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Stay in shape with our seasonal outdoor pool and scout out the local hot spots with free WiFi. Relax and grab a drink or a bite at our onsite restaurant. We offer free parking for your car, bus, truck, or RV, and suites are available at our hotel.
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We are minutes from Greater Columbus Convention Center. The nearby Arena District of Columbus offers plenty of shopping, dining, and sporting events. Head to Nationwide Arena for a concert or a special event. If you love the outdoors, hike or cross-country ski at Blacklick Woods. Visit the Columbus Museum of Art and Magic Mountain Fun Center for hours of fun.
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Because I knew nothing about Riverdale in Seville Township, I checked with google and found a site about
Gratiot County, Michigan, it appears to be in the center of the state, and the Pine River runs through it. From the booklet, I learned that lumbering was abundant, and the finest pines could be found there in the early days. "In 1854, lured here by the forest of pines, white people started to settle in the area. Large log drives used to take place where millions of feet of logs were floated downstream to the mills which soon started along the banks."
My ancestors on our shared Schrambling / Scramlin line settled in Michigan, but not this town. However, cousin Linda had several generations who live there, and currently her parents have a life-lease on a farm, and Linda also resides there.
The town celebrated their Centennial in 1974, and then in 1999 this book was published, which contains some of the original material as well as updates from the past 25 years. Throughout the book are old and new photos of schools, houses, churches, banks, old sawmills and other buildings. And, many old family photos. Linda kindly went through each page and wrote on stickies additional bits of information. There is even a photo of her 130+ year old house, one of oldest in the town!
I particularly enjoyed the piece about the Riverdale Library. "It was started in June of 1941 by Mrs. Josephine Scramlin Bradley. She collected a few books from the townspeople and borrowed a number of books from the State Library in Lansing." This wonderful lady was Linda's great-aunt!
While trying to locate additional information about the town, I found a listing of some burials at Riverdale Cemetery from Google images.
I no longer have the need to keep her book, and Linda has allowed me to donate it to the New England Historic and Genealogical Soceity's Library (NEHGS). It will have a safe home, and perhaps others will use it.

subset: commoncrawl


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A veteran journalist who allegedly tried to extort money out of David Letterman has pleaded guilty to felony charges of attempted grand larceny.
Robert Halderman, 52, a former producer for CBS News and the show "48 Hours" will be sentenced to six months in jail and five years probation. The Norwalk, Conn., resident will also be required to serve 1,000 hours of community service -- 500 hours in New York and 500 hours in Connecticut.
He will be back in court for sentencing on May 4.
Prosecutors say that Halderman tried to fleece Letterman for $2 million last fall in exchange for keeping quiet about the late-night comedian's off-screen drama with female employees.
"In September of 2009, I attempted to extort $2 million from David Letterman by threatening to disclose personal and private information about him, whether true or false," Halderman said in court, reading a prepared statement at first so quickly that Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon asked him to slow down.
Halderman's lawyer, who had raised free-speech and other issues in his attempt to portray the producer's behavior as a business deal, said Halderman ultimately decided he needed to end the case.
"We had a novel defense here involving complicated legal issues. I was very excited about the defense," said the lawyer, Gerald Shargel. "But there would be a long road ahead of us, and considering the risks and the rewards and the need for Joe to put this behind him and get on with his life, those needs were paramount."
Before deciding to plead guilty, the producer and his lawyers had said that the "extortion" plot was all a misunderstanding, and that Halderman was in fact trying to sell a screenplay or movie "treatment."
"This so-called treatment was just a thinly veiled threat to ruin Mr. Letterman if he did not pay me a lot of money," Halderman said, dressed in a gray suit. He subsequently met with Letterman's lawyer, who eventually gave him a phony $2 million check.
Letterman's lawyer read a statement on behalf of his client: "I want to thank Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, former Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau," he said. "On behalf of my family, I'm extremely grateful for their tireless efforts."
After Halderman's arrest in October, Letterman took a very candid, serious moment to tell his studio and TV audience the sordid details of the plot and his affair -- without naming the employees he had liaisons with.
During his monologue on Tuesday, Letterman addressed the sticky situation and thanked the police and district attorney.
"I need to talk to you about a segment of my life here that began six months ago," Letterman said during his monologue, according to a transcript. "I found myself in some legal trouble, and pretty quickly, it was turned over to the District Attorney's office here in Manhattan. Now, I'd never been involved in anything like this in my life, and I was concerned and full of anxiety and nervous and worried. "
Letterman then essentially repeated the statement his lawyer made outside of court, thanking the DA and the police department.
Halderman was accused of leaving a threatening package in Letterman's car on Sept. 9 and demanding $2 million in hush money to keep secret evidence of the CBS "Late Show" host's office hook-ups.
He was arrested after attempting to deposit the fake $2 million check after feds taped conversations between him and the late night comic's lawyer, the Manhattan DA's office said.
"I feel great remorse for what I have done," Halderman said, apologizing to Letterman, the comic's family, and his own former girlfriend, Stephanie Birkett.
Letterman married longtime girlfriend Regina Lasko last year. They began dating in 1986 and have a 6-year-old son.


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Exhibition: Surrealist Lee Miller
Venue: La Termica, Malaga, SPAIN
Dates: 14th November 2019 to 16th February 2020
Surrealist before she knew of the movement Lee Miller was 'caustically brilliant, yet totally loyal, unpretentious, human and intolerant of sham. She was a consummate artist and a consummate clown; at once an upstate New York hick and cosmopolitan grande dame; a cold, soignée fashion model and a hoyden… She was a mechanical 'tinker', in the sense that her friend [the artist] Alexander Calder once called himself 'just a tinker'. She was the nearest thing I knew to a mid-20th century renaissance woman' described David E. Scherman, LIFE photographer and her very close friend. Lee Miller was one of the most original photographic artists of the 20th century, her Surrealist eye informed everything she did. Her work presents the world in a way that encourages us to view it in a different manner.
The exhibition contains 101 of Lee Miller's photographs and is curated by antony Penrose with the Lee Miller Archives.
***OUT THIS YEAR - PUBLISHED BY THE LEE MILLER ARCHIVES*** Surrealist Lee Miller by Antony Penrose. Written and selected by her son Antony Penrose, co-founder of the Lee Miller Archives, author of the highly acclaimed biography Lives of Lee Miller and editor of Lee Miller's War. He has been researching, lecturing and working towards conserving the legacy of his mother's material for 40 years. These 100 full page images from throughout Lee Miller's life are an attestation to her way of seeing.


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Here are the links to some interesting reading I found today.
"A poll of hundred college students about their Facebook habits revealed that those who posted numerous status updates each day actually experienced positive mood swings that a control group did not experience. Those who posted more frequently felt less lonely and more connected to friends. The reason? While sitting behind a computer screen may seem isolating, updating your status keeps friends on the brain when you can't see them in person. Researchers actually call it 'social snacking.'" Read more of Tim Elmore's post How Facebook Affects Your Mental Health.
Interesting: How Many Bible Passages Speak To Homosexuality?
[VIDEO] I liked this part of Kevin Durant's MVP acceptance speech.
How scientists can see cancer cells in action.
Appalling! Planned Parenthood helps an accused serial rapist cover up his crimes!!
"The fetus, though enclosed in the womb of his mother, is already a human being, and it is a monstrous crime to rob it of life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house then in a field, because a man's house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light." —John Calvin, commenting on Exodus 21:22-23
[VIDEO] John Maxwell and Nick Vujicic remind you that you are unique.


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Tweets for Today
- 13:28 Sandwiches call out to me. Salmon and cream cheese or Chicken and sweetcorn? Decisions, decisions... #
- 18:17 Leaving the office to brave the elephants. Though it's not too bad here by now. Pretty much all the snow has gone. #
- 19:31 In Wembley, the snow lies round about, deep and crisp even. Guess that tonight the frost will be cru-el. #
- 06:40 Still pretty cold with snow on the ground, but this is the week's halfway point. It's all downhill from here... #
- 08:15 Muesli with milk, vegetarian sausage, mushroom, fried potato, hash brown, scrambled egg, orange juice, coffee, sesame rolls. #
- 08:22 The snowman on platform 4 at Marylebone Station is still there, standing proudly, looking at the trains. #
- 08:45 Someone's phone just rang. But from the ringtone, I can't tell what sort of person she is: was it Pastime, Gangsta or Amish Paradise? #
- 09:03 Sky News Headline: "Another job blow for Barack Obama" - didn't Bill Clinton have the opposite problem? #


