Failure to construct a maternity hospital alongside the new €1.7bn children's hospital on the St James's Hospital (SJH) campus in Dublin would “be a financial and medical catastrophe”.
The warning from the former Master of the Coombe, Prof Chris Fitzpatrick, will be made at the Public Accounts Committee tomorrow along with calls to reconsider the location for the national children's hospital.
He expressed concerns for critically-ill newborns in the new children's hospital without plans for a maternity hospital on the same site.
The obstetrician and gynaecologist said there is still uncertainty about co-location for a maternity hospital on the same site. This was based on recent government and project statements about the children's hospital.
“It’s fair to say that there is widespread scepticism that maternity co-location will or even can happen,” adds Prof Fitzpatrick.
With costs for the children's hospital now at over €1.7bn and a completion date of 2023 with no sign of a co-located maternity hospital, there was a need to assess the situation, and “not just continuing blindly”.
He called for independent testing of the St James's site as a potential site for a maternity hospital.
Prof Fitzpatrick said each year over 200 critically ill new-born infants are transferred within hours of birth from maternity hospitals to specialised children's facilities in Dublin.
The mortality in this group of babies ranges between 5%-18% but the numbers of infants at risk will increase with better scans and more patients coming from the North.
Due to the dangers associated with transit after birth, delivering those babies without prenatal diagnosis and access to paediatric services are serious, warns Prof Fitzpatrick.
Moving babies across the city in ambulances is and would be “hazardous”.
It is also of the utmost importance that these critically-ill babies are cared for close to their mothers during the most vulnerable period of their lives – and that their mothers are not on the post-natal wards of maternity hospitals in different parts of the city.


HOUSTON - A "stubborn" fever that kept former President George H.W. Bush in a hospital over Christmas has gotten worse, and doctors have put him on a liquids-only diet, his spokesman said Wednesday.Jim McGrath, Bush's spokesman in Houston, had said earlier in the day that the fever had gone away, but he later corrected himself."It's an elevated fever, so it's actually gone up in the last day or two," McGrath told The Associated Press. "It's a stubborn fever that won't go away."Doctors at Methodist Hospital in Houston have run tests and are treating the fever with Tylenol, but they still haven't nailed down a cause, McGrath said. Doctors also have put Bush on a liquid diet, though McGrath could not say why.The bronchitis-like cough that initially brought Bush to the hospital on Nov. 23 has improved, McGrath said. The 88-year-old is now coughing about once a day, he said.Bush was visited on Christmas by his wife, Barbara, his son, Neil, and Neil's wife, Maria, and a grandson, McGrath said. Bush's daughter, Dorothy, will arrive Wednesday in Houston from Bethesda, Md. The 41st president has also been visited twice by his sons, George W. Bush, the 43rd president, and Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida.Bush and his wife live in Houston during the winter and spend their summers at a home in Kennebunkport, Maine.The former president was a naval aviator in World War II - at one point the youngest in the Navy - and was shot down over the Pacific. He achieved notoriety in retirement for skydiving on at least three of his birthdays since leaving the White House in 1992.


Four finalists are contenders in the American Association of School Administrators' search for the nation's best superintendent.
The finalists are: Barbara S. Devlin of the Villa Park (Ill.) Elementary School District #45; Richard E. Kendel of the Davis County, Utah, school district; Kenneth L. Moffett of the Lennox, Calif., school system; and Gary L. Wegenke of the Des Moines school district.
A panel made up of education, government, and business representatives--which selected the finalists--will choose the 1994 National Superintendent of the Year.
The winner will be announced Feb. 11 in San Francisco at the A.A.S.A.'s national conference.
The A.A.S.A. program, which is co-sponsored by the ServiceMaster Company of Downers Grove, Ill., is designed to recognize leadership, professionalism, communications skills and community involvement. Finalists are chosen from nominees from each state and from U.S. schools overseas.
A $10,000 scholarship will be awarded in the name of the winner.


Russian farmers reaped record crops of oilseeds this year, the Agriculture Ministry said Tuesday.
They gathered all-time high harvests of 1.5 million tons of soybeans, 1.1 million tons of rapeseeds and 8 million tons of sunflower seeds after drying and cleaning. The corn and sugar beet harvests were records of 6 million tons and 45 million tons, respectively, the ministry said.
The country's harvest of grains and pulses was 92 million tons, or 51 percent more than last year, sufficient to meet domestic needs and export 25 million tons in 2011-12. Farmers have 6 million tons of seeds, enough for the spring sowing campaign, the ministry said.


Can green tea boost your brainpower and treat disease?
The images that come to mind when thiking of green tea are likely associated with calmness, purity and relaxation.
The ancient beverage has been used for centuries in Chinese medicine as a means to relieve people from various ailments, but more recently the tea — and its extracts — have caught the attention of scientists. Teams across the world have been trialling green tea extracts and specific compounds within them for their potential to lower the risk of various conditions: cancer, blood pressure, cholesterol and even Alzheimer’s disease.
Evidence for these benefits is limited, however, and often inconclusive, but recent studies have found that one particular compound inside green tea, known as ECGC, could improve the functioning of one particular part of the body: the brain.
“Many people consume green tea extracts in some form, so we were interested in the effects [on the brain],” said Stefan Borgwadt, Professor of Neuropsychiatry at the University of Basel.
In 2014 study, Borgwadt’s team gave green tea extracts to 12 healthy volunteers and imaged their brains to see changes in connectivity inside certain brain regions. The volunteers were given beverages containing extracts equivalent to one or two cups of green tea. They consumed them nasally to ensure their tongues couldn’t taste whether the drink contained the extracts.
After four weekly doses of the drink, the team saw increased connectivity in regions of the brain associated with working memory.
“Drinking green tea improved memory in healthy people,” said Borgwadt who stresses the small scale f the study and the associated limitations of their findings, but the team saw promise in the results.
Since this research, interest in the cognitive benefits of green tea has grown and focused on the potential to improve symptoms of certain neurological, or psychiatric, disorders.
“There can be plasticity changes in the brain,” said Mara Dierssen, Group Leader of the Systems Biology Group at the CRG-Center for Genomic Regulation in Spain. These changes can be used to target diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, but Dierssen has long been searching for ways to treat one particular disease — Down syndrome.
“[People thank] there is no hope and that people with Down syndrome cannot be treated due to its complexity,” said Dierssen.
But she has set out to prove them wrong.
Down syndrome is a genetic condition caused by people having an extra copy of chromosome 21 and is estimated to occur in 3000 to 5000 children born globally each year.
The presence of the extra chromosome means people with the condition have more genes being expressed in their cells — and more proteins being produced — resulting in a range of physical and intellectual disabilities. These include decreased muscle tone, a flat face, slanted eyes and a range of potential learning disabilities.
“A number of genes are overexpressed and there is no way of tackling this overdose of genes,” said Dierssen. Her team set out to find out any genes that contribute more greatly to the disease itself and found one key player, called DYRK1A.
By controlling the activity of this gene, and the proteins it expresses, the team could reduce some of the cognitive symptoms of the condition and the contender to have this control came in the form of the ECGC compound found commonly in green tea.
In a recent study, Dierssen’s team analyzed the potential for EGCG to improve symptoms of Down Syndrome in 87 people with the condition, with half receiving 12 months of pills containing the compound and the other half given a placebo. All participants received cognitive training as well.
Those given EGCG performed better in tests for visual memory, the ability to control responses and the ability to plan or make calculations. Brain scans revealed improvements in connectivity between nerve cells and improvements were also seen in areas of the brain relating to language.
“This shows we can really target Down syndrome pharmacologically,” said Dierrsen. For some patients, the effects lasted an additional six months after the study ended.
Dierssen stresses this is not a cure for the condition as all of the neurological changes caused by the condition cannot be overcome. “What we see is that we can improve functionality,” she said.
Borgwadt added it would be far too optimistic to expect this to become a treatment for the disease as the size of the effect is unclear and patients with the condition experience a range of symptoms. “You see effects, but are they fully relevant to the patient?,” asked Borgwadt.
The team also saw a difference between genders, which they will provide greater insight into in their next paper, but for their discovery to have true effect, the team must next trial the green tea compound in greater numbers of people.
Experts are also quick to highlight that simply drinking green tea will not help.
They next plan to also test the compound in children where there could be greater effect as the brain is more adaptable at younger ages. “We hope there will be more improvement in children,” said Dierrsen.
The findings have also inspired experts like Borgwadt who are curious about any benefits against other neurological diseases.
“One could argue there is a more general affect of neuroprotection in the brain, so it could help other psychiatric diseases,” he said.


"Put down the weights. I'd rather see a guy jump fifty times than squat three hundred pounds three times."
Reporter, CNET TV; cohost, tech podcast "Buzz Out Loud"
"Never buy a Mac product in early June, before the Apple conference, in early September, when they launch their Christmas line, or in January, before Macworld."
"Stop trying to hit the ball so hard. Tiger Woods once told me that he has never, ever swung at a ball with 100 percent of his power."
"Two words: shelled walnuts. Use them to fill gouges in wood floors or cabinets. The meat and oil from the nut create a natural wood filler when rubbed across the surface."
"If you're selling your house, take a little paint and put it near the front door so that when you walk in, you smell fresh paint. People love the smell of fresh paint."
"There's still an opportunity cost to owning a home. If you can rent for much less, put your money elsewhere for the next few years, keeping it liquid."
"Paint only one wall. Or two walls. The whole house instantly looks fresher."
"Don't be afraid of salt, especially when you're cooking meat. It's almost impossible to put too much salt on a steak before you cook it."


