MIAMI — A little extra bullpen help would be a relief to the Mets.
Even with the rotation showing signs of wear and tear, the team’s primary focus heading toward the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline remains another reliever, according to a person with knowledge of the organization’s thinking.
Bartolo Colon is struggling and Steven Matz and Noah Syndergaard are both dealing with bone spurs. Plus, there are continuing questions whether Logan Verrett can pitch effectively enough to warrant a rotation spot.
But given the inventory of available starters at this point, team brass isn’t certain there is a upgrade to be had at a reasonable cost.
The Mets view another reliever as more easily attainable and are monitoring options that include the Angels’ Joe Smith, the Braves’ Chris Withrow and possibly Brewers closer Jeremy Jeffress — who would cost the Mets significantly in terms of players needed to make a deal.
Arizona has made no secret that Tyler Clippard can be had, but the Mets are unlikely to seek a reunion given that the veteran righty is signed through 2017.
With Mike Piazza’s No. 31 set to be retired next weekend, the Mets have changed the location in Citi Field where they will display the retired numbers, now affixing the plaques to the roof, above the upper deck in left field.
Previously, the retired numbers for Casey Stengel, Gil Hodges and Tom Seaver, with tribute plaques for Jackie Robinson, Bill Shea and broadcaster Ralph Kiner, were behind the left-field fence at a lower level.
“The combination of our increased attendance coupled with the retirement of Mike Piazza’s number brought to light the need to enhance the visibility for all of our retired numbers, which were frequently obstructed in their previous location,” the Mets said in a statement.


Jofi Joseph: anonymous @natsecwonk handle revealed to be National Security Council staffers.
Twitter bird says: Don’t be stupid.
“Was Huma Abedin wearing beer goggles the night she met Anthony Wiener? Almost as bad a pairing as Samantha Powers and Cass Sunstein” tweeted @natsecwonk, a popular anonymous tweeter who was revealed by the Daily Beast this week to be senior National Security Council staffer Jofi Joseph. In an ironic turn, Joseph has now suffered the same fate as his once-Twitter target Wiener: losing a high-profile political position due to reckless tweeting.
What sets Joseph apart from the majority of people who lose their jobs by way of social media is that he took pains to anonymize his online activity. Twitter, unlike Facebook and Google+, does not require users to create accounts under their own names. Many Twitter users—including Anthony Weiner—do link their accounts to their real-life identities, but others do not, leading to a wide variety of anonymous novelty accounts and humorous parody accounts for famous people. And as Joseph’s story reminds us, Twitter is not just a place where anonymous everyday people can take on the voice of famous individuals. It’s also a place where powerful and high-profile figures can take on the voice of anonymous, uninhibited handles.
But social media identities are rarely completely anonymous, even when they are not governed by real name policies. Online activity almost always leaves a trail. Part of that trail is technical—companies like Twitter and Facebook log IP addresses and other data associated with user logins, which courts can compel them to turn over in certain cases—but it’s not clear that the Joseph investigation relied on any such technical tracing via Twitter’s internal records.
Reading through Joseph’s tweets, it’s not hard to imagine how a careful analysis of whom he discussed and what he talked about might be enough to let investigators deduce his true identity. His tweets read almost like a trail of breadcrumbs, dropping clues about whom the author worked with, what events he attended, what issues he followed. An investigation into Joseph’s travel and shopping patterns might mean trying to geo-locate IP addresses used to access the Twitter account at certain times and then matching that location data to places where Joseph was known to be shopping and traveling. But the fact that these patterns were “parsed” from the corpus of tweets suggests the investigation may instead have involved mining the text of the thousands of tweets posted from the now-deleted account to identify specific stores, restaurants, or destinations that Joseph visited. Or perhaps the timing of the tweet postings was analyzed and compared against Joseph’s known patterns of behavior and daily schedules. Piecing together these types of behavioral data may not be easy—the investigation into @natsecwonk’s identity apparently lasted months—but it’s far from impossible.
Technical clues are only part of the identity trail we create on social media sites. The ways in which our behavior and relationships on Facebook and Twitter mirror and intersect with our real-life behavior and relationships can provide equally powerful clues about who we really are. In some cases these social hints may be even more significant than technical traces—after all, an IP address can be spoofed, but an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the White House national security operation is harder to fake.
Joseph intended to pen one of the entertaining, satirical commentary accounts that Twitter has become famous for—accounts like @justin_buber, @notzuckerberg, @queen_uk, or @PimpBillClinton—but he ended up in the middle of a career-ending debacle instead. Sure, he kept the account running for more than two years, but ultimately he ran into the fundamental problem of trying to remain anonymous in an online social world where—much like in Washington, D.C.—the whole point is to network, to connect with other people, to know and be known.


The mayor tried to rush through a complicated proposal that caught too many Kansas City leaders by surprise. James enthusiastically presented his broad outline to the Kansas City Council with the hope of getting his proposal on the November ballot. He was met with immediate rebukes from several council members. The City Council’s mixed response was soon followed by slings and arrows from other community leaders and organizations who had serious reservations about the details.
Lost in all the politics and skepticism was the sad fact that only about one-third of 4-year-old children in Kansas City attend pre-K programs. The mayor sees a way to remedy that void. James has proposed a three-eighths-cent sales tax to generate $30 million annually for a citywide pre-K program.
James and his staff have studied preschool initiatives in several major cities. Denver’s successful plan was a model for the mayor’s proposal. It’s critical to bring key leaders from Denver to Kansas City to provide a full-blown, detailed presentation with open discussion involving as many stakeholders as possible.
This time, James needs broad-based participation. The City Council should provide input in the earliest stages. The 15 superintendents and school boards of districts that include Kansas City can provide the perspectives of educators whose students will benefit from this effort. Leadership from the Urban League of Greater Kansas City is a critical component. The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce — which is a booster, if not a true partner in this effort — will almost certainly take a leadership role, along with the mayor.
The details need to be hammered out right now. It will take until year’s end to weave together a proposal that the community and local leaders will support. Since James wants to put this on the ballot in April, through a citizen petition, that effort needs to start in early January so that the campaign can quickly get underway. It will take three months to run a decent campaign.
Fortunately, Kansas City has a visionary mayor to lead the charge for this visionary idea. But a lot more work and planning need to take place before it goes to Kansas City voters in April. Already the mayor has provided a rough blueprint for success. But more consensus is needed, or this worthy proposal will be nitpicked to death.


BARBARAELLEN KOCH PHOTO | Paumanok Vineyard winemaker Kareem Massoud.
Kareem Massoud has been the winemaker at the family-owned Paumanok Vineyards since 2001.
Paumanok has been an estate winery since 1990, when Ursula and Charles Massoud renovated and re-built a turn-of-the-century potato barn.
“I’m a second generation, homegrown winemaker. I learned the trade under my father’s tutelage,” Mr. Massoud said.
His father, Charles Massoud, is still a big part of making the wine at Paumanok, though the day-to-day responsibilities are Kareem Massoud’s, he said.
And now the eldest son at Paumanok has a big feather to stick in his winemaking cap.
Recently, Paumanok’s 2010 Semi-Dry Riesling was chosen as one of the Wall Street Journal’s “luxury dozen,” the top 12 bottles of wine in the nation chosen in an 800-bottle blind judging, chaired by British author and world-renowned wine writer, Hugh Johnson.
Because of 2010’s exceptionally dry and warm season, Paumanok’s riesling was picked a week or two earlier than normal — in mid-September, Mr. Massoud said. The semi-dry vintage was blended from the estate’s four separate riesling blocks, roughly 16 acres, he said.
“We have one block that was planted in 1983, two from the late 80s, and the most recent from ’05,” he said. The harvested blocks were fermented separately and later blended together. The process also included a mixture of different yeasts.
“The wine didn’t touch oak at all,” Mr. Massoud said. “It was fermented entirely in stainless steel tanks and given two or three months contact with the lees — relatively brief lees aging, where the wine is still in contact with the dead yeast cells that have settled at the bottom of the tank.” This method could add texture and volume to the wine, he said.
“The key thing to note about this wine is that we call it semi-dry, meaning there’s residual sugars in the wine,” he said, adding the wine has about 3 percent residual sugar, or 30 grams per liter, and about 8 and a half grams of acid per liter.
The first riesling the vineyard produced was its 1990 Dry Riesling. The vineyard began producing semi-dry riesling two years later.
When asked what qualifications it takes to be a winemaker, Mr. Massoud said a degree is not among them.
“I think I’m living proof that you don’t need an oenology or viticulture degree to be a winemaker, though that certainly doesn’t hurt.” He said that if you have the right attitude, perseverance and a strong work ethic, you can do whatever you want to do in life, including winemaking. He added the job is also very demanding.
Some say Paumanok’s honor as one of the Wall Street Journal’s “luxury dozen” has put the Long Island region on the fine wine map, but Mr. Massoud said the region has already been on the map.
“This can only help bolster the perception that Long Island is a legitimate wine district that serious wine connoisseurs around the world should be familiarizing themselves with,” he said.


