Come May 25th of this year, the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enters into force. How are multinational companies that rely heavily on analytic software in their enterprise security and insider-threat mitigation programs ensuring they comply with the GDPR? The answer is that many are — or should be — making major adjustments in the types of software solutions they use to analyze personal data.
The GDPR is designed to strengthen security and privacy protections for data on the citizens of all 28 EU member states, including data held outside the EU by companies that count its citizens among their employees or customers. (Several non-EU countries are also adopting the GDPR.) This is the EU’s first significant regulatory refresh since its 1995 data protection directive, and the implications are profound.
Recital 71: The data subject should have "the right... to obtain an explanation of the decision reached... and to challenge the decision."
Article 13: The data controller must provide the subject, at the time his or her personal data is obtained, with “meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences of such processing” for the subject.
Article 15: Subjects have a right to know what personal data a company is using and how it’s being used.
I have argued for years that users of purely data-driven analytic solutions are ill-served by those systems’ utter inability to explain why a particular decision was made. I took this position not as a response to the pending arrival of the GDPR, but because it’s simply good practice for company units that are engaged in something as consequential as security to take all possible measures to ensure their decision-making approach is analytically sound, transparent, traceable and legally and technically defensible.
In September 2016, for example, I wrote in these pages that companies seeking to build a world-class insider threat program should "avoid black boxes" like pure machine-learning solutions and deep neural networks, since their underlying analytic processes and algorithms remain unknown to the user. “Insider threat cases are sensitive personnel and corporate security issues,” I wrote. “And any deployed system must provide transparency into what factors raised an individual’s risk profile, and when.” In other words, when a company censures or terminates an individual for malicious, negligent or inadvertent insider behavior, it had better be able to prove its case to company leadership, or in response to an employee appeal or wrongful termination lawsuit.
To be clear, the GDPR does not apply in certain national security and law enforcement scenarios, but that, too, accords with common sense. After all, employees in sensitive national security positions at U.S. government agencies voluntarily waive their rights to personal privacy; company employees are under no such compunction to do so — nor should they be.
Some legal scholars contend that the GDPR’s right-to-explanation provisions have no teeth, noting for example that the words “right to explanation” appear only in an unenforceable recital rather than a binding article. Others argue that the right will apply very narrowly in practice — to “significant” decisions made “solely” by automated means.
Regardless of how these provisions are applied or enforced, the EU’s underlying intent in offering citizens the means to know why they were not hired for a job, or denied a loan or fired for posing a security risk, is more than reasonable. And with fines for non-compliance reaching up to 4 percent of a company's annual global turnover or up to €20 million (whichever is higher), what corporate leader is going to risk not complying with applicable provisions of the GDPR?
There are other existing artificial intelligence-based approaches, beyond machine learning and neural nets, that companies can adopt which provide the necessary transparency not just for GDPR compliance but for any realm where a right to explanation is the norm. For example, building probabilistic models (particularly Bayesian belief networks) to represent complex problems like insider threat detection actually forces the domain experts whose wisdom and judgments are elicited to explain their reasoning up front, in full detail, before any personally identifiable information is applied. Decisions resulting from the model-based software analytics can thus be peeled back, layer by layer, to show the entire chain of reasoning and the influence of each new piece of data on the results.
More broadly, as AI continues its unrelenting march into more products and services across more sectors of the global economy, protections relating to personal and data privacy have to keep pace. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Which could be one explanation for the recent increase in developmental activity surrounding so-called Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) systems, which the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency claims should "have the ability to explain their rationale." What citizen, or company, wouldn’t embrace that?


Leading Jewish organizations slammed The New York Times on Thursday for publishing an infographic listing Jewish Congressional Democrats who oppose the Iran nuclear deal.
The chart listed anti-deal Democrats in the House and Senate in columns, one of which was headed "Jewish?" Another showed the lawmakers' "District and estimated Jewish population."
The text accompanying the graphic pointed out that, "Though more Jewish members of Congress support the deal than oppose it, the Democrats against the deal are more likely to be Jewish or represent Jewish constituencies."
Responding to the publication, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), described the chart as "a grotesque insult to the intelligence of those voting on the deal," and warned against the connotations its publication evokes.
Cooper told The Algemeiner that the point The New York Times appeared to be trying to make is "flawed, mistaken and inappropriate."
Click for more from The Algemeiner.


Brittany Smith became the first woman to be WISSOTA Auto Racing's Hornet national champion this year.
ST. CLOUD — Brittany Smith grew up at the track.
And this year she left her mark there, as the first female national champion in WISSOTA Auto Racing.
"It was kind of unreal," Smith said about her big win.
The 20-year-old Apollo High School graduate raced in the Hornet division and finished as runner-up last year.
Smith had 15 feature wins this year and knew she had enough points to win the championship before the season ended in late October. WISSOTA’s membership includes about 50 race tracks in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba.
"I hope my accomplishments can show women that even though it's a male-dominated sport, anything and everything is possible," Smith said Wednesday.
Her family is a big part of her life on and off the track — and she credits her dad's pep talks with some of her success.
Smith's brother Jacob Smith is another supporter and one of her biggest competitors.
Brittany Smith first raced at age 17, as an off-hand trial run of her dad's Dodge Neon. He had been a competitive driver and still built cars for racing.
Talk in the family always focused on her brother inheriting the sport of racing, Smith said. "I just remember being so excited to show my dad I could do it."
Her brother, a 16-year-old junior at Apollo High School, did well this past racing season too. He secured 11 feature wins, she said.
"You want to beat her. She wants to beat you," Jacob Smith said about competition with his sister. "I think it was fun racing against each other. I'd like to see her keep racing, in different classes."
Jacob thinks it's great that Brittany took the championship, but it did ruffle some of the racers, he said.
"A lot of hard feelings for the guys when you get beat by a girl," he said.
Brittany Smith also happens to be a tiny woman, just 5 feet 1 inch tall, said her mother, Carrie Beaudette.
"In my world, it was always a man's sport," Beaudette said. "She gets out there, and she has absolutely no fear."
Both of Smith's parents run their own businesses and inspired her to major in business management at Bemidji State University where she's a junior. She is also working on a minor in sports management.
On the side, Smith participates in cross fit competitions and may start training to be a coach in that sport next summer. She also likes to go ice fishing and travel around with her mother.
When she's around on the weekend, she'll check out her brother's Apollo hockey games too, he said. The two spent a lot of time together on weekends through racing season.
Sometimes Brittany Smith wouldn't get back to school until late Sunday night, early Monday morning, her brother said. Then she'd head to class.
That commitment to driving, that time at the track, is the Smiths' secret to success.
"Seat time is key. The more you do it, the better you get," Brittany Smith said.
Encouragement from her dad was also key.
"He always reminded me I could do it, no matter what," she said.
She's also grateful to the fans of the sport who show up to races and her myriad of sponsors.
Brittany's not sure if she'll keep racing next season. She plans to finish college and said it's hard to be away from her family and the shop.
"It's still up in the air," she said.


Chadwick Boseman took the Saturday Night Live stage over the weekend, where he brought out his Black Panther character, T'Challa, for a new, brilliant installment in SNL's hilarious recurring "Black Jeopardy" sketch.
Decked out in his formal dignitary ensemble (instead of his iconic Black Panther armor) T'Challa's answers to the "Black Jeopardy" questions painted a really beautiful portrait of his home nation of Wakanda.
Host Darnell Hayes (played by Kenan Thompson) led the contestants through a series of questions regarding black culture in America -- from the categories "Grown A**," "Aw Hell Naw," "Fid’na," "Girl, Bye," "I Ain’t Got It," and "White People."
As it turns out T'Challa's experiences as the king of Wakanda have given him a remarkably different view of the world and his role, and America's cultural morays are very foreign to him.
After the category "Fid'na" was chosen, the contestant were asked, "This is the reason your cable bill is in your grand mamma's name."
T'Challa rang in quickly, answering, "To honor her as the foundation of the family."
While Darnell said the answer was "really nice," it was also wrong. Shanice (played by Leslie Jones) rang in with the correct answer: "What is, 'I’m fid'na to get a car and I don’t need that on my credit.'"
When the "Grown A**" category was chosen, T'Challa got another chance with the question, "You send your smart-a** child here, 'cause she thinks she grown."
"What is, 'To one of our free universities, where she can apply her intelligence and perhaps one day become a great scientist,'" T'Challa suggested.
"OK, well, the answer we was looking for was, 'Out my damn house,' but you know what, I'm gonna give it to you T'Challa," Darnell said. "Y'all must have no mean streets in Wakanda. That must be nice."
The hilarious cultural divide was even more apparent when Darnell asked a question from the "Awe Hell Naw" category: "The police man says there's been some robberies in your neighborhood, and asks if you have any information."
T'Challa rang in instantly, answering, 'What is, 'Not only do I tell this man what I know, but I also assist him in tracking down the offender. After all, our administers of law enforcement are only here to protect us.' Is this correct?"
"I mean, it should be," Darnell said, shrugging. "I'm thinking you haven't spent much time in America."
Eventually, however, T'Challa gets a hang of the kind of answers the show is looking for after Darnell asked a question from the ubiquitous "White People" category. Check out the sketch to see how the King of Wakanda addresses a "bland potato salad" food faux pas.
While Black Panther came out nearly two months ago -- and co-star, Sterling K. Brown already hosted SNL in March -- Boseman will be reprising the Wakandan superhero for the second time this year when Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters April 26.
Saturday Night Live returns April 14 -- with first-time host John Mulaney and music guest Jack White -- at 11:30 p.m. ET, 8:30 p.m. PT on NBC.


