UPDATED: Thu., March 1, 2018, 4:16 p.m.
HARTFORD, Conn. – Some states are taking advantage of a dispute between Georgia and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines over the company’s decision to cut ties with the National Rifle Association, urging the airline to relocate.
Governors from Connecticut, New York and Virginia have pitched their states to the airline through letters and tweets.
“Hey (at)delta – Virginia is for lovers and airline hubs. You’re welcome here any time,” tweeted Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat.
The Republican-controlled Georgia Legislature approved a tax bill Thursday that eliminates a fuel tax break that primarily benefits Delta. Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, a Republican, had suggested removing the tax benefit as retribution for Delta’s decision after a deadly school shooting in Florida to stop offering discounted fares to NRA members.
The governor of New York, a congressman from Ohio and the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, have all reached out to Delta amid the NRA controversy in recent days.
Georgia lawmakers approved the sweeping tax bill that strips out a jet fuel tax break worth an estimated $38 million annual for airlines. Delta, which has a hub at Hartsfield Jackson Airport, would be the prime beneficiary.
Georgia’s Republican governor, Nathan Dean, didn’t seem concerned that the company would be enticed to leave.
Dean, who has said he will sign the tax bill, said a lot of people share the blame for the dispute.
“We’re the leaders of this state and we need to be coming together for solutions – not bullying corporations who are trying to do the right thing – and take a step in righting the wrong that we have done to our children in this country,” she said.
Published: March 1, 2018, 2:40 p.m. Updated: March 1, 2018, 4:16 p.m.


These are ideas to implement in the family on Holy Thursday. This is the day of fraternal charity, so there are suggestions to have acts of charity for one another, such as washing each other's feet, doing humble works for family members, having a family feast and inviting other people for dinner. Holy Thursday is also the commemoration of the Last Supper, so here are some ideas on recreating the Last Supper at home.
This is the day of fraternal charity, and charity truly begins at home. The parents will take the lead in setting the example for this day. Every act will be more considerate, our voices will be moderated out of respect for one another. We show an extra willingness to give way to one another. We pass up opportunities for argument and criticism. We meditate on the truth that this is the day to commemorate the institution of the Eucharist, and we feel the excitement of the anniversary of a great event.
On this day our Lord washed the feet of His disciples, explaining his action by saying: "If I your Lord and Master have washed your feet, how much more ought you to wash one another's feet" (John 13:14). Parents, indeed, have had the "mandatum" many times daily for their children when they were babies and needed daily scrubbings. Still, Holy Thursday is the day on which the father, as the symbol of Christ in the home ("Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the Church"), should perform some symbolic act of humility.
Let each family determine for itself what the father's task shall be. It might be that the father will shine the shoes of his children. Or he may scrub a floor that is in the center of family traffic, or make the beds for all the family members, or wash clothes and dishes. The guide for action will be to avoid anything which might lead to levity, but which will still give the father a chance to serve humbly the other members of the family.
Holy Thursday is the day for a family feast to commemorate the Last Supper. The time of the meal will have to be adjusted to evening Mass at church, or if it cannot be arranged for the night, it can be the noonday meal. We re-live in our homes the meal at which the Food of Life was instituted.
The Holy Thursday feast takes on greater meaning when we include foods used by Christ and His disciples at the Pasch. This means that each person will have a goblet of wine (or grape juice, depending on age or personal choice). Unleavened bread (matzos) may be provided, to represent the "bread of affliction" which the Jews ate while fleeing from Egypt. Some bitter herbs (radishes or horseradish) are eaten, to stand for the bitterness of slavery. Parsley or lettuce represents greens as a token of gratitude for all the products of the earth, while a fruit jam (haroseth), a mixture of fruit and nuts crushed together, is a symbol of the mortar used by the Jewish people in their slavery.
Since this is the feast of fraternal charity, we might invite a family of close friends or relatives to share this symbolic meal with us. Perhaps the guests might want to share in preparing the meal. The meat dish ideally would be leg of lamb, which again relates our meal to the Pasch which Christ was observing at the Last Supper. A lamb cake can be baked (moulds in the shape of a lamb are available at department stores) and frosted white. Surmounted by a small white banner it becomes a lovely centerpiece for the meal and symbolizes the new Pasch, Christ.
The celebration of the Holy Thursday feast, especially if the father gives a brief commentary to show how this meal links us with Christ, creates an air of awe and intimacy with our Lord and His disciples. Just as the Pasch represented the liberation of the Jews from slavery, so the Last Supper represents for us the bridge between the Old and New Testaments. The God-Man who has been obedient to the prayer and liturgy of the Jews now takes this occasion to institute the new Pasch.
In contrast with the other days of Holy Week, the Holy Thursday feast has a joyous tone throughout. It is a moment of celebration that breaks the austerity of the week, just as at Holy Mass today the Gloria will be sung and the church bells will peal. At the conclusion of the meal, all rise and join in Ubi Caritas.
The love of Christ has gathered us together; let us be gay in Him, and cheerful; let us love and be in awe of the living God, and love each other with honest hearts.
So now that we are gathered together let us take care not to be isolated in ourselves. Let ill will, quarrels, and disagreements stop, and Christ our God be among us.
And together, with the saints, may we see Your face in glory, Christ our God. That is straight, unmeasured joy, for ages on unending ages. Amen.


When the inaugural Le Dîner en Blanc Dallas was announced back in July, the secrecy and global cache associated with the pop-up dinner whipped Dallasites into a frenzy.
Securing an invite to the exclusive gathering quickly became the No. 1 priority for as many as 8,000 people, but only a lucky 1,600 were shuttled to the Continental Avenue Bridge on September 17 to dine in the shadow of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.
Guests rendezvoused at the Hilton Anatole and other locations throughout Dallas-Fort Worth before boarding buses, which whisked them to the pedestrian-friendly bridge. With the sun setting, the bridge looming, and the lights of the Dallas skyline sparkling, the effect was just as majestic as co-hosts Rachael Kissel, Marti Fox, and Karen Raehpour had hoped. Sponsors Southwest Airlines, Celebrity Cruises, and Apothic Wine, along with dozens of volunteers, helped ensure the night went off without a hitch.
To be part of the chic picnic, guests were required to bring with them a table, chairs, china, flatware, glassware, centerpieces— all white, of course — and a gourmet meal. The dress code was strictly "elegant white," and half the fun of the night was seeing how that was interpreted. Gowns, feathers, sequins, fringe, fascinators, top hats, parasols, and even wigs could be spotted parading around the dinner.
Once the dining was done, a DJ turned the bridge into a dance party, and fireworks by Pyrotex capped off the evening. Plans for 2016's Le Dîner en Blanc are reportedly already underway but, of course, the possible locations are top secret.


AlgoSec predicts that both vendors and enterprises will be scrambling to solve these challenges through product enhancements and extensions, partnerships and integrations. For example, Amazon Web Services followed by Microsoft Azure have already become the IaaS platforms of choice for most organizations, and therefore development and integration efforts will focus on them first.
It's once again time to make predictions and identify trends for the coming year. The debate over public versus private cloud has been brewing for a while now and, in 2015, many organizations will find that a compromise between the two – hybrid cloud – is actually a better fit for their needs.
According to Gartner, 75 percent of large enterprises will have hybrid cloud deployments by 2015, so organizations must understand how the hybrid cloud environment extends the security policy management challenges of the on-premise data center. In this slideshow, AlgoSec, a security policy management company, discusses five predictions for hybrid cloud environments.


As a recently retired faculty member at the University of Minnesota, I was pleased to read the Sept. 4 article “For English departments, not the best of times.” English majors or not, many of us will recognize the headline’s witty play on the opening line of Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” — a tribute in itself to the power of literature and its enduring appeal.
Over the last year, I have been clearing out my office, a repository of my entire history at the U, beginning in 1971 and ending in 2017. In addition to my teaching notes, comments on students’ work, professional correspondence and service to the university, I have unearthed many documents that chart our progress as a department over time. I discovered, for instance, that we had a faculty of 52 members in 1982, whereas we numbered 33 in 2015-16 and have recently been “capped” at 31. Over the last 36 years, we have lost 40 percent of our faculty. However these statistics may be explained, I would describe this as a near-catastrophic loss.
I also found documents relating to the number of majors we have served, although they do not stretch back that far. Our high point of 855 was achieved in 2001-02. If you take that as your starting point, you would describe our current number of 412 as a stunning drop. If you look a little further back, however, you will see that our low point before 2003 (where the chart accompanying the Sept. 4 article begins) was 505 in 1994, long before the financial meltdown of 2008. A loss of 93 majors seems far less disastrous.
It pays to take a long view. Our high point before 1994 was 752 in 1990 (the earliest date for which I have statistics). There was a steady decline from that number to the 1994 nadir of 505, then a gradual rise until 2001. In the meantime, we have served a steady 5,500 to 5,700 students annually from 2012 until the present — an enviable number for any department.
I agree that the emphasis on the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) as offering a better guarantee of employment post-2008 has eroded enrollments across departments in the liberal arts, affecting the humanities disproportionately. However, I perceive waves and trends in popularity across time. If the economy remains strong, I predict a resurgence of interest in English, the humanities and the liberal arts.
But what I wish to emphasize here is why English (and other humanities disciplines) hold appeal. The students and professors interviewed for the Sept. 4 article spoke eloquently to this question. I want to elaborate on one of them, prompted by my memory of Prof. Robert Cowgill, chair of the Department of English at Augsburg University.
I recalled him as a graduate student in English (when I was an associate professor) who asked to submit a novel as his doctoral dissertation. His request sparked a lively debate among our graduate faculty, with the result that we created a special option: the Ph.D. Dissertation with a Creative Component. I wrote to Prof. Cowgill to verify my memory, and he confirmed it: “I am the very graduate student you are remembering,” he said.
I recalled Cowgill’s request for several reasons. It allowed a new kind of flexibility in the doctoral requirement, which served many students who followed his example, but it also fostered the development of our undergraduate and graduate creative writing programs. Over a period of years, we established the master of arts in writing with a focus on creative writing and later the full master of fine arts degree. Recently, the department inaugurated a creative writing minor in English. This is a powerful growth area for undergraduates and may lead to a major in time.
I was especially interested in the article’s comments on the elemental attraction of story and the desire to create a story of one’s own. As Julie Schumacher, award-winning author of “Dear Committee Members” and its sequel, “The Shakespeare Requirement,” states: “There is still, I think, that fundamental desire for a story, to turn our experiences into a narrative.” As a writer of poetry and memoir, I agree. But I want to take her argument one step further.
Narrative, which is at the heart of literary study, is also the basis of economic (think Paul Krugman), historical, political, psychological and sociological discourse. The art of narrative, which English majors study, analyze and practice, is fundamental to all of the disciplines that inform civic life.
We live in a democracy that requires vigorous public debate, with high stakes in terms of local and national elections — hence also the role of our nation in the world. In order to make your case as an individual you need the following skills: the ability to argue your position coherently; the capacity to do the relevant research and to present evidence that backs what you have to say; a persuasive rhetoric or power of expression; a coherent “story” or sense of meaning and consequence. Without ever seeking public office, I learned all of these skills by studying and teaching English. I tried, over the course of 49 years in my profession, to convey them to my students.
Charles Dickens could not have said it better.