So what are they doing about the latency problem with Sat internet connections?
Unless this is somehow addressed it won't get much of a foothold against DSL or WIFI.
The average home user wants VOIP and gaming, latency critical apps.
"help make satellite a mainstream internet alternative"
Not unless they can do something about the 250ms latency imposed by the speed of light on a round trip to geostationary orbit. It's a great solution for folks who will never get a cable or DSL connexion, but it can never be a replacement for land-based technologies.
"The ViaSat-1 will have a throughput of about 100Gb/s... ViaSat claims the satellite will let distributors price a basic service at 2Mb/s... It's expected to be able to provide service to about two million subscribers."
So they're expecting to provide service of 1,000Gb/s (512Kb/s) to 4,000Gb/s (2Mb/s) from a 100Gb/s satellite? It's good to see the practice of massively overselling capacity is alive and well.
And am I the only one who thinks even 2Mb/s will be virtually useless by the time this is launched? With the massive increase in size (and thus bandwidth) used by most websites in recent years, even 2Mb/s will look like dial-up speed for anything other than email. I'm sure some people in rural areas (or for whatever reason can't get high-speed Internet through other means) will be happy to wait 10-20 seconds for each page to load, but most others will probably think it's not worth the cost they'll have to pay for it.
oh well there goes the PLANET!!!
Sunday 7th December 2008 11:59 GMT yeah, right.
orbit? Fact checker, aisle 3.
It's unlikely to be "in orbit over North America". More likely to be "in orbit over Ecuador", or some other place on the equator. That is, after all, where geosynchronous orbits need to be.
What about the police radar?
Isn't this the same band that the police radar use. My Valentine 1 is going to go nuts.!!!
Satellite is Good for Broadcast.
I'm sceptical about these Ka Internet business plans due to the 800ms Latency and extra rain fade on Ka.
2 Million people on 100GBps is indeed 50kbps per person. At 50:1 contention, it's 2.5Mbps.
But that is Clear Sky. It uses adaptive modulation on up and down links and in heavy rain will give 200kbps at 50:1 contention on downlink.
Uplinks are about 1/8th speed at best. Users want more like 4:1, 5Mbps and <50ms latency for VOIP and Gaming.
Unless you use the flavour of VPN that viasat supports natively on their modem you lose all the TCP/IP accelerator features. As is the case for encrypted Torrents.
Similar Ka is launching in Europe @13E in similar Time Frame. US already has similar "Wild Blue".
In the end these may make satellite TV cheaper. Sat TV can't use the ACM on downlink, but needs CCM, so speed is the same (and lower) in Clear Sky and Rain.
ok not so good for games, passable for IM, though obviously not ideal, but for stuff like p2p, or anything like email or general web surfing its probably fine.
depends on the price they charge. if they offer it as "unfiltered, limited only by bandwidth" i.e. no specific throttling but when its full it slows down. it may fly.
especially if the link kit to upload/download is a black box on an ethernet wire (or wifi) thats easy to set up. make it need a phone line for the uplink and its dead in the water. if you have a phone line you don't need it.
it comes down to price. slow but cheap? or no bandwidth caps but slow? or seriously fast, cheap but limited and they may have a chance.
limit it in any serious way, or have the connection kit seriously expensive and its dead.
Web browsing is horrible over satellite connections, particularly bi-directional satellite. The amount of data isn't huge, but its lots of itty bitty files which generates lots of individual TCP connections that never get going very quickly due to the high latency and small window sizes.
I used to maintain an ISP satellite service in the 90's and the only way we could improve the performance of web browsing was to proxy HTTP and break some RFCs to keep TCP window sizes big. Even doing that, some commercial apps still used to run far better over ISDN or even analogue dial..


How critical can one be of Israel? It is a question that Germany has been debating since SPIEGEL ONLINE columnist Jakob Augstein was included on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of the world's worst anti-Semites. Political leaders in Berlin have a different answer than Germans at large.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has charted a firmly pro-Israeli course.
Does Angela Merkel mistrust the very people she governs? Is she uncomfortable with the German people?
In October 2011, the German chancellor stood onstage at the academy of the Jewish Museum, in Berlin, next to conductor Daniel Barenboim. The celebratory concert had concluded, and the museum's director had just presented Merkel with its Award for Understanding and Tolerance.
This is one of many awards the chancellor has received from Jewish institutions over the last couple years, including the Heinz Galinski Prize from the Jewish Community of Berlin, the American Jewish Committee's Light Unto the Nations Award and an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University.
At the Jewish Museum, Merkel spoke a few pleasant words, calling the award both an honor and a responsibility. Then she cited a study, according to which 60 percent of Europeans -- including Germans -- consider Israel the most significant threat to world peace.
Following Merkel's logic seems to present a conclusion that two thirds of Germans harbor anti-Semitic sentiments. Is this really what the chancellor believes? Or was her intention simply, as she said in her speech, to warn against allowing anti-Semitism to increase?
Merkel's speech provides a direct path into the minefield that is relations between Jews and Germans, and between Germany and Israel. Of course it is absurd to label Israel the world's worst aggressor. But does simply making such a statement count as anti-Semitism? Where does objective criticism end and defamation begin? The controversy over journalist Jakob Augstein's columns in SPIEGEL ONLINE and elsewhere has re-ignited this debate, a storm triggered when the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles placed Augstein on its list of the world's worst anti-Semites.
Two different arenas of discussion have arisen in Germany in recent years, one for the country's politicians and one for the public. Most politicians cling tightly and fearfully to the safety of the official line when they give speeches. Particularly members of the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, haven't forgotten the 1988 case of Philipp Jenninger. Then president of the Bundestag, Jenninger expressed himself unclearly in a commemorative speech on the anniversary of the Nazi Kristallnacht pogroms in 1938, leaving his own views too open to interpretation. Within 24 hours of that speech, Jenninger resigned.
The general public, on the other hand, is tired of the strictures that dictate what can and cannot be said for the sake of maintaining good German-Israeli relations.
Every society needs its taboos, of course. In Germany, Holocaust denial is one such taboo, as is casting aspersions on Israel's right to exist. But doesn't each era need to find its own particular language in which to communicate? World War II has been over for more than six decades. The generation that perpetrated the crimes is dying out. Germany has become one of Israel's closest allies, as can be seen from the billions of euros' worth of arms sales from Germany to Israel. Isn't that grounds enough for speaking openly, even expressing severe criticism if necessary?
The chancellor certainly doesn't think so. More than any other head of government, she has aligned Germany with Israel. Some see these efforts toward reconciliation with the Jewish people as the only conviction the chancellor truly holds. "She takes the matter personally," says Deidre Berger, head of the Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee. Shimon Stein, former Israeli ambassador to Germany, was even a private guest at Merkel's weekend house in the Uckermark region northeast of Berlin.
In a 2008 address to the Knesset, Merkel declared Israel's security "part of my country's raison d'être." Even more spectacular was the statement that followed: "And if that is so, then these cannot be allowed to remain empty words at a critical time." This can only be understood as Merkel assuring Israel that Germany will step in with military aid if necessary.
"A German politician must establish a relationship of mutual trust with Israel, so that criticism of Jerusalem is not misunderstood," says Ruprecht Polenz, a member of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and chair of the Foreign Policy Committee in the Bundestag. Chancellor Merkel has certainly done this. But she has also offered at most quiet protest over Israel's settlement policy, to little effect. Many within the Chancellery are frustrated that these arguments have not moved Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the least.
Merkel's unconditional solidarity with Israel has thus failed to pay off, yet at the same time her approach has distanced the chancellor from many Germans, who are unwilling to follow her so unconditionally. Just how wide that rift has grown could be seen in the public debate last spring over a poem by Günter Grass, in which the author portrayed Israel as the aggressor in the Middle East and a threat to world peace. None of the country's top politicians came to Grass' defense. Hermann Gröhe, secretary general of the CDU, said he was "appalled" by the poem and even Sigmar Gabriel, chair of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) stated, "Some of it is excessive, and in many parts hysterical." These reactions only made the public's support for Grass all the more vehement, with letters piling up in the parties' headquarters expressing outrage over the politicians' rebuke of Grass.
What exactly does this response signify? Are the Germans a nation of anti-Semites, with the ugly countenance of hatred toward Jews lurking behind every corner, as author Tuvia Tenenbom recently suggested in his book "I Sleep in Hitler's Room: An American Jew Visits Germany"?
There have been a number of studies on anti-Semitism in Germany, and few topics have been examined as extensively as Germans' sentiments toward Jews. The most recent major study, conducted on behalf of the Federal Interior Ministry, clocks in at 204 pages.
Still, the question remains: How can one measure an attitude, a feeling? In what units is hate calculated? Is someone an anti-Semite if they say Jews have too much influence in Germany? Or if they express agreement with the opinion that Jews never look after anyone but themselves and their own?
One thing can be said for certain, and that is that Germany falls more to the middle of the spectrum on such questions. In Poland and Hungary, for example, anti-Jewish sentiment is far more widespread than in Germany. All told, according to the Interior Ministry study, 20 percent of Germans harbor latent anti-Semitism.
Certainly these numbers should be taken with a degree of skepticism. The researchers themselves admit it's impossible to produce clearly measured results in this field. But one thing is clear: Germans' anti-Semitism acts as a great temptation in politics -- any politician looking to garner votes for his or her party quickly can play on anti-Jewish sentiment.
That, though, is a dangerous game, as politician Martin Hohmann found out when he used the term "a nation of perpetrators" in connection with Jews. Merkel excluded him from the CDU's parliamentary group as a result.
The story of Jürgen W. Möllemann ended badly as well. Möllemann, a top politician in the Free Democratic Party (FDP), played a game that held not only many voters in thrall, but his own party as well, stating in an interview that he could sympathize with Palestinian suicide attackers, and accusing then-Vice President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Michel Friedman of being "intolerant and spiteful."
FDP party head Guido Westerwelle was slow to take any action on Möllemann. Not until Hans-Dietrich Genscher and the party's higher-ups intervened did Westerwelle break with Möllemann. Israel hasn't forgotten the incident and keeps Westerwelle, now Germany's foreign minister, under close observation to this day because of the Möllemann affair.
Israel feels under threat more than ever before, both from Iran and through the developments throughout the Arab world, and that sensitivity is only growing. At the same time, from Germany's perspective there are many reasons to view Israeli policies critically. The country has changed, with demographic changes due to immigration from Eastern Europe and Africa causing a political shift to the right. Hardliners will have the say here for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, Israel's settlement policy will soon render the idea of a Palestinian state impossible. When Hans-Ulrich Klose, the SPD's top politician on foreign policy issues, recently attended a political congress in Israel, he met hardly any politicians still working for a two-state solution -- the solution Germany considers the only viable path to peace in the Middle East. "It was sobering," Klose stated.
What, then, should Germany do? Klose says he still believes the German government should refrain from publicly reprimanding Israel. "Why should Germany of all countries make itself Israel's critic?" he asks.
But some younger politicians take a different view, and are increasingly unwilling to stick to the old approach. "Germany has a historical responsibility," agrees Julia Klöckner, 40, head of the CDU in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. "But that's not a blank check to be uncritical in foreign policy."
Germany needs to find a way to be less inhibited in its dealings with Israel, Klöckner suggests. She adds, "Those who throw around accusations of anti-Semitism at every turn lose credibility."
"Less inhibited in dealings with Israel"? "Throwing around accusations of anti-Semitism"? Are these acceptable things to say? Klöckner may find herself taking considerable heat for her statements -- or meeting with considerable approval.
Israel doesn't care whether Germany endorses the policy of building settlements in what would become Palestine or not. If it doesn't care what the USA thinks, then sadly it certainly won't care what Germany thinks. Germany's role, for many years to come, will be to support Israel when it can, and to keep quiet when it can't. This may not be fair, or rational, but it is a consequence of history, and it is the only honourable course of action that remains for Germany at this time. It is to the great credit of Germany that most its people recognize this reality and are prepared to abide by it. Despite all of the sophistication of international relations, relationships between countries are not so different from relationships between individuals. Wrongs must be righted, and the duration of righting far outlasts the duration of the wronging, and most Germans, even young Germans, know this and accept this, and it honourable and commendable that they do so.
I could not agree more with clockwatchr. Germany's role, for many years to come, will be (or at least should be) to support Israel when it can.....and to remain quiet when it cannot. As this poster stated, it is a consequence of history! I am a supporter of Germany and its people. But, c'mon, if there is ever to be any criticism of the policies of the Israel govt, it should be left up to other European governments. Some people may think 6 decades (since the Holocaust) is a long time. But in the course of history, it really is not! Yes, indeed, there have been many other atrocities throughout history. But what happened in WWII can NEVER be forgotten. And it is beyond despicable. Sadly, history shows us that it is a consequence of what can happen when a society does not make themselves aware of what is going on around them.