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Got Customers?
Personal contact with clients reaches beyond the responsibility of just business owners and partners. For many service providers across the nation, it's a company mission, a way of differentiating yourself and a means of survival in a harsh competitive landscape.
Sure all of this sounds familiar. But it can be a daunting task. After all, there are barely enough hours in the day to service your accounts, much less do the hand-holding required to ensure each and every customer's satisfaction while attracting new ones. But it's essential to the success of your business — and for future growth. So you need to make sure what you're doing counts. Use these tips and reminders to insure you're on the right path and that you're getting the most out of your personal customer contact and relationships. With a little work, you can maintain good client relationships and improve on iffy ones.
That's right, everyone is responsible for customer contact — be it good or bad. So each member of your crew needs to make a good impression. A lot of the business you do is new business, so you and your staff should look at it as a job interview: be on your best behavior, make sure clothes or uniform is neat, comb your hair, smile and say please and thank you. Show up on time, be sure to call them back and thank them for their time. If there's a problem or you are running late, give them a heads-up call. While this is all common sense, it's sometimes easy to fall into the mindset that because you are providing the service, it's you who are interviewing the potential client. But you should keep in mind that, while you have the final say in who your clients are, it's better to turn down business than be turned down.
Personal contact is serious business. It's a responsibility and commitment that should run as deep as the roots of the trees and shrubs you're planting, recommending and tending to for all your customers. And it's one that should run company wide. Just ask Peter Murray of Hidden Lane Landscaping in Fairfax, Va.
"Personal contact with our customers is everything," says Murray. "We are really in the people business as much as the landscape business. People want to do business with people they like and trust. We enjoy getting to know our clients on a personal level. After all, that's the main reason we're in sales. The better we know our clients, the easier it is to help them and the more enriching the experience is for both parties."
Yes, listening is what customers really want. Sure, they want seven trees for the price of five. And yes, they want the job done right. But when your staff listens and is good at doing so, it can make all the difference to a customer. It's what can make them a repeat customer. Look at your database and your books; you'll see that difference right there in the bottom line with add-on sales and services.
This is what Rick Schmidt, president and owner, and Michelle Neal, customer service manager, of Valley Tree Feeders in Phoenix, Ariz., refer to as "relationship selling."
"Customer retention is one of our most important goals. We are starting to use relationship selling," says Neal. "Listening to our customers about their lives and empathizing with the mother of the adult son who just went to Iraq makes you the service provider, a phone friend, and they are very likely to continue using your service and to recommend you to others."
Neal adds that listening is a big part of training. Training then allows for additional opportunities to seek out negative situations and turn them into positive ones — lucrative ones.
"Sometimes a customer needs you," says Neal. "You have to be somewhat of a chameleon. We need to build the rapport quickly. Just now I got off the phone [with a customer]. We were over an hour late, due to traffic, and after apologizing to the customer, he increased his order from us servicing only two trees to seven on our next visit. Assessment is shown in the bottom line. The monthly numbers have gone up by 30 percent over the same time period last fiscal year."
The other great thing about listening to customers is you don't have to be physically there to be communicating. In fact, many companies listen effectively when they are away. They do it with effective direct mail communications and other correspondence throughout the year to their client and prospect base. It's a great way to stay in the client's mind, especially just prior to key seasonal peaks. When you consistently talk to your customers, you are welcoming two-way communication, which includes listening. So if you are not consistently mailing, e-mailing and calling existing and potential customers, get on it — or someone else will.
E-mail is one form of communication that is working well for companies because of its ease, timeliness and its ability to be quickly updated and formatted to a company's ever-changing database. In addition, automated phone messages and printed collateral pieces placed in association with real estate partners such as "welcome to the neighborhood packets" are other services businesses have experienced success with.
If listening is important, courting is king.
Courting a client simply means being consistent, being available and having a plan of action. Be present in your customers' lives. Call them regularly to see if they have any problems you can solve or a need you can fill. Call them to make sure they are happy with your service and to give them the chance to let you know if they are unhappy with any aspect of your service. Initiating the conversation can help you avoid losing a client who might not otherwise give you a chance for remediation.
Direct mail has a proven track record. It keeps you in touch with existing customers and reaches out to potential ones. Sending out coupons and notifications of special offers are effective attention-grabbers. The potential for pay-off is high.
Show your logo, company slogan or tag line, phone number or Web address on your uniforms, T-shirts, and trucks. Many companies said they get calls from new customers sitting right next to them at the same stoplight because their digits are right on their truck. It puts you in touch with potential clients while servicing existing ones.
Finger pointing is for four-year-olds. It's easy to do, and sometimes makes you feel better — in the short-term. But take the higher, well-manicured ground. You'll feel better about it and your customers (not to mention your crew) will take notice.
Problems are going to occur. Many times, it's out of your control. But what you can control is how you handle a problem or a customer call-back.
Craig Crim, co-owner of Quality Creative Landscaping in Birmingham, Ala., like every other landscape service provider and lawn care operator reading this article, has received a call-back.
Crim and Quality Creative Landscaping, however, have an interesting philosophy regarding how to handle call-backs before they even happen.
Before a call back even occurs, Quality Creative attempts to make two to three personal calls to each customer throughout a calendar year before there's a problem. This could fall into the category of courting. This effort is done with both existing and prospective customers.
"For us, it's about consistency and offering that to our customers," says Crim. "We want to set our customers at ease and make contact with them before there's a problem. It's about problem solving before there's ever even a problem. And then there's always, always follow-up."
In addition, Quality Creative always makes sure a point person is available to communicate with customers and its staff of 25 to 35 seasonal employees. Crim says this helps alleviate any breakdown in communications between customers and staff, cutting down on problems and call-backs.
Crim adds that the quicker you are to respond to a customer in any kind of situation, the better off you are. When in doubt, get on the phone, get in the truck, go shake hands with someone and talk through it because at the end of the day, it's personal contact and whole lot of listening that's going to get you to the next job.
Susan Donovan is a freelance writer who resides in Kansas City, Mo.
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Protests target Confederation Cup match in Rio
More than 5,000 anti-government protesters marched Sunday near the Maracana stadium before a major international soccer match, venting their anger about the billions of dollars the Brazilian government is spending on major sporting events rather than public services.sports Updated: Jul 01, 2013 09:48 IST
More than 5,000 anti-government protesters marched Sunday near the Maracana stadium before a major international soccer match, venting their anger about the billions of dollars the Brazilian government is spending on major sporting events rather than public services.
Sharp clashes broke out several hundred yards (meters) away from the stadium about 30 minutes before the game began, as a minor scuffle between police and a few protesters escalated.
Officers quickly quashed the unrest, unleashing a barrage of tear gas canisters and stun grenades, scattering the crowd, but not before some protesters retaliated with Molotov cocktails and powerful fireworks.
At one point, an officer ran into a nearby gas station and told several people holed up inside they needed to get out or they were "all going to die here!"
Though smaller in size, the march was the latest in a wave of protests that has spread across this continent-sized country in recent weeks. Many are calling the protest movement the biggest seen here in decades, with more than 1 million people having taken to the streets nationwide on just the night of June 20.
The demonstrations have dwindled in size and frequency in recent days as officials from all levels of government have scrambled to calm public anger with woeful public services and a heavy tax burden.
Still, the atmosphere was tense outside Maracana on Sunday. Some clusters of protesters tried to break through the security perimeter police set-up around the stadium, but were pushed back and not able to get past authorities.
Despite the smaller protests, demonstrator Eliane Milazzo, a 54-year-old high school teacher marching with her daughter and son-in-law, said the Brazilian people won't let their leaders off the hook and that the protests will go on.
"They've got to continue because the reasons people are out on the street are not going to go away overnight," she said. "I know I will continue to go to the streets and so will my family until we see real changes in our everyday lives."
President Dilma Rousseff has suffered the brunt of the political damage. The first national poll conducted after the protests ignited showed a steep drop in her approval rating and throws in doubt what had seemed an easy re-election next year.
Rousseff decided to not attend Sunday's final match of the Confederations Cup football tournament, which pits Brazil against Spain in what's seen as a warm-up for next year's World Cup to be hosted in Brazil.
Other top government officials and even football legend Pele are also skipping the match in a major embarrassment for a government that had hoped to use the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio to showcase Brazil's arrival as a global power.
"People are angry with Congress, angry with the terrible hospitals and worse schools," said Tania Nobrega, a 56-year-old psychologist protesting near Maracana in Rio. "But they don't want Dilma's head. People are sick of the status quo here, and that means they're fed up not only with the (ruling Workers Party) but also with all parties."
The demonstrations began earlier this month over a 10-cent hike in bus and subway fare in Sao Paulo before morphing into a nationwide movement denouncing a range of problems such as government corruption, poor education and health care.
The sudden outrage has bewildered the country's political class, which took several days to find their footing and respond to the demonstrations, both with words and action.
Several city and state governments reversed the hike on public transportation fares that sparked the first protests, but the demonstrators had moved well beyond that issue.
On June 21, Rousseff delivered a prerecorded prime time speech on TV that did little to calm the protests. She then convened a June 24 meeting with protest leaders and all the governors and mayors of capital cities, in which she announced $23 billion in new transportation investments.
She also said she would import foreign doctors to work in underserved areas while promising a five-point plan to focus on public services and corruption.
The president is expected to deliver to Congress early this week her proposal for a national plebiscite letting citizens vote on political reforms.
The protests have mostly died down since the proposals were made.
The Estado de S Paulo newspaper reported Sunday that 490 protests had taken place in Brazil in the last three weeks, peaking at 150 on June 20, when violent clashes between protesters and police were seen in several cities.
Many demonstrators have said they had learned their mass actions could prompt a quick government response. They also said they anticipated other high-profile events they could use to speak out, including July's visit by Pope Francis, next year's World Cup, a presidential election a few months later and the Rio Olympics three years from now.
"I don't think the demonstrations will stop people from coming to the World Cup, but I hope they don't come," said Tatiana Poggi, a history professor at Sunday's protest near Maracana. "It's a way foreigners help us protest. Boycott the big event."
Brazilian officials were doing all they could to make sure Sunday's protests didn't interrupt the finals match, which would be watched by millions around the world.
Officials were mobilizing the biggest security operation yet seen for a football game in Brazil, with about 6,000 regular police and almost 500 police investigators patrolling the area around Maracana and a large contingent of elite federal troops also on patrol.
No clashes between protesters and police were reported a few hours before the match was set to begin, but demonstrators remained fierce in their anti-government chants.
"Here in Brazil we took too long to wake up to discover they spent billions on stadiums, but they say there's no money for hospitals, no supplies for doctors," said protester Mariela Simao. "They tried to take action to show the population they are doing something, but they could do more."


