LOS ANGELES — Californians aren't letting their water crisis go to waste.
After helplessly watching their mountain reservoirs sink into mud, many like Raymond Lobjois have made drastic changes that will forever shrink their consumption. When Gov. Jerry Brown came calling for 25 percent emergency cutbacks statewide starting this summer, Lobjois was already there and beyond.
The 83-year-old retired pastry chef to the stars and cookie supplier to the airlines had the time, money and cresting sense of citizenship to get on his hands and knees and rip out nearly 5,000 square feet of his hilltop lawn.
He sawed Arizona sandstone slabs into a handsome pad overlooking the scrubby mountains where TV’s “M*A*S*H” was filmed. He planted 149 lavender tufts that smell nice and need the hose only twice a month.
The water supplier paid him $9,500 to rip out the turf, and that covered about half of his landscaping expense.
Lobjois still uses more water than most. He kept some grass out front and around his wife's roses, plus a pool. But in cutting his outdoor watering in half, he has done what his water district wants from everyone. His Agoura Hills home's daily summertime water use shrank from 2,500 gallons to less than 1,200. And his monthly bills in summer dropped by nearly $500.
Dire though California’s thirstiest three years on record have become, residents like Lobjois have proved how much wiggle room — or waste — there is in the Southwest’s urban water works. Californians are showing how rapidly people who spray most of their water outdoors can crimp the hose when they must. Collectively they exceeded the governor's directive, cutting back 31 percent by July, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.
In so doing they demonstrate what's possible for Arizonans and others with water shortages looming ahead.
“We should not wait for anyone to give you a fine of 500 bucks to change,” Lobjois said.
The Golden State's crisis has squeezed both the nation's largest farm output and the nation's second-largest city. It also has put water users throughout the Colorado River basin on edge.
Farmers near the river's headwaters fear a water grab by the politically powerful state; Gov. Doug Ducey has warned against using the drought as leverage to drain any of Arizona's river allocation.
"We must be vigilant as we deal with the federal government," Ducey said in a June speech before an economic development group.
Others in the water-management community said they were hearing whispers of a federal attempt to rework drought-time divisions of Lake Mead water, possibly to California's advantage.
This unease comes, paradoxically, after a string of unusually cooperative years among the seven states that share the river. At the U.S. Interior Department's direction, the states in 2007 agreed on a shortage-sharing regime for whenever Lake Mead's water drops below elevation 1,075 to start a year.
Coordinating the management of Lake Mead and Lake Powell to better cope with drought and climate change.
Letting Mexico store water in Lake Mead and help prevent shortages in exchange for some water during surplus years and U.S. investment in canal linings.
Making specific water-use cuts that raised Lake Mead by a few feet this year and helped forestall a shortage declaration there by at least another year.
This all happened because of the federal government, said Michael Hanemann, an Arizona State University economist and California water expert. Successive Interior secretaries essentially told the states to "agree among yourselves or I'll do this," he said.
"You need an adult in the room with a big stick."
Urban Californians have learned that the Colorado's flows are the least of their problems. In-state water from the Sierra Nevada snowpack has declined to the lowest levels in 500 years, according to University of Arizona researchers.
Californians raced to conserve accordingly, achieving double-digit percentage cuts in water use almost instantly.
It’s not only happening in the wealthier suburbs or in Los Angeles, which reported a 21 percent cut in July.
South of Agoura Hills and across the Los Angeles Basin, where the dollars are tighter, Compton residents are bucking a spike in water bills by letting their lawns go “California Gold,” as the state’s freeway billboards implore.
Two years ago, Freda and Eddie Stovall had a $220 monthly water bill. Freda had the front lawn ripped out and planted succulents among the new red and white gravel. The work cost $1,600. Out back she let the water-intensive St. Augustine grass go.
The Stovalls live in a part of town with hobby farming lots and have some fixed water needs. They keep three horses, each of which drinks 25 gallons a day.
But her efforts saved $100 a month, until rates climbed again. This summer she got a bill for $167.
Across Southern California — the part of that state that shares Colorado River water with Arizona, five other states and Mexico — the threat of painful fines has forced cities and water districts to crack down on waste. Suppliers in the region appear up to the task of shedding a quarter of their use from June through February, as Gov. Brown ordered in the spring.
Failure by any water supplier to meet its share of cuts would mean a $10,000 fine per day, to be passed on to customers.
California’s mandated cuts are based on 2013 use, giving users some credit for water savings already initiated since the worst-ever Sierra drought began in that year.
State water officials parceled out the slashing rates based on per capita water use, with the biggest users facing the biggest percentage cuts. The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, supplier to Lobjois’ Agoura Hills home, had the state’s highest use rate and faced a mandatory 36 percent cut.
“Our first reaction was to explain to the state why this made absolutely no sense for our community,” district CEO David Pedersen said. It’s a suburban string of towns with lots of grassy estates and some horses — even a couple of camels, according to a survey the district used to gauge residents’ water needs.
But when district officials realized the state wouldn’t back down, they did what most Southern California water districts did: They prohibited lawn-watering for more than 15 minutes twice a week, and never between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Before, residents had watered three days a week.
Those who violate the rule first get a warning, and then a $100 fine. A third offense is $200; a fourth $500.
Keep it up and meter readers will install a flow restrictor.
Solutions: What can Arizona do to assure supply?
Las Virgenes issued only a few dozen fines through the summer, but 820 warnings.
Residents got $100 incentives to replace inefficient toilets, $85 for new washers, $80 for soil moisture sensors, $75 for rain barrels.
Some residents say they're even keeping buckets in the shower to capture the first gallon or so before the water warms, and then are using that water on plants.
The result: 75,000 residents of the hilly enclaves north of Los Angeles bested their 36 percent restriction in the second month. They will avoid state penalties if the nine-month cumulative average remains there.
Despite continued population growth, the district’s total water use looks like it did in 1987. That rapid compliance with the new restrictions is repeated across the Los Angeles area, and in San Diego County, where use in an already water-wise region is down more than a quarter.
Metropolitan Water District is wholesaler to 19 million Southern Californians. Some of that water — enough for a few million households — flows from the Colorado River at Lake Havasu and through a 242-mile aqueduct to the Los Angeles and San Diego areas.
Metropolitan spent $340 million, or an average of $18 a person, on grass-removal rebates before the money ran out this summer. It estimates the program ripped up 175 million square feet, enough lawn to carpet 25 Disneylands. This will save 70 million gallons a day, permanently.
Southern California water managers estimate that a pool there loses about the same amount of water that a patch of grass covering the same space would — in this case, maybe 6,000 gallons a year. Allison and her husband, both 74, are putting in a Bocce court and some hardscape, like tile or stone, instead. They also used their district’s $2-per-square-foot rebate to remove 1,500 square feet of grass.
In all, the project is costing them $100,000 — about a quarter of it for the pool demolition. And while her husband says it’ll cut down on the water bills, Allison said it’s not about the money.
Apparently the feeling is contagious. Allison's pool-demolition contractor, David Frisch, said his handful of workers are removing about double the pools — 90 or so a year — than they did before the drought.
San Diego has seen crises before and has acted to secure its future before the current emergency.
The San Diego County Water Authority, supplier to 3.2 million Californians, weathered a severe drought in the late 1980s and early 1990s that threatened a 31 percent cutback before a “March Miracle” rainfall snapped the drought, water-resources director Bob Yamada said.
The county imported 95 percent of its water from a single source, Metropolitan Water District, and needed to diversify.
It bought enough Colorado River water for hundreds of thousands of homes from Imperial Irrigation District farmers, who are lining their canals and improving on-field efficiency to make up the difference.
It cranked down its daily water use, from 235 gallons per person in 1990 to 143 today.
It invested in a massive water desalination plant at Carlsbad that will open by year’s end and supply at least 8 percent of its water, in drought years or not. It’ll pay $113 million-plus a year for at least 48,000 acre-feet. It’s $2,367 for each acre-foot, which is enough to supply about two households for a year.
Desalination’s cost per unit is about three times what the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has estimated for conservation, or for farm economization and transfers to cities. But the sea is always there.
“Reliability is the most important factor,” Yamada said.
With these changes, he said, San Diego County had 99 percent of its needs covered even before emergency measures.
But does the state have a solution?
During times of excess water supply, the Central Arizona Project and the state water banking authority have sunk more than 3 million acre-feet in the ground for later. That doesn’t count what individual cities and districts have put away.Arizona is not facing an immediate crisis, because of its larger reservoirs, its years of planning for shortage and its statewide population, which is only two-thirds of Los Angeles County’s.
It gives Arizona the assurance that it can pump enough water from the ground to keep cities from experiencing shortage for at least a decade even if the state's share of Colorado River water is restricted, according to CAP. Still, some central Arizona farmers could lose water as early as 2017 if Lake Mead’s storage slips lower.
Arizona has bought time, but not a solution.
“The fact that we live in an over-allocated river (basin) means that we have persistent risk of falling below those critical thresholds,” said Chuck Cullom, Colorado River programs manager for CAP.
“In the long-term we’re going to need another round of investments, just like the people who fought for the CAP."
Those investments could include water recycling or even a trade netting Arizona more river water in exchange for help funding more desalination for the coast. But they’ll also include conservation of the kind Californians are after.
How, when and where to save, though, are not simple questions in the absence of immediate crisis. Is it possible to save too much too soon?
Could be, at least without proper planning, said Sarah Porter, director of the ASU Kyl Center for Water Policy.
If Arizonans were to conscientiously hack their lawn watering by a quarter, like Californians, it could just free up water for developers to build more subdivisions, she said. That would boost and "harden" the state's future water demands.
It's important for Arizonans to think about how they use water and to embrace "living in the desert," Porter said. But equally important is a statewide discussion of how and where to grow.
"If I'm going to use less water in my home," she said, "where do I want the water to go?"
In California, individuals are scrambling, but also investing in solutions.
Lobjois, the retired pastry chef, said he changed in part because he went fishing last winter in the Sierra Nevadas and found a favorite lake had shrunk to a puddle.
“The water is gone,” he said.
But he's been so happy with his water and money savings that he’s repeating the work on a smaller scale at his daughter’s San Fernando Valley home, netting her several thousand dollars in rebates. And the conservation bug also led him to install a solar power array that wiped out his electric bill.
In Compton, 36-year-old Carlos Alfaro bought a $500 pressure washer. He was using it on the sedan parked next to his golden-brown lawn last month.
“You don’t spray so much water with that,” he said, and it’ll pay for itself that way.
And the Stovalls are content to rake up the needles that their pine trees shed and scatter them over the bare patches that are alternately muddy or dusty on the pathway to their horse corral.
Like Lobjois, they have viewed California’s dry lake beds in horror — especially at Lake Oroville, where Eddie Stovall, a Vietnam veteran and longtime house painter, was raised.
“To see it looking like that,” Freda shook her head, remembering the last time they visited the Northern California reservoir. “Just running water in the house now I kind of feel bad. If I’m washing my hands, I try to use the soap first.
Across Southern California, residents and water districts have rapidly made good on Gov. Jerry Brown's mandate for 25 percent water savings.


