From the travel ban to DACA to the scaling back of refugee admissions, there were big changes in U.S. immigration policy this year and more likely in 2018. We welcome you to scroll through the past year in immigration with our best guesses about what is to come.
President Donald’s Trump Executive Order restricting travelers bookended 2017, going into effect just after the president took office in January and again, in early December at year’s end. In between, three different versions of the order were mired in the courts (see video). The final version bars entry into the U.S. of immigrants and non-immigrants from Chad, Libya and Yemen, on business, tourist or business-tourist visas; blocks entry of Iranian citizens, as immigrants or non-immigrants, but provides an exception for Iranian students with additional screening; bars all immigrants and non-immigrants from North Korea and Syria; prevents immigration by citizens of Somalia; and bars visitors from Venezuela with government ties.
2018 Forecast: The Supreme Court ruling in early December giving Travel Ban 3 the go-ahead also tossed it back to two appeals courts. “I think [they] would like to see the appeals court resolve it,” Betsy Fisher, policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project, told VOA.
The Trump administration whittled away at immigration in 2017, but the kind of major changes Trump wants can only be achieved by the U.S. Congress. In August, Trump endorsed a Republican bill called the RAISE Act (PDF). It would scale back legal immigration by replacing the current family-based structure with a merit system that would award points for high-paying job offers, past achievements, English-language ability and education.
2018 Forecast: The Trump administration has indicated it will make a big push for immigration reform in 2018. But it has eluded the U.S. Congress for years. A comprehensive restructuring was drawn up by eight senators in 2013, but it was never voted on by the House.
2017 began with uncertainty for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and looked to end with greater uncertainty. DACA allowed some immigrants who entered the country as minors to receive a renewable two-year deferment from deportation and permission to work. After much suspense about what he would do with DACA, Trump ended the program in September, leaving it up to Congress to develop a solution. Democratic lawmakers threatened to hold up the budget unless Congress dealt with DACA. But Republican leaders said there was no rush on DACA since the recipients do not begin to lose status until March 2018.
2018 Forecast: If Congress does not agree on a legislative solution and the president does not step back in, nearly 800,000 young, undocumented immigrants could be vulnerable to deportation in 2018/2019.
The mass deportations that many feared didn’t happen this year. While detention numbers rose, removals declined. The immigration and deportation system can be slow, though, with some court hearings scheduled years from now, so as the administration continues rolling out changes to the system, and more immigrantion judges are added to clear the case backlog, the rise in detentions could well fuel an increase in deportations.
2018 Forecast: Immigration and border agencies are ramping up hiring efforts to meet Trump’s demand for 15,000 new agents and officers, as well as thousands more supporting staff. And since several policies have been ended that had shielded some immigrants from deportation - like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status - tens of thousands more immigrants may become susceptible to removal proceedings in the coming year.
Where is the big, beautiful border wall?
President Trump’s plans to erect a 1,600-kilometer-long, 10 to12-meter-tall wall between the US and Mexico have hit multiple roadblocks: no deal with Mexico to pay for it, and hesitance in Congress amid a price-tag of $21.6 billion to $70 billion. Democrats maintain there is little evidence to prove that a wall would stem illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Republicans have largely dodged the issue. Others - including immigration and border officials - advocate for the use of modern technology to patrol the border rather than a higher, broader wall.
2018 Forecast: Eight prototypes of Trump’s border wall are undergoing testing in southern California, but there is no telling whether any of them will eventually be funded or built. At the end of 2017, US Customs and Border Patrol was hoping for funding from Congress to build 97 kilometers and repair 23 more in 2018.
The US was on track to receive the highest number of refugees since the 1990s - 110,000 at the beginning of 2017. But the resettlement program ground to a near halt after President Trump issued a series of executive orders restricting refugee travel to the US. In September, the White House announced it would slash arrivals even further.
2018 Forecast: So few refugees arrived in October and November - the first months of the fiscal year - that the US is on track to accept less than half the 45,000 refugees that Trump’s team ok’d - already a record low in the history of the US refugee program.
Temporary Protected Status has taken a hit in 2017. The Trump administration cut three TPS countries from the list of 10, extended the protections for one more, and will decide on the remaining six in 2018. The U.S. government confers TPS status on citizens of countries who cannot return safely to their homelands. TPS holders may live and work legally in the US for renewable periods. In some cases TPS holders have been in the country for decades, but the government cautions, the program is temporary.
2018 Forecast: First up in the new year: 195,000 Salvadorans who have been in the US since 2001. They will know by January 8 whether they keep TPS status. In the meantime, proposals in Congress would toughen requirements for TPS or eliminate it.
During his first week in office President Trump directed the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to strip federal funding from so-called “sanctuary cities” — some 300 municipalities and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities because they say they need their resources to fight local crime. Attorney General Jeff Sessions took up the sanctuary sword, putting jurisdictions on notice for protecting “criminal aliens.” California made itself a sanctuary state in October. In November, a judge in San Francisco permanently blocked Trump’s order, on the basis that it violates the constitution.
2018 Forecast: The US government has appealed the court decision. Expect the sanctuary fight to continue – in court and out.
A timeline of President Trump’s crackdown on immigration.
VOA’s immigration unit has been closely following the Trump administration on immigration and refugee issues since the president took office.


Lionsgate has dated Saw: Legacy for October 27, 2017.
Saw: Legacy will be directed by Michael and Peter Spierig. While Saw: Legacy is currently the only wide release dated for the pre-Halloween weekend, Insidious: Chapter 4 is scheduled for released the week prior, setting up a potential horror movie box office showdown.
As previously reported, Saw: Legacy is expected to begin filming in Toronto in September 2016.
Saw: Legacy will be the first new film in the Saw franchise since Saw 3D, a.k.a. Saw: The Final Chapter was released in 2010. The franchise began with Saw in 2004. The film was directed by James Wan, who is now directing Aquaman for Warner Bros. Darren Lyn Bousman stepped into the director role for Saw II, Saw III, and Saw IV. David Hackl directed Saw V and Kevin Greutert directed Saw VI and Saw: The Final Chapter.
Saw’s central character is John Kramer, a.k.a. the “Jigsaw Killer” or more simply “Jigsaw.” In contrast to simple slashers who chase and murder their victims, Jigsaw prefers to trap his victims in intense situations of physical and/or psychological torture, which he refers to as “tests” or “games.” Kramer was killed in Saw III, but his apprentices have carried on his work through the sequels.
Saw 3D was not originally intended to be The Final Chapter. A sequel was planned, but the reduced box office of Saw VI compared to its predecessors led Lionsgate to cancel previously laid plans for a Saw VIII. The studio apparently feels the time is right to give a franchise another chance.


President George W. Bush dances to music performed by a high school band in New Orleans for the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).
ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) STORY: Former U.S. President George W. Bush enjoyed a light moment at the Warren Easton Charter School in New Orleans, Friday, prior to speaking at a memorial event for the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The former president was seen in the school's courtyard dancing, as a student marching band played. Floodwaters generated by the storm inundated the city of New Orleans in 2005. More than 1800 people were killed due the storm, which also devastated the Gulf Coast. New Orleans is hosting a variety of events for the anniversary, both to remember the city's losses, and celebrate its recovery.


The chief executive who helped put Lattice Semiconductor Corp. back on its feet despite a global recession is leaving the company for the top job at another semiconductor firm.
Bruno Guilmart tendered this resignation and will leave the Hillsboro company Sept. 4, the company announced Friday. Christopher Fanning, a Lattice vice president, will take over as interim CEO while the company launches a formal search.
Guilmart, who was hired at Lattice after working as CEO of a semiconductor company based in Malaysia, will relocate to Singapore to lead Kulicke & Soffa, which makes equipment for manufacturing semiconductors and LEDs.
K&S is currently based in Pennsylvania, but will move its global headquarters to Singapore next year.
At Lattice, most employees found out about the resignation at an all-employee meeting Friday afternoon.
"The change is rather sudden. For most employees, we just literally found about this at 1:30," Lattice marketing Vice President Doug Hunter said. "People, you know, they're just processing right now."
At the meeting, Hunter said, board Chairman Patrick Jones told employees Guilmart wasn't forced out, and he praised Guilmart's work at the company.
: Interim chief executive of Lattice Semiconductor Corp.
Fanning said the strategy developed under Guilmart wouldn't be changing.
"I'm personally disappointed because I enjoyed working with Bruno," he said. "But of course, life goes on. No one person is indispensable to the company."
Guilmart joined Lattice when it was coming off 10 years of losing quarters that began in 2001. In 2005, the company had fired CEO Cyrus Tsui after shareholder lawsuits over the company's high executive pay and spending. His successor, Steve Skaggs, was fired in 2008 when after the company's financials failed to improve.
Early in his tenure, Guilmart laid off 14 percent of Lattice's workforce and streamlined the operation, in part by moving the company's chip warehouse to Singapore. He moved the company into less competitive markets using chips that could be reprogrammed for different tasks, reducing development costs.
"Bruno was hired to get Lattice back on its feet," Hunter said. "He brought us back to profitability and positioned Lattice for success."
In July, Lattice reported its third-straight quarterly profit, and its sales were up 64 percent from a year earlier. Hunter said the company would continue the strategies Guilmart helped develop, and even try to execute it faster. He said the company's board would launching its search for a new CEO immediately, but no timetable has been set.
Fanning said the board would consider both internal and external candidates, and that he would be interested in taking the position permanently if it were offered, but that he's focusing on running the company.
"Frankly, Bruno's departure is a catalyst to get the leadership team thinking even faster and harder," he said. "It's been kind of a whirlwind 24 hours, and I'm actually pretty exhilarated."
He said the company's goal would be to accelerate growth in its core markets.
"We're very profitable, so we're not looking to cut out costs," he said. "We're looking at, how do we apply our existing resources more effectively?"
Richard Shannon, an analyst for Northland Securities who covers semiconductor companies, said the Guilmart's departure probably won't mean trouble ahead for the company.
"The CEO, in my opinion, has done a very good job of repositioning the company from a strategic and executive point of view over the past couple of years," Shannon said. "When a guy like that leaves, it's not great news, but I also think he's done a great job placing good people in the second ranks of the management team."
"I don't think the company is going to miss a beat here," he added.
In a news release, Jones said he was confident in Fanning's leadership, calling him "a proven Lattice executive respected by his peers and our customers, and one of the key executives driving our successful turnaround."
Fanning has worked at Lattice since 1997, during which time he's served in several vice president and corporate vice president roles. Before joining Lattice, he worked at The Boston Consulting Group.
"Chris is a good guy," Hunter said. "He's got a good head on his shoulders, and he understands our business."
Lattice slipped more than 5 percent in after-hours trading, falling 30 cents to $5.14.