HOUSTON (CN) – A self-styled pastor and real estate investor surrendered to federal authorities on charges that he conned $650,000 from a woman, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Samuel Ray Palasota, 52, of Houston, turned himself in following the return of a 24-count indictment, including 21 counts of mail fraud and three counts of wire fraud, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Palasota “claimed to manage a real estate investment program, doing business under the name ‘The Maker’s Resources,’ and “allegedly convinced a Mississippi woman to invest her money with him in an alleged real estate investment,” but stole her money, prosecutors said, citing the indictment.
“The woman divorced in 2007 and looked to Palasota for spiritual guidance and emotional support, according to the indictment. During the time she was seeking guidance from him, she received approximately $1 million in her divorce settlement,” prosecutors said in the statement.
“Palasota allegedly claimed to have a real estate investment program, in which he would purchase foreclosed homes in the Houston area at below-market prices and would later re-sell them for a profit. The indictment alleges Palasota told the woman he wanted investors who would partner with him to finance the purchase of the properties. As part of his scheme, Palasota claimed his real estate investment was ‘guaranteed’ to provide a high rate of return to investors.
“The indictment indicates he provided the woman with an investment schedule that claimed the minimum rate of return would increase by five percent for every additional $100,000 she invested, up to a maximum of $650,000.
If convicted, Palasota faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the 24 counts against him.


DURHAM >> Jessica Drop, Samantha Drop, Allie Alsup and Megan Decker arrived at the New Balance Track and Field Center at The Armory in New York City with the same hopes and All-American dreams that all the competitors harbored at this year’s National Championship Indoor meet.
“It was in the back of our minds that we could get All-American because we looked at the results from last year and our times could definitely get us there,” Jessica Drop said.
Reality had set in. The girls from Durham were going to have to run the fastest times of their lives. Only the top six teams are awarded All-America honors.
The girls watched Jessica Drop run, counted other runners, and watched the leaderboard. Most of all, they wondered. When the race was over there was a short, excruciating wait for the results.
Then. In a flash. 11:55.36. Sixth place. Pandemonium.
Jessica Drop, Samantha Drop, Allie Alsup and Megan Decker became the first Coginchaug track and field athletes to earn All-American honors.
Two days later, Jessica Drop capped the Blue Devils glorious weekend with an All-American performance in the one-mile championship.
This year’s National Indoor meet took place March 11-13. And McShane quickly noticed the fast times that were showing up on the scoreboard.
Sam Drop, a senior who is headed to the University of Georgia, got the Blue Devils weekend off to a great start on Friday morning. Drop placed 22nd in the Girls 2-mile Emerging Elite race while breaking the school record with a time of 11:05.33.
Decker ran the second leg (400). The junior, who has emerged as one of the top sprinters in the Shoreline, was also out of her comfort zone.
Alsup, a junior who is one of the state’s top middle distance runners, did her job in the third leg (800).
All eyes were now on Jessica Drop for the final 1600 meters.
The Blue Devils’ sixth-place time (11:55.36) outdistanced seventh place Legacy TC (New York), which finished in 11:57.68.
North Rockland High School (Thiells, N.Y.) won the Distance Medley with a meet record time of 11:34.85.
On Saturday, Coginchaug’s Sprint Medley team of seniors Cassandra Kovacs, Katherine D’Orvilliers, Decker, and Alsup placed 23rd in 4:17.10.
And on Sunday, Drop made more track history.
Drop, who is also going to run track for the University of Georgia next season, faced some of the fastest milers in the country in the Girls 1-Mile Run championship.
Earlier in the season, Drop ran a personal best mile (4:50.06) at the Millrose Games.
“I knew she was going to have to run under 4:47 on Sunday,” McShane said.
Drop ran an amazing 4:46.57, a fifth-place finish that earned the Blue Devils senior more All-American honors.
Drop ran a 2:23 for the first 800 meters.
“I went out fast and I was like, ‘Oh, no…it’s going to be a bad last 800,” Drop said.
Drop, however, ran almost the same split. Drop finished just behind Shona McCullough (Ontario, Canada), whose fourth-place time was 4:46.18. Madison Boreman (Round Rock, Texas) placed sixth in 4:47.39.
Katie Rainsberger, of Colorado’s U.S. Air Force Academy prep team, won the event with a meet record time of 4:36.61.
Drop’s time was just a few ticks off the all-time Connecticut indoor track record (4:45.09) set by Greenwich’s Ceci Hopp in 1981.


Pavithra Srinivasan reviews the Tamil album, Avan Ivan. Post YOUR reviews here!
Rasathi begins on an angsty note, as Haricharan picks up the vocal reigns, and there are faint strains of the classic Munpaniyaa -- but the song shifts direction soon. The lyrics are standard, colloquial fare but again, the score takes precedence here. The instrumental score is fascinating. An appealing number.
Dia Dia Dole, rendered by Suchithra, reminds you of Om Sivoham from Naan Kadavul. Impressive beats follow, to the accompaniment of a melodious nadhaswaram. An enthusiastic number.
and Baby Nithyashree. The first interlude, in fact, sounds a lot like the classic Mohanam varnam; a neat flute piece leads to the charanam. The lyrics are as soothing as the song itself. A gentle number.
There's an ominous feel as Mudhal Murai begins, dripping sorrow and desolation with every note. Vijay Prakash renders the sorrowful song, singing about death.
More ethnic beats, as the nayanam begins its folksy tune for Avanappathi, T L Maharajan and Sathyan take up the vocal reigns. And as in some of the numbers above, it's the rhythm that takes centre stage. And during the charanam, the tempo increases, making for an enthusiastic listen. The lyrics, particularly approaching the finale, are impressive: 'Picchaidhaan Eduthaalum, Perasanaalum Aanaalum, puzhuvukku Iraiyaavan verae Enna?' This one is a triumph of the instrumental score, again.
When it comes to Avan Ivan, it looks like Yuvan has voluntarily tried to move out of his comfort zone, given up on his template and experimented, particularly with the instrumental arrangement and most times, it works. Go for it.


Days after Zimbabwe's central bank increased daily withdrawal limits, the lines outside Zimbabwe's banks are still as long as ever. As Tendai Maphosa reports from Harare this is seriously affecting productivity for those with jobs.
Starting this week, Zimbabweans can withdraw, on a daily basis, 20,000 Zimbabwean dollars (equal to about $5) from their bank accounts up from the previous daily limit of 1,000 Zimbabwean dollars. But this has failed to reduce the lines that sometimes spill off the sidewalk onto the streets as people wait to withdraw their money. Most of them still say it is not enough to meet their daily needs in the country with the world's highest inflation rate.
In addition to the frustration this causes, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Lovemore Matombo tells VOA it is disrupting productivity in the work place.
"Some people have suggested that they can only work for eight hours for the whole week suggesting that four-fifths of production is lost per week," he said.
Matombo adds that this worsens the economic situation since the country's manufacturing sector has virtually collapsed. Unemployment in Zimbabwe is estimated at more than 80 percent.
The ZCTU president says his organization had planned to demonstrate on October 1 against the then daily withdrawal limit of 1,000 Zimbabwean dollars. He says the increases only put the planned action on hold.
"What we are observing especially in Harare is characteristic of what's happening elsewhere around the country but we need to get information from our staff members from our trade unions representing the various provinces as to what is happening," said Matombo. "Once that is done we are going to march to the reserve bank in the case of Harare and to other reserve bank agencies in the case of the various provinces around the country."
Only weeks ago the central bank revalued the currency by loping off ten zeros. This was so people would not have to carry piles of money for the most basic transactions. But the zeros are coming back - on the day bank withdrawals were increased, Z$10,000 and Z$20,000 notes were introduced.
An economist speaking on condition of anonymity told VOA that the note shortage could be partly due to a shortage of printing paper. This is because a German firm, which used to supply Zimbabwe, stopped doing so citing the government's poor human rights record. He however added that an abundance of notes would simply drive Zimbabwe's hyperinflation. The solution, he says is to get the country's economy working again.
Critics of President Robert Mugabe blame his government's mismanagement for Zimbabwe's economic woes. He in turn says Western imposed sanctions are to blame.
Meanwhile, strike action over pay by its pilots has forced the national airline, Air Zimbabwe, to ground its fleet for 48 hours starting Friday.


Democratic Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff has announced his panel will launch a broad new investigation into President Donald Trump's tax returns, business and ties to Russia.
The announcement comes after the president criticized "partisan investigations" in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
"An economic miracle is taking place in the United States — and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics or ridiculous partisan investigations," Trump said. "If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation."
Following the speech, Schiff told reporters, "We are not going to be intimidated or threatened by the president to withhold any legislative advancement if we do our proper oversight — we're going to do our proper oversight."
The following day, the Democratic leader made the announcement that House panel would be broadening the parameters of its investigation of President Trump and his believed Russian affiliates. House lawmakers will examine "whether any foreign actor has sought to compromise or holds leverage, financial or otherwise, over Donald Trump, his family, his business, or his associates."
President Trump took to Twitter Wednesday to criticize Schiff's efforts.
"So now Congressman Adam Schiff announces, after having found zero Russian Collusion, that he is going to be looking at every aspect of my life, both financial and personal, even though there is no reason to be doing so," tweeted Trump. "The Dems and their committees are going 'nuts.' The Republicans never did this to President Obama, there would be no time left to run government. I hear other committee heads will do the same thing. Even stealing people who work at White House! A continuation of Witch Hunt!"
....The Dems and their committees are going "nuts." The Republicans never did this to President Obama, there would be no time left to run government. I hear other committee heads will do the same thing. Even stealing people who work at White House! A continuation of Witch Hunt!
CBS News reports the committee's first act will be to authorize the transmission of all the transcripts of witness testimony from the House Russia investigation to the special counsel.
"The American people have a right to know — indeed, a need to know — that the president is acting on their behalf and not for some pecuniary or other reason," Schiff said. "That pertains to any credible allegations of leverage by the Russians or the Saudis or anyone else."
Meanwhile, other Democratic chairs are allegedly joining Schiff in investigating the administration. The chairs of the House Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees have already stated their intentions to investigate some of the administration's policy choices.
Last December, the House Intelligence Committee voted to share the transcript of Trump adviser Roger Stone's testimony with the special counsel. A month later, Stone was arrested on multiple counts of obstruction, false testimony, and witness tampering.
CBS News reports the minority of Republicans on the committee, led by ranking member Devin Nunes (R-CA), asked for the immediate release of the transcripts. The GOP minority also requested the subpoena of multiple witnesses, including former FBI Director James Comey; however, the Democratic majority refused, opting instead to first seek voluntary testimony.


