SAN FRANCISCO – A San Francisco UPS driver recovering from a gunshot wound said Monday in an interview that he does not understand why his colleague Jimmy Lam shot him and killed three fellow drivers last week, but does not believe the shooter had reason to feel disrespected, which police have suggested as a possible motive.
Alvin Chen, 43, cried at times as he told The Associated Press about the chaotic shooting inside a UPS warehouse Wednesday that also left Lam dead after he killed himself and left another driver with a gunshot wound.
Although police have suggested Lam might have felt disrespected by other workers, Chen said it would have been out of character for any of the three men who were killed to have done so.
It would have been especially out of character for two of the drivers who were his close friends, Chen said, adding that he knew of no animosity between them and Lam.
"I'm heartbroken. I can't understand why this happened," Chen said, a pair of crutches nearby.
The workplace deaths of the UPS drivers — Wayne Chan, 56; Benson Louie, 50; and Mike Lefiti, 46 — shocked San Francisco and stunned UPS workers. Chen said he felt compelled to speak out about the dead drivers to speculation that Lam might have been motivated to open fire because of bullying.
A San Francisco Police Department official has said Lam appears to have felt disrespected by co-workers, but did not know if that motivated the shooting.
The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because the officer was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.
Chen said Lam never indicated before the shooting that he had problems with other workers, and said he had a friendly chat with Lam about their routes on the Monday, two days before the shooting. They spoke Cantonese to each other, although Lam's ethnicity is unclear. Records show Lam moved to the United States as an infant from Thailand.
The day of the shooting started like any other work day, Chen said, with drivers doing warm-up stretches and listening to company announcements before they were scheduled to climb into their trademark brown UPS trucks for the day.
Chen said he was standing in his usual spot, by Chan and Louie, when he heard a loud pop like a firecracker behind him. He dismissed it as a prank but turned and saw smoke.
He heard a second pop and felt pain. When he looked down, he saw blood pouring down his leg.
Chen got into the cab of the truck closest to him, hoping to hobble out through the truck's rear door and slip down a hallway and into the street.
He was about 60 feet (18 meters) from the exit when he saw Lam blocking his path, scanning the room as if looking for someone.
"But I don't know who he's looking for," Chen said.
He turned back, checking to make sure he wasn't being followed. He encountered another UPS driver hiding behind a truck. That's also when Chen noticed a body on the ground. It was his friend Wayne Chan.
Terrified to stay put, Chen decided to find a hiding place and went into an empty office, bleeding as he ran.
"I knew if I don't run, I may get killed," he said.
Police eventually found Chen on the floor behind a desk, unable to stand up and with his hands raised as officers had demanded. Chen found out when he was being treated at a hospital that Louie had also been killed.
"I keep dreaming every night when I close my eyes, that moment. It's really scary, I can tell you," he said. "And you don't want it to happen next to you and around you. It's a very, very bad experience."
Chen said he does not know how he feels about Lam, although it's more sadness than anger.
"I'm not even thinking like I hate him or not," he said. "I'm not."
AP reporter Linda Wang contributed to this report.


Talk about a killer college essay.
Trevor Greene, the principal of the Yakima, Wash., school, applauded Gaby for sacrificing her senior year to find out what it would be like to be an expectant teen mom.
"I admire her courage. I admire her preparation," he said. "I give her mother a lot of credit for backing her up on this."
That was before he added that he would never let his own teenage daughter do it.
Most moms go out of their way to support their kids' school projects. (Hey, I have pictures of Maya temples made from sugar cubes and perfectly scaled dioramas of rain forests, complete with misters, from my kid's fourth grade class to prove it.) And we'd like to think that we'd stand by our teen daughters no matter what happens. But would you be willing to support the web of lies – not to mention the heartache and the hurtful exposure – involved in such an ambitious plan? And if you were on the other end of that experiment – as a parent thinking you're about to become a grandparent – could you forgive the other mom for duping you?
Is this a cool class project? Or just a cruel lie?


WALKERTOWN � Brenna Hicks hit five 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 18 points to lead visiting Alamance Christian School to a 42-30 victory against Gospel Light in the first round of the North Carolina Christian School Association state playoffs for girls� basketball Friday night.
Hicks hit a pair of 3s in the final 30 seconds for the Warriors (10-8).
Leanne Barker added 14 points and 12 rebounds for ACS.
-- SOUTHERN ALAMANCE 51, GREENSBORO SMITH 39: At Mt. Hermon, Southern Alamance clinched a share of second place in the Metro Conference by winning on Senior Night as junior Shaylen Burnett scored 21 points.
The Patriots (20-4, 9-3) slowly pulled away in the second half. Hollie Boggs added 13 points.
Dajah Rudison-Williamson scored 12 points for Greensboro Smith (9-15, 4-8).
-- EASTERN ALAMANCE 56, ROCKINGHAM COUNTY 36: At Wentworth, Eastern Alamance placed four players in double-figure scoring, led by Deja Dunn�s 16 points and Jaimee Cousin�s 14, as the Eagles cruised past Rockingham County in the Mid-State 3-A Conference regular-season finale for both teams.
Terri Rogers and Aliyah Bryant added 10 points apiece for Eastern Alamance (19-5, 12-2), which will be the No. 2 seed in next week�s conference tournament.
N�Quierra Hammick scored 13 points to pace the Cougars (12-12, 6-8).
-- EASTERN GUILFORD 65, WESTERN ALAMANCE 34: At Gibsonville, a huge second-quarter burst sent Eastern Guilford to a Mid-State 3-A Conference romp.
Going into the second quarter down two, the third-place Wildcats (16-8, 9-5) outscored the Warriors 19-6 , keeping Western Alamance (5-19, 3-11) from having a chance to rebound.
Leeaysia Williamson had 15 points and was 9-for-10 from the free-throw line. Callie Patterson had 11 points and Erica Olerich had 10 to lead Eastern Guilford.
Ashley Breazeale and Kierra James had 10 points each for the Warriors.
-- NORTHERN GUILFORD 40, WILLIAMS 24: At Greensboro, the Bulldogs dropped their final regular-season game but held on to the No. 4 seed for next week�s Mid-State 3-A Conference Tournament.
Cassidy Jordan scored 10 points to lead Williams (14-10, 8-6).
Aliyah Grinage and Amanda Coffer scored 13 points apiece for the Nighthawks (23-1, 14-0).
-- RIVER MILL 51, FRANKLIN ACADEMY 36: At Graham, Daijah Faucette scored 17 points to lead River Mill past Franklin Academy and the Jaguars completed an undefeated season in the Carolina 12 2-A / 1-A Conference.
The victory marked the fourth consecutive season that River Mill has finished undefeated in conference play.
Lenaira Ruffin had 13 points and 21 rebounds for the Jaguars (21-3, 16-0).


Dave Eggers' history as the motive force behind the experimental, expectations-challenging literary-goofery platform McSweeney's hangs heavily over his new book, What Is The What. Simultaneously billed as an autobiography and a novel, it does manage to be both: Eggers interviewed Sudanese refugee Valentino Achak Deng at length about his life, then wove his horrifying story into a fictionalized narrative. Eggers' stagy, novelistic writing is jarring, and it inevitably casts every given fact into doubt. But while it's sometimes hard to take the literary tropes seriously, the autobiographical content is riveting, and in all likelihood, more accessible than any similarly massive, sprawling non-fiction treatise on Sudan's politics.
Eggers frames Deng's story with a break-in at his home: Living as a political refugee in America, Deng is assaulted and robbed in his apartment, and his ordeal stretches out throughout 475 pages as, suffering, he recalls how he suffered as a child in Sudan. A child of an African tribe, the Dinka, he grows up in an ethnically mixed area, but political events far away forcibly set Arab tribesmen from north Sudan against the Africans in the south. The rebel group SPLA, led by Dinka John Garang, is no friendlier, and Deng and his family are caught in the middle, seeking safe havens in an increasingly unstable, violent battleground. When Arab horsemen destroy Deng's village, he starts a lengthy journey that lasts more than a decade and leads to multiple countries and refugee camps.
Eggers skims over the region's voluminous religious and political divides, presenting a bare-bones version of events and concentrating on the increasingly wild rumors and hopes that the refugees live by, and on the mundane details of life for a lost child in a generation of them. In his oddest conceit, his version of Deng mentally addresses each new installment of his story to the individuals he encounters or remembers, evoking their names over and over as he describes his heartbreaking journey. He isn't telling an abstract story to the air, he's recounting his own life directly and determinately to real people, demanding that they hear and see him. Though he couches that force of will in a mild, polite voice, it's hard to resist in any format. His story comes in an odd shape, but it reads as a story that must be told, and must be attended.


Super Bowl LIII wasn't the most exciting championship game, with the New England Patriots beating the Los Angeles Rams 13-3.
However, some bettors may have had some exciting nights if they made the right calls. Of note, some unexpected props with large odds hit, leading to a great return on investment for those making the right calls.
Scott Hastings of OddsShark posted a list of Super Bowl LIII prop bet results Sunday, and here's a look at a few unlikelier props that returned well.
The over/under for this game was 55.5 points, so needless to say, the one-touchdown prop brought back a huge return on investment. If you were bearish on the Rams, you received 20 times your bet.
Pats quarterback Tom Brady made 35 pass attempts on Sunday. Only one of them was picked, but it just so happened to be his first. New England had 407 total yards and only one turnover, so it wasn't as if the offense was inept on a day when defenses largely ruled. But if you were particularly pessimistic about Brady's first throw, then you won big.
Playing Monday Morning Quarterback, this looks like one of the best value bets on the prop sheet. Edelman was the leading postseason receiver entering the playoffs and finished that way after his 10-catch, 141-yard performance.
Los Angeles Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman (or the officials) were to thank for this one after he was questionably called for unnecessary roughness on running back Rex Burkhead.
Not a huge surprise here as Michel had 53 carries and five touchdowns in his two AFC playoff games leading into the Super Bowl.
Betting this prop feels like playing Russian roulette, as it's hard to discover an edge. Still, if you bet blue, cash your slips for four times your investment.
Bettors who placed this wager may have been nervous after Pats kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed a 46-yard field goal wide left with the score tied at zero, but after three punts, he hit a 42-yarder to break the scoreless tie.
On a night where defenses ruled, this is a fairly surprising result. Even more shocking was that this didn't hit the over after Rams defensive end John Franklin-Myers sacked Brady late in the first quarter. L.A. had three other quarterback hits, but none of them resulted in sacks.


