellites fall back to Earth."
Modelling the Sun
To predict how the Sun will behave, scientists create complex computer models to build a virtual Sun. With more data, scientists can fine-tune their models.
"When computer models predict observations accurately you know we are on the right track," says Gérard Thuillier, scientific lead for the SolSpec spectrometer on SOLAR.
Modelling and predicting the Sun's activity with precision is an important step towards understanding humankind's effect on Earth's climate.
Gérard puts it simply: "To model climate change, you need measurements of the full spectrum of the Sun and their variability with wavelength.
"Modern climate predictions require these data to complete measurements from the ground and at high altitudes."
SOLAR has been operating for over four years, far beyond its original design requirement of only 18 months, and it was recently granted an extra lease of life, until 2017.
If all goes well, SOLAR will collect data for nine continuous years. Although this is a start, "To really understand the Sun, we need to observe it in this way for at least a complete sunspot cycle," agree both Gérard and Gerhard.


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Posts Tagged 'white house'
And Now For Something Completely Different. Again. November 25th, 2010
The 2010 Formula 1 season came to a close with a dramatic sunset race in Abu Dhabi on the 14th of November, 2010.
Here are a few shots from that eventful day.
Above, a plane from Abu Dhabi Formula 1 sponsor Etihad Airways flies overhead before the start of the race.
Below is a shot of the aftermath of Schumacher's terrible accident with Force India's Vitantonio Liuzzi, mere moments after the race began. I was lucky enough to be seated in the North Grandstand with a spectacular view directly onto the spot where the accident occurred. You can find a short article in which Schumacher describes the experience here.
Thankfully, neither Schumacher nor Liuzzi was injured and both walked away fine, to cheering crowds. You can watch YouTube videos of the crash from different angles here and here.
Crew worked quite quickly to clear away the wreckage and debris, as the safety car led the remaining contenders on slow (for F1) laps around the circuit. The cars followed an alternate route avoiding the crash site until it was cleared.
Soon the race was under way again. Below is a shot from another location on the North Grandstand after the sun had set.
I didn't take many pictures of the cars as they zipped by this race. I guess I must have gotten it out of my system during the first one.
I was more interested in taking different types of shots this time. Like the above view onto the race track with a man silhouetted and this silhouette of a woman sat alone while her companions went for drinks and food. It kinda looks like the entire race is stretched out only for her.
As you no doubt know, the race went to Red Bull Racing's Vettel, who thereby secured the championship this year. Abu Dhabi seems to bring good luck to Red Bull Racing and to Sebastian Vettel in particular as this is the second time he's won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. I could I rephrase that in quite a few ways, and in doing so raise quite different connotations: Vettel has won every single Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to date. Vettel has won two Abu Dhabi Grand Prix races in a row. And so on…
On another note, check out the following:
- click here to see a cool post from PetaPixel on how to use coffee cup lids to aid in correcting white balance in a pinch;
- click here for a behind-the-scenes look at the White House and a 45 minute interview with official White House photographer Pete Souza – the man behind the cool candid shots of Obama;
- click here for a fascinating glimpse at the work of Julio Mitchel, brought to you by the New York Times' Lens photo blog;
- click here for a shot by Momentary Awe of a lazy sunset walk with a view on the Burj El Arab; and
- for a fantastic and enchanting look at the Loy Krathong festival of lights in Mae Jo, Thailand, brought to you by my good friend Dan of Canvas of Light, click here;
Also, a quick note: If you're in Kuwait, or planning to travel there, be aware that it seems Kuwaiti authorities have banned the use of DSLR cameras in public places. Check out the Kuwaiti Times article here. You might want to break out your EVIL cameras instead. 😉
More coming soon!
Tags: 2010 season, accident, burj el arab, canvas of light, coffee cup lid, crash, daniel nahabedian, debris, dslr camera, etihad airways, evil camera, festival, festival of lights, force india, formula 1, julio mitchel, kuwait, kuwaiti times, lens, light, liuzzi, loy kr, luizzi, mae jo, Mercedes, michael schumacher, momentary awe, new york times, north grandstand, petapixel, pete souza, safety car, schumacher, silhouette, sunset, sunset race, thailand, vitantonio liuzzi, white house, wreckage
Posted in Interesting Stuff, Travel/Urban | Comments (0)


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I have worked with these a few times but they are still somewhat of a mystery to me. I am currently working on a script in which I need to implement an ArrayList so I can edit the data when I need to. I have only used ArrayLists in the first class to create the constructor of a second class, and initialized each parameter of the arrayList to separate variables in that constructor. This script is different, so there's a catch (or two). It's mixed data type of Strings and Ints. I need to either
1) create an ArrayList as described above but without initializing the parameters to separate variables (there's a lot of items in the ArrayList) but still use the items in the ArrayList.
2) create the ArrayList within the 2nd class and initialize it under the constructor (or a method).
3) Separate the ints and Strings into arrays and combine them into an ArrayList usable by the 2nd class. I know there's a much easier way than the way I'm doing it so that's why I'm requesting help here. That and I can't get any way to work.