Is diet soda bad for you? Who knows. It might be in large quantities, but the evidence is pretty thin. On the list of things to get outraged about, it probably ranks somewhere near the bottom of the Top 100.
This is so, so, so, so, so, so, so bad for you. Why don’t I see rage against this in my inbox like I do for diet soda? Why can’t people differentiate risk appropriately?
And who would fight a tax on this?
Answer: lots of people, including every single member of the Republican Party. Next question?


A consignment of ice was delivered to the award-winning park after a generous donation from The Ice Co, the nation’s biggest producer of ice.
YWP’s Carnivore Team Leader Kim Wilkins said: “Our polar bears absolutely loved playing around in the ice. They were in their element. It was a real Half Term treat."
She added: “It’s such an amazing idea and great for our animals to be able to play with the ice now the snow days seem to be over.
Kim said: “We offloaded the ice cubes mostly by hand and created three mountains of fresh water ice cubes, the largest was almost 4ft high."
The Ice Co learnt that animals adore playing with the different textures so donated ice to the park, at Branton, near Doncaster.
The company, based at South Kirkby, delivered the ice to the park which is 20 miles from their base.
“We sometimes have additional ice and a member of the team put forward the idea of sending ice to the park for the animals to play with,” said a spokesman for The Ice Co.


I would like to respond to the spirited defense of Sen. Stiles mounted in a Saturday, March 19, letter from the prime sponsor of the voucher bill, former Sen. Jim Forsythe.
Last year's very unusual Republican supermajority passed Mr. Forsythe's bill over the governor's veto. He used all the tools at his disposal — letters, editorials and even a fake opinion poll — to marshal opinion for his bill. But voters last November did not agree that government should leave public education behind and fund private education. So it is the task of this year's Legislature to correct last year's excesses. Mr. Forsythe's poorly conceived bill is Exhibit A on that agenda.
Mr. Forsythe features all the usual tropes from voucher advocates. He tells us that a vote to repeal vouchers would have to be "ideological," the debate is a "rehash," and that, unlike Sen. Stiles, voucher opponents don't actually care about children.
But the voucher debate at this stage is definitely not an ideological rehash. There is a lot of new information that Sen.Stiles the Legislature and the public did not have last year.
Did you know last year that there would be no group or board to oversee the tax credit program? And that, as a result, the only scholarship organization with access to the millions of dollars in tax credits granted by the state is a small, inexperienced California group dedicated to privatizing public education?
Did you know last year that 80 percent of the students who designated a school when applying for a voucher would plan to go to a religious school? And that many of those schools integrate a Creationist curriculum into every lesson, in every subject, every day? Constitutionality aside, this is not a curriculum the state should be paying for.
Did you know that there would be virtually no business interest in this tax credit program? There has been only one significant scholarship donation — from a company committed to religious education — but almost nothing beyond that.
Now supporters of public education are indeed writing lots of letters in response to Sen. Stiles' statements in this paper and elsewhere. I'm sure they must working on other senators' votes as well. But Sen. Stiles is particularly logical repeal the vote because, as Mr. Forsythe says, she is a supporter of public education. She opposed vouchers last year on that basis and this new information she did not have just weeks ago would be a good basis to support repeal this year.


Roughly a dozen “Justice For Jack,” supporters gathered at the Idaho Statehouse Friday to urge the Attorney General to release the findings of their investigation into a deadly deputy-involved shooting which resulted in the death of a well-known Council, Idaho rancher.
"We have waited long enough," Boise resident Janelle Wintersteen said. "The longer that report does not come out, the more anger and more rumors about what happened get started."
"I'm originally from Council, and I know the [Yantis] family, and we want answers," Kuna resident Rebecca Barlow said. "It's been over 200 days and it's time that the Attorney General put Jack Yantis first."
The Idaho State Police conducted an initial investigation and handed it over to the Idaho Attorney General .


You don't get a more hardened hack than Jimi Matthews, who as cameraman and journalist for international media organisations during South Africa's violent transition saw more bodies than is probably good for anyone.
So what does the respected Matthews, who is now acting group executive of news and current affairs responsible for 18 radio stations and four television news channels, with the recent addition of the SABC's 24-hour channel, think about the drive by his boss, Hlaudi Motsoeneng, to see a 70% positive news quota written into the broadcaster's new editorial code?
"I look forward to someone explaining to me how they are going to define that," says Matthews.
"Someone has to define what good news is to me. Someone has to define how you make that measure. At the end of the day, the basic tenets of journalism are balance and fairness."
People in his newsroom are joking about positive news quotas, he admits.
"I understand, because they have to go out there into the field.
I have a constant thing with one of the prominent trade unionists, who, when he sees me these days, says: 'So I had better give you some good news.' My response is: 'You should stop these jokes, or you will soon find yourself off air. And then you can go around saying I banned you'."
There are many positive stories Matthews wants his journalists to tell. Twenty-five years ago, the white South African government was boasting it could generate electricity for the whole of Africa and export electricity when, 25km away, people had no electricity. Now, almost all, if not all, of Soweto is electrified, Matthews says.
"If I tell this story, am I guilty of sunshine journalism? My newsroom leaks like a sieve, more than any place I have worked. I challenge anyone to say where this newsroom has deliberately suppressed stories of corruption."
When the much-awaited public protector's report on President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home is released, Matthews says he will have to report it.
"If I don't, I just confirm the claim that we don't do this stuff."
Matthews is aggrieved that people still have a negative attitude towards the SABC, yet his reporters consistently win awards. "Let me say clearly that the issue of this 70% [positive news] stuff was never discussed with me or imposed on the newsroom.
"When I first heard about it from a third party, I asked Hlaudi what exactly this was about and, to a large degree, I think it is a personal sentiment. We will call the news as we see it. You have seen where his office is, it is almost in another country [in the SABC's sprawling premises]. Hlaudi has yet to walk into this newsroom and tell us what to do."


The list of candidates for the Nov. 6 election in San Mateo County has been settled. With the exception of write-in candidates – their window opens on Sept. 10 and closes Oct. 23 – the filing deadlines have passed for people seeking seats on the city and town councils in Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley and Woodside.
Contested elections are ahead for all three seats open on the Menlo Park City Council. In Woodside, four council seats are open, one is contested, and no incumbents are running for re-election.
Just one candidate is running for each of the three open council seats in Atherton and Portola Valley, and for three of four seats open in Woodside.
When races are uncontested, councils have the option of appointing candidates to office and forgoing elections. The Woodside council has authorized elections for all four seats. The Atherton and Portola Valley councils are scheduled to take up the matter next week.
This is the first election in Menlo Park since the council changed the election system from at-large voting, in which every voter can vote for every candidate, to voting by district, in which voters living in each of the five districts vote for candidates who also live in their respective districts.
In Menlo Park, all three seats are for four-year terms.
• District 1, which includes Belle Haven and the rest of Menlo Park east of U.S. 101: Mike Dunn, Cecilia Taylor and George Yang.
• District 2, which includes the Willows, Flood Triangle and Suburban Park neighborhoods: Drew Combs and current council member Kirsten Keith.
• District 4, which includes the downtown and Allied Arts neighborhoods: Betsy Nash, current council member Peter Ohtaki and Ron Shepherd.
Four seats are open on the Woodside council. The seats for districts 2, 4 and 6 are for four-year terms, and the District 7 seat is for a two-year term.
Three seats are open, each for a four-year term. The candidates are incumbents Rick DeGolia, Mike Lempres and Bill Widmer.
Three seats are open, each for a four-year term. The candidates are incumbents Maryann Moise Derwin, Craig Hughes and John Richards.
Posted by Let’s Go Drew!
How can anyone that works for Facebook be unbiased? Or how can anyone (Cecilia Jones) that has gotten Facebook Foundation Grants be unbiased?
Drew Combs has served as Vice Chair of the Planning Commission and as Chair of the Planning Commission.
No one has ever accused any decision he made as being biased. He has to recuse himself on issue related to Facebook.
That is much better than Keith whose record on Facebook is ALWAYS approve. Kirsten Keith's record is the best evidence of bias.
Are u kidding me? Do u really believing recusing yourself makes up for your professional or personal bias. Who knows what happens behind the scenes.
Keith is not an employee of Facebook or take any money or financial contributions from Facebook.
@Red_Herring writes, "That is much better than Keith whose record on Facebook is ALWAYS approve. Kirsten Keith's record is the best evidence of bias."
Combs will need to quit his job, sell all his Facebook stock, and wait a year before being able to have any input on Facebook development or the Transportation Master Plan.
Saying Kirsten negotiated a trip cap is about as ridiculous as you can get. First that trip cap was for the first development in 2012. There hasn’t been one since, for any other development. The cap is so lax Facebook has never exceeded it. Not once. That’s like saying she gave hairspray to a bald man. Either totally irrelevant or totally incompetent or both. The transportation Master Plan is mess. Her stewardship is nothing to brag about.
The fact is Kirsten is a rubber stamp for any development interest that can contribute to her political ambition. It’s time for her to go.
Saying Kirsten negotiated a trip cap is... true. She also negotiated with Stanford to drop medical office from their ECR project.
The transportation Master Plan is... the missing piece of the General Plan Update. Combs cannot participate.
Facebook is proposing the largest development in the history of Menlo Park. Combs cannot participate.
Kristen has been awful on development issues on Council.
She has been a lever yes vote. She has never voted against a large development or up zoning.
She absolutely negotiated a terribly irrelvant trip cap for one Facebook project that has no teeth at all. Have you ever been to Facebook. There are cars everywhere! They have valet parking so many cars are coming and going.
She did such a terrible job negotiating with Stanford she blessed a project in negotiation that eventually was completely scrapped. The current project looks nothing like the one she actually endorsed in her negotiations.
She owns the traffic mess in the Belle Haven and on Willow. She approved all of that development. She just accepted more money from those developers.
Saying we should elect her because she can vote on development is a weak argument. That’s precisely why we shouldn’t elect her.
When Combs eventually names supporters, no real person will want their name/face associated with the nensense described in the previous post. Combs must recuse himself from everything related to or near Facebook. Good luck with that.


