State Rep. Debbie Deere is being challenged by David French in the race for the 40th District of the Kansas House of Representatives. The 40th District includes Lansing and a portion of the city of Leavenworth. Election Day is Nov. 6. The two candidates answered the same questions submitted by the Leavenworth Times.
1. Why are you the best candidate for the 40th District?
Deere: I am a sixth generation Kansan, having grown up on a farm in northeast Kansas. I have lived in District 40 for the past 30 years. My husband, Kyle, and I have raised our three children here, worked, owned a business and are proud to call this our home. My experiences, involvement and commitment to this community and the state of Kansas help me make a difference in the Kansas Legislature. I am dedicated to listening to my constituents and being your voice.
French: I am a true conservative who believes in reduced government interference in our lives and in lower taxes to keep more money for our needs and not the government’s ever expanding spending programs. I believe all Americans are exceptional people with the opportunities to meet their life goals and aspirations. I have an MBA in business management, a 26-year career as a military intelligence Army officer and 17 years as a military contractor dealing with developing proposals for business and then tracking deliverables on contracts.
2. What will be the most important issue of the next legislative session?
Deere: I feel there are multiple issues that will be important next session. Continuing our state on the path to fiscal recovery is crucial. Funding public schools adequately must be a priority, providing additional funding for social service programs in our community and statewide, expanding Medicaid in Kansas to allow 150,000 additional Kansans to receive health care services. Continuing to support public safety, including the new Lansing Correctional Facility construction project, supporting infrastructure and creating jobs.
French: Keeping a balanced budget but not by raising more taxes but by cutting unneeded spending. Our education system is broken and our children are not being prepared to become productive citizens. Continuing to throw more money at it will not improve the results. We have to stop the education lobbyists and Kansas Supreme Court from dictating to the Legislature the amount of money the state needs to provide to education. There is plenty of money going to education (62 percent of the entire state budget).
3. What changes would you support regarding state funding for education?
Deere: Rather than a change, I will remain committed to support funding for public education in Kansas. It is our responsibility to provide an adequate and equitable education to every student. Schools are the “heartbeat of our communities.” Economic development and quality schools go hand in hand. By continuing to make investments in our schools a priority, we are investing in the future of our state.
French: As I stated above, the problem is not enough money for education but how that money is being spent. There is too much money going into administration costs and buildings (overhead) and not enough getting down to the teachers and classrooms where the real education begins and ends. Teachers are having to not only teach but parent their students in many cases. Early social/emotional needs have to be addressed before they become counterproductive in the classroom.


How John Shields planned his perfect death, and what Canada has learned by allowing 1,300 terminally ill people to do the same. Guest: Catherine Porter, who has been following one man seeking control of his death. For more information on today’s episode, visit http://nyti.ms/2rzIGIg.


Poll: How are you preparing for Christmas?
Poll: What aspect of the papal visit do you look forward to hearing about most?
Poll: What do you appreciate most this Thanksgiving?
Poll: Which famous church do you find to be the most beautiful?
Poll: How are you supporting the victims of Hurricane Harvey?


I'm counting my heart out for you.
The votes I am finding are few.
They're talking of the chads that we might eat up.
I hope this ends before we all get beat up.
Some blacks or a wandering Jew.
There aren't enough new hanging chads to suit me.
I hope the Cubans don't show up to shoot me.
Still, I'm counting my heart out for you.
I’m counting my heart out for you.
They’re talking of the chads that we might eat up.
There aren’t enough new hanging chads to suit me.
I hope the Cubans don’t show up to shoot me.
Still, I’m counting my heart out for you.


"Stop and watch the ants..."
Instead of the old saying, "Stop and smell the roses."
Why ants? How does this relate to being part of the military world?
Back in the day, when I was in the Army, I kept myself awake on field exercises by watching the ants. They spend their days collecting food, building and re-building their homes, taking care of each other, etc. It's actually quite fascinating, to me, anyway, to watch them "do what they do."
Yesterday, about 30 minutes after I returned home from SpouseBuzz Live at Camp Pendleton (which was awesome, by the way!), I was on the phone with 9-1-1.
Our 14-year-old neighbor flipped his bike and suffered a compound fracture of his right wrist. Within seconds I was on the phone and many of the adults in the neighborhood were by his side. His parents weren't home, but we managed to get in touch with them.
For some reason this experience reminded me of watching the ants. The ants work together to survive, and the military families in our neighborhood all worked together to take care of this young man.
This is one of the things I like the most about living on a military installation - no matter what happens, you always have a support network. Military families are cool like that!
And here at SpouseBuzz, we also provide a support network - right at your fingertips. I can not tell you how grateful I am to be a part of SpouseBuzz. I've had the pleasure of meeting so many amazing military spouses - online and at our Live events.
If you are new to SpouseBuzz, I hope you find the site helpful. We are always looking for feedback (what we are doing well, what do we need to do better), so please feel free to comment on any of the posts. You can find specific topics and archives on the right side bar. Please share your stories and come back to visit often!


6:37 AM, 7:06 AM and 7:45 AM: Universal and Illumination Entertainment’s Minions is off to a phenomenal start at the box office with a preview gross of $6.2M. It’s already breaking records as it marks the biggest late night result for an animated film. It opened at 6 PM last night in 2,985 theaters, so it’s really a full half day of movie going. In comparison, Despicable Me 2, which debuted at 7 PM in previews in 2013 took $4.7M and went onto gross $83.5M. The little critters bow tonight in what is expected to be in 4,301 theaters and there is no question it will pull in well over $100M, stripping away audiences from its nearest competitor, Disney/Pixars’ Inside Out which has been No. 1 the entire week right above Universal’s other powerhouse Jurassic World.
It may end up the highest animated opener of all time. That record currently is held by 2007’s Shrek The Third which grabbed $121.6M in fewer theaters (4,122), followed by 2010’s Toy Story 3 ($110.3M in 4,028 theaters) and Shrek 2 ($108M). Because earlier showtimes for Thursday night previews only started three years ago after the Aurora theater shooting massacre, no comparisons exist for the older animated titles.
Will be watching matinees today to see how it does comparatively against those titles and by Friday night we should have a better idea of how high this one is headed. Shrek the Third had a Friday gross of $38.4M and Toy Story 3 ended up with a $41.1M Friday.
In terms of social media, Minions is soaring with a Facebook reach of 116M, a Twitter reach of 26M and YouTube views at 646M. RelishMix’s Marc Karzen noted, “Keep in mind that fans are extremely connect to this franchise with strong view counts on over 500 videos from installments 1 and 2 which continue to deliver impression.” The top Minions trailer for the current release has 27M views and very strong daily activity.
Not much activity for the other two titles, although RelisMix notes that the slash in Focus Features’ Self/Less title was a bad idea for social media. So, filmmakers take/note.
Meanwhile, the horror film The Gallows ended up with a $900K haul for Warner Bros., which is releasing this one. The comps for this horror film would be probably Deliver Us From Evil which Sony released in July of last year and ended up grossing $9.7M or The Orphan which was also distributed by Warner Bros. and grabbed $12.8M in 2009. We expect anywhere between $10M and $12M for this one for the three-day. The horror crowd usually comes out on Friday night so expect this one to have a nice night.
The other film in the marketplace is Gramercy Pictures’ sci-fi drama Self/Less which grabbed $325K in late nights starting at 7 PM for Focus Features. It was in 1,600 theaters. For the comps, the industry was looking at Transcendence which took in $850K when it was previewed at 8 PM in April of last year and had a three-day gross of $10.8M. It’s way off of that. Self/Less, which stars Ryan Reynolds and Sir Ben Kingsley, is expected to make under $10M for the weekend.
NOTEWORTHY: the Melissa McCarthy comedy Spy hit the $100M milestone last night for Fox.


George Peat stated that he heard a section of the Rangers supporters singing this song during Saturday's match against Hamilton. Mr Peat said he would be meeting with officials of the Scottish Premier league and the police to plan a way forward on this issue.
"At the minute, we've left it in the hands of the SPL to look into things and try to eradicate it," he told BBC Sport.
"Obviously, it's got to be stamped out and we'll be having a meeting soon with the SPL and the police to see what we can do about it."
Mr Peat's comments come only a few days after Fine Gael TD Joe McHugh called Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin to write to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond about the song and, in particular, the racist abuse directed at Hamilton and Ireland footballer James McCarthy.
"I have asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs to request that the Scottish authorities take action against those Glasgow Rangers supporters who sing the song.
"The racist abuse to which James McCarthy is being subjected on the terraces at some SPL venues this season because of his declaration for Ireland is hurtful for James's family and is offensive to this country. I have contacted the Minister for Foreign Affairs requesting that he write to Scotland's first minister and to the Scottish Football Association in relation to this matter.
On Saturday Rangers fans at New Douglas Park amended the famine song to sing: "James McCarthy, why don't you go home?"
Two weeks ago SFA CEO Gordon Smith stated at an anti-racist event in Edinburgh: "The lad [McCarthy] has made his decision to play for Ireland. It was his decision to make. People should leave the kid alone."