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> Academics > Course
Descriptions > Undergraduate
Course Subjects
SOST 4340 (3-3-0) Pedagogy of Social StudiesThis course will present basic concepts in the social studies which will provide a background for the student who plans to teach social studies in the elementary school. It focuses on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills of elementary school social studies. Fall, Spring, Summer.Prerequisite: None.Cross Listed Courses: SOST 5340
2003 Dallas Baptist University
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Yesterday, The Walt Disney Co. unveiled plans to make a number of spin-off movies set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away — in addition to the post-Return of the Jedi trilogy that had already been announced.
Entertainment Weekly has learned details on two of the spin-off projects: A young Han Solo saga, focusing on the wisecracking smuggler's origin story, and a bounty hunter adventure with Boba Fett at the center of a rogue's gallery of galactic scum.
Oh, I'm sorry, I thought the stories were going to continue. Didn't realize it was nostalgia time. But isn't that all Disney has to offer, reheated left-overs?
It really makes me wish that Disney had been outbid. By someone, by anyone.
If this is how Disney intends to handle the series, I am not impressed.
I'm sure someone will insist this is wonderful and like what they did with X-Men! Well, guess what, Star Wars has more mythology than X-Men and I expect it to grow, not constrict.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Starting with Cindy Sheehan who notes political prisoner Lynne Stewart explaining that her cancer has returned. We'll note Lynne in the snapshot tomorrow -- today, we've got Congress, DoD, VA, Toby Dodge, and more already. You can refer to Third's "Lynne Stewart's cancer has returned, release her" for now.
Turning to War Criminal Colin Powell who, ten years ago, appeared before the United Nations (February 5, 2003) to 'make the case' for war on Iraq by lying. Lawrence Wilkerson may never be able to become the second Mrs. Colin Powell, but Wilkerson can and does 'stand by your man' right now. And sadly, a lot of people assist Wilkerson in whitewashing Colin Powell -- but the blood never fades, all that blood of the innocents on Colin Powell's hands. Today Norman Solomon appeared on Democracy Now! to debate Wilkerson . Excerpt.
NORMAN SOLOMON: Well, we just heard Colonel Wilkerson say that "we were all wrong." I'm quoting him here from a few minutes ago. In fact, we were not all wrong. As a matter of fact, many experts and activists and researchers, from the get-go, in 2002, were saying that the administration case for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was full of holes, and many guests on Democracy Now! demolished those claims from the Bush administration in real time. The organization where I work, the Institute for Public Accuracy, put out many news releases documenting the falsities coming from Colin Powell's office and the entire administration, including the week that he gave his now-infamous speech at the United Nations. We had U.N. weapons inspectors like Scott Ritter and Hans von Sponeck demolishing many of those claims being made, again, in real time.
So, what we've heard again today -- and I think it's very disappointing -- from the former chief of staff here of Colin Powell is the reiteration of these supposedly exculpatory, actually, excuses for just following orders. And I could condense what Colonel Wilkerson just said about Colin Powell's role in the lead up to the war in Iraq: "We were just following orders, and Dick Cheney made us do it." No, Dick Cheney didn't make you do it. There's something called resignation. There's something called speaking up and the First Amendment. There are a lot of dead Americans and many more Iraqis because of the silence and the following of orders when we look at what actually took place.
Now, one of the most important facts is that, 10 years later, an ongoing legacy of Colin Powell's behavior -- and, unfortunately, of our guest, as well, and the entire upper echelons of the Bush administration -- is a pattern of impunity -- impunity to lie, impunity to deceive and distort, impunity that is personal, that is professional and is governmental. And that kind of impunity, which has caused so much death and misery in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere, is being fast-forwarded, is prefigurative for where we are now. And so, even today, although what's done is done, we might say, the failure of people like Colin Powell to step up and say, "Look, not only was I wrong, but in planning and implementing aggressive war, I violated the Nuremberg Principles" -- if we could get those kind of forthright statements from these former top officials, we could look at the agenda building for war on Iran in a more understanding light.
Very well said by Norman Solomon who is asking people to go to this Roots Action page and let your senators know your concern over the nomination of John Brennan to be the next CIA Director. Also calling out Brennan and Powell is David Swanson who has come up with The Colin Powell Memorial B.S. Award.
Today the United Nations issued a press release on the topic of female genital mutilation:
Fewer girls are subjected to the life-threatening practice of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) according to new data from the United Nations, released on 6 February, the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. The data show that FGM/C is becoming less prevalent overall and the younger generation is less vulnerable to the practice.
In the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, where the practice of FGM/C is concentrated, on average, 36 per cent of girls aged 15-19 have been cut compared to an estimated 53 per cent of women aged 45-49. The decline is particularly sharp in some countries: in Kenya, for example, women aged 45-49 are three times more likely to have been cut than girls aged 15-19.
"This progress shows it is possible to end FGM/C" said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. "FGM/C is not only deeply wrong, we can and must end it to help millions of girls and women lead healthier lives."
These recent estimates produced by UNICEF show that at least 120 million girls and women have experienced FGM/C in these 29 countries. Given present trends, as many as 30 million girls under the age of 15 may still be at risk. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNICEF Joint Programme on FGM/C is currently making progress in preventing these girls and future generations from being exposed to FGM/C.
The new estimates follow the unanimous adoption of a UN General Assembly resolution in December 2012, calling on Member States to intensify efforts towards the complete elimination of FGM/C.
Since 2008, when the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on FGM/C was established, nearly 10,000 communities in 15 countries, representing about 8 million people, have renounced the practice. Last year, a total of 1,775 communities across Africa publicly declared their commitment to end FGM/C.
All Iraq News reports the UN called on the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government to eliminate the practice of female genital mutilation and finds that 8% of Iraqi women ages 15 to 49 have had some form of FGM -- the bulk of the 8% reside in Erbil, Kirkuk and Sulaimaniya.
For the fourth day in a row, Iraq sees a suicide bombing. Bi Mingxin (Xinhua) reports a suicide car bombing at an Abu Ghraib military base resulting in the deaths of 5 soldiers with another nine injured. Alsumaria notes that the attack took place at noon local time. All Iraq News reports an attack on Mosul checkpoint left 2 police officers dead. Alsumaria adds that the corpse of a 22-year-old female was found in Kirkuk -- signs of torture and gunshot wounds -- and that a Baghdad assasination attempt (by sticky bombing) on the Minister of the Enivornment's Sargon Lazar Salioh left his driver injured. Press TV notes a Mussayib attack which left 3 police officers dead and three more injured. And Alsumaria is reporting that a Salahuddin Province bombing (outside of Tikrit) claimed the life of 1 military officer and left two soldiers injured (all three were part of the Tigris Operation Command) and they note 1 man shot dead in Mosul by unknown assailants.
Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count counts 76 people killed this month by violence in Iraq. 76 in the first five days of the month alone.
As security is needed in Iraq, Alsumaria reports that Sahwa ("Awakenings," "Sons/Daughters Of Iraq") announced today that at least 80% of their weapons are out of date. Kitabat reports that the Ministry of Justice announced yesterday that since December 21, 2010, 200 prisoners have died in Iraqi prisons. Consider that another reason for the attempted prison breaks.
Tuesday saw a win for the Iraqi press. Al Rafidayn reports that the despised 'cybercrime bill' has been dropped. Iraq's Journalistic Freedoms Observatory issued a statement praising the Parliament and the Chair of the Committee on Culture and Information for abolishing the bill noting that it had met with harsh opposition since the bill became public -- many journalists -- in and out of Iraq -- condemned the bill and over 40 international organizations also came out against it. Among the over 40 speaking out? Human Rights Watch which noted last July:
The 16-page report, "Iraq's Information Crimes Law: Badly Written Provisionsand Draconian Punishments Violate Due Processand Free Speech," is a legal analysis of the draft law. It finds that the draft law is part of a broad effort by authorities to suppress peaceful dissent by criminalizing legitimate information sharing and networking activities. The proposed law had its first reading before Iraq's Council of Representatives on July 27, 2011; a second reading is expected as early as July 2012.
"This bill would give Iraqi authorities yet another tool to suppress dissent, especially on the Internet, whichIraqi journalists and activists increasingly turn to for information and open debate," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The Council of Representatives should reject lawsthat would undermine the freedoms enshrined in Iraq's2005 constitution."
Jillian C. York and Maira Sutton (Electronic Frontier Foundation) observe, "Fortunately, it looks as if this bill will not become law. A document released on January 22, 2013 and shared by Social Media Exchange (SMEX) shows that a request was made by the parliamentary Culture and Media Committee and approved by the Speaker of the House to revoke the egregious law." Also dropped is a boycott. All Iraq News reports that Iraqiya members in Nouri's Cabinet have returned to Cabinet hearings saying that they feel protesters are being listened to. (They boycotted hearings last month saying the protesters were not being listened to.) The paper notes Ayada Allawi declared that a replacement needed to be named for Nouri because Nouri is unable to manage the state's affairs. There have been calls for early parliamentary elections. Whether that happens or not, Iraq is supposed to hold provincial elections in April.
When the Independent High Electoral Commission was truly independent, Nouri tried to take it over. Unable to do so, he would imprison the Committee Chair and a Commissioner. Why isn't that still happening with the new Committee Chair? Because Muqdad al-Sharifi is in Nouri's pockect. AFP reports: that Nouri's little puppet declared that "anti-governmnet rallies" are causing security issues which could harm the April provincial elections.
The problem is the "anti-government rallies"?
The only people who have died at the rallies were 7 Iraqis who were demonstrating. (False attempts to tie the deaths of 2 Iraqi soldiers to the protests failed some time ago.) But 76 people died through yesterday from violence. The protesters are exercising their democratic rights guaranteed to them by their country's Constitution. One would assume someone in charge of elections would applaud that.
Toby Dodge is the author of the new book Iraq: From War To A New Authoritarianism. Dodge is a British political scientist and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Last month he spoke about Iraq at the London School of Economics and Political Thought. Excerpt.
Toby Dodge: Now the national elections of March 2010 saw something quite remarkable, I think. It saw a sustained challenge to that exclusive elite command. Iraqiya -- a coalition of political parties led by Ayad Allawi capitalizing on a rising nationalism in Iraq as violence decreased -- ran, I think, an incredibly effective grassroots campaign and mobilized enough folks to get 91 -- 91 seats compared to Maliki's 89. However, that challenge to the exclusive elite pact created a counter-challenge by the politicians who'd benefited from the exclusive elite pact and what you saw from March to November was a period of extended and acrimonious negotiations. In the end, I would argue, and there are probably people in the audience who disagree, that what happened was with the Erbil Agreement of November 2010, Iraqiya was brought back into another government of national unity on the basis of the exclusive elite pact. Iraq's Islamic party had long failed to exist as meaningful electoral forces was pushed out, Iraqiya was brought in -- "No, no, you can represent the Sunni population. We'll give the Ministry of Finance -- a bit problematic at the moment -- we'll give you the vice president -- also problematic -- and that'll be enough." Now think about the 2,849,000 people who voted for Iraqiya in March, they've seen the influence of their votes on the government systematically minimized ever since. And their parliamentary representatives brought into government only to be persecuted and driven into exile in the case of [Vice President Tareq al-] Hashemi. The continuation of this exclusive elite pact cannot but alienate increasing numbers of Iraq's population, exacerbating the already powerful, popular sentiment that the government is failing to deliver on their needs because of corruption. So in 2013, ten years after the invasion, Iraq is a state whose prime minister is increasingly concentrating political and coercive power in his own hands. He and the rest of the ruling elite are kept in power by a million man security force which is restricted by little or no democratic or parliamentary oversight. In February 2011, the Arab Spring arrived in Iraq with mass public demonstrations breaking out, certainly in Baghdad but also in Basra and intriguingly up in the Kurdish Regional Government areas of north Iraq. These demonstrations -- these popular expressions of alienation and anger at the corrupt ruling elite were suppressed by extended violence. This is the outcome of regime change a decade after invasion: An increasingly authoritarian government unable to deliver services to its population, increasingly reliant on an over-developed armed force.
Dropping back to yesterday afternoon, the US House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs held a hearing on the use of temporary disability ratings.
Subcommittee Chair Jon Runyan: Our hearing topic today will focus on temporary total disability ratings. Temporary total disability ratings serve a very important function in the benefits scheme. This type of rating is assigned when it is established by medical evidence that surgery or certain treatment was performed, necessitating a period of recovery during which the veteran cannot work. However, according to a January 2011 report by the VA Office of the Inspector General, VBA has not been correctly processing and monitoring such claims. As a result, the OIG stated that since January 1993, VBA has overpaid veterans a net amount of $943 million. The OIG also stated that without timely action, VBA would overpay veterans a projected $1.1 billion over the next five years. These numbers are troubling, to say the least. As all of us here today are aware, our nation's fiscal health is one of this Congress's top priorities. Part of this process includes trimming government spending and eliminating government waste. It is my hope that by bringing attention to this topic, we can ensure that every dollar appropriated to VA is being spent properly on care and benefits for our veterans. We heard from VA in June of last year during sworn testimony, that these errors were due to a computer glitch. VA advised that the glitch would be fixed by July 2012. Nonetheless, two new Regional Office audits issued by the OIG last month found that 50 percent of the temporary 100 percent disability evaluations reviewed were incorrect. The explanations given in the OIG audits stated that the 50 percent accuracy rate occurred because staff did not establish controls to monitor the proposed reductions initially, nor did they schedule future medical examinations as required. So -- something doesn't add up here. If the computer glitch was fixed in July 2012 but over 50 percent of temporary total rating claims are still being processed incorrectly as of January 2013, then that leads me to believe that these are human errors, not computer errors.
100% Temporary Disability Rating? "A total 100% temporary disability rating will be assigned, without regard to the rating schedule, when a service connected disability has required hospitalization treatment by the Department of Veterans Affairs, for a period in excess of 21 days." Paralyzed Veterans of America's Carl Blake submitted a written statement for the record. He noted that temporary disability ratings rarely affected members of his organization:
That being said, temporary total disability ratings serve an important and practical purpose for many veterans. The determination for temporary total disability ratings are governed by the provisions of 38 C.F.R. § 4.29, Ratings for service-connected disabilities requiring hospital treatment or observation, and 38 C.F.R. § 4.30, Convalescent ratings. Temporary increases to VA disability ratings in accordance with the provisions of Paragraphs 29 and 30 are simple adjustments to running compensation awards that can be accomplished by employees with a minimum of training. Temporary increases to compensation Paragraph 29 are determined by the verified dates of hospitalization. Meanwhile, adjustments under the provisions of Paragraph 30 are established by rating action based on available medical information. In each case, the dates of entitlement are clearly indicated, and with only a small amount of attention to detail, there should be no significant errors.
Runyan continues as Subcommittee Chair. The new Ranking Member of the Subcommittee is Dina Titus. There were two panels. The first panel was Vietnam Veterans of America's Rick Weidman and VA's Assistant Inspector General for Audits and Evaluations Linda Halliday (accompanied by Larry Reinkemeyer and Brent Arronte). The second panel was the VA's Diane Rubens. While the issue of overpayment causes alarm in the current fiscal climate, overpayment isn't the only problem.
Ranking Member Dina Titus: As the Chair mentioned, and it bears repeating, a billion dollars is something to be worried about. But this doesn't just go one way in terms of overpayments. At the Reno VA Regional Office, which serves my Congressional district in southern Nevada, the Inspector General found that over half of the 100% disability evaluations were incorrectly processed. And while a number of these involved overpayments, there were also some underpayments. And we certainly don't want our veterans to be underpaid. For example, we found one veteran with service connected bone cancer and prostate cancer who was underpaid nearly $10,000 over a period of three years.
We'll note one one exchange from the hearing.
Subcommittee Chair Jon Runyan: Ms. Halliday, in your opinion, why is it the VBA failed to take adequate and timely measures to address the -- the systematic problems?
Linda Halliday: Reliance that they needed an IT fix. And that took some coordination between the VBA office and out office of OINT. We kept telling them it is not just the IT fix. What we were finding were people -- the VARO [Veterans Affairs Regional Office] staff were not making proper input to put these diaries in place. Regardless of whether you had an IT fix in place, that action had to occur. So it's been awhile that I don't believe VBA has been aggressive enough in addressing that -- that piece of it. I know recently, Ms. Rubens had laid out some corrective action that included training which is consistently recommend in the benefits inspection reviews to try and reduce the human error associated with processing some of these claims.
Subcommittee Chair Jon Runyan: And -- and going back -- and you mentioned it in your testimony there about the targeted completion date which was moved several times -- to September 30, [20]11, to December 30, [20]11, to June 30, [20]12 and then to December 31st, [20]12. Do you know if the December 31st, '12 deadline was ever met? Or has it been pushed back even further?
Linda Halliday: We haven't tested for it, but the evidence would be right now the benefits inspection are still identifying substantial errors.
Subcommittee Chair Jon Runyan: And then finally, uhm, an alarming statistic in your written testimony says that only 53 regional offices have been inspected since your national audit -- have been fully followed by VBA policy and processing temporary disability claims evaluations. Can you further elaborate on the extent that these problems are due to human error as opposed to the computer glitch? And do you agree that -- with VBA's insistence that -- system glitches are the reason for these errors?
Linda Halliday: Yeah, I'd like to ask Brent Arronte -- since he has spent so much time in our VA regional offices doing the inspections -- to filed that.