For some parents, withdrawing a child from a private school is harder than getting in.
On November 10, 2017 Braeburn Group of International Schools lost a seven-year-old protracted court battle with two parents whom it had accused of withdrawing their children out of the school without giving notice.
The court case serves as a lesson to Kenyan parents.
Buried in the school application forms that most parents passively sign, are clauses that can cost you dearly if you want to withdraw your child on short notice.
For most parents, getting a child into a new school is a moment of relief or joy, that they spend very little time reading through the admission letter. However, there are tiny clauses that can cost you millions of shillings if a school takes you to court.
The court case serves as a lesson to Kenyan parents. Buried in the school application forms that most parents passively sign, are clauses that can cost you dearly if you want to withdraw your child on short notice.
In the case of Braeburn, court documents show that the parents escaped liability on the grounds that the application form was not duly signed.
The International Schools Board transfer policy states that penalty fee shall be charged to cover the operational expenses related to providing educational services for the year.
In most top-notch private schools, the penalty fee can range from Sh460,000 to Sh900,000 for those whose policy is one term in lieu of notice and Sh1.3 million to Sh2.7 million for three terms.
At Brookhouse School, for example, parents who fail to give a withdrawal notice lose caution money. Caution money varies, but in elite schools, it is Sh100,000 for day scholars and Sh200,000 for boarders.
At Riara International School, parents who do not offer a one term notice automatically have to pay an equivalent of the fee.
Anthony Mungai, the headteacher, Riara International School said that the reason behind the policy is for proper planning in terms of buying supplies.
“This is to give the parents ample time to clear with us in case of any balance but also give us notice so that we can plan how many books to buy and how many teachers we would need for the term,” he said.
Hillcrest International Schools also has a similar policy and parents are required to give a one-term notice.
She said that the reason behind this policy is to help the school manage the classes, adding that parents should follow the correct withdrawal process so that they are not penalised. “It is purely for budgetary reasons because we plan for each of our students well ahead of time,” she said.
Speaking on phone a school representative said, “while schools recognise that there are valid reasons why children need to transfer, we also need time to plan since we have very small classes. For example, some classes have 21 students and require two teachers and when a student transfers, the class is small which requires one teacher... we have to know the numbers ahead of time to plan accordingly,” she said.
There is also no way of escaping this policy with the schools having entered an agreement among themselves on how to handle transfers.
“We have agreed amongst ourselves that in case of a transfer we write to the existing school and check on the status of the child, some schools also require leaving certificates,” said the Hillcrest representative.
While no one will try to stop students from leaving, she said that they will make sure parents have the right information and take the necessary steps. In the Braeburn case, the school asked the court to compel the parents, Robert Njoya Kinuthia and Joyce Wairimu Njoya, to pay a term’s fees in lieu of notice in respect of the child who left the school without giving three months’ notice.
The case was first filed at the chief magistrate court and after a long battle, the court ruled in favour of the parents.
While dismissing the case, the magistrate observed that the school failed to prove that the institution suffered loss or damage by the action of the children leaving school.
Aggrieved by the decision the school appealed to High Court.
The school faulted this decision, arguing that the magistrate failed to appreciate that the application form as a valid contract since the business name of the school is printed on its face.
The school further said that the magistrate erred in law in finding that proof of loss or damages suffered was a necessary issue for trial and by holding that the school did not suffer any loss or damages.
The school also argued that it was not under obligation to waiver requirement to settle fees in lieu of notice holding that the payment by of this fees is not premised on proof of loss but a contractual obligation by the parents to fulfil.
The school further submitted that without that the argument that the application form was not signed formally is not true, holding that without the contract being executed the children will not have been accepted to join the school.
Justice J. K. Sergon in his judgment observed that the foundation of the case filed by the school is application form which explains terms of contract.
The application form lacked requisite signatures by the school representatives and therefore did not constitute a valid lawful contract.
“The appellant cannot expect an agreement in form of an application form which it did not execute to create a contractual relationship. There was no credible evidence whether the respondent (parents) ever executed the form,” said the judge.


Founder of Facebook discussed the role of media in society with Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer publishing house.
Speaking about the importance of journalism in society, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg mentioned two important moments in Slovakia. One was the work of reporter Ján Kuciak, who was killed along with his fiancée Martina Kušnírová last February. This, among other things, inspired Zuzana Čaputová to run for president and fight corruption in the country.
“One of the journalists who worked with Axel Springer undertook this incredibly important investigative journalism into issues of tax and fraud in Slovakia, which inspired a woman to run for president, and who I think just won, to go and campaign on a massive anti-corruption campaign,” Zuckerberg said at a discussion with Mathias Döpfner, CEO of the Axel Springer publishing house. In Slovakia Axel Springer runs the Aktuality.sk news website Kuciak worked for.
In his opinion, this symbolises the importance of the work journalists are doing.
The two met in Berlin. They talked about the role quality journalism plays in building informed communities and the principles Facebook should use for a news tab presenting higher quality news, including the business model and ecosystem to support it. They also discussed the privacy-focused vision laid out for the future of social networking and four ideas for internet regulation published this weekend, as Zuckerberg informed in a Facebook post.
In this respect Döpfner pointed out that it is “a tragic symbol of the relevance of the work” since Kuciak and Kušnírová were murdered for Kuciak's critical journalism and investigation into organised crime.
“In a way it shows how important it is that we have independent organisations, publishers and courageous journalists who take big risks in order to bring the truth to light,” Döpfner said.
As Zuckerberg explained, he mentioned the story because it “exemplifies both the danger that investigative reporters undertake for what is truly important work that shapes society in really profound and positive ways and how important it is that there are models that can help to support and help that kind of work”.
A short version with a focus on Slovakia was published by Martin Poliačik, member of the non-parliamentary Progressive Slovakia party.


HERE in the home city of Albert Einstein Chelsea were left scratching their heads trying to solve another brain teaser.
What will life be like without the three wise old men Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and John Terry, the latter suspended for the Champions League Final but still a major player?
As he chatted to his old England boss Fabio Capello before kick-off, high above their heads flew the blue banner ‘JT – captain, leader, legend’. Three lion-hearted words which sum up Terry’s value to his beloved club.
Stand-in skipper Lampard and Drogba are spoken of in the same revered tones by the faithful who will shed tears when they finally say adios to their three amigos.
First to go looks like match-winner Drogba – described by boss Roberto Di Matteo as one of the club’s greats.
Few words really sum up a true legend. Awesome, magnificent, moody, marvellous – you could go on about a beast of a man who says his heart will always be blue.
So was that final, cool stroke of the ball into the bottom-left corner the last time Drogba, now 34 will have touched the ball in a Chelsea shirt?
He’s already laughed off Barcelona speculation and there’s a £6.7m-a-year offer to be a bull in a China shop.
Drogba, whose contract expires next month, will meet Chelsea chiefs this week – and how will the Stamford Bridge moneymen be able to turn down a man who brought the ultimate prize to his paymasters?
After arriving from Marseille for £24million in 2004, his glittering Chelsea career has been sprinkled with three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and two League Cups and now he can add a Champions League medal after a stunning equaliser and the winning penalty.
Drogba had already netted five times against Europe’s elite in this campaign and showed how badly Chelsea will miss him. On a night of passion and drama, he must have recalled how it all began when he was spotted as an 11-year-old by his uncle Michel Goba, as a raw right-back in his local youth team on a far-flung field in France.
He played centre-forward ever since that ear-bashing and, when he scored his first Champions League goal for Marseille against Real Madrid in 2003, history was always going to be his to be made.And what a final final!
Staged in a stadium variously described as a spaceship, a rubber dinghy and a Michelin tyre. Designed by architects influenced by Anfield, Ibrox and Old Trafford. Inspired by Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for “the closeness of the actors to the crowd”.
Much Ado About Nothing, you’ve got to be joking. Drogba was The Tempest desperate to whip up a goal storm.
The Arena can glow red and blue depending on which of the Munich sides are playing, though neutral white is preferred by the local police as bright colours distract drivers and cause more pile-ups on the nearby autobahn.
Inside, a Chelsea car crash threatened time and again with Bayern throwing everything they could muster at them without success.
That was until the inevitable. Thomas Muller scored and was flattened by jubilant team-mates after his downward header bounced into the top of the net.
The dream was over. Or so we thought until Drogba netted the dramatic 88th-minute leveller – his 34th Champions League goal of a colourful career and never could there have been a more vital, historic header from the man who has always been head and shoulders above the rest.
He almost blew it, conceding a penalty in extra-time but was rescued by Petr Cech’s save. Then he wrote his fairytale ending.


ST. CLOUD -- One person was hurt in a three-vehicle crash on Interstate 94. The Minnesota State Patrol says that happened at about 7:20 p.m. Sunday on westbound Interstate 94 near St. Cloud.
Two vehicles were both going west one tried to pass the other and spun out causing the two vehicles to collided. They were blocking the left lane when they were hit by a third vehicle.
A passenger in one of the vehicles, 25-year-old Kelsey Greenwadt, was taken to St. Cloud Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.


Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellFormer Bush assistant: Mueller report makes Obama look 'just plain bad' 20 years after Columbine, Dems bullish on gun reform Dem says marijuana banking bill will get House vote this spring MORE (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the Senate won't take up a net neutrality bill currently before lawmakers in the House.
“Dead on arrival in the Senate,” McConnell told reporters about the fate of the House bill, which is expected to get a vote in that chamber this week.
The Obama-era rules prohibited internet service providers from blocking or throttling web content or from creating so-called internet fast lanes.
The bill is expected to easily pass the Democrat-controlled House despite a veto threat from the White House. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said the Trump administration “strongly opposes” the bill, dubbed the Save the Internet Act.
Republicans tried, without success, to amend the Democrats' bill in committee, including undercutting the FCC's authority to enforce the rules. They also called for Democrats to come up with a compromise bill that would establish less oversight of the broadband industry.
A majority of the Senate voted last year to reinstate the Obama-era FCC’s net neutrality rules.
Democrats were able to force the 2018 vote under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress, with a majority vote in each chamber and the president's signature, to overturn recent agency moves.
Three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsCollins: Mueller report includes 'an unflattering portrayal' of Trump GOP senator: 'No problem' with Mueller testifying The Hill's Morning Report — Mueller aftermath: What will House Dems do now? MORE (Maine), Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann MurkowskiCain says he 'won't run away from criticism' in push for Fed seat Cain says he won't back down, wants to be nominated to Fed License to discriminate: Religious exemption laws are trampling rights in rural America MORE (Alaska) and John Kennedy John Neely KennedyMORE (La.) — joined the then-49 Senate Democrats to pass the bill, 52-47. The effort later died in the House last year, which was at that time controlled by Republicans.
The new legislation has long odds of passing the GOP-controlled Senate. Democrats now hold 47 seats in the chamber, after Republicans netted two additional seats during the November midterm election. And the 60-day window for forcing a vote on the bill under the Congressional Review Act lapsed last year.


