Martin (who wished not to give his last name) holds a large sign in front of the Hilton Garden Inn and Embassy Suites construction site at 28th Street and Canyon Boulevard on Wednesday.
BEST ) Carpenters Local Union 55 protestors Martin (who didn't wish to give his last name) right, and a woman (who didn't wish to give her name) hold a large sign in front of the Hilton Garden Inn and Embassy Suites construction site at 28th Street and Canyon Boulevard on Wednesday.
Carpenters Local Union 55 protestors ( who didn't wish to give their full names) hold a large sign in front of the Hilton Garden Inn and Embassy Suites construction site at 28th Street and Canyon Boulevard on Wednesday.
Carpenters Local Union 55 protestors Martin (who didn't wish to give his last name) right, and a woman (who didn't wish to give her name) hold a large sign in front of the Hilton Garden Inn and Embassy Suites construction site at 28th Street and Canyon Boulevard on Wednesday.


NEW HAVEN – Before Glastonbury girls track coach Brian Collins sent his distance runners to the start of the 3,200 meters at the Class LL championship, he repeated a familiar message.
He told them to forget about pre-race favorite Hannah DeBalsi of Staples. If DeBalsi lapped the four Glastonbury runners at some point in the race, it didn't matter. The Tomahawks didn't need to win the race. They wanted to win the team championship.
"It was simple," Collins said. "There were going to be two races going on. [DeBalsi] and everyone else. We're with everyone else and we needed to pick up big points and hope for the best."
DeBalsi won the 3,200. The Tomahawks won the Class LL championship.
Led by senior Kaitlyn Hebert and a talented junior class, Glastonbury defeated Staples by seven points to claim its seventh indoor track championship and its first since 2012.
The Tomahawks scored 77 points for the victory.
"We talked to the girls a couple days ago and we said 'we're going to win it together or lose it together,'" Collins said. "They all know they had a big part [of this win], not just a certain few."
Danbury won the boys title, scoring 71 points to beat Staples by five and Ridgefield by 22. But as tight as that competition ended up, the limelight belonged to girls' teams.
After a five-point swing in the 3,200, where Glastonbury scored 15 and Staples scored 10, the two teams were separated by just two points headed into the final race, the 4x400-meter relay. Staples led, 69-67. But the Tomahawks entered the race with the fastest seed time. And they delivered. The relay team of Morocca Wiley, Kathryn Hastings, Sabrina Glaser and Cosentino put a stamp on the victory with a five second victory (4:09.93).
"The first three did just such a good job of getting such a good lead, so the whole time I was just praying I wouldn't mess it up for everyone [on the final lap]," Cosentino said. "I just wanted to make sure we got it done."
It was a complete team effort. The Tomahawks qualified in 15 events and scored in 10. They won the 4x800 by four seconds, finished third in the 4x200 and Hebert, who was part of the 4x800 win, won the 1,000 (3:01.50) and was second in the 3,200 (11:40.16). Kristin Hughes, Kaylee Stebbins, Sarah LeClair and Heather Day also picked up key points.
"Most of our girls have come from a team that won [a championship] in the fall season, so we all have the mindset that we know what it takes to [to win]," Hebert said.
After opening the shot put competition with a pair of disappointing throws, East Hartford senior Keiynan Butler turned to members of the girls team watching and looked for answers.
"I'm glad I have good teammates on the girls throwing team to help me correct what I was doing wrong," Butler said. "I wasn't getting my hips around quick enough and I wasn't driving straight back. I just fixed what they told me to do."
Butler corrected his form and got refocused. He then threw 47 feet, 7 inches on his final throw to finish second in his first appearance at the Class LL championship.
"Once the release came off my neck, I felt the ball was going far," Butler said. "I think a lot of talented people are doing shot put, but I feel like I can fit in that category [now] so I feel pretty accomplished."
Simsbury assistant coach Lorenzo Milledge has an unorthodox approach to hurdling.
For much of the winter, Milledge has kept his athletes in the pool and away from actually hurdling. Only a week or so ago, he let them actually hurdle. He prefers to stick to just drills.
"[Milledge] has a lot of unique and different strategies, stuff you just wouldn't expect," junior Jake Dowd said. "At first, it was a big shock."
Milledge and his athletes might be on to something. At the Class LL championship, Thomas Newtown finished second in the 55 hurdles (8.11) behind Amity's Aaron Rattley, who ran 7.93. Dowd was fourth at 8.55.
"The kids work hard and they believe in it," Milledge said. "We do a lot of drills [lead leg, trail leg, 3 steps and arm drills] and the drills are hard."
Simsbury's sprint medley team also finished third (3:47.94) behind Danbury (3:45.82) and Hamden (3:46.44). ... Manchester sophomore Elizabeth Lodge has been working all winter to get back to the heights she was jumping last season. At the Class LL championship, Lodge jumped a meet record 5 feet, 4 inches, and attempted 5-6. She finished second behind Staples' Elizabeth Knoll. The pair both jumped 5-4, but Knoll won based on fewer misses at earlier heights.
"I just thought to myself this is just like last year, it is me and [Knoll] again," Lodge said. "I just thought just go for it." ... Glastonbury's Randy Neish finished third in the 1,000 (2:35.46) and teammate Keyion Dixon was fourth in the 55 and third in the high jump. ... East Hartford freshman Kenese Getfield was fourth in the 55. ... Manchester's Pat Levitt finished third in the 55 hurdles (8.16) and Conard's Gwendolyn Geisler finished third in the 1,600 (5:17.75).


Bow down before the might of the tablet. If you were unsure who is the master now, look no further than numbers from the UK wing of GfK, a market watcher which tracks over-the-counter sales.
According to its data, more tablets were sold in December 2012 - no doubt as Christmas prezzies - than notebooks purchased in October, November and December combined.
Tablets were the stars of the Christmas month. They outsold laptops by approximately four to one, GfK said, and TVs by around two to one.
That, it added, caps a year in which the volume of sales was 267 per cent higher than it was in 2011.
In part, that growth came about because tablets came down in price - they were about 23 per cent cheaper, on average, during 2012 than they were in 2011. That was due to the flurry of releases of smaller devices, typically seven inches in size.
And there are more companies hopping on the bandwagon too. “We are also seeing 52 per cent more brands competing in the tablet market, and 126 per cent per cent more models available to the consumer in 2012 compared to 2011,” said GfK’s Robyn Tovey.
“It seems likely that these trends will continue in 2013 as the lower prices in this product group have made buying a tablet a more viable purchase for many consumers."
The explosion in tablet sales contributed to a huge 18 per cent value increase between December 2011 and December 2012 for IT products as a whole - despite many once-staple technology products declining in both value and volume.
Exclusive It was still going?


A 1955 Chevy, owned by Chad and Tara Mahnken, of North Platte, Neb., was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1966 Jaguar XKE, owned by Larry Jackson, of Sterling, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1932 Ford Roadster, owned by Ron and Carol Mahnken, of North Platte, Neb., was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1955 Chevy 2 Door, owned by John McBride, of Hudson, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
Visitors look over vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
An Allante Convertible was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
Visitors look over a 1967 Ford Bronco, owned by Jodie Brown, of Arvada, at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A visitor looks over a 1956 Chevy 210 Sedan, owned by Jerrie and John Ericsson, of Lakewood, at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1949 Ford Custom, owned by Dewey and Linda Carter, of Aurora, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1969 Oldmobile 4-4-2 Holiday Coupe was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1957 Chevy Bel Air, owned by Gene Guerrero, of Fort Morgan, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 2002 Ford Thunderbird, owned by Ron Meyer, of Sidney, Neb., was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1948 Ford Panel Truck, owned by Fred and Joanne Cook, of Fort Morgan, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1962 Chevy Impala, owned by Ray and Deb Hardy, of Yuma, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1964 Chevelle 300 2 Door Wagon, owned by Jim Peters, of Sterling, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1956 Mercury Monterey, owned by Richard and Mary Degenhart, of Sterling, and its mini companion, were among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1967 Ford Mustang, owned by Mary Peters, of Sterling, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
This car is WA2FST (Way Too Fast). It was one of many vehicles displayed at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1956 Ford Truck, owned by James Ace Howell, of Sterling, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1937 Ford Coupe, owned by John "Kelly" Howell, of Sterling, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1940 Plymouth Pickup, owned by Jeff and Tammy Heppner, of Sterling, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1956 Chevy Bel Air, owned by Mahlon Harders, of Denver, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1926 Ford Model T, owned by Mike Swan, of Costa Mesa, Calif., was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1957 Chevy Bel Air, owned by Joe Lasio, of Broomfield, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air, owned by Jim and Terall Richardson, of Lakewood, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1955 Buick Special Riviera 46R, owned by "Twig" Lindsey, of Arvada, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1971 Super Beetle, owned by Susan Chaney, of Thorton, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1940 Dodge Pickup, owned by Mike Nolde, of Fleming, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1926 Chevy Sedan, owned by Mike Nolde, of Fleming, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1994 Cadillac Hearse, owned by Karl and Anna Newton, of Lochbuie, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A skeleton peeks out from inside a 1994 Cadillac Hearse, owned by Karl and Anna Newton, of Lochbuie, one of several vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1964 Ford Galaxie 500, owned by Merl Blom, of Littleton, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1930 Ford Model A, owned by Ken Skinner, of Thorton, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1966 Chevy Chevelle, owned by Billy Richmond, of Dupont, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1969 Mercury Cougar, owned by Clarence Roach, of Broomfield, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1985 Chevrolet C10, owned by Aaron Kelly, of Parker, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1957 Plymouth Savoy, owned by Jay Lewis, of Gothenburg, displays a meal from A&W. This was one of several vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1927 Model T, owned by Micheal McCreary, of Henry, Neb., was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1928 Pontiac Vicky Coupe, owned by Vern and Laura Bahlmann, of Loveland, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.
A 1966 Ford Fairlane, owned by Patrick Miller, of Arvada, was among the vehicles on display at Colorado Flatlanders 25th Annual Rod Run in the Park Saturday, July 9, 2016, at Pioneer Park.