"The mortgage rate is very high in this country," putting a drag on the economy as housing-related companies struggle, CNBC's Jim Cramer says.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate was at 4.85 percent on Thursday, according to Freddie Mac, after spiking to 4.9 percent the prior week.
Rising mortgage rates may really start to hurt the economy, consumer spending and company earnings soon, CNBC's Jim Cramer warned on Monday.
"We're going to see more and more bad earnings because [a] 5 percent mortgage is the end, that is the line in the sand," Cramer said Monday on "Squawk on the Street." "The mortgage rate is very high in this country."
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate was at 4.85 percent on Thursday, according to Freddie Mac, after spiking to 4.9 percent the prior week in the rising bond-yield environment. A year ago, the 30-year mortgage was at 3.88 percent.
In recent weeks, Cramer has been critical of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, saying the central bank is not taking into account signals of a slowing economy, particularly in housing-related companies, in charting a course for interest rates next year.
Cramer has also been urging the Fed to go back to being data-dependent to determine whether more rate hikes are needed, and not to be blinded by an arbitrary desire to normalize monetary policy.
The Fed raised rates three times this year, and another hike is expected in December.
Earlier this month, Powell sparked concerns on Wall Street after he said rates are a long way from neutral, a level of being neither accommodative nor restrictive to the economy.


The rudest awakening. Chrissy Teigen tweeted about an awful racist encounter on Thursday, April 16, which prompted support from her fellow celebrities including Retta and Mindy Kaling.
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover girl, 29, was taking a stroll in West Hollywood to kick off her morning when the unexpected suddenly occurred.
"I dropped my sunglasses this AM on Santa Monica blvd and this seemingly normal looking dude screamed "f—ing ch-nks always dropping s–t," wrote the gorgeous model, who is of Norwegian and Thai descent. "…like that's not even a stereotype. get your s— together. What a bad racist."
As if his first strike wasn't enough, the offender then followed up with another racial slur to make it clear he was targeting John Legend's wife. "We were the only ones on the block and he screamed it from 5 feet away," she wrote. "Then when I acknowledged it he said 'oh now the oriental can hear.'"
Teigen infused some humor into the harrowing tale, commanding her nearly 710,000 Twitter followers to be on the lookout for the culprit. "Anyhoo, that was my morning!" she wrote. "If you see a guy in weho wearing a brown suit jacket and jeans, probably avoid eye contact."
Her celebrity pals immediately reacted to the news. "WHAT?!" Kaling wrote, following up with a huge serving of sarcasm. "That's an insanely hilarious new racism I've never heard of before. Congrats, sociologically."
Parks and Recreation star Retta also joked about the incident outright and tweeted: "Do you think you could get me his number? He seems fun."
Teigen's day, it seems, improved considerably as she later shared an Instagram clip of her latest recipe tutorial. "Your morning pork chop video!" the avid cook wrote. "Used crushed up chicken stove top for the breading. Chicken fried pork!! It's. Delicious."
Your morning pork chop video! Used crushed up chicken stove top for the breading. Chicken fried pork!! It's. Delicious.


Apple's newest iPhone 3GS will be the most powerful yet with more robust graphics and a faster network connection when it hits on June 19 for $200 to $300, the company announced today during their annual World Wide Developers Conference.
The iPhone 3GS will hit the same week as the new game-centric 3.0 firmware for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The 3GS will sell for $199 for the 16GB version and $299 for the 32GB version. The original 3G will stay on the market for $99 with 8GB of storage.
Apple calls it "the most powerful, fastest iPhone we've ever made."
Apple says that the iPhone 3G S takes advantage of the OpenGL ES 2.0 standard for "stunning high-quality 3D graphics, making mobile gaming and other graphic intense applications better than ever."
With the 3GS, launching messaging is faster, viewing Excel is faster and loading SimCity is 2.4 faster. The 3Gs will include a 3MP autofocus camera, 30FPS VGA video capturing and supports OpenGL/Es and 7.2 Mbps HSDPA. The 3GS will also include a built-in digital compass.
The device's battery life has also been improved, with the 3Gs getting nine hours of life on Wifi, compared to the 3G's six, and 30 on audio, compared to 3G's 24.
Last week sources told Kotaku that the new iPhone would sport a gaming-centric 3D graphics chip, run on a faster national network. We were also told that Apple's 3.0 firmware for their existing iPhones, which includes a bounty of new features for gaming, will hit on the same day.
This year the World Wide Developers Conference drew 5,200 developers from 54 countries. Apple also announced today that they have sold more than 40 million iPhones and iPod Touch. They've also logged more than a billion downloads and the App Store has 50,000 programs. That's quite an install base.
Apple's firmware and this new iPhone come at a time when the company is seeing huge growth in the games flooding their App Store. The company seems to be a crossroads of sorts, one that has folks like the Entertainment Software Association sort of hinting that they need to dive in with both feet.


HUNTINGTON, W. Va. — Western Kentucky will host Louisiana Tech at 11 a.m. Saturday at Houchens-Smith Stadium in the Conference USA championship game. The contest will be televised by ESPN.
The Hilltoppers (9-3), the 2015 Conference USA champions, won the league’s East Division by virtue of its 60-6 win at Marshall on Saturday. Louisiana Tech (8-4) clinched the West Division earlier this month, but lost the right to host the title game after losing 39-24 at Southern Mississippi on Friday.
The Bulldogs have defeated WKU in two of the last three meetings including a 55-52 victory Oct. 6 in Ruston, La. The Tops beat LTU 41-38 in 2015 in Bowling Green.
Western has won six straight and 20 of its last 22 against Conference USA opponents. It has also won 12 straight against conference opponents at home.
A win against Tech would give the Hilltoppers back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in program history and two straight conference titles for the first time since 1970-71.