Houston has always been a contender in the race for better, faster, more: taller buildings, wider freeways, bigger profits.
But one vestige of the city's history has survived the omnivorous quest for change. A century after the terminology slipped from the official lexicon, people still talk about the wards.
"When you ask me where I'm from, until the day I die I'll say I'm from the Fifth Ward," says Patricia Smith Prather, executive director of the Texas Trailblazer Preservation Association. "I'll never say Houston first."
It's a pride thing. And, loosely, a geography thing.
Most people here have heard of the Second Ward, the Third, Fourth and Fifth Wards — geographical designations based upon Houston's early form of municipal government. But few really know how they came to be or even where the boundaries are.
Nowadays, the wards are a social and cultural phenomenon, only loosely geographically defined and with no bearing on how our civic leaders are elected.
"It's becoming a source of pride for people now, to say they're from the wards," says Felix Fraga, a former city councilman who is active in Second Ward neighborhood issues.
The Second Ward is in the early stages of revitalization, drawing new residents with its proximity to downtown. "For a long time, people just kept moving out," Fraga says. "But there are town houses being built for the first time in the Second Ward's history. Lofts.
"I think people moving in will say they're moving into the Second Ward."
The ward system, a precursor to today's City Council districts, was a common political tool of the early 19th century; it's still used in Chicago. So in 1839, Houston's civic leaders divided the city into four wards. The Fifth Ward was added in 1866 to accommodate the city's growth, and the Sixth Ward a decade or so later.
The city's form of government changed in 1906, but nearly 100 years later the wards remain a cultural touchstone, especially in the areas that have remained primarily residential areas from the beginning — the Second Ward, the Third Ward and the Fifth Ward.
And so signs proclaiming "Third Ward is our home, and it's not for sale" began sprouting last spring, signaling a grass-roots uprising against developers angling to turn a chunk of the near southeast side into just another plot of town houses and strip malls. The neighborhoods may be modest, residents say, but their roots are worth fighting for.
"Everybody likes to feel they have a past," says local historian Ann Wilson. "I think it's good. I like to see it remembered."
As assistant manager of the Texas and local history department at the Houston Public Library, Will Howard has the ward system at his fingertips. Yellowed historical maps, sheathed in plastic and resting in narrow filing cabinets in the library's high-ceilinged Texas Room, show the system's evolution as the population grew throughout the 19th century.
In 1928, the wards disappeared from the city maps altogether as other landmarks — Memorial Park, River Oaks — replaced them as official geographic reference points. Still, the wards remained part of the local vocabulary, both on signs and in casual conversation.
"They are cultural entities today, not legal entities, and like any culture, they are almost obligated to change," Howard says.
That evolution allows people to designate the area around Texas Southern University the Third Ward, for example, even though the city limits stopped far short of there in the early 1900s.
The Fourth Ward is trickier territory. It was the hub of African-American life after the Civil War as freed slaves settled in the area there known as Freedmen's Town. Many of the historical landmarks have been razed in the name of progress — replaced with town houses, apartments, restaurants — and the area has been rechristened Midtown.
Marcia Johnson, chairwoman of the Fourth Ward Redevelopment Corp., can only sigh. Founded in the late 1990s, the organization is concerned with preserving the area's historical vibrancy, but many people claim it is too late.
"So much has been destroyed," Johnson says.
"The developers have literally stolen the Fourth Ward," she says. "It's gone. There's no high school there. There's no library there."
But the emotional connection remains, a mix of loyalty and pride and historical remembrance, and sometimes that's enough.
"Houston has River Oaks," Prather says. "It has the Heights, and you know how proud people are of the Heights. We have the Fifth Ward. Most people don't even know the Fifth Ward was the name of a political unit. All they know is this was my community."


They are one of the wealthiest families in Hollywood, so when the Kardashians vacation away from home they make sure to land in the lap of luxury.
For the past week the family has been relaxing in the stunning tourist destination of Phuket, Thailand, enjoying the tropical weather and exotic locales.
And new inside photos of the clan's outrageous $150,000-per-week beachfront rental reveals a palatial wonderland replete with hot tubs in bedrooms and an infinity pool that brims over onto golden Thai sands.
The high-end rental - the Iniala Beach House - features a traditional teak frame exterior with modern amenities inside.
One of the bedrooms looks like a space age suite, featuring a hot tub, curtained bed, and a panoramic glass shower.
The futuristic sleeping quarter is walled by windows overlooking a beachfront paradise, with coconut palms swaying in the sea breeze.
The dining room has a long low table with throw pillows strewn around it for guests to dine seated cross-legged on the floor.
The outdoor deck surrounds a gorgeous infinity pool, which Kim used for a racy video during her stay, that sits at the edge of the golden Phuket beach.
The aquaduct is perfectly situated to view the glorious red and gold Thai sunrise lifting up and over the ocean in the early morning hours.
Other suites in the palatial rental are themed with marble accents, tiling the walls, floor and ceiling along with gaudy wrought iron touches.
One common area is populated with couches that descend from intricate nets woven into the ceiling, creating a tropical jungle atmosphere.
And in another interesting move, the designers of the home outfitted it with a white panelled bar with teak wood shapes, marrying space age design with classic Thai aesthetics.
The entire family flew out to Thailand on Wednesday last week, although Kim's fiancé Kanye West, who begins the Australian leg of his Yeezus Tour on May 2 at Perth Arena, was absent.
Also not on the trip was Kourtney, 34, and her partner Scott Disick, but the young family still had fun in the California sunshine as they were spotted visiting friends in Calabasas.
It's not been made clear why they're missing this trip, which is being filmed for the E! show Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Which by the way, now means having a private butler... if this trip is anything to go by, but then it is tiring looking as good as a Kardashian.
Kim earlier struck a bewitching pose by roaming the sands in a gunmetal bikini with an ink blue cover up billowing dramatically in the breeze.
And as she stepped out in the patio of her their new home in a stunning dress slit to the thigh, she looked good enough for a magazine cover... even some might say, Vogue.


But while the Android/Windows mix is a compromise stemming from manufacturers' desperation to move beyond pure PCs, rather than an actual desire from everyday users, a laptop that combined Chrome OS and Windows would be a downright drool-worthy combination. And that's despite the fact that most dual-booting devices are, well, almost appallingly awful.
Like many PC diehards, I was once a Chromebook skeptic. But web browsers are becoming so powerful—most of my work can be performed online now—and Google is packing much more offline utility into Chrome OS these days, that I've become a convert. It's easy now to get work done online and offline with a Chromebook.
In fact, I find myself picking up a Chromebook more often than a proper Windows laptop when I'm working from the couch, since Chromebooks boot like greased lightning and you never, ever have to fiddle with settings or security tools, or wait around for the system to update when you turn it on. Chromebooks are dead simple.
In other words: In many, many instances, a Chromebook lets me get to work far faster and with far less headache that a proper Windows PC.
Except for when they don't.
You can't play Titanfall on a Chromebook, nor run any other PC programs or games. Ugh.
Want to tweak something in Photoshop? You can't do it on a Chromebook. Ditto for using, say, tax software, Skype, or any other traditional desktop program that you may need for work. Need to connect to a VPN? Chrome OS has basic VPN tools, but they're of hit-and-miss utility. Some websites simply refuse to play nice with Chrome. And it's an utter shame that the Chromebook Pixel's majestic display can't be used to play your Steam games whatsoever.
Microsoft's robust operating system laughs at all of those limitations.
Chromebooks offer a fast, secure, and borderline superior experience for basic computing tasks. For all but the most casual of users, though, it's hard to say sayonara to Windows completely.
Enter the dual-booting Chromebook concept.
Most dual-boot devices disappoint because the two operating systems are separate and completely self-contained worlds on your hard drive. Chrome OS's online-based nature, however, negates that issue.
Chromebook users rely on the browser to perform tasks, lean on webmail for communication, and store and edit their files in Google Drive. Since it's all cloud-based, any actions performed on the Chromebook side of a Chome OS/Windows hybrid could be seen and built upon on the Windows side, and vice versa, if you use the same basic cloud services while in Microsoft's universe.
Both Chrome OS and the Windows desktop were made for mouse and keyboard, so switching between the operating systems wouldn't be as dramatically icky as booting from Windows to the touch-focused Android.
Now picture the combo on a cheap laptop powered by Intel's Bay Trail processors. Both operating systems would function just fine on that energy-efficient chip. Bay Trail already powers a legion of small Windows tablets.
I'm drooling just thinking about it, though Microsoft probably wouldn't be happy with the idea of this mutant either. Nor would it really help computer builders flee the wobbling PC ship. But a Chromebook capable of booting into Windows would actually be useful to you and me—unlike those silly Android/Windows monstrosities.