Labour’s campaign is “going pretty well”, according to his Ed Miliband’s brother David.
Ed Miliband, who won the Labour leadership contest from his brother in 2010, revealed he had been in touch with David during the campaign.
“Yeah. He’s been sending me encouraging words and we’ve been in contact and I think he thinks it’s going pretty well,” he told BBC Radio 5live’s John Pienaar.
Ed Miliband's strong performance in the general election has surprised his critics who thought that the campaign would unravel under sustained scrutiny.
Asked what advice David had for him, Ed replied: “To be myself, because that’s the best advice and that’s the advice he’s always given me and that’s what I’ve learnt most as Labour leader, that you put yourself before people.
“This is what I stand for, I’m never going to win a photo opportunity competition, notwithstanding ‘Milifandom’.
"I'm enjoying this campaign because it's an opportunity for me to say here's where I stand, this is how I want to change the country, and then the people decide. That's the extraordinary thing about our democracy."
However, he downplayed the idea of David taking a place in a Labour Cabinet in the future, saying David was happy in his job as chief executive of the New York-based charity International Rescue Committee.
"Look I'm think up to May 7, 10pm. That's where my focus is. David's happy doing the job he's doing in America. I'm focused on electing a Labour government."
Asked if he had "given up on having your brother by your side", Ed Miliband said: "Look I'm not anticipating that he's happy doing the job he's doing."


Last year suicide bombings quintupled, attacks on international forces tripled, and support for the Taliban grew. According to CNN terror analyst and Taliban expert Peter Bergen, here are the top 10 entirely avoidable mistakes made by the Bush administration.
Letting Osama Escape Tora Bora: Because Donald Rumsfeld wanted a “light” footprint in Afghanistan, only 60 U.S. Special Forces were sent to smoke out bin Laden. During the 2004 reelection campaign, Bush implied that bin Laden wasn’t at Tora Bora at all—a claim publicly slapped down by the cia‘s on-scene commander, Gary Berntsen, a longtime Republican, who pleaded for additional forces, to no avail.
Too Few Grunts: The initial U.S. deployment was the smallest peacekeeping force, per capita, that America has sent anywhere since World War II.
Hiring Warlords: By outsourcing security to militias in the first years of the occupation, the U.S. undercut attempts to form a desperately needed Afghan national army.
Iraq: Almost immediately, time, money, and key personnel were diverted from Afghanistan to Iraq, including the 5th Special Forces group, which specializes in the region.
Nixing nato: For two years the Bush administration prevented nato troops from deploying anywhere beyond Kabul—i.e., anywhere that mattered.
Prioritizing Poppies: Eradicating poppy fields hasn’t put a dent in drug exports—Afghanistan now supplies 90 percent of the world’s opium—but it has uprooted farmers, some of whom have joined the Taliban. In 2005, the U.S. spent $782 million on narcotics operations, $222 million more than Afghan farmers earned from growing poppies.
Losing Hearts and Minds: Particularly in the first few years, American soldiers had a tin ear for local customs—failing to grasp, for example, that in tribal society, each civilian death must be collectively avenged.


Waterloo, Ia. – An Iowa campaign swing focusing on the economy and the needs of small businesses gave U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann ample opportunity Monday to critique new proposals from President Barack Obama.
The president’s plan calls for $1.5 trillion in additional tax revenues — including a new “millionaire’s tax” — alongside cost-cutting changes to the Medicare and Medicaid health care programs and numerous other measures to reduce the federal debt.
Bachmann joined many in her party in castigating the proposal.
Bachmann’s economic-recovery prescription, by contrast, calls for lowering taxes, a step she said would stimulate new hiring and economic growth.
During her visit to Sukup Manufacturing Co., a grain bin and agriculture equipment maker in Sheffield, Bachmann called for lower taxes on businesses and corporations and railed against the burdens of federal regulations, which she said cost businesses $1.1 trillion a year.
Bachmann also called for the repeal of the estate tax, which she said can be challenging for family-owned companies that pass along business assets from one generation to the next.
She also fit in a swipe at Solyndra, a clean-energy company in California that went bankrupt recently despite $535 million in federal loan guarantees awarded as part of the stimulus plan signed by Obama in 2009.
The company’s failure is indicative of larger problems with president’s approach to economic recovery, Bachmann said, and proves the need for tax cuts and regulatory reform.
In Sheffield and at an afternoon visit to traffic-light manufacturer OMJC Signal Inc. in Waterloo, Bachmann also criticized the president’s signature health care law, which will require most individuals to purchase health insurance.
The law will cost the country almost 1 million jobs and $1 trillion in additional insurance costs, Bachmann said.
Better solutions, she said, would be to grow the private insurance market by allowing insurers to sell policies across state lines and to decouple health insurance from the workplace.
Such reforms, she said, would make the market for health insurance similar to those for car and life insurance, reducing costs and increasing accessibility.
Her presence and remarks were warmly received at both businesses.
Sukup President Charles Sukup said he was amazed by her energy and the buzz she generated when entering a room.
Her policy ideas and the distinctions she drew to the current administration were attractive as well, he said.
Sukup said he thought the new federal health care law would be a “nightmare” for his business because of new mandates, restrictions and coverage requirements.
“It’s definitely going to drive up the health care costs” for his company of more than 500 employees, he said.
In Waterloo, OMJC executive and employees left their meeting with the candidate impressed as well.
Keith Bailey, a supervisor in OMJC’s electrical shop, said he believed Bachmann had the ideas to create real economic change and the character to make it happen.


PETERSBURG, Va. – Petersburg City Council voted to implement a 14.3% utility bill increase at Tuesday night’s meeting. The new rate will go into effect immediately.
The water hike bill will affect all Petersburg residents who pay utility bills to the city.
City leaders said the increase is necessary to help pay for repairs to the city’s water system, upgrade of meters and help with city debt.
Earlier this year, Petersburg Interim City Manager Tom Tyrrell said the lack of a maintenance program over several decades has led to serious problems and created expensive repairs.
He said the city needed millions to fix the neglected water system.
"Rates are going to increase because there's no alternative really,” he said in February.
The 14.3 percent hike is effective immediately, through January 28, 2018.
At Tuesday meeting, City Council will also voted to approve a new city budget.


Jazz legend Abdullah Ibrahim will be performing music from two new albums at The Lyric on March 20.
Returning to South Africa from his sold out European tour, the maestro and his band will present an evening of unforgettable music.
INFO Tickets from R250. To book, go to Computicket or Goldreefcity.co.za, or call The Lyric Box Office on 011 248 5000.


#OAKvsGB Conner Cook looked crisp last preseason let's see him tonight behind and 70000 cheese heads screaming ????????
Plus a second KingJCrock_23 #LambeauLeap !
I was about to watch #TheBigBangTheory but then the #OAKvsGB game is on ????????????
RT packers "The #Packers are challenging the ruling on the field of a 4-yard sack #OAKvsGB "
Remember Aaron Rodgers' little buddy Kellan Meinke? He Was at the game with @childhealthwi .
One quarter to go at @LambeauField !
A 10-yard touchdown run by the Packers makes it a two-score game.
The second half is underway in Green Bay.
The Packers tack on a field goal and it’s 17-3 Green Bay with 1:56 to play in the third.
Remember Aaron Rodgers' little buddy Kellan Meinke? He was at the game with @uwhealthkids .
More unsure hands for Johnny Holton. Nice job to recover to make the catch, but need to grab it without the bobble.
One quarter to go at LambeauField!
RT packers "One quarter to go at LambeauField!


Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.
But there’s no longer much sunlight to disinfect the corruption of the government or the powers-that-be.
As just one example, government is “laundering” information gained through mass surveillance through other agencies, with an agreement that the agencies will “recreate” the evidence in a “parallel construction” … so the original source of the evidence is kept secret from the defendant, defense attorneys and the judge. A former top NSA official says that this is the opposite of following the Fourth Amendment, but is a “totalitarian process” which shows that we’re in a “police state”.
Secret witnesses are being used in some cases. And sometimes lawyers are being prevented from reading their own briefs.
American citizens are also being detained in Guantanamo-like conditions in Chicago … including being held in secret, with the government refusing to tell a suspect’s lawyer whether his client is being held. And see this, this and this.
The Department of Defense has also made it a secret – even from Congress – as to the identity of the main enemies of the United States.
A truly stunning debasement of the U.S. justice system just occurred through the joint efforts of the Obama Justice Department and a meek and frightened Obama-appointed federal judge, Edgardo Ramos, all in order to protect an extremist neocon front group from scrutiny and accountability. The details are crucial for understanding the magnitude of the abuse here.
At the center of it is an anti-Iranian group calling itself “United Against Nuclear Iran” (UANI), which is very likely a front for some combination of the Israeli and U.S. intelligence services. When launched, NBC described its mission as waging “economic and psychological warfare” against Iran. The group was founded and is run and guided by aroster of U.S., Israeli and British neocon extremists such as Joe Lieberman, former Bush Homeland Security adviser (and current CNN “analyst”) Fran Townsend, former CIA Director James Woolsey, and former Mossad Director Meir Dagan. One of its key advisers is Olli Heinonen, who just co-authored a Washington Post Op-Ed with former Bush CIA/NSA Director Michael Hayden arguing that Washington is being too soft on Tehran.
This group of neocon extremists was literally just immunized by a federal court from the rule of law. That was based on the claim — advocated by the Obama DOJ and accepted by Judge Ramos — that subjecting them to litigation for their actions would risk disclosure of vital “state secrets.” The court’s ruling was based on assertions made through completely secret proceedings between the court and the U.S. government, with everyone else — including the lawyers for the parties — kept in the dark.
In May 2013, UANI launched a “name and shame” campaign designed to publicly identify — and malign — any individuals or entities enabling trade with Iran. One of the accused was the shipping company of Greek billionaire Victor Restis, who vehemently denies the accusation. He hired an American law firm and sued UANI for defamation in a New York federal court, claiming the “name and shame” campaign destroyed his reputation.
Up until that point, there was nothing unusual about any of this: just a garden-variety defamation case brought in court by someone who claims that public statements made about him are damaging and false. That happens every day. But then something quite extraordinary happened: In September of last year, the U.S. government, which was not a party, formally intervened in the lawsuit, and demanded that the court refuse to hear Restis’s claims and instead dismiss the lawsuit against UANI before it could even start, on the ground that allowing the case to proceed would damage national security.
Usually, when the U.S. government asserts the “state secrets privilege,” it is because they are a party to the lawsuit, being sued for their own allegedly illegal acts (such as torture or warrantless surveillance), and they claim that national security would be harmed if they are forced to defend themselves. In rare cases, they do intervene and assert the privilege in lawsuits between private parties, but only where the subject of the litigation is a government program and one of the parties is a government contractor involved in that program — such as when torture victims sued a Boeing subsidiary, Jeppesen, for its role in providing airplanes for the rendition program and the Obama DOJ insisted (successfully) that the case not go forward, and the victim of U.S. torture was thus told that he could not even have a day in court.
But in this case, there is no apparent U.S. government conduct at issue in the lawsuit. At least based on what they claim about themselves, UANI is just “a not-for-profit, non-partisan, advocacy group” that seeks to “educate” the public about the dangers of Iran’s nuclear program. Why would such a group like this even possess “state secrets”? It would be illegal to give them such material. Or could it be that the CIA or some other U.S. government agency has created and controls the group, which would be a form of government-disseminated propaganda, which happens to be illegal?
What else could explain the basis for the U.S. government’s argument that allowing UANI to be sued would risk the disclosure of vital “state secrets” besides a desire to cover up something quite untoward if not illegal? What “state secrets” could possibly be disclosed by suing a nice, little “not-for-profit, non-partisan, advocacy group”?
We don’t know the answers to those questions, nor do the lawyers for the plaintiffs whose lawsuit the DOJ wants dismissed. That’s because, beyond the bizarre DOJ intervention itself, the extreme secrecy that shaped the judicial proceedings is hard to overstate. Usually, when the U.S. government asserts the “state secrets privilege,” at least some information is made public about what they are claiming: which official or department is invoking the privilege, the general nature of the secrets allegedly at risk, the reasons why allowing the claims to be adjudicated would risk disclosure, etc. Some redacted version of the affidavit from the government official making the secrecy claim is made part of the case.
Here, virtually everything has been hidden, even from the plaintiffs’ lawyers. Not only did the U.S. government provide no clue as to what the supposedly endangered “state secrets” are, but they concealed even the identity of the agency making the claim: was it the CIA, the Treasury Department, the State Department, some combination? Nothing is known about any of this, not even who is making the secrecy claim.
Instead, the DOJ’s arguments about why “secrecy” compels dismissal of the entire lawsuit were made in a brief that only Judge Ramos (and not even the parties) gets to read, but even more amazingly, were elaborated on in secret meetings by DOJ lawyers in the judge’s chambers with nobody else present. Were recordings or transcripts of these meetings made? Is there any record of what the U.S. government whispered in the ear of the judge to scare him into believing that National Security Would Be Harmed™ if he allowed the case to proceed? Nobody knows. The whole process is veiled in total secrecy, labeled a “judicial proceeding” but containing none of the transparency, safeguards or adversarial process that characterizes minimally fair courts.
This sham worked. This week, Judge Ramos issued his ruling dismissing the entire lawsuit (see below). As a result of the DOJ’s protection, UANI cannot be sued. Among other things, it means this group of neocon extremists now has a license to defame anyone they want. They can destroy your reputation with false accusations in a highly public campaign, and when you sue them for it, the DOJ will come in and whisper in the judge’s ear that national security will be damaged if — like everyone else in the world — UANI must answer in a court of law for their conduct. And subservient judicial officials like Judge Ramos will obey the U.S. government’s dictates and dismiss your lawsuit before it begins, without your having any idea why that even happened.
We are disappointed that some secret relationship between UANI and the government allows UANI to hide from disclosing that association or to defend what has now been proven to be its false and defamatory allegations directed at Mr. Restis and his company. We are mystified that the U.S. government has such a stake in this case that it would take such extraordinary steps to prevent full disclosure of the secret interest it has with UANI or others. And, we are concerned that, in our court system, such a result could occur on the basis of sealed, one-sided filings and meetings in which we were not allowed to participate.
Sadly, the sunlight is fading … and America is falling into darkness.


At an internal event in July, Zuckerberg was asked about the controversial tool. “It’s better for Facebook to be a part of enabling conversation, even if it’s not yet the full conversation,” Zuckerberg said, according to the employees, the Times reported.
There is no indication that Facebook has offered the tool to the Chinese and, like other experiments by the company, the tool could be shelved, the sources told the newspaper.
“We have long said that we are interested in China, and are spending time understanding and learning more about the country. However, we have not made any decision on our approach to China,” a Facebook spokeswoman wrote in an email on Tuesday, when asked to comment on the Times' report. “Our focus right now is on helping Chinese businesses and developers expand to new markets outside China by using our ad platform,” she added.


When you look at the Internet, a lot of people either have concerns, want to get questions answered, but they never talk about when a company goes above and beyond. Perhaps that's because companies don't typically go the extra mile.
But in one case, Yahoo! did. And a forum member at DigitalPoint Forums wants everyone to know.
I do advertising (PPC) with both Google and Yahoo. the other day I got a call from a customer service agent at Yahoo making sure that everthing was running ok and that i was happy with the results.
Yahoo has gone out of their way before. When we reported about the block domain feature just a few weeks ago, Yahoo ended up calling a concerned user and spoke to them for "about an hour."
Yahoo's extra attention to improving the user experience is only a good thing. Keep up the good work.
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Trouble is brewing in the Little Rock School District over the Hutchinson administration's apparent unwillingness to deal with the Little Rock Education Association and fears that the governor's education commissioner, Johnny Key, is also bent on enabling more charter school development in the city, including a high school in Northwest Little Rock.
Multiple sources tell me a meeting of teachers will be called this afternoon to discuss developments. Shortly, this could grow into a major issue in races for Little Rock mayor and Arkansas governor.
Check UPDATES below for developments today. Meeting still set at 4:30 p.m. The teachers will vote on a response, but I don't think the situation is at a point where any job action is immediately likely.
The Little Rock Education Association, an affiliate of the Arkansas Education Association, has been a bargaining agent for Little Rock teachers for more than a half-century. It has nobly stood for kids against many dark forces, ranging from the segregationists of the 1950s and 60s to incompetent and dishonest superintendents in recent years.
It is one of a very few union agreements with teachers in Arkansas. Evidence mounts that Education Commissioner Johnny Key, who serves as Little Rock "school board" since the district was taken over by the state in 2015, wants them gone.
This would be in keeping with the anti-union posture of both the governor and the powerful lobby of super-wealthy, led by the Walton family, intent on privatizing the Little Rock School District. Teacher resistance was a key element in defeat of Walton-backed legislation in 2015 that would have allowed a state takeover of the district for parceling out to private operators, a process that is underway more slowly nonetheless. The latest news is that the Key administration is willing to allow a sale of a building next to the district's new middle school on Highway 10 for use as a charter high school. The Walton Family Foundation has ready cash to enable such a deal. It would leach still more teachers out of the district and likely draw heavily from the higher income, predominantly white surrounding neighborhood, to the detriment of the rest of the district. A new high school in that spot long been an aim of the Walton's $237,000-a-year lobbyist stationed at a Little Rock-based nonprofit.
But a more immediate concern is the teacher contract, which expires Oct. 31. It is a product of a new agreement negotiated with Baker Kurrus, who spent a year as school superintendent before Key fired him for objecting to charter school proliferation. Kurrus rewrote a cumbersome contract, paring it down to a few pages. He won important concessions from the union on a reduction in pay and contract length and they've seen a retrenchment in jobs as district enrollment has dropped. They supported a tax vote that was controversial. Their thanks for a willingness to sacrifice in the name of the greater good? Not much.
An employee policy manual developed by district employees and the LREA has gone unsigned by Key since September. This is a sign of deep disrespect by Key, given that it was approved not only by teachers and district administrators but also by the community advisory board that nominally has some influence on district affairs. The state has also thrown up resistance to accepting the routine certification of LREA membership. (It must demonstrate 50 percent membership of certified and non-certified employees, except administrators.) It has done so.
The fear now is that the final step will be Key's refusal to OK a new contract, known as a professional negotiating agreement. As I understand it, little is sought by way of changes in the current agreement and negotiations should be simple The "key" issue is whether the LREA will continue to be recognized as a representative of teachers.
The teachers are intent on continuing to teach. But a rejection of their efforts could lead to a monumental reaction.
Political fallout will be certain, if that happens, in both the mayor's race and the governor's race.
Kurrus is running for mayor. All four candidates, including Warwick Sabin, Vincent Tolliver and Frank Scott, say they want the district returned to local control, but the state Board of Education and Key have made no significant movement in that direction. The LREA involvement and influence in the community is long and strong. Will mayoral candidates line up with teachers or the Hutchinson administration?
Don't badmouth LREA members to me, a parent of two graduates of the LRSD. I know the committed men and women of the LREA. I know them as people whose days weren't guided by a time clock, whose pocketbooks opened up for supplies and who embraced children of every color and need in the warmest of ways.
The governor's race is a different matter. I'd hope, based on his statements yesterday about lifting teachers, that Jared Henderson, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, would object at a minimum to the Hutchinson administration using the LRSD as a whipping boy for its and the Waltons' anti-union agenda. Beating up on unions is popular in some quarters (not Missouri this week, where voters smashed a right-to-work law). An anti-union teacher group that has been supported on the national level by Walton money has lately been spending heavily on newspaper advertising to lure new members and throw criticism on the Arkansas Education Association and its affiliates. It's perhaps not coincidental that the anti-union teachers group is seeking to recruit members at a time the governor's office is seeking to decertify the LREA on the ground it doesn't represent enough people in the district.
Much politics are to come. Some fear the Hutchinson administration, through Key, might even WANT to provoke a teacher action in response to a refusal to recognize the LREA or work with teachers on job conditions. Remember that working conditions are about kids' conditions, too. Teachers have won these showdowns in other states recently. Arkansas? We may soon see.
The simple solution is to continue to recognize a group that has gone far more than halfway to accommodate changing conditions in Little Rock.
UPDATE: The LREA again today provided backup information on membership to meet certification standards. The letter notes that it originally submitted information in April, but only recently got challenged (on July 30). Here's the letter.
UPDATE II: Kimberly Friedman, a state Education Department spokesman, replied to my request for a response from Key on characterizations of his action, or lack of, on district issues.
Last week the commissioner approved the certified personnel policies as submitted by the district. Seven sections were not adopted due to various concerns and discrepancies. The commissioner directed that LRSD and ADE staff work to address and resubmit these sections for approval.
Upon reviewing the LREA verification of membership submitted earlier this year, LRSD noted that the verification only addressed the percentage of teachers represented by the LREA. Since this was insufficient to meet Paragraph 11 of the PNA, Commissioner Key directed Mr. Poore to request additional verification from LREA regarding the percentage of all employee groups represented by the LREA, as required by Paragraph 11. As of today, he has not received the amended verification.
Please note: Key signed some, but not all, of the policy manual submitted ELEVEN MONTHS ago. He is now raising questions about membership numbers submitted more than THREE months ago. Those numbers were updated today, but they apparently haven't reached Key. Much more is to come obviously.
Here are the documents provided by the state in response to my FOI request.
to be clear: the teachers insist Key has still not signed the personnel policy manual.