The last week of April was one for the record books, as they say. The Treasury Department announced that April 24th was the single-day record for collection of personal income taxes, at $48.7 billion. On top of that, on both Wednesday and Thursday the Dow Industrials closed at back-to-back record highs. It seems that the Bush tax cuts might not have been so reckless after all.
Even though we now have an entire industry of professional doomsayers—whether it’s the ozone hole, carbon emissions, subprime loans, or outsourcing—the simple fact is that the current U.S. economy is the wealthiest and most productive that has ever existed in the history of mankind. People one hundred years ago weren’t worried about rolling over in an SUV, they were worried about getting stomped by a horse.
Looking at human progress over the last few centuries, many people attribute the steady increase in standards of living to new inventions. But that simply begs the question: What type of economic system needs to be in place in order for those inventions to do any good? After all, there were plenty of clever tinkerers in ancient Greece and China, yet they didn’t spearhead the Industrial Revolution. And even in our own times, there are places on the globe that are poorer now than they were a decade ago.
The reason “the West” grew rich at precisely the historical time that it did is that these countries respected the private property rights of their citizens. They weren’t (and aren’t) perfect, of course, but the idea that a man’s home was his castle, and that even the king couldn’t trespass on it, was peculiar to Western Europe.
Nowadays we call this system capitalism. Ironically, the term was originally a Marxist smear, meant to convey that capitalism only served the interests of the few capitalists. (In contrast, socialism supposedly served all of society.) Even so, the term is a good one, for under the capitalist system individuals have the freedom and incentive to save and invest (i.e. accumulate capital), providing a growing stock of tools and machinery for each succeeding generation. Today the average worker’s labor is far more physically productive than was the case 100 years ago, and it’s not simply that today we rely on advances in physics in chemistry, but also because we have far more sophisticated equipment and infrastructure put in place by our forefathers.
To repeat, this steady improvement is not automatic. People will only save and invest when the government allows them to keep a portion of the returns. The stock market’s success—not only this past week, but over the past few years—is largely due to President Bush’s tax cuts. It is a simple matter of accounting that when the after-tax flow of income to an asset increases, its present market value will increase. As the stock market is the arena to buy and sell ownership in some of America’s largest companies, it is an excellent indicator of the financial condition of the country. Corporate profits have been at record highs lately, and thus it’s not surprising that the stock market has been doing so well.
Of course, the cynic could retort that this is just what the Marxists were talking about—the system is rigged for the wealthy few, while the little guy gets the shaft. But it helps everyone, not just Donald Trump, when the stock market rallies. If you’ve got a pension, chances are a large chunk of it is invested in the market. The endowments of universities and other recipients of donations are also tied to the market.
And finally, I’d ask those who lament our “horrible” economy: Do you really want to go back to the 1970s before the Reagan Revolution, when (in real terms) the stock market had been sliding for years, and unemployment and inflation were both in the double digits?


Shares of Caesars Entertainment Corporation (CZR) were trading down -2.13 or -28.29 percent to $5.40 in Monday’s premarket after news broke Friday after the market close that a judge had ruled the company must face lawsuits from the Caesars bondholders. Caesars Entertainment stock closed at $7.53, down -0.03 or -0.40 percent in Friday’s regular trading session.
Paradise, Nevada based Caesars Entertainment Corporation was originally founded as Harrah’s Inc. by Bill Harrah in 1937.
The company changed its name to Harrah’s Entertainment in 1995, changing it to Caesars Entertainment Corp. in 2010. The company is a U.S. gaming corporation that operates more than 50 casinos and hotels, as well as seven golf courses under a variety of brands such as Caesars, Horseshoe Palace, Total Rewards, World Series of Poker and London Clubs International to name only a few.
The company is the fourth largest gaming company in the world and is majority owned by a group of private equity firms led by Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital.
The company’s largest operating unit filed for bankruptcy protection in January of 2015.
In Caesars Entertainment Operating Company’s $18 billion bankruptcy proceedings on Friday, U.S. bankruptcy judge Benjamin Goldgar lifted an injunction preventing a group of hedge funds that include Oaktree Capital and Appaloosa Management, from suing the company for as much as $11.4 billion in claims.
The group of hedge funds has a large position in Caesar’s second lien or junior bonds and accused the company of “brazen corporate looting” through asset stripping and other financial dealings after the acquisition of the group in 2008 for $31 billion. The judge had blocked creditor’s claims twice to give time for both sides to cut $10 billion of the $18 billion debt incurred by Caesar’s operating company or CEOC.
With the lifting of the injunction, the creditor group is now free to litigate that Caesar’s parent company had improperly terminated its bond guarantees. Judge Goldgar criticized private equity firms, Apollo Global Management and TPG, who are major stockholders in the company, that their settlement proposal was “disturbing” and that their claims about the collapse in January of 2015 were fiction.
Judge Goldgar read his opinion from the bench, saying that, “Apollo and TPG’s contribution consists of the reduction in the value of their ownership interest in CEC from $4 billion to $2 billion under the plan. But the evidence showed that the $4 billion valuation is a fiction.” Adding that, “Particularly disturbing is that” neither company “is making any financial contribution to the reorganization, although the proposed plan would release all the claims against them”.
Caesars, TPG and Apollo have denied the claims; however an independent court appointed examiner found that they could be liable for as much as $5.1 billion in claims. Caesars offered to contribute $4 billion into the CEOC reorganization in exchange of a release from the claims. The decision puts the CEOC reorganization at risk and both Caesars and CEOC were disappointed with the ruling. Nevertheless, CEOC lawyers say they plan to appeal the decision.
First lien holders represent approximately $12 billion of CEOC’s capital structure.
The companies amended their merger agreement early last month.
Company will launch the first generic version of the product that will cost about $100.
Shkreli sold his last 2 million shares of his stake last week.
Caesars Entertainment (CZR) Stock Pummeled After Judge Removes Lawsuit Protection. InvestorGuide.com. WebFinance, Inc. http://www.investorguide.com/article/20516/caesars-entertainment-czr-stock-pummeled-judge-removes-lawsuit-protection/ (access:April 23, 2019).


ODESSA - A city worker is ticketed after his truck is stolen in Odessa.
We're told Sam Gutierrez, a public works employee, left the keys in the ignition of a city truck while he and another worker got out to clean up debris from a drainage ditch.
When the two went back to the parked vehicle, it was gone.
Gutierrez faces up to a $130 fine for leaving keys in the vehicle and not locking it.
We're told the truck is a 2008 Chevrolet Silverado Crew Cab with a logo on both doors.
It also has a unit number of 3021.
If you spot the truck, you're asked to call Odessa Police.


Banks contend that few, if any, people have been wrongfully kicked out of their homes as a result of illegal foreclosures. A number of judges around New York City would beg to differ.
In millions of cases across the United States, local judges have wide latitude to impose sanctions on banks, free homeowners from their mortgage debts or allow the companies to proceed with flawed foreclosures. Ultimately, the industry is likely to face a messy scenario -- different resolutions by courts in all 50 states.
Such developments highlight another reality -- if homeowners are to get due process in this affair, it will likely be at the local, not federal, level. All 50 state attorneys general are investigating the widespread reports of missing and falsified foreclosure documents. By contrast, the Obama administration has soft-pedaled the "robo-signing" scandal.
Congress, too, is proceeding cautiously (surprise!). Hearings are scheduled. Dudgeon is set on high. But the issue is already losing political luster in Washington, which has turned its attention to the joys of co-habitation. Somehow, I don't expect presumptive House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, or Spencer Bachus, the Alabama Republican expected to head the House Financial Services Committee, to make a fuss (nor the remaining Blue Dog Dems, for that matter). On that, at least, the parties are in complete agreement.
Federal bank regulators are equally intent on keeping the foreclosure assembly line moving. That's no surprise, given that they're deeply implicated in the foreclosure mess. For instance, state financial supervisors turned to the OCC in 2007 after JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) stonewalled their investigations into improper foreclosures.
[E]ven as it closed the door on state oversight, the OCC chose itself not to scrutinize the foreclosure operations of the largest national banks, forgoing any examination of their procedures and paperwork. Instead, the agency relied on the banks' in-house assessments. These provided no hint of the problems to come until they had tripped the nation's housing market, agency officials later acknowledged.
"Based on what we were seeing and what we were concerned about, it felt like a chronic underreaction at the federal level," said John Ryan, a senior official with the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.
The OCC is, of course, almost majestically lame. When did the agency actually start investigating banks' foreclosure operations? Two weeks ago, says the WaPo's Zachary Goldfarb. I just hope they don't go to any trouble. But even supposedly staunch regulators, such as FDIC chief Sheila Bair, have been studying their toes despite the mounting evidence of fraudulent foreclosures. Meanwhile, the lawsuits continue to rain down on banks, including new allegations today against JPMorgan.
Judge Dana Winslow of Nassau County says he's thought a lot about why judges in his area are more apt to question [foreclosure] filings. He said it comes down to one thing: Lack of trust for Wall Street. In this region, judges have seen a lot of inaccurate filings from the financial sector.
In other regions, too. After all, if banks were as duplicitous in handling foreclosures in legal jurisdictions that were known to be tough on financial firms, you can imagine the liberties they must've taken in parts of the country where law enforcement was looser.
Banks are Stealing Homes: Why Won't Obama Stop It?
OCC Chief John Dugan: What, Me Worry?