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$value String value of the parameter. Multi-valued parameters will have a "row" for each value.
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Note: Please contribute updates to this topic on TWiki.org at TWiki:TWiki.VarQUERYPARAMS.


Europe is better positioned as a place to create Bitcoin-based startups than the US. That was the message coming out of Bitcoin London today, the first major conference in London to address startups, investors and business models of the online currency. Covering the broad sweep of businesses, technologists and institutions involved in the Bitcoin space, the conference heard that the US may have made a fatal strategic mistake in classifying Bitcoin as if it were money so early on in its development.
What has emerged is that Bitcoin is being treated in many different ways: as money, as an asset class, as the first highly secure P2P global information exchange, as a technology platform and even as a if it were a startup entity in its own right.
Constance Choi, General Counsel with Payward sounded exasperated on stage at the conference: “Having to explain Bitcoin at Federal and State level is a nightmare.” She said the Treasury response was that the 50 State system is just “a fact of life”, a “a barrier to entry” and it up to the Bitcoin sector to survive.
“There is incredible potential for Bitcoin if not as a unit of exchange but as a secure global network for information exchange,” she said.
In the UK the Financial Services Authority doesn’t consider Bitcoin to be ‘fiat’ money or eMoney.
And at a wider European level, the European central bank has taken the view that Bitcoin is not money and doesn’t require regulation yet. That turns out to be a huge advantage for Europe.
Choi said the US is “5 years behind the EU” in payment innovation.
Her comments were backed up at the conference by Bitcoin Foundation’s General Council Patrick Murck, who said competition between US government agencies to regulate Bitcoin was creating barriers for the ecosystem to thrive.
Certainly there appears to be early signs that Bitcoin startups may desert the US for less regulated climes.
Speaking to TechCrunch at the Bitcoin London Conference, Jonathan Rouch, founder of Bits of Gold in Israel, said he has no plans to launch his service for creating Bitcoin liquidity in the US because of the potential for regulatory intervention.


Marjorie V. Brant, 86, of Wimauma, Fla., passed away Feb. 14, 2007.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Wilmer. Survivors include her son, Bishop Gregory (Clintene) Brant; a daughter, Shelva (Harold) Lape; four sisters, Anita (George) Swartzwelder; Myrtle Carmany; Mary Jane (Floyd) Brant; and Fay (Patrick) Ibinson; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. She was a member of Wimauma Church of God. Funeral service will be 6 p.m. Monday, at Wimauma Church of God, 5504 Highway 674, Wimauma, Fla. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the funeral service at the church. Burial will be in Forest Hill Cemetery, Haines City, Fla. Arrangements by Sun City Center Funeral Home (813) 634-9900.


State Democratic chairman does not approve of effort, says Democrats should stay out of GOP primary.
A Democratic political operative says he is working with Mississippi Conservatives PAC to drum up votes for U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran.
James "Scooby Doo" Warren said he has put together a get-out-the-vote (GOTV) plan and is "putting it in place across the whole state." Warren said he is not working with the Cochran campaign itself but for the PAC and Bishop Ronnie Crudup Sr.
Crudup is the pastor at New Horizon Church, which shares an address and chief financial officer with a newly formed super PAC that ran print advertising in the primary supporting Cochran.
When asked if he was getting any blow back for working in a Republican primary, Warren said he "got all that taken care of on the front end."
"I called D.C. and told them what was going on with the tea party," Warren said. "But I can't do anything after the 24th because I'm a Democrat ... Whoever wins will have to deal with me in November."
He would not say who he called in D.C.
But Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Rickey Cole said he doesn't like the idea of Democrats "crossing over to vote for the weaker candidate" in a Republican primary.
"I think Democrats ought to vote for a Democratic nominee, Republicans ought to vote for a Republican nominee, and independents ought to wait until November," Cole said Tuesday.
In a Facebook message to a Wall Street Journal reporter that was tweeted by state Sen. Tony Smith, Cole said he thought Warren was working with Pete Perry. Mississippi Conservatives PAC paid Perry's company during the primary to do GOTV supporting Cochran. Perry's involvement in the race drew criticism because he is chairman of the Hinds County Republican Executive Committee, which oversees GOP primary elections.
"Large sums of cash are being passed around," Cole said in the Facebook message. "These guys are old-school 'walking around money' vote buyers. It is happening in Hinds County, but they are trying to move black voters in the Delta, adams (sic), jefferson (sic), and claiborne (sic) too."
Cole confirmed the message was his, but it is not clear how Smith obtained it. Smith is a Republican lawmaker from Picayunne who supports McDaniel. He could not be reached for comment.
Henry Barbour, who heads Mississippi Conservatives PAC, could not be immediately be reached for comment.


Despite the accepted benefits, the goal of becoming and staying agile is elusive for many. This research by PA Consulting finds that organisations can improve their financial performance as a result of adopting agile techniques. The top 10% of businesses by financial performance are almost 30% more likely to display agile characteristics, suggesting that commitment to organisational agility can make a crucial difference as a driver of success.
Technology is one of the key drivers for embedding agile across an organisation. And as the role of the CIO continues to evolve, IT professionals have an important role to play in helping their organisations cut through the hype, embrace the right technology for agile and improve their competitiveness.


NEW ORLEANS – The first federal trial over Merck & Co.'s (MRK) withdrawn painkiller Vioxx (search) is slated to begin here on Nov. 28 and concerns whether the drug caused the fatal heart attack of a 53-year-old Florida man.
U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon decided on Wednesday to make the case involving Richard Irvin Jr. the first to go to trial. Fallon is handling all pretrial proceedings for federal cases. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against the company.
Irvin's wife, Evelyn Irvin Plunkett, filed the suit against Merck after her husband died of a heart attack in May 2001, one month after he started taking Vioxx for back pain. Plunkett blames her husband's death on Vioxx, saying that he was in "very good health" when he started taking the painkiller.
"This is clearly a case we can show that Vioxx caused this man's heart attack," said Andy Birchfield, Plunkett's lawyer.
Officials with Merck did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment. Vioxx was taken from the market last September after a study concluded it doubled patients' risk of heart attacks and strokes. The wrongful death and injury lawsuits against the company contend Merck hid Vioxx's risks.
The nation's first state Vioxx trial is already under way in state district court in Angleton, Texas. It centers on a 59-year-old man who died in his sleep from an irregular heartbeat in 2001.
Analysts have said the company's liability could be as high as $18 billion should verdicts go against Merck.
Verdicts in the first few dozen or so cases likely would help lawyers evaluate which of the remaining hundreds of cases are most favorable to each side. That could lead to a number of claims either being dropped or settled.


Monday. South Lafourche vs. Terrebonne at Cut Off Youth Center.
Monday. H.L. Bourgeois vs. Central Lafourche at Bayou Black Recreation District.
Monday. South Terrebonne vs. Thibodaux at East Houma Pool.
Monday. Ellender, Berwick, Patterson, Central Catholic-Morgan City at Morgan City Pool.
Today. Nicholls State at Southeastern Louisiana, 1 p.m.
Today. Knights of Columbus St. Eloi Council No. 8779 24th Annual Fishing Rodeo in Theriot.
Today. Football fans can enjoy food, football, and fun at Saints Sunday and 5K on Sunday at Southdown Museum, 1208 Museum Drive in Houma. The event will feature live, family-friendly music by Sheauxdown from noon to 3 p.m., food, drinks and kids’ activities and games. There will be a kids’ half-mile fun run at 1:30 p.m. and a 5K for walkers and runners at 2 p.m. The New Orleans Saints game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be shown under the Buquet pavilion on two 73-inch televisions. Kickoff is at 3:15 p.m. VooDoo BBQ food and Scarlet Scoop treats will be for sale, as well as jambalaya, white beans, hot dogs, chili Fritos, soft drinks, beer and daiquiris. There will be kid activities provided by Kids in Motion Playhouse Museum, and a petting zoo. Money raised will go towards the museum’s “The Challenge Fundraiser,” which will pay for repairs to the museum. The cost to participate in the 5K is $25; $10 for kids’ half mile fun run. Bayou Runners Association members receive a $2 discount. Registration for the race begins at noon. Non-race participants can enter the event for a $5 admission donation. For race registration or information, visit www.southdownmuseum.org/events or call 851-0154.
Thursday. Coastal Conservation Association of Louisiana’s annual STAR Awards Banquet will be held on Oct. 20 at Live Oak Arabians on Jefferson Highway in Baton Rouge. Individual tickets for CCA members are $50 and premium tables for 10 guests can be purchased for $500. Ticket prices include dinner, drinks, music and participation in the silent and live auctions. Kids under 12 years of age are free with paid adult. Cocktails begin at 5 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m. and the live auction at 8 p.m. The CCA Louisiana/Mercury Outboards/Cabela’s STAR is Louisiana’s largest fishing event, with more than $500,000 worth of prizes and over 10,000 participants. The event is presented by Hancock Bank, Whitney Bank and Shaw Group. For table and ticket information, contact Rad Trascher at the CCA Office, (225) 952-9200.
Friday. Former Nicholls State and NFL star Gary Barbaro will serve as the tournament chairman for the 2011 Nicholls Alumni Federation John Brady Golf Tournament, scheduled for Oct. 21 at La Tour Golf Club in Mathews. The four-person scramble, 18-hole tournament will begin with a shotgun start, including two or three flights with tee times at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., depending upon the number of participants. Male and female alumni and friends of the university are all welcome to participate. The $600 fee, which covers a four-member team, includes greens and cart access, tourney shirts, refreshments, food, a team photo with Gary Barbaro and two tickets per team member to the alumni federation’s 2011 homecoming reception and pep rally. Barbaro played for the Colonels from 1975-78 and was an All-Pro for the Kansas City Chiefs. Barbaro is a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. Registration is on a first-come, first-serve basis. For information, call 448-4111.
Saturday. The Nicholls State baseball team will hold its Second Annual Colonel Baseball Alumni Day on Oct. 22. Festivities will start with the annual homecoming parade beginning at 10:30 a.m., followed by a fall baseball exhibition game against Millsaps at 11 a.m. During the game, Mitch Thompson will be at the right-field pavilion with a grill and an ice chest full of drinks. After the game, alumni, fans and friends will stick around to tailgate with the Colonels for the football game against Stephen F. Austin which begins at 5:30 p.m. Nicholls baseball coach Seth Thibodeaux is currently working on setting up a tent in the end zone for all alumni baseball players. Any baseball alumni planning on attending are asked to give Thibodeaux advance notice so he can provide enough food and drinks, as well as tickets to the football game. For further information about this event contact Thibodeaux at seth.thibodeaux@nicholls.edu or by calling 985-449-7149.