Encouraging good eating habits in children, sustainable diets and food as medicine will be among the topics discussed at a major event this weekend.
Food for Thought at the School of Artisan Food over May 13-14 will have ten speakers including Nicole Pisani, ex-chef at Ottolenghi restaurant Nopi, food writer and cook Felicity Cloake, and Prof Tim Spector, author of ‘The Diet Myth’.
“We are not talking about fads and fashion, but subjects that affect our environment, health and economy”, said Alison Parente, founder of the school on the Welbeck estate.
A Sheffield restaurant has been hailed as one of the top seven vegan dining spots in the UK.
Pure on Raw, Shalesmoor, was included in the list from dining club membership Tastecard.
The full programme for this month’s Sheffield Food Festival has now been revealed .
The event from May 27-29 in the city centre will include an artisan market, tastings, chef demonstrations, pop up farmyard and an Eats, Beats and Treats night market on Fargate for the first time, as well as a programme of talks and debates on food.
Visit www.sheffieldfoodfestival.co.uk for the full programme.
Trippets Lounge Bar is hosting a wine tour through Southern Italy and Sicily tonight from 7.30pm with John Hattersley from Hattersley Wines. It costs £35 per person. Six wines will be paired with dishes from the kitchen of the bar on Trippet Lane.


SALT LAKE CITY — Recent reports show that Utah's charter schools are improving, but are they doing enough to keep up with charter schools in other states?
Utah's overall score from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools went up ten points from last year, settling at 131. Despite the rise in score, Utah dropped from 12 to 20 in comparison to other states. Alliance officials say it isn't because of any mistakes Utah is making, but because other states are dramatically improving.
"I think that's an indication that charter schools are very popular in the country, right now, and other states are being even more aggressive than Utah is with implementing them and putting them into place," said Utah State Charter School Board Chair Tim Beagley.
Beagley said they're not too worried about the drop in the rankings. Some of it can be attributed to changes in how the rankings are made. He also said the study shows some areas where Utah can improve.
One of the things the state got dinged on was how they monitor a charter school's performance; other states require charter schools to re-certify every 10 to 15 years.
"(Here), they're really just driven by how popular they are and whether or not the students and the parents want to continue to use their services," Beagley said.
Utah school administrators have a new system to track school progress and performance. The Utah State Office of Education on Friday unveiled the state's new system with the release of Utah Comprehensive Accountability System data for the 2011-12 school year.
Beagley said they're moving forward with plans for better accountability, but they also need to improve the way charter schools get funding. Technically, there isn't a cap in the number of schools set by the schools board. The legislature does set limits on how many students they will give funding to.
"The way to solve that problem is to get a better funding mechanism where we don't really have a limit on the funding and the funding we have in place simply goes wherever the student goes," he said.
However, officials in Utah meet with regulators in other states at least once a year to see what's working well and what isn't.
"We are very well connected, I think, to the other agencies in the country that are doing this," he said.


Although the question of European nationals in the UK has been addressed, the fate of UK nationals working in the EEA still remains unknown. It's a pressing topic for EU and UK businesses, writes Robert Glick.
A third of Serbians think that German companies are the best investors and that a job at a German firm guarantees a good salary and working conditions, job safety and career advancement. EURACTIV Serbia reports.
More than a quarter of employers in Britain say staff members from other European Union countries have considered leaving their firms or the country in 2017 after last year's Brexit vote, an industry group said on Monday (13 February).
EU policy-making needs to re-appropriate and prioritise democratic governance, the quality of employment and the full development of a 'social Europe’, as well as a human-rights based approach to EU foreign relations, writes Dr Cristina Blanco Sío-López.


A martyr with his brothers Narcissus and Marcellus at Tomi, in Pontus along the southern Black Sea. They are listed as soldiers in the armies of co-Emperor Licinius Licinianus. Argeus and Narcissus were beheaded. Marcellus, a young lad, was imprisoned for a long time after being flogged and was then drowned.


A class action suit has been filed by a Birmingham Alabama woman that accuses Apple of deceptive advertising in their claim that the 3G iPhone is "twice as fast" as the previous model. AppleInsider has more details.
Always referring to the device as the "Defective iPhone 3G," Smith and her legal team assert that e-mail, text, and most other downloads were considerably slower than what Apple promised. This in no small part stemmed from the reliability of the connection: the device would connect to 3G less than a quarter of the time to 3G even in areas AT&T says should provide "excellent" coverage, according to the lawsuit.
I've previously mentioned my problems with the lack of AT&T 3G coverage in my area when their online coverage viewer says it should be "excellent." However, Since AT&T installed a new tower in my area earlier this month, 3G and GSM reception has been appreciably better. For example, I can now receive phone calls in my house. Obviously, your mileage will vary.
But why Apple? Shouldn't the suit be directed to AT&T who is providing such poor 3G coverage and support even where "coverage" exists? What about iPhone 3G customers that don't live in 3G coverage areas that are forced to pay an extra $10/mo to receive the same 2G/EDGE service they had with the original iPhone?
Thoughts on the suit? Does it have any merit?


From the moment the first model walked down the runway at Calvin Klein Collection’s resort show Thursday morning in a printed, double-breasted angora cotton belted coat, followed by two other models in printed looks, it was clear creative director Francisco Costa was challenging his and our expectations of minimalism.
For prints isn’t something expected from this storied house of minimalism. Monochrome is more its style. Those prints were subtle yet eye-opening on many levels. They showed Mr. Costa was again pushing the boundaries of minimalism, this time by proposing a riveting, inspired kind of glam minimalism.


Your credit card company doesn't have your best interests at heart.
Credit cards have caused financial pain for millions of consumers. It's easy to run up a balance, but as too many people find out the hard way, it's a lot harder to get it paid down. Even if you're diligent about getting your debt repaid, high interest rates work against you, creating a big headwind that's hard to fight against month after month.
Even your credit card issuer's own policies can tempt you into staying in debt a lot longer than you should. By simply ignoring your card company's advice and doing what most people would logically think of as the right way to pay down debt, you can get your card balances zeroed out years sooner. Below, we'll show you how to do it and why so many people don't.
The problem that so many credit card holders run into has to do with the minimum payment provisions that card companies have. You'd think that a lender would want to get repaid as soon as possible, but that's actually not the case for credit card companies. The opportunity to charge double-digit interest rates in an environment where mortgage loans generate less than 5% interest for lenders encourages lenders to keep those card balances as high as possible for as long as they can.
As a result, the minimum payment provisions that many card companies use don't do much to pay down your outstanding balance. One common provision involves having someone repay the greater of 2% of their balance or $25 each month. That might sound like a lot, but when interest charges eat up more than half of those payments, there's not much left to apply toward reducing the principal you owe.
As a simple example, say that you have a $5,000 balance on a credit card that charges a 17% annual interest rate. Using the 2% or $25 rule, your minimum payment will start out at $100. Of that amount, more than $70 will go toward paying the interest on your $5,000 balance. The remainder will go toward paying down your debt slightly.
The next month, your balance will be about $30 lower, so your minimum payment will be incrementally lower, at $99.42. Because you owe slightly less money, your interest due will be lower, but it won't drop by as much as the minimum payment did. Over the ensuing months, you'll find that you pay down principal at a slower and slower rate, as your minimum payments fall.
It'll take you almost 10 years just to get your debt halfway paid off if you follow the strategy of paying just the monthly payment. Even after $25 minimum payments kick in around year 20, it'll still take you another seven years to zero out your balance. Over that 27-year period, you'll pay more than $10,000 in interest charges -- double the initial amount you borrowed in the first place.
Fortunately, there's a way to slash the time it takes to get out of debt and the interest you have to pay. Since you have to make that initial $100 minimum payment, it's reasonable to think that you can afford to keep making $100 payments in future months as well. Even if that's the only thing you change, the impact is immense.
In the example above, if you make sustained $100 monthly payments on your credit card, you'll get that debt paid down in a bit more than seven years. You'll pay roughly $3,750 in interest over that time frame -- producing interest savings of more than $6,000 along the way. The simple reason: Your $100 monthly payments ensure that an increasing amount of money goes toward paying down principal month after month, and the resulting faster decline in your card balance cuts your interest charges, creating a positive feedback loop that makes it easier to get your debt paid off.
It does take discipline to make more than the monthly payments you owe on your cards. Your bank is never going to encourage you to do so, and in fact, you can expect financial institutions to dangle offers that make it easier for you to take on more debt.
But being out of debt is a financial necessity, especially when it comes to credit cards. With such high interest charges, it pays to dig yourself out of credit card debt as quickly as you can, and simple strategies like this one can make it a whole lot easier.