Brent Arronte: What our inspections have-have shown is about 46% of the errors that we've seen with suspense date is what VBA is saying was the result of a systems glitch. We never found a system's glitch. To us a glitch means the system was not working as intended. We spoke with some of the architecture behind this, I think in 2010, and they told us that the system was never developed to put these -- to ensure that these diary dates were populated into the system. With that, we-we -- Two of the fixes that VBA has indicated that they have implemented, one in 2011 and one in 2012, we have not tested that yet. We haven't obtained the data to see if those fixes are working systematically. But what we have seen is about 25% of the errors are related purely to human error -- where staff is not putting in the -- or cancelling reminder notifications inadvertently, not understanding how to process reminder notifications and that results in the same effect of the benefit being paid when there's no evidence showing entitlement.
The Veterans Administration should be embarrassed that a hearing took place where the Inspector General explained that they refused to listen and that they repeatedly moved the date back. The Secretary of the VA, Eric Shinseki, should be asked to explain how that happened? He is supposed to be the head of the department, he is supposed to provide leadership. This is just like, after the scandal of veterans not receiving their education checks, he mentions to Congress that he was informed of this impending problem right after he took over as Secretary of the VA. He should have been called to the carpet for that but instead everyone apparently agreed to look the other way. From the October 14, 2009 snapshot covering the House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing that day:
Erick Shinseki: A plan was written, very quickly put together, uh, very short timelines, I'm looking at the certificates of eligibility uh being processed on 1 May and enrollments 6 July, checks having to flow through August. A very compressed timeframe. And in order to do that, we essentially began as I arrived in January, uh, putting together the plan -- reviewing the plan that was there and trying to validate it. I'll be frank, when I arrived, uh, there were a number of people telling me this was simply not executable. It wasn't going to happen. Three August was going to be here before we could have everything in place.
But he didn't bother to let Congress know. He didn't bother to warn the veterans who might be counting on those checks. And this all got ignored. Now we learn that the issue of 100% temporary disability pay has not been fixed and part of the reason for that failure is that they don't want to listen to the Inspector General's office. Where is the accountability?
Halliday said at yesterday's hearing, "We had expected VBA to keep their commitment to work this national requirement and we just watched slippage upon slippage. I think you have to ask the Department, VBA, why it took so long." She might as well have been talking about the electronic record that VA and DoD were tasked with developing. Mary Mosquera (Federal Computer Week) reported April 9, 2009:
Obama said it was time "to give our veterans a 21st-century VA," adding that there is no comprehensive system that enables a smooth transition of health care records between DOD and VA.
"That results in extraordinary hardship for an awful lot of veterans, who end up finding their records lost, unable to get their benefits processed in a timely fashion," Obama said. Access to electronic records is essential to modern health care delivery and the paperless administration of benefits, he added.
"That's why I'm asking both departments to work together to define and build a seamless system of integration with a simple goal: When a member of the armed forces separates from the military, he or she will no longer have to walk paperwork from a DOD duty station to a local VA health center; their electronic records will transition along with them and remain with them forever," he said.
A seamless system of integration. It would, Barack said, "give our veterans a 21st-century VA." He wasn't pulling notions out of thin air. In 2007, Commissioners Bob Dole and Donna Shalala were named to head The President's Commission On Care For America's Returning Wounded Warriors. The commission came up with this idea and, in their final report, warned, "Meanwhile, congressional or departmental reform efforts should resist imposing new requirements that may result in duplicative or uncoordinated electronic systems and, instead, encourage the streamlining of today's systems and facilitate communication across them."
Does Shinseki think he can just blow off the tasks he's assigned? Does he not get how this impacts veterans? November 11, 2009, the VA's Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergrovernmental Affairs Tammy Duckworth appeared on The Diane Rehm Show (NPR).
Tammy Duckworth: Well what didn't work so well -- this is one of the first things I brought up to [VA] Secretary [Eric] Shinseki when he interviewed me -- was the fact that we did not have a seamless transition of our military records from DoD to VA. When I left Walter Reed with my full medical records and I went to my VA hospital for the first time, I had to strip down to prove that I was an amputee. Even though he could see that I was an amputee and he had the medical records from the surgeon who amputated my legs. And we're immediately fixing that. Back in May of this year, [Defense] Secretary [Robert] Gates and Secretary Shinseki agreed to a program where we're going to develop virtual, lifetime, electronic records. So that from the day you raise your hand to enlist in the army to the day that you're laid to rest in one of our national shrines, your records follow you. And this will be a monumental change in how VA and DoD hand off and care for our veterans.
So in 2009, Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth told him in very concrete terms how this could effect a person transitioning from service member to veteran. Did he not listen? Duckworth is now a member of the US Congress, House Rep Tammy Duckworth. I called out Shinseki this morning and Shirley and Martha advise e-mails felt I was giving Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta a pass because I know him. I know Leon, I like Leon. I've held him accountable when needed and haven't worried about 'tone.' This isn't Leon's issue. He's out the door, for one thing. For another, he won't even have 18 months as Secretary of Defense (unless Chuck Hagel's nomination gets tanked). If Hagel had been confirmed last week and had made the announcement Tuesday with Shinseki, I wouldn't have called out Hagel. It's not Hagel's issue.
Shinseki has been the consistent under Barack. Dropping back to the July 25th snapshot to note that day's House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing:
This morning, US House Rep Jeff Miller noted that "in 1961 John F. Kennedy said we'd put a man on the moon, eight years later, we were there. We're talking about an integrated electronic health records by 2017. Why could we put a man on the moon in eight years and we're not starting from ground zero on the electronic health record -- why is it taking so long?" He was asking that of the Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki who were appearing before a joint-hearing of the House Armed Services and House Veterans Affairs Committee.
Of course no real answer was given. A grinning -- apparently amused -- Shinseki began his non-answer by declaring that "I can't account for the previous ten years." Though he didn't say it, he also apparently couldn't account for the three years that he's been Secretary of the VA. Three years and seven months. You'd think Shinseki would be able to speak to the issue. He couldn't. He could offer that he met with Panetta four times this year with plans for a fifth meeting. This was the same amount he met with former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates but, apparently, in a few months less time. I have no idea what that or his ridiculous grin was about.
But I do think Shinseki may have inadvertently provided an answer for the delay when he went on to declare, "It's taken us seventeen months to get to an agreement that both Secretary Panetta and I signed that describes the way forward." There's the problem right there.
Back in March 2011 what was Shinseki bragging about? As Bob Brewin (Nextgov.com) reported, "Veteran Affairs Sectretary Eric Shinseki said Thursday he and Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed on March 17 that their departments would develop a common electronic health record system." So that was agreed to in March 2011. But it took Shinseki and and Gates 17 months to figure out how? There's your time waster right there. And it was not needed. Shinseki and Panette did not need to 'invent' a damn thing. This is not a new issue. VA has long ago addressed what they need with regards to records and DoD has identified the same. And after this had been done (and redone), Robert Dole and Donna Shalala served on the Dole -Shalala Commission coming up with many of the same things. The Dole -Shalala Commission was established in 2007 and formally known as the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors. Appearing before the House Veterans Affairs Committee February 7, 2008, VA's Dr. James Peake testified that this electronic record was "a critical recommendation in the Dole-Shalala Commission report."
So he and Gates agreed what their departments needed to do in March 2011. Then, in June 2011, Panetta becomes Secretary of Defense and Shinseki decides to start all over and spend 17 months coming to an agreement with Leon? This falls on Shinseki. He has not delivered on the task. Yet again.
At what point is there accountability? At yesterday's joint-press conference, Shinseki bragged that he and Panetta had just held the ninth meeting ("in 18 months") and they stressed the "commitment of both of our departments to a single, common, joint integrated electronic health record, the IEHR." The ninth meeting, Shinskei explained "was about how to get there." Really? Panetta's got one foot out the door and you're meeting with him "about how to get there"? Barack Obama tasked you with this duty back in April of 2009 and, in February of 2013, you're having a meeting "about how to get there"?
There's a lot of confusion as to what's going on. Patricia Kime (Army Times) does a great job covering where things stand. The same can't be said for others. What's taking place is that the actual task is being tossed aside. Instead, some low rent version of what was asked for is going to be assembled. Let's quote Senator Patty Murray from yesterday's press release.
"I'm disappointed that the VA and the Pentagon are now backing away from a truly seamless medical records system. While this is a very complex problem, we must provide the best care for our servicemembers and veterans. That means the departments must meet this challenge by working together. What they are now proposing is not the fully integrated, end-to-end IT solution that this problem demands. VA and DOD have been at this for years and have sunk over $1 billion into making this the cornerstone of a nationwide electronic medical records initiative. I intend to follow-up with both Secretaries to find out why this decision was made."
Senator Murray is the outgoing Chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. She's right that, after wasting $1 billion in taxpayer dollars, they're now refusing to live up to what was promised.
It's not going to be the full medical records -- as people were promised. Instead, as the Defense Dept revealed through various flunkies on a press call yesterday, "information on prescriptions or information on lab results that will be exchanged on all patients, and most critically, in a standard data format at the point in 2014, so the data looks exactly the same between the two systems." That is a huge come down from an electronic record that would carry all the patient information and follow the service member on over to the VA. This was an expensive proposal. But it was thought that veterans' health was worth it and it was thought that this would also help lower some health costs (both by being paperless and by being a complete record which would mean tests wouldn't be accidentally duplicated since you had a complete record).
Leon Panetta said at yesterday's joint-press conference, "Achieving the goal has taken a tremendous amount of collaboration at all levels. But I'm proud to say that our department are now working together more closely than ever before. We recognized that bringing together two large bureaucracies, trying to make those bureaucracies work together to form a seamless support system for all service members and veterans is not an easy challenge. It's tough." You need Leon criticism? Every word just quoted was ignorant and uninformed. Your proud that the two departments are working more closely than before? Well that's been the assigned task since 2007. Two different administrations have called for that. It's not "an easy challenge"? You're right, Leon, it's not "an easy challenge." Because a challenge would be Barack saying to you, "Let's all work harder on meeting the needs of our veterans and service members." That's a goal, a challenge. "You and VA create . . ." That's an assignment. Both departments were tasked with that assignment back in 2009. It's tough? Well, it's an assignment. It's a job assignment. If you're not up to it, you're not up to the job (or you're saying that President Barack Obama was unrealistic when he handed out the assignment). It's amazing how everyone shirks responsibility. A task was assigned in 2009. The task has not been achieved. That means you failed. In the real world, that means you get fired. This lack of accountability is exactly why there will be little concern over government layoffs if sequestration takes effect. The American people are tired of seeing nothing get accomplished over and over. They wants scalps at this point. It's a shame it will most likely be the scalps of the overworked civil service employees and not those in management who are supposed to be getting results (but repeatedly fail to do so).
The House Veterans Affairs Committee leadership and the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee leadership issued a joint-press release today:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The chairmen and ranking members of the Senate and House Committees on Veterans' Affairs today faulted the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs for backing off plans to create a single computer system to integrate electronic medical records for troops and veterans.
Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said: "I am deeply disappointed by the VA and Defense Department decision to back away from a commitment to develop and implement a truly integrated, single, electronic health record. President Obama charged the departments with creating a seamless system of integration so that service members transitioning from active duty to civilian life don't have to worry about whether their health records will be lost or their claims delayed. An integrated record would allow for a streamlined and timely claims process, faster decisions on benefits, less duplication in medical testing and more efficient, cost-effective treatment for both physical and mental health needs. Now more than ever we need greater cooperation between the departments to solve the serious challenges that continue to confront our service members and veterans. I will continue to work to achieve better coordination by the departments and to ensure that the needs of veterans are met."
House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) said: "The decision by DOD and VA to turn their backs on a truly integrated electronic health record system is deeply troubling. The need for a record system integrated across all DOD and VA components has been universally accepted for years, and until yesterday, both agencies have given us nothing but assurances they were working toward that goal. Previous attempts by DOD and VA to use disparate computer systems to produce universal electronic health records have failed, and unfortunately it appears they are repeating past mistakes. When DOD and VA take shortcuts, the veterans and service members under their care will be shortchanged."
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C), the ranking member of the Senate committee, said: "The fact that VA and DoD would reverse course on a plan they have been working towards for years that would create a coordinated electronic health record system between the two agencies is concerning and disappointing. I am concerned about what this means for our nation's service members and veterans, particularly those who will be transitioning from active duty service to civilian life in the near future. We owe it to our nation's defenders to do all we can to care for them and provide the most effective, efficient service we can, and coordination and communication between these two agencies is absolutely vital."
Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine), ranking member of the House committee, said: "This is a huge setback and completely unacceptable. For years we have been told by both agencies that progress was made and that things were on track. I'm disappointed that our nation's two largest government agencies – one of which is the world's foremost developer of high-tech machines and cyber-systems – could not come together on something that would have been so beneficial to those that served. We have just witnessed hundreds of millions of dollars go down the drain."
Additional Contacts:
Michael Briggs (Sanders) 202 224-5141
David Ward (Burr) 202 228-2971
Ed Gilman (Michaud) 202 225-6306
Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said: "I am deeply disappointed by the VA and Defense Department decision to back away from a commitment to develop and implement a truly integrated, single, electronic health record. President Obama charged the departments with creating a seamless system of integration so that service members transitioning from active duty to civilian life don't have to worry about whether their health records will be lost or their claims delayed. An integrated record would allow for a streamlined and timely claims process, faster decisions on benefits, less duplication in medical testing and more efficient, cost-effective treatment for both physical and mental health needs. Now more than ever we need greater cooperation between the departments to solve the serious challenges that continue to confront our service members and veterans. I will continue to work to achieve better coordination by the departments and to ensure that the needs of veterans are met."
House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) said: "The decision by DOD and VA to turn their backs on a truly integrated electronic health record system is deeply troubling. The need for a record system integrated across all DOD and VA components has been universally accepted for years, and until yesterday, both agencies have given us nothing but assurances they were working toward that goal. Previous attempts by DOD and VA to use disparate computer systems to produce universal electronic health records have failed, and unfortunately it appears they are repeating past mistakes. When DOD and VA take shortcuts, the veterans and service members under their care will be shortchanged."
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C), the ranking member of the Senate committee, said: "The fact that VA and DoD would reverse course on a plan they have been working towards for years that would create a coordinated electronic health record system between the two agencies is concerning and disappointing. I am concerned about what this means for our nation's service members and veterans, particularly those who will be transitioning from active duty service to civilian life in the near future. We owe it to our nation's defenders to do all we can to care for them and provide the most effective, efficient service we can, and coordination and communication between these two agencies is absolutely vital."
Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine), ranking member of the House committee, said: "This is a huge setback and completely unacceptable. For years we have been told by both agencies that progress was made and that things were on track. I'm disappointed that our nation's two largest government agencies – one of which is the world's foremost developer of high-tech machines and cyber-systems – could not come together on something that would have been so beneficial to those that served. We have just witnessed hundreds of millions of dollars go down the drain."
Additional Contacts:
Michael Briggs (Sanders) 202 224-5141
David Ward (Burr) 202 228-2971
Ed Gilman (Michaud) 202 225-6306
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text:
"It might sound arrogant, but I know how good I am at pitching," Anderson told MLB.com during a recent interview. "I'm extremely talented on the mound, and I want to prove it to people.
"Some people might think this is a joke, and wonder 'Why doesn't he just retire?' Well, they are entitled to their own opinions. I appreciate all the support fans showed me in Chicago, and how they really stuck by me. Hopefully in my new pursuit, in my new dream that I want to pursue, I hope they will give me a chance. If some people don't, I don't care. My attitude is so much different."
… No regrets exist for Anderson over his past life as a center fielder. He holds mostly positive memories from his time with the White Sox, and a few he would like to forget. But Anderson has no regrets about making his career-changing choice.
"I've been wrong before, and I could be wrong again. But I don't think I am," Anderson said. "If I had a decent rookie year [in 2006], all the other stuff would have taken care of itself. I don't point the finger at anyone but myself. But I've never been happier."
Other White Sox links:
- James looks at the Kosuke Fukudome signing, and on how to best arrange the outfield. And he looks at the Sox's 'Do what you can, fellas,' approach to win the division.
- J.J., also, writes how to best use Kosuke Fukudome, what happened to him in Cleveland, and why the Sox didn't go with Jordan Danks. And he explains what things to watch in Chris Sale's pitching in Spring Training.
- Kevin Goldstein published his 'Top 101 prospects for 2012' list. The only Sox prospect in it was Addison Reed at #81. All other AL Central teams fared better on Golstein's list.