There’s a saying that ‘nothing in this world is so much like prayer as music is.’ An interesting thought, and perhaps surprising when we consider today’s celebrity music culture.
In many music videos we see and the lyrics we hear, a sense of Faith and God seem to be missing.
And yet many of the greatest musicians of all time attributed their success to their own personal faith, including contemporary stars such as Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar and Keith Urban.
Andy Gallagher, a musician with the band Overhaul, says his Catholic Faith has been a constant in his songwriting since the band formed in the late 1990s.
Andy, who is from Los Angeles but now lives in the Clyde island of Millport, said: “My Faith is very important to me, inside of music and outside of music.
“I’ve always been Catholic. I’m absolutely blessed and honoured to be an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion—it’s an honour which I never expected to be given to me, but 10 years ago it was.
“Catholicism has just always been there for me, and I think subconsciously it goes into my writing whether I mean it or not.
Andy’s Faith permeates his lyrics, though he says Overhaul as a band are not explicitly Christian or Christian-oriented.
However, he says his Faith is always there in his lyrics and so the songs are in a sense Christian rock.
“Whether you want to call it Christian rock, whether you want to say that I’m not too sure, but it’s sort of always there,” he explained.
It is this Christian essence in Andy’s life that he feels distinguishes Overhaul.
“I think that’s what kind of sets us apart from modern bands right now, which are all about kind of ‘do what you want to do,’ ‘do what feels right,’” he said.
“Unfortunately within the music industry there’s a lot of drug culture which is very big.
“None of us do drugs, none of us are kind of womanising and stuff like that, we don’t believe in all that type of thing.
Although a practising Catholic, Andy notes that Kenny Johnson, the band’s base guitarist is agnostic.
“It’s never been an issue,” Andy said.
Overhaul have been described as an alt-rock group, something Andy feels is a good way of describing their sound.
“We don’t like over-processing audio and making it sound pretty,” Andy said.
“The beauty about that is we did this album ourselves. We didn’t bring other people in. What you hear there is how we want to be able to sound.
Despite a number of stand-out tracks on the EP, one that is particularly striking is It Feels Like We’re The Only Ones Left on Earth.
At first hearing, it might read as a devotional love song, an ode to the love of your life. In a sense, it is, but in a perhaps more surprising and unexpected way.
Andy spoke of attending an overnight Adoration with his wife at the Benedictine Monastery in Largs, which inspired the song.
“It had such a profound impact on me, just being that kind of one-to-one with God,” he said.
“There was a warmth and glow to it that I’d never experienced before. To try and explain it to somebody, it’s almost impossible.
“It’s something that somebody has to experience themselves. Just to experience it is beauty beyond belief.
“It’s always been there, it’s kind of in my heart. I always thought I want to write something that comes close to this feeling, but the whole thing about that song was that a lot of people have the wrong views of what the song is about, they hear a lot of different things that are in there.
“When I tell them ‘well it’s actually much more deeper than that; it’s about Adoration, it’s about you yourself sitting with God and just being in His presence,’ not a lot of people get that, but at the same time a lot of people are blown away by it. That one experience is what made me want to do that.
At recent gigs, Andy noted people were asking what the meaning was behind his songs.
“They seem to think it’s about something, about kind of a love relationship, which I suppose it is. But it’s not what people think,” he said.
Andy suggested giving praise to God can be difficult in the industry. He said: “Sometimes I do feel, when it comes to saying thank you to God, people within the music industry are reluctant to do that—especially in my genre, it’s very difficult.
Over the past 25 years, he has noted a thread running through his music, his Faith.
“At the end of the day it’s a gift from God that He gave me, and it’s one of these things that’s been there all the time and I suppose a little bit of elements of my Faith in every song,” he said.
Andy noted that his favourite thing about performing and writing with Overhaul is the opportunity to work with his two best friends, Kenny and drummer John Malone.
“There’s something great that happens. I mean I’ve worked with so many people; I’ve worked with great stars, great songwriters and all that,” he said.
“But when I work with Kenny and John, something happens, something kind of merges. The only way I can describe it is it’s like an explosion onstage, feeling the energy, the excitement, and fun come through.
St Andrew’s Day: our cross to bear?


All your NBA Draft needs including my Final Mock Draft, prospect profiles, position rankings, and NBA team off-season needs are just a click away.
1. L.A. Clippers– Blake Griffin, PF, Oklahoma, 6-10, So.
Poor Blake Griffin. This has to be the worst case scenario for him. The Clips are a destination where players just do not thrive. They already have some talented big man in Chris Kaman, Marcus Camby, and Zach Randolph. Maybe Griffin can be the spark and hard worker the Clipper franchise has been longing for for the past decade-plus.
2. Memphis– Hasheem Thabeet, C, UConn, 7-3, Jr.
Since it appears the Griz are not trading this pick to Minnesota, Thabeet is the guy. He could be the defensive presence Memphis badly needs. I maintain Ricky Rubio is the second best prospect in the draft and the Griz will regret not selecting him or trading down to gain more assets.
I get the feeling the Thunder GM Sam Presti is far too intelligent to let Rubio pass them. Drafting the Spanish sensation means Russell Westbrook shifts to the two which may not be the ideal fit, but is worth doing to land Rubio. P.S. Is it me or are the Thunder the best young team in the NBA if they land Rubio?
4. Sacramento– Tyreke Evans, G, Memphis, 6-5, Fr.
I am very high on Evans and apparently so are the Kings. Sacramento needs a point guard which Evans played at Memphis, but is probably better suited as a two-guard in the NBA. I would be curious to see how Evans and Kevin Martin would co-exist in the same backcourt. If the Kings decide to take a more pure point guard, Jonny Flynn, Jrue Holiday, and Stephen Curry are all options.
5. Minnesota (from Washington)- Stephen Curry, G, Davidson, 6-3, Jr.
The T-Wolves have to be massively disappointing that they traded into this spot and didn’t land Rubio, Thabeet, OR Evans. I’ve had more than one person say to me that Curry is in a way, a Randy Foye Part 2 which makes the trade with the Wiz a bit of a head scratcher. Regardless, they need a point guard prospect with one of their top 6 picks. Yeah, I know Curry isn’t even a real point guard. Ish.
Click here for prospect profiles.
How about NBA off-season team needs?


We are grateful that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s speech last fall at Teachers College, Columbia University, has spurred a national dialogue on teacher education (“Questions for Secretary Duncan,” Letters, Jan. 6, 2010). It is our firm belief that the most critical aspect of preparing new teachers to enter the field is mentoring.
Novice “intern” teachers need to be paired with master teachers, from whom they will learn the art of teaching as they concurrently integrate theory on instruction, research on best practices, and foundations in child development. Interns in our alternative-licensure program teach full time alongside carefully selected, expert mentor teachers. These mentors gradually release responsibility to their interns, recognizing that the same learning process applies to adults as to children: modeling, guided and shared practice, with the eventual goal of independence. Interns take a greater role as their own background knowledge and skill sets are activated.
Too often, novice teachers are underprepared for the complex realities of the classroom and are expected to find their own way with little scaffolding or guidance. As a nation, we would not accept this model for the instruction of our children. Nor does it suffice for the development of educators. Full-time mentoring of novice teachers allows those in training to experience the educational process in a way that befits learners of all ages, and honors the stages in teachers’ development as it moves them purposefully and incrementally toward success and independence.
Selecting master teachers to mentor novices allows the replication of artful, experienced teaching. An intended consequence is the creation of professional learning communities, through which we have the opportunity to push our thinking. Mentors’ practice only improves when they continually are asked to articulate the goals and objectives of their carefully constructed lessons. Children are the direct and obvious benefactors of this reflective approach to teaching and learning.