ZURICH, April 10 (Reuters) - Sunrise Communications' top shareholder on Wednesday blocked plans to extend the company's right to issue fresh capital to 2021, complicating its bid to buy Liberty Global's Swiss UPC cable business for $6.3 billion.
The rejection by Freenet at the Swiss telecoms firm's annual shareholder meeting does not scupper the takeover, which was announced in February.
A separate meeting will decide on the $4.1 billion capital increase needed to push that through.
But the thumbs-down from German telecoms company Freenet, which holds a 24.5 percent stake, denied Sunrise the required two-thirds majority to extend capacity for authorised capital until 2021. The measure got only 59.3 percent support.
"Together with Freenet we could have agreed it makes sense by pushing forward a (further potential) capital increase to take pressure off the large capital increase," Sunrise finance chief Andre Krause told Reuters.
"Now we can't do that. Freenet robbed us of optionality."
Freenet had already said it would not take part in the main capital hike, saying it was disturbed by how the transaction was structured. It has not yet decided how to vote at the extraordinary shareholder meeting that will be convened to approve that, Freenet lawyer Alexander Borgwardt told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual meeting.
The date for that meeting - where only a simple majority is needed - has yet to be set pending regulatory approval for the deal.
Authorising fresh capital now could have helped contribute some of the money needed for the deal, Borgwardt said, adding: "We think this should be voted on at the end, when the entire transaction will be discussed."
Sunrise Chairman Peter Kurer said a two-thirds majority for the capital increase could be needed should Liberty Global in the meantime buy shares in Sunrise.
In that case, it would be easier for Freenet with its nearly one-quarter stake to block the capital increase because not all shareholders attend meetings. The turnout on Wednesday, for instance, was 62 percent of the voting capital.
There was no evidence at this stage that Liberty planned such a move, Krause said.
Kurer had earlier expressed optimism that Sunrise would win backing to raise the money needed to complete the UPC takeover.
Sunrise officials have met more than 170 large shareholders and potential investors in recent weeks to outline the deal. "After these talks they view the transaction significantly more positively," he said.


Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has big plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe following 2019's Avengers 4 - over a dozen, in fact.
"[Marvel is] 22 movies in, and we’ve got another 20 movies on the docket that are completely different from anything that’s come before- intentionally,” Feige told Vanity Fair.
Avengers 4 will be Marvel Studios' twenty-second film, and the end to the MCU's Phase 3. The previously-announced Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel would account for two of those 20 post-Phase 3 projects. Additionally, sequels for Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and the upcoming Captain Marvel can be safely assumed.
That still leaves 15 projects unknown - barring any surprise fourth film for Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, or Guardians of the Galaxy, or a fifth Avengers film.
But as Feige said, these films will be "completely different" from the previous MCU films - a statement that Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger illuminates - and possibly opens some doors to.
“We’re looking for worlds that are completely separate - geographically or in time - from the worlds that we’ve already visited,” said Iger.
Captain America: The First Avenger was a period piece - the 1940s - while 2019's Captain Marvel film will be set in the 1990s.
And following the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Feige and writer/director James Gunn have repeated used the term 'Marvel Cosmic Universe' when referring to that corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which could be tipping the hand on what's to come.


A Babylon Town worker could lose his job after posting hateful insults on social media targeting a Muslim teenager in Lindenhurst the day before her graduation, the town supervisor said Friday.
The Facebook account of Andy Vita, 51, posted commentary on Thursday in response to a Lindenhurst School District video celebrating its high-achieving high school seniors, including salutatorian Yasmin Zohny, who appeared in the video wearing a traditional Muslim hijab, or headscarf.
The video was shared on a Lindenhurst Facebook community page. The Facebook account of Vita, who is a member of that community, responded with expletives and derisive comments about Zohny’s hijab.
Condemnation from the community was swift, and Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer was alerted. Schaffer said that as of Friday Vita was suspended for 30 days without pay from his job as a heavy equipment operator in the Department of Public Works. Schaffer said the town is seeking to fire Vita, who as a union member is entitled to defend himself in a hearing within the next 30 days.
Neither Vita nor a woman who identified herself as his wife, Jenn Vita, on Facebook, responded to requests Friday for comment.
She defended her husband on the same community page, claiming that his account was hacked and that they had filed a police report. Suffolk County police on Friday could not immediately confirm the report.
According to town records, Vita was paid nearly $84,000 last year and has been an employee since 1985. Schaffer said Vita was one of several “critical” workers who helped rescue residents during superstorm Sandy in 2012, lifting them out in a payloader bucket.
“I was blindsided by this,” Schaffer said, adding that it’s unclear whether Vita made the comments — which appear to have been posted about 1 p.m. — while on the job.
Zohny, who with her family declined to speak to Newsday, is graduating Friday. In a statement, Lindenhurst school Superintendent Dan Giordano called Zohny a well-liked and hardworking student.
“I will not allow anyone’s ignorance to taint this academic milestone for Yasmin, or any other Lindenhurst student,” Giordano said.
In the district’s video, Zohny mentions joining a youth group near a mosque.
“I think it’s important to become active in your community because we can’t all save the world, obviously, but we can help it,” she said.
Zohny, who will attend the University of Texas in Austin in the fall to study engineering, went on to say she is thankful to everyone she has met on the way to graduation.
“Even the people who haven’t been kind to me have taught me something I’m going to take with me,” she said.


Dr. Narges Bani Asadi says cancer is a genetic disease, and she is using technology to fight it.
Asadi is the founder and CEO of Bina, a healthcare startup working to make ‘personalized medicine’ a reality. Bina applies big data analytics to genomics, making it possible to sequence the human genome in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks.
Today, Bina launched its commercial product. The platform provides physicians, clinicians, and researchers with a detailed picture of a patient’s health. From there, they can make data-driven diagnoses and prescribe individualized courses of treatment.
There are thousands of genetic disorders. In 2013, over 580,000 Americans are expected to die of cancer. One in 20 babies born in the U.S. is admitted into the neonatal intensive care unit, and 20 percent of infant deaths result from congenital or chromosomal defects. Technology can be used to curb these terrifying trends. Bina’s role is to bridge the gap between DNA sequencing technology and the diagnosticians and clinicians who can apply it to their practice.
Asadi said her team had to achieve innovations in every step of genetic processing in order to create a scaleable, marketable, effective solution. Bina’s platform includes a hardware box to collect DNA, advanced software to process the data, and applications to turn the data into actionable form. Whereas before a full genetic analysis took weeks or months and could cost thousands of dollars, Bina turns it around within hours for around $200 a sample.
The technology emerged out of Asadi’s PhD work at Stanford. She collaborated with professors from around the world to apply high performance computing and computer architecture to gain a new understanding of human health and disease. Bina was founded in 2011 by three professors from the University of California at Berkeley and Stanford. It is backed by venture funding, and pilot customers include the Stanford Genetics Department and Palo Alto Veteran Affairs Hospital.
Startups don’t often set out to cure cancer or prevent infant mortality. However, as technology continues to evolve and along with it, the healthcare industry, a medical system where diagnoses and treatments are based on hard data, where each and every individual is treated as such, could be on the horizon.
Read a VentureBeat guest post by Dr. Asadi: The personalized medicine revolution is almost here.


Purdue's season has been a little rocky to this point, but Sunday's game against Michigan State could turn things around.
The Boilermakers played their best game of the season when they hosted No. 6 ranked Michigan State, winning 73-.
Purdue lead wire-to-wire and held a double-digit lead for the majority of the game. The Spartans closed the gap down the stretch but just couldn't overcome the early deficit.
Fans took to Twitter to voice their thoughts on the game.
Purdue is stressing me out!! Just put them away please!


I thought we were a Tree City and tried to protect all our trees.
I have heard that a house in Flintridge with two magnificent old oak trees just sold. The oak tree in the front is being retained, but the gorgeous one in the back is being considered for removal so the new owners can build another huge home.
The city can’t let this happen. That tree is healthy and should be protected. I learned that Miller Tree Service has been servicing that tree for years. I hope the city has contacted them about the health of the tree and will make sure the new owners do not get rid of the tree.
Also when such trees are destroyed, shouldn’t the fees be much more than just $10,800 to remove an unwanted protected tree that’s 36 inches or greater in diameter? This provision was written some years ago and now people think nothing of paying the fine and being able to just build where they want. We need these trees to give beauty to our city, shade to everyone and to save the environment!
We are so fortunate to have these beautiful trees here in La Cañada Flintridge. Why do we so easily let new owners destroy their beauty instead of being resourceful in their home designs to make sure the trees are always an asset to their property?