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Jay Ryan Is The CW's New Sexy 'Beast' – Hunk of the Day
Since getting rid of 'The Secret Circle,' The CW is looking to fill it's spot with a re-imagining of 'Beauty and the Beast.' Here's the kicker — Jay Ryan plays the beast, but he's not all that monstrous. In fact, in true CW style, he only has a slight scar on his cheek as to maintain his hotness factor.
In all honestly, this show looks like the biggest load of dog dookie we've ever seen — a stinky combination of 'Teen Wolf,' 'Law and Order' and 'The Hulk' with a cast that looks like they walked straight off the '90210′ set — but we'll give anything a try as long as it has at least one hot guy in it. Though, Ryan isn't just any hot guy. He's from New Zealand where he made a name for himself on the soap opera-y show 'Offspring' (which even we had to look up, so don't feel bad for not knowing anything about it).
If you feel like taking a chance on The CW's latest heinous crime against television, then by all means go for it when the show premieres this fall. Otherwise, just take a gander at Jay Ryan below.


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Cameron Diaz & Jay Chou: Green Hornet Hotties
Cameron Diaz and Taiwanese actor Jay Chou film an action scene for the upcoming superhero flick Green Hornet in Los Angeles on Saturday (September 5).
Seth Rogen (pictured below) plays debonair newspaper publisher Britt Reid by day and by night, he fights crime as a masked superhero known as The Green Hornet. At his side is martial arts expert Kato (Chou) and his secretory Lenore Case (Diaz).
This specific scene has Jay and Cameron walking and almost falling off a ledge.