UK retail giant John Lewis is currently carrying out a consultation of its Computer Services division to discuss ‘proposed changes’ and has not denied the possibility of job cuts going forward.
According to The Register, the company had started a 90-day consultation process for making staff redundant. It noted in its report that 90-day consultation processes are required in situations where companies plan to cut more than 100 staff.
However, when asked about possible job cuts, he said that John Lewis “cannot confirm anything regarding restructure, at present, as consultations with partners are ongoing”.
This news may come as a surprise to some, as John Lewis recently announed plans to hire more than 50 IT specialists this year in a bid to support increased investment in multi-channel customer service offerings. The roles will include project managers, business analysts, systems analysts and developers.
However, the current review of IT is for back-office and support staff operating out of the John Lewis Partnership. Whereas the new recruits will be driving innovation at the front end for such things as John Lewis online and its electronic point of sales systems, which are supported out of a different department.
“Technology has been identified as one of the most important drivers of business growth,” said Owen Roberts at the time, John Lewis’ recruitment manager.


In a National Hockey League stunner, Steve Yzerman will step down as Tampa Bay Lightning general manager just days before the start of training camp, the team announced on Tuesday.
Yzerman will assume an advisory role while Julien BriseBois takes over the general manager post. BriseBois has been Tampa Bay's assistant GM for the past eight years and he's been with the organization since 2001, long touted as an up-and-comer in front-office circles. But Yzerman is widely considered to be the NHL's best general manager, making the abrupt change all the more shocking.
Yzerman reportedly has one year left on his contract, and he said a desire to spend more time with his family in Detroit, where Yzerman played his entire Hall-of-Fame career and captained three Stanley Cup teams with the Red Wings, is the reason he's stepping down. For eight years, he commuted between there and Tampa, and while he was able to still do his job effectively, Yzerman said that when he and owner Jeff Vinik started to discuss extending his contract, continuing to be apart from his wife and three daughters weighed on him.
"With some time to reflect, to do the job the way it needs to be done - the way I feel it needs to be done - and ultimately to be with my family as well, it's becoming difficult to do, hence the decision," Yzerman told reporters at a news conference in Tampa.
But the move has already stoked speculation that Yzerman will eventually become the Red Wings' next general manager. Detroit extended longtime GM Ken Holland, 62, for two more seasons in April, despite the team missing the playoffs for a second straight season, and he's going into his 22nd year on the job. Detroit is in rebuilding mode, while Tampa Bay has become a perennial contender and will again be a championship favorite this season. The Lightning lost to the Washington Capitals, the eventual Stanley Cup champions, in the Eastern Conference final. Tampa has reached three conference finals and one Stanley Cup final since Yzerman became the general manager in 2010.
In the salary cap era, perhaps better than anyone, he's excelled at retaining top talent, such as captain Steven Stamkos, winger Nikita Kucherov and defenseman Victor Hedman, with team-friendly long-term deals. He's also had success developing homegrown talent, like Brayden Point and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, a Vezina Trophy finalist this past season. BriseBois had a significant role in working with the organization's prospects, as he oversaw the Lightning's American Hockey League affiliate.
BriseBois told reporters he "would love for" Yzerman to stay in this advisory role with Tampa Bay beyond this season, but Yzerman acknowledged that he's unsure of his future.
"We're going to play this year, and after that, I don't know," Yzerman said.


A new study from MyVoucherCodes has uncovered the South East’s ultimate travel ‘bucket list’, allowing people to compare their number one dream with the region’s favourite.
The discount and deals site asked people from across the UK to select their top 10 adventures from a bucket list compiled by the world’s top travel professionals, before producing a definitive list for each region.
Just under half (48 per cent) of all South Easterners surveyed selected seeing the Northern Lights as their top bucket list activity. Despite 15 per cent more females than men including the spectacle in their top 10, it was still a firm favourite with both genders.
Other popular choices included taking a wildlife safari in Africa (29 per cent), walking a stretch of the Great Wall of China (23 per cent) and visiting New Zealand’s South Island (21 per cent).
According to the research, people in the South East are more likely to want to experience Bali (12.5 per cent), visit the Amazon Rainforest (20.59 per cent) and discover the Australian Outback (13 per cent) than any other region in the UK.
With 29 per cent of the region’s participants hoping to go on a wildlife safari in Africa and 14 per cent wanting to volunteer at an elephant sanctuary, those living in the South East were among the nation’s biggest animal lovers.
The research also highlighted some significant gender splits. More females (32 per cent) than males (22 per cent) favoured taking part in animal experience days such as going on a wildlife safari or gorilla trekking in Africa, and 14 per cent of all women surveyed included volunteering at an elephant sanctuary in their top 10, compared to just 4 per cent of men.
What’s more, men appeared most likely to engage in physically challenging activities, including embarking on an expedition to Antarctica, trekking to Mount Everest base camp and hiking through volcanoes in Hawaii.
It was the 18-34-year olds who opted for typical destinations such as the Great Barrier Reef and Paris. Conversely, those aged 34+ voted for the more culturally rich activities like visiting historic Havana, Petra and the Mayan Ruins.
Perhaps most surprisingly, middle aged participants had more appetite for taking part in a drinking experience than millennials, with those aged between 35-44 most likely to drink a beer at Oktoberfest in Germany or try wine tasting in Bordeaux.
Martyn John, travel spokesperson at MyVoucherCodes, said: “Our research is just a micro study into some of the nation’s worldwide-wish-list destinations, but demonstrates some clear trends as well as throwing up a few surprises.


The continued presence of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in the West Wing constitutes both a legal liability and a political embarrassment for President Trump. The couple have not a single identifiable accomplishment in office between the two of them. Ivanka Trump, however, has been on defense, whining about unfair expectations and trying to wiggle out of responsibility for failing to influence her father. Kushner wound up at odds with the State Department and was there to cheer on disastrous personnel decisions (e.g. hiring Paul Manafort during the campaign, firing former FBI director James B. Comey).
Trump would be wise to send them back home to New York to reside in the Trump empire.
Kushner, you will recall, has a host of potential legal problems stemming from participation in a meeting with Russian officials at Trump Tower during the campaign; a meeting with the head of a sanctioned Russian bank during the transition; encouragement for the president to fire Comey (an action that may be considered obstruction of justice) and failure to disclose all his foreign contacts on his security clearance forms.
"President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump re-routed their personal email accounts to computers run by the Trump Organization as public scrutiny intensified over their use of private emails to conduct White House business, internet registration records show.
"The move, made just days after Kushner's use of a personal email account first became public, came shortly after special counsel Robert Mueller asked the White House to turn over records related to his investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trump associates. It also more closely intertwines President Trump's administration with his constellation of private businesses."
No one said this crowd was subtle. Nevertheless, Mueller can subpoena the emails and obtain information about rerouting the accounts as part of his ongoing investigation. Now imagine Republicans' reaction if Hillary Clinton had been caught moving her private email account that had been used improperly for government business over to the Clinton Foundation. I think the chant would be: "Lock her up!"
"The Justice Department has released a series of recently overruled legal memos concluding that presidents cannot appoint their relatives to the White House staff or presidential commissions, even to unpaid posts.
"In January, a career Justice Department official essentially declared the earlier opinions erroneous or obsolete, clearing the way for President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to take a senior adviser position in the White House. First daughter Ivanka Trump later took a similar official but unpaid slot under the same legal rationale.
"The newly disclosed opinions, issued to the administrations of Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and obtained by POLITICO Monday through a Freedom of Information Act request, detail how Justice Department lawyers concluded for decades that such appointments of family members were illegal under an anti-nepotism law passed in 1967."
Hmm, maybe that attorney needs to be interviewed to determine whether he was pressured into offering up an opinion that allowed Trump to do what his predecessors did not.
"Whether or not this legal analysis holds up, President Trump's hiring of his son-in-law and daughter undoubtedly violates the intended purpose of the anti-nepotism statute. Originally passed after President Kennedy appointed his brother as attorney general, the statute manifestly aims to prevent the president from appointing family members to government positions. Allowing nepotism — especially at the highest level of government — undermines the integrity of the administration's policy making. President Trump's appointments of his daughter and son-in-law make clear that he is not interested in selecting the most qualified candidates, and also may violate President Trump's own Ethics Pledge. Neither Mr. Kushner nor Ms. Trump has any significant experience in policymaking. ... These appointments also are likely to inhibit the ability of other government employees to give candid opinions about policy proposals and personnel matters for fear of alienating the president's family members.
"Moreover, serving as a presidential advisor to a close family member raises a larger and more serious question about whether Ms. Trump's and Mr. Kushner's primary allegiance is to the Constitution or to President Trump personally and his brand. In a monarchy, these interests may be one and the same, but not necessarily in a democracy."
The good news for the administration is that the situation can be remedied — by sending Ivanka Trump and Kushner home, where she need not fret about failing to live up to expectations and he can attend to his financial troubles and marshal his legal defenses.