Donald Trump has emulated Savonarola’s success but he is also repeating his worst mistakes.
Donald Trump, false prophet. By contemporary standards, his populist power-taking may seem like genius, but through a historical lens he is an obvious plagiarist. Trump has stolen his lines and stage directions from a playbook that is literally as old as print – and from which we can already read his ending.
The true genius of populist politics was Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498). Savonarola was a Dominican friar who, in 1490, made his way to Renaissance Florence. A mid-level preacher and political outsider, Savonarola stunned Europe by tearing Florence from the 60-year grip of the Medici family with an angry surge of populist strength – punctuated by his historic Bonfire of the Vanities.
The Age of Discovery Savonarola lived in – the age of da Vinci, Copernicus, Columbus and others – was turning old truths upside down. The times called for strong leadership, Savonarola proclaimed, in both Church and state, but “O Florence, Florence, your cup is full of holes”. The city’s Medici patriarch, Lorenzo “the Magnicent”, fell ill and died in 1492. His heir, Piero “the Unfortunate”, had all his father’s wealth but none of his political savvy.
Gutenberg’s press was just becoming common, and Savonarola harnessed its potential better than any. He delivered fiery sermons to crowds of thousands, then print houses spread his words to thousands more with the sure-to-sell transcript. Popes and princes repeatedly declared him false. Every time, Savonarola answered by flooding the streets with cheap pamphlets – 15th-century tweets – that twisted those denunciations into proof that the elites were out of touch.
Savonarola’s most fervent believer was himself. God had appointed him the task of renewing the city, and so whatever words he spoke, they had to be true just because he spoke them. That self-belief was his greatest strength. It drew to his every sermon a horde of sensation-seekers, plus citizens who had lost faith and longed to have it restored by the man’s reality-bending powers.
All this, Donald Trump has aped assiduously: with his demonisation of Muslims and immigrants, his “drain the swamp” rhetoric against “Crooked Hillary” and co, his 4am Twitter rants against “Fake News” and his “Fake it ‘til you make it” philosophy of life.
Trump is also repeating Savonarola’s worst mistakes.
Savonarola squandered a rare moment of opportunity. He came to power his own way, free from debt to elite patrons. At times, he exercised that political liberty to break gridlocks in the republic’s council chambers. He formed novel coalitions, successfully. He replaced Florence’s byzantine tax code with a single flat tax on all property. He developed one of Europe’s earliest public welfare programmes, in the form of reduced-rate lending. He added seats to the Great Council for forgotten voices. But the friar’s public demagoguery every Sunday overshadowed these few good ideas – and fuelled the elites’ obsession to get rid of him.
Trump likewise came to his kingship free from the usual debts owed to party patrons, and having made big promises to end congressional stalemates on tax, infrastructure, immigration, trade policy and entitlement reforms. But he, too, has so far squandered his opportunities. The novel coalitions he forges during the week – doing a deal with the Democrats on immigration reform, or forcing Democrats and Republicans to fix Obamacare subsidies by threatening to end them entirely – unravel on the weekend while he panders to his base.
Trump thinks he’s in power. But so long as he follows the populist’s playbook, he’s at the mercy of his base. History suggests that they will burn him, soon.
Savonarola thought that the base of boisterous, sometimes violent supporters he owned made him invulnerable. That arrogance blinded him to some political realities. The Paul Ryans of Savonarola’s day – those who had supported Savonarola’s efforts to evict the Medici oligarchs – shook their heads in frustration at his incapacity to rein in the messianic ego when prudence demanded (bad-mouthing the pope has never been a vote-winner). To keep his base happy, Savonarola made enemies of everyone else: on the “left”, those who rejected his public bonfires against liberal values; on the “right”, those who feared he’d start a trade war with the rest of Europe; and up high, those who feared the loss of their privileges.
But Savonarola had bought his base with false promises. “I announce this good news to the city: that she will be more glorious, richer, more powerful than she has ever been!” To citizens who were weary of being pushed around by forces beyond their control, Savonarola had preached the power to defy reality – and his followers put their faith in his prophecies. But the preacher’s self-belief could not overturn the military advantages of the French army that invaded Italy, nor cure people of the syphilis brought back to Europe from the New World, nor protect Florentine merchants as global trade shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
Those realities began to tarnish his silver tongue. His angry base proved more fickle than faithful. And the moment they stopped turning out in the streets for him, Savonarola’s political opponents orchestrated the man’s removal. First, they had him excommunicated. And then, some four years after his reign had begun, they had him executed.
Trump-haters have made an industry out of predicting a similar demise for Trump’s presidency. History says they will probably get their wish. History also says, that’s when the real test will begin.
Savonarola’s death did nothing to reunite the city he had ruled. The divisions he stoked could not heal themselves. They were merely papered over. Removing him was the expedient solution: reformist grumbles within the Catholic Church were shushed; republican urges in Florentine politics dissipated (and by 1512, the Medici were back in power). But removing him also delayed Church and state from confronting the divisions that had made his rise to power possible. Twenty years later, Martin Luther would tap the same divisions to ignite a far greater crisis: the Protestant Reformation.
How do we improve inclusion for those left behind by rapid change, without impeding the positive forces driving change?
How do we maintain the respectful discourse upon which democracy depends, without it being drowned in unaccountable lawlessness or divided into mutually unintelligible communities?
How do we maintain the sovereignty of our own citizens, in a globally open financial, economic and media age that easily admits foreign interference?
How do we pass on to each new generation the value of their democratic freedoms, if they take them for granted?
Trump won’t learn the lessons of history. If we don’t start looking past his tweets to the matters over which we ought to obsess, neither will we.


4 bedrooms in the main home, 2 bedrooms in 2nd home. 4 car garage. 2 garages in main house and 2 in the second home. Situated on 2 private acres with awesome views. The main home has a open floor plan w/ a spacious kitchen, breakfast room, breakfast bar, large walk in pantry & dining room with spectacular views. French doors lead from the dining room to a private patio for outdoor dining. The great room has a double sided gas fireplace which opens to a private patio & high custom ceilings . The 1st floor master bedroom has a gas fireplace, french doors to a private patio and a spacious walk in closet. 2nd floor master has a walk in closet and sitting room.