BANGKOK (Reuters) - International tourist arrivals in Thailand rose 15 percent in January from a year earlier, government data showed, as the industry continued to expand in a sluggish domestic economy.
Tourism accounts for about 10 percent of Thailand’s gross domestic product.
The growing number of visitors has been one of the few bright spots for Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, which has struggled to find a firm footing since prolonged street protests took the country to the brink of recession in 2014.
Thailand grew 2.8 percent in 2015, up from 0.8 percent in 2014, but slower than the growth rate of its neighbors.
The number of visitors recorded in January 2016 alone was 3 million; travelers from China topped the list, with over 800,000 Chinese arrivals in January. That was up over 250,000 on the year.
Malaysia and South Korea are the second- and third-largest source countries for tourists to Thailand.
The government has forecast a record 32 million arrivals this year, up 7.1 percent from last year’s 29.88 million.
It aims for overall revenue from tourism of 2.4 trillion baht ($67.36 billion), up 9.1 percent from last year.


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The World Wide Web as we know it was first sketched out a quarter-century ago this week by Tim Berners-Lee, a contractor at the European physics lab CERN. Berners-Lee didn’t actually build out the Web until late 1990, and not until August 1991 did it become publicly available outside CERN.
Since then, of course, the Web has rapidly become so ubiquitous that it’s hard for many to remember how they bought things, did research, watched video or kept up with friends and family before it. If it seems like the Web has gone from “the World Wide What?” to necessity of modern life in record time — well, it has, as the chart above illustrates.
Not everyone, of course, will go as far as Kurzweil, either conceptually or into the future. But when the Pew Research Center asked hundreds of experts about their predictions for digital life in the year 2025, they foresaw the Web — and the internet more broadly — evolving into “a global, immersive, invisible, ambient networked computing environment.” Tapping into that sea of information, they believe, will become as effortless and automatic as flicking on an electric light switch — if not more so.


Hotel and motel owners are opposing a hike in the local hotel tax to help pay for a new downtown El Paso ballpark housing a Pacific Coast League team, but it’s not clear whether they have the political muscle to kill the proposal.
Taxing visitors via hotel and car taxes is always a popular way to pay for sporting facilities, because locals don’t bear the brunt of the costs. Hotel owners, of course, hate the idea of raising the cost of a stay in the city; while very few folks factor in the cost of the tax when they’re pricing hotel rooms, a high tax could leave a bad taste in the mouths of departing guests.
So the El Paso Hotel/Motel Association is against raising the local hotel tax two percentage points to 17.5 percent. That would be the highest tax rate in the state. Whether or not the association will organize to oppose a fall referendum on the tax hike is another matter: it’s one thing to raise concerns in the hope of a concession or two, and it’s another to actively campaign against the ballot measure that’s already proven to be politically popular.
Image courtesy of the City of El Paso.
Could Blue Jays provide shot in the arm for Bisons?


FILE - Conservative blogger Pamela Geller speaks during an interview at Associated Press offices in New York, May 7, 2015. David Wright was convicted in October 2017 of plotting to behead Geller and kill other Americans on behalf of the Islamic State group; on Dec. 19, 2017, he was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison.
A U.S. judge sentenced a Massachusetts man to 28 years in federal prison Tuesday for conspiring to support Islamic State militants in a 2015 plot to attack police and behead a blogger who organized a "Draw Muhammad" contest.
David Wright, 28, was found guilty in October of five criminal charges for planning with his uncle and a friend to travel to New York to attempt to behead conservative blogger Pamela Geller.
The group never made the trip. Wright's uncle, Usamaah Rahim, lost patience and told his co-conspirators that he wanted to kill law enforcement officers in Massachusetts. Agents overheard that conversation, and when police approached Rahim in a supermarket parking lot to question him, authorities said he lunged at them with a knife and was shot dead.
Wright was not present but was convicted of plotting the New York attack as well as destroying evidence.
Federal prosecutors had sought a life sentence. Geller also had asked the judge to sentence Wright to life in prison.
"This will never end for me, so it should never end for Daoud Wright. If he gets out, my family members and me will be in new danger," Geller said, using an alternate name for Wright. "Giving a lighter sentence to Daoud Wright would send a message to thousands of others like him that they can plot freely."
Wright testified during his five-week trial that he had been living in a "fantasy world" and that the plans were no more than role playing. He said he had never intended to harm Geller and that he was stunned when Rahim attacked police.
"I reject everything that ISIS stands for and represents," Wright said in remarks punctuated by high-pitched sobs. "I want to apologize to law enforcement to the extent that my words or failure to act put them in danger."
Wright also apologized to his family and to Geller, saying, "I am so sorry if I made you feel like you were in a state of fear."
His attorneys had asked for a sentence of 16 years, followed by a lifetime of supervised release.
Geller's May 2015 contest in Texas featured cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, images that many Muslims consider blasphemous. Two gunmen attacked that event, and police shot them dead.
Geller said her event was intended as a demonstration of the free-speech rights protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.


Nightstop volunteers surveyed in a recent piece of research said that they gave young homeless people a bed for the night because of their Christian faith, with one respondent stating they were “responding to God’s generosity”.
Supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery (PPL), Nightstop is a same-night emergency accommodation service that links young people in crisis with trained volunteer hosts who accommodate them in their own home.
Sarah, who hosts with her husband Greg in Nottingham, said: “When we started Nightstop we wanted to play our part in changing outcomes for young people. We have a love for the young people that God has given us. That love is real. It is not a burden to us. We enjoy hosting.
Many of the volunteer hosts who took part in the research found that hosting through Nightstop had made them more open-minded and given them a greater understanding of the challenges facing young people.
Nightstop also surveyed young people who had been taken in by volunteers. More than a third (36%) said that if it weren’t for Nightstop they might have slept on the streets or in a park, with a quarter saying they would have slept on public transport or in a public building.
The research also found that more than 95 percent of young people who used the service felt that it had improved their personal safety.
Nicola Harwood, Depaul UK’s Associate Director for Prevention, said: “The remarkable hosts who open up their homes to a young person in need can make a long-lasting impact on their lives at a moment of genuine need.
Last year, Nightstop gave a safe place to stay to more than 1,400 young people, providing a total of 11,070 nights of accommodation across the UK.


With few legal rights and no local IDs, people who came from distant lands struggle to fulfil their spiritual quest.
Rastafarians around the world see Ethiopia as their spiritual home. Many of them believe the country's last king, Haile Selassie, was a descendent of King Solomon and the messiah.
Many of the men travelled thousands of kilometres to live in what they say is their promised land. The town of Shashamane in southern Ethiopia is a place of pilgrimage for Rastafarians around the world.
The Rastafarians say they smoke marijuana because it is their sacrament - the equivalent of bread and wine given during Christian communions.
The nearly 800 Rastafarians who live in the area say they are fulfilling a prophecy that descendants of slaves will return to Africa.
However, they also face considerable challenges, having left their lives in countries including the UK, the US and Jamaica. They have few legal rights, their passports having expired a long time ago.
They have no Ethiopian IDs, which means they cannot work legally. Local development has shrunk the land they currently live on to an area of around 5sq hectares.
Al Jazeera's Charles Stratford reports from Shashamane.


With homes in Finland, the U.S., and the Bahamas already, “we were looking at places in Canada and interested in something that would be similar to New York, and walkable,” Pursglove said.
They fell in love with Toronto, which had direct flights to their other homes, and “happened to be at the right place at the right time,” she said. The couple locked in a penthouse condominium on top of the 55-storey Four Seasons Private Residences tower, which was still under construction.
The penthouse took less than two years to complete; soon after, the couple, who have two daughters, began divorce negotiations.
Now, Pursglove has placed the four-bedroom apartment on the market for $36 million. Although she can’t disclose the marital settlement, she did confirm that she’s now the sole owner of the penthouse.
Sarah Pursglove is fighting with her estranged husband, Robert Oesterlund, for custody of their children and half of their net family worth, which she says is about $400 million, including the $30-million penthouse in Toronto's Four Seasons condo.
The home has more than 9,000 square feet of space. Initial construction and renovation cost more than $5 million, Pursglove estimates, but that doesn’t include the home automation system, which she said cost an additional $1 million.
During this time, though, Pursglove was able to design the layout to her family’s specifications. Inspired by a previous trip to Japan, she installed a sauna, which is connected to the master suite and overlooks downtown Toronto.
Should prospective buyers prefer some privacy, the home has four separate terraces on both ends of the space, which takes up the top floor of the building and features its own elevator (and service elevator) entrances. There’s also a large living room with a wet bar, a family room, a media room, a study, and a formal dining room. “It was really designed with family in mind,” Pursglove said.
The main suite, which has its own sitting room and terrace, also includes his and hers walk-in closets, separate en suite his and hers bathrooms, and access to a rear set of (also privately accessible) elevators.
Azadeh Banai with Finnish millionaire Robert Oesterlund. Banai, a Toronto-based interior designer, said she met Oesterlund just after his separation from his wife, Sarah Pursglove, in February 2014.
Just months before the sale on the penthouse closed in 2014, Pursglove learned that Oesterlund was continuing an affair with another woman, a Toronto-based interior designer named Azadeh Banai, Pursglove alleged in court documents.
Banai denied the allegations in a Star story about the penthousein 2015.
Pursglove and Oesterlund’s divorce and custody proceedings were acrimonious and complex, and involved some high-priced treasures, including the Four Seasons penthouse.
Pursglove “always had an unlimited access to funds and money was never an issue,” according to a 2015 affidavit filed in a Toronto court.
She said she and Oesterlund owned two 2009 Princess 62-foot yachts, each valued at about $1.2 million, and a 2000 165-foot Feadship yacht named Déjà Vu, valued at $33 million and that costs approximately $200,000 per month to operate and maintain. They also used to own a 2007 Citation Cessna CJ3 business jet. The current ownership status of the yachts is unclear.
She said the couple had a 12-member crew for the yachts, including a captain, engineers, stewards and a chef.
Among their fleet of vehicles, she listed several Mercedes, a Porsche, a Volvo, two snowmobiles, a Dutch Lion motorbike, two Segways and golf carts.
The matrimonial home in Boca Raton, Fla., valued at about $5.2 million.
Two properties in the Bahamas, one of which is estimated to be worth $10 million.
An apartment in Wales, where Pursglove’s mother lived, worth about $185,000.