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Strikeouts that make a positive difference
How to help
• To make a donation to Rancho Bernardo pitcher Parker Bugg's "Strike Out Sex Offenders" program, go to parkerbugg.com
• To learn more about the Chelsea's Light Foundation, go to chelseaslight.org
He never met Chelsea King.
"I didn't know her personally," Rancho Bernardo High senior Parker Bugg said.
However, he knew classmates who did. And he could see the effect the spirited Poway High senior's death had on them three years ago.
"They were devastated when it happened," Bugg recalled.
During a routine run around Lake Hodges, the 17-year-old Titans cross country runner was attacked and murdered by a convicted sex offender. A freshman then, Bugg was horrified and saddened by the news.
"It was sickening, what happened," Bugg said.
Three years later, Bugg has found a way to honor Chelsea King's memory by raising funds for the Chelsea's Light Foundation, whose mission as stated on its website is "to unite and lead people who are passionate about protecting children and inspiring positive change in their communities."
Bugg, a right-handed pitcher who has accepted a scholarship offer to LSU, started the "Strike Out Sex Offenders" program. He is seeking $1 for each strikeout he records on the mound this season or flat donations. All proceeds go to the Chelsea's Light Foundation.
"Initially, the idea originated on my official visit with LSU last year," said Bugg, who has registered 39 strikeouts and a 0.90 ERA this spring.
LSU team officials encouraged potential Tigers to become active in their communities and find ways to make a difference — big or small. Bugg spoke with his parents and knew exactly how he wanted to help.
"Like many, you never want to see what happened to Chelsea, happen again," said Bugg, who cites Chelsea's Law as an important measure to ensure that convicted sex offenders are more closely monitored and that the most violent predators are locked up.
"I wanted to help in any way that I could," Bugg said. "I couldn't think of any better organization to help."
Strikeouts made the most sense to Bugg, who fanned 49 batters last season en route to a 7-1 record and 2.28 ERA.
Before starting the project, he sought the permission of the Chelsea's Light Foundation, Rancho Bernardo coach Sam Blalock, school administrators and the CIF's San Diego Section.
"It's truly a great cause by a great kid," Blalock said. "He has had our full support ever since approaching the team with the idea."
Donations and pledges have poured in. As many as 40 sponsors have committed to giving $1 for every strikeout this season. According to Bugg, his efforts have brought in about $4,000 despite a recent injury that placed him on crutches.
A stress fracture, which Bugg has fought in the past, is expected to sideline him anywhere from two to six weeks — potentially ruling him out for the rest of the year — though RB's season could be extended if the No. 1-ranked Broncos (18-3) make a long run in the playoffs.
"It's tough, but I'm trying my best to get back out there to get a few more strikeouts since so many people have signed up," Bugg said.
"Still, I never imagined being able to raise so much money for the foundation. The community, my coaches and my teammates have supported this cause tremendously."
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"What is your favorite game?"
That question caught me entirely off-guard when I recently attended an after-hours user testing event hosted by EdGE (Educational Gaming Environments) @TERC with the sole intention of jotting down a few notes for this web feature.
After a quick scan of my memory, I was at an impasse. I hastily blurted out "Scrabble. I'm a lexophile". Blank stares from the young, hip, and connected console and mobile players around me. In that very moment, time caught up and lapped me. "But on the iPhone as well," I added. It was already too late. The world had moved on. Generation Y, meet Generation Z. There's no need to shake hands or exchange contact info—just bump Androids. And definitely download the Temple Run app—it's going viral.
There had to be something I was forgetting.
I worked my way around the room multiple times after that, recording (with a pen and paper) gamers chatting over Where's My Water?, Angry Birds, Physics 101, and Limbo. And then it happened—I remembered something. I heard a gamer say, "I like it when I can learn about topics and try new things that would be impossible in real life—and pick up and try again if I make a mistake". Strangely, I could almost hear a lone bongo drum, and then the rattle of maracas…was that the distant yowl of a black panther? There I was, photographing the fauna of the forest floor, consulting my guidebook, searching for the elusive, near-magical cinchona…but was I running low on supplies? Would I stave off malnourishment and get to the next level before dinnertime?
The Amazon Trail. Memories came rushing back, carried on a swift current. Propelled by an in-game glimpse of the Blue Morpho butterfly, I took it upon myself to catalogue the Monarchs and Swallowtails in our backyard. I would sneak out of bed to the window when my dad took our puppy out at night—hoping to catch a glimpse of an errant Luna moth by the floodlight. My world—and that of the digitized Amazon jungle—blurred together around the edges.
I didn't realize then that I was learning (let alone learning a lot). I certainly didn't realize that I'd remember researching Blue Morphos only to discover that they live for a mere 115 days. That broke my heart at the time, and still pulls at my heartstrings.
Check out 'Games and Ubiquitous Science Learning Environments' from EdGE's Director Jodi Asbell-Clarke for the 2012 Cyberlearning Research Summit
In a dizzying time where the allure of many technologies doesn't last much beyond 115 days, the R&D work that the EdGE team is doing has lasting implications for the intersection of meaningful science content and gaming. More specifically, they're researching and developing the kind of gripping, highly-visual transmedia experiences that cutting-'EdGE' gamers like to play (and will likely continue to like to play in the future) and measuring these games' impact on science learning.
Suddenly, it's not so difficult to imagine a future where we're all engaging in science-centric gaming and real-world learning through our various devices. Even as a lexophile/Luddite, I guarantee that I'd be doing a lot more mobile gaming and Lepidopteran observation if MECC made an app version of The Amazon Trail…
So I leave you with two questions—what's your favorite game to play? And what did you learn from it?
I bet it's more than you think.