Shaley: Where were you when you found out what had happened?
Chief Kyle Bonath: It was later at night, so my scheduled work day had concluded. I believe I was sitting with my wife watching some show on television when I got the call that we had an officer down.
Shaley: How many times have you received a phone call like that?
Chief Kyle Bonath: I have never had to deal with an officer shot in the line of duty.
Shlaey: What is your initial thought when you get the phone call?
Chief Kyle Bonath: Unfortunately, the news was already bad when I got the call, so there wasn’t a hope that this was a survival event. My first thought was for the family obviously because we knew he had a family that was in El Paso. The next thought is for the department as whole.
Shaley: When you got here, can you describe what you walked into?
Chief Kyle Bonath: On the way, I got a call from various departments offering help and assistance. We had discussed with LPD that they would help process the scene because our officers were out in pursuit of the subject. Coming in the scene, we obviously first met with the officers that were here, discussed where we were in the pursuit. And made sure everybody was okay and pulling through because it was obviously a traumatic event for all involved. We had already barricaded off the area where Officer East had fallen, which was actually in close proximity to where we were trying to operate as a department.
Shaley: This is a place of operation and when this becomes a crime scene, how does that impact an investigation?
Chief Kyle Bonath: It’s the same procedures, it’s just more complicated when it’s a place you work on a day to day basis. We were on lock down, which I think was rough on the dispatchers because we had two that were trained in that capability and their training told them to go out and check on the officer, but since the suspect had not been located and was in the wind, we had locked down dispatch. So, I think to this day, I think they still regret that they weren’t able to get out and try to help.
Shaley: As horrible as this was, there was so much unity with the students and staff and faculty here; an outpouring of support and several different agencies rushed in to assist any way they could.
Chief Kyle Bonath: They always say it’s a law enforcement family. Unfortunately, you hear it, you see it spoken about. I’ve had the opportunity to see it in play, but not in play to the extent it was here. We had every agency out helping in some form or fashion. We had federal, we had state, and we had all of the locals here. One, to be supportive of the department and family and two, to be supportive and help apprehend the subject.
Shaley: This is the first time we’ve spoken to you since this incident happened. When you arrive here and you find out an officer is down, there is a lock down now, you don’t know where the suspect is, you are worried about students, you are worried about anybody else on campus, surrounding area. How do you process all of this?
Chief Kyle Bonath: It’s just training. That’s why we do the training we do on firearm scenarios we run through so you kind of revert to your training. I’ve had similar situations, similar manhunts before, but it was usually on a different scale with the FBI. We rely on our law enforcement partners; everybody had a role. We teamed up and put an officer with every member of the LPD. We know the locations that officer East was trained on, we know the buildings. LPD is not as familiar with the buildings, so we put an officer with each member of LPD that was going out there. SO helped set up the perimeter. The sheriff and the chief were both here offering their assistance from the get-go. DPS, DPS Rangers, FBI, Homeland Security were all here helping in fashion they could.
Shaley: I know there is a DPS report and you cannot go into specifics, but can you tell me what has changed since that incident?
Chief Kyle Bonath: DPS did an overview of all campus security. Most of the things were already in place. They made some suggestions on how we process and handle booking and bringing people in to be interviewed. I don’t think there was anything significant. A lot of it would be upgrades in facilities. They did not get into specifics in any particular operations. They came back with some suggestions, more lighting, more cameras to be general, but they were pretty impressed with how the police department operated as a whole. We have done our own review. The one thing I think I will say, it was a traumatic experience for obviously the East family, for our whole department and particularly for the ones who worked close with East and for the ones who were there that night. As I said, the dispatchers, the officers who were there that night and worked and had a relationship with Officer East. We are a small department 57, 110 total employees here. Everybody knew Officer East personally, knew him by name. The first thing to was to make sure the department responded in an appropriate manner, which I was very proud of their actions that night. We had an officer that made the arrest that had a personal decision to make and could have made it go a different way, but he acted professionally and appropriately under the circumstances which we are very proud of also. I back my officers that night 100 percent.
Shaley: The number one question we have received over and over again, is how did Hollis Daniels get that gun from the dorm room into the police department, and what is being done to make sure that can’t happen again?
Chief Kyle Bonath: Our officers conducted themselves in a professional manner. That night, everything that should have been done was done. This is a very unique situation that I think once trial comes, will be more clear. All I can say is I am looking forward to the trial so the facts come out. There is probably an officer safety issue that could occur in 99.9 percent of the issues that probably needs to be put out there, but because of the gag order we cannot discuss that in further detail.
I am confident that I am familiar with all of the facts. I don’t know if it will come out in trial. There is only one person who can tell you how that occurred with absolutely certainty and that is the suspect himself. I don’t know if he will every disclose how that occurred, but we have a pretty good idea. I am not allowed to talk about it until after the trial.
Shaley: If you could say on anything to Hollis Daniels, what would it be?
Chief Kyle Bonath: I have nothing worthwhile or productive to say to the suspect.
Shaley: What about to Officer East’s family?
Chief Kyle Bonath: I have said a lot to them one-on-one personally. They are member of our family they will always be a member of our family. We are going to do all that we can to ensure they know that foer the rest of their lives, an their daughter’s lives.
Shlaey: One year has passed. Does it feel like just yesterday?
Chief Kyle Bonath: When you re-open the wounds to talk about it, it feels like yesterday. The police department, we are 24/7, 365. I think there is not a day that goes by that we don’t remember Officer East and his family. We have to go on about our business on a day-to-day basis and provide service for the students and the officers and faculty here at Texas Tech and continue to do our best and focus on that and not forget the sacrifices that were made by Officer East and his family.
Shaley: Is there anything you would like to address in this interview?
Chief Kyle Bonath: I was there in memorial circle, when the students organized a touching tribute. I was touched then , thinking about of it now, I get touched again. It created a family atmosphere at Texas Tech that I think pulled our department together, let them understand that they were supported that they probably have never seen or witnessed before, and I think they feel that more on a day-to-day basis more so. Unfortunately, from that sacrifice came a lot of growth and a lot of understanding between both the students and the department.


ISLAMABAD/LONDON: The star witness against the daughter and the son-in-law of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Avenfield Apartments reference Robert Radley has admitted that he along with another witness, Akhtar Raja of the Quist Solicitors, had held a meeting with NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi, Director Investigation Amjad Nazir Olakh and another official on Wednesday and they had discussed the notes for his statement and cross-examination.
According to laws of England Wales, a forensic expert cannot meet the prosecutors for tutoring.
A forensic expert is bound by law to appear before a court to comment on his report and answer questions but holding meetings with prosecutors are illegal because it could involve tampering of evidence.
The Accountability Court recorded the evidence of the Radley and Akhtar Riaz Raja on whom the cross-examination was also completed at 10:30pm in the night. Radley had completed his statement on Feb 22 and partial cross-examination. On Friday, the cross-examination completed on Akhtar Riaz Raja as well through a video link from Pakistan’s High Commission in London.
The two are national accountability bureau (NAB) prosecution witnesses in Avenfield apartment’s supplementary corruption reference. Statement and cross- examination of Akhtar Raja: Akhtar Riaz Raja of Quist Solicitors Law firm admitted before the Accountability Court (AC) that he is first cousin of Wajid Zia. When Wajid Zia was appointed as head of the joint investigation team (JIT), he congratulated him on phone. Wajid Zia was his initial contact when his services for the forensic verification of the documents pertaining to Avenfield properties were hired though the six members JIT approved his nomination as a counsel.
He said neither he nor his wife has any political affiliation with any political party based in Pakistan and said that there was much misreporting in the press in this regard. He also told the court that he is dual national both Pakistan and United Kingdom. He also told that JIT on its own could have hired the services of Robert W Radley’s forensic laboratory for verification of the documents. He denied that he was paid a huge amount as fee for the said purpose but whatever the fee he was paid the Supreme Court of Pakistan knows about it. Raja also admitted that neither Mian Nawaz Sharif nor Maryam Nawaz was a defendant in the case pertaining Al-Towfeek investment company in which the High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division in London had charged the four London flats to the extent of interest. In fact, Shehbaz Sharif and two other members of the Sharif family were defendant in that particular case.
Raja is the principal of the above mentioned law firm through which JIT formed for Panama case had hired the services of the Robert W Radley forensic laboratory.
In his statement before the AC, Raja submitted that he is a qualified solicitor and established his law firm by the name of ‘Quist Solicitors’ in 1994. He was engaged by the JIT on May 12, 2017 to provide professional legal services in relation to the Supreme Court of Pakistan proceedings in various writ petitions against the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family. I received copies of the bundles submitted to the Supreme Court in order to carry out my investigation. I discovered a letter dated January 5, 2017, that was written by Jeremy Freeman, who referred to the two trust deed declarations of Nelson and Nescol companies, Raja said. Freeman, in the letter, said that Hussain Nawaz Sharif attended his office with the declarations, and he signed and witnessed the document on February 4, 2006. Legal counsel for Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and Captain (R) Muhammad Safdar objected over the letter and said that it is a photocopy that has been attested.
Meanwhile, Raja carried on with his statement and said that he carefully examined the documents at the same time when the JIT was also inspecting these. We discovered numerous irregularities and it appeared a Frankenstein version of forgery that was committed in the documents. In the cross-examination, however, Raja said that in his statement to the NAB Investigation Officer (IO), he did not mention ‘numerous irregularities’. He also admitted in the cross-examination that in his statement to the JIT, he did not stated Frankenstein version of forgery. Raja said that JIT instructed me to search and appoint a forensic expert. The forgery was apparent even to the lay eye and these documents deserved an expert examination, Raja said.
Talking about the Jeremy Freeman’s letter dated January 5, 2017, Raja said that he wrote an email to him, but Jeremy didn’t reply and then I send a chaser through email and by hand as well at the given address. On June 29, 2017, I received a response from Jeremy. Freeman said that Hussain Nawaz attended his office with the original documents and with that the trust deed. Jeremy witnessed signatures of Hussain Nawaz and one Mr Waqar Ahmed. Freeman in his reply also confirmed that the contents of the letter dated January 5, 2017, were true, Raja said. Upon instruction by the JIT, I provided the documents for forensic verification to Mr Radley those were about Nelson, Nescol and Coomber companies. Raja said that he also prepared a commentary about the Al-Towfeek case. At this the defense counsel objected and said that under no law a solicitor can write a commentary and this cannot be exhibited as a piece of evidence. Raja, however, said that he provided his commentary to the JIT upon their asking. My commentary refers to the JIT evidence that refers to a March 1999 judgement in Al-Twofeek case that was decided by the High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division in London where Shahbaz Sharif was among the defendants. March 1999 judgement was over $20million while a charging order nisi made on November 5, 1999. Raja said that his commentary was based on a May 2000 article that was published in daily Dawn and I duly mentioned that article. During cross-examination, Raja first said he was not part of NAB investigation but later admitted that he recorded his statement to a NAB investigation officer (IO)--Muhammad Imran. He didn’t disclosed that how much fee he was paid and said that it was privileged communication and under the same rule, Jeremy Freeman did not disclose that how much fee he was paid. To a question that under what law he was engaged as a solicitor, Raja said that it was under the rules of England and Wales. About Pakistani law, he said that the Pakistani Supreme Court had initiated action, and he was convinced that it was in line with Pakistani law as well.
Mr Radley here Friday continued with his cross-examination that was completed. He said that he used Video Spector Competitor to examine the documents that were presented to him for forensic verification. With this machine one can tremendously magnify the document and can do the ultra violet analysis as well. This machine can also differentiate between different types of inks, he added. The two documents I examined were little different in size and formation. Radley said that he is not a computer geek, but his training was in fonts. Any IT expert could download Beta-1 in 2005 that included the Calibri font, Radley said. He said that he didn’t write in his report that before January 31, 2007, Calibri font could not be used.
While hearing of the case at several points there was exchange of harsh words between the prosecution team and the defense counsels. Defence counsel objected of prosecution head deputy prosecutor general Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi, who is in London and was interfering during the proceedings. AC judge Muhammad Bashir at one point scolded Sardar Muzaffar for his attitude by saying, ‘Muzaffar won’t you let us work’.
After video link proceedings in Avenfield apartments case from Pakistan High Commission in London, Barrister Amjad Malik has said forensic expert Robert W Radley did not know that his reports would be used in a court of law, or it would affect the prime minister or form the basis of a NAB reference against the Sharif family.