Wearing a black cowboy hat as he led graduates down the aisle, Paige Patterson set off laughter at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s commencement when he joked about quarreling Baptists. Patterson’s advice to abused women not to divorce has set off a huge public backlash among evangelicals – but not at the conservative Texas seminary where the 75-year-old is president.
As some wondered this week whether the seminary trustees could remove its president, Patterson appeared to double down on Friday, saying in an interview that “allegations have been given on me all my life” and adding that he was being falsely accused but declining to provide examples. During the ceremony, Patterson sat front and center in a red velvet chair, casually twirling his black glasses before addressing the graduates without directly addressing the controversy.
In the wake of the #MeToo movement, numerous powerful men have come under scrutiny over sexist treatment of women. But Patterson, who has long held a special status within the nation’s largest Protestant denomination for his role in a conservative takeover of the convention going back decades, is known for not backing down from positions.
After his 2000 comments were published on a blog, he stated that while he would never recommend divorce, he has advised abused women to leave their husbands. Although Patterson issued a statement earlier this week with his trustees that did not mention resignation or retirement, two seminary graduates who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the seminary trustees, who control Patterson’s future, have been divided over how to handle its controversial president who some say has a pattern of poor behavior.
Patterson, in the interview, referred to the PhD student who was fired. “If you are going to be problematic and you’re indiscreet, you’ll be fired,” he said.
Nathan Montgomery, a PhD student in the philosophy program at the seminary, who recorded the meeting where he was fired, was told that his tweet did not exhibit loyalty to the seminary and that it did not reflect the institutional voice.
“Public disagreement does not align with Scripture,” a document outlining Montgomery’s termination states.
Montgomery, 31, said he also lost his tuition-free arrangement with the seminary, which was $7,000 a year. He has been working for the seminary in dining services since he began there in 2011, and has been the catering kitchen manager for the past two years.
On Tuesday, he retweeted a blog post from Ed Stetzer where Stetzer, the executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, recommended Patterson retire. In his blog post, Stetzer listed a series of actions by Patterson that have raised concerns among Southern Baptists.
In his blog post, Stetzer, a Southern Baptist, highlighted how it puts the convention in a tricky spot.
In Montgomery’s tweet promoting Stetzer’s blog post, he said he believed he should say something publicly, but he said he didn’t expect anything to happen.
Patterson said in the interview that Montgomery had “a long history,” but declined to provide specifics. The document that lists reasons for Montgomery’s termination cited just one previous incident, which Montgomery said was a misunderstanding over catering for Patterson’s wife. He said he has never been given any warnings.
Montgomery still hopes to stay at the seminary, where he expects his PhD will take another four years to finish.
Some students, however, support Patterson’s position on abuse and divorce. R. Patel, 29, who received his degree in preaching on Friday, said he, too, would encourage women not to divorce and instead separate from an abusive spouse.
Some Southern Baptists say Patterson’s comments reflect larger attitudes about women within the seminary and the denomination’s circles. Southern Baptists hold to a theology of complementarianism, the belief that men and women are created as equal but have differing roles — specifically in the church and home. The Southern Baptist Convention does not support ordaining women.
Some more extreme adherents of complementarianism believe that women should not work outside of the home. This belief is held by many at Southwestern seminary, where women are not permitted to oversee men professionally and female students are allowed to get specific degrees that enable them to teach other women.
Rebecca Neyhard, a graduate of the seminary who worked in public relations from 2009 to 2011, where she wrote about the seminary’s homemaking degree, said Patterson’s recommendation that abused women should return to their husbands was an idea she heard repeated in her systematic theology class, an Old Testament class and a women’s ministry class.
Patterson has given other advice to abused women since those comments in 2000. In a sermon he delivered in 2013, Patterson suggested women who have had “a problem in your home” should not bring their case to a judge because it could get in the way of that judge becoming a Christian.
Another sermon has stirred up questions about whether Patterson’s objectifies women. In 2014, Patterson used a story in one of his sermons about an interaction he witnessed. In the story, a 16-year-old girl walked by and, Patterson said, “she was nice.” One young man commented, “Man, is she built.” A woman nearby slapped her hand over the young man’s mouth and scolded him. Patterson said he responded to the woman, “Ma’am, leave him alone. He’s just being biblical.” The audience laughed.
When asked about that sermon, Patterson on Friday declined to comment.
Patterson’s comments about a woman being “built” is part of a series of faux pas and it’s time for him to retire, Stetzer said on Friday.
Patterson’s comments have drawn a fierce backlash from Southern Baptist women, who do not usually hold formal leadership roles in the convention but are hugely influential. Most notably, Bible teacher Beth Moore, who attends a Southern Baptist church and has openly spoken of abuse by a family member when she was a child, has been tweeting about sexism this week. On Thursday, she published a blog post outlining the sexism she has faced within evangelical circles.
“[E]arly October 2016 surfaced attitudes among some key Christian leaders that smacked of misogyny, objectification and astonishing disesteem of women and it spread like wildfire,” she said, referring to the month that Donald Trump’s “Access Hollywood” tapes, where he bragged about sexual abuse, came out. Patterson endorsed Trump from the chapel stage, according to a graduate who was present.
The last time the SBC issued a resolution about domestic abuse was in 1979. In 2011, it issued a resolution on marriage, citing concern for the high rates of divorce among Southern Baptists. “We do not serve those who are hurting from divorce by speaking to them only in therapeutic terms rather than in terms of both repentance and forgiveness,” the resolution states.
Clarification: This piece has been updated to clarify that Southern Baptist churches ordain preachers, not seminaries, and that the convention does not support ordaining women.


A poster on the side of a bus stop in downtown Washington D.C. read: “Let 340B,” clearly a sign of an organized campaign asking Congress not to interfere with the gravy train for some hospital systems that this obscure provision has become.
The safety net drug program, usually referred to as 340B for the section authorizing it in the Public Health Service Act, was created by Congress in 1992 to require pharmaceutical companies participating in Medicaid to provide their drugs at deeply discounted prices to hospitals and other facilities that serve a disproportionate number of indigent and uninsured patients.
The program has expanded dramatically over the last 26 years. It first applied to just a few hundred “health care entities”—charity hospitals and federally-qualified health centers. Since then, the program has grown substantially to more than 12,000 qualifying entities. The program’s growth accelerated when it was opened in 2010 to pharmacies that contract with 340B entities.
The safety net drug program initially provided drugs to hospitals serving a disproportionate number of lower-income, uninsured, and vulnerable patients. There was no requirement about how many patients they must treat or even that the savings from the discounts they receive go toward providing discounts or direct care to these patients.
With the high growth and consolidation of the health sector and with accountants looking in every corner to enhance the bottom line of hospital systems, it is no wonder that this lucrative program was seen as a way to boost revenues.
Hospitals could acquire a drug for $5,000, for example, but charge health plans $10,000. Patients could also be required to pay a co-payment based upon the listed price of the drug.
And many hospitals are extending the reach of the program by buying clinics to expand their ability to get the lucrative 20-50% discounts under the safety net program. This is challenging the integrity of the program and its mission.
Some hospitals that reap discounts under 340B have a poor track record of justifying their charity status because they do not provide any more charity care than their for-profit competitors. As of 2015, there was only a 1% difference in the amount of uncompensated care provided by 340B qualifying hospitals in comparison to non-340B qualifying hospitals.
The Trump administration’s “American Patients First” blueprint on prescription drug prices reports that 340B purchases increased from $12 billion in 2015 to $16 billion in 2016—a 50% increase in just one year—and to $19 billion in 2017.
This explosive growth directly impacts the cost of medicines. Companies consider all sales channels and their volume in pricing their medicines. As more and more entities claim 340B status, the deep discounts ultimately push up drug prices for patients with private health insurance as companies seek revenue to finance their research and development into new drugs.
The Department of Health and Human Services has asked for comments on a range of questions, including whether the safety net drug program is being misused. And Congress has begun investigating whether it is providing the poor access to needed medicines is instead becoming a cash cow for hospitals and the contract pharmacies they work with.
The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee held a hearing July 11 on “Opportunities to Improve the 340B Drug Pricing Program,”andDr. Debra Patt, executive vice president of Texas Oncology, was among the witnesses who testified.
“Because of the lack of transparency, oversight, and accountability, we can observe tremendous variability across the country in the philanthropic commitment of 340B hospitals in using additional revenue to enhance care for vulnerable patient populations,” Dr. Patt said.
Debra Draper, director of health care for the Government Accountability Office, also testified that much more oversight of the program is needed. “[C]overed entities can generate revenue when they purchase 340B drugs for eligible patients whose insurance reimbursement exceeds the 340B price paid for the drugs.” That means the drugs are often going to patients with insurance.
Draper continued, “The statute authorizing the 340B Program does not dictate how covered entities should use this revenue [nor does it] require discounts received on the drugs to be passed along to patients.” That means 340B entities can pocket the discounts rather than passing them along to patients.
“Based on the Energy and Commerce report on the 340B program, some of these programs enjoyed more than $100 million in drug savings in 2016,” Dr. Patt testified.
Independent studies have shown that the expansion of 340B is driving up health spending across various parts of the health sector. With cancer care being consolidated into expensive settings that are now considered hospital outpatient departments, previously called “doctors’ offices,” costs of care don’t just double, they can quadruple, with no added value.
Dr. Patt recounted a number of case histories of patients desperately in need of timely treatment for cancer but being denied by 340 hospitals. She said “a 340B qualifying hospital declines to provide care for uninsured or underinsured patients for systemic chemotherapy. They require cash payments for this group of patients prior to administering therapy.” The requirement for cash payment is a denial of care for those unable to pay.
But the program’s mission is being diluted, with hospitals in affluent areas profiting from 340B and hospitals in lesser-served areas still lacking the resources to adequately serve their patient populations. Further, patients, including those who are economically disadvantaged seldom see savings from the program.
“Multiple reviews by non-partisan auditors have identified challenges within the program’s current operation and oversight,” Subcommittee chairman Michael Burgess said in opening the hearing. “I am concerned that many of the covered entities that the GAO reviewed do not have a policy in place that ensures uninsured, low-income patients are not hit with a big hospital bill for their outpatient drugs”—among many other concerns the chairman raised.
That makes it ever more important for Congress to provide much stricter oversight of the program to ensure it is serving its original purpose. One legislative initiative, the 340B PAUSE Act, would temporarily freeze the number of entities participating in the program while the program is refocused on meeting its original goal of helping hospitals serve their most vulnerable patients. Sponsored by Rep. Larry Bucshon, R-IN, the legislation would also require 340B entities to report on the types of patients served and the amount of charity care they provide.
To protect the program and the people who rely on it, it is time to set the PAUSE button and make both regulatory and legislative changes to keep the safety net drug program focused on its mission to provide needed medicines to needy patients.
Greater oversight, transparency, and accountability are needed to make sure it addresses the needs of those for whom it was designed rather than lining the pockets of hospital systems.


“Today we have enough reason to celebrate,” the Head of the EU Delegation to Georgia Janos Herman stated at a press conference regarding the European Commission’s positive report on Georgia’s visa-liberalization.
He emphasized that the European Comission will continue to monitor how Georgia performs the commitments under the Action Plan on Visa Liberalization.
Eu Ambassador Herman announced that the European Union (EU) will support Georgia in all its efforts related to visa liberalization.
“Let me say one thing – today we, including me, have enough reason to celebrate. For us, the EU Delegation, it is a great honor to be involved in this process. All EU member countries will also be happy and share this feeling. We all congratulate everyone who participated in this important success,” Herman stated.
He also named the approximate time for the introduction of visa-free travel for Georgian citizens.
“Given the experience of Moldova, the period that lasted from the progress report to the introduction of visa liberalization lasted 4-5 months. However, there might be a considerable difference between the countries”, the EU Ambassador added.
"I can only name an approximate time when Georgian citizens will be able to move visa-free in the Schengen area. The Commission will present its proposal to the EU Council and then discussions will be launched. Progress on this path depends on the EU member states and MEPs,” he concluded.