American Idol finalist Trent Harmon will perform Justin Timberlake's lone country single "Drink You Away" during Thursday night's episode (Fox, 8PM ET). It's a first in many ways for the show, mentor Scott Borchetta says.
“It’s the first time Justin ever cleared a song for the show, so pretty proud that he stepped up and did a solid, and Trent crushes that,” Borchetta — president of Big Machine Label Group — tells Taste of Country.
Timberlake released "Drink You Away" as a single shortly after he performed the song with Chris Stapleton at the 2015 CMA Awards. It did not receive significant airplay, barely cracking the Billboard Country Airplay chart. Timberlake put the song on his 2013 album The 20/20 Experience.
Borchetta chose "Drink You Away" for Harmon, a frontrunner to win Season 15 of American Idol. This week, contestants will perform one song he picked, one the judges pick and one inspired by his or her hometown. The field of four will be narrowed to three by the end of the broadcast. Next week's two-part finale will be the final two episodes of American Idol ever.
Thursday night's show is sentimental for the crew of the hit reality show, as it's the last at CBS Television City. Borchetta said it has been emotional.
Borchetta's other picks for the finalists are Lorraine Ellison's "Stay With Me" for La'Porsha Renae. Dalton Rapattoni will sing Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" and Mackenzie Bourg will sing Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon."
American Idol Finalists: Where Are They Now?


Yeti Holdings stock jumped 17% Thursday after the company beat estimates for fourth-quarter earnings. The name might not be familiar. That’s part of the appeal.
Yeti (ticker: YETI) makes outdoor gear, like big, rugged coolers that stretch across the beds of pickup trucks whose owners hunt and fish. The coolers are pricey and popular. There are also jugs, wine tumblers, and more. A recent survey by Morgan Stanley found that purchase rates for Yeti gear were close to those for the Coleman and Igloo brands. But Yeti’s brand-recognition rates were far lower. That’s a good sign. It suggests that as more people learn about it, sales could surge.
That seems to be happening. During the fourth quarter, sales rose 19% from a year earlier to $241.2 million, the Austin, Texas–based company said Thursday morning. Gross margin improved by a lot, 6.9 percentage points, to 53%. Profits tripled, helped by a tax benefit. Even without the benefit, they would have risen handsomely; operating profit was up 60%.
The results show Yeti is keeping expenses under control as it gains scale. One way it’s doing that is through dot-com savvy. Yeti sells through sporting-goods stores, its own website, and Amazon.com (AMZN). Direct sales during the fourth quarter jumped 45% to $110.5 million. The company called out drinkware as a strong contributor.
There are a few things to give investors pause. Chief among them is that the company went public only in October, at $18 a share. Initial public offerings mean people who know the company best are raising money by selling part of their stake, which means outsiders should think carefully before buying.
Another thing is that all 11 analysts who cover the stock recommend a purchase, according to FactSet. That raises the question of whether there is more popularity left to gain. Also, 60% of Yeti’s products are made in China, giving it exposure to a tariff escalation, if there is one.
These aren’t deal breakers. The main thing to like about Yeti is all the untapped growth potential. It is mainly known in the U.S. South, leaving plenty of customers to gain in the North. The company has had some recent success winning younger customers and more women. Overseas markets could one day provide more growth. And there are new product categories to enter. Yeti recently added lawn chairs, dog bowls, and backpacks.
The valuation is reasonable for a fast-grower. Yeti carries an enterprise value—the total cost of shares and net debt—of nearly 13 times this year’s projected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. There are no companies in precisely the same business, but Canada Goose Holdings (GOOS), a popular coat brand with plenty of growth potential, carries an EV/Ebitda ratio of 36, and Newell Brands (NWL), whose many products include Rubbermaid containers and whose growth outlook is iffy at the moment, stands at 15.
Jefferies analyst Randal Konik, one of the stock’s biggest bulls, likes that Yeti generates enough free cash to reduce its debt and fund its growth. “The capex needs of the model are fairly low, the company margins are strong and rising, and the demand runway looks powerful and early days,” he wrote in a Thursday note to investors. His price target of $35 His price target of $35 implies 60% upside from just under $22. If he’s even half right, growth investors could take home more cool profits from here.


Amazon workers listen to recordings from Alexa.
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.
Amazon workers get to hear some of what users tell Alexa, and they have a chat room to talk about "amusing" recordings. Amazon told Bloomberg that it only tasks humans with reviewing "an extremely small sample of Alexa voice recordings."
Oracle and IBM are officially out of the race for a key $10 billion defense cloud contract as Amazon and Microsoft move ahead. The JEDI contract is expected to be awarded by mid-July at the earliest, the Department says.
Disney is preparing to reveal most of the details for its Netflix competitor, Disney+, in a presentation to investors on Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal. The service will stream new and old shows pegged to its most popular franchises.
Pilots who fly for Amazon Air are protesting poor working conditions and pushing for a better contract. The union which represents the group said pilots will protest Thursday at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
A government proposal for a 10-mile wall around Burning Man could kill the desert festival favored by Silicon Valley elite. The federal agency that administers the Black Rock Desert has proposed building a 10-mile concrete wall around the festival and making Burning Man pay for it.
Twitter is telling users to tag the New York Times when they type "Enemy of the people" but the prompt is actually being triggered by the word "people" and it's not clear why. The recommendation happens regardless of whether or not you're following the @NYTimes account, and requires the user to type "People" with a capital P.
Elon Musk trolled Jeff Bezos on Twitter, calling him a copycat. The tweet was in response to a story about Amazon's plans to launch thousands of satellites, bringing high-speed internet to remote parts of the world.
Hulu has ordered a miniseries chronicling the story of Theranos, starring SNL's Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Holmes, Deadline reports. The series will be based on the ABC News podcast "The Dropout."
Google Cloud is taking on Amazon by moving into retail, and it's a first step in new CEO Thomas Kurian's bigger plan. Kurian said he wanted to focus on targeting specific verticals, like retail, finance, and healthcare.
Amazon plans to start accepting cash at Amazon Go stores after reported accusations of "discrimination and elitism" and new laws banning cashless stores. Massachusetts, Philadelphia, and New Jersey have passed laws that require stores to accept cash payment, and New York City and San Francisco are considering similar measures.
Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings. You can also subscribe to this newsletter here - just tick "10 Things in Tech You Need to Know."