Planning is quietly underway for construction of a soccer stadium in Boston, one that would bring the resurgent New England Revolution closer to their urban fan base, according to people familiar with the Kraft family’s search for a site.
Among the sites under consideration is a strip of city-owned land off Interstate 93 on Frontage Road, where Boston has a large yard for towed cars and public works. The South Boston property offers easy access from major highways and is near the MBTA’s Red Line as well as rail lines at nearby South Station.
Numerous sources said the Kraft family has been meeting with state and city officials to discuss the stadium and possible locations over the past several months, with the team focusing on Frontage Road. It was not known Monday what additional sites the Krafts were considering.
The Krafts, owners of the New England Patriots and the New England Revolution, have tried several times to build a stadium in Boston, first for the Patriots in the mid-1990s and again more recently for the Revolution.
Video: Soccer stadium in Boston?
The Kraft family is exploring building a soccer stadium for the New England Revolution in Boston.
The Revolution have acknowledged that playing in the cavernous Gillette Stadium, located well outside of Boston’s urban core, is not an ideal setting for soccer. In October, the Revolution’s president told the Globe that a preferred size for a new soccer stadium would seat 18,000 to 22,000 fans.
The Frontage Road location is adjacent to an industrial area that the group organizing Boston’s efforts to host the 2024 Summer Olympics had identified as a potential location for the main Olympics stadium. Kraft is also a member of the Olympics group.
Although some people familiar with the discussions said the Kraft proposal could conflict with the Olympic group’s efforts for the bigger stadium, others said there is enough room in the area to accommodate both facilities. The Olympic committee is focusing on a site on Widett Circle, just to the south of the city property, that hosts a collection of food wholesalers.
RELATED | Discuss: Soccer stadium a good idea?
Kraft’s timing differs from the Boston Olympics group’s. One source said the sports mogul is pushing to have the soccer stadium in place within five years.
The city yard is also a candidate for a new homeless shelter to replace a facility on Long Island that was abruptly shuttered last month after the harbor bridge was condemned.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Martin J. Walsh would only say that any proposal for the city-owned site would be subject to a bidding process and reviews by public agencies.
Though the Krafts have previously explored building a soccer stadium in Somerville or Revere, the new push comes as soccer is enjoying renewed popularity locally and throughout the United States.
The Revolution spent $4.3 million earlier this season to sign Jermaine Jones, a star of the US men’s national team that advanced to the Round of 16 at the World Cup this summer in Brazil. The global soccer event drew record TV ratings in the United States, while Major League Soccer in May signed an eight-year, $720 million broadcast rights agreement with ESPN, Fox, and Univision, a fivefold increase over its previous deal.
Since signing Jones, the Revs have torn up the league, advancing deep into the playoffs; the team will play the New York Red Bulls this weekend in the semifinals.
The Revolution are among the few MLS teams not playing in a soccer-specific stadium. Many of the other stadiums are relatively small, intimate venues; the Revs, by comparison, are unable to fill a massive football stadium, despite logging their highest attendance this season in six years: 16,681 on average.
Club officials have acknowledged the emptiness can be a put-off for fans, because being part of a rousing crowd in a packed house is one of the appeals of live sporting events.
In an interview with the Globe in October, Revolution president Brian Bilello said a smaller stadium would also allow the team to sell high-priced premium seats. Club sections at Gillette are so removed that they are not appealing, he said.
A city stadium would also bring the Revolution closer to the young urban fans who are driving the league’s growth. Four in 10 MLS fans are 34 or younger, according to Nielsen Media Research, compared with 24 percent of Major League Baseball fans.
Kraft’s last major attempt to build a stadium in Boston fell apart amid heavy opposition from neighborhood residents and some of the city’s most powerful politicians, the fallout creating hard feelings on both sides.
The most recent talks date back to at least the past summer and have involved the possibility of adding light rail service to the site from South Station, said a source who was briefed on those plans.
Many details would need to be worked out before the project could go forward. Because the site is publicly owned, it would be subject to a bidding process as well as lengthy reviews by city and state regulators.
At this stage, it is unclear how the stadium would be financed and whether any public funding would be needed to support the project or its infrastructure.
After privately financing Gillette Stadium, the Krafts so far have not pledged to do the same for a soccer stadium, which probably would cost more than $100 million.
As for the Olympics, Boston was named one of four finalists by the United States Olympic Committee in June for a possible bid for the 2024 Games, along with Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
The USOC is expected to decide in the next few months if it will submit a bid, and, if so, which US city it will advance into the global competition for the Games. The International Olympic Committee in 2017 will choose the host of the 2024 Olympics.
New England Revolution starters posed last March.
The New England Revolution are considering plans for a new stadium closer to Boston. The team is further from the nearest major city hall than any MLS team except FC Dallas. Here is a comparison of driving distances from city centers to stadiums for all MLS teams, including Orlando City SC and New York City FC, which are joining next season, and Chivas USA, which is folding.
Callum Borchers at callum.borchers@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @callumborchers. Mark Arsenault can be reached at marsenault@globe.com.


In booth SU10125, attendees will see new features and capabilities demonstrated across the Synamedia portfolio, offering media companies, telecom and pay-TV operators innovative infrastructure transformation strategies, proactive rights enforcement security, and new ways to generate revenue.
"At Synamedia, our commitment to uncovering value and new revenue opportunities for our customers runs deep, and every day we work to bring together broadcast and OTT media services to transform video experiences," said Yves Padrines, CEO of Synamedia. "Our roadmap, proven technologies and established industry expertise will be demonstrated at NAB via real-world scenarios, showing customers how we can enable them to extend their current offerings or add new capabilities, all while maintaining a seamless viewer experience."
For more than 30 years, Synamedia's technology has been securing pay-TV operators' broadcast and streaming content, services and revenues around the world. VideoGuard currently protects more than 320 million active client devices and more than $60 billion in pay-TV revenues annually.
Video Processing: Synamedia's video processing solutions enable media companies and operators to generate new revenue streams by securely delivering premium quality broadcast and broadband video within a converged media infrastructure – in any codec, over any network, to any screen. These technologies and solutions can match traditional broadcast quality, reliability, and cost in streaming deployments. They also enable terrestrial broadcasters and TV networks to provide ultra HD, HDR, immersive audio, targeted ads and hybrid media transport using IP. The portfolio, including never-before-seen capabilities, will be a centerpiece of Synamedia's NAB presence.
Infinite Platform: Infinite is a cloud services platform for pay-TV operators that processes, secures, distributes, and monetizes premium video on a wide range of consumer devices. It can be hosted in the cloud, on-premise, or in a hybrid cloud deployment model. The Infinite area of Synamedia's booth will feature its Cloud DVR offering, which is designed to help operators attract new customers, reconnect cord cutters, and increase the lifetime value of a subscriber base. The Cloud DVR solution adapts to changing industry and regulatory needs; it can be built to scale with millions of subscribers and hundreds of millions of recorded programs on a single system.
Credentials Sharing Insight - Using behavioral analytics and machine learning, this solution helps create a better and safer experience for viewers. It analyzes OTT usage data to detect and classify credentials sharing accounts, resulting in actionable criteria for a targeted response. Real-time dashboards highlight unusual sharing activity along with the behavioral pattern of each sharer within the account. For casual password sharing, the provider can apply specific policies – such as an offer for a premium shared subscription to friends and family for a small additional fee, boosting incremental revenues. This solution can also be used to detect and shut down large-scale, for-profit accounts managed by professional hackers.
Watermarking – Synamedia's watermarking solutions enable content owners, broadcasters, and OTT providers to protect content at all stages of the value chain, while also addressing the varying security threats faced by distribution partners in various regions. Synamedia's pre-integrated solution of forensic watermarking technology in ProIRDs empowers content owners and providers to quickly and reliably identify the distribution path or affiliate in case of a leak. Synamedia's streaming watermark solutions can identify the sources of streaming piracy for live and VoD content, without requiring client integration or extra CDN load. To simplify deployment even further, its media plane enables OTT providers to leverage this pre-integrated capability out of the box for live streaming and with no impact on latency.
Adam Davies, Product Manager, will participate on the How can big data and analytics improve the TV experience? panel discussion on Wednesday, April 10, from 12:00-12:40 pm, Connected Media|IP Debate Theater, SU10114.
We're helping service providers around the world to deliver, protect and monetize video content so they can win in the age of Infinite Entertainment. We do that with the world's most complete, secure and advanced end-to-end open video delivery solution. And we're trusted by over 200 top satellite DTH, cable, telco and OTT operators, broadcasters, and media companies.