Is the Recession Really Over?
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch published a provocative report this week declaring that the recession is over. After six quarters of negative growth it would be about time. The evidence, however, isn't uniformly positive and suggests that the downturn still has some distance to run. Here are some of the main points on both sides.
"Our global economists believe that the global recession ended in [the second quarter] of 2009 and a fragile recovery has begun in the third quarter," the BofA report said. "We are revising growth forecasts up virtually across the globe, but most notably in the U.S. and China."
The bank raised its growth forecast to 2.7 percent for the second half of 2009 and to 2.6 percent for 2010. Global GDP growth was set to grow 3.7 percent, the bank said, while emerging markets experience a 5.5 percent rise, the bank said.
Before you break out the champagne, it is good to remember that the Federal Reserve issued its own forecast that 2009 GDP would shrink between 1-1.5 percent, an improvement over the previous range in April of 1.3-2 percent.
It's true that there are some positive signs in the economy. The S&P 500 is up 34 percent from its 12-year low on March 9. That's a sign that professional investors expect the recession to be over soon.
Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, reported profits had soared to 18 cents a share, compared with analysts forecasts of only eight cents. "Intel's second quarter results reflect improving conditions in the PC market segment with our strongest first to second quarter growth since 1988 and a clear expectation for a seasonally stronger second half," said Intel CEO Paul Otellini in a statement.
There were even some good signs about housing. By one measure, U.S. house prices increased 1.6 percent in May, which is a positive development, even though that level is still down 10.5 percent compared to last year. Even in the south, the hardest hit by the housing crisis, prices rose 1.1 percent, according to Integrated Asset Services.
Shares of homebuilding companies even increased in value as some analysts predicted a bottom to the housing market. "There are more positive signals and developments for housing and related industries now than at any time previously in the downturn," said Fitch Ratings analyst Robert P. Curran.
But there are equally strong signs that the economy is still in trouble.
Let's start with the Federal Reserve, where the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee from late June were published this week. "Most participants saw the economy as still quite weak and vulnerable to further adverse shocks," the report said. "Conditions in the labor market remained poor, and the unemployment rate continued to rise."
On the unemployment front, billionaire investor Mortimer Zuckerman wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal in which he said the unemployment picture is much worse than the official numbers suggest. He put the total unemployment rate, which included people with parttime jobs due to the slack economy, at 16.5 percent. He expected unemployment to remain high "well into 2010."
Another negative sign is the nation's savings rate, which rose to 6.9 percent in May, the highest in 15 years. While the habit of saving rather than spending everything is commendable, the latest numbers suggest the consumer economy, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity in the United States, could be hard hit.
The Commerce Department's June retail sales figures showed growth of 0.6 percent, but the growth was in large measure in automobiles, restaurants and gasoline. Once those numbers are stripped out, retail sales slid by 3.8 percent, according to the National Retail Federation. "Although several economic indicators are starting to show signs of improvement, it is going to take a few more months - maybe longer - for people to feel comfortable spending again," said Rosalind Wells, the NRF's chief economist.
Clearly, there are a few positive signs as the economy slowly nurses itself back to health. But it's way too early to call the recession over.


Although he later apologised for his reaction, McInnes said he hoped all aspects of the incident would be included in the delegate’s report and that others would also be sanctioned for what occured in a game that was watched by SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell and president Alan McRae.
But Aberdeen keeper Lewis, who described the sectarianism that blights Scottish football as a “completely alien culture” to him, is not confident that the authorities at Hampden will take any meaningful action.
The Suffolk born and raised 31-year-old added: “I don’t get it. I don’t understand it and I am glad I don’t understand it. It is completely alien to me.
Lewis believes nothing went right for Aberdeen on Sunday. The Pittodrie side ended the semi-final encounter with nine men after Dom Ball and Lewis Ferguson were shown red cards by referee Craig Thomson, while management duo McInnes and his assistant Tony Docherty were banished to the stand.
The goalkeeper questioned the first caution given to Ball, for a foul on Jonny Hayes, that resulted in the full-back’s 37th-minute dismissal after he was shown a second yellow for leaving Ryan Christie with a serious facial injury following a reckless aerial challenge.
“The referee is closer than me but I don’t think the first one is a booking,” said Lewis. “I don’t know how many tackles he had made or if there was anything worthy of a yellow card, I don’t know. The second one he is a fraction late and he has caught Ryan and it looked a nasty one, so I can see why that one has been given.
Lewis offered no plea in mitigation for Ferguson over his dismissal, for an over-the-ball two-footed tackle on Tom Rogic in the 67th minute. “It was maybe the frustration,” he said.
“It was a bad tackle and he will learn from it. Hopefully he will come out a better and stronger player.
Aberdeen’s hopes of silverware for the season have now been dashed but Lewis stressed the importance of this weekend’s Ladbrokes Premiership clash with Kilmarnock.
on goal difference, with five games remaining.
“As disappointing as Sunday’s game was, no one is going to give us a freebie, no one is going to say, ‘poor lads, let’s take our foot off the pedal’,” added Lewis.


For the record, I want it noted that I have been raving about Lee Pace since 2003, when he starred in Soldier’s Girl, a made-for-Showtime movie in which he played a transgendered nightclub performer. He was so beautiful and so feminine that I couldn’t believe how handsome and masculine he actually is as himself.
I also want it noted for the record that if all the people last autumn who were telling me that I “need to be watching Pushing Daisies” had told me that Lee Pace was starring it, I would have made more of an effort to find some time for it.
Anyway: Is this the most adorable show ever, or what? The first season of Pushing Daisies is just out on Region 1 DVD (it’s been out in Region 2 for a while), and it’s only nine episodes (production was cut short by the writers’ strike; it’ll be back for a full second season starting October 1), but it is nine episodes of sweet-and-snarky perfection. It’s full of quirky off-kilter magic, and candy-colored cynicism, and pie: delicious pie. (What is it with pie lately? I mean, we also had Waitress with all the pies last year.) It’s the most chipper show ever about death and loneliness. Oh, and it’s a musical, too. It’s like if Tim Burton and the Brothers Grimm collaborated with Disney on a production of some unpublished Charles Dickens ghost story. How could it be better?
There’s Ned (Pace: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, The Fall), a piemaker, who runs a little pie diner called *snort* The Pie Hole. He has a strange gift: with a touch, he can bring the dead back to life, though they must die again, at another touch from Ned, before one minute has elapsed or else someone else will die to keep the universe in balance. This wouldn’t generally be a problem for Ned, except he has resurrected the love of his life, Chuck (Anna Friel: Timeline, The War Bride), neglected to send her back to the land of eternal nod, and now can never touch her again. Woe is Ned. So he pines for Chuck, while Pie-Hole waitress Olive (Kristin Chenoweth: Space Chimps, Running with Scissors) secretly pines for Ned. Presumably Digby the dog, the first creature Ned ever resurrected, long ago as a child, and hence can never touch again, is pining for Ned, too.
Wait, it does get even better than that: Pushing Daisies is a mystery-procedural. Because do you know how useful it is, when you’re solving murders, to be able to wake up victims for 60 seconds and ask them who offed them? (Paging Torchwood!) So Ned teams up with private eye Emerson Cod (Chi McBride: Annapolis, Roll Bounce) to solve strange deaths when there’s a reward involved, because even though his strange gift disturbs him, The Pie Hole is not exactly a moneymaker for Ned.
But it’s almost easy to overlook that this is basically a crime show while you’re enjoying the captivating Pace being so masculine and vulnerable at the same time; the sparky, spunky Chenoweth being so lusciously mopey; Swoosie Kurtz (Duplex, The Rules of Attraction) and Ellen Greene — as Chuck’s loopy aunts, who mustn’t ever know their niece is not, in fact, dead — being so, well, loopy; and Friel simply bursting with the joy of being alive again. It’s easy to get lost in Michael Wylie’s wonderful production design, which does indeed make the show look “more like a feature film than television,” as Barry Sonnenfeld — who directed the pilot and the first few episodes — says in the bonus making-of material. There’s hardly ever been a show that’s so much fun to get lost in, visually; creator Bryan Fuller (a veteran of Star Trek: Voyager and Deep Space Nine as well as Heroes) calls the show a “prime time fairy tale,” and it doesn’t just feel that way but look it, too.
It’s a totally modern fairy tale, though, for adults, with a completely of-the-moment attitude that knows that snarky doesn’t have to be mean (though that once in a while mean can be fun), that is life-affirming and huggable and entirely addictive.
The DVD: The making-of featurettes, which are full of production-geek goodness (you’ll never guess where they get all those wacky carpets!), are accessed through interactive menus that are majorly cute, but I wish there was a way to play all of them straight through without having to go back to the menus after each one. Also, since when are Chinese, Korean, and Thai subtitles being included on DVDs? Cool.


A SMALL band of Queensland crossbenchers has sworn to block the sale of state assets and tear strips off the LNP at the next election.
Nicklin MP Peter Wellington was one of the state's seven independent and minor party members who signed an accord to formalise the plan on Thursday.
He said the LNP had undermined confidence in Queensland investment and voting for independents was the only way forward.
"It happens around the world . . . it's the cornerstone of local government," he said.
"There's no reason why we cannot have that same style of co-operative working together in our State Government."
Mr Wellington's fellow independents Liz Cunningham, Dr Alex Douglas and Carl Judge joined the loose alliance with Katter's Australia Party members Rob Katter, Ray Hopper and Shane Knuth.
The yet-unnamed partnership has 50 policy-aligned independent candidates on its books for the next election, mostly local government councillors.
Condamine MP Ray Hopper said Katter's Australia Party would only run 10 candidates at the next election, none of whom would contest seats held by policy-aligned independents.
"We want to help these members get up as much as we can, and that has not happened before in Queensland," he said.
"We will hold the balance of power after the election and we will not let these asset sales go ahead."
Blocking the sale or 99-year leasing of state assets is the alliance's first agreed policy.
Mrs Cunningham said voters had been brainwashed into believing asset sales - or 99-year leases - were the only way to balance the state's finances.
"It's up to the people of Queensland to have a proper say - not a coerced say, not a controlled say - but an informed and proper say in what happens," she said.
Mr Hopper said the group would launch a major advertising campaign closer to the election.
"It'll be out there. You wait and see," he said.