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(CNN) -- A few weeks ago, when violence and kidnappings along the U.S.-Mexico border were all over the news, Todd Sotkiewicz took a group of high school students to Tijuana, Mexico.
Gary Arndt traveled to Cambodia to see a temple. He also found soldiers, but says he wasn't afraid.
The teens' parents had to be warned that the service-oriented spring break trip might go against a federal travel alert, he said. But, in his view, the value of the experience, which involved building homes for impoverished families, trumped any perceived threat.
"These poor families really needed these houses," said Sotkiewicz, a parent of one of the students and also the president of Lonely Planet in the Americas. "We went down there and we took the appropriate precautions like we all should."
While the H1N1 flu virus has stirred fears about international travel and has brought renewed attention to government travel advisories, there remains a hearty group of travelers who say such official advice doesn't dictate whether they will or won't take a trip.
For some, voyages into warned-against places are less motivated by adrenaline and more by a genuine desire to experience the world in a new way. Danger is part of the human experience, some of these travelers say. It's something that can't be avoided entirely and should be assessed by well-informed individuals, not just by governments.
"It was not a draw that there was a dangerous element to it," Sotkiewicz said of the Mexico trip. "The draw was that [the students] wanted to have a transformative experience."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends U.S. residents avoid all nonessential travel to Mexico because of swine flu. The U.S. State Department still has an alert out concerning violence in the country. A spokeswoman for the CDC said travelers should follow official government guidance when making their plans.
Robert Young Pelton, an author who has traveled to 120 countries and seen 36 wars, said people can and should travel wherever they want to, regardless of warnings. Such adventures offer intellectual stimulus and have the potential to draw meaningful connections between people, he said.
"The reason why it's important to go to places that you dreamed of or are intensely interested in is because it matters," he said. "I could send you to Disney World for a week and I don't think you would change a bit, but if I sent you to a Rwandan refugee camp, I think you would change peoples' lives, and you would be changed by it."
He says travel warnings, like those concerning H1N1, are politicized. The hysteria about this strain of flu is driven more by an irrational fear than by actual danger, he said.
"It's a fascinating fear. It's not a danger," he said of the flu. "So when people say, 'Oh, it's dangerous in Afghanistan,' or, 'It's dangerous in Mexico,' what are they basing that on? They obviously haven't been there."
Sotkiewicz said travel deals tend to pop up in destinations that are stigmatized by a health outbreak or a terrorist attack. This was true after the Madrid, Spain, attacks, as well as the SARS and bird flu epidemics, he said.
In a statement to CNN, Expedia, the travel Web site, said a travel warning like the one for swine flu "ultimately creates travel values for consumers."
"As the swine flu subsides in Mexico, we expect travel suppliers in the area to offer significant deals to increase demand for the region," Expedia said.
When asked if some people might wish to travel to Mexico despite the advisory, perhaps for a hotel deal, CDC spokeswoman Shelly Diaz said travelers should heed the warning.
"Your health should come before your wallet. There's nothing more valuable than your health," she said. "We are recommending that people avoid travel to Mexico unless it's essential. I don't know that a really good travel bargain makes it essential."
"Come if you're fine with everything being closed," he said. "I mean, even museums are being closed, but don't be afraid of the flu. It's nothing out of the ordinary." Avoiding Mexico specifically because of the flu is ridiculous, he said.
People who travel into potentially dangerous places seem to have their own rules for deciding what's safe and what isn't. Several said they factor in government warnings and news reports. Others consider crime rates and statistics.
The trend seems to be for people to look for online information that comes directly from travelers in the country where they want to go.
These on-the-ground observations are important because U.S. news stories about foreign countries tend to focus on crime and terrorism and not what life is actually like for people, said Pelton.
"Millions of people get up every morning and go through their entire day with nothing actually happened to them, but the media will never write a story that says, 'Nothing happened, everything's fine,' so we tend to be inundated with stories about" violence, he said.
He added: "Yes you can order a latte in Kabul and Somalia has hotels for 40 bucks a night."
Gary Arndt, a 39-year-old who sold his assets and has been blogging about his world travels since 2007, said many American travelers have a "fear of the unknown."
Arndt was in Israel when swine flu broke out. He said he would have no qualms about traveling to Mexico because of the swine flu.
He recently traveled to a region of Cambodia that is considered dangerous by some. He also went to Thailand at a time when most travelers were "freaked out" by government protesters. Prices for hotels at the time were lower because the country was emptied of tourists, he said.
"I'm not the kind of person that is an adrenaline junkie," he said. "I did bungee jump once [but] I've never gone skydiving, I don't go rock climbing. It's not like I want to go into these places because they're dangerous.
"I just think the risk is often overhyped."


(Washington, D.C.) — The Russian authorities must release all of the peaceful protesters detained over the weekend amid allegations of fraud in Sunday's parliamentary elections, Amnesty International said today.
More than 300 opposition activists and bystanders were reportedly arrested by police in cities across Russia amid protests against alleged manipulation of votes by presidential candidate Vladimir Putin's United Russia party.
"These disgraceful detentions highlight once again the failure of the Russian government to respect its citizens' rights to freedom of expression and assembly," said Nicola Duckworth, director of Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia program. "The vast majority of those arrested since Sunday have sought merely to peacefully express their protest. They are prisoners of conscience and they must be released immediately."
Across Russia police moved swiftly to pre-empt and disperse potential protests. In Moscow, opposition parties called for demonstrations against election fraud on Red Square and Triumfalnaya Square. Police responded by detaining potential demonstrators and onlookers.
Several well known opposition activists were detained at home or on their way to demonstrations, with some being sentenced to up to 10 days of administrative detention.
"Our staff in Moscow watched as several peaceful people were whisked off the street by police without any provocation," said Duckworth. "Others didn't even make it to the protests and were instead seized pre-emptively."
Among the opposition politicians detained is Andrei Gorin from the Other Russia, who was reportedly beaten and sentenced to 10 days' administrative detention. Left Front activist Sergey Udaltsov was arrested by plain clothes police officers on his way to a demonstration and has been sentenced to five days' administrative detention.
Amnesty International is also concerned about the harassment of Golos, an independent election monitoring NGO. Golos head Lilya Shibanova was detained at Moscow airport and her computer was confiscated, with police claiming its software may pose a security risk. The NGO was fined for allegedly violating its obligations as an independent election monitor, while its website also came under attack from hackers.


SACUL, TX (KTRE) - SACUL, TX (KLTV) - According to the National Weather Service, an EF 2 tornado cut a path through Sacul on Saturday. Sacul is northeast of Alto. The NWS says the tornado was from the same storm that hit Alto so hard.


Nobody wants to face an audit from the Internal Revenue Service. Luckily, the probability of being audited is quite small for the average taxpayer.
It’s estimated that only 0.6 percent of taxpayers are likely to be audited. If you report zero gross adjusted income, the probability of being audited increases to just under 2.6 percent.
According to TurboTax, the red flags that increase the probability of being audited are: having a home business that loses money each year; taking a home office deduction, especially when you claim a high percentage of your living space is used for business; and claiming a high proportion of itemized deductions to income.
An example of the latter might be someone who takes deductions of $40,000 on an income of $60,000.
If you do prepare your tax return using TurboTax software, you can use their audit support options if you are audited.
As you would expect, if there are errors on your return, there is a higher probability of being audited. E-filing helps reduce error rates; the error rate for electronically filed returns is 0.5 percent. The error rate associated with paper returns is 21 percent, according to TurboTax.
There are certain errors that the IRS is almost certain to discover. For example, make sure you report dependents and exemptions accurately. The IRS automated system will easily detect any discrepancies based on prior returns.
If you are self-employed and file Schedule C, you are four times more likely to receive questions about your return. Make sure that you maintain good records for all of your deductions. If you believe a specific deduction may be questioned by the IRS, you may want to include in your return a copy of the receipt associated with the expense.
I file Schedule C every year, and I regularly include such documentation. I have not been audited, despite filing Schedule C every year.
Other red flags are bad debt expenses, casualty losses, high medical expenses, business travel, and high meal and entertainment expenses. Make sure you retain proper documentation of these expenses in case of an audit.
When appropriate, document the participants and where and when the expense occurred.
Do not claim unreimbursed employee business expenses. This deduction is suspended through 2025.
It is not unusual for taxpayers to receive notices from the IRS regarding their returns. These notices can specify that you owe additional taxes, that you made errors on your return or that you are receiving a higher refund. Or they may request additional information.
Pay attention to the tax year associated with the notice. It may be for a prior year.
You generally will have 30 days to respond to an IRS notice. If you agree that you owe additional taxes, reply within the 30 days with a check or money order using the reference number indicated on the notice, including the voucher included with the notice.
Not responding within 30 days will result in additional fines if you owe money. Don’t assume you will be audited as a result of an IRS notice. However, you should always respond within 30 days. Delaying a response past 30 days will never work to your advantage.
If you don’t agree with the notice, respond as soon as possible with a written explanation. Explain clearly the reason for disagreement and include copies of all relevant documents.
Keep the originals for your files. You should maintain a separate file including the IRS notice and your responses.