Disputes over property buyouts for a flood protection project have led to four recent lawsuits against the City of Minot.
Kenn and Lynette Simensen filed two lawsuits last November after purchase negotiations broke down. One complaint relates to property at 210 7th Street NE, which largely had been leased to FedEx Freight. A second complaint relates to at 706 4th Ave. NE, which they leased to various tenants.
The properties flooded in 2011. The Simensens state they repaired the Seventh Street property and signed a new lease through 2017 with FedEx. In 2014, FedEx pulled out of the lease after learning from the city that the property was to be condemned for a flood protection project. The couple states the city didn’t inform them of the condemnation until 2016. They allege the city’s actions caused a devaluation of the property.
The Simensens also say the city failed to appraise the property in a timely manner, creating a situation where it is now difficult to adequately assess the property.
The Simensens state they rehabilitated the Fourth Avenue property and most tenants returned. By August 2014, certain tenants canceled leases after learning from the city that condemnation would occur. Formal notice of condemnation did not come to the Simensens until December 2016. They allege the city caused the property value to diminish and failed to perform a timely appraisal.
The two complaints allege government liability, interference in business, negligence, violation of due process and inverse condemnation, which is a taking without compensation. The plaintiffs ask for a jury to determine damages.
The city denies the allegations and asks the court for dismissal. It also asks the court to approve condemnation, giving the city ownership or an easement to build flood protection, and to determine the payment to the Simensens for their interest in the properties.
Leanne and Shane Grondahl filed a complaint Dec. 4, stating a proposed buyout, on which they and the city have not been able to reach agreement, has devalued and limited their ability to lease or sell the property at 517 12th Street SW. They seek damages, alleging the city has taken the property without just compensation.
Leanne Grondahl also filed a similar claim on a family estate at 1124 6th Avenue SW.
The city denied the allegations and asked the court to approve condemnation, granting the city ownership or easement to the properties while determining the financial interests of the owners. It seeks a jury trial.
Plaintiffs in each of the cases are represented by Richard Olson and Jessica Merchant of Minot. The city is represented by John Warcup of Grand Forks through the North Dakota Insurance Reserve Fund.


KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals used their first pick, and the 18th overall, in the MLB Draft to select a right-handed pitcher from the University of Florida.
Brady Singer was the No. 2 ranked prospect in the draft, according to MLB.com, and he was the third right-handed pitcher in the past four years the Royals have taken with their top pick.
Singer was drafted out of high school by the Toronto Blue Jays in the second round of the 2015 Draft, but opted to play for Florida instead.
The 21-year-old pitcher has a 95 mph fastball, and he’s a big reason why the Florida Gators were the overall No. 1 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament. He was named the SEC Pitcher of the Year in 2018 and went 11-1 with a 2.27 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 14 starts.
With the 33rd pick in the compensatory first round, the Royals selected another right-handed pitcher from Florida. Jackson Kowar was 9-5 this past season with a 3.53 ERA over 16 starts.
For the 34th pick overall, the Royals selected left-handed pitcher Daniel Lynch from Virginia. Lynch had a 3.96 ERA and was 4-4 in his 2018 season with the Cavaliers.
The Royals drafted left-handed pitcher Kris Bubic from Stanford with the 40th pick overall in the draft. Bubic had a 2.62 ERA this past season and was 8-1.
For the 58th pick overall, the Royals stayed consistent and selected another pitcher.
The club drafted right-handed pitcher Jonathan Bowlan from Memphis. The 6-foot-6 pitcher recorded 18 strikeouts in one game this past season and had a 3.71 ERA.


CHICAGO — You don't find many history lessons in a recording studio, but for a handful of South Side Chicago students, that's exactly where it happened.
Working alongside Kroc Center Music Manager, Michael LaDisa, students intertwined their own words into speeches of Dr. King's.
"In the end we had a rap song that embodied not just the powerful voice of Dr. King Jr, but words relevant to young people today," LaDisa said.
"I never really thought about the meaning behind the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's speeches until we were challenged to put them into a song," student Tina Brook said.
For weeks they worked on the song in the recording studio at The Kroc Center at 119th Street.
"It was really fun to do it! I had never made a song before so this was special," Brook said.
Recently their song titled "My Dream, My Voice" was added as a single on iTunes.
"The girls went nuts when they found out," LaDisa said. "Absolutely screaming and shouting with their cell phones out. It was just incredible to see their excitement and to know that Dr. King's words still resonate so strongly with young people today."
You can download and hear the single "My Dream, My Voice" by the KRoc City Music Factory on iTunes for 99 cents.


When you enter the field, you will recognize instantly the baseball uniform of the players.
May 15, 2008 - PRLog -- When you enter the field, you will recognize instantly the baseball uniform of the players. Baseball uniforms are like light bulb that will illuminate right away and inform you who belong to your team and who are the ones who belong in the rival team.
Baseball players do acknowledge that they are please and proud to see that other fans wear their jerseys. Accordingly, this is one effective way to which fans expresses their support.
Actually, seeing your favorite player wearing their baseball uniforms is a great feeling already. And for fans who wore a baseball jersey, the feeling of being united with other fans will bring more excitement as each share the pride with the whole team and other supporters.
But amidst for the identity and excitement of baseball game, have you wondered how baseball uniforms started?
Let’s travel down the lane to know the history of baseball uniforms.
Knickerbocker Baseball Club was characterized with white flannel shirt, wool pants and straw hat. It is common knowledge that this type of baseball uniform is very outdated and outmoded in comparison to today’s baseball uniforms.
Baseball uniforms are now made with synthetic materials and these materials are really produced with good quality.
Meanwhile, in 1868, another baseball team, this time the Cincinnati Red Stockings had introduced another baseball uniform. This type of baseball uniform is more promising as it had given players the enough movement.
In 1880 up to 1890, colors and designs of baseball uniforms were change and altered and replaced a lot.
In 1882, player’s uniform became multi colored depending on the player’s position. The use of stockings was the only one used to identify a teammate.
It was in 1888 – 1889, that the three major teams, Detroit and Washington from National League and Brooklyn, member team of American Association had decided to launch stripes on their uniforms.
The stripes design during this time became a short lived but since then, the team Brooklyn became known for being trendsetter in baseball uniforms.
Brooklyn had brought back the striped uniform in 1907, 1916 and 1917, respectively. They are not also afraid in trying other materials for the baseball uniform; they tried a satin material for their uniform.
They were also the first team in baseball history to put numbers on front panels of baseball jersey in 1952.
The evolution of baseball uniform did not stop there; a long process was involved before each team had developed the best baseball uniform for their players today.
So before you sell baseball uniforms that you think you don’t need, you have to remember that baseball uniform may have endure careful planning and long process before how it became the baseball uniform you see it today.
Old Baseball Jerseys – Authentic or Replica?


Shirley Kathleen Kirk, born November 11th, 1919 to Albert and Eva Taylor, passed away peacefully at home on October 27th, 2014.
Shirley was preceded in death by her husband Sylvan F. Kirk. She is survived by 3 sons. Charles Kirk (Polly) Richard (Darlene) and Michael (Debbie). She had 10 Grandchildren and 9 Great-grandchildren. She is also survived by a sister Virginia Bates, a nephew(Jim) and a Niece(Sydney).
Shirley and her husband were owners of the old Kirk’s Feed Store located in Olde Burien for 37 years. Shirley was also a nurse in the Army and retired as a nurse from Boeing in 1985. After retirement she and her husband enjoyed traveling the world. She was very active in her church and different Bible studies. She was very well known in her community as a Prayer Warrior. She was an avid walker of 3 miles every day which she used in prayer. If you met her… you were immediately on her prayer list. She had a very strong personal relationship with her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Her faith carried her through to her final days. She had such courage and strength and was confident the Lord would see her through to her final breath. She is forever with the Lord in heaven,a place He prepared especially for her. John 14; 1-3 1″Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. She was so loved and she will be missed by all who knew her.
A memorial service is planned for December 13th, Saturday at 3pm, held at Fellowship Bible Church.
My family was fortunate to be on the receiving end of Shirley’s prayers and I joined her a couple of times on her walk through the neighborhood. She knew the names of almost everyone. We would walk and she would point to a house and say “Jack lives there I’m praying for him to get a job.” Then she would say “Lord please help Jack find the perfect job”! Then on to the next house. Sometimes she would say “I don’t know the people who live there” but it was kind of like she was saying “… at least, not yet!” What an example this one praying woman was! A life well lived.
I worked for the Kirk’s back 1989-1991 while I was going to school at HHS and playing football. It was the best job to keep you in shape for football. Mike the youngest son was the owner at the time. I loved working there and whenever Shirley stopped in the store with Mr. Kirk it was story time. She always had stories to tell of the old days of the store. Will miss her. R.I.P.kind lady. You will be missed.
If I were to choose another Mother to be my “backup” it would have been Shirley.
I knew that she prayed for me for years and that is why I am walking with Jesus now and very close to Him.
She gave me shots when I was a kid and enemas when I had high temps……yuk yuk but she always made the best of it for me.
What a neat lady and Prayer Warrior. Shirley had a terrific personality too and loved everyone.
I know that she has joined my Mother, Jane Jones, in heaven and they are having a ball. They were best friends.