NEW YORK – On Thursday, long after midnight, Yoni Hikind’s “mobile headquarters” was parked on a central avenue in Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood in front of a Jewish restaurant. The restaurant was packed with Jewish and some non-Jewish patrons and served cholent and other traditional dishes in a kind of culinary preview to Shabbat.
The local elections usually cause a yawn in New York, given the expected reelection of Mayor Bill de Blasio. Even before the deadly terrorist attack last week in lower Manhattan, which has dominated all the headlines, it seemed as if the city was indifferent to who will get a seat in the city council. All this applies to most of New York, but definitely not to Borough Park, a mainly ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Brooklyn, where the battle between two candidates has gone out to the streets, complete with slandering flyers and pashkevilim and kids tearing down posters and lots of traffic on social media.
The NY 44th District is made up of Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Gravesend, Kensington, Midwood and Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. Hikind and his main rival, Kalman Yeger, seek to replace retiring City Councilman David Greenfield. Greenfield supports Yeger as his successor. Daily on his Twitter account he reveals his negative opinion of Yoni Hikind, who is also the son of Greenfield’s political rival, New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind. The third candidate, with no sponsor or realistic chance of winning, is Harold Tischler.
All three are interested in the ultra-Orthodox vote, the main component of the Borough Park neighborhood, but they officially refrain from presenting themselves as exclusive Haredi representatives on the city council. Last Sunday, hundreds of people gathered in a Borough Park hall, part of a Bais Yaakov girls’ school, for a public debate organized by Hamodia newspaper.
According to Hamodia’s website, Yeger emphasized his experience in the political arena, while Hikind talked about seeking to bring people together. Asked whether the government should be able to dictate yeshiva curricula, particularly secular studies, all candidates stressed their opposition. The three candidates remained polite and respectable, saying they represented all the groups in the district, as the real battle stayed outside the hall.
In recent days, Hikind supporters have distributed videos filmed last Saturday by security cameras, in which Haredi children wear Hikind election posters, despite the fact that it was Shabbat. On the other hand, in posters that were distributed in the neighborhood by Hikind supporters, a photograph of Yeger appears with the caption “Kippa, where are you?!” and “Yeger Shleger” – Bully Yegar.
Another flyer presented Kalman Yeger as someone who actually opposed yeshivas, whereas Yoni Hikind was defined as faithful to yeshivas. Yeger supporters are even more active in the poster front, printing a series of posters mocking Hikind under the heading “Where is Yona’le?” He is portrayed in the posters as lazy and inexperienced and hostile to the yeshivas, with comments such as: “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?” The posters, for the most part, are written in Yiddish.
While Hikind and Yeger are doing their best to get the support of rabbis and congregations – or at least a photo with a rabbi to post on Twitter – the rumor industry surrounding them is flourishing. In the past few days, Yeger had to deny rumors he had ties with and is been supported by the anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour.


An armed opposition group holding four police officers hostage in the Armenian capital of Yerevan are continuing their standoff with authorities, the Sputnik news agency reported. A third officer from the group of seven initial hostages was released on Monday afternoon.
One officer was killed and three more wounded when the armed gunmen seized the building.
The gunmen, who have been identified as members of the opposition group Founding Parliament, issued a statement on Facebook demanding the release of their leader Zhirayr Sefilian. The opposition politician was arrested last month on charges of weapons possession.
The group released a video on Facebook showing several men in flak jackets armed with assault rifles, as well as several hostages inside the police compound.
In the video, they urge Armenians to take to the streets and overthrow the government. Their call to action has so far received no noticeable response, Radio Liberty reported.
The Founding Parliament group, whose supporters regularly hold protests demanding the resignation of President Sarkisian, are especially critical of the government’s response to the continuing conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The break-away republic is claimed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan, and dozens have died in clashes between the two sides this year.
The NSS held negotiations with the hostage takers during the night of July 17, but failed to resolve the standoff, the Radio Liberty news website reported.
General Hunan Poghosian, first deputy chief of the Armenian police force, said that Sefilian would not be released and urged the hostage takers to surrender, Radio Liberty reported.
“If they don’t listen to our appeal we will neutralize them, because killers cannot be dealt with in any other way,” he said Sunday.
Sefilyan, a fierce government critic, was jailed for 18 months in 2006 after calling for a “violent coup against the government.” He was arrested again last year along with several of his supporters on suspicion of planning a coup but was released shortly afterwards.


It was Nick Saban’s first year as Miami’s coach, and the team got off to a horrible start, which reached a low point at Cleveland with a humiliating 22-0 loss to the Browns. The loss left the Dolphins with a 3-7 record.
Saban gave his seventh losing postgame speech and then asked if anyone had something to add.
“Never quit!” Taylor yelled as he threw stuff around the locker room. “You never [bleeping] quit! I don’t give a damn if we’re up by 22 or down by 22, you play your [butts] off from whistle to whistle and never [bleeping] quit. If you don’t want to be here, ¦if you don’t want to be a part of this team and give all you’ve got each and every play, then we don’t want you here and we don’t need you here.
The Dolphins flew to Oakland the next week and Taylor collected three sacks, including a safety, helping the team to a 33-21 victory.
The Dolphins didn’t lose again that season.
“I don’t know why I said the part about, ‘If I have to I’ll pay your salary myself,’ ” Taylor said. “Matt Roth told me I scared the heck out of him because I might have hit Matt with something accidentally when I was making my point and throwing stuff around.
Taylor was by that stage far from thinking he might just be a practice-squad player. He had realized that wouldn’t be his career path soon after he arrived in Miami.
Taylor will find out Saturday if he will be considered one of the best of all time.


Texas game wardens use heavy equipment to transport an 11-foot alligator away from a travel trailer in the Holiday Villages Subdivision on Lake Livingston on Thursday, Oct. 13.
An 11-foot alligator was found lurking under the travel trailer in the Holiday Villages subdivision on Lake Livingston in the early morning hours Thursday. The unwelcome guest was discovered around 5:45 a.m. when the homeowner Curtis Davis stepped outside his travel trailer to enjoy the brisk morning air.
Davis told authorities he heard something hissing behind him and turned around to find a very large alligator resting under his home. Davis quickly went back inside and called 9-1-1.
"Due to the San Jacinto County game warden being temporarily assigned to the border, Polk County game wardens David Johnson and Brandon Thacker responded to the location," Chief Deputy Joe Schultea Jr. with the San Jacinto County Sheriff's Office said. "After assessing the situation, it was decided to bring in a 'gator wrangler' to assist."
The wrangler, Stephen Moye of Livingston, soon arrived on the scene and successfully trapped the alligator alive. Due to the weight of the alligator, a tractor was used to haul it from under the house. It was then relocated in a native habitat in an area away from human populations.
"The location where the alligator was located is approximately one mile from Lake Livingston. Residents near waterways or the lake should always use caution when outside so as to not become entangled with the native animals in our area," Schultea said.


It’s been suspected, and Apple itself hasn’t missed the marketing opportunity, but it looks like the iPhone and iPod Touch are turning into serious gaming systems. The latest confirmation of this? EA’s releasing a bunch of big-franchise games.
EA’s upcoming games are Need For Speed Shift, Spore Creatures, and The Simpsons Game–titles that are among the company’s upper-tier offerings on other gaming systems. As noted over at VentureBeat, these are titles that could be called second-generation iPhone games, coming after the initial wave of simple, casual games that were quickly written (or were classics that ported across from other platforms) in order to make the most of the App Store gold rush.
Those first iPhone games were by no means a bad thing–they quickly established how powerful the iPhone really was, and demonstrated the prodigious power of the App Store. And that then attracted the bigger names in game writing. Which is where EA enters the scene. The notion that these three new big titles are “second generation” comes from the time and investment EA has made in optimizing the games’ software to squeeze even more out of the iPhone’s processing and graphical powers, and in adjusting the game play to suit the touchscreen and accelerometer systems in the device.
Hence Need For Speed Shift has much better graphics than an earlier Shift title, with shadows and lighting effects made possible by the OpenGL 2.0 ES capabilities of the phone, and has tilt-control steering. And the cash investment EA has made is demonstrated by the 20 car options licensed from real car makers. Spore Creatures is a prequel to the successful Spore, with simpler 2-D graphics than Shift, but with the same sort of complex creature editing that makes the full Spore title so clever. The Simpsons Game speaks for itself, and is a neat tie-up of the iPhone’s touchscreen, purported e-comic powers and a highly prominent title.
What’s the bigger picture though? It’s an interesting one: The App Store has seen an explosive growth, and the biggest slice of the app pie consists of games. So far the titles have mainly been new, or simple classics with the odd big-name game thrown in. But with EA spending the kind of money they seem to be on the new games, it’s an undeniable sign that the App Store is maturing, and turning into a big enough market that the billion dollar gaming industry is sensing opportunities. If more and more big-name games make their way onto the platform, that’s going to radically change the landscape–it’ll be harder for mom and pop games to get noticed, for one. And it’ll really highlight the iPhone/iPod as the future for portable gaming…especially when the next iPhone comes out in mid-2010 with even more impressive graphics and processing powers.
I have just one complaint: These three games may be sweet, but where the heck is my iPhone version of SSX. Surely the accelerometer and touchscreen are just built for this sort of fast-paced snowboarding title, hey EA Sports?


haircut and dress sense to match.
and Darwin had a stammer.
and management issues are increasingly at the heart of productive research.
rather sickly children, although less generally sickly adults.
a wife in my art’).
their own offspring have been spared a similar fate.
by signing up for mathematics tutorials at the University of Southampton.
it makes me feel embarrassed about being descended from an ape’.
bus at the tender age of 14.
adults reach for the remote control).
God-awful dress sense and the frustrations of always going to bed alone?
March Nicholls is editor of the journal Evolutionary Trends in Plants.