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2013 March QEP Email Series
2013 QEP Email Series
Quality Enhancement Plan: The Madison Collaborative
Dear Colleagues and Students,
Over the last few weeks, I have been sending emails to you presenting our Quality Enhancement Plan, The Madison Collaborative: Ethical Reasoning in Action. Hopefully you have had a chance to visit the QEP website and view the videos. As you may already know, at the core of The Madison Collaborative are "Eight Key Questions."
As part of the continuing effort to raise campus awareness about the effort, please take a moment look at the entire series of four videos about The Madison Collaborative. One edition features faculty members describing the background and foundations of The Madison Collaborative. Another delves deeply into how students will be taught ethical reasoning skills. Yet another gives specific examples of how professors envision integrating the "Eight Key Questions" into existing course work. It's a fascinating look at how The Madison Collaborative can make its way into nearly every discipline across the curriculum.
You will enjoy hearing from your colleagues and your professors about how this intriguing and rigorous approach will work across the curriculum and co-curriculum.
The final edition features QEP steering committee chair Lee Sternberger describing how The Madison Collaborative came to be and how it will be implemented during the next five years. Dr. Sternberger provides a detailed discussion of the process we followed to develop the QEP, how student ethical reasoning skills will be assessed, funding for the effort and a timeline. I encourage you to watch the entire program as it provides a great deal of detail on this important effort.
Our accrediting body, the SACS Commission on Colleges, will be here for their campus visit during the first week of April. Along with working to reaffirm our accreditation, we will be seeking approval of our QEP. This is an exciting venture for our university and has the potential to transform JMU into a community recognized for producing thoughtful, engaged citizens who apply ethical reasoning to confront the challenges of the world.
View the videos here: http://www.jmu.edu/videos/qep/qep-mc-4everyone-video.shtml
Learn more about the QEP at http://www.jmu.edu/qep
Jonathan R. Alger


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CBA bestseller
ECPA bestseller
Praise for The Women of Christmas
"Breathtaking! The Women of Christmas is tender and joy filled and funny and faithful. With genuine warmth, profound wisdom, and refreshing wonder, Liz Curtis Higgs offers up a perfect seasonal blend—just what every woman in the midst of Christmas needs. I savored every word."
—Ann Voskamp, author of the New York Times bestseller One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
"Liz Curtis Higgs ably mines the Scriptures, revealing undiscovered treasures in the familiar story. Through the pages of this powerful little book, we get to peer into the hearts of these women and find our own hearts melting at the beauty of God's grace."
—Nancy Guthrie, author of the Bible study series Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament
"This season delight your friends with an early gift of The Women of Christmas, inviting them to see how Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna were part of God's great plan to rescue us. As Liz puts it, 'Never doubt for a moment that women matter to the Almighty.'"
—Dee Brestin, author of Idol Lies: Facing the Truth About Our Deepest Desires
"The Women of Christmas invites us to steal away with our Savior during the hustle and bustle of one of the busiest seasons of the year. In her warm and welcoming voice, Liz Curtis Higgs draws us into the compelling stories of the women who surrounded our Messiah's birth and encourages us to consider our own relationship with him. An inspirational and biblically rich devotional. What a wonderful way to experience Christmas!"
—Kelly Minter, author of Nehemiah: A Heart That Can Break