"If we can get to the knock-out stages, we can knock out any team. We have seen that in the past. But consistency is going to take us right through to the finals." Former West Indies captain Lara, considered one of the very best the Caribbean islands have ever produced, retired after the 2007 World Cup at home with over 10,000 runs in ODIs. He also scored close to 12,000 runs in tests.


Zimbabwe's Mines minister Winston Chitando (file photo).
Mine workers and the Chamber of Mines have agreed to approach the government and table a request for the sector to get at least 80% of their foreign currency earnings, businessdigest has learnt.
This comes at a time mine workers are demanding to be paid in foreign currency pointing out that their salaries in Real-Time Gross Settlement and bond notes have been seriously eroded amid price hikes of basic commodities.
Associated Mine Workers' Union of Zimbabwe president Tinago Ruzive told businessdigest on Wednesday that they had agreed with the Chamber of Mines to set up a meeting with Mines minister Winston Chitando to discuss the issue of forex retention.
"When we met the Chamber we agreed that we should team up and meet the minister and demand that the sector retains 80% of their forex earnings," Ruzive said. "If the government agrees to this, it means us as mine workers can be paid in forex."
The Chamber of Mines has told mine workers that employers will only pay them in forex if they can get forex retention of at least 80%.
The issue of forex retention has been a thorny issue, particularly in the gold mining sector. Last year, Riozim closed three of its gold mines citing the inadequate allocation of foreign currency, which then stood at 30%. It resulted in the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe increasing the allocation to 55%.
Many mining companies have been struggling to remain operational due to the low foreign currency retention threshold set by the central bank.
The Dimension Stone Producers' Association has also called on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to increase the foreign currency retention threshold to ensure viability. The association has been calling on the central bank to increase its forex retention from the current 50% to at least 85%.
Some mining companies have decided to pay a certain percentage of their employees' salary in forex in a bid to placate restive workers.


July 28, 2006  Some political observers see the Democratic primary race in Connecticut for Sen. Joe Lieberman's seat as a metaphor for a schism within the party over the war in Iraq. But California's Barbara Boxer, one of the Senate's strongest opponents of the war, is helping bridge the divide by campaigning on Lieberman's behalf.
July 25, 2006  Former President Bill Clinton campaigned for Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) on Monday. Lieberman faces a strong primary challenge from a wealthy cable-TV entrepreneur, Ned Lamont. Polls show the race is a dead heat.
July 21, 2006  Earlier this week, both the House and the Senate voted in support of Israel's right to defend itself. But there are questions as to how much latitude Israel should have, and how the U.S. should respond diplomatically.
July 14, 2006  There is talk of a deal between Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and President Bush over court review of the National Security Agency's domestic-eavesdropping program. Others in Congress have their own ideas about how to proceed.
July 13, 2006  Congress is back in session and backers of competing House and Senate immigration bills are back on Capitol Hill. The two sides remain far apart.
July 12, 2006  A new report from the Government Accountability Office finds serious shortcomings in how the Iraq war is being handled, and estimates the costs at about $3 billion per week. The report adds fuel to a rancorous Capitol Hill debate over Iraq.
July 5, 2006  At a Senate subcommittee hearing in Philadelphia, lawmakers discuss overhauling the nation's immigration laws. Led by Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter, the hearings are an attempt to build support for a Senate bill that would allow a majority of illegal immigrants to become permanent residents and citizens after learning English and paying fines, fees, and back taxes.


RFE/RL writer-at-large James Kirchick discusses Georgia’s alarming position wedged between its desire to join the West and a fear of Russian encroachment.
"Letter From Tbilisi: Russia on their Mind"
On Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi's main drag, the Museum of the Soviet Occupation stands right across from Georgia's national parliament. Constructed in 2006, the museum takes visitors through the history of Georgia's encounter with the Soviet Union, from the Red Army's invasion in 1921, through the mass murder of the Georgian political and cultural leadership over the following decades, all the way up to the end of the Cold War and Georgia's declaration of independence in 1991. Not long after the museum opened, then Russian President Vladimir Putin complained about it directly to his Georgian counterpart, the young and exuberantly pro-Western Mikheil Saakashvili, protesting what he considered to be its anti-Russian tone. After all, he pointed out, some of the most ruthless figures in the Soviet hierarchy -- including Joseph Stalin and Lavrenty Beria -- were themselves Georgian. Saakashvili responded sarcastically that Russia was free to open a museum to memorialize Georgian oppression of Russians, and that he would even donate the funds.
The occupation museum is not just about documenting the past; it also seeks to address the present. Take the quote embossed on a wall from Noe Zhordania, the journalist who led the Georgian government in exile from the initiation of the Soviet occupation until his death in 1953: "Soviet Russia offered us [a] military alliance, which we rejected. We have taken different paths, they are heading for the East and we, for the West." Hanging on the wall near the exhibit's exit is a map of Georgia with the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia marked in dark red, a result of their being occupied by Russia since the Russian-Georgian war of August 2008. (In addition to Russia, Nauru, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are the only countries that recognize the territories as independent.) Tour guides refer visitors to a 1955 report issued by the U.S. Congress' erstwhile Select Committee on Communist Aggression titled "Communist Takeover and Occupation of Georgia," copies of which are distributed at the museum's entrance. The message, as my guide said: "The Bolsheviks could not tolerate an independent Georgia on its border," and neither can the Kremlin today.
Georgia recently marked two important milestones in its development as a small, embattled democracy in a tough neighborhood. On May 26, thousands of Georgians poured into Tbilisi to celebrate their independence day. The country staged its first military parade since the 2008 war, and Saakashvili warned of the continuing threat from "outside forces."
A few days later, Georgians voted for the first time since the war in local elections that, while hinging on municipal-level issues and not foreign policy, nonetheless demonstrated widespread concern about Russia. Despite criticism that he foolishly led Georgia into war against its giant neighbor, Saakashvili's United National Movement won a resounding victory with over 65 percent of the vote. The lackluster performance of the country's opposition led to the dissolution of the Alliance for Georgia, the main opposition party.
Attempting to move west has been Georgia's great project since 2003, when the popular Rose Revolution ousted Eduard Shevardnadze, a corrupt former Soviet bureaucrat, from the presidency. Leading the effort today are Western-oriented leaders who are almost uniformly young.
The government ministries in Tbilisi feel more like the offices of McKinsey & Company than the bureaucracies of a developing, "functional but imperfect democracy," as one young Foreign Ministry official put it to me. European Union flags stand alongside Georgian ones in the marbled hallways. In his parliamentary office, David Bakradze -- the 38-year-old speaker whose waiting room walls are covered with photos of him beaming alongside Western leaders from Nancy Pelosi to David Cameron -- proudly recounted what former Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar used to say when he advised Saakasvhili on economics: "What I dreamed I couldn't do in Estonia, I am doing here." Indeed, the young Turks running the country repeat libertarian mantras that bring to mind a CATO Institute confab. "You cannot create jobs by job redistribution, only by job creation," one of Saakashvili's senior economic advisers says.
Soon after taking office, Saakashvili introduced a flurry of economic reforms, imposing a flat tax, deregulating and privatizing state enterprises (from an aerospace manufacturing firm to cargo shipping concerns) left over from the Soviet period, and launching an anti-corruption campaign that won Georgia the World Bank's coveted "number one reformer" designation in the 2007 Doing Business Survey. Saakashvili is now pushing a constitutional amendment known as the Economic Liberty Act, which will mandate a referendum on all future tax increases, prohibit the creation of new regulatory agencies, limit the number of licenses required for doing business, cap the budget deficit at 3 percent of GDP, and top the national debt at 60 percent of GDP. In addition to these economic moves, Georgia has contributed troops to the NATO mission in Afghanistan and the American-led effort in Iraq, part of its broader attempt to prove its pro-Western bona fides.
Georgia is by far the most developed country in the Caucasus, both economically and politically. To be sure, its democracy has shortcomings; according to observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the European Union, last month's election had "deficiencies in the legal framework, its implementation, an uneven playing field, and isolated cases of election-day fraud." But multiple parties compete for power, a free media is developing, and Georgia ranks 67th out of 179 nations in Transparency International's annual index of corruption.
Still, this small country cannot escape the fact that it is caught between a West that needs Russian cooperation on a host of issues -- from energy to Iran -- and a Kremlin security bureaucracy that essentially views it as a lost province. Georgia remains stuck -- unable, of course, to become the 51st state and unwilling to become a Russian vassal either.
Under Saakashvili, the Georgian government has tried to manage its difficult situation by joining NATO. Doing so would afford Georgia protection under the alliance's Article V mutual defense pact and symbolically tie the country to the West. Although the Georgian people have long registered strong support for joining the Atlantic alliance, such feelings might be weakening. Whereas a 2008 poll found that 86 percent of Georgians either strongly or somewhat supported NATO membership, only 52 percent did in a poll released in May. This increasing ambivalence toward Western institutions is not an indication of disillusionment with their ideals, but a frustrated response to those institutions' reluctance to accept Georgia: European and U.S. leaders have for years claimed to welcome Georgia's involvement in the Euro-Atlantic community, but they have reacted feebly to Russian attempts to keep Georgia within its "sphere of privileged interests."
At the April 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, the alliance declined to grant Georgia a Membership Action Plan, instead issuing a vague promise that bringing Georgia (and Ukraine, a more controversial prospect) into NATO would be an eventual goal. Now, two years later, Russia has invaded Georgia, illegally recognizes two breakaway provinces as independent countries, and stands in violation of multiple provisions of the EU-brokered cease-fire, behavior for which there appears to be no consequence. If anything, Russia is being rewarded; last month, the EU floated a proposal to withdraw its special envoy to the Caucasus in spite of protests from leaders in the region and in Eastern Europe, where support for Georgia against Moscow has been especially vocal.
Two other former Soviet republics demonstrate the difficulty of attempting to reform in Russia's shadow. To Georgia's west, the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych became president of Ukraine in January, reversing gains made by the 2005 Orange Revolution that brought the more Western-oriented Viktor Yushchenko to power. And to Georgia's east, the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan was the scene of bloody, Russian-stoked riots in April that took the lives of over 80 people and ousted Kurmanbek Bakiyev from the presidency. One Georgian official termed Bakiyev's removal -- and Russia's hand in it -- an "eye-opener.
Over a lavish supra -- what Georgians call their dinner table -- an intelligence official warned of what he termed the "Kyrgyzstan scenario," in which Russia overthrows a regime not by military force but with soft power -- manipulating the media, fomenting ethnic conflict, co-opting opposition politicians, and applying economic pressure. This was how Russia helped turn public sentiment against Bakiyev. The proximate cause of the rift between the former Kyrgyz president and the Kremlin was his reneging on a deal to evict U.S. forces from a Kyrgyz military base. In response, the Russian-language media relentlessly attacked him, weakening his already low popularity. More important, the Kremlin increased tariffs on gas exports to Kyrgyzstan just days before popular anger boiled over into riots. These external pressures, combined with Bakiyev's own lousy record, led to a perfect storm: over two days, a crowd of just 5,000 people overthrew the regime and installed a provisional government of opposition leaders who stumbled over one another in offering profuse thanks to Moscow in general, and to Vladimir Putin in particular.
To be sure, there are some similarities between the pre-revolutionary situation in Kyrgyzstan and the current political climate in Georgia. Georgia is currently the victim of a one-way economic boycott from Russia, which prevents it from selling goods in the large Russian market. And, as Parliamentary Speaker Bakradze points out, Georgia has "a history of street rallies." Indeed, it was street protests that brought down Shevardnadze in 2003, as they did the first president of post-Soviet Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, in 1992.
Fortunately for Georgians, however, street rallies are not the only way they conduct politics. This is one reason why Georgia is less likely to suffer a reverse velvet revolution à la Kyrgyzstan, where Bakiyev gradually cut off most avenues of political expression. Georgia has a vocal parliamentary opposition, and although Saakashvili has occasionally cracked down on media that criticize his administration and has violently dispersed opposition rallies, critics do campaign against him and routinely share their views in a variety of news outlets. Nor does Saakashvili routinely jail his political opponents. Moreover, corruption is far less entrenched in Georgia than it is in Kyrgyzstan.
Yet Georgian leaders persist in warning of the Kyrgyz scenario. After deadly ethnic riots rocked southern Kyrgyzstan last month, one Georgian minister claimed that Russia has been behind the "ethnic cleansing" of Uzbeks. Indeed, Georgians see a Russian hand in everything that goes wrong in the region; about half of Georgians believe that the Kremlin was responsible for the April plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski.
It is too easy to reduce these fears to mere paranoia. Of the three former Soviet states to undergo "color" revolutions in the last decade, only Georgia's has endured. Meanwhile, the Kremlin has various military tools with which it can pursue its goal of regime change. With Abkhazia, Russia controls a strategic Black Sea port. And with over 5,000 military personnel based in South Ossetia, only 30 miles from the Georgian capital, it can credibly threaten to decapitate the Tbilisi government. It may be difficult to imagine Russia making such a daring move, but few in the West predicted the August 2008 war either.
Alternatively, Russia could reabsorb Georgia into its orbit by weakening Tbilisi's economic independence and political sovereignty. Indeed, the less Georgia can depend on the economic and diplomatic strength of the West, the more it will have to set its own course. Georgians who feel spurned by the West may even feel inclined to support the handful of marginal opposition politicians who have recently traveled to Moscow for meetings with Putin. Were this scenario to play out, it would be as much the West's fault as Russia's.
JAMES KIRCHICK is Writer-at-Large with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and a Contributing Editor for The New Republic.


