NEW YORK (AP) — Carmelo Anthony gave New Yorkers a salute, then a show.
He went to center court before the game to thank fans for coming to Madison Square Garden, when even the Knicks themselves didn’t know if people were ready for sports yet.
Then he and his teammates provided a win for their city they know has lost so much.
Anthony had 30 points and 10 rebounds, and the Knicks gave suffering New Yorkers something to cheer with a 104-84 victory over the Miami Heat in their storm-delayed season opener Friday night.
In the first sporting event in New York since Superstorm Sandy, the Knicks dominated a game the Heat players weren’t sure should even be played with the region still so devastated. But the Knicks hoped they could provide a distraction for a few hours, and fans who were able to watch surely loved what they saw from a team that could barely compete with Miami last season.
Anthony noticed plenty of empty seats when he first came out to warm up, then saw they had almost all been taken by the time players returned for the opening tip.
Steve Novak, a non-factor against the Heat in last season’s playoffs, added 17 points off the bench and Felton had 14 points and nine assists to begin his second stint with the Knicks.
LeBron James scored 23 points for the Heat, so impressive in a season-opening victory over Boston on Tuesday but never really in this one. Dwyane Wade, who thought the game should be postponed, finished with 15 points and Chris Bosh had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
The Heat beat the Knicks in five games in last season’s first round, and at least for one night New York appears to have closed the gap on the champs.
But the focus surrounding this one had little to do with basketball.
Knicks players said Thursday they weren’t sure what kind of crowd to expect with many New Yorkers in such bad shape and perhaps unable to travel to the game with the city’s transit system crippled. But Madison Square Garden was packed with a sold-out crowd of 19,033 and lively from well before the tip right through their loud cheers when Rasheed Wallace, retired the last two seasons, entered with about 3 minutes left.
Anthony took the microphone before the game and told fans that this was the “most important time for the city of New York to come together as one and build the city back up.” Then there was a moment of silence for the victims of the disaster.
It wasn’t long before it was loud again.
Anthony hit two 3-pointers in a 10-0 run that gave New York a quick 11-point lead, and he followed six consecutive points by JR Smith by pulling up for a long 3-pointer and a 30-12 lead with 1:14 left in the first quarter. Anthony was even further away when he tossed in another 3 at the buzzer, capping his 16-point period and giving the Knicks a 33-17 advantage.
The Heat couldn’t get the deficit into single digits in the second, but were within 55-44 at halftime following 13 points from Wade after his scoreless first period. Anthony was 1 of 9 in the second after hitting six of 10 shots in the first.
But he had consecutive baskets in the Knicks’ run of seven straight points early in the third, and the lead grew to 75-52 on Novak’s 3-pointer with 3:12 remaining in the period. New York was ahead 81-63 heading into the fourth.
The Knicks’ scheduled opener at Brooklyn on Thursday night was postponed, and Heat players thought this game would be, too. Wade was so sure the Heat weren’t coming to New York that he didn’t even bother to pack until after practice Thursday.
Miami flew afterward and finally arrived in New York after a three-hour bus ride from nearby Newark, N.J. Seeing all the traffic as New Yorkers tried to recover, Wade wrote on his Twitter account that the game shouldn’t be played, a feeling he reiterated Friday morning after the Heat’s shootaround.
He decided Friday to donate his game check, around $210,000 before taxes, to relief efforts.
The Knicks finished 19 of 36 from 3-point range. Wallace made one with 41 seconds left.
Notes: The Madison Square Garden company is donating $500,000 for storm relief and is hosting a telethon on MSG network during the Knicks’ game against Dallas on Nov. 9. MSG chairman James Dolan said he was glad Friday’s game was taking place, believing it was good for the city and that many people had told him they were either coming or planned to watch on TV. — The Heat announced Friday they will unveil a banner to commemorate James’ gold medal with the U.S. basketball team Saturday before they play the Denver Nuggets. It will be displayed alongside three others for players who won Olympic gold as members of the Heat _ Wade, Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway. — Marcus Camby sat out after missing most of the preseason with a sore left calf. He recently returned to practice, but Knicks coach Mike Woodson said Camby hadn’t gone through enough contact workouts.


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More than 10,000 people attended a vigil at Dr. Phillips Center in downtown Orlando to remember 49 people killed by a terrorist and murderer.
The vigil lasted 2 hours and was filled with words of encouragement, support, and love for all humanity. Community leaders, pastors, members of the LGBT community took to the stage in front of a heartbroken community to echo words of support and healing.
“We are going to try and pull through, stick together and love one another and come together as a community like what's going on here,” Tony Caplick said.
Caplick was not at Pulse when the shooting started at 2:02 a.m. But, three of his friends were, and they did not make it out alive.
“Eddie Sotomayor, Eric Ortiz, and then…um sorry,” Caplick couldn’t say the last name.
Later that night all 49 names would be read out loud for the world to know that behind each body was a brother, sister, husband, wife, father, mother, and person who just wanted to be accepted.
Why is the question on everyone’s minds tonight. Why? Why such hatred towards the LGBT community.
On a night filled with so much pain, suffering, and darkness, community leaders vowed to make a positive out of an atrocity.
“We need to make sure that we honor them because they didn't deserve to die this way,” Caplick said.


Toxic working environments get that way when one of three key components goes awry.
While plenty of job seekers are eager just to be considered for a new position, it’s important to remember that not all work cultures are created equal. But in the hunt for a new job, it isn’t always easy to tell whether the company you’re considering might not be such a great place to work. In my research on broken work cultures, I’ve surveyed hundreds of employees and managers from a wide range of industries and sectors. And the evidence suggests that toxic working environments get that way when one of three key components go awry.
Unhealthy companies have policies and procedures that either aren’t well established or documented, or they just aren’t followed.
Sometimes that’s less a matter of insubordination than just poor communication. Many departments communicate only sporadically or share incomplete information. Other times there just isn’t a standardized way of doing things. That’s often the case in newer companies and startups, where procedures are still developing. But it can happen in established organizations, too, where the written processes are so outdated they no longer apply. In other companies, employees and managers simply “go around” the policies that do exist. The rules are there, but nobody follows them.
A toxic workplace can feel like some combination of chaos, incompetence, and anarchy where things might still get done but no one’s quite sure how. Job candidates should question hiring managers in some detail about the fundamentals of the day-to-day duties of the position–not just what they’d be tasked with doing in that role, but how they’re expected to do it.
In toxic workplaces, “dysfunctional” is a descriptive term, not just as condescending label, and it refers to habits and behaviors that prevent people and teams from functioning as they should. Dysfunctional employees tend to blame others and make excuses, rarely accepting responsibility for their actions.
They withhold or distort information and communicate indirectly through others. They usually have a sense of entitlement, believing they should receive raises and promotions despite inconsistent performance. Worse still, they’re masters of creating conflict and tension in the workplace.
Many departments communicate only sporadically or share incomplete information. Other times there just isn’t a standardized way of doing things.
Colleagues who are dysfunctional wind up creating more work for those who work with them and for them, to the point that they often need to be “rescued” because they didn’t get their task finished, or the quality was so poor that the work had to be redone. Candidates should get a feel for the morale of the workplace they’re considering joining and ask questions about the team–its size, working habits, collective workload, etc.–they’d be a part of.
Toxic leaders can have a range of personalities, but their chief failing is that they might be competent (in a technical sense), but their motives are impure. They’re totally focused on achieving their goals and do whatever it takes to get there. They manipulate their team members (often by shaming them or getting angry), take credit for others’ work, and they rarely, if ever, accept responsibility when something goes wrong.
Sniffing out a toxic leader can be one of the hardest things to do as a job seeker. It’s important to note that a toxic leader doesn’t have to be at the top tier of the organization–they can show up at any level, including as a front-line supervisor. Regardless of their position, they make life hell for those who work for them. Try to locate people who’ve previously worked for the company you’re considering, and ask them forthrightly if there’s anyone that in their experience you should be wary of.
Look for warning signs. Ask specific questions about the work culture, the expectations, and the workload. If possible, talk to current employees to get an understanding of what it’s like to work there. What kind of turnover has the company experienced in the past few years? How many lawsuits has it been involved in? What do its clients say?
Understand the risks of working in a toxic environment. Working in one can put you at risk for physical problems (loss of sleep, weight gain, high blood pressure), emotional problems (depression, anxiety, anger), and relational difficulties (withdrawal, irritability, strained friendships). As much as you need this job, it may not be worth it. It’s important to take your time. If you’re employed already, keep working while you look for another job and assess each new opportunity carefully. If you’re finishing school or training and coming into the job market, keep your expenses low, and consider taking a “fill in the gap” job while you continue looking for something that’s a better long-term fit.
Surround yourself with supportive friends and family who can give you objective feedback on your work circumstances. Sometimes an outside perspective–someone who can listen to our assessments or suspicions without being biased by our own need or desire for a new job–is all it takes. Close friends and family members who understand your personality and talents can help you sort out whether a certain position is the best match for this stage of your career.
Paul White, PhD, is a psychologist, speaker, and consultant. He is the coauthor of three books including Rising Above a Toxic Workplace and The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, along with Gary Chapman and Harold Myra.