Who is Sherlock Holmes? Such is the question posed this summer by Jeffrey Hatcher’s play Holmes and Watson, the final production of the Alley Theatre’s 17-18 season, but it’s also the mystery unraveled within the International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Fans have been obsessed with the enigmatic detective since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first set him deerstalking into the world’s collective imagination 130 years ago. In film and television, he and his many contemporary incarnations are more popular than ever. So perhaps it’s no surprise that Houston is getting a cool summer of Sherlock.
But who is Sherlock Holmes and why do we in Houston continue to love him so? This was the mystery I set out to solve with a day devoted to murder, mayhem, and the master detective, ever ready to put the world to right.
First up, I headed over the Museum District to discover the very dramatic HMNS exhibition unexpectedly had something of an immersive theater feel. Before entering I received a casebook I would need to use along my journey into the dark underbelly of Victorian crime fiction.
This HMNS exhibition contains manuscripts and artifacts of Doyle’s era which delve into the history of Holmes and give insights into Doyle’s influences, including the writings of Edgar Allen Poe and Doyle’s his real life medical training and studies under Dr. Joseph Bell. The majority of the galleries are organized around a new Holmes mystery, written by noted Doyle biographer Daniel Stashower. The guiding narrative invites visitors to help Holmes solve this latest diabolical case.
At times working my way through the exhibition did feel as if I had entered into a role playing theatrical piece. The casebook and displays invited me to attempt some observational exercises, documenting all I saw, solve puzzles and work through a series of problems and experiments. The layout of the galleries gives the impression that Holmes himself was always just a few steps in front of me, in the next room.
One of the most fun parts of the experience was watching kids, ages 5 to 65, diligently and sometimes gleefully filling out their casebooks and working through the steps to solve the mystery. Along the way, the exhibition rather sneakily teaches some Victorian history and forensic science all in the guise of putting us through an audition to become Baker Street Irregulars.
For fans of the latest onscreen versions of the detective, the exhibition presents several displays of props and costumes from the three most popular current incarnations of the mythology: Guy Ritchie’s steampunk Holmes films starring Robert Downey Jr., the BBC Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock and CBS’s Elementary.
Once I felt my observation skills finely honed, I headed over to the Alley to see if I could out deduce Hatcher’s Sherlock, only to find that in the play, it is the good doctor who must play detective.
Holmes and Watson, directed by Mark Shanahan, begins three years after the notorious Reichenbach Falls case, when Holmes and his archenemy Moriarty fell to their deaths. Or did they?
Dr. Watson (Jeremy Webb) is invited to a mysterious island asylum by a seemingly concerned, but perplexed Dr. Evans (Bruce Warren). Three inmates (Jay Sullivan, Dan Domingues, and Chris Hutchison) housed there all claim to be Sherlock Holmes. They all have a different story to tell about what happened that fateful night on the Falls and very different motives for telling their tales to Holmes’s best friend, confidant, and biographer. In turn, Watson must discover who is the real Sherlock Holmes, as danger lurks in every night shadow.
Of course, one of the allures of a good mystery, especially a Holmes play, is seeing if we can keep up with the game and figure out who done it, or in this case who is who, before a Sherlock or Watson explains it all.
In only 90 minutes, Hatcher, director Shanahan, and the cast create enough quick plot turns that audiences members might find themselves dizzy at the final reveals. Near the end, I did want to give my (imaginary) Baker Street Irregular badge a congratulatory polish because I did spot a few, though not all, of those plot twists leading up to the finale.
Whether I half-solved the case thanks to the training the International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes gave me earlier in the day, or it was the years of watching and reading so many versions of the great detective that made me a successful plot sleuth, who, but Holmes, can know.
Holmes and Watson runs at the Alley Theatre through July 22. The HMNS presents the ticketed International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes through September 30.


Balkan Bistro and Bar, formerly the Balkan Bakery in the space demolished to make way for the Waterhouse project on Water Street, celebrated a grand opening in the former Under the Roof furniture store at 1003 West Main Street on Monday, June 21.
In 2006, at the Charlottesville City Market, Anja Cetic and her family began offering traditional pastries, pies, and breads from their Balkan Peninsula homeland. Originally from Bosnia, the Cetics also lived in Croatia and Serbia, moving around as they endured the brutal conflict known as the Bosnian War (1992-1995), which claimed over 100,000 lives and created over a million refugees like the Cetics.
Following the war, they relocated to the United States with the help of the local International Rescue Committee. In early 2009, they opened the Balkan Bakery on Water Street, serving up things like traditional Meat Pie (Burek) and Cevapcici, a kind of grilled minced-meat sandwich, and, of course, baklava. Another treat: Bosnian coffee, prepared by boiling finely ground coffee in a small, pear-shaped pot.
"We are going to be a full bar and restaurant now," says matriarch Anja Cetic, "offering American and European cuisine– what I like to call food from the heart with an accent."
The bakery items will be the same, says Cetic, like the baklava, Mascarpone cake, and cookies and baked walnut bread. But now they'll be serving lunch and dinner Tuesday through Friday, brunch and dinner on Saturday, and brunch on Sunday. In addition to homemade sausages, kielbasa, panini sandwiches, and salads, Cetic says they will also be offering beer from Croatia, Slovenia, and Russia.
"We're the only restaurant in Charlottesville serving these beers," says Cetic, "and the only one making their own kielbasa, hamburger patties, and sausages in-house."
Sounds delicious. Thanks for the heads-up. Will check them out very soon.
We went to a Balkan Bistro and bar for dinner and a drink which was former Balkan Bakery, the service was great and food was delicious. They also have Croatian, Russian, Slovenian, Bulgarian and domestic beers. Bud light was only $2.50 per glass amazing… I will be going there every day.
This place is amazing, the owners work so hard they use local vegetables and local meats, and also they are on the Farmers market on Saturday with delicious desserts.
Fresh ingredients but. Always creative and fun and great service.
Brunch is a comfortable, solicitous and delicious experience here.
Me and my bit@$ are gonna hop in the coop and hit that joint tonite son.
If my girl get the lobster you know what happens next son.
Sounds great and I look forward to patronizing this business.
But does this mean no more guys in track-suits talking Slavic noisily on their cellphones at the Barracks' Rd Greenberry's?
"If my girl get the lobster you know what happens next son."
YOU GET THE CRABS! HA HA HA AHA HAHH HAHH HA HAH AHH HA!!!!!
This was truly an outstanding dining experience that could have been in a Bistro in Paris, but happens to be in Charlottesville. Each dish was beautifully presented, delectaible and interesting in every way. It is rare to enjoy all the dishes my husband and I order but we both did and cleaned our plates. We did find room for sumptuous desserts, worth every calorie in them. We certainly will dine there on our next visit to Charlottesville.


Tisdale, who is from Lugoff-Elgin, played four years for the Winthrop University team and two years of independent professional baseball.
He coached high school baseball in Miami, where he earned region coach of the year honors. “I had good kids to work with,” said Tisdale.
After meeting with returning York players in the school’s media center last week, Tisdale said he left the get-acquainted session feeling good about his new coaching position.
“There’s support from the administration, athletic director and the community,” he said.
Tisdale said he knows Region 3-AAAA is a strong region. “Every game is a challenge,” he said.
While he is eager to embrace his new role, Tisdale said, he plans to touch all the bases. He wants to get a firsthand look at baseball in the community, whether it’s youth play at the York Recreation Complex, Dixie Boys at Optimist Park or Junior Legion baseball at the YCHS complex.
Tisdale was scheduled to meet with Boyd this week to talk about the Cougars’ offseason involvement. “Coach Tisdale wants to get things started with the players as soon as he can,” Boyd said.


Can You Guess Which City Is Bigger?
Tampa is 170.6 square miles and Orlando is 110.7 square miles.
New York City is 304.6 square miles and Los Angeles is 503 square miles.
Chicago is 234 square miles and Indianapolis is 372 square miles.
Cedar Rapids is 72.07 square miles and Honolulu is 68.42 square miles.


The nation's leading Spanish-language television networks, Univision and Telemundo, continue to pay the price for doubling and tripling down on pushing unfettered immigration policies, and declining numbers have now led to layoffs and more.
Horrible disasters like the recent Category-4 Hurricanes Harvey and Irma focus attention on heart-wrenching stories of lost lives, near misses and property destroyed in the storm or ravaged by looters. They also have an uncanny way of illustrating the many people who will pull together in a crisis and how the benefits of capitalism are often used to help those in need.
ESPN has had a hoot playing the role of sports Pravda during Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba.
Since this is a presidential election year, it's not surprising to find harsh comments and angry rhetoric regarding candidates running to occupy the White House next January.
Humorist Dave Barry hammered the media on Wednesday's New Day for their "daily obsession with Donald Trump: "We keep asking why he's doing so well — and he's on TV all the time. He's on more than the GEICO gecko." When CNN's Alisyn Camerota defended the press coverage of Trump by using his front-runner status, Barry countered that "you can't deny the incredible impact...at this point, Kim Kardashian also could run for president and would do okay if we gave her the same level of coverage that we give to Donald Trump."
The Washington Post joins its GOP presidential forum partner, Univision, rehashing a 2011 narco-by-association smear of Marco Rubio.


In 2016 Jessica Pell fainted and cut her ear when she fell. She went to Hoboken University Medical Center, where was given an ice pack and a bandage. That was the extent of her treatment. She did not get a diagnosis. Her bill was $5,751.
Pell left the ER when she discovered the plastic surgeon who would see her was out of network for her insurance. She decided to go to an in-network facility instead. She thought this was a smart way to avoid the costly fees that came with seeing a provider that wasn’t included in her health plan.
Pell’s health insurance plan paid the hospital $862, what it deemed a “reasonable and appropriate” fee for the services the hospital paid. That left Pell with a $4,989 bill that she received on February 28.
“There was no way for me to have avoided this bill, to have known what I would have been charged,” Pell says.
In other words, if you get injured in the United States and don't have the kind of taxpayer-funded medical insurance that members of Congress have, you are screwed.
American health care is so screwed up, so horribly distorted by the insurance companies' abusive practices, that millions of Americans (even those with insurance) fly to Mexico every year to get state-of-the-art medical care -- and a resort vacation in the bargain -- rather than face the US system, and save money by doing so.
If Trump gets his way, your elderly relatives will be evicted from nursing homes after their Alzheimer's care eats up their lifetime Medicaid benefits; as Yves Smith writes, "are family members supposed to let them wander out into traffic and have nature take its course?"