With more than 70 events and concerts, the possibilities for fun are endless.
By offering more than 70 events and concerts, the Kentucky Derby Festival has endless ways to live it up. By day you could enjoy an awe-inspiring airshow or historic steamboat racing. By night you can become a foodie, wine connoisseur or bourbon enthusiast. Since there are so many things to do, narrowing it down can be hard. That’s why we’ve put together a list of events perfect for every kind of experience.
Humana mini & Marathon & Relay – Run (or walk) like the wind in and around Louisville’s landmarks, parks and more.
PNC Tour de LouSM – On a 20-, 35- or 62.1-mile open course, pedal your way through downtown, the Highlands, the South End, Olmsted Parks and more.
Stock Yards Bank $1 Million Dollar Hole-in-One Golf ContestSM – From beginners to scratch golfers, anyone can swing their way to a bigger bank account.
Thunder Over Louisville® Presented by Horseshoe Southern Indiana, LG&E, Meijer and UPS – With breathtaking fireworks and a fairytale soundtrack, The Wonderful World of Thunder is guaranteed to bring out the inner child in us all.
Republic Bank Pegasus® Parade – With Pegasus Power as its theme, this annual event will showcase popular superheroes, marching bands, giant inflatables and more.
Ditch your usual lunch or dinner and let your mouth water at these experiences. You’ll become a foodie – if you aren’t already – and your taste buds will rejoice.
Kroger’s Fest-a-Ville and the Chow Wagon® – Savor one-of-a-kind grub while listening to concerts that feature local, regional and national acts.
They’re Off! ® Luncheon – During this community tradition, share a delightful lunch with more than 1,500 fellow Festival supporters and patrons.
Kentucky Proud WineFest – It’s your chance to sample award-winning wines from more than 100 Indiana and Kentucky wines.
BeerFest Presented by Liberty Financial – Come out to the Overlook inside Kroger’s Fest-a-Ville and enjoy pours of regional and national craft beers.
King Southern Bank BourbonVille® – Sip on signature drinks from Kentucky’s bourbon distilleries, meet the Master Distillers behind the mash and taste bourbon-inspired cuisine.
BB&T Great BalloonFestSM – You and your family’s jaws will drop as giant, colorful balloons fill the sky.
Horseshoe Foundation FamFest – This special preview of the 2019 Festival features inflatables, mini golf, face painting and more.
Steamboat Race Trial Presented by Trilogy Health Services – During the Belle of Louisville’s practice run, you and your family can relax with hors d'oeuvres and live entertainment on the Ohio River.
With so many ways to live it up at the 2019 Kentucky Derby Festival, it’ll be hard to see and do everything. Choose what interests you and get ready for another unforgettable year. Click here to see the new events schedule and start creating your own Festival calendar.


Mattel Inc. agreed yesterday to acquire the privately held Pleasant Company, the maker of the American Girl line of dolls, for $700 million. Pleasant, based in Middleton, Wis., also produces books, clothing, accessories and activity products. It has annual revenue of $300 million. Mattel, based in El Segundo, Calif., makes the Barbie and Fisher-Price toy lines. It had $4.83 billion in sales in 1997. Mattel also said yesterday that it expected its earnings for the second quarter to fall short of expectations, citing a change in the buying practices of Toys ''R'' Us Inc.


The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) is currently enmeshed in a controversy that could rock its operations and that of Nigeriaâ€™s electricity market, investigations by THISDAY have revealed.
According to industry sources, top officials in the agency and Ministry of Power, Works and Housing have made demands of its Managing Director, Dr. Marilyn Amobi, to approve a four per cent service charge that will accrue to them, following the federal governmentâ€™s approval of NBETâ€™s request of N701 billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for onward payment to power generation companies (Gencos).
The service charge, they said, was to cover for their so-called facilitation of the loan approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
However, reliable sources in NBET and the ministry told THISDAY that everything that had to do with the facilitation of the loan was done by Amobi and her team.
An investment banker by training, Amobi was said to have turned down the offer to work as a consultant to NBET to help the agency make its case to the federal government for the loan, and as such, in her capacity as managing director, worked with her team to get the necessary approvals.
This, sources who anonymously spoke to THISDAY said, irked certain persons in the ministry and NBET, because she reportedly refused to approve the service fee, which she insisted was scandalous and she could not support.
Her vehement position, the sources explained, has resulted in high-wire internal politicking allegedly orchestrated by the ministry to restructure NBET and promote three of Amobiâ€™s general managers who are loyal to the ministry to positions of executive directors.
The goal of the agencyâ€™s restructuring, one of the sources explained, is to ensure that the three general managers would as executive directors be given almost the same executive powers as Amobi, effectively empowering them to either support or disprove decisions made by the management team in their favour.
The proposed restructuring would also mean that the organogram would be altered, as against the current structure that makes the board the highest decision making body of the agency and the managing director as the sole reporting authority to the board.
It was also gathered that interested parties who are tacitly backed by the Ministry of Power, would from the restructuring be able to finally approve the four per cent service charge at board level, which Amobi has refused to approve.
Similarly, it was learnt that the high-wire politics initiated by these interests are already beginning to affect the working environment in the NBET, an agency set up by the government to amongst other responsibilities, midwife the transition of competitive financial transactions between the Gencos and distribution companies (Discos) in the countryâ€™s privatised electricity market.
Originally, the NBET was set up with a nine-member board comprising the Minister of Finance as the statutory board chairman, managing director of NBET, Minister of Power, Director-General of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE); a representative of the Discos; and four independent persons chosen by the presidency and Ministries of Power and Finance.
Though the last board of the agency was disbanded by Buhari and has not yet been reconstituted, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has in the interim acted as its board chairman and issued directives to it.
The goal now is for the ministry, as was alleged by the sources, to fill the four independent board positions with the general managers that are reportedly loyal to its interests.
Also, Amobi was said to have been assaulted on November 9, 2016 in the presence of the staff of the agency by one of the general managers who is in charge of NBETâ€™s finances.
While she reportedly filed three back-to-back complaints of her assault by the general manager to the Ministry of Power on December 3, 2016 (copies of her complaints were sighted by THISDAY), no response or action has been taken to date by the ministry on her claims.
It was also alleged that the same general manager had previously assaulted the former managing director of NBET, Mr. Rumundaka Wonodi while he was in office and gotten away with the offence.
All efforts to speak to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Mr. Loius Edozie, as phone calls and a text message to his phone were not replied.
When contacted to comment on the developments, Amobi declined to speak to THISDAY, saying she does not discuss NBETâ€™s internal operations on the pages of newspapers.
Notwithstanding the official silence from NBET and the ministry, another top official of the Independent Power Producersâ€™ Association of Nigeria (IPPAN), a group comprising of investors in independent power plants in the country, confirmed the allegation to THISDAY on the condition that his identity would not be revealed in the paper.
IPPAN has members that include Geometric Power owned by former power minister, Prof. Bath Nnaji; Zuma Energy Nigeria, owned by Dr. Innocent Ezuma; and Supertek Electric Limited, owned by a former information minister, Prof. Jerry Gana.
The IPPAN official further noted that relevant stakeholders in the industry were watching with keen interest as the controversy in NBET unfolds, adding that the alleged restructuring could signal the end to the agency which has about $800 million as its capitalisation fund.


"Do as I say, not what I do" appears to be a character trait shared by several salt policy-makers in the Netherlands. According to a study in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com, one hot meal in work canteens of salt policy-makers in the Netherlands contains more salt than the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of 6 grams.
Salt policy makers who eat in their work canteens consume roughly 15.4 grams of salt per day, say the team led by Dr. Lizzy Brewster at the University of Amsterdam. Compared with the recommended daily allowance this amount of salt equates to a 36% increase in premature death.
It is estimated that consuming too much salt causes 30% of all hypertension cases. In several countries programs have been established in order to encourage individuals to eat less salt.
The team concentrated on policy makers, as they believed they would be highly aware of the risk of excessive salt consumption.
The study analyzed 18 canteens at the Department of Health, the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, the Health Council, university and non-university hospitals in the Netherlands. The team collected a typical hot lunch from the canteens on three random days.
They discovered the average salt content of the meals was approximately 7 grams - over the RDA of 6 grams and was high at all canteens.
In addition, the team questioned employees about the frequency their consumed a hot meal in their work canteen. 63% of employees reported that they ate the hot meal in their staff canteen and another hot meal for dinner at home. According to the team's calculations, the 63% of employees who ate lunch at their canteen and a hot meal at home consumed around 15.4 grams of salt per day - 9 grams over the RDA.
"If people eat the meals served at the institutions we studied, they run an estimated increase in cardiovascular risk of 32-36% more deaths from stroke and 23-27% more deaths from coronary heart disease compared with people who adhere to the guidelines."
"Our data indicate that even salt policy makers cannot adhere to a low salt diet if they consume the hot lunch at work...These data underline the urgency to remove the exemption of nutrition labeling for food products intended solely for use in restaurants and foodservice operations."
Rattue, Grace. "Salt Consumption - Policy Makers Consume Too Much Of It." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 20 Dec. 2011. Web.