Smartdriverclub is preparing for a future of autonomous vehicles by developing tracking technology. But will everyone be happy to hand over this personal data?
It was this lesson Searles had in mind when she started the Portsmouth-based business three years ago. Her aim is to build a company accustomed to insuring vehicles with sophisticated reporting functions and inbuilt tracking, which would put it in a strong position when driverless cars become widely available.
Currently it offers telematics insurance, a form of insurance where a policy is based on a driver’s behaviour. Such driver behaviour – how fast they go, the routes they take, what time they drive – is measured by an internet-connected device, usually plugged in underneath their glove compartment. No matter their age or profession, drivers stand to get discounts based on this data.
Several motor insurers now offer this service including large firms such as the AA and Tesco Bank, and newer, smaller brands like Marmalade, and Coverbox. The policies are often aimed at young people who are put off driving by the hefty insurance premiums they would normally have to pay. And there’s some evidence to suggest the use of telematics is reducing young-driver casualty rates because of the incentive to drive carefully. It’s still an emerging trend, though, with fewer than 1m policies being taken out in the UK last year.
Where Smartdriverclub is tying to differentiate itself, Searle says, is in all the additional things that telematics could do, but currently isn’t.
At present, it is the only telematics insurance provider that can tell users when their MOT is due and when the car battery is low. It also comes with an automated voice that asks if you need help after a crash; if the answer is “yes”, or no reply is given, that notifies the insurer’s 24-hour team and the emergency services. It also offers live tracking of where your car is which “could help if your daughter is out driving late at night, and you’re worried, wanting to see where she is,” Searles says.
The business has picked up two tech and innovation awards last year from Insurance Times, and in 2017 Searles was named a rising star of women in the car industry.
The introduction of fully autonomous cars is expected to lead to an overhaul in car insurance. Issues such as speeding might not affect driverless cars, but it’s this type of data that will be needed to settle insurance disputes - speeds, locations and the vehicle decision-making processes will all inform how each claim is resolved.
“Motor insurance is still often priced and sold in the same way as 15 years ago: it depends on where you live, how old you are, your job, how old your car is, and so on. It’s been that way for ages,” Searles explains.
“We’ve got an advantage in that we are fast, entrepreneurial and small. We can make decisions and implement new things quickly,” says Searles. “But our budgets are much tighter than for larger insurers,” she adds, as selling telematics insurance also comes with the overhead of sending a smart device to customers.
Her company has grown to 50 staff; she started it after leaving the first business she founded 10 years ago called Wunelli, which sold telematics data to other companies. Her senior team came with her to Smartdriverclub and her two sisters also help out.
But not everybody is happy with the capabilities of this technology. “There will be customers who don’t want it,” says Andrew Stevens, a consultant at customer experience consultancy Quadient. “They could be people who want to drive at 90 miles an hour on the motorway and would prefer not to have that tracked.


Inflation, End of Year (Indexed to Year 2000) for Morocco in year 2015 is 116.478 (Index, Base Year 2000 = 100). Data for inflation are end of the period, not annual average data. The index is based on 2000=100.
This makes Morocco No. 126 in world rankings according to Inflation, End of Year (Indexed to Year 2000) in year 2015. The world's average Inflation, End of Year (Indexed to Year 2000) value is 155327206.19 (Index, Base Year 2000 = 100); Morocco is 155,327,089.71 less than the average.
In the previous year, 2014, Inflation, End of Year (Indexed to Year 2000) for Morocco was 114.64 (Index, Base Year 2000 = 100) Inflation, End of Year (Indexed to Year 2000) for Morocco in 2015 was or will be 1.60% more than it was or will be in 2014.
In the following or forecasted year, 2016, Inflation, End of Year (Indexed to Year 2000) for Morocco was or will be 117.99 (Index, Base Year 2000 = 100), which is 1.30% more than the 2015 figure.


The Blues have confirmed today that Sonny Bill Williams will be sidelined for up to six weeks, with the cross‑code star out of rugby action due to an ongoing knee injury.
The All Blacks midfielder suffered the injury against the Stormers last month while setting up a try for first‑five Otere Black.
Blues coach Leon MacDonald said Williams will be a huge loss for the Auckland Super Rugby franchise.
The Blues will take on the Chiefs at 7.35pm this Saturday while the Brumbies will face the Lions at 9.35pm.
Tomorrow, the Crusaders will meet the Highlanders at 7.35pm while the Rebels play the Stormers at 9.45pm.


The Oregonian headline shouted “Beware of Small Business Tax Hike” over State Representative David Gomberg’s bill (HB 4067) that hits Oregon small businesses with a huge tax increase. HB 4067 bill would cancel the 2013 small business tax cuts package (he voted for) before a single person gets tax relief. His plan gives tax relief to only the smallest of Oregon’s businesses.
David Gomberg has since issued an amendment. He wishes to add more business to benefit but take it out of the flesh of existing larger businesses. It represents the traditional twisted view of how liberal tax hungry politicians see tax relief which is not actual tax relief in the macro-sense but rather moving benefits from one business and giving it to another (as if they were economic gods). It fits the perfect axiom that politicians like to pick winners and losers in our economy. Liberals like to take tax relief from business as opposed to touching state government’s $60 billion biennial budget. Since Oregon is in the top 20 biggest spending states in the nation there is ample room to offer tax relief to small businesses. Taking profit from one business and giving it to another is not the path to prosperity.
The other suspicion behind Gomberg’s quick tax-change of the October 2013 Grand Bargain tax package is that it may be used to eliminate scores of businesses from tax relief before they know about it. The projected number of businesses to be helped by the upcoming tax relief maybe small because the tax relief has not occurred. It does not factor in the number of business who may easily change their tax structure to qualify for their small business tax relief. Gomberg’s tax bill (HB 4067) would shut these small business owners from tax relief and deny them a chance to participate. This is why David Gomberg’s claim that the number of small businesses financially hurt by his bill is small — when it may indeed by huge. David Gomberg is likely gambling to steal their tax relief before they even find out that it is available.


A new report highlights the "substantial impact" caused by family violence in New Zealand and calls for action to address it.
The report on preventing family violence and reducing incarceration rates was released today by the Chief Science Adviser to the Justice Sector, Dr Ian Lambie.
Family violence thwarts a parent's ability to "nurture their children in the way they desire," the report says.
"Managing feelings (especially aggression), information-processing, reading social cues, and problem-solving skills can all be hampered by the extremely high levels of stress that children experience."
The report also points to the likelihood of intergenerational transmission of violence, neglect and maltreatment, with violence "normalised".
It states that intimate partner violence is the "leading cause of female homicide death and the most common type of violence that women experience".
One third of New Zealand women experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence, rising to over half when emotional abuse is included.
Fourteen per cent of men have experienced physical violence and 47.3 per cent have had psychological violence in their relationships.
The report recommends enhancing parent support and skills and providing quality early childhood care and education.
"We need to challenge social norms that relate to violence; not allow economic disadvantage to hamper non-violence; build workforce capacity in prevention and intervention; and enhance support for skilled parenting, quality early childhood care and education, and, where necessary, intervention for individual children and families," the report said.
Dr Lambie said today family violence was a "significant problem in Aotearoa New Zealand", and it should be seen as an issue impacting "people just like you and me".
He said people feel trapped in cycles of violence, and the New Zealand system does little to get them out of those cycles.
"We already know the significant trauma family violence causes for children and adults in New Zealand. What we need are concrete actions to prevent that trauma and improve the lives of all New Zealanders," Domestic and Sexual Violence Issues Under-Secretary Jan Logie said.
"The priorities set out in the paper include a strong focus on repairing the harm done to our children; the need for media and awareness-raising campaigns to challenge social norms and focus on prevention; and the investment required in our workforce to ensure we the necessary integration and collaboration."
"It also points to the importance of adequate income, housing, support for parents and wider environmental conditions in our efforts to reduce violence. We have to look at the big picture."


There's good news regarding cancer. Death rates are down. But there are some areas that still need attention and there are things we can do to further improve survival rates.


NEW YORK — Smoking in the U.S. has hit another all-time low.
There hadn’t been much change the previous two years, but it’s been clear there’s been a general decline and the new figures show it’s continuing, said K. Michael Cummings of the tobacco research program at Medical University of South Carolina.
“Everything is pointed in the right direction,” including falling cigarette sales and other indicators, Cummings said.


Over the weekend, Southern-inspired barbecue joint Cedar Hill opened. Here’s an early look from The Chronicle, which visited yesterday to take the menu for a test drive for Sunday’s “What’s New” print feature.
Please note that this first look isn’t anything remotely resembling a review, but simply descriptive snapshots of a restaurant during its first week to give potential diners an idea of what to expect, at least in the earlygoing. So, here’s the skinny on dinner for two.
Food ordered: Per the waitress, the food is meant for sharing, and the menu is divided into several sections: 3 starters (fried okra, fried oysters with country ham, salad), several sandwiches ($9.50-$14), Southern specialties (fried chicken, shrimp and grits), sides, and barbecue (pulled pork, brisket, ribs).
We opted for the following: the sweet tea fried chicken ($11, half order), which is made by brining in a strong brew of sweet tea for a day, then soaked in buttermilk for another day; pulled pork ($4, quarter order); and baby back ribs ($13, half order). BBQ orders come with pickles and white bread.
Drinks ordered: 2 pints of Schrimshaw Pilsner ($6 ea.), one of a handful of beers on tap. There are also wines and bottled beers available.
Total bill: $44.71, pre-tip, paid in full.
Things you should know: Take-out is available, and the barbecue and fried chicken items are available in full, half or quarter portions. They have a smoker on site, and the white oak logs stacked by the bathrooms are proof. The long, narrow 50-seat interior is pretty straightforward, with a 12-seat bar and open kitchen.
Additional color: As chef Jon Rietz (ex-Memphis Minnie’s) said a few months back, there isn’t a specific regional focus, and accordingly each table is outfitted with four bottles of sauces, all made in house: Kansas City sauce (tomato-based, molasses, sweeter), Texas red (tomato-based, worcestershire, black pepper, vinegar, spicier), North Carolina vinegar dip (thin, vinegary, red pepper, black pepper), and a South Carolina mustard sauce.
Cedar Hill: 3242 Scott St., between Chestnut and Lombard. (415) 834-5403 or cedarhillsf.com). Dinner daily. Lunch coming very soon.