In addition to a sense of adornment or function, clothing can provide insights to global issues like the economy and climate change.
TANG UNCOVERS FASHION: With her new book “Disrobed: How Clothing Predicts Economic Cycles, Saves Lives and Determines the Future,” Syl Tang puts a lot of stock in clothing.
In the 12 years she freelanced for the Financial Times, she frequently touched upon a similar topic but didn’t have the time to explore it due to word count restrictions. For example, she once wrote a piece about jewelry in the Afghan world and how the department of defense funded some of these companies that were started by women. “But when I would talk to people about linking apparel, jewelry or wearables to other topics, I would see their eyes glaze over a little bit. They wouldn’t connect the dots so I knew I needed to write a book about it,” she explained.
The underlying theme is how “behind the clothing, there is this understanding of the world,” she said. To that point, the cover art for the Rowman & Littlefield book is an unzipped hoodie on a globe of the world. Through her writing, she explores the role that clothing plays in natural disasters, climate change, terrorism, geopolitics and agribusiness.
Earlier this fall she shared her insights with the nonprofit Creative Coalition. Tang also consults with a few companies including a digital fashion start-up that is trying to merge handmade with an app, a Los Angeles technology company that is trying to reinvent how clothing is resold and the third client is Silhouette International brand of eyeglasses and sunglasses.


Star Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, 28, appeared in the D.C. Superior Court to be sentenced for the gun crime he admitted to in January. He has been spared a jail term.
Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas pleaded guilty Friday in D.C. Superior Court to a felony count of carrying a pistol without a license, leaving his NBA career in jeopardy.
As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed not to ask for more than six months in jail for Arenas. He will remain free at least until he is sentenced on March 26 by Superior Court Judge Robert E. Morin.
Morin is not bound by the plea agreement -- a fact he emphasized in court -- and could sentence Arenas to anywhere from probation to a maximum five years in jail. The former all-star was released after agreeing to surrender his passport and not possess any handguns.
Arenas, 28, has been the face of the Wizards since he arrived in Washington in 2003. He has four years remaining on his six-year, $111 million contract, but the NBA has suspended him indefinitely and the team has not publicly supported its star since the gun incident. On Friday, the team issued a terse statement saying officials were disappointed in Arenas. "Gilbert used extremely poor judgment and is ultimately responsible for his own actions," the statement said. He likely is done playing at least for this season. Adidas announced late Friday it was ending its relationship with Arenas, whom it had sponsored since 2003.
During his court appearance, Arenas showed little of the engaging personality that has made his No. 0 jersey ubiquitous at Verizon Center. He walked into the courthouse wearing a gray flannel pinstriped suit and answered questions from Morin with simple "yes, sir" and "no, sir" responses. Those questions included whether he had agreed to plead guilty and waive his right to a trial.
The charges stem from the now-infamous incident in the Wizards' locker room at Verizon Center on Dec. 21. At the hearing Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Kavanaugh filled in some of the details of the confrontation between Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton, without mentioning Crittenton by name.
On Dec. 19, the team flew on a chartered flight to the Washington area from Phoenix. Arenas and Crittenton got into an argument over a card game. Crittenton suggested a fistfight. But Arenas said he was too old to fight and instead said he would burn Crittenton's vehicle or shoot him in the face. Crittenton then told Arenas he would "shoot the [expletive]" out of Arenas and shoot Arenas in his surgically repaired left knee. Arenas later told Wizards employees that he was joking about the threats.
On Dec. 21, at about 9:30 a.m., Arenas arrived at Verizon Center for practice. He came into the locker room wearing a black backpack with a silver Smith & Wesson .500 magnum revolver inside. He then placed four guns on the chair directly in front of Crittenton's locker. Arenas wrote "PICK 1" on a piece of paper and placed it on Crittenton's chair near the guns. Arenas said he also was joking about that.
When Crittenton saw the guns, he said, "What is this?"
Arenas told Crittenton, "You said you were going to shoot me, so pick one." Crittenton said he did not need Arenas's guns because he had his own. Crittenton picked up one of the guns from the chair and threw it across the locker room. Crittenton then displayed his own silver-colored, semiautomatic handgun, the prosecutor said.
After the incident, Arenas collected the guns, placed them inside his locker and then put them in a suitcase. He gave the suitcase to another Wizards teammate and told him to take it take it to Arenas's car in the garage. Prosecutors said there was no evidence that the teammate knew what was inside the suitcase.
When the unnamed teammate went to the garage, he did not know which vehicle belonged to Arenas. So the player left the suitcase in the garage. Minutes later, Wizards management learned about the incident and met with Arenas. He admitted he brought the guns from his home in Virginia into Washington. He also told management that Crittenton had a gun.
Wizards management then told security guards to grab the suitcase and remove it from Verizon Center. Arenas led a member of the security staff to the garage and pointed out the suitcase. The security officer then took the guns back to Virginia.
On Dec. 24, attorneys for the Wizards and Arenas told the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District about the incident. Authorities then seized the four guns from Arenas's house in Virginia, including the .500 magnum; a .50-caliber gold-plated semiautomatic Desert Eagle with a magazine; a .45-caliber, black semiautomatic Kimber Eclipse with a magazine; and a 9mm Browning with a magazine.
Now, Arenas must wait until March to learn his fate. Prosecutors and Arenas's lawyer will both issue sentencing recommendations to Morin. Morin will consider those requests along with a mandatory report from the court services division, which will interview Arenas and others. Arenas also must turn himself in to D.C. police by Jan. 29 to be fingerprinted and officially booked.
His attorney, Kenneth L. Wainstein, issued a statement saying Arenas "accepted full responsibility for his actions." NBA Players Association chief Billy Hunter said in a statement that the union is "committed to aggressively representing him."
Arenas could have been charged with four counts of illegal gun possession -- one for each of the pistols in the locker room. But as part of the plea agreement, he faces one charge, making it more likely that he'll avoid much jail time, the sources said. As part of the deal, prosecutors agreed not to bring any more charges.


Vanderbilt and Middle Tennessee will play their season opener Saturday. Here is how to watch and listen to the game.
Vanderbilt and Middle Tennessee will play their season opener Saturday. Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. at Vanderbilt Stadium.
As FBS foes, the teams have split the past six meetings. Middle Tennessee won three straight in 2001, 2002 and 2005. Vanderbilt won three straight in 2015, 2016 and 2017. There are no future games scheduled.
TV: The game will be shown on SEC Network Alternate, which is available on the following channels: 608-609 AT&T U-Verse, 235 Charter Spectrum, 633 TDS, 596-597 Dish, 611-1 DirecTV, 723-724 Comcast/XFinity.
RADIO: 95.9 FM, 98.3 FM, 102.5 FM, 560 AM, 1450 AM, 1510 AM; Full list of Vanderbilt Network and Blue Raider Network.


What gives? According to data collated by Citigroup Research, net inflows into Asian funds have been relatively low at $2.1 billion (Rs9,828 crore today) since August. In the same period, global emerging market funds received net inflows worth $8.6 billion. This is based on data published by Emerging Portfolio Fund Research (EPFR). Citigroup’s analysts point out that the lower inflows into Asian funds have been because of large fund-raising by Asian companies: “Over the last three months, companies in Asia (ex-Japan) raised US$54 billion both through IPOs (initial public offerings) and secondary issuances, which was 3.6 times the funds raised in Latin America, Emerging Europe, Middle East and South Africa all put together."
While this has affected short-term returns of investors in Asian emerging markets, it is a healthy trend so far as the long-term health of Asian companies goes. It’s always good for companies to raise funds when markets are awash with liquidity, rather than scramble for funds when they are scarce. Asian companies have adopted this principle rather aggressively in recent months.


Spoiler alert: Santa Clause isn’t real—at least, according to these celebrities. For decades, the jolly, red-suited and white-bearded man has ruled the holidays and the imagination of most children under the age of 10. You know the drill: Santa rides in on his reindeer, slips in through the chimney while everyone is sleeping, and leaves his presents before exiting with a bite of milk and cookies. The story is told a million times in a person’s childhood until they learn the catastrophic truth that Santa is fictional.
Even celebrities like Mila Kunis and Gina Rodriguez fall for the ploy. But, like most of us, they’ve lived through the deception to tell the tale. To understand how Hollywood found out about the biggest scandal to rock a third grader’s life, we rounded up stories from seven celebrities on how they learned that jolly old Saint Nicholas was a urban myth. Hear their hilarious stories, ahead.
Like a lot of us, Mila Kunis learned that Santa wasn't real from someone at school. In an interview with BuzzFeed, the actress revealed that an elementary school classmate spoiled the news by explaining how ridiculous a flying sleigh sounded. Though, not wanting his little sister to become jaded to Christmas magic, Kunis's older brother came up with the perfect solution to buy her one more year.
Gina Rodriguez spoiled the fun herself when she snuck around on Christmas Eve to find her dad putting "Santa's" presents underneath the tree. Though, from the sound of her story, her parents were relieved that they didn't have to keep the jig up.
"I knew at 4 or 5. I was so nosey. I would look in the closets," Rodriguez told "Entertainment Tonight." "I would look in the presents. I would stay up, and then I was like that ain't no Santa Clause, that's my daddy! They were like 'Child, don't worry.'"
From an early age, Justin Bieber's mom was "straight up and honest" with him about Santa. In an interview with AOL Music, the singer revealed that his mom explained to him that Santa wasn't real when he was very young, so he didn't feel lied to and betrayed when he was older.
"My mom always told me there wasn't a Santa," Bieber said. "This was her logic: She thought if I grew up knowing about Santa then finding out he wasn't real, that it would be like she was lying to me. And then when she told me about God, I maybe wouldn't believe her."
As an intuitive child, Nick Jonas always had an inkling in his mind that Santa wasn't real. In an interview with Music Choice, the singer revealed his skepticism when people told him that he would receive a lump of coal from Santa if he was bad.
"I was never given a lump of coal, thankfully," Jonas said. "Also, I never really believed in Santa Clause, to be honest. I wasn't as easy trick into thinking it was real, and that I would get the lump of coal if I was bad."
A lot of us can relate with Brad Pitt's feeling of "betrayal" when he learned that Santa wasn't real. In an interview with E! News, the actor recalled his frustration when he found out that Saint Nick was fictional.
"I'm not a real big on the whole Santa thing," Pitt said. "I thought it was a huge act of betrayal when I was a kid. I didn't like that. When I found out the truth, I was like, 'Why, why, why would you lie to me, why?'"
Mariah Carey is proof that there are some Santa believers out there. In an interview with BuzzFeed, the "All I Want for Christmas" singer outed herself as a Santa truist when she refused to fess up when she learned the holiday icon was fake.
"What are you talking about? Santa comes every year!” she said.
Little Mix member Jade Thirwall might have never known that Santa wasn't real if it wasn't for her dad's slip-up when she was a kid. In an interview with SiriusXM, the singer explained that every year her dad would dress up as Santa and put presents underneath the tree. It fooled her for a while, until one year she saw "Santa" wearing the same slippers her dad owned. Whoops!
"Dancing With the Stars" pro Witney Carson's parents were the ones who spoiled the Santa news for her. After seeing their daughter getting bullied for believing in the holiday legend, Carson's parents broke the news that wasn't was fictional—something she didn't take very well.
"I think I was about 8 or 9. I was actually devastated. I just loved Santa Claus. I believed in it so much, and my dad was like 'Honey, he's not real,'" she told "Entertainment Tonight." "It got to the point where people would still make fun of me at school because I still believed in Santa Claus. They're like, 'Sweetie, we have to tell you the truth because you’re getting made fun of at school.' They were like, 'He's not real,' and I was like 'No!'"
"Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" alum Brandi Glanville's disappointment when she learned that Santa wasn't real in ninth grade (yes—when she was a freshman in high school) is the reason she's trying to keep the magic alive for her kids as long as she can.
"I'm telling my kids forever that he’s real," she told "Entertainment Tonight." "I was like in ninth grade [when I found out.] I was old and devastated. I learned from kids in school."
"Iron Man" actor Paul Bettany learned that Santa was fictional when he was sleeping on Christmas Eve one night when he woke up to his drunk dad ambling around, putting presents in his stocking.
“My drunk father [was] stumbling into my room and I woke up and I saw him stuffing stuff in my stocking and he went, ‘Ho, ho, ho,’" he said on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"