Giants third baseman Matt Duffy finished second to unanimous winner Kris Bryant of the Chicago Cubs in National League Rookie of the Year voting announced Monday by the Baseball Writers” Association of America.
Bryant finished first on all 30 ballots submitted by the Baseball Writers — two from each N.L. city. Duffy was second on 22 of the 30 ballots and third on four more.
All three top vote-getters on the N.L. ballot played third base, with Bryant and Duffy followed by the Pittsburgh Pirates” Jung Ho Kang, who is listed as an infielder because he also played quite a bit at shortstop. Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard was fourth. Dodgers center fielder Joc Pederson (Palo Alto High) and Cardinals outfielder Stephen Piscotty (Amador Valley High, Stanford) each got one third-place vote.
The American League rookie award also was announced, with Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa winning over Cleveland Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor and Minnesota Twins infielder Miguel Sano.
A”s outfielder Billy Burns got one second-place vote and three thirds.
Duffy, 24, might have been the biggest surprise among the Rookie of the Year finalists from either league. He made the Giants” opening day roster as a utility player but eventually forced his way into the lineup with his hot hitting and solid defense at third, eventually displacing Casey McGehee, who struggled at the plate and was released in July.
After posting a .239 batting average in April, Duffy hit over .300 until falling off to .289 in September and October. For the season, he wound up hitting .295 with 12 homers and 77 RBIs. He also was 12 for 12 in stolen bases and played solid defense, making 12 errors in 134 games at third.
Duffy had little chance to beat out Bryant, a phenom in spring training who spent less than two weeks at Triple-A before he was called up to Chicago and became an N.L. All-Star. Bryant hit .275 with 26 homers and 99 RBIs as Chicago returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
Mays to be honored: Giants legend Willie Mays is among 17 people who will be honored by President Barack Obama with the nation”s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The late Yogi Berra is the only other sports figure who will be recognized at a Nov. 24 ceremony.
Former Giants scout dies: George Genovese, a minor league shortstop and manager who became a scout for the Giants and signed such future standouts as Bobby Bonds, George Foster and Gary Matthews, has died. He was 93.
Genovese spent 30 years with the team, signing some 40 players who made the major leagues, including Jack Clark, Chili Davis, Dave Kingman, Matt Williams, Royce Clayton and Randy Moffitt.
Giants prospect suspended: Shortstop Travious Relaford has been suspended for the first 50 games of next season after a second positive test for a drug of abuse under baseball”s minor league drug program. Relaford, 23, hit .237 for Class A Augusta.
Mariners-Rangers trade: Seattle acquired center fielder acquired Leonys Martin from Texas as part of a four-player trade that sent right-handed reliever Tom Wilhelmsen to the Rangers.


Firefighters will be able to tackle fires from outside a burning building using technology that can blast water through concrete and steel.
The Ultra High Pressure Lances, branded Coldcut Cobra, will enable crews to tackle the fire quickly from outside by injecting water through walls and doors.
The new technology will be carried on a £7.6 million fleet of 40 bespoke fire engines and initially will be rolled out mainly in rural areas.
Firefighters demonstrated the new high pressure lance in action at the Scottish Fire and Rescue National Training Centre in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, yesterday.
They used the lance to cut through a door and blast water into a building with a fire inside, cooling the temperature hundreds of degrees centigrade in less than a minute.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) Chief Officer Alasdair Hay said: “We ask our firefighters to work in inherently dangerous environments, we often expose them to temperatures of 500 degrees centigrade as they get into the building, get on top of the fire and apply the water to it.
“What we saw today is another tool in our armoury. This gives us the ability to successfully extinguish a fire externally by injecting high pressure water in through a door, a wall, a window and it doesn’t expose firefighters to temperatures in excess of 500C, it’s safer for them.
He added: “This is the very pinnacle of modern firefighting – with this proven technology our crews can begin firefighting within seconds of arrival by cutting straight to the heart of the flames.
“Combined with these state-of-the-art appliances our retained firefighters will be able to respond quickly and decisively to keep saving lives.
The bespoke appliances can carry up to four firefighters, are more agile than their traditional counterparts and have been designed to meet the needs of Scotland’s most rural areas. Built by Scottish firm Emergency One, each one will also carry a defibrillator.
In addition 32, 18-tonne fire engines will also shortly be welcomed into the SFRS fleet.


Well, this is it. It’s been a year and Boston College lacrosse finally has a chance to erase the pain of last year’s title game loss, having knocked off Princeton, Stony Brook, and Maryland, en route to a second-straight National Championship appearance. The Eagles (22-1, 7-0 Atlantic Coast), with a lone loss on the season, avoid the team that dealt it to them—North Carolina—and instead face off against James Madison, a team that made an unlikely run out of the Colonial Athletic Association. The Dukes (20-1, 6-0 CAA) knocked off two top-10 teams—Florida and the Tar Heels—on their way to the championship game.
Sunday, May 27, 12 p.m.
The game will be broadcasted on ESPNU and available to stream online at WatchESPN.
1) Sam Apuzzo was held to a lone goal in the first half against Maryland, continuing her trend of low-impact games as opposing defenses locked in on her—the Tewaaraton Award finalist managed just six total points across the first two rounds. Apuzzo woke up, though, and rattled off three second-half goals, including the decisive final two of the game.
2) The Eagles’ run through the tournament hasn’t been a breeze—they won the first three games by a combined nine goals. That mark is a far cry from where BC was entering the title game a year ago, where it reached the final with a plus-18 goal differential. What that means? To be determined, but the Eagles have proved they have what it takes when the going gets tough late in matchups.
3) Over the course of the year, BC has established a characteristic resilience, and it was on full display Friday night. The Eagles went down, 6-2, early to the defending champions and didn’t bat an eye, battling back for the win. It was the same story with Stony Brook in the Elite Eight, where they trailed, 11-8, but escaped with the overtime victory. It’s something to keep an eye on if the Dukes seize an early lead—BC fans have no reason to panic.
1) The Dukes boasted four multi-goal scorers in the win over the Tar Heels to advance, a diverse attack that has been firing on all cylinders this season. JMU—the 12th-best offensive team in the nation—ranks just a hair behind the Eagles in scoring and has six players with 25-plus goals.
2) The player to watch for JMU is obvious on the surface, as Kristen Gaudian is a Tewaaraton Award finalist after putting together a 77-goal, 16-assist season. However, when Gaudian is limited like Apuzzo was early, the Dukes have several capable second options. Against UNC, it was Haley Warden pacing the offense, as the midfielder totaled five goals.
3) BC, alongside Stony Brook, piled up the wins in the regular season, but the hottest team down the stretch has arguably been the Dukes. They have won 13 games in a row, 10 more than any other team in the country. The streak includes ranked victories over UNC, Florida, Towson (twice), and Virginia.
All the way back in 1993, when a gallon of gas was just over a dollar, JMU knocked off BC, 16-9, in the penultimate game of the regular season. The Eagles were a year removed from forming their program, and wrapped up the season four games under .500. It was one of three sub-.500 years for head coach Sherren Granese, who manned the helm for just four years.
With wins over Stony Brook and Maryland, two heavyweights and early title favorites, BC has a strong chance at taking home its first National Championship. The Dukes are making their first appearance in the final game of the year, a striking similarity to the Eagles of a season ago. It’s a matchup that’s good for the sport, two teams vying for their first-ever championships, and has the potential to be a high-octane, back-and-forth affair. The favorite? It’s almost too close to call. 5Dimes is one of the only websites that offers betting lines for the women’s lacrosse postseason, and it has the Dukes as very slight favorites (the moneyline is BC -110, JMU -130). The teams are nearly identical—JMU is 12th in offense, sixth in defense while BC is 11th and eighth, respectively—so expect a narrow win for whoever emerges on top.


The TACPs have done this for a while and this is the first time they have actually put out press ahead of the event. Congrats National Guard for publicizing a great event. the TACPs are really cool air controllers who travel with Army or Marine units to guide planes to drop ordinance on the bad guys. IN the past, they have run around the base in Bartonville. This year, they are running to Jacob Frazier‘s grave in Elwood, Ill. Support our TACPs. Contribute to raise money for fallen service members and remember Jake Frazier.
Team Peoria is set to participate in the 4th Annual TACP 24-Hour Challenge beginning at 1 p.m. CST on March 26. The event will continue for 24 hours concluding at 12:59 p.m. CST on March 27, 2015. For this year’s event, Team Peoria will run 129 miles from Peoria, to the gravesite of SSgt. Jacob Frazier in Elwood.
This event has a local connection as Jacob Frazier, a TACP from the 169th Air Support Operations Squadron (ASOS) in Peoria, was killed near Geresk, Afghanistan in 2003 supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. During the TACP 24-Hour Challenge, TACP units throughout the globe join their base community and local populace to create teams.
This year, the Illinois Air National Guard, represented by TACPs from the 169th ASOS and service members from the 182nd Air Wing, have merged with their local community to create Team Peoria. The TACP 24-Hour Challenge was created as an event to remember and honor the fallen Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) members and raise money for the event sponsor: the TACP Association. In past years, the TACP Association has provided support to several TACPs who were wounded in battle and have assisted the families of those killed in action.
The Association relieves financial pressures for the families in their darkest hours so that mourning may occur. The primary mission of the TACP is to control close air support for joint combat maneuver units. This community of warriors has always been one of the smallest career fields in the entire scope of the Armed Services. It’s that small size that has created the camaraderie upon which the Association is based.
To donate, click here or go to https://fundly.com/2015-24-hour-challenge-team-peoria-2015#, The organization is a 501c(19) non-profit organization. For more information, please email Matthew Morris at mmorri86@gmail.com.