The geography of West Asia today is under immense stress, with conflicts visible on most of the boundaries in the region. While on the face of it much of the blame would point towards the Syrian war and the entry of the Islamic State (ISIS) into the jihadist discourse, it is in fact the increasingly confrontational rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran that is spreading a lot of discord around the region’s politics and the fragile sectarian environment that holds these states together.
The sultanate of Oman, the last stop of Prime Minister Modi’s tri-nation trip to the region covering Palestine (with Jordan facilitating the stopover to Ramallah) and UAE before he lands in Muscat, has been conflict-free since the Dhofar Rebellion which lasted from 1963 till 1976, leading to a radical modernisation of the previously downtrodden and impoverished Omani state. Amidst this political kerfuffle, then Omani Sultan Said bin Taimur (who gained his education from Mayo College, Rajputana—India, in the 1920s) was deposed in a coup by his son Qaboos Bin Said al Said with support from the British. Qaboos, as of today, is the longest serving Arab leader.
India’s relations with Oman have been strong, and gradually grown into a strategic partnership with Muscat often playing supporting roles in helping India expand its regional balance act in West Asia. Prior to Modi, four Indian Prime Ministers have visited Oman. Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh have laid down a strong tradition of bilateral relations between the two states at the highest levels. However, Oman’s importance to India may become more critical than before as the Indian Ocean region develops further as a hotspot over the larger narrative of attempts to understand and react to China’s rise as a revisionist global power, America’s gradual but visible rescind as the sole hegemonic superpower and India’s ambitions to become a global power in the decades to come.
The Indian Ocean region has always been seen as India’s zone of influence, an exclusivity expected to be maintained by New Delhi as part of its overall strategic posture, despite the lack of grand-strategy goals. This has come to a challenge, with Chinese financial and political influence increasing in the region setting up base for increased international military activities in the future, India’s outreach in West Asia on the security front has also seen some steadfast movement from the Indian Air Force Sukhoi 30s making a first ever stopover in Saudi Arabia in 2015 to regular port calls by the Indian Navy at various critical ports in the region.
The stability of Oman offers an easier space for India to maneuvers in. The Indian Navy conducted its eleventh bilateral military exercise with Muscat in December last year, where India deployed its new state-of-the-art P-8I long-range reconnaissance aircraft along with the Talwar-class frigates INS Trikand and INS Teg. This exercise has been a fixture of India-Oman outreach since 1993. Subsequently frequent bilateral visits from the defence and diplomacy circuits between the two countries have cemented strong ties and laid groundwork for future challenges as well, such as cyber security and counterterrorism.
India and Oman have previously also worked together with New Delhi’s relations with Iran, specifically during the peak period of sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme and attempts to setup an undersea LNG pipeline between India, Oman and Iran. The pipeline was envisaged to originate in Iran and crossing over to Oman in order to skirt at least some of the sanctions related problems, mainly those of financial transfers. Further, a recent report on Indian interests in setting up military presence in Oman as part of a larger deal with France for the Indian Ocean region has added potential for an all new dynamic to the relationship. This comes, again, in the backdrop of Beijing’s full control of Gwadar port in Pakistan, with new reports suggesting a second base in Jiwani also under consideration, along with its operationalisation of its first overseas permanent naval base in Djibouti. While China maintains the Djibouti facility is a ‘logistics facility’, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) conducted a live-fire exercise with heavy weaponry only a few days after the base gained operational status.
While these interests may spur India’s strategic linkage with Oman at a faster pace than before, it is relevant to note that this oasis of peace in the region also has its own challenges. Sultan Qaboos, the leader of 47 years, has the responsibility of installing a succession programme that will continue the country’s regionally uncharacteristic neutral nature after his reign, and protect Oman from slumping into becoming a protectorate of either Saudi Arabia or Iran. Even as a member of the GCC, much to Saudi displeasure, Oman refused to entertain calls for a military alliance by Riyadh in Yemen, calling itself a country of peace with war being against its ideals. The question of a post-Qaboos Oman, pushed by concerns over the sultan’s health with him remaining out of country for treatment and making TV appearances to dispel rumors of his death last year, while looking frail, has had no answer as of yet. The current climate in West Asia and the escalated stakes of the Saudi-Iran battle for regional supremacy has seen Oman already being blamed by various interest groups on both supporting the Houthi rebels in Yemen and simultaneous supporting Saudi interests. While maintaining such a ‘Switzerland-syndrome’ in West Asia has been managed well by Qaboos, with public support, increasing fractures around the country’s geography requires a strong and well executed political transfer to make sure Oman does not fall to become another front in Riyadh-Tehran sectarian Olympics.
Strong relations, both economic and strategic, work in favour of both Muscat and New Delhi. India’s balancing act in the region is not too dissimilar from Oman, which is conducting the same whilst not just being in middle of the storm, but also a part of it. Demographic, economic and defence cooperation between the two countries aids India’s approach towards West Asia significantly, adding positive weight to New Delhi’s global ambitions and more narrowly, renewed aims in the Indian Ocean region.


Northwestern alumna Daphne Maxwell Reid. Reid was Northwestern’s first black homecoming queen, who went on to star as Aunt Viv in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"
“AND is in our DNA” might be Northwestern’s latest catchphrase to showcase the breadth of talent across its student body, but Daphne Maxwell Reid (Weinberg ’70) needed no catchphrase to make history both on campus and beyond. While people may recognize Reid from her iconic role as Aunt Vivian in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” they may not know she’s a dedicated photographer, seamstress and former model who was also NU’s first black Homecoming Queen. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Reid: I had almost retired when I got “Fresh Prince.” I was asked in 1989 to audition for a show with a rapper, but I had just gotten through doing a bunch of back-to-back television series and my husband and I were planning to move to Virginia to breathe a little bit. I also couldn’t stand rap at the time so I said, “No thank you” and we moved to Virginia. That fall when I turned on the television and saw the show, I said “Oh boy, I missed a good one.” Three years later, they called again and asked if I would come and audition for it. I got the part.
The Daily: What was it like being NU’s first black Homecoming Queen?
Reid: They totally disrespected me, didn’t put me in the yearbook and sort of left me out there on my own to figure it out. It didn’t bother me because it didn’t have the value to me that it did to the sorority girls who didn’t get to be queen. I ascended because of their disrespect for me as a person and it turned out to be a good thing.
The Daily: You were the also first African-American woman on the cover of Glamour magazine. How did you get that opportunity?
Reid: It was a surprise. I had been modeling while I was in school. I was doing a lot of editorial work in New York shooting for McCall’s, Glamour, Seventeen magazine — lots of things. My mentor called me in one day, and she grabbed my hair and put it over to the side and said, “Put on some mascara, some lip gloss and a jacket and sit on the window.” So I sat on the window, and the man came and shot maybe a roll of film and said, “You can go back to school now.” Then I saw it on the newsstand and said, “Wow.” I had no idea I was shooting for the cover. I didn’t know I was the first black until they kept saying it.
The Daily: Aside from acting and modeling, you’re also a photographer, fashion designer and author. How do you balance all of it?
Reid: I get up in the morning and whatever is supposed to happen that day happens. My photography comes from my travels. I take pictures of doors all around the world. Once I take these pictures, I come back to my little nest and work on what I want to do with them. Sometimes it’s creating a book and sometimes it’s creating a calendar. When I came back from Venice this summer, I had a film project in August that took up a lot of time. In November, I had another film that I was shooting. I didn’t get to do photography and I didn’t get to do a lot of designing. But last week I got a call and they said, “I want a coat,” so today I’m sewing. That’s how it goes.
The Daily: In your latest acting gig in “Jacqueline and Jilly,” you play a mother whose daughter becomes addicted to opioids. What do you hope people take away from watching?
Reid: We would love for people to take away the fact that there is help available when one gets addicted. Owning up to the fact that you have lost control of a portion of your life is hard, but with family support, facing the truth of it and seeking help is not a bad thing. A lot of black families grow up with the admonition from their elders that you don’t talk about family business. That keeps a lot of people from seeking help, but we want people to know help is out there.


McCartney had previously shown his affection for the Everly Brothers when he wrote a song for the siblings to sing in the early Eighties. The track, “On the Wings of a Nightingale,” was the first track on the duo’s 1984 album EB84, their first record of new material after an 11-year break. The Beatle played guitar on the recording, and the single ended up reaching Number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100. It spent three months on the charts.
Author Mark Lewisohn documented the Beatles’ interest in the Everlys in his recent book Tune In. CNN found an entry in which the group, who had just added George Harrison, reacted to hearing the Everly Brothers’ “All You Have to Do Is Dream” in 1958. “When we first heard it, it blew us away,” McCartney said.


BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) Buffalo Sabres coach Phil Housley has hired Steve Smith to his staff.
Smith was a three-time Stanley Cup winner in Edmonton during a 16-year career, also playing for the Blackhawks and Flames. He has nine years of experience as an NHL assistant, including the past four in Carolina.


MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — Former FBI director James Comey will speak as part of Purdue University Northwest’s Sinai Forum this September.
The (Northwest Indiana) Times reports that Comey will lead off the five-speaker series on Sept. 9 in Michigan City. Comey is embarking on a publicity rollout of his book, “A Higher Loyalty,” which offers his version of the highly controversial events surrounding his firing by President Donald Trump and the Russia and Hillary Clinton email investigations.
The forum has hosted figures like Eleanor Roosevelt and Walter Cronkite since 1953.