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The fires raging in the western US have now claimed at least one life in Utah, and tropical storm Debby has flooded homes and closed highways in Florida.
While this damage is devastating and costly to many, these crises – and others like them – leave a small silver lining in their wake: They help propel technological innovation. Their ability to capture public concern – and funding – helps spur development of new technologies as well as new uses for existing ones.
Media attention during crises jump-starts public awareness of critical, life-saving needs, both immediate and longer term, says Donald McKeown, from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Information Products Laboratory for Emergency Response (IPLER) in New York.
"Funding for the development of many vital technologies can be very difficult when there is no emergency in the news," he says, so awareness and momentum built during emergencies can be essential to being better prepared for future crises.
The RIT Lab has a four-year grant from the National Science Foundation and is partnered with the US Forest Service and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as private businesses, to develop airborne geo-spatial imaging for use during fires and floods.
In 2011, after tropical storm Irene devastated areas along the Schoharie Creek and the Mohawk River in upstate New York, an RIT engineer and sensor operator joined a team in a twin-engine Piper Navajo that flew over the entire flood zone, covering 28 square miles and capturing 1,400 images in a 3-1/2-hour flight. State emergency managers accessed images of the entire flood zone and used the imagery for recovery planning and damage assessment.
The four-camera system combines high-resolution color with infrared imaging and uses laser pulses to make precision elevation measurements. The lab's airborne system delivers comprehensive overviews within 24 hours, compared with satellite systems that are less available, dependent on good weather, and take days to deliver final information.
Crises around the globe are pushing similar innovation:
- Last year's quake in Japan led a Japanese inventor to create personal fiberglass pods, dubbed "Noahs," that can hold four people and float for at least an hour in a fast-moving tsunami wave. A redesign of an earthquake-protection pod, a Noah now sells for some $4,000.
- After the 2004 Banda Aceh tsunami wiped away the Indonesian region's entire landscape of homes and businesses, an Asian businessman created Aerial 3D, which uses laser beams to create text out of tiny, luminous dots projected in midair for emergency communications where no infrastructure can be accessed. It is now available for rental.
- After the shootings of students at Virginia Tech University, a small firm, Ping4, designed a mobile alert system that can wake up a dormant phone or override a mute function to deliver real-time, location-based, rich-text emergency information. Available since the first quarter of 2012, it is now being used in some 100 police departments and a growing number of the nation's 4,200 colleges and universities
- On June 28, EarthRisk Technologies, along with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, unveils new technology for projecting extreme weather events up to 40 days out – longer than today's most advanced supercomputers, for which forecasting beyond 10 days is extremely difficult due to the number of variables involved. This new system involves crunching massive amounts of data over 82 billion calculations using 60 years of historical weather records to identify key patterns, which are compared with current conditions to determine what should happen next. The data can be used by everyone from large energy companies to prepare for bad weather to the National Hurricane Center to reduce the error rate of its forecasts.
"Innovation doesn't come during a crisis; it flows from the aftermath of the crisis," notes Tim Trainer, interim general manager of the Military Robots Business Unit at iRobot, a consumer robotics firm that began to retool in the wake of 9/11. The firm now has contracts with the Department of Defense. It deployed robots for the recovery mission immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and redesigned them for use in Afghanistan and Iraq to combat and identify improvised explosive devices before they hurt soldiers.These were also sent to Fukushima, Japan, last year to provide images of the melting nuclear reactors and provided fire-hose support, so humans would not have to be exposed to radiation.
After the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, iRobot's Unmanned Underwater Vehicle was used to locate and monitor large clouds of dispersed oil droplets at depths of approximately 2,296 feet and, in Antarctica, to gather never-before-recorded data on plankton, used to interpret "how life on this planet is created and destroyed."
Innovation is critical not just to improve life-saving and mitigation in the immediate aftermath of an acute disaster, but to tackle the slow-moving crises such as climate change and energy usage, says Pace University law professor Elizabeth Burleson, an environment and energy specialist. Environmentally sound innovation is vital for a planet headed toward a 9 billion population before the end of the century, amid increasing climate change and depletion of natural resources. Funding for new technologies, even simple ones, such as energy-monitoring devices in people's homes, continues to hinder their usage in poorer countries, she says.
But, she notes, partnerships between developed and less-developed countries will be vital. Such "networking may be able to shepherd whole renewable energy sectors across the innovation valley of death and help turn a global responsibility to ramp up green technology into a global initiative," she adds, via e-mail.


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Theme 4: Animal Habitats
Night of the Pufflings
Houghton Mifflin Company
Meet the Author
Bruce McMillan received his first camera at age five and his first professional camera at age nine. By the time he finished high school, he was quite accomplished as a photographer. After college, he worked for three years at a television station as a camera operator, director, and producer. For two years after that, he was a caretaker on an island off the Maine coast. In that isolation, he worked on improving his writing skills. By the end of his time on the island, he had photographed and written his first book, Finest Kind o' Day: Lobstering in Maine.


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Remove Gnome
Before removing a Desktop Environment like Gnome, you have to keep a few things in mind;
- Many libraries are shared with other DE's, so you don't want them to be removed.
- Removing too much might leave your system unusable.
- Be sure to have an alternative DM installed. (lxdm or lightdm)
That said, unless you are running out of hard drive space or have limited bandwidth for updates,
there is no real harm in having Gnome installed. If you don't use it, it won't hinder performance.
For this to work, the best way of doing this is to first install a alternative Desktop Environment.
In this tutorial Gnome will be replaced with XFCE.
- open a console/terminal and become root. (of course you can also do this with Rigo
- install your alternative Desktop Environment:
# equo install @xfce --ask
for Rigo: enter:xfce4-meta in the searchbox, select the package, and click install,
or install directly using a shortcut in the searchbox: do:install xfce4-meta accept the licence agreement.
GDM will also be removed, so install a alternative LoginManager: (in this case, i choose lightdm)
# equo install lightdm
With systemd
Remove from boot entry starting GDM:
# systemctl disable gdm.service
Now enable new LoginManager to start at boot:
# systemctl enable lightdm.service
When done, logoff, and logon again into the fresh installed Environment. (NOT Gnome)
With OpenRC
- while at the terminal, change the default LoginManager to lightdm:
# nano -w /etc/conf.d/xdm
and replace:
- When done, save: [CTRL-O] and close: [CTRL-X]
- logoff, and logon again into the fresh installed Environment. (NOT Gnome)
Removing Gnome
So now we're logged in with XFCE.
- open your favourite terminal (except Gnome-terminal), and become root.
- enter following in the terminal:
equo query installed gnome-base gnome-extra | xargs equo remove --nodeps
- (ignore all those warnings)
so chances are that after a reboot the system is unusable.In that case, when Gnome is removed., before rebooting, (just in case) simply reinstall your new DE, eg.: equo install @xfce
final steps
equo install sys-apps/dbus
When done, a final step, enter equo deptest and equo libtest THEN equo conf update to check if configuration files needs to be updated, manually.


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Go Grizzlies!
23405 SW Scholls Ferry Road Hillsboro, OR 97123-9317 503.844.1600
January 7, 2019 - The 10th Annual Fitness Challenge, presented by the City of Hillsboro, begins on Saturday, Jan. 12, and runs through Saturday, Apr. 6. The challenge will consist of two six-week programs called Waves. The cost to participate in each Wave is $40 for members of the Shute Park Aquatic & Recreation Center, or $50 for non-members. Registering for both Waves gets you a $10 discount on Wave 2. Included in the registration fee are two body composition and fitness assessments, fitness classes and workshops, a mini-challenge, and more.


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Java, Dutch India (Indies), ca 1910 (Actors).
Photographer unknown.
Here you will find (from time to time) a selection from my collection "antique and classic photographic images" (digital copies of vintage paper photographs). Please also look into the history-links (archives) here below to see all my previous photo-postings. (Please don't copy my photos without mentioning the source.)
Acquaiuolo (water-trader) in Napoli-Italy, ca 1900.
Photographer: Fratelli Alinari (The brothers Alinari, Italy)


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The mind reels at the prospect of Christina Hendricks as Wonder Woman, a bit of casting that would be about a ka-jillion dreams come true. And Nicholas Winding Refn gets his way, well, bully for all of us.
Refn, who won best director at Cannes earlier this year for his upcoming film "Drive," starring Ryan Gosling, has mentioned in the past his desire to make a "Wonder Woman" movie, something we had a hard time taking seriously, to be honest.
But at Friday's LA premiere of "Drive," Vulture asked Refn about the project, prompting the director to point at Hendricks, who has a supporting role in the movie, and say, "If I ever get to do it, she's going to be it."
U.S. & World
Well lucky for all of us, Hendricks has in the past made it known that she'd love the part, telling Rachel Ray last year, "I've been wanting to wear that outfit my whole life — I had Wonder Woman Underoos."
DC Comics, which owns Wonder Woman, should jump at this opportunity. Chris Nolan's Batman saga ends next year, "Green Lantern" was terrible and appears bound for box-office flop status and "Man of Steel," well, we're nervous... Wonder Woman is the last big-name hero DC has in their stable, and they're not likely to get a better director, and the idea of Hendricks squeezing into that outfit makes us a little dizzy.
Plus, NBC's recently aborted attempt to make a "Wonder Woman" TV series could have a silver lining, in that the interest in the project suggests there's definitely a market for the Amazonian princess, and because it never aired, it hasn't soured anyone's appetite.
Please, DC, make this happen--what possible downside is there?


text: Before the Mulligan injury I was thinking we might go the opposite way and maybe Kuhn would get bumped. Now I'm not so sure and don't know who would take Kuhn's spot on some STs. Ross has been acting as the protector on punts during a lot of camp reps.


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Psychology Archives - Universal Life Church Monastery Blog
April 30th, 2012
Where in the brain does God reside? Does spiritual experience originate in the mind? Such questions are nearly unanswerable, but scientists are beginning to paint a clearer picture of what happens inside our brains during moments of spiritual insight. We are b Continue Reading »