Another movie-to-TV adaptation is in the works — but this time, it’s coming from the indie world.
Production will begin later this year, in the hopes of a 2017 premiere.
Devon Shepard (House of Lies, Weeds), Stephanie Allain Bray (Hustle & Flow) and Julia Lebedev (Dear White People) will also serve as executive producers.
Netflix noted that Dear White People “first gained traction in 2012 with a concept trailer, underwritten by Simien’s tax refund. By 2014, the crowd-funded movie made a splash at film festivals, earning the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.” The film starred Tyler James Williams, Tessa Thompson, Teyonah Parris and Dennis Haysbert, among others.
Will you tune in for Dear White People, the series? Sound off below!


Today, Timberland launches a new collection in partnership with Thread, a Certified B Corporation that transforms plastic bottles from the streets and canals of Haiti into responsible fabric while creating vital jobs. The Timberland X Thread collection of shoes, t-shirts and bags made with Thread™ Ground to Good™ fabric is available now in Timberland® stores and on www.timberland.com (Photo: Business Wire).
STRATHAM, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Global outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland today launched the Timberland X Thread collection in partnership with Thread, a Certified B Corporation that transforms plastic bottles from the streets and canals of Haiti into what Thread calls “the most responsible fabric on the planet.” The collection goes beyond environmental sustainability, creating social value and impact in the form of cleaner neighborhoods and meaningful new job opportunities. The new Timberland X Thread shoes, t-shirts and bags are available in Timberland® stores and at www.timberland.com.
The new products build upon Timberland’s longstanding commitment to be Earthkeepers – to innovate and operate their business in an accountable and responsible manner. With a shared passion for supporting communities in Haiti, Timberland and Thread were natural partners from the start. Both companies are determined to look beyond the environmental value of recycled plastic bottles to focus on responsibility, transparency, and creating social value.
The shoes and boots are crafted with durable uppers in Thread™ fabric made with 50 percent post-consumer recycled PET, a 50 percent recycled PET mesh lining for comfort and breathability, and a durable outsole made of 15 percent recycled rubber.
The duffel bag and backpack are made with Thread™ fabric and waterproof leather trims.
The t-shirt is made with 50 percent Thread™ fabric and 50 percent reclaimed cotton from fabric scraps.
The process of going from “bottle to boot” begins in Haiti, where more than 1,300 locals collect the plastic bottles that are developed into Thread™ fabric. Each yard of fabric is traced and tracked at every step of its journey, from bottle collection and fabric creation to the delivery of the fabric bolt to the manufacturer. This transparency allows Timberland consumers to learn about the vibrant people, stories and the impact metrics behind each boot, shoe, bag and t-shirt they purchase. Timberland will share powerful stories, photos and videos about the people behind the Timberland X Thread collection online and in stores beginning this week.
The partnership comes on the heels of Timberland’s support of Thread’s Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment to Action, which addresses the problem of undignified and child labor in global supply chains, with a targeted focus in Haiti. In addition to this effort, Timberland continues supporting the people of Haiti following a five-year tree-planting effort to help smallholder farmers reach self-sufficiency. Timberland hopes to potentially transition from being an early supporter of the smallholder farmers, to being a customer, purchasing cotton for the brand’s supply chain.
For more information on Timberland’s commitments to environmental and social responsibility, including the brand’s work in Haiti, visit www.timberland.com/responsibility.
Timberland is a global leader in the design, manufacturing and marketing of premium footwear, apparel and accessories for the outdoor lifestyle. Best known for its original yellow boot introduced in 1973, Timberland today outfits consumers from toe-to-head, with versatile collections that reflect the brand’s rich heritage of craftsmanship, function and style. Timberland markets lifestyle products under the Timberland® and Timberland Boot Company® brands, and industrial footwear and workwear under the Timberland PRO® brand. Its products are sold throughout the world in leading department and specialty stores as well as company-owned retail locations and online. Timberland’s dedication to making quality products is matched by an unwavering commitment to environmental and social responsibility – in terms of its products, the outdoors, and communities around the globe. To learn more about Timberland, a brand of VF Corporation (NYSE: VFC), please visit timberland.com or follow us along the modern trail @timberland.
Thread is on a mission to end poverty by creating dignified jobs and purpose-filled, high performance fabrics. A Certified B Corporation, Thread transforms plastic bottles from the streets and canals of Haiti and Honduras into the most responsible fabrics on the planet. Every product made with Thread supports thousands of jobs in the developing world and the United States. Global brands like Timberland use Thread’s premium fabrics in their products, such as apparel, shoes and bags, to improve their social and environmental impact. Learn more at www.threadinternational.com and follow the Ground to Good™ story @threadintl.
Timberland launches a new collection in partnership with Thread, a Certified B Corporation that transforms plastic bottles from the streets and canals of Haiti into responsible fabric.


Kirby looks back while preparing for the future.
From left are Dave Parker, Sue Yamashita and Pete Kirby in the late 1980s. Photo by Bonnie Hobbs.
From left: Dave Parker and Sue Yamashita give a Lifetime Achievement Award to Pete Kirby on Saturday.
Charlie Singleton (left), former Vienna VFD chief, gives Pete Kirby a plaque honoring him in the Congressional Record.
Centreville  During Pete Kirby’s retirement celebration Saturday night, a video highlighting his career was shown. He then received several awards.
Dave Parker and Sue Yamashita, who rode with Kirby when he drove an ambulance for Centreville’s volunteer fire department, presented Kirby with a Lifetime Achievement Award. “No one made me laugh like Pete,” said Parker.
Then, addressing the crowd, Kirby said, “I never expected anything like this. I look around this room and see parts of my life, and I can’t express how much you all mean to me.” He said how heartwarming it was, not just to see family and friends, but people he’s served with at Centreville’s Fire Station 17, Vienna’s Station 2, the state association and the police 911 call center, where he dispatched fire calls.
Another time, still age 12, he helped direct traffic while Fairfax City and Vienna firefighters were battling another blaze on Jermantown. Afterward, one of them told him he could volunteer at the Vienna station when he was 16, which he did — and the rest is history.
In the early days, he drove both an ambulance and a fire engine. He later became a command officer but, since the majority of calls are for medical emergencies, he continued driving an ambulance. He served as chief from 1992-2006 and then assistant chief. He also became qualified as an incident safety officer.
As chief, Kirby modernized Centreville’s fleet by buying different types of ambulances and fire engines with better capabilities. He also campaigned for an all-terrain vehicle called a Gator, so they could reach off-road patients and then transfer them to a regular ambulance.
During Kirby’s tenure, he helped develop an agreement with the Board of Supervisors for Station 17 to co-operate the new West Centreville Station 38. So both stations provide its people and vehicles. Kirby also acquired two, fire-hazard houses to teach children about fire safety. And his station started the Emergency Medical Bike Team to provide medical care at special events, such as festivals.
Among the big fires was a three-alarm blaze at an apartment complex on Woodmere Drive. "It was challenging because a lot of the fire was in the attic, where we couldn't reach it," said Kirby. "So Chantilly [firefighters] came and brought a special piece of equipment." Another time, two residential buildings on Braddock Springs Road caught fire. "It was well-advanced before anyone notified us," said Kirby. "We had a close call because a ceiling collapsed and separated our crew members and we worried that we'd lost someone in the fire. But everyone made it out safely."
Station 17 became a shelter for the people displaced by that fire, and the station's Ladies Auxiliary provided comfort and aid. It was also used to shelter 25-30 scared and soggy Cub Scouts who were stranded by a flood. "Heavy rains flooded the western part of the county while a Scout troop from Maryland was camping in Bull Run Regional Park," said Kirby. "The water rose quickly and they became trapped, so we had to rescue them. The Ladies Auxiliary provided blankets and hot food and even opened the Bingo game so they had something to do."
On 9/11, Kirby was on duty for five days straight after the attack. The first three days, he was on an engine, countywide, covering empty stations that had responded to the Pentagon. The next two days, he served as battalion commander for other officers who were also at the scene. "On 9/11, we mobilized everything we could muster to respond to the attack," he said. "If the Coke machine had had a red light on it, I'd have put a crew on it and sent it, too."
But, he stressed Saturday, “This is a team sport. I’m humbled by the honor and appreciative that you all took time out of your lives to be here tonight.” Afterward, Kirby said he was “overwhelmed. It was an amazing turnout, and I’m humbled by all the nice things people said. I thank everybody in the community for their support while I was chief, and everybody in the fire department for what I've gotten to do. But I couldn't have done any of it without my family's support."