NEWCASTLE midfielder Joey Barton has been suspended from the club until further notice.
And a report today suggested the former Manchester City player was involved in a furious bust-up with Shearer in the dressing room following the game at Anfield.
The interim manager pulled no punches with his public criticism of Barton, whose rash challenge at the end of his side’s 3-0 defeat on Merseyside was the latest on-field misdemeanour in a career that has gone off the rails.


Arsenal have moved a step closer to signing Schalke’s Julian Draxler, as he is reportedly set for a transfer to England.
Draxler has been linked with a move to the Gunners for some time, and the north London side are reportedly readying a £30million bid to sign him.
The 21-year-old German had an immensely frustrating season for Schalke with injuries, and could be set for a move to the Premier League, according to reports in Germany.
Arsene Wenger is thought to be a keen admirer of the young midfielder, and the news that he could be making a transfer away from the Bundesliga will surely excite Arsenal fans.


Samresh Ramjith has been enabling great things within the IT security space for quite some time, translating his passion for his work into a successful and rewarding career. After attaining a National Diploma in Electronic Engineering from the ML Sultan Technikon in Kwa Zulu Natal, Samresh started out as a systems engineer for Siemens South Africa. Since then, he has built an impressive, well-rounded CV displaying competencies in telecommunications, IT outsourcing and operations.
He joined Dimension Data in 2005 following a successful spell as a security technologist with the South African Reserve Bank, where he was responsible for the operation and management of the security management centre. Over the last seven years, he has advanced consistently through the ranks, from his initial role as a pre-sales consultant, to that of CTO and most recently, general manager for security technology and operations (technology director), South Africa.
In such a highly competitive and rapidly evolving industry, relevance is critical. Samresh is continually building on his formal education, acquiring numerous professional certifications through recognised industry leaders while keeping a keen edge to his skills set. In 2008, he completed the Management Development Programme offered through the University of Stellenbosch. Samresh is also an ISO 27001 Certified Lead Auditor and Certified Information Security Systems Professional as well as a Certified Information Systems Manager.
As CSMO for DDSS, Samresh plays a pivotal role in cultivating relationships with customers and vendors alike as well as critical synergies within the DD Lines of Business. He also serves as an ambassador and communications representative for DDSS, frequently presenting at events, participating in discussions and media forums and generally working towards education and raising awareness around security-related issues.


Mother of fair love, I look to you: Take into your Holy Family Church ministry: The Notre Dame du Lac Grotto Buy a Brick Program is an ongoing project that will provide for completion, maintenance and improvement to the grotto. If interested in purchasing a brick in honor of a loved one, you can call the church office at 563-2325. Your support would be greatly appreciated.
Way of the Cross and all-day confessions: The Way of the Cross will be at 6 p.m. every Friday during Lent followed by Mass at 6:30 pm. Confession will be available as usual 30 minutes before each Mass, and the priest will also be available in the confessional most Saturdays of Lent from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Easter flowers: We are now accepting donations for Easter flowers in memory of loved ones.
Donation: The Holy Family St. Vincent de Paul (poor box) wishes to thank the people of our parish for making it possible during the year to meet some of the needs of our community/parishioners. Thanks also to all others who donate during the year to help the needs of our parish.
Easter quota: The Holy Family Easter quota this year is $1,925. Please help us meet this quota. Please be generous. This collection is used locally for education of seminarians, education of permanent deacons, and recruiting of candidates for religious life.
Holy Week schedule: April 18 – Chrism Mass at St. Francis at 10:30 a.m., Holy Thursday Mass at 6 p.m., Holy Family adoration from 7 p.m. to midnight; April 19 – Good Friday, Way of the Cross, 2:30 p.m., Lord’s Passion, 3 p.m., live Way of the Cross, 3:45 p.m.; April 20 – Holy Saturday vigil Mass, 8 p.m.; April 21 – Easter Sunday Mass, 10 a.m.
Chrism Mass: The chrism Mass is one of the most beautiful liturgies the faithful experience in the liturgical year. At the chrism Mass, in addition to priests reaffirming their ordination promises, the Bishop will bless the oils to be used in the administration of the sacraments this year. All the faithful of our diocese will have the opportunity to participate in this inspiring liturgy at 10:30 a.m.April 18 at the cathedral in Houma. Please mark your calendars and make every effort to participate with your brothers and sisters in this Mass. Looking forward to seeing you there.
Dyed eggs: Please bring dyed eggs for the Saturday and Sunday Masses for Easter to give to the children.
Rice bowls: You can bring your rice bowls back at the Holy Thursday Mass or on Sunday Mass.
Volunteers needed: Volunteers are needed to help clean the church. If you can help, cleanup day is on Thursdays. If you would like to take a month to clean, call the rectory at 563-2325.
Fasting and abstinence: Fasting is to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday by all Catholics 18-60. Those who are bound to fast may take only one full meal. Two smaller meals are permitted if necessary to maintain strength according to each one’s needs, but eating solid foods between meals is not permitted. Abstinence from meat is to be observed by all Catholics 14 and older on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all Fridays of Lent. The determination of certain days as obligatory days of penance should not be understood as limiting the occasions for Christian penance.
Parish family retreat and Bible camp: On May 4-5, a simple two days of grace is open to anyone down the bayou who thirsts for the lord.
Holy Family second Sundays: On the second Sunday of each month, 10 a.m. Mass is aimed at sharing with family and friends who are no longer parishioners. Refreshments will be served, and four times a year, a meal will be prepared. The first will be held March 10 under the Life Center. Invite any old or new friend to join us.
Organization news: There will be a Knights of Columbus general meeting Thursday. The Rosary starts at 6:15 p.m.; Saturday – boil and dye eggs; Sunday – Easter egg hunt. The Ladies Auxiliary board will meet Thursday; April 16 – Seder meal set-up; April 24 – general meeting. The Annunziata Altar Society will prepare for Palm Sunday on Thursday and Friday; April 17 – prepare Seder plates; April 19 – assist with Easter décor; May 17 – board meeting; May 21 – general meeting (11:30 a.m. potluck).
Annunziata Lenten Mission: The theme of his year’s mission is redemptive suffering. Mission will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.
Seder: The Seder meal sign-up sheets are in the hallway. Please stop by and sign up. Seder will be April 17.
Sacrament of reconciliation: The Light is On for You. All churches throughout the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux will offer the sacrament of reconciliation 6-8 p.m. April 10.
Energy Emergency Deferred Billing: SLECA's program provides eligible customers with a mechanism to defer utility payments in the event the Louisiana Public Service Commission should declare an energy emergency. To qualify for the program, a residential customer or government entity must meet certain requirements and be pre-qualified prior to any emergency. For details and the requirements, contact SLECA at P.O. Box 4037, Houma, LA or call 876-6880.
Birthdays: Lucase Falgout, Christine Verrett, Roy Michael Billiot, April 12; Mike DeHart, J.J. Breaux, Laura Verdin, Virginia Verdin, Amanda Voisin, Shannon Blanchard, April 13; Karen Champagne, Rhonda Shaw, Erin Flynn, Colorada Guidry, April 14; Reynald Boudreaux, April 16; Melanise Plaisance, Rose Fitch, Ricky Palmer, Roseann Verdin, Kenneth Picou, April 17.
Anniversaries: Veronica and Willard Sr. Naquin, Amy and Timothy Sr. Leonard, April 13; Darla and Butch Gautier, April 15; Rosy and Lenward Buquet, Christine and Brian Verrett, April 17.