Sascha Segan MiFi 500 LTE by Novatel Wireless (Sprint) The Sprint MiFi 500 is a solid workhorse wireless hotspot for Sprint's new tri-band LTE network.
Removable battery. Solid Wi-Fi range. Supports Sprint's new tri-band LTE network.
Very basic on-device display. No external antenna port. No global roaming support.
The Sprint MiFi 500 is a solid workhorse wireless hotspot for Sprint's new tri-band LTE network.
Need a solid, workhorse hotspot to use on Sprint's network? The Novatel MiFi 500 LTE (free with contract) is a reliable choice, besting its main competitor the Netgear Zing on our tests of speed and range. The Zing beats it out for an Editor's Choice based on its flexibility (especially with its optional desktop cradle), but the MiFi 500 is the one to go to if you need to blanket a larger area with Sprint Wi-Fi.
The MiFi 500 LTE is a nondescript little brick, when compared to the zingy Zing. It's a plastic puck, 3.8 by 2.4 by .7" (HWD) and 3.35 ounces, made of shiny black plastic on top and soft-touch gray plastic around the sides. The back is removable, so you can replace the 1800mAh battery; I haven't found replacement batteries on the market yet, but I'm sure they're coming. The MiFi lacks an external antenna port.
There's a big gray power button on the top face, as well as a few physical navigation buttons. Hit the power button and the dim little OLED screen lights up with signal strength and battery indicators. By flipping through onscreen menus, you can find the Wi-Fi network name and password, check which devices are connected to the hotspot, check signal strength in dBm, and activate WPS setup.
You get many more management options on the simple, clear Web-based management portal. There, you can monitor your data usage, and set up your 2.4GHz-only 802.11 b/g/n network using VPN passthrough, DMZ, port filtering, and port forwarding.
The MiFi supports up to 10 Wi-Fi devices and can connect to an eleventh as a USB modem; plugging it into a Mac or PC it works right away, without installing any drivers. With an extra driver, it gives your PC GPS support.
The MiFi 500, unlike the Zing, is not world-capable. It only works on Sprint's 3G EVDO and tri-band LTE networks. Also note that Sprint's "unlimited" sales pitch doesn't apply to hotspots; all hotspot plans are capped, costing $34.99 for 3GB, $49.99 for 6GB or $79.99 for 12GB.
Testing Sprint's new LTE network in New York City is an exercise in frustration. It's spotty and inconsistent, strongest in remote parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn. I had to use the Sensorly mapping app to find individual towers that Sprint had activated in Manhattan and Queens, and even then, the network showed a weird behavior with upload tests truncating early.
The reason to buy the new MiFi and Zing is that they support Sprint's new tri-band approach to LTE. Sprint has been taking its existing 1900MHz LTE network and supplementing it with 800MHz, which does much better at penetrating buildings, and 2600MHz, which should provide scorching speed in urban areas. Unfortunately, Sprint's buildout there is even less developed than their 1900MHz buildout, and we haven't had a chance to test the mixed coverage.
But you get what you get, and you try not to get upset. We tested LTE with the MiFi and Zing in five locations. In three of them, the MiFi was considerably faster. In one, the Zing prevailed, and in the last one, the MiFi dropped to 3G while the Zing pulled out decent LTE speeds.
Indoors, the MiFi showed much better range than the Zing. While the Zing's speeds started to drop off after about 50 feet, the MiFi held on well to about 100 feet.
The Zing also showed slightly longer battery life than the MiFi—although remember, the MiFi's battery life really wins because the battery is replaceable. I got 7 hours, 40 minutes with the MiFi compared to 7 hours, 55 minutes with the Zing.
If you're looking for a Sprint hotspot and need long WiFi range without a cradle, the MiFi 500 is your pick. The Netgear Zing is more manageable and flexible, it roams worldwide, and it supports external antennas, so it's a better choice for most people.
If you have a Sierra Wireless Tri-Fi, I'd say hold onto it for now. Sprint just hasn't built out enough of its tri-band LTE network for the advantages to kick in quite yet. I'd peg early 2014 for when these hotspots will start opening up speed and coverage advantages over the Tri-Fi.
Bottom Line: The Sprint MiFi 500 is a solid workhorse wireless hotspot for Sprint's new tri-band LTE network.


The Reporter brought home six journalism awards from NYPA’s spring convention — including top prizes in three categories — this past weekend at the Gideon Putnam Resort and Spa in Saratoga Springs.
And Times/Review Newsgroup, which includes the Reporter’s sister papers, The Suffolk Times and The News-Review, topped all other newspaper groups in the state for total wins at Saratoga.
The News-Review received the Stuart C. Dorman Award for overall editorial excellence, and The Suffolk Times picked up first place honors for general excellence.
The 2013 NYPA entries were judged by the Pennsylvania Press Association, just as NYPA members volunteer to judge other states’ entries in their competitions.
Mr. Olsen was speaking about one of the most prestigious awards that NYPA bestows, which went to Staff Reporter Julie Lane for her multi-part series on the serious problems of postal delivery on the Island. Ms. Lane’s series took first place over every newspaper in the association, winning the Sharon R. Fulmer Award for Community Leadership.
“This issue is so core to a community’s needs and the coverage demonstrates a newspaper’s ability to have a major impact …” the citation from the judges read.
The award comes with a $500 stipend the writer can donate to the charity of her choice. Julie has chosen to split the stipend between the Shelter Island Educational Foundation and the Shelter Island Ambulance Foundation.
Ms. Lane also won a third place award for feature writing for “From Russia with love,” a profile of a college student and part-time Island resident who began life in a Russian orphanage.
Editor Ambrose Clancy won a first place NYPA award for feature writing for a story on two Islanders who were dead center at the horrific Boston Marathon bombings.
It wasn’t just words that NYPA recognized and honored from the Reporter’s pages. Both free lance photographer Eleanor Labrozzi and Staff Photographer Beverlea Walz took home prizes in photography categories.
Ms. Walz’s prize was a third place finish for “A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” a cover photo of Shakespearean actors arriving by boat for a performance at Sylvester Manor.


I have to admit – I’m a huge breakfast person. But this Friday, waking up late for my 10 meant that I had to skip the most important meal of the day. Stomach grumbling, I made it through the end of my 11 and a meeting with just one thought keeping me going – eating The Box for lunch.
For those who have been away from campus or buried away in the stacks for a while, The Box is Dartmouth’s first food truck, founded by Tuck students, a non-DDS option for hungry students. Due to my meal-planning ineptitude, I was ready to try everything The Box had to offer by the time lunchtime rolled around. Luckily, the options were good and I grabbed a sandwich, side and dessert before settling down on a nearby bench and enjoying a rare burst of Hanover sunshine.
My first and only experience with falafel prior to this meal was during my foreign study program last term, when our group stopped by a well-known stand in Paris before proceeding to walk to the nearest metro station. In that short time, I managed to leave a messy trail of morsels from my falafel concoction down the sidewalks of the City of Lights. Classy, I know.
This time was no different – I proceeded to get those “mixed greens” all over my bench and self, desperately digging through my backpack for a spare napkin I had luckily stashed in there earlier in the term for emergencies like this. Despite my consumption struggles, I definitely enjoyed the sandwich. The salsa added a nice tangy flavor that blended well with the rest of the ingredients. The pita bread is also advertised as being made fresh every morning, which definitely added to the experience. Just don’t attempt to eat it gracefully on a date or something.
The granola was exciting because in my opinion, the nutty mixes tend to be pretty hit-or-miss. In this case, The Box’s was a definite hit – not only could I eat chocolate and still pretend to be healthy, but it had just the right balance of sweetness and saltiness with the nuts added in. If you need a quick snack that gives you energy and tastes delicious, this is a great option.
Sadly, The Box was out of their raved-about salted chocolate chip and oat cookie by the time I got there, so I opted for the other dessert option instead. The truffle had bits of date in it and tasted a bit nutty. It was slightly bitter, so I’d recommend it if you want a dessert that’s not too sweet. Next time I may try to get there earlier for the cookie, though.
Overall, I would definitely recommend giving The Box a try at least once this term, though any more than that may put a bit of a dent in your wallet. I personally tend to have leftover DBA at the end of the term, so it’s hard to justify putting down 12 dollars for (an albeit delicious) lunch. I would also love to see more variety in the future — being able to customize your meal with a sandwich, salad or grain bowl is nice but having only three meal options to create them with caters toward limited palates. Still, The Box offers a nice alternative on Tuck Drive for when you just can’t stand another grim Novack lunch while doing work for your 2.


Responding to every bit of Russian propaganda "is counterproductive, because it is reactive and you are always behind the curve,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Benjamin Ziff tells senators in Washington, Nov. 3, 2015.
When a Russian news outlet edited the U.S. ambassador into a picture of an opposition rally, the U.S. Embassy countered by editing the ambassador into a series of improbable photos — for instance, on the moon and at an ice hockey rink.
The idea was to show that the original photo was propaganda, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Benjamin Ziff told a Senate subcommittee in Washington on Tuesday.
The ploy worked. “This tweet was retweeted extensively within Russia,” he said.
Modern Russian propaganda is no longer concerned with censorship. Rather, it is widespread and prolific, filling up the media space to such an extent that people sometimes can’t tell what is right and what is not.
Ziff said the Russians have “a sophisticated $1.4 billion-a-year propaganda apparatus.” They claim to reach 600 million people across 130 countries.
“It’s skillful, it’s flexible and it’s adapted to the geography of the audience,” said Leon Aron, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy research group, and a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors that oversees VOA.
The impact of all that Russian disinformation on Western democracies “appears paltry,” Aron testified, adding that the main reason is a highly competitive media environment that exposes people to a wide range of facts and interpretations.
Here, Aron said, “the weaponization of information occurs” when it provokes strong negative emotions leading to hatred and worse.
Both Aron and Ziff told the Foreign Relations Committee's subcommittee on Europe and regional security cooperation that the answer is to empower local communities to develop a rich and uncensored media environment.
Aron gave an example, citing a report aired on Russia’s most widely watched television channel. A terrified woman identified as a refugee from the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government said she witnessed Ukrainian soldiers publicly executing the wife and son of a pro-Russian separatist: "The child was crucified on a bulletin board in the center of the city, while the woman was allegedly dragged behind a tank until she was dead."
“Complete fake,” said Aron, and it was exposed by the website stopfake.org, run by alumni and students of the Mohyla School of Journalism in Kyiv. Students tracked down the woman’s family. She had done the interview for money after her husband joined the pro-Russian separatists, leaving her with no means of support.
“If there is one key theme that runs through the Kremlin’s thinking, it’s cynicism,” testified book author Peter Pomerantsev of the Legatum Institute, a public policy think tank. It is a cynicism, he added, that makes no distinction between democracies and authoritarian regimes, between truth and lies.
“So it doesn’t matter if Vladimir Putin says one day there are no Russian soldiers in the Crimea and a few weeks later says, yes, there are, because what they are saying is there is no value to the idea of truth,” he said.