China's stress on improved relations with Western Europe follows the recent warming trend in its relations with the United States and Japan. During his just-completed tour of France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Italy, Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang repeatedly explained China's ''open door'' policy and its eagerness to increase trade and investment, especially joint ventures with foreign companies.
His appeals during the 18-day visit were almost identical to those made in the recent past to government officials and businessmen in Japan and the United States.
''I told them that China wants to cooperate with foreign countries -- not only in major construction projects such as energy, transportation, and telecommunications, but also in the wide-ranging technical transformation of its existing enterprises. . . .
''We are not only willing to expand commodity trade with foreign countries, we also attach great importance to importing advanced technology and making use of foreign funds,'' he told the New China News Agency on the flight back to China.
Zhao's hopes for increased trade with Europe are also linked to China's disappointment with the relatively meager economic results from its Washington connection, a Western diplomat here says.
''What the Chinese want is a fallback position with the Europeans in case there are further problems with the US,'' he said.
The Reagan administration's recent difficulties in getting congressional approval for the transfer of nuclear technology to China is a case in point. Zhao pointedly told a press conference in Paris shortly after he arrived on May 30 that China had already reached an informal agreement with France for the supply of nuclear equipment for a nuclear power station near Canton. US companies are also bidding for a share in the roughly $20 billion project.
Premier Zhao has also urged European businessmen to be more competitive with the US and Japan if they want to take advantage of the opportunities China has to offer. Observers here add that the Chinese would like to do more business with Western Europe in order to diversify their sources of advanced technology and to avoid becoming too dependent on Japan and the US.
In addition to fostering competition among the major industrialized states for a share in the China trade, observers here also note that China's approach to international economic relations has become more market oriented and nonideological in the past few years.
''In the past, they had a more political approach,'' a French diplomat said. ''Now they tend to separate politics and economics.
This more apolitical approach has irked some of China's oldest European friends, particularly the Scandinavian countries which extended diplomatic recognition to China shortly after liberation in 1949. One Scandinavian diplomat pointed out that despite his country's warm and longstanding relations with China, the two-way trade was a fraction of China's trade with countries with whom it has no diplomatic relations -- Indonesia and South Korea (through Hong Kong).
Many observers here agree that China is in a good bargaining position. Unlike many developing countries, China has a high credit rating. It has about $15 billion in foreign-exchange reserves and tends to pay its debts on time, if not early. The government is rapidly liberalizing its terms for foreign investment and is aggressively seeking new markets for two-way trade.
Zhao's trip made him the first Chinese leader to meet with the leaders of the European Community in Brussels, where a commission has begun negotiations on a new economic agreement with China that will broaden the commercial accord signed in 1978. Imports and exports between China and the Community amounted to about $ 4.8 billion last year, with a slight imbalance in China's favor.
Zhao signed no major agreements in Europe, though he did initial several accords with France and Belgium, giving legal protection to business investments and preventing double taxation.
On the political side, Western diplomats here say the trip reflected China's determination to pursue a foreign policy independent of the two superpowers. Zhao consistently called for an end to the nuclear arms race, even while recognizing France's rationale for an independent nuclear force. He laid equal blame on the US and the Soviet Union for accumulating ''95 percent'' of the world's stockpile of nuclear weapons. And he called for a strong and united Europe which would make a natural diplomatic as well as economic partner for China and help bring about world peace and stability.
The editorial also noted that the two have complementary interests, pointing to Europe's advanced technology and large amounts of capital and China's rich natural resources and big market.
Western European diplomats here do not disagree with Zhao's general assessment of the potential for cooperation between Western Europe and China. But they point out that in the past several years, after a flurry of mutual visits by business leaders and government officials, there have been few concrete results in terms of trade and investment. The problems lie with the scale of China's economic development needs, the difficulties of doing business in a bureaucratic and centrally planned economy, and inflated expectations on both sides.
The Chinese premier omitted visits to Britain and the Netherlands. Relations with Britain are at a sensitive stage because of talks over Hong Kong. And relations with the Netherlands were only recently reestablished after the Dutch agreed not to sell more arms to Taiwan.
Premier Zhao is now touring Jiangsu Province and is scheduled to return to Peking today. Tomorrow Pieter Dankert, president of the European Parliament, is to arrive in Peking for an official visit.
China's recent economic reforms aimed at attracting more foreign business to certain ''special economic zones'' may remedy some of these problems, observers say, but the time required for businesses to get established in China will still be lengthy.
First Look Can Asian leaders say no to Chinese-funded development as promised?


CHRISTMAS is more than three weeks off, but the half-price sale is already going on.
It is stocks that are on sale; to wit, the Nasdaq variety. At the low yesterday, the Nasdaq composite was down 51 percent from the giddy highs it reached during trading on March 10, when Internet fever peaked.
In fact, if you're looking for deeply discounted merchandise, that statistic makes the supply seem smaller than it is. Half the Nasdaq stocks in the computer and telecommunications sectors are down more than 75 percent since March 10. Fewer than 5 percent have risen.
Those brutal facts are not news to many investors, and they help to explain why this Christmas will not be nearly as joyful for retailers as might be expected given the low unemployment rate. But the broader question is whether the Nasdaq collapse portends bad economic times.
Most of Wall Street thinks not. The consensus is that the economy is making a soft landing that will leave the annual growth rate around 2.5 percent for a while. The Nasdaq decline is viewed as a correction of overinflated valuations, plus perhaps a little overreaction that has created bargains among the ruins.
At the heart of the optimism is the view that the so-called new economy is alive and well. Consumer purchases of personal computers may be plunging, as Gateway shareholders just learned, but companies are sure to keep investing to reap productivity gains. Those gains in productivity are slashing costs enough to assure that inflation will not be a threat, whatever happens to such old-economy indicators as oil prices. That means the Federal Reserve will be able and willing to bail out the economy by cutting interest rates next year.
The weakest part of that argument is the assumption that business spending on technology will continue at the explosive rate of recent years. Robert Barbera, the chief economist of Hoenig & Company, notes that the durable goods report issued this week shows that orders for electronic and other electrical equipment from July through October were running 6 percent ahead of the 1999 pace. In the first half of the year they were up 24 percent.
A rise of 6 percent is far from horrible, but it is hard to believe that the drop stops here. Most of those computer and telecommunications companies on Nasdaq were buyers of hot new hardware and software. Now many are scrambling to pay their bills, and new orders are out of the question. The Chicago Purchasing Managers survey of new orders -- a barometer of industrial health in the Midwest -- fell yesterday to its lowest level in 18 years.
''This is not a valuation adjustment with no economic repercussions,'' Mr. Barbera said.
The huge surge in capital spending, which is now coming to an end, may turn out to be the signal economic event of the last five years. It raised overall corporate profits because the profits made by the sellers were not offset by expenses of the buyers, who treated the spending as investments. That encouraged investors, and the availability of cheap capital encouraged more capital spending, which pushed up profits further and sparked talk of a new era.
Now that virtuous circle is ending. Profits will suffer as depreciation expenses rise. Consumers will cut back as their investments suffer. Tax receipts will be surprisingly low as capital gains payments fall.
The Fed will try to help by cutting interest rates next year, but the surprise may be how little help that provides.


Forrester Research Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) George Colony on his first visit to Hanover, Germany, stepped on familiar territory, proclaiming Web services will be the next big thing in IT.
A new "technology thunderstorm hits every five to nine years and we are due one now," Colony said in a keynote address Monday at the ICT World Forum, a conference preceding the CeBIT technology tradeshow.
The storm upon us is a big, three-part one, according to Colony. With Web services at the core, it will spawn the "XInternet," an executable and extended Internet, and "Organic IT," easily linkable IT systems, he said.
To cut confusion about Web services, Colony provided a definition: "Web services are not the Web and not services, but Internet middleware enabling you to link to customers, partners and operating groups."
The XInternet is an Internet that does not send back "dead pages" when a user makes a request, but sends an executable that allows a user to interact with a Web site. For example, when a user looks for information on how to implement a new human resources procedure, what comes back are implementation and training tools.
"The Web is dead and will be replaced by an executable architecture," Colony said.
The XInternet is also extended. Today about 500 million devices are connected, by the end of the decade there will be billions of connected devices, including cars, phones and many other electronic devices, Colony said.
Organic IT will replace today's fragmented IT infrastructure inside companies with connected environment. "Organic IT is cheaper, shareable and flexible," Colony said.
Linux, the open-source operating system, is a strong Organic IT technology and companies can be organic on the software side today, with other technologies in networking and storage emerging. IBM Corp.'s autonomic computing initiative is a good example, Colony said.
Companies have to take advantage of the storm as "the fog of recession clears," Colony said. Beware not to make the same mistake many did at the height of the boom, which is buying technology and then not adapting to it and essentially letting it sit unused, something Forrester calls "naked technology."
"If you inject technology into your company without (changing) processes and how you organize, you injected naked technology," Colony said. "In 2000, you had a lot of companies injecting CRM (customer relationship management) software, but they did not change the way they work. They got lower return on investment, endangered good process, brought the CFO (chief financial officer) out of his cave, poisoned the delicate CEO-technology relationship, and shortened the life expectancy of the CIO (chief information officer)."
Adding another word of caution, Colony said IT staff, marketers and business people within a company have to work together to make IT investments pay off.
"It is a collaboration game between the T-shirts, the turtlenecks and the ties. This is very hard to do and it will almost always take the CEO saying: You will collaborate."