With Creed II heading to theaters this week, the folks over at Honest Trailers have reached deep into their vault to pull out one of their classic episodes from all the way back in 1985 when Rocky IV was all the rage. It was a different time, when America wasn’t going to put up with Russia bossing us around, and it was up to Rocky to teach the Soviet Union a lesson so that Russia would never mess with us again. That certainly worked out for us, right?
How many training montages does this movie have? Seriously, try to keep count. There’s almost a training montage in a training montage, even though this Honest Trailer comes from all the way back in 1985, before we had a word to easily describe something like that thanks to the vision of director Christopher Nolan. But I digress.
It’s kind of amazing that audiences were willing to let a movie about an up and coming boxer reach this level. It not only becomes comical because of how two-dimensional the new villain is, especially with only 46 words for Dolph Lundgren to say throughout the entire movie, but also because there’s a damn robot in this movie. What was Sylvester Stallone smoking in the 1980s?
Anyway, thank the maker that Creed II is here to clean things up a bit by bringing back Ivan Drago, this time with his kid Viktor Drago, so America can teach Russia that they can’t mess with us again, unless of course the puppet that is our president says it’s okay.


U.S. President Donald Trump has been promising to build a wall along the southern border of the United States since long before he became commander in chief. It was his biggest campaign promise, which, at the time, he claimed Mexico would be paying for.
Somehow, things have gone very much the other way. Although Trump has not secured the funding he needs in order to build the whole wall just yet, there are parts of the wall that are under construction in some areas. Unfortunately, according to HuffPost, Mexicans have been making the most of this.
The border areas nearby Tijuana, Mexico, received a modicum of protection in November last year in the form of a fence, but between 15 and 20 sneaky individuals in Mexico have seen this as a prime opportunity. Mexican officials have come forward to say that this group of people has recently been arrested after they were found to be stealing concertina wire from the border site.
They have had good reason though: The thieves have been selling the wire to homeowners in Tijuana who have been wanting to beef up their home security against — ironically — other thieves who could be looking to rob them.
The fence was put up last year after news of a large migrant caravan from Central America heading toward the U.S. broke, and Trump ordered troops to put up a fence in an attempt to stop them.
Although funding for border walls and fence has been a contentious point in the U.S. — resulting in the longest government shutdown in history when Trump and the Democrats came to an impasse of the amount of money required — the existing fence that has been stolen was sold to some in Tijuana to protect their homes for the equivalent of just $2.10.
Looks like maybe it’s the U.S. paying for Mexican home security, not Mexicans paying for a U.S. border wall after all.


A second Supreme Court seat is only part of White House counsel Don McGahn and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s push to transform the federal courts.
As the fight over Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the US Supreme Court unfolded this summer, consuming most of the oxygen available for judge-related punditry and spurring millions of dollars in ad spending by outside groups, the Senate confirmed more than two dozen of President Donald Trump’s judicial picks to lifetime appointments with little fanfare.
Twenty-six federal appeals and district court judges secured seats on the federal bench in the two months since Trump announced Kavanaugh as his latest Supreme Court nominee. That’s more than the number of judges confirmed in the first half of the year, and more than the number of judges confirmed in all of 2017.
Getting a second justice confirmed to the Supreme Court is a legacy-defining priority for the Trump administration. That White House counsel Don McGahn and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell managed to also pick up the pace on lower court judges while shepherding through Kavanaugh’s high-profile and contentious nomination underscores their shared drive to transform the entire federal judiciary while Republicans have the numbers in the Senate to do so.
The latest batch of newly confirmed judges includes five appeals court nominees. Only a small fraction of cases make it up to the Supreme Court, so the White House and Senate Republicans have placed a premium on getting seats filled on the circuit courts, where most cases end. Democrats over the summer agreed to expedite votes on 21 district court judges — a mix of nominees from red and blue states — to the dismay of liberals who want Democrats to use what limited tools they have left to hold up Trump’s picks. Two of the new district court judges received rare “not qualified” ratings from the American Bar Association.
The White House meanwhile has continued to push out more nominees. Since July, they've announced 10 nominees for the district and circuit courts.
Michael McGinley, a lawyer who left the White House counsel’s office in March but served as an outside adviser on the Kavanaugh nomination, told BuzzFeed News that the counsel’s office was split into teams, with some lawyers working almost exclusively on the Supreme Court nomination and others able to continue to focus on lower court judges. Planning for how they'd handle a second Supreme Court vacancy began soon after Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed last year, McGinley said.
“Don was just so focused on it and knew that it was one of, if not the most important thing he would do as White House counsel, and he didn’t want to run the risk of errors ... where you either weren’t ready for it and the selection process was a mess or you weren’t ready for it and you didn’t have a team ready to hit the ground running,” McGinley said.
White House counsel Don McGahn listens as Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 5.
The Senate confirmed 18 appellate and district court judges in 2017. That included a record-breaking 12 circuit court judges confirmed in the first year of a presidency. By the time Kavanaugh’s nomination was announced in early July, the Senate had confirmed another 23 judges in the first half of 2018.
It’s common for judicial nominations and confirmations to pick up steam in the second year of a presidency, but with 49 judges confirmed so far in 2018, Trump has already passed former president Barack Obama’s progress in his second year in office — the Senate confirmed 48 lower court judges in 2010, according to federal judiciary records. Trump still has time to meet, and possibly beat, the 72 lower court judges confirmed in George W. Bush’s second year.
The administration didn't make as much progress getting district court judges confirmed in its first year; the Senate confirmed six of Trump's nominees. The White House has accused some Democratic senators of refusing to engage in good-faith negotiations, and some Democrats made similar claims about McGahn. Without nominees that Democratic senators supported on the table, it was harder to put together a deal, McGinley said.
McGinley didn’t think the White House counsel’s office had specific numeric goals in mind when it came to confirming judges, but said they’ve pushed to make a dent in the 100-plus federal court vacancies, a list that only continues to grow as judges who are eligible to retire do so.
“We wanted to get as many done as possible as well as we could without compromising on quality,” he said.
There are 126 open appellate and district court seats, and another 26 vacancies have already been announced for this year and 2019. That represents about 17% of all active federal judgeships nationwide. If Trump filled those seats, plus the 49 judges he’s already gotten confirmed, his nominees would make up close to a quarter of active judges.
The 21 district court judges confirmed in August and September went through as part of a deal reached by McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Before this summer, Democrats for the most part had refused to agree to end debate on Trump’s judicial nominees, forcing McConnell to spend a few days on each nomination, though Democrats didn’t have the votes to block them altogether.
This summer, however, Democrats agreed to go to final votes on the district judge packages and not force time-consuming procedural votes. Most of the 21 nominees were confirmed by voice vote, as opposed to more time-intensive, senator-by-senator roll call votes.
Three nominees confirmed this summer got through with largely party-line votes: 5th Circuit Judge Andrew Oldham, whom Democrats and liberal groups criticized for his record on women’s health and civil rights issues; 11th Circuit Judge Britt Grant, who clerked for Kavanaugh and is on Trump’s shortlist of potential Supreme Court nominees; and US District Judge Charles Goodwin of Oklahoma, who received a “not qualified” rating from the American Bar Association because of concerns about his work habits as a federal magistrate judge.
Agreeing to speed up votes on the district court nominees meant senators could get back on the campaign trail sooner, but it prompted a strong negative reaction from liberals, who accused Schumer and Democrats of giving up what little leverage they had left when it came to judges.
Schumer’s office has declined to comment on the backlash. A senior Democratic Senate aide told BuzzFeed News in an email that the nominees at issue were largely noncontroversial, and were going to get confirmed regardless of when exactly the vote took place.
Brian Fallon, executive director of liberal advocacy group Demand Justice, said the fact that these nominees weren’t considered controversial was beside the point — the agreement to expedite them meant Republicans could move on more quickly to controversial picks. Fallon said that as the midterms loom even closer, Democrats will again feel pressure to agree to move through judges in bulk in order to get back home. Politico reported Tuesday that McConnell planned to stay in session into October — time members usually spend at home campaigning in an election year — and noted that this could spur Democrats to reach another deal on nominees to get back on the campaign trail.
“My message is do not be a sucker again and make it easier for Trump and McConnell to confirm judges more quickly than they otherwise could,” Fallon said.


One of the best kept secrets about federal careers is that salaries for many federal jobs are negotiable. Even a modest salary increase may exceed tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a career.
In most cases, feds on the GS salary ladder must sequentially climb each grade without skipping any grades.
Feds on the GS salary ladder must usually fulfill a year-long waiting period to become eligible for each grade increase, as well as waiting periods for within-grade step increases.
These constraints serve as speed bumps on the climb up the GS salary ladder. Therefore, by negotiating the highest possible starting salary, a new fed may significantly quicken his rise up the GS salary ladder.
Another tip: Experienced new and returning feds should request to accrue vacation leave at the same rate as experienced feds rather than at the lower accrual rate for new feds.
If you’re a current fed, you should attempt to negotiate your salary: 1) If you move from a job on the GS salary scale to a federal job in your field that is on an alternative salary scale; 2) if you move between jobs on alternative salary scales; and 3) when you enter the Senior Executive Service.
In addition, before you accept a lateral position, ask your hiring manager if he would consider a quality step increase if he is pleased with your work after your first six months on the job. If the lateral position has promotion potential, ask the hiring manager what requirements you would have to fulfill to receive a grade increase.
The salary range of your target job is identified on its vacancy announcement. You won’t be able to negotiate your salary above the top of that range. However, the hiring agency probably can raise your offer above the lowest step of the grade you’re offered.
Negotiate your salary before you accept the job, or you will lose your negotiating leverage.
If HR won’t negotiate with you, ratchet your negotiations up to your future supervisor.
Support your negotiating position by: 1) Explaining how your credentials exceed minimum requirements; 2) mentioning any security clearances you have; 3) documenting any bonuses or benefits from your current job you will sacrifice; and 4) documenting your recent receipt of a competing offer that has a higher salary.