EELS co-captain Jarryd Hayne admits winning the wooden spoon for a second-straight season was like undergoing torture.
But he is ready to put that behind him and stake his claim for a Kangaroos jersey when he runs out for the Prime Minister's XIII against Papua New Guinea next Sunday.
Hayne could only take the field 15 times for Parramatta, after a hamstring injury saw him miss eight games, but was a shining light in his team's dismal season, scoring eight tries.
He said he was now recharged after spending a week in New Zealand watching some rugby union, leading into his PM's XIII preparations.
And despite the widespread criticism outgoing Eels coach Ricky Stuart received for walking out on the club to return home and coach Canberra, Hayne praised the under-fire mentor.
"It was a torturous year for the team, but being co-captain at Parramatta has helped my game, and Ricky Stuart was a big part of that," Hayne told APN.
He also said he was looking forward to the challenge PNG is expected to put up.
"They'll have some real dangers like David Mead and James Segeyaro. They're a passionate side and they'll be full of beans," Hayne said.
"It's been a tough year, but I'm just trying to keep my head up and work for a spot in the Australian squad for the World Cup (in England and Wales starting on October 26)."
With the NRL finals in full swing, Hayne predicted minor premiers the Roosters would be the team to beat.
"They've got all the momentum and they're the best-balanced team - defensively they were switched on against Manly last Saturday night," he said.


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Members of the Fortuna Senior Hiking Group explored Ferndale, making their way from Port Kenyon to Camp Weott on Nov. 9. This Friday, the group plans a trail walk, 7.5 miles round trip on Homestead Trail in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The walk will begin and end at the Rockefeller Big Tree parking area off Mattole Road. Bring lunch and money to share the cost of gas and meet at 9 a.m. at Rohner Park in Fortuna to carpool or at 8:40 a.m. in the parking area between McDonald’s and Party City in Eureka. The group’s hikes are open to adults age 50 and over in good hiking health. For more information, call 707-725-7953.


Some of the most powerful leaders in the American Jewish community have stepped forward in recent days to acknowledge the 1915 Armenian Genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turkey.
On the surface, this would seem unremarkable. As victims of the Holocaust, Jews might be expected to stand beside the Armenians and their tragedy. After all, the massacres and death marches across Anatolia during the fog of World War I became a model for Hitler himself.
But this sudden embrace of the Armenian Genocide actually marks a shameless turnaround for the major American Jewish organizations. For decades, they have helped Turkey cover up its murderous past. Each year, the Israel lobby in the U.S. has played a quiet but pivotal role in pressuring Congress, the State Department and successive presidents to defeat simple congressional resolutions commemorating the 1.5 million Armenian victims.
Genocide denial is not a pretty thing, they now concede, but they did it for Israel. They did it out of gratitude for Turkey being Israel’s one and only Muslim ally.
Now the game has changed. Israel and Turkey are locked in a feud over the Palestine-bound flotilla that was intercepted on the high seas by Israel. Turkey is outraged over the killing of nine of its citizens on board. Israel is outraged that a country with Turkey’s past would dare judge the morality of the Jewish state.
So the Armenian Genocide has become a new weapon in the hands of Israel and its supporters in the U.S., a way to threaten Turkey, a conniver’s get-even: Hey, Turkey, if you want to play nasty with Israel, if you want to lecture us about violations of human rights, we can easily go the other way on the Armenian Genocide. No more walking the halls of Congress to plead your shameful case.
If I sound cynical about all this, maybe I am.
In the spring of 2007, I wrote a story that revealed how genocide denial had become a dirty little pact between Turkey and Israel and its lobby in the U.S.
The story, as it turned out, was my last story at the Los Angeles Times, the only story in my 20-year career that was killed on the eve of publication.
A rift over genocide denial has begun to crack open inside the Jewish community. If you listen closely, you can hear the stirrings of a debate.
On one side were the conservative, Likud-devoted lions of the major Jewish organizations who championed the virtues of Turkey, the first Muslim country to formally recognize Israel. As long as Ankara continued to cooperate in Israeli military exercises and purchase Israeli war machines, it deserved special treatment. Israel itself had adopted an official policy of denying the Armenian Genocide. Its supporters in the U.S. were obliged to do the same.
On the other side were more progressive Jews who couldn’t stomach the notion that Holocaust survivors were working so diligently to erase the memory of another people’s genocide. How could Jewish leaders whose every sense was tuned to detect the Holocaust deniers in our midst, who had gone to the ends of the earth to hunt down Hitler’s henchmen, now enlist with the patrons of genocide?
It was the sort of hypocrisy that made the vow of "Never Again" sound exclusive, a shelter for just one.
My editor was intrigued. Here was an important and timely topic that no newspaper or magazine had ever covered. The fact that I was the grandson of Armenian Genocide survivors didn’t seem to give him any pause. If nothing else, my ethnic background gave me a working knowledge of the issues and the players.
I knew that experts in the field of Holocaust studies recognized the Armenian Genocide as an antecedent with chilling echoes. And Jewish scholars were openly condemning Turkey’s long campaign of denial, seeing it as the psychological continuation of genocidal trauma.
But these same scholars were mostly silent when it came to the behind-the-scenes role that Israel and its lobby in the U.S -- the Anti-Defamation League, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, neoconservative think tanks and Bush administration hawks -- were playing in this denial.
This was the story I wanted to tell as the ceremonial bill went to committee that April -- the month that Armenians remember their martyrs.
The only caution from my editor was that I conduct all interviews on-the-record. "Unnamed sources aren’t going to work for this one," he said.
I drove down Wilshire Boulevard and knocked on the door of the Turkish Consulate. The diplomat in charge, a polished man in a three-piece suit, wondered how the events of 1915 could constitute a genocide if I, an Armenian, was standing literally before him.
“So both of your grandfathers survived, huh?” he said in an accuser’s tone.
He had written it out of shame, he said. "Denial of the Armenian Genocide in the Jewish Diaspora is closely connected to the policy of denial in Israel. This is nothing less than a betrayal of the moral legacy of the Holocaust."
Then I found my way to the equivocators and deniers who sat at the helms of the major American Jewish organizations. None was more blunt than Abraham Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League in New York. The Armenian Genocide had become his own convenient cudgel to keep Turkey in line.
Foxman had just returned from a meeting with Turkish military and government leaders to discuss pressuring Congress, the State Department and President Bush to turn back the genocide resolution once again.
"Our focus is Israel," he explained. "If helping Turkey helps Israel, then that’s what we’re in the business of doing."
But such a bottom line would seem an uncomfortable place for a Jewish leader to be when the question was genocide.
"Was it genocide?" he said. "It was wartime. Things get messy."
He questioned whether a bill in Congress would help "reconcile" the differences between Turks and Armenians, as though the whole thing was a marital spat that needed some calming down.
"The Turks and Armenians need to revisit their past. The Jewish community shouldn’t be the arbiter of that history. And I don’t think the U.S. Congress should be the arbiter, either."
He was lifting lines right out of the Turkish playbook. I almost had to revisit his website to make sure that the ADL was still in the business of fighting not only anti-Semitism but "bigotry and extremism" and "securing justice and fair treatment to all."
I pointed out that the genocide had already been documented as a fact by many prominent historians. And Congress recognizes all sorts of people's history. Resolutions commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, for instance.
"You’re not suggesting that an Armenian Genocide is the same as the Holocaust, are you?"
I tried to draw the parallels that the scholars had drawn, but Foxman saw it as an affront. The oneness of the Holocaust was being debased by Armenians looking for a piggyback ride.
"Are you Armenian?" he finally asked.
I wrote the story and filed it. My editor in Washington was pleased. It landed on the weekend budget, a strong candidate for Page One.
The weekend came and went, but the story held. I called the editor and asked if there was a problem. He was sorry to say that the story had been killed -- on a last-minute order from the managing editor.
Then it hit me. Even as the paper was nominating one of my other stories for a Pulitzer Prize, on this story I was an Armenian.
The official explanation was a beauty. The managing editor said I was not an objective reporter because I had once signed a petition stating that the Armenian Genocide was a historical fact.
I had never signed such a petition. But if I had, how did this prove bias? Our own style book at the Times recognized the genocide as a historical fact.
"Would you tell a Jewish reporter that he couldn’t write about Holocaust denial because he believed the Holocaust was a fact?” I asked.
His answer was to reassign my story to a colleague in Washington who covered Congress. That this reporter was Jewish -- and the story dealt with Jewish denial of the genocide -- didn’t seem to faze the managing editor. The colleague, who may not have had a choice in the matter, proceeded to gut my story. By the time he was done, there was not a single mention of Jewish denial.
After an ugly public fight, I left the paper. The managing editor was later pushed out when an internal probe showed that my story was factual and without bias.
These days, I find myself more than a curious observer of the new cold war that has broken out between Turkey and Israel and its supporters.
What to make of the rush of Jewish leaders -- from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington to a city councilman named Jack Weiss in Los Angeles -- coming forward in the past few weeks to divulge their role in genocide denial?
"Frankly, [it] was not becoming for Jews, given that we have likewise been victims of genocide," Weiss wrote in an inelegant piece in the Jewish Journal.
How to account for these sudden confessions? A pang of remorse? A cleansing of the soul? I’m afraid not. These aren’t confessions, at all. Rather, they are reminders of the debt Turkey owes Israel -- and they come with teeth bared.
Last week, four Jewish professors from Georgetown and Bar Ilan universities urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. Take that, Turkey!
How will Ankara react? Will fear of genocide recognition, which it considers a national security issue, eventually cause Turkey to soften its accusations of apartheid against Israel and become a compliant ally again?
And what about the Armenians and their lobby? Aren’t they guilty of their own cynicism for watching the flotilla feud and now thinking that the winds of geopolitics have finally blown their way? Will they cozy up to Jewish leaders suddenly eager to embrace their genocide? Or will they tell them "thanks but no thanks" and join Turkey in standing up for the Palestinian cause?
Only next April, the season of the return of the genocide resolution, will tell.