THE UNDERTAKER stole the show at WrestleMania 33 despite losing to Roman Reigns in Florida as the Deadman appeared to retire as the crowd were reduced to tears.
Whilst the Hardy Boyz returned to WWE in spectacular fashion and shocked fans to win the Tag Team Championship.
Brock Lesnar finally got payback on Goldberg in an explosive match after John Cena had proposed to Nikki Bella after their win.
Randy Orton also came out on top in a bizarre match against old leader Bray Wyatt in a match that saw maggots, cockroaches and worms projected onto the ring.
Triple H then got embarrassed as he lost to Seth Rollins - who pedigreed The Game - as Triple H also knocked his wife Stephanie McMahon through a table.
Kevin Owens piled more misery on his old pal Chris Jericho as he defeated him to claim the United States Championship.
The unforgettable night of wrestling also saw the return of legendary commentator Jim Ross as he watched the Undertaker's gruelling battle against Reigns.
Whilst AJ Styles saw off Shane McMahon in a tough test which incredibly saw the SmackDown Live commissioner attempt a Shooting Star Press.
Dean Ambrose went on to retain his Intercontinental belt after seeing off a determined Baron Corbin.
Bayley defeated her closest rivals Charlotte and Nia Jax as well as her close friend Sasha Banks to keep hold of the Raw women's championship.


NEW YORK (AP) - Joe Torre, Bobby Cox and Lou Piniella have been honored by the Baseball Writers' Association of America for their long careers.
The three retiring managers were presented the Willie, Mickey and the Duke Award from the BBWAA by Yankees manager Joe Girardi, capping Saturday night's annual dinner.
Torre and Piniella thanked late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. Cox singled out former Braves pitchers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. Cox said he was thanking the trio "for allowing me to keep working."
The trio combined for 81 big league seasons as a manager. Cox is fourth in career wins, Torre fifth and Piniella 14th.


Telstra is to embark on a major overhaul of its billing systems, switching to a predominantly Intel-based, open-source architecture in an attempt to rationalise the number of systems and platforms the telco currently operates, Telstra CIO Jeff Smith has revealed at an analyst briefing in Sydney on cost reductions.
Smith told Computerworld that outsourcer Electronic Data Systems (EDS) is already heavily engaged in work on the project, which will see a move away from current proprietary systems in an effort to dramatically reduce the operational expenditure confronting Australia's largest telco.
"The switch will be on the software side. The cost dynamics from a proprietary [system] to the Intel switch are around [a] 90% [reduction in operating costs]," Smith told Computerworld, adding that cost-efficient large enterprises were now engaged in a "big standardisation on platforms for Linux — that's the trend".
Telstra's director of productivity Hayden Kelly was left to reveal the full horror of the monstrosity that Telstra's 156 billing systems had become and repudiate the bad old ways.
"We have taken a siloed approach to billing — we have made billing too complex and too diverse — and there is significant opportunity to make savings. There are 87,000 billing options producing 103 million 'pieces of paper' per year. There will be a review of the vendor relationship for billing processes," Kelly said.
While Telstra is yet to formalise its decision, analysts have been widely briefed, some say placated, that any new mega-outsourcing deals are off the table — and any IT vendors employed to execute and implement new projects will be kept on a very short leash. Smith said that while EDS had been taken on, all significant human capital and intellectual property will now remain within Telstra.
"We don't need our providers doing our IP for us because they are not very good at sharing it. We're going to bring back a lot of our IP in-house — we outsourced too much," Smith said.
While not revealing specifics for any implementation time line for the new billing system, Smith told Computerworld that, "we have a billing blueprint on the table" and that decisions would be formalised by the end of October 2003, or eight weeks away.
"The plan is to consolidate and reuse around OS (open source) platforms. You have to become a full OS shop to survive. The great thing is that we have the capital assets and the intellectual property network already in place. What we have to do now is leverage that," Smith said.
Ultimately, Telstra hopes to reduce its IT budget from $A1.5 billion to $1.3 billion over three years, halving its applications, development and maintenance budget.
Smith said that apart from billing, data warehousing and customer care will also be migrated off current systems onto open source, with a projected reduction in total cost of ownership of around 65%.
Smith refused to comment on if, or how much of, Telstra's open source code cutting would be moved offshore —other than to say that nothing was being ruled in or out.


SMITHVILLE -- Mary E. Stoller, 93, of Smithville, died Monday, July 16, 2007, at the Apostolic Christian Home.She was born on April 6, 1914, in Akron, to Charles and Mary (Brown) Wormald and lived in Smithville since 1959.She was a homemaker and a member of the Rittman Apostolic Christian Church for 71 years. She married Lawrence E. Stoller on June 2, 1934, and he survives.Also surviving are children, Harlan (Jean) Stoller of Sterling, Linda Stoller and Judy Stoller, both of Smithville; son-in-law, Dale (Carolyn) Hartzler of Rittman; eight grandchildren; 27 great-grandchildren; six great-great-grandchildren.A daughter, Joyce Hartzler, and three brothers and four sisters, also died previously.Services will be held Friday, July 20, at 10:30 a.m. at the Rittman Apostolic Christian Church with ministers of the church officiating. Burial will be at the Apostolic Cemetery in Rittman.Friends may call Thursday from 2-4 and 6-9 p.m. at Gillman Funeral Home, 360 W. Sunset Drive, Rittman and from 9:30-10:15 a.m. on Friday at the church.Memorial contributions may be made to the Apostolic Christian Home, 10680 Steiner Road, Rittman 44270 or to the Hospice & Palliative Care of Greater Wayne County, 2525 Back Orrville Road, Wooster 44691. For online register book, obituary and condolences, visit www.gillmanfuneralhome.com.


Notable speeches and presentations that highlight breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet. Founded by social entrepreneurs Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, Bioneers is a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges.
If you're interested in attending the Bioneers 2018 event in San Rafael, California, gain access to exclusive pricing for Link TV viewers at bioneers.org/linktv.


With momentum seeming to swing toward one candidate, an expert isn’t sure what’s going to happen with the Missouri Senate race.
Democrat Jason Kander has polled ahead of incumbent Republican Roy Blunt in the last two surveys. Meanwhile, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump continues to hold a steady lead over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Blunt seems to have chosen an indirect embrace of the embattled nominee at the top of the Republican ticket. He was noticeably annoyed when asked about sexual assault accusations against Trump in the days after revelation about the billionaire became public.
The Missouri Senator separated himself from Trump at a recent press conference in Jefferson City. “You know, I think it’s pretty hard to confuse me with Donald Trump” said Blunt.
Blunt is one of the few down ballot Republicans underperforming Trump in the polls. Many candidates in other states fear the embattled GOP presidential nominee will poison their campaigns.
After holding a slim lead since early August, Blunts been edged out by Democratic challenger Jason Kander in recent polling. The poll analysis firm Five-Thirty-Eight now gives Kander a nearly 60 percent chance of winning the election while it pegs Trump with a 76 percent chance if carrying Missouri.
Smith thinks Blunt could still end up being reelected, but calls the race a toss-up right now.


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Nokia says it's launching a virtual reality camera that will be able to capture three-dimensional video designed for professional content creators.
The ball-shaped Nokia OZO VR camera includes eight synchronized shutter sensors and eight integrated microphones for spatial audio.
The Finnish company says that specially designed software enables real-time 3D viewing on hardware such as headsets with full 360-degree imaging and spatially accurate original sound, "capturing true presence."
Nokia, which developed the product at its R&D center in Finland, presented the camera to major studios, production houses, media and technology companies in Los Angeles on Tuesday, and said it will conduct further tests with "industry professionals" before the camera's commercial release.
Pricing and technical details will be released later with shipments expected to begin in the fourth-quarter.


Could You Get an Abortion From Your Doctor If You Needed One?
If you were seeking an abortion, where would you go? Would you be able to get one from your primary care physician or your OB-GYN? And if you couldn’t get an abortion from either, how would you proceed?
Here is a scary fact: According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2014, people seeking abortion in the U.S. often had to drive between 180 and 330 miles to access the procedure. Business Insider reports that the number of clinics in the country has decreased from 851 in 2008 to 788 in 2014, and five states have only a single clinic.
Not surprisingly, the number of abortion providers is woeful as well — according to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2014, 90 percent of U.S. counties do not have one, so if you live in one of those counties, you have to figure out how you’re getting to a county or a state that does have one, and that’s going to increase both the time it takes to access the abortion and how much it will cost.
More: What’s It Like to Wait More Than 72 Hours for an Abortion?
Why are there so few abortion providers? Well, for one, abortion isn’t part of the curriculum in most medical schools, although it’s an extremely common procedure, which 1 in 4 people with vaginas will undergo in their lifetime.
“Abortion isn’t covered in formal curriculum because it’s controversial,” Lois Backus, executive director of Medical Students for Choice says. MSFC works to increase the number of abortion providers by increasing opportunities for medical students to become providers as well as working with medical schools to expand their curricula around all facets of reproductive health. Currently, MSFC says it has activists working at 90 percent of U.S. medical schools and in 25 countries, and its alumni provide abortions all over the U.S. and the world.
Abortion isn’t commonly addressed in residency programs, Backus says, not just because most abortions don’t take place in hospitals, but because residencies are often pressed for time, and some institutions, such as Catholic hospitals, refuse to address it. There’s also the matter of abortion stigma, which dictates how others regard abortion, and that includes perpetuating falsehoods about abortion (it causes breast cancer, it ruins your fertility) and ideas that it’s a dirty, unsafe procedure, which “real” doctors don’t perform.
So what about your own doctor?
It’s not uncommon to not know if your doctor is trained to perform abortions — and you might not think to ask about it until you need it.
Jackie, who lives in New York City, was in her second trimester when she learned her fetus had a serious genetic disease, and she and her husband decided on abortion. “Finding any doctor to terminate after 12 weeks was very difficult,” she says. She spent days calling around the city to find a provider, and eventually did. Second trimester abortions are more complex than first trimester, and because of that, providers need to be trained specifically in them. Since we’re talking about a shortage of providers in general, the scarcity of second trimester providers is high, while the need, of course, still exists.
It’s important to have a conversation with your doctor about abortion before you need one, not just because statistically, you may need abortion care at some point in your life, but also because it’s a good way to bust abortion stigma, and your doctor might be nervous about bringing it up.
So the next time you have an appointment with your OB-GYN or general practitioner, ask them about abortion care — it’s good information to have, and you’re doing your part to normalize the conversation.