Students were given long tests of sequences of numbers to repeat in reverse then sent on walks half the study participants on a nature walk and half on a city walk. Upon re-testing, the nature walkers’ scores improved significantly while the city walkers’ did not. The experiment was repeated so that each student walked in nature and in the city, and everyone’s score was better after the nature walk.


State police are looking for these three men in connection with a larceny investigation. | Photo: New York State Police.
State police need your help finding three people in a larceny investigation.
The trio is wanted for questioning in a series of larcenies that took place in Wilton, Clifton Park and Gloversville.
Anyone with information is asked to call state police at (518) 583-7001.


Broward County Commissioner Lois Wexler has created the Stephen Wexler Memorial Fund with all donations going to the Broward Education Foundation.
Contributions will be used to institute a scholarship in memory of Stephen Wexler, who passed away on Saturday, November 17, 2012.
The Broward Education Foundation (BEF) serves as a catalyst for educational excellence by investing in the future of Broward’s students, teachers and schools by encouraging community support and utilizing community resources.
As a nonprofit arm of the School Board of Broward County, BEF raises funds to enrich education throughout the school district. The Foundation’s program provides scholarships for graduating seniors, awards grants to teachers that enable them to develop educational programs and projects, provides supplies for classrooms and reimburses tuition for district paraprofessionals who wish to continue their education.


Lead Talent is keen to find a Marketing Manager; working on a part time basis and to join an “up and coming” Recruitment brand in the UK.
2019 is shaping up to be a big year for this company in the UK… part of a Recruitment Group originating in France, with a strong European footprint and emerging presence in North America. It’s a global business but independently owned, with no plans to change.
Entering UK two years ago and now on the cusp of big things. With a clear sales plan for 2019, marketing will play a critical part to this sales success and beyond. This is where you come in… reporting to the Sales Director you will join at the start of their journey to help create this new function, all supported by a global brand, however, you’ll be able to add a local twist around the country. You’ll be part of big thinking company with a family feel.
Marketing collateral creation, the written content is created, it’s now about delivering and maintaining the artwork by utilising your graphic design skills (proficient skills and knowledge of InDesign and or Illustrator, Photoshop etc) along with creating and stockpiling images.
Managing the website content and driving traffic.
Supporting event planning, both big and small.
Its will be a very busy and varied role, it will utilise all your marketing skills and with this department being in its early days your role will evolve and grow as you do.
So, we’re keen to hear from individuals who are seeking part time hours but keen to build and deliver an effective marketing function. Days and hours (21-24 hours) to suit your requirements.
You will be able to communicate on all levels and understand the audiences you’re speaking to. You will have a flexible approach to work from being part of the strategy, alongside delivery the day to day activities.
You will have strong graphic design skill sets and a knowledge, passion and in-depth understanding of social media channels.
You’ll be based either at their Head Office in Manchester (outskirts) or in their South Yorkshire office in Doncaster, whichever is closer to you.


Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante has released the first in a series of television ads he is planning to run against Proposition 54, which would bar the state from collecting racial data, using campaign contributions being investigated by the state's political watchdog.
Bustamante, the lone politically prominent Democratic replacement candidate in the election to recall Gov. Gray Davis, is paying for the ads' production and their airing with part of the $3.8 million he received from Indian tribes.
The money was pumped into the campaign treasury Bustamante had already established for his 2002 re-election campaign for lieutenant governor and, he argues, is not covered by the voter-approved Proposition 34 that subsequently capped contributions from individuals at $21,200 for statewide offices.
In a carefully worded letter to a Sacramento County Superior Court judge, who is scheduled to hear arguments today in a lawsuit filed against Bustamante's contributions, a lawyer for the Fair Political Practices Commission said it is "undertaking an investigation of the conduct in this case."
Luisa Menchaca, the commission's general counsel, was asked for background by Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster, who is hearing the case against the lieutenant governor. Menchaca made no conclusion about legality, noting the commission's inquiry.
2002 -- if there is no violation of any other provision of the campaign reform act approved by voters in 2000.
She added, "It would be important to determine whether the funds were solicited . . . with the intent of using them for the 2003 election. Such conduct would constitute a violation of the act at the time the contributions are made and an evasion of the contribution limits for the 2003 gubernatorial race."
Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, a nonprofit interested in governance, social and economic problems, and a former commission general counsel, said, "I think it is extremely upsetting that Bustamante is flouting the law, and even if the courts agree with him, he is basically thumbing his nose at campaign finance laws."
Bustamante and his chief campaign consultant, Richie Ross, were unavailable Wednesday to comment on the Fair Political Practices Commission's letter.
California's nurses and doctors in voting no on Proposition 54. It's more important than politics."
The lawsuit being heard today was filed by state Sen. Ross Johnson, R- Irvine, who alleges Bustamante is attempting "to illegally use millions of dollars of special interest money in his campaign for governor."
Johnson alleges Bustamante's "lastest con" to get around the state's $21, 200 contribution limit to gubernatorial candidates is the fund transfer.
"Why was the committee (to oppose Proposition 54) created?" Johnson asked rhetorically. "It was created for the sole purpose of putting Mr. Bustamante's face and name in television ads ostensibly opposing Proposition 54."
California Democratic Party spokesman Bob Mulholland said: "I don't give a damn what Ross Johnson says. He's a caveman and good riddance to him next year.
There is absolutely no legal decision that agrees with Ross Johnson. He is a guy slowly slipping away from political power. This is his last gasp of air." Johnson will be termed-out of office in 2004.
Some of the money Bustamante transferred came from tribes that operate casinos, including the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, which pledged $1.5 million for Bustamante's year-old re-election account.
Bustamante moved to quell the uproar by saying he would not spend the money on his campaign but transfer it to a committee formed to defeat the proposition.
However, that committee was not the "No on 54" coalition formed by about 500 organizations with an interest in defeating the measure. The committee was one created by Bustamante's campaign manager, Richie Ross. The ads are being produced by Ross' son, Joaquin Ross.


More Georgia children than ever — about 95 percent — wore their seat belts or were strapped into carseats last year, but state and local public safety officials are hoping to push that percentage higher during next week’s Child Passenger Safety Week. From Sept. 18-25, various local law enforcement and child welfare agencies across the state will host seat-belt checks and carseat installations.
Programs like these have increased safety belt and carseat use from 80 percent in 2000 to close to 100 percent in some parts of Georgia.
“We have so many partners in this — Department of Public Health, local law enforcement agencies and hospitals — just preaching (the importance of child restraints) as hard as they can out there,” said Harris Blackwood, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
Winder Police Chief Dennis Dorsey wants to use the week to reward kids who are already buckling up and to thank parents who’ve kept their kids safe in the car.
During every traffic stop the Winder Police Department makes next week, officers will check to see if the children in the car are buckled up. If they are, each child gets a T-shirt saying, “I got caught buckled up by the Winder Police Department,” with a seat belt printed across the chest.
Winder police officers also will be holding a child safety seat check at the Winder Police Department from noon to 4 p.m. on Sept. 24 for parents who want to make sure they have their child seats installed correctly.
Blackwood believes that at this point officers might get better results by encouraging to the kids to keep wearing their seatbelts than from just punishing parents who won’t get with the program.
While seat belt and safety seat use is higher than it has ever been, Blackwood and other highway safety officials are getting ready for a new public awareness push — getting parents used to following Georgia’s brand-new booster seat law.
The new law, which went into affect July 1, requires all 6- and 7-year-olds to ride in a child safety seat or a booster seat so that their seat belt falls across their bodies at the hip bones and collar bones, instead of their stomachs and necks.
Compliance with the new law has been spotty so far, Blackwood said.
For the next few months, state troopers and local law enforcement officers should be in an educational enforcement mode, gently reminding parents about the new law. Parents who get a ticket for not having their child in a booster seat over the next three months can take proof that they brought a seat back the police station to have the traffic citation erased, Blackwood said.
“We will see a decline in the number of injuries we see with 6- and 7-year-olds as a result of this booster seat bill,” he said.


CARLISLE, Pa. – Following a recall by The Pictsweet Company, GIANT Food Stores, LLC and MARTIN’S Food Markets announced it removed from sale certain Pictsweet Steamable items due to the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
Consumers looking for additional information on the recall may call Pictsweet Consumer Services at 1-800-367-7412. In addition customers may call GIANT/MARTIN’S Customer Service at 1-888-814-4268 for more information. Customers can also visit the GIANT or MARTIN’S websites.


Grant Leadbitter has completed his move to Sunderland on a two-and-a-half-year deal.
Grant Leadbitter has thanked Middlesbrough fans for their 'amazing' support following his return to boyhood club Sunderland.
The 33-year-old midfielder completed his move to the Stadium of Light on Tuesday following a six-and-a-half year spell at Boro.
Leadbitter signed for the Teessiders from Ipswich in 2012 and helped the club win promotion to the Premier League four years later, while making 500 appearances for the club.
But the midfielder has rarely featured for Boro in the Championship this campaign, hence his return to the Sunderland on a two-and-a-year deal.
Leadbitter, who came through Black Cats' academy, has taken a large wage cut to join the Wearsiders and said he couldn't turn down the opportunity.
And in a lengthy message on Middlesbrough's website, Leadbitter, who was a popular figure among Boro fans, thanked everyone at the club for their support.
"I couldn’t leave Middlesbrough Football Club without saying my heartfelt thanks to everyone for what has been such a wonderful and memorable part of my career," said Leadbitter.
"When I joined in 2012 I could never have dreamt of having a such a good relationship with the fans, and the welcome you gave me and your support over the years has been amazing.
"I can’t thank Tony Mowbray enough for signing me in the first place, Aitor and Leo for what they brought to the club and achieved, and Steve Agnew, who was absolutely fantastic to work with.
He went on to say: "A new challenge is now awaiting for me, I could not live with the regret of turning down this opportunity at Sunderland Football Club and I’d like to thank Steve Gibson and Neil Bausor for their support in making his happen."
Leadbitter wasn't the only player to leave Boro on Tuesday, after defender Danny Batth's loan spell was brought to an end.
The 28-year-old joined the Teessiders from Wolves on the final day of the August window and made 13 appearances for Tony Pulis' side in all competitions.
But, after Wolves enacted a recall clause in Batth's loan agreement, the defender has completed his move to Championship side Stoke for a reported £3million fee.
When talking about the move, Batth told Stoke's website: “I’ve joined a fantastic club and I’m looking forward to getting started.
"The transfer happened really quickly and now I’m just looking forward to finding my feet and training with the boys.
“I managed to get a few minutes with Benik (Afobe) on the phone. I’ve played with him twice in different spells at Wolves – I know him really well and we’ve kept in touch.
"He spoke volumes about the club and what the new manager is trying to do.
Batth's departure could mean Pulis will now look to sign another centre-back before Thursday's deadline, while the Boro boss will also hope to bolster his attacking options in the final days of the window.