An Alliance councillor who went missing has thanked people from across the political divide who united in a search to find him.
David Armitage said he was overwhelmed by the positive response on social media to his mental ill health, which had "developed into a very serious situation".
The east Belfast councillor was found by a couple who had seen appeals online for his whereabouts.
In a Facebook post yesterday, he said: "I am still very ill, but in a lot better shape than I was last week.
"It has been said that I have managed to unite loyalists, republicans, unionists, nationalists, liberals, Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists, LGBT, straight, members of the Orange Order, as well as people from north, south, east and west Belfast.
"Maybe when we put people before political ideology we will get results.
"Maybe we have started to create a more united community."
Alliance leader Naomi Long and her husband Michael, who is the leader of the Alliance group at Belfast City Hall, had appealed on social media for help to find Mr Armitage when he went missing on August 19.
Mrs Long tweeted: "We need to locate him urgently.
"The constituency office is open from 3.30pm, if you can help us search. If you see him, contact me."
Mr Armitage was located later that day.
Politicians and supporters of all Northern Ireland's political parties offered Alliance their help.
Mr Armitage, who represents the Titanic area, said: "A big thank you to all who went out and looked for me, or reposted alerts and sent messages of support.
"I still can't process the fact that so many people would spend time looking for me, or worrying about me and 'liking' me!"
He continued: "Thank you to the Alliance Party for coordinating the search, providing care, and for Michael and Naomi for meeting me and taking me to hospital."
He thanked the couple who found him and had contacted the Longs and "talked and stayed with me", as well as the PSNI and medical staff. "A massive thank you to East Belfast Survivors of Suicide who have been providing valuable support over a number of weeks," he added.
Mr Armitage last night received dozens of messages from people on social media praising his courage on speaking out on mental health issues and wishing him well.
The councillor had posted a worrying message on Facebook on August 19 which led his friends and political colleagues to be concerned about his well-being. Calls for information on his whereabouts were shared online by Sinn Fein, Ulster Unionist, Green and SDLP politicians, and by DUP leader Arlene Foster.
Mrs Long expressed her gratitude for the cross-party assistance and praised social media as "a life-saver".


Sir Ivan Rogers was not a Foreign Office smoothie, the kind of charming brilliant diplomat who used to live in the Rue Ducale and out-negotiate the Eurocrats with effortless ease, writes Denis MacShane, reflecting on the sudden departure of the UK’s envoy to the EU.
Denis MacShane is the former UK Minister of Europe whose book on Brexit published in 2015 predicted how it would happen. He is a senior Advisor at Avisa Partners, Brussels.
Rogers is a hard-nosed free market Treasury wallah who was the highest of high-flyers in the Treasury, the most Eurosceptic of all Whitehall departments prior to Brexit. He has also done stints in the private sector in the City but was brought back to be point man for David Cameron in Brussels in 2012.
He was one of the rare “Yes Minister” Whitehall knights who was ready to tell truth to power. Daniel Korski, a Cameron aide, wrote the most revealing insider account of why Cameron failed to win his referendum and said of Rogers: “If there was one person who tried to flag the gulf that existed between the UK and the rest of the EU it was Ivan Rogers. He could be infuriating, but he was right on many of the big issues, including that what the Conservative Party was asking for was not something that European leaders would ever agree to provide.
So if Korksi is to be believed Rogers had fewer and fewer friends and more and enemies. So poor is media reporting in Westminister of the real power battles inside the British government that no-one picked up on Korski’s analysis. But with a prime minister who is so cautious she appears hesitant to cross the road, Rogers had no mandate and a permanent rep in the EU without clear orders and a direction of travel is powerless.
The problem is that Mrs. May appears to be utterly beholden to the more UKIP end of her Conservative Party. The 3 Musketeers of Brexit – Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox make no secret of their willingness to confront a train crash Brexit. If there are pro-Single Market senior Tories, they are silent while Labour has gone into its own cul-de-sac about immigration, which is a sure way to alienate every EU head of government.
He is sending a signal on above of his wing of the British establishment and state that Brexit can turn into a monumental disaster unless handled carefully and with far more political courage than the prime minister has managed so far.
But last night in London the isolationists are opening the champagne left over from New Year. And those who want to save Britain from being cut off from foreign direct investment and influence and the world’s biggest market are again left without much to say.


MONROVIA >> In the Rio Hondo League, the fortunes of a team can be changed on one pitch or one hit. In the case of Temple City, it was one player — Nicco Day.
The senior played a starring role in Temple City’s 6-2 win over host Monrovia on Friday. The win solidified the Rams’ position in second place in the league standings, one game behind La Canada.
It was a huge performance for Day. He went 3 for 4, including a two-run home run in the third inning and a double to right-center in the seventh inning. Day also pitched three innings in relief, allowed two hits and struck out six to preserve the win for starter Nathan Lee.
Day was brought in the fifth inning and struck out Nathan Thompson and Dominic Teneriello and picked off Logan Barnier at second base.
The Rams (9-6, 4-1), who only scored one run on six hits in their 4-1 loss to La Canada last week, came out of their offensive shell early by scoring two runs in the second inning on run-scoring singles by Joey Flores and Erik Lewis off Monrovia starter Logan Barnier, for an early 2-0 lead.
Monrovia (7-5, 3-3) scored its only runs in the fourth inning. Sebastian Sanchez scored on a single to center field by Coleman Mitchell that cut Temple City’s lead to 4-1. Nicholas Parker scored when Luke Heiberg beat out a throw to first base, on a double-play attempt, for a 4-2 Temple City advantage.
It was a bittersweet win for Nelson, who found out shortly before Friday’s game that Art Mazmanian, for whom he played for one season at Mt. SAC (1983), passed away earlier in the day.


When was the last time that films involving Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts all went into the big night as underdogs? The oceanic upheaval that rocked Robert Redford's world in last year's "All Is Lost" is just a pond ripple, compared to the turbulent sea change that is in the offing this Oscar evening.
Why is this? In 2013, there was, simply, a superabundance of brilliant pictures and sterling performances. It was a more overcrowded field than, well, the chaotic gridiron sung about by Don McLean in "American Pie."
And, as usual, there were some questionable calls. The gripping "Fruitvale Station" received not one nomination, while the utterly boring Animal-House-on-the-Hudson parable "Wolf of Wall Street" — an uninvolving retread of a 1929 movie of the same title — somehow grabbed five.
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o, "12 Years a Slave"
Yes, in "American Hustle," Jennifer Lawrence deftly tapped into the cunning but vulnerable mind of Rosalyn Rosenfeld. But Nyong'o delivered an absolutely searing performance in "12 Years a Slave" as abused human property. Overlooked, but worthy of inclusion in this category: Ellen Page ("The East") and Juliette Lewis ("August: Osage County").
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club"
Again, the versatile Michael Fassbender ("12 Years a Slave") will go home empty-handed. Newcomer Barkhad Abdi ("Captain Phillips") may silently pray to the Academy voters, "Look at me!" But how could they have taken their eyes off of the superb acting and miraculous transformation — of gender and emaciation — turned in by Jared Leto in "Dallas Buyers Club"? Overlooked, but worthy of nomination: Will Forte ("Nebraska") and Keith Stanfield (Short Term 12").
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, "Blue Jasmine"
This category boasts perhaps the largest number of potential and actual contenders. As riveting as Amy Adams was in her duplicitous role in "American Hustle," her acting was outmatched by Ms. Blanchett's unerring exploration of a woman's wounded psyche in "Blue Jasmine." Overlooked, but worthy of inclusion: Emma Thompson ("Saving Mr. Banks"), Brie Larson ("Short Term 12"), Julie Delpy ("Before Midnight") and Shailene Woodley ("The Spectacular Now").
Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, "12 Years a Slave"
Best Director: Steve McQueen, "12 Years a Slave"
Incredibly, until this year, neither David O. Russell ("American Hustle"), nor McQueen nor Alfonso Cuaron ("Gravity") had ever won either an Oscar or Golden Globe award. That streak ended with Cuaron capturing this year's Golden Globe award for best director. Now, the Academy is poised to reward McQueen, who fearlessly took on his most daunting assignment. Overlooked, but worthy of inclusion: Destin Cretton ("Short Term 12").
Best Picture: "12 Years a Slave"
The Academy traditionally favors intense period dramas over quirky period comedies, and this adaptation of Solomon Northup's true-life tale is too well-crafted and too well-acted to be "Hustled" off of the stage. This motion picture is truly a classic for the ages, and will be so recognized on Oscar night. Overlooked, but worthy of inclusion in this category: "Short Term 12," "Before Midnight," and "The Spectacular Now."


AYR Racecourse stages its second January fixture on Tuesday, January 17 with the seven race card due off at 1pm.
The opening race is the Victorchandler.com Maiden Hurdle over two miles followed by the feature race of theafternoon, the Bet Live At Victorchandler.com Novices’ Chase.
Some exciting young chasing prospects will contest this race which carries a healthy prize fund of £8700. Expect leading trainers like Ferdy Murphy, Nicky Richards and Lucinda Russell to have runners in this.