This is what every New Orleans Saints fan should have this Christmas!
It's a "Who Dat?" Christmas tree, which came out in Alexandria in 2011!


The store will open in August.
MAPLEWOOD, Mo. — Grocery shoppers in Maplewood will only have to go a few months without a store at 7355 Manchester Road because Schnucks is taking over the location left empty last month.
Suspicions about the move surfaced a few weeks ago, and a press release from Schnucks confirmed that the company will take over the location an open in August.
Schnucks said it plans to hire about 100 new staff members. Anyone interested can click here.


Chea Mony speaks at a protest near the M&V garment factory in Kampong Chhnang province yesterday afternoon.
Workers at M&V International Manufacturing’s garment factory in Kampong Chhnang province went on strike yesterday afternoon after talks between management and the Free Trade Union workers broke down.
FTU secretary-general Man Seng Hak said yesterday “the strike would continue until all demands are met and workers will set tyres aflame [today]”. The demands include the reinstatement of 20 employees allegedly fired last month for attempting to establish a branch of the union at the factory.
The FTU has said that workers at the factory began joining its union after two mass fainting incidents at the factory in August. The incidents prompted investigations by the labour ministry, the International Labour Organisation and global brand H&M, which buys apparel from the factory.
A spokesman for H&M told the Post yesterday that the company was “in contact with the FTU and M&V management”. He also said it was “finalising the results from [its] investigation” into August’s mass faintings.
FTU president Chea Mony said that 20 staff had been dismissed for trying to join his union last month.
M&V, however, has said the workers were on short-term contracts that had expired. Soum Sinath agreed, saying “the termination of the contracts between the company and workers was legal, and the factory had no work for them so it ended their contracts”.
He also described yesterday’s strike as illegal. “According to the law, if both sides fail to reach an agreement, they forward their dispute to the Arbitration Council and if the company does not follow the order of the Arbitration Council they have the right to strike,” he said.
FTU’s president at the M&V facility, Tem Silak, said she was among the 20 workers allegedly fired for attempting to establish the union at the factory. She said M&V had dismissed 290 workers in September. “We asked the company to allow them to return to work when work is available, but the company rejected this,” Tem Silak said.
The FTU said 3,000 of the factory’s 4,000 employees joined yesterday’s strike, while Soum Sinath put the number at 1,000.
M&V management declined to comment.


A competency-based curriculum discussion has reminded Kenyans of the value of the use of local languages.
Language is the mode of learning, growing and loving. It is therefore in a group of items that are referred to as priceless cultural and intellectual heritage.
The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has emphasised time and again that the mother tongue is key to effective learning, peace building and sustainable development.
Mother tongue is therefore superior to other languages and its use in writing is an art that few artists are able to navigate. It is not for sale, even when it is sold.
In one of the events organised to promote his new book Kenda Muiyuru, he pointed out that colonisers, slave masters and conquerors systematically annihilated a people’s way of life and thought systems by attacking their language and naming systems.
It turns out that English is Kenya’s official language alongside Kiswahili, the national language, and in the new curriculum Mandarin, the Chinese national dialect, Arabic, German and French will now be taught to Standard Four pupils.
Teaching staff and learning materials will naturally create commerce for the countries in which these languages are spoken. I doubt that there are enough, if any, trained teachers in any of these languages, especially at primary level. But most importantly, Kenyan children will be exposed to weightless cultural ideas and philosophies.
This would present little challenge for children who have a strong foundation of their own languages as happens in the countries in which all the above languages are spoken. The primary mode of learning for children in Germany, France etc. is these languages. Children can and do learn other languages, later in life.
The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has emphasised time and again that the mother tongue is key to effective learning, peace building and sustainable development. Every year on the February 21, the world celebrates the International Mother Language Day to reiterate the commitment to linguistic diversity and multilingualism. Why would the curriculum developers then think that this diversity does not include, Rendille, Kamba, Maasai or any other Kenyan language?
Liberty in the use of one’s mother tongue is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that no one should be discriminated against on the basis of language. It is also supported in the Convention against Discrimination in Education. The logic here is that a child must be instructed in their mother tongue to enable learning until such a time that they are conversant in the national or official languages of their territorial jurisdiction, which are often the languages of instruction in schools.
According to Unesco, forty percent of the world’s population does not have access to education in a language that they speak or understand. In essence this means that no learning takes place even if such a person is in school. Sad!
Yet there are Kenyans who continue to lack understanding on the value of the mother tongue. They have criticised Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s stand and have argued that he, with millions of copies of his books in different titles in circulation international, has primarily used English as the language of communication.
But killing the messenger does not change the message. Language is the most heavily-laden channel of transmission for cultural content. In these cultures lie wisdom, tradition, lessons learned from past mistakes, warnings of things foretold and records of historical achievements, victories and failures.
As is always the case when a raw cord is struck, some people have turned personal and asked if the professor earns his living from his Kikuyu literature. And this bespeaks of the great devaluing of life in itself through the commercialisation of everything, including one’s heritage.
It is soulless to account for everything in monetary terms and the cash that can be derived from it. To paraphrase an Australian Aborigine saying, ''We are visitors in this place. Our purpose is to learn, to grow, to love and then to return home''.
Language then is the mode of learning, growing and loving. If it is inherited, then it will, so to speak, ''speak from the heart''. It is therefore in a group of items that are referred to as priceless cultural and intellectual heritage. This makes mother tongue superior to other languages as a mode of communication.
Language is also an asset whose value is little-understood until it is lost. African literature is part of our priceless heritage, especially that which is in the mother tongue or translated from it. Mother tongue is therefore superior to other languages and its use in writing is an art that few artists are able to navigate. It is not for sale, even when it is sold.
For the second time in four years, Ngugi wa Thiong’o may have come close to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature.


But the news could also be dire: hemmed in by increasing development, panthers are running out of space.
It’s a grim outlook for our state animal.
The stretch where the female died Tuesday is a heavily forested road through the Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest considered among the most treacherous spots for panthers, said Elizabeth Fleming, Florida program director for Defenders of Wildlife. Since 2010, a half-dozen cats have died in the area.
The death is doubly troubling because the female cat was so far north. For years, wildlife managers have hoped to have a female cross the river to establish another breeding population.
With so many deaths caused by vehicles, state officials and environmentalists are working to come up with ways to make roads safer and identify hotspots, particularly along rural roads where traffic might be light but cars tend to speed. More wildlife crossings have been added in recent years and last month, the state announced plans to close a 9-mile gap in fencing along Interstate 75 east of the Naples toll plaza.
Figuring out exactly where panthers live might be a better fix, he said. So scientists are also looking at using trail cameras and tracking data from panthers with radio collars to find areas panthers prefer in order to increase protections and improve management.
Over the last year, much has been made of the state’s panther count and whether it’s entirely accurate.
Ranchers argue the number is likely higher, based on the number of livestock attacked. This year they reported 32 attacks, down from a record 39 last year. They, along with hunters who have complained about fewer deer, want a 2008 federal management plan that calls for two more breeding populations north of the river scaled back and more done, like shooting nuisance panthers, to protect livestock.
The issue boiled over during the summer and fall when FWC Commissioner Liesa Priddy, a rancher, helped draft a policy statement for the state without including the biologists who had spent years working on recovery. The plan called for the state to abandon efforts to establish the additional populations, leaving the work to federal wildlife managers.
“Recovery will never be successful because there’s too many people that recovery affects,” Priddy said at a September meeting.
The draft drew so much criticism that state and federal officials instead decided to launch a new review of the 2008 management plan, which both sides agreed had languished.


Immediately after Donald Trump was elected, U.S. diplomats urged Lithuania to rush through an agreement to keep American troops on its soil, reflecting alarm that the new, Russia-friendly U.S. president might try to stop more deployments in Europe.
Immediately after Donald Trump was elected, US diplomats urged Lithuania to rush through an agreement to keep American troops on its soil, reflecting alarm that the new, Russia-friendly U.S. president might try to stop more deployments in Europe. The agreement was signed just a few days before Trump’s inauguration, according to a document from the Lithuanian defence ministry, and became the first step locking the new U.S. president into a NATO strategy to deter Russia in Poland and the Baltics, following Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
“When you put soldiers on the ground, tanks like this, that signifies a long-term commitment,” Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the U.S. army’s top commander in Europe, said at the snow-covered base in Zagan, Poland where thousands of U.S. troops are arriving before fanning out across the region.
“I am not hearing anything that would tell me otherwise,” Hodges said when asked whether Trump might scale back deployments. The president has described NATO as “obsolete” and has praised Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
But it will be hard politically for Trump to bring troops home “on the orders of Russia”, one senior alliance diplomat said. The U.S. soldiers featured in a TV commercial seen by millions of Americans at the end of the Super Bowl on Sunday.
Worried since Russia’s seizure of Crimea that Moscow could invade Poland or the Baltic states, the Western military alliance wants to bolster its eastern flank without provoking the Kremlin by stationing large forces permanently.
The troop build-up is NATO’s biggest in Europe since the end of the Cold War, using a web of small eastern outposts, forces on rotation, regular war games and warehoused U.S. equipment ready for a rapid response force of up to 40,000 personnel.
Britain, Germany and Canada are playing major roles in the force build-up. “Every ally is locked in,” said Adam Thomson, a former British ambassador to NATO and now director of the European Leadership Network think-tank in London.
Apparently confident of Washington’s commitment to Obama’s strategy, Poland’s Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz declared “God bless President Trump” at a welcoming ceremony for U.S. forces in Zagan last week.
But European governments remain concerned Trump could use the troop deployments as a chip with Moscow in a grand bargain. Political analysts say that could involve giving Moscow a free hand in much of the former Soviet Union in return for a commitment not to interfere in Europe.
“Trump is a businessman and he wants to negotiate from a position of strength,” a central European diplomat in Brussels said of the decision to allow U.S. deployments to continue.
Trump held an hour-long phone call with Putin in late January but avoided talk of Crimea and the rebellion in eastern Ukraine that the West accuses Moscow of sponsoring.
Trump has suggested lifting economic sanctions imposed on Russia over Crimea in return for a reduction of nuclear weapons.
He might offer to scale back NATO projects like the new Polish site set to form part of the alliance’s missile shield in the region. NATO says the system is designed to intercept Iranian rockets but Moscow says it is aimed at disabling Russian missiles.
The shield was developed by the United States and is now part of NATO. “It is impossible for Washington to act unilaterally without upsetting allies,” Thomson said.
For now, Obama’s “dialogue and deterrent” remains the NATO mantra – talking to Moscow but also sending U.S. tanks back to Europe and reopening Cold War-era storage sites.
“We stick with the facts, not the forecasts,” Salvatore Farina, the NATO commander coordinating forces in Poland and the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, told Reuters at the Rukla military base in Lithuania, where both a German battle group and U.S. infantry are based.