Jeb Butler and Tobin were law school classmates at the University of Georgia.
Jeb Butler outlined his reason for leaving in the news release.
Leaving was not an easy decision Jeb Butler said.
Jim Butler has been one of the nation’s top trial lawyers winning large verdicts against major corporations such as General Motors.


"Don't be a "d--- sheep," my father told me this so early and often in my life that I thought the word "sheep" started with a "d." But I didn't miss the counsel that I should think for myself and not blindly follow what others, especially my peers, were doing. So I grew up without much appreciation for what it meant to be a follower – or for the value of good leaders.
When I started to study Christian Science and to probe the Bible more deeply, I gained an understanding of God as a shepherd who would care for and guide His sheep. One day I came across the definition of sheep in Mary Baker Eddy's book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Innocence; inoffensiveness; those who follow their leader" (p. 594).
This gave me a new insight into the role of sheep. Being a follower didn't seem so bad if it involved the qualities of innocence and inoffensiveness. I saw that my dad's counsel was against blindly following the wrong leader, as Jesus warned: "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."
Blindness, which can mean holding so firmly to our own opinions that we can't see others' perspectives, is not good in either a follower or a leader. And since we all have opportunities to be both followers and leaders, we need to know how and when to do both.
Doris Kearns Goodwin has written much about leaders and leadership. In her latest book, "Team of Rivals: The political genius of Abraham Lincoln," she sets out much of what makes a good leader.
In an interview Ms. Goodwin was asked, "What personal qualities made Lincoln such a successful leader?" She answered in part, "Lincoln had a quiet self-confidence that allowed him to surround himself by people better known than he was.... Lincoln also had the ability to absorb and listen well to what people were feeling and thinking. He could see both sides of the issue" (July 6, www.forbes.com).
When a situation cries out for good leadership, it also demands followers. It's obvious that humility is required to be a follower, but it takes even more humility to be an effective leader. Certainly it means dropping selfish ambition for the rewards of leadership and adopting the ambition to serve.
Throughout the Hebrew Bible, great leaders such as Moses and the prophets frequently referred to themselves as servants of the Lord. This positive sense of servitude was instilled in Jesus from his early Jewish training, and he said plainly, "Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant" (Matt. 20:27).
Leadership involves being servant both to God and to our fellow human beings. In essence, the leadership role is far from being exalted above others. Mary Baker Eddy, the Leader of Christian Science, wrote, "The true leader of a true cause is the unacknowledged servant of mankind ("Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896," p. 266). Thinking of oneself as a servant instead of a master is essential to having faithful followers. When this attitude of serving is exhibited in a leader, his or her right to authority is upheld by divine law.
The ultimate goal for both leaders and followers, I believe, is to see God's kingdom come on earth and for us to find our direction to do God's will. While the journey may seem difficult, we can retain our inspiration by looking to the example of Jesus, the greatest leader of all time.
It is unfeigned love for both God and our fellow humans that makes a good leader, caring for the flock he or she is to guide. And the "sheep" find comfort as they follow their leader. Their innocence and freedom from taking or giving offense will save them from the wrong leadership, even as it saves the leaders from mistakes and failures. In scriptural terms, we are all taught (led) by God.
Robert Reich What makes a leader?


Why is Christmas pagan and what is an alternative tradition to Christmas one can do instead? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Why is Christmas pagan and what is an alternative tradition to Christmas one can do instead?
Paganism is merely a religion other than one of the main world religions. In other words, the only thing that distinguishes paganism from Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Shintoism, or Judaism is the number of people that have signed up for the newsletter. It isn’t something to fear and it is bigotry to act like it is.
Christmas is a holiday that has evolved due the passage of time and the influence of various cultures as Christmas has entered their lives. Each of those cultures has enriched the holiday, giving us more traditions with which to celebrate it.
If we traveled to the ancient world, we would find some kind of celebration at that time, in many places, each at first independent of the others. For the ancient Romans, that holiday was called Saturnalia, named for the god Saturn. Saturnalia was celebrated by feasts, the giving of gifts, and a brief sense of equality through role-reversal as the masters tended to the servants. The ancient historian, Livy, tells us that Saturnalia began in 497 BC. Modern historians believe it probably started earlier than that. So, at least half a millennia after the origin of Saturnalia, Jesus Christ was born. His birth was not initially a holiday, because birthdays were not then celebrated in Jewish culture. It would be a few centuries until early church leaders decided it was a day to put on the calendar and commemorate. It would also be a few centuries until they decided to pick a day for that celebration, because the gospels do not tell us on what day he was born.
On December 25th, 274 AD, the Emperor Aurelian consecrated the temple of Sol Invictus, creating a holiday called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti – the birthday of the Sun – officially elevating the Sun to the highest position among the gods – nudging a steering current towards monotheism.
Shepherds watch their flock by night during lambing season, which is the spring. But there’s no rule that says a day of celebration has to coincide with the actual date of origin. In Britain, we celebrate the Queen’s birthday on June 9th instead of her actual birthday of April 21st, because April showers bring May flowers.
So, in Rome in the fourth century, there were three big holidays being celebrated on December 25th – Saturnalia, Dies Natalis Sol Invictus, and the Dies Natalis of the Christ. It’s only natural that elements from these celebrations would cross-pollinate each other, especially when they fit so well – for example, the gift giving of Saturnalia could be adopted by Christians as symbolic of their God giving his only son to them as a gift on that day.
As Rome faded and Christianity grew, the people that celebrated those holidays would take their traditions to new areas. As those early Christians moved into Northern Europe and introduced Christmas to the native Germanic peoples, the practices of Christmas were influenced by the practices of those peoples for their winter solstice holidays. Over time, traditions like the Yule log, mistletoe, tree decorating, and evergreen wreaths were absorbed and became thought of as Christmas traditions. The Saxons, the Vikings, the Victorians, and the capitalists have all added traditions to the rich tapestry of the holiday we all call Christmas.
There’s nothing to be feared from those traditions. They are additive, not dilutive. Pagan contributions are not something to fear. Heck, today is Wednesday, for English speakers and Miercoles for Spanish speakers. Where do you think those names come from? Wednesday comes from the pagan Germanic god Woden and Miercoles comes from the pagan god Mercury. We are no more corrupted by having a “pagan” Christmas tree in our house than we are by having a calendar that says Wednesday or Miercoles on it.
Christmas: How did your kid react when you told them Santa isn't real?
Holidays: What is the best wine to go with turkey?
History: What is the coolest obscure historical fact you know?