PHOTO CALL-OUT: What's your Best Of Upstate shot?
We've asked for your Best Of votes, but now we'd like to see your Best Of Upstate photos. Show us your photos of what you think shows the best of Upstate, the region you know, love and call home.
Had a great family vacation? Weekend getaway? Or a daytrip that was memorable and photogenic? How about that game-winning shot at the Dome in Syracuse, The camping trip near Lake George, or that festival near Cooperstown or the Finger Lakes. If it screams "This is Upstate at its best," we want to see it.
We will show off a winning photo and honorable mention photo in the next Upstate magazine.
Any questions? Email executive editor Gary Hahn at ghahn@timesunion.com.


Happy to be a part of those numbers, I set out to experience three restaurants on my first full day in Las Vegas. I made reservations for breakfast at The Sugar Factory in Paris, lunch at Trevi in Caesar’s Palace and dinner at Crush in the MGM Grand. I’m going to throw in my next day’s lunch at Five50 too only because I don’t know where else to put it and because it was a big part of my days of decadence on The Strip.
Don’t try this at home kids. I’m a food professional.
Even I may have bitten off more than I can chew following a six-course meal the night before at the incomparable Joel Robuchon, which, by the way was preceded by appetizers at the standout Mexican restaurant Hecho. But what the heck, I don’t get to Vegas very often nor do I get to dine like this ever.
So away I went, up the strip from my digs at the MGM Grand to the Paris Hotel Casino and Resort and The Sugar Factory.
I’d call The Sugar Factory a three-meal-a-day restaurant, and that’s selling it way short. The Sugar Factory is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but it also boasts that it’s “Always Open!” serving up endless decadent desserts 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Sugar Factory’s menu was created by executive chef Matthew Piekarski. It hits all the right notes, from Eggs Benedict to pizza, pasta, steaks and seafood. As mentioned, I was there for breakfast and I had already scoped out the menu online and made my decision: steak and eggs — medium rare and sunnyside up — hash browns and white toast.
This is a go to order for me the few times a year I actually eat breakfast, but this version was perfectly executed. The steak was red — not pink — in the middle and juicy. The eggs were not over- nor undercooked. The hash browns were crispy — I hate soggy hash browns — and the toast was, well, toasty.
I’m only sorry I didn’t have room for dessert as they sounded and looked amazing But, hey, I had lunch coming up in four short hours.
I mentioned that the room is huge, but I should also mention beyond the main dining room is perhaps the best patio in all of Las Vegas, right across the street from the Bellagio and its famous fountains. The Sugar Factory American Brasserie — I will be back.
A lot can happen in Las Vegas in four hours. Fortunes can be won, but more likely, fortunes can be lost. Neither happened for me in between lunch and dinner. No, it was just a matter of walking the strip in an effort to walk off breakfast and work up an appetite for what I need would be a substantial lunch at Trevi in the Forum Shops at Caesar’s.
Located next to the “Fountain of the Gods,” Trevi serves up homemade Italian cuisine — pasta, chicken and veal — in large portions.
I sat outside in Trevi’s outdoor patio cafe, which is an oxymoron, I guess, since it’s outside the restaurant but inside the Forum Shops. Anyway, I can’t say I was terribly hungry but I did my best.
The beef Carpaccio grabbed my attention first. But, I’ve been burned by gloppy, uninteresting domestic versions of this Italian classic in the past, so I was reluctant to pull the trigger. However, the manager assured me Trevi’s Carpaccio was excellent, so I ordered it. I’m glad I did. It was one of the best domestic versions I’ve had.
My lunch companion skipped the warm-up and went straight to work on a Lasagna Pizza, a Trevi specialty. The Lasagna Pizza is not for the faint of heart. About the same weight as a Lou Malnati’s deep dish from my hometown of Chicago with the ingredients and flavors of lasagna, one slice — maybe two — and you are done.
I opted for the wild boar (Cinghiale) pappardelle. I have to admit I didn’t make much of a dent in this delicious dish, but the few bites I managed were awfully tasty.
Named after Rome’s famous Trevi Fountain and run by the Morton Restaurant Group out of Chicago, I’d recommend Trevi highly, but would also recommend you bring a larger appetite than I did. I guess I’ll have to come back.
The best news about the meal at Trevi is that I now had at least six hours before my next meal.
Staying in the Morton’s family, that meal would be dinner, a six-course chef’s tasting menu at Crush Eat Drink Love at the MGM Grand. Crush is one of several Vegas eateries owned and operated by Michael Morton and his wife, Jenna, who stopped by our table to say hello — a nice touch.
Although the tasting menu robbed me of the opportunity to try either the 32-ounce braised short rib or the 28-ounce tomahawk rib-eye steak, the diversity and deliciousness of the menu more than made up for it.
From start to finish we were served the following: octopus ceviche, ricotta gnocchi, a sea scallop Benny, grilled salmon, lamb sirloin and dessert — don’t ask, I can’t remember.
The octopus ceviche and lamb sirloin were my favorites, but honestly, each course was outstanding. Perhaps the surprise of the night was how well the salmon, served with oyster mushrooms in a carrot miso broth, went with the ’89 Duhart-Milon Bordeaux I had brought from my cellar. I thought the Duhart-Milon would overpower the salmon. Far from it. The match was seamless.
I asked about the concept of Crush as I couldn’t really find a culinary theme. Turns out, that’s the point. The Mortons had traveled the world. They wanted to bring their favorites from all over and put them under one roof.
Skipping breakfast the following day, I actually had a bit of an appetite for my final restaurant visit on The Strip — Five50 Pizza Bar in Aria. Run by Shawn McClain, another Chicagoan doing great things in Vegas, this was some of the best pizza and cured meats I’ve had outside of Italy.
I started with chef’s selection of six meats and cheeses, three each: mortadella, sopressata and prosciutto for the meat and oma (cow milk), angel food (goat milk) and San Andreas (sheep milk) for the cheese.
This was a miscalculation on my part as I had room for only a slice or two once my Gotham pizza arrived. The Gotham features pepperoni, sausage, salami, mozzarella and grana padano. I had them throw on some on mushrooms for good measure. It’s one of eight specialty pizzas diners and, of course, you can always build your own.
It’s not inexpensive, but then, this isn’t Papa John’s either. Five50 is named for the temperature at which they cook their pizzas. Sounds and tastes, good to me.
And that, my friends, is how I ate my way through the strip in a day and a half and lived to write about it. And, I’m not done with this city yet.
Up next, I’m checking out of The Strip and heading downtown,. I haven’t been to downtown Vegas in years. I’m sure I’ll find plenty to write about.


EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate is developing adaptations of its Kim Kardashian West prank show You Kiddin' Me?! in the UK and Australia and is also looking to line-up international linear deals for the Facebook Watch format.
You Kiddin' Me?!, Kim Kardashian West’s weekly prank show for Facebook Watch, will premiere on its just-launched show page Saturday, September 22, with a celebrity guest line-up including the Kardashian-Jenners, Zoe Saldana and Lisa Rinna, among others.
Lionsgate will partner with Facebook to bring the nonfiction series You Kiddin' Me, executive produced by, among others Kim Kardashian West, to the Facebook Watch video platform.
The partnership was announced by Lionsgate today.


Welsh is not physically imposing off the bus, and looks a bit out of place on an Iowa line filled with huge players. But his versatility, toughness, and mobility earned him a starting role since his freshman season. Welsh started all 13 games in 2017, 10 at right guard and three at right tackle, to earn second-team All-Big Ten recognition. He was a second team USA Today All-American and third-team All-Conference honors as a junior, starting 12 games (11 at right guard, one at right tackle). Welsh started every game his sophomore season at left guard (12 games) or right tackle (two), and was voted honorable mention All-Big Ten by league coaches for his efforts. Even as a redshirt freshman Welsh earned honors, as the Big Ten Network's website gave him first-team freshman All-Big Ten accolades after he started nine of the 13 games in which he played (seven at left guard, two at right guard). Welsh worked out at center in the spring of 2016, his likely pro position, but moved back to guard to get the best five guys up front.
Capable interior lineman who will likely move to the center spot due to his lack of size and length. While Welsh isn't physically weak, he doesn't have the mass and pure power to win one-on-one matchups and he is best-suited for teams who lean on inside zone running plays. Welsh's solid technique and potential to swing from center to guard in a pinch will benefit his roster chances. Welsh has decent talent, but below average physical traits which could make him a backup who has to try and protect his roster spot.