ROMELU LUKAKU is well due a rest, judging by the amount of minutes the Belgian has played for Manchester United so far this season.
Which Premier League stars have played the most minutes this season?
Which Premier League stars have played the most club football this season?
The Premier League fixtures are coming thick and fast over the hectic Christmas period, but some players are obviously considered indispensable by their managers.
Lukaku has played every minute of every Manchester United game in the top flight so far this season, with Jose Mourinho labelling the striker “untouchable”.
However, with European and domestic cup commitments also placing a strain on the Red Devils squad, Lukaku finds himself in dire need of a rest over the festive holidays.
Liverpool ace Mohamed Salah has also been used extensively by Jurgen Klopp as the Egyptian enjoys a stellar start to his career at Anfield, but who else has played the most club football so far this season?
Take a look through the gallery above to see an XI of overworked Premier League stars who have played the most football for their clubs so far this season.


WASHINGTON - Joseph E. Mohbat, a former Associated Press reporter who covered the 1968 presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy and later served as press secretary of the Democratic National Committee before becoming a lawyer in New York, died Aug. 10 of cancer at a hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was 73.
Mr. Mohbat came to Washington in the early 1960s and for several years was at the center of the country’s political life as a reporter and later as a Democratic Party official. From 1970 to 1972, Mr. Mohbat was press secretary to the DNC and its chairman, Lawrence F. O’Brien.
Early in the morning of June 17, 1972, Mr. Mohbat was one of the first people to learn of a break-in at DNC headquarters at the Watergate office complex when he was awakened by a call from his secretary. He was interviewed by FBI agents, who also inspected his telephone for potential wiretaps.
He participated in the 1972 presidential campaign from the inside, serving as a spokesman for Democratic candidate George S. McGovern. Mr. Mohbat later filed a claim against the campaign when it was slow to pay his salary.
Mr. Mohbat tried to preserve a measure of journalistic detachment, but he admitted he couldn’t help being moved by Kennedy’s message and presence.
Before Kennedy was fatally shot in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, Mr. Mohbat asked him if he thought about the possibility of assassination.
Joseph Emile Mohbat was born Dec. 18, 1937, in New York City and grew up in Rhode Island. After graduating from Middlebury College in Vermont, he became a newspaper reporter in Galesburg, Ill. He joined the AP in Chicago in 1960 before coming to Washington about two years later. He received the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative reporting in 1968.
In 1966, Mr. Mohbat received a yearlong Nieman fellowship to Harvard University, where he became interested in studying law.
After his stint at the DNC, he worked in public relations and edited newsletters about energy while attending Georgetown University law school at night. He graduated in 1978, then moved to New York a year later.
He had a private law practice for a few years before joining the New York City Law Department in the 1990s. He was a trial lawyer in the Bronx tort unit until two months before his death.
In Clarke’s book, “The Last Campaign,’’ Mr. Mohbat recalled flying into New York’s old Idlewild airport, which had been renamed after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
“It must be quite something to land at an airport named for your brother,’’ Mr. Mohbat said to Robert Kennedy.
“I wish it was still called Idlewild,’’ Kennedy replied.


In a recent press preview event in New York, they unveiled the device, which will launch Friday in AT&T and Verizon stores. The stakeholders see the Hydrogen One as a creative leap beyond the best phones Apple and Samsung have on the market. It will be priced accordingly, at $1,295. From its early days in the market, the Hydrogen One will also represent a synergistic opportunity for WarnerMedia and AT&T, one of the first since the companies’ $81 billion merger closed in June.
The phone’s holographic “4 View” screen is billed as the first of its kind, delivering 3D experiences without glasses and 360-degree sound with or without headphones. With a rugged aluminum body with Kevlar panels and battery life said to be superior to that of the latest iPhone, the RED Hydrogen One is the vision of Jim Jannard. The inventor and entrepreneur founded eyewear giant Oakley and then went on to create RED mainly because, as he explained to the crowd in New York, he wanted better gear.
Movies available at launch will include Warner Bros. titles Ready Player One and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Films from the studio will comprise more than half of the selections at launch, with plans to have half of the projected 110 film titles once the service is up and running.
At a storefront in NoHo, a couple dozen journalists joined executives from the companies for a blue-sky round of demos and remarks about how and why the device came to be.


WARRN RUDA / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Dr. Greg Burke chats with Geisinger President and CEO Dr. David Feinberg at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville on Tuesday.
DANVILLE — Geisinger President and CEO Dr. David Feinberg rolled up his sleeve Tuesday and offered the first blood sample for the first-of-its-kind clinical DNA sequencing program in the country.
Feinberg first announced the program in May at the HLTH: The Future of Healthcare conference in Las Vegas and he said Geisinger is the nation’s first health care system to include DNA screening as part of a patient’s routine health exam.
Under the program, patients are screened to see if they have any variations of genes linked to certain cancers or cardiovascular disease. The information will help doctors better treat or prevent diseases in patients, he said.
“It feels like the future is here,” Feinberg said after becoming the first patient in the program at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.
Feinberg said the screening was a gift to his family. It will allow him to say to his family if they are or aren’t at risk for something. If they are at risk, he said they can do something about it to make it better. He expects results in two to four weeks.
“To me, it’s great information that gives you knowledge and power,” he said.
Until now, the DNA screening was being done only through Geisinger’s research program called the MyCode Community Health Initiative.
More than 200,000 participants have helped build a bank of DNA samples to study the relationship between genes and disease.
“What we’ve seen here at Geisinger through our MyCode study already is being literally able to save hundreds of people’s lives,” Feinberg said.
Now, the testing will be part of a patient’s routine medical exam and results will be included in the patient’s medical records.
The program launches with Geisinger employees covered by Geisinger Health Plan as the first 1,000 patients enrolled.
Patients of either the Internal Medicine Clinic at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville or the Kistler Clinic in Wilkes-Barre will be the first eligible.
The goal is to eventually extend DNA sequencing to more than 3 million Geisinger patients, Feinberg said. He expects the program will be available to patients in a few months.
Feinberg compared the DNA sequencing program to mammograms, Pap smears, colonoscopies, cholesterol checks and other routine screenings that could save lives by detecting cancers and heart disease early. Patients can choose whether or not they want to have their DNA tested just like other screenings, he said.
He said DNA sequencing can detect genetic conditions such as Lynch syndrome that increases someone’s risk of colon cancer as well as malignant hyperthermia, a disorder that occurs in people who don’t metabolize anesthesia well.
The DNA sequencing program will start with healthy people to see if they have “something genetic going on that we can know about and do something about,” he said.
Geisinger, one of the nation’s largest health service organizations, serves residents throughout 45 counties in Northeast and central Pennsylvania as well as southern New Jersey.
The system has about 30,000 employees, 13 hospital campuses, two research centers and a health plan with about 583,000 members.


E-collars are the wireless modern way to train police K-9s.
Consisting of a special collar equipped with batteries, electric contact points and a radio receiver tuned to the handler’s handheld transmitter, e-collars allow police K-9s to be trained off-leash and at a distance. The handler uses varying ranges of alternating current to shape the dog’s behavior in response to verbal/hand commands on an ongoing basis; from staying by the handler’s side to subduing a perp using a bite hold and then dropping that hold upon command.
Sergeant (ret.) Doug Roller knows all about e-collars and K-9 training. Now owner and lead instructor at Tactical K9 LLC, Roller was the Chief Trainer Metropolitan Division with the Los Angeles Police Department’s K9 Platoon. He spent 25 years with the K-9 Platoon and has helped with over 6,500 K-9 training deployments in his career.
Roller offers these three tips to explain the best ways to use e-collars in K-9 training.
Unlike humans, dogs do not make distinctions between work life and off-duty life. To them, it is all the same.
This is why handlers need to approach their K-9s in all instances as if they are in a training/working situation. Doing so will provide the dog with a clear, consistent environment that they can adapt to with a sense of personal security and trust.
In this environment, positive reinforcement is as important as negative reinforcement. The whole point of K-9 training is to shape the dog’s behavior in all aspects and situations, so that they can respond appropriately, obediently and willingly to their handler’s commands – especially when being told to release a bite on an apprehended suspect.
The fact that an e-collar can be used to “zap” a disobedient dog misses the purpose of its power. An officer could also TASER a dog to the same end – but that would hardly train the dog to willingly obey the human ordering them around.
In other words, an e-collar is a K-9 training/control tool; not a cattle prod. Handlers should never use it as such, any more than they should lose their tempers with K-9s and overwhelm them with fear.
A smart handler introduces a K-9 to an e-collar as early as possible in training. They also use the e-collar in tandem with other training techniques, such as leashes and verbal/hand commands, so that the dog will learn to associate specific levels of stimulation, patterns, and levels with specific leash-led commands.
If in doubt, turn to a K-9 professional familiar with e-collars to guide and train your K-9 handlers, to ensure that they get the most of the e-collars your department purchases. Properly used, e-collars can save the lives of officers, dogs and the public that they work together to protect.