Regulator warns Global-GMG radio deal may hit competition | City A.M.
GLOBAL Radio’s £70m deal to buy GMG Radio was yesterday cleared by the Competition Commission, but the regulator warned that the takeover could drive up advertising prices across the UK.
In London – where Global Radio runs Heart, LBC, Choice, Gold, Capital and Xfm – the commission cleared the deal, which would see Global take ownership of GMG’s Smooth Radio.
But in Manchester, Scotland, Cardiff, Yorkshire, the east Midlands and north Wales it cautioned that competition in local advertising markets could be affected.
“The CC has found that in many areas where Global and Real and Smooth stations currently overlap and compete, advertisers ... could face higher costs,” the commission said in a statement.


CELEBRITY mums Billie Faiers and Abbey Clancy are loving this affordable toy.
Celebrity mums Tamara Ecclestone, Billie Faiers and Abbey Clancy like to treat their children to the best toys on the high street.
And it appears there is now a new must-have toy in town, the Magical Unicorn Carriage.
These celebrity mums have been sharing a first look at the magical carriage by Little Tikes, as Billie’s Nelly, Tamara’s Sophia and Abbey’s Sophia enjoy the fun unicorn.
The Magical Unicorn Carriage comes with a rotating glow-up unicorn horn and even chopping noises from the unicorn.
A similar shape as the classic Cozy Coupe, the carriage is perfect for your kids this summer.
Little Tikes explain on their site: “Parents will love the handle to push the unicorn ride on!
“Featuring a removable floor board for younger children and as they grow, converts to a foot-to-floor ride on toy.
The only thing that can top this off is the affordable price, at only £119.99.
The must-have toy of the summer will be out in the UK soon – so be quick!
Vintage toys value: How much money are your old and rare childhood toys worth?


The Nokia Lumia 900 is the top of the Finns' range of Windows Phone handsets with a huge screen and 8-megapixel camera -- but can it offer enough to beat the best of Android?
At first glance, the Lumia 900 looks very similar to the slightly smaller Lumia 800, with similar colourful plastic shell. Come a little closer though and you'll notice the 4.3-inch screen, making it a much more substantial handful than the 800's 3.7-incher.
Behind its protective Gorilla Glass the AMOLED touchscreen offers 800x480-pixel resolution, which is perfectly respectable but it's not among the sharpest, scraping in behind the iPhone, HTC One S and Samsung Galaxy S3. Even the 800 is a little sharper, since it squeezes the same pixel count into its smaller screen. It's beautifully sensitive though, and Nokia's ClearBlack technology offers rich contrast with exceptionally deep, dark blacks offsetting the slightly oversaturated colours.
Considering the price and the 900's place at the top of the Windows Phone tree, it's disappointing that it only offer a single-core 1.4GHz processor, especially since its rivals are now routinely offering dual-core or even quad-core handsets. Still, it ain't slow, and the relative simplicity of the Windows OS certainly seems to be in its favour, since it whips through the apps with ease, even when you have a bunch of them open and running.
The latest Windows Phone 7.5 Mango is the operating system, which is beautiful to look at, and easy to find your way around, even if you're a Windows Phone newbie. Facebook and Twitter are incorporated into the OS, so once you've set up your accounts, Facebook pictures and the latest tweets will start appearing on the dynamic tiles on your homepage. Disappointingly though, as with other Mango handsets, the 900 won't be making the jump to Windows Phone 8 Apollo when it comes along later this year.
Nokia Music, with its selections of playlisted music that you can stream for free; Local Scout also GPS to help you find some even rather obscure local stuff and there's a full version of the Microsoft Office suite on board too.
The browser looks good, but still lacks Flash support, so you won't be able to play all the video that's available, and the YouTube app is still only a link to the website, which is a shame.
The 8-megapixel camera comes with a Carl Zeiss lens, as we expect from the higher quality Nokia handsets. It opens quickly with a long push on the shutter button on the side and offers a range of settings to play with. Probably too many settings actually, unless you know what you're after when you're playing around with contrast, saturation, exposure, ISO, metering and white balance.
Detail isn't quite as good as it should be and less than perfect light conditions were quick to throw up issues with noise. It will record video at 720p HD, which comes out pretty well even when played back on a much bigger screen. There's also a 1-megapixel camera on the front for self-portraits and video calls -- besides the larger screen, this is the main difference between the 900 and the 800.
As with other Windows Phone handsets, there's no opportunity to expand the memory via microSD card, so you're stuck with the 16GB of onboard memory plus the 25GB of free cloud storage that comes with Microsoft's SkyDrive service.
There's no option to replace the battery with a spare since it's sealed-in, iPhone-style, but it's a big 'un, and gave us a good one and a half days' worth of use.
It's bigger, but despite its really rather lovely screen, the Lumia 900 is really no more powerful than its little brother, the Lumia 800, which offers a similar spec for a more modest price.


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(c)2006 GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


When it comes to corruption and Congress, the line the law polices is the wrong line, writes Lawrence Lessig.
Seven years after moving from the federal capital to a federal prison, former congressman (and top gun Navy pilot) Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) is going home. Convicted of bribery for trying to sell defense contracts for $2.4 million in cash and yachts, Cunningham was sentenced to what was then the harshest punishment ever meted out to a bribe-taking congressman.
The United States Congress needs the likes of Cunningham. Because the rare conviction of a member doing something plainly wrong reaffirms the claim of the others on Capitol Hill that they are not like him. Cunningham was a crook. He engaged in classic quid-pro-quo bribery. But no one credible believes that there are many more that stupid or perfidious. Congress is filled neither with top guns nor with craven criminals. And therefore, its leaders would have us believe, Congress is not corrupt.
But what the conviction of Cunningham should teach us is not that other members Congress should be trusted, but that the line the law polices is the wrong line. Sure, Cunningham was an exception, along with the man who broke his record for harshest sentence, William Jefferson (D-LA), who began a 13-year sentence last year, after federal agents found $90,000 in his freezer and tied that money to a $400,000 bribe. But corruption on Capitol Hill, in the plain meaning of the term that the Framers of our Constitution would have recognized, is endemic.
Cunningham reduced his deal to a very explicit transaction—literally, he wrote it down. In a bizarre note scribbled on his office stationery, Cunningham gave his co-conspirators a simple (if confused) schedule of how much it would cost to get the defense contracts they were seeking. What made his behavior a crime was this quid pro quo—not just that he would benefit personally; Cunningham would have been just as guilty if the payment was to be a campaign contribution rather than a yacht.
Such blatant exchanges don’t happen much—either for personal or for political benefit. But a more complicated dance certainly does. As lobbyists make their clients' cases to members of Congress, those members certainly know just how much those lobbyists have helped. That help isn’t a crime. Indeed, lobbyists are meticulous in keeping their behavior within formal ethical lines. But even within those lines, influence is peddled. And for members starved for campaign funds, even a very little bit can go a long way.
The economy of that dance plainly corrupts Congress. Because rather than staying focused—as Madison promised they would be—“upon the People alone,” Congress is increasingly focused upon it funders.
Yet those funders are not America. They are the tiniest slice of America. No more than 1/20th of 1 percent of us give enough to count as a relevant funder of a congressional campaign. And as members spend hours every day frantically trying to find some of that 0.05 percent who might help, they learn the words their funders want to hear. Remember the Skinner Box—a rat in a cage frantically trying to figure out which buttons it must push to get its pellets of food—and you have a good sense of the life of a congressman.
That dance does more harm to the Republic than an aircraft carrier full of Randy “Duke” Cunninghams ever could. For it is that sort of influence that steered Congress to deregulate Wall Street, that drives Congress to ignore climate change, and that says Congress can pass health-care reform only by including a $250 billion subsidy to insurance companies and Big Pharma.
Yet there’s nothing in the law to police this sort of corruption. Indeed, if Justice Kennedy really believes his own rhetoric in Citizens United, it may well be that the First Amendment would even ban an effort to limit this sort of corruption. And thus are we protected against the harmless sins, but are constitutionally required to remain vulnerable to radically more harmful ones.
Cunningham is a reminder of what’s not wrong with Congress. Congress is not a bunch of crooks. What Congress is is a democratic institution that, according to the latest Rasmussen Poll, can’t even garner more than 6 percent of the public’s approval. And that’s not because we don’t like what Congress does. It is instead because, as John R. Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse have powerfully demonstrated, we “believe special interests have hijacked the political process.” They—meaning almost all of Congress, not just the Cunninghams—are not in it for us, most of us believe. They’re in it for the funders and the funder’s agents, the lobbyists.
There are many contexts in which the law is obsessed with the relatively harmless sins while oblivious to undeniably harmful ones. But there is none as significant as this. America’s government doesn’t work because it refuses to grok this most obvious of corruptions. And until it does, it’s not just defense contracts that will get lost. It is practically every important decision that our government must make.


P&O Ferries is using software from Compuware to help it identify performance bottlenecks in its core systems.
Previously, P&O had no visibility of its systems, so if a problem occurred the team could not easily identify the root cause.
P&O is now using Dynatrace to monitor Java virtual machines in performance engineering.
Dynatrace is used by P&O Ferries to identify any particular piece of Java code that affects performance.