Bhubaneswar: First time in Bhubaneswar a private organization, Bhubaneswar based digital marketing company CORPORATE MEDIA organized a national level seminar on INDUSTRY CONNECT on 13th January 2017 at PRESS CLUB OF ODISHA, MASTER CANTEEN SQUARE, Bhubaneswar at 3 PM. Around 200 youth participants including industry experts, students, working professionals including faculty, management consultants attended the seminar. Sounik Kajal the Convener of the seminar told that Shri Parthasarathi Mishra (CHRM-OMQ, Tata Teel Ltd.), Shri V.V.Benugopal (President & CEO, Jindal Panther, OP Jindal Group), Shri Manoj Kumar Panda (Centre Head, Tata Consultancy Limited, Bhubaneswar), Shri Amlan Sahoo (Location Delivery Head, INFOSYS, Bhubaneswar), Shri Achyutananda Das, Retd. GM, Syndicate Bank have attended the program as Keynote Speaker. In this august ceremony Corporate Media created a platform where youth of Odisha had a direct interaction with the Industry Makers, where Industry Maker spoke about the Scope and Opportunity in their respective sector in the very next future.
Corporate Media is a MSME registered organization has started its services in the year 2015 by providing Digital Marketing services, Printing Solutions and Business Strategy for educational sector, service based industry, manufacturing based industry, hospitality sector and others. In this program students and working professionals attended the program from the field of engineering, management, science and technology as well.
The speakers opined that get a job is an individual’s ability to turn individual’s skill, ability and performance. While the employment is a challenging part in India, most of the companies are creating vacancy for the newcomers but as compared to the ratio of unemployed youth, job vacancy is very less, so students should make themselves more knowledgeable, hardworking and competitive mind, they viewed.


This online database lists the salaries for full-time employees of the city of Columbus. It includes the employees’ annual approved salary for their current position. The data is current as of July 2017.