As I watched David Cameron's speech on Britain's future in the EU on Wednesday, I was reminded of a scene from the 80s British sitcom, Only Fools and Horses.
Our cockney hero Derek Trotter, or Del Boy, is on holiday in France. He spots a bikini-clad beauty at the poolside bar and tries to pick her up. Sadly, Del Boy cannot speak French but rather than admit he's clueless, he gives it a go anyway. You can see he's convinced himself of his fluency. Responding to the blonde's 'Vouz restez à l'hotel?, Del replies with a smirk, 'Defense de fumer', following up with a drinks order 'Dos Dubonet, per favore. Danke Schön'. Cue much canned laughter and an incident with an inflatable chair.
So, why did David Cameron's speech remind me of this? Because I felt the same cringe-worthy embarrassment watching Del Boy as I did watching Dave Boy. The sense of, here's a Brit, making a wally of himself abroad. To paraphrase Del Boy, I wanted to shout at the screen, "Dont be a plonker, David!"
Mr Cameron's speech highlighted, for me, quite how far Britain feels separated from its European neighbours. It goes well beyond psychological geography, the excuse of "We cant help being suspicious of the EU, we're an island" or "We're more entitled to sovereignty, we're an island." I often get a sense of genuine fear.
But I have a way to solve this. Britain, move!
There are around 20,000 Brits living in the French capital. When I first moved here, someone told me to expect a lot of Brits suddenly becoming experts on what shade of blue the Queen would wear at Ascot. No-one's as patriotic as an expat, I was told. To a degree, that's right. In nearly every quartier, there's a pub, packed with a crowd baying for Sky Sports' english-language football commentary on big match days. Picking out the Brits at France 24 is easy - who gets the most excited by a packet of hob-nobs? who knows where to find bacon in Paris? who knew the most efficient way to live stream the London Olympics? The Brits, of course. I even made sausage rolls, for the first time in my life, to mark the opening ceremony.
Yet, speaking personally, I am constantly amazed at how a tiny move geographically has completely re-worked the lens through which I view the UK's place in Europe, and by dint of that, the rest of the world. London, where I am from, is so close to Paris, not even 3 hours by train, but it's perspectives apart. Only by moving out of the UK, have I come to realise how incredibly UK-centric my motherland is. Perhaps that's the result of generations of British schoolchildren spending more time learning about what Henry VIII ate for breakfast** than the formative history of nations we live right next door to. It is fascinating how much British history the French know and are taught at school. I am actually quite embarrassed when I realise Les Miserables (musical version) is my primary French historical reference. Yet, living in Paris, I have undergone, what I shall term, a 'Strasbourgean enlightment' and I feel all the richer for it. I, for the first time, feel truly European. Startling, given that I've lived in Europe my entire life. But it's true, I feel like a British European; one who can love the Queen and admire a Republic; who can raise a toast to Britain but do it with a glass of Bordeaux. I do not feel that, by being one, I cannot be the other. Indeed, I revel in the dichotomy.
Now, I am in no way saying in terms of political or economic governance that Brussels or Strasbourg is beyond criticism. The EU is a giant-mammoth of an organisation and it is wasteful, slow to react and endlessly bureaucratic. But I remember once having a lively classroom debate/all out brawl with my history teacher, Mr Brown, over the UK's relationship with Europe. I suppose it must have been when the Amsterdam treaty was being signed in 1997, because otherwise we would have been talking about duckboards and trench foot, as ever. I remember Mr Brown being quite an angry man with an unfortunate boil on his bald pate. "Vittozzi," the boil throbbed, "we dont want to be governed by corrupt officials in Strasbourg and Brussels!". I landed, what I felt was a killer blow, 'Brown, I am sure there's corrupt officials in Westminster too'. Bang, knock-out! Vittozzi champion of debate (and detention for being impertinent).
Now, years later, I still feel the same. Just because we fear one thing's not perfect, why should we think the status quo is any better, just by being what we've always known? I have described myself as British European. Do you think that's a contradiction? I don't. It's a term that accepts that countries can be united, but still have very different cultures. I know plenty of French people who live in London because they think the Brits do some things better. Vice versa with British people here. It's vital that this interaction of cultures, economics and politics is allowed to continue. It's something to be explored and cherished, rather than feared. If there's a 2015 referendum, I am a big IN. I want to be part of this economically, politicaly and culturally diverse mish-mash. And it's a position I will guard, as vocally as I can.
*The only person I have ever met who has a moat lives in Henley. And he's a prat.
** I always believed Henry VIII ate swans for breakfast. But apparently he liked marmalade.
Dave's remarks are just as embarrassing if you still live in the UK... let's remember that he wasn't elected PM and we voted to join the EU. We.re not all right wing biggots trying to win back votes from UKIP.
Dear 'Anonyme' (sorry, I couldn't see you name in your comment), Thank you so much for reading and commenting on my blog piece; it's always great to hear feedback. As you took the time to comment, I thought I would take the time to answer. I feel like we are rather talking at cross purposes. I think this is clear in your point of 'the UK has done more then any other EU state to promote diversity'. This piece does not look at the treatment of race, colour and diversity within UK or indeed French borders at all. I am quite happy to discuss multiculturalism in Paris - indeed, that's what other pieces on this blog look at. My comment on UK-centrisism is with regards to it position, now and historically, on Europe and the EU. David Cameron even mentioned in his speech, when he referenced the UK's "island psychology". Thanks again for commenting.
Another excellent blog, very topical and very well written. I am very fond of France, having spent over a year of my life in total there,spread over many years, and been shown much kindness and friendship. I have also travelled in a number of European countries where I have received much of the same. I voted to enter Europe in the original referendum but things were very different then. You and David Cameron acknowledge the shortcomings of the E U and the European Commission, there is indeed far too much waste which needs prompt and considerable eradication. The problem many people of my generation have is one of seemingly 'open door' immigration when Britain, as with other countries, is in the grip of Financial crises if not recession and a high unemployment rate. The world has changed since Britain joined the then 'Common Market'..many people in the U K believe Europe must change too--otherwise the E U will slowly disintegrate with more and more countries being dissatisfied. Let's hope both Britain and the E U sort things out..and quickly.
I am astonished at your comment abt how UK centric your homeland is. What rubbish! As a British Person Of Colour I can tell you that the UK has done more then any other EU state to promote diversity.You only have to wonder round any big British city to see how different cultures are affecting and changing the lives of Brits.This is reflected in arts, culture, food,music, film even language. People of colour in France have a very negative experience of racism.Your wonderful melting pot excludes them. Remember some 20 percent of the French voted for a far right party. There are over 400,000 French living in London compared to the 20,000 in Paris, so we must be getting something right.


Dozens have died during a sweltering heat wave in Karachi, a southern port city in Pakistan, according to the Edhi Foundation, an organization that runs the city’s morgue. The foundation reports that 114 bodies were brought to their morgue from Saturday through Monday, and attributed 65 of the deaths to heat stroke. The province’s health minister, Fazlullah Pechuho, disputes that report.
Sustained temperatures of over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, including upwards of 111 degrees on Monday, caused local authorities to urge people to stay inside and drink water. However, in a majority-Muslim city of 15 million, the heat wave has coincided with Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, in which followers fast from sunrise to sunset. This fasting includes the intake of water.
Additionally, scheduled load-shedding – planned power outages in specific areas designed to reduce the strain on the power grid – has left parts of the city in the dark and without air conditioning for prolonged periods of time, particularly in factory districts. Certain areas have experienced up to seven hours of power loss a day.
According to the Edhi Foundation, many of the reported dead were factory workers, particularly from low income working-class areas. “They work around heaters and boilers in textile factories and there is eight to nine hours of (scheduled power outages) in these areas,” Faisil Edhi, the director of the Edhi Foundation told The Guardian.
Other deaths included the elderly and people with preexisting health conditions.
Despite the Foundation’s stance on the cause behind the deaths – namely heatstroke and dehydration – the province’s health minister, Fazlullah Pechuho, staunchly disagrees.
“Only doctors and hospitals can decide whether the cause of death was heat stroke or not. I categorically reject that people have died due to heat stroke in Karachi,” Pechucho told the Dawn newspaper, adding that no hospitals in the region had received a patient suffering from heat stroke.
There are fears that this year could echo June of 2015. The heat wave during Ramadan in 2015 also coincided with frequent power outages, and resulted in temperatures of upwards of 113 degrees Fahrenheit. The New York Times reported 1,000 deaths as hospitals were overrun with over 14,000 patients suffering from dehydration and heat stroke. In 2015, the Edhi morgue ran out of freezer space after 650 bodies were brought in a short period of time, prompting ambulances to leave corpses outside of the morgue in the overwhelming heat.
Residents are hoping for respite from the sweltering heat, as Thursday brought coastal winds that cooled the city to highs around 100 degrees. The temperatures for the rest of the week look to stay under 104 degrees Fahrenheit.