Will Pyongyang succeed in widening the divide between Seoul and Washington?
Each year, Kim Jong Un gives an address on New Year’s day. On the first day of 2017, Kim signaled the ICBM test that was to come. And on the first day of 2018, he hinted at the diplomatic thaw that would bring “love letters” and a finger-heart. So what does 2019 have in store for us?
Ultimately, there were few surprises in the speech. The first half of the speech was dedicated to the economy, just as much of North Korea’s propaganda has been since Singapore. (One interesting wrinkle is a renewed commitment to nuclear energy.) And when Kim turned to the issues of peace on the Korean peninsula and the stalled negotiations with the United States over denuclearization, he reiterated the line that we have seen from Pyongyang in recent months: Positive words about the transformation of relations with South Korea, but growing impatience with Trump.
This year, the address was delivered on television, apparently pre-recorded, with Kim sitting in a comfortable chair and speaking for about thirty minutes. A number of reporters, including Motoko Rich at the New York Times, live-tweeted translation. North Korea has now published the full text of the address, about 5,000 words long, in the Rodong Sinmun. KCNA has also published a brief 900-word summary in English which helps identify the most important bits.
Our interpretation of the speech is necessarily incomplete as Kim has also sent a pair of messages to South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump. The text of these communication has not been made public. Moon described his letter as containing a “positive message.” Trump has not mentioned his letter at all. U.S. and South Korean officials are interpreting the speech in light of these private communications, a luxury we do not have.
Kim was extremely positive about the changes in the relationship with South Korea, praising the three agreements signed with Moon Jae-in—the Panmunjom Declaration, the September Pyongyang Joint Declaration, and the North-South military agreement—as well as the warm feelings that marked the Winter Olympics.
These have been themes of North Korean propaganda throughout the year—praising Moon while criticizing his opponents as lackeys of the Americans and the Japanese. Certainly, among those concerned about the deteriorating state of relations between Seoul and Washington, these remarks will resemble a sharp wedge hammered into a deepening crack.
This is worth keeping in mind. For when Kim struck a reasonable tone on the state of negotiations with the United States, it was hard not to get the feeling that he was setting the narrative to make sure Trump takes the blame for what might come next.
North Korea has consistently exaggerated the benefit of these steps—characterizing the dismantlement of the test site as “a physical verification of the suspension of ICBM manufacture” when it is nothing of the sort and describing the Yongbyon as a core facility for producing nuclear weapons while not acknowledging the existence of other sites. There is no surprise in Kim overstating what North Korea has offered—that is, after all, simply what one does in a negotiation. But Kim is framing North Korea as the reasonable party having made many concessions leaving Trump (or at least Trump’s staff) as the obstacle to peace on the Korean peninsula—and a foreign one, at that. If one is worried about decoupling between Seoul and Washington, one should be very concerned that Kim is positioning Trump to take the blame.
As to what that new way would be, Kim did not say.
Jeffrey Lewis, PhD is a columnist for Foreign Policy, a scholar at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, and a research affiliate at the Stanford University Center for Security and International Cooperation. He is currently the publisher of ArmsControlWonk.com, the leading blog and podcast on disarmament, arms control, and nonproliferation.


Sinn Féin’s motion calls on the government to end the referral of jobseekers to JobPath.
Under the current system labels of ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ exist on birth certificates.
She said people on welfare payments were needlessly worried by news reports this morning.
The consultation process for the proposed automatic enrolment of all citizens into pension plans has now been launched and will last until 4 November.
A new law to require drivers to allow one metre when passing cyclists on roads was announced in February.
The minister gave a strong indication there will not be a repeat of the €5 increase in social welfare payments in the next Budget.
Regina Doherty acknowledged that there are issues with the childcare system in Ireland but argued that means testing is cumbersome.
Poll: Should paternity leave be mandatory?
The Irish Times reports today that the government is planning on introducing both two weeks’ paid parental leave and mandatory paternity leave.
Regina Doherty said there’d been a fourfold increase in the number of claims for free treatment benefits.
Minister for Social Protection Regina Doherty says she isn’t sure if the referendum will pass.
“It’s difficult to say in hindsight whether I would have run such a campaign or not,” says Minister Regina Doherty.
Maternity leave was extended for mothers of premature babies back in October – but not for parents of infants born before then.
The new Bill to be published this week aims to tackle the casualisation of work.
Minister Regina Doherty has said she heard a roar from Fianna Fáil TDs.
But the Social Protection minister says that other changes to social welfare payments are “in limbo”.


PRIME Minister Theresa May could call a snap General Election in the new year to force Brexit through and defy Supreme Court judges.
A group of advisers so secret that even the PM's cabinet is unaware of their existence is putting together a plan for an election to take advantage of Labour's complete disarray.
Is Theresa May hatching a plot to launch a snap election in the New Year?
The 'mandate election' would allow to pose as the champion of 'the people versus the judges', according to Mail on Sunday sources.
May has said she wants to invoke Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty by the end of March, kicking off up to two years of exit negotiations.
But the High Court ruled last month that Article 50 cannot be triggered without parliament's assent.
That ruling is being challenged by the government in the Supreme Court.
A crushing victory in the Commons would give her the power to steamroller any challenge from the House of Lords.
So far Mrs May has insisted the next Election will go ahead as planned in 2020, but the opposition's woes and the recent Tory win in the Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election may have emboldened her.
Meanwhile, the businesswoman behind the legal battle against triggering Brexit without parliamentary approval has described last week's Commons vote on the issue as "irrelevant" and a "red herring".
Investment fund manager and philanthropist Gina Miller said the motion was not legally binding, and only opens the door for MPs to vote on the timing of the Brexit negotiations, rather than the plans in their entirety.
"The motion is to set up a timetable, it actually doesn't say anything about the contents (of the Brexit negotiations).
"The inference was that that motion - having passed in the Government's favour - that we should basically pack up and go home, because that's Parliament taking responsibility and looking after itself.
"And we would argue no, it's actually a red herring in that it's a political move, it's not a legal one," she said.
MPs backed a motion on Wednesday that calls on the Government to publish its Brexit plan and trigger Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union before March 31 by 448 votes to 75.
However, Brexit Secretary David Davis said that while the Government will set out its "strategic plans" before launching the formal mechanism for withdrawal from the EU, it will not reveal anything which might "jeopardise our negotiating position".


Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Neer of Mutual announce the engagement of their daughter, Betsy Neer of Mutual, to Daniel Flanigan of Mutual.
The bride-elect graduated from Mechanicsburg High School and Clark State. She is employed by Marysville Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Her fiance is the son of Dawn Lininger of North Lewisburg and the late Daniel Flanigan. He graduated from Graham High School. He is employed by Heritage Cooperative, Thackery Branch.
The couple will be married June 1.


WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton is pledging to challenge the gun lobby as she opened another California campaign day at an Oakland church.
The former secretary of state is closing in on the Democratic presidential nomination and has been campaigning aggressively to win California, which votes Tuesday.
She’s also been drawing an enthusiastic response for a recent speech slamming Republican Donald Trump’s foreign policy.


Investigators have concluded an area where acoustic signals were detected is not the final resting place.
Investigators searching for the missing Malaysian jet have concluded an area where acoustic signals were detected is not the final resting place of the plane after an unmanned submersible found no trace of it, the search coordinator said Thursday.
The U.S. Navy’s Bluefin 21 finished its final underwater mission in the southern Indian Ocean on Wednesday after scouring 850 square kilometers (330 square miles), the Joint Agency Coordination Center said.
“The area can now be discounted as the final resting place” of the missing plane, the Australia-based center said in a statement.
The underwater search for the airliner, which vanished March 8 with 239 people on board en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, will be suspended for a couple months while more powerful sonar equipment is brought in to search a much wider area of 56,000 square kilometers (21,600 square miles), based on analysis of satellite data of the plane’s most likely course, the center said.
That analysis has led authorities to believe that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 diverted sharply from its flight path and flew south to the Indian Ocean. But not a single piece of the missing Boeing 777 has been found in one of aviation’s most baffling mysteries.
The news comes after the U.S. Navy dismissed an American expert’s reported comments that acoustic “pings” heard in April did not come from the jet’s black boxes.
CNN reported that the Navy’s civilian deputy director of ocean engineering, Michael Dean, said most countries now agreed that the sounds detected by the Navy’s Towed Pinger Locator came from a man-made source unrelated to the jet.
“Mike Dean’s comments today were speculative and premature, as we continue to work with our partners to more thoroughly understand the data acquired by the Towed Pinger Locator,” U.S. Navy spokesman Chris Johnson said in a statement, referring to Australia and Malaysia.
Dean, who is based in Washington, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Transport Minister Warren Truss said authorities would continue to analyze the sounds that led to the initial search area.
“We concentrated the search in that area because the pings, the information we received, was the best information available at the time and that’s all you can do in circumstances like this, to follow the very best leads,” Truss told Parliament in announcing the search’s failure.
“We’re still very confident that the resting place of the aircraft is in the southern ocean and along” the course indicated by satellite analysis, he added.
Opposition lawmaker Tony Burke offered his party’s condolences to the victims’ families. “The hopes of many have been dashed,” he told Parliament.
Officials had described the detection of four series of “pings” in the area that the satellite data indicated was the likely crash site as their best lead in the search. The signals appeared to be consistent with those from aircraft black boxes, which contain flight data and cockpit voice recordings. The locator beacons have a battery life of about a month, and the sounds were detected near the end of that expected lifespan for Flight 370’s beacons.
Earlier this week, the Malaysian government released reams of raw satellite data it used to determine that the flight ended in the southern Indian Ocean, a step long demanded by the families of some of the passengers on board. The conclusion is based on complex calculations derived largely from brief hourly transmissions, or “handshakes,” between the plane and a communications satellite operated by the British company Inmarsat.
But while the 45 pages of information may help satisfy a desire for more transparency in a much criticized investigation, experts say it’s unlikely to solve the mystery of Flight 370. Theories range from mechanical failure to hijacking or pilot murder-suicide.
The families of the victims, many of whom have been highly critical of the Malaysian government and, in the absence of any wreckage, have been unwilling to accept that their loved ones are dead _ had been asking for the raw satellite data for many weeks so it could be examined by independent experts. Malaysia initially balked at doing so, but then reconsidered.