Business, medical, construction and development interests have poured money into the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Robert Bentley, while labor unions and PACs that received contributions from gambling have been a major source of cash for the campaign of Democrat Ron Sparks.
An analysis of the most recent campaign disclosure forms in the governor's race, filed last week, shows that both candidates received a majority of their major contributions from political action committees.
Of the $3.3 million Bentley raised since the runoff, his largest contribution came from the Republican Party of Alabama PAC, which put in $435,000 drawn from businesses, other PACs, individuals and other Republican candidates.
The retired dermatologist also got a big boost from medical interests, including a $250,000 donation from Alabama Medical PAC, $25,000 from the dental PAC, $15,000 from the state anesthesiologists PAC, plus numerous individual contributions from doctors. Coupling the medical PAC donations with contributions from individuals identifying themselves as doctors, Bentley collected a total of $334,925 from medical sources.
Political fundraiser Mike Echols of Tuscaloosa rounded up $220,540 for the Bentley campaign, contributing through PACs fueled by a variety of interests, including construction and nursing homes.
The nursing home industry also gave through its PACs, contributing $103,500.
PACs operated by Tuscaloosa's Ryan deGraffenried III, which took in money from a variety of businesses including construction and paving, contributed $130,000 to the Bentley campaign. The same amount came from the constellation of business-oriented PACs operated by Montgomery lobby firm Fine Geddie.
Montgomery lobbyist Clark Richardson distributed $64,000 from his clients and $50,000 came from PACs operated by Birmingham governmental affairs consultant Steve Bradley.
Trucking industry PACs gave $50,000 to Bentley.
PACs related to the construction and road-building industry gave heavily to Bentley, including $80,000 from cement producers PACS; $50,000 from the Alabama Builder's PAC and $47,000 from the Associated Builders and Contractors PAC. PACs related to the coal industry gave Bentley $31,000.
Of contributions to Bentley $1,000 or greater, $267,500 came from businesses, $979,683 came from individuals and $1.4 million came from PACs.
Of the $783,306 Sparks raised since his last report, the biggest chunk came directly from the state teacher's union, A-Vote, which gave $105,000.
In addition, Sparks received $17,000 from PACs operated by lobbyist Joe Cottle, which were largely funded by the teacher's union.
Sparks, who is running on his proposals to establish a lottery and legalize and tax casino gambling, took in $128,500 from PACs operated by lobbyists who have received donations either directly or indirectly from gambling interests.
That includes $57,500 from lobbyist John Teague's PACs and $28,500 from John Crawford PACs.
In addition to the teacher's union, Sparks also received $76,000 from a variety of unions.
Coal industry PACs gave Sparks $25,000.
Montgomery governmental affairs consultant Harvey E. Cauthen Jr. and his PACs gave Sparks $20,000.
Among major donors, Sparks got $62,500 from businesses, $174,600 from individuals and $406,500 from PACs.


Find useful information for MIP current students below.
The MIP Student Association (IPSA) is an entirely student-run group comprised of first and second-year MIP students.
The Stanford International Policy Review (SIPR) is a student-led international relations and public policy journal based in the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy at Stanford University.


The release of 26 Palestinian prisoners and the approval of West Bank settlement expansions has both Israelis and Palestinians crying foul.
The mother of Palestinian Salah al-Shaer, who has been held by Israel for 20 years, kisses his picture after hearing news on the expected release of her son in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, August 12, 2013. Israel on Monday named 26 Palestinian prisoners to be freed this week under a deal enabling U.S.-backed peace talks to resume, although Palestinians said these had been undermined by newly announced plans to expand Israeli settlements.
A day after stirring harsh rebuke from Palestinians over the greenlighting of further settlement construction in Palestinian territory, the Israeli government angered many Israelis when it announced the names of 26 Palestinian prisoners to be released on Wednesday as part of the US-backed deal to relaunch peace talks.
The Financial Times reports that the prisoners' release – the first of 104 Palestinians Israel agreed in principle to free as part of the peace talks – is highly unpopular among the Israeli public because most of those being set free were convicted of the murder of Israelis or were suspected Palestinian collaborators.
“It’s a victory for the Palestinians who are identified with the terrorists, and it’s a sad day for society in Israel and it’s a sad day for free society in the world,” Meir Indor, chairman of Almagor, a Jerusalem-based advocacy group for victims of terrorist attacks, told the Financial Times. The group has petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to stop the release.
Uri Ariel, Israel’s housing minister and a member of the rightwing Jewish Home party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, said on Monday that the release made a “mockery of the judiciary”.
The prisoners' names were announced early to provide a 48-hour window for those opposed to their release to file appeals to Israel's High Court. But Reuters notes that "based on past decisions, the court is widely expected not to intervene."
The Israeli furor over the prisoners' release comes less than 24 hours after a similarly negative reaction from Palestinians in response to Israel's statement Sunday that it would allow construction of some 1,200 homes in West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements to move forward. Palestinians say that the move is an attempt to undermine the peace talks before they start.
"Approving such a massive number of housing units three days before we go to negotiations is sick,’’ a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told The Christian Science Monitor. "We may not come" to the talks, he said.
But the Monitor also reports that some say the move was necessary to allow peace talks to proceed, by "mollify[ing] Mr. Netanyahu’s pro-settler constituency, which is upset over the renewed talks" and the prisoner releases.
Some Palestinians also see the move as an Israeli tactic to undermine Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and force him to step away from the negotiating table – thereby making the Palestinians seem like the side opposed to peace.
Israel "understands the psychology of the Palestinians. Now that the Palestinians want to override this settlements obstacle, Israeli radicals are planting minefields to undermine the credibility of the PA so it will walk away," says Mohammed Dajani, a political science professor at Al Quds University.
In an analysis for Haaretz, Barak Ravid writes that the Israeli government's contradictory responses to the peace talks stem from Netanyahu's unwillingness to "cross the Rubicon" and commit fully to them.
Officials who have spoken to Netanyahu say his behavior, his hesitation and zigzagging result from his lack of trust in Abbas. Netanyahu, say the officials, is willing to cross the river but wants to know if Abbas will do the same. He is worried that while he is jumping into the turbulent waters filled mostly with political whirlpools, Abbas will remain on the bank and let him drown alone.
If Netanyahu wants the Americans, Palestinians and most of all the Israeli public to take him seriously, he must leave his old tactics behind. Abandon the criticism, the spin, worn-out PR tricks and blame games - and enter the peace talks without looking back.


Nearly 50 years of protests, lawsuits and ballot battles over low-income housing have made San Francisco a nationwide model for efforts to keep urban America from becoming home to only the very rich or the very poor, according to a paper that will be released Wednesday.
The land-use struggles that continue today, along with the long-remembered urban renewal fights of the 1960s, make it easy to forget just how far the city has come toward a community-centered development plan, said Marcia Rosen, former director of the city's Redevelopment Agency and lead author of the study of the city's affordable housing policy.
"The city originally wore a black hat when it came to development, but in subsequent decades we've worn the white hat," said Rosen, now the executive director of the National Housing Law Project.
The paper, done under the auspices of Rosen's organization and the Poverty and Race Research Action Council in Washington, D.C., will be unveiled at a San Francisco gathering of fair housing and community development groups. Wendy Sullivan, an attorney and planning consultant, is co-author.
The paper gives the city's community groups much of the credit for fighting City Hall in a long-running effort to keep San Francisco a racially and economically diverse community.
"Once notorious for urban renewal that diminished housing affordability and displaced residents," the paper says, "San Francisco is now renowned nationally for its best practices in housing and community development."
Despite "limited land for development, extremely low rental vacancy rates and high demand for housing," over decades the city has developed "thoughtful policies designed to preserve and enhance housing opportunities ... prevent displacement of low-income families and create inclusive communities," the authors say.
By providing examples of local innovations that work, similar efforts can be adopted by other cities and, ultimately, find their way into federal housing policy, said Philip Tegeler, president of the action council, a civil rights policy organization.
San Francisco "provides an example of how community advocacy can work," he said. "Cities need diversity. They need workers as well as executives."
It took time for local officials to realize that. The redevelopment projects of the '60s bulldozed chunks of the Western Addition and Yerba Buena, sending poor and middle-income residents packing to make way for wider streets, commercial development and civic projects. Aging residential hotels were razed in the name of progress, with little or no concern about what would happen to the people who called those places home.
But neighborhood and tenant organizations quickly formed to battle against the demolition efforts, filing lawsuits and gathering political support. As they won some battles, they pushed ahead with efforts to provide relocation help for ousted residents, limit evictions, ban residential hotel demolitions and require low-income housing and other programs.
The city's affordable housing movement wasn't just the product of the progressive community and angry tenants. For example, San Francisco voters passed limits on office construction in 1986, a $100 million affordable housing bond in 1996 and, earlier this month, a $50 million housing trust fund.
Support for affordable housing in the city "doesn't just come down from the policy level," said Tiffany Bohee, who deals with a number of housing plans as executive director of the city's Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure. "The voters have signaled resoundingly that this is what they want us to do."
The change documented in the paper has been dramatic. Although more than 3,200 housing units destroyed by urban renewal in the Western Addition were never replaced, the Rincon Point-South Beach redevelopment project - which added 2,800 units, 24 percent of them low-income, along with commercial space, parkland and AT&T Park - was built without destroying any housing.
Rosen's paper provides a look at the nuts and bolts of the city's housing wars, showing how activists took a little-noticed, grassroots liberal cause and made it so much a part of San Francisco's political mainstream that a former tenants' attorney is now the city's mayor.
"The business community and parts of the development community have signed on, realizing that affordable housing helps jobs and the city's economy," Rosen said. "The process has been about building support in San Francisco and making it a place where nurses, teachers, restaurant workers and hotel workers can live."


Police have arrested a suspect in the murder of a man found dead this week in Manchester, New Hampshire.
New Hampshire Attorney General confirms that 34-year-old Jordan Gamache was charged Friday with second degree murder in the shooting death of 39-year-old Ryan Chafin, who was found dead early Tuesday morning in a home on Douglas Street.
Authorities believe Gamache shot Chafin multiple times.
Gamache is due to be arraigned Monday in the 9th Circuit District Division Court in Manchester.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 603-792-5506.