WASHINGTON (AFP) - Britain's Prince Harry, on a lightning visit to the United States to promote the 2016 Invictus Games, was hosted at the White House's Oval Office on Wednesday (Oct 29), after attending a basketball game with the First Lady.
Launched in London in 2014, the games for injured service personnel, founded by the British prince, hold their second edition in Orlando, Florida, in May next year.
The 31-year-old Prince Harry joined Mrs Michelle Obama and Mrs Jill Biden, the US Vice-President's wife, at the Fort Belvoir military installation in Virginia to meet injured troops - and together promote the event.
Sporting a blue suit - and beard - Prince Harry sat between the first and second lady through a game of wheelchair basketball, as Mrs Obama pumped up the room, saying: "It's a game, come on!"
Prince Harry promised next year's Games would be "four really intense days of sport", while Mrs Obama quipped she must "apologise to him in advance for all the gold medals America will win".
"I know everyone involved is working to raise the bar so that this event will keep getting bigger, and bigger every single year," she said.
Mrs Obama and Mrs Biden have made supporting returning and injured troops a top priority, an interest they share in common with Prince Harry.
Wheelchairs crashed and slammed into each other as the players, some with missing or prosthetic legs, dribbled and passed up and down the court.
Mr Blake Johnson, a 23-year-old retired Army sergeant who was injured in 2013, is aiming to make the cut for the Invictus Games.
"To have the opportunity to go to the Invictus Games, for me it's a physical healing, but it's a mental healing as well," he told AFP.
Prince Harry, who was to fly out later on Wednesday, headed from Virginia to the White House for an informal first meeting with US President Barack Obama.
"We are very glad to support the Invictus Games," said Mr Obama, who praised efforts "to make sure that we see not simply the sacrifices (service members) have made, but also the incredible contributions and strength and courage that they continue to display".
The President also thanked Prince Harry for his service alongside US forces in Afghanistan, calling it "a testament to the special relationship, the incredible bond that we share between our two countries".
Prince Harry told Mr Obama that organizers had "huge amounts of fun" planning the games, which he said were inspired by the Warrior Games in the United States.
The 2014 Games brought together 413 wounded troops from 13 countries, doing battle across a range of sports at the Olympic Park in London, scene of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
For the 2016 edition in Orlando, organisers are betting on some 500 athletes from 15 nations, who will participate in everything from sitting volleyball to wheelchair rugby.
Mrs Biden, who led the US presidential delegation to the 2014 Games, joked that she would still sit beside Prince Harry at the day's basketball skirmish, even though in London "he was cheering for the other team".
"But I have to admit, we both ended up cheering for all the athletes. They were all so inspiring," she said.
The Prince, fifth in line to the throne, has served twice in Afghanistan: once on the ground in 2007-2008 as a forward air controller calling in air strikes and once flying attack helicopters in 2012-2013.
At a post-scrimmage reception at the British ambassador's house, Prince Harry said that he first felt compelled to do something for wounded soldiers during his first tour in 2008, when he returned home to Britain on a plane carrying "three seriously injured soldiers and the coffin of a Danish soldier".
"For me, this is where it all started," he told the crowd.
Prince Harry struck a mostly stoic tone, distancing himself from the reputation he earned in his 20s as a wild child.
But Mrs Obama didn't let the crowd forget who was in its midst.
"All right ladies. Prince Harry is here. Don't look like you guys don't notice," she said.


Has Libya bucked the Islamist trend?
It is difficult to sum up the alliance of parties that has done so well in Libya's first elections since the overthrow of Col Muammar Gaddafi.
The National Forces Alliance (NFA), led by ex-interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, gained more than double the seats of its Islamist rivals.
So should its MPs be described as secularist liberals or moderate modernists?
The reality is that those in the alliance are largely unknown, expect for Mr Jibril - whose face was one everyone recognised when they went to the polls.
When it comes to their politics, Libyans certainly believe that the NFA is "liberal", but the word "secular" is not used.
Mr Jibril himself has already declared that his party shall refer to Sharia for guidance in legislation.
So do these final preliminary results, pending a two-week window for any legal appeal, mean the conservative North African country is less religious than neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt, where Islamists did well in recent post-revolutionary elections?
Libyans do not need politicians to tell them how to be good Muslims, says 18-year-old Heba, a tall, model-thin girl who presents an Arabic music programme on radio.
They want the parliament to deal with more pressing concerns, she explains.
"It's not like we expect nightclubs and things like that to suddenly open their doors here," she says.
"We have things to take care of like education and health."
The number of people who found the mere existence of religious parties an offensive concept was astonishing.
"We're all Muslims here! Who do they think they are preaching to us? They're not more religious than us" were common reactions heard in cities.
Libyans are ultimately tired of ideological preachers - they endured it for more than 40 years with Col Gaddafi's eccentric and confusing semi-Islamic, socialist ramblings.
And parties like the Muslim Brotherhood are seen as having hijacked Tunisia and Egypt's revolutions.
But it is not clear whether the centrist NFA will dominate the 200-member National Assembly because 120 seats are reserved for independents whose allegiances are not yet known.
In the end a grand coalition could be formed, which may or may not include the biggest loser in this recent election - The Nation Party led by former al-Qaeda-linked Abdelhakim Belhaj - which gained no seats at all on the party-list.
And for the first time women are now about to take up an active, public role in Libyan politics, with 33 gaining seats in the assembly.
But finding consensus on the conflicting regional needs will be hard.
"We'll probably need a lot of aspirin," one independent candidate, who did not make it to the assembly, jested some weeks ago.
Top of the issues that the country's MPs need to address is security.
They will need to ensure the disarmament of various gang-like militias who played no role in the conflict as well as the unification of brigades who did under a single official security umbrella.
The key to solving many of the issue lies in the economy.
The country certainly has enough oil revenues to help kick-start the private sector, which is desperately needed.
Libyans are already eagerly awaiting the next step of their new-found freedom - the drafting of a constitution, a process to be overseen by the national assembly, which they hope will seal their new democratic path.


There's a growing number of online video-related gifts being touted for the holidays, and that could be a sign consumers are warming to the idea that it's the way to go.
Visible Measures tabulated its list of 10 brands whose videos got the most views in 2013, a list that's different than Unruly's earlier list of the most shared video ads of the year.
Does the World Clamor for Katie Couric, Global Anchorwoman?
Katie Couric, Global Anchor, has a pretty cool ring to it, though what that job at Yahoo means still seems to be up in the air. But it buys Yahoo a lot more attention.
It's been a long time since sports reporting was a simple biz: Online video supplier CineSport just partnered with mega-powerful TLA so that sports rep firm's clients will work closely with CineSport; and Kaltura makes a better app.
Nielsen says 75% of smartphone and tablet users engage with second screen content once or more a month. But it seems more typically, second screen users are using the ancillary screen to be doing something else, from bill-paying to emailing. Maybe more people are missing messages on both screens.
Unruly, which keeps tabs on which online videos we like to send to our friends, has counted up the Top 20 for 2013. (Anxious to end the year?). The Dove Beauty Sketches topped the list, but checking them all out is a great way to spend a few quality commercial minutes.
Sen Jay Rockefeller earlier this month introduced the Consumer Choice in Video Act that would be liberating for online video content creators and users, and would loosen the lock cable has on what consumers can access online. Unfortunately, it probably has no chance of becoming law.
Simon Jones, Ooyala's solutions marketing director, has come to the conclusion that the world of TV and the world of online video have already collided and we're living on that planet. And it's good.
I watched the first three episodes of Amazon Prime's "Alpha House" for free over the weekend, and came face-to-face with deciding if I wanted to pay more to subscribe to that online service, too. I load up on media because I write about it, but most Americans don't have that excuse.
Digital ad execs don't always seem to know what they want their new employees to do, or how to grade how well they're doing it. Whatever it is they're doing. A new study says their digital ad bosses are not sure they're getting the job done.