It seems that hardly a month goes by these days without there being another account of a leading evangelical who has fallen. Perhaps someone has deserted a doctrine traditionally held dear by fellow evangelicals. Or maybe they have had to resign their leadership in a storm of controversy about their leadership style, or because of a significant moral failure.
Then, of course, there is an increasingly hostile media and society. Evangelicals are branded as fundamentalists and claimed by some to be not too dissimilar from Islamic terrorists. We are “irrelevant,” “stuck in the past,” “on the wrong side of history,” “haters of gay people,” “anti-choice,” “anti-science,” “bigots,” “backwards,” and, in short, people who should not be tolerated because of our perceived intolerance. Sadly of course, some evangelicals definitely do act in a way that encourages this negative impression.
I am an evangelical because in the Bible I perceive an authority that demands to be heard and obeyed. When I read that Jesus sent his disciples out by telling them that as they go they were to make disciples, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20), how can I not conclude that I should approach the Bible reverently?
In a previous post I listed six values that define evangelicalism, based on a merger of Bebbington’s quadrilateral and the Solas of the Reformation. That post argues evangelicalism must be seen as a smaller subset of a broader group called Christianity.
If Paul was right to say, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Rom 3.28), then how can we not believe that it is personal faith that is critical to salvation? For that matter, how can we not seek to promote saving faith in others?
As I already referred to earlier, Jesus left a clear parting command: to spread his gospel throughout the world, making disciples of all nations.
Ultimately, as far as I can see more than any other Christian group, evangelicals evangelize. We might struggle, we might get discouraged at times, we might need to find new ways of evangelizing in this hostile world, but how can we fail to share this message? If evangelicals were removed from the earth tomorrow, I would question how much evangelism would remain.
Essentially this point refers to our belief that Jesus came and lived the perfect life, died an undeserved death, and rose to a victorious new life, all in place of us, and all for our benefit.
It has been very popular lately to criticize notions of Jesus taking the punishment for our sins. As a result many preach an anaemic “gospel” without a real understanding of the seriousness of sin, and a God without wrath.
As I read Isaiah 53, I am forced into the traditional evangelical position that Jesus was led like a lamb to the slaughter for our sake. Without this, and without his glorious physical resurrection, there is no good news.
On this point, all I need really comment is to quote Paul once more. How can anyone reading these words, not come to the evangelical conclusion that salvation is by grace alone?
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
I begun this piece by talking about the negative impact of the fall of a number of significant evangelical figures. Of course we must recognize that God raises individuals up to serve him. But when we further elevate such people, we risk placing them on a pedestal reserved in evangelical tradition for God alone. Christ is the head of his Church, not any earthly figure.
Regarding 2, “justified by works apart from the law.” True no one is justified by the works of righteousness relative to the WRITTEN code. The law written on stones. However that does not mean you are not justified by God by the faith of not obeying a law.
“For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.” Rom. 2:13 The law Paul is referencing is not the law written on stones, but it is mandatory that you have the faith to obey it or not be declared righteous by God.
1) Why? What makes you think the Bible is a better source of spiritual authority than the Koran, the Book of Mormon, the Talmud, or the vedas? Why does any evangelical write about faith?
5) See 1) and of course, there are other passages that clearly state that good works are required.
1. As I said to the other commentator I dare you to read John’s Gospel and you will see the difference.
5. ( I guess you meant 2.) much that could be said but perhaps the simplest explanation is that it is faith alone that saves but the faith that saves is never alone.
As I said to the other commentator I dare you to read John’s Gospel and you will see the difference.
I’m sorry, but are you implying that anyone who disagrees with you has simply never read the most basic book of your faith? Do you have any idea how insulting that is?
I have read John’s Gospel. I have also read John’s Apocryphon. I see no reason to assume the former has any more spiritual authority than the latter.
The soteriological paradigm that has been perfected by the murder of Jesus Christ is not specifically defined in the “Gospel of John”. It was only alluded. The specified procedure for any individual’s salvation is stated in the Acts 2 message. Note Jn. 17:20 “through ‘their message’. But it is not the faith of repenting of sins, for it is by the faith of repenting of a sin that salvation is granted.
No joke. This is the idea that the Bible is self-authenticating. Have you tried reading it? I dare you to read John’s Gospel. Who knows maybe by the end you will have come to trust and follow Jesus too.
John was written something like 60 years after the events it supposedly describes. Why would I read it and come away thinking the Jesus he describes was a real person?
More like 40-50 years and that is completely irrelevant. The evidence for Jesus Christ is staggering. Deny Jesus Christ and you must also deny massive amounts of history from antiquity if you care about consistency. What you have to explain is why these men were tortured for something they made up. Maybe one or two, but the historical record for persecution during this period is also staggering.
Yes, I have read and study the Bible. I read 5 times and study by 15 years. It’s funny when christians presume that a critic doesn’t read the Bible. Unfurtunatelly my study and reads leads me to contest and doubt such “authenticity”. It is historicallly incorrect, it is self-contradictory, it was forjed, compilled, rewritten, poorly translated and collected throught questionable sources.
Historically incorrect? Wrong! It is self-contradictory? Wrong! Forged? Wrong! Compiled? What? Rewritten? Really?
yes, really. denial won’t work. many persons, places and cities was quoted in wrong time. it is self-contradictory in many aspects [historical, political, biological, crossing sources, inner text, you can name] yes, compiled since it was brought to a single book around the 3rd century by your Church [it’s enought to a doubt]. yes, rewritten since many words simple doesn’t exist in original and many overlapping text was inputted at the compiled work, as we can see in the history of this Church, with so many doctrines fights between the Fathers of this Church. sorry, I only accept reliable sources.
Thank you for providing me with a very good assessment of your lame excuses. This is enough for me to conclude that you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Hahaha! really? still in denial. seems you are the one who have no idea what you are talking about. If you have some honesty you would, at least, agree that your point of view is part of your faith and accept that, since it is a faith, doesn’t have nothing with authenticity, authority, originality or veracity. But thank you to provide me that christians didn’t change too much in 2 thousand years. I have already enought of christians to know a lot that your kin will never make a good debate.
The interesting point in these discussions is that people like you attack a subject of which you have no knowledge. And in every instance, you demonstrate that you do not understand the Christian concept of faith. It never fails. My point of view is certainly based on faith. I begin with God, his authoritative revelation which is His Word. Is that word word revealed in history? Certainly! Are there logical arguments to refute it? Absolutely not. Is there science to refute it? None whatsoever. Are there difficulties in the biblical record? There are difficulties in all records of antiquity. Can those difficulties be resolved? Most of them have been. Do remaining difficulties invalidate biblical authority? Not logically or scientifically speaking in any way.
Why don’t you try defending your own morality? Was it you that said slavery is objectively immoral? Pick any component of morality from your own system and see if it does not end in reductio ad absurdum. Anything you like.
you presume that I haven’t knowledge, even after I make myself clear that I read and study throughtfully the Bible. Faith is a concept that belongs to every religion, not only of Christian [and I know a lot of it]. If you agree that your viewpoint comes from faith, so it doesn’t apply as a proof to your claims. You say that you start form God, but let me remeber you that there is a lot of Gods around here, even the abrahamic religions aren’t sure about the One and True God. It is more likely the History being reveled throught this world and human deeds than otherwise. there is logical arguments to refute the Christian version of history. there is a lot of scientific instances that refutes a lot of what is written in Bible. I am not talking about “difficulties” of textual recording, I am talking about intended forgerie, invention, poorly translation and argueable autheticity. In a crossed comparation to many others records, the Bible doesn’t sustain itself [it even sustain against itself]. We are not talking about morality, but the claim of the supposed authority of Bible, but nice try in your strawman fallacy. This is strike three. you’re out.
Wrong Roberto. Christianity has a very narrowly defined definition of what it means when it talks about faith. The Christian kind of faith is a gift from God given only to Christians. Not just anyone has the kind of faith spoken of in Christianity. So thank you for proving my point. You do not in fact, understand what Christianity means when it talks about faith.
you haven’t even provided enought arguments to sustain that the christian faith is really a gift from God, since there is a lot of Gods around here and even in abrahamic religions there is no agreement about who is the One and True God. you make a pity apologist. But you are funny to presume that your faith and no other else is a gift from the God, without even notice that your God are a Frankenstein builded by your Church. Thanks for your playing. Study hard and maybe you will be prepared to try to debate with me.
I don’t have to provide an argument supporting my claim. Christian theism claims that Christian faith, faith that saves, faith that makes one a Christian is an undeserved gift from God. Read Ephesians 2:8-10. You are clearly not a skilled debater.
you lost all your points, all your chances. I provided you just a glimpse at a hand and you are still in denial. this is just what I offer to you but this is not all I got. I am not an “internet expertise”, I have really academic degree, but since you dropped all arguments or “don’t need to provide” sustainment to your calims, you have yourself already prooved that your claims doesn’t hold itself, therefore you lost the plead. I would remember that there is no one single true christian for start, but you have already lost it.
by the way thank you for agree that the christian faith is very narrowed.
As if something is ipso facto wrong because it is narrow? And I am supposed to be the irrational one in the conversation. Narrow in no way equals inferior. After all, we are talking about definitions. I bet you that your definition of “narrow” here is pretty narrow as well.
you are even given a good point of your argument so how can you adress that I haven’t a good basis to define of what “narrow” is? another strawman fallacy.
and I can go on and on… seems you are the one who have no idea what talks about.
Is this the basis of your claims? Maybe you should read how Christian historians respond to perverted claims such as this. Another internet educated expert! Pick anything specific you like Roberto but stop dancing around. Pick the strongest historical “evidence” you like or the most obvious “contradiction” you want and we can chat about it.
this is your argument? read what a christian historians have to say? have you ever know what imparciality means? a christian hsitorians, like yourself, only will accept and endorse whatever pleases his/her faith, not the historical facts. you have already dropped the case since you already said that you don’t need to provide any sustain to your arguments [and that’s happens because you have none]. your denial is just a normal reactin to someone who have no clue what is talking about. thanks for playing, better luck next time.
There is enough garbage here to fill the Stanton Island landfill.
Celsus, Lucian, Julian, Porphyry and others had Christianity figured out 1800 years ago. The response of the Church? Destroy their writings.
Could i suggest you read ‘Can we still believe the Bible’, by Craig L Blomberg. It is quite informative.
Though it should be noted that, as Jesus said, the Pharisees etc searched the Scriptures yet still failed to recognise Him in them.
I am an atheist because I dismiss your religion using the same reasons you use to dismiss all other religions.
So you dismiss other religions on the ground that Christianity is the only true religion? Nice!
Nice try. What are the reasons you believe Christianity is the one true religion? What are the reasons you believe all other religions are false?
You said your reason for dismissing other religions was the same reason Christians dismiss other religions. We dismiss other religions because we know that Christianity as expressly set down in Scripture is true.
My reason for believing that Christianity is true is bound up in one person: Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ is a historical figure is beyond reasonable dispute. That He claimed to be God is also beyond reasonable dispute. That He is in fact God is something all Christians know as a result of the work of God on the human heart and mind. That the historical record is filled with the proofs of Christ’s divinity is beyond reasonable dispute. That Christ rose from the dead is a historical fact. That Scripture serves as the epistemic authority for Christianity is a basic tenet of Christianity.
Now, Christians do not come to know that Christianity is true by testing the evidence or by weighing the arguments. Christians become Christians only by the work of God in their heart and mind. We do not come to Christ based on our own ability to “reason it out.” We come to God by being born into Christ. Christians are the product of a miraculous work of God. Most people who profess to be Christian are in fact not Christian at all. People join the church for all kinds of, well, very bad reasons, most of which reduce to self-righteousness or to satisfy their need for moral order.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me. In one statement Jesus has said that Christianity is true and every other claim that contradicts it is false. That is a very logical thing for Jesus to say. Jesus rose from the dead to demonstrate that He was God’s chosen Messiah. We see both a Christian faith that is supported rationally and empirically upon its own ground. Arguments and evidence are not the basis of faith, but faith is the ground of argumentation and evidence.
This faith is not a blind leap in the dark. It is not merely deciding to just believe something. Faith is experienced by the believer. Because we know that Jesus is the Messiah, we also know that all other religions are false. There is only one God, and He is revealed in Christ.
I realize you want me to put God in the dock and judge Christianity by subjecting it to your criteria. That will not happen. After all, you cannot even begin to provide evidence or rational ground for how you arrived at whatever criteria you use to justify belief to begin with.
I am a bit curious about this one. As somebody watching the Evangelical community from the outside, I’d say that views which contradict the scientific consensus on fairly basic issues seem to be very common.
I have to ask: are you aware of the extent to which many Evangelical’s beliefs come in conflict with science – and if so, do you see it as a problem?
When I read the Bible and see that you are permitted to beat your slaves as long as they don’t die, I’m not convinced I’m reading a particularly moral document.
The only way for you to justify that assessment is if you can demonstrate that your morality is objective and superior to all other approaches to morality. Good luck.
So a morality that includes beating your slaves is OK, as long as it’s objective. Got it.
I didn’t say that. What I am saying is that you can offer no alternative that warrants your criticism. Until you can do that, you have nothing to criticize, unless that is, you want to steal from the Christian ethic. Like I said, good luck.
The text does not say it is okay to beat your slave, just that there is no criminal punishment levied against it so long as the incident was not malicious. Ancient slavery and modern Western slavery are apples and oranges.
Brian, I don’t fault you for bringing up such a point. And there are other questions about the Old Testament that are similar in nature, such as war/bloodshed and other similar things. I do think there are sound explanations for it, but I probably don’t have time to write them out here. But my main point is this: in the New Testament Jesus raises the standard of righteousness in a radical way, and the church followed suit. Jesus called for his followers to love their enemies and to not resist evil, and for 300 years the church responded by not going to war. They also took Jesus’ command not to lay up treasures very seriously, not living in lavish luxury, but instead being generous with their money. Jesus also raised the standard on marriage, even higher than most evangelicals, and the church responded with solid marriages and stable families. They also suffered cruelly under Roman persecution and responded by praying for their oppressors. It’s a much different Christianity that we’ve known, but I believe it is very authentic, pure, and worth following.
I’d be glad to email you privately if you want to talk more (markbankston1972@gmail.com), but you are also welcome to visit followers-of-the-way.org and find out about how Christianity started. Have an open heart and seek the truth, and open up a New Testmament with no preconceived ideas.
I’m not convinced that the New Testament is a perfect moral guide either. I think making people feel sinful for thoughtcrime is obviously problematic (looking at a woman lustfully being tantamount to adultery for example). I don’t think credulity is a virtue, so all those passages about strength of faith don’t sit well either.
I do want to say that I appreciate the approach in this reply. It’s pretty rare to encounter a Christian online that seems interested in actual respectful dialogue instead of preaching. Thanks.
It’s actually one of the reasons I have chosen to believe Kingdom Christianity, is because of it’s call to perfection, even in thought. One might raise the question, how can someone live up to such a standard? Because I’ve certainly failed many times here, and in years past much worse than thought. But along with Christ’s perfect commandment comes perfect and long-lasting mercy for those who from the heart seek to follow Him. That mercy is the fuel which drives someone back to Christ even after he fails. And if a true Christian lives a lifestyle of getting back up after he fails, over time he’ll begin to life more and more a life as Christ would live. It’s a journey, and not an overnight event, but it is life-changing.
And as for your last statement, I know there’s a lot of really abrasive people that don’t reflect Christ’s gentleness; so don’t let that be a deterrent. Believe that one day God will judge righteously and fairly.
The early Christians were also called “haters of the human race.” The old lie just gets repeated over the ages.
I found this article quite interesting! Keep it up.
It’s true and sad that you see a lot of evangelicals make mistakes, sometimes huge moral failures that has the potential to discourage you. It’s great to see how you established in those 6 steps how God has called us to still pursue to be an evangelical. It’s biblical. Thank you for your post! Very insightful.
My confidence in the truth of orthodox Christianity is strengthened by the increasing hostility of a world which is overtly distancing itself from reason and common sense. The contemporary secular world, as everyone is experiencing it (Christian or otherwise), throughout all Western nations, is attempting to tyrannically force people into a corner of obligatory moral feeling defined by the various politically correct codes of, amongst other things, radical feminism and the extremes of the gay rights lobby. Movements whose spiritual and moral epicentres have got nothing to do with love, tolerance and human unity. As the writer David Kupelian accurately observed (to paraphrase), ‘the aegis of our age is increasingly witnessing evil being marketed disguised as freedom’.
I suggest to my fellow evangelical brothers and sisters, given the nature of the age we are all presently living in, growing hostility towards our faith, and to the way we interpret and practice it, should be received as comforting endorsement, rather than a reason to doubt and critically examine ourselves.
The whole sweep of Scripture, from Genesis 3 onwards, points us towards that reassuring reality.
As the great evangelical preacher of the 20th century, Leonard Ravenhill, so poignantly observed – ‘the Word of God was not intended as a tool to scratch itching ears’.
No one takes the whole Bible literally. We all pick and choose the Bible verses to believe. That is why we have the Holy Spirit to help us pick and choose.