Some independent experts say DNA testing is inadequate for analyzing botanical products.
ALBANY, N.Y. — DNA barcoding has exposed some infamous cases of food fraud, like cheap catfish sold as pricey grouper and expensive "sheep's milk" cheese that was really made from cow's milk.
But can it tell if a pill touted as an energy-booster contains ginseng or is just a mix of rice powder and pine?
Some scientists say yes, while industry groups and some independent experts say DNA testing alone is inadequate for analyzing botanical products that have gone through a lot of processing from leaf to tablet.
About 65,000 dietary supplements are on the market, consumed by more than 150 million Americans, according to a 2013 Canadian government study. The American Botanical Council estimates U.S. sales of herbal supplements came to $6 billion that year.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires companies to verify their products are safe and properly labeled, but supplements are exempt from the FDA's strict approval process for prescription drugs.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says lax oversight of supplements can have serious public health consequences, noting a 2013 hepatitis outbreak traced to a tainted diet supplement and the death of a baby at a Connecticut hospital after doctors gave the child a probiotic supplement later found to be contaminated with yeast.
Last week, Schneiderman ordered Wal-Mart, Walgreen's, Target and GNC to stop selling store-brand herbal supplements that DNA tests found questionable.
Schneiderman's action followed a Clarkson University study he commissioned and he also referenced a 2013 study published by University of Guelph researchers.
The Clarkson study tested hundreds of bottles of store-brand herbal supplements sold as treatments for everything from memory loss to prostate trouble, and found 4 out of 5 contained none of the herbs listed on the labels.
At the University of Guelph, researchers used DNA fingerprinting to find that a third of 44 supplements tested contained no trace of the plant on the label.
But the dietary supplement industry takes issue with DNA testing and some consumer advocacy groups say the method by itself is inadequate because it cannot detect the most serious problems with supplements — contamination with heavy metals or chemical adulterants.
"There's no problem with DNA barcoding as a science; however, it should be used appropriately. It has limitations," said Nandakumara Sarma, director of dietary supplements for US Pharmacopeia, which sets quality standards and testing protocols for drugs, vitamins and supplements.
The United Natural Products Alliance, a trade group, says it is sending people out around the country to buy large quantities of the supplements cited by Schneiderman and submit the bottles, unopened, to five or six certified botanical testing labs for analysis.
"They will perform universally accepted methods and procedures to test the products and will independently report their findings, which will be made public," said Loren Israelsen, the group's president. "We feel the most appropriate response to bad science is good science."
The American Botanical Council, a nonprofit research and education organization based in Austin, Texas, was particularly critical of the Guelph study.
"We raised the question if any of these products are extracts, and if so, what other analytical technologies were used to help ensure the validity of the results obtained by DNA testing," said Mark Blumenthal, the council's founder and director.
"DNA testing seldom is able to properly identify chemically complex herbal extracts, because often DNA doesn't get through the extraction process," Blumenthal said.
He said at least some of the products cited by Schneiderman are likely made from extracts, which can be validated by other common lab tests.
Tod Cooperman, president of the consumer-funded ConsumerLab.com, also dismissed the Guelph and attorney general's DNA studies as inappropriate for validating herbal supplements.
"There are definitely problems with herbal supplements but this is not the right method to test those products," Cooperman said.
His lab performs a range of tests on vitamins, herbal products and other dietary supplements to determine quality and purity, and provides the results to consumers who subscribe to his service.
Blumenthal also is working to expose bad products. He launched the Botanical Adulterants Program four years ago to ferret out suppliers who sell adulterated or mislabeled ingredients to manufacturers of herbal supplements. One goal of the program is to identify what laboratory tests are most effective.
Pieter Cohen, a Harvard Medical School researcher whose area of expertise is tracking down dangerous supplements, said the new versions of methamphetamine he has found in diet and sports supplements would never be spotted by DNA testing.
"There is so much wrong with the quality of supplements today that it's a shame the New York attorney general is not using sound science to focus on the most important problems," Cohen said. "The FDA has done hundreds of spot inspections of supplement companies, and they have found that 7 in 10 are not compliant with basic manufacturing practices."
Schneiderman's office stands by the validity of its DNA testing.
"Rather than attacking testing methods that have been validated by more than 70 published papers, the time has come for the herbal supplements industry to put concerns about what is and is not included in its products to rest," Matt Mittenthal, spokesman for the attorney general, said in an email.
The attorney general's office did not respond to a follow-up email asking why conventional, widely accepted testing wasn't used to verify the DNA test results, which would have made the findings more indisputable.
US Pharmacopeia provides independent third-party certification to drug and supplement manufacturers, who can then use the certification to assure consumers their products are genuine.
But John Atwater, director of verification programs for the organization, said less than 1 percent of herbal supplements carry the USP mark.
He noted the program is voluntary. "It's up to manufacturers and consumers to demand it," he said.


Aren't we supposed to be over this sort of thing?
Am I attractive? Well, that partly depends on your race — or so says an analysis of the preferences of users logged into a popular Facebook dating app, Are You Interested, which allows clients to click “yes” if they find a person attractive or take the option of skipping to the next profile page.


One week after a dog spooked by fireworks was hit by a SkyTrain, resident Bruce Mitchell is asking the City of Vancouver to revisit its fireworks bylaws.
On Oct. 29 2015, Mitchell’s East Vancouver home was burned to the ground in a fire caused by an errant firecracker. Mitchell’s two cats were killed in the fire, and he barely escaped with his life. When he heard that a dog had died this year after fireworks frightened her so much she bolted, Mitchell knew he had to speak up.
Within seconds, thick black smoke was pouring up the stairs, cutting off Mitchell’s exit. The 103-year-old wood frame house went up in flames almost instantly. The cats bolted. Mitchell escaped out the back deck and down a ladder with the help of his neighbours. The smoke and flames spread so quickly that had he been sleeping, he probably would not have survived.
Authorities confirmed that the blaze had been ignited by a firecracker. Mitchell’s neighbours reported seeing a group of young men dash away and leave the scene in a car. The group was questioned and released without charges.
The city of Vancouver bylaws allow sales of fireworks from Oct. 25 to 31, with the stipulation that users apply for a permit, be over the age of 19 and use the fireworks only on Oct. 31 and on private property. Mitchell says the bylaw is clearly unenforceable. When he saw the story about Maggie, a local lab-chow, who ran away last week after a firework spooked her in a public park, Mitchell reached out to share his experience.
“I lost everything I owned, and my two cats lost their lives.” Mitchell wonders how many other tragedies have to happen before officials reconsider Vancouver’s annual fireworks bonanza. “Had fireworks been banned in Vancouver it might have prevented the death of this dog and the burning down of my house,” said Mitchell.
Surrey, Richmond and North Vancouver have a standing ban on fireworks. Vancouver fire and rescue information officer Jonathan Gormick said most of the problems with fireworks are related to illegal and underground sales on sites such as Craigslist.
“We’re keen on finding the safest regulation possible,” said Gormick. Working with mayor and council, Gormick said permitting, education and enforcement is the most effective strategy. Since the city’s permitting bylaw went into effect nine years ago, Gormick said people have been less likely to buy from underground sources and there has been close to a 75 per cent reduction in firework-related incidents.


The US economy “remains strong”, the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, told Congress on Tuesday as he signaled the central bank is on course to carry on gradually increasing interest rates in the coming months.
In his first congressional testimony since his appointment, Powell painted an upbeat picture of the country’s economic health and dismissed recent wobbles in the stock market.
“Some of the headwinds the US economy faced in previous years have turned into tailwinds,” said Powell. He told Congress his “personal outlook for the economy has strengthened since December”.
Powell managed to avoid controversy – one of the key aims of the Fed chair – ably deflecting politically charged questions about the US’s huge debts, the impact of Donald Trump’s recently announced $1.5tn tax cuts and income inequality. US stock markets barely moved during his testimony.
The Fed is expected to raise rates three times this year. “Further gradual increases in the federal funds rate will best promote attainment” of the Fed’s objectives of achieving full employment and controlling inflation, said Powell.
The rebound in the US jobs market which has continued uninterrupted for a record seven years finally seems to be lifting wages in the US after a long period of stagnation.
That news led to sharp sells-offs in stock markets that have broken records since Donald Trump’s election as investors bet the Fed would hike interest rates more quickly in order to dampen fears of rising inflation.
Powell said that while assets were “high” he had no real concerns about systemic risks in the US economy at present.
The Fed “will continue to strike a balance between avoiding an overheated economy” and allowing inflation to rise to the Fed’s target rate of 2%, Powell said.
Powell’s testimony is the first from a Fed chairman since the passage of Trump’s tax cuts programme. The cuts have been cited as the impetus for bonuses at companies including American Airlines, AT&T and Disney.
But critics have pointed out that bonuses are not the same as wage rises and that the tax benefits to corporations dwarf the size of the benefits to individuals.
Powell, a former investment banker for the Carlyle Group and longtime member of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors under his predecessor Janet Yellen, was sworn in on 5 February as the Federal Reserve’s 16th chair.


Bigg Boss 12 contestants: Jasleen Mathur is said to be dating Bhajan singer Anup Jalota. We will find out more about the duo in Bigg Boss Season 12.
Bigg Boss 12 contestants: Bhajan singer Anup Jalota and his rumoured girlfriend, singer Jasleen Matharu are one of the ‘vichitra jodi’ of Bigg Boss 12.
Salman Khan hosted Bigg Boss 12 will feature some ‘vichitra jodis’ this season. One of the jodi is Bhajan singer Anup Jalota and his rumoured girlfriend, singer Jasleen Matharu. A few photos of Jasleen and Anup has been shared on an Instagram account.
Jasleen Matharu is a singer, performer and actor born and brought up in Mumbai. She, reportedly, started learning classical and western music at the tender age of 11. She has also performed with singer Mika Singh’s troupe for over 3 years.
Jasleen is a trained dancer in Bharatnatyam, Hip-Hop, Salsa and Belly-Dancing. She also featured in some music videos. Love Day Love Day is Jasleen’s solo debut album as singer and performer and the video was directed by her father, Kesar Matharu.
Bigg Boss 12 contestant Jasleen Matharu is also a brown belt in kickboxing and has been practicing it for the past 7 years.
As per reports, Jasleen Mathur is dating Bhajan singer Anup Jalota.
We will find out more about the duo in Bigg Boss Season 12.