Ten years ago, the Department of Workforce Development (DWD), introduced the Job Center of Wisconsin (JCW) website, an online labor exchange to connect job seekers to employers with open positions. The new website was built to replace the former JobNet system, which was created in 1993. With the launch of JCW, making connections between candidates and employers became even easier. Job seekers were able to create and store resumes, cover letters and standardized work applications on the site. Employers could also now search for suitable job seekers using keywords. These innovative improvements demonstrated a commitment to keep pace with the needs of Wisconsin employers and jobseekers, a commitment that has been strengthened each year with continued upgrades and improvements.
The Job Center of Wisconsin website has come a long way since 2008, but its foundation has remained the same: exceptional customer service. "Since its launch, JCW has provided the public with free access to millions of job openings," Job Service Bureau Director Kristine Porter said. "JCW has also served hundreds of thousands of job seekers with resume assistance, skills matching and easy job searching tools over the past 10 years."
In the past decade, DWD has provided tools and enhancements to the site to make it more user-effective and user-friendly. If you visit JobCenterofWisconsin.com, not only will you be able to search for jobs in Wisconsin, but there are more tools and resources than ever to help you take that next step in your employment or career.
By visiting the WisConomy page, you can gather data and learn about your local labor market information – helping you to make an informed choice about your career path based on job availability, wages, job growth, and more.
Job Center of Wisconsin has also made it easier for our state's veterans to transition to the civilian workforce. By creating job search features that allow servicemen and women to match their military occupation specialty codes with real-time job postings, veterans are able to transition their military service into civilian jobs seamlessly.
Integration with O*Net makes it easy for you to discover your transferrable skills and increases skills matching between your resume and employers' job postings.
Skills assessments are also available to help match job seekers to occupations within their interests or skill sets. The assessment, Skill Explorer, links people with their skills and knowledge directly to open job postings.
ill be celebrating the ten-year anniversary of JCW all throughout the month of September. Visit our website to find a Job Center near you and join us at a local event to celebrate ten years of innovative and effective customer service.


NEW DELHI : The new year has arrived. From today, Star has 88 days before D-day dawns on April 1, 2003. And in the run up to unveil a new-look and completely overhauled Star News channel, the Rupert Murdoch company has to work out various logistics, including obtaining various permissions from the Indian government which are yet to come through.
The Cabinet note on Star News proposal was circulated by the information and broadcasting ministry to some ministries concerned in December, but the feedback and comments are yet to arrive. Before that happens, information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj would not like to take the proposal to the Cabinet for "collective guidance."
"We have sent reminders to the various ministries last Friday only on the Star News issue and are awaiting their response," a senior I&B ministry official told indiantelevision earlier today.
Asked when the ministry expects responses from other government departments, the official admitted, "We cannot hurry up other ministries on any issue. Especially this one as it is a sensitive issue and the (I&B) minister has made it clear that a thorough examination of all the aspects have to be done. Moreover, some issues also relate to security and the home ministry can take some time (on responding on Star News issue)."
The Cabinet note has been circulated to the ministries of home affairs, defence, IT and telecommunications, law and finance, apart from the Prime Minister's Office.
Swaraj's contention on the Star News issue is that since it's a foreign company with foreign directors which wants to have a news channel for India, all aspects, including the editorial and financial control of the channel, need to be examined and for this, she would be needing the guidance of the whole Cabinet.
Although delays would not deter Star from starting the venture in whatever form it thinks fit, a clear idea of the government thinking would certainly help. Even if that means the government making a policy that foreign direct investment (FDI) in such news channels would be on the same lines as that in the news category in print - 26 per cent FDI, while the rest being resident Indian shareholding.
Political sources indicate that Star needs to get all government permissions before the next session of Parliament (the Budget session) starts middle of February, because after that, not many in the government are likely to have time for most of the year to make policies on similar issues. Unless, of course, the big daddies in India and outside get into the thick of action.


There has obviously been a boat load of US dollars bought over the last four sessions. There are some preliminary technical signs that the near-term momentum may have exhausted itself and short-term participants are better advised sell into a bounce rather than rush into it now.
Heavy selling failed to send the euro though the $1.3050 level and a bounce now could carry it up into the $1.3150-60 area. Sterling failed to make a new low in the North American morning and a bounce could see $1.5460-80.
The Australian dollar is perhaps the most interesting. It is recording an outside day, having traded on both sides of Friday's range. The new lows recorded earlier today corresponds to a 38.2% retracement of up trend off the 2008 lows. To solidify the expectation for a near-term bounce, it would be best, from a technical perspective for the Aussie to close the North American session today above Friday's high of roughly $0.9260. A short-term recovery can see $0.9350-$0.9400.
The yen does not fit as nicely into this picture. Today's dollar high near JPY98.70 could be important technically as it is a 50% retracement of the dollar's decline from May 22's multi-year high. Initial support now seen near JPY96.80.
To be clear, this is not a strategic call, but a tactical warning. Over anything but the shortest of terms, the dollar, we think is still headed higher.


Ben Slater, Nottinghamshire's player of the month for September.
Opening batsman Ben Slater has been named as Nottinghamshire’s player of the month for September to reflect the encouraging impact he has made in his short time at Trent Bridge.
Since joining the club from Derbyshire, the 27-year-old Slater has scored 349 runs in his four matches in the Specsavers County Championship, First Division, at an average of 43.62. He also passed the personal milestone of 4,000 first-class runs in the final match of the season against Somerset when Notts escaped relegation by the skin of their teeth.
Slater also made a century, his fourth in first-class cricket, on his home debut for Notts at the start of September, against Yorkshire.
He was presented with his award by Faye Rollinson, the marketing manager of Nottingham firm John Pye Auctions, which sponsors the accolade. Slater is now hoping to nail down a regular place in the team next season.


France's national health agency Anses says it has found chemicals in babies' nappies that exceed safety levels.
Tests found levels above safety thresholds for substances potentially dangerous to human health, and lower levels of others including the controversial weedkiller glyphosate.
Anses said its nappy tests were the first of their kind in the world.
It has called for rapid action "considering the possible risks these chemicals may pose" to babies.
France's Health Minister Agnès Buzyn said there was "no serious or immediate risk" to babies' health.
"Obviously we should continue putting nappies on our babies. We've been doing that for at least 50 years," she told AFP.
But a joint statement by the health, finance and environment ministers said the government had given nappy manufacturers 15 days to come up with an action plan aimed at getting rid of the toxic substances.
Ms Buzyn said the government would accept a delay of up to six months for production methods to change.
The study was done on a number of different brands of single-use nappies available in the French market.
Some 4,000 such nappies might be used in the first three years of a baby's life, Anses said.
The report did not name the brands it tested, beyond saying it was representative of the French market. Some nappy brands available in France are also sold in other countries.
Under what it called "realistic use" conditions, it "detected a number of hazardous chemicals in disposable diapers that could migrate through urine, for example, and enter into prolonged contact with babies' skin," the agency said.
Some of the chemicals were added intentionally, "such as perfumes that could cause skin allergies", Anses said.
But others were probably introduced from contaminated materials, or as part of the manufacturing process plan.
Among the chemicals found in excess of safety thresholds were the perfumes Lilial and Lyral, and aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins and furans.
Glyphosate was also listed in the agency's report, at lower levels.
Marketed under the name Roundup in the US, it is widely used but has been a frequent target for health and environmental campaigners after a World Health Organization study classified it as "probably carcinogenic".
Weedkillers: What do we know about glyphosate?
But it remains the most widely used herbicide in Europe, as EU officials do not agree that the product is a carcinogen. Yet in the United States, a groundskeeper who sued a maker of the chemical was awarded millions in damages by jurors who agreed it had contributed to his terminal cancer.
The weedkiller is due to be banned in France by 2021, and its presence in nappies made headlines in the country when the report was released.
"Anses recommends eliminating the chemicals found in single-use baby diapers, or reducing them as much as possible," the agency said in a statement.
That includes stopping the use of all perfumes, it said.
It is also calling for tougher regulatory measures at an EU level - something which the French government said it was pursuing in the wake of the report.
The umbrella group for makers of French hygiene products, Group'hygiène, released a statement about the report, saying more than three billion nappies were used every year without any adverse health effects. A range of quality and safety controls were already in place, it said.
The group's managing director, Valérie Pouillat, said manufacturers would "co-operate with the authorities to continue to meet the expectations of the consumers".
After the French report was released, Belgian consumer group Test Achats (also known as Test-Aaankoop) released results of its own nappy testing, due to be published next month.
It found that in Belgium, there were some chemical traces, but "no need to worry".
"The differences in results… are probably explained by the fact that the substances researched are not identical, and that the brands of diapers differ from one market to another," it said.