“Stanford Scientists Cast Doubt on Advantages of Organic Meat and Produce” (news article, Sept. 4) misses the point.
The first sentence suggests that people eat organic food with the hope of getting more vitamins per serving. I choose organic food because it contains fewer pesticides, and is grown more naturally.
Furthermore, the article contradicts the implications of the headline; it provides evidence that organic food contains fewer chemicals, and cites several examples that validate the reality that organic food is in fact healthier.
The fact that nonorganic food also contains pesticide levels below the standards of the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t indicate that organic and nonorganic foods are actually equally healthy.
Finally, the article acknowledges that this study ignores food’s taste, and doesn’t mention other factors, including support of independent farmers, healthier conditions for workers, biodiversity and reduced environmental degradation.
It is clearly obvious that the scientists did not take taste into account in determining differences between organic and nonorganic produce. There is a world of difference between the delectable, mouthwatering taste of organic tomatoes and strawberries and the practically cardboard taste of the conventional ones.
While I certainly prefer not to be consuming extra pesticides with my fruit (no matter what the amount), it is the extraordinary taste difference that explains my willingness to pay more for the organic produce at the supermarket.
The focus on the healthiness of organic food misses a significant point: Pesticides (and herbicides) used for conventional food are inherently toxic.
Despite a dearth of human studies, available data suggest that pesticides in our food indeed pose a risk. One study, for example, shows that exposure from dietary pesticides is associated with neurobehavioral problems in children. This is not surprising, since pesticides are neurotoxicants, and children and pregnant women are most susceptible to harm from pollutants.
The Environmental Protection Agency uses assumptions, not facts, to formulate safety limits for pesticide residue allowed on our food. Furthermore, history shows that federal safety limits are often erroneous.
Even low levels of pesticides can hurt us, since many environmental pollutants cause harm at levels below government safety thresholds. Organic food has less pesticide, resulting in decreased exposure. Until we have sufficient research to shed light on their safety, reducing the body burden of pesticides and other pollutants is a reasonable goal.
The writers, medical doctors, are, respectively, director of the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Center at North Shore-LIJ Health System and chairwoman of the system’s department of population health.


FIREFIGHTERS from Hinckley station say that their lives could be put at risk by arsonists at the old greyhound track.
Squatters have moved onto the site and have been seen living in a wooden shack next to the clubhouse.
Police have even been called out to the derelict house on the site, when a special needs child went missing. He was found hidden in the ground floor.
And Ez Millett, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service’s district manager for the Hinckley and Bosworth area said the revelation meant that crews would treat fires at the site differently.
“It is causing me a problem,” Mr Millett said. “But now I know that the buildings are unstable, and people may be in there, it’s putting our lives in danger.
“We can liaise with the council, and between us we can put pressure on the owners to do something about the land.
“We are having a spate of malicious calls from the old greyhound track, which is obviously causing concern.
“We are trying to do away with these type of malicious calls or deliberate fire setting.
The arson task force have now visited the site.
“In the last few weeks we are going down to Nutts Lane at least twice a week, but I would put some of that down to the kids being on holiday.
Borough council leader, David Bill, vowed to ask the land owners, Crest Nicholson, to tidy up the area.


Which Ant-Man Will Flash His Beady Eyes In Marvel's Movie?
The second draft of Marvel's Ant-Man movie is finished, but the question remains: which version of the shrinking superhero who talks to ants will we see in 2010? Will it be science-geek and abusive husband Dr. Henry Pym, who named the super-shrinking particles after himself? Murdered Avengers teammate and father Scott Lang? Or skeevy Eric O'Grady, who used his shrinking powers to watch Ms. Marvel in the shower?
Director Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead) explained to Piq Magazine that the film will be yet another superhero origins story but different, "because you've seen so many of them and we really tried to figure out a fresh take on that story. So it's definitely a Marvel film but it's got a little twist on it in terms of the way that it plays out."


Celebration of life services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday in First Baptist Church Chapel with Dr. Howard Batson officiating. A private burial will be in Memory Gardens Cemetery.
He married Ruth Wilson on March 6, 1982, in Ocala, Fla. He came to Amarillo in 1996. He was owner and operator of Dean's Automotive and enjoyed woodworking, golf and helping out his neighbors. He will always be remembered for his jokes and funny stories.
Survivors include his wife; two sons, James Lewis Gilliam of Arkansas and David Michael Gilliam of Amarillo; two daughters, Barbara Gayle McGrew and husband David and Deanna Suzanne Ruff, all of Amarillo; two brothers, Doyle Gilliam of Lubbock and Bob Gilliam of Weatherford; seven grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and four great-great- grandchildren.


I EXERCISED US-based stock options last October through my American employer and paid income tax on the difference between the exercise price and the original grant price. I kept some shares but they fell dramatically in price. As I didn't realise any 'income' from these unsold shares, is there any way I can recoup this tax to the Revenue other than through future capital gains allowance? It is inequitable that the IR expect income tax on money which has never been income! Is anyone lobbying the Government for a change in this outrageous tax? PB, Farnham.
Maurice Fitzpatrick, a tax director at Tenon says: Now that stock markets are falling there may well be many others in your position but I have not heard of any campaigns to change it.
There are no other ways you can recoup your loss except by using it to offset any future capital gains. Note that you CAN get income tax relief for losses on new shares that you have subscribed to in unquoted companies (including AIM and OFEX companies) but this applies to UK companies only. Had your company been UK-based you might have been able to claim this.
An Inland revenue spokesman says: 'We have had quite a few questions about this recently - especially from Railtrack shareholders.


Income inequality may be a political talking point in Washington D.C., but it's also a reality that marketers need to consider when they are positioning products aimed at upscale consumers. In the wake of the Great Recession, it's time to rethink how to market to the segment that drives nearly 50% of consumer spending. But just who is affluent today? And which group is on the path to the rich life? This Ad Age Insights white paper, based on studies and data from strategic partners Digitas and Ipsos Mendelsohn, identifies five tiers of affluent households and explains why true affluence isn't achieved until the $200,000 household income level. Two distinct groups are found at the $100,000-$199,999 household income level, one on the path to riches, and one that has fallen back into the middle class. Learn why career is one of the strongest indicators for attaining wealth, and how media habits change as consumers move up the tiers. This white paper includes 10 charts, available as downloadable Power Point slides.


Scores of protesters amassed in front of the headquarters of the Guangdong-based Southern Weekend to support media freedom after it emerged that the prominent publication’s New Year’s editorial was doctored by a local Chinese Communist official.
Some experts believe it is one of the most important incidents to raise public awareness about China’s beleaguered media environment in some time.
“Get rid of censorship. The Chinese people want freedom,” wrote one user on Twitter.
The protest came after the Southern Weekend’s editorial staff went on strike over the weekend, a rare public demonstration in support of media freedom in China, one of the most tightly censored countries in the world.
The South China Morning Post reported that the editorial staff went on strike–the first such strike at a major newspaper in several decades.
The decision to strike was made after the paper’s management took control over the editorial department’s microblog account, and said that its New Year’s statement was written by staff and not the provincial propaganda chief Tuo Zhen, who formerly headed Xinhua. Reports emerged over the weekend that Tuo Zhen made the changes without editorial consent, drawing condemnation from reporters, commentators, and numerous Chinese academics.
The original editorial touched on reviving constitutionalism in China, but the new one apparently authored by Tuo removed sensitive topics and praised the Communist Party.
All media organizations–state-run and private–are subject to the Communist Party’s censorship and oftentimes remove content that is deemed sensitive or contrary to its propaganda line. China is consistently ranked as one of the world’s worst press freedom violators in the world by watchdogs.
Protesters in front of the Southern Weekend’s office brought chrysanthemum flowers and chanted “for democracy, press freedom, and human rights,” according to John Kennedy of the South China Morning Post. He also said that middle school students came out to show support. There were minor scuffles between police officers and protesters.
“End press censorship. The Chinese people want freedom!” another Chinese protester said.
According to the China Media Project, editorial staff at a Southern Weekend meeting demanded the formation of an investigative team to look into the New Year’s editorial incident and produce a public report. However, editorial board chief Huang Can said that there “there would be no settling of scores and that the censorship process would be ‘returned to normal,'” according to the Media Project.


A new Brooklyn dining spot devoted to wood-smoked meat and 75 kinds of whiskey? You have our attention.
Coming to Brooklyn: A smokehouse with a gobsmacking array of whiskies.
Prospect-Lefferts Gardens is a little more sparse - okay, a lot more sparse -- in terms of dining scene than nearby neighborhoods like Park Slope or Clinton Hill, so it absolutely, positively deserves a big fat gift of a restaurant like Whiskey Sunday.
The place isn't open yet at this writing (and is keeping mum about a debut date), but we're already drooling at Time Out's tipoff: There's a wood-smoker for 500 lbs. of meat, "spice-rubbed slabs" of beef (including cheeks - ahh, cheeks), and a veritable smorgasbord of whiskey types - 75, says TONY. After the late Lookout Hill Smokehouse closed last fall (and took its epic bourbon selection with it), we're excited for a new meat-and-rye destination. 49 Lincoln Rd. between Flatbush and Ocean Aves.; 718-282-7098.