You've gotta watch this impressive Super Mario Bros. playthrough by speedrunner "Blubbler." Blubbler beats the game in a bewildering 4:57.69.
Previously, the world record for an "any percentage" completion run was held by andrewg, according to the SMB Leaderboards Wiki. The time? 4:58:09. A second can make all the difference in a speedrun!
Here, the speedier time is chalked up to a lucky bullet bill glitch used in Blubbler's run at level 8-2, which allowed Blubber to skip the walk to the castle.
Curious about the particulars of runs like this one? You should check out the Speed Demos Archive page on Super Mario Bros., which details some of the techniques and strategies used in speedruns such as this one.
And in case you're confused about how the timing is measured in this run, it starts when the timer appears in level 1-1, and it ends when Mario hits the axe in 8-4.


Parents with children in tow stagger onto a waiting train at Donaghmede Dart station. At Heuston, a group of mildly inebriated tourists are trying to navigate the Luas map, while across Dublin transport staff keep watch over the thousands who have descended on the city for St Patrick’s Day.
Dublin on St Patrick’s Day is a riot of green flags, shamrocks and alcohol, making it one of the busiest days of the year for staff and passengers on a transport system that has increasingly been grappling with concerns over anti-social behaviour and violent incidents.
“Saturday nights and Paddy’s Day. They’re the two days you want to avoid,” says Dublin Bus driver Mark Maloney.
At 9.30am in Howth, it’s easy to forget there’s a festival at all. Yet as the train edges closer to the city, it becomes harder to ignore the shamrock hats, the fake ginger beards and the guitarist at Donaghmede delighting passengers with a rendition of Dirty Old Town.
At Clongriffin at 10.30am, there is little sign of the anti-social behaviour that has become a bugbear for the local community.
The number of violent or anti-social incidents on public transport is growing, with 407 complaints of anti-social behaviour on Irish trains last year, up from 246 the year before.
Fianna Fáil TD John Lahert cites the prevalence of a “low-grade, menacing type of behaviour” on Dublin trains. “Petty crime has become pretty much accepted,” he said.
Tommy Broughan, Independent TD for Dublin Bay North, described a “constant level of complaints” from constituents about anti-social behaviour and vandalism at the station.
“We have asked for stations like Clongriffin and Donaghmede that there would be security so you wouldn’t come out on your own,” Broughan said. On busy days, like St Patrick’s Day, it’s worse. “People feel intimidated around festival times,” he said.
Indeed, it was hard to ignore the strange emptiness of the large concrete station. With no staff presence, broken ticket machines and only a gaggle of French tourists for company, waiting there offered an eerie start to the day.
However, as the train got closer to Dublin, the carriage became sweaty and cramped as children and families competed for space with adults out for a day of drinking.
As we alight at Connolly station, cans are cracked open as hundreds of people mill through the turnstiles while a group of gardaí look on.
What differentiates St Patrick’s Day from an average day, aside from the crowds, is the sheer weight of security, stewards and gardaí on platforms, from Connolly Dart Station to the Smithfield Luas.
For numerous drivers and staff who spoke to The Irish Times, this is what made a difference.
The National Bus and Rail Union has long called for a transport police unit, similar to those found in the UK.
However, John Power, chairman of the Railway Safety Advisory Council, suggested that it was not realistic to create a dedicated transport police force. Instead a “greater push towards community policing” could create significant progress, he said.
Specific figures for transport-related crimes on previous St Patrick’s weekends are not available, but a spokesman for Iarnród Éireann said two incidents were reported respectively at Heuston and at Pearse last year out of 100,000 journeys.
Today, there was little sign of anything serious. Groups of teenagers singing and chanting on the Luas was as dramatic as it got during daylight, even if drinking was largely tolerated.
One Iarnród Éireann driver, who asked for his name not to be used, said the company will be praying it can get through the weekend without attention being focused on anti-social or violent incidents.
Drivers, they said, often feel discouraged from reporting incidents that are increasingly seen as commonplace. Fears are echoed by staff across the system.
Colin Whelan, a Dublin bus driver, described how an unprovoked attack by a passenger left him off work for nearly four months. The attack, which saw the assailant shatter the protective glass in his cab, rendered Whelan shaken, covered in blood and forced to undergo tests for hepatitis, Aids and HIV.


Migrants use wifi and a hub for plugging in their smartphones at a temporary shelter for migrants opened this week in a hall of the Berliner Messe trade fair grounds on October 8, 2015 in Berlin, Germany.
LONDON — Refugees can now use a Facebook chatbot to apply for asylum in the US, Canada, and the UK — helping them navigate unfamiliar legal systems and avoid exorbitant lawyers' fees.
It's an update to DoNotPay — a Facebook chatbot that assisted 250,000 people in challenging parking fines, and has since been expanded into multiple other sectors, from claiming compensation for delayed flights to providing HIV legal advice.
DoNotPay is a chatbot built in Facebook's messenger interface. It talks to the user and asks them questions, just like a real person, and records their responses.
"There's this huge problem among immigration lawyers where the majority of their time is spent filling out forms rather than actually challenging the legal complexities of the case," Browder, whose grandmother fled the Holocaust, said in a phone call from California. "So what this does, it takes down hundreds of details from individuals and automatically fills out" the necessary forms.
Built with the help of various lawyers and non-profits, the chatbot will ask everything from the applicant's age and nationality to whether they are "afraid of being subject to torture" in their home country.
In the US and Canada, it will help fill in asylum applications, while in the UK — where you have to apply in person — it assists in filling out asylum support forms. The student says he's also looking at expanding the bot to include Germany "if I have time."
DoNotPay began by challenging parking fines, but has since expanded into multiple other areas, including delayed flights, PPI, homelessness in the UK, and HIV legal advice.
"I originally started with parking tickets and delayed fights and all sorts of trivial consumer rights issues," Browder said, "but then I began to be approached by these non-profits and lawyers who said the idea of automating legal services is bigger than just a few parking fines. So I've since tried to expand into something more humanitarian."
Donald Trump's recent ban on visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries has highlighted the plight of refugees and migrants, but Browder says the bot isn't a response to the new US president's actions. "This was so long overdue. I started in the summer [of 2016] and although it seems more important now than ever it's actually not a reaction to recent political events."
The chatbot is launching on 12.01 AM, UK time, on Wednesday morning. It's free to use, and will remain that way, Browder said. "It's completely free as a public service, I don't want to make some quick money."
Even though DoNotPay has gone far beyond its original intentions, Browder said he has no plans to change its name. "I think for better or worse, it's a brand everyone seems to know now," he said.
"I want to make it as recognisable as possible so people understand that they don't have to pay lawyers huge amounts of money for just copying and pasting documents."


'Black Panther''s box office dominance continues as the Marvel blockbuster passed 'Titanic' to become the third highest-grossing film of all time.
Black Panther‘s box office dominance continues to shatter records as the Marvel blockbuster vaulted past Titanic to become the third highest-grossing film of all time.
James Cameron’s Titanic – which enjoyed a 12-year reign as the highest-grossing film until it was usurped by the director’s Avatar in 2009 – fell to Number Four on the all-time list after Black Panther leapt past the 1997 epic’s $659.5 million domestic total, the Hollywood Reporter writes.
Without adjusting for inflation, Black Panther now only sits behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936 million) and Avatar ($760 million) on the all-time domestic box office list, according to Box Office Mojo.
Black Panther previously became the highest-grossing superhero film ever after surpassing The Avengers’ $624 million haul. However, that record, as well as the Number Three spot, could be in jeopardy when Avengers: Infinity War – featuring Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther and his fellow Wakandans – opens in theaters later this month.
Two months after Black Panther‘s theatrical release, the Marvel movie continues to resonate culturally: Boseman is scheduled to host tonight’s episode of Saturday Night Live, marking the second SNL episode this season to feature a Black Panther actor; Sterling K. Brown hosted the March 11th episode.


A message in a bottle that washed up more than 108 years after it was thrown into the sea may be the world's oldest, a marine association has said.
The bottle was released in the North Sea between 1904 and 1906 and found by a woman on a beach in Amrum, Germany.
Inside a postcard asked that it be sent to the Marine Biological Association of the UK, where the bottle was returned.
The association in Plymouth said the bottle was one of some 1,000 released as part of marine research.
The research, looking at ocean currents, was carried out by George Parker Bidder, who went on to become MBA president from 1939 to 1945.
Inside each bottle was a postcard that promised a shilling to anyone who returned it.
An old English shilling was sent by the association to retired postal worker Marianne Winkler, who found the bottle in April during her holiday to the German island, about 310 miles (500km) away from the UK.
The association said it was waiting to hear whether it was a world record for the oldest message in a bottle found.
The existing world record for the oldest message in a bottle is 99 years and 43 days, found west of the Shetland Islands in July 2013.


“God’s Plan” was named the Best Rap Song.
Drake’s smash hit “God’s Plan” just received the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song.
The big news story may not, however, be about his winning the award. It will likely focus on what happened after he accepted his trophy.
CBS’ broadcast of the show cut to commercial during Drake’s acceptance speech. The very well could have been due to time (the speech was going quite long) and signal (he seemed to take a momentary pause).
Skeptics, however, may wonder if the cut had anything to do with content. Just prior to the commercial break, Drake had made the point that success (and awards) in the entertainment industry are based on opinion (as opposed to sports championships, which go to the team that won the game). He noted that if an artist is connecting with fans who will part with their time and money to show support, then they do not need a trophy (such as a Grammy).
The sentiment was quite innocuous (and very resonant with the audience), and it is hard to imagine directors or producers taking offense with what he said. It was clearly meant to be motivational as opposed to condemnatory.
The coincidental timing will nonetheless have some fans speculating. Such speculation has already emerged in some Tweets.
And regardless of what prompted the cut, it certainly seemed jarring and awkward.