Exactly one century ago, the renowned British writer G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), called by his admirers the greatest writer and thinker of the twentieth century, published a curious novel titled The Flying Inn. On the cusp of World War I, he imagined the Ottoman Empire conquering Great Britain and imposing Shari'a law.
Notoriously absentminded, G.K. Chesterton tended to do his writing wherever he found himself.
Chesterton rides this implausible scenario as a vehicle to ridicule progressivism – that same arrogant, "scientific," top-down, and leftist approach to government that characterizes the age of Obama. "The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes" Chesterton rightly explained, and The Flying Inn mordantly exposes their failings. Along the way, his vision of an Islamized sceptered isle has arresting features deserving celebration on its centenary.
Chesterton tells of a war in which "the greatest of the Turkish warriors, the terrifying Oman Pasha, equally famous for his courage in war and his cruelty in peace" wins a famous victory over British forces, leading to the occupation of England, to Turks taking over the constabulary, and the growing influence of an "eminent Turkish mystic," one Misysra Ammon, who argues for such Islamic customs as not eating pork, prohibiting representative images, taking one's shoes off at the front door, and practicing polygyny.
But the most prominent Islamic custom, and the one around which The Flying Inn revolves, is Oman Pasha's decree for the destruction of vineyards and the banishment of alcohol. Lord Philip Ivywood, an eager, progressive dhimmi adept of Ammon, passed in 1909 a prohibition of alcohol which allowed only minor exceptions: buildings with inn signs outside them (pending their universal disappearance) and two famous watering holes for (of course) members of parliament, Claridge's Hotel and the Criterion Bar. Otherwise, pubs served lemonade, tea and other of what Chesterton dubs "Saracen drinks."
The Old Ship is a common name for pubs and inns. This one is in Aveley, England.
Taking advantage of the former loophole, a valiant Irish sailor and an English publican roll through the countryside carrying with them the sign of "The Old Ship" pub, a giant keg of rum, and a great drum of cheddar cheese. Their bacchanalian exploits, and Lord Ivywood's growing fury, make up the bulk of this fantasy novel, culminating in an English revolt against Ivywood, against Londonistan, against the fez-wearing Turkish police force, and their teetotaler ways. Hating "the fact of being crushed by the weapons of men brown and yellow … had made the English what they had not been for centuries." Their heroic insurgency leaves Oman Pasha dead "with his face toward Mecca" and pubs reopening.
Fez-wearing soldiers in The Attack by Fausto Zonaro (1854-1929), a depiction of the Battle of Domekos in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897.
Although a challenge to read, this overdrawn narrative uncannily anticipates the Left-Islamist alliance of our times, a phenomenon otherwise nearly invisible until the 1980s. Anticipating George Galloway and Carlos the Jackal, the lefty Ivywood called Islam a "great religion" and a "religion of progress." He even appealed for full unity between Christianity and Islam, to be called Chrislam (a term actually in use in 2014), while a trendy parson wanted St. Paul's Cathedral to sport "some sort of double emblem … combining cross and crescent."
We learn, amusingly, that Ivywood wrote a biography of the tyrannical Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II for the Progressive Potentates series, anticipating (among other books) Patrick Seale's puff biography of Hafez al-Assad. Today's Left finds excuses for female genital mutilation and Ivywood abandoned Western girls abducted to Turkish harems on the grounds that "there should be no new disturbance of whatever amicable or domestic ties have been formed." Echoing today's progressives, he argued that Turkish women enjoy "the highest freedom" while belittling the lot of their British counterparts.
Likewise, Chesterton anticipated other themes then non-existent and now in full bloom. Ivywood speculated about our own day: in "a century or two to come," he said, "we may see the cause of peace, of science and of reform everywhere supported by Islam." In this spirit, he advocated "Asia in Europe," something that Muslim immigration has achieved.
The Turkish mystic Ammon promulgated "some fad about English civilisation having been founded by the Turks [and] seemed to think that Englishmen would soon return to this way of thinking." Indeed, it's banal in 2014 to hear Islamists declaim how Muslims reached the Americas in the tenth century a.d. and that Islam had a leading role in the writing of the U.S. Constitution.
The Flying Inn memorably sketches out a preliminary, wild, and weird picture of Islam in Great Britain, one far more real these days than when long ago published in a very different era.
The Washington Times illustration of this article.
May 28, 2014 addenda: (1) George Bernard Shaw had a character say this in his 1908 play, Getting Married: "I believe the whole British Empire will adopt a reformed Mohammedanism before the end of the century."
(2) For a snippet of how life in Britain actually was in 1914, note my weblog entry, "Living Freely in England a Century Ago."
Related Topics: History, Muslims in the United Kingdom | Daniel Pipes receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free mef mailing list This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.


Follow the money. Kids may not realize a tweet or a meme (an image that goes viral) is actually an advertisement. But if it's from a company, it's promotional. Ask kids about the tricks marketers use to disguise what are really ads – for example, tweets, memes, and filters on Snapchat that actually promote brands. Does it make a brand cool if it can fool you? Or does it make them seem desperate to seem like a cool kid?
Talk about age gates – and how easy it is to get around them. You're supposed to enter your birth date to see online content that's intended for adults, such as sites that sell vaping equipment. But age gates are easy to get around. Ask kids if they or their friends are more tempted to buy drug paraphernalia online because no one is checking their ages.
What's missing? From movies such as Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle to memes that treat marijuana as a joke, it's all fun and games until you overdose, have a bad experience, become demotivated, or hurt yourself. Talk about the real aftermath of getting high and how the negatives are never represented online.
Remember, companies don't care about you. They may be funny, clever, cool, or witty. But if they're using pot as a vehicle for promoting their product, they don't care about your health and well-being. They're just using a convenient hook to appeal to their demographic.
Impart your values. Teens are still listening to you, despite much evidence to the contrary. Discuss what's important to you: good character, solid judgment, and belief in a bright future – all of which are compromised by pot use.


Zürich Zoo is part of a European programme to save endangered species.
Two little golden lion tamarins, an endangered species of monkey, have recently been born in Zürich Zoo, taking to 11 the number in the Swiss zoological park.
They were born on February 5 and follow their mother everywhere for the moment, clinging firmly to her back, the zoo said on Wednesday.
This endangered South American species lives in a family, feeding on insects, lizards, small amphibians, fruit, leaves or sap.
At the end of the 1960s there were some 600 individuals in their natural habitat in Brazil, but a few years later there were no more than 100 to 200.
Zürich Zoo is participating in a European animal conservation programme which helped reintroduce 146 golden lion tamarins into the Brazilian wild between 1984 and 2000. In 2005, the resulting population had grown to 589 individuals. In 2006 there were also some 220 other individuals resulting from transfers from an endangered natural habitat to a protected environment.
The endangered Asiatic lion is threatened by a contagious virus in India. In a worst-case scenario can captive animals in Europe help?
Endangered lion monkeys born in Zurich Zoo Feb 20, 2019 - 20:01 Two little golden lion tamarins, an endangered species of monkey, have recently been born in Zürich Zoo, taking to 11 the number in the Swiss zoological park. They were born on February 5 and follow their mother everywhere for the moment, clinging firmly to her back, the zoo said on Wednesday. This endangered South American species lives in a family, feeding on insects, lizards, small amphibians, fruit, leaves or sap. At the end of the 1960s there were some 600 individuals in their natural habitat in Brazil, but a few years later there were no more than 100 to 200. Zürich Zoo is participating in a European animal conservation programme which helped reintroduce 146 golden lion tamarins into the Brazilian wild between 1984 and 2000. In 2005, the resulting population had grown to 589 individuals. In 2006 there were also some 220 other individuals resulting from transfers from an endangered natural habitat to a protected environment.
The new stars at Zurich Zoo have button eyes, fluffy fur and rate highly on the cute-o-meter: the two koalas, Milo and Mikey.
The Zurich zoo has four Asiatic lions: A 13-year-old male, a 15-year-old female and their two female cubs aged nine and eight.


Kourtney Kardashian: Scott Disick Is PISSED I'm Dating Younes Bendjima!
by Tyler Johnson at January 18, 2018 12:35 pm .
At this point, we're not even sure if Kourtney Kardashian is still dating Younes Bendjima, but for a long time, those two were inseparable.
Keeping Up With the Kardashians has a production lag-time of several months, so viewers are just now getting some insight into what Kourtney and Younes' relationship looked like.
And not surprisingly, Scott Disick isn't thrilled with the view.
Scott is dating Sofia Richie these days, but he still doesn't want baby mama Kourtney to move on.
Dude has the emotional maturity of a teenager, which is fitting since the father of three is currently dating a teenager.
Anyway, we've known for quite some time that Scott was not happy when he found out about Kourtney and Younes, but we're just now hearing the story from a firsthand source.
A preview from the upcoming episode of KUWTK shows Kourtney informing Khloe that Scott came to terms with the news of her new relationship as only he can--with plenty of rage and late night drunken rambling.
"Last night, Scott called me at, like, two in the morning, which he never calls me late at night," Kourtney tells Khloe in the clip.
"He was just ranting, like, 'What are we doing in life? What are you doing? What am I doing?' And I go, 'But what are you doing?' And then he'll say, 'But what are you doing? Is it any better?'"
Well, if you're gonna call someone so late at night, the least you can do is offer scintillating conversation of that caliber.
Clearly, Scott was looking for some sort of reassurance from Kourtney.
Fortunately, Kourt was having none of that.
"By the end of the conversation, I was just like, 'I have a boyfriend and he's 24 years old! It's not the craziest thing that's ever happened in the world!'" she tells her sister.
"Then he was like, 'He's your boyfriend!' Then he hung up the phone," Kourt's tale concludes.
"Cut the court," she bluntly told Kourtney.
Thankfully, it seems that Kourtney and Scott have finally severed ties for good these days, which is clearly what's best for both of them.
Damn, we just jinxed it by saying that, didn't we?
Watch Keeping Up With the Kardashians online for more of rich people treating each other badly.
Younes Bendjima Photos: Meet Kourtney Kardashian's Boy Toy!