As it turns out, The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t think it’s racist that President Barack Obama has been mistaken for a waiter and a valet, or that his wife, Michelle, has been solicited for help by a Target customer.
The actor and talk show host detailed how her mother used to get followed around in stores, but still didn’t view that as an act of racism.
“The issue is, you better look at each other as an individual,” she said.
Orange Is the New Black actress Laverne Cox, who was a guest on the show, reminded Goldberg about the implicit biases that people have and the system that America was built on to help create and sustain these biases.
“I’ve been black for 60 years,” Goldberg insisted. “For me, stupidity, dumb folks who just say dumb stuff because they’re not looking or paying attention to the person they’re talking to, which is why people could walk up to Obama and not look up at him and see that it’s the president.
“I just see it as stupid,” Goldberg added.
When fellow co-host Rosie O’Donnell attempted to step up and point out how these things were, in fact, racist, Goldberg was quick to cut her off. “You are a white lady telling me what is racist to you,” she said.
“You don’t have to be black to know what racism is!” O’Donnell fired back.
“Yes, you do!” Goldberg shouted.


Poppy Montgomery Welcomes Third Child — Find Out His Name!
It's a boy! Poppy Montgomery welcomed her third child, a baby boy named Gus Monroe Deveraux Sanford, on Tuesday, Nov. 11, her rep confirms to Us Weekly.
The Unforgettable star's little bundle of joy weighed 7 lbs., 4 oz., and measured 20.5 inches long. Gus joins Montgomery and her husband Shawn Sanford's 19-month-old daughter Violet Grace, as well as son Jackson, 6, from Montgomery's previous relationship.
The redheaded star revealed she was expecting during an interview with David Letterman back in July. "I'm expecting!" she told Letterman. "I’m far down the road of expecting…I'm six months pregnant. I've been hiding it until this very moment."
Sanford, a Microsoft executive, is also dad to daughter Haley and son Braydon from a previous marriage.


I’m at the KUHT studio for Houston Have Your Say along with Ree-C Murphy and Mizanur Rahman from the Chron. We will not actually be on camera – we’re off on the side at the “bloggers table”, which suits us all just fine. There’s a number of distinguished-looking guests, fifty or so, and they are now being told what to expect. There will be three sections – economy and security issues, health care, and education. There will be a short video clip to start, then questions will be asked of the guests. Everyone has been told to play nice. We’ll see how long that lasts. Oh, and no mike-grabbing.
The blog for this event is here. I’m going to post what I can as I can, given the limits of my attention span and comprehension skills.
UPDATE: Among the distinguished and distinguished-looking guests: Harris County Treasurer Orlando Sanchez, and State Sen. Dan Patrick. No Democratic politicians that I have seen as yet.
UPDATE: Just got our hands on the guest list. Other recognizable names: Former City Coucil Member Gordon Quan, Massey Villareal with the Greater Houston Partnership, Rice University’s Dr. Stephen Klineberg, Sonny Messiah Jiles from the Houston Defender, Richard Shaw with the AFL-CIO, and our consensus favorite name on the list, Lura Lovestar, who is listed as a Concerned Citizen. Mike Fjetland, former canidate for CD22, is also here but not part of the on-camera audience.
UPDATE: My first post after the start of the show is here.


Fighters from the Al Qaeda-linked Islamist group MUJWA, who are travelling with a convoy including Burkina Faso foreign minister Djibril Bassole, stand guard in Gao, northern Mali, August 7, 2012. Bassole, the lead mediator in regional efforts to end unrest in Mali, told rebels there that they had to cut ties to "terrorist movements" like al Qaeda before any peace talks could begin, when he travelled to the rebel-held north for the first time.
When a radical French Muslim cleric was arrested in Mali last month on his way to join Islamist rebels in the north, people in neighbouring Senegal were quick to notice a key detail. He was carrying fake Senegalese identity papers.
It heightened the worst fears of Mali's western neighbour: the spectre of terrorism spreading across the border into one of Africa's most peaceful countries.
Senegal and other neighbours might have to confront their fears soon. The United Nations Security Council voted on Thursday to approve a military intervention in Mali, led by African forces and backed by Western military trainers.
The intervention, aimed at recapturing the north from the rebels who seized it this year, could have unintended consequences – including a possible spread of violence in the region.
The Islamists in northern Mali, with strong links to al-Qaeda, have already threatened to bomb the capitals of any African nation that contributes troops to the planned military force.
With porous frontiers and corrupt border guards, the radicals in northern Mali could easily move across the borders. Some Senegalese volunteers have joined one of the leading Islamist rebel groups, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which has kidnapped dozens of Europeans and Canadians. And AQIM has reportedly used Senegal for some of its money-laundering operations.
This fear of spreading terrorism is a key reason for the Security Council's decision to approve the force of 3,300 troops, which is likely to enter Mali next year to train the army and help it retake the north. The force aims to push back the jihadists before they can cross borders into other countries.
"If we don't stop them, it will spread through the whole region," Abdou Lo, a political analyst in Dakar, said recently.
But that same threat of expanding terrorism is also a cause of anxiety and hesitation among many African nations as the intervention looms. Recent kidnappings in previously safe places in Niger and southern Mali have shown that Mali's radical militias can roam widely.
Senegal is likely to contribute troops to the force that enters Mali next year – although probably fewer than Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Niger, the most directly affected neighbours. Senegal could also serve as a communications and logistics hub for the international force, since it has the best seaports and communications technology in the region. It also has French military bases and 300 French soldiers, and it has played host to the U.S. military in African counterterrorism exercises.
Yet this strategic role could make it a target for reprisals by the Islamist militants. "The government is quite cautious," said a former presidential adviser in Senegal, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"There are dormant terrorist networks in Senegal that could make their presence felt," he said. "The military intervention in Mali would be very risky. It's a huge territory, it wouldn't be a conventional war, it would cost a lot, and the people are very mobile. Is it better to talk the rebels out?"
Mali's authorities are convinced that the Islamist radicals will seek targets in neighbouring countries. "Their target is Western civilization," said Fadiala Sidibe, police commissioner in Mopti, near the rebel-controlled territory.
"They will try to take Europeans hostage. They will bomb vehicles. They want to impose Islamic sharia law all over West Africa."
While the planned military intervention will heighten the risks for the region, it could also worsen the humanitarian crisis in northern Mali.
The rebel takeover of the north has already forced nearly 500,000 people to flee their homes or become refugees in neighbouring countries, and a new confidential UN report has warned that another 400,000 people could be pushed out of their homes if there is military intervention in the north.
"No clear plan exists to ensure that a military intervention would not exacerbate the already disastrous humanitarian situation," said Alexandra Gheciu, a University of Ottawa professor who specializes in international security.
Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, has warned that the military intervention would have a high humanitarian cost that has been largely ignored so far.