Billy Mays didn't invent the art of the television huckster, but he rode it further than almost anyone who came before him.
Long before his sudden and shocking death yesterday, Mays had made himself far better known than any product he pitched.
Exactly how Mays became the dominant brand in the TV sales game is hard to explain.
He represented everything Americans say we don't like about salesmen.
At some point in most of his pitches, Mays would stop explaining why the product was good and go into hard-sell overdrive, his voice rising into a cross between a yell and a bark.
If you don't buy this, you're an idiot, he seemed to be saying.
It might not have been pleasant, but it helped sell a lot of OxiClean.
He made a smart decision, it turned out, in going the hard-sell route.
Nice guys are often considered better long-term bets in the sales game, as witnessed by the recently departed Ed McMahon, who used his comforting persona to sell insurance and mortgage products to seniors.
The "Yowza-yowza-yowza" style has been a winner, too, even before television.
Some of the great attractions in rural America a century ago were medicine shows that would roll into town, serve up some song and dance and finish with a salesman, often a bogus "doctor," pitching a quack product like Hadacol, an alleged miracle cure-all that was really just cheap booze.
Billy Mays was in some ways the television incarnation of a medicine-show quack.
More important, he knew the crowd.


All three network morning shows previewed Super Bowl LIII with on-the-ground coverage in Atlanta, Friday, Feb. 1, 2019.
“CBS This Morning,” whose network is carrying the big game this year, had James Brown join the show’s normal anchor team, sans Gayle King, who were all back in New York.
The show also turned its graphics to red, white and blue and added a “Countdown to Super Bowl LIII” tier to its lower thirds.
NBC News‘ ‘Today‘ had a ‘split’ edition of sorts, with primary co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb in New York and Al Roker and Craig Melvin, who are de factor co-hosts, were live in Atlanta for multiple hits throughout the show. ‘Today’ was originating from Centennial Olympic Park from a special pavilion set up to mark the occasion.
‘Good Morning America‘ also previewed the game, including a ‘Tell T.J.’ segment featuring T.J. Holmes surprising a local business owner at the the indoor ‘NFL Play Football Field’ inside the Super Bowl Experience in the World Congress Center.
While CBS holds the official U.S. broadcast rights to the game itself this year — a responsibility that rotates among ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox — other media outlets are still free to cover the festivities surrounding the game, including using the trademarked Super Bowl name as long as it is packaged under news coverage.
There are restrictions on using the name “Super Bowl” in promotions — such as for local sales, however.


Gussy, a photogenic poodle on legendary New Orleans piano player Fats Domino's latest album, slipped away last weekend while visiting an Altamonte Springs family with her owner.
New Orleans photographer Syndey Byrd was in town on business and seeing friends.
Veterinarian Arthur Gobel spotted Gussy dodging cars on Burnell Road. The vet and his wife took the poodle home. Gobel returned to Burnell Road Monday and found the missing-dog signs a distraught Byrd had posted.
Gussy and her photographer owner are back together.
The recent opening of the Bahama Breeze restaurant in Altamonte Springs turned into a windfall for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida.
The restaurant on State Road 436 in front of Altamonte Mall raised $4,000 for the clubs during a recent soft opening of the Caribbean restaurant, the latest venture for Darden Restaurants.
Guests made donations instead of paying for their meals at the suggestion of restaurant employees.
Longwood Commissioner Jim Carrico wants the city to establish a newsletter to keep residents informed.
The consensus among other commissioners is that a newsletter is a fine idea if the price is right.
Carrico is impressed with Maitland's monthly newsletter. He noted that Maitland's newsletter is printed in color and includes messages from the mayor, the council and department heads. It also has a calendar of community events and information on meetings.
"Not in my back lot," was the response Seminole County commissioners got recently to the idea of relocating adult entertainment businesses to the Midway Commerce Park or an area near the Orlando-Sanford Airport.
John Paskoski, president of the property owners association, argued the park's covenant prohibited food and beverage establishments and activity or material that was pornographic.
Added Judy Colley, who owns a small business in the park: "This frightens me because I thought this was going to be my retirement, my children's inheritance. . . . But that's not going to happen. I don't have a problem with these businesses but with their clientele. . . . I'm going to be afraid to get out of my car at night."
Jessie Whitaker had similar concerns about possibly locating the adult businesses in her neighborhood off Cameron Avenue east of Sanford.
"Sanford's known as a bedroom community - this is going to give new meaning to the word," she said. "If it is so good, why didn't the five of you (commissioners) vote to have it in your neighborhood?"
Former Seminole County School Board Member Larry Strickler is helping assemble a cabinet of business leaders to advise incoming Orange County Schools Superintendent Dennis Smith, who starts work July 1.
The business people will try to bring the corporate and education worlds together.
Strickler, a regional manager of BellSouth of Central Florida, is co-chairing the informal group with Pat Engfer, general manager of Hyatt Regency Orlando Airport.
The School Board used to have a business advisory board. That group was set up by county government to oversee how impact fees were spent.
The board eventually was disbanded, leading business leaders to complain the school system didn't want their advice.
This effort will be different, Strickler said. He and Engfer want to help the school system recruit a group of business leaders to advise the new superintendent.
"You need a group of people you can call on not only to solve problems but also to prevent problems," Strickler said.


Celebrities, Artists and Influencers stop by the Stoop for fun and unfiltered chat with host, Nessa.
Some are upset after a video surfaced showing sorority sisters at the University of New Hampshire singing "Gold Digger" by Kanye West.
A controversial video taken at an Alpha Phi sorority event and posted on social media is spreading far beyond the campus of the University of New Hampshire.
The video shows a room of rowdy Alpha Phi members singing Kanye West's "Gold Digger," with the hashtag #UNH. The All Eyez on UNH Facebook page shared the video, criticizing the sorority sisters because the song's chorus uses the n-word, which the girls can be seen singing.
"In the context of the song, it's just a good word to rhyme with 'digger,'" said Ben Factor a student at UNH.
Factor is one of the hundreds of students talking about the lyrics on Thursday.
"I'm sure they weren't going about singing that to try to be racist or hurtful," said Bridget Keaveney.
"We believe this showed poor judgment," the school said in a statement. "At the same time, the university statement suggesting there would be an investigation and possible disciplinary action was not accurate. The students have apologized and will play an active role in working to improve our campus culture as we move forward. "
Elysa Caisey, who is on the board of the Black Students Union, said she was not happy the university is not taking any action.
"It wasn't a form of racism, but it was unacceptable," said Caisey. "When you use a word like that, you need to understand the implications behind it."
Caisey said they should be held accountable.
"It's sad they don't understand the connotation behind using that word, and at the end of the day, it reflects the culture that's always been here at UNH, and something has to give," said Caisey.
"The use of that word runs counter to our values," Dean of Students John T. Kirkpatrick said in a statement. "Moreover, it is a word that diminishes members of our community. The posting has been reported to the national chapter. Both the university and the national chapter are investigating the matter."
Alpha Phi has been reported to their national chapter. The sorority has issued a statement to the university apologizing for the incident reiterating that they do not condone the behavior.


Could global warming actually be good for the forests?
The researchers speculate that increased temperatures could have lengthened the trees' growing season, or that climate change-related fog reduction is allowing them to get more sunlight. But it's also possible that a reduction in air pollution from wood processing plants, or the human effort to suppress wildfires, is spurring the growth instead.
The only thing they can really conclude from this is that climate change doesn't appear to be actively harming the forests. That's still much better news than anything else we've been hearing lately.


Though not renowned for his love of interviews, the evening we spoke by phone in early August Mark Lanegan was in a surprisingly talkative mood, recounting stories in his creamy baritone, even peppering them with the occasional hearty laugh.
The clarity of the 53-year-old's recall may have something to do with the fact he’s spent the day in his Los Angeles garage working on his upcoming memoir, Sing Backwards And Weep, due for a 2020 release.
The former Screaming Trees frontman undertook the project at the urging of celebrity chef and longtime friend Anthony Bourdain, who prior to his death in June would read passages and give Lanegan feedback. Charting a 10-year period from the late 1980s to the late '90s - when the Washington State-born singer had a drug addiction and was living in Seattle - writing it is, he says, a “joyless affair”.
Lanegan’s has also been a life spent creating. Over the past two decades he’s released albums with Queens of the Stone Age, Isobel Campbell, Soulsavers, the Gutter Twins and more, and his 10th solo album, Gargoyle, came out last year. He’s just finished recording its follow-up, Somebody’s Knocking, due for release in 2019. A double album recorded in 11 days, it sees Lanegan continuing to experiment with the electronic elements that have crept into his brooding, bluesy solo work since 2012’s Blues Funeral.
He won’t be performing any of this new material on the Australian tour, partly because he’ll be in stripped-back mode with just a keyboardist and guitarist. Which might, you think, open the way for a little bit of storytelling between songs.
This time, Lanegan doesn’t laugh.
Mark Lanegan is at Thorbury's Croxton Bandroom in Melbourne on Saturday, September 15; the Triffid in Brisbane on Monday, September 17; and Factory Theatre in Sydney on Tuesday, September 18.