All musical notation is a kind of compression, which is to say a compromise between ease of transmission and depth of reception.
The notes on a score tell you a lot about a song, but not everything. The same goes for guitar tabs, which tell you where to put your fingers, not what the notes are.
So, if you want to learn a song, it's best to hear someone playing it decompressed, while using the notation as an aide-mémoire.
This isn't an easy thing to do, especially in the repetitive way that's necessary to learn a song.
Or it wasn't until Adrian Holovaty and PJ Macklin created Soundslice, a beautiful HTML5 app that syncs professional studio recordings with sheet music and guitar tablature. Soundslice debuted in late 2012, but they released a new version of the software for sheet music yesterday, and it's wonderful. You can check out the functions in the video below.
But really, go play around with the app. There's a nice version of "Auld Lang Syne." Do it on any device. Phone, tablet, laptop. Soundslice works beautifully. Not just functionally, but smoothly, responsively. Writer, developer, and all around web guy Paul Ford said that "it sings," and that's a great way of putting it.
And it sings everywhere, or as Holovaty put it to me and Ford on Twitter, "HTML5 FTW! Screw native apps and their walled gardens." The problem with that has always been speed. Generally speaking, native apps respond to touch better; you caress, they respond. HTML5 apps tend to be laggier and just don't have that polished, quick feel. Soundslice shows it can be done, though.
The service does have limitations, of course: Only songs that they've commissioned or had transcribed by their community are available to learn.
And I'm sure people might question the business model, too, or wonder whether it's the best way to maximize the profits from this kind of technology. But that's like asking John McPhee why he's not Malcolm Gladwell.


A new update to the iOS version of Google Assistant now allows users to add Google shortcuts to Siri.
This means that the two voice assistants can work together, and users can access Google Assistant features such as “Hey Google” via Siri.
Previously, Apple users would have to choose between the two virtual assistant options. With the addition of Assistant shortcuts for Siri however, Google is growing its prevalence on iOS devices.


Patrick Giles was appointed to the Hopedale Historical Commission last week. It is the first time in many years all seven membership slots on the commission have been filled.
HOPEDALE – Retired educator Patrick Giles was appointed to the town’s Historical Commission last week, filling out the seven-member board for the first time in many years.
“With Pat’s appointment that would bring us to the full seven-member commission, which I don’t even know how long it's been, if ever, that the commission has been fortunate enough to have a membership of seven,” Historical Commission Co-Chairman Sue Ciaramicoli said at last week’s Board of Selectmen meeting.
Giles is no stranger to state and local history as he specialized in teaching and developing curriculum in those two areas during his nearly 40-year career in education. He also volunteers at the Little Red Shop Museum. Giles was aiming to do more for the community's history and applied for an open position on the commission. He was appointed by selectmen last week.
“I’ve always had an interest in history,” he said.
Ciaramicoli and selectmen called Giles, who also volunteers at the Bancroft Library, an ideal fit and a nice catch for the commission due to his extensive historical background and commitment to Hopedale.
“He’s very interested in helping to preserve the resources that are here to share the story about Hopedale,” said Ciaramicoli.
Giles has attended the commission’s last three meetings. He told board members a top priority will be increasing the presence of the Little Red Shop Museum in town and make it more of a community resource.
“That’s hard to do when you’re a purely volunteer organization,” he said.
He pledged to work with other community organizations to seek financial resources for historical programming to showcase the town’s rich history. Increasing the commission’s volunteer base also tops the list.
“It’s a volunteer operation, which means it’s important to seek out volunteers and learn about the museum and support it,” he said. "Resources are limited. It needs to be an organized effort."


Could be Donald Trump is clueless about health care policy. But that could mean he hasn't embraced some bad conservative ideas.
The general consensus from Thursday night’s CNN/Telemundo debate is that Marco Rubio “trapped” Donald Trump into a discussion of health policy that exposed Trump’s embarrassing lack of knowledge and sketchy plans. (Ted Cruz went after Trump for his past support for a single-payer system, which is another issue entirely.) In fact, most of the commentary afterward was not about what Trump actually proposes to do in the way of a repeal-and-replace-Obamacare scheme but devoted to Rubio’s turning-the-tables mockery of the mogul for robotically repeating lines (lines about “state lines,” as it happens) instead of answering questions.
To the extent observers looked deeper than this stylistic gotcha, they generally agreed that Trump wasn’t offering anything like a real health-care plan, particularly as compared to Rubio’s complicated and problematic but word-heavy scheme involving tax credits and HSAs and other conservative health-policy pet rocks. But his impulses, focused on the kind of people the Affordable Care Act was intended to help, are perhaps what really bugs conservatives.
Although Trump’s health-care policy word salad was mixed up enough to leave a lot of questions, he mentioned three concerns often enough to suggest that they were big priorities for him: interstate insurance competition, people who are uninsurable because of preexisting conditions, and some kind of catastrophic care for people who cannot afford coverage. The first idea, however inelegantly Trump explained it, is common to virtually all GOP schemes. The second, however, is the main objection to the first: If you let insurance companies sell policies nationally, they will migrate to the states with the least regulation, particularly with respect to preexisting-condition exclusions and the “community rating” practices that spread the overall cost of insurance from sick to healthy people. You can, however, make these impulses compatible by preempting state insurance regulation altogether with federal regulations that protect people with preexisting conditions and provide other safeguards we now leave to the states. That is, in effect, what Obamacare does, and if you look at the polling on the subject, it would not be at all surprising to see Trump decide that’s one aspect of the ACA he wouldn’t mess with, or would reinstitute after ritualistically repealing the whole thing.
Other Republicans claim they care about people with preexisting conditions as well, but as far as I know, none of them have considered banning discrimination by insurance companies by federal regulation. No, Rubio and others rely on one of those conservative-policy pet rocks instead: a subsidized “high-risk pool” that segregates people the insurance companies don’t want to cover and offers them very limited and very expensive policies that are better than nothing only if you can afford to buy them.
Trump also talks a lot about some national policy that will guarantee no one “dies on the street.” It’s not clear what he’s talking about. But given that other Republicans almost invariably propose to turn Medicaid into block grants to the states, letting them do whatever the hell they want, then perhaps Trump is hanging on to some notion that the federal government has the ultimate responsibility to make sure there remains some safety net that’s available everywhere.
Maybe I’m being too charitable to Trump, and either he has no idea what to propose or if pressed will wind up with the same ideas as his GOP rivals. But until that’s clear, I don’t think these rivals have much standing to mock him. Lord knows he could hardly do worse than Marco Rubio in covering the uninsured or protecting the destitute.


FM transmitters such as the Griffin iTrip are a decent way to connect your iPod to your car stereo (assuming it doesn't have an Aux In jack or iPod dock connector attachment). In the United States, personal FM transmitters are only allowed a 200-foot range, but in the United Kingdom, they're not allowed at all.
That changes on December 8th, when the British Ofcom authority will revise its policy to get in line with the rest of the E.C. Devices that have not been officially approved for use in Europe are still illegal there, but Griffin and the rest of the "Made for iPod" crew are likely to try to get their devices approved for sale there as soon as possible, since there are probably a lot of people in Britain who've been waiting for the law to change.
At least one British online retailer is offering the device already.


HBO is moving forward with Who Fears Death, an upcoming drama series in development that will be executive produced by author George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame and former HBO President Michael Lombard. It was announced a couple of months ago that HBO was in the early stages of developing Who Fears Death with Martin, now we can confirm that HBO has sealed the deal and the series will be moving forward.
The series is based off the sci-fi/fantasy novel by Nnedi Okorafo, which was published in 2010 by DAW. The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic future version of Sudan, North Africa, where the light-skinned Nuru oppress the dark-skinned Okeke leading to a society divided by tone of skin. The protagonist, Onyesonwu, is the child of an Okeke woman who was sexually assaulted by a Nuru man and must go on a quest to defeat her sorcerer father using her magical powers when she reaches maturity while fighting to master the powers growing inside of her.
According to a new report by Deadline, the project will reunite Lombardo, who oversaw HBO's programming when Game of Thrones was in development, and Martin who is the author of the book series on which the hit fantasy show is based. Game of Thrones is one of the most talked-about (and pirated) programs on TV right now heading into its final season set to air sometime in 2018 or 2019.
The Who Fears Death novel won the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and the 2010 Carl Brandon Kindred Award "for an outstanding work of speculative fiction dealing with race and ethnicity," making the upcoming TV series an exciting addition to the world of fantasy where those typically underrepresented in the genre can shine.
Martin executive producing Who Fears Death is part of his overall contract with HBO, which also includes his involvement with the four Game of Thrones spinoffs/prequels also in development. It's going to be a busy next few years for Martin, in addition to the spinoffs (and the final two books in his A Song of Ice and Fire series) it was also announced recently that his novella Nightflyers has been ordered to series by SYFY.
It's exciting news for HBO, which has made a name for itself in the sci-fi/fantasy genre during the past decade with hits like True Blood, Game of Thrones and, most recently, Westworld. Along with Who Fears Death, HBO is also developing other drama series like Lovecraft Country, Watchmen and The New Pope - showing that the network is continuing to push out new and innovative programming and is possibly looking for their next Game of Thrones-level epic fantasy series with Who Fears Death.
Screen Rant will keep you updated on all Who Fears Death news.