Cooperation among selective schools would make students’ lives easier. It would also likely run afoul of federal antitrust law.
Year after year, the admissions process at selective colleges seems to make high-schoolers and their parents only more anxious. The numbers are wild: Harvard admitted just 4.6 percent of its nearly 43,000 applicants for the class that begins this fall. Stanford accepted only 4.29 percent, and Princeton 5.5 percent. Although selective schools—those that accept fewer than half of applicants—enroll only about one-fifth of U.S. undergraduates, they account for more than one-third of applications each year.
Plenty of ideas to fix the system—to make it more bearable for students, parents, and even colleges themselves—have been floated in recent years, including restructuring the whole process to be a somewhat randomized lottery, or implementing a matching system akin to how medical-school graduates are placed in residencies. They are promising, but they have something problematic in common: In all likelihood, they’d be illegal.
That’s because, like nearly every other American company and organization, colleges and universities are subject to antitrust law, meaning they are bound to compete with one another in a way the government deems fair. Such antitrust provisions are vital—they are what stop, say, automakers from raising the price of cars in unison—but in the case of higher education, it might turn out that antitrust law stands in the way of making college admissions, as well as the linked and similarly fraught process for divvying out financial aid, fairer and less harrowing for all involved.
Take, for example, the idea of a national clearinghouse or a matching system, similar to the one for medical-residency programs. With a national clearinghouse, students could upload their academic records and accomplishments during their high-school career and then in their senior year simply press a button to apply to colleges. The database would be open to admissions officers at all colleges, so they could see where else students are applying, bringing a level of openness to the process. Under a matching system, students and colleges would each submit rank-order lists of each other and be paired as closely as possible.
Other promising college-admissions fixes that have been proposed run up against some of the same problems. One feature of the shared application designed by an advocacy group called the Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success is a virtual “locker,” which is already being tested by more than 130 prestigious schools. It allows students as early as ninth grade to upload their written work, videos, photos, and other materials that show off their potential beyond a transcript. At first, only students can access the locker, but over time they can open it to their parents, counselors, and to colleges through the admissions process. While the virtual locker doesn’t have the transparency of a clearinghouse, it too might raise antitrust concerns one day, depending on how colleges want to share access with each other.
Another idea that has been floated is to have admissions to selective colleges determined by a lottery. The names of qualified students would be picked at random until a class is filled. “A strict lottery system for academically qualified applicants would be the most equitable, least costly, and most publicly explainable method of dealing with the ever-growing demand for scarce seats at our most selective institutions,” said Barmak Nassirian, the director of federal relations for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. A lottery system would also, in all likelihood, not pass muster with the Department of Justice, which enforces antitrust law, because depending on how it was administered, it likely would require colleges to share information about applicants with each other.
Another option: Put a limit on the number of colleges to which students can apply. The proportion of college freshmen who applied to seven or more colleges reached 35 percent in 2016, up from 18 percent a decade ago, and from just 9 percent in 1990. Some eight in 10 freshmen in 2016 applied to at least three colleges. “If you limited it to, say, five, everyone would get fewer applicants,” said Catharine Bond Hill, the former president of Vassar College who now heads the nonprofit research group Ithaka S+R. This is a solution that might not be banned by antitrust provisions, as it might be able to be implemented through, say, the Common Application, rather than through the direct cooperation of colleges.
Even changes that work within the current admissions and financial-aid systems—rather than remaking them entirely—would likely run afoul of federal laws. College leaders, for instance, find themselves in a tricky position when it comes to “merit aid” scholarships that some schools give out. For instance, Grinnell College, a selective liberal-arts school in Iowa, uses merit aid as a tool for recruiting students who might otherwise turn them down—in practice, the scholarships are small discounts for wealthier students who end up paying less than full tuition.
But these scholarships serve another purpose, too: Grinnell, like other selective colleges, is trying to increase the number of low-income students on campus. This year, the college estimates 26 percent of its incoming class will be eligible for Pell Grants, which mostly go to students from families making less than $40,000 annually. But Pell Grants don’t come close to covering the cost of tuition, so to make up some of the difference, Grinnell sets aside 10 percent of its financial-aid budget for merit aid to lure students who can afford to pay a lot more.
Many of Grinnell’s higher-ranked competitors have sworn off such merit aid—on the grounds that it helps families who can already afford college—but schools right below Grinnell in the rankings offer such discounts. So Grinnell officials maintain that if they abandoned merit aid, they would also likely give up the tuition dollars of those students who would follow the money and attend lower-ranked colleges that offer discounts.
“The way to end this arms race is for institutions to spend less on merit-based aid and amenities and use that money on need-based aid,” said Hill, the former Vassar president. If such an approach were widely embraced, Hill believes it could result in greater economic diversity on campuses: There’d be more money to devote to low-income students. And affluent students wouldn’t be as tempted by money in making their college choice.
But Grinnell and other institutions that use merit aid as bait for affluent students would only stop if they knew their competitors would too. And that would require them to cooperate in ways prohibited by antitrust laws. “One effect of antitrust laws is that colleges in a weaker market position pursue strategies to generate revenue but that ultimately drive up prices across the board,” said Joseph Bagnoli Jr., the vice president for enrollment and dean of admission and financial aid at Grinnell College in Iowa. Those “strategies” he’s referring to are things like merit aid, or spending on amenities that competitors have on their campus, such as new dormitories and recreation centers. These amenities tend to siphon away money that could theoretically be put toward financial aid instead.
There is, as well, a subtler, more philosophical argument for exempting colleges from antitrust law. “If universities are getting federal funds, they shouldn’t be allowed to shroud in secrecy the process for determining who gets admitted,” said Jon Boeckenstedt, the associate vice president for enrollment management and marketing at DePaul University, in Chicago.
Antitrust law exists to protect consumers—in the case of higher education, it’s what prevents colleges from colluding on setting tuition costs. But, beyond Major League Baseball, few entities in the United States operate with the kind of freedoms from antitrust laws that higher education would need to truly reform the admissions and financial-aid process.
Recently, the association in Washington, D.C., that represents private colleges requested a five-year exemption from antitrust laws for its member schools. Its reasoning goes that if schools were allowed to cooperate, they could build new tuition pricing models together. They could also share information on applicants they have in common and the financial-aid packages they’re offering them, which might end, or at least slow, the arms race of trying to provide more money than a competitor to every student regardless of need. A sense of reasonableness might return to the admissions process and at the same time slow the rapid rise of college tuition.
The Justice Department does not appear interested in granting this request. Instead, the department has for years been bringing more scrutiny to colleges’ practices, rather than becoming more permissive. Inside Higher Ed reported earlier this month on a federal investigation of colleges—this one related to the practices of early-decision admissions—and it was the latest of several. The Justice Department in 2017 launched an inquiry into alleged discrimination against high-achieving Asian American college applicants, as well as an antitrust probe of the ethics code of the trade association that represents high-school counselors and college-admissions deans.
An earlier incident, in 2013, presaged this. In January of that year, presidents of several hundred small, private colleges gathered for the Council of Independent Colleges annual winter meeting in Palm Harbor, Florida. Among the sessions was one on how schools should end bidding wars for students and curtail the use of generous merit-aid packages.
The inquiry that was first reported on this month pertains to early decision, an arrangement under which applicants commit to attending a school if accepted and agree not to apply via regular decision elsewhere. The percentage of the incoming class accepted through early decision at selective colleges has risen rapidly in the last decade now accounts for about half the class on some campuses.
Colleges are leaning more on early decision for two reasons. One, as more students apply, colleges have a difficult time predicting how many of them will actually show up. Early decision reduces that uncertainty. Second, students who apply early decision clearly want to enroll, and they often come from higher-income families. As a result, they demand less financial assistance, and that gives colleges the financial security to spend a bit more freely on the much larger pool of applicants in the regular-admissions round.
Some schools share information like this because they want to make certain their early admits are not in admissions pools elsewhere. The Justice Department, as part of its latest inquiry, wants to know if schools make admissions decisions based on what other schools have done with an applicant.
Colleges and universities have been at this crisis point before. Until the 1990s, the Ivy League colleges and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology set financial-aid awards jointly, so students could choose colleges based on factors other than cost. The practice, however, ended after the Justice Department accused the participating schools of price-fixing. College admissions have changed drastically in the intervening years, but the department’s thinking on the subject has—probably for the worse—remained the same.


Veronica Bassett again set the pace for Poudre School District’s first-year ski team at the state championships, finishing 28th in the 5-kilometer cross-country skate-style race Friday.
Bassett covered the course at Purgatory Resort near Durango in 22 minutes, 56.2 seconds. Vail Mountain’s Emma Blakslee was the winner in 19:30.7. Bassett was also PSD’s top finisher Thursday in the 5K classic-style cross-country race.
The PSD girls were 11th out of 14 teams in the race.
PSD’s Maddie Potter finished 59th in 27:50.4 and Claire Potter 62nd in 29:26.0. Each team is limited to a maximum of three racers per event.
The PSD boys were 12th in a 15-team field in the boys 5K cross-country skate-style race, with all three of their skiers finishing close together. Ryan Dowdy was 92nd in 23:57.7, Jack Canonico 93rd in 24:23.3 and Bryce Pfuetze 96th in 25:53.4. There were 100 finishers.
Aspen’s Everett OIson was the winner in 14:43.4.
Fort Collins High School's team, which draws players from throughout the Poudre School District, notched its first playoff win in program history with a 7-1 victory Friday night over Mountain Vista.
The Lambkins (14-4-2) are in their third season as a CHSAA-sanctioned team and took down No. 14 Mountain Vista (9-12) at NoCo Ice Center after a nervous start.
Mountain Vista scored first and it was 1-1 after the first period. Fort Collins then settled in and took off, scoring four second-period goals to take control.
Ethan Nelson had two goals and an assist and Greg Bilek and Nolan Williamson had a goal and two assists each. James Donahue added two assists.
There's no rest for Fort Collins as a fight for a Frozen Four trip awaits Saturday night. The Lambkins will host No. 6 Dakota Ridge at 6:15 p.m. at NoCo Ice Center. The winner will advance to the semifinals March 1 at Pepsi Center. Dakota Ridge beat No. 11 Pine Creek 9-1 on Friday.
The two teams played twice during the regular season — a 2-2 tie in early December and a 7-1 win for Fort Collins on Jan. 14.
Sterling eliminated Resurrection Christian from Class 3A district tournament contention, beating the Cougars 63-53 Friday night at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.
The game was tied at 50 in the fourth quarter before the Tigers ended the game with a 13-3 run, according to statistics uploaded to MaxPreps.com.
Individual statistics were not immediately available Friday night.


Gemma Karstens-Smith is a former Toronto Star staff reporter.
Constance Isherwood, the most senior female lawyer still practising with the B.C. bar, received an honorary doctorate of laws degree at a graduation ceremony at the University of British Columbia.
“I have an affinity for painting, but I needed to know what it felt like under the gun,” Travolta said at a TIFF press conference before the world premiere.
Nearly two decades after McLaughlin Planetarium closed, locals want a new stargazing venue.
Former Friend plays chronic pain sufferer in latest role.
Canadian director uses ghosts as memories in new film Maps to the Stars.
‘It’s like I’m reading my own story,’ says former child soldier Emmanuel Jal, now an actor in the Hollywood drama.


A unique study published in today's edition of the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care1, provides new evidence about the causal links between restrictions to abortion policy and maternal mortality. The study demonstrates that limiting abortion does not prevent women from seeking pregnancy terminations but simply increases the risks they face.
The study reveals women's fertility rate and abortion rates before, during and after the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu outlawed abortion in 1966 until his death in 1989. Prior to Nicolae Ceausescu's rise to power, access to surgical abortions had been easily available under the Soviet regime. Within days of the dictator's fall, the anti-abortion law was abolished and abortion was made available again on request.
"Countries that increasingly seek to restrict access to abortion and contraception should look and learn from Romania's example... All legislators in Britain and elsewhere who really care about women's safety - and, indeed, women's lives - need to pay attention to these findings,"
Kate Guthrie, spokesperson for the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare said: "This study starkly demonstrates the risks, often with fatal consequences, that women will take to avoid unwanted pregnancy. Equally it shows the dramatic impact that easy access to contraception had on abortion."
1 “The remarkable story of Romanian women’s struggle to manage their fertility.”, Mihai Horga, Caitlin Gerdts, Malcolm Potts.
“Abortion, contraception, maternal mortality and fertility in Romania during the period 1965-2010” Horga M et al.
J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care. "New Study On Post-War Romanian Abortion Policy Demonstrates That Restrictions Result In Maternal Mortality." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 18 Jan. 2013. Web.