Activists from the environmentalist group Greenpeace staged a protest on top of the reactor dome of the Unterweser nuclear power plant in Lower Saxony on Monday.
According to the police, some 30 people have “illegally gained access to the outside security area” by climbing up the 60-metre-high structure.
Greenpeace said the daylong protest was meant to highlight the “deadly danger” of nuclear power and demanded the immediate closure of the older reactor and six other facilities in Germany.
The group said none of these plants was sufficiently secured against a potential plane crash or terrorist attack.
“Those politically responsible are hiding and playing down the danger to people for the huge profits of nuclear firms,” said Greenpeace's nuclear expert Heinz Smital in a statement.
Germany has agreed to phase-out nuclear power, however, some conservative politicians have mooted the possibility of reversing or slowing this decision to help the country meet its CO2 reduction and energy production goals.


It used to be, “Go in the Army or go to jail.” Delinquents in Missouri might have to do both.
Under a proposed work release program, Missouri inmates would become part of the National Guard’s formal state emergency response plan–filling up sandbags and shoring up levies.
Before they count on prisoners to help during disasters, guardsmen would teach the convicts how to fill and stack sandbags and remove debris, The Associated Press reported.
It’s not a new model, as inmates have helped reinforce levies along flooding rivers in Missouri in years past. But a signed agreement between the Missouri Guard and the Department of Corrections would make future efforts official.
Estimates for the program’s cost, or when the proposal could be signed, have not been released.
Robbers, kidnappers, rapists and inmates who, at one point, have attempted to escape incarceration won’t be out tossing sandbags. Initial eligibility criteria for the program disqualifies violent offenders.


BUBBLINE LIVES! Well, sort of.
... that at some point in time Princess Bubblegum and Marceline TOTALLY WERE A COUPLE.
Olson answered a fan's question (cut off in the video) concerning Bubbline, referencing a conversation she had with creator Pendleton Ward.
"And he said, 'Oh, you know they dated right?'"
Here's another video of Olsen answering the question with one fan yelling, "YES, YES!" as she spills the beans.
WE HAVE REACHED CANON. I repeat: We have REACHED CANON.
In the video you can see Olsen also made a point to ask Ward if the couple would be visible on the show or in the upcoming book. Unfortunately, not so much.
And I said, 'Are they going to do it on the show at all, or can we say anything about it in the book?" And he's like, 'I don't know about the book, but in some countries where the show airs, it's sort of illegal.' So that's why they're not putting it in the show.


Russian newspaper RBC Daily has revealed that Apple’s iPhone 5 could launch in Russia in November, going on sale “almost immediately” after the smartphone goes on sale in the U.S.
The news outlet cited sources close to handset retailers, noting that Russian mobile operators were actively working with Apple to speed up deliveries of Apple smartphone devices, to reduce the number of authorised handset sales caused by longer release cycles.
Apple’s products have typically between three and six months to come to Russia after the original release in U.S and Europe, meaning that carriers are unable to offer their own deals on handsets and simply provide service to consumers that have acquired an iPhone via an unauthorised source.
Apple has reportedly ordered 10 million iPhone 5 units from Taiwan-based manufacturer Pegatron. The Cupertino-based company could be positioning itself to deliver stock to an increased number of partners across the U.S and Europe to reduce high-priced third-party resales.


As a rule, most convention centers seem the same, but NRG Center has some impressive numbers that sets it apart. Take a deep breath: 706,000 square feet of contiguous, single-level exhibit space that can be divided into 11 different halls, 61 meeting rooms configurable in over 100 combinations, two major conference centers, and 150,000 square feet of registration space. The inner-workings of the center are impressive, too —technological infrastructure capable of providing high speed internet, a pre-wired optic cabling backbone, on-site production facilities, 120 television monitors and Web casting abilities. Each meeting room has its own dedicated sound, lighting and networking capabilities. Plus, there’s the Metro train that conveniently whisks conventioneers to Midtown, the Museum District and downtown where they can sample much of the best Houston has to offer. It recently underwent a name change from Reliant Center to NRG Center.


Jon Cooper walked into the locker room and didn't get the sense Lightning players were down in the dumps about losing the first two games of the Eastern Conference final.
Capitals coach Barry Trotz said C Nicklas Backstrom, who has missed three consecutive games with a right hand injury, remains day-to-day. ... Washington D Michal Kempny was fined $2,419 — the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement — for cross checking Lightning F Cedric Paquette during Game 2.


Dr. Frank Longo isn’t the kind of guy who chokes up easily. The pre-eminent neurologist is better known for his professional stoicism and scholarly approach to the devastation he sees weekly in his Alzheimer’s patients–the people who come into his office at the Stanford University School of Medicine, their memory just a little bit worse than the last time he saw them. But today, even though he’s trying to keep it together, his throat tightens.
He’s in a small exam room outside Kansas City, Kans., watching a young man do something people do every day. He’s swallowing a pill with a big gulp of water. But it’s not just any pill–it’s a new drug that Longo hopes will prove to be an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s–and when the man swallows, tears pool in the deep furrows around Longo’s eyes.
As chairman of the department of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford, Longo knows how destructive Alzheimer’s can be. He specializes in memory disorders and regularly sees patients whose brains are slowly scrambling. In recent years he’s grown frustrated. Alzheimer’s was first discovered in 1906, which means doctors have had a century to peel away the disease’s molecular layers and search for a cure. But despite their best efforts, they still have no real treatments. Since 2000, more than 200 Alzheimer’s drugs have been tested, and none proves to be a silver bullet. Only a handful of drugs can, in the best-case–but rare–scenario, relieve some of the worst problems of memory loss and confusion.
“My biggest frustration is that we’ve cured Alzheimer’s in mice many times. Why can’t we move that success to people?” Longo says. (He’s referring to numerous promising compounds that have eliminated the amyloid plaques associated with Alzheimer’s in animals.) If the ongoing human trials continue to progress the way he hopes, Longo’s drug, called LM11A-31, could be a critical part of finally making that happen. But that’s still a big if.
To further develop the drug for patients, Longo created a company, PharmatrophiX, which conducted the first phase of clinical trials required for all pharmaceuticals; the drug was deemed safe and caused minimal negative side effects. Now, it’s in phase II, when the drug will be tested in people with the disease, to see if it ameliorates their symptoms. If the trial goes the way Longo and other leading Alzheimer’s experts expect, LM11A-31 will then be on its way to being approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The stakes couldn’t be higher–not just for Longo but also for the world’s aging population. In the U.S., one-third of Americans over 85 are already affected by Alzheimer’s. Globally, nearly 50 million people are living with dementia, most of which is caused by Alzheimer’s, and absent effective drugs or other interventions, that number is expected to double every 20 years. With no treatments, caring for them falls to loved ones and assisted-living facilities. The cost of that care is skyrocketing; in three years, the global annual burden could reach over $1 trillion.
Longo’s drug is noteworthy because of the promise it showed in those mouse studies and because it’s been shown to be safe in humans. But what really sets it apart is that it attacks Alzheimer’s in an altogether different way than the drugs that preceded it.
“The field is taking a step back and re-examining where we are with regard to what we know, what we don’t know and what might be some of the best avenues going forward to look for treatments,” says Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, who is not involved in the LM11A-31 research.
For decades, scientists have pursued a cure with a nearly single-minded focus on how to treat the disease: by trying to get rid of the hallmark feature of Alzheimer’s, which is sticky, insidious protein plaques of amyloid that they have fought so well in mice. If they could get rid of that in humans too, the thinking went, they could get rid of the disease–or at least lessen its severity. But LM11A-31 doesn’t directly attack amyloid at all.
“We’re agnostic about what is actually causing Alzheimer’s,” Longo says, referring to those protein plaques. “Most people are working at the edges of the problem, but we’re going right after the core of it.” LM11A-31 isn’t designed to chase after every last clump of amyloid and wipe it away. The core, in this case, is simply to keep brain cells strong, protected against neurological onslaughts, whether they’re the effects of amyloid or other factors involved in Alzheimer’s. It’s a much less orthodox approach, but–as Longo’s emotion suggests–if it works, it could be a game changer.
Aging, of course, is inevitable, but aging well is not. No one would argue that finding ways to help people remain healthy, functional and productive for as long as they can isn’t a good idea. That’s why, as life spans continue to inch upward, more health experts are focusing not just on extending the number of our years but on making sure they are of the highest quality possible. Keeping the brain robust and free of damaging conditions like Alzheimer’s is an essential part of that health span. Which is why brain experts are flipping their perspective and studying not just how our physical and mental abilities falter as we age but also how they keep going year after year.
“The answer to extending healthy life spans lies not in how we break down at age 70 but in how we keep functioning at age 50,” says Brian Kennedy, president and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Understanding how to do that could not just protect the brain from Alzheimer’s but also serve as a longevity insurance policy to keep it humming along at close to full capacity for as long as possible.
Under a microscope in his lab at Stanford, Longo shows off before-and-after slides of some brain neurons from mice. On the before slide, the normally orderly and uniform cells are in disarray. They’re dying, slowly being choked off from their supply of nutrients by amyloid plaques that start to accumulate like molecular garbage in certain corners of the Alzheimer’s-afflicted brain. In the after slide, the cells look normal. The difference, Longo says, is LM11A-31.
For brain cells, their molecular connections to other neurons are their lifeline–it’s like their version of Twitter, as they constantly ping other neurons with status updates. But when the cells are assaulted by something like amyloid, these communications are threatened. And in response, those cells tend to make a quick exit–toward death.
To treat the degradation, scientists logically focused first on finding ways to soak up the excess amyloid in the brain, hopefully before the protein can form its tacky plaques and destroy neurons. They developed, among other drugs, antibodies to find and bind to amyloid and break it down. But these compounds, though they worked in animals, failed to make much difference in memory and cognitive function in people.
That prompted experts to consider that maybe the problem wasn’t the drugs but when the drugs were given. Perhaps there was too much amyloid, and too much damage in people with advanced disease, for the drugs to have any measurable effect. For that reason, some companies aren’t giving up on their failed drugs and have begun testing them, with promising results, among people with early-stage disease, when there’s less damage from amyloid. Genentech, for its part, is testing its anti-amyloid drug in Colombian families who have a high genetic risk of getting Alzheimer’s; the company hopes that giving the drug to asymptomatic people highly likely to get the disease can slow their cognitive decline.
But that requires knowing when the amyloid makes its first appearance. And there’s another problem: about 30% of people over 70 have amyloid in their brains but no signs of dementia. In other words, everyone with Alzheimer’s has amyloid, but not everyone with amyloid has developed Alzheimer’s. Which people need help from anti-amyloid drugs, and which people don’t? Which ones can wait before taking the drugs? Until recently, the only way to definitively diagnose Alzheimer’s was in a postmortem, when the brain could be studied for signs of the amyloid plaques. Now, thanks to new imaging agents that light up amyloid on scans, researchers can track the earliest appearance of these proteins and see if they grow, which could signal Alzheimer’s.
There’s similar momentum building around possible treatments against another major Alzheimer’s protein, tau. If amyloid is the locomotive of the disease, driving the damage to neurons, then tau is the caboose, generally appearing in the late stages, when memory, organized thinking and language start to fail. By the time tau breaks down to form tangles, the brain has already started to degenerate, meaning it’s shrinking in size as neurons are dying and certain parts, specifically the hippocampus, the hub for memory, start to atrophy. That’s why memory problems and cognitive functions start to go.
To interrupt this process, you need good drugs that can intervene at any or all of the stages. Even though doctors can now see amyloid deposits in the brain, for example, they don’t have anything that can remove the plaques. Same goes for anti-tau drugs. “If we have a drug for treating amyloid, then that obviously changes the whole story,” says Jagust. But we don’t–at least not yet.
That’s where LM11A-31, or C31, as Longo’s team calls it, may come in. Together with the anti-amyloid and anti-tau therapies, it could be a potent counterpunch to any neurological problems, from memory loss to confusion and loss of language.
Longo has a diagram of 14 signals passed among brain nerves that are triggered by amyloid and can ultimately lead neurons to deteriorate. So far, he’s found that C31 can halt at least 10 of those. “We lucked out in a way,” he says, since just targeting the receptor P75 that sits on brain nerve cells, as his drug does, can interrupt a cascade of unhealthy signals that instruct brain nerves to falter.
C31 even shows signs that it might help people whose brains are already damaged by amyloid. “The general assumption was that the damage to brain neurons was irreversible,” says Longo, “and that it would be nearly impossible to get them back. What our studies show is that in mice, there is a significant amount of damage that is reversible. That’s really unusual,” he says.
Some experts are convinced that if people live long enough, some form of dementia, most likely Alzheimer’s, is inevitable. It’s just a matter of time. But figuring out which people can benefit from which types of treatments–and when–is still an open question. The hypothesis that dementia is inevitable is unpalatable to doctors like Longo. But it’s a reality that even the government is starting to appreciate. In 2011, Congress created a National Alzheimer’s Plan to coordinate and accelerate the development, testing and approval of new drugs to treat the disease. And the Alzheimer’s Association will soon issue a consensus statement on how to move promising drug candidates like C31 and any BDNF-based compounds to human testing as quickly as possible without putting people at risk of unexpected or unwanted side effects.
Part of the puzzle will include figuring out whether older people should be screened for signs of the disease and when that monitoring should begin. “The idea of applying scans to everyone on their 65th birthday is not going to fly,” says Jagust, noting that amyloid PET scans cost several thousand dollars each. But coming up with some type of risk score, as doctors now do for heart disease, might happen in the near future for Alzheimer’s. It would fold in age, family history, physical activity and other factors. It’s clear now that Alzheimer’s begins decades before symptoms start and that the best treatments will likely begin early, before there is too much damage to reverse.
“Odds are, if you follow anyone in their 70s or 80s for two, three or five years before they pass away and look at their brain under the microscope, you will find two, three or even four of the elements of Alzheimer’s,” Petersen says. That’s why he’s thinking beyond just looking for signs of amyloid and is encouraging his patients to participate in trials testing nonamyloid strategies as well.
“In an ideal world, you want to take a 78-year-old and say, I think in your brain amyloid is contributing to 20% of your cognitive problems, so I’ll give you an anti-amyloid therapy. You also have tau proteins contributing to about 35% of your problems, and so on. You’d want to design a therapeutic regimen based on the different components and their contributions to that patient’s disease,” he says.
C31 may become the first drug in this new Alzheimer’s cocktail; the results of the first studies among 72 healthy people who don’t have any signs of the disease are promising. The next step is to see if it can make any difference in their memory and thinking.
That’s the ultimate test for any Alzheimer’s treatment, and if the history of drug research for the disease is any indication, it won’t be easy. But those aren’t the odds Longo is betting on. He is hopeful. Still frustrated, but hopeful.
This appears in the February 22, 2016 issue of TIME.