A large iwi has signed agreements with five local authorities to jointly manage the Waikato River in its territory.
Raukawa is collaborating with the Taupo, South Waikato, Waipa, Otorohanga and Rotorua district councils to restore the health of the waterway in its rohe.
Raukawa Settlement and Charitable trusts chair Vanessa Eparaima says the aim of the agreements is to put a stop to the degradation of the river.
Ms Eparaima says her people talk about not being able to catch eels anymore, and they've been told they shouldn't collect food from parts of the river.
The joint iwi-council approach will help to spur the restoration effort into action, she says.


Although Washington Times media reporter Dan Caterinicchia reported today (in an otherwise interesting look at WUSA) that WUSA’s “Web site was first to report the crash and controversy involving Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy”, such was not really the case.
Roll Call’s John McArdle broke the story.
Roll Call was first with the story and has received much deserved credit for a solid scoop. WUSA even cited the paper’s report on its Web site. WUSA’s claim was that it beat the other local TV stations and cable networks and I should have made that distinction clear in my column, which covers local TV and radio.


They call him the velvet hammer. He's the new Hamilton Jordan, the new H. R. Haldeman, the new White House chief of staff.
He's the ultimate urban cowboy, a tall, twangy Texan who's going to be second in command to the next president of the United States, Ronald Reagan. But James Baker III, the Houston lawyer who rode shotgun for Jerry Ford, George Bush, and Ronald Reagan in their presidential campaigns, plans to keep a low profile in the White House. You won't see his Stetson showing over the rim of the hill too often.
Jim Baker is keenly aware that his two predecessors were moving targets in a high-powered world. But he is a vastly different from both of them -- from the authoritarian, "German shepherd" image H. R. Haldeman projected and from the anti-establishment, flamboyant, disorganized, and controversial Hamilton Jordan. It's highly improbable that Mr. Baker and top presidential adviser Edwin Meese, who will be the head honchos under Mr. Reagan in the White House, would ever pose dressed as Butch Cassity and the Sundance Kid, the way Hamilton Jordan and press secretary Jody Powell did for a Rolling Stone cover story four years ago.
When Jim Baker is asked what his image will be as chief of staff, he answers as cautiously as Gary Cooper riding into a new town. "It's a tough job, I'll tell you. You don't make any friends in this job. . . . First place, it's a manager job. I think you've got to be able to make that train run efficiently, or the president will not appear to have it all together. You've got to be low key and low visibility, because your one role is that of an honest broker, your primary responsibility.
"You see, all the papers are going to come through me, all the appointments are going to come through me, including the policies that are developed, will flow through one central point. I have to be an honest broker. I have to refrain from imposing, . . . suggesting, policy options to the president.
"You see, I have to make sure that he gets all sides of every question, and that everybody who should have a chance to contribute to that decision has a chance.
"Now I can't do that effectively if I'm out there every day sounding off on policy. I can't answer policy questions or have a press conference or be on a talk show, or people on one side of the issue will see me as slanting [the issue ] for the president. Now I hope I'm explaining this to you -- so, low visibility is something that in order to be an honest broker I think I have to strive for. Now, that dun mean" -- he pronounces "doesn't" "dun," Texas style -- "it dun mean that I ought to be inaccessible to the press.
"I've got a lot of friends from my prior experiences in the press, and I want to maintain those friendships. And I expect to talk to 'em. . . . But I ought not to be out there every day or every week with a high profile. If I can avoid it, I ought not to see my name in weekly news magazines being quoted as saying [ something] . . ., 'cause when you become in that job a public figure in your own right, you get enough people shootin' at you as it is. Okay? And the more you do that, the more people are gonna shoot atcha."
There is a disarming quality about Jim Baker, but it does not appear to be calculated. It has something to do with the earnestness and candor of his expression as he talks. He is compelling, like a man explaining quietly that if you go into that canyon, you're sure to be ambushed. He has an extremely direct but not hard gaze -- if he were an actor he would be described as having melting brown eyes.
The expression in those eyes suggests that he has learned compassion through tragedy in his own life. And he has. The fatal illness of his first wife left him a widower with four sons, the youngest 10 years old.
He has since remarried, giving him an "Eight is Enough" family, ranging from 26 to 3 years old: his four children, her three, their three-year-old daughter.
Part of Mr. Baker's disarming quality springs from his low-key, quiet reasonableness. He has a talent for involving the listener, not polarizing the issue.
"He's a lot tougher that he comes across," cautions his first cousin Preston Moore, who grew up with Jim Baker in Houston. Mr. Moore, president of the Wilson Office Products Company, says "He's gonna stand up there and be counted, and he's gonna be tough. He's strong. He's a friendly person, but the toughness is there. He's a velvet hammer." And his friend, Rep. Richard B. Cheney (R) of Wyoming, adds, "I'd say he's firm and decisive, but I wouldn't use the word tough, because he has no rough edges. He's smooth, cool, competent, with an aura of confidence."
The announcement of Mr. Baker as White House chief of staff came as a surprise to some experts in poltics and the press who declared Mr. Meese the front-runner for the job. The "conventional wisdom," to use one of the trendy government phrases, was that Mr. Baker got the job because he was: (a) more organized than Edwin Meese, and (b) not a member of the California circle, not one of the insiders Mr. Reagan had been accused of surrounding himself with.
Does Jim Baker figure those are the reasons he got the job?
He answers softly, with a come-now-let-us-reason-together appeal: "It wouldn't look very good if I said yes, would it?"
But would he like to say yes?
His response: "So I won't say yes. I do think there was a desire to bring people in at the top levels of the White House who were not Californians and that was probably something that was going for me. I don't know how to answer that for you, other than to tell you that my charge when the governor talked to me was to handle the uh, well, let me see how to put this. . . .The chief of staff's office historically has been where politics and government meet. And that's what he wants me to do. Handle the political side and make the train run.
"It's a big operation, 1,300 people in the White House and the executive office of the president, and I think he's counting on me to administer it, organize it, and handle the political side of it, which includes the congressional relations, press relations, personnel, public liaison, the outreach programs at the White House."
Listen carefully as the velvet hammer comes down ever so softly but firmly to drive home the fact that, under him, the White House staff would not lose any of its power. We are talking about a remark by William Casey, CIA chief-designate, who said at one point that the Reagan administration would be like Eisenhower's -- "people of experience, of heavier weight, more of a sense of authority, with greater emphasis on the cabinet," and that the White House staff "would nto have such a heavy hand."
Mr. Baker pauses, then begins the swing gently. "Um hm. Well, let me tell you what I see. I don't think that a strong cabinet and a strong White House staff are mutually exclusive. I don't think it's an either-or situation. I think you can have a strong cabinet and a strong White House staff, and that it's to the president's advantage to [have] that.
"We are trying to put people in at the senior levels of this White House that meet some of the criteria you quoted me that Bill Casey said. We're not going to have a lot of political apparatchiks coming in to high level jobs at the White House. We're notm !" he says, and the hammer, though muffled, is heard.
Mr. Baker has an assurance that's muted, but never mistake the fact that it's there. You can catch a glimpse of it on the office wall as he talks: a framed medallion hanging from a red, white, and blue ribbon. It was awarded to him by Bush campaign worker Bruce Gelb in memory of the night of the Republican convention when Governor Reagan chose his vice-presidential running mate.
At 11:30 that convention night, when all of George Bush's troops and Bush himself had given up hope of his being named vice-president, Jim Baker dug in his spurs and said grimly, "It's not over yet." He was right of course; Baker's man Bush won the vice-presidential race. The words "Baker Says It's Not Over Yet" are inscribed on the award, which looks like an Olympic gold medal.
As friends, George Bush and Jim Baker go back as long as jack rabbit ears. George bush is the reason he got into politics, Baker says. They met in Houston in the late 1950s as tennis partners, when Baker was still a born (if not a yellow dog) Democrat. They were introduced by Baker's first wife, an active Republican who knew Bush through relatives in the Midwest.
"I was apolitical," says Baker, who was a Houston lawyer until 1970 when his close friend George Bush asked him to handle his Senate race. "Well that did it. I couldn't very well do that as a Democrat," he grins. His first wife had been working hard to convert him, he adds.
In the ten years since then, Jim Baker has made up for his former disinterest with a vengeance. Bush had asked him to run in 1969 for his old seat in Congress, but he was unable to because of his wife's illness. Although Bush lost the Senate race in Texas, he did win 61 percent of the vote in the Houston area, which Baker had handled. Next, Baker did a one-year stint as state finance chairman for the Republican party of Texas.
In 1972 he ran, unsuccessfully, for attorney general on the Republican ticket in Texas, the state where Republicans traditionally have little chance of being elected to any job short of governor.
"It was the first time we had ever fielded a candidate who could raise any money; I raised a million and a half dollars to run for attorney general," he says.
In 1975 Rogers C. B. Morton, secretary of the interior, was scouting for a business lawyer for the Department of Commerce so he brought Mr. Baker up from Texas to be undersecretary.
"Morton brought me up but I think Bush put him up to it. . . . George wouldn't admit to being the reason," smiles Baker. "It was about six months after that that President Ford asked me to come over to the [presidential] campaign."
Baker became a chairman of the President Ford Committee in Ford's '76 race first againstm Ronald Reagan and then against Jimmy Carter. In 1979 he became chairman of George Bush's presidential campaign against Reagan. He then worked as senior adviser to the Reagan-Bush Committee, until that stroke of amazing grace when his former adversary, Ronald Reagan, chose him as White House chief of staff.
"You could have knocked me over with a feather when he asked me to do this," says Baker.
"Naw. Coming from there I'd come from, I mean I'd been Ford's campaign manager, I'd been Bush's campaign manager, so obviously I had to be flattered by it."
What does Baker think he did in the Reagan campaign that resulted in is being tapped for chief of staff?
"If it was anything, it might have been the way we arranged the debate briefings and handled the debate negotiations --," says Mr. Baker, who had held out for Reagan to debate Carter one-on-one at the end, against all opposition. He adds, "I'm not all sure that he might not have based his decision on factors other than what I did just in the campaign."
He continues: "I'm not sure whether he discussed it with George and frankly George wouldn't tell me if he had."
Vice-president-elect George Bush believes Mr. Reagan's choice of Baker "has to do with the man, the qualities he has, the fiber of the person. . . . Reagan knows his qualities, has seen him in action. . . . I think that Ronald Reagan is a good judge of character."
He notes that Baker is not afraid to be the messenger who brings the bad news , that he tells it candidly, from the heart. And he speaks of the fact that Baker has often "helped others run for office without trying to build himself up."
Baker is aggressive and competitive, his long-time friend and tennis partner notes, but he also knows how to be supportive in a job. As for flaws -- "He's an excellent tennis player, but his service is not known for its blinding speed, " Mr. Bush adds.
One of Baker's most important qualities, Mr. Bush says, is "his finely honed perception of loyalty" which will be important "as he serves the President of the United States. If it should put him in conflict with the vice-president, he would never carry water for me on any position."
When Jim Baker is asked how -- if the time should ever come -- a President Bush would be different from a President Reagan, he stops short. He approaches the question in a soft, wary way, like a rancher stopping just short of a rattlesnake.
"I wouldn't want to get into that," he finally drawls. "He [Bush] and I have beek like this" he holds up two fingers together "and still are. . . . That's one thing about my appointment I think is a plus. Historically, the vice-president has been cut out, not my reason of antipathy between the president and vice-president, but because their staffs start fighting. And the fact that I'm in there means that't not going to happen in this administration. And yet my loyalty now should be and is to President Reagan. And I'm very con scious of that."
He pauses, like a lawyer making a final argument. "And I believe I can seperate out my close friendship with George Bush from my obligation and duty of loyalty to President Reagan."
He leans forward in his chair to make that point, this tall, lean Texan with the wavy gray hair and soft brown eyes. He packs a Stetson and jeans and cowboy boots, but not here, not in the urban corral of the Capitol. As one of the president's men, he is dressed like the Princeton graduate he is, wearing reassuring Eastern establishment duds: navy pin-striped suit (jacket off), dark red tie with pin dots, pale blue shirt, high-shine black leather oxfords.
He is an attractive man who gives the impression of being as relaxed as he is affable -- until you notice that he has a habit of wringing his hands ever so slowly as he talks, brushing his fingers together as though checking to see whether the fingernails are still there.
Baker has been described in the press as calm, controlled, highly organized, unflappable. It's the unflappable that stops him: "I don't know whether it's true or not. I may be unflappable from the outside but I'm sure everybody's flappable on the inside.
"Organized? I'm supposed to be. Basically, I'm modest, and that's the toughest thing I've found about running for office. You've got to get out there and blow your own horn. It's like Lyndon Johnson said, "He who tooteth not his own horn shall not have his own horn tooted.' And in politics that's really true to a large degree."
A cousin, Preston Moore, says Baker is articulate, honest, and smart.
"He doesn't come to town on a load of wood, he's a pretty bright guy, he's experienced."
Mr. Moore says Baker is a true Texan, loves his ranch in south Texas, loves to camp out under the stars when it's 22 degrees F. But his Texas roots, though deep, are more complex than the boots-and-saddle stereotype. As George Bush points out, Baker is one of the great names in Texas, associated with Rice University and one of the great law firms. Like his daddy before him, Jim Baker went to Princeton, got his law degree at the University of Texas Law School in Austin, became a partner not in the family firm which had a rule against nepotism, but in the equally prestigious Houston law firm of andrews, Kurth, Campbell, and Jones.
The Bakers and their eight children have a home in Houston, but deep in the heart of Texas is his favorite place, the ranch near San Antonio that he says isn't big by Texas standards.
"It's 1,360 acres, that's small. You need 28 acres for a cow. It's very arid. . . . My ranch is just like southern Africa -- everything's got a thorn in it. It's something called the brush country of south Texas."
He likes to hunt game there; his idea of relaxing is to sit in a blind, hunting for tough turkeys and thinking. The hunting is not just part of his Texas tradition; as a marine at Camp Lejeune, N. C., he was on the pistol and rifle team.Fishing is another relaxer -- what's called "wade fishing" in the shallow salt water and coastal bays of Texas, fishing for weakfish, red drum, sea trout.
The man who is inevitably described as loyal is a fan of Tammy ("Stand By Your Man") Wynette and other country and western stars like George Jones. He likes to watch pro football, roots for the Oilers (in Washington, for the Redskins, except against Dallas), and doesn't have time to read anything except professional stuff.
Back in the days when he did, he read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," one of his favorite books, twice. History intrigues him; he was classic major -- "Herodotus, Thucydides all that," but wrote his thesis at Princeton on the British Labour Party from 1945-52. That was when he was still a Democrat.
One of his regrets is that he has not been able to spend as much time with his children as his father did with him.
"I spent quite a bit of time with my boys after their mother's death [Mary Steuart McHenry] and to some degree sort of put the law practice second."
After his second marriage, to Susan Garrett Winston, he found "putting two families together where there's been a loss of a spouse in each family is tough. She'd lost her husband. . . . The first couple of years it's rough, a lot of rivalry for time and attention, space and affection. They moved into our house and some of my children were less than cordial. Turf problems. Now it's good, it's very good."
Susan Baker calls her husband "beautifully balanced," speaks of his stability , his affectionate nature, the fact that he's "a giver of himself. . . . He's generous, he cares about people."
"We have a real covenant about our Washington experience. I cried all night when I heard he was going to be chief of staff. I know what's involved. He was gone two years campaigning. I know this job means 14-hour days. I enjoy him so much. So when I heard, I cried and prayed, and cried and prayed. We believe very strongly that God is in control of our lives. We choose to ask Him to be in control of our lives.
"So we've decided it will be a wonderful thing, even if it isn't a wonderful thing, It willm be wonderful. We're not going to let the barbs and darts overcome the big picture, this big job the president has asked him to do, and to be part of an incredibly bit [experience]. So now I feel we have a covenant about it. I'm very joyful about it."
"The minute I start thinking I'm powerful, then I'm losing my perspective on the job. I'm important only because of the president and my relationship there.' Period. And the worst thing you could do in this job is to get thinking about how powerful you are."