Shortly after he was promoted to four stars, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey made a decision that spoke volumes about how he views the future of war.
The Army had spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the previous decade on an annual war game designed to peer 15 to 20 years into the future and envision what kinds of technology and fighting concepts the military would need to prevail in the next major war. The game involved dozens of role players and an army of defense contractors waging computer-simulated battles.
Dempsey, whom President Obama will nominate on Monday to be chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff, killed the war game in 2009. He replaced it the next year with a series of seminars devoted to producing more flexible and free-thinking officers at all levels.
Dempsey was sworn in as Army chief of staff only last month, but will give up that position in the fall when Adm. Mike Mullen, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff retires. Gen. Ray Odierno, who commanded troops in Iraq from 2008 to 2010, is expected to take over as Army chief. Both positions require Senate confirmation.
In choosing Dempsey for the military’s top job, Obama has selected an officer who in many ways is the polar opposite of Gen. James E. Cartwright, a favorite of the president who was long presumed to be the front-runner for the position. Obama decided on Dempsey only in the past two weeks.
Cartwright, a Marine fighter pilot, is known inside the Pentagon as a tech-savvy introvert who has spent much of the last decade working to ensure that the military is prepared for the next big war. He’s made himself into an expert in cyber and nuclear warfare.
Dempsey has spent much of the last decade leading troops in a messy, low-tech war in Iraq and is deeply skeptical of technology’s ability to alter the basic nature of combat.
“We operate where our enemies, indigenous populations, culture, politics, and religion intersect and where the fog and friction of war persists,” he wrote recently in the introduction to the Army’s main operating concept.
Among his fellow generals, Dempsey is well respected and known as an extrovert, prone to grabbing the microphone and belting out Frank Sinatra standards at formal Army social events.
Dempsey’s convivial nature and close relationships with fellow generals will be tested as the Pentagon confronts a future that likely includes big defense spending cuts and a contentious debate over how best to end the war in Afghanistan.
Like many senior Army officers, Dempsey’s view of combat has been shaped indelibly by his searing experience in Iraq.
In May 2003, Dempsey assumed command of the Army’s 1st Armored Division, which was struggling to put down a growing anti-American insurgency that was taking root in Baghdad.
As the commander of 20,000 soldiers in Baghdad, he oversaw a series of major operations designed to weaken the growing insurgency and buy time for the faltering U.S. reconstruction effort. Some of the big offensives knocked the fledgling insurgency back on its heels, said retired Col. Peter R. Mansoor, who commanded under Dempsey and now teaches military history at Ohio State University.
Other efforts, such as a Dempsey-led operation to target black-market fuel profiteers in the Iraqi capital, were of little worth, Mansoor wrote in “Baghdad at Sunrise,” an account of his brigade’s year at war. The operation, dubbed “Iron Justice,” was the equivalent of “sweeping back the ocean with a broom,” Mansoor wrote.
In spring 2004, as Dempsey’s troops were preparing to leave the country, militia fighters loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr launched a major uprising in southern Iraq and Baghdad.
Dempsey flew to Kuwait, where his troops were preparing to board planes home, to tell them personally that the Pentagon had extended their tour for another 90 days. His forces put down the uprisings, then launched a major effort to convince the militia fighters to lay down their arms and take jobs cleaning up the battle damage.
“He learned a lot in Baghdad and was able to apply it when it mattered most in the counteroffensive against Sadr’s forces,” Mansoor said.
Beginning in August 2005, Dempsey spent two years overseeing the development of Iraqi army and police forces that were supposed to take over the battle against insurgents. He had inherited a poorly led force that was being torn apart by Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian tensions.
Dempsey led a politically sensitive effort to purge weak and corrupt leaders from the Iraqi military, including many who had close ties to the country’s senior politicians.
Dempsey has spent most of the last two years in charge of the command that oversees Army training and the doctrine that guides how it fights. His tenure emphasized that even the most sophisticated technology couldn’t erase uncertainty on the battlefield or substitute for the judgment of a soldier on the ground, a lesson the Army learned through painful experience in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“His message was that we can’tput ourself in a hole now because we are so worried about what is going to happen 25 years from now,” said one officer who worked closely with him and was granted anonymity to talk about a superior.
Some of Dempsey’s critics charged that he was too focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and had not pressed the Army hard enough to think about future battles against higher-tech foes.


With its a state slogan of "Tennessee -- America at its Best," Tennessee offers a slice of Americana for every member of your family. Enjoy rich musical culture from Appalachian bluegrass to Memphis blues and Nashville country. Civil War history buffs can explore the Antebellum Trail, connecting 55 historical sites, battlefields and plantations. No visit to Tennessee would be complete without a visit to the Great Smoky Mountains, which is just one area of the state where you can enjoy overnighting in a campground cabin.
Spend the night in a cabin that predates the Civil War at Donley Cabin in Cherokee National Forest in eastern Tennessee. The secluded one-room cabin sleeps six people, with two sets of bunk beds and a full-size metal bed. Plywood forms the base for your bedding, so you may want to bring a camping pad. Warm yourself by the fireplace and enjoy dining indoors at the kitchen table. Outside, you'll find a grill for cooking food and rocking chairs on the front porch. The cabin is a popular autumn getaway and has a three-day stay limit. There are no locks on the doors, and visitors to the area frequently like to check out the historic cabin. An outhouse is next to the cabin.
Tennessee offers 20 state parks with cabins, from rustic to luxurious. All cabins have indoor bathrooms, kitchens and living areas with a minimum of one bedroom, with linens provided. The cabins range from those built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps to modern villas with up to three bedrooms and air conditioning. The villas include cable TV, phone and climate-controlled heating. The cabins and villas are available year-round. A minimum three-night stay is required on holiday weekends. Most of the cabins are concentrated in the central part of the state, convenient to Nashville and Chattanooga, but you can find state parks that rent cabins near Memphis and Nashville as well.
Some private campgrounds in Tennessee also offer cabins. Kampgrounds of America (koa.com) has 11 campgrounds throughout the state with camping cabins. A basic cabin has one or two rooms with beds. A deluxe cabin has separate bedrooms, a kitchen and bathroom. Each KOA offers family-oriented amenities such as hot showers, swimming pool, pet walking areas, playgrounds and cable TV. Some KOAs offer additional amenities such as large bouncing platforms for the kids or modern camping kitchens where you can prepare food and do dishes if you are staying in a cabin without a kitchen. Chattanooga is a prime camping destination, with three KOAs as well as other private campgrounds.
Cabins are available year-round. Autumn is a popular time to view colorful foliage in Tennessee, and cabins book up quickly during this time, particularly on weekends. Make reservations as early as possible. You can reserve the Donely cabin online at Reserve America (reserveamerica.com). Six of the state parks offer online reservations for cabins through the Tennessee State Parks Reservation System (tn.gov). To stay at other campground cabins, call the individual park managing the cabin for availability and reservations.


Catching up with Blackhat over the weekend, I found myself reminded—and surprisingly often—of selections in this year's Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, which I previewed for this week's issue of the Reader. Michael Mann's latest is, on one level, a catalogue of textures that can be achieved with digital video. According to IMDB, the filmmakers used no fewer than five different video cameras, ranging from professional-grade equipment to "prosumer" models you can find at Best Buy. In certain shots the camera's close enough to faces or objects to capture them in hard, ultraprecise detail; in others characters compete for the viewer's attention with painterly smears of color. Mann and cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh favor small, lightweight cameras during the action sequences so that any movement feels (as in Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel's acclaimed experimental documentary Leviathan) shaky, almost vertiginous. Moreover the editing moves unpredictably between these different types of images, resulting in something like a moving photo collage. Blackhat does have a story, but I often got the feeling that Mann was less concerned with narrative than with creating a modern art piece on the theme of cyberterrorism.
Given these ambitions, I'm not at all surprised that the movie's a commercial flop. (At present Blackhat has grossed about $7 million domestically, a measly 10 percent of its budget.) Experimental films, as a rule, don't get commercial distribution—they certainly don't open at multiplexes or get advertised as topical action thrillers. Not surprisingly the film has developed more passionate responses from critics than from popular audiences, inspiring eloquent defenses from Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, Keith Uhlich at Reverse Shot, Ryland Walker Knight at Mubi, and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky at the A.V. Club. These pieces address Mann's visual daring, his allusions to postmodern theorists, and his fastidious research into computer hacking and counterterrorism agencies. Yet they tend to downplay the movie's sheer perversity, which is likely why Universal released the movie in mid-January, traditionally a burial ground for studio films, and why mainstream audiences are avoiding it.
My feelings on Blackhat run closer to those of Dargis and others, but I sympathize with viewers who find it frustrating or emotionally inert. It's not just the advertising executives at Universal who pitched the movie as a genre piece—the movie's setup seems to promise that too. After a digitally animated opening sequence that takes us inside a computer, Blackhat gives us a nuclear reactor explosion, some government officials talking all tough and serious, and the implausible development of a convicted computer hacker (Chris Hemsworth) getting sprung from prison to help catch the cyberterrorists who caused the explosion. J.R. Jones aptly described Hemsworth's performance as wooden, and I'd add that Wang Leehom and Tang Wei—who play his best friend and love interest, respectively—don't make that great an impression either. At certain moments when the characters begin to discuss their pasts (as in a postcoital spooning session between Hemsworth and Wei), the conversation gets drowned out by the score or busy sound design, as though Mann wants to prevent us from liking them too much.
As for the plot holes, they're so plentiful and egregious that I don't think it's necessary to point them out for you, but let's consider one. How is it that Hemsworth and Wei move so freely between Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Indonesia when American intelligence agencies are hot on their trail? There might be a good explanation, but if there is, Mann left it out of the finished film. We simply see the characters in one country and then another. Throughout the movie we see Hemsworth break into computers half a world away with just a few keystrokes—when he and Wei suddenly materialize in a new country, it feels as if they've discovered a way to hack their way through the physical world. This doesn't make much sense, but it's a potent metaphor, plus it gives rise to some disjunctive editing that wouldn't be out of place in the more impressionistic pieces at Onion City.
One could argue that the editing in question is proof that Blackhat is all form and little story. I'd argue that, as in many avant-garde films, the form is the story. Mann's famous for his intuitive filmmaking, composing and editing shots on the fly. Here those strategies result in a chronic sense of placelessness—not only in the unusual shifts in location, but in the overly vivid closeups, which can have an otherworldly effect. When Mann first started shooting on digital video with Collateral, he said that he regarded DV imagery as akin to photorealist painting (it's worth noting that Mann's wife is a painter). Implicit in this statement is the idea that video is a wholly different medium than celluloid, one that requires a new visual language. In Miami Vice, Public Enemies, and now Blackhat, Mann seems to be searching for stories and characters that can be described in only that language, organizing narratives in blocks of sensations and presenting people as nodes within information networks.
In Mann's recent films, that absence of feeling isn't something to be mourned, but simply par for the course in our age of omnipresent technology. (In Public Enemies he imposed a contemporary worldview onto the 1930s, suggesting that even the past isn't safe from the demands of the present.) That's not to say that Mann accepts things the way they are. His sounds and images—at once jarring and rapturous—represent a struggle to reclaim inhuman technology as tools for making abstract art. Beauty is subjective, especially when it comes to abstract forms—it can't be determined by an algorithm or easily transposed from one culture to another. This is the underlying theme of much experimental video art, and I believe it's also the theme of Blackhat. Why is Mann continuing to work in the medium of big-budget action movies if his concerns are so arcane? I think it's because, fighter that he is, the genre gives him so much to work against.
At a keynote that was part of a retrospective at BAMcinématek, the director largely reflected on his hometown roots.