While specific incidents involving police violence – from the killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson, MO, to the death of Eric Garner on Staten Island – have been highlighted in protests all over the country since the summer, some commentators have attempted to contextualize the unrest. They detail what many describe as the daily injustices, especially in black communities, suffered by residents in their routine interactions with the police.
It is these daily interactions that create the foundational distrust that has exploded into a national phenomenon this year, activist Opal Tometi explained.
Yet, the police do not act independently but within a wider framework attentive to social order and, in many places, the maintenance of the status quo.
In New York City, local policing reforms have focused on departmental policies and tactics, but less attention has been paid to the bedrock of the NYPD's authority, the laws that officers, as agents of the state, have been empowered to enforce.
In New York City alone, there are nearly 10,000 laws, violations, rules, and codes that a person might break, and the NYPD initiates approximately 1 million punitive interactions with residents every year. Almost none of these interactions have anything to do with serious crime. About half result in summonses. Of arrests, just 25 percent are related to felonies. Between 2001 and 2013 there were nearly 7 million summonses issued in New York City, compared to 5 million 'stop-and-frisks' during the same period. In 2014, tickets for jaywalking were up about 275 percent.
It hasn't always been this way. A concerted effort was made by city lawmakers in the 1990s to expand the authority of the NYPD to include enforcement for behaviors that had not previously been considered crimes. This shift provided legal justification for the routine intrusions that some, like Tometi, have pointed to as provocation for the apparent decline in legitimacy felt towards the police in specific neighborhoods around the New York City.
While the police have borne the brunt of recent protests targeting criminalization and brutality, lawmakers have generally been left off the hook, despite their crucial role in determining which behaviors are considered "criminal" and which are not. The City Council - not the police - has the power to roll back some of these laws, providing them with perhaps the largest lever to push in fundamentally changing the relationship between the police and residents. The Council also provides oversight for the NYPD and controls, with the Mayor, the agency's budget.
In the 1970s and 1980s, law enforcement resources were focused on serious crimes. As order-maintenance policing became en vogue in academic circles, and was adopted by NYPD Commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Rudy Giuliani here in New York, the size of the police force was expanded and the emphasis shifted from policing serious crimes to the enforcement of low-level penal code violations and infractions of the City's administrative codes. Above all, Bratton wanted an increase in the number of interactions between the police and the public.
For the police to stop people constitutionally, however, they needed justification. In addition to beefing up enforcement on existing low-level laws, a strategic effort was made by the City Council and Giuliani, at the NYPD's urging, to create new laws explicitly for this purpose. Thus "aggressive panhandling" entered the realm of criminal conduct. At the time some council members balked, claiming the new laws and codes were "repressive," that the NYPD should not have increased authority to control particular behaviors, but today, it's the new normal.
In the early 1990s, along with a huge rise in misdemeanor arrests (recently detailed in a John Jay College report) there was a concomitant rise in summonses, which refer to behaviors, typically, that do not rise to the level of criminality. The number of summonses issued by the NYPD exploded, jumping from 150,000 in 1993, to nearly 500,000 just five years later. Of the seven most common summons infractions, which make up about half of all summonses in New York City, only two are actually penal code violations - that is those laws dictated by the State of New York. The others are violations of administrative code, health code, parks rules, and traffic law - generally local rules dictated by City Council. Open liquor container citations - an administrative code violation - were, in 2013, the top summons offense in the city. At least one judge has suggested that the police are enforcing this rule in a racially discriminatory way.
In the beginning, state lawmakers pushed back against this effort by the City Council, Bratton, and Giuliani to criminalize what had previously been legal behavior (in some cases de facto), in large part because they were concerned about the costs associated with adjudicating these new criminal cases – almost all of them violations and misdemeanors – in court. And so, in 1995 the State enacted a law that removed from criminal court jurisdiction all non-misdemeanor offenses charged under the Administrative Code. This would have made infractions, such as open container and public urination, into civil penalties, akin to a traffic ticket to be adjudicated in administrative, rather than criminal proceedings. Giuliani viewed the state law as "potentially devastating" because it divested the City of certain law enforcement authority.
At the behest of Giuliani, the City Council responded to the state bill with its own legislation to retain jurisdiction over violations. This allowed the police to continue the practice of using infractions as justifications to stop, question, detain, search, warrant check, and identify people who were suspected of breaking minor rules. This cemented the heyday of so-called "broken windows policing" - which Bratton, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and others credit for leading to the city's precipitous drop in violent crimes, although this assertion is contested.
In one manifestation of the approach, marijuana enforcement was increased as a way to control public gatherings of youth – not necessarily to curb marijuana use. "The police were not really interested in the possession of marijuana but instead used marijuana arrests to try to discover people with felony warrants outstanding against them," Criminologist Frank Zimring explained.
One result of Bratton's new strategy was a dramatic increase in the number of defendants in criminal court with no prior criminal court experience – and the population of people marked with a criminal record began to grow swiftly. As did distrust of police. People with criminal records or open and unresolved cases are left vulnerable to heightened enforcement should they come into contact with police at a later date.
Over forty certified city agencies – from the Human Resources Administration to the Sanitation Department – have the legal authority to issue summonses, yet the vast, vast majority are written by the NYPD. In 2013 there were 458,095 summons issued citywide, down from 510,270 the year before and from a peak of 648,638 in 2005. As of late 2014 the city was on pace to see the decline continue, a trend perhaps welcomed by the communities most heavily impacted by summons practices – the same communities targeted by stop-and-frisk, vertical patrols, and Operation Impact.
As the data shows, it is specific neighborhoods targeted for this type of policing. For example, there were roughly the same number of summonses issued in the single Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook as issued in the entire borough of Staten Island in 2012; the jurisdiction of the Red Hook court covers approximately 200,000 people - less than half the population of Staten Island.
Also targeted are specific demographic groups. While only 17 percent of dogs in the city are licensed, according to an estimate by the Health Department, 91 percent of people ticketed for the offense of having an unlicensed dog are either Black or Latino. Black residents are especially likely to be stopped by police when they are moving through a mostly white neighborhood, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. Police argue they simply go where the crime is.
Broken Windows policing in New York City has been operationalized to mean the aggressive enforcement of minor crimes and violations in specific, targeted neighborhoods, and, as the NYCLU analysis suggests, against specific demographics of people; whether or not any of this has had any impact on crime reduction in New York remains unproven.
There is no empirical evidence to support the idea that aggressively enforcing so-called "quality of life offenses" through police actions has had a positive impact on public safety. These behavioral offenses, some of which are technically crimes, and others, like riding a bike on the sidewalk, which are violations, have come to include actually legal actions such as playing music on the subway platform or falling asleep on the train, for which people are now receiving criminal summonses.
Some academics have argued that the social costs of these enforcements, which might lead to job loss, housing eviction, or loss of parental rights, outweigh the benefits.
Meanwhile arresting and incarcerating, for example, a homeless person who cannot afford bail, costs the city at least $600 per day simply for housing at Rikers Island, which does not include the law enforcement or court administration costs; financially there is not a more expensive option to manage this quality of life concern.
Bratton and de Blasio have been vocal supporters of this type of policing, generally, while acknowledging the necessity of reforming the manner in which police interact with the public and suggesting that there should be off-ramps for people who have already been arrested to avoid spending time in jail for minor crimes. Arrests in 2014, both the gross numbers and the volume of misdemeanor cases, virtually mirror those of 2013 - the final year of the previous administration.
These policies have already scarred a generation of New Yorkers with criminal records and seem to have played a starring role in inspiring the profound distrust of the police felt in certain communities in New York. This distrust has turned to widespread civil unrest in the wake of the death of Eric Garner, who was accosted by six police officers soon after breaking up a fight. It doesn't seem from the evidence we have that Garner, accused of selling "loosies" – a tax violation – was breaking any laws when he was stopped by the police that day. He did not have any illegal cigarettes on him at the time of his death and was never charged with a crime.
Yet, the broken windows policies implemented by the City Council empowered the police to attempt to take him into custody. The law Garner was accused of violating, roughly speaking, is a similar type of offense as being paid off the books to babysit.
In December, New York City Council members joined the protests against police brutality, staging a "die-in" on the steps of City Hall, chanting "I Can't Breathe" and "I am Eric Garner" to honor the Staten Island man. Even as the City Council decried the results of the overreach of police influence, the body, led by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, has sought to add 1,000 new cops to the force. While these additions would ostensibly be given the additional training and oversight aimed at improving the quality of police-resident interactions, (new training chief Michael Julian is working with officers to get them to swear less frequently) the Council could also consider using its legislative authority to reduce the quantity of police-resident interactions.
While a small number of members have raised concerns about broken windows policing specifically, the Council as a whole has remained mostly silent on the unlimited role of the police in initiating the interactions with residents of the City that invariably lead to summonses, arrests, and incidents of brutality. The Council did announce a plan to open CCRB outposts in the district offices of participating council members, but it is unclear how many members will participate and when, or if, that initiative will get off the ground.
The police reform legislation currently before the Council, such as the Right to Know Act, which has wide support among council members but is opposed by Bratton and de Blasio, focuses on the content of police interactions rather than the number.
There has yet to be a legislative proposal for the Council to invoke its authority to limit the role of the police by carving out certain quality of life offenses from their jurisdiction or mandating civil enforcement where the NYPD has that discretion. Fare evasion can lead to either a civil summons or an arrest - there were 24,747 such arrests in 2013 and 89,128 summonses. Black residents were most likely to be arrested, rather than given a summons.
Ironically, the NYPD, in apparent protest following the death of two on-duty officers last month has stopped enforcing many quality of life violations. While the sample size remains too small thus far to provide much statistical evidence either for or against a reduced role for law enforcement, it does provide an opportunity for the City to consider ways of addressing community concerns besides the knee-jerk response for more police.
According to former cop and current John Jay professor Eugene O'Donnell, rank-and-file officers would welcome a reduction in their responsibilities to enforce quality of life concerns. "The root of this is that loose cigarette enforcement is a lunatic mission that no cop ever joined the NYPD to be part of," O'Donnell recently said.
Nick Malinowski is a social worker and independent journalist, living and working in Brooklyn; and is on Twitter @nwmalinowski.