Keyshia Cole appears to be madly in love with her much younger boyfriend Niko Khalé.
Happy BDay to My libra, I appreciate you, I love you, and thankful for your presence, Sooo So happy we were able to spend our BDays TOGETHER, You’ve also been inspiring me, to not give up on my music, in times of being discouraged, Your work ethic has been impeccable! Soo I gotta show Your new project, that you released TODAY, Some love!!!! Keep grinding Maaaa Doooooo!!!! It gets better!!! #ONMYOWN EP OUT NOW., By @nikokhale You guys check it out and let me kno what u think!?
The pair apparently hit a rough back in June, however, when Keyshia deleted all of her Instagram photos and made her account private and Niko deleted most of the pics and videos of Keyshia he had on his page as well.
At the time, Niko posted a photo of himself with the caption “What’s far fetched to a dog off the leash?” insinuating that he was single before changing the caption to “My drip a little different” after folks started questioning him in the comments.
About a month later, the two were back on strong like donkey kong, as Niko updated his IG with a bunch of new photos/videos of Keyshia, captioning one pic: “N**** that’s ALL ME… she ain’t goin no where.” And Keyshia posted a bunch of photos of them enjoying the Fourth of July together with Keyshia’s 8-year-old son DJ, whose father is Keyshia’s ex-husband, former NBA player Daniel Gibson.


PITTSBURGH (AP) — A single mother of eight young children was shot to death by an ex-boyfriend during an argument over money for diapers and baby wipes, police said in a criminal complaint.
Markese Reese, 20, of Penn Hills, was arrested late Tuesday and jailed without bond on a charge of criminal homicide in the death of 28-year-old Marqua Wilson, of Pittsburgh.
Allegheny County court records show Wilson had obtained a protection-from-abuse order against Reese in 2013, identifying him as the father of one of her children and saying he had been physically abusive when they lived together in McKeesport, a Pittsburgh suburb. Reese was charged with violating that order in October 2014 by breaking into her home and throwing things, then stabbing her in the arm with a grill fork when she tried to leave.
Online court records show burglary and other charges filed in the 2014 incident were withdrawn, but it wasn't clear why. Courts were closed Wednesday for Veterans Day, and the actual documents could not be accessed.
Despite that history, Wilson allowed Reese to visit Sunday night into Monday, when he brought baby supplies and some marijuana to her home, authorities said.
The complaint indicates a witness was drinking wine and vodka with Wilson before Reese arrived.
Reese and Wilson argued Sunday night when he asked her to reimburse him for the baby supplies, saying the money was supposed to have been spent on marijuana, the complaint said. The adults went to bed at about 2 a.m. Monday after Wilson agreed to repay Reese, but the argument resumed after they woke up about 10 a.m., the complaint said.
According to the complaint, Reese choked Wilson, so the witness took Wilson's children downstairs while the argument raged on the second floor. The witness then heard a "loud 'boom'" and Reese ran down the stairs with a bloody shirt and hands, saying he and Wilson had been fighting, the complaint said. When the witness went next door to call 911, Reese ran away, police said.
Police tried to track down Reese and even sought to negotiate his surrender over the phone. According to the complaint, Reese told police: "We were struggling over the gun and it accidentally went off and I ran."
Wilson died of a gunshot wound to the head, police said.
Reese denied killing Wilson as reporters peppered him with questions as he was led from police headquarters Tuesday.
"I didn't kill the mother of my child," Reese said. "I loved her."
Wilson's family has set up a gofundme.com page to raise money for her funeral expenses. Authorities have said Wilson's children are all younger than 13.
Reese faces a preliminary hearing Nov. 20 and doesn't have an attorney listed in online court records.


Dr. Crema completed his medical degree the Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro School of Medicine, Uberaba-MG, Brazil. Dr. Crema completed his training in Radiology at the Department of Radiology of Saint-Antoine Hospital, University Paris VI, Paris, France. He is a French and Brazilian board-certified radiologist. In addition to his academic position at Boston University, Dr. Crema is the section head of musculoskeletal radiology at HOME Hospital/FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, Brasilia-DF, Brazil. He is Research Assistant Professor of Radiology at Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Doha, Qatar. He is also director of research of the Radiology Department at Hospital do Coração (HCor), São Paulo-SP, Brazil. Dr. Crema’s research interest includes imaging of musculoskeletal diseases, with a focus on osteoarthritis, cartilage, and sports medicine. He has presented several sports injury related educational exhibits and lectures at various international radiological conferences, including the International Skeletal Society, the Osteoarthritis Research Society International, the Radiological Society of North America, and the European Congress of Radiology. He has authored over 65 peer-reviewed papers focusing on musculoskeletal imaging.
Crema MD, Krivokapic B, Guermazi A, Gravilovic P, Popovic N, D'Hooghe P, Roemer FW. MRI of ankle sprain: the association between joint effusion and structural injury severity in a large cohort of athletes. Eur Radiol. 2019 Apr 01. PMID: 30937585.
Renoux J, Brasseur JL, Wagner M, Frey A, Folinais D, Dibie C, Maiza D, Crema MD. Ultrasound-detected connective tissue involvement in acute muscle injuries in elite athletes and return to play: The French National Institute of Sports (INSEP) study. J Sci Med Sport. 2019 Jan 17. PMID: 30691979.
Murakami AM, Kompel AJ, Engebretsen L, Li X, Forster BB, Crema MD, Hayashi D, Jarraya M, Roemer FW, Guermazi A. The epidemiology of MRI detected shoulder injuries in athletes participating in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympics. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2018 Aug 17; 19(1):296. PMID: 30115059.
Kompel AJ, Murakami AM, Engebretsen L, Forster BB, Lotfi M, Jarraya M, Hayashi D, Roemer FW, Crema MD, Guermazi A. MRI-Detected Sports-Related Knee Injuries and Abnormalities at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympic Games. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2018 Oct; 211(4):880-886. PMID: 30063380.
Crema MD, Phan C, Miquel A, Quach C, Arrivé L, Menu Y. MDCT arthrography assessment of scaphoid nonunion advanced collapse: distribution of cartilage damage and relationship with scaphoid nonunion features. Skeletal Radiol. 2018 Aug; 47(8):1157-1165. PMID: 29520536.
Wasserman MS, Guermazi A, Jarraya M, Engbretsen L, AbdelKader M, Roemer FW, Hayashi D, Crema MD, Mian AZ. Evaluation of spine MRIs in athletes participating in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympic Games. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2018; 4(1):e000335. PMID: 29629185.
Guermazi A, Hayashi D, Jarraya M, Crema MD, Bahr R, Roemer FW, Grangeiro J, Budgett RG, Soligard T, Domingues R, Skaf A, Engebretsen L. Sports Injuries at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympics: Use of Diagnostic Imaging Services. Radiology. 2018 Jun; 287(3):922-932. PMID: 29480758.
Crema MD, Jarraya M, Engebretsen L, Roemer FW, Hayashi D, Domingues R, Skaf AY, Guermazi A. Imaging-detected acute muscle injuries in athletes participating in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Br J Sports Med. 2018 Apr; 52(7):460-464. PMID: 29217532.
Crema MD, Cortinas LG, Lima GBP, Abdalla RJ, Ingham SJM, Skaf AY. Magnetic resonance imaging-based morphological and alignment assessment of the patellofemoral joint and its relationship to proximal patellar tendinopathy. Skeletal Radiol. 2018 Mar; 47(3):341-349. PMID: 29209736.
Guermazi A, Roemer FW, Robinson P, Tol JL, Regatte RR, Crema MD. Imaging of Muscle Injuries in Sports Medicine: Sports Imaging Series. Radiology. 2017 12; 285(3):1063. PMID: 29155622.


A year after Last Man Standing was canceled by ABC, the multi-camera comedy starring Tim Allen is plotting a comeback on a new network. Last Man Standing producer 20th Century Fox TV is in talks with sibling Fox Broadcasting Co. for a new season of the series, which would be its seventh.
I hear star and executive producer Allen has closed a deal to return. 20th TV is currently in conversations with other cast members as well as members of the series’ creative team, including producers, to come back. Two of the key Last Man Standing series regulars, Nancy Travis and Hector Elizondo, are tied to other multi-camera comedies at the moment. Travis stars in the upcoming Netflix comedy series The Kominsky Method while Elizondo is a lead of the pilot Guess Who Died, which is in contention at NBC.
Insiders caution there are still many deals to close and the show’s return is by no means a sure thing but there are promising signs that a seventh season is possible. Fox and 20th TV declined comment.
Fox actually seriously considered rescuing Last Man Standing last May, following its surprise cancellation by ABC after six seasons. Fox brass tried to fit Last Man Standing into the schedule but couldn’t find a way to do it. Fox had been out of the multi-camera business for a while and didn’t have a multi-camera comedy to pair Last Man with. This development season, Fox put an emphasis on multi-camera comedies with several pilots, Rel, Cool Kids and the just ordered untitled Rob McElhenney & Rob Rosell project, which also is set in middle America.
Last Man Standing stars Allen as Mike Baxter, a senior executive at an outdoor sporting goods store in Denver, and revolves around his work and family life as a husband and father of three daughters. With a central character — played by Republican Allen — who is a political conservative and devout Christian adhering to traditional American values, Last Man Standing, like Roseanne, is relatable to viewers in the Heartland.
Allen referenced fans’ outpouring of support in a tweet this morning about LMS‘ possible return.
Last Man Standing could bring sizable viewership to Fox. The sitcom was a sturdy ratings performer on ABC. Airing on the low-trafficked Friday night, it averaged 8.1 million viewers in Live+7 for its most recent sixth season, ranking as ABC’s second-most watched comedy for the 2016-17 season only behind Modern Family. That is far more than the audience for any Fox comedy series and would rank as the network’s second most watched series behind 9-1-1. LMS also had been doing well in broadcast syndication, so another season could make financial sense for 20th TV as long as the studio can re-sign the actors at reasonable salaries.
Additionally, with Last Man Standing, Fox would get its own multi-camera sitcom revival, joining Roseanne on ABC, Will & Grace on NBC and Murphy Brown on CBS.
Fox has a similarly-titled single-camera comedy series, The Last Man On Earth, which is heavily on the bubble and currently not looking very likely to return. For now, there is little chance that The Last Man On Earth and Last Man Standing would co-exist next season though that would certainly be amusing.