(FORTUNE Magazine) – DEALMAKER extraordinaire Michael Dingman stunned even the most jaded Wall Streeters last spring when he raised a thumping $1.2 billion for a ragtag group of companies in the largest U.S. initial public offering ever. The money went to the Henley Group, a money-losing bunch of businesses that Allied-Signal didn't want and spun off to its shareholders in May. It wouldn't seem anyone's dream investment. Yet so formidable is Dingman's reputation on Wall Street that investors rushed to fill his billion-dollar-war chest, even though he will use most of it not to build up Henley but to make acquisitions -- and he'll decide on those later, thank you. Investors like his style. The 6-foot-4, balding Dingman, 55, exudes confidence and argues emphatically on any topic from sports to corporate takeovers. He can be blunt at one moment and easygoing at another. He hates bureaucracy and has few qualms about cutting staff and costs to the bone. Dingman's independence goes back to his college days, when he married against the will of his father, a former vice chairman of AT&T. Dad cut off all funds, and Dingman quit the University of Maryland to work as a salesman . for a New Jersey flagpole company. In 1962 he joined Drexel Burnham, learned the ins and outs of Wall Street, and left six years later to co-found a New York investment firm called Equity Corp. Here Dingman developed his core business philosophy: Buy companies at a discount in depressed markets, spruce them up, wait for the market to bounce back, then sell or spin them off at a handsome profit. In 1971 he put together Wheelabrator-Frye, a conglomerate that he merged 12 years later with Signal. Two years after that he helped engineer the corporate marriage between Signal and Allied. An investor who bought Wheelabrator in 1971 and hung on to it would have increased his money sixfold over the past 15 years, while Standard & Poor's 500-stock index only about doubled. Investors are betting that Dingman can do it again with Henley. He recently moved Henley's headquarters from New York to La Jolla, California, where he lives in a new $5-million seaside house with his second wife, Betsy, and their sons, David and James. (Dingman has three other children, all grown, by his first wife, Jean.) He also has a new ski house in Aspen, Colorado. Dingman sometimes races around La Jolla on a Honda 750 motorcycle. For quieter diversion, he likes to restore classic cars. His latest projects: a 1965 Porsche Cabriolet and a 1969 Jaguar E-type roadster. Most of Dingman's legendary energy goes into reviving the Henley Group. The companies that now make it up lost $24.7 million on sales of $3.3 billion in 1985. Henley has three principal businesses, all of them now depressed: industrial chemicals, engineering and construction, and health care supplies. In his first major move as C.E.O. last June, Dingman merged his Fisher Scientific Group with a smaller company in the health field, streamlined management and costs, and announced plans to distribute a 20% stake in the new company to Henley stockholders. Dingman makes decisions quickly and expects his staff to carry them out immediately. He inspires loyalty by letting his executives take on lots of responsibility and by not punishing them if they take a big risk and fail. Several have worked with him for more than 15 years. Dingman offers strong incentives for success. He pays high salaries, and he recently set up a novel program through which he and his 19 top executives are putting their own money together to buy 5% of Henley stock. He hopes the move will inspire his managers to act more like entrepreneurs. Dingman himself does not lack incentives to make Henley pay. He owns 1,501,254 shares in the company, most of which he got as part of the executive stock purchase program. Henley was recently selling for $23.25 a share, making his holding worth about $35 million. The original offering price was $21; in December, to try to move the stock further upward, the directors authorized a buyback of up to ten million shares. ''It takes nine months to make a baby and 21 years to make an adult,'' Dingman says. ''You're not going to see results overnight.'' What investors do see is a high-risk bet on one of Wall Street's savviest players.


As the Sun journeys through Virgo the Cosmic Virgin, in the North we are harvesting our crops, preparing for Winter. We gather in our harvest and see the fruits of our labor. In the South, the opposite is true--this is a time for planting, for something new to begin. Wheat and grains are being harvested now in some parts of the world while in other parts the seeds are being sown. (Since our global collective consciousness now operates on the northern model, I'll be speaking from that point of view. But in the southern lands, plant those seeds of life that you harvested last February!) Both things can occur simultaneously; the opposites are bound together.
Psychologically and symbolically, Autumn is a good time to look at our lives, to see the results of this year's transformation--how we've lived our lives and what our labors have created. We plant so that we may live, we reap for our sustenance. We bake for our nourishment--the bread of life. One part of life is the growing and another part is the creating. We are here on Earth to grow and create our lives. Who did you become this year? Where has your life led you? What did you create?
We are here to make something of ourselves. Life is not only about outer work but also about growing into our Soul's purpose. We have a part to play in creating the future. It's not about politics, it's about responsibility and purpose. We are appalled at the thought of the Nazi gas chambers. And yet, our corporations and their policies--with our tacit agreement(i mplied, inferred, understood without being expressly stated)--are poisoning our whole environment, creating a global gas chamber. We are just dying slower.
We can change that if we stand up for what we believe in. And the Aquarian ideal says, Bring your friends and stand up together for what you feel is just and fair. Do it and be Damned! Who cares? The old system is failing and we need wise elders and strong citizens to create a new paradigm of life. Step outside your individual concerns and see how you can help your people.
You'll love the way you feel. It's called freedom!
What is harvest? It begins when we plant a new seed. We plant a dream, a project, a desire to begin something new. That's the imagination at work. Then we nurture it as it grows. We work to keep it healthy and growing like our children. Each phase is different. With different goals and different needs. If we recognize these changing phases and meet their challenges our harvest will be full. If we 're still learning, we don't need to worry-- we can experiment with the forms until we get it right. We learn from our successes as well as our mistakes. Learn the lessons of each stage and eventually become a master gardener creating beauty and providing sustenance for yourself and for your people.
Opposites compliment each other. Whereas Virgo holds a practical view of the world, using discernment and rationality to analyze what she sees, Pisces sees through the eyes of empathy, imagination and vision. Virgo is concerned with Mastery of our physical being and our talents. Pisces awakens us to the other dimensions that surround and penetrate this world. Pisces opens us to the eternal becoming of life, the infinite possibilities awaiting us. Virgo brings those visions down to earth so we can integrate them and make use of them. Sort of like the harvest.
This Pisces Full Moon is the first of three consecutive Super Moons--when the Moon is not only at its closest to Earth but also is coming into alignment with both the Sun and Earth. We're entering into our eclipse season again. So these energies will exert a stronger force on all of us. If you work with the energies, expect big shifts in consciousness.
This Full Moon can certainly open the doors of our perception, bringing an influx of spiritual energies. Pisces opens our imagination; Virgo makes us pay attention to the details of what we imagine. If we're not ready for these energies , it can b ring disruptive to our collective lives. If we're open, paying attention to our dreams, visions and insights for a few days around this Full Moon will help us make another shift on consciousness. Full Moons bring us awareness of what has been hidden from our ego consciousness. We can expand our ego's flexibility by staying open to more subtle realms of being and awareness.


Deadpool 2 has dropped a new poster, and it’s got the fun, wacky style you’d expect from the marketing campaign that 20th Century Fox is clearly having a ball with. The Struzan-inspired art design is a nice touch, and it’s got fun gags including a literal kitchen sink, which ties in nicely to how the whole cast is presence…except one.
Look closely and you’ll see that T.J. Miller, who has been present in past advertising for the movie, is nowhere to be found. While he’s still listed in the credits (and presumably will be in the finished film), Fox has decided that it’s probably for the best not to include the face of a guy who was arrested for allegedly calling in a bomb threat to a train. Presumably if we ever get Deadpool 3 (and Ryan Reynolds thinks that X-Force is the future of the character for the time being), I seriously doubt they’ll bring back Miller.
Check out the Deadpool 2 poster below. The film opens May 18th and also stars Josh Brolin, Zazie Beetz, Julian Dennison, Morena Baccarin, Brianna Hildebrand, and Jack Kesy.
After surviving a near fatal bovine attack, a disfigured cafeteria chef (Wade Wilson) struggles to fulfill his dream of becoming Miami’s hottest bartender, while also learning to cope with his lost sense of taste. Searching to regain his spice for life, as well as a flux capacitor, Wade must battle ninjas, the yakuza, and a pack of sexually aggressive canines, as he journeys around the world to discover the importance of family, friendship, and flavor – finding a new taste for adventure and earning the coveted coffee mug title of World’s Best Lover.