Bobby Petrino insists he’s a changed man.
Not the scoundrel who secretly interviewed for someone else’s coaching job without telling his bosses, who abandoned the Atlanta Falcons with three games left in the season, who wrecked his motorcycle with his mistress aboard and lied about the sordid affair as long as he could.
We’re supposed to believe he’s not that guy anymore.
In the latest sign that college athletics spews a lot of high-minded malarkey but is never about anything more than wins and losses, Louisville re-introduced Petrino as its head coach this week — pairing him with another member of the Morally Bankrupt Hall of Fame — men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino. You remember, before the NCAA championship, the intimate relations with someone other than his wife on a restaurant table.
The news conference Thursday was downright sickening, with all the expected nonsense about Petrino suddenly turning into a decent human being and the Cardinals being persuaded that he’s just the right guy to turns boys into men.
After Charlie Strong took the Texas job, the only thing that mattered to the Cardinals was finding someone to keep the victories coming. That’s why they brought back Petrino, who was 41-9 when he coached Louisville from 2003-06, including a trip to the Orange Bowl. There was no need subjecting us to all the familiar gibberish about Petrino finding his way to a better place as person. That doesn’t matter in the least, even if it’s true.
No problem there. The Cardinal Nation seems thrilled by the hiring, not wanting to lose any ground as it moves to the Atlantic Coast Conference. We’ll see how they’re feeling after Petrino goes 11-1 — he can coach, after all — and starts sniffing around for an even better job. A tiger doesn’t suddenly change his stripes. History suggests this guy won’t either.
Less than a year later, he slips off to a clandestine airport meeting with Auburn officials, neither side giving Jurich the courtesy of a phone call or apparently fazed that the Tigers still have a coach, Tommy Tuberville. Petrino apologizes and stays with the Cardinals.
— After interviewing for other jobs during each of his first three years at Louisville, Petrino signs a 10-year contract worth at least $25.5 million in the summer of 2006, a deal he says is designed to send a message.
Less than six months later, he leaves to coach the Atlanta Falcons.
— “I believe this is truly the best football job in the NFL,” Petrino says after being hired by the Falcons in January 2007. “It was an easy decision for me.” But quarterback Michael Vick never plays for the new coach, sent to prison for running a dogfighting ring, and the Falcons lose 10 of their first 13 games.
“I feel like I’ve been sleeping with the enemy,” safety Lawyer Milloy says.
— Then, in April 2012, Petrino shows up with four broken ribs and wearing a neck brace after a motorcycle crash. “When I came out of the ditch, there was a lady there that had flagged down a car,” he says, not bothering to mention she was his mistress and a women less than half his age, former Arkansas volleyball player Jessica Dorrell.
With a police report about to be released, Petrino is forced to come clean about Dorrell, such as giving her a $20,000 gift and hiring her to work in the football office over candidates who are surely more qualified.
But this time, we’re supposed to believe Petrino has changed.