Eric Fehr underwent successful surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder this past Saturday, but it’s possible the winger won’t be ready for the start of the 2011-12 regular season, Capitals team physician Ben Shaffer said.
Two summers ago, Fehr underwent surgery on both his left and right shoulder in Cleveland. When he collided with now former Capitals center David Steckel on Jan. 14 against Vancouver, Fehr dislocated his right shoulder joint, the injury ripping the labrum cartilage from the bone. He missed 22 games before returning, but still had instability problems with his shoulder and continued to play while rehabilitating the injury late in the season.
Shaffer, who did not perform Fehr’s previous procedure, said that on Saturday he reattached the labrum.
Recovery can take four to six months, Shaffer said, and Fehr’s arm will be in a sling for two weeks after the procedure.


This review was utterly useless...unless you were interested in learning more about Sammy Gleason's biography.
While Mr. Gleason did a fine job in the show, anyone relying on this review to get a feel for the show will be sorely disappointed.
Cory Moosman's Death Wore Elevator Shoes: A WYNOT Radio Theatre Show, is three hours of wonderful 1940s radio homage performed by six really talented people (yes six...not one). Mr. Mooseman's writing is funny and smart, and his actors show fantastic talent and impeccable timing. The accents, the props, the sight gags, the world-within-a-world scenario all make this a show well worth watching.
I laughed through the whole show, as did the rest of the audience. Oh yes, and Sammy was awesome too.


Azza Elmostehi’s complaint prompted the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to file a civil-rights suit yesterday in Manhattan federal court against her former employer, Poggenpohl U.S. Inc., a kitchen-furniture maker.
Michael Gorelick, a lawyer for Poggenpohl, said the company denies violating equal-opportunity laws, called Elmostehi a “disgruntled former employee, and added that “she was fired because of her performance,” not because of her complaint to management.
Elmostehi’s lawyer, Saul Zabell, said the harasser was fired only after his Farmingdale, L.I., firm notified Poggenpohl last year that Elmostehi planned to sue the company following her own dismissal. Zabell said other co-workers heard the harassment and had complained to management.
A Princeton Junction, N.J., resident, the 40ish Elmostehi is a single mother of three sons and had worked for Poggenpohl’s parent company in Persian Gulf countries and elsewhere for about 17 years. Then about 3½ years ago, she transferred to a $76,000-a-year job as operations manager in the company’s New York showroom.
She told The Post that her co-worker made anti-Arab comments soon after her arrival but that the harassment “really . . . became more and more after” the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.


A drawing provided by Blueseed Co. shows their ferry docking next their cruise ship outside of San Francisco. California startup Blueseed Co. wants to dock a vessel off the coast to house foreign entrepreneurs who have dreams of creating the next Google but can't get visas to work in the United States. The ship aims to provide a remedy by giving foreign entrepreneurs a place to build their companies only a short boat ride from high tech's hub.
As the U.S. continues to grapple with high unemployment, there is one place in the country where the jobless rate remains low: Silicon Valley. In fact, big U.S. tech companies like Google, Apple and Facebook are currently waging a war for top talent. Tech executives often talk about a shortage of highly-skilled workers, and the need to make it easier for immigrants with such skills to come to the U.S. But this year, the cap on H-1B visas — which allow educated foreign workers to get a job in the U.S. — has already been reached. The disconnect between our immigration system and the needs of Silicon Valley has become so acute that plans are being developed to anchor a giant ship off the coast of San Francisco, where immigrant entrepreneurs can live and work without needing to obtain a visa. This ambitious project, called Blueseed, highlights the lengths to which some are willing to go in the face of America’s flawed immigration system.
Silicon Valley has always relied heavily on immigrants — take Intel’s Andy Grove or Google’s Sergey Brin. Writing in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal last year, Marc Andreessen, the billionaire co-founder of Netscape who now runs his own venture capital firm, described the need for tech talent in the Valley.
Many people in the U.S. and around the world lack the education and skills required to participate in the great new companies coming out of the software revolution. This is a tragedy since every company I work with is absolutely starved for talent. Qualified software engineers, managers, marketers and salespeople in Silicon Valley can rack up dozens of high-paying, high-upside job offers any time they want, while national unemployment and underemployment is sky high.
Here’s how this ridiculous system works: Starting each April, the federal government distributes a limited supply of 85,000 of H1-B visas. Companies go on a mad charge to snap up as many as they need, and those who come up short are left to scheme up other, roundabout ways of getting their workers into the country. It’s a silly dance we do each year, when instead we could just welcome more smart, skilled professionals to come and work here.
This year, it took only ten weeks to reach the cap, according to Weissmann, compared to 33 weeks in 2011. It is utterly baffling that the U.S. would deprive itself of the skills of thousands of immigrants — any one of which could be the next Grove or Brin — because an arbitrary number has been reached six months early. There has been legislation proposed to help address this problem, but these efforts invariably get drowned out by the din over illegal immigration, border security, and the fate of America’s 12 million undocumented workers.