Gay nephew might want for his aunt to advise him or intercede on his behalf with his dad.
Dear Amy: My college-age nephew confided in me that he is gay.
I was very surprised. I am OK with his sexuality. It is his own business and no one else’s.
My nephew hasn’t told his parents, and he isn’t sure when he will.
I told him that we all love him just as he is and that this would not matter to anyone, but I don’t know that for a fact. I am pretty sure there are family members who would be upset.
As his aunt, am I supposed to talk (confidentially) to my brother and his wife, and ask for their understanding?
Or should I keep my nephew’s secret until he is ready to tell them himself?
Generally, I would ask my sisters, mother or husband for advice, but this is just not their business. My instinct is to keep his confession a secret.
As a mother, I would be devastated to know my son told someone else first, and not me. Our family is pretty conservative; he would be the first “out” relative.
Dear Aunt: I agree that this is not your news to disclose, but your nephew came to you for a reason. Why? Perhaps he is starting his process of “coming out” by test-driving the scenario with you first.
He might want for you to advise him or intercede on his behalf with your brother. Do not do so unless he asks you to.
It sounds as if he chose the right person to speak with. Now you two could have another conversation. Tell him that now you’ve absorbed this news, you wonder if he would like to talk some more. Let him manage this at his own pace.
Be loving and supportive. Ask questions — and listen.


Family and friends of Capt. Elizabeth Hagner, the officer in charge of the Female Engagement Team, Regional Command Southwest, pose for a shot during the Relay for Life in Towson, Md., June 17. After losing multiple family members to cancer, Hagner and her family started participating in the event last year to help raise money and awareness for cancer patients and research.
This work, Deployed Towson, Md., Marine stays involved in family’s fundraiser [Image 4 of 4], must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.


We missed this one on Friday… Universal has released a new trailer for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor on the Papa John’s Pizza website. When a movie trailer is released on a Pizza website, that should tell you a lot about the quality of the film. Too bad you don’t get a free pizza with the purchase of a movie ticket. Or even a free movie ticket with the purchase of a pizza. You gotta love those DVDs that include free movie cash. Watch the trailer below, and as always, tell me what you think in the comments!
You can also watch the trailer in High Definition on Papa John’s. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor will hit theaters on August 1st 2008.


A New York Times reporter appeared as a guest on MSNBC Thursday but unfortunately spent quite a bit of time battling with her hair against the wind.
Julie Hirschfeld Davis was on the show to talk about President Trump’s executive order on religious liberty but had to deal with the wind whipping her hair into her face and mouth.
At one point, Davis had to move her hair out of the way four times in under 15 seconds, somewhat distracting from the point she was making.
Perhaps MSNBC should consider moving their broadcast indoors or providing their guests with stronger hold hairspray.
To Davis’ credit, she managed to deliver her point without interruption, despite the wind practically feeding her her own hair.


Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido is trying to get millions of dollars in humanitarian aid into his country despite a blockade from disputed President Nicolas Maduro; State Department correspondent Rich Edson reports.
The U.S. government says it will position 190 metric tons of supplies by Friday, ready to deploy throughout Venezuela, according to Mark Green, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The problem is figuring out how to get that aid into Venezuela.
Pallets of food, medicine and hygiene kits are in neighboring Colombia and warehouses throughout the region.
Contested Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is blocking international aid, calling it an American attempt to overthrow his government.
"This not an earthquake. This is not a hurricane. This is not a tornado or a flood,” Green said. “This is one man and one regime imposing dictatorial rule, imposing suffering and pain on people."
"This not an earthquake. This is not a hurricane. This is not a tornado or a flood. This is one man and one regime imposing dictatorial rule, imposing suffering and pain on people."
Green said he’s coordinating with the Colombian government to ensure that Guaido, the opposition leader, has the aid his country needs -- though he said the next step is up to Guaido.
“We know it's not enough that the humanitarian aid enters,” Guaido said at a Caracas news conference. “We must open the humanitarian channel, no matter what."
Guaido is organizing aid caravans to try to cross Saturday into Venezuela, potentially setting up a confrontation with the Venezuelan military.
The day before Guaido’s caravans leave for Venezuela, billionaire Richard Branson says he’s organizing a benefit concert to fund more aid for Venezuelans. Branson told the Associated Press that he’s trying to raise $100 million from viewers who would pay to watch it streamed on the internet.


The Narromine Garden Club have gifted their annual donation to local organisation the Narromine Volunteer Rescue Association (VRA). The club gathered at the Narromine VRA headquarters on December 5 to hand over a cheque of $1000. The money raised and collected by the Garden Club through memberships and raffles held throughout the year is donated to a different Narromine organisation each year. The NSW VRA is an emergency response organisation and service dedicated to assisting the communities in NSW. The organisation attend almost 10,000 incidents per year from motor vehicle accidents to first aid and traffic control at community events, and raise funds to support their squads operating and complete training.
The Narromine Garden Club have gifted their annual donation to local organisation the Narromine Volunteer Rescue Association (VRA).
The club gathered at the Narromine VRA headquarters on December 5 to hand over a cheque of $1000.
The money raised and collected by the Garden Club through memberships and raffles held throughout the year is donated to a different Narromine organisation each year.
The NSW VRA is an emergency response organisation and service dedicated to assisting the communities in NSW.
The organisation attend almost 10,000 incidents per year from motor vehicle accidents to first aid and traffic control at community events, and raise funds to support their squads operating and complete training.


Kip Hagopian is the chairman of Maxim Integrated Products Inc., a semiconductor company, and was a founding general partner of Brentwood Associates, a venture capital and private-equity firm. Lee Ohanian is professor of economics at UCLA and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Their op-ed appeared Oct. 29, 2012, in the Wall Street Journal.
Many of those who assert that the rich don't pay their fair share of the nation's bills often point to how Social Security and Medicare are funded. For example, columnist Paul Krugman wrote on his New York Times blog in 2010 that "the payroll tax is regressive, as are most state and local taxes, which largely offsets the progressivity of the income tax." And President Clinton's secretary of labor, Robert Reich, said in an October 2007 blog post, "payroll taxes take a much bigger portion of the paychecks of lower-income Americans than of higher-income [Americans]. Viewed as a whole, the current tax system is quite regressive."
On the contrary, studies show that the Social Security and Medicare programs, viewed as a whole, are anything but regressive.
The payroll taxes that fund these programs are collected for the express purpose of providing income supplements and medical care during retirement. In the case of Social Security, earned income is taxed proportionately at 12.4% (split evenly between employee and employer) up to a cap that is currently set at $110,100. Those who assert that the Social Security tax is regressive note that the income cap results in a decline in taxes paid as a percentage of income as income rises above the cap. But this observation omits three critical facts.
First, the amount of one's Social Security income at retirement is also capped. Second, higher-income workers receive less of a benefit as a percentage of their contributions than do lower-income workers. The payouts to retirees are, and are intended to be, redistributive. Third, Social Security income is subject to the income tax—and the income tax is progressive.
Given the design of Social Security, the only way the program could be regressive is if the mortality rate differences between the group of higher-income and lower-income workers were so large that higher-income people received greater lifetime benefits for each dollar contributed. But this is not the case, according to a 2009 study by the Social Security Administration's Office of Retirement and Disability Policy. Rather, the study concludes that "Social Security is modestly progressive on a lifetime basis; currently, the program lies approximately halfway between paying a benefit directly proportional to lifetime taxable earnings and paying a flat dollar benefit to each retiree."
In the case of Medicare, the amount paid into the system—2.9% of income, split evenly between employee and employer—is proportionate to income and has no cap. So a person with a lifetime income of $5 million will pay five times as much into the system as a person with a lifetime income of $1 million.
In theory, therefore, the benefits provided by Medicare (paid health care) should be the same for each beneficiary. And like Social Security, lifetime benefits are affected by differences in mortality rates among different income groups (the poor tend to die younger). However, lower-income beneficiaries are more likely to become ill than higher-income beneficiaries and thus consume more benefits. Higher-income beneficiaries are more likely to privately insure or pay out of pocket in old age, thus reducing their demands on the system.
So what is the bottom line? Based on the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, health economists Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University and Darius Lakdawalla of USC found that the poorest groups receive the most benefits at any given age, and that this advantage in benefits received significantly outweighs the fact that as a group, they die younger. The authors' 2006 study "Does Medicare Benefit the Poor?" was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Public Economics. On the whole, the authors conclude that "Medicare is an extraordinarily progressive public program, in dollar terms or welfare terms."
The studies suggest that both of the payroll-tax systems are progressive, not regressive. Moreover, according to a July 2012 study by the Congressional Budget Office, entitled "The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2008 and 2009," the entire U.S. federal tax system (including the earned-income tax, the various capital income taxes, the two types of payroll taxes, the corporate tax, and the excise tax) is also progressive.
Those who assert that "the rich" do not pay their "fair share" seem to be ignoring these other facts: A study released in 2008 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reported the U.S. federal income tax system is the most progressive of any of the 24 countries of its member nations. And an October 2011 report by the Tax Foundation noted that in 2009 the top 1% of U.S. earners—who earned 17% of the income—paid 37% of the taxes. The top 5% earned 32% of the income and paid 59% of the taxes. The bottom 50% paid 2.3% of taxes, and the bottom quintile received money back in the form of refundable tax credits.
Those who would increase the marginal rates paid by the top income earners must confront the depressing effect that higher taxes will have on business creation and expansion—and on jobs. Giving a bigger piece of a smaller economic pie to lower-income earners is not likely to be in America's interest.


CANTON The deadline to apply for the Stark County Mental Health & Addiction Recovery Workforce Development Scholarship is Friday.
The scholarship is offered to an individual in the workforce to extend his or her training and education in the mental health, alcohol or drug field. Applicants must be an employee of a not-for-profit behavioral health organization in Stark County.
Scholarship applications from eligible applicants, with required narrative, should be submitted online. Only complete applications will be accepted. Apply at https://starkmhar.org/advocacy/starkmhar-scholarships.
The scholarship is awarded at the annual leadership breakfast in June.


A little over 5 acres of land in a prime area of Western North Carolina. Upon arrival to the home site, you'll pass gorgeous mountain views, a babbling creek and pasture land. This property has a storage shed already in place and the land is ready for your use which could be gardening, farming or a private estate. Close to Chimney Rock, Lake Lure, Hendersonville and Asheville.