“One way or the other, it’s hard not to imagine this will not end in a price increase,” said Shayle Kann, senior vice president at GTM Research. And because the anti-subsidy tariffs were set higher than most people in the industry expected, “it will not be a negligible price increase,” he added.
The Solar Energy Industries Association called the tariffs “damaging” for U.S. consumers, and said they will slow the adoption of solar power in the U.S.
Some stocks emerged as beneficiaries right away. SunPower Corp. /quotes/zigman/7312465/delayed /quotes/nls/spwr SPWR and First Solar Inc. /quotes/zigman/102025/delayed /quotes/nls/fslr FSLR , U.S-based manufacturers, rallied on Wednesday, with shares up 4.8% and 9.3%, respectively. Their products will be more competitive with the products made by the low-cost Chinese producers.
SunEdison Inc. /quotes/zigman/17430636/delayed /quotes/nls/sune SUNE shares rose 3.6% — the company is in between the winner and loser camps, as it is a buyer of Chinese modules but also a manufacturer. Shares of SolarCity Corp. /quotes/zigman/13139813/delayed /quotes/nls/scty SCTY declined 0.7% — the U.S. largest solar installer buys a lot of Chinese modules, and making the modules more expensive is bound to have some impact on the company’s bottom line.
Likewise, losers surfaced right away: among China-based solar-panel manufacturers, Yingli Green Holding Co. /quotes/zigman/467021/delayed /quotes/nls/yge YGE bore the brunt of the selloff, with its U.S.-listed shares down 4.8%, but all U.S.-listed shares of Chinese manufacturers stumbled.
The dispute started when SolarWorld Industries America Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of SolarWorld AG, started lobbying the federal government for an investigation into duty evasion late last year.
The U.S. imposed duties of up to 36% on Chinese solar products in 2012 after concluding the companies had received unfair subsidies from the Chinese government and sold products in the U.S. market below cost, but the duties didn’t include solar panels made with solar cells assembled in other countries.
After 2012, most Chinese companies had been making their wafers, the first step, in China, then produced solar cells, the building block of a solar panel, primarily in Taiwan, and finished off their solar panels back in China.
The Commerce Department set up preliminary duties between 18.56% to $35.21% late Tuesday, but don’t let “preliminary” fool you — tariffs will be collected right away. And Commerce won’t stop there — a decision on dumping of Chinese solar products is expected in late July, and dumping any duties would be on top of the preliminary duties addressed Tuesday.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said it is “strongly dissatisfied” with Tuesday’s decision. The move “is an abuse of trade remedies, has an obvious hint of trade protectionism and will inevitably lead to the escalation of trade disputes between China and the U.S.,” the ministry said in a statement on its website, according to The Wall Street Journal.


Veterans are responsible for the copayments associated with Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care. If not paid in a timely manner, these copayments will be referred to the Department of Treasury for collection. However, if at any time veterans are unable to make their copayments, VA can help with arrangements to include repayment plans and other debt relief options such as a compromise or waiver. VA will also consider temporary or permanent eligibility changes to accommodate a veteran's financial situation. Veterans are encouraged to contact VA directly to make payment arrangements within 120 days from the date the charge is applied to the account. For more information, read the VA VAntage Point Blog.


Samsung will finally tell us why the Galaxy Note 7 exploded at a press conference on Sunday night (Monday morning, South Korea time). According to The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, the company’s months-long investigation will lay blame on the size of the batteries used in the phone.
The Korean company will announce that Samsung SDI Co. made batteries that didn’t fit properly into the device, causing it to overheat, said the person, who declined to be identified because the results of the probe haven’t been made public.
Samsung used two battery suppliers for the Galaxy Note 7: its own Samsung SDI division and the Hong Kong-based company Amperex Technology Ltd. (ATL). Initially, Samsung said that the phone explosions—which started in late August 2016—were restricted only to Samsung SDI batteries. The ATL batteries were used in its Chinese devices, which Samsung said were safe. When Samsung started to replace Galaxy Note 7 phones (after the first recall), Samsung used batteries from ATL, again, under the assumption that they were safe. Unfortunately, the replacement batteries started to explode too.
In the Galaxy Note 7 phones carrying batteries made by ATL, the flaw centers on a manufacturing issue resulting from the quick ramp-up in production of replacement phones, these people said. It wasn’t clear what the manufacturing issues were.
The Journal also reports that Samsung has created an eight-step process for dealing with batteries in the future that will focus more on testing and quality assurance. After the Note 7 debacle, this is really the least Samsung can do.
Samsung permanently ended production on the Galaxy Note 7 in October, after six weeks of backing and forthing over the safety of the device. Samsung first delayed shipments of its flagship device, after reports that units were catching of fire spread in Korea and parts of Asia. This delay was followed by a voluntary recall, which then became a federally orchestrated official recall one week later.
After its first official recall, Samsung started an exchange program in the United States and other countries and the company scrambled to get phones back in production and to consumers. Unfortunately, the problems didn’t stop. It took just a week for replacement devices to start exploding, with one even blowing up on a Southwest flight. The federal recall from September was then expanded to include all Galaxy Note 7 phones. Following the recall, feds banned the Note 7 from any flight out of the US, with many other countries doing the same.
To ensure customers actually turned in their explodey phones, Samsung started issuing software updates cutting cellular connectivity, wi-fi, and Bluetooth, essentially bricking the phones. Samsung now says 96 percent of Note 7s sold in the US have been returned.
Samsung has lost a ton of money because of the Note 7 debacle—but more than that, it has lost consumer trust. It needs to be very forthright about why the phones exploded, what was wrong with the batteries—be it size or manufacturing—as well as what steps it is going to take to ensure this sort of thing never happens again.
Samsung will livestream its press conference on Sunday night at 8pm ET (5pm PT) at Samsung.com.


The tappings were the brainchild of Desmond Carr, one of Haus’ four owners. In building the restaurant’s impressive list of imported beers, Carr learned that many brews he was interested in had extremely limited availability. Some are shipped just once a year on a container ship, and when they’re gone, they’re gone.
Instead of turning down interesting beers that could not be purchased in large enough quantities to put on the permanent menu, Carr brings in one scarce beer a month and sells it for $5 a glass until it runs out.
“It lets customers taste beers they won’t find anywhere else in town at a price that takes the risk out of it. If you don’t like it, you’re only out $5,” Carr says. Call the restaurant to check availability of the rare pours.


When you consider how many gut-wrenching decisions British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had to make during World War II � many of which involved sending young men to their deaths � the decision he called �the most difficult I had to make� must have been a doozy. And it was, but he made it this week (July 3) in 1940 without hesitation. He considered this decision crucial to the survival of the British Navy, which was crucial to the survival of Great Britain.
At the time, Britain�s ally France had just signed a surrender agreement with Nazi Germany that put Germany, whose army had overrun France a month earlier, in control of the country. Germany had permitted France to establish an �independent� government in the French town of Vichy under Henri Petain, but should push come to shove, Churchill doubted Petain or any member of the Vichy government would defy the Germans on any significant matter, which left Churchill with a problem. What was to become of France�s still-powerful navy, which had been unaffected by Germany�s defeat of France?
Churchill tried to persuade Vichy leaders to either order the French fleet to sit out the war in a neutral port, or deliberately scuttle the ships, or disarm them. His nightmare was that Germany would seize the French navy and use it against the British in the upcoming Battle of Britain.
Churchill decided he couldn�t take the risk. He ordered British Admiral James Somerville to sail to the Algerian port of Mers-el-Kebir, where a large French fleet was stationed, and give the French six hours to either scuttle the fleet or capitulate, or the British Navy would destroy the fleet. When the deadline passed with no resolution, Britain�s navy opened fire, destroying the French fleet and killing some 1,500 French sailors.
In the aftermath, Churchill was roundly criticized in Britain and angrily denounced in France, but by his decision he had served notice to the world that here was a tough-minded leader who planned to save his country whatever the cost. And as it happened, one of those most impressed by Churchill�s decision was America�s president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had previously wondered whether Britain possessed the fortitude to stay the course against Germany.
Maybe, FDR mused, giving aid to Britain would not be a waste of time and money after all.


Last month, thatgamecompany released Journey on the PlayStation Network to widespread critical acclaim and, happily, an equally favorable commercial reception. In fact, Journey has become the fastest-selling title in the history of the PSN both in the US and in Europe. The number of fan letters that the developer has received also surpassed those for Flower, Journey’s predecessor, after only three days. This success is likely to hold steady as Journey’s soundtrack, by Austin Wintory, is released on April 10th and the Smithsonian continues to feature Flower in its Art of Video Games exhibit.
However, this period of good fortune for the company is also marked by the turmoil of transition as key staff depart. Kellee Santiago, a TED fellow and Indie Fund backer who founded thatgamecompany with Jenova Chen, acted as a producer for the developer’s first two games before focusing her attention upon directing the company as its president. She has left under amicable terms in order to pursue new though as-yet unannounced goals, Gamasutra reports. The producer for Journey, Robin Hunicke, also parts ways as she joins Tiny Speck and Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi in their work on Glitch, an MMORPG that explores interdependent player communities.
Despite these personnel changeups, the future is bright for thatgamecompany. Sony's second-party developer completes its three-game contract with Journey (after flOw and Flower). Anything is possible now—and on any platform. Indeed, as Chen told Push Square: “Right now we are very much exploring ways to bring our games to a bigger audience, beyond just PlayStation.” His statement about Santiago’s departure indicates that Journey’s successor is already in the works.