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There are two schools of thought when it comes to Lowriding; Bombs or Classics. If you're new to our scene and don't think there's a difference, ask any aficionados of either side of that coin. Bomb enthusiasts are a different breed, preferring to eschew the late '50s, '60s, and '70s in favor of time machines that evoke the images of old Hollywood and Pachuco style. At the age of 18, Carlos Hidalgo began to feel that mentality, as he had a lot of older friends who owned Lowriders. A fan of the culture since he was a young boy, Carlos liked traditional Lowriders, but he clearly had Bombs in his blood. "You can have a Bomb at any age and it will still turn heads," smiles Carlos, whose interest in bombs started well over thirty years ago.
While he had fixed himself up a fine Chevy Nomad, Carlos yearned for the classic styling of a Bomb and he began hunting them in car classifieds and swap meets. With some luck, he was able to obtain his first Bomb, a 1940 Chevy, by trading it straight across for his Nomad. "The older lady I got it from didn't want to sell the Chevy but once she saw the Nomad, she traded it straight across," recalls Carlos. "I know the Nomad was worth more at the time, but I didn't care," says Carlos, who was excited to have the last Chevy made with suicide doors and a running board. The major obstacle he faced in reaching his Boulevard dreams was that the '40 Chevy was not in running condition. In fact, Carlos had to fix the car from the ground up, spending a bit more time and money than he initially thought he would in building the car, but once it was completed, he was one happy cruiser. All good things come to an end, however, and Carlos' good thing needed to be sold a few years later so that he could have some money to get married.
Akin to Pringles, once you hear those loud pipes pop, you can't stop, and Carlos again found himself longing for a classic Bomb. Our car habit can only be defined as an addiction, and Carlos was a full-blown junkie, unable to avoid the call of the car horn. He began buying and selling cars, looking for the perfect next project. "I tell my buddies that an old car is just like a woman, you got to have one. They're beautiful when you dress them up, you have a lot of fun with them, but they make you spend a lot of money. The only advantage with a car is that they don't talk back," Carlos says with a chuckle. While he himself had become a one-woman man, he became monogamous in his car search too, falling in love with the 1942 Chevy.
The first'42 Chevy in Carlos' stable was a car he purchased from his friend, Robert Perez. His love for the '42 so tickled Robert's father, that he nicknamed Carlos "Mister 42," and with good reason. When he finally bought the '42 being featured here, he had four other Bombs! Since this '42 was a one-owner car and was more complete than the rest of them, Carlos sold the others in order to have the money to invest on this one. "I didn't have the money to go thru all the Bombs so I sold the rest off," he says with a smirk.
When it came time to build the car, Carlos went for the dramatic effect, choosing a bold paint scheme for the '42. "The reason I picked the color red is because I know "rucas" like the colors red and black," says Carlos, grinning. Beyond the attention he would get from the opposite sex, Carlos also just wanted a car that would stand out. "I didn't want to paint it black because if you go to any car show, you will see that a lot of the Bombs are painted black," he explains. Carlos went through his share of painstaking research in order to get the right red, and he finally found this Salsa Red that stood out. He trusted his paint and body duties to Frank Navarro of Pacoima, CA, who expertly rejuvenated this 69-year-old relic. Seeking a factory look, Carlos resurrected the 216 engine, giving it a pristine, stock feel. With the help of his son, Sergio, Carlos installed a front and rear airbag set up to keep the luxurious ride sitting on a cloud as he drove it down the Sylmar streets. With a refreshed dose of chrome from Astro Plating in North Hollywood, and a stock-style interior custom stitched by Hampton Coach of Hollywood, the '42 was ready to hit the streets.
Carlos would like to thank his brother-in-law, Rodrigo Rosales, and his neighbor, Randy, who helped him put the car together. "I also have to thank my son, Sergio Hidalgo, for supporting and assisting me with the restoration," Carlos says with pride.
Tech Specs
"Mister '42"
Owner: Carlos Hidalgo
Vehicle: 1942 Chevrolet Fleetline
City/State: Sylmar, CA
Car Club: Oldies San Fernando
Engine: Carlos brought the 216 in his Chevy back to life by refurbishing it with a look like it just came off of the factory line.
Body/Paint: Frank Navarro of Pacoima, CA., handled all the bodywork on the '42 before painting it Salsa Red. Astro Plating in North Hollywood, CA., handled all of the chrome needs on the '42.
Interior: Hampton Coach of Hollywood, CA., stitched together the interior to give it an original look.
Setup: Carlos and his son Sergio installed the front and rear airbag set up at their Sylmar home.
Tires: 5.20's.
Wheels: 14-inch Chrome LA Wire Wheels.


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Catherine DiSpigno | Sunset
Kristina BozanichHi there! I am the creator of the post that you've just seen. To give you some background, I am a photographer located in the Orlando, FL area. I am also a self-taught makeup-artist, blogger, and have a background in primatology & conservation. To get the latest updates on my social media, follow me! http://www.KristinaBozanich.com